Winter, Year 13 of Konoha.
On Hokage Rock, beside the First's likeness, work on the Second's outline continued around the clock.
The clinking of tools sounded like some sort of proclamation, and like a countdown, striking at everyone's hearts.
The top-floor office of the Hokage Building.
The windows gleamed, everything was spotless, and the furnishings remained unchanged, but the air had already taken on a different scent.
There was less of medicine, and more of steel, ink, and a cold, sharp sense of order.
Tobirama Senju sat behind that broad, cold desk, now entirely his, his back as straight as a javelin.
He had changed out of his deep-blue Hokage Ceremonial Robe and into the White Hokage Robe that symbolized the Second Hokage. Its red standing collar with gold trim made his face look even colder. Behind his lenses, his gaze rested on the enormous Konoha Map and Clan Power Distribution Map spread before him, like a hawk surveying its territory, calculating every inch of usable space and every... weed that needed uprooting.
His elder brother was dead. The last mountain looming over him, also the warmest and heaviest, had disappeared. Grief? Perhaps there had been a trace of it in some moment deep in the quiet night.
But more than that, there was a... cold exhilaration at having shed his shackles, at being able to act entirely according to his own will, and with it came a heavy responsibility that allowed no failure.
Konoha was his now. And it had to operate his way.
"Hiruzen, Danzo." His voice echoed through the spacious office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzō, standing in attendance nearby, immediately stepped forward. Hiruzen looked composed, his eyes holding reverence for his teacher and thought for the future. Danzo kept his head slightly lowered, but his eyes