His mind had no time to react, and his body couldn't make any evasive movements.
Bang!!!
A heavy, teeth-grinding thud violently exploded within the enclosed stone chamber.
Senju Tobirama's figure reappeared before Su Yu.
His right fist remained in a straight, punching posture, solidly and unceremoniously striking Su Yu's chest.
The power contained in that punch was enough to level a small mountain.
Su Yu's body froze at that instant.
He lowered his head, his gaze fixed on the fist imprinted on his chest.
He didn't feel any pain.
He only felt a sensation of 'shattering' spread throughout his body from the point of contact.
Crack... A crack, centered on Senju Tobirama's fist, appeared on Su Yu's chest.
It wasn't a tearing of flesh, but rather something... more like the shattering of pottery or rock.
The cracks rapidly spread, crawling over his neck, cheeks, and limbs.
Senju Tobirama slowly withdrew his fist, his eyes coldly observing his 'masterpiece'.
Su Yu's body began to disintegrate before him.
Not a spray of blood and flesh.
Instead, he transformed into countless tiny, faintly glowing dust and earth, rustling downwards.
His head, torso, and limbs all broke apart and dissipated in this process.
In just two seconds.
The living person had completely turned into a pile of unremarkable dust, accumulated within the black coffin.
Only the strangely styled white clothing, having lost its support, softly collapsed.
It was over.
Senju Tobirama looked at the pile of dust, and the irritation and stifled feeling in his heart, caused by his overturned understanding, finally dissipated somewhat.
Indeed.
No matter how strange a Soul was, as long as the 'container' that constituted its existence was completely destroyed, everything would end.
This product, mistakenly summoned, though immune to Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, its physical essence was still that of an Edo Tensei body after all.
Composed of dust and sacrifices.
As long as it was returned to its original form, it was nothing to fear.
Senju Tobirama's taut nerves finally relaxed a little.
However, at this very moment.
A sudden change occurred.
The pile of dust quietly lying in the coffin, without any warning, stirred.
As if stirred by an invisible hand.
All the dust and soil particles began to tremble slightly, then slowly, defying physical common sense, floated upwards.
They gathered and swirled in mid-air, forming a grey, small tornado.
Senju Tobirama's pupils suddenly contracted, and his heart, which had just settled, instantly leapt to its peak.
The dust tornado was re-condensing and reshaping at a visible speed!
First the feet.
Then the calves, thighs, torso... countless dust particles, like living building blocks, precisely pieced and combined, reconstructing the outline of a human form.
The texture of skin, muscle, and bone rapidly restored within the grey dust mist.
Finally, the head.
Features clear, black hair regrown.
Only three breaths of time had passed.
A perfectly unharmed Su Yu stood once again in the coffin.
He even maintained the posture of looking down at his chest; the disintegration that was enough to destroy everything seemed to be just a brief illusion.
He raised his hand and, with some novelty, patted his chest, where a firm sensation returned.
Then, he looked up at Senju Tobirama, whose expression had completely frozen, and spoke with some confusion.
"That just now... felt so strange."
"It was like all the building blocks in my body fell apart, and then were put back together."
"Is this also part of the test?"
"..."
Senju Tobirama did not answer.
He just stared intently at Su Yu, his ruby-like eyes churning with tumultuous waves.
Enough.
Conventional methods were no longer meaningful.
Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, the three pillars of the Ninja system, all failed before this man.
Senju Tobirama slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, all emotions had faded, leaving only a desperate resolve.
He still had one last move.
The most dangerous move.
A Jutsu he had never used on anyone, and even believed should never be used.
A Jutsu that directly attacked the Soul.
"I originally didn't want to use this move."
His voice became ethereal, as if from a distant Pure Land.
"But your existence has exceeded my tolerance limit."
"As the creator of forbidden Jutsu, I have an obligation to completely erase the out-of-control product..."
The air throughout the underground laboratory suddenly became deathly still.
Even the flickering of the candlelight ceased.
An indescribable tremor, originating from the depths of the Soul, enveloped the entire space.
This was not Chakra pressure.
It was a higher-dimensional pressure that directly acted upon the Soul itself.
Senju Tobirama raised his hands, his fingers intertwined and twisted in an extremely bizarre manner.
It was not any known hand sign.
As his fingers moved, his silver-white hair moved without wind, and in his red eyes, a faint blue flame even ignited.
That was the price of burning his Soul.
"Soul... Burial..."
He used all his strength to utter two heavy syllables.
Buzz—
No light.
No sound.
Su Yu only felt that everything around him had disappeared.
The cold stone chamber, the flickering candlelight, that white-haired man... the entire world lost its color, turning into a void of grey and white.
An irresistible, immense sense of drowsiness surged from the deepest part of his consciousness.
It was as if he had stayed up for a month straight, his body and mind reaching their limit, wanting only to fall asleep immediately and never wake up again.
His eyelids became incredibly heavy.
Is this... a Soul attack?
It seems... it's not a big deal.
Just a little sleepy.
At the last moment before his consciousness was swallowed by darkness, Su Yu let out a long, sleepy yawn.
Then, with a slightly hoarse, indistinct nasal voice, he softly asked.
"Um... is the test over?"
"If it's over, can I... get something to eat first?"
"I'm really... starving to death..."
Rumble.
It was as if something had completely shattered in Senju Tobirama's brain.
His eyes, which had been burning with faint blue Soul fire, instantly extinguished.
His face, pale from using the forbidden Jutsu, stiffly stared at the young man who was bound by black chains but seemed about to fall asleep.
"Hungry...?"
Senju Tobirama's voice trembled for the first time.
His strongest, ultimate attack, launched at the cost of burning his own Soul.
What did it get him... a "I'm hungry"?
He maintained the hand sign posture, his entire body frozen in place, like a petrified statue.
A sense of powerlessness.
An unimaginable sense of powerlessness, like a tidal wave, engulfed him.
Bang.
The Chakra chains binding Su Yu, due to the caster's loss of focus, could no longer maintain their form and dissipated into black smoke.
Su Yu regained his freedom, he shook his slightly numb arms and stood up from the black coffin.
He looked around, at the Second Hokage whose expression had completely frozen, and decided to take the initiative to break the awkward silence.
"Uh, Lord Tobirama?"
He tentatively called out.
Senju Tobirama did not respond, still immersed in his sense of defeat.
"Hokage-sama?"
"Second Hokage?"
"White-haired big brother?"
Just as Su Yu was wondering what other titles to use, a sudden knock on the door came from the stone chamber's only exit.
Thump, thump-thump.
"Tobirama-sensei?"
A young, respectful, and slightly worried voice sounded.
"Are you inside? The agreed time has arrived."
This voice, like a needle, pierced the frozen atmosphere in the stone chamber.
Senju Tobirama suddenly came back to his senses.
He glanced at the sealing Jutsu on the wall that was still glowing, then looked at Su Yu, who stood beside the coffin, looking innocent, his stomach still growling.
Silence.
A long silence.
Finally, he made an extremely difficult decision.
He raised his hand and formed a simple 'Release' hand sign.
The dense black runes on the walls and ceiling rapidly dimmed, eventually disappearing completely.
On the stone door leading outside, the iron chains 'clanged' as they retracted into the wall.
Senju Tobirama turned around and said in an extremely tired voice.
"Come in, Hiruzen."
Creak—
The heavy stone door was slowly pushed open.
A young figure wearing a Konoha standard Jonin vest appeared at the doorway.
He had short black hair, a gentle face, but already a faint stubble on his chin, and a simple pair of goggles resting on his nose.
It was Hiruzen Sarutobi in his youth.
He walked into the stone chamber and immediately saw his sensei's rare face, filled with exhaustion and helplessness.
His heart tightened.
"Sensei, you..."
Before he could finish, his gaze passed over Senju Tobirama and saw another person standing in the center of the laboratory.
A young man in strange white clothes.
A confused young man... sitting on the edge of the Edo Tensei coffin, his face clearly asking, "Who am I, where am I, and when is dinner?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's mouth slightly opened.
What was this situation?
Had Sensei's forbidden Jutsu experiment... succeeded?
But why did the summoned 'strong one' look more harmless than a ramen shop apprentice at the village entrance?
And why... could he not feel any Chakra from this young man?
In Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes, there was no such vigilance as if facing a formidable enemy, like Senju Tobirama's.
Instead, there was curiosity.
His gaze moved back and forth between Senju Tobirama, Su Yu, and the empty coffin.
He really wanted to ask.
But he knew it wasn't the right time.
And Su Yu, too, was curiously observing this new arrival.
The future Third Hokage, Professor of Ninjutsu, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
He looked much kinder than expected.
Just as these three parties faced each other in an eerie atmosphere.
Su Yu's stomach, inappropriately, let out a growl.
Grrrrumble—
The sound echoed in the silent stone chamber, exceptionally clear.
Hiruzen Sarutobi: "..."
Senju Tobirama: "..."
Su Yu awkwardly covered his stomach, revealing an unsightly smile.
"So..."
"Now, can I get something to eat?"
