[Hashirama Senju: Huh? Hiruzen is still Hokage? Aside from the Fourth, does Konoha not have anyone else?]
[Onoki: Hahaha, Lord Hashirama, perhaps you should ask your Third Hokage about that.]
[Fourth Raikage A: Don't forget—besides the Third Hokage, the other elders have also made "outstanding contributions."]
At that moment, Konoha's upper leadership felt a chill run down their spines—especially Hiruzen Sarutobi. He had already been thoroughly scolded once a few years ago; he had no desire to go through that again.
[Tobirama Senju: Hmph. How Konoha is run is none of your concern.]
[Hashirama Senju: Tobirama, what exactly is going on?]
[Tobirama Senju: Just watch the screen.]
Back in the mindscape—
Nagi explained that the Fourth Hokage had died years ago during the Nine-Tails' Attack.
Tobirama frowned.
The Nine-Tails…
Strong? After the battle at the Valley of the End, Hashirama had carried it back to Konoha like a chicken and sealed it inside Mito Uzumaki.
Not strong? Its vast chakra reserves and Tailed Beast Ball were hardly something ordinary shinobi could handle.
"…It seems Konoha's understanding of the tailed beasts is still lacking."
Because the Nine-Tails had been sealed inside Mito, and the other tailed beasts distributed among the great nations, Tobirama himself had little opportunity to research them.
He refocused.
"I still haven't asked your name."
"Second Hokage-sama, my name is Shiranui Nagi."
"Ah. A descendant of the Shiranui clan."
"Now, do as I say. If you follow my instructions, you should be able to freely enter and exit this mental space."
"Yes, sir."
When it came to soul-related techniques, Tobirama was among the very best. Matters of consciousness posed little difficulty for him.
Combined with Nagi's extraordinary talent, it didn't take long before the boy mastered the ability to freely access his mindscape.
Even Tobirama was momentarily stunned by the speed of his progress—before a rare smile appeared on his face.
"Konoha's younger generation is quite interesting… so long as they're not born Uchiha."
Nagi soon regained consciousness.
The first thing he saw was his cousin, Genma Shiranui, staring at him anxiously.
"Nagi! Are you alright? Does anything feel wrong?"
"I'm fine, Brother."
Genma let out a long breath of relief. If anything had happened to Nagi, how could he face his late uncle and aunt?
"Good… good. By the way, how did the chakra refinement go?"
"I've already succeeded."
"Oh, don't worry, refining chakra isn't something you can do in a single da—wait. What? You already did it?!"
It hadn't even been half an hour!
Was that blue light earlier the result?
Isn't that absurd?!
(Inside the mindscape, time flowed like a dream—long within, brief without.)
No wonder Genma was shocked.
Refining chakra sounded simple—but it was anything but.
Normally, the process involved:
Sensing and mobilizing one's spiritual energy.
Using that spiritual energy to extract physical energy from the body's cells.
Combining spiritual and physical energy to form chakra, then circulating it internally.
Storing the formed chakra within the body.
Ordinary people required about a week to succeed.
Even prodigies needed two to three days.
Thirty minutes?
That was monstrous.
When the shinobi world witnessed Nagi refining chakra in half an hour, they were shaken.
[Hashirama Senju: Uh… Madara, how long did it take us to refine chakra?]
[Madara Uchiha: How would I know how long it took you? Ask your brother.]
[Tobirama Senju: Brother and I both managed it in less than a day.]
[Onoki: Damn it. Thirty minutes? That's inhuman.]
Onoki immediately ordered his subordinates to gather information on Nagi.
At the same time, many other villages began making inquiries.
How had someone this talented gone unnoticed in Konoha?
Either his strength was unimpressive—which was clearly not the case—
Or the Second Hokage had secretly nurtured him in the shadows.
The more Onoki thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
If not for the livestream exposing him, who knew what would happen once he fully matured?
Orochimaru, however, remained calm.
[Orochimaru: No. The Second Hokage likely played a role. His chakra—or rather, his spiritual remnant—entered Nagi's body and guided the chakra refinement process.]
[Rasa: I see.]
[Fourth Raikage A: That makes sense.]
Later, Genma warned Nagi not to tell anyone about this.
He feared that if Danzō Shimura learned of it, he might forcibly recruit Nagi into Root.
Even major clans like the Yamanaka and Nara had members in Root—let alone smaller clans like theirs, who had no real power to refuse.
From then on, Tobirama quietly observed Konoha from within Nagi, occasionally offering guidance in his training.
The more he taught, the more pleased he became.
Nagi grasped concepts almost instantly. Sometimes his ideas were bold and unconventional—yet still logical.
A gifted and sensible prodigy was always likable.
Tobirama even began to consider taking another disciple.
But he wasn't in a hurry.
He wanted to observe the boy's character—and see how Hiruzen and the others had governed Konoha.
Given that the village had enjoyed relative peace for so long, it couldn't have been too poorly managed.
The day before the Academy term began—
While shopping in town, Nagi spotted Naruto walking down the street, face full of excitement at the thought of making friends the next day.
Then—
The atmosphere shifted.
"Why is that demon fox here?"
"Running into him today? What bad luck."
"…."
Some villagers even hurled vegetable leaves, eggs—even stones—at him.
Naruto threw his head back and laughed.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! The man who's going to become Hokage someday!"
The surrounding crowd erupted in mocking laughter.
Nagi watched silently, fists clenched tightly at his sides.
He had long noticed that despite Naruto's loud and reckless behavior, he was kind-hearted.
A good person.
"…What is this?"
Inside the mindscape, Tobirama frowned deeply at the scene.
"Why would the villagers treat a child with such cruelty? And 'demon fox'…?"
He extended his senses toward Naruto—
Then his eyes widened.
"That chakra… The Nine-Tails?!"
"So the boy is the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki!"
As the villagers continued shouting abuse—and several children even moved forward as if to strike Naruto—
Tobirama's heart skipped a beat.
To him, this was like playing with fire beside a mountain of explosive tags.
They were courting disaster.
"Nagi—take that child away. Now!"
Chakra burst beneath Nagi's feet.
In an instant, he appeared before Naruto.
Before Naruto could react, he felt himself lifted—
A white-haired boy wearing glasses had grabbed him—
And in the blink of an eye, they vanished from the street.