Tobirama was not a rash man, nor someone who would resort to violence at the drop of a hat.
In fact, he was a very rational man, so rational, at times, that he seemed almost cold-blooded.
But right now...
A dark chamber.
A severely injured, disheveled, and mumbling Hiruzen.
A young Uchiha brat with a mocking expression and Mangekyō Sharingan activated.
Put together, these elements would make anyone realize something was wrong.
With his intelligence, even without knowing the full story, he instantly saw that Hiruzen was being coerced by this young Uchiha.
The fact that he hadn't already acted was proof enough of his composure.
However, in his mind, he had already classified Shin as an extreme threat and was fully prepared to cancel the Edo Tensei at any moment and fight to the death.
The Uchiha clan… Mangekyō Sharingan… coercing the Hokage… No amount of caution would be excessive.
Shin, on the other hand, didn't take Tobirama's caution seriously at all.
Let alone the fact that with his current strength, Tobirama couldn't do a thing to him, even the Edo Tensei had long since been improved through repeated collaboration with Orochimaru, surpassing Tobirama's original version.
While still preserving the resurrected person's personality, he could fully control them with just a thought and a tiny bit of chakra.
Still, he was looking forward to seeing Tobirama's dumbfounded face when he inevitably failed to cancel the Edo Tensei.
Seeing that Hiruzen remained silent, Tobirama hadn't yet lost his patience, but Shin acted. Right in front of Tobirama, he kicked Hiruzen in the waist, sending him flying. Then he instantly appeared in front of him, stepping on his chest and coldly said, "What's wrong? Up to your old sneaky tricks again?"
Looking up into Shin's condescending gaze, Hiruzen could only smile bitterly in his heart. Shin was right, he really was up to his old tricks.
He had another defining trait: relentless perseverance. That was one of the reasons Tobirama had once chosen him.
When he saw Tobirama appear, seemingly retaining his personality and able to move freely, his mind started working again.
He knew full well just how powerful his teacher was, so he immediately began scheming: provoke a fight between Tobirama and Shin, then join forces with Tobirama to take Shin down. If possible, kill him. Then push all the blame onto others.
He knew the chances of success were slim, and even though he had mentally prepared himself to face Tobirama's wrath, knowing full well he wouldn't escape this situation… he still wanted to gamble on that tiny sliver of possibility.
Shin's voice came at just that moment: "The moment you see a bit of hope, you start getting ideas."
"But don't you think… the two of you are underestimating me a bit? Right, Tobirama?"
When he said that last line, Shin was no longer looking at Hiruzen, but directly at Tobirama.
Tobirama's hands, which had just been raised, awkwardly froze in midair. The chakra he had just begun to circulate slowed the moment Shin's gaze landed on him.
He hadn't acted immediately when Shin kicked Hiruzen because he knew the kick wasn't fatal. He planned to use that moment, while Shin's attention was diverted, to break the Edo Tensei control.
In truth, the moment he was resurrected, he had wanted to do this. His personality made him crave control over any situation and detest being toyed with.
But he was cautious by nature, and as the developer of the Edo Tensei, he knew full well he was being controlled.
Even though he didn't understand why Shin had allowed him to retain his personality and free will, the more lenient Shin appeared, the less Tobirama wanted to make a move. Instead, he waited for an opportunity.
He was gambling, that this Uchiha brat didn't know the Edo Tensei's weakness.
Namely: if the resurrected individual knew the hand seals for Edo Tensei, they could use them to break free from the control.
He never expected that the moment he made a move, he'd be discovered, and that his body would be forcibly immobilized.
Looking at the two schemers in front of him, Shin was speechless. In some ways, the two really were cut from the same cloth.
From another perspective, it just went to show that, as ninjas, both of them were qualified.
Calm, rational, and tenacious, these were all essential qualities for an excellent ninja.
It's just that he found those very qualities deeply unpleasant.
The next moment, Tobirama suddenly went flying backward, slamming against the chamber's rocky wall, and was pinned tightly against it, unable to move an inch.
Hiruzen also flew through the air, but instead of crashing into a wall, he was flung to the ground directly in front of Tobirama. With a sickening crack, he landed hard in a kneeling position, both knees breaking simultaneously.
"Talk."
Shin's voice was cold and filled with killing intent. It drove Hiruzen into complete despair, leaving him too terrified to attempt any more tricks. He began tearfully and brokenly confessing everything he had done since becoming Hokage, directly to Tobirama.
When Tobirama learned that this young Uchiha boy standing before him was the same boy he had once ordered not to train, he stared at him in disbelief for a long time.
He was Shin? How could it be him?
Even though Tobirama had only seen Shin briefly in the past, his impression of him was incredibly strong.
Because the boy gave him a deeply unsettling feeling, the same feeling he had only ever experienced from Madara.
Having fought the Uchiha clan for many years, he had studied them extensively. In a sense, he understood the Uchiha better than anyone else. As a man who championed logic, he didn't actually dislike emotion.
But in his view, becoming overly emotional, emotional to the point of losing rationality, was a major problem, especially for a ninja.
And the Uchiha clan was the epitome of emotional extremes. They easily formed intense attachments and felt a fierce need to protect those they loved. But once they lost the people they loved, that intense love would instantly flip into equally intense hatred, often triggering personality collapse and uncontrollable power surges.
Once they reached that point, members of the Uchiha clan became extraordinarily dangerous and destructive, unable to distinguish friend from foe.
To him, every Uchiha was a ticking time bomb. That was what he meant by "evil."
The Mangekyō Sharingan, an eye born from the heart, was the ultimate vessel of hatred, and the ultimate manifestation of the Uchiha clan's inner darkness.
This wasn't a personal bias or prejudice. It was a scientific conclusion he had reached through years of research and a wealth of data.
His stance toward the Uchiha clan had always been based on what he believed was best for Konoha, not out of personal emotion. In fact, he rarely made decisions based on personal feelings.
Not every Uchiha would ultimately go down the path of extremism.
But statistically, the likelihood of them doing so was far higher than for others, and once they did, the power they gained almost always came at the cost of their sanity.
Madara was the quintessential example of such evil and extremism.
Not only did he possess a terrifyingly dangerous personality, but he also held overwhelming power capable of mass destruction. Tobirama had never truly trusted him.
And now, Shin, at such a young age, gave him the exact same feeling as Madara had?
That was intolerable.
Which was why he, a dignified figure of status, seemed willing to go toe-to-toe with this mere child.
But hadn't he specifically ordered that Shin not be allowed to train? How had things ended up like this? Where did it all go wrong?
So… was he here now for revenge?