No, Tsunade was genuinely confused. That thing could be swallowed? That was the Shinigami.
Hashirama shrugged. Exactly. He hadn't expected it either. The fact that it could be devoured at all was ridiculous.
It was completely absurd.
He had lived this long and never seen anything this outrageous.
This was even more unbelievable than learning that the Sage of Six Paths had really existed, or that the Ōtsutsuki clan were aliens.
This time, his eyes had truly been opened.
"You really swallowed the Shinigami?" Tsunade walked up to Rowan and looked him over from head to toe, staring at him like he was some kind of superhero.
What kind of human could swallow a Shinigami?
Rowan nodded. He really had swallowed it. Not only had Tsunade not expected that—he hadn't expected it either.
Turns out he really was that amazing.
"So how do you feel now?" Tsunade asked again.
"At the moment, everything seems normal." This time, it was Tobirama who answered. "I already gave Lord Rowan a full examination. There's nothing wrong with him."
Tsunade immediately let out a sigh of relief. "Good. As long as nothing's wrong."
She trusted her granduncle's judgment a great deal. He was far more reliable than her grandfather.
"It's not that there's no problem at all."
Rowan suddenly spoke, and everyone immediately turned to look at him. Every pair of eyes was filled with tension.
His safety was just too important. It affected two entire worlds.
"I want to sleep," Rowan said slowly. "I don't know why, but I wanted to sleep just now, and the drowsiness is getting stronger and stronger. You all figure things out yourselves. I'm going to sleep first."
The moment he finished speaking, Rowan closed his eyes and fell sound asleep.
Everyone: …What?
To make sure Rowan was really alright, they all rushed into action and gave him another round of checks.
Only after confirming that he had truly just fallen asleep did they finally relax.
Everything that had happened that night had been one twist after another. It was seriously testing everyone's nerves.
After that, they carried Rowan back to his room and left him in Nico Robin's care.
Only then did Hashirama, Tobirama, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and the others finally have time to explain everything to Minato Namikaze.
The next day, Rowan woke from a deep sleep feeling completely refreshed.
He opened his eyes, sat up in bed, and saw Nico Robin sitting in a chair beside the bed, quietly reading a book.
"You're awake." Hearing the movement, Robin looked up. The moment she saw Rowan was awake, her face lit up with surprise and relief.
Rowan let out a small sound of acknowledgment and asked, "What time is it?"
"Six in the morning. You slept for a full eight hours," Robin answered.
Rowan let out an "oh" and stretched lazily. "No wonder I feel so good."
Robin said, "Are you really okay?"
"I'm fine. What could be wrong with me? If anything, I feel better than ever." Rowan got out of bed and stretched his limbs. "Come on, let's go see everyone so they can stop worrying."
Robin didn't object.
The two of them walked out of the room and ran into Tsunade, Orochimaru, Tobirama, and the others in the main hall of the secret base.
"Lord Rowan." Tobirama flashed over in an instant and asked, "How are you feeling now?"
"Great," Rowan answered with a smile.
Seeing that Rowan really didn't seem abnormal, Tobirama relaxed a little. Even so, he still couldn't understand how Rowan had managed to swallow the Shinigami.
And more importantly, what exactly swallowing the Shinigami had done to him.
Rowan could see the curiosity and confusion in Tobirama's eyes, so he smiled and said, "Call everyone together. I'll explain what happened last night."
Tobirama nodded and created several shadow clones to handle it.
It wasn't long before everyone had been gathered in the living room.
Including Minato, Kanae, and Karin.
When Rowan had seen Minato the previous night, Minato had still been in soul form.
But now, he had an Edo Tensei body.
The reason was simple: a soul couldn't remain in the world of the living for too long. If it wanted to stay, it needed a vessel.
So Soul Minato had become Edo Minato.
"Lord Rowan, I am Minato Namikaze. From this day forward, I will be the one protecting your safety."
The moment Minato saw Rowan, he stepped forward and bowed. After hearing everyone's explanation the night before, he now understood Rowan's origins and the matter of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
No matter what, Minato had never imagined that the Child of Prophecy his teacher Jiraiya had spent his whole life searching for would turn out to be his own son.
He had also never imagined that his son had lived such a miserable life.
Or that even his own grandson would end up becoming a rogue ninja.
That completely broke him. He no longer had any intention of simply returning to the Pure Land and leaving everything to the next generation.
That was why he had chosen to become Edo Minato.
As a father, if he couldn't even protect his own son, then what kind of father was he?
So he was willing to stay and protect Rowan, because as long as Rowan remained, the ninja world still had hope—and a way—to stand against the Ōtsutsuki.
Rowan gave a quiet hum, then asked curiously, "What do you think of Obito?"
Minato clearly hadn't expected Rowan to stab him right in the heart the moment they met. After a brief silence, he answered, "I think I owe Obito an apology."
Rowan: "???"
Minato said, "If I had been faster back then, just a little faster, then maybe Obito would never have become so extreme."
"So you intend to forgive Obito?"
"No." Minato answered without hesitation. "I do owe Obito an apology, but Kushina never wronged him. She treated him like a little brother, and yet she died because of him."
"My son never wronged him either, yet he became an orphan because of him."
"And the people of Konoha never wronged him either, but Obito personally caused the Nine-Tails Disaster, which led to the deaths of countless innocent people."
"For that, as the Yellow Flash, I will never forgive what he did."
"I may feel sorry for him, but if I meet Obito again, I will kill him with my own hands and bring this to an end."
Hearing that, Rowan nodded inwardly. That was more like it. That was the answer a normal person should give.
If Minato had said he was willing to forgive Obito, Rowan would've wanted to drag the giant Buddha from Leshan to its feet and let Minato sit on it instead, then stay as far away from him as possible. Nothing good ever came from sticking close to a saint like that.
Fortunately, Minato was completely normal.
Which only made it harder for Rowan to understand why Naruto Uzumaki had once shouted, "Don't you dare mock Obito!"
What kind of mindset and reasoning had led him to say something like that?
Whatever. Naruto Uzumaki wasn't his son, so it had nothing to do with him.
Then Rowan turned to look at Kanae and Karin.
~~~
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