"...Go die, Tobirama... go die..."
"...Atone with your death..."
His younger sister's childhood voice lingered in his ears as Tobirama Senju opened his eyes inside his personal coffin.
Emptiness and pain were the particular torments that an Impure World Reincarnation body inflicted on the dead.
Lingering forever in the mortal world in an undying body was not, in fact, a wonderful thing.
Although Yanbai had said nothing.
Tobirama Senju understood that he was guilty...
He was certainly guilty...
He bore many sins...
Sins that were almost impossible to atone for...
But... he had also made enormous contributions to this Shinobi World. He had already died, and death should have wiped the slate clean.
Just as Tobirama Senju sank into anguish.
A graceful figure appeared before him.
A hundred years had passed, yet that person still looked like a young girl.
...That was this land's... God...
His blood-red eyes held an indifferent gaze.
Rather than pitying the people of the world, that gaze seemed... to mock all living beings.
He was Yanbai...
Yanbai held an unfamiliar child in his arms. The child's small face rested against Yanbai's shoulder, his eyes closed as he slept peacefully.
"...Even now, do you still intend to keep hiding from me? Second Brother..." Yanbai was as calm as ever.
"Ah... it really has been a long time..." Tobirama Senju sighed.
As he always had, Tobirama Senju stepped out of his coffin and dutifully poured Yanbai some water, just as he had when he was alive.
There was only water here, no tea...
Yanbai settled Toneri, who had fallen asleep again, to one side and covered him with his own outer robe.
Yanbai and Tobirama Senju looked at each other in silence. Yanbai had come with so much to say, yet now he could not get