Tobirama was born twenty-eight years before Konoha was founded.
This year, he was thirty-four.
After marrying Toka, he did not gain the peace he had expected.
The image of her hands being severed haunted him like a nightmare, clinging to his mind and refusing to fade.
He had been searching for a way to truly calm himself.
Was it what his older brother suggested, learning medical ninjutsu from Toji?
No.
The Reversal Technique he developed together with Toji was powerful, but it was not perfect.
When facing an opponent who was too strong, one would still die before any healing could take effect.
People die when they are killed.
That was a truth in the ninja world that had remained unchanged for a thousand years.
But ninjas were beings who constantly broke common sense.
They could control wind, fire, water, and earth.
They could stitch flesh and mend bones.
So could they go one step further, break the boundary between life and death, and bring the dead back to life?
That way, if someone important to him or the village died one day, there would still be a final safety net.
This twisted thought, blurring the line between life and death, quietly took root in his heart.
From a tiny seed, it quickly grew, spreading into a towering tree that blocked out the sky.
Tobirama began to act on it.
He knew very well his older brother would never allow such a thing, so he had to keep it hidden from Hashirama.
In secret, he set up a laboratory on the edge of the village.
During breaks between missions, he used his authority to quietly take prisoners from Konoha’s prison.
Hashirama was kind.
But Tobirama was never soft-hearted.
He directly used those prisoners as experimental subjects and began developing the forbidden jutsu in his mind, one that could overturn life and death and twist the laws of nature.
He named it: Edo Tensei.
* * * Immersed in his research, Tobirama did not go to the Hokage building for discussions.
Instead, he went to his secret laboratory.
A burly man was tied to the experiment table.
The moment he saw Tobirama, fear spread across his face.
His body trembled uncontrollably, and muffled cries escaped from his sealed mouth.
“Too noisy.” With a swift motion, Tobirama struck, killing the man cleanly.
After a long and complicated preparation process, he placed his hand on the corpse and formed hand seals.
“Summoning Jutsu.” The markings instantly spread across the body.
And yet… Nothing happened.
Tobirama calmly withdrew his hand, showing no frustration.
If the boundary between life and death could be broken in just a few attempts, that would be the real absurdity.
Just as he was about to deal with the corpse, he suddenly sensed something.
His head snapped toward the corner of the lab.
“Who’s there?!” From the shadows, Hashirama, dressed in his Hokage robes, slowly stepped forward, his face terrifyingly dark.
“Tobirama, you’ve gotten quite bold.” “B-Big brother…” Tobirama felt as if struck by lightning.
He froze, then instinctively said, “Listen to me.
It’s not what you think.” He had considered the possibility of his experiment being exposed, but he never expected this day to come so quickly.
Why did it turn out like this?
A trace of annoyance rose in Tobirama’s heart.
It was likely his frequent absence from meetings lately that had made his brother suspicious.
But he had no other choice.
He was already thirty-four this year.
How many thirty years does a person get?
For a ninja, reaching this age was already considered long-lived.
His prime had passed.
His physical condition and stamina were inevitably declining.
Not everyone was like his older brother, Hashirama, who only seemed to grow stronger after turning thirty.
He had to seize every single day.
Only then would he have a chance to complete the Edo Tensei within his lifetime.
‘If only… if I were ten years younger, I’d have enough time… and I wouldn’t have been discovered by Big Brother like this.’ But no matter what Tobirama thought, Hashirama’s anger came crashing down.
“You don’t need to explain.” His voice was heavy with disappointment.
“My eyes may not be Sharingan, but I can still see clearly.” “Tobirama, I told you a year ago to learn proper medical ninjutsu from Toji and to stop researching these strange forbidden jutsus.
As Senju ninjas, we should act openly and upright.” “You clearly treated my words like nothing.
Developing forbidden jutsus is one thing, but you’ve gone even further and dared to carry out human experiments!” His gaze fell on the corpse, and his expression grew even darker.
If it were only about developing forbidden jutsus, he might have let it slide.
But human experimentation crossed a line he would never tolerate.
Once that line was crossed, a person would only keep falling.
Today it was criminals.
Tomorrow, it might be ordinary villagers.
If it ever reached that point… Even Hashirama himself didn’t dare imagine what he would do to his own younger brother.
“I’ll have to discipline you properly in Father’s place.” * * * Not far outside the underground lab, Toji stood side by side with Naori.
Naori spoke softly, “Hokage-sama is very angry.
Tobirama-sama… this time, it won’t end well for him.” “It should be like that,” Toji replied calmly.
“No matter the reason, human experimentation is an evil taboo.
Even I wouldn’t allow something like this to happen in Konoha.” He said it without the slightest change in expression.
If possible, no one would want to conduct forbidden experiments under the watch of the God of Shinobi, but in this chaotic world, only Konoha had the stability needed to support large-scale research.
That was true now, and it would still be true in the future.
Soon, Tobirama came out, bruised and battered.
Like a child who had done something wrong, he was practically dragged away by Hashirama and taken back to the Senju compound.
Right after that, another Hashirama walked out of the underground lab and approached them.
“That one just now was Hokage-sama’s Wood Clone,” Naori explained.
Toji nodded.
At the same time, he noticed a massive scroll hanging behind Hashirama.
‘That… could it be the prototype of the future Scroll of Seals?’ He speculated silently.
“Toji.” When Hashirama saw them, his expression eased slightly.
He wasn’t the type to vent his anger on others.
“Hokage-sama.” Reporting Tobirama’s human experiments wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision.
It was something Toji had carefully thought through.
First, it would create some trouble for Tobirama.
Then, when Tobirama was in a difficult position, he could step in and help, earning goodwill.
Second, he wanted to see how Hashirama would deal with his own brother, so he could use it as a reference.
Since Tobirama, in a way, was Konoha’s “golden child.” Lastly, Toji wanted to take this chance to look around Tobirama’s lab and see if there were any surprises.
Hashirama let out a sigh.
“Your guess was right.
Tobirama really has been secretly conducting human experiments to develop forbidden jutsus.
I gave him a harsh beating and ordered him into confinement for three months.” ** ** ** Thank you for reading!
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