Impure World Reincarnation

"I planned to seal away the forbidden technique he had been researching and destroy the Laboratory along with it, so he wouldn't get any crooked ideas in the future."

"Still, quite a few of the experimental instruments look expensive. Destroying them outright would be too wasteful."

Hashirama looked at the two of them.

"Toji, Chiri, go take inventory. Move anything useful to the hospital or Ninja Academy. I'll destroy the rest afterward."

"Yes!"

Corpse collectors?

No, professional liquidation experts would be more accurate.

Toji and Chiri entered the Laboratory, and a cold, decaying stench washed over them.

Chiri unconsciously held her breath. "If someone stayed in a place like this for too long, they'd probably really fall into depravity."

One's environment could change a person.

Toji nodded deeply in agreement. "That's right."

His underground Laboratory, aside from not having any deaths yet, was no less gloomy, oppressive, and terrifying than this place.

Fortunately, Toji would not be changed by his environment.

Because he himself was already among the most depraved sort.

Though what the two of them were doing was somewhat undignified.

Right now, they truly were like rats that had fallen into a granary.

Chiri selected quite a few relatively basic pieces of equipment, while Toji set his sights directly on high-end precision instruments that even embezzling hospital funds had not made him willing to buy.

"Tobirama Senju truly deserves to be called the Shinobi World's greatest inventor. He's loaded."

Toji moved away every instrument he had his eye on.

As he walked, he reached the laboratory table and immediately spotted the corpse that had yet to be dealt with.

Toji's gaze sharpened as he noticed the Summoning Jutsu markings still lingering on the corpse's surface.

Hashirama had not explicitly said what forbidden technique Tobirama was researching.

But based on Toji's understanding of Tobirama, among all the forbidden techniques he would master in the future, the only one whose development required human experimentation was Impure World Reincarnation.

Impure World Reincarnation was fundamentally a Summoning Jutsu.

However, in Toji's memories, the final version of Impure World Reincarnation did not display any markings. Only because it was still in its infancy did it leave behind such obvious traces of the technique.

Hashirama had not destroyed these markings.

Whether he was simply careless or trusted Toji too much, Toji did not know.

And naturally, Toji would not betray that trust.

"An unexpected windfall."

Thanks to the boost of double Yin Release, Toji's memory far surpassed that of ordinary people. It was enough to call him possessed of photographic memory.

Without giving anything away, he memorized the entire set of summoning markings.

Perhaps after the experimental notes were destroyed, even Tobirama, the designer himself, would not remember this prototype technique as clearly as Toji did.

Toji stood beside the experimental table and began studying it.

This string of summoning markings was equivalent to the underlying framework of Impure World Reincarnation. As long as he could decipher, upon that foundation, the technique's logic for connecting to the Pure Land, he could summon the dead to fight for him.

The theory was not difficult.

But actual development was anything but simple. The key lay in "space-time talent"—the ability to sense the existence of the Shinobi World's Pure Land.

Toji thought of how many Japanese films and shows featured similar abilities. The closest thing to Impure World Reincarnation was probably Type-Moon next door's "Heroic Spirit Summoning."

Heroic Spirits corresponded to the dead, while the Throne of Heroes corresponded to the Pure Land.

"Could an incantation replace hand seals?"

"Appear, wheel of suppression. Protector of Konoha."

With a touch of malicious amusement, Toji thought that this could count as a development direction too. Who knew? The Sage of Six Paths might even hear the summoning chant.

Because of his intervention, Tobirama's research into Impure World Reincarnation had been forcibly interrupted, and all related experimental materials would be completely destroyed by Hashirama.

Meanwhile, with the prototype summoning technique in hand, he theoretically stood at the very forefront of Impure World Reincarnation's development.

This forbidden technique required three generations—Tobirama, Orochimaru, and Kabuto—to carry the torch before it was finally perfected.

How far could he take it alone, and what brilliance could he make it shine with?

"Impure World Reincarnation..."

Toji stared at the corpse before him, the light in his eyes flickering uncertainly.

Outside the Laboratory.

Hashirama asked, "Has everything been moved out?"

Toji reported, "Yeah, we've moved all the usable equipment. The high-end instruments have been sent to Gospel Hospital, while the ordinary ones are going to the Ninja Academy as teaching aids."

"Good. Then Tobirama hasn't done nothing but wrong. At the very least, his mistakes can help patients and students."

Hashirama let out a rueful sigh, then said solemnly, "You two, step back."

Having already witnessed Hashirama's strength, Toji immediately led Chiri far away.

Then Hashirama clapped his hands together. "Wood Release: Lesser Wood Human Technique!"

The surrounding trees grew wildly, gathering into a small Wood Human no smaller than First-Stage Susanoo, with a vicious Wood Dragon coiled around its body. Under Hashirama's control, the Wood Human entered the underground Laboratory and began demolishing everything indiscriminately.

A moment later, once it had been more or less dismantled, Hashirama clapped his hands again. "Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"

A distinct tremor ran through the ground.

Countless tree roots tore free and surged forth, sweeping through the area. In the blink of an eye, they shredded the entire underground Laboratory to pieces, while the ground above turned into a lush forest park.

The level of secrecy was comparable to grinding everything up in a shredder first, then burning the remains to ash.

In short, Tobirama's Laboratory had completely vanished from this land.

Toji watched Hashirama's back, burying his desire deep within his heart.

The Ninja God's enthralling Wood Release.

"With this, it's over."

Hashirama sighed, then turned to the two of them. "You both worked hard today."

"Please don't speak of what happened today. Tobirama strayed onto the wrong path, and when we return, I'll teach him a proper lesson. Please, this is the request of an older brother."

After saying that, Hashirama bowed deeply to them.

"Yes, Lord Hokage!" Chiri was moved by Hashirama's sincerity.

As for Toji...

He was basically moved.

Hashirama had clearly put all his talent points into combat. His political intelligence was practically zero. If he truly did not want two outsiders to know about this, then why bring them to the scene in the first place?

Yet Konoha's "simple and honest" villagers happened to respond well to Hashirama's sincerity.

Just as they responded well to his own sincerity and kindness.

The group went their separate ways.

Hashirama returned to the clan to educate his younger brother; Chiri went back to the Ninja Academy to distribute the teaching aids; Toji returned to the Zenin basement to set up the newly acquired high-end instruments.

Dusk.

Confined to the clan grounds by Hashirama, Tobirama watched the sinking sun with a distant gaze.

Senju Touka did not know what her husband had gone through. She merely stayed quietly at his side. Tobirama glanced at her, gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and the two watched the sunset in silence.

With someone important beside him to lean on.

Tobirama's soul gradually returned to him. Along the way, he had thought about many things.

Had he truly done something wrong?

Although his older brother had beaten him badly and stirred up childhood memories, Tobirama did not believe, deep down, that he was wrong.

He did not resent Hashirama.

He understood that the brothers' original intentions were the same: to protect those around them and protect this newly established village.

Their paths were simply different.

His older brother walked in the light, while he had to sink into darkness and build Konoha's unseen defenses.

For that purpose, sacrificing the lives of a few criminals was necessary!

Having thought it all through, Tobirama suddenly felt enlightened and silently made a decision in his heart:

Impure World Reincarnation's development must continue.