Minato Namikaze stood awkwardly silent.
Tobirama Senju sighed, shaking his head as he pressed his hand to his forehead.
The young Obito Uchiha felt a strange, indescribable sensation, as if he were seeing a grown-up version of himself or Naruto.
As for Hashirama Senju...
"Tobirama! Did you hear him call me 'brother'!!"
"Big bro! Don't get hung up on useless stuff at a time like this!"
Yahiko froze. That white-haired guy's voice...
Hashirama whined, "But, but you started calling me 'Aniki' after you turned four! As your big brother, I felt so lonely! Especially since Madara always bragged about how Izuna called him 'Nii-san, Nii-san'—I really wanted a soft little brother to call me that too."
Listening to his elder brother's endless whining, veins began to bulge on Tobirama Senju's forehead.
Minato Namikaze and Obito Uchiha awkwardly distanced themselves from the two brothers, as if afraid of catching something contagious from the First Hokage.
As Hashirama continued his rant: "Tobirama was so mature for his age from childhood that I never got to experience the joy of protecting a younger brother, nor did he ever call me 'Nii-san'..."
Finally, Tobirama Senju lost his patience.
"That's a bit much, isn't it? You idiot of an older brother!"
"Who do you think made me mature beyond my years?!"
"It's all because you're so unreliable!"
"You'd give away the Tailed Beast for free! What if one day you give away Konoha too?!!"
"Oh right, I almost forgot—without me, you'd have given Konoha away to Madara Uchiha!"
Thank goodness Madara was a man, otherwise...
Damn it, he's nothing but trouble!!
"Hmph!" The white-haired Hokage turned away. "Then I suppose I owe Izuna Uchiha for being so clingy!!"
"Ah, no, that's not what I meant."
Completely rejected by his younger brother, Hashirama Senju sank into gloom.
Minato Namikaze and Obito Uchiha were so awkward they felt pins and needles all over. Yahiko stood frozen, then quietly leaned over to ask Minato,
"These two brothers... their relationship is really... peculiar."
"You could say that."
The legendary God of Shinobi... and the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju he'd revered for years…
Why must Madara Uchiha constantly crash your conversations? Is that legendary ninja an unresolved knot in both your hearts?
Returning to the matter at hand, Obito Uchiha gestured toward Yahiko and asked Minato Namikaze,
"Sensei, should we take him to Naruto? Or return to Konoha?"
Taking this man named Yahiko along might resolve the issue with Nagato more swiftly, yet Konoha seemed deeply concerned for their safety.
Tobirama Senju suddenly interjected,
"Return to Konoha."
His tone was unwavering, leaving no room for doubt or objection.
The young Obito Uchiha couldn't fathom it, but Minato Namikaze sensed a possibility. If Nagato intended to resurrect just one or two individuals using his Rinnegan, it might not cost them their lives. But if he sought to revive everyone he'd harmed recently, death would be almost inevitable.
If Yahiko wasn't there, aside from Konan, he had little left to hold him back.
But what if Yahiko was also subjected to the Edo Tensei and potentially resurrected? Would that man Nagato still wish to resurrect everyone in Konoha?
Or rather, the Second Hokage summoned this man named Yahiko here using the Edo Tensei technique, with the fundamental purpose of luring Nagato into reviving the ninjas sacrificed by Konoha in this war.
If all goes according to plan, once they return to Konoha together, the Second Hokage might dispatch a shadow clone to seek out Yahiko for a second round of negotiations.
Though he never lived in the same era as the Second Hokage, Minato Namikaze had studied many of his surviving manuscripts. He knew Tobirama-sama was a man who favored absolute certainty, using rules to constrain himself and others to reduce risk to a point infinitely close to zero...
If Minato Namikaze could deduce this, so could Hashirama Senju.
"Tobirama."
Hashirama glared at his younger brother. He disliked this approach, almost always finding himself at odds with Tobirama over such matters.
It wasn't merely because the method felt overly scheming. More fundamentally, as the elder brother, he didn't want Tobirama to bear the burden of such decisions alone.
The Senju clan revered Buddhist etiquette and believed in the karmic cycle of reincarnation. Understanding 'karma' and retribution was something both brothers had been taught since childhood.
Tobirama often argued that since all ninjas would descend into hell anyway, techniques like the Edo Tensei Reincarnation Ninjutsu weren't inherently forbidden as long as one didn't cross fundamental moral lines in life.
But Hashirama disagreed. Thus, whenever Tobirama developed such forbidden techniques, Hashirama would swiftly use his elder brother's authority (chakra suppression) to seal them away in the Scroll of Seals.
"Do you have any objections?" Tobirama Senju glanced at his elder brother.
The brothers' tense standoff made the clueless Yahiko struggle to bear the heavy atmosphere between them.
Sighing, Hashirama said, "I understand. I'll listen to you."
Both brothers conceded, yet neither had thought to ask Yahiko's opinion.
Yahiko felt awkward. "Can't we return to the Land of Rain? Or is Jiraiya-sensei currently in Konoha too?"
"It's a long story. Let's discuss it in detail back in Konoha. Rest assured, we won't harm you," said Minato Namikaze. "After all, you, myself, and both Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama are currently in the state of the Edo Tensei Reincarnation."
"Edo Tensei Reincarnation?"
"Simply put, it's being summoned back to the living world from the Pure Land in the form of the deceased."
"Eh?!" Yahiko suddenly remembered his final memory: colliding with Nagato's kunai. That strike was so devastating that even the most skilled Medical-nin might not have been able to save him. His previous glimmer of hope vanished upon hearing Minato's words, leaving him in a dazed stupor.
"We'll discuss the details once we reach Konoha."
Tobirama Senju led Yahiko and Hashirama Senju away immediately.
Minato Namikaze followed closely behind with his student, Obito Uchiha.
With the Flying Thunder God technique at their disposal, the group returned to Konoha in the blink of an eye. Gazing upon the dense forest below the five heads, its combat capabilities severely compromised beyond recognition, Yahiko was utterly shocked.
"This is Konoha?! And you guys..."
Even Yahiko, as slow as he was, could see how strikingly similar these three people were to the faces carved into Konoha's Hokage Rock.
Especially the white-haired guy whose voice sounded just like his own—the mask on his face was identical to that of the Second Hokage on the rock.
When Tsunade saw the Second and Fourth Hokage approaching, her gaze turned sharp as she glared at Yahiko. "Pain!! You bastard!!"
The Fourth Hokage quickly stepped forward. "Tsunade-sama, there's been a misunderstanding. This is Yahiko."
Yahiko, flustered, raised his hands. "What the hell is going on? You said I died—how long has it been? Why does Konoha look like this?! And that person over there... Isn't that Tsunade-sama?!"
He turned to the familiar face in the group, Minato Namikaze. "Could she have already become our sensei's wife? Did I do something to upset her?"
The entire village stood stunned. Was Pain... insane?
Tsunade's anger hadn't subsided. So many of Konoha's comrades had been killed, Jiraiya was dead, countless others were wounded, and homes had been destroyed.
Her eyes locked onto Yahiko as her voice trembled with both rage and sorrow. "I don't know what nonsense you're saying! Jiraiya was killed by you, wasn't he? And Konoha's current state—wasn't that also your Akatsuki's doing?!"
"That's right!"
Seeing Yahiko feign ignorance, the Konoha ninjas' fury erupted. They could barely contain their grief!
"Wasn't it you who destroyed Konoha?! Who killed Jiraiya-sama?! Who made the entire ninja world suffer?!"
"Stop pretending and take responsibility, Pain!"
"Damn it! It's because of you that Konoha ended up like this! If the First Hokage hadn't intervened..." Who knows what state Konoha would have been in after that Shinra Tensei!
Yahiko was crushed...
"You... What are you talking about?"
"I killed Jiraiya-sensei?" Yahiko's expression twisted with fury. "Are you joking?! How could I have killed Jiraiya-sensei?!"
His last memory was falling into Hanzō of the Salamander's trap, forced to die at the hands of Nagato—someone he had cared for like a brother.
"Akatsuki made the entire Ninja World suffer..." Yahiko caught Minato Namikaze's collar in a desperate grip, his voice filled with urgency. "What about Nagato?! What about Konan?! They're still alive, right?! Take me to them!!"
Tsunade frowned. This man wasn't Pain.
Anyone with clear eyes could see it. Although his appearance and voice were identical to Pain's, his eyes were just ordinary brown ones—no Rinnegan.
Most importantly, his personality was nothing like Pain's!
If anything, he was closer to Naruto Uzumaki.
A total hothead, loud and boisterous, and an idealist to boot.
Yahiko continued, "You've misunderstood! Our Akatsuki is just a small group. We're still growing, but we're nowhere near powerful enough to make the entire ninja world take notice!"
The Konoha ninjas who had been rushing in froze, taken aback by his words.
A small group?
Yes, there were only ten of them. But each one was an S-rank Missing-nin!
And the leaders? Six people who possessed the Rinnegan!
Yahiko, desperate to defend himself under their skeptical gazes, added, "Akatsuki would never try to change things through violence! That's pointless!"
"It's only through real human connection that we can build a bridge of hope for world peace!"
Yahiko launched into his familiar lecture mode.
"I truly believe this! As long as people understand one another, peace will surely come to this ninja world! Everyone will find happiness, free from fear of living hand-to-mouth, and no longer worrying about losing what they hold dear!"
Konoha Ninja:
Akatsuki loves peace?
More like 'nuclear peace' than 'peace'!