Naruto and Orochimaru walked through the dim corridors of the underground facility.
They were heading somewhere to take care of something.
What was it? Anyone paying attention had probably already guessed.
That was right-they were going to reincarnate the four Hokage!
When Naruto had helped Orochimaru recover his arms, they had also retrieved the souls of all four Hokage from the Reaper's belly and stored them in the Rinnegan's Naraka Path statue of Enma.
[Note: Though the summoned statues of Enma look identical, they are not actually interchangeable. Thus, when Nagato and Madara previously summoned their statues, they could not retrieve the souls Naruto had stored, even though all three men's eyes were essentially the same pair.]
Reincarnating the four Hokage was therefore a trivial matter for Naruto.
Why had he waited so long? First, he had not figured out how to face those four, especially the fourth!
He also had to consider the possibility that they would not accept his ideals. Living his life a second time, Naruto approached everything with caution. Without absolute confidence, he would rather not act.
That was why he had put it off until now.
In the dark chamber, Konan had already prepared the four White Zetsu who would serve as living sacrifices.
To keep them from running their mouths, Konan had plastered paper over their lips.
They glared at Naruto with wide, furious eyes, looking ready to devour him.
Facing their glares, Naruto said sincerely, "Sorry. I don't actually want to do this either. After all, two hundred of your kind are already my comrades. But the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama, is simply too cruel and inhumane. It absolutely requires living sacrifices, leaving me no choice but to sacrifice you..."
As he spoke, Naruto thought, *Obito... let