[Video, some time near the end of this storm shenanigans]

[myninjainfocard]

[The feed starts out with very obvious shuffling around before finally steadying and focusing. Kabuto sure is looking like a right mess. He's still put on appearances enough to look mostly human, but he looks absolutely haggard, hair very much out of the ponytail and looking wild. His glasses are the only put together part about him. He's seems to have also not bothered with a shirt today, the background some might recognize as the examination room of the medical carriage.

Look, don't ask why he's picked there.

He rubs his hand against his face with a low sigh, right, put together.]

Do we have any idea how much longer this is going to continue on? And what is the point of thinking it practical to stay in the medical carriage to avoid having to go through the nonsense to get here if whatever entity is in charge or the train or whatever it is finds it prudent that I still wake in my assigned bed?

[Even his voice sounds... tired. Just exhausted.]

I suppose it... would make sense on a logical and practical level, but I can't help but feel... annoyed that I evidently can't be treated like a fully grown adult and make my own decisions about when I sleep and where I sleep.

Any... information into this nonsense is greatly appreciated.

Comments

[stonefvced]

( Just this stare. Really Kabuto, you haven't figured out any space-time jutsu? He actually finds that hard to believe. )

[myninjainfocard]

[Too busy being dragon and making zombies, bro.]

What.

[stonefvced]

I know you as underhanded not unskilled.

You truly choose to use your skill in aiding those on the train?

[myninjainfocard]

[Ah. He slowly shrugs, actually seeming to not be lying about this for once. But whether that's true or not... What's your insight, Tobirama.]

Believe it or not, healing was the first thing I learned before everything else happened. Though I can, and have, used my other skills off of this train if a battle is something that does come up.

[stonefvced]

Why shift your focus?

[myninjainfocard]

Necessity. [Sorry, Tobirama, you're going to have to pry deeper or be specific if you want answers out of him.]

[stonefvced]

Valid, but unfortunate. ( He's a long game person in things like this -- at least when there isn't immediate action necessary. )

[myninjainfocard]

[Guess who's going to be a dick.]

You can heartily blame Danzo for that one. [He's pretty certain those timelines add up.]

[stonefvced]

I imagine I could blame Danzou for a lot of things. The extent of which I've only started to become privy to. At least there was a poetic irony to his death. ( Its the little things that count sometimes. )

[myninjainfocard]

[You know what, he's tired and this changes nothing.]

Were you aware that he thought it a grand idea to blackmail an orphanage into getting what he wanted?

[stonefvced]

( His eyes narrow and his face shifts in clear disgust and disappointment. ) I did not.

[myninjainfocard]

Something about how Konoha gave them funding and he could get rid of it if they didn't comply. By giving them one of the children for his Root nonsense.

[He's sure Tobirama can read between the lines of what he's not saying.]

[stonefvced]

Root. ( It's almost acidic the way he says it. It'd been years but even still there were some things that Sai wouldn't speak about yet. A large portion of people Sakura works with were once Root. Anyway, yes he can read between the lines just fine. )

[myninjainfocard]

[There's the faintest hint of a smile that tugs at his lips before his expression returns to neutral. It's... at least good to hear that the feeling about it is mutual.]

As I said, necessity. Though I'm quite keen to know if they continued on after everything. Given what a bore it was to continually deal with the tracking.

[stonefvced]

After Danzou's death? ( Very mutual, but also which 'everything'? There's a couple of those. )

[myninjainfocard]

That and I assume the end of the war. [At least he's cognizant to the fact he, uh, probably was not on the winning end of that fight. But it didn't really matter at the end of the day when the whole point was to forge an identity.]

[stonefvced]

( Did you really forge your own identity, Kabuto? Because from where he's standing... ) No, they did not.

[myninjainfocard]

[What else was he going to do.]

Good. [Really, he's quite glad he didn't ask him why he doesn't know about the end of the war.] At least something necrotic was removed.

[stonefvced]

( Find your own footing. Yamato did. Sai did. Then again, many others did not. Many of them still struggle. Some completely lost but they all know which ones those are. ) A modest start but hardly the only thing in need of changing.

[myninjainfocard]

[That had been the plan. Become stronger than those before you, become a sage, make a name for yourself. Whether famous or infamous.

Evidently that didn't go so well for him.]

The same can be said of any of the villages. Perhaps it was the wake up call all of them needed. [The only positive to what he did.]

[stonefvced]

That's a stretch. Against everything, the urge for survival prevails. Hardly what I'd call a wake-up call.

[myninjainfocard]

[The smallest of shrugs, he really doesn't care at the end of the day.]

If it was survival, then let them dig their own graves. If it wasn't, then time will tell.

[stonefvced]

( He wished he could have more faith in people like his brother did, but what he believes in more is less the war bringing people together and more the generation who came through will lead their world to a better future. Sure, one could say the war was a catalyst for that but Tobirama believes it hadn't needed to be; and this aside he had no desire to give war and those pulling the strings credit. )

You seem to think it doesn't affect you either way.

[myninjainfocard]

[For the longest moment he remains silent, taking in everything he can see in that video. He knows his history well enough, but there's still something that's... slightly distressing about not being able to read him as quickly as others.

But his expression falters, somewhat, into something not calm and composed before being pulled right back to neutral. Realization, sadness, regret? Who knows.]

Because it won't. Either I will be dead, imprisoned, or exiled at the end of it. I know this, I expected it. What happens at the end will not involve me outside of what they decide to do with me.

[stonefvced]

( And there they are, doing exactly the same thing to one another. Watching, quietly, analyzing every twitch in muscle. Any shift, pause, breath. Noticing that second's flash of something more. )

If it was up to me. ( He has no qualms with admitting this. Tobirama might have changed just a little, in time, with a lot of work, but he was still Old Testament. He likely always will be. ) But it is not, and in your time I'd think its not mine either. So perhaps you can use your time here to consider the best way to take advantage of that second chance you'll likely receive.