Hashirama was momentarily stunned when the young shinobi in front of him suddenly began cursing.
It wasn't the first time he had encountered a shinobi swearing during battle.
Back in the Warring States Era, Uchiha Madara had been particularly fond of foul language. Hashirama had long since grown accustomed to hearing all kinds of insults in the middle of a fight.
Still, this situation felt strange.
The shinobi before him was cursing someone named Danzō directly to his face.
Danzō?
Hashirama rubbed his chin and thought carefully. The name sounded familiar.
A moment later, he remembered.
Not long ago, Tobirama had mentioned selecting several children from the major clans as disciples in order to strengthen the village's unity and maintain relationships with the various clans.
To be honest, Hashirama had never liked that approach.
He believed true unity among shinobi should come from mutual understanding and trust, not political arrangements or special treatment.
Still, Tobirama had always been stubborn, and Hashirama had long since learned that arguing rarely changed his younger brother's mind.
Besides, it was only a handful of children.
What surprised Hashirama most was that Tobirama had even accepted Uchiha Kagami as a disciple.
At the time, Hashirama had genuinely felt pleased.
Perhaps Tobirama was finally changing.
Maybe one day he and Madara could even become friends.
...
Hashirama awkwardly scratched his head.
He had drifted off in thought again during a battle.
Still, the distraction helped him remember exactly who Danzō was.
One of Tobirama's disciples.
Which made the situation even stranger.
The Takigakure shinobi before him had just cursed Danzō's mother.
The problem was that Danzō's mother was indeed dead, having been killed during a mission years ago.
Hashirama's expression instantly sharpened.
"The village has investigated that incident for years without finding the culprit."
His eyes locked onto Kakuzu.
"Could it have been you?"
The atmosphere around him changed.
"I had originally intended to spare your life."
A terrifying amount of chakra erupted from his body.
"But now, I cannot let you live."
Kakuzu felt like a small boat caught in a raging sea.
The overwhelming pressure threatened to crush him at any moment.
He wanted to dodge.
He couldn't.
Because an endless tide of Wood Release burst forth from the First Hokage's position.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Countless trees surged across the battlefield.
Before Kakuzu could react, he was swallowed by the endless forest.
Pain.
That was all he felt.
Death was never pleasant.
The physical suffering was one thing, but the mental torment was far worse.
The moment consciousness faded, he drifted into endless darkness.
There was no sense of time.
Perhaps a second passed.
Perhaps a minute.
Perhaps an hour.
Perhaps much longer.
Eventually, Kakuzu opened his eyes once more.
"Are you the Takigakure shinobi who came to assassinate me?"
The same voice.
The same place.
The same beginning.
This time, Kakuzu restrained himself.
He no longer dared repeat the mistake he had made before.
Looking at the First Hokage, he merely snorted and took a few steps forward.
Then a wave of nausea suddenly surged through him.
"Blergh!"
A torrent of vomit spilled from his mouth.
Hashirama froze.
"..."
After a long silence, he touched his own face.
"Am I really that ugly?"
A trace of doubt appeared in his eyes.
"Has Madara been lying to me all these years?"
"Blergh! Blergh!"
More vomiting followed.
"..."
Kakuzu's expression darkened.
This was bad.
Although he had mentally adapted to dying, his body still hadn't fully adjusted to the sensation of being instantly killed and then restored.
Vomiting was understandable.
The timing, however, was absolutely terrible.
Wouldn't anyone think he was throwing up because of Hashirama's appearance?
Supporting himself against a tree, Kakuzu hurriedly explained between retches.
"N-No... Blergh... First Hokage-sama... that's not it..."
"Blergh..."
"I'm not vomiting because you're ugly..."
"..."
Hashirama's face darkened.
"I was willing to spare your life."
His voice carried both embarrassment and irritation.
"You tried to assassinate me, and now you're insulting me to my face. That's going too far."
"Wood Release: Cutting Technique!"
Kakuzu died again.
His body was pierced countless times before collapsing.
...
...
The sixtieth resurrection.
"Are you the Takigakure shinobi who came to assassinate me?"
The familiar voice echoed through the forest once again.
This time, Kakuzu remained calm.
After dying so many times, even an inexperienced shinobi would have become accustomed to it.
By now, he had roughly figured out the nature of Danzō's Mangekyō Sharingan technique.
It was a genjutsu.
But not an ordinary one.
The technique extracted a segment of the victim's memories and recreated it.
Anyone trapped within it was forced to relive a specific day from their past over and over again.
A true prison of repetition.
Every day was identical.
The same events.
The same choices.
The same ending.
Again and again.
If the selected memory had been an ordinary day, Kakuzu might have endured it without much trouble.
Unfortunately, the memory chosen was the day he had attempted to assassinate the First Hokage.
Kakuzu remembered that incident clearly.
In reality, Hashirama had ultimately spared him.
On his fourth cycle, Kakuzu had carefully followed his original actions.
Hashirama spared him again.
Yet the genjutsu didn't break.
When the day ended, everything reset.
He was dragged back to the beginning once more.
And Kakuzu knew from experience that time flowed differently inside this illusion.
This wasn't even his first encounter with the technique.
The last time he ambushed Danzō, he had been trapped inside another memory.
That time, he had relived his imprisonment in Takigakure.
More than three hundred cycles had passed before he finally escaped the prison and broke free of the genjutsu.
Outside, however, barely a second had elapsed.
The mental damage had been immense.
The longer one remained trapped and the more deaths one experienced, the greater the psychological burden became.
This time was even worse.
His opponent was Hashirama Senju.
After extensive experimentation, Kakuzu had reached a conclusion.
To escape this "one-day prison," he needed to defeat the central figure of the memory.
In this case, the First Hokage.
The problem was obvious.
How was he supposed to defeat Hashirama?
It was impossible.
Even if he repeated the cycle hundreds more times, the result would remain unchanged.
The gap between them was simply too vast.
So this time, Kakuzu decided to try a different approach.
He narrowed his eyes and stared at Hashirama.
"I did not come here to assassinate you."
Hashirama raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"I came here to guide you."
"Guide me?"
Hashirama showed no sign of attacking.
At his level, he wasn't worried about being deceived by a mere shinobi.
Kakuzu straightened his posture and spoke in a hoarse, mysterious tone.
"I am actually the son of the Sage of Six Paths."
He paused dramatically.
"I have come to guide you, the God of Shinobi, toward eternal peace."
"..."
Hashirama fell silent.
===
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