(*Last episode for Season 1. Season 2 has 33 episodes, so there’s still plenty before it ends…)
Hagaromo was shocked when he recognized that his lost son, Zet Otsutsuki, was “the second white guardian.” Even though it was obvious that Zet didn’t have good intentions towards him, Hagaromo was more worried about knowing what happened to his son and why he had to join the Snake King:
“What happened to you, Zet? Why did you disappear without a word? Why did you end up like this? And, why did you have to follow him? It didn’t have to be like this…”
Hagaromo was lethally wounded by the human Snake King. The only reason why he was standing was that Zet’s white branches lifted him up. He was approaching death. However, the way he talked to Zet denoted more sadness than pain. Zet, on the other hand, talked to him with disdain:
“You are wrong about me. It had to be like this. There was no other way for me. In this realm, I could never get all the things I wanted, even though I was a son of the holy sage himself. You denied me the power that I deserved and expected me to live as an ordinary human who wasn’t even recognized as your son. I only gained the power that I needed after I left this world. That was all that mattered to me. The Snake King just helped me to get a portion of this power. He was just a means to an end. Unlike the others, I wasn’t his follower and I became what I am without his help. I gained my power on my own, unlike Indra and Ashura, who inherited all of it from you. I did what I had to do. And now, I can finally have what I only dreamed about, what I truly wanted, during all these years, and since the very beginning of my quest. Today, the holy fruit of chakra, the almighty power of Ten-Tails, will be under my command. And even you won’t stop me from getting it.”
Hagaromo knew that Zet didn’t have a good heart, so he ensured that his third son would never become powerful or important. He tried to change him, but his actions only led Zet to hate him. And Zet didn’t change. However, he was still his son, so Hagaromo wanted good things for him too. Deep down, he always believed that Zet would be able to change. Only at the end, Hagaromo realized that he was wrong; and his mistake costed the entire realm a great deal of bloodshed and suffering for many years to come…
Zet began the process of separating the inner power from Hagaromo’s body to imprison it in his own. Suddenly, he realized something that left him in shock: there was no Ten-Tails and there was no holy fruit of power to be found. Hagaromo didn’t have the power of the fruit of chakra! He didn’t have it!! It simply wasn’t there at all. There was nothing to extract, and nothing to gain either. How was it possible?! Why??
“What is the meaning of this!!? Does this mean that you did all of that and even won against the Snake King without the power of Ten-Tails??! How is this possible?!”
Zet looked at Hagaromo’s eyes and quickly understood how. His father’s eyes were dark green. He didn’t have the final sharingan eyes anymore. Both rinnegans were gone. At the very beginning, he only had one, and now, the other one was gone too. He sacrificed the power that he inherited from birth—a power that was his own—to seal away the Snake King and to save the future. He also succeeded at stopping everyone there from getting the third fruit of power. Although, his solution meant that he lost it too…
Zet got very angry. He destroyed the branches that were grabbing Hagaromo and held him up himself, pulling up his father’s broken shirt.
“You won’t stop me from fulfilling my dreams! I can’t let you get in my way any longer. Where is it!? Where did you hide it!!?? Talk!!! If you don’t tell me, I will kill you holy sage!!”
Hagaromo grabbed Zet’s arms.
“Listen to yourself son. I am not the holy sage; I am your father.
And I would rather die than help you to destroy yourself and our realm’s future.”
Zet’s hatred for the Sage of the Six Paths was at an all-time high after he realized that even without the holy power, Hagaromo was still coming out on top, as always. He was the one that did what no one else could: he defeated the host of a fruit of power without owning another fruit. After all those years, Zet had not been able to surpass him and he was still the one stopping him from getting what he wanted…
Zet made up his mind quickly and without much trouble:
“Really? You would rather die… In that case, I am going to have to do things your way. I won’t be stopped by you again. And I am sure that you didn’t destroy it, so I will find it. Sooner or later, the power that was yours will become my own. I will surpass you and I will become the first true king of this realm.”
Zet’s branches held Hagaromo again and one of them took the shape of a long white knife. Zet was about to kill Hagaromo when something stopped him cold. He couldn’t move and soon he wasn’t even aware of anything anymore. The “second black guardian” (known as “Black Zetsu” in Naruto and as Su Otsutsuki in this story) adopted his fluid non-human form and took over Zet’s body as soon as he had half of Zet’s head covered.
Hagaromo was still trapped by the branches that were now controlled by Su.
“You monster… it was you, wasn’t it? You had something to do with making Zet do all of this.”
The black thing covered Zet’s face and took the shape of a human face with yellow eyes. It didn’t resemble the original Su at all, but it still had the same exact voice:
“Oh no. You know it as well as I do. Zet chose his own path. He ended up like this because he chose it. The same cannot be said about me. I didn’t know that I was going to end up like this until it was too late to change it. However, this form has been and will be very useful to achieve my goals.”
“Who are you?”
Hagaromo didn’t figure it out right away.
“Really? It’s been a very long time, but you should be able to recognize my voice Hagaromo. That is pretty much the only thing that hasn’t changed about me.”
Hagaromo felt the same sensation that he felt when he found out who the other white guardian was.
“Su??”
“See, I knew you had not forgotten me.”
Hagaromo’s expression changed to great concern. He finally realized that two of the greatest villains from the future were his last son and one of his brothers—the one who had been thrown into exile, as punishment. Hagaromo had seen many things, but his visions and his power failed to show him these critical facts. His lack of perception about these two led to a much darker future for his Human Realm—a future that could have been avoided.
Then, Su revealed his plan to Hagaromo:
“Before you leave us, I want you to know what I plan to do. I admire your accomplishments, and I know that you have partial knowledge about the future; so I want you to know about the future that you couldn’t predict nor avoid.
I will use your son Zet and other powerful allies in order to bring back the true power. Zet believes that Ten-Tails is the true power, but you and I know very well that it isn’t. I will revive the goddess, Kaguya Otsutsuki, and use her to reshape this realm completely, just like she did once, before I was born. I will make a world where everyone will live happy lives under my rule. And I will make her my permanent body. You failed to predict this and you will die now, so there is nothing you can do to stop it. I will also be able to use your physical form, as I can do for all the people that I have killed, since I gained the Black guardian’s power.
I knew that you didn’t have the fruit of chakra from the moment I saw you. And I will get it back, of course, but it won’t be for me or for Zet. I will use it to bring her back to this world. Nothing else will matter after that. I will be the god of this realm with her power and all the habitants will dream in peace for eternity. It will be a much better world than the one we have lived in so far.”
Even without the fruit of chakra, Kaguya was indeed more powerful than Hagaromo, due to all the secrets that she discovered. She was the one that created the original Zetsu army of Zeta-like humans at her Human Realm. She halted all the wars in the world and became the absolute ruler. Kaguya didn’t earn the nickname “goddess” for nothing… She was also the one that ended up taking down the Snake King and his entire army of snakes. (She truly defeated him, unlike Hagaromo, who only stopped him from coming back. However, she also failed when it came to finishing his threat for good. And, in the long-term, it was correct to say that he was the true winner from their battle, because that battle’s aftermath led to Kaguya’s end.)
Hagaromo didn’t look too surprised about “Su’s plan” though. He already knew what “Black Zetsu’s” plan meant and what it would do because he had to deal with this event from the future, just a few months before Jim Namikaze arrived at the coliseum. He gave crucial help to the heroes from the future to stop the revival of Kaguya Otsusuki. The Dark Realm of the fruit of chakra transcended time, so he was able to reach two of the saviors through it to stop that event. (There were two ways to reach the Dark Realm. One was having and using a special sharingan eye. The other was being very close to death and being summoned, at that point, by the owner of the Dark Realm. This later way was how Hagaromo got in touch with those two heroes, one of which was Naruto…)
Unfortunately, Hagaromo never realized that White Zetsu (Zet) and Black Zetsu (Su) were much more than the Snake King’s guardians and Kaguya’s puppets. And he didn’t see that they would continue causing calamities after their grand defeat during Kaguya’s return. He, like Naruto and Sasuke, believed that it was truly over for those two after the defeat of the revived Madara and the failure of Kaguya’s return…
Hagaromo knew that the threat of the Snake King still existed, but he had not foreseen that Zet and Su would be as big of a problem for his realm as the dark king himself. He failed to realize it sooner because he didn’t know who they really were… And now, it was too late.
Su finished what Zet started. He pushed the branch-like knife through the same place where the dark clones had wounded Hagaromo. Then, he used a dark-style jutsu to block medical ninja techniques from working for at least one hour—more than enough time for Hagaromo to be dead because of that wound.
The branches let go of Hagaromo and he fell down on the sand again—facing up.
“I’m sure that you already knew this was coming Hagaromo. If there is someone who can stop me in this realm, that is you. Even without the fruit of chakra, your abilities are too much of a threat for my plans. I can’t let you live if I’m going to bring her back to change this world.”
Su was still saying his last words when a lightning arrow went through him. When that happened, he lost his full control over Zet, but he still remained attached to Zet’s body. Zet didn’t remember anything from the moment when he was about to stab Hagaromo. Su recognized the arrow’s shape right away—it was Hamura’s. Hagaromo’s twin and the other ninjas from the Otsutsuki Clan arrived at the scene.
Su warned Zet:
“We need to get out of here now!! Hurry!!”
Zet saw the newcomers, but he still didn’t move right away.
“Why did you do that before I did it? Are you hiding something from me?!”
“I have as many reasons as you to want him dead. Now, it is done. I ensured that he won’t make it. However, we won’t make it either if you don’t take us out of here now!”
The ninjas began to surround Zet and Su, but Zet unleashed a massive water-style technique:
“Water-style jutsu! Hazul serpent attack!! Water clones jutsu!!”
A blue serpent of water began to clash with the attackers and a bunch of blue water clones of Zet attacked too. He had no time to make the white solid clones, which were more powerful, because they were surrounded. Instead, he used his water techniques, which were faster. (Before he got all white and green-haired, Zet was primarily a water-style user, and secondarily an earth-style user. However, his sage modes expanded the types of techniques that he could use while he was a sage. And gaining Spiral’s abilities took him to a whole new level.)
Spiral began to run towards “Zet-Su” to escape as well. However, a large fire sword cut him in half. It was Indra’s attack! He managed to make and use just one arm of his fire-style Susanoo. He couldn’t allow them to escape!
Zet ran towards Spiral with Su still attached on him. He grabbed Spiral’s upper half with haste.
“Spiral, you better not make me feel sorry about taking you with us! Su, do it now!! You can take us out with your teleportation technique! I can’t do that!”
Spiral looked very alarmed.
“Hey wait! Don’t leave my legs and my torso behind!!”
Zet treated Spiral like some sort of lower-level follower:
“You can grow them back you fool! Now come here unless you want to lose the rest of your body too!”
Su created a black sphere that engulfed all three of them and it began to disappear little by little. Hamura and the others launched attacks at the sphere. However, the sphere teleported the “Zetsu trio” a few miles away from there and gave them enough time to escape without being seen.
After the three villains escaped, Hamura and the others ran to where Hagaromo was. Hamura already knew that Indra was fine, but his brother’s state was much different. They tried to heal him, but their techniques were not working. He was dying and it didn’t seem like they could do anything to save him.
Hamura felt frustrated. Hagaromo wasn’t just his twin; he was his best friend and the best leader their clan could have asked for.
“Hagaromo!! What happened here?? How is this possible?? Who did this to you?!”
Hagaromo talked to him and to the others:
“There is no time to mourn my end now. Our clan will continue and all of you are still here.
The Snake King attacked our world again. Hamura, he looks just like he did before. It is as if time didn’t pass at all for him…”
Hagaromo barely had any strength left, even to talk.
“Follow what I left written in my will for the future of our clan… until then, you are the new leader Hamura… Now, leave me here, I need you to remove the dark seal of the three commas from Indra. You must do it as soon as possible…”
Hamura showed signs of even greater worry as soon as Hagaromo mentioned the Snake King and the dark seal. He knew what it had done to their godly mother. Like the young Hagaromo, he also saw the first grand battle between Kaguya and the Snake King, many years ago, and he saw how he casted the dark seal on her. Both he and Hagaromo believed that the seal was the real reason why Ten-Tails managed to take over Kaguya permanently…
Hamura was still shocked:
“How did this happen? You don’t have your power anymore. Did he take it from you??”
“Don’t worry, I hid it well… more than a century will go by before the full power of the fruit of chakra returns… please, save Indra and take care of the Otsutsuki Clan…”
After his final words, Hagaromo died in Hamura’s arms. Hamura had great difficulty to leave Hagaromo behind. He closed Hagaromo’s eyes and two whole minutes went by before he could stand and go to help Indra.
Indra was experiencing problems with his vision after he overexerted his sharingan eyes to cut Spiral in half, so he wasn’t able to get up. Hamura reached him and located the seal of the three black commas on Indra’s leg. He tried to erase it using seal breaking techniques, but nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t going away and it didn’t go away no matter what Hamura did. Others also tried to dispel it, but no one was successful… Hagaromo surely could have done it, but he wasn’t among them anymore.
The devastating hit that the Otsutsuki Clan took that day went beyond the loss of their legendary leader and the destruction of the holy sage’s coliseum. The worst had yet to come for them…
The news of Hagaromo’s death felt like a hint of a black omen. Their clan was doing very well. It was considered the most influential clan in the entire continent, and it had been very successful at stopping all the conflicts among the smaller clans. Therefore, they decided to hide the bad news from the other clans for some time. After all, everyone knew that the Sage of the Six Paths was the biggest reason why their clan was considered the most important one in the Human Realm. They were going to reveal the bad news to the other clans when Hagaromo’s will for the Otsutsuki Clan’s future became public. Because of Hagaromo’s own instructions, at the top of the letter for his will, they decided to wait two months. Hagaromo made it clear with his handwriting outside the letter that it had to be opened and followed two months after his death, not earlier…
Indra spent just one week at the hospital, until his eyes recovered completely. He didn’t have any problems with his vision after that. On the other hand, Ashura had a much more difficult time and many attributed his survival to the fact that he was a descendant of Hagaromo. He spent seven weeks at the hospital—three of them in critical condition…
Hamura took Hagaromo’s position as the leader, but things didn’t feel the same way for him. The truth was that even though he knew that his clan was mighty, he feared that other clans would want to challenge them as soon as they revealed that Hagaromo and “the holy power” were not among them anymore.
Indra was the only one that seemed happy. However, many realized that he wasn’t quite himself. It was as if something had changed in him after what happened at the coliseum. Indra didn’t notice it though. Only other close friends and family members could see that there was some kind of change in him. While others were sad because of Hagaromo’s death, Indra was happy because he knew that he was going to be the next leader of the great Otsutsuki Clan. He barely even mourned the death of his father. He became less compassionate, colder in character, and thirstier for power, every month that went by (after the dark seal was casted on him). He didn’t realize it at first though. By the time he became fully aware of it, it was already too late to change to the way he once was…
The two months went by and Ashura recovered, after a very difficult time. He was able to walk well again, just a few days before his father’s will for the clan was read publicly by his uncle Hamura. That day, most of the people from the clan gathered at a large plaza and heard the last words that their great leader left behind for them. Indra was waiting anxiously for the moment when he would be named the new leader of the entire clan. His brother was still quite young at 20, and his uncle was nowhere near as powerful as him or Ashura. The rational decision was that he would become the main leader. On the other hand, Ashura didn’t care about those things. He just wanted to know what his father wanted to tell them.
Hagaromo’s will was to divide their clan into two new clans, one named the Senju Clan, and the other still named the Otsutsuki Clan. Hamura was going to be the leader of the new Otsutsuki Clan and Ashura was the one that Hagaromo chose as the first leader of the Senju Clan. The letter even recommended how to make the divisions between the two and promoted their cooperation.
Hamura, Ashura, Hagaromo’s wife Hira (the mother of Indra and Ashura), and most of the people agreed with the holy sage’s decision. Indra began to dislike it as soon as he heard that there would be two clans—because that meant that there would be two leaders, and he could only be one of them. His frustration became real when he found out that his name wasn’t even mentioned and he wasn’t one of the two new leaders. Obviously, he believed that he was the best man for the job, but Hagaromo thought differently. He saw in some of his visions that his son Indra was far more likely to seek war than his son Ashura. Therefore, he thought that Indra wasn’t fit to be the next leader of the clan. What Hagaromo didn’t see was that the future Indra also had the negative influence of the dark seal, and that was why he became a seeker of power… Unfortunately, the Sage of the Six Paths didn’t see all the important details ahead of time…
Indra did the unthinkable that day. He went up to Hamura and read the whole letter with his own eyes. When he was certain that his name wasn’t on it, he ripped it apart in front of everyone and stated his wish publicly:
“I wished more than anything to be your new leader, the new guide of the Otsutsuki Clan. For that purpose, I trained and worked very hard during my entire life. I’m very sorry to hear what this letter had to tell us. I respect my father as much as all of you do, but I believe that he didn’t make the best decision and he didn’t pick the best leader for our clan. And truth be told, someone who isn’t among us isn’t fit to choose our best future either. I know that most of you will follow his decision anyways, but those of you who don’t want this are welcome to join me. I will make a third clan separate from these two. There, I will make all my dreams for our true clan come true. You are all free to join me, or to disagree with me, but I will do it anyways. It is my wish.”
This wasn’t the Indra that Ashura and the others knew, but it was still an Indra that a bunch of people from the Otsutsuki Clan wanted to follow, no matter what. Things started to fall apart after that day…
Hamura recognized that the seal could be responsible for Indra’s change for the worse, but Indra didn’t see it that way. In Indra’s mind, the seal that he couldn’t remove had no power over him. Hamura and Ashura tried to dissuade Indra, but their efforts to convince him failed. He even ignored his mother’s plea to take all of that back. And his wife of a few years left him after his big changes started to affect her too.
At the end, the three clans were formed. Hamura and Ashura’s clans were separate but still united, and not far from each other. Indra left them. He named his new group the Uchiha Clan and he became its first leader. Then, they began to build their first settlement at a place that was 15 miles away from the Senju Clan. It was also 30 miles away from where The Leaf would be founded in the future by Hashirama Senju (the first Hokage, Ashura’s descendant, and a former member of the Senju Clan) and Madara Uchiha (a well-known Uchiha warlord that chose to make peace and join forces with Hashirama to create The Leaf, an all-new clan).
Unfortunately, things didn’t stop with the mere separation of the original Otsutsuki Clan into three parts. Things got worse because many of the other smaller clans started to experience more attacks and more conflicts with “the bad clans” that began to attack more frequently, after they found out that there was no “holy sage” that would stop them anymore.
Indra and his people became far more powerful because one of Indra’s sons was born with a mangekyou sharingan that had the unique power to give sharingan eyes to all newborns. Therefore, all the babies in the Uchiha Clan obtained the potential to awaken the sharingan eyes and their power, even if they weren’t direct descendants of Indra. Naturally, Indra’s son and his ability were exploited to give this power to all of them.
After that, Indra declared that they were all Uchihas, so every new child born in their clan was going to have “Uchiha” as his or her last name. That way everyone was going to know and fear the power of the Uchihas and their mighty eyes. They became one of the warring clans as well. And after a few years, the Uchiha Clan grew as large as the Otsutsuki Clan and the Senju Clan because any smaller clan that fought them was defeated and forced to join forces with them…
One day, the Otsutsukis and the Senjus began to intervene with the Uchihas and their expansion. They were the ones that had the first victories against Indra’s clan. Therefore, Indra declared war on them and decided that it was time to take what should have been his from the start. Indra had not participated in any of those battles and he had not seen his mother, his brother, his ex-wife, and his uncle Hamura since he left them years ago, to form his new clan. Eventually, he decided that the Uchihas were not going to lose anymore against the Senjus or the Otsutsukis. His superior power was going to guarantee their victory in the next battles with these two familiar clans. The day when Indra faced Hamura and Ashura arrived…
During those events, Su Otsutsuki reached out to Indra. At first, Indra treated him as a great enemy and a traitor, but what could have ended as another battle finished as an agreement of convenience. Su told Indra that he—and only he—could remove the dark seal from him. He warned Indra that if he didn’t remove it he would regret it. In exchange, Su wanted Indra to get him, Zet, and Spiral removed from the “most wanted criminals” list, so that they would be able to continue their plans without being attacked and followed everywhere (those who captured rogue ninjas and criminals from the “most wanted” list won enough money to make them rich). Su also offered to keep Hamura occupied so that Indra and the Uchihas could attack and conquer the Otsutsuki Clan. In other words, it seemed like he was asking for very little and willing to do a lot for Indra. Therefore, Indra took the offer, even though he still didn’t like or trust Su too much.
In reality, Su wanted to pit the Uchiha and the Senju against each other, so a grand battle between Ashura and Indra could happen. He knew that only Indra and Ashura could defeat him and Zet. No one else at that time stood a chance against their powers. He also wanted to find out if Hamura knew anything about what Hagaromo did with the fruit of chakra. And he was smart enough to manipulate the events to achieve his goals… Su made it look like he was working for Indra’s side when, in reality, he used Indra, the Uchihas, and their thirst for conquest. Black Zetsu—as he was called in the most wanted list—was the real “black hand” behind the beginning of the great wars among the big clans of Naruto’s world…
Su and Zet began to influence the realm negatively since those events started in the past.
When the Uchihas and the Otsutsukis were about to have the first battle where Indra would participate, Su got himself into Hamura’s headquarters and took the physical form of the Sage of the Six Paths—Hagaromo. This was, perhaps, the most fearsome ability of the original guardians, and both he and Zet had it. However, Zet’s ability was slightly different. Su could turn his own body into a human-looking form that resembled anyone he killed. Zet could make his solid clones take the shape and look of anyone he fought against closely. As long as he had placed a hand on that foe, Zet could make clones that looked like them. However, he couldn’t adopt that same shape with his own body. In that sense, Zet wasn’t 100% like guardian Spiral, but Su was 100% like guardian Black. In a later episode, we will find out why…
Su met Hamura and talked to him making it seem like he was a resurrected Hagaromo. Su tried to find out if Hamura knew anything about what the real Hagaromo did with the fruit of chakra. However, Hamura wasn’t a fool. He wasn’t powerful, but he was Hagaromo’s twin and he knew his twin well-enough to recognize a fake.
Hamura ended up calling his guards and attacking Su. Su revealed his true form and finished the guards pretty easily. Hamura remembered about the one who was in front of Hagaromo that day, and unfortunately, he also recognized Su’s voice:
“You… are you are the one who killed him?! You are the criminal known as Black Zetsu. Why do you sound like our brother Su?! Did you kill that bastard too??”
“You are still slower and different than Hagaromo it seems… I am Su. I have no interest in killing you Hamura. You are no threat to me. However, if you know what really happened to Ten-Tails, then you must tell me now. Indra and his men will be here soon and if you don’t tell me, chances are that he will get it out of you with harsher methods. Now, he wants the fruit of chakra for himself, so he sent me here to get that information. You can live brother, so be wise and tell me what you know about it. If you do, I will stop Indra from doing anything to you.”
“You piece of crap, you haven’t changed after all these years. Joining the Snake King and betraying us wasn’t enough for you! You are just as rotten as before and just as much of a hypocrite as mother Kaguya and your father. Good guys one day, when it is convenient for you, and rotten rats the next one, when you don’t care… I don’t know what Hagaromo did with his power and I wouldn’t tell you, even if I knew it.”
“You haven’t changed either Hamura. You still hate me, and you still like to remind me that we are half-brothers only, don’t you?”
Su realized that Hamura didn’t know anything. Apparently, Hagaromo was very careful about what he did. No one knew what happened to Ten-Tails, even though hiding such a humongous force couldn’t have been easy or simple. Su was certain that at least one person had to know something, and indeed, one person knew, but he wasn’t there anymore…
Hamura tried to stop the black menace, but Su escaped from there without too much trouble. Then, Hamura and his men got ready to stop Indra and the Uchihas.
Su reached Indra first and warned him that Hamura himself said that he would stop his nephew and the Uchihas from obtaining more power. (He made that up of course. Good villains are good liars…) After that, Su left and he didn’t participate in the battle, but he was the one that planted the “dark seeds.”
Hamura remembered Hagaromo’s final words, “please, save Indra and take care of the Otsutsuki Clan…” He was determined to follow them. He would fight for the Otsutsuki Clan until the end. Unfortunately, after all the things that Indra had done, Hamura only saw two ways to save him: One was capturing him alive, putting him in jail, and sealing his powers—by taking away his eyes, which were the source of his power. The second way was killing him. Hamura didn’t know if he and the others would be able to stop someone like Indra, but he knew that they would do anything for their clan, which was Hagaromo’s clan before…
Indra’s intention was to take over the entire Otsutsuki Clan and make it his own. He would end it in a single battle and to ensure it, he brought most of his Uchiha army with him. There was a grand clash on the land of the Otsutsukis that day. Hamura gathered the top elites from his clan and had a difficult battle with Indra. The rest of the Otsutsukis clashed with the Uchiha army. Neither Indra nor Hamura mentioned Su or what Su talked about with them. Therefore, no one figured out that they misunderstood each other. Indra just wanted to rule over the Otsutsukis. He never cared about Ten-Tails or his father’s power—as Hamura believed. And Hamura, deep down, only wanted what was best for Indra. Unfortunately, they faced each other as enemies that day. Indra defeated them and he ended up killing Hamura by mistake with a strike from his lightning Susanoo. That was the moment when Indra finally realized that the dark seal had changed him too much. Before, he would have never had even the intention to fight against his good uncle. Now, he went as far as fighting him seriously, and at the end, he even killed him. Indra had a breakdown and realized that he really needed Su to remove the seal from him as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of Indra’s tragedy and it was too late to go back. The mistakes, the bodies, and the bloodshed could not be erased…
At the moment when the Otsutsuki Clan was defeated and their leader killed, Ashura and several ninja battalions from the Senju Clan arrived to help them. Ashura found out that among the victims of Indra’s attack were their own mother, Hira Otsutsuki, the woman that was Indra’s ex-wife (and a good childhood friend of Ashura), and even his uncle, the leader of the Otsutsuki Clan. Ashura didn’t see Indra as his brother anymore after that event, and he always saw him as the reason for their deaths. Indra didn’t even know that his mother and his ex-wife lived at the Otsutsuki Clan. He didn’t think about their presence when the Uchihas attacked. Needless to say, those were terrible news for Indra as well, but, Ashura didn’t give him any time to think about it. That moment was when Ashura and Indra had their first big battle.
Surprisingly for the Uchihas, their almighty leader was defeated even using his great Susanno and the mangekyou sharingan. Furthermore, the Uchihas suffered a grand defeat at the hands of the Senju ninjas. Many people from the Otsutsuki Clan and the Uchiha Clan died that day. The ones that had the least losses were the Senjus. However, the Senju Clan perceived the immense losses of the Otsutsuki Clan as their own.
Despite his newborn-hatred, Ashura didn’t kill Indra at the end, and many of the Uchihas survived the battle too. The losses of the Otsutsukis were so great that the women, children, and men that survived had to join the Senju because they couldn’t defend themselves from another attack. Therefore, that was the end of the Otsutsuki Clan. After that day, “the Otsutsukis” were officially gone and those that survived stayed with the Senjus. That was the day that marked the beginning of endless wars between the Senjus and the Uchihas. Needless to say, the Uchiha Clan wanted revenge after their survivors recovered. And Indra had to prove himself as a powerful leader, otherwise, he could lose all the things that he had gained and another leader would be chosen…
Su removed the seal from Indra, as promised, and Indra managed to remove “Black Zetsu” (Su), “White Zetsu” (Zet), and “Strange Human Monster” (Spiral) from all the lists, except from the “Bingo Book of Wanted Criminals and Dangerous Rogue Ninjas” that the Senju Clan kept among its documents. Su could remove the seal because his powers also came from the fruit of darkness, which was what the Snake King used to cast his dark seal. However, Indra didn’t get anything from removing the seal because the things he did and what he had become could not be erased or taken back, even if the seal was gone. Su gained what he wanted and much more…
The Uchihas and the Senjus had many other battles, scattered conflicts, and even all-out wars. Indra and Ashura fought each other again five more times. After their first battle—where Ashura won without contest—Ashura and Indra were seen in a tie almost every time. The reality was that their powers were very close in magnitude, even though their sources were very different. Unfortunately, in every clash more people from both sides died, so the hatred between the Senjus and the Uchihas didn’t calm down. It only increased with time. Those that lost loved ones wanted revenge on the ones that did it. They didn’t care if other innocent people died, as long as they were from the opposite clan. Therefore, the wars saw no end. And Indra and Ashura had to face each other again… until their sixth and final battle, where they went against each other at the end and clashed using the giant lightning arrow and a larger-than-normal chakra-bomb. Indra and Ashura died after that final clash. Their power was equal, so neither one managed to come out of it alive…
Su got exactly what he wanted. He, Zet, and Spiral continued searching the human world for the hidden power of Ten-Tails. However, the wars that they started continued for generations. The Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan continued seeing each other as mortal enemies, and, with the passage of time, new clans rose from smaller clans and new conflicts arose—because they all wanted power and influence. They had different looks, clothes, and skin colors, but underneath their exteriors they were all the same, so the war-like state of their world continued…
It was a never-ending spiral of ninja conflicts and search for power… That was the world that the nine young chakra beasts arrived at, when they finally left the nine most secluded places of the human world—where Hagaromo sent them to, initially. The beasts were giant and very powerful. Their chakra levels surpassed even Indra and Ashura by far. This was why they became highly-sought-after weapons as soon as the world knew about their existence. No ninja, no matter how powerful, could defeat one of the beasts. Therefore, if a clan could possess or use them, then this clan would rule over all and win all the battles. However, capturing them and using their power proved to be close to impossible, until a smart mind came up with the idea of “sealing them inside someone,” just like the Sage of the Six Paths had done with the legendary Ten-Tails chakra beast…
The “sealing hunt” and the quest for power of the big clans reached great heights. They didn’t stop until all nine chakra beasts were sealed inside nine chosen humans that proved to be good vessels for them. No big clan got its hands on two of the beasts though; each clan captured one. And they kept it within the clan by “sealing” the chakra beast in another new individual, once the previous one wasn’t suitable to maintain it under control any longer. The individuals that had a tailed beast sealed in them were known as the jinchuurikis…
Unfortunately, controlling the powers of one of the nine living pieces of the fruit of chakra wasn’t as simple as sealing it inside someone. That was not enough… The future proved that only a few jinchuurikis truly managed to use and control the full power of their tailed beast, which was part of the power from the original fruit of chakra. Most jinchuurikis became miserable people that had to live life with a demon of power trapped within them, often, against their will… Naruto was one of them, but, he was a different jinchuuriki and a very different person. He was what their power-driven ninja world needed. He was like his father Minato, and like his grandfather before him…
Eventually, Zet and Su found out about the beasts and they were the first ones to figure out what these nine beasts truly were. By that time, most of the beasts had already been “caught” or sealed by one of the big clans that only wanted a powerful weapon on their side. Instead of fighting the clans, Zet and Su allowed them to find and catch all the beast for them. Basically, they allowed the clans to do that hard work for them. They gained time by focusing on finding a way to unite the nine beasts again, to revive Ten-Tails and its holy power. After they found a way to do it, they knew that all they had to do was catching the nine jinchuurikis and extracting the nine parts from them. This quest, however, proved to be more difficult and much longer than what they imagined. It took them almost one century. They were forced to hide their identities and to form an elite group of powerful rogue ninjas from “the book of criminals” in order to achieve their goals. In addition, they spied on the major clans to recognize the new powerful warriors that they would be able to recruit for their cause… Zet, Su, and Spiral were very aware about the new “ninja talents,” or the new techniques and the new powerful people, that were being born and raised at the major clans. Even if one of those attacked them, they already knew what these people were capable of…
As if their powerful abilities were not bad enough, these ancient “ninjas of catastrophe” didn’t age either, because their forms were not human. They were a true living cancer for the realm…
Without Hagaromo, Indra, or Ashura in the picture, who was going to stop these guys? Let alone stop, who was going to defeat them for good?
The only good news were that Hagaromo’s seal worked just as effectively as the dark seal. The Snake King couldn’t find a way to return to Hagaromo’s realm for 30 years. And when he finally found one, it still didn’t work as he expected. The only way for him to come back was finding a way to transfer his consciousness to another body that wasn’t the giant Kusanagi (the non-human Snake King), his real self, or any of the other bodies that he trapped at the Realm of the Fruit of Darkness (a.k.a. The Possession Realm). And that wasn’t all. Even if he succeeded in doing that “transfer of consciousness,” he didn’t have his true powers; he only had the powers that the other body, or the other person, had. This meant that both he and his holy powers were blocked from entering Kaguya’s realm again. He could only come back by “borrowing” someone else and his or her power. Even the powers of the other two fruits couldn’t erase Hagaromo’s seal. This proves that even the three holy fruits of power couldn’t do everything.
Nonetheless, there was still one way for the Snake King to come back; so, he took it, and he definitely used it better than anybody else… In the future, Kagami Uchiha was one of his most precious victims. However, there was someone that proved to be the perfect vessel for the Snake King’s return… Indeed, the dark king was still the biggest threat that Naruto’s realm ever faced—all the way from the ancient past to the day when Naruto’s son turned fifteen, which was the day when The Leaf’s heroes had to face the Snake King…
Luckily, Hagaromo’s saviors of the future would be there to help Naruto, his young son Boruto, and the people of The Leaf…
And there was one person that Zet, Su, and even Naruto himself didn’t know anything about yet—even though they had seen him before. There was one particular ninja that never fell on anyone’s radar, until he came back, out of nowhere, at the most crucial moment…
However, that moment and that place were not the ones that Jim Namikaze saw after he left the Sage of the Six Paths at the coliseum, before the battle with the Snake King began…
First, Mr. Namikaze landed on what he perceived as “the wrong time”…
(Season 1 ends here… Season 2 begins with “The Wrong Time”…)
NEXT— EPISODE 52: The Wrong Time