Entrustment

Senju Hashirama's body is monstrously abnormal; the cellular activity is so potent that it allowed Madara, who merely bit off a piece of his flesh, to cling to life, even going so far as to sprout Hashirama's face from his own chest.

This outrageous level of cellular activity is, in theory, the safeguard of Senju Hashirama's body.

However, that battle was too world-shaking, and Senju Hashirama was also severely wounded. The cellular activity within him had to constantly devour the injured, infected, and degenerated cells in his body to heal his wounds.

This is also the reason why Senju Hashirama was able to recover so quickly.

Every single cell in his body was working to repair him.

Yet, once this devouring process began, it could not be stopped.

You can simply understand it as these cells having developed an inertia from constantly devouring others to keep Senju Hashirama alive; even when the newly grown cells were neither diseased nor degenerated, they continued to devour them.

The constant devouring left no room for these new cells to survive, yet Senju Hashirama's overly absurd vitality caused these cells to constantly regenerate.

The constant regeneration of cells only led to the devouring cells working incessantly.

Upon learning of these symptoms, the first thing that came to Yuya's mind was a disease he had seen in his past life: leukemia.

The white blood cells in the human body are powerful weapons that devour foreign pathogens, bacteria from infected wounds, and the like.

But once there are too many white blood cells, and they cannot die off normally because they are constantly growing through devouring, the end result is the destruction of the host's own body.

How similar is Hashirama's condition to this? If it weren't for those cells, the severely wounded Hashirama would have died long ago, but because the phagocytic cells became too tyrannical, they ended up acting upon his own body.

I fear that the immune system within Senju Hashirama is now on the verge of collapse.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be incidents like chakra leaking out and growing a giant tree inside his own house.

But...

Understanding the principle is one thing, but Yuya has no idea how to save him!

He isn't a medical ninja! He doesn't know medical arts!

The fruit he ate is the Gold-Gold Fruit, not the Op-Op Fruit!

Yuya panicked. He looked at Senju Hashirama and asked, "Master, how much longer can you live?!"

Senju Hashirama stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and then replied, "Hmm, about half a year, I suppose."

Uzumaki Mito, standing to the side, had black lines on her forehead. This master and apprentice were truly something—one dared to ask, and the other dared to answer. Shouldn't they be comforting each other at a time like this?

Yuya was anxious. If Senju Hashirama were gone, how would he develop? He had only managed to get his hands on five hundred kilograms of gold so far; that wasn't even enough to fill the gaps in his teeth, let alone strengthen himself or awaken his fruit's abilities. How was he supposed to get stronger?

"Master, you cannot die!" Yuya blurted out.

Senju Hashirama blinked, then smiled. "I didn't expect that to be your first reaction."

Yuya pursed his lips and said to Hashirama, "Master, if something happens to you, the peace of the Shinobi World will cease to exist."

Senju Hashirama's smile faded, and he sighed. "I know, but I am powerless to stop it."

He couldn't possibly go after the other four great nations' ninja villages just because of Yuya's words, could he? If he did, the retaliation after his death would only be more violent.

Sweat had already appeared on Yuya's forehead. He knew exactly what would happen if a war truly broke out. By then, children of Uchiha Itachi's age would have to go to the battlefield, let alone himself. (Although that unlucky Uchiha Itachi was pitted by his own father, Uchiha Obito and the others weren't very old either.)

He didn't want to be forced onto the battlefield before he had even developed...

Senju Hashirama, however, didn't think that far; he only assumed Yuya was worried for him, so he laughed, "Don't worry too much about me. Ninjas have long since accepted the possibility that they could die at any moment.

Truth be told, I should have died in that battle with Madara, but I've lived this long already—I've already made a massive profit."

Yuya fell silent. After a moment, he asked, "After Master passes... can we skip the funeral?"

Senju Hashirama was slightly stunned, then burst into laughter. "This is truly... worthy of being my apprentice. The two of us, we thought of the same thing."

Yuya understood; Senju Hashirama had called him over to give his final instructions.

Senju Hashirama sighed. "As your master, I haven't been very competent, so I feel a bit ashamed to still have requests for you at a time like this, hahaha~"

Looking at Senju Hashirama's hearty smile, Yuya felt a sour ache in his heart.

After all, they had lived under the same roof for several years; it was impossible not to have any feelings.

"Sigh, anyway, Yuya, I'm not a good master, but I must still instruct you: after I die, do not hold a grand funeral for me, do not let anyone find my body, and also...

Do not let Tsunade know."

Yuya pursed his lips and nodded.

Senju Hashirama sighed. "That girl seems to have sensed something lately and keeps wanting to follow me around. Should I say it's because she's my granddaughter?"

Yuya rolled his eyes internally. Sensed something, my foot. That little brat is just picking up your bad habits, that's all—bad habits.

"But I won't be able to look after her in the future. Her father died young, so in the future, I'll have to trouble you to take care of her."

Yuya was suddenly stunned. He really hadn't known that; so Tsunade came from a single-parent family?

He nodded; Yuya didn't think taking care of a little girl was much of a hassle.

"And then, the most important point..." Senju Hashirama suddenly sat up straight, narrowed his eyes, and looked at Yuya. "Are you willing to give everything you have for the village?"

Yuya was stunned, frozen in place, and almost subconsciously opened his mouth to say, "I, I..."

Fortunately, Yuya reacted quickly and clamped his mouth shut.

Senju Hashirama sighed, and the sudden intensity he had projected vanished without a trace.

"Yuya, although you came to Konoha as a refugee from the outside, in my eyes..." Senju Hashirama said to Yuya in a low, lingering tone, "you are also a part of Konoha."

Yuya fell silent, then lowered his head and respectfully pressed it against the tatami mat: "Master, please speak plainly."

Senju Hashirama looked at Yuya calmly, then suddenly laughed: "Hahaha, why so serious? Get up, the thing I actually want you to do is very simple..."

Senju Hashirama smiled as he looked at Yuya: "Do you... want to be Hokage?"

Yuya was stunned, frozen in place, as an indescribable sense of dread instantly surged into his heart.

Yuya's lips trembled, then he took a deep breath, recalling almost every relevant television plot from his past life's memories in an instant, before opening his eyes and looking at Senju Hashirama:

"I have no clan support; it is impossible for me to be elected."

Yuya knew that if he refused this question, he would be finished. Being an outsider, a refugee who came to Konoha, having lived with Hashirama for several years, and showing no sense of belonging to the village had already made Hashirama suspicious. If he were to say he had no interest in being Hokage at a time like this...

Then it would be interesting. Then, what exactly...

Are you interested in?