"Excuse me, are you Mr. Yoriichi Tsugikuni? The founder of Sun Breathing?"
Uchiha Nagi asked cautiously, not daring to be the least bit careless in front of this old man. This was the monster who had, in a single instant, cut down one thousand five hundred pieces of Muzan. To call him a Sword God would not be an overstatement. It was unclear who would win in a fight between him and the likes of Hashirama and Tobirama Senju from the Naruto world. In terms of long-range and comprehensive abilities, he probably couldn't hold a candle to the First Hokage and his Gundam, but in close combat, in pure swordsmanship, he could likely kill Hashirama in a single exchange.
After all, the Naruto world was full of glass cannons. Even a peerless powerhouse like Madara had ultimately died by the blade. And right after his revival, even Gaara's sand had been able to riddle his body with small holes.
"..."
After a moment of silence, the old man lifted his head. His fluffy white hair parted, revealing the sun-like mark on his forehead.
The old man sighed slowly. "Young man, there's no need to be so tense. You don't have to keep your muscles so tight. I'm not a bad person."
Yoriichi Tsugikuni looked up at the scorching sun, the heat intense. He reached out a hand as if to feel its temperature.
"I am indeed Yoriichi Tsugikuni. But I should be dead... hmm. I feel as if I had a dream. In the dream, I was waiting for my older brother on the other shore, year after year, but he never came. Alas..."
He can sense the state of my muscles? Is this the Transparent World?
Nagi guessed internally. It seemed he had the right person. The mark on his forehead confirmed it. At that moment, as he reached for the sunlight, he was like a great tree, a stone. Though he stood right in front of him, Nagi couldn't sense the slightest aura or fluctuation from him, as if he were in perfect harmony with the world.
Nagi asked curiously, "May I ask what the world of the dead is like? What are your memories of it?"
The old man thought for a moment, then shook his head. "This old man does not remember. Perhaps the gods do not allow the dead to speak of the underworld. In any case, after coming to the world of the living, my memories of the world of the dead have become hazy, like a dream. The more I try to remember, the hazier they become. By the way, you haven't told me how you revived this old man. Is there a purpose for it?"
Nagi decided to tell him the truth. Lying to a master who could sense every muscle and blood vessel in your body was pointless. His Transparent World would be able to distinguish truth from lies in a second.
"It's like this, Mr. Yoriichi. We are planning to deal with the Demon King, Muzan. But with our strength alone, we have no guarantee that we can kill him for good. So I used a forbidden jutsu to temporarily invite you here from the world of the dead to help. I hope that when the final battle comes, you will be willing to lend us your strength..."
"Yes, of course."
Before Nagi had even finished speaking, the old man slapped his thigh and readily agreed. Seeing Nagi's surprise, Yoriichi explained:
"Back then, that fellow Muzan was defeated by me in a single blow and hid from me for decades, refusing to come out. My mission in this world was to kill him. Unfortunately, I was careless back then and let him escape by self-destructing into many pieces..."
Yoriichi said with regret, "Because of that, he has lived for so many more years, and countless more humans have been killed by him. To be able to return to the world of the living to finish him... this makes up for my regrets."
"I had two regrets in my life. One was failing to kill Muzan. The other was my foolish and tragic older brother..."
"My tragic older brother... he abandoned his humanity and willingly became a demon. I met him just before I died, but in the end, I could not bring myself to strike him down..."
Yoriichi stood up, touched his own body, and then looked at the sun in the sky with a bitter smile.
"I never thought I could stand under the scorching sun without even a heartbeat. It's hard to tell who the real demon is, me or Muzan."
Nagi said, "Please rest assured. Once Muzan is slain, you will naturally return to the world of the dead. You will not be left here to affect the world of the living."
With the Edo Tensei, once a soul had no regrets, they could break free and return to the afterlife on their own, even if the caster didn't release the jutsu. In the final war, the fact that so many were able to break free from Kabuto's control was proof of this.
"Ah, that's good. By the way, young man, could I trouble you with something...?" Yoriichi asked, scratching his head in embarrassment.
Nagi: "...?!"
Slurp~
Slurp~ slurp~
"Ahem. I say, senior, you're a dead man. You can still get hungry?"
In a noodle shop, Nagi had gotten a private table and ordered a mountain of ramen and other food for Yoriichi. Watching the man eat with such gusto, a giant question mark floated above Nagi's head.
Dead people need to eat? And a dead person with infinite regeneration and infinite chakra at that...
"Mmmph. Actually, I don't need to eat. But this old man was a big eater when I was alive. After being dead for so many years, I kind of miss the food of the living world. After all, you can't eat when you're dead, right?"
"So, before I go back to the world of the dead, I want to eat my fill a few times. Otherwise, I'll never get the chance again..."
Slurp~ slurp~~
The white-haired Yoriichi wielded his chopsticks, continuously shoveling food into his mouth. Fortunately, this was Orochimaru's 2.0 version of the Edo Tensei; the reanimated looked just like living people. When the First and Second Hokage were first reanimated and appeared before Sarutobi, their faces had looked normal, even if their power was a mere fraction of what it once was. At least they didn't have cracks all over their faces or black eyes.
If this had been Kabuto's 3.0 version of the Edo Tensei, their faces would have been covered in cracks, their eyes pitch black, scarier than any demon. One look could scare a person to death.
After downing more than a dozen bowls of noodles, a full-bellied Yoriichi finally walked out of the noodle shop with a satisfied expression. The shop owner gave Yoriichi a strange look as they paid. He really couldn't understand how an old man who looked to be in his seventies or eighties could eat so much.
Leaving the noodle shop, Yoriichi was clearly curious about all the changes in the world around him. He excitedly pulled Nagi along, strolling through the streets and asking questions.
"Hey, young man, what's that moving iron shell? How can it run on the road without a horse?"
"That's a bus."
"Does it eat grass?"
"It eats oil."
"Oh. Does it poop?"
"..."
"Hey, what's this glowing thing over here? It doesn't look like a candle."
"That's called an electric lamp."
"What's 'electric'?"
"..."
"And those houses over there, they're built so high. Aren't they afraid they'll collapse? How are the walls as sturdy as rock?"
"Those are built with steel and concrete."
"What are steel and concrete?"
"..."