Araki was talking with Hashirama and Tobirama. Although Hashirama and Tobirama heard a lot about his story from Madara's mouth, hearing it from Araki's mouth give them his own perspective.
They understood a lot more about what Hiruzen and Danzo had done.
To this, Tobirama couldn't help but sigh with disappointment, "Did I make a mistake in judging their characters? Or perhaps my death gave a bigger shock to Hiruzen than I anticipated. He had become quite cowardly…"
"You can't be entirely blamed about this matter, Tobirama. I am equally to blame… It should have been my job in guiding the young generation, but I failed in that aspect. Just as I said to Madara, his and my own philosophy and idealogy had failed. I was far too optimistic of the future that I ignored or maybe turned a blind eye to the troubles which could arise…" Hashirama said with a hint of melancholy in his voice.
Hearing the two speak, Araki remained quiet for some moments before speaking up, "Grandpa, granduncle… I do understand that you are disappointed. I can't say that I am happy with your choices either. You both have made a couple of mistakes, perhaps blunders."
"However… I am also aware that even if you took all sorts of precautions, the situation wouldn't have changed much. If not now, the same thing could have occurred a few generations later. The Uzumaki Clan wouldn't have someone like me to protect them at that time… So, blaming yourself is also not right," Perhaps Araki's words weren't the best for consoling someone, it certainly did the trick as he spoke to Hashirama and Tobirama.
"To think my grandson would be consoling me. You really have grown up from that tiny size…" Hashirama said with a smile on his face. He gently patted Araki's head.
Araki was a little shy as his head was patted by Hashirama. Ever since he was little and heard of his grandfather's legends, he always wanted to spend time with him like this.
To think that his wish was being fulfilled right now.
The loving smile on Hashirama's face seemed to be radiating an unconditional love…
"I won't ask you to forgive any of the villages for their actions… I am a dead man, I have no right to interfere with the living world again. Also… Just like mercy is necessary, heavy punishment is also obligatory… I simply hope that you do not take your anger on the innocent people," Hashirama said, quite gently to Araki.
Araki gave him a nod while replying, "I will keep it in my mind, grandpa. I will also be correcting your mistake of giving away the tailed beast. All the tailed beasts are going to be free… never to be captured again by anyone."
Hashirama nodded his head, quite satisfied with Araki's response.
"Alright then, I guess it's time for the two of us to be released from the Edo Tensei," Hashirama said to Araki and Tobirama nodded in agreement.
Araki was a little startled as he said, "Wait… Why are you going so soon? I wanted to take you to the Senju Clan Manor and let you meet with my wife. She is an Uzumaki… And… And you haven't even met up with Tsunade."
Hashirama stayed quiet, and it was Tobirama who said, "We must not stay in the living world any longer. After having met you, elder brother and I, already want to revive and live in this world. If we make any more connections… That desire would only grow stronger. It would be best if no one other than you knows of this. It's time for us to go…"
Tobirama had spoken quite sternly. Araki stayed quiet in turn, he was quite sad after hearing this, but he understood what his granduncle wanted to say.
"Meeting you had already been a lot for us. Take care of yourself…" Hashirama said before turning to Tobirama.
Tobirama raised his hands and started doing a lot of hand seals. After some time, he performed all the hand seals and said, "Edo Tensei: Kai!"
Hashirama and Tobirama's body started crumbling as papers fell down… Soon enough, their bodies transformed into the bodies of the shinobi who had been sacrificed to revive these two.
Araki didn't give it much thought and destroyed the bodies of these two shinobi.
'Well then… Let's return the Rinnegan eyes to Nagato first before starting to figure out the powers of my own Rinnegan.' Araki thought as he was quite curious about the powers of his Rinnegan.
He wasn't going to mention anything about Hashirama and Tobirama. Still, he guessed that he might have to mention Madara since the huge shockwave was something that must have been felt by everyone in Konoha or perhaps even the nearby villages.
Firstly, he went to Nagato's side, who was still unconscious. It was Araki's Wood Clone who had hit him to make him fall unconscious. Currently, he was laying at the location where Araki's trees containing life-essence were there.
Since Araki had extracted quite a lot of life-essence from these trees, it had been exhausted by now.
Araki appeared to Nagato's side and implanted the Rinnegan in his eye sockets. After having implanted the Rinnegan… He sent his chakra in Nagato's body and felt the eye quickly connecting to the nerves in Nagato's eyes.
The Rinnegan had connected much more suitably than before.
He let Nagato sleep for some time. He wondered if his friends were searching for him right now… Fortunately, Nagato was training alone when Black Zetsu had taken over Nagato's Body and forced him to use Rinne-Rebirth Jutsu and then taken his eyes. Or else, the two would have been badly injured or even killed…
Now that nearly everything was settled, Araki took Nagato's body to the Akatsuki residence. There… The Akatsuki could take care of him. Araki would explain to him what happened later.
And Araki himself returned to the Senju Clan Manor.
There… Araki met an anxious Kushina and Tsunade and many other Uzumaki Clan Members.
"Araki, you finally returned!" Kushina let out a breath of relief before jumping forwards to hug him tightly. She had quite a rack right now, and it squeezed against Araki's chest.
Araki faintly blushed before returning her hug, "Don't worry, I am fine now, nothing has happened to me."
"But what happened? I was in the Sage Mode and sensed some huge amount of Chakra… One of them was even larger than yours. And then, your chakra even lowered to a considerable level… I wanted to come and help you, but your wood clone had mentioned that I must not come at all costs. This wasn't a fight I could come and interfere… I really had to hold myself back so that I don't come there."
"Let's get inside... I will explain everything to you." Araki said while proceeding to give them a story.
It went on about how Orochimaru had summoned Madara. Madara had somehow revived himself using the Rinnegan held by Nagato… Madara got those Rinnegan eyes, and he was really strong!
He had to use his strongest move against Madara's attacks.
This was the Wooden Statue that they had seen from the Senju Clan Manor.
After having answered a lot of their questions… Araki went outside. He was going towards the training ground…
Araki created 10 or so Wood Clones. All of them activated the Rinnegan by sending chakra in their eyes.
Araki and his Wood Clones received 10 or so images in each of their minds at the same time. And with that, each one started his own training to become proficient in the use of Rinnegan.
Kaguya's memories were quite useful in that regard…