"Brother!"
"Hashirama!"
"Father!"
"Grandfather—Grandfather!"
Cries erupted throughout the Senju compound. Even though everyone had known this moment was coming, watching Hashirama collapse still pierced their hearts like a kunai. They rushed forward to lift his body from the tatami.
The closest to him, little Tsunade, stood frozen. Her small fists trembled as tears streamed down her cheeks. She could only watch as her great-grandfather, the man who felt as immovable as a mountain, lay weak and pale in their arms.
"Don't be afraid, Tsunade…"
Hashirama's voice was soft but steady. Though the flame of his life was fading, a gentle smile lingered on his lips as he reached up to stroke his granddaughter's face. "I just played too long today. I'm only a little sleepy… I wanted to lie down for a while."
To him, Tsunade was more than a granddaughter. She was his last link to his own childhood dreams, the bright future he'd once envisioned for the village. Since returning to Konoha to raise her, he had searched tirelessly for a gift that could protect her when he no longer could.
That gift now rested against her chest: a pendant strung with a deep emerald crystal. Inside it pulsed a trace of Hashirama's own Wood Release chakra, sealed there to watch over her.
"Take her away," Emiya Shihara said quietly.
"I won't go!"
Tsunade clung to Hashirama's arm, voice catching with sobs. "Emiya-sama, please don't send me away. I want to stay with my great-grandfather!"
At last she had begun to understand—something was wrong with him. Emiya Shihara's calmness felt like the solemn air of Konoha Hospital when a healer tried to comfort a dying patient.
Though Shihara was the most skilled medical ninja she had ever seen, even he had limits. She remembered seeing old people in the hospital slip away, no matter how hard the doctors tried. She had once asked him why he couldn't save them. His answer still confused her: Their lives have reached their end. Death is not a disease.
Now the meaning of those words struck her for the first time.
"Lord Emiya…"
Tobirama's fists clenched so tightly his nails cut his palms. Grief burned behind his eyes, but his voice remained level. "Let Tsunade stay. If my brother really… if this is truly the end, at least let someone he loves be by his side."
After all, Hashirama had always loved her most. Perhaps he still had things left unsaid.
That afternoon, Hashirama had gathered his family to speak his final words. He'd urged them to accept his passing calmly. The only one missing was Tsunade, whom Shihara had taken away—because Hashirama believed he would hold on until evening, to spend his last moments with her.
Tobirama had also reached an agreement with Shihara. When the end came, only Shihara would remain to reveal the secret of the Pure Land of the Underworld and make one last attempt to help his brother.
But as Tobirama now watched Tsunade's tears, he saw another possibility. If the child stayed, she might also learn the secret—and perhaps that knowledge could save Hashirama. Even if it couldn't, Tobirama could use it to craft forbidden jutsu to counter Uchiha Madara.
"No."
Shihara's eyes lingered on the girl before he shook his head. "Tsunade is the least suitable person to stay."
In truth, she might be the most suitable. But Shihara also knew what that would mean. A child who learned the truth of the Pure Land could become a pawn—his pawn, or worse, Black Zetsu's. The cruel knowledge would shatter her worldview before it had even fully formed.
"I want to stay with Grandfather…"
Tsunade's sobs grew louder. She reached for Hashirama's hand, clutching it like a lifeline. "Lord Emiya, please don't send me away. I won't disturb you while you save him…"
"Lord Emiya…"
Even Hashirama's gaze turned pleading. In his final moments, he could not bear to see his granddaughter dragged away crying.
"Then let her stay."
Shihara finally relented. He raised a finger and pressed it gently to her forehead. A small diamond-shaped seal bloomed there, dark as midnight, filled with immense natural energy. Tsunade's body swayed and then went limp, falling into a deep, peaceful sleep with her arms still wrapped around Hashirama's.
"She's fine," Tobirama said quickly to the others. He knew Shihara would never harm a child—and that this cursed mark would only strengthen Tsunade in the future.
"Is Tsunade really unsuitable?" Tobirama's brow furrowed as his sharp eyes narrowed. "Then who is the most suitable person to stay?"
"If you can bear it…"
Shihara's gaze slid to him, understanding dawning. "You can stay."
Tobirama gave a single, grave nod.
"Sister-in-law," he said to Uzumaki Mito, apology flickering across his stern face. "I'll leave the rest to you."
"I understand."
Golden chakra flared from Mito's body like sunlight breaking through clouds. She slipped into her Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, her senses extending to every corner of the compound. As she and the other shinobi formed a perimeter, the house grew silent.
For a wife, being forced away from her husband's deathbed was agony. Hashirama had already bid her farewell earlier, knowing this moment would come.
Now only three remained inside: Hashirama lying on the futon, Tobirama standing like a sentinel beside him, and Tsunade sleeping with her small head resting on her grandfather's arm.
"This is the greatest secret of the Pure Land of the Underworld," Shihara said at last, his voice heavy. "If others learned it, they would lose their awe of death… and their respect for life."
Hashirama's lips curved faintly. "It seems shinobi already fear death little enough."
"But what if they also stop cherishing their feelings?" Shihara's words cut through the quiet. "What if the very knowledge of the Pure Land made them stop valuing time, life, their loved ones—turning everyone into hollow creatures who ignore everything human? Then what meaning would the world have?"
Hashirama's expression sobered.
"The Pure Land of the Underworld," Shihara continued, "is a void. No matter what a soul does there after death, no trace remains. A human soul is fixed in one eternal moment.
"Perhaps a soul has been there for a thousand years but only feels an instant. Or perhaps it has stayed an instant but already traversed an eternity.
"But the human soul cannot perceive time. In the Pure Land, time is a luxury."
He raised his fingers, as though touching something only he could see. "Only beings of immense power retain the concept of time after death. Only they can truly perceive the eternal nature of the Underworld. Such beings have transcended life and death. It is not wrong to call them gods."
"Six Paths Sage…" Tobirama's voice was hushed but weighty. He understood at once whom Shihara meant—the legendary Rikudō Sennin, hailed as a god.
Shihara inclined his head slightly. "Those reborn through the Impure World Reincarnation only regain a sense of time once they return to the living world. In the Pure Land itself, they are adrift, timeless."
The room fell silent except for Hashirama's soft, uneven breaths. Tsunade murmured in her sleep, clutching his arm a little tighter. Tobirama's jaw set, his eyes dark with thought.
Outside, golden chakra flickered like a barrier against the night. Inside, the First Hokage lay at the edge of two worlds, listening to the truth that few living souls had ever heard.
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