"…"
Faced with Senju Tobirama's wild request to seal Madara up with his ass sticking out, Sasuke fell silent for a moment, then shook his head.
"I can't. That would require way too much precise control."
Chibaku Tensei used Madara himself as the core of gravity, which meant Madara had to be dead center.
If Sasuke wanted to keep Madara at the edge of the seal with half his body exposed, he'd need to use a version like Nagato's Chibaku Tensei, creating a gravitational black sphere instead of making Madara the center directly.
At the same time, he'd also need to keep using Banshō Ten'in to pull Madara's body and hold him within a fixed range!
Only then could he meet the Second Hokage's sick requirements.
That was simply not something Sasuke could pull off at his current level.
"…"
Still lying flat on the floor, Senju Tobirama remained silent.
Only after the small Chibaku Tensei fully formed did he finally speak.
"It's fine. I only said that for Madara to hear."
Now that Madara was sealed inside, he shouldn't be able to hear anything outside, so only then did Tobirama reveal his true, twisted purpose.
Sasuke's expression instantly stiffened.
He finally managed to have a proper cool-guy moment against Madara!
For once, he showed off successfully without getting interrupted or beaten down halfway through.
But now, Sasuke could clearly see the massive gap between himself and the older generation of scheming monsters.
'Is the Second Hokage even human?!'
An Edo Tensei body had no sense of touch, and Madara's current body had almost no sensory ability to begin with.
Once sealed inside Chibaku Tensei, that ability would drop to absolute zero.
So Madara, trapped inside, couldn't perceive a damn thing about his own condition!
All he knew was that right before he got sealed away, Tobirama said, "Leave his ass exposed, with half his body sticking out."
Even if Madara was now fully sealed inside, he'd be totally unable to stop himself from imagining whether half his ass was really left outside, and whether Tobirama planned to call the Inuzuka clan's hounds over to do something deeply disgraceful to him!
What? You think Tobirama promised Hashirama he wouldn't make a move?
Could anyone really trust a promise made by such a sinister, cunning bastard?!
In short, Tobirama took advantage of Madara's complete lack of trust in him and threw out just that one cursed line before Madara was sealed.
As a result, Madara would now be trapped in endless darkness, mentally torturing himself with horrifying imaginings of what might be happening to the half of his body supposedly left outside!
'Terrifying.'
Even Sasuke couldn't help drawing in a cold breath inwardly.
"Second Hokage, please look after Naruto for me. I'm a little tired." Sasuke slowly lay down on the wrecked bed, yanked a pillow under his head, and then promptly fainted—or perhaps simply fell asleep.
Sasuke's Rinnegan awakening was different from the original timeline, where the Sage of Six Paths directly pumped him full of Yin power and gave him temporary strength to blow it freely.
His Rinnegan really had been on the verge of awakening already, but no matter what, this time it was still forced out early by intense, panicked stimulation.
It was exactly like one of those monster-catching games: a Pokémon normally needed to reach level 36 for its third evolution, but if its affection for you was high enough, then at level 32, after getting beaten down to one HP in battle, it might suddenly evolve mid-fight and skip straight to its final stage!
"…"
The Second Hokage, still sprawled on the floor, was just about to say something when Sasuke already passed out.
Tobirama was completely speechless.
The only thing he could move right now was his damn tongue!
How exactly was he supposed to take care of Naruto like this?!
After thinking it over, Tobirama decided to just leave it alone.
After all, Sasuke just dropped a Chibaku Tensei here, causing such a massive disturbance that someone would surely come running soon.
And even if no one came, his idiot elder brother would be back before long.
He could easily explain things to them then.
As for Naruto?
If Tobirama guessed correctly, then the ability Sasuke just used after awakening both Rinnegan was the exact same as adult Sasuke's one-eyed Rinnegan ability.
A space-time technique that swapped the positions of two objects.
'It was called Amenotejikara, wasn't it?'
Back then, adult Sasuke used Amenotejikara to swap the Rinnegan in Urashiki's hand with a literal pile of dog crap on the ground, successfully giving an Ōtsutsuki a taste of Earth's local cuisine!
If that was the case, then when Sasuke and Naruto swapped places just now, Naruto should have appeared exactly where Sasuke had originally been.
Even if it wasn't inside Amegakure itself, it should at least be somewhere nearby outside the village.
Either way, it ought to be a relatively safe place.
There was no need to worry about Naruto running into danger.
...
Meanwhile, elsewhere— Inside Amegakure.
Before awakening the Rinnegan and using Amenotejikara to switch places with Naruto, Sasuke was flying through the air inside Susanoo, desperately trying to rush home as fast as possible.
When he realized he still wouldn't make it in time, that was when the Rinnegan awakened.
Which meant that after Naruto swapped places with Sasuke, the place where Naruto appeared was IN MIDAIR.
Of course, Sasuke wasn't so panicked that he lost all reason.
Before using Amenotejikara, he deliberately lowered his flying height. Only after making sure Naruto wouldn't be injured by the fall did he activate the technique.
The low-flying Susanoo caused some commotion, but as soon as Amenotejikara activated, the disturbance completely ceased.
Naruto, who had been swapped over, dropped from the air and crashed straight into a clothing store, landing perfectly inside a dress displayed in the shop window!
The whole sequence was so stupidly smooth that one couldn't help wondering whether the scene had somehow wandered into a Tom and Jerry episode.
"Rin, now that you've been revived and you're alive again, stop training so hard without caring for your body all the time! And now that you're alive again, you can finally wear pretty clothes too! Today I'm taking you shopping for a few nice outfits."
"Rin, let me tell you, last time I went shopping I already found several styles I really liked. It's just that I'm in an Edo Tensei body, so I can't wear them. Even if I put something over my whole body and then add another layer outside, it still makes me look fat…" Kushina happily dragged Rin toward the women's clothing store she'd long had her eye on.
As they passed the display window, Kushina blinked in surprise.
"Why does this store have a mannequin in the window that looks so much like Naruto?"
"Uh, Kushina-nee… are you absolutely sure that's a mannequin?" Rin looked totally awkward.
The Three-Tails inside her didn't have the same cowardly concerns as the Nine-Tails, so once they got close enough, Isobu directly told her that the person in front of them was the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki and also carried a portion of the Three-Tails' chakra.
So there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever.
"What do you mean? You're saying that's actually Naruto?!" Kushina looked more carefully and realized that this "mannequin" really was breathing!
Kushina immediately went blank.
"Don't tell me Naruto is so strapped for cash that he had to come out and take a part-time job like THIS?!"
'That was just too— WAIT, NO!'
Kushina lowered her gaze and noticed something horribly wrong.
Naruto was wearing a dress, and his bare legs were fully exposed below it!
But when Kushina looked more closely, she saw there was a pair of pants lying right at Naruto's feet!
If Naruto were really working part-time, then those pants should have been in a changing room!
Why would they be here?!
Could it be Naruto was forced into this?!
Crash.
SMASH!
Without another word, Kushina threw a vicious punch and shattered the display window, jumped inside, and fiercely slapped Naruto across the face!
"Mm… mm?" Naruto, whose genjutsu had already been released but who was still deep asleep, opened his eyes in confusion.