"You two brothers can chat, I still have to continue."
Let Sasuke and Edo Itachi explain what happened, and let Edo Itachi tell Sasuke everything that truly occurred that year and his inner thoughts. Hawking, meanwhile, continued the Edo Tensei of Konoha's four Hokage.
He first placed four of the remaining five White Zetsu into the Edo Tensei formation, then chanted a spell at the last White Zetsu:
"Imperio!"
In an instant, the originally resistant White Zetsu immediately looked blissful.
The Imperio, one of the three Unforgivable Curses, is a Dark Arts spell as evil as the Curse of Slaying.
Those under the curse feel their minds go blank, all thoughts and sense of responsibility vanish, and then they feel immense happiness and pleasure. Subsequently, a voice instructs the cursed person to do something, and they completely obey.
If this curse is cast too many times on a single person, they can develop resistance, thereby weakening the spell's power.
However, this also depends on the power difference between the two. If the soul strength difference is too great, then resistance is not a factor.
Just like when Hawking casts the Imperio on White Zetsu, even if he casts it a hundred times, White Zetsu has no way to resist.
"Put on the mask, then cut open your stomach."
Hawking handed the Shinigami mask and a dagger to White Zetsu, who immediately put the mask on his face.
Summoning the Shinigami to release the souls of the four Hokage is not without cost; the caster will suffer backlash from the Shinigami's power. Hawking certainly couldn't bear the damage himself.
The Naruto World has the existence of the Universe and aliens; the Ōtsutsuki Clan are textbook aliens.
But at the same time, the Naruto World also has a system of gods.
Like the Shinigami summoned by the Reaper Death Seal, the Loki worshipped by Hidan, the King of Hell communicated by the Rinnegan, the Immovable Wisdom King and Thousand-Armed Kannon in Fire Temple Ninjutsu, and the Hell Gate and Divine Gate summoned by the Summoning Technique, among others.
The strength of these gods has not been specifically demonstrated, but it is definitely not low.
So, if possible, he still didn't want to risk himself and let his body endure the Shinigami's backlash.
In the original plot, Orochimaru, after undoing the Reaper Death Seal, abandoned his backlashed body and re-possessed a White Zetsu's body.
Since Orochimaru could cleverly avoid the Shinigami's backlash this way, he could also cleverly manipulate White Zetsu to bear the backlash.
"Ah!"
White Zetsu, wearing the Shinigami mask, let out a loud cry, and the Shinigami's phantom immediately appeared behind him.
"Is this the Shinigami? But it looks like just a projection."
Perceiving the Shinigami phantom with his powerful soul, Hawking instinctively knew that this was not the Shinigami's true form descending, but merely a thoughtless projection.
"Slash!"
White Zetsu plunged the dagger fiercely into his stomach, then forcefully sliced.
The Shinigami behind him immediately performed the same action as White Zetsu, cutting a deep gash in its own stomach.
It was this cut that released four complete souls and one incomplete soul from the Shinigami's stomach.
The four complete souls were naturally the four Hokage of Konoha, while the incomplete soul was the soul of Orochimaru's hands, sealed by the Third Hokage during the Konoha Crush Plan.
"Edo Tensei!"
Casting the Impure World Reincarnation Technique again, the four souls were immediately absorbed into the four prepared White Zetsu bodies.
The White Zetsu with the cut stomach also collapsed to the ground, lifeless, and the Shinigami's phantom disappeared with him.
"I didn't expect the Reaper Death Seal to be undone."
"It's my Edo Tensei again."
"Huh, what's going on?"
"Sasuke, Itachi, who are you, and what is your connection to Orochimaru?"
As the four White Zetsu bodies were covered in dust, the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Hokage appeared simultaneously before Hawking.
However, they clearly didn't understand their current situation.
The memories of those brought back by Edo Tensei usually stop at the moment before their death. For example, the Third Hokage's memory stopped when he sealed Orochimaru with the Reaper Death Seal, and the Fourth Hokage's stopped during the Nine-Tailed incident.
However, the First and Second Hokage were exceptions, as they had been Edo Tensei'd once before by Orochimaru, so their memories also stopped at the time they were sealed by the Third Hokage's Reaper Death Seal.
"Please don't get agitated, the four of you, don't get agitated. I am a friend of Konoha and have no relation to Orochimaru. I've Edo Tensei'd you mainly because I want to chat with you."
Seeing the four Hokage's expressions slowly change, Hawking raised his hand to explain.
Just then, the Fourth Hokage seemed to sense something and looked at Hawking with a hint of surprise:
"You have the Nine-Tailed inside you. Could it be… you are my child, Naruto?"
At this time, Hawking had loaded the Naruto template, and the Nine-Tailed had been transferred into his body. The Fourth Hokage also had the other half of the Nine-Tailed sealed within him, so they could naturally sense each other.
"He's not Naruto. Why do you have the Nine-Tailed in your body? What happened to Naruto?"
Before Hawking could answer, the Third Hokage's face changed.
The Fourth Hokage had never seen Naruto, but he had watched Naruto grow up. This person in front of him was definitely not Naruto.
But if this stranger, who wasn't Naruto, had the Nine-Tailed inside him, there could only be one possibility: Naruto's Nine-Tailed had been taken away. A Jinchuriki who loses their Tailed Beast has only one outcome.
Hearing the Third Hokage's words, the intelligent Fourth Hokage immediately reacted, and instantly shot a Flying Thunder God kunai towards Hawking.
They were currently revived by Hawking using Edo Tensei, so if Hawking wished, he could form hand signs to temporarily erase their thoughts, turning them into puppets he controlled.
Therefore, he had to catch him off guard, taking him down before he could form hand signs, to have a chance to ask for the truth.
Facing the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God kunai, Hawking calmly tilted his head and dodged. The moment he dodged, the Fourth Hokage had already activated Flying Thunder God and appeared at the kunai's location, which was at the back of Hawking's head.
However, just as the Fourth Hokage reached out to use the Binding Jutsu to immobilize Hawking's body, he found that Hawking had also disappeared.
"It's better to let him explain it to you."
Hawking, who had moved at super speed behind the Fourth Hokage, placed his hand on the Fourth Hokage's head, transmitting a wisp of consciousness formed by the Fourth Hokage's Chakra within the Four Symbols Seal into the Fourth Hokage's mental space.
Nothing is more trustworthy than explaining to oneself.
Moreover, his time was limited to only one hour. He didn't have time to slowly explain the ins and outs and convince the four of them.
"Minato!"
Seeing Minato freeze in place after being struck on the head by Hawking, the Third Hokage immediately attacked.
Although the First and Second Hokage didn't recognize the Fourth Hokage, they recognized the Third Hokage. Since the Third Hokage had engaged, they naturally followed suit.
Thus, it then became a situation where three Hokage simultaneously ganged up on Hawking.
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