"Alright, seeing how hard you've been working these past few days, I won't rain on your parade anymore."
"Take a look at this."
With a mysterious smile, Sakura opened her desk drawer and pulled out a scroll.
Tobirama Senju couldn't help but lean in out of curiosity. Four characters immediately came into view: Dragon Life Reincarnation.
"What is this?" Tobirama asked, his curiosity piqued by a jutsu he had never heard of before.
"Just as the name suggests, it's a jutsu that transfers one's own life to someone else," Sakura explained concisely.
Although she hadn't managed to get her hands on Chiyo's One's Own Life Reincarnation from Sunagakure, the Konoha forces stationed in Kusagakure had brought Sakura a pleasant surprise. This was the very jutsu used by the heroine, Ryūzetsu, on Naruto in the movie Blood Prison. Using her own life, she had forcibly dragged Naruto—who was already dead with a massive hole pierced through his chest—back from the brink of death.
In a sense, this was even more impressive than One's Own Life Reincarnation. After all, with a hole that large in his chest, his internal organs were surely shredded. An injury like that would have left even Sakura completely stumped. Yet, even in that state, it could actually resurrect someone. It was practically comparable to a Paladin casting their ultimate skill.
Tobirama looked at Sakura with a complex expression. It turned out she hadn't been joking with him last time. She really did want to resurrect him.
"Are you touched?" Sakura winked at him.
"Ah, indeed..." Even in his Reanimated body, Tobirama couldn't help but feel a stir of emotion.
"Once you're resurrected, you can happily work for me. You won't have to hide in the shadows anymore, so you better put your back into your job!"
Tobirama's warm feelings instantly vanished.
"Oh? So how do you plan to pull this off?" Tobirama asked expressionlessly as he unrolled the scroll.
"I've studied it. It requires someone with enough life force to sustain your will to cast the jutsu, trading their own life for your resurrection." Having researched Yang Release for so many years, Sakura had her own unique understanding of the concept of life.
"And so?" Tobirama shook his head. "How could anyone capable of bearing my will ever willingly die for me?"
"What if we implant Hashirama's cells into them?"
Tobirama narrowed his eyes slightly.
"It doesn't even need Hashirama's cells to be fully stabilized. We just need them to use Dragon Life Reincarnation before the cells in their body go completely out of control. They'll be trading their life for your resurrection."
Listening to Sakura's words, Tobirama looked thoughtfully at the Dragon Life Reincarnation scroll in his hand. It was an incredibly high-level formula. Even among S-rank ninjutsu, its complexity made it an extremely challenging technique.
"Learning this jutsu will be very difficult," Tobirama said. For a jutsu to be called "very difficult" by him, it showed just how insanely hard it truly was. "And how do you plan to make someone willingly die for me after being implanted with Big Brother's cells?" he asked, looking at the pink-haired girl in front of him.
"We can have someone from the Yamanaka clan learn this jutsu."
Sakura's words left Tobirama stunned.
Mind Body Switch Technique!
Possess the person implanted with Hashirama's cells, and use their body to cast Dragon Life Reincarnation!
"It's worth a try. But there is still one problem..." Tobirama nodded first, confirming Sakura's theory, before raising another issue. "How can we ensure that the Yamanaka clansman using the Mind Body Switch Technique remains unharmed?"
Neither Tobirama nor Sakura believed that the price of death could be avoided so easily. But the fact that Sakura could come up with such an idea showed just what kind of wild, bizarre thoughts she entertained on a daily basis. Throughout the entire conversation, Tobirama never asked who would be implanted with Hashirama's cells to die, and Sakura didn't bother to mention it either. There were plenty of death row prisoners; picking any of them would be no great loss.
In reality, even if a Yamanaka clansman used someone else's body to cast Dragon Life Reincarnation, this method still carried unpredictable risks. The price of a life is equal, yet unequal. To resurrect someone of Tobirama Senju's caliber was certainly not something a mere scapegoat implanted with Hashirama's cells could bear. Even the Reanimation Jutsu alone required a living sacrifice. And even then, without taking tactical genius into account, the Tobirama summoned by it wouldn't even be able to defeat an ordinary Jonin. Under such harsh conditions, expecting to escape the price of death through a simple secret technique was far too optimistic.
In fact, this was precisely what Sakura found troublesome. The essence of ninjutsu lies in chakra, and the essence of chakra lies in physical and spiritual energy. No matter what jutsu is used, it cannot be separated from chakra. Even Sage Jutsu requires blending natural energy with one's own chakra to be used. To use Dragon Life Reincarnation, it was bound to be intrinsically linked to chakra.
When a Yamanaka clansman used the Mind Body Switch Technique to possess the subject implanted with Hashirama's cells to cast Dragon Life Reincarnation, the life force itself wouldn't be drained from the Yamanaka clansman. However, the one technically casting the jutsu was still the Yamanaka. Neither Sakura nor Tobirama believed they could so easily cheat the price of death.
Sakura leaned back in her chair, lost in thought, while Tobirama beside her pondered the exact same question: how could they protect the Yamanaka clansman casting the jutsu?
Suddenly, Sakura opened her eyes. At the same moment, Tobirama's eyes narrowed.
"Izanagi."
They both uttered the same answer.
By sacrificing a Sharingan, one could set a point in time as a coordinate, treating everything that happens afterward as a genjutsu. Once the caster feels the time is right or their goal is achieved, they can reset back to that coordinate, erasing all unfavorable events as mere illusions. Even life and death could be bypassed this way.
But currently, excluding Sasuke and Hikari, Konoha only had two Sharingan left: Kakashi's Kamui, and Shisui Uchiha's Kotoamatsukami. Two Mangekyo Sharingan.
Sakura leaned toward using Kotoamatsukami to cast Izanagi. But doing so... required finding someone to transplant Shisui Uchiha's Kotoamatsukami. Furthermore, they would need a decent level of shinobi talent to learn Izanagi.
Trading one Mangekyo Sharingan for Tobirama Senju...
It was worth it.
Her emerald eyes cast a casual glance at Tobirama. Over these past three years, even if Tobirama never said it out loud, having no sense of taste, touch, or pain, and being unable to sleep must have been incredibly miserable for him.