Ch422. Tsunade's bragging

"Well, then, let's go and take a look at Sarutobi's fight, shall we?" Tsunade innocently smiled, not giving away how satisfied with how the situation was progressing.

Unknown to her, Hashirama knew that smile very well from her younger days. He was both very impressed at how subtly she manipulated his brother and not impressed at all that she really did do it in this kind of manner.

But...

'Some things just never change, eh?' Hashirama inwardly chuckled, reminiscing about a similar, if a bit more innocent scene, between little Tsunade and Tobirama. She always knew how to blackmai-, ahem, justly acquire candies from her granduncle.

As for Tobirama... he didn't notice. He was far too preoccupied with his own thoughts about his protege turned Hokage.s

"Tsuna-chan, you do know we can't move our bodies, right?" Hashirama decided to point out the obvious flaw in her plan.

While they could speak and change expressions, maybe even do things like twitch fingers and such, the Edo Tensei restricted any bigger movements. After all, Tobirama usually used it on the village's zealous enemies so it had to have a feature to restrain them before the control seal could be implanted lest they attack the caster.

"Ah, that." Tsunade dismissively hummed before she flexed her chakra in a way that affected both Hashirama and Tobirama.

The two men instantly felt the restriction on them shatter, causing them to be astonished. Tobirama's mind even momentarily forgot his anger at the feat his grandniece just accomplished.

"How..." He quietly muttered under his nose in bewilderment.

Tsunade, thanks to her Senjutsu-enhanced senses, heard him and smirked, "I might or might not have studied Sharingan a lot." She threw him a bone.

Tobirama instantly froze when he heard her, his head snapping towards her and his eyes going wide.

"Oh..." Tobirama dumbly said with a dumbstruck expression on his face. "So you have realized that..." He trailed off. Nevertheless, his chest was swelling with pride at Tsunade being so knowledgeable in ninjutsu.

Tsunade saw that the conversation went over Hashirama's head and as a dutiful granddaughter, she decided to enlighten him.

Looking at him, she spoke. "There is a reason why Edo Tensei summons can not be put down normally. Tobirama used a lot of the concepts of Uchiha's Izanagi technique in his Edo Tensei."

Hearing Tsunade, Hashirama blinked and turned towards his brother, gaping at him. Didn't this dude hate the Uchihas the most? Why did he base his techniques on their bloodline!?

Tobirama just sheepishly smiled, not liking the awkward atmosphere surrounding him. This was exactly why he never confessed this fact to anybody...

While bloodlines could not be fully replicated, nobody said one could not observe how they worked and learn a lot from it. Most Tobirama-made Jutsu were on the esoteric side... yin side. The same as the Sharingan bloodline. He really believed to prevail over one's enemy, one had to study their prowess with impunity. This gave him a lot of insights into how Sharingan worked and gave him a lot of inspiration for Jutsus.

It was also because Tobirama studied Sharingan that he disliked the Uchiha clan. He simply understood their bloodline more than most Uchiha-born ninjas. And he didn't like the picture and the influence it had on the user. Not at all. That's why he always warned his brother about Uchiha's being a loose cannon!

"I gotta say, granduncle, you really are ingenious." Tsunade continued without a care in the world, "You not only managed to implement an Izanagi-like system into your technique but also bypass the only limitation of it. Since they are already dead and just chakra-constructs of a sort, there is no permanent blindness associated with reformation for the summoned." She wistfully sighed and dreamily put her hand on her cheek, "It almost reminds me of my research to evolve Mangekyo Sharingan to the next stage. Just a bit more simple."

Tobirama and Hashirama almost face-faulted when they heard her.

"Mang-!" They started at the same time, stopping when they realized it. Looking at each other, they came to a silent understanding... "Wha-!" They again started at the same time. Apparently, they both had their own understanding of who was allowed to ask first. Getting annoyed, they decided to just speak. Both raised their voices and loudly exclaimed in outrage. "Evolve Mangekyou Sharingan!? Are you mad, Tsunade Senju!?"

Surprisingly enough, it was Hashirama who was the louder one. While he didn't hold a grudge against the Uchiha clan and was quite accepting of them, he was, in the end, a Senju. He knew how dangerous that bloodline was and hearing of its final stage evolving... his world almost spun when he heard those words.

"Please tell me you failed!" Tobirama almost pleadingly asked. Even the ninjutsu nerd inside of him couldn't make him want to see such monstrosity!

"Sure," Tsunade shrugged, "I failed."

Both Tobirama and Hashirama sighed in relief at that...

"If hearing a lie can ease your mind, I'd gladly supply one." Tsunade grinned at them.

Both men looked at her in horror, but she didn't really care. Finally, someone listened to her bragging about her research and gave her a proper reaction! Whenever she talked about it to her sister-wives or Rei, they did listen but they were lackluster about it.

Evolving Sharingan was no big deal for a guy who created his own dimension. Nor did it matter to a woman who had Kekkei Tota and could create the biggest spy network, spanning the entire Elemental Nations, just with her paper abilities. Nor was the carefree, sweet Mei interested in hearing about anything icky like science. Nor did Ringo care since genetics was not sword-making or swinging.

The only person who listened to Tsunade gushing about her research was Pakura and even then she rolled her eyes at her more often than not before she returned to her paperwork or other administrative duty.

Tsunade lacked somebody who would give her a good reaction to her accomplishments!

"You... succeeded?" Hashirama swayed back. "W-who did you... who is the... whose Sharingan... I mean..."

Tobirama didn't even speak, he just looked deathly pale. Like a corpse.

"Ah, knock it off." Tsunade rolled her eyes at them, feeling smug to cause these two ninja idols to almost faint in front of her. "I only allowed one of my friends to have the evolution of Sharingan."

"Friend? With Uchiha?" Tobirama muttered in disbelief while inwardly musing, 'Did I fail to educate her?'

Hashirama, however, beamed at Tsunade, his worries forgotten. 'Looks like my granddaughter is walking in my footsteps!' He was delighted.

"The girl is a bit of a clutz but at worst, she will erase a mountain or two by coincidence. No biggie." Tsunade dismissively said.

And the worries of the two men came instantly back...

"Konoha sure got a lot stronger, huh?" Tobirama muttered, still not sure how to take such a powerful Uchiha being allowed to live. But he would give this... Uchiha 'clutz'... the benefit of the doubt. For Tsunade's sake.

"Eh? Konoha?" Tsunade furrowed her eyebrows at Tobirama who tilted his head at her reaction.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Just... The Uchiha clan is no longer residing in Konoha, you know?" Tsunade started...