"Mori?"
Senju Hashirama let out a somewhat confused sound.
"Lord Hashirama."
Senju Mori stepped forward, bowing slightly.
Looking at the tall, upright young man before him, Senju Hashirama was momentarily dazed; he found it very difficult to connect the person in front of him with the small child in his memories.
Besides that, the First Hokage was also completely bewildered as to why he himself was here, so he instinctively looked at the familiar figure beside him and asked, "Tobirama, what's going on?"
"Big Brother, this guy is that brat Mori."
Senju Tobirama's face was filled with anger as he sharply explained, "He used the forbidden jutsu Edo Tensei that I left behind to summon both of our souls back from the Pure Land!"
"And if I'm not mistaken, he's probably the Third Hokage of Konoha now."
"Tobirama, I told you back then—"
Hearing the words 'forbidden jutsu,' Senju Hashirama seemed to trigger some underlying code, immediately complaining to his brother, but he was quickly drawn to another word.
"Third Hokage!"
"Oh—!"
Senju Hashirama was initially surprised by the news, then burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahahahaha—So Mori became the Third Hokage? I thought you, Tobirama, would pass the Hokage position to the little monkey!"
Hashirama didn't overthink things like his brother Tobirama; in his view, they were all excellent juniors of the Village anyway, and as long as it benefited the Village, it didn't matter who became the Third Hokage.
If not for Tobirama and others' obstruction back then, he had genuinely intended to give the Hokage position to Uchiha Madara.
Before the increasingly dark-faced Senju Tobirama could reply, Senju Hashirama had already looked back at Senju Mori, excitedly pressing on, "But Mori, you've grown so big already! It seems the Village has been peaceful for a long time!"
"What's it like to be Hokage? How's the Village doing now? Is everyone in the Village doing well?"
"The Village is doing very well. All the Ninja Villages are living in harmony. The Uchiha Clan has also put aside their past grievances with the family. After Lord Tobirama's death, I led everyone to defeat the attacking Kumogakure—"
Senju Mori began to recount his experiences after becoming Hokage, and Hashirama nodded repeatedly, looking very satisfied.
Especially after hearing about the Uchiha Clan's situation from Senju Mori, he couldn't help but praise, "Mori! You truly are an excellent Hokage!"
"This way, I can finally rest assured. I had instructed Tobirama back then to treat the Uchiha Clan well."
Senju Mori responded with a smile, "You don't need to worry about that. Lord Tobirama was an outstanding Hokage deeply beloved by everyone. The Village's current development is inseparable from your and Lord Tobirama's past contributions."
A moment later, Senju Hashirama seemed to suddenly realize something, looking at the silent Senju Tobirama beside him, and exclaimed in surprise, "You died too?! Tobirama!"
"When did this happen?"
Senju Tobirama opened his mouth, wanting to explain but was momentarily speechless, feeling a bit awkward.
After all, being killed wasn't something glorious.
Fortunately, Senju Mori spoke up at this moment, timely helping him out of the situation.
"Lord Hashirama, after your passing, the other Ninja Villages began to stir. The situation in the Ninja World was constantly changing, and finally, a large-scale war officially broke out a few years later."
"Fortunately, Konoha, under the leadership of Lord Tobirama, successfully defeated the invading enemies."
"It's just a pity that when Lord Tobirama went to the Land of Lightning to sign a peace treaty with Kumogakure, he was shamelessly betrayed and ambushed by the enemy, surrounded by the Gold and Silver Brothers leading dozens of Kumogakure elites."
"Lord Tobirama could have left, but to cover Hiruzen and the others' retreat, he voluntarily chose to sacrifice himself, ultimately exhausting himself to death after killing all of Kumogakure's enemies."
"I took over as Hokage after that."
Senju Mori's account perfectly preserved Senju Tobirama's dignity and greatly eased the tension between the two.
"Sigh—"
Upon hearing this, Senju Hashirama couldn't help but sigh, rubbing his forehead.
"This world truly is in constant conflict—"
Seeing that his elder brother was no longer dwelling on his cause of death, Senju Tobirama finally relaxed. After staring at Senju Mori's hateful smiling face for a while, he finally spoke in a deep voice, "There's no need to mention my affairs anymore."
"Mori, didn't you say the Village was safe and sound?"
"Why did you use Edo Tensei? Don't you know it's a forbidden jutsu that's strictly prohibited?"
Hearing this, Senju Mori's expression also became serious.
"The Village is indeed safe, but the Uzumaki Clan has become coveted by the Ninja World due to their Sealing Jutsu."
"Currently, led by the Third Mizukage of Hidden Mist, four Ninja Villages—Hidden Mist, Kumogakure, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure—have gathered nearly four thousand troops and are besieging the Uzu no Kuni."
"Konoha's main forces are still en route. I only brought the Jonin from the Village and rushed here overnight, hoping that both of you can lend a hand, assist me in rescuing the Uzumaki Clan, and repel the invading enemies."
"What?!"
Both Hokage were simultaneously shocked, finally realizing where they were. They immediately turned around and saw the chaotic battlefield below.
Senju Tobirama's face was even filled with anger, and a powerful aura instantly emanated from him.
"Then what are you waiting for? Do you want to wait until Uzushiogakure is breached before going to rescue them?!"
Senju Mori, however, calmly replied, "I just led a team in a surprise attack. With insufficient troops, we can currently only use this method to tie them down and await the arrival of the Village's main force."
"If we go head-to-head with twenty times the number of enemies, the result will only be total annihilation."
Saying that, Senju Mori looked at Senju Hashirama beside him and regretfully said, "If Lord Hashirama could recover his full strength from when he was alive, there would be no need to worry so much, but unfortunately—"
""
Hearing this, Senju Hashirama also tried moving his arms, exclaiming in surprise, "This body actually has my cells too! Mori! How did you do it?!"
Senju Mori had no intention of elaborating on the human experimentation, merely explaining lightly, "I made some optimizations and improvements to the research results left by Lord Tobirama, but compared to your former body, the number of these cells is pitifully small."
"Under these circumstances, you can probably only exert a fraction of your strength from when you were alive."
Senju Hashirama, however, clenched his fists. After briefly sensing the power contained within this body, he laughed and said, "Although the power of this body isn't very strong, it's already enough to deal with those guys below."
Senju Hashirama brought his hands together, and natural energy quickly gathered. Deep red markings began to spread across his face, soon forming a complete Sage Mode facial pattern.
He scanned the surrounding Konoha Ninja, and as he was the first to leap off the cliff, he loudly declared, "Let's go!"