Chapter 153: The Masked Man: I Also Have Hashirama Cells
Everyone returned to Konoha.
Senju Tobirama said he wanted to properly look around the present-day Konoha together with his older brother, but the moment they arrived in the village, he vanished without a trace.
With the Flying Thunder God Technique, and with an Impure World Reincarnation body at that, Senju Tobirama could be said to go wherever he wanted.
Disappearing in an instant was nothing strange.
As for what the Second Hokage went off to do?
Of course, it was to help Konoha and the Land of Fire with a truly great deed.
Assassinating the Fire Daimyō.
Yes, assassinating the daimyō.
The Second Hokage himself was a reformer. Compared to the First Hokage and Madara founding the ninja village system, it was the Second Hokage's various regulations and refinements of that system that truly formed the prototype of the modern ninja villages.
From the time he was revived by Impure World Reincarnation the second time until now, there had been many stretches of free time.
During that time, he had indirectly learned about the current state of the ninja world from Orochimaru, Nagato, and others.
The three great nations had already abolished the daimyō system. The Land of Lightning had not abolished it outright, but it had severely restricted the daimyō's power.
Only the Land of Fire had done nothing at all up to this point.
The Second Hokage knew very well that, given Tsunade's personality, once she became serious she could suppress her former subordinates, but it would be very difficult to get her to deal with the daimyō directly.
Even limiting the daimyō's authority, like what the Raikage had done, was probably impossible for her.
In that case, there was only one option left.
He would have to take action personally.
This was a decision the Second Hokage made after rational consideration.
Abolishing the daimyō system was indeed far more suitable for the sustainable development of both the nation and the ninja village.
As for killing people, spilling blood, and breeding hatred?
What kind of reform doesn't involve bloodshed? Where there are conflicts of interest, how could hatred not arise?
If one were afraid of such things, then the ninja village system never needed to be established in the first place.
Just as the people of Konoha were settling in, the Second Hokage had already arrived at the daimyō's residence.
Back when the ninja village had just been founded, he and his older brother had met the Fire Daimyō of that era here. Later, after becoming Hokage, he came here again.
Leaving behind a Flying Thunder God mark had naturally been a casual matter.
At the time, he had thought that leaving a mark would allow him to instantly teleport over and provide aid if the daimyō ever encountered danger.
He never imagined that one day, he would use that very mark to carry out an assassination.
The world is unpredictable, and circumstances are ever-changing.
Yet at this moment, the Second Hokage's heart was like iron. He thought of how Uchiha Itachi had exterminated his own clan, and realized that Itachi must have been in a similar state of mind.
If even a so-called naturally evil Uchiha could destroy his own clan, then what was killing off a mere daimyō residence to him, the Second Hokage?
What was more, Itachi's clan extermination was still a matter of controversy, but eliminating the daimyō's residence was unquestionably the correct course of action.
Thus, the mysterious teleporting man known as Red Night's Blade appeared.
Drawing inspiration from the time Shiromo had threatened to make him work in the red-light district, Senju Tobirama used the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique combined with the Transformation Technique, disguising himself as a ninja assassination squad.
The defensive forces of the Fire Daimyō's residence could be said to be among the strongest of the Five Great Nations.
The so-called Guardian Ninja like Asuma and Chiriku had nominally disbanded due to internal conflict, but the daimyō would never leave his defenses completely vacant.
That conflict, at its core, was between a group of Guardian Ninja led by Asuma and Chiriku who acknowledged Konoha's strength, and another group led by Kazuma, who believed the Fire Daimyō was supreme and that all should obey his orders.
Although Kazuma was later portrayed as a villain and defeated, the interests he represented were entirely those of the daimyō.
He wasn't defeated because he was a villain. Rather, he became a villain because he lost.
The daimyō could no longer openly support him.
Still, no matter how strong the daimyō's defenses were, it was useless.
Many powerful ninjas had died because of the word "protect."
The Third Raikage died holding off tens of thousands of ninjas alone in order to protect his people.
The Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tails with his life to protect the village.
If their moral standards had been even slightly lower, they could have fled without issue.
Likewise, when the Flying Thunder God Technique was no longer used for protection, but for assassination, it became flawless.
The Second Hokage did not use Flying Thunder God for a direct assassination.
That method was too inefficient. Even relying on shadow clones would risk leaving survivors.
The method he chose was to first have his shadow clones set up arrangements around the daimyō's residence, and only after forming a complete encirclement did he begin the purge.
The encirclement he used consisted of mutually multiplying explosive tags.
Endless explosions spread inward from the outer perimeter, slowly tightening the circle.
By the time the guards inside the daimyō's residence noticed the disturbance, it was already too late.
Even after setting up the shrinking ring of explosive tags, Senju Tobirama did not stop there. He drew a long blade and began slaughtering everything within the perimeter.
He could not be certain whether someone possessed some special defensive ninjutsu, capable of enduring the explosions long enough to desperately rescue the daimyō.
So the rest had to be handled personally.
While the mysterious teleporting man known as Red Night's Blade was carrying out a massacre within the daimyō's residence, the former mysterious masked man arrived in Konoha.
….
Konoha Medical Department.
Kakashi lay quietly inside a private hospital room.
Yamato stood by Kakashi's bedside, hesitating as he muttered something to himself. In the end, he gritted his teeth and left.
It turned out that Yamato's previous act of "sacrificing himself for others" to save Kakashi had come to light, and afterward he had been violently beaten by Kakashi.
Now, standing before the unconscious Kakashi, Yamato did not dare to make any further moves.
However, everything Yamato did and muttered to himself was heard clearly by the masked man hiding in the shadows.
"So that's how it is."
From Yamato's words, the masked man roughly understood why Kakashi had used Kamui to teleport away the septic tank.
He also learned what the result of Kakashi's overexertion had been.
"Hashirama cells? I have those too."
The masked man thought about it. He could not allow Kakashi to go blind from overusing the eye.
With the eye stored in Kakashi, he could retrieve it and use it himself at any time.
If Kakashi ended up using it until it went blind, what would he do then?
Hashirama cells could greatly delay the blindness of the Mangekyō Sharingan, but they had never been said to reverse blindness once it had already occurred.
"Kakashi, this is the third thing I've given you."
As he muttered to himself, the masked man walked over to Kakashi's bedside.
At the same time, elsewhere.
Kushina could not out-argue the clever and perceptive Rin, and in the end she had no choice but to tell her the truth.
After learning the truth, Rin merely pressed her lips together and sighed, saying nothing more.
Rin truly was a "naturally kind Konoha female ghost."
She understood very clearly that everyone could blame Obito, except for her.
After coming clean with Rin, Kushina felt much lighter. The two of them decided to go visit Kakashi, who had previously fallen unconscious.
As they were heading toward the medical department from the rooftop, they saw a silhouette inside Kakashi's room through the window from afar.
"That is… the masked man?"
Kushina was still not used to calling the one who had caused her and Minato's deaths by the name Obito, so she continued to refer to him as the masked man.
"Why would he appear here? Could he be planning something against Kakashi?"
Kushina's expression turned tense.
If the masked man could kill her and Minato, there was no way Kakashi would be spared.
But Kushina also understood the other party's strength. If she acted rashly and was discovered, she would absolutely not be his opponent.
Kushina and Rin lay prone on the rooftop, observing the situation inside the room from afar.
Because the masked man had his back to the window, all they saw was him walking to Kakashi's bedside.
"He walked to the head of the bed? He's not planning to dig out Kakashi's eye, is he?"
Kushina whispered in alarm.
But that was not the case.
They only saw the masked man make a motion as if taking something out, and the Kakashi lying on the bed twitched.
Immediately afterward, the masked man distorted and vanished.
The two of them waited in place for a while. After confirming that the masked man had indeed left, they hurried over.
Reaching the window, Kushina and Rin looked inside at Kakashi on the bed and saw a horrifying scene.
Kakashi's mouth was slightly open, and an unknown white liquid was flowing from the corner of his lips.
Kushina: ?!
Rin: ?!
(End of this chapter)