The bijuu use their semi-human forms as they travel down the mountain the next morning. Shukaku, mostly asleep, got to ride Yukiko, who has taken a shining to him. Tobirama is only slightly concerned the snow leopard might replace him with the Ichibi. Only slightly. Matatabi has taken to gently terrorizing Ayame and, not wanting to get in the Nibi's way, Tobirama mostly ends up thinking on his own the entire way down.

With nothing else to do, he ends up investigating the chakra leech. Again. He doesn't try to remove it- doing so while traveling would just be a bad idea, particularly since he's traveling down cliff side trails, which are hardly wide enough for a person. Instead, he tests the affect the leech has on him as much as he can without throwing around high level jutsu.

His chakra is hovering around 4/5. It cuts down on his ability to use taxing jutsu but not so much as to be a disadvantage in a fight unless he's fighting someone equal to him, like Izuna, or better than him, like Madara. Avoiding the Uchiha is still a top priority, then, which isn't very surprising. Of course, this is a different universe where facts that he remembers being unchangeable are twisted, so who knows the truth.

It'd be brilliant if he could get in contact with this universe's original version of him for interrogation. Maybe Edo Tensei...? He hasn't quite figured that technique out, yet, so he'll have to do something about that. The main problem is making the temporary body out of something pliable yet long lasting. There's also getting the summons to obey the summoner and figuring out how to activate the array without using an entire body's worth of blood.

He could use a fresh corpse but, like any organ transfer, he'd assume that there'd be a chance the soul won't agree with a body not it's own or that the body itself will reject an unfamiliar soul. Theoretically, making a false body using something from the original's corpse (hair, skin, blood, etc.) would be possible but that would likely classify as immoral by Hashirama's standards. Actually, using a random corpse might classify as immoral as well...

Making the false body out of earth and whatnot might be his only option that other people won't persecute him for, which means changing that part of the summoning seal is unnecessary. The false body would be more delicate like this, prone to cracking even with a steady chakra supply, if the false body can withstand the chakra at all.

The control problem can be temporarily put aside, since he could easily create a second seal to control the summons, maybe attached to a kunai. He'll come back to it later, once he has the more important problems fixed.

As for the blood... he could replace at least some of it with chakra but the costs would be enormous, not to mention that it would likely burn out the array. Using Edo Tensei even once would require months of preparation, if not longer, if he could even find a way to let the array survive the influx of that much chakra.

Once he's adjusted the array to replace the majority of the blood with chakra, he might be able to work out a way to lessen the chakra cost and, from there, the amount of blood needed-

"Tobirama-san?" He snaps to attention, off-kilter when he finds his group and himself on the outskirts of a town instead in the mountains. There's a pair of young women in front of him and he's fairly sure one of them is a shinobi but with so much bijuu chakra around, his senses are a bit skewed.

"Yes?" He asks.

"You asked us to look after Uchiha Madara and Konoha," one says.

"No I-" ah, wait. The cult. They've returned. "...Right. I forgot about that." Beside him Ayame purrs out a laugh. Shukaku attaches himself to Tobirama, peering around to stare are the two women.

"Well Konoha seems to be doing alright, especially in comparison to other villages. Senju Touka raised a fuss about something the other day and Uchiha Izuna is helping her keep it all hush hush. Um... we think Uchiha Madara got a summons, since he changed paths and isn't really stopping for anything except sleep and food. Anything else?" The second woman shakes her head in response and the first offers him a grin. "Want anything else?" Tobirama hesitates before nodding and motioning to his two bijuu companions.

"These are Shukaku and Matatabi. Please share around the word that the, ah, network can help them, as well." The woman smiles brightly.

"Sure! We'll be on our way, then. Suzuki and I are going on our honeymoon!" Tobirama blinks.

"Err... congrats?" The woman grins and waves, skipping off with her partner in tow.

"Who were they?" Matatabi asks curiously.

"I have no idea. Part of my cult, apparently."

"...I'm sorry your what?" Tobirama can only offer a heavy sigh.