Chapter 155: The First and Second Hokage

A cloud-free blue sky and a blazing sun. A calm ocean with crystal clear water and barely any waves. A sprawling beach on which two people could be seen. One of them was lazing around on a beach chair. He wore green bath trunks that had the symbol of the Senju clan printed on them, wore sunglasses, and was leisurely sipping on a cocktail.

The other one was in full shinobi gear, the type that was worn during the Warring States Period, and was glaring with all his might at seemingly nothing. One of his eyebrows would twitch every time the other person took a sip from his drink, but except for that, he was unmoving.

A few more minutes passed and when the second person heard the first one take yet another sip, an annoyed sigh escaped his mouth and he relaxed his body.

“Brother, can’t you take this more seriously? By now you should also feel uncomfortable from being separated from the Pure Land for too long, right?”

“Well, yeah, but it is not like I can do anything about that, Tobirama. If Mito was here she could help us get out of this seal, but you should know that I am rather helpless when it comes to sealing.”

The second person, Tobirama Senju, let loose yet another annoyed sigh. He really wanted to scold his brother, Hashirama Senju, for his leisurely attitude, but he knew that Hashirama didn’t put too much time into learning seals. Considering how ridiculous the method that sealed them away was, Hashirama probably couldn’t do much about it anyway.

Well, even Tobirama wasn’t sure where he was supposed to start unraveling this seal, they were currently trapped in. The last thing he remembered was that ridiculous sealing speed of the sealing tag Anko used, after which everything turned black. Seemingly not even a second later, he woke up in a luxurious beach house while, for some reason, sleeping in the same bed as his brother. The only reason he knew that they were sealed somewhere was that something was gently calling him towards it. The desire of every soul to return to the Pure Land.

“*Sigh* I wonder what happens to souls when they are separated from the Pure Land for too long. The pull is getting stronger every day and I can only hope that we will simply get pulled out of here if it gets too strong instead of anything bad happening.”

“Well, from my experience loose souls that are separated from the afterlife for too long will become insane and after reaching a certain threshold will either become vengeful spirits that only seek destruction or simply disperse into nothingness if they aren’t strong enough.”

“That doesn’t sound good at all. No matter what we have to do, we need to get ou…WHY ARE YOU HERE!?”

While Tobirama was sinking into deep contemplations, a young woman with red and blue hair, that was wearing a blue two-piece-bikini had appeared on the beach and after setting up a beach chair next to the dumbfounded Hashirama, she casually snatched away his drink while he wasn’t paying attention and even answered Tobirama’s question in regards to souls. This woman was, naturally, Yuna, who had decided to pay the two people that were sealed within her seals a visit.

“How rude. Since you are guests in my seals, isn’t it normal for the host to pay a little visit to you?”

Tobirama’s glare, however, made it rather clear that he didn’t believe Yuna for even a second, so Yuna decided to just tell it to him straight.

“Well, I crippled Orochimaru’s hands a few days ago so I thought about unsealing you and allowing you to return to the afterlife. He will probably regain movement in his hand after a few years, but at that point, I will no longer care about that. Additionally, I have already analyzed Hashirama’s chakra while he was under the control of the Edo Tensei so breaking him out of it will be trivial from now on. As for you, Tobirama, no offense, but your threat level simply can’t compare with Hashirama’s.”

Tobirama made an annoyed snort when he heard that but before he could say anything, Hashirama started speaking.

“Why do you want to free us from the seal? You clearly see me as your enemy and I don’t think there is any reason for you to free me from here.”

“That is incorrect. The Kyuubi sees you as an enemy, while I simply enjoy fighting strong people. I talked with him about this and after explaining the whole situation to him, he agreed that I should free you from the seal. Well, he might have agreed because he wants another chance to punch you in the face, but who knows. Additionally, what I previously said about souls is true and I would rather not have anything do to with you after you turned into a vengeful spirit. Those things are a pain to deal with, especially since the one you would be turning into might even surpass the strength you had during your prime.”

This time it was Tobirama’s time to say something.

“You are contradicting yourself. On one hand, you said that you enjoy fighting strong people, but on the other, you don’t want to fight a strong opponent. Additionally, where did you even get all that knowledge about souls? You speak as if you have actually dealt with them before.”

Yuna thought about her answer for a moment and then simply shrugged her shoulders.

“Guess I should have said it a little differently. What I enjoy is a good fight. Two people clashing against each other with their full strength. Fight against a vengeful spirit, however, is just annoying. They just blast everything around them with their full power without any thoughts behind it. Boring. As for how I know about that. Well, that’s a secret.”

Tobirama gritted his teeth at Yuna’s nonchalant attitude, but no matter how he looked at it, there was nothing he can do except for trusting in Yuna’s goodwill. He wasn’t naïve enough to think that Yuna didn’t prepare any safety nets before coming here. He couldn’t even understand how he was sealed in here, so the chance of him finding hidden safety mechanisms is even smaller than that. Hashirama, on the other hand, had another question.

“Although I can more or less understand why you are willing to unseal us, is there a reason why you made it this comfortable for us? I don’t think you did it on a whim, did you?”

“Of course not. The more comfortable a soul is the longer it takes to degrade. I had no idea when I could get my hands on Orochimaru, so I actually planned to keep you in here for quite some time. Besides that, torturing people is below me, especially if they are just souls.”

Hashirama nodded in understanding, but there was still one thing he needed to ask. Yuna could feel the pressure oozing out of Hashirama increase, but wasn’t bothered by it. Right now, Hashirama was just a soul, so no matter how strong he once was, that didn’t matter right now.

“What are your plans for Konoha? Considering how strong you already are despite your young age, there is a good chance that you can even surpass me in my prime, but I don’t get the feeling that you hold any good feelings towards Konoha.”

The pressure Hashirama was exuding grew even stronger, while even Tobirama started glaring at Yuna, she, however, only shrugged her shoulders in indifference.

“I have no plans for Konoha. My little brother wanted to have a big family, so I reestablished the Uzumaki clan inside Konoha, which was the safest place to do so, and now that I’m done with that, I no longer have any interest in Konoha. Well, even if I say that I still live inside of it, so I will at least protect it to some degree. But if you think I will sacrifice myself to save a bunch of ungrateful nobodies, then you are clearly delusional.”

Hashirama glared at her for a while longer, before he heaved a sigh while shaking his head.

“Guess I can’t really ask for more considering my current position.”

“True. Besides that, it is not like Konoha will exist for much longer.”

Hashirama’s and Tobirama’s eyes widened when they heard that and asked the same question at the same time.

“”WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “NOT EXIST MUCH LONGER”!?””

“Ah, well, the fifth Hokage was chosen. It’s your granddaughter, Tsunade.”

Hashirama visibly staggered backward when he heard that and if he wasn’t a soul right now, he might have even spat out some blood, while Tobirama wasn’t looking too good either.

“I-Isn’t there anyone else?”

“Well, Jiraiya would have been an option as well, but if he were to become Hokage, he could no longer travel through the country and peek at naked women in the bath, so he rejected the job.”

Hashirama staggered back a few more steps while holding his heart like he was in great pain. Moments later, he fell on his knees while staring blankly at nothing while his eyes were completely empty.

“Haha, who would have thought this would happen. I founded Konoha and it will actually get destroyed under my granddaughter. Just how ironic is that. How could there be only two people that can take over the seat of Hokage in Konoha? And why are both of them like…that?”

“Well, I can’t answer why these two are like that, but I know why there are no other qualified people inside Konoha. It is because Danzo killed them all for the greater good of Konoha.”

This time it was Tobirama’s turn to stagger backward. After all, Danzo was one of his students.

“W-Why would Danzo do that. What do you mean by “greater good”?”

“Well, I guess “greater good” is a little hard to understand, huh? Danzo thinks that only he can make Konoha great again, so he decided to kill all the other potential candidates for the seat of Hokage, resulting in the deaths of multiple S-Rank shinobi that were fiercely loyal to Konoha with some of them even aiming for the title of Hokage. Or in other words, he is completely delusional.”

Tobirama was looking at Yuna in disbelief, while Hashirama was constantly alternating his gaze between Tobirama and Yuna. Yuna, however, only shrugged her shoulders.

“I wish I could claim that I was lying to you, and trust me, I would if I did and I would make fun of you for getting tricked, but I am not.”

This time, Tobirama fell on his knees, while mimicking how Hashirama acted previously. Seeing that Hashirama’s and Tobirama’s souls were rather close to dissipating, Yuna decided to stop here.

“Well, how about I free you from this seal now? I don’t think there is any point in staying here.”

The two, however, only absentmindedly nodded their heads, while still being deep in thought about the reason for Konoha’s demise and what they did wrong for it to reach this point. They didn’t even notice when they were unsealed and neither did they notice when their souls got dragged back to the Pure Land.

‘Well, Kurama. I assume the compensation was adequate?’

[BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!]

‘I will just interpret that as a “yes”.’