The Uchiha are happy to branch out for the Senju Clan

"Impure World Reincarnation!"

Striking first, Senju Tobirama clasped his hands together. The ground beneath his feet instantly sprouted tadpole-like spreading lines, forming a massive summoning array, and then four coffins rose from the pattern.

"Still toying with the souls of the dead, Senju Tobirama. You really are despicable and shameless."

Kinkaku, seeing this, felt sick enough to vomit.

Tobirama's chakra couldn't compare to Kinkaku and Ginkaku, who possessed Nine-Tails Chakra. Half the credit for him holding out so long against them went to the death-defying, chakra-infinite Impure World Reincarnation.

On top of that, Tobirama never lacked supplies; his space scrolls were stuffed full of Explosive Tags.

The Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags technique, developed in tandem with Impure World Reincarnation—a corpse bomb that, upon touching a target, would endlessly summon and detonate Explosive Tags until the target was blasted to ash—had left the two brothers battered and sooty.

"Despicable and shameless?"

"Two traitors who rebelled against their superiors and betrayed their village's leader—you dare call others despicable and shameless?"

Tobirama snorted disdainfully, directly controlling the four Impure World corpses in the coffins, all covered in Explosive Tags, to charge at the oncoming Kinkaku and Ginkaku. Their Six Paths Sacred Treasures were best countered by the dead.

If not for the brothers' Tailed Beast Cloaks being troublesome, making them tough and quick to react, someone would have already fallen to Tobirama's Flying Thunder God Technique.

Just like the first time he used it, killing Madara Uchiha's younger brother, Izuna Uchiha, who had also awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan—the first-strike kill potential of a space-time ninjutsu meant that if the opponent reacted even a moment too slow, it was defeat and death.

"Basho Fan!"

Facing the four charging Impure World corpses, each barely reaching Elite Jonin strength, Kinkaku stepped forward, holding the Six Paths Sacred Treasure—Basho Fan, which spread like a peacock's tail in red and white.

This was a powerful weapon that ignored the user's own chakra nature, capable of unleashing all five elemental changes—fire, water, lightning, wind, earth—in a single strike. Its only drawback was that each use consumed half an Elite Jonin's chakra.

Kinkaku swung the Basho Fan fiercely forward.

A raging sea of fire fanned out from the fan. The four Impure World corpses simultaneously spat out Water Dragon Bullets, colliding with the flames and vaporizing a sky full of scalding mist.

The chakra-infinite Impure World corpses unleashed jutsu one after another, trying to close in on Kinkaku and Ginkaku, but Kinkaku's Basho Fan blocked them all. As long as the Explosive Tag-covered corpses didn't get close, their threat to the two brothers was virtually zero.

Ginkaku watched Tobirama and Uchiha Takeyasu with interest. Fighting the Impure World corpses bored him; he'd rather kill living men.

But there was no rush now. They might be reckless and hot-tempered, but they weren't fools. Konoha's life-or-death internal strife could save them a lot of effort.

In a way, both Kinkaku and Ginkaku wanted to cheer for Uchiha Takeyasu. After all, they feared that Tobirama, with his endless forbidden techniques, might find a way to take them all out before he died.

Most importantly, having achieved their strategic goal of killing the Second Raikage, Kinkaku and Ginkaku didn't absolutely have to kill Tobirama if they weren't too caught up in the fight.

Returning to take control of Kumogakure's power was what they truly craved.

"Your turn now, wicked Uchiha brat!"

Tobirama, with his deep understanding of human nature, left Kinkaku and Ginkaku to the Impure World corpses and focused his attention on Uchiha Takeyasu.

Before him now lay two choices.

One was to use Flying Thunder God for a strategic retreat. Without the burden of allies, even with his remaining chakra running low, it was enough for Tobirama to safely withdraw to the forest's edge, where the Konoha Military would receive him.

The other was to kill Uchiha Takeyasu with a single strike, like he had Izuna Uchiha, seize or destroy the opponent's Mangekyo Sharingan, and then make a clean escape.

To prevent the rise of another Uchiha powerhouse with an Eternal Mangekyo, like Madara Uchiha—without Hashirama's Wood Release, the entire Konoha might sink under the Uchiha Clan's evil rule.

Driven by decades of combat experience and his sense of justice, Tobirama chose the latter, continuously throwing kunai inscribed with the Flying Thunder God formula at the detestable Uchiha brat.

Tobirama, with strength approaching Super Kage, was nothing like the six-man team of Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others, who hadn't yet reached their peak. Uchiha Takeyasu dared not be careless; he had already summoned Tachibana back when he arrived.

His katana swung, slashed, and deflected the incoming kunai far away, while his left eye's map ability from Amenotokotachi was fully active, gathering every shred of information from the surroundings. His right eye's space-time teleportation ability was also on standby.

(For now, the enemy is in the open and I'm in the dark. Tobirama doesn't know I have space-time teleportation.)

A clash of space-time teleportation ninjutsu—life and death hung on a single instant. If this attempt failed, the next chance for a one-hit kill would be vanishingly slim.

Uchiha Takeyasu kept his cool, deliberately controlling where the kunai landed while moving toward Tobirama's position, spouting trash talk that might or might not work, trying to disrupt Tobirama's focus and draw his hatred.

"Speaking of which, your Senju Clan is really pitiful, saddled with a clan head like Hashirama Senju."

"With strength to sweep through this chaotic world, why bother building Konoha in the Land of Fire? Wouldn't it have been better to directly establish a nation that unifies the entire ninja world?"

"Look—the moment Hashirama died, the Land of Lightning jumped out. How many of your Senju have died in this Ninja World War?"

"Truly, one incompetent general exhausts the entire army."

"And you, Tobirama, are an idiot too. If I were the Second Hokage, I'd mobilize every clan in the village, crush Kumogakure with overwhelming force, wipe them out completely. That would not only intimidate the other villages but also reduce the chance of your own clan ninja dying."

"Take a look at the Senju clan grounds in Konoha now—how many able-bodied young men are left?"

"If your young men are gone, the Uchiha would be happy to help the Senju spread their branches. Take Tsunade, for example..."

"Shut up! Wicked Uchiha brat!"

At the mention of Tsunade, the only direct blood descendant of the Senju Clan, Tobirama's face instantly darkened. His killing intent condensed into a tangible current, chilling the surrounding air by several degrees.

"No need to be so hot-tempered."

Uchiha Takeyasu said with a fake smile. "From my personal perspective, I wouldn't mind having the Senju as in-laws. Once there are children, they'd be the natural, legitimate heirs of Konoha. No one else would even have the right to compete."

"From now on, the Hokage seat would pass down through the bloodlines of the Senju and Uchiha for generations. If they could awaken the Mangekyo and Wood Release, they'd be the natural emperors of the ninja world. A bright future so clear to see—Second Hokage-sama, what do you think?"

"A wolf cub with wild ambitions like you, Uchiha brat, don't even dream of it!"

Tobirama calmed his agitated heart, observed the positions of the kunai, simulated a battle scenario in his mind, and a cold light gleamed in his eyes.

(Even if you know my Flying Thunder God technique, what of it? Killing you still only takes an instant!)

Feeling Tobirama's increasingly focused aura, Uchiha Takeyasu readied himself as well.