"So it's a rally before marching out," Tobirama said, glancing once at the Sand kid with that keep your distance aura before turning back to the image of the comparatively mature-looking boy.
"Doesn't look like the type with much presence. What could he possibly say to unite the strength of the Five Great Nations' shinobi, all of them soaked in old grudges? That's no easy task."
Of course, the Second Hokage already knew he'd succeeded. That was exactly why he was curious—what had this junior said back then?
[Silence…]
[Yes. Complete silence.]
[After Kakashi asked Gaara to say a few words to rally the entire army, the handsome red-haired Sand shinobi remained expressionless, looking down at the Allied Shinobi Forces a hundred meters below. He looked like he didn't even know what to say…]
[Below him, shinobi from the Five Great Nations stared right back.]
[Among the five commanders, the oldest was Mifune of the Land of Iron, sixty-five years old. Next was Kitsuchi of Hidden Stone in the Land of Earth, forty-four. Then Kakashi Hatake of Konoha in the Land of Fire, thirty-one. Even Darui of Hidden Cloud in the Land of Lightning was twenty-six… As Kazekage, Gaara was only eighteen. That youth stood out all too clearly.]
[With the great war approaching, tension filled the ranks. A leader's judgment would decide who lived and who died.]
["Is it really okay to let a kid like that be the commander?" A man in an Hidden Stone uniform voiced what many were thinking.]
[Standing beside him, a Hidden Sand shinobi immediately shot back, "Lord Gaara is not a kid! Don't spout nonsense when you don't know anything!"]
[Provoked by the tone, the burly Hidden Stone shinobi barked back, "Hah! Of course I don't know! You were our enemies not long ago!"]
["We should be saying that! Who knows if you can be trusted?! Watch your mouth, you Stone jerk!" the Sand shinobi shouted even louder.]
[Behind them, some agreed, others worried about this hastily formed alliance. The Allied Shinobi Forces were steeped in the smoke of old hatred. Forget fighting a common enemy—keep this up and they'd tear each other apart first.]
[As if echoing those thoughts, a Byakugan user in a Konoha flak jacket said quietly to his fellow Leaf ninja, "Honestly… I think so too."]
["Yeah—wait, what did you just say, Neji-san?"]
["Even if they were deceived by Orochimaru, Hidden Sand was essentially the mastermind behind the Konoha Crush! If it weren't for them… if it weren't for them… Lord Hiruzen wouldn't have… wouldn't have…"]
His clenched fists creaked as they tightened, laying bare his hatred for the Sand.
Watching Hyuga Neji's grief-stricken face on the screen, thirty genin who had come to Konoha for the exams—and their jonin instructors—were instantly surrounded by Konoha Anbu.
Baki of the Sand knew it was over the moment Tobirama Senju, famed as the fastest shinobi in history, had been revived. Suna had no room to maneuver.
He signaled to the Sand shinobi not to resist.
Right now, the priority was to finish watching the footage, learn everything about the Fourth Great Ninja War, and contact the Fourth Kazekage as soon as possible.
"Yare yare…" Hiruzen Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe, sighing. Being declared dead by the future was a strangely complicated feeling. "Orochimaru… to think he'd go that far."
"Tobirama-sama, Orochimaru was my student," Hiruzen said, his voice aged, lacking the vigor Tobirama remembered. "He was expelled years ago for conducting cruel human experiments using Konoha shinobi. He's a rogue ninja now. I'm sorry… Tobirama-sensei."
Tobirama waved it off, utterly unconcerned. "Who hasn't taught a few useless idiots?" He knew Hiruzen would die at Orochimaru's hands—and that Orochimaru was already hiding somewhere in Konoha.
"Ah!"
Instinctively, Hiruzen, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane snapped into a formal shinobi stance, just like they had when being scolded by their teacher long ago.
One look and Tobirama knew they'd misunderstood. He patted Hiruzen on the shoulder. "You did well, Monkey. You've worked hard all these years."
"S-sensei…" Hiruzen was so moved his eyes nearly welled up.
Hidden within Root, Danzo sneezed.
Danzo: Did Tobirama-sensei just think of me?
The Second Hokage's crimson eyes flicked toward an unusually placed Grass shinobi lurking in the shadows. Understanding the warning, Orochimaru grinned with excitement. "As expected of that man. So he noticed me from the start."
Exposed, Orochimaru didn't bother hiding. Instead, he stepped out openly to enjoy the show.
[On-screen, the Konoha shinobi beside Neji awkwardly tried to smooth things over. "C-come on, don't say it like that. We were assigned to the elite surprise attack unit. We've still got a long road ahead."]
[Neji said, "I understand! This is a decision made by the nation and the village. I'm not opposing it—this is just my personal emotion!"]
"Letting personal emotions affect the mission, even spreading negativity among comrades—do you need to go back to the academy and relearn the ninja creed?" Hyuga Hiashi demanded coldly.
The real Neji stiffened. "Yes, Clan Head!"
"When you get back, copy the ninja creed one hundred times."
"Yes!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi: Still as strict as ever, that Hiashi…
["Don't get so cocky, Leaf!"]
[They turned. The speaker was a shinobi from Hidden Cloud.]
["The one who attacked Lord Killer B, and the one who ruined the Five Kage Summit—weren't they both rogue ninja from Konoha?! How do you plan to compensate for the Raikage losing his left arm?!"]
Facing the furious Cloud shinobi on-screen, who looked ready to kill a Leaf ninja on the spot to avenge his leaders, Neji shot back without backing down. "And what about the things your Cloud Village has done?! If you hadn't threatened war to steal the secrets of my clan's Byakugan, Lord Hizashi wouldn't have died the way he did!"
Hyuga Hiashi, who had just scolded Neji, remained outwardly rigid and expressionless, upholding every rule of the ninja creed. Only he knew that the hand hidden inside his sleeve was clenched until it bled.
Hizashi's death was the lifelong pain of an older brother—and proof of his own failure as both clan head and brother.
Back then, Konoha had just survived the Third Great Ninja War, then lost the Fourth Hokage, the Yellow Flash, in the Nine-Tails incident. The village couldn't endure another war. Faced with Hidden Cloud's despicable tactics, Konoha had no choice but to swallow its fury, bow its head, and sign one unequal treaty after another.
Unlike the calm, grown-up Neji on the screen, the real Neji—still under fourteen—had his body drawn taut, teeth grinding audibly.
Work with the people who killed his father?
Don't joke with him.
["Neji-niisan…" A long-haired Byakugan girl looked at him with worry. On-screen, Neji spoke calmly, analyzing things objectively. "Given how nations have been at war for so long, it's inevitable that we don't trust each other. Each side has blood debts to the other. Those barriers won't disappear overnight."]
Is this the future? Neji thought. Why is the future me able to talk so calmly about my father's life and death with those people? Is this the fate of the branch family?!
The word fate surfaced again, making Neji feel so sick he nearly wanted to vomit.
Nara Shikaku's eyes narrowed instead. From the Cloud shinobi's words, he'd already extracted several key pieces of information…