Ten minutes later, inside the learning hall.
Jiraiya and Kakashi Hatake knelt side by side in the corridor on the second floor of the learning hall. The heavy, solemn emotions they had when they had just left the underground experimental plaza were already gone from their faces.
In their place was a deep fear regarding whether their personal safety could be guaranteed.
Behind them, from the guest room belonging to Princess Tsunade, bursts of extremely violent roars were continuously spreading outward.
"So! This is! Your reason! For knowing full well! That you were being used! Yet still! Still! Still swaggering off to gamble at a casino!? Huh!?"
"Ahahahaha… Well, this, this… Little Tsunade, do not be so angry. I-I can explain it to you…"
"You! Even if you explain it ten thousand times! It still won't soothe the shock I felt when I was sitting properly at the gambling table and suddenly saw my grandfather, who had been dead for many years, push through the crowd, sit down opposite me, and excitedly prepare to play a round against me! Do you understand!?"
The soundwave that almost shook the entire learning hall leapt up from behind them, blowing the white hair of Jiraiya and Kakashi into messy bird nests.
Not only did the two of them not dare reach up to tidy their chaotic hair, they did not even dare say a single word. They could only silently lament their misfortune today in their hearts.
After roaring fiercely at Hashirama Senju for a while, Tsunade finally vented the shock, unease, anger, and displeasure in her heart.
After barely calming down, she pushed open the door of her room and coldly said to the two white-haired men kneeling outside in apology, "Come in. I need to hear your explanation."
And so, Jiraiya and Kakashi Hatake had no choice but to force themselves to once again recount the process of what had happened today.
They had clearly only gone to ask Rei Kaguya about the course he had opened on the restoration and study of shinobi history. Then, inexplicably, things had turned into a conversation with the First Hokage, who had been summoned through Edo Tensei. From there, they had somehow discussed a series of major matters, including whether the Will of Fire had deteriorated and the terrifying enemies that would continue arriving in the future.
"Hmm. So that is why you thought to summon me with Edo Tensei…"
Hashirama Senju suddenly struck his palm with his fist and spoke as if he had realized something.
"When Tobirama developed this technique, I always felt that using it only to summon the dead for battle was not very appropriate. That was why I told Tobirama to seal the technique inside the Scroll of Seals… I never thought that Fourth Mizukage could come up with such an interesting use for it."
"Is now the time to say that, Grand~father?"
Tsunade silently raised her fist and shook it toward Hashirama Senju, who had shown absolutely no seriousness.
"Uh… What I mean is, seeing a forbidden technique that was sealed away back then also being used for matters outside of war more or less proves that the Fourth Mizukage's view of ninjutsu and ninja is indeed different from ours."
Hashirama Senju coughed twice and sat up straight.
"But if his view is correct, then would all the efforts we have made all this time in pursuit of peace not be completely muda?"
Jiraiya lay on the table with his head in his arms, speaking somewhat listlessly.
"Ninja are blades that cannot be sheathed. Even if they are once placed inside the sheath called peace, because the blade and sheath were designed in completely different ways, they will still move toward war again… I cannot think of how to refute him."
"If you cannot think of one, then do not refute him. Anyway, it is already everyone's consensus that the Fourth Mizukage's thoughts and philosophy are ahead of the times. You do not need to insist on competing with him in a field you have never even stepped into, right?"
Tsunade raised her hand and knocked Jiraiya on the head, saying irritably.
"But if we cannot answer the questions raised by the Fourth Mizukage, then we will have no way to free ourselves from his influence and walk Konoha's own path."
Jiraiya smiled bitterly and turned his face sideways, looking at Tsunade's face, which had remained unchanged for over ten years. He sighed.
"The era of change is about to arrive. If Konoha does not even have anyone who can see the course of history clearly and understand the reason and direction of change, then we are destined to become followers and imitators chasing behind Kirigakure step by step. We may not even be able to learn properly."
"If that kind of situation appears, I dare not imagine what kind of ending Konoha will ultimately face…"
"Uh, as for the ending, it will simply be one of two possibilities: being conquered by Kirigakure or being destroyed by Kirigakure."
Hashirama Senju raised his hand and gave, in an extremely relaxed tone, an answer that had nothing relaxed about it.
"The Fourth Mizukage's thoughts are already very clear. Once the timing is ripe, he will definitely start a war to unify the shinobi world. And the final result of a war with such a massive disparity in strength will be nothing more than that."
"Is that something you, the First Hokage, should say, Grandpa?"
Tsunade looked angrily at Hashirama Senju, only to be pushed back by the incomparably calm emotion in the pair of eyes stained by the aura of the underworld.
"I only hope you can understand what kind of opponent you are facing."
Hashirama Senju pointed to himself, then pointed outside, and continued.
"Rei Kaguya is a ninja completely different from me and from Madara Uchiha… His understanding of conquest is not limited only to conquest through force. Assimilation in terms of thought is likewise a skill he is very good at and very skilled in."
"Do not think that just because he can now sit peacefully with us and discuss Konoha's gains and losses during its development process, there is no danger. During that conversation, his thoughts had already begun sowing seeds into you, Konoha's central pillars and future stars. If you cannot find your own answers, then these thoughts from him will take root and sprout in your hearts, growing into towering trees that cannot be destroyed and completely dominating your thinking."
"Compared to Madara, Rei Kaguya is a little more dangerous… Because his conquest can be displayed openly before everyone, yet most people still will not realize it. It is formless and intangible, unseen by blade or soldier, yet it more easily makes people give up resisting. It is conquest on the level of consciousness."
"Grandpa, are you saying… we should stop maintaining communication with Kirigakure?" Tsunade's expression was solemn and her tone serious.
"No, that is not what I mean. On the contrary, you need to maintain your understanding of Kirigakure and Rei Kaguya as much as possible, then think of every possible way to decipher the thoughts and questions he leaves you with and find the answers to changing yourselves and the current unfavorable situation. Only he will give you the most direct and transparent answers. And only he knows what must be done to make our pursuit of peace as ninja no longer a tragedy of heading south while trying to go north."
Hashirama Senju let out a long breath and spoke with great emotion.
"After talking with you so much, I have already begun imagining what this story we began would have become if the person in the same era as me had been Rei Kaguya instead of Madara. Would I have been convinced by him and joined him in unifying and reforming the entire shinobi world, or…"
"Would I have joined hands with the other clans of the shinobi world to kill him in order to defend our ninja way?"
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