"God… what is god worth in a world of humans playing at infinity?"
Tobirama is a genius. Tobirama has created countless jutsu and downed many foes to protect his clanmates. Tobirama is also just a little bit of a dumbass.
It may seem a little contrary, but really he'd admit this himself. Consequences are something he's used to facing, after all there's plenty of them for him to murk through when he acts first, thinks later. After all, acting a second too late could make it too late (too late) to save a situation.
Dead because of a second. Dead despite a second. Dead like rock and steady like shaking hands.
So, Tobirama is used to consequences. He's a firm believer in asking for forgiveness than for permission.
(Anija always had been too easy on me.)
None of this explains why he's standing in front of himself.
God, he looks like a child.
(God, he's only 11 years old.)
All of this explains why he's standing in front of himself.
He knows he was a little rash killing Izuna.
He knows he was a lot rash treating Madara like a traitor even before they moved on from more intrinsic tasks to the welfare of the village, like his beloved paperwork.
(He will never understand why everyone hates it. The repetitive, light work is soothing really. He always had been more at home in a desk than a battlefield to be considered true bloodthirsty shinobi though.)
He knows he was downright a dumbass alienating his brother. Who had run and run and cried for a long lost friend when no one was looking.
(They were a family of dumbasses with more than a little bit of trust issues. Even Butsuma in the end had died thinking his family poisoned him instead of accepting a very real illness.)
He knows when Hashirama turns up dead that he has to take the role of hokage, to keep his brothers dream alive, to make sure they don't fall back to endless, tiring killing for vengeance and hatred and a daimyo's gold.
(He never does tell anyone it's not Hashirama's body, but a very real-looking replacement. Understands that his brother would never be content in his village that was supposed to be our village, would do anything to protect that dream, but was so, so tired. He could not begrudge his Anija time away and time to rest. He only hopes Madara will forgive them in the afterlife.)
He's the Second Hokage of Three. The middle child if you will. (He misses being the second child of four, it's a small clarification but matters to his heart more than anything else ever will.)
Now, he's the Second Hokage of a world with no hokage, with no konohagakure, a contradiction within itself. Someone who should not exist. He wonders if time and space will consume him and he'll cease to exist.
(And yet He is still here.)
"What the Fuck."
Ah, how he missed the eloquence of his younger years.
(He doesn't miss that his vocabulary is little better now- has turned into sounds reminiscent of the Uchiha he now risks his life with-)