"The words of a sage are all golden rules."
White Spirit glanced around the Hokage's Office, which had returned to its previous calm, cleared her throat, and continued what had been interrupted.
"Grandmother means that you can rest completely assured. A sage does not lie."
Using the excuse of translating for the utterly bewildered Afei, Ichikishimahime soothed the turbulent waves in her heart. She had never expected Grandmother not to pursue the matter of the human who had offended her.
The old and young pair's back-and-forth made Tobirama fix his gaze on the White Snake Sage, who turned her wrist and made the paper ball disappear into her hand.
Sage Jutsu and forming an alliance were merely appetizers.
They were nowhere near important enough for her to leave Ryūchi Cave and lower herself to come to Konoha to discuss them with him.
At that thought, Tobirama's expression could not help turning grave. He felt an icy sweat rising at the back of his neck. Turning around to conceal his expression, he stared at the God Tree standing amid the forest and asked in a low voice, "What does Ryūchi Cave think of the Shinobi Alliance, and of the era Kaguya Otsutsuki unified a thousand years ago?"
"What do we think?" White Spirit tapped her pipe, sending ash burned to powder drifting through the air and stirring the Natural Energy. "After all, you are different from Kaguya Otsutsuki, who was an alien. Though you carry a trace of her bloodline, you are trustworthy in the end."
"Trustworthy?"
Tobirama had not expected such an answer, and for a moment, indescribably complicated emotions welled up in his heart.
Unlike Madara and Elder Brother, this was his first time encountering a being on the same level as the Sage of Six Paths.
"Haa..."
"The