[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

[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.

[myninjainfocard]

[It's not his choice, is precisely why he doesn't see a huge problem in saying these sorts of things. Whether somehow alive again or not as he might be in their world or not, he still has no say in these things.

He can't help the soft bit of a snort, it's very clear that when he's run himself this ragged his usual hold of appearances and words are a lot looser.]

With everything I've done? Absolutely not.

The only way that would happen is if Na-[He immediately stops, a momentary realization of something.]

I hate that you're potentially correct.

[stonefvced]

( And isn't that a nice little piece of information? Not only about the Hokage but the time that Tobirama is from. Clearly, if it wasn't obvious from his knowledge already, he's somehow still alive past the fourth war. This was enough to confirm that, one imagines.

Something amused marks the Second's lips for a moment, however. ) Well if you hate it so much you have a few years before the idiot takes over, so by all means attempt to ire people into your death if you're so keen on penance.

[myninjainfocard]

[Does he hate it? Does he really?

He's silent once more as he ponders over near everything, probably not the best in his current state of being, but that's never stopped him before. He has time, he doesn't know entirely how everything ends, what even happened. But from the way things are being worded, confirmation that he does know how it ends... That for some reason he wasn't absolutely murdered out there...

What does that even mean?]

Penance isn't the word I would use for it. [He lets that linger for a moment, just to really drive that particular point home.]

It's more, I supposed logically, what would the point in keeping me around even be? Whether for information or for some form of attempted thoughts of penance? What I know, knew, I suppose, in regards to everything Orochimaru was doing is hardly worth anything anymore. I suspect Madara isn't a threat anymore by the end of things, so that is also considered useless.

Root and Danzou are gone, so another dead thread with no purpose.

What would the point be?

[stonefvced]

( He's seen this many times. The loss of purpose. No more leverage to hold. No more knowledge to manipulate. No strings to pull. Who are they? Who are they when everything they've been trained to do is gone?

He'd agree with Kabuto, personally. Someone like him knew too much and couldn't be trusted but that's not the point of this anymore. )

There isn't a point. Root is gone, Danzou is dead. Your purpose is yours to choose.

[myninjainfocard]

[He didn't even mention the other knowledge of villages and the like he'd collected over the years. Without an identity, without a purpose, he goes through the motions here but does it really matter?

Slowly he takes a deep breath to steady himself, to steady the nerves threatening to say and do more than he's willing.]

I don't have one. I don't have an identity.

[stonefvced]

( To strip a man so bare like this. Danzou, you deserved so much worse than you received. He's sure of it. That Saru was also aware of this just... so disappointing. How did he fail so deeply as a teacher, as a leader, to be the one responsible for those who created such atrocities? )

You're a medic, are you not?

[myninjainfocard]

[If only he knew the half of it. He'd already alluded to it previously, but when you take a child who already wasn't aware of their past and fine tune into not having an identity, to be essentially a chameleon...]

Yes? [Supposedly on the same level as Tsunade to some, but he's sure that won't even be something thought of later on.]

[stonefvced]

Is that not a purpose? One desperately needed.

[myninjainfocard]

[Healers are fairly mundane in his experience, but...]

I... suppose so. And I do think there is reason to believe I'm rather good at it. [Understatement of the century.]

[stonefvced]

( Well then don't be mundane, Kabuto. This is hard -- this is his brother's expertise. Perhaps the pauses identify that Tobirama's taking a lot of time to be cautious and contemplative over his words. )

Then make it your purpose to become exceptional at it.