"My, my, my… You really do enjoy assigning me difficult work, don't you, Rei-kun?"
A vast, empty experimental site had been excavated beneath the research institute.
Orochimaru was currently standing at the very center of that underground testing ground, laying out a forbidden formula that, at present, only he had mastered. As he worked, he casually complained to Rei Kaguya's clone, who was sitting off to one side with his eyes closed in meditation.
"Do you know how much inspiration and preliminary groundwork is lost when an experiment is interrupted halfway through?"
"I don't. But it definitely won't be more than what you can gain from this Impure World Reincarnation."
Rei Kaguya answered with a calm expression.
"Heh. You really do think highly of me, Rei-kun."
Orochimaru licked the corner of his mouth as he drew the final stroke of the Impure World Reincarnation formula. He gazed at this forbidden technique, which he had obtained long ago but had never had much time to research or practice, then bit his finger and said,
"To use someone as important as the First Hokage right from the start… I cannot guarantee that I will be able to make him obediently follow my commands."
"That is why the death-row prisoner I provided you is nothing more than trash. A criminal who relied on his status as a ninja to act recklessly, commit evil, and violate the law, yet whose body is not enough to support even one-thousandth of the First Hokage's power."
Rei Kaguya looked at the death-row prisoner who had long since been placed under genjutsu and did not even know what fate awaited him next. His tone remained utterly still.
"To exchange the life of a piece of trash who deserves death for the chance to communicate across time with the former God of Shinobi… even if all we can obtain from his mouth are a few scattered fragments about the past, that value far exceeds everything this trash has created from birth until now."
"Is the truth of history really that important to you?"
As Orochimaru took out a kunai covered in talismans and cut a fresh piece of flesh from Hashirama's cells in the culture dish to use as a medium, he asked Rei Kaguya in a tone that carried genuine incomprehension.
"Ordinary people pursue the truth of history because they need something supposedly buried and concealed to grant a layer of legitimacy to their actions. Through that, they gain the admiration and support of more ordinary people who approve of that legitimacy… But for someone like you, who already stands at the very peak of power in the shinobi world, the truth of history should be something you can shape however you like, should it not?"
"Even you cannot understand my obsession with history and truth, Orochimaru?"
A faint trace of helplessness and desolation entered Rei Kaguya's voice.
"I originally thought that you, who pursues the future, might be able to resonate with me at least a little…"
"You said it yourself, Rei-kun. What I pursue is the future…"
Orochimaru licked the talisman-covered kunai in his hand, then stabbed it into the living sacrifice's brain. His expression was calm as he said,
"Compared to a future filled with infinite possibilities, the rights and wrongs of the past, which have already reached their conclusion, have no meaning. They cannot help me lock the future into a more controllable range, nor can they allow my exploration and reinterpretation of the essence of ninjutsu to make greater progress… In that case, what value does the past hold for me that I must clarify it no matter what?"
"You really do have the standard viewpoint of a science-and-engineering research faction."
Rei Kaguya smiled. He rose from where he was sitting and began walking toward Orochimaru.
"But that is true as well. If a mad scientist like you started caring about studies in the humanities, history, and philosophy, you would lose that purity of yours."
"Humanities, history, philosophy…"
Orochimaru chewed over those words. A strange light flickered in his narrow, gloomy eyes.
"So that is what you wish to explore, Rei-kun?"
"Yes. I want the shinobi world, which has already experienced countless wars and endless pain yet still failed to give birth to true reflection, to gain the ability to think deeply about these matters."
Rei Kaguya nodded. He lowered his head and looked at the death-row prisoner, who had already begun screaming in agony, his appearance gradually transforming into that of Hashirama Senju clad in armor from the Warring States Period. Rei's voice remained calm and even.
"Why were ninja born? Why must ninja fight one another? Why have we, who possess chakra, become captives of money? Why must hidden villages, which can independently launch wars, remain passive parties who have to watch the faces of the daimyo of each nation? Why do wars between ninja never seem to reach an end? Why are those who attempt to achieve peace through mutual understanding destined to fail?"
"Only by thinking through and understanding these questions can the shinobi world truly break free from the influence left behind by the Warring States Period. And only by obtaining answers to these questions will the hidden village cease to be the only destination that people who possess chakra can imagine."
"Can you not simply give them the answers directly, Rei-kun?"
As Orochimaru formed the seals to control the reincarnated body, he threw a question at Rei Kaguya that he had wanted to ask for a long time.
"With your intelligence, insight, and eloquence, fabricating a set of answers capable of convincing everyone should not be difficult… In this chaotic era, there are not many people who can see through everything you weave using their own thoughts."
"Indeed. If all I wanted was to give them an answer, then I could simply stay in Kirigakure and study it for a year or two, then call Shisui, Nagato, and the others over and tell them the answers I reached after thinking. Although it would only be one family's opinion, it should still be enough to make them believe me without doubt."
Rei Kaguya laughed silently. He looked at "Hashirama Senju," who was staggering to his feet and examining his own hands and surroundings in confusion, then sighed.
"But that kind of answer has no meaning… An answer that depends solely on one person's thoughts, a philosophy without sufficiently rigorous logical deductions that later generations can verify and reproduce, is not enough to change the entire shinobi world."
"It is like the Will of Fire that the First Hokage left behind for Konoha. At the beginning, perhaps it was a simple and kind wish to protect the village, to treat everyone in the village as family and protect them. But by the time Madara Uchiha attacked, the Will of Fire held by the First Hokage had already become this: anyone who sought to destroy the village would be eliminated, even if that person was his family."
"Ideas are things that constantly deteriorate. During the process of inheritance, they gradually deviate, and in the end, they transform and collapse."
"If you only provide an answer from the beginning, an ideology like a castle in the air that has only conclusions and no process of proof, then before long, it will become a tool in the hands of those qualified to interpret it. A tool used to oppress those who cannot—or rather, are not worthy to—interpret that ideology."
"Orochimaru, you should have some feeling for this as well, should you not? Especially when the Third Hokage stripped away your qualifications and reason to remain in Konoha under the charge that you had 'violated the Will of Fire'…"
At this point, Rei Kaguya paused slightly.
Then he spread his arms, facing Hashirama Senju, who had already looked toward him, and smiled from the bottom of his heart.
"Welcome back to the present world of Konoha Year 51. I am Rei Kaguya, the Fourth Mizukage. I am very glad to have obtained the chance to speak with you face to face in this era, First Hokage, Lord Hashirama Senju."
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