That thrice damned Senju had figured it out already...
Both parties thought simultaneously, although the feelings towards him were the polar opposites in every sense of the 'word'...
Oh the irony...
...
"Only say Senju…" he recited his deduction and Sasuke nodded before Tobirama trailed off for a few seconds, as if he were counting for a moment before continuing on.
"…every sixty seconds. Do not stay silent for more than that, and whatever happens do not say anything else. Call me out and use hand signs to communicate, you get me? Do not say anything else, no matter what."
Tobirama didn't bother for a reply but Sasuke nodded, smirking himself at seeing the absolutely livid expressions on his enemies' faces.
Tobirama could do that to people, he had quite an experience with those situations himself. He might have chuckled, had the situation not been so gruel in pure amusement.
"I'll take the Raikage, you go for the idiotic looking two." Tobirama's voice was strict and none emotion whatsoever could be realized within his words.
Ginkaku and Kinkaku bristled in anger, not only had he deciphered their technique in a matter of seconds but above all else he was dismissing them and calling them idiots as if it were everyday news.
They glared murderously at Tobirama, all but forgetting about Sasuke in anger and going in to attack the Senju with a yell of bloody murder…
"Earth Style : Earth Dragon Bullet!" Sasuke whispered within his heart to garner their attentions and take them away from Tobirama to let him deal with the Raikage once and for all while he himself got it over with these two clowns.
The Raikage, only with his vast experience and his superior reflexes did he dodge the slash from behind after Tobirama had mysteriously vanished right in front of his eyes.
He reared his right arm back, pulling his forearm back to point out his elbow above Tobirama's head, while it glowed a deep black and cackled ominously.
"Elbow!" he brought down his dark lightning enhanced elbow strike but Tobirama vanished again, this time the Raikage knew where he would come to next and smirked at already knowing his only possible marker to flash to as quickly as he would have had to in order to dodge that attack.
"Lightning Style : Reverse Lift!" Tobirama's eyes almost bulged out of his sockets when his lightning charged heel made contact with his wounded waist while Ei's roundhouse kick made perfect contact with it's target area as he had intended to.
"...!" a silent scream escaped Tobirama's lips when the Raikage twisted his body at inhumane speeds and delivered a forceful fist, once more straight to his wounded waist and charged out a massive pulse of electricity into his wound.
His body rocketed back like a rag doll, tearing it's way through a huge pile of rubble and leaving a thirty meter streak in the large pile of mountainous rubble filled with trees and boulders.
The ever stoic Senju blinked unfocused, his eyes showing him nothing but blurs while he tried to shake off the cobwebs within his head.
His wound felt numb, much to his relief and annoyance.
It meant that it had been wounded so deeply now that his brain was in shock from the pain alone.
And that was the cause of his relief too, because it was only the pain that was keeping him conscious from the death blow he had just taken head on, twice in fact.
He looked down, his eyes still cloudy but he could see a strange dark, murky substance pooling down on his lap and he coughed out that same substance thickly from his mouth when it choked his throat straight onto his lap.
Blood he realized...
Ei walked on towards the form of the downed Hokage, a proud smirk plastered on his gruff looking face. That bastard had landed quite a deep gash on his back while he had gambled all in his last strike.
But it had paid off, the Senju would be dead just by bleeding out in a few minutes, way under half an hour at most.
And that was only if he was lucky.
His smirk only widened seeing Tobirama's fallen head while his eyes went back to the sword that was lying a few feet away from him.
An idea formed in his head, it would be a fitting end to a swordsman to die by his own sword right? He mused and grinned evilly, and insane look flashing across his eyes.
Meanwhile, Tobirama was only focused on trying to regain his bodily functions back as much as he could. His nerves still twitched from the huge electric load they had suffered, but his index and middle finger were coming around within his left hand and he could feel a bit of sensation in his neck too.
But his eyes were still misted…
"AHHH!" he screamed in agony, the Raijin no Ken, his own sword piercing his left shoulder a hair length above his heart on purpose to make him scream more while he died his pathetic death like the dog he really was.
Tobirama on the other hand was quite glad for the new wound, his eyes had been restored to focus and his neck was now in the perfect position too.
Slowly, he raised his index and middle fingers on his right hand to hold up a shaky half ram seal upon his thighs and glanced up straight at the Raikage while his lips pursed together with a small opening as if he were going to let out a small whistle.
"Water Style-" he winced when the Raikage kicked his wounded waist once more in a harsh kick but kept all his concentration upon his last gathered chakra.
"Water Senbons!" he screamed inwardly when the Raikage pressed his foot even more upon his waist to increase the pain tenfold, but he let out two water senbons from his lips before his concentration broke.
But that was all that he needed as his couple of senbons were straight on the mark.
"AHHHHHH MY EYES!" the Raikage's blood curdling screams rang across the clearings while he clutched his eye sockets in agony and in vain. His eye sockets were now flowing rivers of blood while he bled at four times the speed of Tobirama's own wounds.
He had been overconfident in his victory and had dropped his guard, while he had let his opponent breath even when he had the chance to kill him cleanly with a single strike. The man's hunger for theatrics had costed him dearly...
Tobirama's eyes widened when he saw the Raikage stand still and try and make his way towards him like a blind man.
"Move…" he whispered in his mind, trying to move anything and everything that he could at that moment of time. A streak of horror ran down his mind when he saw the Raikage take another two steps at him while clutching those bloody rivers that were once his eyes.
"Move it…." he thought, frantically trying to get a little sensation back in his arms to have at least some protection from that blind yet dangerous man.
A single strike and he would be dead..., no not yet.
"Move, move, move, MOVE MOVEEE DAMN IT!" his mind roared ,but his body betrayed him today, for the first time he knew he was going to die.
But he had far too much to live for, he had to repent for his failure at Mito's feet. Take all the rage and curses from his little Tsuna, he had to take responsibility for the reason of being the cause of Nawaki's parents death.
And Naruto….that idiotic no good blonde ball of annoyance who never failed to mention his age whenever he got the chance, still had to become Hokage.
And he wouldn't deem anyone worthy enough to test him other than himself and let him have the hat, only to have Tsunade turn half the village over while he let her do as she pleased.
He had far too much to live for….
A lone tear escaped his swollen eye when the Raikage towered over him, and for the first time in his life, he felt scared.
Honestly scared.
He was frightened, he wanted to live. He couldn't let his family down once more, his children, they were still to be coddled with by him as much as he could while he watched them grow up.
Ei raised his hand up with a vertical open palm that cackled with his legendary black lightning to rear down a final killing chop to the Senju he wished to kill in his final moments with all his might.
Tobirama, in his own final moment had nothing else to do but to accept his fate and closed his eyes.
A soft breeze whizzed past his head while his hair flailed with it's brush, his face plate falling down on his lap with the Leaf insignia facing him in all it's shining glory.
His own reflection stared back at him, he couldn't help but smile.
He really had gotten old.
"Not yet Tobirama…" Hashirama's voice whispered in his ear, and his eyes snapped open to see an ethereal image of him rearing down upon the Raikage from the back, the sun not letting him see even his final moment's hallucination…
"NOT YET YOU DAMNED SENJU, WE HAVE FAR TOO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!" Tobirama's eyes widened upon realizing whose voice it really was.
Sasuke.
Those words strung a cord in his heart and a spark of hope lit up within his heart at hearing the conviction behind those words, while Sasuke came down from his mighty jump like a soul hungry Shinigami scouring down for his long awaited soul.
Both his hands clenched the kunais in his palms tightly, he couldn't miss this…
Just as Ei started rearing down the chop, Sasuke dug his two kunais in the back of skull and fell down on the man's back roughly to push him down off balance with the help of his bent knees.
Ei fell forward lifelessly, Sasuke following him a moment later in a thump right in between Tobirama's knees.
The elder Sarutobi looked up and breathed in relief, only to see Tobirama looking at the dead Ei blankly.
But his heart shook to the core when he saw the two silent streams of tears rolling down the man's cheeks while Tobirama let out a content sigh with a smile.
Sasuke stumbled on his knees, crawling pathetically to him and tore apart his shirt, the largest part he could find in one piece and stuffed it tightly in the man's gaping large wound.
"Oi Tobirama!" Sasuke tapped his cheek, only to see his eyes starting to roll back from severe blood loss so much so that he wasn't even realizing any pain now.
"Stay awake!" he snarled in a whisper, roughly cupping his cheek and shaking him awake.
If he closed his eyes, Sasuke knew they wouldn't open again.
Ever.
He smeared off his blood from the wounds he had himself covered in, and brushed it on the back of his palm.
I→Inu→Saru→Tori→Hitsuji
"Ninja Art-" he coughed out blood, but didn't let it mind him one bit.
Gathering up all his remaining chakra to the point he himself felt his consciousness fading from chakra exhaustion, he slammed his palm on the ground and Kanji smeared all over the rubble.
"Summoning!" was all he could whisper before he too fell sideways in a thump and a poof of smoke appeared near the kanji covered circle by his side.
The little baby ape he had summoned with the last of his chakra, who had a small bo staff on his back and a leather holster to hold some more weapons blinked, before his eyes widened upon seeing the state of the two barely breathing Leaf shinobi in front of him.
One being his own summoner...
"Khee-Khee!" the little ape hooted hurriedly, fumbling through his holster before unfurling a large scroll and laid down the two battered Leaf shinobi on it, as gently as he could, and all of them disappeared in a poof of smoke.
...
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