Looking at Hashirama, Suigetsu scratched his head in confusion. "This is the First Hokage?"
"The actual Hashirama, the man known as the God of Shinobi?"
Evidently, the four reanimated Hokage were experiencing some confusion of their own.
"Huh?" Hashirama blinked, looking around.
"Is this the doing of that shinobi named Orochimaru again?!" Tobirama noted, his voice flat and detached.
"What's going on here?" Hashirama muttered, entirely perplexed.
Analyzing the situation, Hiruzen turned to Hashirama. "I expect the Reaper Death Seal that bound our souls has been unraveled, and we have been summoned once more via the Reanimation Jutsu."
"To think someone could actually break that sealing formula... Orochimaru, how did you manage it?" Minato asked, turning an intrigued, almost admiring gaze toward the Sannin.
"You underestimate me, Minato," Orochimaru sneered softly. "The sealing jutsu of the Uzumaki clan, the derelict ruins of their shrines, the documents scattered across the lands... I have spent every waking moment analyzing them since those techniques were lost to history."
Minato gave a slow nod, then looked back at Hashirama. "Lord First, it appears we have been restored to the living world."
Hashirama tilted his head, staring blankly at Minato, his confusion deeping. "Huh? Who are you supposed to be?"
Hiruzen cast a meaningful glance at Minato. Catching the hint, Minato spun around, allowing the bold lettering of Fourth Hokage emblazoned across his white cloak to fill Hashirama's field of vision.
"I am the Fourth Hokage."
Hashirama instantly beamed, clapping his hands in delight as he congratulated Minato. "You're the Fourth! Is that so! Ah~ it looks like the village has enjoyed an era of absolute peace, then."
"Well... to be entirely honest, I'm not exactly certain of the village's current state..." Minato offered, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Furthermore, because I passed away prior to the Third, I was sealed away even earlier than he was."
"Huh? Is that true? You weren't sealed alongside Sarutobi?" Hashirama asked.
"No, it was due to a completely separate crisis." Minato felt too embarrassed to openly admit he had been sealed during the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha.
Stepping directly in front of Minato, Hashirama pressed, "Then tell me, who is the Fifth Hokage?"
"It is your granddaughter, Tsunade," Orochimaru interjected, answering on Minato's behalf.
Instantly, a heavy shadow washed over Hashirama's face, his shoulders slumping. "Tsuna, huh..."
He sighed deeply. "Is the village... still standing?"
Minato gave a placating, slightly forced smile. "My Lord, is there something about her leadership that concerns you?"
"She was my very first grandchild, you see, so I spoiled her absolutely rotten," Hashirama groaned, burying his face in his hands. "As a result, she inherited my atrocious gambling habits lock, stock, and barrel! The losses she racked up were legendary... Hahahahahahahahaha!"
Listening to Hashirama's boisterous laughter, Suigetsu stood completely dumbfounded. This character did not align with the awe-inspiring God of Shinobi he had conjured in his imagination.
Even Orochimaru looked slightly exasperated as he stared at the four legendary Hokage.
Tobirama flexed his hands, inspecting his pale fingers with a cold expression. "The Reanimation Jutsu once more... To think you would casually abuse the very technique I created."
Orochimaru let out a dry, mocking laugh at the remark. "The jutsu itself presents no great mechanical difficulty. Though I must agree, you truly should never have invented it in the first place."
Leaning forward slightly, the Sannin continued, "Lord Second, the administrative policies you enforced and the forbidden jutsu you engineered have brought nothing but continuous strife to successive generations. And this current crisis is no exception."
Tobirama's jaw tightened, his fingers curling as he pointed sharply at Orochimaru. "You... are you planning to orchestrate another assault on Konoha?!"
Hiruzen locked his gaze onto his former student. "I traded my very life to strip you of your shinobi techniques. How could this be happening?!"
Stepping forward, the Third Hokage's voice rose with righteous anger. "To think you would go so far as to reanimate me, your own master! You've come to exact your final vengeance upon Konoha, haven't you?!"
Hashirama clamped a hand over his brow, sighing. "It matters not the era; conflict is an inescapable plague." He leaned toward his brother, murmuring in a hushed tone, "It truly isn't a good jutsu, Tobirama. Back then, I told you we should have followed my counsel—"
"Quiet, Anija! I am in the middle of interrogating this young man!" Tobirama snapped, cutting Hashirama off without hesitation.
"But still..."
"Silence!"
Rebuked so harshly, Hashirama drooped his head into a corner, completely enveloped in a cloud of gloom.
The God of Shinobi has absolutely zero authority here, Suigetsu desperately wanted to comment, though he wisely held his tongue out of fear for his life.
"Please, do not misunderstand. I no longer harbor any desire to dismantle the village," Orochimaru stated smoothly. "That is precisely why I have left your personalities fully intact. We are experiencing a rather extraordinary set of circumstances today."
Stepping to the side, Orochimaru gestured toward the young Uchiha. "It is entirely by his request that I have orchestrated this assembly."
"I am Sasuke Uchiha," the boy declared, his tone cold and measured. "I have questions that only you Hokage can answer."
The Third flinched, his eyes locking onto Sasuke's.
Suddenly, Sasuke's left eye convulsed violently, slipping entirely from his control. Clamping a hand over his face, a trail of bloodied tears leaked from his eyelid as his pupil shifted, morphing into a crimson, rose-patterned Mangekyo Sharingan.
It was the Tsukuyomi, a lingering seal of Kanon's own Tsukuyomi.
"The Mangekyo!" Tobirama instantly braced to weave a sign, but Hashirama threw out an arm, blocking his brother's advance.
In that identical instant, the consciousness of everyone present was pulled into the illusion. Within the domain of the Tsukuyomi, they witnessed everything: an eleven-year-old Kanon ambushed by Danzo's Root operatives, followed by the harrowing imagery of a hundred specialized shinobi tracking her down across the wilderness to execute her.
Hashirama lowered his head in deep sorrow. Tobirama closed his eyes, sealing away his expression. Hiruzen's features contorted into a mask of pure, agonizing shame. Only Minato could stare ahead in helpless sorrow.
Minato had encountered Kanon's lingering chakra within Naruto's seal. He knew how deeply his son cherished her, and that Kanon had practically raised Naruto through a childhood of absolute isolation. Minato had been deeply grateful to her as a father.
But beholding Kanon's true history shattered his perception. He could scarcely fathom the agonizing weight a young girl had been forced to endure.
Watching the illusionary display where Kanon's back was completely riddled with kunai, transformed into a mangled mess of blood and torn flesh, Sasuke let out a ragged breath, his legs buckling as he collapsed heavily onto the stone floor.
As the vision began to dissolve, Kanon's voice resonated through the void, frigid and completely devoid of warmth: "Hiruzen Sarutobi, I will come to claim your head with my own hands."
An eleven-year-old girl had been hunted like an animal by her own village. As the Tsukuyomi concluded, the rose-patterned Mangekyo shattered into fragments, leaving only Sasuke's pitch-black, trembling eyes staring into the dim room.
"What we just witnessed..." Hashirama stammered, the words catching in his throat.
"That was my sister... Kanon..." Sasuke muttered, his head lowered as his gaze locked onto the Third with murderous intensity. This specific Tsukuyomi had been designed to trigger the exact second his eyes met those of Hiruzen.
The subterranean chamber fell into a suffocating silence. Hiruzen's posture collapsed further under the crushing weight of his sins.
"A member of the Uchiha, is it? I see... It's no wonder she turned out to be an inherently malicious creature," Tobirama remarked, stating his assessment bluntly.
"Tobirama, I explicitly commanded you to cease speaking in that manner!"
"But Anija, you are far too naive!"
Sasuke ground his teeth together, his glare drilling into the Third Hokage.
"Leave me and Kanon aside for a moment! Third Hokage, why did you force Itachi to carry out that slaughter?!" Sasuke demanded, his voice trembling with restrained fury.
"So, you have uncovered the truth..." Hiruzen confessed, lowering his head in absolute shame.
"My sister Kanon and I killed Itachi to avenge our clan. It was only after his death that we learned the underlying truth from Madara and Danzo." Sasuke's voice cracked. "In that moment, I resolved to level Konoha to the ground. But... but I need to hear it from your own lips. I need you to tell me everything about Itachi."
Hiruzen closed his eyes, sighing heavily. "Very well... I not only commanded him to slaughter his own kin and branded him an infamous rogue ninja, but I also forced him to infiltrate the Akatsuki to spy on them completely alone."
"From his earliest youth, Itachi was an exceptionally perceptive child, much like your sister, Kanon."
"Yet Itachi managed to grasp the teachings and historical markers left behind by our ancestors, elements that practically no one else noticed."
"Completely unaided, he deciphered the true origins of the shinobi and the creation of this village."
"Because of that deep understanding, Itachi was never shackled by the narrow mindedness of his clan. He possessed his own philosophy regarding the future of the shinobi and the fate of our village."
"He spent his life worrying about the future of both entities. By the mere age of seven, his mind already operated with the philosophical depth of a Hokage."
"We placed the weight of the world onto Itachi's shoulders, and he accepted it as his mission, executing it flawlessly."
"He systematically annihilated his own kin, failing to spare even his own younger sister, solely to abort the impending coup d'état."
"Through his singular effort, he averted a civil war that would have invited foreign invasions. He even embedded himself as a double agent within the Akatsuki, shielding this village from the shadows."
"And the sole term I granted in exchange was that you would remain safely protected within the village parameters."
Sasuke's head drooped lower, his expression twisting into an agonizing grimace. "Then what about Kanon?!"
Hiruzen let out a long, heavy sigh, his eyes downcast.
"I have no knowledge of the methods she utilized to survive. That is precisely why she was a mangled mass of scars when you finally crossed paths with her. But Kanon was never a factor in our original agreement."
"To Itachi, and to the village administration, her survival was nothing more than an uncalculated anomaly. That is precisely why Danzo deployed wave after wave of Root operatives to eliminate her, driven by a desire to claim her power for his own ends."
Listening to the Third's confession, Tobirama closed his eyes.
"This is the cursed destiny inherent to the Uchiha. To think an eleven-year-old girl would be reduced to groveling in the dirt simply to cling to life... and I never anticipated the Uchiha clan would face absolute extinction."
"To think they actually attempted to mount a coup... I foresaw long ago that such an eventuality would transpire."
"Because even in my era, Madara's remaining zealots were constantly plotting in the shadows."
Orochimaru offered a slow, knowing nod. "No wonder Danzo sought to strike that specific bargain with me back then. An eleven-year-old child, hunted down for assassination by the very village she called home."
Turning his head, Orochimaru looked toward the Second Hokage. "One could argue that the individual who backed the Uchiha into this inescapable corner was none other than you, Lord Second."
"The Uchiha Military Police Force you established was the root cause of this entire tragedy."
"What did you say?" Tobirama demanded, his brow furrowing.
"Those tasked with enforcing the law and punishing crime naturally accumulate the resentment of the populace," Orochimaru explained smoothly. "Furthermore, an organization granted such sweeping authority inevitably grows arrogant over time."
"Under the pretext of keeping suspects under close watch, you constructed the Police Force headquarters directly adjacent to the prison sector."
"You systematically segregated the Uchiha clan, forcing them into the outermost fringes of the village."
"It was precisely that systemic alienation that fueled the embers of their rebellion."
"As for what kind of person Kanon truly was, we understand her character far better than you ever could, especially her brother, Sasuke."
Orochimaru extended a finger, pointing directly toward Sasuke. Recognizing the cue, Sasuke began to recount Kanon's childhood ambition to the assembled Hokage, a dream that even the Third Hokage had been well aware of.
Hiruzen knew it better than anyone. Kanon was the one child who possessed the genuine potential to break the cycle and become the first Uchiha Hokage. She had harbored a magnificent, pure dream of constructing a vast field of flowers where true peace could flourish.
Yet Konoha had systematically systematically pushed her into the abyss, driving her to absolute despair.
Listening to the narrative unfold from the side, Hashirama's mind drifted back to the dreams of peace he had shared with Madara during their childhood days by the river.
In that moment, Hashirama felt the sheer magnitude of Kanon's suffering. He snapped his head around, glaring directly at his younger brother. "Tobirama! How many times did I warn you?! You must never marginalize the Uchiha!"
"I assigned the Uchiha a vital administrative duty that only their clan could execute! My sole intention was to ensure that if another Madara ever emerged, we would possess the immediate infrastructure to suppress them!"
"Anija, you know it as well as I do! The Uchiha are a clan naturally possessed by evil!" Tobirama shot back.
Listening to Tobirama's rigid assessment, Orochimaru let out a chilling, mocking laugh. "Because of your exact administrative methods, a genuine second Madara has emerged. No... perhaps something far more catastrophic than Madara ever was."
"It was your actions that forged the Kanon who walks the earth today, Lord Second."
"Madara remains an inescapable shadow looming over your legacy. Tell me, are the Uchiha truly so terrifying to you?"
Tobirama fixed his cold gaze on Orochimaru. "Boy, you comprehend absolutely nothing about the nature of the Uchiha."
It was then that Sasuke raised his eyes, locking them squarely onto the Second Hokage.
"Second Hokage, let me ask you this. What exactly is the Uchiha clan? What is it that you truly know about us?"