"You are letting them leave just like this, Rei-kun?"
Watching the figures of the three Konoha members gradually disappear from the underground plaza, Orochimaru stroked the head of the giant snake he used to store a portion of Hashirama cells. His voice still carried a trace of surprise that had not yet faded.
"That person is the First Hokage who pacified the Warring States Period, you know? If you let his Edo Tensei body wander around freely, are you not worried he will cause some trouble?"
"What trouble could he cause, Orochimaru?"
Rei Kaguya likewise stared at the departing backs of the three Konoha members and asked back in an even tone.
"For something simple, he could cause those Konoha ninja currently exchanging in Kirigakure to be greatly shocked, then make them do something rather irrational?"
Seeing Rei Kaguya's expression, as if everything was under control, Orochimaru also spoke in a relatively casual tone.
"I will not speculate for now whether others would do that, but that woman Tsunade—if she sees the First Hokage's Edo Tensei body wandering around Kirigakure, she definitely will not be able to control her emotions."
"It does not matter. Neither Jiraiya nor Hashirama Senju himself will let her act recklessly."
"Hmm. Even if the First Hokage manages to calm Tsunade down, allowing him, after listening to your long speech, to communicate with Konoha's ninja is still not very ideal, is it?"
Seeing that Rei Kaguya truly did not consider letting Hashirama Senju meet his Konoha juniors to be a major issue, Orochimaru could not help asking curiously, "Even if he gives the Will of Fire, which has now gradually deteriorated, a top-to-bottom ideological overhaul, is that still something you consider irrelevant, Rei-kun?"
"He cannot do it."
Rei Kaguya spoke in a tone that was half denial and half emotion.
"The change of will has always required a foundation of subtle influence accumulated day by day, supplemented by the proposal of an earth-shaking viewpoint as deafening as a volcanic eruption, as well as facts and practice that can verify and reinforce that viewpoint. Only then can it finally enter people's hearts deeply… Relying solely on the words of a dead man can, at most, make the thinking of those who were already clear-headed even clearer. As for those pretending to sleep and those who are truly asleep, they will not change easily."
"Because this is already the era of the Fourth Hokage?" Orochimaru asked with implied meaning.
"No. Simply because the body you provided him is too weak."
Rei Kaguya shrugged and said with some schadenfreude, "A Hashirama Senju who cannot even display jonin-level strength cannot act as decisively as the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, once did and make the vested interests of Konoha abandon the benefits already in their hands because of their reverence for him… The current Will of Fire is one of the core tools through which they maintain their power. Even the person who first proposed the Will of Fire has no hope of easily taking back the right to interpret its contents from their hands."
"But, well, letting Hashirama Senju deliver some poisonous chicken soup for the soul to Konoha's ninja and pour some dirty water should still be quite effective… After all, a philosophy and line of thought that even the First Hokage greatly praises and finds deeply moving must surely be something worthy of earnest study from his juniors, right?"
"You truly are skilled at making the most of everything, Rei-kun."
Orochimaru looked at Rei Kaguya, who was narrowing his eyes with a bright smile, then sighed and shook his head.
"The First Hokage personally explaining the Fourth Mizukage's ideology and philosophy to Konoha ninja while praising it greatly… Just imagining it is enough to make one shiver from head to toe. What a terrible taste."
"Do not tell me you do not want to see it."
Rei Kaguya raised his brow and looked at Orochimaru, whose expression was full of hypocrisy, with his Byakugan.
"Am I not… already watching?"
Orochimaru lightly tapped his own eye with one finger and let out a sinister chuckle.
…
At the same time.
After walking out of the underground plaza lit by flickering yellow candlelight, Jiraiya looked at Kirigakure, where only a thin veil-like mist drifted, the sea breeze was warm, and the spring sunlight was bright. In his heart, he could not help feeling as if he had stepped into another world.
"Oh my, so this is Kirigakure more than thirty years later?"
Unlike the heavy-hearted and solemn Jiraiya, Hashirama Senju, whose request to walk around and look at the shinobi world of this era had been approved, was much more positive and sunny.
"When I first heard the Fourth Mizukage mention that this place had once been secretly controlled by Madara and gained the name Village of the Bloody Mist, I was still worried that its atmosphere would have become especially cold and cruel. I never thought it would actually look so full of vitality…"
He looked here and there with eyes full of curiosity, like a countryman entering the city for the first time. It was as if by observing Kirigakure's scenery, he could imagine what Konoha Village looked like at this moment.
"You truly are optimistic, Lord First."
Kakashi Hatake, whose mind had likewise been stuffed full of intelligence, looked at Hashirama Senju's lively figure and could not help smiling bitterly.
"As expected of the legend who pacified the Warring States Period? Even though the Fourth Mizukage said such serious things, you can still put them behind you without any pressure…"
"I am not putting them behind me. Those things were never what I, a dead man, should be thinking about in the first place, Kakashi."
Hashirama Senju shook his head.
He raised his hand and rubbed Kakashi Hatake's silver hedgehog-like hair, speaking in a broad yet somewhat helpless tone.
"Whether it is the current shinobi world or the even more distant future that Rei Kaguya and Jiraiya learned about together, to an old man like me, who died decades ago, both are equally vague things that belong to the future… A dead man who, no matter what, will no longer make any progress or change, would merely be adding to his own worries even if he thought about them until every hair on his head fell out."
"Since my thinking has no meaning for either the present or the future, it is only natural that I can ignore those matters."
"But did you not actively ask not to return to the Pure Land immediately, and instead requested to look around the shinobi world a little longer?"
Feeling Hashirama Senju's large hand, even thicker and broader than the hands of the father in his memories, Kakashi Hatake could not help narrowing his eyes and asking in a much softer tone.
"I simply want to see what the story I began has become before it reaches its turning point."
Hashirama Senju shook his head and spoke from the heart.
"This story had a beginning that could barely be called full of dreams. But as its protagonist, I did not manage to carry my original conviction through to the end. Nor did I, when I was capable of doing so, do the things I could have done to the best of my ability. I left the shinobi world, which is about to end my chapter, with a less-than-successful example…"
"But no matter what, it is still the story I began. Since I have the chance to see what it looks like before it welcomes its next massive turning point, of course I want to take the scenery of this world fully into my eyes."
"Do you truly… have nothing else you want to do, Lord First?"
"A dead person should not interfere with later generations using his own will… Moreover, I have been convinced to a certain extent by that fellow, the Fourth Mizukage. If I run my mouth too much in front of you, would I not be causing trouble?"
Hashirama Senju laughed loudly and patted Kakashi Hatake on the shoulder, then said in a clear voice.
"The future belongs to you gifted, clever, and wise young people. How to view the Fourth Mizukage's philosophy, how to face the coming era, how to prevent everyone in Konoha from becoming what the Fourth Mizukage wants to see, or whether to simply let Konoha and Kirigakure become one family—these are all things you need to think about. They are not matters on which I should point fingers."
"All right, I am going to wander around Kirigakure. You and little Jiraiya should go back and think properly by yourselves first~"
After saying that, Hashirama Senju ignored the shocked gazes of pedestrians on the street. Wearing his Warring States-style armor, he walked toward a casino that was openly operating not far away.
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