Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-38812954-20191223174558/@comment-9782468-20191223222701

He apologized to them because it would lock their souls in the Reaper's stomach rather than allowing them to rest in the pure land. Nothing more than that.

Tobirama created 2 forbidden jutsu, which is more than Hiruzen ever even used in the series.

You can't see him being God of Shinobi any other way because we haven't seen his prime. We've only seen him fight while heavily nerfed by age. But the nerf was always noted to be his chakra levels and physical strength. No one said "why isn't he using his forbidden jutsu?"

No, it definitely doesn't have to be forbidden jutsu master. Hashirama almost exclusively used Wood Release and was God of Shinobi. Minato used about 1-2 jutsu in every fight we've seen him, and he was still one of the most feared SHinobi of his time. You don't need forbidden jutsu to be God of Shinobi.