Reviewing the Sarutobi

After leaving the courtyard, Tobirama reached out and placed his hands on Hashirama and Madara's shoulders. The Flying Thunder God Technique flashed in the night, and the three figures disappeared, appearing in the Hokage Building's Office the next moment.

It was late at night outside the window, and most of the streetlights were off, except for an oil lamp still burning on the top floor of the Hokage Building.

Tobirama released his grip, walked forward, turned around, and stared directly at Madara with his Red Eyes. "So what did you mean by that just now?"

Madara, who was straightening his sleeve that Tobirama had pulled askew, glanced at him upon hearing this and asked, "What?"

"Tell me what you've been through," Tobirama said, Tobirama. "I'm very curious about what you've experienced that makes you so indifferent to things like Rinnegan users."

Ban paused for a moment.

He lowered his sleeves, stood on the other side of the desk, remained silent for about three seconds, then took a deep breath and said in a somber tone, "Izuna is Yōkai."

The Office was silent for a full five seconds.

Hashirama's mouth opened into a perfect circle, while Tobirama's brows furrowed visibly.

"... ah?"

Tobirama stared at Madara for several seconds, then said with an extremely subtle expression, "So you can talk bad about your brother too."

"Get lost." Madara retorted without hesitation, his tone revealing the frustration of someone cornered and forced to speak the truth. "I'm stating a fact. In Izuna's world, there seems to be a deep connection with Onmyōji; the Uchiha Clan is known as the Tengu Clan in that world."

Hashirama raised his hand and waved it haphazardly, trying to use body language to help him process the words: "Hiss—wait a minute! Did Izuna tell you this?"

"It was the Shikigami that Izuna summoned today that told me," Madara said.

"... What are Shikigami?" Hashirama's eyes were starting to glaze over.

"A humanoid summon."

"Very good." Hashirama decisively abandoned his thought, turned to Tobirama, and patted him on the shoulder with the solemnity of entrusting his affairs to someone. "Tobirama, I'm leaving this brain-taxing task to you. Good luck, you're the best. Tell me when you've figured it out!"

Tobirama ignored Hashirama; his brow furrowed even more, and he tapped his fingers twice on the crook of his arm. "Summoning... Could it be the light we saw today?"

"Right."

"Then why did he summon it?"

"Izuna refused to tell."

"You have to force him to tell us something this big!" Tobirama's voice suddenly rose half an octave.

Hashirama shrank back beside him.

Ban's temper flared up. "My brain went completely blank when I saw him grow wings!"

Another silence fell.

Tobirama's Red Eyes widened to a whole size larger than usual, and Hashirama's mouth opened again, this time even rounder than before.

"What did you say?" Tobirama's voice was very soft, so soft that it was almost squeezed out from the depths of his throat.

Ban pursed his lips, recalling his words, his face contorting in a grimace. "... Damn, now that you mention it, that's really weird."

Ban briefly recounted what had happened at home earlier.

Izuna summoned the boy named Mokushō on the Hokage Rock. Mokushō said that Izuna was Tengu, and explained how his wings suddenly grew out and then retracted. Mokushō claimed to be Tree Yokai, and explained the contents and price of the Shikigami Contract. Izuna gave Mokushō a bag of money and sent him to stay at an inn.

The whole story was told in a disjointed manner, not because he had a bad memory, but because the events themselves were so rambling that even he himself thought it sounded like a hallucination after drinking too much.

Hashirama a daze, then sat down behind his desk, crossing his hands to support his chin in case he was startled and dislocated it.

Tobirama's eyes grew brighter the more he listened.

What began as a furrowed brow and scrutiny gradually transformed into an irrepressible curiosity.

That was another world, with a completely different power system.

For Tobirama, who was thinking about experiments even while eating, this was like someone who had been walking in the desert for ten years suddenly seeing an ocean.

Although he only knew a few words and didn't even know the basics, he was still very excited.

But when Madara mentioned using a bag of money to send Mokushō away, Tobirama's expression immediately changed.

He abruptly sat up from the edge of the desk he was leaning against, a look of impatience flashing in his Red Eyes. "So you just let him go like that?"

"Izuna doesn't seem to have any objections," Madara said, leaning against the table with his arms crossed. "Besides, he said he's being restricted and can't go far."

"Then you can't just let him go so easily!" Tobirama took a step forward. "An unknown creature that calls itself Yōkai, a completely unfamiliar power system, and a summoning ritual you witnessed."

"Do you even know how valuable these things are?! You should at least have taken him under control, at least done a basic threat assessment, instead of letting him spend your money on hotel rooms!"

Hashirama quickly stood up to smooth things over, gesturing downwards with his hands. "Well, well, don't be so anxious, Tobirama. As long as he's in the village, we'll find him eventually. It's not like he got away."

"Hmph." Tobirama let out a short, cold snort, but ultimately did not continue arguing.

He knew Hashirama was right.

Konoha is only so big. Even if a child wearing a green Kariginu, Geta clogs, and Red Eye Talisman Paper on his face has his presence barely noticeable, he can't hide forever.

He simply disliked this feeling of being out of control, disliked anything beyond his comprehension moving freely in his village without proper analysis.

"In short," Madara straightened up, "I plan to have that guy teach Izuna Onmyōji magic. If possible, I'll try to get him to teach others as well."

"No need for that," Tobirama said. "Having the Yamanaka Clan examine his memories will reveal a lot. And at the very least, we need to confirm whether he's telling the truth."

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Madara's calm tone masked the chilling truth behind his words, Hashirama, who already disapproved of Tobirama's actions, incredulous. "I'll bring Izuna over tomorrow when he's not here."

Tobirama gave him a strange look, thinking to himself that this guy wasn't so decisive when he first met Izuna. He was acting and going shopping with her, and he wasn't even angry when he was beaten. But he was so decisive with that more suspicious Shikigami.

What a double standard!

Hashirama pulled his hand away from under his chin, disapprovingly saying, "Let's be kinder to him. After all, he was summoned by Izuna. Searching his brain... isn't that a bit much?"

"You're just too sentimental," Madara glanced at him.

"You don't want to hurt Izuna's feelings, do you?"

Ban fell silent.

He stared at Hashirama for a few seconds, then turned his face away and let out a very soft hum from his nose, which was taken as tacit agreement.

He could disregard a Tree Yokai of unknown origin, but he couldn't disregard Izuna's feelings.

If Izuna truly considered him a comrade in some sense, then when he took action, he couldn't help but consider Izuna's reaction upon finding out.

"... Then let's check him first. I'll keep an eye on him, and if there's any unusual movement, I'll take him down immediately."

Hashirama nodded, stood up from behind his desk, stretched languidly, and cracked his bones a few times. "Alright, we'll talk about the rest tomorrow."

He nodded slightly, turned around, pushed open the Office door, and his footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Only Hashirama and Tobirama remained in the Office. Tobirama stood by the desk, unrolling the scroll containing his notes from the evening and adding a few keywords to it.

Hashirama walked over to him, patted his shoulder, and said with much less force, "You've had a hard day. Go home and get some rest. There's Memorial Service to attend to tomorrow."

Tobirama grunted in agreement, rolled up the scroll, and tucked it into his sleeve. The two brothers turned off the lights and walked out of the Hokage Building together.

A night breeze blew in his face, Hashirama took a deep breath, looking up at the moonlit sky above. The crescent moon still hung quietly, clear and bright.

In the Sarutobi Clan's Council Hall, the oil lamps had been burning for half the night without going out.

Outside the paper door, the night was deep and dark. The ordinary families in the clan's territory had long since gone to bed, but the atmosphere in the Council Hall was as oppressive as the sky before a storm.

Several clan elders knelt on either side of the Council Hall, the tea on the small tables in front of them long since gone cold, and no one offered to refill it.

The clan wasn't actually that heartbroken about the near-death experience of their Young Clan Head Sarutobi Sasuke.

Warring States Period, Young Clan Head died in battle; only a few survived to inherit their family businesses.

In the world of Ninjas, strength always reigns Strength. If Sasuke truly perished in that battle, it can only be said that he was outmatched. No wonder the enemy was too strong, nor can it be blamed on bad luck.

That's why he was able to drag his severely injured body to attend the village meeting with the clan Clan Head, instead of being closely protected like the heirs of ordinary noble families.

They care about something else.

The casualty rate is too low.

For this attack, the Sarutobi Clan dispatched a total of twenty-three Ninjas to provide assistance.

Twenty-three of them, each a renowned elite in their clan, Jonin- level combat strength, capable of holding their own on any battlefield.

The situation of the Sarutobi Clan and the Envoys from the Four Nations was not much different. They had to send enough strong people to help and make a show of support in order to prevent the four Konoha High Command from having a chance to settle scores later.

They all assumed that with so many elites sent out, and those four being so powerful, the losses wouldn't be significant.

According to the Ninja's account, they couldn't even withstand a single move from that white-clad monster.

When the elders received the first battle report, their hearts sank.

In a battle of this intensity, if twenty-three people were thrown in, it would be a miracle if half of them returned.

Some have already begun estimating the post-war pension expenditures, while others silently give orders to prepare white cloth and coffins.

Then the second battle report arrived. Two people were seriously wounded, several others were slightly wounded, and no one died.

They thought the Ninja sent the message had gone mad.

It wasn't until the clansmen they had sent to meet Sasuke and the others brought them back safely that they were convinced it wasn't a false alarm.

The two who suffered the most serious injuries were Sasuke and another unlucky guy whose leg was broken by falling rocks.

Some of the others were impaled Isshiki wedges, and it is said that they were in excruciating pain at the time, unable to even scream, but their injuries were not serious after the wedges were removed.

Some people were pierced by the Black Rods but avoided vital organs; some only had a few slightly troublesome scratches on their bodies; and some were even just knocked unconscious by the shockwave. After waking up, they dusted themselves off and joined the subsequent battlefield cleanup work.

Those who were driven into the ground by wedges, those who were dragged back from the brink of death by Katsuyu, there is only one reason why they survived.

Uchiha Izuna.

That Light Blade, that rainbow of light.

Although no one could explain exactly what kind of technique it was, everyone saw the result.

Of the twenty-three lives, even if we only count those who were impaled, at least twelve or thirteen were pulled back from the brink of death by Izuna.

The reason the remaining people only suffered minor injuries was largely because Tobirama kept Isshiki occupied with most of his attention, preventing the monster from having the chance to kill the ordinary Ninjas.

This is a joyous occasion.

All twenty-three elite soldiers returned unharmed; not a single household needed to hang white cloths, and not a single child lost their father.

But this is also a troublesome matter.

This favor is too heavy.

The Sarutobi Clan owes those four people, especially Uchiha Izuna, an enormous favor.

Debts of gratitude cannot be measured by material things, but among Ninja families, they carry more weight than material possessions.

Warring States Period, when one clan owed a favor to another, the debt was repaid with either goods or military force.

The debt of saving lives, especially the debt of saving more than twenty lives at once on the battlefield, cannot be compensated by "sending a few cartloads of food" or "making concessions on a certain mission".

The fact that Clan Head Sarutobi Sōun allowed Sasuke to attend the village meeting today despite his serious injuries was actually for this purpose.

By showing Madara Uchiha that the Young Clan Head of the Sarutobi Clan was still attending the meeting despite being so badly injured, Madara was essentially making a silent gesture of goodwill.

At the meeting, Sarutobi Sōun even took the initiative to suggest that the Sarutobi Clan take on part of the work of resettling the wounded and give up some of the job positions in the new facilities. These were all attempts to reduce this debt of gratitude by providing materials and labor.

The favors Hashirama have diminished somewhat; working for him can offset those favors and even earn you fame and benefits. However, the favors owed to Uchiha Izuna personally seem to remain completely untouched.

Because Madara Uchiha didn't respond to that at all.

He fought for every benefit he could at the meeting, and he showed every displeasure he needed to. When asked about Izuna's injuries, he only gave a curt four-word reply, "Still recovering," blocking everyone's chance to get closer to Izuna by showing concern for him.

While there was a reason for concealing the injury, Madara's complete silence indicated that he didn't want them to repay the favor.

In other words, they will eventually have to repay this favor in a way they don't want to pay.

"So, what do we do now?" A middle-aged Ninja sitting at the end of the long table spoke first.

He's Sasuke's uncle, in charge of resource allocation within the clan; he's a pragmatic man. "Madara Uchiha is completely unyielding. He won't provide supplies, he'll take advantage of others, but he won't settle any debts of gratitude. If this continues, we'll have to find other ways to make up for it sooner or later."

Another elder, with graying hair and beard, sneered, "Make amends? How can you make amends? Twenty-three life-saving favors, how can you make amends? In the Warring States Period, owing such favors meant paying with your life."