An hour later.
Straightening her disheveled collar, Tsunade jumped down from the desk and sat back in her chair.
A lingering flush still remained on her cheeks.
"Speak up, what exactly is the matter you came to find me for this time?"
Gento sat opposite her and explained the threat of the Otsutsuki clan in complete detail.
Tsunade's expression went from lazy to serious, from serious to shocked, and finally turned into a complex gravity.
Because Gento and Tsunade could be considered to know each other inside out, Gento did not hide anything and also detailed his future plan to unify the entire shinobi world.
Tsunade was even more shaken to her core.
The current shinobi world had been in chaos ever since the Warring States Period.
Moreover, wars had never stopped.
Everyone had long since grown accustomed to this situation of multiple coexisting nations acting as mutual checks.
No one had ever been able to unify the entire shinobi world either.
Now Gento actually wanted to unify the entire shinobi world?
"So, your previous poisoning, becoming a rogue ninja, and the chaotic situations of Crescent Island and the Land of Lightning were all single-handedly planned by you?"
Gento nodded:
"The Raikage is controlled by Kotoamatsukami, and the massacre in the Land of Lightning was also authorized by me."
"So was the downfall of Crescent Island."
"All of this is to gradually unify the shinobi world and integrate all forces to counter the Otsutsuki."
Tsunade fell silent for a while.
Subsequently, a trace of inexplicable sadness appeared on her face.
"Is there no... better way?"
"Is it possible not to wage war?"
Thinking of Tsunade's past experiences, Gento knew that her aversion to war had flared up.
So he stood up, walked behind her, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Tsunade, you know better than I do that ever since the Warring States Period, large nations have annexed small nations, small nations have relied on large nations, and wars have never stopped."
"As long as the shinobi world is not unified, different countries will continuously stir up wars due to conflicts of interest."
"Commoners bleed, shinobi sacrifice themselves, generation after generation, without end."
"Waging a war to unify the shinobi world now is so that there will be no more wars once Shiva's generation grows up."
"Furthermore, countering the Otsutsuki also requires integrating the power of the entire shinobi world."
"This is not ambition; it is for the survival of the shinobi world, and also for a better future!"
Hearing this, Tsunade could not help but weigh things repeatedly in her heart.
Finally, all the confusion in her eyes disappeared as she made her decision.
"I understand. The Hidden Leaf will stand on your side!"
"But you must promise me to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible."
Gento gripped her hand tightly:
"I promise you."
Tsunade nodded, pulling her hand out of his grip:
"Alright, stop being emotional. You said earlier that you still need high-end combat power? What do you plan to do?"
Gento paused for a moment but still said:
"I plan to use Edo Tensei to resurrect a batch of high-combat-power shinobi."
"The first target is your grandfather, the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju."
"I came this time to seek your opinion."
Gento had originally prepared himself to face Tsunade's wrath.
To his surprise, Tsunade merely raised an eyebrow, and then nodded cleanly and decisively.
"Okay."
"You... don't find this behavior a bit unethical?"
"Edo Tensei is, after all, a Forbidden Jutsu that plays with the dead."
Tsunade said indifferently:
"I am a medical ninja, after all."
"In order to save more people, I previously thought of a method to use the remains of the deceased, with the consent of the family, to train medical ninja and conduct pathological research."
"I do not consider this a desecration of the deceased; on the contrary, it is a form of progress."
"Edo Tensei is the same. As long as it isn't like Orochimaru forcing living humans to be sacrifices and playing with their souls, I can accept it."
Gento could not help but feel some emotion.
Worthy of being the number one medical ninja in the shinobi world, her thinking was actually so open-minded.
This kind of thinking was already very close to the modern medicine of the Blue Star in his past life.
Body donation and organ transplantation are both ways to make death more valuable under the premise of respecting life.
"Let us go."
Tsunade stood up, took her outer robe hanging on the clothes rack, and threw it on.
"I will take you to the Senju clan grounds. My grandfather's remains are there."
The Senju clan grounds were located in the northwest corner of the Hidden Leaf Village, a quiet area surrounded by tall trees.
Unlike the grandeur of the Uchiha clan grounds, the Senju clan grounds appeared more simple and natural.
There were no high walls and grand courtyards, only orderly wooden houses and green plants everywhere.
In the deepest part of the clan grounds, there was a cemetery hidden by a barrier.
The entrance was a stone archway, with the Senju clan emblem carved on the lintel.
Passing through the archway and walking along the bluestone path, towering ancient trees lined both sides.
In the center of the cemetery stood an unremarkable stone chamber.
Tsunade stopped in front of the stone door, formed hand seals, and channeled chakra into the seal on the door.
The patterns on the stone door lit up, making a low rumble as it slowly slid open to both sides.
The room was very dark, with only a few ever-burning lamps on the walls emitting a dim light.
Right in the center lay a stone coffin, its lid already pushed open to reveal a gap.
Clearly, someone had been here.
Tsunade's face changed.
She stepped forward quickly and pushed open the coffin lid with force.
Inside the stone coffin, Hashirama's body lay there, wearing armor from the Warring States Period, his face already decayed beyond recognition.
What was even more shocking was that the corpse's head and many body parts were missing, leaving only a mutilated torso and limbs.
"Who... did this!"
Gento had already prepared himself mentally.
A part of Hashirama's remains had first been taken by Madara Uchiha for transplantation.
Later, it was stolen multiple times by Orochimaru and Danzo for experiments.
In Gento's view, it was already a stroke of luck that this much remained.
"Madara, Orochimaru, Danzo."
Gento calmly listed three names.
"They have all taken tissue from Hashirama's remains..."
Tsunade bit her lip, staring at the incomplete remains in the stone coffin, her eyes filled with anger and sorrow.
She was silent for a while before asking:
"Can he still be reanimated through Edo Tensei?"
"Yes, but because the bodily tissues are incomplete, the strength of the reanimated person will be correspondingly discounted."
Gento squatted down, carefully taking out all of Hashirama's remaining relics.
"However, Lord Hashirama's power mainly stems from Wood Release and his Sage Body. Even if he is not in his prime state, he is still sufficient to crush the vast majority of shinobi."
Tsunade did not speak, merely nodding.
Gento arranged the remains and took out a White Zetsu corpse from the Yomotsu space.
That was something he had casually caught in the Akatsuki earlier, keeping it for spare use.
The White Zetsu's body was pale and soft, its face blurry like an unfinished clay mold.
He came outside the stone chamber, selected an open space, and placed the White Zetsu's body on the ground.
Then, forming hand seals with both hands, he integrated Hashirama's remains into the White Zetsu's body.
"Edo Tensei!"
Black runes spread out from his palms, crawling over the White Zetsu's entire body like living things.
A soul entered the White Zetsu's body.
Immediately following that, countless fine pieces of paper drifted out of the void like falling snow, attaching to the White Zetsu's body piece by piece.
The pieces of paper grew more and denser, wrapping around the White Zetsu's body layer upon layer, forming a giant cocoon.
The paper cocoon began to glow, emitting a faint blue light from within.
Gento continuously channeled chakra.
The pieces of paper peeled off one by one, dissipating as points of light.
Immediately after, a tall figure appeared in the center of the open space.
He wore red armor from the Warring States Period, his long black hair draped over his shoulders, his face sharply defined, with a gentle smile in his eyes and brows.
Merely by standing there without making any movement, he naturally radiated a heart-palpitating pressure.
This was indeed the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju.
Hashirama lowered his head, looking at his own semi-transparent fingers, then touched his face.
"Have I... been resurrected?"
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