That softly spoken "Great-Uncle," still carrying a hint of sleepy nasality,
was like an invisible needle, precisely puncturing the eerie silence beneath the thunderous waterfall of the Valley of the End.
Hashirama Senju's expression was still wavering between delight at seeing his grown-up granddaughter and bewilderment at his sudden "resurrection."
Tobirama Senju's expression, however, went from "extreme vigilance" to "absolute zero" in an instant.
It was not anger.
Anger was an emotion that required energy to sustain.
What appeared on Tobirama Senju's face was... a blankness born of having his entire chain of logic severed at its foundation and his worldview forcibly reformatted.
"...Great... Uncle?"
He repeated the title, each word seeming to squeeze painfully through the cracks of an ancient glacier.
His crimson eyes, which had witnessed countless mountains of corpses and seas of blood, locked onto Shinichi's languid face,
as though he intended to strip his soul apart, layer by layer, and analyze it inside and out with his gaze alone.
This evil Uchiha brat...
There was not the slightest fluctuation of chakra coming from him. He was as still as a roadside stone.
But that was impossible.
An Uchiha brat who could stand before him while rendering his sensory abilities completely useless... that alone was utterly absurd.
When did he appear?
What jutsu did he use?
What did he do to Tsunade?
Countless questions flashed wildly through his mind, which rivaled a precision computer,
before finally converging on a single form of address he could neither understand nor accept.
"Tsunade."
There was no warmth left in Tobirama Senju's voice. He did not even look at his grandniece, keeping his scalpel-sharp gaze pinned on Shinichi.
"Explain."
This was not a question. It was an order.
An unquestionable command issued by the Second to a ninja under his authority.