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>>4941506
“Orochimaru?” Tsunade repeats in disbelief. “Why do you need to talk with him?

“Because he’s been to Ryūchi Cave,” you explain, “back when he learned about senjutsu chakra. His training may have been a failure but it’s just the question of where he trained that I care about.”

“And you think this will help you prepare for the other Ōtsutsuki?” she stares at you, before shaking her head. “Okay, if that’s what you think has to happen I can arrange it. But the elders will insist on you being monitored – even if you and Orochimaru weren’t exactly comrades in Akatsuki, they’re the elders and he’s a known traitor to the village. They’re allowed to be unreasonable at times like this, so there’s not much I can say or do to win the argument.”

Tsuna-han then orders Shizune-han to find Kakashi and have him meet you at Konoha’s ‘Strict Correctional Facility’ – to which Tsuna herself must escort you to ensure that you, Kakashi, and your friends even make it in the front door. It’s below the mountain into which the Hokage Monument is carved, albeit significantly deeper than you’d have thought judging by the molten rock. It’s the source of the thermal heat that means Konoha can have a hot springs district, much like where you’ve been building those little buildings in your spare time.

“Charming,” Ryūzetsu muses.

Inside the prison, with his own private cell in the darkness, you find Orochimaru of the Sannin. A set of cuffs link his wrists, though a sealing mark planted squarely in the middle of his forehead is what’s obviously keeping him from breaking himself out. A devious design, meant to interfere with his ability to mould chakra.

“A visitor?” Orochimaru muses, sitting on his bed and still staring at the wall of his cell. “I’m flattered someone like you would come down here just to see someone like me.”

“Yeah no,” you frown. “You know I’m here for a reason.”

“I do.”

“I need to know how to get to Ryūchi Cave.”

“And why should I tell you that?” Orochimaru muses.

>I’ll talk to Tsuna-han about your situation. That’s all I can promise.
>Because you’ll have my gratitude. No other reason than that.
>Because I’ll let you come with me. Consider it a reward for good behavior.
>Other?

Can't Sasuke just... summon a snake and ask to be taken to the Cave?

>>4941605
Not really, no, and I'll be explaining why in the next update post(s). Suffice it to say the Snakes are kind of assholes.

>>4941511
>>I’ll talk to Tsuna-han about your situation. That’s all I can promise.

>>4941511
>Because Kaguya was apparently the weakest of her clan. And as you’ve seen they have a tendency to eat chakra. If I lose then the chances of the world, and everyone in it who has a drop of chakra, rises dramatically.

>>4941511
>I’ll talk to Tsuna-han about your situation. That’s all I can promise.

>>4941511
>Because you’ll have my gratitude. No other reason than that.

>>4941511
>I’ll talk to Tsuna-han about your situation. That’s all I can promise.

>>4941511
>>I’ll talk to Tsuna-han about your situation. That’s all I can promise.

>>4941511
“So yeah, all I can offer is to talk to Tsunade,” you decide aloud, “see if I can convince her to make a push on your behalf. I don’t think a shorter sentence is in the cards, at least not without a few years’ good behavior. But a change in scenery, a bit more relaxed security, maybe something to do? That could be worth your time.”

After considering your proposal for a moment, Orochimaru nods. “I suppose you’re correct... and you’ve always struck me as the fundamentally trustworthy type.”

“Ryūchi Cave is actually quite near Konoha, so close in fact that travelers pass by it accidentally all the type without even knowing. The Snake clan is quite adept at making sure that only people of certain qualities can find the place where they make their home.”

“Certain qualities?” Ryūzetsu repeats with a frown.

“Sometimes people misunderstand it as greed,” Orochimaru admits. “In reality, it’s more appropriate to say that what they seek is ambition. For all his many qualities, Sasuke-kun lacked any desire to find Ryūchi Cave, and so the White Snake Sage would probably never allow him there/”

“I’ve heard that name mentioned before,” Kakashi mutters to you.

“Yes, Ryūchi Cave is led by the White Snake Sage,” Orochimaru informs you calmly. “And she will definitely consider Naori-san here to be someone with the right qualities.”

“How so?” Fū wonders.

“It takes a lot of ambition to duel a god to the death,” Orochimaru grins. “In some ways, she even has me beat.”

You frown at that. “I’m not sure I consider that a compliment.”

Orochimaru shrugs. “Now, is there anything else you need to ask me about?”

>I’d like to know more about your research into senjutsu. I know how to use it, but you’ve actually analyzed it.
>Have you ever run across the Ōtsutsuki in your own research? Physical ruins, genetic characteristics, that sort of thing.
>I’m fairly certain I can handle the rest from here – more importantly, I want to reach my own conclusions.
>Other?

>>4942381
>>Have you ever run across the Ōtsutsuki in your own research? Physical ruins, genetic characteristics, that sort of thing.

>>4942381
>Have you ever run across the Ōtsutsuki in your own research? Physical ruins, genetic characteristics, that sort of thing.

>>4942381
>>Have you ever run across the Ōtsutsuki in your own research? Physical ruins, genetic characteristics, that sort of thing.

>>4942381
>Have you ever run across the Ōtsutsuki in your own research? Physical ruins, genetic characteristics, that sort of thing.

>>4942381
>Have you ever run across the Ōtsutsuki in your own research? Physical ruins, genetic characteristics, that sort of thing.

>>4942381
“I do have one question before I go,” you admit, a hint of curiosity to your tone. “There can’t have simply been no evidence of the Ōtsutsuki existing before Kaguya-hime appeared. Did you ever run across anything during your own research that may have suggested their presence, looking back?”

“Such as?”

“Genetic oddities, ancient ruins, textual references, anything at all.”

Orochimaru actually seems to consider the question for a moment, before coming to a realization. “Actually, I may have – are you familiar with the Kaguya clan?”

You shake your head. “Yeah no, only oblique references. Why?”

“That clan was the one whose members occasionally had the shikotsumyaki kekkei genkai,” he clarifies. “You faced it before.”

Ah, that’s the one. “Kimimaro, was it?”

“That’s right. His illness remained ‘terminal’ not because of any unusual severity, but because his physiology was so unusual it meant he was untreatable.”

“The shikotsumyaku does seem like a clear derivative of the tomogoroshi no haikotsu,” you muse thoughtfully. “So you believe these differences were due to being descended from a non-human?”

“That’s what I believe now that I think about it,” Orochimaru confirms. “The Kaguya clan was probably descended from this Ōtsutsuki Kaguya person who you, Naruto-kun, and Sasuke-kun fought against.”

“And if we wanted to track these Kaguya down?” Ryūzetsu demands. “How would we do that?”

“Kirigakure would have records,” Orochimaru tells you. “They were the ones who wiped the Kaguya...”

...

“Excuse me, Mei-tono,” you knock at the Mizukage’s door. “Could I trouble you?”

“Depends on how much trouble,” she muses, glancing up from her desk. “What is it?”

“Yeah no, I need some files,” you clarify. “On the Kaguya clan. Can you get those for me?”

“Give it an hour,” she replies, reaching out for you to hand a hiraishin kunai to her. “I’ll give this to the archivist, you can teleport to the marking and pick it up then.”

“Thank you.”

“No trouble, as it turns out.”

...
>1/3

>>4943522
“I have some documents being prepared,” you inform the group. “We can review them at our own pace.”

“The hiraishin is quite the technique for getting things taken care of,” Orochimaru muses. “Almost makes one wonder if that was its original intent.”

You take your leave of Orochimaru, and leave a message for Tsuna-han with Kakashi before striking out for the place that Orochimaru told you about. After one hour exactly from the time you met Mei-tono you drop a kunai into the dirt and teleport to the hiraishin kunai Mei-tono took to the archives, grab the documents and the kunai off a desk, then teleport back to your friends, grab them, and teleport to the hideout in the shrikes’ forest.

“I’m going to take these to Kijani-han,” you explain. “That way I can review them at any time, from anywhere.”

“How’s that suppose’ta work?” Fū asks you.

“So yeah, with the jōgan, I can see through a shrike’s eye,” you clarify. “So I should be able to read through Kijani-han’s.”

“Wait, it can do that?” Ryūzetsu wonders aloud. “That seems...”

“Unfair?” Fū offers.

“Just a little,” Ryūzetsu agrees.

...

“Do you really think that will work, Naori-dono?” Kijani asks after you explain your plan to him.

You nod. “So last time, I could see through Nyoka-han’s eye at considerable range. It shouldn’t be too difficult to arrange.”

“If you insist, we can try it at your convenience.”

...

After teleporting back to where you started, you continue the relatively short distance to where you’ve been told Ryūchi Cave can be found. Its entrance is carved into a low, stony hill, with holes in the ceiling to allow light into its wide passages. After working your way deeper underground, you’re confronted with an overblown, colorful facade like some sort of gaudy gambling den or gimmicky restaurant.

“Welcome, visitors!” a comely-looking woman in a fancy kimono greets you with a gracious bow. “I am Tagorihime, and I am to lead you into Ryūchi Cave. Please, you must be hungry after your journey.”
>2/3

>>4943523
Inside the facade is a long table set with dozens of dishes – vegetables and meats and rice, steamed buns, fried and steamed dumplings, fish, almost anything you can think of.

“Help yourself, the White Snake Sage will be with you shortly.”

Fū pokes at the food skeptically, and Ryūzetsu glances at you over her shoulder.

“... there’s no way, right?”

You don’t even really need to confirm that there’s something going on here that could be considered ‘a trap’. The likely suspect is a genjutsu cast on the food.

>Throw some of the food at your host and gauge her response.
>Just try to dispel the genjutsu. It can’t possibly be that hard.
>Ask her who she is, what she wants, and who she thinks YOU are.
>Other?

>>4943524
>Just try to dispel the genjutsu. It can’t possibly be that hard.

>>4943524
>>Just try to dispel the genjutsu. It can’t possibly be that hard.

>Ask her who she is, what she wants, and who she thinks YOU are.

>>4943524
>Just try to dispel the genjutsu. It can’t possibly be that hard.

>>4943524
>Just try to dispel the genjutsu. It can’t possibly be that hard.

>>4943524
>>Just try to dispel the genjutsu. It can’t possibly be that hard.

>>4943524
>1d6, first four
>High roll

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4944442

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4944442

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>4944442
captcha: 20nn2. that means i'll roll a 4

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4944442

>>4943524
In retrospect, you should have expected some sort of trick like this – though you suspect that the residents of Ryūchi Cave planned their tricks around people like you with extraordinary senses. You also guess that it’s more a matter of testing you, though you can’t say anything about what would happen were you to fail their test. So you suspect that you were already under genjutsu even outside the cave itself, something little more than a subtle suggestion at first, with the payoff being the test or tests you’re facing now.

So your response is to hurl a hiraishin kunai at your host.

Instead of teleporting to that kunai you teleport first to one of your hideouts, then back to the one you threw, drawing Umekiri in-between. So from Tagorihime’s perspective you disappeared for a split second while the kunai was in flight, only to reappear behind her as the kunai passed over her right shoulder. You catch it in your left hand in a reverse grip, with Umekiri’s edge stopping after ever so slightly nicking her neck.

In an instant you see something very different to what your friends do, which explains everything.

“So here’s what I’m thinking,” you admit. “Nobody is falling for this one, so you’re not actually testing anything are you?”

There’s a brief pause before she responds. “I suppose you have a point.”

“Then why not just end this particular test and save us all the trouble?” you suggest. “Feel free to keep the genjutsu disguise you’re using on yourself going.”

A moment later, the glamor of the hall you were brought to is gone and the food on the table is rotten – some items clearly poisonous but all of it disgusting. Fū actually recoils in visible horror, wide-eyed. “I touched some of that!”

Ryūzetsu’s eyes narrow. “I see... so you used teleportation to confirm it?”

“All genjutsu, even one cast over a range like this, has a definite range,” you muse. “So leaving that range and returning leaves a moment of lag before the genjutsu goes back into effect.”

“... with my fingers!” Fū continues to protest indignantly.

You unseal a little bottle of hand sanitizer to her, and she uses the whole thing all at once.

“Easy there,” Ryūzetsu watches in amusement. “Save some for the rest of us.”

“Listen,” Tagorihime sighs as you lower your blade. “We know you’re a sage already, but the rules are the rules. Were just doing our jobs, so could you at least humor us with the next two? We’re not going to do the usual thing if anyone fails, we’re not stupid.”

>Okay, I’ll play along with the other two.
>No deal. I just need to speak with the White Snake Sage.
>Other?

>>4944727
>>Okay, I’ll play along with the other two.

>>4944727
>Okay, I’ll play along with the other two.

Maybe it will be enlightening in some way. But still . . .

Other:
>Just so long as it's understood that my displeasure will be legendary if you push my patience too far for any reason. Your move.

>>4944727
>>Okay, I’ll play along with the other two.

>>4944727
>Okay, I’ll play along with the other two.

>>4944727
>>Okay, I’ll play along with the other two.

>>4944727
“Okay then,” you agree with a sigh, “I’ll let this play out. But in turn, you have to remember one thing – harm a single hair on either of their perfect heads,” you gesture towards Fū and Ryūzetsu, “and I’ll take yours home with me for a trophy. Are we clear?”

There’s a long pause before she responds. “Crystal.”

…

You continue to travel deeper into the cave, finding it growing harder and harder to see through what seems like a heavy mist – but that you know is probably an illusion. And so you allow yourself to fall into the next ‘trap’.

“Hello!” a cheerful girl with a dark ōdango hairstyle, floating barefoot a few inches from the ground, greets you as you find yourself in a dead end cave. “I’ve never had to test someone who was already a sage before… I don’t think I could eat your chakra even if I tried, but the whole point is to test you anyway.”

“Shouldn’t you give me your name?” you frown.

“Oh yes,” she laughs, rapping the side of her head with her knuckles. “Ichishikimahime, nice to meetcha!”

A door slides closed across the only exit to this little corner of the cave, marked with openings that seem to match the shapes of gemstones – or rather, fake gemstones – scattered haphazardly on the floor.

“I guess I shouldn’t have to explain this one to you,” Ichishikimahime muses playfully. “This is my test… even if you’ve already proven I can’t hold you here.”

“Match the shapes to the slots,” you sigh. “Alright, let’s see where the catch is…”

>1d6
>best three of four, high roll

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>4946223
Question, is chomei sealed again?

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4946223

>>4946223

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4946323
goddammit

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4946223

16 out of 18. Get fucked, Snake-chan.

>>4946223
It’s fairly simple. There are thirty-six slots on the wall and fifty-four shaped crystals, so you quickly memorize eighteen of the slots’ shapes and locations before browsing the pile of crystals for matches. Each time you find one you put it up on the wall, working quickly until you’ve done seventeen in a matter of just a minute or three. But the eighteenth... there’s no match, but that’s clearly the trick – it took you looking at it a few times before you realize, but you have to break one of the crystals to make the two pieces fit.

“So that’s pretty dirty,” you admit as you begin working on the second set of eighteen. “The longer you work through the scenario the more it messes with your thinking, and it gradually drains your stamina.”

Ichishikimahime applauds your deduction, but with a disappointed frown. “I prefer to eat chakra that’s been weakened so much it’s about to disappear, but I’d pretty much given up on that already anyway. Still, it feels like I haven’t had much luck lately... that weasel Kabuto-kun made it through too.”

“Would’ve saved everyone else a lot of trouble if you’d just eaten him,” you grumble.

“That may be,” Ichishikimahime admits “But even so, the rules are what they are you know.”

“It’s my turn now, Ichishikimahime,” a new snake in human form insists, stepping out from the mists. “I am Tagitsuhime, and my trial involves biting you.”

“Venom?” you muse.

The long-haired woman nods in confirmation. “It is the medium through which I achieve my specific genjutsu.”

You quietly offer your wrist, and she bites it carefully. You can feel the sting of the venom entering your veins... and nothing happens.

“Either your self-confidence is unreal or you have a natural resistance to poisons,” Tagitsuhime sighs. “Either way, your third trial is finished. Congratulations, I suppose?”

“Thank you?” you reply with a frown. “Are you sure that’s everything?”

“Positive,” she replies. “You can go ahead and see the White Snake Sage now, the others will catch up to you shortly... unless I’m terribly mistaken.”

You create a shadow clone to leave behind. “Yeah, so I’m also taking Tagorihime with me as a hostage.”

“Is that really necessary?” Tagorihime sighs.

You nod once. “I insist. I have to be able to make an example if either of your friends here try anything I don’t like.”
>1/2

>>4947216
In a large but dimly-lit room, you meet with a large old woman who looks to be more toad-faced than snake-like in your estimation.

“So you are Uzumaki Naori,” the White Snake Sage muses, exhaling pipe smoke. “The so-called ‘Storm Sage’ that I’ve heard so much about. I thought you’d be taller.”

“Medicinal herbs,” you muse. “A familiar scent. My mother used the same.”

“Then her lungs must have been in rough shape,” the White Snake Sage guesses. “Mine are much the same, too many years accidentally aspirating my own natural venom. So why are you here?”

“So yeah, I’m here chasing after the Ōtsutsuki clan,” you explain, “so I figured I would start by asking the various sage clans.”

“I see... the first human sage was Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, as you are no doubt aware,” the White Snake Sage begins. “It’s common knowledge among the sage clans and their contractors. He learned from the toads, and had a natural talent from what I understand.”

“That would be his mother’s blood,” you frown. “The Ōtsutsuki aren’t human, and they’re all natural sages.”

“How delightfully horrifying,” she muses. “And so what do you expect to learn from us?”

>I was hoping your clan kept records that old.
>Old fables often carry a kernel of truth within.
>I’m not sure. Perhaps even just a change of perspective.
>Other?

>>4947370
>>I was hoping your clan kept records that old.

>>4947370
>>I was hoping your clan kept records that old.

>>4947370
>>I was hoping your clan kept records that old.
>>Old fables often carry a kernel of truth within.

>>4947370
>>I was hoping your clan kept records that old.

>>4947370
>I was hoping your clan kept records that old.

>>4947370
“Yeah no, I was kind of hoping your clan had kept records from that era,” you admit as Fū and Ryūzetsu eventually join you after completing their tasks. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Fū grumbles, setting you on your back foot a little.

Ryūzetsu mutters her agreement. “Though... we do have stuff to talk about later.”

“... fair enough,” you offer, before turning to the White Snake Sage. “So? What can you tell me?”

“Not much beyond what you already know,” she muses, blowing a little smoke. “At least, where the Ōtsutsuki are concerned. However we did keep Orochimaru’s research notes from when he was here studying senjutsu – perhaps those could offer you a starting point?”

“If Orochimaru did that why would he have sent us here?” Fū wonders aloud.

Ryūzetsu shrugs. “Because we asked him to.”

“True,” you admit. “It was a specific question. But I wonder... he’s the type to go in for hidden meanings, for sure. So Fū may have a point – why didn’t he offer to share that knowledge?”

You glance around. “Maybe it has something to do with this place. Something we wouldn’t have access to anywhere else.”

>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4948315

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4948315

Rolled 58 (1d100)

>>4948315

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4948315
oops

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4948315

>>4948315
After considering it in silence for a few seconds, you come to a sudden realization.

“So yeah, how do sage candidates learn to control senjutsu here at Ryūchi Cave?”

The White Snake blows a lot of smoke with a long sigh. “My poison.”

“Wait, your poison?” Ryūzetsu frowns. “If your poison forces someone to draw in natural energy, then how can it be damaging your lungs?”

“It’s acidic,” the sage admits. “Not nearly so strong as stomach acid, but strong enough. I take it that helps in some way?”

“From what I know the toads of Myōboku-zan use a special oil,” you explain, “the snakes use poison, and the shrikes use a piercing made from jade. They have to develop those methods because natural energy is normally impossible to sense, even for Hagoromo-tono.”

“So how did Gamamaru-tono learn it?”

The White Snake Sage laughs raucously. “That’s a good one! I’d sooner suggest asking a potted plant that question before Gamamaru himself!”

Then the laughing descends into a brief coughing fit.

“Well then, how did you learn it?” Fū crosses her arms impatiently. “How to use your poison like that I mean?”

“I was born with it,” she explains tersely. “Some sort of mutation after my ancestors lived here for a few hundred years, handling senjutsu chakra in secret.”

“And they learned from the toads?” Ryūzetsu wonders.

“Those were different times,” the snake sage sighs. “And long ago.”

>Tell me more about them. Did many summoning clans make similar arrangements?
>Let’s talk about the Ōtsutsuki. The shrikes had ties to Hagoromo-tono, so did the snakes?
>Where were the various clans’ territories a thousand years ago?
>Other?

>>4949282
>Where were the various clans’ territories a thousand years ago?

>>4949282
>>Let’s talk about the Ōtsutsuki. The shrikes had ties to Hagoromo-tono, so did the snakes?

>>4949282
>>Where were the various clans’ territories a thousand years ago?

>>4949282
>Let’s talk about the Ōtsutsuki. The shrikes had ties to Hagoromo-tono, so did the snakes?
>Where were the various clans’ territories a thousand years ago?

Hey, wait a minute. Did Fu and Ryuzetsu earn anything by making it this far?

>>4950470
It was pretty much a formality, and Fu already has a summoning contract.

>>4949282
“So... have the various clans changed their territories in the last thousand years or so?” you wonder aloud. “For that matter, how many of them are even that old?”

“The snakes have always been at Ryūchi Cave,” she replies coolly. “As were the shrikes always in their forest. The toads however were not always residents of Myōboku-zan, and the great slug Katsuyu travels – albeit slowly.”

“I was wondering about her in particular,” you muse, “where does she live?”

“In the Mountains’ Graveyard,” the White Snake Sage muses, “though where more precisely I cannot say. I haven’t seen her in decades.”

“Would she be hard to find?” Ryūzetsu asks.

“Oh not at all,” the White Snake Sage insists with a chuckle. “Even the piece of her Tsunade-san can summon is just a fraction of the real deal – like summoned your arm or your leg. You’ll know when you’ve found her, trust me.”

“And the other clans?” Fū reminds you all of the second half of your question. “I know my bees don’t even have a ‘clan’ in the sense that the toads and snakes and everything do.”

“There were only ever a handful of sage clans,” the snake admits. “Even fewer have ever succeeded in giving rise to more than one actual sage. The sharks have become diminished over the years, and the ‘proper’ hare clan no one’s heard from for five centuries. Since the Sengoku era even the shrikes’ future was in doubt.”

“Why is that?” Ryūzetsu beats you to the question.

“Fewer and fewer humans with the right characteristics,” the White Snake Sage offers. “Even that Kabuto boy was just as mediocre with senjutsu as Orochimaru was.”

>Press that angle. Surely she has some thoughts – the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago.
>If Ryūchi Cave is that old, surely there must be some old evidence to track down around here.
>That’s two reasons to go to the Mountains’ Graveyard now. Maybe best not to put that off anymore.
>Now, to hear this story from the toads’ side – even if Gamamaru isn’t all there.
>Other?

>>4950696
>>Press that angle. Surely she has some thoughts – the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago.

>>4950696
>>Press that angle. Surely she has some thoughts – the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago.

Is the only reason that Orochimaru can't do senjutsu due to him constantly shoving himself into other bodies to keep himself alive?

>>4950696
>Press that angle. Surely she has some thoughts – the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago.

>>4950696
>That’s two reasons to go to the Mountains’ Graveyard now. Maybe best not to put that off anymore.

>>4950696
>>Press that angle. Surely she has some thoughts – the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago.

>>4950696
>Press that angle. Surely she has some thoughts – the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago.
>If Ryūchi Cave is that old, surely there must be some old evidence to track down around here.

>>4950696
>Press that angle. Surely she has some thoughts – the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago.

is this archived?

>>4950947
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Shinobi+Sidestory

>>4950696
“Surely you must have some thoughts about that,” you insist. “As you said, the hare clan disappeared five hundred years ago? That’s plenty of time for you and your ancestors to puzzle it out. So what do you really think?”

After a few moments, the snake sage nods in agreement. “Very well, here is what I know – that clans with no human summoners lose their more human-like characteristics over successive generations.”

“So the ability to speak and reason?” Ryūzetsu frowns. “What about the ability to use chakra?”

“My bees can do that,” Fū declares, seemingly working her way through it. “Same with the Hō’ō Karin can summon.”

“Your little friend is mostly correct,” the snake sage concurs. “Though, not entirely. There is a point, at least I believe, where a summoning clan can become so degraded over time that they lose the ability to mould chakra, and become simply animals.”

“Why?” you press. “Why would contracting with humans have that effect?”

There’s a pause.

“Are any of you familiar with the concept of ninshū?”

Ryūzetsu and Fū both shake their heads, and you shrug. “Yeah no, I’ve only heard of it.”

“It’s outmoded now that ninjutsu exists,” the snake sage tells you. “Ninshū was a concept for a peaceful world – instead of connecting the spiritual and physical energies of a single person, as ninjutsu does, ninshū was meant to connect the hearts of different people.”

“And you think this blending of spiritual energies is what maintains a summoning clan?” you consider her words. “Does that fit the long-term trends your clan has observed?”

“Those are my thoughts,” she offers. “Take them how you will.”

>Excuse yourself and discuss your sword with Fū and Ryūzetsu in private.
>Offer the White Snake an explanation that could verify the ideas she shared.
>Keep it to yourself, at least until after you visit the toads – the next ‘obvious’ step.
>Other?

>>4951947
>>Keep it to yourself, at least until after you visit the toads – the next ‘obvious’ step.

>>4951947
>>Offer the White Snake an explanation that could verify the ideas she shared.

>>4951947
>>Keep it to yourself, at least until after you visit the toads – the next ‘obvious’ step.

>>4951947
>Offer the White Snake an explanation that could verify the ideas she shared.

>>4951947
>Offer the White Snake an explanation that could verify the ideas she shared

>>4951947
>Offer the White Snake an explanation that could verify the ideas she shared.

>>4951947
“So yeah, I think you’re right about that,” you admit, drawing Umekiri and holding her so that your host can see her hamon. “This blade has been in the possession of my clan since the Sengoku era... and has gained a degree of sentience because of it.”

“You’ve often spoken of it as though it were a person,” Ryūzetsu observes, with a trace of unreserved curiosity. “Can you... you know.”

“Communicate?” you offer.

“Yeah,” Ryūzetsu agrees.

“Only in dreams,” you explain, “and less often than I used to.”

“So that’s why you spend so much time polishing it?” Fū seems to realize.

You nod.

“Interesting,” the snake sage muses. “May I see your sword more...”

“No,” you reply flatly, sheathing Umekiri with a quick flourish. “Not that I intend any offense, but I don’t simply hand Umekiri-maru over to anyone – not anyone I’ve just met, at least. But that a piece of steel can take an impression from its wielders makes it seem more likely that something similar could happen with a summoning clan.”

“I see,” she replies, evidently a little taken aback by the sharp response. “In that case I suppose I will simply have to take your explanation at face value.”

...

“So that was kinda fun,” Fū offers with a somewhat forced cheerfulness. “Coulda been less lousy with that genjutsu stuff but hey, can’t win ‘em all. Where to next?”

“Myōboku-zan,” you inform her calmly. “Only question is how we approach it.”

“Have you ever been there?” Ryūzetsu asks.

You nod. “Only once, and I was brought there.”

“So you don’t know where it is?” Fū cocks her head.

>I’m sure my own summoning clan knows the answer to that question.
>Naruto may be our way in the proverbial door. He’s their only living summoner.
>I could always put a hiraishin marking on a courier toad. Force the issue.
>Other?

>>4953295
>Naruto may be our way in the proverbial door. He’s their only living summoner.
Best to make a formal request, rather than kick down the door as it were.

>>4953295
>>Naruto may be our way in the proverbial door. He’s their only living summoner.

>>4953295
>>Naruto may be our way in the proverbial door. He’s their only living summoner.

>>4953295
>>Naruto may be our way in the proverbial door. He’s their only living summoner.

>>4953295
>Naruto may be our way in the proverbial door. He’s their only living summoner.

>>4953295
“No,” you admit, “but I don’t really think that’s the way to go about this anyway.”

“Naruto?” Fū muses.

“Naruto,” you confirm.

“Nice.”

…

“Okay, so here’s what we need you to do,” Fū begins, after you’ve confronted Naruto in his apartment.

“… Nakkun, what does he need to do?”

As Ryūzetsu rubs her forehead in disbelief, you take over. “So yeah, I need you to summon one of the elder toads. Shima-tono or Fukusaku-tono would do fine.”

Naruto frowns. “Okay, so look – I can’t guarantee who I’ll end up summoning, ya know? They kinda answer with whoever’s available, or feels like it.”

“So… you need to be outside?” Ryūzetsu asks as you open a window.

“Even some of the smaller toads could totally destroy my room, ya know?” he admits as you casually toss a kunai out the window. “Speaking of, how are you even in my room? The door was definitely…”

“… locked,” he finishes the thought as you grab him by the shoulder and teleport him out into an open field across the street.

“Well that’s just distracting,” he grumbles.

You pick up the hiraishin kunai seconds after a shadow clone teleports Ryūzetsu and Fū to join you.

“So will this work?” Fū asks.

“Yeah,” Naruto rubs the back of his neck. “Probably. I don’t think Gamabunta’s gonna answer anyway, but we may get Gamatatsu. Gamakichi might be a problem though…”

You teleport him again, this time well outside the village to a deserted island where you used to have a hideout.

“Okay, that needs to stop.”

“Only when I’m dead,” you reply. “Try for the elder toads.”

“Yeah, yeah.”
>1d6, high roll
>First three only

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4954884

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4954884

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4954884

>>4954884
Naruto bites down on the tip of his thumb and weaves the hand seals. “Kuchiyose: Fukusaku!”

There’s a large burst of smoke... revealing a banana-yellow toad that is most definitely not one of the elder toads.

“Hiiii!” it greets you in a high, but you believe male, voice.

“Gamatatsu!?” Naruto cries in disbelief. “How did this happen!? What’re you doing here!?”

“Ooh, why’s everyone shouting?” Gamatatsu asks in the same high, albeit surprisingly flat, voice.

“No,” you insist, lightly tapping Gamatatsu. “Actually this will do fine. You can send him back now.”

“Awww, already?” Gamatatsu complains. “Gee, I never get to do anything fun when I get summoned!”

Then he disappears in another puff of smoke.

There’s a long pause.

“What was that?” Ryūzetsu asks.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Naruto quickly insists. “So what’s the big scheme now, teleport to...”

...

“Damn it, Naori,” Naruto sighs.

“Heeeey!” Gamatatsu stares at you. “You tricked me!”

“Sorry,” you apologize quickly. “But yeah, I did. Now could you point me to where the Elder toads live?”

“Well, they live over that way,” Gamatatsu waves his webbed forelimb, “but you’re really not supposed to... hey, wait a minute!”

You march in that direction, over Gamatatsu’s protests, and knock politely on the door.

“Darn it!” you hear a loud protest from inside. “What could possibly be so darned important that someone’d interrupt our annivers...”

Fukusaku opens the door to the little hut, scaled for the venerable toads’ small forms, and starts.

“Ah, it’s the shrike girl!” he recognizes you immediately, “and she brought Naruto-boy!”

He shouts back into the room. “Ma, we’ve got visitors!”
>1/2

>>4956079
Crammed into the tiny house, you watch as the sage toads eat.

“You sure you don’t want any, Naruto-chan?” Shima-tono insists, proffering a bowl of colorful grubs.

Naruto’s face is still pale. “Yeah. Pretty sure.”

Fū on the other hand examines a grasshopper before popping it into her mouth with a little crunch. “Hm. Not bad.”

After a moment, you do the same. “Honestly not as bad as I thought. It’d make a good dumpling.”

“I know, right?” Fū agrees. “If you just don’t know what it is it’s fine.”

“I’ll... have to pass,” Ryūzetsu admits, eyes shut. “No offense, but it kinda brings up some bad memories.”

She notices you glancing at her, and spots the concern. “We’ll... talk about it later, okay?”

You nod silently, before turning to the sage toads. “Sorry to drop in on you on your anniversary.”

“It’s not a problem,” Shima-tono insists. “We just picked an arbitrary day and celebrate it the same day every year.”

“More or less the same at least,” Fukusaku-tono admits. “So, I’m a bit confused though... why are you here?”

>I wanted to know about Gamamaru-tono... have you ever wondered where he came from?
>I’ve been studying the roots of sage mode on this world and the Ōtsutsuki’s effect on it.
>I’m curious about Myōboku-zan itself, as part of an investigation of the sage regions.
>Other?

>>4956080
>>I wanted to know about Gamamaru-tono... have you ever wondered where he came from?
>>I’ve been studying the roots of sage mode on this world and the Ōtsutsuki’s effect on it.

>>4956080
>>I’ve been studying the roots of sage mode on this world and the Ōtsutsuki’s effect on it.

>>4956080
>>I’ve been studying the roots of sage mode on this world and the Ōtsutsuki’s effect on it.

>>4956080
>I’ve been studying the roots of sage mode on this world and the Ōtsutsuki’s effect on it.

>>4956080
>I’ve been studying the roots of sage mode on this world and the Ōtsutsuki’s effect on it.

>>4956080
>I’ve been studying the roots of sage mode on this world and the Ōtsutsuki’s effect on it.
>I’m curious about Myōboku-zan itself, as part of an investigation of the sage regions.

>>4956080
“So yeah, I’ve been examining the roots of senjutsu use on this world,” you try to explain, “and the effect of the Ōtsutsuki clan on those roots.”

“Was that why they were here?” Fukusaku-tono guesses. “We sensed something was amiss at what we gather was the time when the Ten-Tails had taken root.”

You nod, agreeing with his summary of what you’ve come to suspect. “It’s hard to say. They could follow the Trees like parasites, or they could actively spread them.”

“In either event what for?” Shima-tono wonders aloud.

“They feed on the fruit,” you explain. “They gather natural energy, deplete a world, and eat the fruit.”

“So what do you need to know from us?” Fukusaku-tono asks you.

>I need to know more about Gamamaru.
>I need to know about your toad oil training.
>I want to explore the area, make my own conclusions.
>Other?

>>4957610
>I want to explore the area, make my own conclusions.
>If you have any old stories or legends that you think might be of help, i'd appreciate hearing them.

>>4957610
>>I need to know more about Gamamaru.
>>I need to know about your toad oil training.

>>4957610
>I want to explore the area, make my own conclusions.

>>4957610
>>I need to know more about Gamamaru.

>>4957610
>>I need to know more about Gamamaru.

>>4957610
“I came here specifically to learn all I could about Gamamaru-tono,” you admit, “but I can’t exactly rely on him for that information, can I? After a thousand years he’d be a bit of an unreliable narrator in his own story... or at least I know I would be.”

“I see, that would be pretty difficult,” Shima agrees. “Pa, think we can help her out?”

“Well, we don’t exactly know all there is to know,” Fukusaku admits freely. “But then again neither does the old coot himself, so we may as well be the ones to break that news to her.”

Then he turns to you. “I assume you’d be most interested in knowing how he became a sage, if our training methods didn’t exist back then?”

“That’s right,” you confirm. “I get how Hashirama-tono managed it – his kekkei genkai is the only nature release that can create living material, so I assume that must be how it worked.”

“You assume correctly,” Fukusaku tells you. “Senju Hashirama was the first human to learn senjutsu without any outside help.”

“But wasn’t the First also a reincarnation of Asura?” Naruto points out.

“That may well be true,” Fukusaku agrees. “It could’ve had an effect, made it possible for the wood release to appear.”

“What do we actually know about this Asura?” Ryūzetsu asks.

“You mean did he have the wood release too?” Fū muses thoughtfully. “Yeah, that might help to know.”

“He was dead a hundred years before I was born,” Fukusaku explains. “And to my knowledge Gamamaru-dono never met him.”

“They weren’t contracted?” you wonder. “Then who was your first contracted summoner, if not one of the ancient Ōtsutsuki clan?”

“Contracts like that didn’t exist for the first century or two,” Shima tells you. “Our first contractor was actually a founding member of the Senju clan.”

“We’ve been closely tied with the Senju, the Sarutobi, and the Uzumaki off and on ever since,” Fukusaku adds. “Though the shrikes have also had summoners among the Senju and Uzumaki too. Senju Hashirama’s grandfather and Uzumaki Mito’s aunt for example.”

“So Hashirama learned sage mode on his own,” you muse. “So yeah, it’s possible for sure, just under specific circumstances. So what circumstances allowed Gamamaru-tono to do it?”
>1/2

>>4958611
After thinking about it for a while, Fukusaku-tono seems to come to a realization. “The old stories about it say that Gamamaru-dono suggested that Hagoromo-dono and Hamura-dono should visit the site of the God Tree. It was a taboo back then under Kaguya-hime’s rule.”

“So yeah, if Gamamru-tono knew where it was and what was happening there,” you realize, “it means he’d already been there before. To the place where natural energy was being gathered at an unnatural rate.”

“Sounds great!” Fū grins. “So where is it?”

“Ehhh...” Fukusaku deflates slightly. “I don’t exactly know.”

“You don’t know?” you repeat.

“Nope,” he repeats. “Gamamaru-dono would know, but, well...”

>It’s worth asking.
>I’ll pursue that with my own clan next.
>I think we can proceed based on the assumption.
>Other?

>>4958625
>>It’s worth asking.

>>4958625
>>It’s worth asking.

>>4958625
>>It’s worth asking.

>>4958625
>It’s worth asking

>>4958625
>It’s worth asking.

>>4958625
If his memory is shot, could we attempt to use sharingan hypnosis to help him recall information, or failing that, enter his inner world the same way we did to meet Kurama inside Naruto, and go poking around that way?

>>4959034
it might be possible, but considering we are guests here its not sure the toads would allow that.
Plus, since he had some prophecies in his head, the timelines could be so incredibly fucked that it does not help.

>>4958625
“It’s worth asking,” you admit with a nonchalant shrug.

“Can you use genjutsu to help him remember?” Fū asks curiously. “You can do that, right?”

“I’m not sure the toad clan will be okay with that,” Fukusaku admits.

“And besides, he has actual prophecies on record,” you muse. “Even if I were to look into his mind to try and straighten things out, I might find that to him past, present, and future might not not be so distinct as they once were.”

“So that leaves the old-fashioned way,” Ryūzetsu nods along.

“Can that be arranged?” you ask.

“It’s not like he gets around much anymore,” Shima-tono admits. “May as well try.”

...

“That... is a big toad,” Ryūzetsu whispers to Fū behind your back.

“And old,” Fū whispers back. “Check out those wrinkles!”

“Hmmm,” Gamamaru muses. “So it’s you, Naruto-kun, and you... miss...”

“Uzumaki Naori,” you fill in a little of the massive blank where all his memories of you should be. “You had a prophecy about me, remember? Basically kidnapped me?”

“Ah, yes, I see,” Gamamaru lies. “Welcome back then, little Uzumaki. Why is it you wished to see me?”

“So yeah, we wanted to know how you learned to use senjutsu,” you insist.

“Hmmmm,” he muses again.
>1d6, taking the first three
>High roll

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4959802

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4959802
let's see

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4959802

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4959802
p484s

>>4959802
“... yes, I see,” Gamamaru muses thoughtfully. “You see it as a tadpole or the egg, don’t you? But you off all people should be able to understand it clearly.”

“Yeah no, because of the Rōran anomaly?” you realize. “Tadpole or the egg... but you say it’s not like that...”

Then it hits you. “I get it! You knew you could handle senjutsu because you caught a glimpse of it in a dream of the future, right? Then it just becomes an exercise of filling in the blanks.”

Gamamaru grins down at you. “That’s exactly right! And it was visiting the Tree that gave me the missing inspiration to do it.”

“Okay, I’m lost,” Fū admits. “So what you’re saying is he didn’t need to know how to do it cause he had a vision of a time when he already knew how to do it?”

“That’s right,” you nod.

Fū stares for a moment. “Huh.”

“You should give yourself more credit,” Ryūzetsu nudges her quietly.

>Well, my brain hurts now – but we got what we needed.
>We’re on a roll here – ask him where the site for the tree was.
>Ask about Kaguya’s arrival – he’s the only living being who’d remember it.
>Other?

>>4961026
>>We’re on a roll here – ask him where the site for the tree was.
>>Ask about Kaguya’s arrival – he’s the only living being who’d remember it.

>>4961026
>>We’re on a roll here – ask him where the site for the tree was.

>>4961026
>Ask about Kaguya’s arrival – he’s the only living being who’d remember it.

>>4961026
>Ask about Kaguya’s arrival – he’s the only living being who’d remember it.

>>4961026
>>Ask about Kaguya’s arrival – he’s the only living being who’d remember it.

>>4961026
Ask about tree

>>4961026
>We’re on a roll here – ask him where the site for the tree was.

>>4961026
>>Ask about Kaguya’s arrival – he’s the only living being who’d remember it.

>>4961026
“So you’d be the only one who can remember the day Kaguya-hime arrived,” you muse. “Can you tell me anything about that?”

Gamamaru nods sagely. “Yes, I can.”

There’s a long pause before you press the issue. “And?”

“Oh,” he nods. “That’s right, I was about to tell you, wasn’t I?”

“That was the plan,” you agree. “The day Kaguya arrived.”

“I wasn’t there,” Gamamaru admits, almost sounding like he thinks that tells you anything by itself. “But what I can tell you is that she did not come alone. There was a skirmish... I did not understand at the time.”

“A skirmish? Using natural energy?” Ryūzetsu frowns.

“Kaguya did not come here alone,” you nod, knowing full well that you already knew as much. “Can you tell me where they arrived?”

“No,” Gamamaru admits. “The world has changed so much since then, you see.”

Fū definitely picks up on your tone – not one of realization, but of certainty.

“I see,” you sigh. “Then thanks for your time.”

...

“So what was that all about?” Ryūzetsu asks you after you leave Naruto in his apartment, before heading to a nearby park to go over what you’ve learned.

“It confirmed something Kaguya-hime told me,” you admit quietly. “I never considered her a reliable source of information, nor do I think I should until each thing she said – or implied – can be verified.”

“That seems best,” Ryūzetsu agrees.

>So what was that about with the insects before?
>Let’s speak with Tsunade-han before we move on.
>We should head to the forest hideout. Settle in there.
>Other?

>>4962526
>>So what was that about with the insects before?
>>Let’s speak with Tsunade-han before we move on.

>>4962526
>>So what was that about with the insects before?
>>Let’s speak with Tsunade-han before we move on.

>>4962526
>Let’s speak with Tsunade-han before we move on.

>>4962526
>So what was that about with the insects before?
>Let’s speak with Tsunade-han before we move on.

>>4962526
>So what was that about with the insects before?
>Let’s speak with Tsunade-han before we move on.

>>4962526
“So yeah,” you muse, “what was that before about the grasshoppers?”

Ryūzetsu’s expression darkens slightly. “Kusagakure was at war when I was a child. My parents were killed in the first week, so despite having my aunts and uncles I still relied on the free bowl of rice every day at the academy to get by.”

“That’s terrible,” Fū frowns. “So... did you have to eat bugs to survive?”

Ryūzetsu shakes her head. “No, the top students in the academy got extras – pickled vegetables usually. But the bottom of the class sometimes toasted grasshoppers. One day, the biggest bully in the class decided he wanted some of those grasshoppers.”

“By the time I got there he was already beating the kids he’d found, just for standing up to him. I didn’t mean to kill him... but that’s what ended up happening.”

“All that over some toasted bugs,” you frown, noticing for a moment that Sakura has appeared. You’re not entirely sure how long she’s been there – you were focused on listening, and you continue to focus. “No wonder it bothered you.”

“It reminded me of that day,” she admits. “The first time I killed someone. I haven’t thought about it in years.”

For a long time, no one speaks.

It’s hard to remember the first time you took a life, of course – it was so impersonal, so frantic, that you aren’t sure you’d remember their faces. And you know for a fact you never knew any of their names, the Ishi-nin who attacked your team on your first mission. Things were clear-cut.

But you do remember the child that was on Kurosuki Raiga’s back when you tried to cut him down, the moment of shock when you learned there was someone back there. The moment of guilt when you realized it was a child.

That would probably be the most similar feeling in your experience, you think.

“Are you okay?”

After a moment she nods. “I will be.”

“Good,” you sigh. “Thank you for waiting, Sakura-kun. So yeah, what is it you needed?”

“Who said I needed anything?” she frowns.

“You normally wouldn’t seek me out like this,” you suggest.

Her shoulders slump slightly. “Actually, I guess that’s a fair point. Tsunade-sama wanted to speak with you – it seemed urgent.”

“Well, I’m here now,” you admit. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
>1/2

>>4963651
A moment later you’re knocking at the door frame to her office, before leaning your head in. “You wanted to speak with me?”

“Yes,” Tsunade insists, gesturing for you to follow her as she steps out into the hallway. “It’s right over here.”

She leads you to the next room over, which has a smaller desk in it along with four television screens and an obvious camera setup, complete with a microphone and audio speakers. On each screen, in monochrome, you suspect would be one of the other five Kages – Ōnoki, Gaara, Mei, and A. But at the moment only one is visible – Mei.

“I received a call from the Mizukage just now, and informed her that you were in the village,” Tsunade-han explains. “She asked to speak with you using this new setup our engineers have devised.”

You step into view, standing behind the desk.

“You can sit,” Tsunade offers. “I’ll be stepping outside.”

...

“Mizukage-tono,” you incline your head politely. “What is this about?”

“This is about the Seven Swords” she informs you curtly. “Our elders have been arguing about them pretty much non-stop since the war ended.”

“Why?” you wonder aloud.

“Because several of them no longer belong to a member of our village,” she explains, “not by the old rules for these things, at least. They’re divided on what that should mean – technically Kubikiribōchō belongs to Hatake Kakashi, and technically both the Kiba and Samehada belong to you now.”

“The Kiba too?” you frown. “So yeah, by what logic?”

“By any logic,” she insists. “You defeated Ameyuri Ringo, which assuming Kurosuki Raiga never inherited them properly makes you their wielder. That’s the logic most people accept. Otherwise it belongs to you because Hoshigaki Kisame defeated Kurosuki Raiga, so the Kiba are yours for the same reason as Samehada is. Even if you contrive a scenario where Uchiha Itachi technically defeated Raiga, then Uchiha Sasuke defeated Itachi, Kaguya-hime defeated Sasuke...”

“And it was Naruto and Sasuke who sealed Kaguya-hime,” you point out.

“And between the three of you it was you who bested Kaguya-hime in kenjutsu,” Mei-tono counters. “Stalemating a sword style that kills with the slightest injury – though it was a team effort, it was your kenjutsu which stood out.”

>So what, you expect me to carry the Kiba and Samehada around until you can sort this out?
>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.
>I assume you told your elders how idiotic it would be to try having me assassinated.
>Other?

>>4963664
>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.

>>4963664
>>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.

>>4963664
>>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.

>>4963664
>So what, you expect me to carry the Kiba and Samehada around until you can sort this out?

>>4963664
>>So what, you expect me to carry the Kiba and Samehada around until you can sort this out?

>>4963664
2 points on this:
First, Samehada doesn't like me, so I can't wield it even if I wanted
Second, there is already a girl in kirigakure that could wield Kiba
At best I could hold onto it since I promised to train her and she could inherit them?

>>4963831
>Samehada doesn't like me, so I can't wield it even if I wanted

That right? All I remember is Sam thought we were delicious.

>>4963664
>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.
>I assume you told your elders how idiotic it would be to try having me assassinated.

>>4963664
>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.
However... we gave Samehada to someone. I can't remember if it was B or someone in our entourage? Also, I'd save the Kiba for that young girl we met back in Mist.

>>4963948
Samehada liked Naori because she has Storm affinity, the one it finds most delicious, however her regular Sage mode is poisonous to it.

I'd however like to try wielding it with upgraded Sage mode? Would this change anything, King? Having a chakra-absorber against the Outsutsukis would be really useful.

>>4963664
>So what, you expect me to carry the Kiba and Samehada around until you can sort this out?

>>4963664
>>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.

>>4963664
>If you want them back you absolutely have my permission, I have no need for any other meitō.

Imagine cheating on your sword

>>4963664
“So yeah, you want them back you can have them,” you admit. “I already have the finest meitō I could have asked for, so I have neither a need nor a desire to keep the Kiba or Samehada. I have the Kiba stored in a sealing scroll and Samehada is with B-han.”

“That isn’t how it works,” Mei-tono counters. “There is a traditionalist faction within the Land of Water of course, you already know that much. There is also a corresponding faction of traditionalists within the village of Kirigakure, and it’s very important to them that certain traditions are followed.”

“And one of those is that the Seven Swords are passed down to their previous owner’s killers,” you supply the conclusion you expect. “Is that it?”

“That was something the elders mentioned,” she confesses. “Though I was adamant that was not necessary here.”

“So?” you press. “I assume there was a resolution?”

“That’s right,” Mei-tono nods. “What we agreed to is that you are to be the official wielder of the swords until you find a new prospective wielder you deem worthy.”

>I assume you have some parameters for what I should consider ‘worthy’?
>I assume you mean for me to consider Kiri-nin to be ‘worthy’ when the time comes?
>That’s fine, but you’re going to keep them with you, until the time comes.
>Other?

>>4964816
>That's fine, but if we're doing this then i fully intend to follow the intent of those traditions. You'd better send someone decent to take them up.

>>4964816
>That’s fine, but you’re going to keep them with you, until the time comes.

>>4964816
>I assume you mean for me to consider Kiri-nin to be ‘worthy’ when the time comes?

>>4964816
>>4964826
Supporting

>>4964826
>>4964816
Yeah I like this

>>4964816
Hit a mental block with the update here, so I'll be on that in the morning.

>>4964816
“So yeah, I should let you know that I intend to follow the intent of that tradition,” you insist with a frown. “I’m absolutely not going to make it easy, so it could take a few decades.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Mei-tono assures you.

“Then here are my other terms,” you continue. “I will carry the shorter Kiba blade as a companion sword to Umekiri, and will keep the longer in storage. Since Samehada needs to be ‘fed’ regularly you can keep it, because I refuse to carry it.”

“Why is that?” she presses you. “It’s a powerful blade.”

“Yeah no, it’s a parasite.”

“It can be carried covertly,” she tries to insist.

“Literally a tapeworm with a hilt.”

“The chakra drain would be minimal for…”

“Mizukage-tono,” you insist firmly. “Samehada and Umekiri are incompatible, and Samehada is incompatible with senjutsu chakra. So I will not carry it. I’ll find someone to wield it, eventually, but I refuse to carry it myself.”

After a moment, the Mizukage nods in understanding. “Okay, I think I’ve pushed the issue enough to satisfy the hard-liners… the Seven Swords are a bit of a point of pride, so it’s going to annoy them to know one of the most powerful swords won’t be seeing any use for a while.”

“And if anyone uses it without my permission I’ll be taking it back,” you add curtly. “So make sure they know that too.”

“I feel like it’s only fair to warn you that you won’t be very popular in my village for a while,” she informs you. “It’s going to be a tough transition – there’s still a lot of hostility and mistrust.”

“That’s true everywhere,” you assure her. “If it weren’t for Konan-sensei I’m sure I’d be dealing with a civil war by now. All you have to do is make sure to hand Chōjūrō as clean a slate as you can.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“No more so than it is with Kurotsuchi or Darui.”

“Is that so?” she muses thoughtfully. “Well, it seems as though the next generation has some fine shinobi, regardless of what the old men like to say.”

“If you have nothing more to discuss,” you incline your head politely, “there are still some matters I was in the middle of investigating.”

“I look forward to your eventual report,” Mei-tono bows in response. “And good luck.”
>1/2

>>4966128
“I’m back,” you announce, and Sakura leaps up with a yelp after you teleport to the bench between where she and Ryūzetsu have been sitting. Fū in the mean time is playing with some local children in the park, chasing a ball around with two of them hanging from her shoulders. “How are things?”

“Not bad,” Ryūzetsu gestures towards Fū for the sake of example. “What was that about?”

“The Mizukage’s been having trouble with her village hardliners,” you summarize, before gesturing for Sakura to sit. “Sorry if I spooked you. Please, sit.”

Sakura does so, rather hesitantly.

“So I was thinking the next place to go would be Shikkotsu forest,” you explain as you all watch Fū goof around. “But yeah… it would be best to speak to Katsuyu-tono before we just started off trying to find it.”

“You want to investigate all the known sage regions, right?” Sakura asks. “Tsunade-sama mentioned something like that.”

“Are you sure about this?” Ryūzetsu asks cautiously.

>It’s the next logical step, and I think we should set out to be thorough about this.
>I want to know if Katsuyu recalls the location of the original God Tree.
>I’m not sure it’s necessary, so if you have a better idea I’d be glad to consider it.
>Other?

>>4966198
>>It’s the next logical step, and I think we should set out to be thorough about this.

>>4966198
>>It’s the next logical step, and I think we should set out to be thorough about this.
>>I want to know if Katsuyu recalls the location of the original God Tree.
Plus Sakura is already here, so we don't have to bother her again

>>4966198
>It’s the next logical step, and I think we should set out to be thorough about this.
>I want to know if Katsuyu recalls the location of the original God Tree.

>>4966198
>>It’s the next logical step, and I think we should set out to be thorough about this.

>>4966198
>It’s the next logical step, and I think we should set out to be thorough about this.
>I want to know if Katsuyu recalls the location of the original God Tree.

>>4966198
“It seems like the next obvious step,” you admit, “and Sakura-kun’s here already. So we may as well handle the formalities while we have the opportunity.”

“You want me to summon Katsuyu-sama for you?” Sakura asks for clarification. “Right here?”

“A small one would do,” you assure her. “Katsuyu’s smaller bodies are all just parts of the same whole organism, right?”

“That makes sense,” Sakura admits. “Neither Tsunade-sama nor I summon her very often in a small size, so I didn’t even think of it at first.”

“So you can do it?” Ryūzetsu asks.

“Right now if you want,” Sakura offers.

“By all means,” you gesture for her to do so.

Sakura bites the tip of her thumb to draw some blood, and weaves the hand seals before turning her palm upwards. “Kuchiyose!”

A slug the size of a jelly roll cake appears there, a carefully-controlled summoning of a Katsuyu just the right size for your intended purposes. “So yeah, you’re actually better at this than Naruto is,” you admit. “By a fair bit.”

“Naruto is a lot of things, to a lot of people,” Sakura sighs, setting her hands down on her lap slug-up. “A precision instrument isn’t one of those things. Katsuyu-sama?”

“Sakura-sama?” Katsuyu asks politely... so they both -sama each other? “What need do you have for me here?”

“Actually, Naori-san here had to ask you a few things,” Sakura explains. “She’s been visiting the sage regions one by one.”

“So yeah,” you jump into the conversation, “what I’ve been trying to learn about is Kaguya-hime’s clan. Where they come from, what they’re capable of, and what effects her children had on humanity.”

“There are still legends of that time, are there not?” Katsuyu answers.

“Legends aren’t the truth,” you reply with a frown. “They’re stories passed through many filters of interpretation before they reach us – facts are lost, details are added, and truth is changed by storytellers with differing purposes.”

“And you believe that you will be able to find these ‘truths’ you speak of?” Katsuyu presses. “Where presumably many others before you have failed?”
>1/2

>>4967254
“So yeah, I don’t know,” you admit. “But at very least I can draw my own conclusions based on any evidence I do find.”

After a moment, Katsuyu nods with her eyestalks. “That’s a good answer, Naori-dono. I will help you in your search. What is it you need to know?”

“Were you alive in the time that the Shinju was here,” you ask, “can you remember its location, and are there any ruins of a similar age anywhere within Shikkotsu forest?”

“Yes and no,” Katsuyu informs you. “I was still quite small at the time, so I do not recall any of the more important events. Nor was I a sage, so I could not tell you where the Shinju was located. I apologize for not being able to be more helpful.”

“That’s fine,” you admit. “Gamamaru-dono wasn’t any more helpful.”

“That hardly comes as a surprise,” she tells you. “However I can offer to search Shikkotsu forest and the surrounding mountains for you. It would be much quicker that way than having you come here and search.”

“Thank you,” you reply with a nod. “I’d appreciate that, for sure.”

“Sakura-sama, please pass me to Naori-dono,” Katsuyu insists. “I will stay with her to inform her of anything I might find.”

“Yeah,” Sakura agrees, passing you the slug. “Sure.”

>It’s getting late. We should settle in someplace for the night, get a fresh start in the morning.
>The shrike forest has a safehouse there. We could spend the night there.
>I think we should arrange transportation to the Mountains’ Graveyard, sleep on the way.
>Other?

>>4967317
>Thank Sakura for summoning katsuyu
>The shrike forest has a safehouse there. We could spend the night there.

>>4967322
>>4967317
Support

>>4967317
>The shrike forest has a safehouse there. We could spend the night there.

>>4967317
>>4967322
supporting

>>4967317
“The shrike forest has a safehouse where we can stay the night in privacy,” you decide. “That should be our next destination, unless you have any disagreements?”

Ryūzetsu shakes her head. “This is kind of your show, Naori. If you think that’s where we need to be we’ll follow.”

“Thanks,” you nod. “And Sakura-han?”

“Hm?” she asks, surprised. “Me?”

“Thank you,” you offer politely. “You were a real help... I’ll let you know what I find, so would you mind sharing with Tsuna-han, Naruto, and Sasuke when the time comes?”

“You’re... what is this, you’re relying on me?” she muses.

There’s a pause. “Should I not for some reason?”

“No!” she insists quickly. “That’s not it, it’s just... it’s strange to hear you treating me, well, like a peer I guess.”

“I.... sometimes I’m quick to judge,” you admit awkwardly. “And sometimes I can be slow to change my mind. But I did notice how many lives you saved during the war, and I’m willing to admit that changes things – just a little.”

“Because now there’s something about you I can really respect.”

After a moment of struggling to collect her thoughts, Sakura manages to reply. “I think that’s the kindest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Don’t get used to it,” you insist, “I don’t usually shower people with compliments.”

“Hey, I’ll take what I can get.”

...

You let Fū finish playing with her new friends, and then teleport her and Ryūzetsu to the forest safehouse. It’s a strange feeling, returning abruptly to the way you lived your life in the days after leaving Akatsuki, and it’s clear that you never actually planned to use this safehouse. There’s hardly any food stored at this location, only scrolls for clean water and power, so you unseal three bowls of Ichiraku.

“Ayame and her father do good work,” you muse, thoughtfully slurping down some of the hot noodles. “This is their ‘diet’ blend.”

“They have ‘diet’ noodles?” Fū stares at her bowl with a new appreciation. “I knew there was a reason I liked that place.”
>1/2

>>4969476
After eating, you encourage Fū and Ryūzetsu to get themselves cleaned up and set to work on the largest bedroom. There’s a lot of dust to clear, which you do with a gust of wind-nature chakra, and you need to quickly clean the futons as well before laying three of them out on the tatami floor. It’s actually a fairly cosy place to spend the night, despite knowing that if Fū or Ryūzetsu left the compound they would definitely suffocate.

“So this is how you lived all that time?” Ryūzetsu muses, having put up her wet hair. “And here I thought you were roughing it.”

“Camping kinda has its own appeal, you know?” Fū offers. “But that’s something you choose the time and place for. It’s nice to have a place to go back to with a fridge, a shower, and clean sheets.”

“So yeah, I’m going to step outside,” you offer. “Say hello to the clan and sort a few things out in advance. Feel free to wander about – just don’t go upstairs or leave the compound. It’ll be pretty obvious where the boundaries are.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Ryūzetsu nods. “What happens if we crossed the boundaries, out of curiosity?”

“I’d rather not find out,” you muse. “See you in a bit.”

…

“Naori!” Isoka chirps. “It’s strange to see you here this time of night, but it’s so welcome!”

“What brings you here?” Kijani inquires curiously.

“Research,” you admit, “and I think you’re the one I need to help me, Kijani-han.”

“Who, me?” he stares, ever so slightly surprised. “What for?”

“I need to construct an archive,” you explain. “With a technique designed to make use of our linked visual fields you could help me view any documents at any time, from anywhere – and that could be extremely powerful, even if it doesn’t sound as dramatic as other collaborative ninjutsu.”

“Of course,” Kijani-han bows low. “Happy to be of assistance.”

…

The next morning comes swifter than you perhaps anticipated, after a night spent sleeping like the dead.

>Speak with Zenkibo about the history of your clan.
>Investigate the Taiyōmon and the shrine yourself.
>Start collating your records and building the archive.
>Other?

>>4969591
>Speak with Zenkibo about the history of your clan.

>>4969591
>>Speak with Zenkibo about the history of your clan.

>>4969591
>>Start collating your records and building the archive.

>>4969591
>>Speak with Zenkibo about the history of your clan.
i feel like building the archive is a longer term project

>>4969591
You create a shadow clone, then send her back to the hideout with Isoka-han and Kinaji-han to begin considering the proper way to go about building an archive, and to discuss with Fū and Ryūzetsu what will need to happen tomorrow along those lines. But you yourself see speaking with Zenkibo-tono as being of more immediate importance, and so you pick your way through the rapidly-dimming woods towards the shrine.

The mists cling close to the mountains, and the light of the setting sun filters through the thick bamboo like a natural screen, casting the entire forest landscape in a sort of eerie in-between twilight. Candles burn in the lanterns all around the shrine, providing just a little extra light to find your way over the worn stones almost overrun with moss.

You find Zenkibo-tono performing kata, moving with a fluid grace from one technique to the next, each one seeming to take advantage of his natural gifts – chiefly, his feathers. These he seems to use as though he were blocking an opponent’s line of sight directly, or else using them to screen his own movements somewhat the same as a hakama is intended to hide the footwork of its wearer.

“You seek me out once more,” he muses without breaking his concentration. “What is it you wish to discuss?”

“Ancient history,” you tell him, seating yourself in seiza with Umekiri at your side. “I trust you are aware that I fought against Kaguya-hime?”

“Every member of every remaining summoning clan knows that,” Zenkibo-tono informs you. “You are here because some aspect of that experience bothers you?”

You nod. “Kaguya’s presence left an impact that we feel even to this day. I wish to better understand that impact, and thereby understand the nature of the Ōtsutsuki.”

>1d6, best three of four
>Higher is better

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>4970740

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4970740

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4970740

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>4970740

>>4970740
“Understanding the unseen by observing its effects,” Zenkibo muses, continuing his practice. “Not a difficult concept, but it sometimes feels as if simple concepts have grown more difficult as the shinobi world has grown more reliant on ninjutsu to solve its problems.”

“So yeah, can I assume I have your support in this?” you ask curiously, still unsure what Zenkibo’s criticism amounts to in more practical terms.

“Of course,” he assures you calmly. “As any of us who could would do so.”

“So what can you tell me?”

“Not nearly as much as I wish,” he admits, finally ending his routine. “Most of our clan do not live nearly so long as many of the toads do, for example. Even as the oldest living member of our clan, I am just a century or so older than Nyoka-dono is.”

“The previous shrikes recorded their history on the Taiyōmon,” you observe. “Did they do the same thing anywhere else? Are there any other stories recorded?”

“Potentially,” he muses. “What would you wish to focus on?”

“The location of the Shinju,” you suggest. “The first sages among the shrikes. What happened to Hamura-tono, perhaps?”

“That last one we may be able to help with,” he insists. “Meet me first thing in the morning, we will go to see a smaller shrine in the nearby forest. For now, I suggest you take the opportunity to rest.”
>1/2
>Dinner break and switching devices

>>4971749
“So let me get this straight,” Fū muses quietly in the dim moonlight after you snuff the candles for the night. “We’re not allowed to go past the walls and into the forest?”

“That’s right,” you confirm. “The natural energy here is so dense it could be bad for you to breathe the air. At very best it would be painful.”

“It just feels like we’re kinda dragging you down on this one,” Fū sighs. “Like you’re busy makin’ sure we’re comfortable and not gonna die to focus on what you’re here for.”

>I have total faith in your abilities: this is just a particular risk I’m not comfortable asking you to take.
>Even if you’re burdens to me, remember that you’re burdens that I chose to have around willingly.
>If I didn’t think you could help me, even as motivation to work harder and better, then you wouldn’t be here.
>Other?

>>4971989
>>Even if you’re burdens to me, remember that you’re burdens that I chose to have around willingly.

>>4971989
>If I didn’t think you could help me, even as motivation to work harder and better, then you wouldn’t be here.

>>4971989
>>If I didn’t think you could help me, even as motivation to work harder and better, then you wouldn’t be here.

>>4971989
Hug the fu
She seems to be still effected by that genjutsu moment

>>4971989
>If I didn’t think you could help me, even as motivation to work harder and better, then you wouldn’t be here.
>>4973721
>What makes you think we left?

>>4973851
I meant more emotionally effected, whatever happened when Naori wasn't with them seems to have had a greater impact on her than even Ryuzetsu

>>4973859
It was a joke about how we never left the infinite tsukuyomi

>>4973865
ahhh, fair point

>>4971989
>>If I didn’t think you could help me, even as motivation to work harder and better, then you wouldn’t be here.

>>4971989
“Yeah no, if I didn’t want you here you wouldn’t be here,” you insist sternly. “And putting people down doesn’t suit you, Fū, even if it’s yourself.”

You can sense that a little tension leaves the room, and soon you can hear Fū’s faint snores. So a few minutes after that, you let yourself out of the room and tiptoe quietly across the courtyard and garden to the bathroom. Instead of running the taps you weave a few fleeting seals with your left hand and convert your chakra to water, rinsing yourself before filling the low basin. Then you activate a sealing tag positioned underneath the bath to heat the water to the perfect temperature and filling the room with steam.

...

“You couldn’t sleep?” you muse quietly.

From just outside the door, you hear an equally quiet response from Ryūzetsu. “No.”

“Is everything alright?”

“... it’s not a problem.”

“You’re still wound up from the fighting, aren’t you?”

After a moment, she agrees. “I think we all are, to some degree.”

“Then why don’t you come in?” you offer.

“... okay then,” she replies. “I’m coming in.”

It feels a little strange that Ryūzetsu glances away as she comes into the bathroom, stubbornly refusing to look straight at you and covering herself slightly as she undresses and rinses herself with water release the same way you did. Then she settles into the water with you, seated across from you, until she’s up to her collarbones. At that point, she seems to finally relax a little bit.

“So yeah, I never imagined you to be the bashful type,” you muse. “Or should I say, the ‘guarded’ type?”

“You’re not wrong,” she confesses. “It’s a few things... Kusagakure is like that, and ANBU is like that in most villages.”

“Hey, if you need me to do something, or not do something, to make you feel more comfortable?” you insist. “By all means, let me know.”

Ryūzetsu shakes her head. “Flirting and a first date are easy.”

>Honestly, Ryūzetsu – you don’t need to try too hard at this. Take your own time.
>A good first step would be learning to just enjoy the moment. I’m all about that.
>I’m afraid I’m not a good source of advice – I’m usually “calm”, not “relaxed”.
>Other?

>>4974457
>>Honestly, Ryūzetsu – you don’t need to try too hard at this. Take your own time.

>>4974457
>Honestly, Ryūzetsu – you don’t need to try too hard at this. Take your own time.
It takes time for two people to really get comfortable with one another.

>>4974457
>>Honestly, Ryūzetsu – you don’t need to try too hard at this. Take your own time.

>>4974457
>>A good first step would be learning to just enjoy the moment. I’m all about that.

>>4974457
>Honestly, Ryūzetsu – you don’t need to try too hard at this. Take your own time.

>>4974457
>A good first step would be learning to just enjoy the moment. I’m all about that.

>>4974457
“Honestly Ryūzetsu,” you sigh, playfully flicking a little hot water across the bath in her general direction, “you absolutely don’t have to force yourself, okay? Just take your time.”

“... you’re probably right,” she shakes her head quietly. “But do you remember the first time we ever parted ways?”

“For sure – I remember promising to see each other again bothered you at first,” you recall. “I’ve chosen never to press, but it had something to do with Muku?”

Ryūzetsu nods. “The last time we spoke we made a similar promise.”

“So that’s why it bothered you,” you sigh. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Ryūzetsu insists firmly. “I’m glad we met, it’s just still hard to get close to people.”

“In what sense?”

“Both senses,” she admits. “Emotionally, or physically.”

You sit for a while in the steam and the hot water, musing silently over things. It’s strange to you, almost as much as it must be to her you’d guess. Where Ryūzetsu finds the prospect of emotional intimacy and friendship disconcerting to some degree, to you the discomfort is in not quite sharing the popular view of intimacy as being couched in romance and mystique. To you sex has nothing necessarily to do with love or romance, even if those things sometimes go together. Nor does all love necessarily carry a romantic meaning either.

You care about Ryūzetsu, there’s a mutual affection and respect between you, and for your part you can even admit she’s an attractive young woman. By any definition that’s love. But then again, all of those things are also true of Fū – and while one of those two has brought an unmistakable tension to your late-night soak, the other is snoring quietly across the garden without a care in the world.

“How strange,” you muse quietly. “I don’t usually get hung up on things like this.”

“So... do you want to be closer?” Ryūzetsu asks curiously, with almost a sense of apprehension. “As friends, as... something more intimate?”

>As friends.
>Admit you’re not sure where to draw the line.
>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable.
>Other?

>>4975866
>>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable.

>>4975866
>>Admit you’re not sure where to draw the line.

>>4975866
>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable

>>4975866
>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable.

>>4975866
>>Admit you’re not sure where to draw the line.

>>4975866
>>Admit you’re not sure where to draw the line.

>>4975866
>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable.

>>4975866
>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable.

>>4975866
>Admit you’re not sure where to draw the line.

>>4975866
>>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable.

>>4975866
>>More intimate, if she’d be comfortable.

>>4975866
There’s a short pause, which it seems like Ryūzetsu isn’t sure how to interpret. So you offer her something to think about while you straighten out your own thoughts.

“So yeah, I was aware back when I was young,” you admit openly, laying out what you’d just been considering moments ago. “I think most people would probably expect my attitudes towards sex to be more positive, or at least more open, than they really are.”

Ryūzetsu frowns for a moment. “I guess with how confident you are most of the time, it’s hard to imagine anything bothering you.”

“Aside from people hurting or threatening the people I care about,” you shrug, “you’d mostly be right. Sex is just an awkward subject for me, because I’ve always sort of avoided and ignored it.”

“Because it can be bought without affection or respect?” Ryūzetsu realizes.

You nod. “So yes, ‘more intimate’ would be nice… but I’m really not comfortable rushing it either.”
>1/2, relocating the work

>>4976490
“Slow and steady, then?” Ryūzetsu eventually muses after another long pause where you both sit quietly in the steaming water. “I think I can do that.”

“It may’ve been a more awkward bath than I’d wanted,” you admit, “but that was a good discussion to have, for sure. I feel a lot better.”

“Is there anyone who should…” Ryūzetsu begins before pausing to consider the finer points of phrasing. “Anyone who should hear about this from you directly?”

“One,” you admit, your brow slightly furrowed. “Other than that, so far as I’m concerned it’s nobody’s business. And as a point of fact, there’s not even any ‘business’ yet… just an intent to someday have some ‘business’.”

“In that case,” Ryūzetsu muses, “I look forward to doing ‘business’ with you.”

…

The next morning is stormy, with muted thunder that washes through the forest in great waves as the rain filters through several stories of leaves. Isoka flits in from outside, ruffling her feathers to dry off before coming in through an open door.

“I heard you were heading out with Zenkibo-dono?”

You nod once, setting aside your bowl of rice. “That’s right. I was going to leave in a few moments.”

“Can I come with?”

“Sure,” you agree. “I see no reason why you shouldn’t.”

…

After leaving instructions with Ryūzetsu and Fū for what needs to happen so that Kijani will eventually have an archive to work with, supporting any of your future investigations, you meet with Zenkibo at the main shrine.

“For this to take a reasonable amount of time, we should probably proceed at a run,” he admits.

You drop a hiraishin kunai outside the main hall of the shrine, and nod in agreement. “You lead, I’ll follow.”
>1d6, best three of the first four

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>4976584

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>4976584

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>4976584

>>4976584
Oof max of 13 minimum of 8

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>4976584

>>4976584
You eventually arrive just before lunch at the first few stony stairs of a pathway down into a deep gorge, winding through the dim forest almost as if it were passing through a tunnel carved into the mountain itself. Even compared to the rest of the shrike forest this place feels old and foreboding, probably because it hasn’t been maintained quite so carefully. Deep within this gorge, near a small set of waterfalls along a river half-hidden in a glade where the green leaves thin out enough to allow the light from the sun to filter through, you find a shrine. The little river runs around it on each side, and underneath it, in three stony beds, while the shrine itself is lifted on a small wooden platform.

It’s not very large, maybe the footprint of a small bedroom with an angled wooden roof in the ancient style, with a shimanawa running across a set of small doors. Too small of a shrine to have much inside it, but it was clearly constructed for a purpose.

“Here we are,” Zenkibo-tono informs you.

“This is it?” Isoka chirps in confusion. “I thought it’d be... I dunno. Not tiny?”

“Sometimes important things do not draw attention to themselves,” Zenkibo muses. “Naori-san, you will find that the doors are locked using a complex fūinjutsu barrier. Your first task will be to devise an appropriate key to passing that barrier.”

“Okay,” you agree, carefully examining the doors. “I think I can do that.”

There are a number of things you try: examining it with the sharingan and mangekyō first, then running a chakra ‘echo’ into it. But it’s using senjutsu that gives you the clearest picture, combined with examining it with the jōgan. It’s an antiquated style of fūinjutsu, intricate but almost primitive in its execution, definitely the work of an old master of the art and study of sealing. It may well have been one of your distant ancestors.

You form a few quick hand seals, then ‘split’ the chakra of the seal with your right hand along the line between the two doors, not quite wide enough to qualify as a ‘gap’, which allows you to prise the doors open.

“There,” you declare.

“You made that look easy,” Isoka flutters over your shoulder. “So? What’s inside, Zenkibo-dono?”

“I do not know,” he admits. “Naori-san?”

You reach inside to find... tablets. But not carved from the usual stone, rather hammered from shibuichi alloy of a pleasing shade of green. The characters were each under-cut into the base metal then back-filled with gold wire, hammered into the cuts then polished to form beautiful golden letters.

“These are very old,” you muse. “Sealed against the elements for hundreds of years, perfectly preserved. Not even a spot of dust!”

“Can you read them?” Isoka wonders.

“Yeah,” you nod. “I suspect...”
>1/2

>>4977965
You teleport back to the main shrine, pulling up the hiraishin kunai by its ring pommel. “I’ll let you know what I learn, Zenkibo-tono.”

“Much obliged,” the old tengu bows politely. “And might I ask, what do you intend to do with them?”

“Store them,” you admit. “Along with translations.”

“Then I look forward to seeing those too.”

...

Back in the safehouse, as Fū and Ryūzetsu continue to work in one of the spare rooms with Kijani to meet your specifications – loose as they are – you set out the tablets and begin to read. As you suspected when you first saw the letters, they mirror the form of the Nakano shrine tablet in the way that each level of ‘secrecy’ can only be understood with a different form of dōjutsu. So you take the time to read each portion in turn, rewriting each passage on a different sheet of paper.

With your own eye – you can tell that the tablet is meant to recount a brief story of Hamura, brother of the man who would become known as the Sage of Six Paths. It says he was parting ways with the Sage, after having defeated their mother and sealed her away, and that he came to the shrikes for advice. With the sharingan, you can read that he was trying to leave for the moon itself, formed when Kaguya-hime was sealed, and wanted to know if the shrikes knew whether it was possible to fly there through conventional means. With the mangekyō you can read that Hamura had a wife and children, along with a good number of followers, and that the shrikes advised him that it was impossible to fly through what they called ‘the thin air’. He would be better advised to create a stable, permanent rift through spacetime instead.

All these details you record dutifully. But you’re not sure that’s the full story... there seems to be another level of detail you can’t read, and the jōgan can’t make it readable for you.

...

“That’s quite a lot,” Fū muses after you show her your work before dinner. “So the Sage of Six Paths had a brother who went to... space, according to this?”

“That’s pretty wild,” Ryūzetsu admits. “You left an empty page though?”

“I suspect there’s another dōjutsu that can read the details I’m missing,” you admit.

“So, like the byakugan?” Fū asks.

Actually...

>Just go ask Hinata. Simplest that way.
>This concerns her clan – so ask her father, Hiashi-tono.
>You could ask Kō, your one-time subordinate.
>Other?

>>4977967
>>Just go ask Hinata. Simplest that way.

>>4977967
>>Just go ask Hinata. Simplest that way.

>>4977967
>Just go ask Hinata. Simplest that way.

>>4977967
>Just go ask Hinata. Simplest that way.

>>4977967
If we go to konoha, let's say hello to our friend in the Ramen shop, I can't remember the last time we talked to her and her father

>>4977967
>This concerns her clan – so ask her father, Hiashi-tono.

Think this as a official Uzumaki and Hyuga cooperation about serious subject

>>4978316
We can ask hinata to confirm it and the inform the clan head
It could theoretically be another dojutsu after all

>>4977967
>Just go ask Hinata. Simplest that way.

>>4978371
>another dojutsu
Only Rinnegan, Tenseigan and EMS are left, aren't they?

>>4978791
I think so, byakugan is gonna work we all know that, but Naori can't be sure

>testing mobile connection

>>4979312
“... I may know someone who can help with that,” you admit, tucking the tablets into your obi before putting one hand each on Fū and Ryūzetsu and teleporting them to one of your hiraishin markings in Konohagakure.

“Naori-san!” Ayame greets you cheerfully, almost dropping the batch of noodles she was working on. “It’s been a while!”

“For sure,” you agree. “Wasn’t this place smaller last time I was here?”

“We do table service now,” she clarifies, which would explain why you found yourselves in a room with a noodle bar against one wall rather than a stall. “But the kunai you gave me is in the same place it was at the last place.”

“Nice,” you muse, noting that the tables are almost all full. “Seems busy today.”

“There’s a table in back,” Ayame offers, ushering you back behind the counter to a small table in the kitchen. “I’ll be over in a few minutes... do your friends here need menus?”

“Sure!” Fū replies with a smile, speaking for Ryūzetsu – who doesn’t seem to mind or disagree.

...

“Here,” Ayame eventually sets your orders on the table, along with a bowl for herself. For Fū, a bowl of diet ramen with tonkotsu broth, onions egg, green onions, narutomaki, and braised pork. For Ryūzetsu, bowl with torigara broth, miso, scallops, and fried corn. For you, in a rather shocking departure, soba noodles with freshly-fried shrimp, green beans, and sprouts. For Ayame, a dish of somen.

“How is the soba?” she asks you.

“I like it,” you smile. “I think you’ve gotten it exactly right, like I expected you would.”

“You have no idea how happy it makes me every time I hear that,” she breathes a small sigh of relief. “It definitely took a while to convince my dad to broaden the menu and hire on some extra help.”

“So, what brings you back to Konoha?”

“I was actually here for lunch,” you admit. “But I’d also like to find Hyūga Hinata for business.”

“Hinata?” Ayame-han muses. “She was here yesterday with Kiba, said something about training today I think?”

“How were they doing?” you frown, recalling that they lost their sensei and third teammate during the war.

“I know shinobi get hurt on missions all the time,” Ayame-han admits, “and that they sometimes even die. And I know that Kiba-kun and Hinata-kun knew that. But it doesn’t seem like they were ready for it to happen to someone they knew – let alone a friend and a mentor in the same day.”
>1/2

>>4979314
Taking Ayame-han’s words as warning, you leave your friends in a park near the Hyūga manor and go in warily, prepared for Hinata-kun to still be in a sensitive state after the loss of her teammate and teacher.

“You would be...” a white-eyed housekeeper recognizes you after you knock at the main entrance. “Uzumaki Naori-sama, correct?”

“That’s right,” you nod. “I’m here to speak with Hinata-han. Is she available?”

“Hinata-sama is training with Neji-kun at the moment...” the housekeeper insists.

“Even better,” you counter. “The matter is urgent enough, and Neji-han’s experience could prove valuable as well.”

...

After essentially talking your way onto the property, you meet with Neji and Hinata who are shocked to see you, explaining to them the background to your problem.

“And why were you so certain the byakugan would be the missing piece that you forced your way into a noble residence in a foreign country without warning the clan you were coming?” Neji frowns.

>Because Kaguya had the byakugan – so I find it likely Hamura had it.
>Because my own jōgan is having trouble despite being based on the byakugan.
>Because I’m guessing that the Eternal Mangekyō portion of the Uchiha tablet was added later.
>Other?

>>4979315
>All of the above
>Also, apologize for barging in

>>4979315
>Because Kaguya had the byakugan – so I find it likely Hamura had it.

>>4979315
>Because Kaguya had the byakugan – so I find it likely Hamura had it.
push the unspoken about them not doing shit about kaguya, they probably feel at least a little bit shit about it

>>4979315
>Because Kaguya had the byakugan – so I find it likely Hamura had it.

>>4979326
>>4979315
This right here

>>4979315
>Because Kaguya had the byakugan – so I find it likely Hamura had it.
>Also, apologize for barging in

>>4979315
>Because Kaguya had the byakugan – so I find it likely Hamura had it.
>Also, apologize for barging in

>>4979315
“If my talking my way in here offended you I’m sorry,” you tell them both – mostly Neji, as the one who seems to be actually frustrated with you, but also Hinata as a representative of the main branch. “But this clearly concerns your clan. Kaguya-hime had the byakugan and the rinne-sharingan – passing the latter down through Hagoromo-tono, and the former through Hamura-tono. Hamura-tono was the ancestor of both the Hyūga and the Uzumaki.”

“So I have a question for you – why do you think that it’s only Hagoromo-tono who is remembered through human history and not his brother?”

“I suppose you have an answer?” Neji guesses.

“The beginnings of one,” you admit, producing the two metal tablets and handing one to Neji and one to Hinata. “These tablets are like the one in the Uchiha’s Nakano-jinja, readable in different levels of detail by different forms of dōjutsu. I’ve tried the sharingan, mangekyō sharingan, and jōgan. The latter didn’t do as much as I’d hoped.”

“The jōgan,” Hinata muses. “Um... what is it exactly? We haven’t been told all of the details.”

>Can’t say, sorry. Can you read the tablets?
>I’ll offer you a trade: the information I want first.
>It’s been combined with Kaguya’s genes.
>Other?

>>4979985
>It's Similar to the Rinnegan.

>>4979985
>The Jougan was a show of goodwill from the last pieces of Kaguya's soul.

>>4979985
>I’ll offer you a trade: the information I want first

>>4979985
>It’s been combined with Kaguya’s genes.

>>4979985
“So yeah, we’ve been keeping that information quiet for a reason,” you admit, carefully considering how much you should tell them. You haven’t been specifically instructed not to tell anyone anything, but keeping the information compartmentalized to a degree also makes sense. “The jōgan traces itself to Kaguya-hime… directly.”

“How so?” Neji frowns.

“In that she gave the last little push it needed to manifest,” you clarify.

Hinata stares at you, not quite comprehending. “Why would she do that if you were fighting to stop her?”

“She was old,” you avoid answering the question. “Very old, very powerful, and very insane. As for these tablets, I believe your clan and my own trace back to Hamura-tono, who must have possessed the byakugan and passed it down to the Hyūga. I can’t seem to read the details with any form of sharingan, and the jōgan didn’t exist at the time. Since the rinnegan portion of the Nakano tablet was a later forgery, I suspect that leaves only the byakugan.”

“I see you’ve given this a surprising amount of thought,” Neji muses, activating his byakugan and pausing. “Where did you say you got these tablets?”

“They were held by my summoning clan,” you tell them. “Why? Did you learn something?”

“Yes,” Neji confirms. “This tablet confirms that two of Ōtsutsuki Hamura’s children left with him for the moon, but that his youngest son and only daughter stayed behind. It was she that married out of the Ōtsutsuki name and founded the Hyūga clan as we would come to know it. The Uzumaki it seems were descended from the son, who never manifested the byakugan and later chose a name for himself based on where he eventually settled.”

“The Land of Whirlpools,” you muse.

“That’s right.”

“And Hinata-han? What does your tablet say?”

“That Hamura-dono and his sons used a spacetime ninjutsu,” Hinata tells you. “One that created a permanent portal, that can be activated by Hamura’s descendants.”

>Fascinating. I’d very much like to work out where that portal might be today.
>On a different note… does the byakugan require much training to use properly?
>Thank you. I’ll keep your clan informed if I learn anything related to your history.
>Other?