"Lord Second, the earlier stories were so crazy, so why did Naruto and Sasuke's part end up so short?"
Kiba smacked his lips, clearly still unsatisfied.
Whether he'd used Beast Mimicry Ninjutsu too much, or Naruto's shit release had just straight-up damaged his brain, Kiba had apparently developed some weird thoughts about Akamaru's personal "delicacies" too.
"There are two reasons Naruto and Sasuke's story is so short," Tobirama said. "First, how old are they right now? Their lives have barely even started. Naturally, you can't compare them to the previous generation who already lived out their entire lifespans.
"Second, Naruto and Sasuke's story happened right beside you. You witnessed exactly what they did with your own two eyes. Do I really need to spell it out for you again?
"Just as I was a witness to my idiot brother and Madara's affair, all of you will one day become the narrators of this generation's history."
As Senju Tobirama spoke, he actually started encouraging them.
However, when he called everyone present a witness to Naruto and Sasuke's generation, the exact same image instantly popped into everyone's heads—aside from the outsider, Shigaraki Tanuki.
In the classroom, Naruto and Sasuke silencing each other without using their hands.
That was something they'd witnessed with their own eyes. And after connecting it to the wild story Tobirama had just told, it hit them.
They were already part of history.
They were witnesses to history!
"That should only count as an accident, right?" Sakura asked, her expression completely complicated.
That specific scene was something she had actively chosen to wipe from her memory, but she never expected it to get dragged back up today.
And now that it had been mentioned, she suddenly realized her own mindset had completely shifted.
If this was the past, she definitely would've clenched her fists and wanted to deck Naruto just to vent her frustration.
But now? She actually felt like it wasn't that big of a deal anymore.
She had completely gotten used to it.
"Of course that was only an accident," Tobirama said. "But the hand that pushed that accident forward wasn't your classmate's. It was the invisible hand of fate!"
"Fate twisted the threads of their lives together into a tight braid a long time ago. Once is an accident. Twice is an accident. But do you really have to wait until Naruto and Sasuke accidentally get pregnant before you finally admit it isn't a coincidence?"
Thud.
Accidentally get pregnant.
In the past, those words would have been completely unthinkable. They never should have even popped up as a description between two male ninjas.
Yet now, not only did everyone fail to find a single thing wrong with the phrase, they actually felt enlightened by Tobirama's words.
The others were busy thinking about that classroom scene between Naruto and Sasuke, right alongside all their usual warm moments of bickering, fighting, loving, and trying to kill each other.
Shigaraki Tanuki, however, had only spent a fraction of time with Sasuke. But even that brief contact nearly left him nursing a lifelong, deep-seated grudge.
He would probably never shake that horrible impression for the rest of his life.
At the same time, he totally agreed with Senju Tobirama's explanation.
Uchiha Sasuke was a naturally evil and depraved little punk.
As everyone knew, the Uchiha clan—descendants of Indra—was a naturally evil clan.
The Senju clan—descendants of Asura—was a naturally depraved clan.
Now that Uchiha Sasuke had swallowed Asura's power, he'd evolved into someone both evil and depraved.
That was exactly why, even in a damn dream, Uchiha Sasuke had done such evil and depraved things to him and Sai!
And according to the Second Hokage, the Asura power Sasuke swallowed still wasn't enough. He was going to have to keep feeding on it for a while.
In other words, the current Uchiha Sasuke still wasn't depraved enough.
He hadn't reached Uchiha Madara's insane level yet.
Even so, Sasuke already acted like that in a dream.
What the hell was going to happen in the future?
They had to lock Naruto and Sasuke together permanently, just to keep either of them from wandering out and bringing disaster upon the rest of the world.
In short, everyone had their own racing thoughts. But they all shared one thing in common.
They had all grown much more vigilant.
The Second Hokage said they were witnesses to the story of Naruto and Sasuke's generation, but they were terrified that with one wrong step, they might slip from being witnesses right into being participants.
Just like Izuna in the era of Hashirama and Madara, Ōtsutsuki Hamura in the era of the Sage of Six Paths, and the many ordinary villagers who ended up in massive free-for-all brawls with the Sage and his son.
"Oh, right. Almost forgot. There's one more person whose story I left out."
While everyone was deep in silent thought, Senju Tobirama suddenly spoke up again.
"Huh?"
There was still another expert?
Everyone raised their heads in unison.
But after thinking about it, something felt off.
Uchiha Madara's story was done, and there was nothing more to say about Sasuke. The timeline between them was connected.
Was Tobirama about to talk about the generation right before Uchiha Madara?
But that shouldn't be something the Second Hokage even knew about.
"There was actually someone lurking in the darkness."
"That man inherited Uchiha Madara's name and mission. Likewise, he inherited all of Madara's depravity and evil."
"This guy was once Hatake Kakashi's teammate, and he's also the original source of the Sharingan in Kakashi's eye."
"Now he wears a mask, wanders through the shinobi world, and schemes one conspiracy after another."
"What? Kakashi-sensei is involved in this too?"
"No wonder Kakashi-sensei can write so many twisted novels…"
"A mask? Could he be that nice guy who gave us clues when we went to Kakashi's house last time?"
No one expected Kakashi to get dragged into this.
But after thinking it over, it actually made perfect sense.
After all, when it came to sheer depravity, Kakashi was unquestionably the number one genius in the village.
"I told you in the last story that aside from the original Indra—whose bloodline was too pure for side effects—the rest of the Uchiha suffer a gradual decline in vision whenever they use the Mangekyō Sharingan. It depends on the number of uses and the intensity. Eventually, they just go blind.
"It's not just about the number of times, either. Sometimes, even a single use can severely wreck the user's vision if the intensity is too high.
"In extreme cases, if the dōjutsu is too powerful, firing it off a few times might be enough to cause total blindness.
"And yet, as far as I know, your teacher Kakashi has clearly spammed his Mangekyō dōjutsu plenty of times to save Konoha. Despite that, he hasn't suffered even the slightest side effect. Do you know what that means?"
"…Kakashi-sensei, just like Sasuke, also ate Naruto's…" Sakura hesitated, her voice laced with absolute despair.
"…Not quite. Hatake Kakashi was fed some of that masked man's things."
"The masked man? He has it too?"
"Pay attention, guys," Shikamaru said, glancing at the others. "Indra represents evil, and Asura represents depravity. Lord Second just said the masked man inherited Madara's evil and his depravity. That means he definitely carries the corresponding powers."
"Correct. The Nara kid is right," Tobirama said with a firm nod. "Half of that masked man's body is made directly from my elder brother's Hashirama cells. That's exactly why he only needed to feed Kakashi his own body 'resources'."