Episode 51: The Battle’s Aftermath

(*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

 

 

Episode 50: The Otsutsukis versus The Snake King

The Snake King unleashed his horizontal fire tornado aimed at Indra’s fire-style Susanoo and at Ashura’s yellow-chakra giant. Before it reached them, the orange Susanoo jumped into the sky with its wings. Ashura’s giant made a large yellow shield to block the attack. Zet left their side and began to get closer to the Snake King’s location, running from the left side of the arena. He looked very small in comparison to the dark king and the other two chakra giants. However, thanks to the powers that he had gained from Spiral, he also had deadly abilities that could compete in this battle—the same ones he used to destroy Maida’s village in the future. The same could be said about Su, who had gained the full power of the black guardian…

As soon as the horizontal fire tornado clashed with Ashura’s shield, it was obvious that the shield wasn’t going to last long. This chakra attack was not like others. Its power was being augmented by something else, making it worse than a normal attack from a fire-style user. The Snake King didn’t have the fruit of chakra, but he could use the fruit of darkness to increase the destructive power of all his other techniques.

Su raised a large black shield in front of Ashura’s giant and the Snake King’s attack was halted by it. Su’s shield removed the added effect of the fruit of darkness from the attack, making it much easier to stop.

“Young Ashura don’t waste time blocking his attacks! Most chakra shields are not effective against them. Dodge them all and land your most powerful techniques on him as soon as possible! Zet and I will try to weaken him or delay him so that Indra and you can finish him off!”

The black shield that Su summoned was more effective than Ashura’s shield to stop the Snake King’s attack, but it faded away too, once the whirlwind of fire was gone. Then, Su began to move towards his former master from the right side of the arena, opposite of Zet. Ashura understood that he really had to use his most powerful techniques against this enemy. This was the only time that he had seen his father being defeated. Obviously, the dark king was powerful, so finishing him off as quickly as possible was their best option to win.

Indra’s Susanoo unleashed a massive fire-style cascade from the sky:

“Fire-style jutsu! Grand infernal blaze!!”

The attack looked like a giant version of Kagami Uchiha’s infernal blaze, since the one doing it was the Susanoo, which was a much larger body than a human. The destructive blaze was going to flood the entire area where the Snake King was standing.

Before the hellish blaze reached the surface, the Snake King dropped the blade of light and the blade of darkness on the sand. He began to create a giant shield of light with the large white auras that appeared around his hands. When Indra’s river of fire arrived, the white shield absorbed the whole thing. Then, the shield reverted back into its previous shape, around the Snake King’s hands, but now it wasn’t a simple white aura anymore. It absorbed Indra’s attack, creating four giant balls of fire, two on each hand.

First, the Snake King threw the two balls of fire that were in top of his hands—the two that he wasn’t holding. He aimed them perfectly at Zet and Su, even though he wasn’t even holding those two inside his hands. After that, he threw the other two that he was holding, as if they were fast-ball pitches. These two went like meteorites towards Indra and Ashura. Without breaking a sweat, the Snake King had absorbed and used Indra’s power against all four of them.

Zet and Su used the powers that they had gained after their battle with the guardians. (Their current forms weren’t human anymore. They could even enter the ground if it wasn’t 100% solid. They were not aging either.) They moved in different directions underground and managed to escape the direct hit of the two fire blasts. Ashura’s chakra giant evaded the fireball so fast that it fell down on the sand. Then, the fire bomb that didn’t hit Ashura destroyed the other side of the coliseum. Indra also evaded the one that went his way, but he was surprised at how easily his attack was taken advantage of, and how fast that orange ball came his way. This opponent they were facing was pretty powerful…

“So he can even absorb chakra-based attacks? If this is how it’s going to be, then long-range combat isn’t the way to do it! This has to be done the old-fashioned way!!”

Indra’s Susanoo held its two fire-style chakra swords, one behind his head and the other in front. Then, it descended on free-fall towards the Snake King, like an orange hawk that resembled a phoenix. The Snake King only had enough time to grab the blade of light from the sand, since the Susanoo stopped him from reaching the blade of darkness. Indra landed in a matter of seconds, way too fast, just like before. However, the Snake King had enough to hold him back with the blade of light. Thanks to it, he managed to stand his ground against Indra’s ferocious offensive with the fire-style swords. Indra kept on pushing back the Snake King, but he still didn’t feel that he was winning. He had not landed a single strike on the dark king and the blade of light definitely felt more powerful than his fire swords. He had to avoid getting touched by it at all costs…

During Indra’s clash in close-range combat with the Snake King, Hagaromo managed to reach the location where he placed the seal of the six paths. He removed the sand and the whole circular figure became fully visible again. It was still there, as if nothing had happened. And it was time to begin its activation. Hagaromo used the rinnegan’s conversion technique—the same one he taught Jim Namikaze. His right eye began to convert its power into natural sage chakra, and Hagaromo began to transfer all of it directly to the special seal. His remaining rinnegan was going to be the price to activate such a powerful sealing technique. Before, he didn’t have to make such a sacrifice because he had Ten-Tails (the fruit of chakra’s living form); but now, his only way to gather such enormous power was giving up his other special sharingan—which was in its final form since he was a young man.

Hagaromo was feeling pretty weak. It wasn’t clear to him if it was due to his bleeding wound or because this was his true human limit. He had not experienced weakness or lack of power since he obtained the Ten-Tails. And he had been its host during his entire adult life. Nonetheless, Hagaromo fought against his own weakness and he continued the process to activate the seal, regardless of what it could represent for his own wellbeing. What could happen to him was not as important as completing the plan for the future. He already knew that in a few minutes his rinnegan would be gone and the grand seal would be ready to be used…

During that moment, Zet and Su came back to the surface. They were getting much closer to the Snake King. Ashura’s chakra giant stood up again and new hands of chakra came out from the back of his shoulders. He was about to use some kind of powerful wind-based technique that required all those hands. In the heat of battle, Indra maintained his sword clash with the Snake King in a tie, but, he was about to find out just how serious and dangerous this enemy was…

The Snake King had been pushed back by Indra for a while, but it was partially on purpose. He wanted to grab the blade of darkness and they were going that way. Finally, his empty hand got the chance to grab the blade of darkness from the sand; and Indra also saw the perfect opportunity to strike down the dark king. Using the fire sword on his right hand, Indra was going to halt the blade of darkness; and then, he would have the opening to go through the Snake King’s body with his other sword. It was going to be a perfect finishing move. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how the blade of darkness worked…

When the Snake King went on to raise the dark blade to land a vertical slash on the Susanoo, Indra raised his Susanoo’s right arm to block it with its fire sword. Then, he would finish the Snake King with a forward-moving horizontal strike using the fire sword in his other hand. He knew the dark king wasn’t going to move and the opening would stay there because the king would have to continue using the dark blade to block his first fire sword at the same time. Indra planned to execute the two moves with his swords simultaneously. However, in his air of anticipation for victory, he missed a very crucial detail: the Snake King had dropped the blade of light as soon as he grabbed the blade of darkness. It was as if he knew that he had a more lethal weapon to deal with Indra now, so he didn’t even need the other one.

Indra was terribly surprised when the dark blade cut through the fire sword of chakra, through the Susanoo’s right arm, and through its whole right wing as well. It was exactly like what happened to Sasuke’s Susanoo in Hagaromo’s vision. The Snake King’s black blade could cut through all chakra-based bodies and materials with ease. It could destroy them in the same way that dark-style techniques could destroy other chakra-based techniques. This was also why Su’s shield had been more effective than Ashura’s to stop the dark king’s fire-style attack.

The Snake King evaded and countered Indra’s dual move flawlessly with a three-way move of his own. As he cut through the Susanoo’s fire sword, he also moved his entire body—which was facing forward—into a sideways position and he grabbed the Susanoo’s second arm, while it was coming forward to impale him with the other sword. Indra couldn’t go through him as he expected.

Right when the blade of darkness finished cutting down the Susanoo’s arm and its right wing, the Snake King dropped the black blade again and grabbed the orange Susanoo’s neck with his left hand. He was still holding the Susanoo’s remaining arm with his right hand. Then, the Snake King’s hands began to get engulfed in a dark aura and he lifted the orange Susanoo from the ground. Indra was in the head of the orange Susanoo—which was a protective chakra giant created by his mangekyou sharingan’s power. The Snake King’s hands and their darkness began to consume the neck and the other arm, while the Susanoo’s feet were meters above the sand. The other fire sword fell down from the Susanoo’s remaining hand. Things were beginning to look bad for Indra, and the Snake King knew it.

“You are a powerful and skilled warrior, but you have no idea of what you are fighting against. This is what will bring your demise, young fool. You shouldn’t have challenged me without knowing who I am. Now you are finished!”

For some reason, Indra didn’t look like someone who saw either defeat or death on the horizon. It was quite the contrary:

“It is ironic, but I was thinking the same exact thing about you, dark fool!”

The Susanoo lifted one of its knees all the way up, crashing it against the Snake King’s jaw. Next, it precipitated the other knee right into the stomach. That was enough for the Snake King to let go of his grip. Indra’s Susanoo fell in the ground and it grabbed the remaining fire sword with its mouth. Then, it struck the Snake King’s body with the entire sword, just like it did before, when it saved Hagaromo and Ashura. The strike was so strong that it destroyed the entire fire-style sword… but Indra didn’t stop there. Just like before, he continued. The Susanoo landed a hook kick on the bald king’s head as well. Clearly, Indra wasn’t one of the top warriors from the Otsutsuki Clan for nothing…

Indra’s reaction was awe-inspiring, but not as damaging as it looked. A different opponent would have been knocked out after that. However, this was the body of the former Guardian from the Zeta Realm, the body of Kusanagi—the one that protected the three holy fruits of power, which were considered the greatest treasures of their realm. His body had been created with the powers of the three fruits combined, so it was far tougher than what a giant human of that size would be…

The Snake King couldn’t avoid Indra’s kick to his head. However, it gave him the chance to grab the orange Susanoo’s opposite leg. Once he got a hold of it, he threw Indra and the Susanoo violently towards the closest standing edge of the coliseum’s structure. The Susanoo crashed heavily with the building and all of it fell down on Indra. Then, the Snake King began to make a growing sphere of darkness between his two hands. It kept on growing until it had a width of seven meters. When the growth stopped, he launched it towards Indra, whom was still half-trapped in the spot where the Susanoo collided with the structure.

“Dark-style energy-bomb!!”

The dark bomb reminded Indra of Ashura’s chakra bomb right away. It was the attack from Ashura’s chakra giant that had beaten him and his Susanoo before. If it was that powerful, then it was something that could kill him if it landed directly on him. He had to avoid it at all costs.

The sphere wasn’t moving even 20 percent as fast as Ashura’s chakra bomb, but the Susanoo was still trapped. Indra saw no time to escape it; therefore, he used his mangekyou sharingan again—this time to regenerate the Susanoo’s right arm and its right wing. The Susanoo pushed the debris apart and stood up exactly when the bomb arrived. Indra had no chance to jump away before it got there, but at least, his Susanoo was able to hold it back with its two hands. Indra was inside the Susanoo’s head, so the dark bomb didn’t reach him. However, it began to consume the Susanoo’s hands and its two arms. Obviously, the orange giant wasn’t going to last much longer. And the dark bomb was as deadly against chakra as the blade of darkness itself.

Indra had to act quickly. Now, he knew that they would only be able to defeat this enemy with their most powerful abilities. Anything below that probably wasn’t going to work with this guy.

The orange Susanoo pushed Indra upwards and out of its head. Indra went flying up like an arrow because of the massive force of the push. As soon as Indra left it, the orange giant became lifeless, as if its real life-force had left it behind. Then, the dark bomb covered the Susanoo and provoked a huge explosion, when it clashed with the remainders of the destroyed building there.

Indra went up to an incredible height, and when he stopped moving up, he unleashed his sharingan’s special power once again:

“Lightning-style Susanoo!!”

Like Sasuke Uchiha, Indra’s innate elements for chakra techniques were fire and lightning. Moreover, his strongest style was lightning—just like Sasuke…

A light-blue Susanoo, which looked very similar to the fire-style Susanoo, began to materialize around Indra. Indra stayed in its head, just like before, and the Susanoo’s wings kept him airborne. However, something unexpected happened to Indra. He felt a powerful pain on his mangekyou sharingans and blood began to come out from the right one. This meant that his special powers were not going to last much longer. He had to land his ultimate technique—the giant lightning arrow—on the Snake King before it was too late…

When Indra was still fighting against the dark bomb that destroyed his orange Susanoo, Zet and Su got close enough to the Snake King to join the battle. They saw what Ashura was doing, so they chose to support him.

Zet summoned Spiral’s “mad growth forest” around and below the Snake King’s legs. This was the same strange technique that Spiral used against Hokage Naruto, during Hagaromo’s vision from the alternate future. It was a battalion of white branches, like the ones he would use at Maida’s village in the future. The branches grabbed the Snake King’s legs and continued growing in spiral patterns.

At the same time, Su used the dark prison jutsu, which summoned two dark-style boxes on the sides of the Snake King’s body. The boxes glued themselves to the Snake King’s rib cage and began to form a dark ring around it. The ring’s purpose was to stop the movement of the target’s body. Su planned to stop the Snake King from leaving that spot long enough for Ashura’s attack to land on him.

While Zet and Su’s powers of the guardians were on display, five giant yellow portals began to appear around the Snake King. They looked like the ones that Ashura had used in his first battle with the earth sage, Jim Namikaze. Ashura’s chakra giant had been preparing five massive chakra shurikens (or giga-rasenshurikens, like Naruto’s). There were five other yellow portals around Ashura’s giant as well. What was about to happen there was obvious. Even the Snake King figured it out pretty fast.

Instead of attacking Zet and Su, the Snake King wasted no time and he summoned two hands of sand that brought back the blade of darkness and the blade of light to his hands. He didn’t even try to break the multitude of branches that were holding his legs or the black ring around his ribs. He knew he could destroy those easily later. He also knew that he had to block the upcoming attack from the portals no matter what.

Ashura unleashed his first massive technique at that instant:

“Five-edged Sun of chakra! Planetary chakra-shuriken!!”

With its hands of chakra, Ashura’s giant introduced the five giant shurikens into his five portals and they came out from the other five portals, ready to clash on the Snake King. The Snake King only had enough time to unite his two blades, before the five great chakra shurikens fell on him. At the center of the five portals, and where the Snake King was, the shurikens joined forces and they began to form what looked like a Sun of chakra. It continued spinning fast and it became gargantuan in size.

Eventually, Ashura’s ultimate chakra-shuriken produced an explosion there and it began to fade away. Zet and Su almost got caught in the explosion, but thanks to their non-human abilities, they avoided it underground. After that, they came back to the surface again.

There was a lot of sand and dust around the Snake King, so the attack’s impact wasn’t visible right away…

At that moment, Hagaromo was almost finished transferring the rinnegan’s full power to the seal of the six paths. In just a couple of minutes, he would be able to activate it. Therefore, he reminded Indra and Ashura about it, one final time:

“The Snake King must be at the center of the coliseum to use the seal of the six paths on him. Soon, it will be ready.”

Although they were feeble, Hagaromo’s words reached Indra and Ashura via telepathy. The other rinnegan would be gone soon, so even that simple ability wasn’t going to be possible for Hagaromo anymore…

Ashura didn’t think that the seal of the six paths would be necessary, after his last attack. However, when the winds dissipated the dust, the reality became clear to Ashura.

The Snake King had used his twilight shield, like he did before to block and destroy Hagaromo’s strongest attack. Ashura’s offensive destroyed the twilight shield, but it only reached the dark king’s body at the very end, when it was over. It barely did anything to him!!

Ashura was shocked with the outcome. Now, he really knew what they were fighting against. It was likely that only a direct hit from Indra’s arrow and a direct blast with his chakra bomb would work to destroy the Snake King. Otherwise, their father’s seal was the best plan. Ashura believed in Indra’s power and his own though, so his chakra giant began to prepare the bomb right away. From the looks of it, Indra’s lightning Susanoo was preparing the grand lightning arrow as well. They would do it. Ashura and Indra believed in their power!

When the spinning Sun of chakra was completely gone, the few remains of the twilight shield gathered around the Snake King’s hands and they began to form two gray spheres. From them, dozens of gray shadow-clones began to come out. These “twilight clones” had the powers of both types of clones from before. They could move freely through the air, like the white mages of light, and they had black swords to attack, like the dark clones that wounded Hagaromo. They and their weapons were created from the combined powers of the fruits of light and darkness. In essence, they were both—the clones of light and the clones of darkness united—in one. Therefore, these new clones were not weak against the light-style or the dark-style. The original guardians and the two followers that gained their power—Zet and Su—were weak against either light, darkness, or this unique “twilight” element that combined the power of both. (The Zeta-style from the Zeta Realm was also known as the twilight-style by other sources. Its use was banned. Its techniques were forbidden because they altered reality in improper ways that blended light and darkness to accomplish it. Almost no one could use them anymore and they had not been taught for decades, so the leaders of the Zeta Realm believed that those ancient “twilight” techniques would be gone for good…)

At first, Zet and Su thought that they would have to fight the twilight clones, but the clones were not for them. The Snake King wasn’t a fool. He knew what they were doing and he knew that the other two were a bigger threat for him. Therefore, he aimed for the fastest way to defeat his four opponents, beginning with the two more powerful ones. The twilight clones went after Indra’s Susanoo, in the air, and the Snake King was going to take care of the yellow-chakra giant, on the other side of the coliseum.

The dark king looked around for Yuvol, but the white snake was nowhere to be seen. Therefore, he couldn’t summon his original sword, the Sword of Kusanagi (Kusanagi was the original name of this powerful giant that was now the Snake King). He used his second best choice then: the twilight blade. Essentially, it was a hybrid of the blades of light and darkness—just like the twilight clones were hybrids of the two previous types that appeared.

Thirty twilight clones were created and all of them went after Indra. Half of them made a large circle around Indra’s lightning Susanoo and unleashed the same technique that the clones of light used around Hagaromo before. The other half waited to attack Indra, after the field of light was casted around him. Indra was almost done with preparing the giant lightning arrow. He couldn’t stop it to get rid of the clones because he would have to start it all over again. What mattered to him was landing that arrow on the Snake King at all costs. However, when the twilight clones activated their field, he lost his sight of what was happening below and he began to see white light everywhere. He also perceived that some of the clones would attack him, even though he wasn’t seeing them.

The others went into the field ready to attack Indra and his Susanoo. They could see him, but he wasn’t seeing them. Indra’s Susanoo released a massive surge of electricity that held them all back. He wasn’t reaching the ones that were keeping the field of light active though…

Ashura finished his bomb of chakra and the yellow giant held it with the two hands it had in front. He also noticed Indra’s situation above. His elder brother almost had the grand arrow ready, but the clones were holding him back. He had to help him! Ashura was certain that the powers of the chakra bomb and the arrow together would be more than enough to destroy the Snake King. This was possible, but first, Indra had to break out from the field of light. Otherwise, he couldn’t aim the arrow at the Snake King.

Suddenly, a twilight portal appeared in front of Ashura’s chakra giant. It was gray, but it felt just like the initial dark-violet portal from where the Snake King came from. Ashura’s instant reaction was to look at where the Snake King was; and he saw that there was another large gray portal there. However, the dark king wasn’t there anymore. This worked like Ashura’s special technique with portals; and when Ashura noticed it, it was already too late…

The twilight blade came from the gray portal and went through the body of the yellow giant. The Snake King came out of the portal with it. He was holding the sword and his hands were covered by gray auras as well. He let go of the twilight sword and it remained stuck in the yellow giant’s body. Half of it was visible from each side of Ashura’s giant. The sword also began to destroy the yellow chakra that Ashura’s giant was made of.

As soon as the Snake King impaled the chakra giant, he left the twilight sword behind and made a shape with his hands and fingers that looked as if he was about to use both of them for knife-hand strikes. It was worse than that though. With one hand he penetrated and held the chakra bomb that Ashura’s giant was holding. The gray aura around the hand seemed to have a neutralizing effect over the bomb. The other hand went straight for the chakra giant’s face. He was going to grab Ashura and he would remove him from the protective chakra body. He expected that this action would put an end to the chakra giant immediately. And he would kill one of his two powerful opponents in one shot.

The surprise attack on Ashura didn’t go exactly as the Snake King expected though…

The yellow giant had more than two hands, and until now, he was showing only two of them. The other four were hiding behind its shoulders. Ashura had very little time to think, so he didn’t hesitate. There was no time for hesitation in a situation like this. Two hands of chakra came from the giant’s back and grabbed the Snake King’s second hand-knife, before it reached the face. Since the twilight sword was already destroying the chakra giant, Ashura turned the bottom half of the body into yellow-chakra clones that looked just like him and sent them to help Indra. Then, Ashura revealed his biggest surprise: he had been preparing two chakra bombs since the beginning. The first one was neutralized, but the second one was still ready. And he used it, before the top half of the chakra giant crumbled:

“Take it!! This is for what you did to my father earlier!!”

The last two hands came from the back holding the other chakra bomb. They crashed the heavy-looking chakra sphere on the Snake King and it exploded right away, all over the dark king. The explosion was unlike anything we have seen. It was yellow and very intense. Its blast also reached what was left of Ashura’s giant; and it almost reached Hagaromo’s location. Luckily, it didn’t get to the holy sage…

Ashura’s yellow clones broke the circular formation that the enemy’s clones were keeping around Indra’s Susanoo. Indra regained his normal vision, but he couldn’t see the outcome of what happened below right away, because the bomb lifted an enormous cloud of sand on the coliseum. However, he saw Ashura’s yellow clones fighting against the twilight clones, so he knew that Ashura had survived. Because of that view, he also realized that their true enemy had to be a human, just like them. The real enemy surely resembled the twilight clones and their cloaks in appearance, just like the chakra clones resembled his brother Ashura. “He” was also using a much larger and stronger body for combat, in the same way as they did with the chakra giant and the Susanoo. However, this enemy was on a different level than them because his other body was real. It wasn’t a body of chakra or a product of the mangekyou sharingan’s power. It wasn’t like theirs, which were just extensions of their own power. It was a different body under the full control of the same person…

Was that part of what the great fruits of power were capable of?

The cloud of sand began to fade away quickly. Ashura was lying on the sand, approximately, one soccer field of distance from where his bomb’s blast took place. He was still inside the coliseum. He wasn’t too hurt because his chakra giant pushed him out in time, just like Indra’s orange Susanoo did before its destruction. Therefore, the actual blast didn’t catch him. The landing was still very abrupt though; and he had used too much chakra to accomplish what he had done. He knew he would be able to get up again, but he didn’t have enough chakra to create any other powerful attack like those. He used his chakra mode at its maximum level to pull out what he did there. Now… it was up to Indra…

The Snake King was still standing, even after that huge direct blast. Half of his left arm was gone and the left side of his body was bleeding all over the place. Part of his armor was gone as well. The other side of his upper body had suffered damage too, but it wasn’t bleeding at all. Apparently, his head and his legs were fine, even though they were close to the explosion too.

He was still very alive, although that attack had been truly lethal—even for the former guardian of the fruits of power.

Zet and Su came back to the surface after the chakra bomb’s explosion. They quickly realized that Indra also had an attack of this caliber, so this was their best chance to eliminate their most powerful obstacle.

They got very close to the Snake King and both used their powerful branch-growth technique together. Zet’s branches were white, like Spiral’s. Su’s branches were very similar, but darker, like the branches that guardian Black could summon from beneath the surface. Both types of branches grabbed and held the Snake King’s legs again. Then, Zet stood tall in front of the king. He had never seen the dark king in a worse condition than this, so he began to believe that their victory was guaranteed. And being the proud bad guy that he was, he obviously had to put himself on a pedestal before sealing the deal:

“I bet you never thought that this day would come: the day when you would be defeated, even with all the great powers that you have. It turns out that even you are not fully prepared to counter the full power of your guardians and the greatest warriors from Kaguya’s bloodline.”

The Snake King was going to heal himself first, but Zet’s arrogant words angered him, and he did something else.

“You talk big words for someone who would still be an ordinary human sage if it wasn’t for me and my guardians. I see that you two still believe that you can beat me. I shall teach you a final lesson about power. You will see how far below me you still are.”

The Snake King summoned a pillar of sand that lifted the remaining piece of the twilight sword from the ground. Even after he grabbed it with the hand that wasn’t destroyed, Zet and Su still looked like they were seeing victory in their side. The dark king attempted to land strikes on them with the broken sword, but all of them failed. Zet and Su—just like Black and Spiral—could easily enter the ground when it wasn’t 100% solid. The sand there made it very easy for them to avoid any attack that didn’t penetrate the ground.

Finally, they saw their chance to finish the dark lord once and for all. Su used the dark ring of immobility, as soon as the Snake King lifted his hand and the broken sword above his head. The dark-style technique made one black ring and four black lances around the Snake King’s wrist. The lances pierced the ring and the wrist to keep it in place. This couldn’t immobilize the hand completely, but it slowed down the whole arm considerably. It ensured that the sword wasn’t going to strike the ground fast again—unless the binding technique was destroyed first.

Su said the only words he had for the Snake King during that whole showdown. From the ones present, he was the one that had known him for the longest time. He had been one of the dark lord’s first followers from the Second Human Realm.

“To think that even Goddess Kaguya couldn’t kill you, but we are the ones who will is such a great irony. This is it for you Snake King, Master H, or whatever you real name is.”

Zet saw a complete opening and went on to do what he had been wanting to do for a while:

“Have a taste of your own guardian’s full power! Rise, Spiral’s tree of death!!”

Zet placed his hands on the sand. Then, a large and grotesque-looking tree of wild branches came from the sand, behind the Snake King. (This was the same “tree of death” that Spiral used during the tragic incident with Rin Nohara in Naruto Shippuden.)

The tree’s top took the shape of a spine and it pierced the Snake King like a sword. It went through the dark king’s stomach and, after it pierced him, it continued growing, until it reached Zet. It was another lethal attack, but the Snake King was still on his feet. He didn’t seem as mighty anymore though. However, he still looked as if he saw himself on the winning side of the balance:

“You two became much more powerful thanks to Black and Spiral, but you are still mistaken if you believe that my guardians’ techniques are enough to defeat me!”

Zet smiled.

“You are the one mistaken. Indra’s arrow is what will kill you, not your guardian’s technique. Mark my words, it won’t defeat you, it will kill you.”

Zet pointed to the sky above the coliseum and behind the Snake King. Indra’s giant arrow of lightning was ready. Indra just had to get the remaining twilight clones out of his way and he would have a clear path to shoot it.

The Snake King saw the lightning Susanoo and the upcoming attack. For the first time, he truly saw himself in danger. Without even thinking, he unleashed one of his most powerful attacks, using the combined powers of light, darkness, and lightning-style chakra. He avoided using his full power before to keep his pride high—if he used it, it meant that someone was getting close to being his equal, even without the fruits of power. However, this situation demanded it.

A white and bright light came from the Snake King’s open hand and rose many meters above him. This happened at the same moment when Hagaromo finished the transfer of the rinnegan’s chakra to the seal of the six paths. Indra also had his arrow aimed at the Snake King. Hagaromo’s last rinnegan disappeared, leaving both of his eyes as they were when he was a kid (they were dark-green before he had the sharingan and the rinnegan). Now, he was a normal human, but he still had the ability to activate the seal that could stop the Snake King…

Hagaromo was on his knees, ready to activate the seal, and Indra was in the air, ready to shoot the grand arrow, when the Snake King’s all-mighty technique was fully released:

“Grand Zeta-style jutsu! Supreme Valhallia!!”

The bright light grew and began to cover everything, while dark-looking thunder-like strikes began to fall en masse, within the areas that were beneath the light that covered the whole coliseum.

Hagaromo was stopped by the “Valhallia storm” before he could use his grand sealing technique. However, Indra shot the arrow straight at the Snake King’s position before the storm of light and darkness reached his Susanoo:

“This is it! Say goodbye to your behemoth form!! Grand lightning arrow!!!”

The unnatural storm reached Indra and he couldn’t see the final outcome of the lightning arrow right away. Nonetheless, the heavy and destructive noise from the arrow’s blast left it clear that it had not landed on sand. It hit its target…

What happened to the others wasn’t visible right away because the strange storm lasted for seventy seconds, and it took another minute for the intense white light to leave. However, it was visible that Indra’s Susanoo fell back down to the surface, after a few black thunders from the storm hit it directly.

Indra’s second Susanoo was lost when it hit the surface. It simply began to fade away. It happened not just because it acted as Indra’s shield against the storm, but because his mangekyou sharingan eyes couldn’t take it anymore. Creating the ultimate lightning arrow put Indra’s sharingans at their limit…

Indra and Ashura ended up on the sand, more than fifteen meters away from the spot where the Snake King was. Ashura used his best wind-based shield, but apparently it had not been enough to block the full impact of the storm. Indra was saved by his Susanoo, but his sharingan eyes lost their mangekyou form and blood began to come out from his eyes again—this time from both of them. His vision was cloudy. He knew that he had to stop using them; otherwise, he was running the risk of partial blindness, due to using the sharingan beyond its limits…

When the grand arrow and the lightning storm of light and darkness were gone, the outcome was revealed, at last.

The Snake King was lying on the sand, motionless, with blood everywhere. He attempted to turn the broken twilight sword into another twilight shield, but Indra’s arrow was too fast—it reached him before he could do it. The arrow destroyed what was left of the sword with its initial impact and fell on him next, provoking another huge explosion. If something had come close to killing the giant Snake King up to that point, Indra’s arrow had to be it. Half of his remaining arm—which he used to block the arrow too—was blown away. The side of his face that was touched by the arrow’s lightning was burnt and bloody. The body looked the same way; the parts of it that came in direct contact with the arrow were incinerated. And half of the leg where the arrow landed was completely gone. He wasn’t moving at all…

Indra’s arrow and Ashura’s chakra bomb practically defeated the powerful giant. They were at the same level of the powerful attacks that the host of the fruit of chakra could have done. The main difference was that these “ultimate techniques” were a one-shot-thing for Indra and Ashura. Even at full power, they could not use them again until they recovered completely. Goddess Kaguya and Hagaromo, however, could have repeated them right away because they were the hosts of the fruit of chakra; so they were not going to run out of chakra, like everybody else. (This was what made the Snake King so powerful. He had an endless resource of power for light-style and dark-style techniques of any scale. In addition, the elements of light and darkness had many uses that had nothing to do with attacking. He had an unlimited supply of some of the most useful and powerful techniques…)

However, even with his supreme advantages, the dark king had fallen. Unfortunately, the same happened to the others…

Spiral was the only one there that was left intact. He ran like a madman and, at the end, he still had to use his Spiral shield, which looked like a man-sized shell. Yuvol—the white snake—was freed from Spiral’s branches and simultaneously got his tail and his head fried by the Valhallia storm. Unlike Spiral, he didn’t have time to put up any special shield. The truth was that Yuvol wasn’t that powerful. Besides using rock-style techniques and being able to turn into Master H’s Sword of Kusanagi, there wasn’t much more he could do. He was no match for the ones involved in this battle…

Zet and Su were the most unlucky ones, at first. The Snake King unleashed the twilight storm with them in mind. He knew that its reach was up to ten meters below the surface, so they would not be able to hide from it anywhere. They were alive, but Zet and Su were left lying on the surface—not far from the Snake King—and they had taken a severe beating from that storm. Even with their regenerating abilities, they couldn’t recover from it fast enough…

Ashura and Indra were starting to recover their senses. Both were on the sand, close to each other. Ashura was the one with the best condition because he wasn’t affected by the repercussion of using the sharingan eyes. Ashura had normal eyes. He inherited his special chakra mode from birth, just like Hagaromo inherited some of his powers from Kaguya (even before he became the new host of the Ten-Tails). Indra and Ashura couldn’t block the storm’s impact completely, but they were in better shape than the Snake King and Hagaromo.

Hagaromo was hit pretty hard by the storm. He was lucky because none of the black thunderbolts fell too close to him, but the destructive currents in the air still reached him. He couldn’t use a wind-barrier, like Ashura, and he had no sharingans anymore, so he had no Susanoo, like Indra. Zet and Su could regenerate, so the devastating impact on them was nowhere near as lethal as what Hagaromo suffered. He wasn’t the host of the fruit of chakra anymore. He was just an old man that could barely move after the harsh effect of those currents on his body. And he still had the bad wound from before…

The situation was critical. Everything was ready for Hagaromo to use the seal of the six paths on the Snake King. The bad news were that he barely had any strength to get up and cast it. Fortunately, it seemed like the dark king had been beaten… wasn’t he?

The Snake King was not moving at all and his big eyes were closed. The violet color of the skin around his eyes was flickering though. Something was happening. It felt as if his life force was getting weaker for a moment. Then, someone else appeared there. A two-meter-tall portal of light materialized in front of the Snake King’s face and the man of the black cloak walked out of it. He didn’t have the black hood on either. However, the angle shown to us only revealed the view behind his face. His face wasn’t revealed to us yet. He had green hair, like Zet, and two small horns on the sides of his head, like Kaguya and many of the ancient humans at the Zeta Realm. His hair was longer and darker than Zet’s though…

Finally, we heard his real voice for the first time. He sounded like a man close to Jim Namikaze’s age. He also sounded confident, despite what happened there so far:

“I didn’t expect that they would be at this level. They must be direct descendants of Kaguya and the Sage of the Six Paths. They must have inherited part of their power too. Still, they are not a problem and I won’t lose you here. You will continue to be my most powerful vessel and the almighty king from the Realm of the Snakes. You and I will continue existing as one and the same.”

It became clear that “the man of the black cloak” wasn’t always the same person in body, but it was the same mind behind the black curtain, each and every time…

Jim Namikaze had seen some of the other “vessels” in his visions, but he had not seen the real enemy yet…

The green-haired man put on the black hood, covering his head and his face. Then, he lifted his hands and pillars of light began to surround the giant Snake King.

“Zeta-style life-regeneration jutsu! Bring back this body to the way it used to be!”

The parts of the body that were gone began to regenerate and all the wounds started to heal very quickly. In less than two minutes, the dark king’s giant body looked as if Indra’s arrow and Ashura’s bomb had never fallen on it.

Indra noticed what was happening, even with his cloudy vision. His attack succeeded in luring out the real one, as he expected. Unfortunately, his eyes were still hurting too much at that moment. He and Ashura couldn’t do anything before the real enemy left.

The man of the black cloak left with the same light and the same portal that brought him. The violet color around the Snake King’s eyes stopped flickering after that. Somehow, it felt as if the temporary visitor had never left the place. When the Snake King opened his eyes, the same presence was there again.

The Snake King stood up free of injuries as if the battle had not happened. He quickly noticed where the four that fought him were located. He walked up to Zet and Su first. They had not finished recovering from the damage that the Zeta-style storm did on their special bodies. (The bodies of the guardians were particularly weak against “Zeta,” or twilight, techniques. And Zet and Su’s bodies were exactly like the bodies of guardians Spiral and Black.)

The Snake King created two spheres on his palms; one was dark, meaning that it was some sort of dark-style technique from the fruit of darkness, and the other was white, because it was made using the fruit of light. Both had some transparent spots, so whatever they had inside would be visible from the outside as well.

The white sphere went up to Su Otsutsuki and picked him up. The dark sphere did the same thing with Zet. Then, both spheres went up and stopped in front of the Snake King’s face. Zet and Su tried to do something, but these spheres were meant to obstruct the power of those that were weak against light or darkness. The white sphere stopped Su from using his dark-style techniques. After all, Su’s body—or Black—was the product of the fruit of darkness, so almost all his techniques used the dark-style and were weak against light-based powers, like this sphere. Likewise, the dark sphere blocked Zet’s attacks, which used either chakra or a mixture of light and darkness. Zet didn’t have Spiral’s body—like Su had Black’s—but his body ended up just like Spiral’s anyways. It was made with the fruit of light and with the power of darkness in a 50/50 ratio. Despite that, Spiral was much weaker against the dark-style, so Zet also had this weakness.

Su couldn’t do anything, but Zet managed to move inside the sphere—perhaps because he wasn’t 100% weak against it. Right away, the Snake King did something that changed the spheres. The white one turned into lances of light and the black one into lances of darkness. Then, all the lances impaled Zet and Su. They looked totally helpless after that attack. They would have died for sure if they had been normal humans—like they were before their battle against Black and Spiral, at the Realm of the Snakes.

The strange lances kept them airborne, until the Snake King grabbed them. Then the lances disappeared. The dark king had Zet in one hand and Su in the other.

“You two must have begun to realize by now that you can’t defeat me. Only the host of the fruit of chakra had a chance against me. Besides, you should have known that I wasn’t going to create guardians that could beat me easily. You still don’t understand the extent of the power I possess.”

The Snake King noticed that Ashura and Indra were starting to recover, so he didn’t waste his time with these two. He threw Zet and Su to the two opposite edges of the coliseum, causing the final collapse of what was left there. Once again, Zet and Su were lucky because they were not human; otherwise, they would have been dead already.

The Snake King walked up to Indra and Ashura and grabbed them before they could do anything to avoid it. Indra couldn’t use the sharingan and he didn’t have his two swords with him. Ashura didn’t have enough time to activate the eagle sage mode either. The Snake King didn’t use spheres or techniques on them. He went straight to grabbing them with his bare hands.

When Hagaromo saw that, he knew that he had to hurry. He had to find the strength to initiate the seal of the six paths that had been completed already. He had to do it not just because the Snake King was now standing at the center of the coliseum and this was their only plausible way to beat him, but because Ashura and Indra’s lives were at stake too. Besides, he already knew that this had to be done to save the future. Although, seeing his sons in danger was what pushed him the most, without a doubt.

Unfortunately for him, he had not figured out yet that Zet—the one he saw as “the other” white guardian—was, in fact, his third son, whom had disappeared several years ago. And he didn’t know that the “new Black” was his long-lost brother…

The real Snake King had a bit of a bad temper, but he also saw himself as someone that was wise and powerful, so he definitely liked giving his worthy opponents a few final words before he finished them:

“You two must have realized it as well. Under different circumstances and against any other opponent, you would have won and I would be dead now. However, the power of the holy fruits surpasses all; and I possess two out of the three that exist. You can’t defeat me, even if all of you are the offspring of former hosts of the fruit of chakra. Your power is not enough to beat its original source. Only the host of the third fruit has a chance, but I have developed the means to defeat such a person as well. And anyone else who tries to stop me will face certain death, like you two.”

Indra realized that the Snake King was standing at the very center of the coliseum and he remembered Hagaromo’s words. They had to keep the dark king there at all costs. It was their last chance now! Therefore, he started to make small talk to delay things:

“It’s so ironic that we would be defeated here, standing at the very center of our own coliseum, a monument of the Otsutsuki Clan. Here, at the same place where we trained so many times, and had so many battles, and learned so many things. Oooh, how tragic this is!!”

Immediately, after hearing Indra’s words, Ashura realized that the Snake King was at the right location. Maybe, that was why Indra was talking so much crap—that wasn’t like him at all, and Ashura knew it. Ashura took a peek at Hagaromo and noticed that he was struggling to do something. They still had one chance left. Thus, Ashura joined Indra in talking clever gibberish—anything as long as they could keep the Snake King exactly where he was.

“To be honest, I don’t think I will miss the coliseum. I think it is much more tragic that we were not at a beach or at an amusement park during this defeat…”

The Snake King wasn’t in the mood to stand there listening to his opponents’ conversations though. He had said what he wanted to say already, so he began to lose his patience with them very quickly. Then, his powerful and angry voice was heard again:

“Shut up already! I thought you two were two serious elite warriors instead of two powerful idiots! You didn’t seem this talkative before either. Are you trying to delay your imminent death? There is nothing you can do now!”

Then, the Snake King had a sudden epiphany. He had forgotten completely about the one that had the fruit of chakra before. Hagaromo certainly wasn’t dead yet. Besides, why didn’t he see Yuvol or Spiral during the long battle he had there? Something didn’t feel right. His clever intuition knew it…

He looked around with his eyes, keeping a tight hold of Ashura and Indra. When he spotted Hagaromo, he knew that he had missed something important at some point. Hagaromo had some sort of seal on the ground; thus, something was going to happen there.

Hagaromo was on his knees when he finally did it. He couldn’t stand up, but being on his knees was enough to do it. Ashura and Indra gave him enough time and spiritual strength to pull it off. At last, he activated the real seal!

“Seal of the Six Paths! Fire, water, wind, lightning, earth, and life! Carve the seal of our real on him, and vanish him from it forever!!”

With the final activation, a new giant tracing of the seal—the same complex sign that Hagaromo had created—revealed its existence on the surface of the entire coliseum. This was something that Hagaromo had been planning for many years. Even the coliseum itself had been built with this in mind. Only he knew about it though…

The giant seal that appeared everywhere on the ground was as large as the coliseum itself, and it looked exactly like Hagaromo’s smaller version of it. Apparently, the humongous one was the real deal and the small one that Hagaromo created first was just a key to activate the one on the coliseum.

The giant circle became the new view of the coliseum’s ground. It had all the same signs that Hagaromo traced on the small one. The edges of the grand chakra circle appeared below the borders of the coliseum, and the immense amounts of sage chakra that began to flow through them pushed all the destroyed structures out of the way. Then, out of the circle’s border, hundreds of hands of chakra came out and grabbed the Snake King. There were hundreds of them, so he couldn’t escape them.

The Snake King had to let go of Indra and Ashura. The hands began to immobilize him quickly. They lifted him up and kept him several meters above the ground. Ashura managed to grab Indra and stop their fall with one of his wind-based techniques. Ashura was the first one there that began to get his power back. He couldn’t use the chakra giant again, but he knew he could use his eagle sage mode. Indra, on the other hand, didn’t seem recovered yet. His eyes went back to normal. And without his mangekyou sharingan, his power was definitely much lower.

The six seals that Hagaromo placed on the Snake King’s body—during their battle—began to show up now, on the ground and on the enemy’s body as well.

A brown circle with a gorilla’s face inside appeared on the Snake King’s forehead. An orange circle with a fox’s face and a green circle with a human’s face appeared on the shoulders. On the legs, the blue slug’s circle and the yellow dragon’s seal showed up. Then, the eagle’s white circle revealed itself on the Snake King’s chest. When the dark king noticed this, he finally understood that the whole thing had been a planned trap for him, since the beginning. Someone knew that he would attack them there, before it happened. However, many things were unclear… How could Hagaromo know that he would attack them that day and at that time? And how did the old sage have so much power left to pull this off?! He didn’t even have the fruit of chakra anymore!!

Obviously, there was much more about Hagaromo than what the Snake King knew…

The six seals on the Snake King were united with their replicas on the ground by the currents of chakra that flowed through the whole thing. (All of that sage chakra came from the conversion of the rinnegan eye. The Snake King didn’t know that a final sharingan could be that powerful. In fact, he didn’t even know that a sharingan eye could have such power, until Sasuke Uchiha defeated his top human vessel in the future, many decades later…)

When all the currents of chakra were united, they began to form a new seal on the Snake King. The new sign looked like the seal for the Human Realm (not the Zeta Realm, but Naruto and Hagaromo’s Human Realm). [Just like the Earth Realm had a seal, which was required to travel to it, the other realms had their own seals as well. And they could be used for more than just teleportation-based travel. An example of this was what Hagaromo did using the seal of the six paths…]

The Snake King began to fear the worst when he saw that. He remembered that Hagaromo said it would “vanish him forever.” The Snake King used his full strength and, to everyone’s surprise, he began to overcome the hold of the grand seal. No one was supposed to be able to do such a thing. However, he was still moving very slow. He wasn’t going to break out of it easily.

Ashura realized that someone had to hold him back. Otherwise, one of his hands or one of his legs would break free and the seal would not be successful. However, how would he do that without the chakra giant? After all, the Snake King was a giant too, so holding him wasn’t that simple.

Hagaromo didn’t look as worried as Ashura because, even though he had not seen every detail, he already knew that the Snake King’s “new guardians” would betray him until the end. Although, he still didn’t know who they really were…

Zet and Su came back and used their abnormal growth of branches from the ground to hold the Snake King again. Not finishing them earlier had been a mistake that the dark king was going to regret for sure…

Hagaromo had not seen what would happen next. He just knew that things would work out in the long-run, based on the events that he was able to see. He also knew that he was the only one that didn’t make it alive out of that conflict… What was going to happen to him and when? He didn’t know it. Hagaromo’s special sharingan saw many things, but it didn’t see everything; and his visions didn’t show him all the details that mattered either. That was the real weakness of his special sharingan. Even though it saw the future and its possible paths, it never saw all the details and it could only see what happened at the Second Human Realm, not at the others. Therefore, flaws in Hagaromo’s plan for the future could happen and not all of his decisions were necessarily the best ones… only time would tell their true outcome…

In his desperation, the Snake King created a giant sphere of light and darkness that looked a lot like Ashura’s chakra bomb, but it was much larger. It began to appear above his hands, which had been pushed up by the power of the seal. He couldn’t throw it at the coliseum because it would destroy him too; and he had difficulty to aim it because he could barely move his hands. Despite his limitations, he managed to give it a small push that started its trajectory towards the right place. Ashura got very worried when he noticed that the direction was where the Otsutsuki Clan was located, just a few miles away from there.

The Snake King thought that this was his way to escape. He talked directly to Hagaromo:

“You are going to have to choose between saving your people or defeating me. They don’t have much time left now, so you better think and act quickly, if you want to save them. I can make the giant twilight bomb go away now, but first you have to stop this sealing technique.”

Zet and Su got worried because they knew that this was their best opportunity to defeat the dark lord. They didn’t care about the people at the Otsutsuki Clan. What mattered to them was getting what they wanted. And for that, Hagaromo couldn’t let go of the seal.

On the other hand, Ashura and Indra worried about their clan and about their friends and families there. Indra felt very frustrated. There wasn’t much he could do. Without the sharingan and the Susanoo, he couldn’t even make it on time, and much less stop that thing.

Ashura asked Hagaromo to end it:

“Father! Please, stop the seal!! We need to destroy that sphere, or else everyone will die!”

Hagaromo was serious and very clear about what was more important:

“I can’t do that Ashura. If this doesn’t succeed, there will be no future for our world. If this doesn’t happen, it won’t be just our clan, everything else will be destroyed as well.”

“How can you say that!? Don’t you care about your people!? Or are your visions of the future more important than us!? I won’t let this happen!!”

When the Snake King heard Ashura’s words, he figured out that the Sage of the Six Paths could see some events from the future. It was the only way to explain how this elaborate trap was waiting for him there. And it really wasn’t too surprising for him, because, if the fruit of darkness gave him the power to possess others and even a timeless realm of his own (the “Possession” Realm), then, it made sense that the owner of the fruit of chakra would have some power that was at that kind of level as well…

Ashura became an eagle sage and left the coliseum in a hurry. He flew past the great twilight sphere, which was just two miles away from the clan. He could feel its power and he knew that the eagle sage mode wasn’t going to be enough to stop it. He couldn’t summon the chakra giant or make full use of the chakra mode, but there was something else that he could do. There was a special and forbidden sage mode that rivaled even his father’s power. It was the human sage mode that used the eight inner chakra gates of the body. He didn’t have much time, so he chose to use it.

Besides having the eagle sage mode active, Ashura began to open the inner chakra gates one by one, until he opened the seventh one. Hagaromo never taught him how to open the final one because he thought that Ashura could end up doing something crazy like this—and he was right. Ashura pushed towards the eight one, but seven open gates were already too much for him; and the power he felt was already unbelievable, so he made his move, before it was too late.

He was engulfed by a large mass of green-looking sage chakra. It had the same color as the seal of life that had the face of the human from the Zeta Realm. Without too much thinking, Ashura’s green aura clashed with the sphere in the sky. He did it from below, hoping to either destroy it or change its course towards the atmosphere.

Everyone felt the powerful clash. The Snake King was surprised; he didn’t expect that people that didn’t have the fruits of power would be capable of these things. Hagaromo couldn’t hold a few tears because he knew what would happen to Ashura after that. Ashura would survive, but he was going to feel the worst pain of his life, possibly for months. Nonetheless, Hagaromo never let go of the seal of the six paths. He never stopped it. His only consolation was that the realm would be saved and only he wasn’t going to make it. He also knew that the “fruit of chakra” was going to be safe divided into nine different parts…

After the grand clash, the sphere’s path was pushed upwards, meaning that it would not hit the ground. Ashura lost all his chakra and his power, all of a sudden, and he began to fall down half-conscious. He had never done anything like that before, but it was a success. He expected to die after that final fall. However, he was saved by other wind-style user before he reached the ground. It was his uncle and Hagaromo’s fraternal twin, Hamura Otsutsuki. He arrived in time with many others from their clan.

Once the sphere of light and darkness reached a high-enough altitude, it exploded and its explosion was devastating. It would have destroyed their entire clan for sure, if it had landed there.

Ashura had to be taken to the medical ninjas at the clan right away. It wasn’t clear whether he was going to survive—but we already knew he would make it. Hamura knew that something very serious and dangerous was happening at the coliseum, if even Hagaromo had not been able to stop it. He and the other elite warriors from the Otsutsuki Clan ran towards the coliseum, which was miles away from them. Hagaromo and Indra were still there…

After that, the Snake King knew that Hagaromo wasn’t going to free him easily from the seal, so he threatened him with something else:

“Son of Kaguya, if you don’t release me from this now, I will guarantee the death of your other son before this ends!”

Hagaromo already knew that both Indra and Ashura were going to make it and they were going to live for many more years, so he ignored the dark king’s words. Then, the Snake King used the power of the fruit of darkness to cast his own seal of darkness on Indra. (It looked like Orochimaru’s seal of the three black commas, seen in the Naruto series.) Three black commas, with the same shape as the ones on the Snake King’s forehead, appeared on Indra’s left leg.

Nothing happened at first, but Hagaromo knew how malign that was. As a child, he was one of the few that witnessed Kaguya’s grand battle with the Snake King, during the war with the snakes; and he still remembered how the Snake King casted that seal on her when he was losing the battle.

Hagaromo believed that the dark seal of the three commas was what changed Kaguya’s stability after that battle. Possibly, it was the force that led Ten-Tails to take over her. She never had problems to control it before, but, after that battle, things were never the same again. Hagaromo feared that the same thing would happen to Indra because of that seal. Naturally, he had never seen this particular event in his visions of what would happen…

Nothing was changing there though. The Snake King still saw himself trapped and the seal of the Human Realm was almost finished on him. He feared what would happen next, so he used his full strength and power to break free. Zet and Su got quite alarmed when he began to move a little more, even with all the branches and the hands of chakra from the seal that were still holding him.

At that point, Yuvol came from beneath a pile of sand and he didn’t even look at the Snake King. He started to make his escape right away. He saw that the initial dark portal—from where the Snake King came from when Jim Namikaze left—was ten percent of its original size now, but it was still there. Therefore, the open path to the Realm of the Snakes wasn’t gone yet. Yuvol began to move towards it with haste. He could still save his own tail if he got there before the portal was gone…

It was at that same moment that the Snake King experienced his biggest surprise so far:

A thin and long white branch, which was shaped like a lethal sword, impaled him through the very center of the heart. The deadly branch came from behind. It was Spiral’s doing! The dark king couldn’t struggle anymore after that. And Spiral had his first epiphany:

“I see now why you always kept Yuvol hiding as a backup. It certainly gave you the upper hand in situations like this. You could still win, even if you had lost already. Unfortunately, it works on you too.”

The Snake King never saw that coming, so his anger exploded:

“You-u??! Do you have any idea of what you are doing, you fo-ool!!”

“Yes, I actually do. I am going to stay here with them, and it would be very convenient if you can’t put a foot here ever again. Just like you, I realized that this human world is much more fun than seeing rocks, dry caves, and fat snakes all day long, every day. I hate it! So I am going to stay here and you won’t be able to stop it. I am done following you and that good-for-nothing snake!”

After that, it was obvious that the real Spiral wasn’t a fool. He just sounded like one half of the time. He was also as powerful as Zet and Su, as far as we know. Perhaps, he could even become a bigger threat than them… There is no doubt that one of Zet and Su’s biggest mistakes over the century that followed was underestimating the real power of their “third wheel,” Spiral…

Yuvol reached the portal that brought them there. It was shrinking, meaning that the Snake King was losing power and the time to return was running out quickly. Yuvol didn’t think twice. He jumped into the small dark-violet oval before it was completely gone. Saving his own skin was more important to him than saving “the master.”

The Snake King noticed when Yuvol escaped. The seal was also finishing its completion on him. He probably only had one minute left before the seal’s effect could take place. There was only one thing left for him to do: expose his real self to stop Hagaromo.

The same white portal of light from before appeared just three meters away from Hagaromo, whom was still on his knees holding the seal. And the same green-haired man of the black cloak came from it. This time he had the black hood on and he was holding human-sized versions of the blade of darkness and the blade of light, just like his “vessel” did in the battles with Sasuke and Hokage Naruto, in Hagaromo’s vision of the alternate future.

As soon as he got there, he attacked Hagaromo with an X-shaped slash, using the two blades. He was going to repeat the same attack aimed at Hagaromo’s neck. However, his hands and arms were held back and stopped before he could complete the movement. The smaller blades of light and darkness were stopped cold at the sides of Hagaromo’s head. And the real Snake King couldn’t kill Hagaromo. He was very surprised at first:

“What is going on!? Why do I feel just like I felt in the giant body that is caught under the seal!?”

Hagaromo answered and his upper body fell to the ground afterwards:

“The seal of the six paths affects the main body and any other body that is connected to it at the location where the seal is being used. Thank you for coming, Snake King.”

When Hagaromo fell down, the human Snake King noticed that the grand seal was completed and it had appeared on his true self as well. In other words, the seal of the six paths was present on the entire coliseum, on the giant king, on his true human self, and also in front of Hagaromo, on the sand. The small one in front of Hagaromo wasn’t just a key to activate the whole thing. It did to the human enemy what the one on the entire coliseum did to the giant one.

Indra saw the real enemy standing in front of his father and he knew that this was his last chance to do something. He was seeing better already, even though his sharingan wasn’t back yet. The cursed seal of the three commas made him feel a little strange—a little different perhaps—but it wasn’t stopping him from doing anything. He managed to prepare a small one-foot-long arrow of lightning. This one wasn’t even one percent as powerful as the giant arrow from before; nonetheless, it still had potential to be lethal. From the spot where he was lying on the sand, Indra shot the arrow straight at the man of the black cloak that was facing the opposite way. It hit him right below the neck, on the spine.

The human Snake King was caught by surprise and the electric shock made him fall to the ground. The small hands of chakra continued holding his arms and legs, but they didn’t stop his body from falling down. On the way down, his hood was pushed back completely. Unfortunately, we still saw him only from a back-side view, so his long green hair was the only thing visible.

Ironically, he and Hagaromo ended up side-by-side on the sand, with their faces facing each other. Who would have thought that?

Hagaromo was one of the very few people that knew what truly happened in the ancient past, before Kaguya became “the Goddess” and before he was born. However, even he didn’t know the entire story. And whoever-this-guy-was surely knew about it. Hagaromo seemed a little surprised when he first saw the enemy’s human face. Regardless, he had to ask:

“What is your connection to Kaguya? Why are you doing all of this? And, why do you still look so young?”

Clearly, it wasn’t the first time that Hagaromo had seen that face…

The human Snake King was aggravated and hostile after that arrow hit him. His movement was still blocked by the hands of the seal though.

“I don’t have to tell you my secrets ‘holy sage.’ What are you going to accomplish with this seal that you placed on me? Whatever it is, you must be less smart than Kaguya if you think this will be enough to stop me.”

“My seal will ensure that you and your most powerful body won’t put your feet on this realm again. Any technique that you use to come back to this world will not work. And if you ever find a way to come back, it will be to face your true end at the hands of the saviors from the future.”

The human Snake King laughed at Hagaromo’s words, while he and his giant counterpart began to disappear. He also said a few final words before he was gone for good:

“You won this battle, Hagaromo Otsutsuki, but not the war. Remember about what happened after I fought your goddess. Fighting me brought her downfall. The same will happen to you, or at least, to your son, because my dark seal works a lot like yours. It is permanent. Besides, I haven’t aged a bit since I obtained the fruit of light, so I will outlive all of you anyways. Rest assured that I will find a way to come back. I still need the fruit of chakra, which is here, in this realm…”

The giant Snake King and the green-haired human of the black cloak disappeared. The completed seal took them back to the Realm of the Snakes and took away their ability to travel directly to the Second Human Realm…

Spiral could barely believe it. The Snake King wasn’t dead, but if he couldn’t come back, then, they had truly won. Zet and Su, on the other hand, were not too surprised. Zet, in particular, didn’t look too happy:

“As always, he had to be the winner. Even without one rinnegan, the owner of the fruit of chakra, the Sage of the Six Paths, the Ten-Tails’ jinchuuriki, Hagaromo Otsutsuki, still wins. It’s always him and his cursed Ten-Tails beast.”

Su was in a much better mood, even if his voice sounded treacherous:

“We have been lucky Zet. Thanks to their help, we succeeded at defeating the Snake King. We may not have to worry about him again.”

Spiral’s mood and his voice changed to their usual state—mostly childish and foolish.

“Zet, Su, where are we going now? Should I lead the way? Can we go anywhere I want!? Ple-e-ease!!!”

Zet didn’t sound like someone who had just won. He sounded angry:

“Spiral, you are not the boss here and I can destroy you with that technique he taught me, if you ever give me trouble. If you really want to join us, you will have to work for us. Now… there is something I must do. I have waited years for this moment to arrive…”

Zet left Su and Spiral and he began to walk towards Hagaromo. On his way there, he raised his hands while he walked past Indra. He couldn’t afford to get attacked by Indra during “the process,” so he trapped him with three branches and used a fourth one to bury Indra’s face on the ground, while Indra talked. Indra barely had time to say something:

“What are you doing!? You traitorous bastard-d-d!”

When Zet stopped walking, he was in front of Hagaromo. Hagaromo was still alive, but in critical condition on the sand. Zet revealed his intentions, while a bunch of white branches lifted Hagaromo from the sand:

“It’s time to extract the power of the fruit of chakra and pass it on to a new host, which will be me, the son that never got anything from you, until now.”

Hagaromo heard Zet’s words and finally recognized his face. It was then that the Sage of the Six Paths realized his mistake. And it was too late to change anything. His plans to save the future never took into account that “the second white guardian” was, in fact, his lost son. He missed that important detail because it was never a direct revelation in his visions. And missing that fact made the future worse because Zet was one of the biggest villains of that future. If Hagaromo had known it before, all of that suffering could have been avoided. What else could he have missed?

NEXT— EPISODE 51: The Battle’s Aftermath

 

 

Episode 49: Hagaromo versus the Snake King

The Snake King used the black blade to strike the spot where Hagaromo was standing. Before the blade and the black flames that surrounded it landed on the arena, Hagaromo moved out of there, as fast as the wind. The white eagle that surrounded him carried him out of there and stayed around him. The black blade and its dark flames didn’t touch him, but it reached one of the edges of the coliseum and left that spot in ruins. It also lifted a cloud of sand that reached Ashura and the others. The devastating power of the Snake King’s blades was starting to show itself. Clearly, the coliseum wasn’t going to survive for too long…

Hagaromo moved in the air with speed and ease, thanks to the power of wind, which he summoned using the entire white flame. This “path of wind,” or the essence of the wind-style, took the shape of a white eagle’s head around Hagaromo, and it became his main way to move around during his entire battle with the Snake King.

Hagaromo didn’t waste any time. He already knew what had to be done and he knew that he had to be successful; otherwise, the Snake King would be able to beat them there, and his plan for the future would not work either…

Before the Snake King’s eyes found him again, Hagaromo created an invisible seal of chakra that stayed in front of him during the battle. It looked like there was nothing in front of him though because the seal remained invisible. He already knew what it looked like, of course, but its true purpose wasn’t revealed until much later, during that epic showdown. He also summoned the power of the earth-style using the brown flame:

“Path of earth! Release!”

The brown flame took the shape of a gorilla’s face—like the ones at the Earth Realm—and surrounded Hagaromo as well. Now, he only had four other flames around him: blue, green, red, and yellow.

The Snake King swung his white blade aimed at Hagaromo’s direction, as soon as he saw him again. It wasn’t going to reach Hagaromo, but the white wave that its white flames produced was headed that way, like a giant wave of white chakra. Hagaromo dodged the wave and it clashed with the coliseum’s structure, causing the beginning of its inevitable collapse.

Before the Snake King could move again, Hagaromo used the power of earth on him:

“Grand earth-style jutsu, planetary impalers!”

Giant spines of solid earth came from the sand, around the Snake King, and began to strike him from all sides. At least thirty of the giant spines landed on the dark king. However, none of them managed to penetrate his skin. He wasn’t harmed at all!

“This isn’t your best, son of Kaguya. Show me the true power of the holy fruit of chakra!”

The Snake King broke several of the giant spines with just one push of his legs. Then, he shattered the rest with two 180 degree slashes from his two blades. The black comma on his forehead began to glow—meaning that he was about to use the power of the fruit of darkness—and the great spines that remained were completely disintegrated. Nothing was left from them. Apparently, the power of darkness—or the “dark” element—could destroy chakra-based techniques.

Hagaromo combined the powers of wind and earth to gain time for his first important attack against the Snake King. The holy sage lifted an intense sandstorm at the coliseum. It carried so much sand that visibility became very blurry for everyone…

Ashura was very worried about his father. He didn’t understand why he wasn’t using the grand power of Ten Tails from the start. He wasn’t even using the other rinnegan. What was wrong with him?

Ashura knew that the six colored flames made it possible for his father to use some of the strongest elemental attacks that existed, without having any sage mode. However, he also knew that the rinnegan’s attacks and the techniques that came directly from Ten Tails were the most powerful ones that chakra could produce. Against a threat of this magnitude, it made no sense that his father wasn’t using that power. Furthermore, he wasn’t even using his chakra platforms or his levitating power. He was airborne only because he was using his path of wind—the white eagle. It almost felt like Hagaromo was fighting without Ten Tails, and, as if he didn’t have the other rinnegan either. And that was exactly the case. However, Ashura didn’t know it yet…

Likewise, Zet and Su began to suspect that something was wrong with Hagaromo; and they had not even noticed that he only had one of his two rinnegans now. Zet was very good at sensing other people’s chakra levels and their overall power—this was one of the abilities he gained when he obtained Spiral’s powers. Therefore, Zet was the first one that noticed, without doubts, that Hagaromo was indeed less powerful than before. Su didn’t sense chakra levels, but he knew Hagaromo well. (Many years had passed, but Hagaromo and Hamura were still Su’s elder brothers, just like Indra and Ashura were Zet’s elder brothers. Because of that, Su knew Hagaromo fairly well.) Therefore, Su knew that something was wrong and he also knew that Hagaromo was surely plotting something else—as always…

Spiral didn’t care about the ones involved. He was just watching—as if he was on a beach—until Hagaromo’s sandstorm messed up his show.

The Snake King was becoming a more violent threat every minute that went by.

“Do you think that a cheap trick to cloud my vision can help you against me?! Do you really believe that something this simple will stop me!?”

The black and the white commas on his forehead began to glow again, and a growing gray field began to expand around him. When the field covered the whole coliseum, the Snake King released it and all the techniques of chakra, light, and darkness that had been used within that area were completely nullified. The few traces left from the giant earth spines disappeared entirely, as if they had never been used there. And the storm of wind and earth was stopped right away. The only things that didn’t go away were the remaining flames around Hagaromo, the white eagle and the brown gorilla shapes that protected him, and the invisible seal. (Apparently, these were not normal chakra techniques. They were the “holy paths of nature” that only a master of all the styles—like Hagaromo—could summon. The seal was also some kind of special technique that only Hagaromo knew because he was the one that created it.)

Hagaromo was already positioned in front of the Snake King before the sandstorm was terminated. He launched a strong earth-style attack, which used the essence of the power of earth itself. The brown gorilla face around him went through the invisible seal that he had in front and rushed towards the Snake King’s face, like a meteorite of earth. As soon as it was visible, it was already there, so the dark king couldn’t dodge it. The natural power of the Earth Realm crashed with the giant’s face at full force.

Then, Hagaromo used the red flame and his path of fire created the orange face of a fierce fox around him.

The Snake King’s face wasn’t hurt, even though the attack was powerful. Nonetheless, it was left all dirty and dusty, so he got furious.

“Aaaaaarrgghhh!!”

His powerful scream shook the whole coliseum and its sound went as far as the Otsutsuki Clan itself. By then, the visibility was clear again and Hagaromo’s sandstorm was gone.

It was then that Zet and Su got a clear view of Hagaromo, and they noticed that he only had one of his rinnegans. What happened to him? Whatever the case, both Zet and Su knew that the odds were against Hagaromo now. It looked like they would have to fight against the Snake King again. And this time losing was not an option for them…

Before the Snake King’s scream of anger ended, Hagaromo used the powers of wind and fire on him:

“Fire and wind! Fire storm!!”

A giant whirlpool of flames began to form and circle the Snake King at high speed. Before he could attack it, the whole thing crashed on him.

Hagaromo didn’t stop. He saw his best chance to ensure that the giant orange fox would land on the enemy—just like the brown gorilla’s face did—so he launched it against the Snake King’s left shoulder; and it landed there like a hot bomb. (The reason why he aimed such a powerful attack at the left shoulder, in particular, became clear later on.) The “path of fire,” just like the “path of earth” before it, went through Hagaromo’s invisible seal before it crashed head-on with the Snake King.

This was enough for the dark king. Even though the powerful attacks didn’t hurt him much—something that was already incredible on its own—he wasn’t going to tolerate them anymore. It was time to show the Sage of the Six Paths what he was fighting against.

All three commas—yellow, white, and black—on the Snake King’s forehead lighted up. A white aura appeared around him and it faded away, after just a few seconds. Then, it was visible that his face wasn’t dirty anymore and the small damage that the fox did on his shoulder was gone as well. The fire storm barely did anything to him; it did more to his pieces of armor. However, even the armor looked like new now. Any harm done to him had been erased completely by the power of the fruit of light.

“Do you want a real fire storm? I will give you one and more!”

The Snake King opened his mouth and fire began to form around it and inside. While this happened, his yellow “chakra symbol”—on his forehead—glowed with more intensity than before. At the same time, various dark shadow clones that resembled the man of the black cloak appeared. All of them carried smaller versions of the black blade that he giant Snake King had. Obviously, the dark clones came from the power of the fruit of darkness.

Hagaromo knew that this “man of the black cloak” had to be the real dark king behind all of this; and these clones surely resembled him. The giant king was his strongest body for sure, but it wasn’t his real self.

Hagaromo had the time to release the green flame, right before the dark clones began to chase him. This “path of life” created a green face of a human from the Zeta Realm around him. The face was very similar to ours, but it also had two small horns—that looked like a white shark’s fin—coming out from the sides of the head.

The battle started to get pretty dangerous after that, even for the Sage of the Six Paths. The dark shadow clones went after him and the Snake King unleashed a tornado-like attack of wind and fire from his mouth. He also had the light and dark blades ready to continue their devastation, while they sought their target.

After that moment, the three commas on the Snake King’s forehead remained ignited for the rest of the battle. This meant that he was ready to use the powers of darkness, light, and chakra at any given time. (He did have chakra-based powers, but they were not as mighty as what the host of the fruit of chakra was capable of. Likewise, the powers of light and darkness of the people from the Zeta Realm could not be compared to his. His were vastly superior because the fruits of light and darkness were in his possession.)

The chase began to get worrisome pretty quickly. Hagaromo had the dozens of “black cloak clones,” the giant blades, and the fire tornado chasing him. And even though the Snake King and his attacks were the bigger problem, the dark clones he summoned were pretty aggressive and skilled—definitely not “pushover” clones.

The speed of the path of wind was not enough to avoid them all for too long. At the same time, Hagaromo needed to land his major attacks on the Snake King’s body, at the correct places. He couldn’t afford to miss any of those. It was the last thing that had to be successful to complete his plan to save the future. Therefore, he needed to be reasonably close to the Snake King’s body. It was an extremely difficult situation with the hooded clones with swords chasing him relentlessly.

He had to make many shadow clones of his own and engage with the dark clones in battle. Otherwise, he wasn’t going to have enough time to attack the Snake King without getting killed by one of the hooded clones first.

Hagaromo and his clones demonstrated awesome skill in that quick clash with dozens of hooded ninjas in black cloaks. The holy sage was older and he—and his clones—had a staff as a weapon, instead of swords. However, the other ninjas barely touched them. Furthermore, Hagaromo managed to confuse them all about who was his real self and he got close enough to the dangerous Snake King.

It was then that he saw the opportunity to land the next strike on the king.

From a side, the real Hagaromo blasted the Snake King’s right shoulder with the full force of his “path of life”—the green human face with horns. Unlike the previous attacks, this one caused serious damage to the Snake King because chakra-based healing could destroy tissue, if it was used as an anti-healing attack. And this style’s techniques ignored whether the living tissue was hard as a rock or soft as a pillow. If it was “alive” then healing could recover it and anti-healing could destroy it.

The Snake King’s right shoulder received five giant cuts from this attack and an immense amount of blood began to come out of them. He had to drop down his right arm right away, so it was serious. Because of this, the Snake King didn’t hesitate about his counterattack. He used the three types of powers again: light, chakra, and darkness. A sudden flash of light blinded everyone there for a few seconds. Then, a multiple lightning attack came from the five fingers of the Snake King’s left hand. It hit Hagaromo and all his clones, which had been stopped temporarily by the white flash. All that happened in just two seconds. Then, the Snake King made more dark clones with black cloaks—that was probably his favorite set of clothes, he sure loved it.

All of Hagaromo’s clones disappeared and he was hit pretty hard by that lightning-based strike. He fell on the ground and experienced difficulty to get back up quickly, even with the aid of the eagle of wind—the path of wind—that he still had. The lightning weakened his body considerably. He had no chance to see it, since the flash of light took away his vision right before that, so evading it wasn’t possible.

Despite the sudden fall, Hagaromo managed to get back on his feet, but his strength had been seriously shaken with that attack.

Then, Hagaromo’s rinnegan sensed an incoming sword strike that was about to land on him. He moved to the side, but he was not fast enough to avoid it completely, and the tip of the blade still reached him. He felt how the black blade cut through one of his thighs with its edge. The new dark clones saw him right away because all his clones were gone, so there was only one of him. And they all went after him, while he was getting up.

Hagaromo didn’t even bother looking back. He already knew that at least three or four more swords were approaching his head. He could feel it, so he used a powerful wind-shield right away. And that was what saved his life at that instant. However, that wasn’t going to stop them or the Snake King for long. Hagaromo felt that he was running out of time. He had to hurry!

He knew he had little time left, not because he was wounded or because the Snake King’s lightning attack left him weakened, but because he started to feel fatigued as well. He didn’t have Ten Tails—the living fruit of chakra—with him now, so his power had a limit, unlike before. And his enemy’s power didn’t seem to have that human limit. Therefore, he had to land the six attacks of the six natural paths of chakra on the Snake King, before it was too late to do it. Earth, fire, and life (the anti-healing attack) had succeeded. He still had three left…

Hagaromo raised his staff and the two remaining flames around him were activated at once!

“Paths of water and lightning, release!!”

The blue flame took the shape of a blue slug, which looked like Tsunade’s summon (in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, the adult Tsunade can summon the slug queen from the Water Realm of the Slugs, which is full of lakes). The yellow flame transformed into the head of a royal dragon of lightning (similar to the one that Sasuke used once in Naruto Shippuden). Basically, the six paths of chakra took the shape of the habitant of the realm where that natural type of chakra was the most abundant. The Earth Realm of the Monkeys was the realm of earth, by default. The slugs were masters of healing, but their attacks were water-based and their realm was covered with lakes on the surface everywhere. The birds and the eagles lived at a realm of scattered giant trees and an acid surface, where they couldn’t stand; thus, the air and its power reigned supreme at that realm—more than at any other. The humans of the Zeta Realm were the original creators, so their realm saw more creation and destruction of life than all others. Similar circumstances were present with fire at the Realm of the Foxes (which had many volcanoes), and with lightning at the Realm of the Royal Dragons (where thunderstorms were falling on the land all year long). We also had the Realm of the Ninja Dogs and the Realm of the Snakes, of course, but those two didn’t represent any of Hagaromo’s six paths of nature…

As soon as the yellow head of the dragon and the blue face of the slug joined the white eagle, all the ninjas with black cloaks and swords surrounded Hagaromo and rushed against him. In their eyes it was the end for the holy sage. Then, Hagaromo raised his staff and the force of lightning engulfed it. Both the staff and the dragon’s face launched yellow currents of electro-shocks that reached and grabbed every dark clone, before their final strikes landed on Hagaromo.

What he did to them was almost the same thing that the Snake King did to him and his shadow clones before. All the dark clones were destroyed with that single attack. However, the Snake King and his shoulder were like new again; and Hagaromo was not like before anymore. The holy sage knew that his limit was close, so he decided that he had to land the remaining three “paths” on his enemy at once. He had to prevent the Snake King from blocking them though. This was going to be more difficult now, unless he could use an attack that would require the Snake King’s entire focus and attention. Only that would give him the chance to land the three remaining paths as well…

Hagaromo shot a lightning arrow at the giant king and, as expected, he destroyed it with the blade of darkness, which was the one that could disintegrate chakra attacks. (The power of darkness could destroy. The power of light could create and restore. And together, they could do even more than that—they could reshape and alter.)

Then, Hagaromo used the grand attack that would give him the large opening that he was looking for:

“Descend, twin lightning tornados!!”

He used the powers of water, lightning, and wind together in this intense chakra-based phenomenon. It made two tornadoes with water, wind, and lots of lightning fall from the sky, directly towards the Snake King. They formed above the coliseum and began to fall pretty fast.

Surprisingly, the Snake King didn’t dodge the two barrages of nature’s forces, even though he had one chance to do it before they reached him. Instead, he raised and merged the blade of light with the blade of darkness. They formed a gray twilight shield above him; and that was where the two giant claws of wind, water, and lightning fell down with all their might.

The twilight shield began to get pushed down a little, but it showed no signs of breaking, even with those two catastrophes falling on it. The Snake King didn’t seem to be having an easy time though. Clearly, he was pushing against the two tornadoes with his shield. The shield had the shape of half-a-sphere, so it left his head, his hands, and his shoulders completely out of sight, while he stopped Hagaromo’s attack. The rest of his body was visible and wide open to attacks though. Therefore, Hagaromo took his chance. He knew that these two tornadoes were his last massive attack. What was left for him was completing the six paths on the Snake King by landing the remaining three at the right places—which were wide open now. The previous three had landed on the head and on the shoulders—where they had to land. He had to land the final three on the legs and on the body. And this seemed like the ideal time to finish it.

Hagaromo flew at full speed with the white eagle that carried him throughout the battle. He was going to launch the blue water slug, the yellow dragon, and the white eagle against the Snake King. However, when he was close enough to do it and close enough to get a full view of the dark king, he realized that it was a trap!

Beneath the twilight shield, the Snake King was holding back the entire shield and the natural catastrophes above it with just one hand. The other hand was ready to trap Hagaromo with a technique of the darkness-style. Two halves of a dark sphere were ready to encapsulate him, as soon as he got there. The dark sphere would absorb Hagaromo’s elemental jutsus, so natural techniques were obsolete inside that thing. The Snake King planned to grab the dark sphere with his free hand, after it trapped the Sage of the Six Paths. Then, he would destroy it.

Hagaromo figured out what was going to happen very quickly. Before the two halves of the sphere trapped him, he sent the blue slug against the giant’s left leg and he launched the yellow dragon to crash on the right leg with incredible force. And both went through the invisible seal in front of the holy sage, just like the previous ones did. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to send the white eagle forward. The dark sphere trapped him before that. He still had to land the white eagle on the body, which had not been touched by any of the six paths yet.

The dark sphere’s two halves moved too fast—even faster than the path of wind. They merged together, as soon as they touched, leaving Hagaromo trapped inside. At that moment, the Snake King felt the powerful clashes of water and lightning on his legs. The blue slug pushed him a few meters back and the dragon shacked his other leg from top to bottom, leaving it a little numb. However, in just one minute he already looked as if nothing had happened. These attacks weren’t powerful enough to hurt him badly. And even the anti-healing blast that made his shoulder bleed didn’t stop him for longer than one minute. The healing power of the fruit of light left his shoulder like new again…

The Snake King grabbed the dark sphere with his free hand. The dark and light commas on his forehead began to glow with more intensity and the twilight shield above him sent a giant gray wave upwards. The wave took the two lightning tornadoes with it. It broke them apart pretty quickly and turned them into mere air. Then, the twilight shield began to disappear. Using it to stop the tornadoes and to generate the large wave had consumed its full blend of light and dark power.

The Snake King moved his other hand towards the dark sphere. It was the time to crush it.

“I can’t believe it was this easy. Are you really the Sage of the Six Paths and the owner of the fruit of chakra? Yuvol’s information may be wrong.
Either way, I’m done with you. The young man over there shall tell me where the real one is.
Prince Hemnos and Kaguya had two twin sons. You must be Hamura, the one that didn’t inherit her full power, nor the holy fruit of chakra. Hagaromo, the Sage of the Six Paths, is the one I need. I’m sure he will be as powerful as Kaguya herself. And I am ready to crush him. This time the holy fruit of chakra will be mine. I won’t leave this realm until I have it. The third piece of the holy trinity of power from the Zeta Realm will belong to me soon.”

The Snake King stopped talking and he began to crush the dark sphere with the two palms of his hands. Finally, Hagaromo made his choice…

He had been saving the rinnegan’s full power to perform the grand sealing technique of the six paths. It was the second most powerful seal that he had created during his life (the first one being the one he used on Ten Tails), and it required a tremendous amount of sage chakra and precision to pull it off. In spite of that, it was a little less difficult than the other one because for that one he had the help of his brother Hamura. (The legends from the future only spoke about him alone, but his twin, Hamura Otsutsuki, also helped him to complete the seal on Ten Tails.)

Hagaromo needed the rinnegan’s full power to ensure that the seal would be successful. However, none of that mattered if the Snake King killed him first. Therefore, he used the rinnegan wisely.

When the Snake King’s hands began to crack the sphere from both sides, Hagaromo destroyed it with a single strike using four rinne-slashes that hit it above, below, and one each side, where the Snake King’s hands were. The sphere shattered and the Snake King received two large X-shaped cuts on his hands. The rinne-slashes could cut through his hard skin and they reminded him of the techniques that Kaguya used to fight him before.

Surprisingly, the Snake King didn’t retreat his hands when he felt the slashes of chakra. Hagaromo was still right there, between his two hands, so the king tried to finish crushing him. Without the sphere in the way, it was going to be much simpler. The two huge hands rushed together, as if they were going to trap a fly inside and squash it. The Snake King was sure that this was going to end it. However, it didn’t.

Before the hands closed themselves on Hagaromo, he placed his holy staff horizontally in front of himself, and he held it tight with both hands. In the same millisecond when the Snake King’s hands were within the reach of Hagaromo’s staff, two large and green double-helix shapes came from the opposite edges of the staff. They opened a hole through the center of both hands and they kept them apart, so the Snake King couldn’t crush Hagaromo. The green helixes had the same anti-healing element that had crushed one of the Snake King’s shoulders before.

When the dark king saw that, he realized that this was not Hamura—the one that looked more like Kaguya, even though he didn’t inherit her full power. This had to be Hagaromo—the son of Kaguya that looked more like prince Hemnos, and the one who had her power now. He came to that quick conclusion because that powerful double-helix coming from a staff-like weapon had also been one of the effective attacks that Kaguya used against him before. For some reason, Hagaromo, the Sage of the Six Paths, wasn’t using the full power of the fruit of chakra; but now the Snake King was certain that this was the guy he needed. There was no doubt about it.

The giant king couldn’t move his hands out of the green helixes right away. Hagaromo’s staff kept them in place and Hagaromo didn’t waste time either. The holy sage landed on the ground and he sent the mighty white eagle against the Snake King’s chest. The strike of wind was so powerful that it lifted the giant and made him fall on the opposite end of the coliseum, breaking what was left of it, when he landed there.

The invisible seal that Hagaromo had been using also became visible, in front of him. It had two large concentric circles on the edges, which made its border look like a one-meter-wide ring. Inside, it had what looked like a body traced with marks of yellow chakra. The body’s shape resembled the Snake King. It had a brown dot on the head, a red dot on the left shoulder, a white dot on the chest, a green dot on the right shoulder, and—as you might expect—it also had one blue dot on the leg where the blue slug fell and one yellow dot on the other leg, where the lightning dragon crashed. The seal for Hagaromo’s six paths and his ultimate sealing technique had been completed. Now, he still had to activate it. And if he did it, he would finish the last thing he had to do for the plan that could save the future; and he would be able to save his sons, his people from the Otsutsuki Clan, and their present…

Hagaromo placed the seal on the ground where he was. He couldn’t move it after that, so that was the location on the coliseum where it was going to stay. He also knew that he needed to convert the remaining power of the rinnegan into the massive amount of natural chakra that he needed to activate this grand sealing technique. It was going to take all of it. He was certain about it because he had already seen the moment when he activated this seal, in his visions of the future. And the rinnegan from that vision felt exactly as the one he had now. Therefore, he couldn’t use it to attack anymore. He had to preserve its power if he wanted to save the future and his present. It was the only way…

The Snake King stood up furious. He still had the holy staff and the helixes holding his hands as if they were some sort of handcuff. His symbol of darkness on his forehead became more intense and visible than the other two at that instant; and two intermittent dark spheres began to grow around his hands. When the spheres stopped growing, he held the two green double-helixes and he began to disintegrate them with his hands. Next, he held the holy staff itself and broke it in half. The intermittent spheres left his hands and devoured the two pieces of the staff. They disappeared after that, but nothing was left from Hagaromo’s holy staff.

And now, the Snake King was sure that this was the man he needed to obtain the holy fruit of chakra. He knew that only the Sage of the Six Paths would be able to use Kaguya’s techniques against him. And, from the dark king’s point of view, only such a person had the power to challenge him.

While the Snake King walked back towards Hagaromo, a white aura from the power of the fruit of light engulfed his hands. It healed them back to normal. In very little time, the holes that Hagaromo’s staff opened in the giant hands were gone.

Hagaromo covered the special seal with plenty of sand and he began to run away from there. At least, he knew where it was; but, he couldn’t stay there and he had to ensure that the Snake King would not know about it yet. Unfortunately, his running didn’t last for too long. He simply couldn’t run with the wound that the dark clone made on one of his thighs before.

Now, he didn’t have the path of wind, or the eagle, to facilitate his fast movement in the air. He was on foot, like any of us. And his powers were the same chakra attacks that any normal elite ninja could do. He could not use the rinnegan to attack again if he wanted to activate the seal, as he had seen in his vision. He definitely had no time or energy to reach a sage mode either. However, he still had faith. He believed that everything was going to work, just as he had seen it. Up to now, his visions had not failed him…

The white aura on the Snake King’s hands didn’t go away after both were healed. It divided itself and it focused on the tip of his fingers. Then, the ten small masses of white light turned into ten clones of light that looked just like the dark clones from before, but they were white, like the light that created them. They also resembled the man of the black cloak with the hood, but their cloaks were white. Unlike the previous dark clones, these “clones of light” could move through the air, just like Hagaromo did when he had the path of air with him. These guys definitely looked like a problem at this point…

Before the Snake King reached the holy sage, the ten clones of light surrounded Hagaromo and unleashed some kind of technique of light together, in a circle. What they did sent a flash of light towards Hagaromo, whom was at the center of their circle. After that, he began to see just the light and nothing else. Hagaromo understood what was happening though. The clones of light were not ninja attackers with swords, like the dark clones; they were the equivalent of “mages of the light-style.” And their techniques could be just as bad—in different ways. Hagaromo was sure that he was seeing light only because he was within their circle. He had to escape it to see everything else again. However, when he moved, they all moved with him—from their position in the air—so the circle of their technique was not leaving him. And he couldn’t target them easily with chakra techniques because he wasn’t seeing them either; so he didn’t know their exact location in the air around him. He only knew that they were keeping a circular formation at some altitude around him.

Outside the circle of the white clones, everything was visible. Thus, the Snake King and everyone there could still see Hagaromo and the clones around him.

The holy sage could have broken that circle in no time with the rinnegan’s techniques, but he was saving that power to activate the grand seal on the Snake King. He knew that without the seal of the six paths victory was not likely.

The Snake King’s yellow comma—on his forehead—began to shine brighter than the other two because he was about to use a chakra-based attack. He used his left hand to summon several hands of sand to catch Hagaromo. The holy sage felt what was coming, but with his blocked vision, he simply couldn’t avoid many of them. The hands that caught him lifted him up from the ground several meters, placing him right at the center of the ten clones of light and their circle. Then, the Snake King used his other hand to summon a cylindrical field of lightning around the clones. The field began to close itself around Hagaromo, electrocuting anything in its path. The clones of light had powerful techniques, but they were pretty weak, like most shadow clones. All of them disappeared soon after the electric shock touched them. Hagaromo could see again, but he didn’t escape what was coming. The field reached him and delivered a shock that was even worse than the one he felt before, when the dark clones landed a strike on him.

Before the field was gone, it destroyed most of the hands that were holding Hagaromo. It didn’t kill him, but the shock he received made him scream and left him in a pretty sorry condition, considering who he was. His white clothes were left very dirty and broken. He also got several burns on his arms, from the electric shock. The battle was practically over for him. It was clear that he couldn’t beat the Snake King now, unless he could activate the seal of the six paths, somehow…

The Snake King threw a punch aimed at Hagaromo and sent him flying many meters away from there. He also destroyed the two hands of sand that remained. He thought that the time to take the holy fruit of chakra had finally arrived. He would extract it, and then, he would kill the Sage of the Six Paths. After that, he could conquer Kaguya’s Human Realm, just like he did with the Realm of the Snakes, after he defeated their previous king—Yuvol. He also had to take care of Zet and Su…

Hagaromo was lying on the sand. He could barely move. Nonetheless, he still had faith—he never lost his faith. He believed that the visions and the events he already knew were going to happen. The grand seal had to be activated at all costs, even if it seemed close to impossible to do it now…

Meanwhile, Ashura was desperate. He didn’t know why, but, it was obvious that his father couldn’t use the power of Ten Tails. It was also clear that the Snake King was going to kill him.

When Ashura saw the state of Hagaromo, after he was sent flying by the Snake King’s punch, he couldn’t take being held back by Zet and the black one anymore. He had to help his father, or else, the dark king would kill him.

“Father!!!”

Zet and Su had to struggle to hold back Ashura’s chakra mode. One of them alone wouldn’t have been able to hold him back. Ashura was also starting to understand the likely reasons that these two had to wait.

“Zet! What the hell are you waiting for!? Are you waiting for him to die!!? Is that what you want!?”

Zet smiled and he slowly began to gather sage chakra to activate his most powerful combination of sage modes. He was going to become a snake sage and a sage of healing—the sage mode from the Water Realm of the Slugs—at once. The sage mode of the snakes was more powerful than the earth sage mode (which he used in the future to fight the earth ninja from Maida’s village). The sage mode of the slugs was the best choice for fast healing. It also increased the power of his water attacks (water was his primary element; earth was his secondary one). And it could be used for the powerful anti-healing attacks as well. The combination of these two sage modes was a serious force; and that wasn’t even taking into account that Zet had gained many of Spiral’s powers as well. In comparison to the Snake King, Zet and Su didn’t seem that powerful, but the reality was that they were a big threat too…

Zet replied to Ashura with a pretty confident voice:

“We are waiting for the right time. It is very close now. Get ready. We will fight against him next. And losing is not an option here.”

Su was a little concerned though, but he didn’t say anything about it. He knew that Hagaromo had some kind of trump card, or something else. His brother wasn’t the type who would give up easily. Su didn’t believe that Hagaromo would be defeated easily either. The holy sage probably had some “final trick” on his side. After all, he was the only one who figured out a way to defeat Ten Tails…

The Snake King grabbed Hagaromo from the ground with one of his hands. It was time for him to get the third and final fruit of power from the Zeta Realm.

“Was this all that Kaguya’s mightiest son and the most powerful human here could do? Even my two apprentices from this realm challenged me much more than you. You are not worthy of your power, so now it will be mine.”

When the Snake King tried to extract the power of the holy fruit of chakra, he sensed and realized that it simply wasn’t there. The holy sage didn’t have the fruit of chakra. In other words, Hagaromo managed to land some serious strikes on the all-mighty Snake King with his own power. And if he had the holy fruit, he surely would have been just as mighty as Goddess Kaguya herself. However, Hagaromo already knew that the Snake King had one special technique of light that would defeat him and any other opponent, regardless of their power. He knew that he couldn’t fight him now with the fruit of chakra in his possession… It was the only way to save his present and to make the future victory possible…

The Snake King’s fury came back when he realized that the fruit of chakra had never been at that coliseum.

“What is this? Why isn’t it here!? Where are you hiding it!!?”

Hagaromo wasn’t saying anything, even though he began to feel the dark king’s hand and its pressure around him.

“Do you think that you can keep it away from me!? I will have it, even if you don’t give it up. Without it, you are nothing to me either. You are not even worth possessing now, since even my real self is beyond what you are.
Good bye son of Kaguya.”

The Snake King began to move his other hand towards Hagaromo. He was going to do what he failed to do before. And this time, Hagaromo was not going to stop him. He could have used the rinnegan, even in his weak condition, but using it would mean that he would not have enough power to activate the grand seal. Instead, he chose to believe in fate. Something unexpected had to happen there and the holy sage knew it. It was the only way to activate that seal now. On the other hand, Zet was close to reaching his dual sage mode as well, but he had no plans to help Hagaromo…

Right before the Snake King could crush the holy sage with his hands, a violet flame came from the sky. It was moving with a tremendous speed! When it got there, we could all see that it was a giant of violet-colored chakra with wings and two giant chakra blades. It looked very similar to Sasuke’s Susanoo chakra armor, after the Fourth Great Ninja War. The way the giant’s chakra looked also resembled how Ashura’s yellow hands of chakra looked. Within the giant, there was a man too. It was Hagaromo’s eldest son, Indra Otsutsuki!

Indra’s Susanoo didn’t even land on the coliseum. It landed with both of its swords right on the Snake King’s head! The strike was so devastating that it sent a wave of air and sand throughout the coliseum. Its force also sent the dark king’s face to the ground and kept on pushing his whole body forward, until it hit the closest edge of the coliseum, which crumbled above him too. Along the way, the Snake King had to let go of Hagaromo. The chakra swords didn’t penetrate his head, but one of them—the one that Indra pushed harder—was fully consumed by the strike. It left a massive burn on the backside of the Snake King’s head. The other one also did its damage, but it wasn’t gone after the strike.

By the time the Snake King was aware of what happened, the remains of the whole edge of the coliseum had fallen on him. Everything happened too fast…

Indra’s attack didn’t stop there though. His Susanoo still had one of the chakra blades and the full momentum of that crazy landing. Therefore, Indra continued. When the Susanoo placed its legs on the sand there, after landing with the swords on the Snake King, it didn’t stop; it continued its movement with a second strike! It used the remaining chakra sword and the full momentum to slash the other two that were holding Ashura. The tip of Indra’s giant chakra blade cut Zet and Su in half!! Zet couldn’t finish his sage modes and Su was caught completely off guard, just like his former master, the Snake King.

Immediately, Indra used his Susanoo’s hands and grabbed Hagaromo and Ashura to ensure their safety.

Spiral fell back so hard on his chair of white branches that he broke half of it. He almost broke his own neck too—although he could grow it back, so it was no problem. For a moment, he thought that a third strike was going to fall on his head next. Spiral even broke half of the branches that were holding Yuvol—the white snake—because of how hard and fast he threw himself backwards. He didn’t even think about it either. He could visualize the third strike on his head, so he jumped back right away.

“Holy things! Who’s that guy!!??”

Spiral was almost shaking from the abrupt surprise attack. Also, the snake had its mouth and head free again, thanks to Spiral’s fall. Thus, Yuvol answered as if Spiral was talking to him:

“That is the holy sage’s oldest son, Indra. He is a brother of Zet, like Ashura, the other guy that they were holding. That’s what they get for being a pair of traitors!”

Spiral suddenly changed from shocked and scared to angry and violent.

“Shut up!!! I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to myself!!”

Spiral buried Yuvol’s head in the sand with a single punch. For a moment, he was glad that he wasn’t in the battle, but things looked uncertain now. After this, who was going to win there? Were Zet and Su still on his side? Now, seeing the Snake King lose was in Spiral’s best interest as well, since he was as much of a traitor as them…

The Snake King was really mad. He began to lift the debris that was all over him. He also began to heal his head with a white light. He forgot about Hagaromo; now, his only concern was burying the bastard that had landed there. Who it was didn’t matter to him.

Indra noticed that the large enemy was going to come back very soon, so he placed his father at a safer place—still on the sand. This was the first time that he had seen his father in such a bad condition. He could barely believe it. Indra also placed Ashura on the ground, beside his giant chakra armor.

Hagaromo noticed that now he wasn’t too far from where he placed the grand seal for the Snake King. If Indra and Ashura could keep the dark king busy, then it was possible for him to activate it. He had to make it all the way there though, and his thigh was bleeding more than before. He still felt the last lightning shock too. However, he would make it. He knew that he would do it…

There was one more prerequisite for it to work though. The Snake King had to be standing at the center of the coliseum when the seal was fully activated. It was necessary for Hagaromo’s plan. However, it wasn’t going to be easy now…

Hagaromo used one of the rinnegan’s special abilities, which was not an attack, so it didn’t consume power from it. Instead, it used Hagaromo’s own chakra. He used telepathy to send his short message to Indra and Ashura:

“Listen. We can defeat him. If you two manage to hold him at the very center of the coliseum, I will use the grand seal of the six paths on him. Then, we’ll have a chance to win. Otherwise, our chances are close to none.”

Both Indra and Ashura recognized the voice they heard. Indra’s Susanoo had faded away and now he was standing beside Ashura. Indra was quite surprised at first:

“Really?? Is this giant truly so powerful that he doesn’t think we can beat him together? In that case, we must fight him with everything we have. Ashura, this is the time for you to use your chakra mode’s full form—the one that rivals my Susanoo in size and power. I will use my mangekyou sharingan to release my fire-style Susanoo too. We can’t lose!”

The Snake King was on his feet again. He began to turn around to go back. The battle with him was going to continue.

Indra and Ashura stood side-by-side. The way they looked was like a mirror reflection of how Sasuke and Naruto looked when they prepared themselves to fight together against the revived Madara Uchiha, during the Fourth Great Ninja War of the future. The stances of Indra and Ashura matched the way Sasuke and Naruto looked inch by inch. In many ways, Sasuke and Naruto were “the Indra” and “the Ashura” of the future…

Zet and Su raised from the ground and came back. Their bodies had been cut in half, but they had returned to their original shape. They stood up just a few meters behind Indra and Ashura. When they did that, they looked too much like Spiral; the only clear differences were that Zet had green hair on his head and Su was black—just like guardian Black, from Hagaromo’s vision of the Seventh Hokage’s battle. It started to become pretty obvious that there was some connection between Zet and Spiral, and between Su and Black. Furthermore, it wasn’t hard to guess that these two had to be “the Snake King’s two apprentices from Kaguya’s realm.”

Zet talked to his brothers:

“We will join you too. Together, all four of us can defeat him.”

Zet knew that he needed their power, since he couldn’t even reach sage mode. As he was now, the Snake King would destroy him, but with his brothers and Su, he saw a chance to win this time. Besides, the holy sage didn’t worry him anymore because the old man was almost dead after what happened there. Now, his only real obstacle was the Snake King.

Ashura replied:

“You have a lot to answer for Zet. Even if you help us now, we can’t forgive what you have done.”

Indra’s reply wasn’t as nice as Ashura’s though:

“You were holding Ashura just one minute ago, so don’t ever think that I consider you my ally now. It’s too bad you didn’t die from that slash I gave you little brother. You came here with our enemy, didn’t you? Do you think I didn’t realize that?
It doesn’t matter. After Ashura and I are finished with your big boss, I will take care of the small flies myself. Don’t get in my way during this battle, you hear me!”

Zet was standing a few meters behind them. He hated Indra’s cockiness, just like he hated his all-mighty father, but he had to swallow it. He knew that he needed their power to win here. Su didn’t stay quiet though; he whispered something to Zet:

“What a fool he is. Soon, he’s going to realize who the small fly is and what he’s up against. And we need to make sure that both of them and their powers count in our favor. We’ll have to support them too. This time, he will kill us for sure if he defeats us. The Snake King has to die here for our own sake.”

Zet and Su had been able to recover fairly quickly from the Susanoo’s slash because the power they had gained was the same kind of power that guardians Black and Spiral had. Zet didn’t have enough time for his sage modes though, so he was not at his best for this upcoming battle.

The Snake King began to walk towards the Otsutsukis. He quickly noticed that Zet and Su Otsutsuki were with them too, meaning they had chosen to betray him again. Clearly, he had to dispose of them already—and the sooner the better.

Indra was ready for the battle:

“Ashura, are you ready!? Let’s finish him!!”

Indra’s giant Susanoo came back and lifted him from the ground. (Indra was within the head of the violet-chakra body.) The Susanoo grew back its wings of chakra and its two swords. Then, Indra activated the special power of his mangekyou sharingan.

“Fire-style Susanoo!!”

The violet Susanoo turned to orange and the chakra swords were covered by fire.

To accompany his brother, Ashura unleashed his full chakra mode, which looked a lot like Naruto’s tailed beast mode, but it wasn’t a fox. It resembled Indra’s Susanno much more, and its face was closer to a human’s face. Ashura’s giant chakra body was yellow too, like Naruto’s giant fox of chakra.

The Snake King’s two blades returned to his hands. He knew that he would need them for these two “big” opponents that matched his size with their chakra bodies. Furthermore, light was the weakness of darkness and vice versa. Therefore, the blade of light and the blade of darkness were the ideal weapons to use against Zet and Su. And they would come in handy for the other two as well.

The Snake King aimed the fire tornado from his mouth at them.

This was it. The battle that marked the final destruction of the coliseum began…

How was it all going to end?

NEXT— EPISODE 50: The Otsutsukis vs. the Snake King

 

 

Episode 48: Arrival of the Snake King

The white snake didn’t get to see Jim’s eyes clearly. It just saw him fade away, while he was being protected by Hagaromo’s barrier. The snake didn’t recognize the one who escaped as a possible threat…

After Jim Namikaze left, the powerful barrier disappeared and Hagaromo remained standing where he was. The white snake was just a few meters away from him, but he didn’t pay any attention to it. He didn’t even look back.

The white snake felt insulted by the holy sage’s behavior. How could he be so confident, knowing that he was about to fight the all-powerful Snake King and the guardians? Besides, he looked as if the snake behind him posed zero threat to him. He didn’t even bother looking back…

The white snake was careful at first because it understood that the six flames—of different colors—around the holy sage could be used to attack. However, it couldn’t take seeing that this man was thinking of him as if he (the snake) was nothing. He wasn’t a worm! He was a “mighty” white snake! He was once known as King Yuvol of the Realm of the Snakes—until the other bastard came and took over the entire realm.

Now, he was just a small white snake that could use chakra techniques. However, he still felt “big and mighty” and he definitely didn’t think of himself as “the weakest guardian.” After all, he was the one that could turn into the sword of “the master”—the Kusanagi sword—at will. The white snake was also pretty smart and sneaky, most of the time. Still, its intelligence really wasn’t on its side at that moment…

The snake decided to attack Hagaromo, without knowing what to expect from him beforehand—which was what it liked to do most of the time. However, it was stopped before it could even move to attack! It couldn’t even move its head. A group of Spiral’s white branches came from the sand below and trapped it. They kept coming and grabbing the snake’s body, until it couldn’t move anymore. Then, they submerged it into the sand and pushed it all the way to where Spiral was, which wasn’t close at all.

Spiral was standing at the bottom of the section with seats—where both Ashura and Jim were sitting before. It was a perfect place to watch what was happening everywhere in the arena; and it was a safer spot as well. He wasn’t sitting on the seats at higher ground though; he was standing at the bottom, on the sand itself.

When Spiral removed his hand from the ground, the branches that trapped the white snake came out of there, carrying their victim. The white snake looked all beaten up from being pushed through the sand underground. As soon as it saw the light, it opened its mouth and coughed out a lot of sand. And… it was seriously pissed!!!

“You idiot!! What do you think you are doing!?”

The branches kept the white snake trapped and placed it on the ground. A new branch came and closed its mouth shut.

Then Spiral talked; and he definitely didn’t sound like a fool now.

“I am doing the same thing that you always do Yuvol. I am going to sit back and watch the battles. This time I won’t be in the middle of the battlefield. And I will hold you back, so that you can’t help him either. I joined Zet and Su. I will help them with their plan. Zet gained the power to destroy me, so it is my best option now. Besides, I hate taking orders from a good-for-nothing king like you. And I don’t like ‘him’ that much either. I will follow them and I will live at their Human Realm from now on.”

The white snake still had the ability to talk, even though two-thirds of its mouth were closed shut by the last branch. It couldn’t talk loud, but Spiral could hear him.

“You traitor! You may be his creation, but he will still destroy you without mercy. You are finished!”

Spiral walked towards Yuvol and a chair of white branches began to form, right below the snake. One of the new branches closed the open space of its mouth completely, so now it couldn’t say anything else. Then, Spiral sat down on the seat with his butt right on top of the snake’s head.

“That can happen only if he manages to defeat all of them. We will see who wins at the end. This time, I will be the one watching.”

Spiral sounded like a true threat when he did this. This was his true self, which definitely wasn’t the “dumb and childish” persona that he usually had on, during his time with his creator, and during the long time he had at the Human Realm with Zet and Su…

The Snake King placed both of his hands on the border of the violet portal, and he finally showed himself, once again…

Hagaromo had seen him before because he witnessed Goddess Kaguya’s battle with him, during his first invasion to the Human Realm. That was the final battle in the clash between the Snake King’s army of snakes and Kaguya’s army of genetically modified human soldiers, which had very white skin and green hair, just like Zet (the reason for these physical features of the “Zetsu” army will be seen in a later episode that covers Kaguya’s past)…

The Snake King came out from the giant portal and into the coliseum’s grand arena.
At first, he had his left hand on the portal’s right edge (from our view it was the portal’s right side, but from his it was its left side). Then, he placed his right hand on the opposite edge and passed his left leg through the portal. His head and his body followed; and his other leg came out last. The view from the Realm of the Snakes (from where the gargantuan being came) wasn’t visible from the portal at the coliseum, but the coliseum’s view was visible for him from the other side. Therefore, the Snake King saw the coliseum before he even entered it; but, Hagaromo and the others didn’t see him until he came out of the portal.

He was as tall as the giant portal itself. He had the shape and the general look of a human, but there were some major differences; so, even though this body looked similar to a human body, it definitely wasn’t human.

He was giant and seemed pretty strong. He had two legs, two arms and hands, a body, and a face that looked similar to ours. However, his dark skin wasn’t human skin. It looked much tougher, as if the tissue was made of the hardened shell of a crab, rather than of human flesh. It also had a dark grey color that made it seem very different.

He was wearing some sort of minimal body armor that didn’t cover all his body. It looked like iron, or other tough material. It covered and protected his genital area, his knees, his shoulders, and only part of his body. The armor had an “X” shape that looked like a belt, which connected the piece around the hips to the two pieces on his shoulders. The “X” was on the front and on the back of his body. The one in the front had a diamond-shaped square that held the four parts of the armored X. Furthermore, the left side of the X was white, the right side was black, and the square that united it, at the center of his body, was yellow. And these three colors had a very important meaning that we are going to discover very soon…

The rest of his body was naked, but it was almost like armor too, since his skin was hard like a shell.

Nonetheless, the most striking features about the Snake King were not the armor, his large size, or even his body. They were his face, his hands, his feet, and the powerful voice he had. These were the features that showed that he was not human—at least, not in this body.

Although his hands and feet looked like ours and they had five fingers as well, they didn’t have nails and they looked extremely solid and sharp. The tips of his fingers were closer to the nails of a T-rex dinosaur, even though they had no nails. The skin itself was the one that had that sharpness on the tip of his fingers. It was very likely that those fingers could cut and break through things, instead of just pushing them back.

At first, the Snake King’s face was what caused the most impression for Ashura, who was the only one there that had never seen him yet. The dark king was completely bald and had no hair at all anywhere on his face. His ears were smaller than ours and they were protected by part of the skin; so, they were not outside in the open, like our ears. His nose was much smaller and more flat than ours, in proportion to his face. And his mouth was different than ours as well. The lips didn’t touch each other and they didn’t close the mouth completely. Thus, even with the mouth “closed,” part of his teeth were still visible; and they were much closer to a dinosaur’s teeth than to ours.

On his dark gray forehead, he had three diamond-like symbols that pointed at the very center of his forehead and at each other. They looked very similar to the sharingan eye’s black commas, but they were not the same. These had different colors: the one at the top was yellow, like Ashura’s chakra, and the other two below were white (the one on the left) and black (the one on the right). These white and black were the same colors of the two chakra-like swords that the man of the black cloak used in the battles of the visions, where he defeated Sasuke first, and Naruto—the Hokage—second. These “white” and “black” also matched with Black and Spiral, which were the most powerful guardians that the Snake King had. They were the ones that had created the sword of darkness, and the sword of light as well. (Clearly, all of them and these colors were connected in some way…)

The Snake King’s eyes were like ours, but their pupils were deep and yellow, just like the eyes that Zet and Su Otsutsuki had. They were different and a little scary, perhaps, because you could not tell what he was thinking just from looking at those eyes. This was something in common with Hagaromo’s rinnegan eyes, but, these didn’t have that kind of power.

The eyes themselves were not the scary part for us, the viewers, though. The scary thing was that the skin around them was violet, rather than gray, and the pattern that this violet color followed was the same one that Kagami Uchiha showed, after he was “him.” Obviously, that had not happened yet at that time, but Hagaromo was pretty smart, so he knew what it meant…

The powerful 12-meter-tall being that had been the protector of the Human Zeta Realm—the other human realm—and the guardian of the three holy fruits of power, was now standing there, after he left the portal completely. However, that holy guardian was not himself anymore. Now, it was the Snake King. Now, it was “him”…

The Snake King had a good idea of what to expect because the white snake, Yuvol, had been a spy at the second Human Realm for him (the second is Kaguya’s realm, or the world where Jim Namikaze and Naruto were born; the first is the Zeta Realm). He already knew that “the Sage of the Six Paths” would be his main target, since he was the owner of the third fruit of power and the only one that had a reasonable chance of beating him. The holy sage—like Kaguya—was the only clear obstacle to his conquest of the second Human Realm.

The Snake King had failed in the prior grand battle against Kaguya, but her victory against him wasn’t final. And it showed him that the fruit of chakra and its host were powerful enough to stand against the other two holy fruits and their host—which was “him,” of course. “He” had the power of the fruit of darkness and the power of the fruit of light…
(That was what the three yellow, white, and black symbols from the Snake King’s forehead stood for. Each one represented the power from one of the three holy fruits, which had been used together to create the holy guardian. The ones that “he” could use at their fullest were light and darkness. He could use massive chakra techniques as well, but not at the same level as the host of the fruit of chakra, which was not him, nor anyone else there, since Hagaromo had scattered Ten Tails around the world, in nine separate parts.)

The Snake King wished to take over the other Human Realm. He wanted to gain the full power of holy fruit of chakra as well.

As things were, he was already the most powerful living being from all the realms there because he possessed the other two holy fruits. Even in the Zeta Realm, which had a more powerful race of humans, there was no one with this kind of power. However, “he” was not satisfied yet. He still needed more (like most villains do). And he was convinced that recovering the power of the chakra fruit and conquering the other Human Realm had to be his next steps.

Kaguya had stopped him before, but nothing was going to stop him now. And the Sage of the Six Paths, who had Kaguya’s power, was going to be his first target…

At the coliseum, the Snake King saw Zet and Su holding a young man. Based on how the young man looked at him, it was obvious that he was seeing him as an enemy and a threat. Apparently, Zet and Su were working with him as they promised, but he still didn’t trust them. They turned against him before and proved to be a real problem. Therefore, after he finished with Kaguya’s successor, they were going to be his next targets. He couldn’t afford to leave the two that had challenged him before running around. They had also gained the power of Black and Spiral, so keeping them alive was a threat to him. Besides, they knew too much about him already. He decided that his conquest of the other Human Realm was going to wait until he eliminated Kaguya’s successor and these two. However, the events there turned out to be different than what was planned…

The Snake King looked at Zet and Su as if they were inferior pawns. Zet hated that stare because it reminded him that, despite all his hard work, he still wasn’t an all-powerful ruler. This dark king and his father, Hagaromo, were still above him… Su Otsutsuki—who was a brother of Hagaromo, and a son of Kaguya, like Hamura—didn’t care about who had the most power though. He just wanted to gain the same power that Goddess Kaguya had. And he knew that reviving her was the only way to do it. Unlike Zet, he had no envy of anyone, but, he was in a parallel dark quest for power, due to his own reasons. At the end, Zet and Su were after the same thing, with different goals. Su wanted to be like “the goddess” that promised him her power, and the other—Zet—wanted to surpass the father and the brothers that he hated so much. Eventually, both proved to be equally bad, as villains…

The Snake King looked forward and he noticed Hagaromo right away. The man had the same holy staff that Yuvol—the white snake—described to him. He also had six flames of different colors levitating around him. Moreover, his physical resemblance to prince Hemnos—from the Zeta Realm—was striking; so, there was no doubt about it. This had to be the descendant of Kaguya that was known as the Sage of the Six Paths.

The Snake King looked back at Zet and Su and gave them an order:

“Keep this insect on hold. He is not the one I need. The real Sage of the Six Paths saved me the trouble of looking for him.”

The Snake King’s voice sounded powerful and vast. It had an impressive reach that human voices don’t have. It felt like its sound had surrounded you from all sides, like the air itself. And it was heard loud and clear, as far as half a mile beyond the coliseum, even though he wasn’t yelling at all.

The giant king began to walk towards Hagaromo, who was waiting for him patiently, at the other side of the arena. The Snake King barely paid any attention to Spiral, but Spiral didn’t feel so comfy on his seat of branches after he saw him. His presence reminded him of his power.

“I really hope that these guys can beat him, so that I can stay here, but I am not so sure about it now…”

As Spiral thought out loud (without talking), he moved up and down without doing anything. The reason was that the white snake was still struggling under his butt…

Su maintained half of himself attached to Ashura and formed his human-looking body with his other half, close to Zet. He didn’t let go of Ashura though.

Ashura was starting to worry for real now. The Snake King was the most formidable opponent that he had ever seen; and his father would have to fight him alone if these two didn’t free him soon.

“What side are you two on!? His or ours!? Zet!! Are you just going to stand there?! Have you fallen this low!?”

Zet looked at Ashura:

“I am not on his side, but I never liked ‘the holy sage’ either. He is not as holy as all of you want to believe he is.”

Su added:

“Young Ashura, we will fight against the Snake King when the time is right, and so will you.”

Ashura was ready to blast these two out of the way, but it wasn’t so simple. Their partial body control power was really getting in the way.

“You idiots, the right time is now!!!”

Ashura began to use his chakra at its full intensity against Su, but he couldn’t get away completely. Zet had to hold him too though. Even Su, with the full power of the Black guardian, was having a really hard time keeping Ashura in place. However, both of them together could hold Ashura without problems. Their plan was simple: they would let their two worst obstacles fight each other; then, they would kill the survivor, whom wouldn’t be at full power either. And both of them would take the fruits of power at the end. In particular, they wanted Hagaromo’s fruit of power…
(Spiral was also on their side, so they knew that if Hagaromo was the victor, then Spiral would take care of Ashura. However, if the Snake King won, they needed Ashura on their side…)

The Snake King stopped walking when he could see Hagaromo’s face clearly. There was no doubt about it. This guy had to be a son of Kaguya and prince Hemnos. He had to be the one that had the fruit of chakra as well.

Hagaromo talked first:

“I assume that you came to attack us with your most powerful body. Why don’t you face me as your real self? Are you afraid of it? Who are you? Are you prince Hemnos from the Zeta Realm of the other humans?”

The giant gray king began to laugh, even though those brave words against him angered him a little. His laughter gave the feeling of an approaching catastrophe, rather than the sense of actual laughter. It moved the air around them so much that Hagaromo’s clothes were pushed back by the wind. Then, the Snake King replied:

“I am not afraid of anything, son of Kaguya. That is why I have gained all this power.
You seem to know a lot; so you surely know why I am here now. You have something that belongs to me, the power of the third holy fruit from my realm. And I am here to take it, along with this realm, which shall be my next home.”

Hagaromo was ready, so he activated the white flame, which began to look even whiter, and definitely more vigorous than before. It gave him the force of wind and engulfed him with white-looking winds that began to resemble the head of an eagle around him. That was the essence of the wind-based style and its chakra techniques, born from the fruit of chakra. Hagaromo didn’t have Ten Tails’ (the chakra fruit’s) power anymore, but he had mastered the different natural styles of chakra techniques, so he still had these mighty powers on his side.

He was, without a doubt, one of the bravest and most powerful heroes that the second Human Realm ever knew. Unlike the others who managed to possess Ten Tail’s power, years later, all his power didn’t come just from having been the host of the chakra fruit’s incarnation. Just like Naruto, Hagaromo was capable of great things on his own, without having the other holy power…

At that moment, with the eagle of wind glowing around him, he replied to the Snake King:

“The fruits of power never belonged to you. They belonged to the people of the Zeta Realm, until Kaguya and you stole them from them.”

The Snake King began to feel very angry. He didn’t like seeing that the weaker-looking descendant of Kaguya wasn’t afraid of defying him. Thus, he decided that it was time to start their battle.

“I am not prince Hemnos, as you think, but that doesn’t matter anymore because you won’t live enough to know who I really am.”

The white and the black comma-like symbols on the Snake King’s forehead began to glow. He made a cross with his arms, in front of himself, and two giant blades began to appear on his hands. One blade was white and the other was black, just like the ones that the man of the black cloak used in the battle against the Seventh Hokage, in Hagaromo’s vision. These blades were not solid, but their destructive power was higher than that of any solid blade. They looked like a white and a black chakra sword—similar to Ashura’s yellow blades, but bigger. However, they were not made of chakra. They had been created using the same power that gave birth to guardians Black and Spiral. The blades of light and darkness were just a minor example of what the other two holy fruits of power could do.

The Snake King took a fighting stance. It was clear that he was going to attack Hagaromo with the two weapons he created.

“Come!! Show me what the new protector of Kaguya’s realm can do!!”

This time, the winds that were dispersed by his giant voice reached everyone in the coliseum—Zet, Su, Spiral, Ashura, and especially, Hagaromo—with great force. Hagaromo’s hair was pushed back as if he was in the middle of a storm. The sound of the voice travelled several miles beyond the coliseum as well. A battle of epic proportions was about to take place there…

NEXT— EPISODE 49: Hagaromo versus the Snake King

 

 

Episode 47: Hagaromo’s Truth

Hagaromo was standing sideways in front of the special barrier that he created. It would ensure that Jim Namikaze would not be able to alter anything about his plan during his last minutes there. He looked at Jim with his left eye, which was now a normal green eye that could reveal how he truly felt—unlike the rinnegan. He was firm, but sad at the same time.

“Jim Namikaze, before you leave, I will tell you a truth that I want you to know, about me and about you.
The truth is that I am not as holy and as gracious as the legends of your future told you. I used many people’s lives in order to save everyone. As the protector of this realm, I made sacrifices that affected many good people and those closest to them. I had a choice, but I chose to take that path anyways. And because of that, the ones closest to me had a more difficult life, and those I picked suffered as well, even though they never had the chance to choose. Their families had a harder fate too, even though they were good people that didn’t deserve it. I knew about all of it, but I continued anyways, because it was the only chance I had to save this realm.
I am very sorry for what I did to all of you. And I will gladly pay the price for it. Now that I know you well, I can feel the weight of what I did to you and to your loved ones much more than before.
You are one of my chosen saviors and, because of it, your life took a much more difficult path than the one it had by default. Forgive me Jim Namikaze.”

Although Hagaromo was firm about completing his plan for the future, the consequences of all the changes he made had affected his life. There was no doubt about it.

However, Jim didn’t think that any forgiveness was necessary. For a moment, he forgot about the imminent threat of the Snake King, and his desperation was eclipsed by his self-assuredness about his past actions. (He knew himself well! No one made the hard choices for him.)

“Hagaromo, you must be mistaken. There is no need for my forgiveness. I am here because I chose it. I was the one that chose to believe in you and in your plan. No one forced me to do it, and I am sure that it was the same way for all the others that joined your cause. We believed in you.”

Hagaromo looked thoughtful for a few seconds. Then, he turned around and looked at Jim with both of his eyes—the left rinnegan and the normal right eye. He was facing Jim and looking directly at his eyes, instead of looking at the grand violet portal.

“What happened right before you decided to leave the Clan of the Stone to go to The Leaf? What made you take that leap of faith? And… who saved you after the attack at Maida Uchiha’s village?”

Why was Hagaromo asking those questions? He was very serious about those two questions because he knew that their answers revealed the truth.

Jim answered them. He really thought that he knew what happened back then…

“The day before I left, my former trainer, squad leader Maki, died. He came mortally wounded from a mission and I was the one who saw him first. He told me that I had a much brighter future than him ahead of me, but not at that clan. I knew that I wanted to leave the Clan of the Stone, even before that. I didn’t want to spend my life as an Anbu ninja for them. My ideals never matched with theirs and I was ready to leave, even before that day. However, Maki’s words were what finally made me decide that it was over. I prepared myself and deserted the next day, without looking back, and without telling anyone about it. My brother Golan never came back from his mission either, which meant that he was dead too. I didn’t have anyone else that tied me to them and to their tyranny. Most of the people there were not good-hearted either. They were raised as assassins, so it was the norm. I left hoping to join the clan that was known for being the opposite of them. I also hoped to fight for good causes and not just for money and for their corrupt leaders.
That was years ago…
At Maida’s village, I am sure that she saved me. I found her close to me and she had replaced one of my eyes with her mangekyou sharingan. I was unconscious, but I know that she must have cured me as well, before I woke up. The battle I had before that was one of my worst and I lost. It was the worst day of my life… And, in a different way, Hiruzen also saved me that day. He and his Anbu guards arrived there just when I needed them. Without their help, I could have died, unless I made it all the way to The Leaf on my own, but that was very unlikely.”

Hagaromo took a very deep breath. It was time for the truth, which was hidden and unexpected.

“I see that you remember very well Jim. What I am going to tell you shouldn’t be a great shock to you then:
Maki Uchiha was a secret agent from The Leaf that infiltrated the Clan of the Stone. He had special sharingans, just like Maida, and he had met me before at the Dark Realm. Besides his mission for The Leaf, he also had a mission for my plan. He had to save Jim Namikaze and his brother from the conflict that would destroy their small clan. He also had to become their first teacher and their squad’s leader at the Clan of the Stone. He would look over them after that day.
As you already know, Maki accomplished his missions flawlessly.
I had told him that you needed to leave that clan to fulfill your destiny for the plan. And that was what led him to tell you those words before he died.”

Jim Namikaze started to look disconcerted. Could it be the truth? Everything fit perfectly, but it was a little hard to accept it right away.

“How is that possible? Master Maki didn’t have the mangekyou sharingan. He didn’t even have a sharingan!”

Hagaromo continued with the voice of truth:

“He had both of them, but he never used them in front of others. After his infiltration, he had his normal eyes on display at all times. Shortly after that, he saved you and your brother when you were intercepted by guards from the Stone, after you ran away from your village. That was why you two were not killed that day. And he could hide his secret well because the unique ability of his special sharingan was to disable other sharingans, including his own.”

If Jim looked a little disconcerted before, now he was at full disconcertion. And Hagaromo had not even told him about Maida yet. Jim Namikaze couldn’t have seen that coming, but that didn’t change the fact that it was the truth too.

“Maki was a great agent and a great man that died because of me and my plan to save the future. However, he wasn’t the most unique person that I met at the Dark Realm, and neither were you. The most unique owner of a special sharingan was Maida Uchiha. She was the only one that made it there on her own the very first time. I had to help everybody else to make their first trip to the special realm. She was also the only one that did it with the sharingan’s initial form. Everybody else, including me, couldn’t see the Dark Realm until they had a mangekyou sharingan or a rinnegan. Her ability for healing techniques was extraordinary too, and she didn’t even have a mangekyou back then. If she had awakened the rinnegan, her healing power would have surpassed mine.
It was I who taught her many of the healing techniques she knew, including the most advanced one, which was the one she used to keep you alive that day. She, her mother, and her half-brother also decided to go live at Barton’s village because of the advice I gave her, about leaving the Uchiha Clan. She convinced them afterwards.
I even told her about the day when she was going to meet the man that would show her the true meaning of love. And when she mentioned that she would be playing music in her piano that day, I recommended the only melody that would drive you towards her without fail. She already knew your name and what you looked like, before she met you. However, she never knew how it was going to end.
You already know the rest Jim Namikaze. I saw it years before I put all the wheels in motion from the Dark Realm.
You also know that Hiruzen saved you that day because you told him about it when he was younger.
There were no coincidences.
And all of it will lead us to the final defeat of the Snake King. Even the bad consequences and the deaths that made me curse my power proved to be necessary to make it all happen.”

Jim wasn’t looking at Hagaromo in the same way anymore. He looked perplexed. Many things that seemed natural in his life happened that way only because Hagaromo made them that way… What was he? A God?

“All those things—changing people’s lives, altering the past and the future, and having control of a lost realm where time doesn’t even exist. I don’t think that any sharingan or any normal power is capable of such things. Hagaromo… are you human, or, are you something else?”

Jim Namikaze wasn’t afraid of Hagaromo and, despite the deep revelations, he still felt that he could trust him. However, he didn’t know what to believe about him now.

Hagaromo was glad. Jim Namikaze remained on his side no matter what; and his reaction—like everything else—was as he expected. Everything continued running according to the plan. Hagaromo showed a minor smile, even in the face of the upcoming catastrophe.

“I am human Jim Namikaze. I feel as human as you and as all the other men and women that have been born at this realm. However, I am also different. I am one of the sons of Goddess Kaguya, who wasn’t completely human at the time of my conception. I also became the jinchuuriki of the Ten-Tails beast when I was even younger than you. I had Ashura’s age when it happened. And I was never the same after that.
I never lost my humanity, but my life changed after I gained the power of the holy yellow fruit of chakra. Mother Kaguya brought the yellow fruit to this world without knowing the disasters that it would cause. She used its power, which was what earned her the nickname of “the goddess.” Then, the holy fruit gained a living form of its own, which was Ten-Tails. When I sealed it in me, I also sealed the power of the chakra fruit in me.
Just weeks after that, I shared its power with the people of my clan, giving them the ability to use chakra techniques. I also used its incredible power to stop an all-out war between our two closest clans. At the end of that day, I found myself at the Realm of the Fruit of Chakra for the first time. Back then, it was light yellow and very bright, but as I used the fruit’s power, more and more, it began to get darker and darker, until now. The Dark Realm where you met me, and where most of the others met me, is the Realm of the Fruit of Chakra.
Since those times, I also began to see the future and I knew what was going to happen; so I began to act, since my youth, to change our final fate.
Having this great power and being Kaguya’s son have been my life’s curses, but if they lead to the salvation of this realm, I will be very glad at the end of it all.”

Hagaromo was very sincere in his last talk with Jim.

(“The fruit” managed to gain a living form, known as Ten-Tails, at the Human Realm. Apparently, “it” was alive. Its power was also responsible for the creation of the timeless realm, which only the special eyes powered by its chakra could visit. This power was also what gave chakra and the ability to use chakra techniques to Hagaromo’s people, which were the ancient ancestors of the future ninja clans. However, “it” proved to be more dangerous for the future than what Kaguya and Hagaromo had anticipated…)

Jim Namikaze remembered that the Dark Realm had traces of a “dark yellow” color indeed. It made sense that its origin had been “bright and yellow.”

And just when Jim was about to ask where the fruit of chakra came from (a very interesting question, by the way), he saw the first one of “them” come out from the violet portal; and the menace of that portal became too real, as soon as he recognized that face…

While Hagaromo was talking to Jim, Ashura tried to destroy the grand portal. He hit it at least three dozen times with his swords and with the hands of chakra, but they had no effect. It simply absorbed them. He stopped and began to think. There had to be a way to destroy it. And if not, then he would have to fight the Snake King and defeat him.

When Ashura was standing there, close to the right side of the portal, a human-looking being appeared from the bottom of the giant oval and jumped right in front of Ashura.

It was Zet Otsutsuki (White Zetsu), the same white green-haired sage with strange powers that defeated Jim Namikaze with ease at Maida’s village. He looked just as he did that day, which had been more than 120 years later.

When Ashura was about to move to attack him, he noticed that a bunch of odd white branches that came from the sand were holding his legs. (The branches were created by Zet. They looked just like the crazy growth of branches that Spiral—the white guardian—used in Hagaromo’s vision, during that battle with the Seventh Hokage—where Spiral, Black, the man of the cloak, and even the white snake fought against Naruto.)

Zet moved quickly and he also grabbed Ashura’s arms. When he did it, more branches began to hold Ashura. They began to make it very difficult for him to move, and they started to drain his chakra as well.

Zet grabbed Ashura’s face:

“I waited for this day for a long time. The day when I would be an equal, or even more powerful than you, Indra, and him.”

Ashura recognized who it was, even though he looked much different than before:

“Zet?? What is the meaning of this!? Who changed you and gave you this power? Are you going to betray us and take the enemy’s side!?”

Zet felt victorious already. He never imagined that overpowering Ashura could be so easy. However, he was too overconfident for his own good.

“I changed myself and I also gained this power on my own. Unlike you and Indra, who have your biggest powers because of him. No one gave me anything brother. And this is just the beginning. I shall surpass him too.”

Ashura finally took him seriously. He realized that the branches had the potential to kill him if he didn’t escape them soon. He unleashed his chakra cloak at its full power and the intense yellow chakra began to consume all the branches, like a wild fire. These were the same branches that had killed Jim Namikaze and many others at Maida’s village. However, Ashura’s chakra could overpower them.

Zet began to look a little worried, since Ashura was getting away and he still wasn’t 100% sure that he could defeat him at full power. However, Su Otsutsuki (Black Zetsu) jumped from the portal at that moment, and he landed right on top of Ashura.

As soon as Su touched Ashura, he began to cover the left side of Ashura’s body. He was a fluid black mass that looked just like the “Black” guardian that fought against Naruto Uzumaki (in Hagaromo’s vision of that alternate future).

Ashura destroyed the branches and he escaped from Zet, but Su’s “body control” power was even greater than Zet’s and Spiral’s, so Ashura couldn’t get away from it.

Su looked at Zet, from Ashura’s left side and with his own yellow-looking eye.

“Stick to our plan Zet. You will have time for your personal wishes once today’s battle is over. We need him now.”

Zet didn’t like the idea of obeying Su—meaning then that he wasn’t the “real boss” behind their plan to defeat both, the Sage of the Six Paths and the Snake King. However, this was going to benefit him too, so he followed it and stayed there, waiting for the Snake King to arrive. He would have the chance to finish Ashura another day. Now, erasing the father that he hated and the powerful Snake King from his path was all that he needed to get closer to his final goal. However, Su—Hagaromo’s second brother and Zet’s uncle—also had his own agenda…

Ashura struggled to move. It worried him that Jim Namikaze would leave and his father would be alone for this battle. However, his father had the Ten-Tails’ power; so he would be able to defeat these two “pawns” easily. That was what Ashura believed… (He still didn’t know that his father had released the Ten-Tails as nine separate chakra beasts.)

What really worried Ashura was the power of the one who created the giant violet portal. And the identity of “the black one” was also a source of concern, since he or “it” was powerful enough to hold him back. Ashura had lost control of at least 80% of his body. He could barely move, but he managed to ask him something:

“Who are you?”

And Su responded:

“Young Ashura Otsutsuki, my identity doesn’t matter now. The only thing that matters is the upcoming battle where you will participate. We have to defeat him at all costs. And this may be our only chance.”

At that moment, the white snake and Spiral appeared and jumped out from the other side of the portal, which wasn’t facing anyone. Thus, no one noticed the exact moment when those two arrived.

However, guardian “Black” never arrived at the scene because of the events that happened before among Zet, Su, and the Snake King… (this will be covered in a later episode)

Jim Namikaze began to feel the danger again when he saw what was happening to Ashura, right beneath the portal.

“Hagaromo, we have to help him! I know those two. I fought against them before! Just the white one by himself is quite powerful. We need to join Ashura now! Let me out of this barrier.”

Hagaromo turned around and looked back at the portal.

“Don’t worry about them. They won’t hurt Ashura. However, this means that the time has come. He will arrive at any minute. The moment to complete the plan and to seal our fates is now.
This is the path that our realm will take. There will be no more changes and I won’t affect more lives. I will pay for my sins as well. I hope that it leads to our future and final victory.”

Hagaromo placed his holy staff at his side and he began to prepare some sort of technique, with chakra seals that required the use of both hands. In less than one minute, six flames of different colors appeared around him. They represented the “six paths” of natural chakra techniques that existed at the Human Realm (and that had been created by Kaguya, using the fruit of chakra). They were red for fire, blue for water, white for wind, yellow for lightning, brown for earth, and green for natural healing.

Jim Namikaze had been telling him to set him free, but the holy sage wasn’t listening and he only looked back at Jim when he was done with the six flames.

“Listen well Jim Namikaze. You must seek and choose the correct time for your return in the future. You must arrive at the right time before the Snake King returns once again. Choosing right will be critical. It will be the difference between our victory or our defeat, in the future.
And, no matter what, you must not come back to the past. The needed changes have been made already. You will ensure our failure if you come back; remember that. After you leave this place, look forward to the future only. It is the place where you still have to make a difference to finish the plan.
You also have 72 hours, after you leave here, to make the final time jump to the grand battle at the future. It will take place at The Leaf, outside of Konoha. Both Naruto and Sasuke will be there before you arrive. You’ll have to figure out when is the right moment for your arrival, before the next 72 hours run out.
If you don’t make it at the right time, or if you do it after the next three days, then the plan will fail; and the greatest clan of your ninja world will be the first one that will be destroyed by him.”

“You mean The Leaf?!”

Hagaromo nodded as an indication of “yes.”

However, even though Jim loved The Leaf and what it represented, he still wasn’t eager about leaving Hagaromo there, knowing what was about to happen… Not to mention that Hagaromo was barely telling him anything about what he had to do next. (He expected that Jim would figure it out thanks to the “reliable vision” of Maida’s sharingan.)

Jim looked concerned. He understood the importance of the plan, but he still wanted to help Hagaromo. By now, Hagaromo and Ashura were his friends; they were not just trainers and sparring partners anymore.

“You can’t beat the Snake King on your own and without your power. There is still a chance Hagaromo. We can do it together! Why does it have to be this way!?”

Hagaromo looked at Jim again after he said that.

“Don’t underestimate me Jim Namikaze. Have faith in my plan and in me. It is the only way to win this battle, which is not a battle that can be won with pure power.
Remember that I was the one who figured out how to defeat Ten-Tails, the living embodiment of the power of chakra itself, before I even had the ability to see the future.”

Right when Hagaromo finished talking, Jim could hear something behind him. The sound came from the other side of the barrier.

It was the white snake and it was ready to attack. (This time it was for real.)
It jumped and attacked, from the opposite side of the barrier. However, it crashed heavily with the transparent wall that protected Jim. It also broke its nose right there—that invisible wall was hard as hell.

Seeing it right in front of his feet brought Jim back to the moment when he saw it for the first time, in his first set of visions. What happened here and the serpent’s attack towards him was the same event that he had seen in that incomplete vision before. Every single one of them was becoming real. They were not simple visions anymore…

Jim couldn’t contain himself and, facing the opposite way of Hagaromo, he directed a rinne-slash at the white snake—which was still recovering from the broken nose. Unfortunately, the barrier blocked the heavy slash of red chakra completely, and part of it went back at Jim. It left him with a wound that looked like the one he gave Ashura during their last battle. Luckily, the summoning seal and everything else was still intact; but now, even Jim Namikaze wasn’t in perfect shape for a battle.

Could things get any worse than this!?

When Jim looked back at Hagaromo, the main danger finally showed itself. And there was no way to miss it. Instantly, Jim noticed the four giant fingers on the right edge of the violet portal. They were human fingers, but they definitely looked bigger and tougher. Their skin was dark gray, unlike the skin of any human at Jim Namikaze’s world. And the fingers were still moving on the edge.

The Snake King was about to enter the Human Realm through the portal!!

Without hesitation, Hagaromo used a jutsu that he had put in place half an hour ago:

“Seal of retention, release!”

Then, the summoning teleportation seal, in front of Jim, and the teleportation technique were activated and they continued on their own, as if he had used them normally. Jim Namikaze would be leaving in less than one minute, whether he liked it or not.

“Wait! Hagaromo, don’t do this!!”

The Sage of the Six Paths looked at Jim Namikaze one last time, and revealed his final truth.

“Before you leave, there is something else that you need to know.
The Snake King is not a snake.
His true self is a human from the Zeta Realm, like me.”

Hagaromo removed his legendary white cloak and allowed it to fall on the sand, at his side.
Then, he grabbed his holy staff.

All he had were his humble white training clothes (the same ones that everybody used before), the staff, the six flames, and his other rinnegan, which wasn’t even at its full power, like the one he gave Jim.

Jim Namikaze started to disappear, but he could hear the last words that Hagaromo said to him, while he looked straight at the hand of their nemesis.

“Good bye my good friend Jim Namikaze. Thank you for everything you did to achieve our victory.”

NEXT— EPISODE 48: Arrival of the Snake King

 

 

Episode 46: Saviors of the Future

Hagaromo knew that revealing some details to Jim Namikaze was not going to change the future, because he already knew about them. For the things that Jim knew nothing about yet, the holy sage decided to maintain complete silence, until the time to reveal them was right. Eventually, Jim Namikaze was going to find out the truth about everything—including Hagaromo’s plan, the identity of all the other saviors, the fact that he had already died (Maida Uchiha sacrificed her other mangekyou sharingan and her life to bring him back), and the fact that he was Naruto’s grandfather and the father of the legendary Fourth Hokage, Minato…

Hagaromo continued talking to Jim:

“Although there are many people that will fight in the future battle against the Snake King, there is only one selected group of individuals that will have a real chance to defeat him. That group’s members and the ones that did something crucial in the past to help them are the ones that I call the saviors of the future. Every person in that group was critical to fulfill my plan, in one way or another.

I was the first one, but there are others in the group that will be more important than me to save our realm’s future. You have met some of them already, during your time at The Leaf. You also saw them in the last vision that I showed you at the Dark Realm.”

Jim remembered Hagaromo’s vision.

There were only two people that he recognized there. They were Naruto and Sasuke. One was the new Hokage of The Leaf, and the other was an incredibly skilled agent that worked for the Hokage. He had met both of them in person, after Hiruzen took him to The Leaf. They were just kids back then. However, even at that time, their great potential was clear. Naruto’s aura of positivity and his desire to be Hokage were contagious. Jim admired the kid and he liked talking to him at the fast-food ramen restaurant. It felt like they had many things in common. This was why Jim encouraged the kid to follow his dream (at the time when he left The Leaf to go to the Earth Realm). On the other hand, Sasuke’s potential was also clear from the beginning: Jim saw the boy’s sharingan eyes at the desolated Uchiha village; and they definitely looked powerful, even though Sasuke was just eleven or twelve years old at that time.

Jim looked at Hagaromo, and, based on the question that he asked, he obviously had figured it out:

“Naruto and Sasuke?”

Hagaromo nodded.

“Yes, they are among the saviors of the future.

The blond Hokage and you are as essential as me to make this plan work. Without you two, we won’t be able to defeat the Snake King.”

Jim remembered that he had heard several people at The Leaf refer to the Fourth as “the blonde Hokage,” so he wondered if Hagaromo was talking about him.

“The blonde Hokage? You mean the Fourth?”

“No, I mean the Seventh, Naruto Uzumaki. He is blonde too.”

Jim felt glad. It felt good to know that the kid from back then—and the same blonde boy from his initial visions—had achieved his grand dream. He became the Hokage. He was also pretty powerful, based on what Hagaromo’s vision showed him the last time. However, he couldn’t defeat the man of the cloak and the three guardians by himself. With the help of others, it could have been possible though.

Jim already knew that he was going to be one of these “others.” The future Sasuke was also one of these “saviors.” But, what about the rest? Who were the others? Jim’s curiosity was starting to pinch him:

“Hagaromo, what should I know about the other saviors? You talk as if there are several of them. Who are they?”

Hagaromo looked pretty serious at first.

“I can’t tell you anything about the others Jim Namikaze.

Remember that the future is like an incredibly malleable 2d plane; even a minor change in the past can make a dent on it. That is why I managed to build a plan that could help us to beat an enemy that we were not supposed to beat. Make enough of those dents in the past and you will be able to change even a future that seemed certain. However, the same thing can happen to us if I tell you anything else now. You will know the rest when the time is right.

We are the only saviors now, so our focus must be on the things that we can do today to make a positive difference for tomorrow. The others will do their parts during their lifetimes.

Now, you need to learn the rinnegan’s techniques that will be crucial to help the others. The rinnegan is the most powerful natural weapon that the human race has known. Some call it the ultimate visual power, and as such, it can do many incredible techniques. However, there is no time for you to learn even 10% of them. You will have to focus on learning only the ones that are a necessity to make our victory possible.

I will teach you how to block all the elemental jutsus and most chakra-based techniques with the rinnegan. You will also learn rinnegan techniques, such as the rinne-slash, the rinne-shield, the reversion technique that I used to return your sword to normal, the Six-Paths seal breaker, the ultimate earth-based technique that the rinnegan can do, and an alternate way to do the rinnegan’s transfer technique, which I used to pass my left rinnegan to you. In addition, it is essential that you learn the holy sealing jutsu, which is not one of the rinnegan’s techniques. You will need it to seal the soul of a powerful undead opponent that will be summoned by the enemy. If the others don’t know an advanced way to seal such a threat, then you might be the only one who can do it. Because of that, I will teach you the holy seal and how to use it.

You still have a lot to learn and we don’t have much time left. If my plan is going to work, as I believe it will, then you have to leave in exactly 40 days from today. Therefore, you must learn everything I mentioned within the next month. We will begin tomorrow, so make sure that you continue focused on the training. The special training with the rinnegan is the main reason why I brought you here. It is the advantage that can save your life, and the lives of the other saviors as well.

Eat and rest well Jim Namikaze.

Tomorrow we will start your final training. And you will go back to The Leaf when it ends.”

That night was very different for Jim.

The rinnegan eye made him feel like he had a “sphere of power” as his left eye. Even the mangekyou sharingan didn’t feel close to it. It almost felt like something that wasn’t human, yet, he could see well with it. The eye didn’t feel unnatural, but its power did. Obviously, he would have to get used to it.

(Throughout the Human Realm’s history only two people awakened the rinnegan eyes on their own. They were the Sage of the Six Paths and Madara Uchiha—Maida’s grandfather, an Uchiha warlord, and the First Hokage’s greatest rival. Anyone else who got the rinnegan obtained it through other means—they didn’t awaken it on their own. Sasuke, the Uchiha of the orange mask, and Jim Namikaze were examples of this case.

Sasuke got his left rinnegan during the Fourth Great Ninja War, where all the big clans—including The Leaf—had a war with Zet’s army of solid clones, and with the revived Madara Uchiha.)

Starting that night, Jim had more time to think about the future in the horizon, since Ashura wasn’t there anymore. It was just him, his thoughts, and the second diary…

Hagaromo always slept outside “with nature.” The holy sage had a great connection with the realm itself. He preferred to feel the night’s wind and to sleep under the Moon’s light. He was remarkable, but he was also very different, in ways that we didn’t know about yet. Eventually, Hagaromo’s secrets and the hidden past of princess Kaguya (or Goddess Kaguya, his mother) would be revealed to Jim Namikaze as well…

Hagaromo began the new training by showing Jim that the rinnegan eye had the innate ability to block all jutsus completely—with just a few exceptions, of course. The power to halt or block other techniques wasn’t even a technique; it was simply something that it could do.

“To begin, I am going to show you how the rinnegan can either block or absorb all chakra-based jutsus. That includes any elemental technique and most of the sharingan’s techniques.

I want you to use your normal sharingan eye to cast a genjutsu on me. After that, I want you to use your most powerful earth-based jutsu to attack me directly. Don’t hesitate. And continue attacking me after that first try.”

They were at the battle arena by themselves.

Jim Namikaze looked at Hagaromo’s eyes and used Maida’s sharingan for the genjutsu. Hagaromo was looking straight at his eyes too, but nothing happened. The rinnegan blocked the genjutsu completely and it never affected Hagaromo.

Next, Jim Namikaze entered sage mode, after fifty seconds went by. Then, he created an earth-based sword with sand—as large as the one he used against Ashura in their first battle. He lifted it and used it to strike Hagaromo from above. Hagaromo used a new technique to destroy the half of the sword that wasn’t going to reach him:

“Rinne-slash!!”

A fast strike of red-looking chakra shattered the bottom half of the sand sword, as it approached the ground. Then, the top half of the sword fell on Hagaromo, but the section that was going to hit him directly broke apart completely, before it reached him. The sand fell back to the ground, around Hagaromo, and none of it touched him. He had blocked it with his right rinnegan.

Jim made another earth-based sword, but this time he sent it straight at Hagaromo, horizontally, instead of raising it first to strike from above.

“Rinne-shield!”

A spherical shield of violet chakra covered Hagaromo. The whole sword crashed with it. The tip of the large sand blade hit the shield and the rest of the blade continued advancing against it. At the end, the rinnegan’s shield stopped and destroyed the entire sword of sand, and it didn’t look like it had been affected at all.

Jim Namikaze created five shadow clones and went against Hagaromo. He thought that if jutsus didn’t work, then, surely a full close-range assault would make a difference. Hagaromo used that chance to show him what the ultimate earth-based technique from the rinnegan was like.

“Rinne-earth, planetary devastation!”

Very large solid chunks of sand began to rise from everywhere. They were aimed at the shadow clones and at Jim Namikaze. They kept coming from the ground nonstop! And when one of them touched one of their targets, all the others went that way. They formed a large ball of earth chunks together, keeping the target completely trapped inside it. Then, the giant ball began to consolidate, halting the victim’s movement completely (and surely asphyxiating it as well).

The clones were caught fairly quickly with this technique. It took longer to catch Jim Namikaze, but as soon as one of the sand chunks stuck itself on him, it was over. The rest followed; and he couldn’t even move well like that. When several of them trapped him, they also raised him way above the ground, making it even harder to do anything.

Before the sand chunks around Jim began to become a single solid earth sphere—which would have killed him—Hagaromo stopped the technique and destroyed the sand balls that were holding Jim. The others that held the clones had crushed them already and were quite solid.

Hagaromo used a powerful wind-based technique to ensure that all the giant balls of solid sand were going to fall outside of the coliseum’s battle arena; and they did.

“Now that you saw how these techniques work, it is time for you to learn them. All of them use natural chakra that comes from the rinnegan itself. They can be considered very high-level sage-type techniques, but they do not require any sage mode. And you don’t need extra time to use them. Having no chakra and being exhausted would be the only things that would stop you from using them in battle. They don’t require the use of special chakra seals to prepare them either.

The rinnegan’s slash—rinne-slash—is the most powerful chakra-based slash. It would beat one coming from any of the grand elemental swords, regardless of whether it is made of earth, fire, or even lightning.

The rinnegan’s shield—rinne-shield—surpasses all the elemental shields as well. Likewise, it will stop even the most powerful elemental attacks that don’t come from the rinnegan itself.

The most convenient technique might not be the shield though, especially if you have to stop elemental attacks. The rinnegan is capable of blocking and absorbing all the elemental jutsus. It not only destroys the attack before it reaches you, it also gathers the attack’s natural chakra and makes it your own. Thus, it works as a way to gain more chakra if you have depleted your own. It is an easy way to stop most jutsus completely.

However, be careful. It doesn’t work for every jutsu in existence. Techniques that don’t attack you directly, those that change the environment or increase the enemy’s power in some way, cannot be stopped with the rinnegan. Also, you saw it in my vision and I have seen it in other visions as well. Our main enemy has a technique that engulfs you and him with light. It seems to be his finishing technique. It defeated Naruto Uzumaki. And it has defeated me as well. That means that even the rinnegan cannot block it. I assume that it isn’t a chakra-based technique. However, I don’t know anything else about it.”

The source of the Snake King’s power and his true identity were still unknown to Jim Namikaze. Hagaromo had a much better idea of where that power came from, but even he didn’t know the exact identity of the one who became the Snake King. Nonetheless, Hagaromo wasn’t too worried. He had seen the final enemy defeated in one of his visions, and he had done everything to make sure that the future would take that path. He didn’t know exactly how it happened, but it was possible. And both, Jim Namikaze and Naruto Uzumaki, had to be there to make it possible. Without them, the enemy’s defeat never happened in any of the visions. Only the one that had both of them present made it possible…

Jim began to learn how to use the rinnegan’s chakra-based power to use the rinne-slash, the shield, and the ultimate earth-based attach. He also learned how to block other jutsus with it. Hagaromo could use techniques from all the elemental styles and he had the other rinnegan too, so he was the ideal teacher for this training. It took them two weeks to start seeing serious progress, and one more week to finish it. In just twenty-one days, Jim Namikaze learned to use the rinnegan and these powerful techniques.

The rinne-shield could block a few rinne-slashes without problems, so Hagaromo tested that Jim did the shield right with one of his own attacks. They also used large sand structures to practice the uses of the rinne-slash on an enemy. It was an incredibly deadly technique if multiple slashes were used, one after the other. “Planetary devastation” was also very powerful, but, as expected from the ultimate earth-style technique, it required plenty of chakra, so it had to be used sparingly.

After all that, they still had 19 days left. Jim still had to learn the other four techniques, which were not about attacking. Those were even more important than the rinnegan’s attacks, and Hagaromo knew that fact very well, from his visions…

“The four techniques that I left for the end of your training can be learned much faster than the others, but don’t let that fool you. They are the most important techniques that you will learn in your life. And they will be crucial to make a difference in the battles of the future.

Two of them require the rinnegan. One has a more powerful effect if it is done using the rinnegan, but it can be done without it. And the last one doesn’t require any type of sharingan, but no one besides me knows the chakra seal to use it at this time.

For the Six-Paths reversion jutsu, you must create the chakra seal that I will teach you, using the rinnegan’s chakra. Then, you will have to place it on your enemy. After that, you have to activate it with the rinnegan. You need to be fast and clever about it; otherwise, someone that knows advanced techniques can remove the seal from their body before you activate it. It is best to place this seal on someone without them realizing that you did it. However, we both know that things are rarely that easy. You will have to find a way to succeed. For now, just make sure that you learn the technique well.

The reversion technique works on objects and on people. It takes them back to their previous state if it was different from the way they are now. It will fix broken objects, but it will also return enemies to their previous form, if they gained a more powerful form that changed their previous composition altogether. For example, it can remove sage mode instantly. If it was done to you during a battle, you would lose your earth sage mode, as if you had never entered that state.

Let’s begin with the reversion technique. We don’t have too much time, so you will have to memorize the complex seal it requires as soon as possible.”

Surprisingly, the reversion technique was not hard to do after knowing its unique and complex chakra seal by memory. The hard part was going to be making the seal in the middle of a battle and being able to place it on a powerful enemy. Without threats and using it on objects, it was just a matter of knowing how to do it—and it worked wonderfully. (Jim Namikaze suspected that the holy sage never paid for a repair service again after he created that technique. It worked like a charm on objects!)

It took Jim three days to learn and practice the reversion seal on some objects. Then, they moved on to an obvious counter-measure for these types of techniques: the seal breaker jutsu.

“Now that you know the reversion seal and how to use it, I will teach you the Six-Paths seal breaker. With it you will be able to erase all seals placed by you or by someone else.”

Jim still had something important to ask about using reversion:

“Wait. Hagaromo, can’t you use the reversion technique on yourself to regain the rinnegan that you gave me?”

The holy sage laughed.

“You are pretty clever Jim Namikaze, but it doesn’t work that way. I didn’t change into something else when I gave you a rinnegan. I lost power and chakra, but my body, or my form, is still the same. My chakra flows didn’t change either, as they do with a sage mode.

Reversion is not perfect either. You cannot use it to revive a dead person, even though that is a considerable change of state for the body. Jutsus are not flawless Jim. In special cases, they might not work as you expected, or they might not work at all. You need to be ready for that, if it ever happens to you.

Now, let’s focus on the seal breaker.”

The seal that could be used to destroy other seals wasn’t as complex as one might expect. Regardless, most people didn’t know it. Hagaromo knew the original one and a variation that used the rinnegan’s chakra. Obviously, the rinnegan’s Six-Paths breaker seal was the more powerful of the two versions by far. (The other one was the same one that we saw Kagami Uchiha use before, when he destroyed the summoning seal that brought the giant snake Manda to the Human Realm.)

Hagaromo showed him the special chakra seal that he would have to memorize to use the seal breaker technique.

“If you create this seal using the rinnegan’s chakra and you place it on someone else, or even on an object, then you will be able to erase all the chakra seals on the target, as soon as you activate this. It will also work if you use it to remove any seal that was placed on you.

Some types of summons and powers that rely on seals can be cancelled completely with this technique. It is also possible to use it without the rinnegan, but it becomes less useful because when it is done with your own normal chakra it only removes one seal at a time. You also have to create and place that particular seal on top of the seal breaker, so you would also have to know how to do the seal that you want to remove. With the rinnegan, all the chakra seals on the target are broken and erased, even if you don’t know them.”

This seemed to be an incredibly useful technique, so Jim was very eager to learn it as soon as possible.

For practice, Hagaromo placed elemental seals on Jim, such as an earth seal that didn’t allow him to use earth techniques (like the one that Keena placed on him before); and Jim had to remove them using the seal breaker. He practiced both ways: using the rinnegan, which erased all the seals at once, and taking them out one by one, without the rinnegan. For the second method, Hagaromo had to teach him how to do some of the elemental sealing techniques that blocked the use of those types of jutsus. He learned the seals used to stop earth, fire, water, and lighting-based techniques from being used. Then, he used them together with the seal breaker to remove them, without using the rinnegan. He also removed seals from Hagaromo and from a couple of weapons. Therefore, he learned how to erase chakra seals that had been placed on other people and on objects as well.

They took one entire week for this practice, but by the end of it, Jim Namikaze knew it well.

After the seal breaker, Hagaromo taught him how to do the transfer of the rinnegan without touching the other person’s eye and without using any transfer seals.

“Now, you must learn how to transfer the rinnegan to someone else and how to convert it to pure natural chakra, which you may transfer to others as well, or use it as your own. You won’t be able to practice doing this completely, but you must know it regardless. This is what you must do if you find defeat at the hands of one of them. My rinnegan must not fall in their hands. And such a possibility has to be stopped at any cost. You have to transfer it to one of the other saviors or convert it to chakra, if you recognize that it can be taken away from you. The entire transfer depends on you, but you will need one thing from the other person: he or she must be looking straight at the rinnegan when this is done.”

Hagaromo looked very serious when he said that. It made Jim Namikaze feel as if he knew that this transfer or conversion of the rinnegan would happen for sure.

“Hagaromo, is this going to happen? Will I be defeated by the Snake King or by one of the guardians? Is that why you are teaching me this?”

Hagaromo closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and opened them again.

“No. Even I don’t know what is going to happen for sure. My visions are possible futures and they are not set on stone, until they happen. What I do know is that you must be ready for anything. Even for defeat itself. It is almost certain that some of the saviors will be defeated by the Snake King, but that doesn’t mean we lose. The others can still defeat him. And the power of my rinnegan must remain in our side. You must make sure about that. This is why I am teaching you how to transfer it. And, if you can’t pass it to anyone, you’ll know how to convert it into sage chakra, so it will make a difference.

I hope you don’t have to use this, but I need to consider all the possibilities. You know very well that if you are defeated, you will most likely die. You wouldn’t see the previous Leaf or Mina Hatake again. I’m sure that you won’t let it get to that though. Your clever instincts and Maida’s sharingan will help you to pick the best path. I believe in your ability to choose right, and I know what her sharingan can do. That is why I trust you to be the carrier of my rinnegan. I know that you can help the others to make it happen.”

The Hagaromo from now didn’t inspire doubts or a lack of trust, like he did when Jim didn’t know anything about him. Now, he made you feel that his plan was going to work. At this point in time, Jim Namikaze trusted the holy sage more than ever before, so he didn’t question his choices for his training anymore. He believed that they had a purpose; and he was right…

In three days, Jim got the hang of how “the transfer” and “the conversion” were done for the rinnegan. Both worked exactly the same way, but the transfer was done via someone else’s chakra system and the conversion was done with his own.

(Think of their “chakra system and pathways” as another anatomy structure, such as our nervous system and its paths within the body. However, this system was for “chakra” only.

In “Naruto’s solar system,” all the humans and all the users of chakra techniques had this chakra system in the body. The “eight inner gates” of chakra were part of this system for the humans only—and they were used for their sage mode. They were located at the vital points in the body. For example, the final gate, known as “the eight gate of death,” was in the section of the chakra system that went straight through the heart.)

Obviously, Jim couldn’t practice doing a “full transfer” of the rinnegan, nor a full conversion of it into chakra, but he could transfer and convert just a little bit of it, with Hagaromo’s guidance. That way, it was clear that he could do it. And the amount he used was negligible, so it wasn’t going to affect anything. An actual full transfer would have resulted in the other person gaining a rinnegan. A full conversion would result in the rinnegan’s loss for the carrier. However, he or she would gain a monstrous amount of sage chakra in exchange, and all of it could be used right away, as if it had been gathered through normal means.

At that point, there was just one technique left for Jim Namikaze to learn. Hagaromo knew how crucial this one was, so he left it for the very end.

“You will leave in just six days, but there is still one technique that you need to know. The holy sealing jutsu will be necessary in the battle against the Snake King. I know this because I have seen him summoning undead warriors against me before. The summoned ninjas have the same souls, the physical appearance, and the abilities of ninjas from the past, but they will obey him, even if they were heroes of justice before. Even if they recognize you, they will still be his fighting puppets. So you will have to stop them, even if they are people that you recognize from your own past.

The undead summons are powerful foes because they don’t get physical injuries like ours and they don’t feel pain. Also, their destroyed body parts grow back in a matter of minutes. It may look like you have killed them, but they regenerate again and again.

Sealing them is the only way to defeat them. And sealing them with the holy sealing jutsu is the only way to ensure that their souls will never be summoned again. Even if it is attempted again, it won’t work. This is why you need to know it. It’s the only way to defeat them and to ensure that they will rest in peace forever after.”

Jim began to think about it and a particularly chilling thought struck him, like a lighting blade:

What would he do if he had to fight someone like his grandfather? The old man was the former leader of the extinct Namikaze Clan, and he surely could open five, or even six, chakra gates—he was the one that taught him how to do that. However, that wasn’t what worried him. It was his beloved grandfather!! The idea of having to fight him was something that he didn’t want to imagine. It was a true nightmare scenario…

“Hagaromo, is it possible that I would have to fight against one of my ancestors because of that technique?”

Jim sounded concerned about the matter, even with all the power he had gained in training.

(* In the Naruto anime series and the manga, the technique for the dark resurrection is called Edo Tensei; in this story, it is known as the unholy resurrection jutsu.)

Hagaromo answered his question:

“The unholy resurrection jutsu is a cursed technique that wasn’t created by me. You can expect anything from someone who uses it, so you have to be prepared for everything.

All I know is how to stop it. I also know that the user needs to have something from the body of the dead person that they summon into a new undead body. Therefore, it won’t work with people from the distant past, since their whole bodies would be long gone, turned into dust.

You shouldn’t worry too much about this. Just ensure that you learn the technique that can stop it, in case it happens. The Snake King doesn’t know you, but I have realized that he knows some of the other saviors. Thus, it is important that some of you can seal an undead summon, in case it is used against any of you.

You are going to have to learn this in less than four days, so let’s get started.”

The unholy resurrection technique was created more than a century later, but even then it didn’t work well. It was Orochimaru—not as a kid, but as an adult—who finally completed the seal that made it work as expected. And he was also the first one that used it successfully…

Since even Hagaromo didn’t know this technique, he could only do one thing: he ensured that Jim Namikaze knew an effective way to defeat an opponent that was created with the unholy resurrection jutsu…

Jim memorized the new chakra seal and learned how to do the holy sealing in just two days. However, Hagaromo made him spend the third day practicing it. He practiced it on sand bodies and objects, which could not be compared to the real thing, even remotely, but it was still useful as practice. Hagaromo knew how important this technique would be, so he did what he could with the time he had left to ensure that Jim would be able to use it with certainty.

At the end of the day, when Jim was about to leave the arena, Hagaromo told him something that he didn’t expect:

“Jim Namikaze, your training has reached its end. You have learned everything you need to help the other saviors.

Tomorrow, I want you to rest. You have already done what you can do here, in my time. Now, there is something very important that I still need to do. I want you to know about it so that you can describe it, as it really happened, in the last entry of the notebook I gave you. It will happen tomorrow, so I want you to spend the entire day watching what I am going to do in the arena. The day after tomorrow, I will give you a brief final test. Then, the day after that, you will leave and return to The Leaf.”

Jim wasn’t expecting such a sudden end after many weeks of training daily. However, he was more concerned about something else: why was Hagaromo in such a hurry to end it? Was it really that important for him to leave in three days? If that was the case, then what was the reason for it? He had to know and he trusted the holy sage, so he asked without hesitation:

“Hagaromo, why are you so concerned about finishing quickly? Is there a good reason why I must leave in three days from now?”

Hagaromo held his holy staff and talked with calm and certainty:

“There is a good reason for everything Jim Namikaze. Such is life when you can see the possible futures, like I can. You have to leave in three days without fail; otherwise, my plan will not work because you didn’t leave at the right time. Good timing is critical. You arrive one minute later and it may be too late; you arrive one minute too early and your arrival won’t catch everyone by surprise, as it should.

Luckily, you won’t need to worry about it now because my timing will work for you while you are here.”

Hagaromo was great at giving amazing answers that left people satisfied—without giving the real answer to the question. However, Jim Namikaze was naturally curious and he noticed everything, even if he didn’t suspect anything negative from Hagaromo.

The idea of “taking a day off” before he left in three days was out of place: it wasn’t what you would expect from someone like the holy sage—who began trainings enthusiastically, at 4 a.m. on Saturday mornings…

Clearly, the reason behind Hagaromo’s choice had to be very important. And, once again, Jim Namikaze didn’t hesitate about asking:

“What are you going to do tomorrow Hagaromo? You never took a day off from training in three months, so it must be very important.”

“You’ll see tomorrow Jim. And yes, it is as important as your entire three-months training, but it is something that I must do alone. I just want you to watch so that you can tell the truth about it, in the future.

Now, you should rest and clear your mind. Enjoy the beauty of this grand training arena while you are still here.”

The next morning, Jim saw how Hagaromo was preparing a series of gigantic-looking circles and seals on the ground. They covered almost the entire arena. Whatever he was planning had to be something huge.

“It’s good to see you are awake Jim Namikaze. If it had been a day of training, I would have had to wake you up myself.”

Wasn’t this supposed to be a day off?? (Jim entered the arena at 6 a.m.)

Anyways… after the “imaginary bucket of water” for the day off fell on him, Jim said the same morning greeting he always said and he offered his help:

“Good morning Hagaromo. Can I help you with anything for what you are doing?”

Hagaromo was a little grumpy that morning, but it made sense, especially if you knew the great sacrifice that he was about to make.

“Yes, please don’t step on any of the seals on the arena. Also, I want you to spend the whole day watching what I am doing from the same seat that Ashura used to watch us before.”

“Are you sure about that? That seat is pretty far. It’s on the other side and all the way at the top. I won’t be able to see every detail from there Hagaromo.”

“Don’t worry about minor details Jim Namikaze. You will be able to see everything that matters from there. Besides, I don’t know if this will get dangerous, so you shouldn’t be too close. And do not interfere with anything, no matter what happens. Just watch from there.”

Jim was starting to feel intrigued. Hagaromo was almost giving him orders, so he didn’t question him. He simply went to Ashura’s seat, at the other side of the coliseum, and he stayed there.

It was a pretty boring wait, until the night arrived.

Hagaromo spent the whole day preparing the giant seals and, perhaps, thinking as well. Jim Namikaze left the seat after six hours—his butt was hurting already. He ate something and he came back. He was consumed by boredom after seeing the repetition of the same thing for seven hours straight, but he stayed there and continued watching every minute—as Hagaromo wanted.

Eventually, the holy sage began the decisive ritual, when the night arrived at the arena. He stood up at the very center of all the great circles on the ground. Then, he opened his white cloak and his white shirt, revealing a large and really complex seal that covered his stomach and his chest. It looked like a very large tattoo of an ancient hieroglyphic. It was the seal left by the sealing technique that he created to trap the Ten-Tails chakra beast.

“I used to fear the day this moment would come, because it meant that my end was near; but now that it has arrived, I know it; I know better than ever before that I have taken the right path. And I am glad because the moment to put my plan in motion is finally here. The time has come to free the Ten-Tails once again. This time it won’t destroy and terrorize our world, like it did before, because it will be reborn as nine young beasts, instead of one rampaging monster. The nine tailed beasts will become the greatest chakra weapons on our side in the future, when my successor, Naruto Uzumaki, has to face him again. Now, I will make it all possible by splitting Ten-Tails into nine separate life forms and sending the nine chakra beasts to nine forgotten locations around the world. This is it… the time has come!

Six-Paths jutsu! Grand transfer seal!!”

The giant circles and the nine grand seals that Hagaromo spent the whole day preparing lit up right away. The entire arena awakened in the night with the yellow chakra that lit up all the seals.

Jim Namikaze felt the urge to get closer, but he didn’t. He followed Hagaromo’s request of not interfering and staying there, watching. Even though he was far, he could see it very well because the arena lit up as if it was the Sun itself who made it happen. However, he was too far to hear what the holy sage said there.

Hagaromo was at the center of the arena and at the center of the yellow chakra circles as well. The nine grand seals appeared on the outer circles, which were seven meters away from the center, where Hagaromo was.

Hagaromo began to levitate, close to two meters above the ground, and his holy staff also levitated beside him. He created nine small seals around his stomach and on his chest. They looked just like the nine giant seals on the arena’s circles. After that, he knew that he had to be very fast; otherwise, the Ten-Tails had a chance to take over him, which could result in the same thing that happened to Kaguya. (She couldn’t control it, so she became part of it when it took over her. Then, it was set free into the Human Realm. And, after years of fear and destruction, it was Hagaromo who managed to stop it with his sealing techniques.)

Without hesitating, the Sage of the Six Paths continued.

He placed another seal on his upper body to unlock the most powerful sealing technique that he had ever done—the one he used to trap the Ten-Tails’ grand power within himself.

“Grand Six-Paths chakra key, unlock seal!!

Six-Paths splitter jutsu!!”

The chakra and the seal’s marks on Hagaromo’s stomach and on his chest began to disappear—a sign that the seal had been broken—and nine hands of chakra went from the nine small chakra circles on his body to the giant ones on the arena. He only had one forbidden technique left to do in order to finish the creation of the nine bijuus—the chakra beasts. However, the powerful Ten-Tails halted him; and both him and his staff fell down to the ground. Nonetheless, all the seals remained in place and everything was still ready.

“Even after all these years, you still want to give me a hard time Juubi. I guess you are used to being a part of me, but you were never my true partner. That… that will change with them!!

Zeta-style jutsu! Seal of creation!!!”

A very bright light engulfed Hagaromo and made the arena look as if it was happening during the day, even though it happened at night. Jim Namikaze got up and started to get worried. That thing looked similar to the finishing technique of “light” that the man of the black cloak used in the visions. He didn’t expect to see something like that from Hagaromo. It felt like something had gone wrong. However, the light began to fade and everything became more visible again. Nonetheless, Jim Namikaze entered sage mode and stayed standing and alert, just in case Hagaromo needed his help.

What Jim saw next left him speechless.

The nine chakra hands that were coming from Hagaromo were touching nine huge beings that were sitting around the grand circle at the center, surrounding him. The “beings” looked like giant animals, but they were not animals like the ones at Earth, they just resembled them closely. Animals that huge didn’t exist at the Human Realm…

A better look by Jim Namikaze revealed that the animals seemed very young, despite their huge size. They were toddlers of their species! It was then that Jim noticed that they all had big tails; and the number of tails was different for each one of the nine. One had one tail; the other had two tails; and so on, until the last one of the nine, which had nine tails. Jim Namikaze knew what his eyes were seeing as soon as he noticed that pattern.

“The nine tailed beasts!? I mean the bijuus… I mean they are… the nine freaking chakra beasts!! Is he crazy??!!”

Jim felt his adrenaline levels rising, even with sage mode and a rinnegan on his side. He had heard even more tales about the great chakra beasts than about the Sage of the Six Paths. And they definitely weren’t pretty bed-time stories with princesses. They were tales of power, horror, and destruction! The adult tailed beasts from his time were much weaker than the original Ten-Tails—also named “Juubi”—but, they had enough power to destroy cities and large land structures completely. They were the equivalent of living atomic bombs. And the Nine-Tails fox, in particular, had so much chakra that no one had ever been able to get a measure of it.

(The Nine-Tails fox was the one that was sealed into Naruto Uzumaki in the future. That was one of the reasons why Naruto, like Hagaromo, could make hundreds of shadow clones.)

Jim’s reaction was to leave his seat. He wanted to go there to ensure that Hagaromo was alright because the beasts were blocking his view. However, he stopped when he remembered Hagaromo’s clear words. He only wanted him to watch from that location, no matter what. And he understood why pretty fast…

Jim Namikaze was the only one who could really describe how the tailed beasts were born. He was the only one there that day. Maybe, Hagaromo wanted to make sure that someone else was going to know about what happened there. Jim began to think that that was why Hagaromo gave him the second notebook—so that he could describe all these events. And he was partially right. However, with the holy sage, everything had a much higher purpose, even that second notebook…

Hagaromo’s holy ritual ended, but the chakra circles remained lit up and the nine “baby” beasts began to awaken. He was the first thing that all nine of them saw when they opened their eyes to the world for the first time. Thus, for the tailed beasts, the holy sage was the equivalent of a parental figure—like a father. They could also understand his human speech because, as the Ten-Tails, they spent many years living with Hagaromo and seeing his world on a daily basis.

Hagaromo stood up, somewhat beaten up and feeling a little weak, but with a smile of victory and happiness on his face. It was time…

“Shukaku, Matatabi, Isopu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chounei, Gyuuki, and Kurama. These will be your names. Now listen well.

I will not live long anymore. I will have to send you all to far lands, so that you can fulfill your destinies on your own. However, never fear, even in your darkest days.

Everyone of you has a name, and you have a form different from before; and differently from when you were inside me, you can follow a rightful path—a path that deviates from your dark origins.

Remember that even if you are separated now, you will always be together, and the day when you will return to be one will come. And that day, you will help to save this world in which you were born. Until then, search for your true strength… and until that day comes, follow your own path. I will die soon, but I will always be with you.

Remain strong until my successor reunites all of you and shows you what the meaning of true strength is.”

The tailed beasts listened to everything attentively, as if they were little pets. They also understood him very well because they seemed sad after they heard that he would not live much longer. It really looked like his words had touched them.

Unfortunately, Jim Namikaze couldn’t hear Hagaromo’s words, he only saw what happened there. (And that was what Hagaromo intended.)

Then, the holy sage sent the nine tailed beasts to nine remote locations around the world, where they would grow and continue their lives—until humans, wars, and battles for power among the ninja clans of the future reached them.

“May your journey towards that future day teach you much. Trust your instincts and never forget what happened here. I wish you all good luck.

Six-Paths teleportation jutsu! Activate seal!!”

Hagaromo did something that made the large chakra circles lit up even more than before. Once again, the light got pretty bright. And when it came back to normal, the young chakra beasts were not there anymore.

Hagaromo had to use his staff to stay standing. He was going to need several hours and a long rest to recover from what he did. He didn’t have the power of the Ten-Tails beast anymore. Now, he “just” had a rinnegan, the ability to use all types of elemental techniques, and all his knowledge. He couldn’t levitate or halt entire battlefields with a single use of the Ten-Tails’ power anymore…

Jim Namikaze didn’t wait anymore when he saw Hagaromo’s state. He rushed to his location and helped him to walk to one of the beds, all the way at the other side of the coliseum. It worried him because he had never seen Hagaromo in that weak condition. Now, the holy sage truly looked more human than ever…

However, Hagaromo seemed happy. There were only two days left and everything was working exactly as he had planned it. His visions were becoming a reality, just like Jim’s visions.

When he was on the bed, he said something:

“Jim Namikaze, your final test will be tomorrow, after a certain someone returns. Please, don’t talk to him about what I did today.”

“Don’t worry about that now Hagaromo,” said Jim, as he left—after he ensured that the holy sage was resting well. He was going to write that day’s entry in the second diary. (And what an epic entry it would be… he was about to tell one of the legends of his time, as it really happened.)

Hagaromo left him thinking though.

A certain someone? Could he mean Ashura?

It had been more than one month since Ashura left, so his return didn’t feel like a sure thing in the slightest. Jim quickly forgot about it and he continued his other task, before he went to sleep.

The next day, a splash of water fell on Jim Namikaze’s head at 4 o’clock in the morning. He couldn’t believe it!! Even after what happened the day before, the old man was up and running at four! (goodness gracious!!!) What was he made of?!

“Good morning Jim Namikaze. I am glad to see that you are still here. I think I own you an apology too. The way I left that day wasn’t the right way to handle the situation. Where is my father?”

The voice was Ashura’s, and the water was a real bucket of water, not a water-style technique.

“Are you freaking kidding me!? Is this the way you people wake each other up at the Otsutsuki Clan!? You own me two apologies now! Oh well… nevermind… Hagaromo is over there…”

That was Jim’s automatic reaction. However, after he actually woke up and began to think, he was quite surprised. Hagaromo Otsutsuki could see the future for real!! This was a proof. Ashura’s return seemed extremely unlikely, but Hagaromo always knew about it. This was why he didn’t seem hurt or concerned at all when Ashura left that day. He already knew that his son would return…

Ashura apologized to Hagaromo:

“I am sorry about the bad attitude I had when I left. I will support your decisions from now on, even if I don’t think they are ideal. In the long-run, you have proven that they are always in the right track. I am willing to help you here if you still need me. I am sorry for what I did back then.”

“It’s ok son. You came back at the right time. Jim Namikaze will leave tomorrow, so today I want to give him one final test. Will you help me with that again?”

“Of course I will. That’s what I am here for. If today is his last day, then I’m glad that I came back for an action-packed farewell.”

Jim’s “final test” was another battle with Ashura, in the open desert outside of the coliseum, just like the last one. This time Hagaromo wanted him to use the rinnegan only.

Just like last time, Hagaromo watched them from a safe spot. However, this time he did it from the ground, since he couldn’t levitate anymore. He had lost the chakra beast’s power, and with it the ability to do several things that were beyond natural human reach…

The third and last battle with Ashura was a true surprise for anyone that had seen the first two. It revealed a major weakness of Ashura’s mighty chakra mode…

Jim Namikaze began the battle with the rinnegan’s earth-based power:

“Rinne-earth, planetary devastation!”

Ashura avoided and destroyed the incoming blocks of sand masterfully, using his multiple swords of chakra and his own speed. However, he already knew how that technique worked: the blocks of earth would continue coming nonstop. There was no end to it, unless he stopped the one using it. Therefore, he focused on reaching Jim Namikaze. And when he was close enough, he unleashed his full cloak of chakra and created ten shadow clones.

The clones and Ashura coordinated a massive attack as a team. They were ready to fall on Jim with dozens of chakra blades from all directions. There was no way to avoid such a thing and Jim Namikaze would be defeated there—or so they thought.

“Rinne-shield!!”

All the swords landed on the spherical shield created by the rinnegan’s chakra. And the onslaught of chakra blades only made a little crack on it! (Clearly, the rinnegan’s chakra was more powerful than Ashura’s yellow chakra.)

Jim Namikaze didn’t give them time to recover either. As soon as all the swords were blocked, he removed the shield and uncovered Ashura’s weakness:

“Multi-Rinne-slash!!”

He unleashed four giant red chakra slashes in a row with the rinnegan. They appeared out of nowhere, like Ashura’s great blade of wind did, during their first battle. The first three slashes destroyed every single one of the ten clones. Direct contact with them was all it took, since shadow clones were too weak to resist such a high-level attack, even though they could use all the powerful techniques that their original creator had. The fourth rinne-slash caught Ashura by surprise and it hit him directly—he had no chance to avoid it. The rinne-slash broke all of Ashura’s defenses and sent him flying at least twenty meters away. Unlike many other attacks, this one cut through his entire chakra cloak and it reached part of his body. This meant that he didn’t have any way to block this attack and it could penetrate a chakra armor too.

When Ashura landed on the sand, he only took two seconds to jump and get back on his feet. However, he didn’t feel right. He touched the side of his body that the end of the rinne-slash reached, and when he looked back at his hand, he saw blood on it. Things were much worse than he expected!

“Dawn!! Just one month and he already knows my father’s techniques! Even brother Indra can’t do all of them, but he has no rinnegan either. Father was the only one that had it and now the earth sage has it too. I can’t get too close to him then. In that case…”

Ashura brought back his yellow chakra cloak and twelve hands of chakra came out of it. The hands began to make large chakra shurikens—like Naruto’s rasen-shurikens. Then, they launched four of them at Jim Namikaze, one after the other.

Jim simply stood there. He knew what he had learned very well, so he was confident about using it successfully.

Ashura started to get worried when he saw that he wasn’t planning to dodge them.

“Don’t tell me that he can do that too!!”

Jim’s left eye—the rinnegan—demolished each shuriken and absorbed their chakra, when they got very close to him. They basically gave him more chakra and did nothing to him.

Ashura began to sweat. If most chakra-based attacks and all elemental jutsus could be blocked, and even absorbed, then long-range combat was not going to work. However, he could also catch him with the deadly rinne-slashes in close combat. How the hell was he going to beat him now!?

Ashura remembered that, because of all those unique powers, his father was the only one that he could not beat in a serious battle. The rinnegan and the Ten-Tails’ omnipotent chakra were out of this world. Indra was also incredibly powerful, thanks to his mangekyou sharingan, but Ashura had been able to beat Indra twice before.

At that moment, Jim created seven shadow clones and went after Ashura.

“Seven? So, even his limit for shadow clones has increased with the rinnegan.”

Ashura’s paradigm for fighting Jim was changed from “this guy can’t beat me” to “I need to be careful.”

Ashura was never afraid, but he definitely wasn’t a fool either. He had more than enough reasons to be concerned now.

The battle started to look funny from Hagaromo’s view: it was Jim and his clones chasing Ashura with rinne-slashes, and Ashura running away and avoiding them all the time. It was clear to Hagaromo that Jim Namikaze was ready to help the other saviors now. He could handle a mighty opponent like Ashura.

Ashura stopped eventually.

“I shouldn’t be thinking about using this in a training, but losing is not my style! I can beat him easily if I go into eagle sage mode and open seven of the eight chakra gates. I will not die at 88% of the human sage mode; and with such speed and power, he has no chance. I will be too fast, even for the rinne-slashes, and too powerful, even for a rinnegan. He will be finished in seconds, but… I will be finished too after that. I’ll probably spend two months in a hospital. Maybe I shouldn’t take such a risk…”

Someone grabbed Ashura’s shoulder and almost made him jump on the spot—he thought he had been caught by a hidden shadow clone.

“Don’t do that Ashura. You know that wouldn’t be a wise choice. I already saw what I needed to see as well. This battle is over. And we are all winners because he is ready.”

Jim reached them just a few seconds later.

“The final test is over Jim Namikaze. You have completed my training successfully.

However, the real test for all of us is about to begin. The time when you will have to use the techniques I taught you here is getting closer. Let’s go back to the coliseum now. I will heal Ashura there.

Tomorrow, you will go back to The Leaf. Don’t forget to gather all your belongings on time, including the other notebook I gave you.”

“I won’t Hagaromo. Thank you for everything!”

“Don’t thank me; thank yourself because you put your heart and soul on the arena. Your desire to learn and improve was as great as my desire to prepare you for the future. Thank you for being a great student. Now that I know you well, I understand why you had to be one of them.”

They went back to the coliseum walking and that surprised Ashura—who even had a wound that had to be healed.

“Why aren’t you using your chakra platforms to take us back father?”

Hagaromo had no other choice but to lie. He couldn’t tell Ashura that he had released the Ten-Tails as nine separate tailed beasts.

“Walking is good for you son. Even someone like me shouldn’t be floating on chakra clouds all day. It’s not good for you. Besides, I like to walk with my son and my student, instead of seeing you two from above all the time. Don’t think that I enjoy being perceived as a living deity by many.”

Ashura’s wound wasn’t that bad, so he didn’t complain and they continued walking. He also liked his father’s answer. You may even say that he was glad about it. However, Jim Namikaze knew the truth: he didn’t do it because he couldn’t do it.

The rest of that final day was quite peaceful. Ashura was healed. Jim gathered all his belongings and finished writing the last entry in the second diary. And Hagaromo reminded him about getting all his belongings like seven times…

Jim wasn’t stupid though. He knew that Hagaromo could see what would happen in the future, so every word that came out of his mouth had a purpose. Clearly, his belongings were absolutely necessary for some reason that he didn’t know yet. The only thing that still felt a little odd was Hagaromo’s hurry about his departure’s date. Often, it made Jim think that something important was going to happen that day. However, it could just be that the holy sage was picky about his training’s strict schedule…

Finally, the morning of the last day there arrived.

Jim almost fell out of his bed when he woke up at 5 a.m. He probably expected some water to fall on him at any second, but none did—thankfully. He prepared himself incredibly fast and grabbed the large summoning scroll he brought with him, Mina’s dagger, his sword, and a large bag that had all his other belongings, including the two diaries, the small summoning scroll, and Hagaromo’s book on ancient summoning seals. He was wearing the white clothes that all of them had used, since they began his trainings there. (The other end of the coliseum had places to sleep with beds, food, water, and tons of those white clean-looking ninja clothes for the trainings.)

Hagaromo was already outside—as usual—but it bugged Jim to see that Ashura was still sleeping; so he prepared a “farewell splash” in a bucket for his sparring partner. Unfortunately, Ashura opened one eye before the splash:

“Hey, don’t even think about it!! I am not the trainee here Jim Namikaze. And I have gotten my fair share of those! Besides, father made it very clear to me yesterday. You have to leave at 9:36 a.m. today, not earlier and not later, so feel free to rest more if you wish. It’s the end of your time here man, and you did amazingly well. Not to mention that you are leaving with one of the rinnegans of the Sage of the Six Paths. You are going to be quite something in your time for sure. Relax a little for God’s sake! No one will be testing you today, and no water is going to fall on your head or mine!”

Jim Namikaze went back to his room. Now, he was really certain that something was amiss.

“9:36? Why would Hagaromo pick such an exact time? What is going to happen at that time?

There has to be a good reason for it. No… knowing him, there has always been a reason for it, even before I arrived here…”

It really seemed strange because Jim could pick when he would arrive at the second location, before making the time jump. Therefore, the exact departure time from the first location was not important at all for the time of arrival at the second place. When he left the Earth Realm and the young Leaf, the first location was not what determined the time of arrival at the destination. Maida’s mangekyou sharingan was what had determined that before…

At 9:00 a.m. both Jim and Ashura meet up with Hagaromo at the arena. Hagaromo was looking at the solar clock, which was on one of the coliseum’s walls at the other edge of the arena. He wanted to ensure that his timing was right.

“Hagaromo, why is the exact time so important?”

Jim Namikaze could smell that something important was being hid from him.

“I want your departure to match exactly with what I saw in my vision at the Dark Realm. This is important Jim Namikaze. Everything must match perfectly with what I saw. Otherwise, the future may be different.

By the way, it’s time for you to know that in order to make a jump to the future, you needed a rinnegan. This is another reason why I had to give you one of mine. You will use Maida’s mangekyou sharingan and the rinnegan together. The process is the same, but in order to look forward in time, instead of backwards, the rinnegan’s vision is the one you will use. You already have the ability to make the jump, but my rinnegan will make it possible for you to use it with the future view. This time, you will also use the rinnegan’s chakra to create my teleportation summoning seal.”

It seemed strange that Hagaromo left something that important for the very end, but, as always, it also seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing and why. Therefore, Jim decided that he would trust Hagaromo’s visions and his great plan to save the future. It made no sense to doubt him anymore…

The time to leave again had arrived. For a few seconds, Jim wished that he had one more day there, but this was it.

“How can I thank both of you for all the things that you have taught me during the last three months?”

Jim’s voice and his words showed true appreciation for what happened there.

Ashura smiled.

“There is no need to thank us Jim Namikaze. You are one of the saviors and you did a very good job too. To be honest, I would have hated it if someone else had gotten my father’s rinnegan and the close opportunity to win against me. However, seeing that it was you, the same guy that couldn’t beat me three months ago, has humbled me. I truly hope that you fulfill my father’s plan for the future and I wish good luck for you and the other saviors.”

Ashura showed more emotion at that moment than during the entire three months. He was difficult to deal with and quite powerful, but he was also good at heart.

Hagaromo gave Jim a short but meaningful reply:

“You can thank me when you fulfill your destiny Jim Namikaze.”

Hagaromo tried to smile, being optimistic, even though knowing what was coming made that smile extremely difficult for him.

Jim began to create the teleportation seal using the rinnegan’s natural chakra, instead of his own. He was planning to make the forward jump to “the future Leaf” where Naruto Uzumaki was Hokage. Thus, he would try to make his arrival point at Konoha’s entrance and at a time between 16 and 20 years after his first departure from The Leaf, which was the approximate time that he had seen in Hagaromo’s vision—where he saw Sasuke and Naruto’s battles against the man of the black cloak and the guardians.

Hagaromo approached Jim and placed some sort of seal on his rinnegan with his right hand.

“This will help you to locate the right time Jim Namikaze.”

Then, Hagaromo used a high-level technique to create a protective barrier:

“Six-Paths barrier jutsu!”

Four rectangular walls of chakra were raised around Jim Namikaze, and a fifth one appeared above his head, making a perfect box-like barrier. Then, the barrier’s walls turned transparent, so Jim could still see everything clearly.

“I don’t know how things will go with absolute certainty. This is the first time that you will do the jump to the future. And (Hagaromo looked at the solar clock) the time is now, so, to be safe, you should be protected by this barrier. You will be leaving in just a few minutes.”

It didn’t make much sense to Ashura. Why would his father put a protective barrier around him when he was about to leave?

Jim didn’t mind about it though. He just continued finishing the summoning teleportation seal with the rinnegan.

However, when he began to use the mangekyou sharingan and the rinnegan to move time forward through his view of The Leaf in the seal, he was halted abruptly. The small seal that Hagaromo placed on his left rinnegan eye was activated as soon as it reached a specific time in The Leaf’s future. And this “future time” was still two decades before the year when Mina gave birth to their child, the future Fourth Hokage. It was still in the past!

(At the young Leaf, his friend Hiruzen and Mina were starting to lose hope about his return from “the holy sage’s mission.” Hiruzen was starting to raise in fame around the country as the great Third Hokage from The Leaf. And Mina had a cute blonde baby that she named Minato, just like Jim had suggested…

A whole year went by for them, even though only three months passed for Jim. His jump to the distant past had consumed nine months from his life…)

He tried to continue moving time forward, but the location that he could choose remained stuck at that point in time. He could not change it. The only step left to finish it was just summoning or teleporting himself there, but he didn’t do it. He touched the barrier around him, without breaking the teleportation seal. Hagaromo had to know the reason why this was happening. And indeed, he knew…

When Jim touched the barrier, he realized that it was the most powerful chakra-based barrier that he had ever felt. It was even stronger than the rinnegan’s shield! He could not escape from that transparent cage. He was trapped there and the only way out was finishing the teleportation summoning, which would take him to the wrong time. Why? Why was this happening!?

“Hagaromo, why are you doing this? Why are you forcing me to leave to this wrong time period? This is not where the Snake King will attack in the future!! Why didn’t you tell me about this? This barrier… this is not meant to protect me; it’s here to stop me. I thought that you trusted me and I had trust for you! Will you ever tell me the truth?!”

Hagaromo looked like he was getting ready for some major event that would happen there. He looked at the solar clock once more and it showed 9:35 a.m.—just one minute before “it” began. Then, he replied to Jim:

“I am sorry that it had to be like this Jim Namikaze… I do trust you and I know that by now you didn’t doubt me anymore. That is why I had to ensure that you would be forced to leave, no matter what happened. Otherwise, you would have chosen to stay here and the plan would have failed; the future would have fallen under his rule because of your choice now.

I can’t tell you everything because it would break my plan and the future’s only hope would vanish. You will know it all eventually. However, before I face him for the last time, I will tell you the truth of my sins—a truth that has been a heavy burden for me, even if it was the only way to save our realm.

After I tell you, you will leave us. If you want to save Naruto, Sasuke, the future of The Leaf, and all the people in it, then leaving soon is the only choice that you have.”

The sand clock pointed at the equivalent time to our 9:36 a.m. and everything began to change. The air at the coliseum started to carry a chilling sensation and the wind began to flow much faster. Then, a giant violet portal began to appear at the other edge of the coliseum. It destroyed everything on its path, including the large solar clock, the seats, and the place where Jim had slept during the last three months. As its oval shape grew in size that entire portion of the coliseum was destroyed. It was immense, as large as twelve meters in height and five meters in width; and it looked like it wasn’t completely done with its expansion yet.

The worst part was that the giant portal looked exactly like the one that was summoned by Naruto Uzumaki—in Hagaromo’s vision—after the man of the black cloak and his three guardians defeated him.

The young Ashura began to feel the great danger that was approaching. The giant portal and its creator had to be very powerful if it could spread such a sensation of danger and despair around it. It was like a living black omen. However, Ashura (unlike Jim Namikaze) had no idea about who was behind it.

“Father! What the hell is going on here!!?? What is the meaning of that thing!!? What is happening!?”

Hagaromo was serious, but it was clear that he was ready for what was coming. The look of valor on his face was unshakable.

“Your past wish is going to come true Ashura. We are going to fight against the Snake King. This is the day, the time, and the exact place where he will get a second chance to take over the Human Realm. And we must stop him. My successor, the other saviors, and Jim Namikaze are the ones who will have to stop him in the future. We have to stop him now.”

For a couple of seconds there, the young Ashura didn’t look as brave as he did when he suggested that they should have taken a fight to the Snake King at his own realm. However, he quickly shook off the fear and his mind changed, ready for a major battle. The threat’s size didn’t matter to him. Losing was not an option. Ashura unleashed his yellow chakra cloak and, from Jim Namikaze’s view, he looked just like Naruto Uzumaki in the Nine-Tails’ chakra mode—which also created that same chakra cloak on Naruto.

Jim Namikaze was supremely worried about the situation they had there. He began to understand why the coliseum had no traces of its existence in the future that had been his present before.

“Hagaromo, you can’t do this! You can’t defeat him as you are now!! Let me out of here! Let me fight with you two!!”

Jim Namikaze was starting to feel desperate.

Ashura rushed towards the grand violet portal, thinking that he would be able to destroy it with a grand sword of his yellow chakra.

Hagaromo was standing close to the barrier around Jim. He knew that this was going to be the last time he would see Jim, so the holy sage made his decision:

Before his last battle began, he was going to tell him the truth…

NEXT— EPISODE 47: Hagaromo’s Truth

 

 

Episode 45: The Essential Training

Jim Namikaze was amazed when they finally arrived at the grand “training coliseum.” Obviously, it didn’t look like an old relic—because it was still pretty new back then.

He had never seen anything like it during his time though. And it surprised him, because when we go to past, we don’t expect to see things that look or feel more advanced than what we know. And that was exactly how that “ancient” training place felt like, especially from the inside. It didn’t feel or look old. Inside, it looked like a small Olympic stadium, which was a huge space for just three people. Its perimeter was just three stories high and there was no ceiling, but the area inside was immense.

Before they landed at the center of the coliseum, Jim also saw a far sight of the Otsutsuki Clan. It was several miles away, but it was clear that some sort of population lived there. The limits of the desert were halfway between the coliseum and the clan. However, the inside of the small stadium had been built with a new solid floor on top of the sand, so it didn’t feel like it was in the desert still. The structure that surrounded the inner area also had seats for people, so clearly this wasn’t just a temple for the Sage of the Six Paths.

The strangest thing about that “open temple” wasn’t that it seemed quite modern though; it was that Jim had never heard anything about that place during his time. Considering that it was a place built in honor of the legendary sage, it made sense that he would have heard it mentioned at least once. That wasn’t the case though. During his time, it was as if that place had never existed. He even had to visit the Clan of the Sand once—as a young ninja from the Clan of the Stone—and he didn’t see anything that resembled this place anywhere… As we all know, things don’t disappear out of thin air, so there was a reason why that place didn’t exist in the future, which was Jim Namikaze’s present before…

Hagaromo expected to see him surprised at first.

“What do you think about the Temple of the Sage of the Six Paths? As you can see, it is not exactly what you know as a temple; and, it was named in my honor, but it is not just for me. Here is where we do special tournaments, trainings, and some annual activities from the Otsutsuki Clan.”

Jim still had that previous thought bothering him:

“It’s strange that I never heard about this place in the future. It’s remarkable, without a doubt. Even in my time, I never saw anything like this.”

Hagaromo already knew why the coliseum didn’t exist in the future. However, he didn’t mention anything about it, since, even the slightest change from his visions was capable of making a different future. Both Jim and his son Ashura would find out what was going to happen to the coliseum soon.

Ashura wasn’t worried about Jim’s revelation about the coliseum because he wasn’t from the future. He only paid attention to Jim’s surprised look.

“You probably expected to see an old place full of monk geezers and meditators in black cloaks—like the one that father gave me to fight you. I don’t blame you. Most of us expect the past to be more boring, less interesting, and highly antiquated, in some way. However, it isn’t always that way. Some pasts were even better than what followed, especially if they were erased by some catastrophe and the survivors had to start all over.

After we are done with my father’s training for your future, I will show you the Otsutsuki Clan. You will be impressed by some of the artifacts we have there. My father’s special ninja tools are among them. We may be ‘ancient’ from your point of view, but we are quite advanced for our time. You will see.”

Ashura was right about his comments, but he didn’t pay any attention to the significance of what Jim realized before: nothing about that coliseum existed in the future; and “the future” was less than 250 years later—it wasn’t that long, so at least some portion of that grand structure would have survived, unless something really big happened there…

Hagaromo knew that the next morning was the ideal time to begin the essential training, so he postponed it till next day on purpose:

“The Sun will fade soon. We will begin tomorrow as soon as it begins to rise again. Ashura, show him where he can eat and sleep, at the other edge of the arena. And, before you leave, let me give you something Jim.”

Hagaromo made some kind of teleportation seal with yellow chakra, on his hand. He used a simple-looking unknown jutsu.

Then, a notebook appeared on his hand. It had the same seal that he used, but the seal vanished as soon as it appeared there.

Jim Namikaze already had his other belongings with him—the large and small summoning scrolls, the diary, Hagaromo’s book on ancient summoning seals, and Mina’s dagger. He got them as soon as they landed on the arena, at the coliseum. However, Hagaromo knew that this new notebook would be important too.

“I want you to have this.”

Jim grabbed the notebook and he quickly noticed that the pages were empty.

“It doesn’t have anything in it; all the pages are blank,” said Jim, a little puzzled.

“That is correct. You will use these pages to tell what you did and what you learned here with the Sage of the Six Paths. You will do the same thing as you did with the other diary. It is important that you do this Jim Namikaze. You’ll find writing ink and feathers that you can use in the same place where you will sleep.”

Jim didn’t question Hagaromo’s words. Somehow, he also felt that it was a good idea. After all, he didn’t know if he was going to see this place and the holy sage ever again.

Hagaromo also revealed his plan for the training:

“Beginning tomorrow, we will be doing your training every day. During half of the day, Ashura and I will help you to master skills that we already know. For the rest of the day, you can practice and experiment with them on your own. You will also have time to rest and to write an entry in the blank notebook that I gave you.

We will start with the essential training tomorrow, and after that, I will lead the special training, which is the most important one for the future. The essentials are showing you how to reach sage mode in less than one minute, learning to use the sharingan eye more effectively, and teaching you how to do the grand summoning jutsu, so that you can bring all your allies with you using just one technique. You will have to master controlling sage chakra and your own inner chakra to learn these successfully. And you will get used to using the sharingan at all times, not just when your life depends on it.

After you pass this training with us, you will be ready to help the other saviors of the future, in their battle against the Snake King.

Think and rest today. Starting tomorrow, I need you to have your mind 100% focused on the training only.”

Hagaromo sounded like a wise general.

He didn’t know that Jim Namikaze already had chakra control training at the Earth Realm, with the monkey king Enma and with Yashiro. Regardless, what Hagaromo had in storage for him was on a whole different level. The “special training,” after they finished with “the essentials,” was something that Jim would have never seen coming. The initial phase was just a superb reinforcement for what he knew. What came after was the true reason why Hagaromo brought him to his time…

“Yes sir! My mind will be focused on our training here only, so we can succeed! I will be here tomorrow early in the morning!”

Jim was enthusiastic. He would have elite training with the Sage of the Six Paths and with Ashura Otsutsuki. What could be better than that for a ninja!? (This was like being trained by Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee together.)

Ashura smiled a little when he heard what Jim said at the end.

“Don’t worry about that earth sage Jim. You clearly don’t know him well. He will probably wake you up to ‘warm up’ at 4 o’clock in the morning. You will hate him at first, but there is no better teacher than him at this realm. I am already used to it because I have had his ‘trainings’ since I was five, and I am nineteen now.

I am also the youngest teacher at our clan, so I have had experience with training others as well.”

Ashura looked older than his age, but still a little younger than Jim, who was nine years older than him.

That night, Jim wrote the first entry in the second notebook, which he titled “Training with the Sage of the Six Paths.” He also had another short conversation with Ashura. He felt ready for what was coming—or so he thought.

Hagaromo stayed outside at the arena, by himself, looking at the sky and thinking about their nearly inevitable fate. He summoned a hand of sand that lifted him high above the coliseum. Then, he looked at one of the largest shining dots in the sky, which was the Realm of the Snakes.

“The day is getting closer now. Soon, we will have to face you again. And I don’t know if we are completely ready this time… I have to make it happen, no matter what. He has to be ready in the next 90 days. That is all the time we have left; and this is the best shot we have to defeat you. Unfortunately, I can only do this for him, since he is the only one that can use the time jumps now. The others will have to be ready on their own…”

After his short reflection, with just the dark sky and the desert as witnesses, Hagaromo went back to the surface and made a simple earth-based bed. There, he slept that night…

Next day, a bucket of water—which was a minor water-style technique—fell on Jim Namikaze, at 4 o’clock in the morning—or in the night, since it was still dark. He fell out of his bed in shock. He grabbed Mina’s dagger and looked up. It was Hagaromo, and he already looked fully rested, as if he had slept ten hours straight (gosh!).

“You said you would be ready early.”

Ashura was standing there and he was prepared too.

“See? I told you.”

Ashura was smiling once again.

It’s too bad that they didn’t have alarm clocks back then; so, even the learning curve for waking up was going to be pretty rough…

After a watery awakening that morning, Jim Namikaze’s three-months-long training with the holy sage began…

“You won’t be able to help the other saviors of the future if you can’t even become a sage in time. As you saw in your battle with Ashura, your chances aren’t very good without your sage power. Therefore, learning how to obtain it quickly and knowing how to sustain it for longer will be your first task in our training.

Ashura will help us with his eagle sage mode, which he learned from a feathery friend of ours that lives at the Realm of the Birds.

Ashura will take over this first stage, since he already passed it successfully. I will watch your progress for this one.”

Jim Namikaze was wearing a white shirt and white ninja pants for the training, just like Ashura. They didn’t have sandals or anything on their feet. Ashura also had a yellow cape, but he removed it before he began.

“First, let me show you how I become an eagle sage.”

Ashura closed his eyes, united his hands in front of his face, and began to gather natural chakra from the wind for the eagle sage mode. As soon as he began, the yellow color on the skin around his eyes began to appear. It was incredibly fast!!! In just 30 seconds, he opened his eyes and his pupils were clearly different as well. They looked like an eagle’s pupils. The skin around his eyes was completely yellow too. He had reached sage mode already!!

(Jim Namikaze’s skin got brown around his eyes because he used the earth sage mode. Ashura’s was yellow because that was the eagle sage mode’s color.)

Jim couldn’t believe his eyes.

“How in the world!? I spent more than one year practicing it at the Earth Realm, and it still takes me four minutes!!”

It was obvious to Jim that Ashura was doing something different somehow. Otherwise, it made no sense that he could get it that fast.

“I hope that you observed me well during those thirty seconds, because now I will tell you how I did it.

I used my body’s own chakra as the force that kept me 100% still during the whole time. Then, I absorbed the type of natural chakra that my sage mode uses, which comes from the wind; yours comes from the surface. I allowed it to go everywhere in my body, including into the eight closed chakra gates that we have inside. Then, I took back my inner chakra and allowed it to mix with the natural chakra, giving it one large final boost that completed the sage mode even faster. That will also allow the sage mode to last longer, since you are using your own chakra as well.

I also obtained it faster because I achieved zero movement using my own chakra, since the beginning, instead of trying to keep my body still through pure balance. It is almost impossible to be 100% still that way.

I am allowing my chakra to mix with the other one as well. It will not affect you, so don’t worry. After sage mode is over, your chakra will return to normal again. While this is done, your chakra will act as more natural chakra, speeding up the process.”

Half of this was completely new to Jim Namikaze because he always separated the sage chakra from his inner chakra. He never allowed sage chakra to get into the eight vital chakra gates either—he feared it would cause major problems, or irreversible damage. He didn’t even know that inner chakra could be used to “keep you still 100%,” so he had never done that either. Why in the world didn’t King Enma know about all that?? It would have turned two years of training to become a sage into just two months!! Clearly, the holy sage and his sons were on a different level, and their power was not the only thing that made them so great…

Jim spent the first two weeks learning how to do the alternate method to become a sage and getting cold buckets of water in “the mornings.”

The new method was pretty straight-forward, but doing it successfully was easier said than done. Hagaromo even had to hit him once with a lighting-style jutsu because he started to turn into stone, when things went wrong with the chakra control. Finally, at the end of the second week, he managed to do it right. He still wasn’t as fast as Ashura—he did it in 50 seconds and Ashura did it in 30—but it worked, and it was a massive improvement.

Ashura even gave him props:

“Congratulations earth sage. It also took me 50 seconds when I learned it for the first time. That was when I was ten.”

Ashura seemed happy about his training’s success—he was the one guiding him during those two weeks—but his way of giving props went on a tangent. Jim’s face showed a reaction that said: “At ten!? He’s a freak!!”

Ashura’s personality had many similarities with the First Hokage’s personality. They were quite powerful, but sometimes they said things that made those around them think that there was something wrong with them. They were good guys though. They meant well even if it didn’t sound like it sometimes. That was just the way they were. (We expect that all people with such powers would be like the holy sage, wise and level-headed, but that wasn’t the case.)

Hagaromo intervened after he saw that Jim achieved the first thing that he needed for the grand final battle.

“Now that you have achieved the first step, I shall use it to teach you the second one, which should be easier now. You will learn to open six of the body’s chakra gates using an equivalent amount of chakra to what you used to open the first four. You will be able to do it faster as well, since my method does not require opening them one by one, or two by two. You will jump to using all six gates from the start.

As you already know, this is a last-resort technique, since the self-damage that it inflicts will guarantee that you won’t be able to fight anymore, after it’s over. This is why I won’t teach you to open the seventh gate, nor the eight ‘gate of death.’

There is one way to save those who open the eight gate, but I won’t be around to save the one who does it, so it should be avoided, no matter how bad things get.

By the way, in case you didn’t know it Jim Namikaze, opening the inner chakra gates is the human sage mode. It is the most powerful sage mode that I have seen. Someone who opens all eight gates would be as powerful as I am, even if they don’t have the power of the Ten-Tails chakra beast, and even without my rinnegan eyes. It is such a great power that our bodies are not ready to handle it yet. This is why using it at 100% is a death sentence. Only the Six-Paths healing seal can be used to save the user’s life, but even then, some of the damage is irreversible, and they surely won’t be able to fight again.”

After knowing all of this, Jim had to ask the last question he thought about:

“Hagaromo, will there be someone in the future that can use the eight gates, or the full human sage mode?”

Jim sounded skeptical, but Hagaromo didn’t give the subject much importance. He answered the question though:

“Yes, there will be one ninja from The Leaf that can do it; but it won’t be you, so you shouldn’t worry about this. Remember, your mind must be focused on our training only. Now, we shall begin.

First, you will achieve zero movement using the same method you used to get the earth sage mode faster. Use your own chakra as a force that will keep you still. Then, you will start to open the chakra gates, but, instead of opening one by one and filling then in that order with their unleashed chakra, you will start to open and fill all six of them simultaneously. You must be completely stationary in order to do this. Other sage modes require it; ours does not, but it is still necessary if you want to activate more than four gates at the same time.

Now, it’s time for you to begin trying it.”

Once again, it took him days of rigorous trial and error before he could get it right. However, with Hagaromo’s guidance, he managed to open the six gates for the first time, just eight days after they began this second training. It seemed like he had learned it pretty fast, but Hagaromo wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

The holy sage was pleased because everything was happening according to the schedule, and just as he had seen it in his vision of this future—which included Jim Namikaze’s trainings.

“Excellent. It may not be flawless yet, but you know how to do it now, so we can move on to training you to use the sharingan eye more effectively.

In battle, the sharingan can give you an edge for fast and effective counterattacking. Genjutsu won’t work against an enemy that doesn’t look straight at your eyes. However, the normal sharingan’s ability to predict the enemy’s next move, one second before its execution, will still work. It is an asset that can make you much more difficult to beat. In your case, this is even more prominent, since one of the innate abilities of your special sharingan is to choose the best path. If you learn to combine that special ability with the fact that you can see incoming attacks one second before they occur, then you can get used to dodging and responding with the most effective counterattack at all times.

You will have to learn to respond that way by instinct though. Frequent repetition in different scenarios and situations is a good way to achieve this.

In our training for this, focus on the sharingan and concentrate on seeing every move that is coming. Then, respond as best as you can.”

Both Hagaromo and Ashura used the same technique at that moment:

“Shadow clone jutsu!”

A hundred clones of Hagaromo appeared levitating in the air, all over the place, and forty clones of Ashura appeared at the surface. They were everywhere.

“Now, one of my clones will attack you with a weak long-range technique, and one of Ashura’s clones will do the same thing. My attacks will be either a ball of water, like the one I use to wake you up, or a weak sand arrow that will not hurt you.”

The original Ashura added:

“My attacks will be different from his. I will use a weak ball of chakra or weak and small shurikens of wind, which won’t have sharp edges. Be aware though, what I mean by ‘weak’ is that they won’t open a hole on your head if they land on it; but they may hurt a little, so I recommend you dodge them.”

Jim immediately used the earth-shaper technique to make a small shield of sand, which wasn’t that strong, but at least it was something—in case he didn’t have time to dodge everything.

Then, Hagaromo gave him one more detail:

“Our attacks will not follow any pattern. They may occur in five seconds from now or in fifteen. They may not happen at the same time. One of Ashura’s clones may act first and one of mine may attack after that, or viceversa. The only way for you to be ready for this will be using the sharingan you have to get you that one-second advantage over us, at all times.”

The training began to get serious with this third phase. It also started to show the sharingan’s great potential for battle, since Jim Namikaze managed to dodge some attacks that he wasn’t even seeing, because they came from behind. (He began to see those as well, with the sharingan, of course.) At first, he got hit by several of the water balls and by some of the “weak” wind shurikens. (They certainly didn’t make it easy for him.) However, he started to get better pretty fast.

Then, they raised the difficulty by having more than one clone from each side attack him. Four of Hagaromo’s clones attacked with a water ball, and three of Ashura’s clones launched a wind-based attack. And all of that was at random…

This training got pretty crazy, but one thing was clear: the sharingan could see things right before they were launched, and it was giving Jim and undeniable advantage to deal with situations like this.

When Hagaromo perceived that Jim was ready, he released all the clones, expect one. Ashura did the same thing. Then, the time for training the sharingan in close-range combat arrived. Jim Namikaze had to fight the two clones using the Namikaze sword only. Ashura’s clone used a wind-based sword and Hagaromo’s clone used a staff. They didn’t use any technique; it was pure close-range combat, so that Jim could focus on constantly seeing the incoming attacks with the sharingan and dodging or counterattacking, at close-range.

In total, the “sharingan training” took 20 full days. The end result was superb: Jim was reacting much better, in both long-range and close-range combat, because he was using the sharingan now. He was seeing the incoming attacks right before they were directed at him. By the end of the twentieth day, he was doing it by instinct; he wasn’t even thinking about using the sharingan; he simply saw all the attacks and reacted as best as he could. At first, he wasn’t seeing all of them, but eventually he began to get the hang of it.

Hagaromo considered that Jim Namikaze was finally ready for a “test.” The sharingan’s training wasn’t perfect, of course, but he already knew how to use it pretty well and time was running out quickly. Hagaromo knew that he had to finish the essential training soon, so that he could begin with the “special training.” They only had 90 days, and 42 days were already gone. However, Jim had learned to become a sage much faster, he could open six of the body’s chakra gates, and he was much better at using the sharingan’s standard vision in battle, making him a more skilled ninja than before. It was all worth it, and he was still on schedule. Hagaromo knew he needed at least 40 days for the special training; thus, he still had eight more days to cover the essential stuff. The holy sage decided to use one day for the test and one week to teach him how to do the grand summoning jutsu.

“It is time to test what you have learned Jim. Today, the training will be a battle with Ashura. I want you to use everything in this battle: the six inner chakra gates, the faster sage mode, the sharingan’s aid, and any other technique or tactic that can help you to win. We will go to the open desert for this battle. Don’t hold back against him and don’t worry about opening the inner chakra gates this time. I am here, so I will heal both of you completely. However, in a serious battle outside of training, using the inner chakra gates should be left as a last resort to save your life. You already know that, so take advantage of this opportunity and use them here to their full extent.

Also, Ashura won’t kill you, but he doesn’t like losing, even in training, so expect him to be a mighty opponent, once again.”

The three of them went to the open desert, outside of the coliseum’s grand arena.

Hagaromo began to levitate and, from a safe location in the air, he watched the whole battle.

Ashura and Jim started with 30 meters of distance between them, when “the test” began.

Ashura started with his eagle sage mode, which would take him 30 seconds to obtain. Jim started with five shadow clones and continued with the earth sage mode. The shadow clones interrupted Ashura before he could finish, so it actually took him one full minute to become a sage, since, he had to deal with the clones first. Jim followed the earth sage mode with opening the six inner chakra gates. Thanks to the shadow clones, he had enough time to do it all before Ashura was ready.

Their second battle was pretty intense too, even though they were not fighting as true enemies now. Ashura’s chakra mode and his yellow hands of chakra were still a mighty force, but they were not fast enough to catch someone that had the speed of six inner chakra gates open. Moreover, the combined powers of the earth sage mode and the incomplete human sage mode were enough to match and challenge Ashura’s “eagle” jutsus and his chakra powers. Because of his increased speed, long-range attacks like the big chakra shuriken were not working well against Jim. He was fast enough to avoid them completely. And when Ashura engaged him in close-range combat, with the help of his chakra arms and their yellow chakra blades, Jim’s sharingan was seeing which arm was going to attack him next, one second before it did it. Ashura was feeling a true challenge this time.

(Ashura and Zet didn’t inherit the sharingan eye. The only one of Hagaromo’s sons that had it was Indra. Furthermore, Indra never awakened the rinnegans, but his mangekyou sharingan was quite powerful.)

All in all, it was clear to Hagaromo that Jim Namikaze was fighting as an equal with Ashura. Neither of them was gaining a definitive advantage over the other. However, Ashura was not using any of the inner chakra gates, so the winner was still a given if the battle extended itself.

(Ashura’s “chakra mode” was the power that he inherited from Hagaromo. It did not require activation or anything else; he simply had it. That power came from the supernatural chakra that Kaguya obtained. Hagaromo got part of it from birth—he was one of her sons—and he obtained the rest from his ritual to seal the Ten-Tails chakra beast and its power within himself. He was also the first human that was born with the special sharingan eyes. “Goddess” Kaguya achieved the highest power at the Human Realm, but even she didn’t have the special sharingan.)

After three and a half minutes, the six inner gates reached their limit. When they closed completely, Jim collapsed on the sand. He couldn’t continue after that. Nearly all the chakra throughout his body left him, so he also lost the earth sage mode. The pain that followed was as bad as a lethal beating, and the toll on the body was visible this time: he began to bleed from the mouth and from the left side of his nose.

It was obvious that someone who opened all eight gates—someone that used 100% of the human sage mode—would die afterwards. It was also clear that someone at such a level would be more powerful than Ashura Otsutsuki.

Hagaromo used the Six-Paths healing seal technique on Jim. It was his greatest healing technique—it could heal nearly all damage caused by chakra and it reestablished the patient’s body as much as possible.

The effect of Hagaromo’s healing was incredible. The bleeding and the pain stopped almost right away. Jim couldn’t get up before, but now he felt that it was possible.

“The first test is over Jim Namikaze. You have done well. And now, you understand why this must be a last resort. You cannot use this in a normal battle, so you are going to need something else to beat an opponent that matches Ashura’s level. We are going to begin working on that tomorrow. I will teach you how to do a grand summoning. If you have trustworthy allies and you have to fight a powerful opponent, you shouldn’t hesitate about calling them. Having the ability to call all of them at once will make a difference for you.”

Hagaromo knew how important it was to ensure that Jim could beat someone at Ashura’s level, because he knew that this was the level of the Snake King’s main guardians, Black and Spiral. Thus, it was wise to ensure that “the most important piece” in the whole plan could stand against any of these obstacles. Beating the dark king himself was a different matter; even the holy sage would not have a guaranteed victory against him. However, Hagaromo knew that the other saviors of the future would be there too. Jim Namikaze wasn’t the only one…

Jim had only seen the man of the black cloak using a grand summoning before. No one else had done it besides that guy, so the technique was a big deal for sure…

The next morning, Ashura sat down in one of the seats at the center of the coliseum. He knew that the next training would be led entirely by his father. Seal-based techniques were Hagaromo’s specialty, no matter how complex they were. He even invented many of them himself.

(Hagaromo had the omnipotent chakra of the Ten-Tails beast sealed within. He had the final sharingan—the rinnegan eyes. He could also use all the elemental techniques, sealing techniques, and healing techniques. On top of that, he was one of the sons of Goddess Kaguya and a hero. Basically, he was the Jesus Christ of Naruto’s world…)

When Jim arrived at the arena that morning, he saw that Hagaromo was waiting for him with two large white bags and a big summoning scroll. The bags looked odd.

“Good morning Hagaromo.” (It was 4 o’clock, as usual.)

“What are these huge bags for?”

“We are going to use them today Jim.”

Hagaromo grabbed one of the bags and placed it upside-down. A cascade of small stones fell down from it.

“What you see here are 302 sand stones. They are solid, but they break easily. These will help you to perfect your execution of a grand summoning. You will be summoning all of them together. They are not alive, but summoning these objects with a large summoning scroll works just like summoning other living beings.

I will teach you the seal that is used to summon every single contract from a large scroll at once. It is different from the normal summoning seal, so nearly no one knows this. We will mark every stone with a slightly different chakra signature, and we will fill this empty summoning scroll with the same unique signatures. Then, you will begin to use it, until you have the hang of it.

Don’t forget that summoning these stones works just like summoning real allies.”

They prepared all the stones and filled up every space in the blank summoning scroll with the 302 seals—which were the same chakra signatures that were placed on the individual rocks.

“Hagaromo, what is the other bag for?

Also, why did you bring 302 stones when you could have brought 300? Wouldn’t it be the same?”

Obviously, Hagaromo wasn’t going to tell him that he was going to summon 302 monkeys in the grand final battle at The Leaf of the future; and this was preemptive training for that. However, the holy sage was happy to see that this little detail didn’t elude his apprentice’s awareness. He noticed that there were 302, rather than 300, which means that he actually counted them. The earth sage didn’t miss any detail and he certainly was smarter than he looked. Hagaromo—better than anyone else—knew that this quality was more important than all the power in the world, because it was the only weapon that could defeat a far more powerful enemy.

(In the past, the holy sage won against the Ten-Tails chakra beast without being able to defeat it, thanks to his advanced sealing techniques. He sealed the beast and its power within himself. Obviously, the beast that was the living embodiment of the original chakra fruit from the Zeta Realm was more powerful than what any human was ever going to be. Defeating that menace took more than just power and bravery. And Hagaromo was the one that figured out how to do it.)

He didn’t reveal his true intentions to Jim Namikaze:

“I filled the bag up to the top and that was the number of stones that it could carry. And you will see what the other bag is for soon. Try using the new seal and the summoning scroll we completed to bring all the stones to your side. Summon them all at once. It is the same process as with a normal summoning, but you will focus the seal and your chakra on the entire scroll, not just on one of the signatures.”

Jim created the grand summoning’s seal and used it on the entire scroll.

“Grand summoning jutsu!!”

Then, between 80 and 100 of the 302 stones appeared in the air around Jim, at different heights above him. And they began to fall.

It was a total disaster…

All the stones that appeared too high ended up broken after their crash with the surface. The others didn’t have an easy landing either. And we are not even counting that less than half of the total appeared, so he was not successful at summoning all of them either.

Hagaromo walked up to him with the second large bag, and he opened it, revealing that it was full of sand stones too.

“This is what the other bag is for. You will continue with the remaining ones. Then, when all of those break, you will use these and mark them with the same chakra signatures that the scroll already has.

As you can see, if you were summoning monkeys from the Earth Realm, you would have killed half of them, just with the initial landing. You also don’t cover enough area with the grand summoning’s seal to summon all of them. That can be handled with your shadow clones. Together, you and the clones can summon all of them at once, if you join your summoning seals. That will increase the area for the grand summoning and give you enough space to bring all of them.”

Jim Namikaze spent the next seven days practicing the grand summoning technique with his shadow clones and with the stones of sand. Hagaromo guided him to make sure that he would be able to achieve it in less time. Ashura didn’t participate in this training, but he watched what they did; and he was there every day, sitting on one of the seats at the center of the coliseum’s perimeter.

During the seventh day, Jim and his four shadow clones finally got it right: they managed to summon all the stones within a large circular area, at the same height (just half a meter above the ground), and without damaging any of them. Jim’s tendency to make things appear above the ground didn’t allow him to summon all of them at ground level, but it was good enough like this. Half a meter wasn’t going to hurt anyone, unless it was someone crazy—like Yoninke—who liked to “meditate” upside-down.

When Hagaromo saw that, he decided that the time for the special training had arrived, and the essential training had come to an end. Jim had completed all the essential tasks.

They only had 40 days left, before the day when the Human Realm’s future fate would be sealed.

It was time…

Hagaromo was standing at the center of the arena, in the coliseum, when he called Jim Namikaze. Ashura was sitting in the central area as well, but he wasn’t close to them. Neither Jim nor Ashura had any idea about what Hagaromo was about to do.

“Jim Namikaze, you have finished the essential training. Now, I am going to give you the new power that you need for the final training with me. This will allow you to reach my son’s level without using the inner chakra gates. Please stay still, and keep both of your eyes looking at my eyes.”

Jim wasn’t worried at all, but he was beginning to wonder what “the new power” was, and what kind of special training the Sage of the Six Paths had saved for last.

“Hagaromo, what is the power that you are going to give me?”

“You will see. This is part of what you need to help the saviors of the future during their grand battle with the Snake King.”

The holy sage seemed completely focused on what he was about to do. As always, it was very hard to guess what he was thinking because his rinnegan eyes—the sharingan’s final form—had different pupils than normal eyes. His eyes had a light violet color on the background and various black and thin concentric circles around the eye’s center. There was no way to tell what he was thinking just by looking at his eyes…

Hagaromo’s chakra began to create a large yellow aura around him and Jim.

“Six-Paths transfer seal!”

A large special seal appeared on the ground. The holy sage and Jim Namikaze were standing at its center. It had a diameter of five meters and it glowed with the yellow chakra.

Ashura noticed that his father’s last action seemed strange. Why was he doing that? Why would he need the special transfer seal for a training?

Hagaromo placed his left hand on Jim’s left eye—the one that was opposite to Maida’s sharingan—and his right hand on his own left rinnegan eye.

Then, he did it:

“Six-Paths rinnegan transfer jutsu!!”

When Ashura saw him placing his hands on the opposite eyes, he knew what was going to happen and he rushed into the arena to stop him:

“Father, stop! Don’t do it!! Dooonn’ttt!!!”

He didn’t make it in time.

Before Ashura could interfere, the seal surrounded Hagaromo’s hands and became pure light. Then, the light vanished and it was done.

Jim Namikaze thought that he was dreaming for a minute. (Waking up before 4 a.m., that was no wonder.)

Jim felt very different after it was finished. He only realized what really happened when Ashura arrived, enraged with the choice his father had taken.

“Why have you done this!? Do you understand what you have done father!?”

Hagaromo looked at him with his right rinnegan and with his normal left eye—which was the dark green eye he had as a little kid, before he got the mangekyou sharingans, and before he got the rinnegans.

“Yes, Ashura. I know what I did. I saved the future of our world and ensured the freedom of the human race for a while longer. Their chance of success is far better now.”

Ashura felt the opposite way:

“No!! You gave him almost 30% of your power. You may no longer be the most powerful person at the Human Realm. You won’t be able to stop wars single-handedly, like Goddess Kaguya could! What have you done!?”

Hagaromo wasn’t yelling like Ashura. He was calm and sure about his choices.

“Ashura, I would gladly give all my power if it guaranteed me that the human race’s future will be saved, and that the Snake King will be destroyed once and for all. You should think the same way, if you care about the people in our world.”

Ashura felt frustrated.

“I care about everyone, and that is why this worries me father. Now, you won’t be able to halt conflicts and wars. And if this Snake King is so powerful, then the earth sage and his friends won’t be able to defeat him either! The rinnegan won’t be enough!!”

“You may be right son, but he won’t be alone. Other powerful allies, the other saviors from the future, will be there too.”

Ashura still couldn’t calm his frustration.

“I can’t understand you. Why are you so afraid of this Snake King!? Why can’t we pay him a visit at the Realm of the Snakes?! My brother Indra, you, and I can defeat him! We can finish him there now!! We don’t need these future saviors that you are so obsessed with!!”

Hagaromo didn’t like his son’s reaction because he, better than anyone else, understood why they couldn’t do that. After all, he was the only one that could see the future’s possible paths.

He revealed something that he had never told anyone yet.

“We already did that Ashura, in one of the futures that I saw several years ago, when I started to train you.

The Snake King is as powerful as mother Kaguya, and he is not alone. His guardians can easily challenge us as well. Together, they killed you and Indra. I destroyed the two guardians after you two fought them, but I couldn’t stop him. He has techniques that even I don’t know anything about. One of them does something that even my vision of the future can’t reveal. I suppose it doesn’t take place at the Human Realm. That may be why even I cannot see it.

During that battle his guardians and you two died, but he still won. He defeated me with his unknown technique. He didn’t kill me though. Instead, he used me and returned to the Human Realm as me. Then, he brought the snakes here and, in that future, they defeated our armies because neither mother Kaguya nor us were here to stop them. He took over the Otsutsuki Clan and colonized the Human Realm afterwards.

It has always been like this in all my visions of the future. He defeats us in all of them, except one. And that is the one where Jim Namikaze and the other saviors of the future are present. We won’t be able to help them much, but others that are like us will be there when the Snake King returns. They will succeed where we failed. And for that purpose, I gladly gave him the rinnegan; and I will teach him how to use it.”

Ashura calmed down, but he still looked very disillusioned. He didn’t know what to believe.

“If that is your wish… I won’t stop you father, but I won’t stay here either.

I hope for everyone’s sake that you are right about everything.”

Ashura turned around and began to leave without looking back.

“Ashura wait!” shouted Jim.

However, Ashura just waved his left hand to say good bye and he left them there, without looking back even once.

“Hagaromo, are you sure about this?”

Jim felt different. His new left eye radiated with pure chakra-based power. However, he was more worried about Ashura’s reaction than about his new left eye.

“Don’t worry too much about him Jim Namikaze. He just needs time to think. He is young and powerful, but not very wise yet. He will be back before you leave. You’ll see.

What I need you to do now is to keep your mind focused on our last training here. The future of our realm may depend on it. During the next month, I will teach you some extremely useful techniques that the final sharingan can do. You will need them to help the others in the battles of the future.”

There were so many questions in Jim’s mind at that moment, but one of them stood out for him:

“Hagaromo, before we continue, there is something that I need to know.

Who are the saviors of the future?”

Jim was serious about this question.

Hagaromo smiled because he liked the question.

He was glad to know that “the trump card” for “the saviors” was young and skilled, but pretty clever as well. He was asking the right questions at the right time…

Hagaromo went straight to the point, since Ashura wasn’t there anymore. They were alone at the great arena.

“At this point in time, we are the only saviors of the future. I was the very first one. However, as time goes on, others become saviors as well. Our united efforts are the only power that can defeat an enemy like the Snake King. None of us has what it takes to do it alone.”

Hagaromo wasn’t done though. He was about to reveal who were two other saviors that, in many ways, were as crucial as Jim Namikaze, and as important as himself, to save the future.

NEXT— EPISODE 46: Saviors of the Future

 

 

Episode 44: A Mighty Opponent

Just as the holy sage Hagaromo suggested, Jim followed the sharingan’s vision and his own gut feeling to choose the right moment for the time jump. Even though nothing was certain, Jim felt that he was going to arrive at the right place. Such place was the ancient desert where he expected to meet Hagaromo in person, for the first time. (That was also the same location where the Snake King and the snakes fought “Goddess” Kaguya and her human Zetsu army, when Hagaromo—the legendary Sage of the Six Paths—was very young still.)

Jim appeared at the right time and at the correct zone within the vast desert. However, the teleportation summonings were rarely flawless. Something had to go wrong…

And, as we already know, what always seemed to go wrong for him was that he never appeared on the surface. He appeared in the air, at high altitude above the ground, ready for another sudden free fall—just like when he met Mina, and just like his arrival at the Royal Valley from the Earth Realm.

It caught him by surprise again; but a few seconds after he noticed that he was falling down, he thought that it was the reason why the holy sage emphasized that he needed to arrive in sage mode at the desert.

“This time it won’t be that bad because I am in sage mode! Thank you Hagaromo!! You are a genius!!”

Unlike the previous two times, he felt that this landing was going to be much easier and safer too. He was confident about his abilities as an earth sage. He also looked way too cheerful (for someone who was falling down from the sky) because he was going to meet the legend, the hero, and the savior from the ancient stories. He was going to meet the Sage of the Six Paths. He definitely looked strange because he didn’t seem worried, even though he was falling down at a great speed.

His chakra—in sage mode—was more powerful because it included the natural chakra that he had gathered. He also had the moderate chakra shield of the earth sages. However, he knew that his chakra shield was not going to stop the fall by itself; it wasn’t that powerful.

“Wind-shield jutsu!”

A sphere of protective winds began to appear around him, when he was 40 meters above the sands of the desert.

“Earth sage jutsu! Hands of sand!”

Several hands of sand began to rise from the surface. They clashed with the wind sphere and began to exert a great upwards force on it. They slowed it down considerably, but the sphere still crashed with the mountain of sand that was directly beneath it.

The crash was still quite intense; so even the strong winds from the shield were pushed apart completely. The moderate chakra shield on Jim’s legs was broken by the impact too, but nothing happened to him. His advanced earth-based technique, the wind shield, and the chakra shield managed to absorb the force of the crash. His fall was as strong as Kagami’s fall at the forest, but, unlike Kagami, he had effective ways to stop it. It still lifted buckets of sand into the air throughout the mountain of sand where he landed, but he was unharmed.

Right before he had that violent first contact with the surface, he was able to see that there was someone else already there. There was a man with dark clothing on the top of the same mountain of sand where he landed.

However, when he finally landed, the impact was so strong that he even fell backwards and down the sand mountain. It didn’t look too much like a mountain either, from above; but when his feet touched it, it was obvious that the ground had an incline going downwards, at a 20 degree angle. He landed right where the inclined surface started, at the top.

Before he fell backwards, he got another more clear glimpse of the man there, despite all the particles of sand that he left floating on the air. The man was holding Hagaromo’s holy staff and facing the other way. He was probably looking at the other incline of the mountain of sand, on its opposite side. His hair was black and he was wearing a black cloak, like the one we had seen before in all the visions, but he didn’t have the hood on. Was this man the Sage of the Six Paths? It seemed like he was waiting for someone there…

When Jim finally finished his landing—all the way at the bottom of the sand mountain’s hill—he was a sandy mess, but he wasn’t hurt at all. Clearly, this wouldn’t have been the case if he had not arrived in sage mode. Even though he left his belongings scattered on the hill, he still felt like everything had been great. He stood up practically unharmed.

“It’s amazing how he really knew every detail, even something like this. This is why he wanted me to arrive in sage mode. He knew that it would save me from the landing!”

Jim began to remove the sand from his clothes and from his head. He used a “soft” wind technique to finish that quickly.

“It’s time for me to meet the greatest hero of the Human Realm. I wonder if that guy up there was him. He didn’t have black hair at the Dark Realm and he was older, but, maybe he is younger now.”

When Jim looked up, he saw that the man had been standing there watching him. He probably had been there, looking at him, since he fell down from the top.

At that moment, the Sun was shining on Jim’s face in such a way that made it very hard to distinguish the face of the one at the top. The man had his hands behind his body and he was holding Hagaromo’s staff with one of them. The black cloak’s cape was moving with the wind, at his side, and he looked very dark, because of the sunlight and the angle from where Jim was seeing him. Something was clear though: that guy was not an old man, and he definitely looked like the Sage of the Six Paths, but younger.

The man grabbed the cloak’s black hood and covered the top half of his face with it. The Sun settled afterwards, and Jim Namikaze got a very clear view of him. There was no doubt about it: he was holding the same staff that the holy sage had at the Dark Realm. His face wasn’t visible now, because of the hood, but Jim saw that the black cloak that this person had looked very much like the one that the “menace of the future” used in every vision where he was present. It seemed odd, because, why would Hagaromo wear that dark cloak, instead of the white one he always used? In spite of that, the man had Hagaromo’s holy staff, so it made sense to think that it was him.

Jim Namikaze shouted at the stranger:

“Hey!! Over here!! It’s me!! Hagaromo!!”

Jim only had the Namikaze sword, one knife, and Mina’s dagger. Everything else had been left behind on the sand when he landed. He definitely didn’t think that he would need any of it right away, since he wasn’t expecting any kind of battle there. Luckily for him, he arrived in sage mode from the start! He had no idea of who was going to “greet him” there, and what was waiting for him…

The “dark-looking sage” didn’t say a single word. He simply raised Hagaromo’s staff and created five wind-based portals that pointed at Jim’s spot from different locations around him. A sixth portal of dark wind also appeared on the air, in front of the unknown one. After that, a powerful yellow cloak of chakra began to surround him. It looked exactly like the Seventh Hokage’s (Naruto’s) yellow chakra mode—which Jim had seen in Hagaromo’s vision previously, so he already knew what it looked like.

Jim Namikaze began to feel concerned about what he was seeing. There was no need to display this kind of power, unless it was going to be used. This definitely didn’t look like a welcome greeting. Something was wrong!

The man of the yellow chakra and the black cloak attacked with a devastating wind-based technique:

“Eagle sage art! Star tornado!!”

He launched a horizontal barrage of chakra-powered winds through the last portal that he had placed in front of himself. The wind-based attack resembled Jounen’s tornado jutsu, but the yellow chakra around it was making it look worse than that. The other five wind portals replicated the same attack and five yellow twisters came out of them. They were heading to the center (of a star-like formation that had the five portals at the five edges of the star); and the center was exactly where Jim Namikaze was standing.

It was evident now that the one in the black cloak had to be an enemy. But… was he the Sage of the Six Paths himself, or was he someone else?

Jim thought that it had to be someone else. But then… how did that person get Hagaromo’s staff? And, even worse, why did the black cloak look so similar to the one that the unknown menace always used in the visions? Was it the same cloak? Was this the same person!?

Naruto had blonde hair, like Mina, so Jim didn’t associate this black-haired threat with the Seventh Hokage, even though he had a similar power with a yellow “chakra mode”…

“Earth sage jutsu! Land shaper!”

Jim reacted by raising a large hill of sand where he was standing. Unfortunately, sand was pretty weak in comparison to solid earth and rocks; and sand was the only earth-like element at that desert. The hill’s bottom couldn’t stand the impact of the five twisters at the same time. They went through it easily, like a fish that goes through water, as if it was nothing.

The hill of sand started to lose height quickly, while it was consumed by the union of the five twisters at the bottom. Jim Namikaze stayed above because he summoned four hands of sand that kept him above the turbulence. The hands came from spots below that had not been affected by the five twisters. From there, his view of the enemy was perfect. Jim wasn’t cheerful about the situation there anymore though.

“Why isn’t Hagaromo here and why are you attacking me!!? Remove your hood and show me your face!!”

Jim Namikaze sounded very aggravated.
This definitely wasn’t the welcome that he was expecting.

The “mighty opponent” didn’t say anything. He wasn’t even done with his previous technique. He made another hand seal and pointed one hand to the five twisters that formed the star-like shape. Then, he raised his other hand up.

Jim realized what would happen next very quickly. The star shape and its yellow tornadoes would rise up! It meant that it was going to catch him for sure. He had to leave that whole area as fast as possible. However, his full range to raise new earth-based hands was within the star. Those could not save him anymore…

He quickly grabbed Mina’s dagger and threw it as far away as he could. He knew that her daggers already had a seal for quick use with the replacement technique; thus, he didn’t have to mark it with the replacement seal first.

The five twisters united and began to form the star-shaped tornado. They went up quickly, destroying and pulling apart anything in their way up. Jim disappeared from there when it was about to reach him.

“Replacement jutsu!!”

Mina’s dagger had fallen outside of the star tornado’s area. He appeared there and the dagger appeared where he was before. Basically, they switched places. (This was the normal use of the replacement technique that Hiruzen taught him; the more advanced ways to use it—such as Mina’s personal technique—teleported you to the other object’s location, without switching places with it. Thus, you could grab the other object and use it again.)

The “dark foe” terminated the star tornado as soon as he noticed that his target had escaped. There was no need to waste more chakra on that. Even though his powerful inner chakra was plentiful, he still didn’t like to waste it during battle.

Jim Namikaze knew how vast the desert was. Regardless of how powerful the enemy was, he knew that escaping was not an option there. The only choice was fighting and neutralizing this threat in some way. And being in sage mode was his best bet to make it happen. Finally, he realized why Hagaromo was insistent about the need for him to make the trip in sage mode. It wasn’t just to help him with the landing…

He couldn’t let this powerful opponent get an advantage over him, so he was the one that resumed their confrontation, after the star tornado was gone.

“Grand earth-shaper jutsu!”

Hundreds of small spheres of sand levitated and took the shape of shurikens and knives. They were not as strong as rocks or other earth-based weapons, but they looked solid and deadly, like real shurikens and knives.

Jim raised the multitude of sandy weapons to a high altitude and launched them at his mighty foe from every angle. It was a cascade of attacks that could not be escaped by any normal means.

Right before it began, the enemy placed Hagaromo’s staff in the sand in front of himself, and he raised his hands. He began to strengthen his yellow chakra shield. The yellow chakra cloak that surrounded him became larger, more visible, and much more intense; it was almost like a real yellow flame, at a large scale.

The sand shurikens and the knives began to fall on him like a mini-meteor shower. Every single one was exploding or breaking apart, when they crashed with the powerful chakra shield. Not a single one was reaching the true target though. At the end, the artillery of sand couldn’t break through the chakra shield.

Jim Namikaze didn’t give the enemy a chance to attack him. He quickly prepared a stronger technique, focused on delivering a single devastating attack:

“Earth sage jutsu! Crushing earth strike!!”

He unsheathed his Namikaze sword and delivered a slash that was aimed at the enemy. Behind him, a giant sword of sand rose from the desert and followed the same trajectory as his sword. It was going to fall on the enemy’s position!

The man within the black cloak realized that the giant sword was probably too much to stop it with his body’s chakra alone. It was a risk to let it land on him, so he didn’t allow it:

“Eagle sage jutsu! Crushing wind strike!!”

He swung both of his arms at the sword of sand from the side, using another huge sword of wind that was created almost instantly. He split the sword of sand in half, right above his head. The two halves still had a grand clash with the surface, but neither of the two fell on him. He also knew that the earth sage was not going to recover instantly after using that large and powerful attack, so this was his chance.

The mighty adversary created a wind-based shuriken on his left hand and a yellow chakra shuriken on his right hand. Both had the size of a plate; however, he joined his hands and united the two. The union fused the two shurikens and created a much larger one:

“Cutting chakra shuriken!!”

The yellow shuriken of spinning winds and chakra was one meter in diameter when the man of the black cloak launched it towards the earth sage. It didn’t take a straight path either; the shuriken moved like a curve ball on a horizontal plane or like a boomerang—but it wasn’t coming back because it wasn’t shaped like one. It seemed like it wasn’t going to hit the target at first, but, in reality, it was approaching it in curve fashion.

Jim Namikaze had already seen this chakra shuriken before. It resembled a powerful attack used by the Seventh Hokage, Naruto, in his battle with the man of the black cloak and his guardians (in Hagaromo’s vision). The mighty opponent had just used a similar version of the wind-based rasen-shuriken. He created it using a different method, but it still behaved like Naruto’s attack.

“Earth wall jutsu!!”

Jim raised a wall of sand on his left. However, he quickly realized that it wasn’t going to stop that huge shuriken. Right away, he made a hand of sand, and the hand pushed him forward with great force. It almost sent him flying forwards, but he knew what he was doing.

The chakra shuriken went through the sand wall as if it was nothing; and it also destroyed the hand of sand. It had gained greater speed at the end, so it reached the wall faster than what Jim expected. It went through there at the same moment when the hand pushed him forward.

When he landed—several meters beyond where he was—he noticed that the earth sage’s natural chakra shield was completely shattered on the back side of his body. The shuriken had not even hit him, but having it too close to him was enough to do that much. If something like that could hit him directly, he was dead, even in sage mode…

Who was this guy anyways?? Was he the same one that he saw in his visions? How did he even know that he was going to land there!? It really seemed like the enemy had been waiting for him there…

Jim was already aware of one thing: his earth-based attacks were not enough to defeat this enemy at the desert. (Sand was making them weaker, so they were not working in his favor.) It was very risky, but he felt that going at close-range combat with this guy was the only choice he had. The desert was huge and there was no place on sight to use as a shield, and no real options to escape.

Nearby, he saw Mina’s dagger lying on the sand. He quickly grabbed it and placed it where he had it before, in the left side of his ninja vest from The Leaf. Seeing it again made him feel glad and, at the same time, it reminded him of her… He had to make it! It couldn’t end there. He had to see Hagaromo and he had to return to Mina; however, he would have to get pass this enemy first.

Jim grabbed the Namikaze sword. He already knew what to do next.

“Earth sage jutsu! Earth booster!”

His inner natural chakra—the amount he had gathered to become an earth sage—extended itself from his body to his sword. It focused entirely on his arms, his legs, and his sword. It would help him to deliver devastating close-range attacks, just like he did during Team Namikaze’s battle versus Dormon.

When Jim was done with focusing the sage chakra for close combat, rather than for techniques, he began to move quickly towards his foe. He was getting closer and close to the enemy.

The man within the cloak was starting to feel annoyed with this battle:

“I don’t have all day long for this. Let’s see what he’s made of now!!”

He began to prepare one of his major techniques, and he managed to unleash it before Jim Namikaze could get to him:

“Eagle sage jutsu! Cutting windstorm!!”

The wind everywhere began to get very heavy and violent. It seemed like there was no way to avoid it. The man of the cloak also started to mix part of his yellow chakra with the wind. The windstorm became a serious problem in less than 30 seconds.

Jim Namikaze was just ten meters away from the mighty master of wind, but he had to stop moving and focus on not getting carried away by the storm. He thought about using the earth sphere shield, but he would lose complete sight of the enemy. What would happen if he threw another chakra shuriken at him at that moment? Clearly, he couldn’t use earth shields because losing sight of the threat wasn’t wise to survive.

The problem was that the traces of violent wind that were mixed with yellow chakra began to destroy the sage mode’s natural chakra shield. Jim realized how deadly the grand windstorm truly was when he noticed that. Slowly, but surely, the chakra-charged winds would end killing him. It was only a matter of time. And that wasn’t all, the windstorm was making it too hard to move, so he couldn’t do anything.

The unknown man was being protected by his yellow chakra cloak, which surrounded his black cloak. (Clearly, the chakra mode was more powerful than a sage mode. However, that guy also had sage-like powers for the wind-style.)

Jim Namikaze looked at the man of the cloak, who wasn’t too far from him. He was just maintaining the windstorm and standing there, as someone that was simply waiting for an inevitable outcome. Was this how it was going to end?

Jim held Mina’s dagger for a couple of seconds and, after years without using it, he decided that this was the moment to use it again:

“I am sorry Hiruzen, but I will have to make an exception to beat him. This is my last resort!
Inner chakra gates! Open first and second gates!!”

The increase in speed and power from the forbidden taijutsu technique (a type of jutsu that used the body’s life force, instead of chakra) combined with the current power from the earth sage mode made a devastating combo: now he could move and attack within the windstorm!

Jim Namikaze rushed towards the enemy and directed a grand slash at him with the Namikaze sword. He advanced the ten meters between them in two seconds, in the middle of the wild storm!

The man of the cloak was not expecting that. He dodged, but the tip of the sword still reached him and it made a very large cut on the black cloak. It also went through the chakra shield, which was what surprised him the most. Something about the earth sage was different now. Clearly, he couldn’t underestimate him!

The windstorm began to fade away very quickly because the enemy had to let it go to focus on the battle. Jim Namikaze didn’t stop his combinations of sword slashes and kicks; and he was considerably faster than before. The enemy had to act really fast. He made a wind-based blade with one hand and a chakra blade with the other.

A brief sword battle took place between them, until Jim jumped back and gained some distance.

“Shadow clone jutsu!”

Three shadow clones of Jim Namikaze appeared there. All three had the Namikaze sword, the earth sage mode, and the two open chakra gates. Together, the original and two shadow clones clashed with the enemy, while the third clone used earth techniques to shape the terrain for their advantage—just as Hiruzen taught him. It was a serious ninja battle among elites! Slashes, kicks, counterattacks, and spinning attacks were flying all over the place. It was impressive how the man within the cloak managed to handle that offensive all by himself, but even he was pushed back after a while.

The mighty opponent had no choice but to use his full power. The chakra cloak became more intense and several yellow hands of chakra came out of it, each one holding a chakra blade. For a moment, the man of the cloak looked like a yellow chakra demon. He had his two hands and about eight other hands with chakra blades covering him.

Nonetheless, the mighty foe noticed that he wasn’t gaining a final and definite advantage over the earth sage and his clones. He looked at Hagaromo’s staff and decided that he had to go back there to get it. Hagaromo’s weapon wasn’t a simple staff. It could help him to make a more powerful chakra blade that could cut through anything. Slowly, he began to make an opening to run and get the staff once again.

Eventually, all the clones disappeared, after getting caught by some mighty slashes from the chakra hands and their blades. Then, Jim Namikaze went back and the enemy rushed towards the holy staff.

Jim felt that his sage mode was approaching its limit. He didn’t have much time left, and to make matters worse, he had opened the inner chakra gates too. Soon, the battle would be over for him, regardless of the outcome. He would feel hurt after the inner chakra gates depleted his chakra. And without sage mode, his chances to win against this enemy were almost nonexistent. He had to risk everything to end the battle quickly. Otherwise, his chances were over.

The man of the black cloak reached Hagaromo’s staff and he fused his chakra blade and the wind blade with it. With the yellow aura and the wind surrounding it, the staff looked more powerful than ever before.

The time to end the battle had arrived.

Jim Namikaze was going to risk everything on winning with his next offensive. He had no other choice.

“Inner chakra gates! Open third and fourth gates!!
Shadow clone jutsu!!”

He had not done this in years, so his limit was opening four gates (out of the eight), just like before. However, if you remember correctly, this packed a really serious punch in the battle versus sage Zet Outsutsuki (White Zetsu) at Maida’s village. And Jim Namikaze wasn’t even a sage back then! This was easily the highest level that we had seen him at throughout the entire story so far; and, as if that wasn’t enough, the other five shadow clones he made had this power too.

The original and the five shadow clones held their Namikaze swords and rushed towards the enemy. The mysterious foe raised his chakra mode and the yellow chakra around the staff to their highest level. The chakra grew around him, forming a grand aura that was several meters wide. Then, he also rushed towards the earth sage.

This was their final clash!!

Jim Namikaze and his clones were faster, but before all of them could reach the man of the black cloak, something unexpected happened. Five huge hands of chakra came out from the immense chakra cloak and grabbed the five clones. The hands rose very high and went back to the ground at a breaking speed. They were going to crush the shadow clones with the surface. However, before that happened, Hagaromo’s staff, in the hands of the mighty opponent, and the Namikaze sword, held by Jim, had a grand clash.

At that moment, Jim could hear how the giant hands of chakra began to fall around them, on the surface; and he could feel the overwhelming power coming from the staff and the yellow chakra that surrounded it. The hands disappeared but so did his shadow clones, which were the last ones that he could make there.

The force of their clash was very strong and the impact felt like a massive shockwave. It was so great that the black hood was pushed away from the enemy’s face completely. Then, the Namikaze sword began to crack, right where Hagaromo’s staff hit it, and it fell down from Jim’s hands to the ground of sand. Jim’s sword was broken in two parts. His earth sage mode also came to a halt after that clash. (He was lucky because he still had it when that happened.)

Even though the enemy’s face had been revealed, Jim looked at his broken sword first. It brought him a fast flashback of the time when he saw the man of the black cloak and his alternate self, the First Namikage. This looked just like that time: the powerful shadow clones were gone in the blink of an eye, the sage mode was not enough, and the Namikaze sword was lying on the ground, broken. The only detail left was him: he wasn’t dead yet.

Jim looked at the man that had the black cloak on. He wasn’t someone that he knew. He looked tough, serious, and a little younger than him (around 20 years old). A yellow color on the skin around his eyes was fading away—probably the “eagle” sage mode—but his yellow chakra cloak was just as alive as before. And this guy’s crazy power, at the end of their clash, was only comparable with Naruto’s “tailed beast” mode. That was the only thing like it that Jim had seen before—and even that was seen through a vision only, not in person. Was there any way for him to beat such an enemy? Was this enemy a jinchuuriki like Naruto?

The mighty opponent talked to him:

“Are you ready to surrender? You can’t beat me now. The battle is over earth sage and your time is up.”

Jim Namikaze thought very quickly: his time was not over, he still had the four open chakra gates. The sage mode had ended, but he still had one chance. He grabbed Mina’s dagger and threw it at the enemy’s face. Then, he grabbed a broken half of the sword from his feet and continued:

“Replacement jutsu!”

The enemy stopped the dagger, right in front of his face, with Hagaromo’s staff. However, the dagger disappeared and Jim appeared there. When the enemy saw him, Jim was moving the broken blade towards him at great speed; there was no time to escape it!

The mighty one dodged backwards as fast as he could and grabbed Jim Namikaze with a hand of chakra, but the broken blade still reached him, and it made a real cut on the left side of his neck. It wasn’t a serious cut, but it was too close… It proved that if he had not been extremely careful, the earth sage could have beaten him, during one of those careless moments.

The mighty opponent held Jim with the chakra hand, keeping six meters of space between him and Jim.

“You are as persistent and stubborn as my brother and my father. I have to admit that much, but this is the end of our battle. Earth sage of the future, I win.”

His voice was definitely not malevolent—like the voice of the other user of a black cloak in Jim’s visions—but it was still tough and unforgiving. So it was a reason to worry still, even though that different voice revealed that he wasn’t the same man from the visions.

He turned half of his chakra cloak into a large yellow sword and he swung it at Jim Namikaze—who was being held on the ground by a chakra hand, coming from the same cloak of chakra.

There was no way to avoid this one. Jim thought that this was going to be his end, but there were many things that he didn’t know still…

The chakra sword was halted in the air by someone that landed in front of Jim. That person grabbed the other guy with his own yellow chakra—he had the “chakra mode” too.

“Enough Ashura!! There is no need for more!”

Jim recognized the new voice and the white cape that this man was wearing. It was the holy Sage of the Six Paths, Hagaromo! However, Jim also recognized the name that Hagaromo said and that left him without words…

Both, Hagaromo and his descendants, were said to have great power. His two known sons—not the only ones; Zet was also his son, but these two were the famous and powerful ones that everyone knew about—were Ashura Otsutsuki and Indra Otsutsuki. Ashura was the leader of the Senju Clan, which was where Hashirama, the First Hokage and the main founder of The Leaf, was born many years later. Indra was known as the first leader of the once mighty Uchiha Clan, where Madara Uchiha was born (Madara was Maida’s grandfather and a powerful villain from the past).

Indra had the sharingan eyes and Ashura had the “ultimate chakra,” which once belonged to Goddess Kaguya. Hagaromo had both of those powers and more, because he was the one that sealed Goddess Kaguya’s power—in the form of the Ten-Tails chakra beast—within himself. He was also one of her sons, so he inherited part of that power and the special eyes, even before he had to find a way to defeat her to save the world.

Legends from the past talked about all of them, but there were many details that were left out, and not much was known about how Kaguya gained her “powers”…

Jim’s inner chakra gates reached their limit when Hagaromo arrived. He began to feel plenty of pain as soon as the gates closed. His chakra was at pretty low levels too. And his consciousness wasn’t very clear. However, his life was saved now; he knew that much…

Ashura was set free by Hagaromo and the holy sage walked towards his son. Ashura handed the holy staff to Hagaromo, but he didn’t seem content with what he had done.

“Didn’t you want me to fight him to the point of death!? I did exactly as you told me father. I even gave him the option to surrender.
Now, it’s time for me to take off this hideous black cloak. This doesn’t look like something a true ninja would wear. Monks wear this stuff. I don’t know why it was so important for me to use your staff and this black cloak with my face covered to fight him. What difference did it make?
And, isn’t he one of the ‘great saviors’ of the future that you talked about? I think our future is in great trouble if he is one of the ninjas that has to save us from an enemy that can beat even you. Did you see his utterly disastrous landing?? And yes, he is very good in combat and a good challenge, but that is not enough to stop the kind of threat that you described. He isn’t ready. If he was, then he would have been able to stop me, just like you can.
Father, it is time for you to tell me the truth.
Why did you even bring him here? Why did you want me to fight him at full power, as if he was a real enemy, and with that antiquated cloak on?!”

Ashura always followed his father’s orders and decisions, but this time he didn’t look happy about them at all. He felt that Hagaromo was hiding things from him.

Hagaromo touched Ashura’s neck and healed it almost instantly. Next, he used his chakra to create a small yellow platform that moved him and Ashura to where Jim was on the ground. Then, he put his hand on Jim Namikaze’s forehead and shared some of his chakra with him. Right away, Jim’s pain went away and he began to feel as if he had not used the inner chakra gates at all. Jim’s consciousness became more stable too. Finally, Hagaromo gave his answer to Ashura:

“That is exactly why I brought him here son; and that is also why I made you fight him. He is not ready yet. I wanted him to understand how powerful our true enemy really is. This enemy is capable of beating someone like you. I wanted him to experience that kind of power in a serious battle where he would not die for sure. However, I had to make him believe that it was the real deal; and that black cloak and my staff certainly did it, didn’t they?
We need to get him ready for the battle that will decide our realm’s fate in the future. We won’t be there, but it is up to us whether he will be able to help the other saviors of the future or not. There are many things that he can learn with us, in the ancient past.
That is why I brought him here. It is the only way to save the future and our realm from the Snake King’s future attack, and from the enemy that uses a black cloak, like the one you used today.”

Ashura was beginning to understand his father better, even though he was sure that there was still something left to say…

Ashura threw the black cloak on the sand and looked at Jim, who was still on the ground:

“If that is the case and if you truly will do so much for our world’s future, then, I am willing to forget our battle here, earth sage Jim Namikaze.”

Ashura extended his left arm and grabbed Jim’s left hand to help him get up. At the same time, Hagaromo grabbed Jim’s right hand.

At least, Jim Namikaze was glad that a round two with Ashura wasn’t starting right away. That was one of the most intense battles he had in his life, and it wasn’t even 100% for real! Clearly, he wasn’t at their level. However, the holy sage already knew that. This was why he brought Jim Namikaze to his time.

He knew that Minato’s father was the “wild card” that was going to turn the tables on the Snake King’s plan, which would occur in the future. Hagaromo already knew it because he was the one that could see the Human Realm’s future, with his special sharingan.

The holy sage grabbed the two parts of the Namikaze sword and he changed it back to the way it was before:

“Six-Paths reversion jutsu.”

Then, he looked at Jim and asked the all-important question, while he handed him the Namikaze sword in perfect shape:

“Are you ready to learn what you need to help save The Leaf, its people, the future Hokage, and the entire Human Realm?”

Jim Namikaze was already certain that this was the right path for him.

“Yes, I am ready Hagaromo.
Thank you for the help and the guidance that you are giving me.”

Hagaromo’s facial expression showed that he was glad to see Jim Namikaze in person.

“Oh don’t thank me alone, my young son Ashura will also be present in the training that I am going to give you. I hope that he will be enough as your sparring partner.”

Jim Namikaze looked at Ashura and raised his eyebrows while he talked:

“Sure, he will be enough; he counts as an army already.”

Ashura began to laugh—which seemed impossible at first, with that serious tough-looking face of his.

“I think I am going to enjoy this. At least the earth sage has a better sense of humor than you and Indra, father. And, unlike my brother Indra, he can accept losing without getting vengeful. This shall be a great training.”

Ashura crossed his arms, but he seemed satisfied. He was starting to feel better already about following his father’s plan, even though he knew that the old man was surely keeping one or two secrets to himself—he always did it because he knew the future.

Hagaromo was pleased with this outcome. Jim’s arrival had been taken care of successfully. Now, his special training would follow. And then, the day of the great final confrontation would come…

Hagaromo raised Ashura, Jim, and himself twenty meters above the sands of the desert, with his yellow chakra platforms. He also used hands of chakra to grab some of Jim’s belongings from the ground. He only took the two books—Jim’s diary and his own “Ancient Summoning Craft”—and the two summoning scrolls (the large one with all the names of the brave monkeys, and the small one with just three names: Enma, Yoninke, and Sarzan). He didn’t pay any attention to the other weapons. Hagaromo only recovered what was necessary, and he knew that Jim already had the teleportation dagger with him…

Then, they began to move towards the place where he would train Jim Namikaze. The location was the “training temple” of the Sage of the Six Paths, which looked like a Roman stadium, or a colosseum, from the past. It was located close to the Otsutsuki Clan, which was the first formal clan of their “ninja world.”
(Kaguya created the Otsutsuki Clan when she united their world with the power of the chakra fruit, which gave her most of those godly powers that she had. Ironically, it became Hagaromo’s clan, right after he freed their world from the Ten-Tails chakra beast—which was what Kaguya turned into. Months after she defeated the Snake King and his army, Kaguya lost control of her power, as a side-effect of the Snake King’s curse seal from their battle. She defeated him and removed his curse, but she was still affected in ways which she could not overcome. The chakra fruit’s consciousness awakened and it eventually turned her into what it really was: the Ten-Tails beast that Hagaromo sealed away. Then, the legend of the Sage of the Six Paths was born and the truth about what happened before that was forgotten…)

Hagaromo talked to Jim and to his son:

“Rest and eat well today, because tomorrow we will start with the important training that will make a difference for our future.”

When he talked, Hagaromo looked just like he did at the Dark Realm, but now he was real. It wasn’t a vision anymore.

Jim Namikaze was eager to see what the future held for him, and what the Sage of the Six Paths was about to teach him. It had to be something amazing for sure. If Hiruzen taught him so much, imagine what this legend could teach him…

Little did he know that “the future” was going to happen faster than he expected… and it had plenty of surprises and unexpected outcomes…

NEXT— EPISODE 45: The Essential Training

 

 

Episode 43: Kagami’s End

Kagami noticed the different footprints shortly after he finished talking with Hiruzen. He was on his way to Konoha and the Sun was about to show its face; so the morning wasn’t too dark anymore. He recognized that the footprints on the ground were new and fresh. Whoever left them there had done it just a couple of hours ago. Apparently, Hiruzen and he were not the only ones that had some secret business to deal with, close to Konoha.

Kagami was a pretty skilled ninja. He noticed the footprints even though they were not that visible. Most average ninjas would have missed them, but he didn’t. It worried him that someone was bypassing their security, so he decided to follow the entire trail, which would surely lead him to the one who had done it. Besides, someone who was smart enough to bypass their security was not a novice ninja, so it was better if an elite like him took care of it.

Along the way, he noticed that the trail of footprints started to disappear. Whoever did it had probably noticed about it, so they began to erase their own trail. Kagami already had a good idea of where it was headed, so he continued on the right path, even after the footprints were gone. He was also very careful about hiding himself, since he didn’t know who or what was waiting for him.

Eventually, he saw a white snake and he realized that the snake was following the same trail as he. The snake was also erasing every footprint that it was finding! That surprised Kagami. It was clear that the snake was backing up someone, and that wasn’t all…

This was the same white snake that Kagami had seen in Jim Namikaze’s memories. It was the mysterious snake that always accompanied the powerful ninja that defeated them all. It was almost like a pet to this unknown man who had even killed Hiruzen and allowed the destruction of The Leaf.

Kagami’s concern about the situation skyrocketed immediately. As soon as he recognized that the white snake was the same one from Jim’s memories, it worried him that the one he was going to find was the man of the dark cloak. However, Kagami was pretty confident about his skills as an Uchiha elite and a master of the fire-style. He also knew that he would lose track of the snake and the other person if he didn’t continue following it. Ultimately, he didn’t look for any other support and he decided that he was going to deal with whatever he found on his own. Help in combat was not something that an Uchiha elite like him would need—he thought that. His mangekyou sharingan and his skills would be his backup…

After thirty minutes of following the snake while it covered every footprint, Kagami saw (from the tree where he was standing) that there was someone else waiting at that place. The one waiting there was Hiruzen’s top student, the pale boy, Orochimaru.

Kagami noticed that the footprints matched Orochimaru’s ninja sandals almost perfectly. He also saw that not everything about the white snake was exactly the same as before. Now, it had a strange violet-looking color on the skin around its eyes. Other than that, it was the same snake from the visions for sure. Kagami stayed there and watched what happened.

The snake climbed on Orochimaru’s right leg and moved all the way up to the kid’s shoulder. Then, it whispered something to him on his ear:

“You have to be more careful. I had to cover your trail again. You are going to get caught if you keep forgetting something so simple.
Are you ready to do this training again?”

The kid responded, pretty sure about himself:

“Yes, it is time to start.”

Then, Orochimaru extended his right arm—in the same way as the man of the cloak had done it in Jim’s visions. The white snake encircled the kid’s arm and a white light engulfed it. The light went away quickly and what was left in Orochimaru’s hand was the Sword of Kusanagi. Kagami remembered that this was the same sword that the man of the cloak had used before.

Next, Orochimaru placed the sword on the ground and he used a technique:

“Summoning jutsu!”

Dozens of normal snakes appeared around him. After that, the kid grabbed the sword and he began to fight the snakes. He didn’t just use the sword either. He also used various techniques from the different elemental styles. Surprisingly, his elemental attacks were more powerful than the sword itself. They were already at the level that adult users of those styles had. The kid was surprisingly advanced and powerful for his age. He defeated the dozens of snakes he summoned on his own. He seemed a little tired, but it had been an impressive display of his skills nonetheless. His jutsus were quite powerful already.

The snankes—between 35 and 45 of them—lied lifeless on the ground after the training. This was not the first time that he had done that either…

Kagami only had one path of thought in his mind after what he saw there:

“Orochimaru is the man of the black cloak from the visions. This kid, the gifted kid who can master and use all the styles, is the menace from the future!! If he is like this now, he will become so powerful that none of us will be able to defeat him in the future! He must be stopped now. His future self will only bring death and destruction to The Leaf and to our whole realm!”

Kagami unsheathed the two small katanas that he was carrying on his back—they were just a little longer than two feet each, but pretty strong as well. He had promised himself that he was going to take care of that guy if he found him; and now he knew his identity. However, he knew that the Third Hokage—Hiruzen—was never going to accept his way of dealing with it. He could be charged and judged for assassination of a fellow ninja from his clan. Considering that it was a kid, it could be far worse than that—they could decide to execute him right away. Besides, Hiruzen was never going to believe that his “gifted student,” the one that he saw as his favorite, was their greatest enemy and the biggest threat for The Leaf’s future.

At the end of the day, Kagami wasn’t evil like Danzo, but he certainly wasn’t as good as Hiruzen either. He was ready to kill anyone if it was necessary to protect The Leaf or the Hokage; and he was pretty well trained to do it. After what he had seen, Kagami decided that he was going to put an end to “the menace” on his own; and he would make it look as an ambush from some foreign ninja clan, after he was done.

At that very moment, the sword (which was really the snake) talked to Orochimaru to warn him:

“Stay still and get ready. There is a rat nearby. It will strike you at any moment.”

Kagami jumped from the tree and landed close to Orochimaru. As soon as he landed, he aimed two spinning attacks at Orochimaru, using his two small katanas together.

The kid dodged them because he was expecting them already, but the third one caught him by surprise. He didn’t think that Kagami would link the other two attacks with a third one so quickly. It was too fast, so Orochimaru didn’t react fast enough. However, the sword moved on its own and blocked the third attack’s path, before it landed on the kid. Orochimaru never stopped holding the sword; so, from Kagami’s point of view, it looked like the kid had done that super-fast counterattack, but, in reality, it was the snake who did it. Orochimaru’s hands moved with it, just because he never let go of the sword. The real attack wasn’t his though.

The counterattack’s power surprised Kagami. The kid was great at jutsus, but he looked thin and pale. Orochimaru didn’t look like a threat—at first—and he definitely didn’t look strong at all. Kagami was much stronger, yet he could feel great force as soon as that sword clashed with his katanas. He didn’t know that the great force was not coming from Orochimaru. Regardless, nothing scared Kagami. He saw this as another “secret” S-rank mission for The Leaf; and he was going to be victorious, just like he had been before. He never doubted his skills, no matter how great the threat was.

Kagami’s blades clashed with the Sword of Kusanagi again. This time he also surprised the kid with a mighty kick. And right after that, Kagami’s sudden slash with his left katana took away the sword from Orochimaru’s hands. In just a couple of seconds, Kagami kicked the snake sword away from them, and while it was still in the air, he set it on fire:

“Fire-shot jutsu!!”

The small ball of fire burst into a large flame as soon as it hit the sword.

Kagami did not see the snake as the major threat, so he believed that he had taken care of it with that.

Orochimaru finally started to fight him seriously though. Orochimaru saw the white snake as family and as his best friend. Knowing that the elite ninja from The Leaf could have killed it made him fight at his full power. When Kagami finished dealing with the sword and directed another slash towards the “snake kid,” Orochimaru used the most powerful wind-sphere shield seen in this story so far. Then, he aimed and propelled the wild winds against Kagami. The brutal winds lifted Kagami from the ground in an instant and pushed him back for 300 meters, making him hit everything on the path, until he finally managed to grab and hold one of the trees. All of that happened in just six seconds. Kagami also lost one of his katanas along the way. Although, he didn’t get any severe injury, Kagami certainly took a crazy beating from that attack.

When he went back on his feet, he saw that Orochimaru was walking towards him. The kid wasn’t afraid of him, but he obviously didn’t know what Kagami was capable of. Kagami had not been chosen as one of Hiruzen’s guards just because he was his friend…

Kagami lifted the only katana that he had and used a fire technique on it. A red flame, which looked more dangerous than normal fire, covered the top three-fourths of the blable. Then, Kagami lifted the sword and its deadly flame. (This made Kenn’s fire blades from the beginning of this story look like child’s play. Kagami’s techniques were vastly superior.)

“Infernal ring jutsu!!”

Kagami traced a circle on the air, all around himself, with the tip of the katana; and the red flame from the blade appeared on the circle as well. As he walked towards Orochimaru, the infernal circle followed behind him.

“Master of the snakes, I am going to finish you here! You are going to be the doom of The Leaf in the future, but I will make sure that it won’t happen. Come at me with everything you’ve got, or else our battle will be over now!!”

Kagami started to move very quickly—almost running—towards Orochimaru and with every fire slash that he directed at the kid, a sword of red fire came out of the ring and was shot in that direction at full speed.

Orochimaru stopped moving forward and he had to move back and dodge very fast to avoid getting hit by the fire swords, which looked like red arrows. Kagami was approaching him very fast. He had to act quickly against the Uchiha elite or else it was over!

“Lightning arrow jutsu!”

Orochimaru began to shot several lighting arrows at Kagami, but all of them were dodged. He became more worried about Kagami every second that went by, so he tried to stop him with something that would hit him for sure.

“Water-style crusher!!”

A giant cylindrical shape of fast-moving waters rose around an area that surrounded Kagami. Right away, the cylinder of wild waters began to close in around Kagami. Its diameter decreased very fast, but its humongous size didn’t. Nonetheless, the Uchiha elite didn’t look worried at all. He kept going towards the walls of crazy waters that approached him.

“If he thinks that he can stop a master of the fire-style with this, he still has a lot to learn about advanced fire techniques!
Infernal sphere jutsu!!”

The red circle of fire that was behind Kagami began to extend itself around him, forming a red sphere that looked like a powerful shield. He ran through all the water while the shield protected him. At the end, his shield took a serious beating, but it wasn’t destroyed and not a single bucket of water touched him.

The pale kid looked fearful for the first time, after he saw that his grand water-based technique didn’t do anything. He had to stop the Uchiha at all costs, or else he was dead for real. Kagami was just 35 meters away, when Orochimaru started to feel desperate—he wasn’t even putting a single step forward anymore. Thus, the kid did the first thing that he could think about:

“Grand earth barrier jutsu!”

Several large walls of earth rose up from the ground in front of Orochimaru. Then, Orochimaru began to run fast in the opposite direction. He was feeling depleted of energy already. He had a serious battle for training right before this, and he had used too much chakra during his last jutsus. He was a 10-year-old kid, after all. He definitely wasn’t ready for a long battle at this intensity; although, he certainly was better than most ninjas at that age.

Orochimaru saw how Kagami destroyed one of the large earth walls using his red sphere of fire and the initial red ring as a weapon. Both were gone after that, but the way the sphere destroyed that wall, as if it was some kind of laser, was quite impressive.

Orochimaru clearly wasn’t as brave as before anymore.

“You madman, why are you doing this!? Why do you want to kill me?! I am no menace!! The Leaf is my home; I would never do anything bad against it!!”

Orochimaru screamed that from the top of his lungs and he seemed sincere, but Kagami didn’t believe him.

“Enough lies snake kid! You are in range now; see you in hell!!”

From the top of the destroyed earth wall, which formed a small hill, Kagami unleashed one of the most powerful fire techniques of the Uchihas:

“Katon fire-style! Infernal blaze!!”

Orochimaru knew that he couldn’t outrun it, so he turned around, faced Kagami, and used the same technique at full power.

“Fire-style infernal blaze jutsu!!”

The two intense blazes clashed and began to push each other. At first, Orochimaru’s blaze was gaining an advantage, but when Kagami noticed it, his blaze started to push with more force. There was no way that he was going to let a non-Uchiha challenge him with that technique!!

To gain power, Kagami’s eyes changed to the sharingan and his sharingans turned into their mangekyou form. This helped him to make his fire attacks even more intense. There was no doubt that Kagami’s grand blaze was going to crush Orochimaru right there, but something else happened.

“Rock barrier jutsu!
Rock prison jutsu!!”

The white snake came back. It summoned a wall of rocks that stopped Kagami’s infernal blaze. And it followed it with five humongous ovals of rocks that rose up from the ground, on an area that surrounded Kagami’s location—just like Orochimaru’s water technique did before. The ovals and the way they were aligned resembled the petals of a flower.

Then, the giant rock petals began to close on the area that they had surrounded. They fused together and left anything within that place trapped.

The snake talked to Orochimaru:

“You are not ready to defeat him yet. Take this opportunity and escape. I will delay him further; then, I will flee from here as well. We will meet again at our cave. I will wait for you there. Go to see me there in two days from now.”

Orochimaru felt concerned about his friend:

“But, he is powerful! Can you do this alone?”

The snake looked confident.

“Yes, I can. Just run away from here already! He will be back soon.”

Orochimaru knew that he couldn’t use his techniques much longer. He was going to get in the way then. Therefore, he began to run away from there.

As soon as the snake noticed that the kid was getting away, it smiled and the look on its face changed from friendly to evil.

“Who said that I am going to fight him alone? That wouldn’t be fun, would it? I will give him a well-deserved welcome.”

The snake created a large complex seal and it used a technique with it:

“Grand summoning jutsu!!”

Dozens and dozens of snakes appeared beside their former king’s body.
(The white snake was the previous king of the Realm of the Snakes, before the current king took away its power and its throne. At this moment, however, the one doing this was the current Snake King, not the true white snake. This was the reason why the violet color had appeared around the snake’s eyes. The new Snake King was in control of the white snake now.)

Kagami noticed what was happening and he managed to escape the rock petals at the last second, before they could trap him within them. He took a serious hit from some falling rocks, while he escaped, so he couldn’t go after Orochimaru right away.

When Kagami was back, he saw the white snake and its small army waiting for him. He also saw that Orochimaru was getting away. He tried to use his mangekyou sharingan to put him to sleep, but it was already too late. His sharingan didn’t work at such a long distance.

Kagami looked like a mess, but he was still ready to fight.

“You and your buddies are back I see… I will have to finish you first then. I won’t let him escape!”

All the other snakes—around seventy of them—began to surround Kagami. Then, the white snake talked:

“The kid is the last of your worries now. Your only concern should be getting out of here alive, if you can.
Show us what you are made of!
Kill him!!”

The snakes had surrounded Kagami already. As soon as they heard the order, every single one jumped straight at Kagami with their mouths open. It looked like this was going to be Kagami’s end, but it wasn’t.

“Fire-style tornado shield jutsu!!”

Hundreds of small flames began to form a sphere around Kagami. They started to circle him at such high speeds that it really looked like a twister of fire had surrounded him. It was a perfect blend of the wind-shield jutsu and the fire-sphere barrier.

The battalion of snakes jumped at him at full speed. They all got burned pretty badly and were pushed back, as if they had hit a serious tornado for real. None of them could reach Kagami. And they fell from the sky, all over the place, like fried spaghetti, after they crashed with Kagami’s fire twister.

There were many of them that could move after the fatal burns. Those went after Kagami as soon as his fire twister stopped, but his other katana still had the red flame on it.

He cut through them with such speed and skill that he made the kid’s training with the snake sword look like amateur stuff.

Meanwhile, the white snake was doing what it did best: watching and analyzing the situation to make sure that victory would be on its side. Even though the Snake King was controlling it, it still had some consciousness of its own and a very minor degree of control over its own actions.

“This guy… he has to be one of The Leaf’s top elites. I may not be able to finish him off with this body. In that case…
Summoning jutsu! White Mitor!”

The huge white snake that Orochimaru had summoned before—the one that Hiruzen had to immobilize because he feared that it would eat Enma—appeared there. This snake’s head was six feet long and four feet wide. Just the head by itself was bigger than Kagami; and the body was much longer.

“Mitor, eliminate the human intruder!
You can have him for lunch if you wish; although, I doubt that’s going to keep you full…
Finish him!!”

The big white snake looked strong, but it didn’t seem that smart. Moreover, it didn’t talk, but it understood what it had to do.

Kagami realized that the small white snake was a much bigger threat than what he assumed at first. It didn’t look too powerful, but it could summon other snakes and it knew what it was doing pretty well. It could talk too, so it definitely was as smart as a human, at least.

“You are bringing backup. Why don’t you fight me yourself!? Are you scared of me?!”

The white snake ignored Kagami’s taunts and hid itself in the trees. It was going to watch, in order to strike at the right time, as it usually did.

The other one started to approach Kagami with the intent to attack right away. Kagami realized that stopping this huge one wasn’t going to be easy or simple. He couldn’t give it a chance to jump at him in an open space; it would catch him in no time! He ensured that he had trees on all sides, to make sure that the big snake would have to go around them or break them, before it could get him.

How was he going to stop it though?

This was starting to look more like a true S-rank mission now. (Suitable for master ninjas only)

Kagami had to keep it back with a series of fire arrows and with the help of the fireball jutsu. It seemed too dangerous to engage it in close sword-combat face-to-face. However, he noticed that the big snake had a much harder time following him when he wasn’t on the ground. Therefore, he began to take it to the taller trees nearby; and, once he got there, he began to jump higher and higher on the branches of the huge trees.

The snake was really large, but the trees were even bigger, so it had to climb up too. And soon, it was having a hard time with climbing. Its size and weight were a major disadvantage for that. Kagami used this situation to start landing some attacks on it. He believed that the only way he had to win was attacking the head and trying his best to blind the serpent.

Finally, a golden opportunity presented itself…

The Mitor saw an open path to jump and get Kagami with its mouth. Kagami was ten meters above its head on the tree in front of it, and there were no other trees in the way. The big snake gave a sudden jump and opened its mouth to catch its prey right above. However, it didn’t think much about what it was doing. The one on higher ground had the advantage here. (Remember this snake was huge, but really dense when it came to strategy. It just acted by instinct. It definitely had nothing in common with the previous Snake King, other than its white skin. And it certainly didn’t think like a ninja either.)

The White Mitor looked frightening, but it was 100% open to getting hit by anything; and it didn’t give itself any chance to avoid it, just like the large battalion of smaller snakes before it. It only attacked, but it forgot about defending or dodging completely.

At that moment, Kagami attacked it with another fireball jutsu that hit it right on the eyes. Immediately, it closed its mouth and began to fall down with its eyes closed too. It wasn’t looking at Kagami anymore. That was the moment when Kagami recognized his chance to take the beast down. Then, he took the risk:

Kagami jumped from his tree all the way down to the snake’s head. He landed on the center of the head with his fire katana ignited, giving the snake a serious mortal wound on its head. The katana impaled the head and its entire blade went into it. Kagami jumped out of the way and left his katana behind, before the snake’s grand crash with the ground.

The Mitor began to hit trees moving like crazy—with Kagami’s katana stuck on its head—after it landed on the ground. It didn’t see anything either because its eyes had been hit directly by the fireball.

Shortly after that, it stopped moving and it stayed there, motionless on the ground.

Kagami had jumped out of there since the beginning, to avoid the serpent’s final madness (which resembled the way roaches look when they get hit by Raid). Then, Kagami came back. He jumped on the head and pulled out his katana. He had also picked up the other katana that he had lost during the battle with Orochimaru (he saw it nearby).

The Snake King was beginning to feel a burning indignation. He wanted Kagami dead!!

However, fighting him in the body of his “weakest” guardian—the white snake that had been the king before—was not a good idea, especially after seeing what this guy could do.

It was time to call one of the most fearsome animals from the Realm of the Snakes. Even the other snakes were scared of it…

However, the Snake King got the surprise of a lifetime before the new summoning. Kagami almost killed him before that!!

Kagami put his two small katanas on their original sheaths, on his back. Then, he turned around and did it:

“Fire-style burning-arrow!!”

He shot an arrow of fire at the exact spot where the white snake had been hiding. Somehow, he had managed to spot where it was, during the frantic battle with the other snake. This was what it meant to be a true S-rank ninja!!

The Snake King—in his guardian’s body—was caught by surprise. He jumped, but part of the arrow still caught him and burned his tail (the end of the white snake’s body).

This was utterly unacceptable!!

No one had been able to do that to him ever; so now, the battle with Kagami became a personal matter.

“Summoning jutsu! Mighty Manda!!”

The small white menace summoned one of the ten largest snakes from the world of the snakes. It was also one of the six most powerful snakes at their realm.
(The most powerful being at that realm was the current Snake King, who we are going to meet in just a few chapters… you’ll see…)

The new summoned beast was something else altogether…

Kagami felt as if something had changed on the land. The whole ground looked violet and it felt different. It was as if he had been teleported to a different place, but he knew that he was still there.

Then, a large portion of the ground ahead of him began to move, and it turned around.
It was the head of a gigantic violet snake!

This one was ten times bigger than the other!
(And we thought that the other one was already huge. Jesus…)
Its head was the size of a house.
Everything felt tiny compared to this monster.

Obviously, the two small katanas were not going to do much against this one…

“Manda! Crush that human in front of you! Squash the insect!!” yelled the white snake, from a safe place.

The giant snake looked at Kagami and then it looked back at the tiny white snake:

“Is that the insect that you want me to crush? Why don’t you crush it yourself? It looks pathetic.”

The white snake was on the border of exploding from anger.

“You idiot!! Take a better look at my eyes! Your king is the one that is talking to you now. Follow my orders and eliminate him. Otherwise, I will kill you when you return!”

Kagami was surprised for a second. Was that little white snake really a king that could give orders to the huge ones!? It didn’t make much sense, unless it really was far more powerful than what it looked like. However, he barely had time to think, since Manda had appeared right below them. (Kagami was standing on the giant snake’s body.)

When Manda fixed its eyes on him, Kagami attacked, before it could catch him.

“Infernal blaze jutsu!!”

Kagami kept the mighty blaze going for half a minute aimed at Manda’s face. However, he had to stop because he was starting to feel fatigued from the battles. Soon, he wasn’t going to be able to use any other jutsus, if he wanted to conserve the chakra that he had left to fight.

When the flame was gone, the giant snake was still looking at him. The infernal blaze barely did anything to it!

Kagami used the mangekyou sharingan, but unfortunately, it didn’t have any effect. Putting a colossal snake to sleep wasn’t the same business as putting a 5’8” human to sleep…

Next, he unsheathed the katanas and slashed the place where he was standing, but it didn’t have any effect either—not even a scratch. This snake wasn’t just far bigger; its skin was much tougher too. If fire and his weapons didn’t work, what was he going to do? How could he win against this!?

Obviously, staying there or remaining stationary against this beast was a guaranteed death, so Kagami tried to escape from the snake’s huge body as soon as possible. He created three shadow clones and made Manda think that one of the clones was the original, to give himself enough time to escape to the forest.

It worked, but Manda never lost sight of him. The giant snake only had to move a little and it was already at Kagami’s location. It was too large, too fast, smarter than the other one (it talked), and apparently, it had the eyesight of an eagle too. There was no way to escape this animal; and defeating it was definitely out of the question—at least for Kagami.

However, that was the nature of battles and challenges in most S-rank missions. You couldn’t expect opponents that were not better than you and your life was often at the edge. (Jim Namikaze’s trip to the Earth Realm was considered an S-rank mission too.) Thus, the key to victory was not having the highest strength or power; it was having the ingenuity to come up with better tactics than the opposing forces, in the middle of a battle where life itself was on the balance.

Kagami had one of those ingenious ideas when the great snake finally caught him. It almost asphyxiated him just from holding him for a few seconds. The giant Manda wanted to swallow him though, so it made the mistake of throwing him very high in the air after that, without checking if he had done anything suspicious before.

Kagami was lucky because he had learned about rare advanced techniques from the Second Hokage—just like Hiruzen and Mina did. Many of these techniques didn’t have anything to do with attacking, but they were serious “table turners” in any battle. Mina’s teleportation with seals and objects, Jim Namikaze’s time jumps with the sharingan, and Naruto’s shadow clones were in that special category. The technique that Kagami used was also a game changer for his situation:

“Seal-breaker jutsu! Dispel summoning seal!!”

Manda jumped to swallow the tiny human while it came down in free fall. Then, the gigantic snake disappeared, all of a sudden, and right before it could eat Kagami.

(It had been called with the summoning technique, which used a summoning seal to make the animal appear at the different realm. The summoner could just dispel that seal and the animal would go back to their realm. He or she also placed that seal on them automatically with the summoning technique. However, the ingenious Second Hokage figured out how seals could be broken using other seals. Part of what helped him to figure it out was the content in the book “Ancient Summoning Craft” by some unknown ancient author. Kagami, as one of Second’s top students, learned that technique too.)

A while back, Kagami drew the seal that could break other seals on the giant snake’s skin, using fire. Manda didn’t even feel it. Then, Kagami used the jutsu that would activate it for the summoning seal—which was the one that made it possible for the snake to remain in the human world. Therefore, the summoning ended, right after Kagami broke that seal from Manda.

Unfortunately, Kagami was left in a situation where it was too difficult to defend because he was falling down, in free fall.

He could see how the small white snake was waiting for him below, on the ground. What was the little villain up to?? Either way, Kagami had to break his fall somehow, or else it would kill him, even if the snake didn’t do anything. Unfortunately, he wasn’t Jim Namikaze, so he couldn’t use earth-based techniques to stop his fall; and the only wind-based technique that he could do was the fire tornado shield (which was half wind and half fire). Despite how skilled he was, he could only do fire-style jutsus (he wasn’t one of the super rare ninjas that could use several styles). Thus, he had no other choice to survive. He only knew one way to have a chance at survival:

“Fire-style tornado shield!!!”

The Snake King smiled from below, as his deadly white guardian, and from the Realm of the Snakes, as the new powerful king that had conquered them.

When Kagami was approaching the top of the tall trees there, with the sphere of flames covering him, the white snake turned into its weaponized form, the Sword of Kusanagi—which was the Snake King’s personal sword, even before he took over the world of the snakes.

Then, the sword aimed the tip of its blade at Kagami Uchiha’s heart. The sword began to spin faster and faster and, all of a sudden, it rushed towards Kagami like a lighting arrow. It went through the shield of wind and fire and struck Kagami right below the heart. It missed its target just by one inch.

Kagami felt how the snake sword went through him, at the same moment when his shield crashed with the ground.

The shield wasn’t enough to stop the whole impact from his grand free fall. The entire shield was shattered and Kagami broke his right hand and his right arm, trying to shield the rest of his body from the impact. The snake sword was still just one inch from his heart, after the impact was over.

Was this going to be Kagami’s end??

It didn’t look like he had any chance of survival at that point, but he wasn’t dead yet…

Both Mina and Hiruzen heard the tremendous noises that the giant snake Manda made, before Kagami sent it back to its realm. The giant animal broke many trees and destroyed the place completely. It sounded like a devastating battle, or even a war, was taking place somewhere nearby. Both, Hiruzen and Mina, changed routes and they began to go towards the location of the clash. It was several miles away from them though. Inor Yamanaka—one of Hiruzen’s Anbu ninjas and one of Kagami’s teammates—and several surveillance ninjas also left their positions and rushed towards the source of the clash, as soon as they heard those bomb-like noises, which were a signal of disaster for sure.

At the location of the battles, the part of the Kusanagi Sword that was outside of Kagami’s body turned into the white snake. It left the end of its body in sword form, close to Kagami’s heart. Then, it encircled Kagami and talked to him:

“I never thought that you would make it pass Manda. Humans never cease to impress me. Maybe, that is why I desire to have this realm next.”

Kagami was overwhelmed with pain everywhere, but the snake’s last words struck him harder than any pain. He looked at the snake’s eyes and his eyes revealed his mangekyou sharingan once again. He was going to put the cursed snake to sleep, then he would kill it. He was ready to die later, but not before he did that.

The white snake continued looking at him and it began to smile. The sharingan’s power wasn’t working on this one either.

“It looks like the special eyes of the Uchihas are not that great, if they can’t even defeat a little white snake like me.”

The Snake King mocked Kagami’s special power. If he had been using a human body and human eyes, he would have understood how incredibly powerful the sharingan truly was.

(The sharingan techniques that required having direct eye contact with the enemy only worked if the enemy had human eyes too. These talking snakes had different eyes, so the sharingan didn’t work on them.)

After mocking the special eye, the white snake grabbed Kagami’s katanas and threw them far away. The Snake King felt victorious already. In his mind, the battle was over, he had won, and there was nothing else that Kagami could do against him anymore.

Kagami did not stop there though. Since the offensive technique didn’t work, he tried using his mind reading technique, which didn’t require looking at the eyes (nor having human eyes). Moreover, the enemy would not notice that he was seeing his secrets and his past memories. Maybe he could still find a way to defeat it among those memories…
Even in his fatal state, Kagami had not given up. He believed that he still had a chance to save The Leaf from this enemy…

What Kagami saw brought a terror to his mind that he had not experienced since he was a little defenseless kid, many years ago. Even his mighty sharingans trembled with what he saw (but what he saw wasn’t revealed yet, we just saw his reaction).

Kagami understood that he had been wrong all along. The kid was not a threat. Orochimaru had just been a victim, like many others at the Human Realm and at the Realm of the Snakes. The one who became the Snake King was the real villain and the real menace. And there was little hope to defeat him, unless Kagami could tell the holy messenger and the others what he had discovered about their realm’s true enemy.

In a desperate attempt to escape, Kagami burned the snake with a fire seal that he had on the hand that wasn’t broken. When it let go of him, he grabbed the blade with his two feet and pulled it out of his body all the way. He screamed, but he never hesitated. As soon as he fell on the ground, he did it again:

“Seal-breaker jutsu! Cancel summon!!”

He had marked the white snake with the breaker seal, when he burned it. He thought that Orochimaru had been the one who summoned this menace, without knowing the implications that it would have or the true intentions of its master, the Snake King.

Unfortunately, Kagami was wrong. The white snake didn’t disappear because it wasn’t a summon like Mitor, Manda, or the monkey king, Enma. This meant that it had come to the Human Realm on its own, without being summoned by anyone; or it was living here and the summoning seal had been removed from it a long time ago…

Kagami couldn’t even walk with the mortal wound under his heart. He started to move as he could with his legs. However, he wasn’t gaining much distance from the snake. He looked really worried, but if there was any hope of giving the information he found to someone else, he had to do it.

The Snake King already knew that Kagami couldn’t beat him anymore, even though he was using the weakest of his three guardians (the other two were not on his side at this point, anyways, so he only had the white snake to back him up). He also knew what he was going to do with this brave and skilled ninja elite.

“I am sorry, but what you did won’t work with me. I am not Orochimaru’s summon, but someday, he will be mine. You could be my ally too. You are a great human warrior.”

Kagami was at death’s door, and he already knew that the true Snake King had the power to save him, but he was never going to help someone like him. He only regretted that it didn’t seem like he was going to be able to do anything to stop this possible destroyer of the Human Realm. He thought that he was going to say his last words at that moment, to oppose the real Snake King:

“Ne-ver, I will ne-ver do any-thing for youu!”

“Unfortunately, that is not for you to decide. I am the one who will decide your destiny, if I let you live.
I have given it some thought. I know I may need other bodies before my ideal vessel is finally ready for me. Orochimaru will definitely surpass you, but, before that time comes, it would be more fun to roam my new realm as more than just a snake. That is, until I finally find a way to return in my true form.
I also want to see what these eyes of yours are good for. You seem to hold them at a very high standard, even though they didn’t work to defeat me. What can they do? Where can they take me? I wonder…”

Kagami’s last fears tripled when he heard that. If “he” had his special sharingans, then “he” would be able to go to the Dark Realm too. Kagami couldn’t let this menace get to the holy sage. He couldn’t let that happen no matter what! Hagaromo’s plan was, most likely, the only way to defeat the Snake King, if he couldn’t tell them what he saw about their real enemy.

The snake approached Kagami and he didn’t know what to do. He even feared that it could kill him first, and take his special sharingan after that. It could not obtain the special sharingan, no matter what.

At the end, Kagami did the ultimate sacrifice:

He used one of his explosive knives right in front of his open eyes. He expected to die there, and he was certain that his sharingan eyes would be completely destroyed. However, only the later happened…

When Kagami made his move, the snake also used a strange unknown jutsu:

“Zeta-style possession jutsu!!”

A bright white light engulfed them.

It was exactly like the light that Hagaromo and Jim Namikaze saw in the vision of the possible future, when the snake-like Kagami used that technique on Naruto, the Hokage. Then, it was seen how the Seventh Hokage changed drastically and Kagami disappeared. It felt as if the Seventh—Naruto—was a different person after that…

Kagami regained consciousness, but he couldn’t see anything. Was he dead?

He felt that he was standing on a soft kind of surface, which almost felt like flesh. Portions of that surface were holding his legs and his hands, so he couldn’t move.

Someone else was there and his voice sounded like a man’s voice:

“Welcome Uchiha warrior. Welcome to my mind’s realm, the place where you and I will become one.
It is a shame that you destroyed your eyes when you tried to commit suicide.
Even though seeing this realm would have surely scared even someone like you, I would have liked to show you who I really am, before you join me.”

Kagami could feel how the one talking was getting closer and closer to him, until two hands grabbed his arms. The hands felt very human and so did the voice:

“Get ready. Soon we will be one.”

The fleshy surface began to rise until it covered Kagami everywhere. Soon, Kagami’s consciousness drifted away.

(The main villain also has a “special realm” like the holy sage. This “Possession Realm” was shown only once in Naruto Shippuden. This story has answers for this and for many other plot holes from the original series. Filling all those gaps and bringing a really good and “standalone” sequel was the inspiration behind this story.)

When Kagami awakened again, he was back at the Human Realm and he had a violet skin-color around his eyes. That same violet color had disappeared from the eyes of the white snake.

“I don’t know why you chose to take him, instead of finishing him, but I am glad I get to be myself again,” said the white snake in a bad mood.

“What did you do with his special eyes?” asked the Snake King.

“I threw them out on that pond of blood of his. You are not seeing it, but he really destroyed the eyes and his face too. You will need new eyes and plastic surgery if you really want to be him.”

The Snake King—as Kagami—used another strange technique on his face:

“Zeta-style healing jutsu.”

His whole face went back to the way it was before, except for the eyes, which were not there. It looked like he used some sort of regeneration technique.

The white snake pointed out something useful:

“Sharingan eyes can be transplanted to a new owner or carrier. We just need to get you a new set of those from another Uchiha.”

“Don’t worry about that. Your main concern should be getting back to the kid now. Remember that you were supposed to escape without fighting me seriously. You must meet him again at the cave, just as you promised him. I am sure that he will seek you there.”

It was clear that Kagami wasn’t himself anymore. The Snake King was the one in charge now. And he looked creepy without anything in his eye sockets…

Suddenly, the white snake noticed that someone else was approaching really fast.

“It is time for me to go. You already know what you have to do.”

Kagami created the summoning seal for the Realm of the Snakes and performed another technique that we had not seen before:

“Reverse summoning jutsu!”

He disappeared and the white snake escaped too.

When Mina got there, just a few seconds later, she perceived that someone had just left, but she didn’t see anyone.

There was blood and plenty of destruction at that place.

Many trees had been smashed or squashed, as if some sort of monster or tornado had landed on that area of the forest. It was a serious disaster.

It didn’t look like this had been done by a person; although, she had heard the legends about the battles between the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha, and according to those tales, they were this devastating… Those two were not alive now though…

Shortly after that, Hiruzen, Inor, and the others arrived. It was Inor who saw the destroyed eyes first. And Hiruzen was the first one who recognized that one of them had striking similarities with Kagami’s eyes. Later that day, it was revealed through medical tests that those were Kagami’s sharingans indeed…

This mysterious incident brought great worry to the Third Hokage. He knew how skilled Kagami was. (Essentially, Kagami was as powerful as Hiruzen, but he could only use fire jutsus and Hiruzen could use others as well. However, Kagami had the advanced sharingan too, so he and the Hokage were almost equals in terms of their power and skills as elite ninjas.)

Hiruzen knew that if an enemy of The Leaf had been able to do this to Kagami, it was a serious threat that they had to worry about.

Unfortunately, they never found any clues about what happened there that day. And they believed that Kagami was dead.

The young Orochimaru never said anything about the incident there either. And the white snake was smart enough to make him believe that it didn’t know what happened either, since it had fled too.

It was definitely a pretty dark day for Hiruzen. First, he hid an important truth from a genuine friend; and later, he found out about what happened to Kagami. He regretted not saying anything to Jim and Mina, but he wanted the best for The Leaf and he always trusted Kagami.

This was why Hiruzen often wondered about what had been Jim’s final fate. Obviously, he always hoped that it had been a very good one, even though Jim didn’t come back to the “young Leaf”…

Eventually, Hiruzen was able to find out what had really happened after that time—the time when he was a kid that saw Jim Namikaze…

Meanwhile, our protagonist arrived at the desert, after his most turbulent time jump. It was during Hagaromo’s time, which was a hundred years before Hashirama Senju—the First Hokage—began to build The Leaf with his people…

NEXT— EPISODE 44: A Mighty Opponent

 

 

Episode 42: The Second Departure

Three days went by after Hiruzen and Mina found out the truth from Jim…

He had to leave during the fourth day—and not later—so Hiruzen had decided, since the day of their talk, that he would assign their surveillance duties to someone else. That way, Jim and Mina would be able to spend these last days together, without having to worry about anything else. (Hiruzen was a clever man, so he already knew that they were a couple, even though they didn’t show it at Konoha, since they were supposed to be just “work” partners.) Furthermore, Hiruzen decided that he would meet both of them one mile away from Konoha’s main entrance, in the morning of the fourth day—at 4 a.m. when even the ninjas were sleeping. The Hokage was going to go alone too; this time, even his Anbu ninjas would not know about it—or so he thought…

On this third day, just 16 hours before Jim’s departure, the Third gave the hospital his second visit during that week. Last time, he spent almost the entire hour with Jim and Mina, so he didn’t check how everything was going at the other floors. This time he did it; and he found out something that changed his whole day.

In the second floor, where babies and kids under five were taken care of, Hiruzen saw a list of names on a paper with no title and he asked the medical ninja at the reception there about that list:

“Good morning Anna, how is everything going? Do you know what is that list over there?”

“Good morning sir! It’s good to see you. I have been very busy lately. A list? Oh yes, that list; it has names of women from the last pregnancy tests that got a positive result. I must have forgotten to write a header on it. It looks like we will be having a bunch of new babies here in nine months!”

Hiruzen—not just as Hokage, but as a normal human being—felt a bit of curiosity, so he took a closer look at the list on the paper. And close to the bottom, he saw it: Mina Hatake was in the list. (Mina was a cousin of Kakashi Hatake’s father.) At first, Hiruzen was surprised, but in just a couple of minutes he thought of it as good news. Obviously, he already knew who the father was…

“I wonder how they will react when I tell them this tomorrow. They will make great parents, but this is probably not the ideal time to find out about this…”

After Hiruzen left the hospital with the unexpected news about Mina, Kagami Uchiha went in and he went straight to the second floor and to the table that had the paper with the list of names. It seemed like he already knew what he was doing, even before he went into the hospital. He sat there and he looked like he was going to regret what he was about to do. He thought:

“Old sage… why are you making me do this!? Why can’t you just tell him and change things yourself?! I am starting to realize that you are not as holy as you seem, but if you are saying the truth, which I believe you are, then this has to be done… for The Leaf, and for the Human Realm too. I am sorry Jim Namikaze and… I am sorry Mina.”

Kagami checked that no one was seeing him and he took out a small knife from his green ninja vest. In a matter of seconds, he cut the bottom piece of the list with a perfect straight line that made it look like the paper had never been cut. He grabbed the small rectangular piece of paper that had Mina’s name and three other names as well. Then, as he left the hospital, he threw it in the garbage.

“All that is left now is convincing Hiruzen. The best future must maintain its course at all costs…”

The next day, Hiruzen left his home at 3:30 a.m. He didn’t go with the Hokage’s vest because, in the very unlikely case that something else happened, he did not want to be recognized as the Hokage right away. And something did happen, right after he left Konoha through one of the alternative exits and through one of the few paths where he knew that none of the surveillance guards would see him. He was just 100 meters away from Konoha when he noticed that someone was following him…

As soon as Hiruzen perceived that there was someone else close to him, he grabbed his two explosive knives. It only took him a few seconds to spot the exact place where the other ninja was hiding. However, the spy revealed himself before he could get caught.

“Calm down Hiruzen; it’s me, Kagami.”

Hiruzen was not caught off guard, but he wasn’t expecting this.

“What are you doing here?”

“I had an important vision and I received another message from the holy messenger of the Dark Realm.

I am here because I have to tell you that you can’t tell Jim or Mina that they are going to have a kid. If you do it, The Leaf’s future will be affected in a very negative way. Apparently, that kid will be very important for us at some point, and some things that he will do for us will change if his father hears the news from you today.

For the sake of our clan, you must not tell them about it.”

Hiruzen didn’t take Kagami’s words lightly:

“Do you understand what you are telling me? He will leave to a mission where he might die, and you don’t want me to tell him that he is a father!? How would you feel if I did that to you?

You saw it too. You saw when I met him for the first time. The situation did not look good for him back then; and that has not happened yet, so it may happen now, after he leaves; or it may happen tomorrow. We don’t know. Regardless, he deserves to know that Mina and he are going to be parents.”

Kagami knew that he had to convince Hiruzen. There was no other choice.

“Hiruzen, you already know how my visions work. I feel the same way as you do. I believe they deserve to know it as well, but if this will be bad for our whole clan and for the future, then it is our duty to stop it. It is the Hokage’s duty to put the clan’s interests before his own. And it is my duty, as one of your Anbu ninjas, to help you with this burden. We must do what is best for everyone and for The Leaf.”

Hiruzen didn’t look like he was going to agree to it yet. He trusted Kagami, but there was something else that he didn’t like:

“This mysterious holy sage… how do you know that we can trust him blindly?”

“All the things that he warned me about before have happened, just as he said and when he said they would happen. Even now, I came to you knowing that you would say that to them because he told me about it. The holy messenger told me that it was crucial that Jim Namikaze did not know about it. Otherwise, his kid won’t do something important for The Leaf and the future of our clan will be worse.

I trust this man Hiruzen. He has not given me all the answers, but I am sure that he has good reasons for that too. Every time, every single one, he was right about what he said. And I could see how right he was, after the events happened.”

Hiruzen’s happy thoughts about the “good news” he had for them were shaken and demolished. If The Leaf’s future could be affected in a bad way, then he simply couldn’t say it. He knew that very well. He also trusted his childhood friend Kagami Uchiha.

“Thank you Kagami. You can leave now. I assume that you already know what I am going to do now and why I didn’t tell you and the others about it. Don’t worry; I am not going to say it. You should go to sleep now. It looks like you need it more than I do.”

Kagami felt very relieved. He left, right after Hiruzen’s words of agreement—which Hagaromo had called “the clue to the fact that you were successful.” Now, Kagami knew that things were going to happen as the holy sage intended; and he, as one of the “chosen carriers of the special sharingan,” had helped to make it possible.

Hiruzen wasn’t feeling happy about this departure anymore. After the talk with Kagami, he had a brief hunch that felt like this was a premonition of disaster, rather than an indication of a better future. However, he had no other choice than continuing everything, just as it had been planned.

He kept walking until he met Jim Namikaze at the expected location. Mina was not with him though. Jim was standing there by himself carrying all his belongings…

The previous three days had been difficult for Jim and Mina. She didn’t want him to leave; and her attitude towards his departure got even worse, when he revealed that Hagaromo didn’t answer his question about whether he was going to come back or not. This worried her immensely because if that holy old man could see the future, then he had to know the answer to it already. And not saying it could mean that it wasn’t a good answer.

Just to complicate things even more, she also noticed that something was wrong with her menstrual cycle. It was two days late already. Therefore, she went to The Leaf’s hospital and took a blood test and a pregnancy test, just in case.

When the night of the third day came, she didn’t want to know anything about the departure anymore. It had taken her many years to find someone like him. It had taken her her whole life to find real love; and now, all of it could vanish, just because some “holy” old geezer decided that it was best if things happened that way. She had not met the holy sage in person, but she understood that this sage was thinking more about his “great plan” than about what was best for her, or even for Jim Namikaze. She told Jim about it, but his opinion about Hagaromo was much different than hers. He truly believed in Hagaromo—just like Kagami did. He didn’t think that the legendary holy hero would ever do something that could affect other innocent people in a negative way. Someone who had dedicated themselves to achieving peace, justice, and prosperity at their realm was not the kind of person that would do such things. This was what Jim Namikaze believed…

Ultimately, Mina told him that she was not going to his departure. She wasn’t going to agree with something that could guarantee that she would not see him again. He tried to convince her, but she didn’t accept it. She couldn’t accept that, in just a few hours, all of this could be over. He was left quite disappointed. He definitely didn’t want to leave things with Mina this way. Nonetheless, this was another necessary trip for him and he was well-aware of that too. If he didn’t do this, the future at their world was going to be much darker, even if they were together.

Before he left that morning, he hugged her for two long minutes and he told her how important she was for him. He also mentioned that he would wait for her until 4:30 a.m. in case she changed her mind. He left to meet Hiruzen, but, truth be told, he also felt sad like her. He knew that the possibility of not coming back existed. Regardless, he chose to believe that it would not happen that way. (As mentioned before, he truly believed in Hagaromo’s plan.)

Jim arrived at the location for his departure, which was close to the place where the old Hiruzen trained him. The Hokage had been delayed by Kagami, so Jim had to wait for him a little more than expected…

Meanwhile, Mina put on her ninja vest and grabbed her teleportation daggers. She was going to see Jim, but, before that, she decided to do something that awakened some fear in her: she would check the hospital’s results for her pregnancy test. Under different circumstances, that would have been a source of happiness. Unfortunately, now it was a source of anxiety because he was leaving.

With the help of her daggers, she arrived at Konoha in just six minutes, even though her house was five miles away. Those daggers and her personal technique really made a difference…

She went into the hospital and saw the list of names at the same moment when Hiruzen and Jim were in the middle of their talk—at the planned location for the departure. Her name was not in the list. Therefore, she didn’t think that she was going to have a son—which was what happened eight months later. When she left, she walked past the garbage can that had the piece of paper with her name on it. She also changed her mind. She decided that she was going to say good bye to him. She would see him one more time during his departure…

Hiruzen’s initial reaction when he saw Jim was an obvious one:

“Where is she?”

Jim had had better days for sure. He didn’t look happy about leaving in just a few minutes, but he was ready for it and he knew how important it was.

“She decided that she wasn’t going to come.”

As he finished saying that, he looked serious and a little sad.

However, soon after that, his face changed for a moment and he showed a minor smile. He remembered his first departure from The Leaf of the future.

“It looks like it will be just you and me again, my good old friend. It will be just like the first time when I left, but without your Anbu squad.”

The memories cheered him up momentarily. However, he also had a very important message for Hiruzen:

“Before I go, I need to remind you of certain things that you must do for me in the future:

When a man of last name Barton comes to ask for permission to build his village, not too far from here, and to join The Leaf, please accept it. That man’s son and their village will make an important difference in my life.

Also, when you save me in the future, don’t tell me anything about what happened in the past. Never tell me anything that may change what has happened here, and what will happen in the future.

I already told you all the details during our long talk weeks ago, at the cell; but, remember that it was you who taught me some of the best techniques I know. Don’t forget about the shadow clones, the replacement technique, the wind barrier, or the summoning technique. Also, don’t forget to make me fight against Jiraiya in the future tests that you will give me, before you send me to the Earth Realm. I will be able to figure out the rest on my own.”

This was the second time that Hiruzen heard that, but it still surprised him.

“Are you sure that Jiraiya is going to be such a great ninja? Out of my current three students, he is the one that worries me the most. He doesn’t seem to have any special talents or abilities. However, no one managed to find him back then, and he still hasn’t returned, just as you predicted.”

“Don’t worry Hiruzen. He is training with the toads and the frogs at this very moment. When he comes back, he won’t be the same Jiraiya anymore; and he will be able to summon a frog too. You will see.”

Jim seemed quite sure about it—he heard about it from Jiraiya himself.

Hiruzen was skeptic though.

“I sure hope so. He better have learned something useful from that other realm, after leaving us in the dark for so long. Most importantly, he better come back in one piece! And you better come back in one piece too!”

As Hiruzen finished saying that, he remembered that Jim’s expression—the first time he saw him when he was a boy—was that of someone who had just seen something terrible, but who also knew that he had a solution for it. Hiruzen didn’t know what it meant, but he decided to keep it to himself.

Jim left his most important task for Hiruzen for last. It was a request that had a special meaning for him:

“Yes, I plan to come back; but if that doesn’t happen, then there is one final favor that I will ask of you. This is more important to me than any other favor Hiruzen: take care of Mina. And, if she ever has sons or daughters, take care of them too. Take care of them as if they were your own family. Can you do that for me? Can you promise me that you will do it if I don’t return?”

Hiruzen started to have a feeling of sudden guilt, but he didn’t let his body language betray him. At the same time, he started to feel some degree of sadness because it really felt like this final request was close to being a reality already, rather than a far-away possibility.

“Of course I will do it. I promise you that I will. I hope that you come back, but if you don’t, I will make sure that both Mina and any family she has remain safe. As Hokage and as your friend, it is the least I can do. I will never forget anyone who has been willing to make great sacrifices for The Leaf.”

Jim felt relieved after hearing Hiruzen’s words. Hiruzen, however, started to feel the need to tell him the truth; but he didn’t say it. He simply couldn’t put one good friend above the entire clan. The Leaf was more important and Hiruzen was willing to make sacrifices for it too—just like the holy sage was willing to do it for the whole Human Realm.

Jim extended his hand and the Third Hokage extended his. Their handshake of friendship was solid, like the foundations of buildings that last for hundreds of years. This time, it was Jim who gave his most sincere “thank you” to the Hokage (last time, it was the old Hiruzen who did this).

“Thank you for everything you have done Hiruzen and thank you for what you will do for me in the future. The Leaf will never have a better Hokage than you my friend. Now, it’s time for me to go to my destination.”

Jim walked a few meters away from Hiruzen, and he began the process of gathering chakra to become an earth sage, before he made the jump to the desert in Hagaromo’s time.

Ironically, the future was going to be much different than what both of them expected…

Hiruzen was admirable and a great Hokage, without a doubt. He was what all leaders and kings should have been. He was a guide and a protector that cared about the people’s happiness and their wellbeing. He didn’t see himself or his position as that of a “ruler” or a “boss.” However, even Hiruzen wasn’t going to be The Leaf’s greatest Hokage. The Hokage that led The Leaf and the entire Human Realm to a time of true peace and prosperity came much later. He made the greatest sacrifices and the most heroic deeds when he was thinking about others. This man was Naruto—the grandson of Jim Namikaze and Mina; and also, the son of the Fourth Hokage.

Unfortunately, Jim’s belief about Hiruzen as “the best possible Hokage” wasn’t the only belief that was wrong. Hiruzen couldn’t keep his meaningful promise to him either. The Fourth and his wife, Kushina, died the day when they saved The Leaf from the Nine-Tails fox and its Uchiha master. Hiruzen couldn’t do anything to save Minato. At the end, the Fourth was the one who saved them all, and that was what made him a hero at The Leaf. In addition, Hiruzen couldn’t protect Mina either. She and many of the surveillance ninjas were killed, several years later, during a big battle with a powerful enemy (who this enemy was will be revealed later in this story)…

Jim Namikaze looked at the time, right after the brown “earth sage” marks started to appear around his eyelids. There were ten minutes left to reach 4:30 a.m. still, so he decided to stay there. He waited for Mina, just as he told her that he would. At 4:30, she still wasn’t there. He saw himself wanting to wait a little longer for her, even though it was time to go already.

Then, he saw a flash of yellow light that was approaching them, skipping several sections of trees at a time. As it got closer, it was evident that it was her. It looked like a “yellow flash” because of her blonde hair.

She landed there, right in front of him, and an aura of happiness woke up in him. He was very glad to see she had changed her mind. He wanted her to be the last person that he would see before leaving; and clearly, his wish had been granted.

They walked a few steps towards each other. Then, they gave each other a close and caring hug. They closed their eyes when he put the right side of his face together with the right side of hers. They also shared a short-lived kiss. It had no passion in it, but it was full of love. It demonstrated that both cared about each other in general, not just for joyful moments; and their bond was the bond of two best friends that had twin souls for love.

While Hiruzen watched them during that minute—which seemed like hours for him—he felt a great deal of guilt again. He thought about telling them that they were going to be parents soon. However, he couldn’t risk having a darker future for The Leaf, just to make two close friends happier at that moment…

Jim said his first words to Mina since she arrived there:

“I am so glad to see you here. Now the trip will be much better.”

“I couldn’t let you leave without giving you something that I want you to keep.”

She gave him one of her teleportation daggers.

“This is much better than the knives you have. Besides, you will remember me every time you see it. And you can also use it to teleport to my location at the same instant when you come back. You just need to use the normal replacement jutsu that you know and put your thumb on the number one of my seal, on the back of the dagger. You won’t need to know my unique seal because my daggers already have it engraved on them. I always have the one marked as dagger number one with me, so you will come to me as soon as you do that. Please take care of yourself Jim. I want you back.”

He held her dagger as if it was a precious treasure with tons of emotional value. Then, he placed it at the only part of the ninja belt he had where it wasn’t going to fall, because it had a small tight tie around it. Therefore, Mina’s dagger was going to stay with him, no matter what.

He walked a few feet away from Mina, then he turned around again. He was ready to do Hagaromo’s special seal for the teleportation, but first, he had to talk to his best friend—Mina—one more time.

“As soon as I am done helping him to save our realm, I will come back and you will be the first person that I will see.”

His eyes were getting a little watery because of what he wanted to tell her next.

“Mina, regardless of what happens, I want you to know that you have been my greatest love. I will thank him for sending me here because I met you. I also want you to know that I always liked your name and how it sounds. If you have a daughter, I would like you to name her like you.”

Mina’s eyes also began to get watery.

“Do you want to have a daughter? Because I am going to need you for that. We can name her like me together.”

Jim and Mina were feeling sad and happy, at the same time.

“With my true love, I would love to have both, a girl and a boy.”

She let go of a small smile, in between two tears.

“You can’t name the boy like me, you know; it wouldn’t sound right!”

“Yes, but we can name him similar. Something like Minato would sound great for a boy too. And it still has Mina in there.”

Both of them managed to smile with their occurrences, even though they were in the border of tears…

Hiruzen never thought that his conscience was going to take such a severe beating that day, just from seeing their short final conversation. More than once, the idea of telling them that they were going to have a kid for real became very strong. He didn’t fall for it, but his loyalty to The Leaf and his capacity to be a firm leader were seriously tested during that dark morning.

Finally, Jim Namikaze began to make Hagaromo’s special seal and he said his final words to them.

“Take good care of yourself Mina. I will be back as soon as I can.

Hiruzen, take care of The Leaf and remember your promise. I count on you my old friend.”

Using the seal and looking through it with the normal sharingan, he adjusted the second location to the desert at their continent. Then, he changed the sharingan to its mangekyou form. It began to change the look of the second location to the way it was dozens of years before the young Leaf. Eventually, he reached a point that he—and his sharingan’s vision—perceived as the right one. There, he stopped it and he finished it:

“Summoning jutsu!!”

The teleportation took place and he quickly disappeared, leaving nothing but wind and dust behind. He was in sage mode already, before he completed the teleportation summoning.

Mina was sad but relieved at the same time. She was glad that she had come to see his departure. She would have regretted not going, if she had not been there that morning.

Hiruzen didn’t feel very good after hiding what he knew from them.

She thanked him before she left:

“Thank you for being here Hiruzen. Thank you for all the things you did to help him too, since the day when you brought us back, after saving us from the ninjas of the Clan of the Stone.”

“There is no need to thank me Mina. I am glad that I have been able to help both of you.”

After that, Mina left using her daggers at high speed—just like she did when she arrived. She couldn’t have known that this was the last time that she was going to see Jim Namikaze.

Likewise, Hiruzen could not have guessed that the worst part of that day had not arrived for him yet. He was going to find out about something terrible during his return to Konoha…

After Kagami talked to Hiruzen, Kagami noticed some fresh footprints—even in the darkness of the morning, he still noticed them—that weren’t his or Hiruzen’s. He followed the trail to find out who was doing something in secret, outside of Konoha, hiding from their surveillance squads, and at that time in the morning. It had to be someone from their clan for sure. It had to be someone who knew where their surveillance ninjas were positioned too.

What Kagami found was nothing short of terrifying and the battle that awaited him was on the same scale as what he saw…

NEXT— EPISODE 43: Kagami’s End