Evening – Root's Laboratory
"So, you want me to use Edo Tensei… to summon the Second Hokage, Lord Tobirama?"
Orochimaru stood across from him. There was no trace of injury on his body now—he had just experienced the power of the Delicate Illness Extraction.
He had already abandoned the thought that this kid was "not normal" and had decided to temporarily follow him.
"Unfortunately, that jutsu is far from perfect," Orochimaru continued. "Even if I summoned him, he wouldn't have much power."
He thought Link wanted to use the strength of a deceased Hokage. The Edo Tensei was indeed an incomplete forbidden jutsu—it required elaborate preparation, consumed a ton of chakra, and needed a living sacrifice. Plus, the resurrected souls didn't always cooperate, and their power was often diminished.
A bit of a chicken-rib technique: hard to use, not much payoff.
"Cut the nonsense. Get to work," Link snapped. He didn't actually need to summon the dead for battle.
He had already sent his shadows to gather Senju Tobirama's DNA. They had even helped Orochimaru break into Konoha's prison to grab three death-row inmates. Everything was ready. No turning back now.
Orochimaru fell silent, then pulled out a blank scroll from a scroll pouch near his chest and began writing slowly. He knew he couldn't escape the shadows. His ninjutsu and taijutsu weren't fast enough. Even summoning wouldn't help; some of those shadows were so fast, he wouldn't even finish casting Reverse Summoning before they took him down.
Besides, this kid was too mysterious. The techniques he used were extremely compelling.
(Why does he want to summon Lord Tobirama?)
The curiosity gnawed at his brain like a cat paw scratching at his heart.
Before long, the most ancient version of the Edo Tensei was ready. As Orochimaru slammed his hand down, particles of dust began forming around the death-row inmate who was kneeling under genjutsu.
"AAAAARGH!"
The pain snapped him out of the genjutsu, and he screamed in agony as dust particles reshaped his body.
The condemned man became the armored form of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, kneeling on the floor.
"Need me to use talismans to bind him?" Orochimaru offered.
Tobirama quickly regained his awareness, stood up, and looked at the man in the lab coat. "Edo Tensei… Young man, were you the one who summoned me?"
"Pardon the offense," Orochimaru said with a slight bow. "Lord Tobirama, I was forced to use your forbidden jutsu under… special circumstances."
"Oh."
Link tossed him a scroll from his waist. "This is from you—to you."
The Tobirama from the main world had long since prepared everything, including how to earn the trust of other versions of himself.
Just talking to the Pure Land via summoning wouldn't work. But if you used Edo Tensei to bring him back and handed him a scroll he wrote himself, that would almost certainly open up a communication channel.
Most importantly, under similar circumstances, no Tobirama from any parallel world could resist the temptation of variant jutsu.
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed with interest.
Tobirama accepted the scroll, a little puzzled. But he couldn't detect anything strange about it. As a soul, he didn't have to worry about traps, so he unrolled it without hesitation.
After reading it quickly, he paused in silence, then said, "Prove it to me."
"Summon another dead person—right now," Link ordered without flinching.
Under Tobirama's cold gaze, Orochimaru completed another Edo Tensei.
At the same time, Link performed a low-chakra version of Swamp of the Underworld, dragging the final condemned prisoner into the pit. When the jutsu ended, all that remained was a pool of black sludge.
"What is this place? You… It stinks!"
The newly revived soul, wearing an Anbu uniform, stumbled back a few steps while clutching his nose.
The stench of the black sludge was especially unbearable for Edo Tensei bodies made of dust particles—and even worse for pure souls summoned in chakra bodies.
Tobirama wrinkled his brow slightly and stepped back half a step. Holding your breath was pointless—the stench was soul-deep.
Orochimaru, on the other hand, looked extremely interested in the sludge. Link was surprised at just how much of it there was—enough for five full summons. The last guy must've been seriously evil.
Regular murderers only yielded enough for three summons.
But Link had no use for leftover sludge. He couldn't take it with him, so he might as well use it all now. He drafted the Edo Tensei formula on-site, surprising both Orochimaru and Tobirama with a jutsu variation.
The Edo ANBU, thrown over by a shadow, crumbled as his soul was drawn into the sludge, forming a cocoon.
The host's body, formed from dust, dissolved. The host's eyes went blank, and he died instantly.
The scene was horrifying. But none of the three in the lab even flinched.
They weren't Naruto or Hashirama—the kind to get sentimental over random criminals.
Click—
A dazed, naked boy emerged from the mud cocoon. "Lord Orochimaru, what's—?"
(Is this… a reincarnation technique?!)
Orochimaru was so excited he nearly rushed forward to inspect the kid's body—barely restraining himself out of caution.
Tobirama looked deeply shaken. He furrowed his brow in thought, then said, "I understand. Let's proceed as per the scroll."
"You can undo the Edo Tensei now," Link commanded coldly.
All according to plan.
…
Half a Month Later – Outside Konoha Village
"Well then, that's the end of this transaction," Link said, looking at the translucent figure of Tobirama across from him. Unfortunately, the man refused to teach him the Flying Thunder God technique. Technically, it was easy to teach jutsu through summoning if the soul cooperated. But—there just wasn't enough time to earn his full trust.
Fortunately, the replication of Funa-tsū was a complete success. Even without knowing how it worked, Tobirama found it relatively simple to mimic and reproduce.
Link glanced at the shadow carrying a sack full of freshly made Funa-tsū scrolls. In exchange for reincarnating fifty deceased Konoha jōnin and Anbu, Tobirama had produced an equal number of scrolls.
Unfortunately, the plan to find a new Jinchūriki "battery" failed. Half a month wasn't enough. Without Utakata, he couldn't keep farming his substitute technique. To stay hidden in unfamiliar Konoha timelines, he needed a constant, high level of chakra.
If he slipped up even a little, Shimura Danzo or Orochimaru might pounce.
Thud!
Some Root and ANBU agents who'd been tailing him were tossed unconscious into the open by his shadows.
Link glanced at Orochimaru, who was lurking in the forest. "Farewell, Second Hokage."
Now it was time to set off again—either burn through these scrolls and figure out how to make more, or keep jumping until he landed in the post-Fourth War timeline.
(Will we meet again?)
Tobirama had a strong feeling that it might be a long, long time before they crossed paths again.
Just as he was thinking that, the summoning ended. Tobirama's body of faint chakra shattered. Before his soul faded back into the Pure Land, he caught one last glimpse of Link—holding the scroll he had made, body twisting into a spatial vortex.
(That jutsu…)
And with that thought, his awareness faded into the void.
~~~
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