The Kinkaku force was closing in on them. As they tree-hopped at full speed, dozens of plans were being formed and promptly discarded in Tobirama's mind.

There was no way that all of them were going to survive this. Taking a deep breath, Tobirama finally made a decision, and signaled his students to stop at the upcoming clearing.

"One of us has to stay behind." He revealed without any preamble. Hiruzen, being his smartest student, was quick to grasp the logic behind his words. "I'll stay, sensei. I'll do my best to hold them off."

Tobirama shook his head. "As long as I'm alive, none of you will play the sacrificial pawn. You are the future of Konoha, and as my duty as Hokage and your sensei states, I'll be staying behind to provide distraction. Hiruzen, I wish for you to lead the village as the Sandaime, as it is unlikely that I'll make it. Now, make haste for Konoha and inform the village of this betrayal. I do not want any arguments." He held up his hand putting an end to the protests he knew were sure to come.

After taking a last look at his students, Tobirama turned back, intent on taking out as many members of the Kinkaku Force as he could, giving his students the best chance to make it back home alive.

Almost two hours later, Tobirama was lying face-down on dirt, bleeding from more injuries that he cared to count, more importantly with the entirity of Kinkaku Force dead by his hands. An ordinary ninja would have given up long ago, but he was Tobirama Senju. As long as he was breathing he could mould chakra.

Hiruzen was still a chunnin. Despite his high intelligence and knack for tactics, it would be difficult for him to manage Konoha's administration and military, especially with war on the horizon. Tobirama had immense faith in his student, however he didn't wish to leave him to flounder.

He thought back to the incomplete seal he had been working on in training ground 44, for long distance teleportation, which was far more likely to blown him to pieces than perform its intended function. Nonetheless, he was dying anyway. he didn't have anything to lose. He drew the seal on the ground with his own blood (there was plenty available), and activated it, being completely prepared for instant vaporisation.

He was surprised to feel the familiar sensation of being teleported by Hiraishin, albeit longer and more nauseating. A few seconds later he fell on his face again, this time thankfully on grass (which was a lot softer than Kumo's rocky terrain). He tensed up for a moment before sensing the chakra of Hashirama's mokouton imbibed in trees sorrounding him, and relaxed. He was aware that he wasn't going to survive unless he recieved urgent medical attention, and flared his chakra in the standard Konoha code for 'Medical Assistance Required'. He hoped someone stupid or brave enough to train in the inner areas of training ground 44 would be able to sense it.

It looked like his luck was shining that day because only after a minute he felt someone approaching. With effort, he rolled over to face his would be saviour, and was surprised to see Kagami's face looking back at him, when he had just left his student near the border of Lightening Country, which was two days away from Konoha, even at shinobi speed. He was about to question his student regarding this when the blood loss finally caught up to him and he lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was Kagami's panicked face as he took in the severity of Tobirama's injuries.

Despite the assumption of rest of his clan, Uchiha Shisui was neither stupid nor reckless. No one reached the rank of jonin with those characteristics, especially at the age of 14. However, at that moment, he was having doubts about his intelligence as h dodged another fireball from the giant caterpillar that had decided that Shisui would taste great as a roasted snack.

Even though he had been warned countless times by his superiors that the deeper sections of Forest of Death were only supposed to be used for ANBU team survival training, Shisui had entered the training ground without any backup.

It wasn't like he was unaware of the danger or overconfident in his abilities. But with the recent escalating tensions between the village and the Uchiha clan and the increasing probability of him using brainwashing genjutsu against his own relatives, he had just had enough. The revelation that Itachi had been spying on the clan didn't help the matter. For some time he just want to get away from everything- the village, the clan, Itachi, his teammates. With that mentality, Training ground 44 seemed like a good option.

12 giant crickets, 7 acid spitting leopards and 6 pyromaniac caterpillars later, breathing heavily with more scrapes, burns and bruises than he cared to count, he was regretting the decision of his past self. He was just about to hightail out of the forest (to never return again) ,when he flt a chakra flare in the pattern of a very old Konoha code (taught to him by Grandpa Kagami).

Despite his suspicions about infiltrators, Shisui proceeded towards the origin of the signal. Even if it was an enemy shinobi, it was necessary to detain him rather than leave him there with direct access to the village if he managed to get past the killer forest.

In a clearing not too far from Shisui's original location, he spotted a shinobi with his face down on the ground. He had spiky hair akin to Hatake-senpai and was sporting various injuries, which looked like they were from ninja weapons rather than any beast of the forest. As Shisui approached the shinobi rolled over to reveal a face Shisui couldn't help but recognize, before losing consciousness. It was a face he saw almost daily on the Hokage mountain.

Shisui was not prepared for this. The Second Hokage (Shisui activated his Mangekyou Sharingan just to be sure) was unconscious in the Forest of Death with life threatening injuries, while he should dead and buried long before Shisui was born. Oh my God, were those intestines that were poking out...

All right ,Shisui, calm down. Just treat it like a mission.

There is an unconscious shinobi with fatal injuries and suspicious background in a restricted section of the village.

Take him to the emergency rooms in ANBU headquarters.

Are those injuries going to be aggravated when he is moved?

Yes.

Is the shinobi going to survive long enough for interrogation if he is not moved?

No.

It took Shisui 2 seconds to come to a decision, following which he carefully picked up the Niidaime (Or a really good impersonator), and shunshined to the ANBU HQ.

Tobirama instinctively scanned the room for chakra signatures as regained consciousness. There were none in immediate vicinity which rendered it safe for him to open his eyes.

He found himself in a detainment room with chakra suppressing seals.

If it hadn't been for the seals, he would have assumed that he had been captured by Kumo. But Kumo ninja couldn't produce such seals if their life depended on it. Furthermore Tobirama recognised them to be modified form of his own design.

So, he was in Konoha.

Before he could dwell much into the possible scenarios responsible for his own village detaining him, the door opened to reveal a short, old man wearing the Hokage garb. Tobirama, however, was more fixated on his chakra signature.

"Hiruzen?" He blurted out.

What had happened to transform his teenage student to a gaffer, in span of what couldn't be more than a month, even in the worst case scenario.

The old man (Hiruzen?) smiled. " It's good to see you again, sensei. I apologise for the confinement. But exceptions can't be made. Even though I recognise your chakra, you have been missing in action for half a century."

Tobirama would never admit it, but he gaped.

"Will you be amenable for a mind walk? It would make the process of reinstating you much simpler." His student asked, not even trying to hide his amusement.

Tobirama's brain took a second to reboot. Half a century? Time travel? It was considered impossible, though that didn't mean much to Tobirama. He had defied the realm of impossibility too many times to count. An incomplete space time seal with a one in a million chance of doing its designated job, was definitely capable of producing such bizarre result. Tobirama preferred this to being blown to bits, but he wasn't naive enough to think that all his loved ones would have weathered the storm of time for fifty years.

Wait..

"Kagami didn't look any older when he found me in the forest."

"Ah... Shisui-kun bears a great resemblance to his grandfather. But surely you realised his chakra was different?"

Grandfather?? That was going to need some getting used to.

Tobirama centered himself, before answering," Training Ground 44 is saturated with Hashirama's chakra. It's difficult to identify different chakra signatures there, unless I'm concentrating, which, being delirious with blood loss, I had forgone to do.

Hiruzen nodded in understanding, as he always did when Tobirama explained something to him.

"I'll agree to a mind walk by the Yamanaka clan head." Tobirama stipulated, answering Hiruzen's previous question. Not only he had classified information that should be accessible only to the highest ranking Yamanaka, he didn't wish for his mind to be invaded by an untrained one, who wouldn't know to suppress involuntary emotional implantation. He already had enough on his plate without the added baggage belonging to someone else.