Rikusei felt the wind howl past his ears. In the blink of an eye, Lord Hokage had whisked him outside the village to a little stream.
Still confused, he took the scroll off his back and looked at the blond hair glinting in the sunlight. "Is Teacher Hashirama going to use Wood Release to wrap up the Nine-Tails and teach Teacher a lesson? He went too far, beating up four Kage in front of everyone. And even worse, he didn't hold back."
Hashirama glanced at the scroll but didn't answer. Instead, he smiled and asked, "Did Madara do something awful to you while you were traveling?"
"Does breaking a promise count?"
"It sure does." Hashirama turned around and lowered his head to gaze at his unfamiliar reflection in the water. In a grave tone, he said, "Help me figure out how to make it look like I rushed here from the Land of Fire, covered in dust from the road."
Whoosh.
A black-haired man appeared out of nowhere beside the stream and nodded. "Me too."
Rikusei sat cross-legged on the grass, with the scroll behind him to lean against. He glanced at the Flying Thunder God Mark shining on Hashirama's wrist and thought, As expected of the Space-Time Ninjutsu that competed for speed during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
A faint haze of chakra began rising from the two men. Rikusei lowered his head, playing with the chakra short sword in his hands. "The other Kage clearly know you left the village to capture the Eight-Tails. There's no need to make it look so deliberate."
Their hair was returning to its original color, and the ripples on the water gradually settled. Tobirama steadied the chakra inside him, gazed at his familiar reflection with satisfaction, and mused, "First, we came straight