The Second's Second Chance

Hope For The Future

"....The hideout was blown to bits, as was Danzo's body. He must've used some suicide jutsu." Jiraiya reported, gently placing a body scroll on Tobirama's desk. "That's him, or what's left of him anyway."

Tobirama stared at the scroll blankly before saying, "Thank you for bringing back his remains. Whatever his faults, he had sacrificed a lot for this village. He will be buried with honor."

Tobirama carefully steered his thoughts away from his fond memories of teaching Danzo. He didn't get to mourn his student when he had been the one who had essentially sent his student to death, hoping for this exact outcome. He was the Hokage and it was his job to make sacrifices for the village.

"What of Orichimaru?" He inquired.

Jiraiya shrugged. "No idea. I didn't find his body at the hideout, but that's not saying much. There wasn't much anyone could find there."

Tobirama sighed. "Anko-san's seal was still active contained his yin chakra when I observed it yesterday. Given that this incident happened three days ago, it is unlikely that Orichimaru died from this."

"He is a slippery snake." Jiraiya agreed. "I'll get back on his trail, then."

"No."

"No? Don't you want him found and dead? Isn't that why you sent Danzo after him?"

"I do. But there isn't any use in trying to sniff him out right now. He would have holed up somewhere discrete after this attack." Tobirama explained. "Keep tabs on his activities like you do with all of Konoha's enemies, but do not focus specifically on him. We'll take care of him when he comes out of hiding."

"Very well. I'll relax for sometime then. Haven't been able to visit Konoha's bathhouses for quite some time." Jiraiya said, smiling lecherously, as he turned to leave.

"Do not forget to visit your godson." Tobirama reminded him as he crossed the door. Jiraiya stiffened for a second before merrily continuing on his way, waving a distracted farewell to the Hokage.

Tobirama shook his head. All three Hiruzen's students certainly had some eccentric personalities.

He was going back to to continue working on his peperwork, when he noticed an unfamiliar chakra signature enter into his range.He knew that hundreds of visitors entered Konoha on a daily basis these days and wouldn't have paid it much attention, if it wasn't for the nature of its chakra. He had felt this type of chakra only twice before this. Once in his brother and other in ANBU Cat who had been experimented on by Orichimaru in his childhood for the aim of replicating this exact chakra nature.

Whoever this signature belonged to, possessed the Mokuton.

Locating the nearest Hiraishin marker, Tobirama quickly teleported to it, bringing him to training ground three, near the memorial stone. A quick scan of the surroundings made him aware of Hound, or more accurately Hatake Kakashi, kneeling in front of the memorial stone, startled at the sudden appearance of his Hokage but not on gaurd.

Ah, he hasn't sensed the other ninja. A surprisingly familiar genjutsu that the Uchiha used during the warring clan era, was hiding him from all the senses. Even Tobirama's senses had become muddled as he came into the area affected by genjutsu.

Tobirama quickly gathered his chakra and released in a spike, spreading it around a bit to also break the genjutsu's effect on Hatake. He didn't have any idea of the enemies threat level. He might need back up.

The genjutsu dissipated to reveal a black haired man wearing an orange spiralled mask and black cloak. A single Sharingan was visible through one of the eye holes. Even with his face covered, Tobirama could easily read his body language. He was surprised at being discovered.

Hatake immediately jumped up and stood defensively in front of him. His ANBU training directing him to gaurd the Hokage in face of an unknown threat.

Without the effect of genjutsu and being in such close distance, Tobirama could also sense a seal on him, a familiar one. It felt like a variant if the Hiraishin. The fourth Hokage had apparently fought this man then.

All these clues, led Tobirama to a simple conclusion. This was the man who was responsible for the attack of Kyuubi on Konoha and death of the Yondaime seven years ago.

"Who are you? Why are you trespassing in or village?" Tobirama asked, mostly to stall for time for his ANBU gaurds to get here. He could easily kill the man himself, but he needed to be captured and interrogated of his purpose before that. Tobirama required some back up  to accomplish that.

"I am Uchiha Madara." The interloper replied in a surprisingly deep voice, which sounded nothing like the original Madara. "Trespassing? Would it truly be considered that if I had been the that was responsible for founding this village?"

"Uchiha Madara died at the Valley of the End more than fifty years ago." Tobirama evenly replied.

"You seem awfully sure of that, Senju. It is clear that you are not aware of the true might of the Sharingan." 'Madara' countered.

Tobirama was going to reply that he had been fighting against the Sharingan since before the masked man had been born, when he noticed the chakra of the interloper's Sharingan exactly matched the Sharingan currently sitting in Hatake's eye socket. Recalling that particular mission report, Tobirama internally debated about the merits of exposing the enemy in order to destabilize him and emotionally comprising his only back up at the moment.

Sensing his current gaurd team only a few seconds away, Tobirama decided in favour of exposure.

"You are Uchiha Obito, aren't you? You're the one who released the Kyuubi?" He asked, and then jumped forward to land a blow at the clearly unbalanced, not expecting to be recognised enemy.

He turned out to be tricky opponent with his Mokuton and the ability to turn intangible. But Tobirama had grown up sparing with Hashirama. And the intangibility problem was quickly solved by sending chakra pulses through the Hiraishin seal the Yondaime has so thoughtfully left for them. They were enough to disrupt whatever jutsu he was using to make himself intangible.

With the help of his ANBU team Tobirama was easily able to make the rogue Uchiha and cover him with enough captivity seals to contain a biju. Hatake had wisely decide to sit out the battle and was staring at his now unmaske teammate in clear horror and betrayal.

Hours later in his office, Tobirama read the report given to him by Yamanaka Inoichi on Uchiha Obito's mind walk. He could almost feel the headache building as his mind automatically started forming various contingency plans against the Akatsuki.

Needing to get away from the paperwork for a while, Tobirama made two shadow clones to continue the work in the office and teleported to the Hokage training grounds where he has instructed his apprenticeship to spar against ANBU Cat.

Reaching there he noticed that another person had joined the sparring session, Uchiha Shisui, the young man who had given him the tour when he first arrived in the future.

Tobirama was pleased to see that Itachi was easily keeping up with his two opponents and none of them were slouches. Cat's Mokuton and Shisui's highly developed Sharingan were on their own enough to make them threats, but along with there skill level, they were easily amongst the strongest Shinobi of the village.

Itachi had clearly been skilled before. There had to have been a reason for Hiruzen to induct him into ANBU at such a young age. But since his apprenticeship, he had improved in leaps and bounds even with minimal instruction because of Tobirama's busy schedule.

The progress could also be attributed to the fact that he was able to get proper rest and food without being bogged down by missions upon missions.
He had also gained a bit of wieght bringing him out of the dangerously underweight category. The bags under his eyes had reduced considerably marking him look his actual age.

But the most important change had been in his soul. It was healing. Even now as he sparred against two very dificult opponents, Tobirama could see a small size on his face.

He couldn't help his own lips from twitching upwards. This was the reason Konoha had been founded. To protect and nurture the next generation. Somewhere along the way that ideal had been lost to time. But Tobirama would bring it back, kicking and screaming if he had to. The past has already passed but there's always hope for the future.