Ch463. The need for unity among ninjas

"Have you ever heard the story of the Rabbit Goddess, the mother of chakra?" Rei asked something completely outside of their topic, causing Tobirama to frown in dissatisfaction.

Nevertheless, the Second Hokage played along.

"No?" He gave Rei a weird look, not having any idea what some story had to do with Rei's motivation to conquer the world.

"Hmm..." Rei thoughtfully hummed, "what about the story of her son, the Sage of the Six Paths?"

"I..." Tobirama was about to instantly say yes since this legend was quite well known, but when he registered Rei's full question his weirded-out look only intensified, "the Sage had a mother?"

'No shit Sherlock.' Rei rolled his eyes and playfully snarked, "Well, he certainly didn't fall from a tree."

"Er... yeah, I heard that one." Tobirama grumpily answered, trying hard to not let his embarrassment show in his voice. Of course, the Sage had a mother. Everyone did. Tobirama wanted to facepalm at the stupidity of his question.

Rei just nodded. He recognized the best opportunity to tease the old guy but this was supposed to be at least somewhat serious discussion so he used all his willpower to refrain from quipping a joking remark about the Senju clan's common sense.

It was a hard-fought mental battle but Rei eventually won against his baser instincts and spoke in an easy-going tone, "Forget whatever bullshit you heard." He took a bite out of his sandwich, letting silence spread between him and Tobirama.

Tobirama's expression turned annoyed as he watched Rei chew his sandwich while birds chirped all around. The husband of his grandniece was either playing with him or he really tried to get to the point but damn if he wasn't taking his sweet time.

Either way, Tobirama wanted to strangle him right about now.

Eh... Rei really tried to be nice but some people are just too short-tempered.

It took several seconds for Rei to finish his bite but when he was done, he gave his sandwich one last longing look before he sighed and pointed at the sky, "Somewhere up there, is a powerful clan named Otsutsuki. They can travel through dimensions," Rei had no idea how to explain the universe to Tobirama so he said the next best thing, "and harness the power of worlds."

That might have been an extremely oversimplified explanation of what the Otsutsuki clan did but it served its purpose.

"So they are basically stealing it." Tobirama frowned, applying his ninja common sense to what Rei told him and nailing it on the first try.

"I knew you would catch up." Rei snickered, taking another bite out of his sandwich, much to Tobirama's growing ire.

It probably wouldn't have been so annoying if he could eat but here he was. His conversation partner once again cut himself off at the important part and let him wait while he could only watch the smug prick enjoy his food.

Tobirama's inner desires upgraded from wanting to strangle Rei to wanting to drown him.

Rei continued once again only when he finished his bite and sighed in satisfaction, making Tobirama's eyebrow twitch.

"Kaguya, the Sage of the Six Paths' mother, deserted her clan, backstabbed the man who was sent here with her, and then brought chakra to this world." Rei summed up the few hours long storytelling into one sentence.

He wasn't about to explain the whole crap about the Chakra Fruit, Kaguya's motivations to betray her clan or her attempt at being a cheap villain. Tobirama didn't need to know such details and Rei was too lazy to bother.

Of course, Tobirama instantly noticed, "You are leaving quite a lot of the story out, aren't you?" He asked in an annoyed tone but he already knew there was nothing he could do about it. Rei was in complete control over what he revealed and what he did not.

Rei only smiled, continuing without bothering to answer the question or give Tobirama said details, "As you probably expect, Kaguya's clan was not amused by her actions."

Tobirama's expression gave a great impression of, 'Well, duh.' before he groaned and rhetorically asked, "They will come here, won't they?"

Honestly, it sounded like some third-rate plot from a fantasy story and Tobirama didn't like it but if Rei was not just screwing with him for his own amusement, then this was a damn massive problem.

"Mhm." Rei nonchalantly nodded, taking another bite out of his sandwich.

Unfortunately, Tobirama no longer reacted in a funny manner so Rei's fun was cut short, making him inwardly pout.

"How strong are they?" Tobirama asked. He needed to know that to start planning and preparing...

"Bijuus wouldn't stand a chance against even one of them." Rei said with amusement palpable in his tone. But if one listened deeper, there could be found exasperation and helpless irritation too.

In Rei's opinion, cohabiting with nine city-smashing 'monsters' was one thing. Having an entire clan of continent-busting psychos about to unleash unholy hell on your planet was quite another.

"Sage damnit!" Tobirama abruptly cursed and rubbed his forehead.

Rei looked up in surprise, staring at Tobirama in disbelief. He did not expect such an outburst from the usually calm and collected man.

"No wonder you are trying to unify the ninja world." Tobirama muttered under his nose.

Rei heard him and shrugged. He didn't answer because Tobirama was a bit misinformed.

Rei didn't need to unify the ninja world. He didn't need this planet to survive. He could simply relocate everyone he cared about into his dimension and the problem would have been solved for him. But he wanted to see how far the ninja world would go if given optimal conditions for progress.

"Can we win?" Tobirama asked, pulling Rei out of his thoughts.

"Win? No." Rei amusedly shook his head.

He wouldn't depend on canon knowledge for this one. If the Otsutsukis were any smart, they would have sent an army to this planet once their initial probe failed. It would have taken a massively stupid decision for the Elemental Nation to get a fighting chance.

Before Tobirama could comment, Rei continued. "Hide until we are strong enough? Definitely."

As someone who fought his entire life, Tobirama understood that hiding was not an option and he felt it was his duty to tell Rei how stupid that plan is.

"Peace creates weak men. Weak men create war. War creates strong men. And strong men create peace. The last thing the Elemental Nation needs right now is complacency and weak men." Tobirama said, disagreeing with Rei.

Rei, however, just chuckled, "There are still enough enemies on this planet the ninjas can unite to fight."

Tobirama's eyebrows furrowed...

"The Elemental Nations are not the only continent." Rei continued explaining, knowing that ninjas while developed in certain areas were totally backward in others, "With a good enough enemy far away and a drive to improve, our kind can get strong enough in a few centuries of progress. I am already working on a way to prevent the Otsutsuki clan from finding us too."

After all, there were four more continents and at least one of them had two species that didn't hold humanity in the highest regard. There was no shortage of potential enemies.

Tobirama slowly nodded in understanding. He didn't have any knowledge about this but he also realized he had no way of finding out so he accepted Rei's answer at face value. That, however, begot the most important question of all.

Accepting things at face value was one thing but...

"How do you know about this?" Tobirama suspiciously asked.

This husband of his grandniece was far too well informed if the things he told him were true.

Rei wasn't offended by Tobirama's suspicion. He would have been embarrassed for the guy if he just believed him straight away. That said, Rei wasn't about to try to prove himself.

Lazily shrugging, Rei spoke, "Mhm, Kaguya might or might not be one of my wives."

Tobirama didn't even realize it when his jaw dropped as his brain tried to compute the crazy statement.

Before his mind could finish dealing with the information overload, Rei slowly stood up and patted his thighs, "Speaking of which, today I gotta go and spend some time with her lest she decides to wage a war on this continent due to being grumpy. Hmm, I should bake some cookies for her." He mused out loud as he entered the house, leaving one totally flabbergasted Senju to stand on the porch and stare into nowhere.