Previous Chapters:
The Legendary Sage of Six Paths, Chapter 7;
Pre-Reading Notes:
Hey everyone, I'm back! I thought I would give those who are unaware a heads-up. This chapter is enormous, in fact, it's the 2nd biggest chapter I've ever written, only beaten by my One-Shot from a few years back. Since that's the case, I decided to go back to something traditional and "divide" the scenes of this chapter with "[...]" for reading purposes, so if you can't go through it all in one read, taking a breather when you see a "[...]" could be a good idea. I've placed them strategically, so in one way you could look upon it as this chapter being divided in parts, in scenes... Anyways, with that out of the way, I thought I would say that this comeback has been much expected after a 3 months' hiatus. This chapter marks the beginning of the "2nd arc" of this storyline, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it! Be sure to check the Author's Note at the end for more "exclusive" details (ha-ha)!
Just when I had come to an agreement with myself that maintaining peace would finally be my main and only goal to strive for in the years to come, and to grow old with Trea and have children of my own who would one day carry on my legacy while my only worry from then on and out would be to make sure I had enough sake for any potential guests, the wizard had suddenly come to see me once more to make sure that any plans I had for an early retirement, would not happen. He had after all told me during our last meeting that he even back then had a feeling that we would meet again some time in the future, and after claiming to be able to see the future itself, I should have known better than to be naive enough to think that our next encounter would not take place after all. I suppose I just never expected it to be this soon, and definitely not because of the things he now had on his mind...
'I am sure you are surprised, Hagoromo... But at the same time, I have a feeling you know why I am here' Sitting down on a chair, the wizard continued to keep his firm, unaltering look through his menacing mask. 'Do you want me to leave the room, Hagoromo?' Trea, who was also present, carefully asked, understanding that this could potentially be a meeting the two of us would like to have in private. I was still standing inside the frame that made up the door leading into another section of the house, not entirely sure if I could really believe that it was the wizard that I saw in the living room in front of me. It was indeed him however, no mistake about it... I knew right away that his appearance here now meant that the peace we had fought so hard for to establish throughout the land, would not last, despite all the efforts I had personally put into it and the sacrifices I had been unwillingly forced to endure during my life in order to make sure it would finally come to be. I immediately realized that my journey was still far from being over. Looking at Trea, a smile formed on my face, although deep down inside, a part of me wished that it didn't have to come to this. Couldn't it all be just a dream, couldn't my life just be that of an ordinary one? Couldn't I just be left in peace and live on with my life? Hadn't I contributed enough, hadn't I fought long enough? What more did I have to do?? It had however, never been that easy before, so there was no reason for me to think otherwise now. Why would it be? Such a life was not possible in this world, and I knew it... 'It's okay, you might want to hear this.' I causally replied to her. 'Can I offer you something?' Looking at the wizard, Trea seemed a bit tense regarding the situation. No wonder though, this mysterious figure wearing a mask had suddenly just strolled inside our house, sitting down on one of our chairs asking for my name. Any wife with sane thoughts would be skeptical. He could basically be anyone; a Thief, a Murderer, a Messenger, a Friend, an Enemy, or something else entirely... I knew there was no danger however, so I finally entered the room and sat down by one of the chairs too, to sort of give her a signal that she could relax. 'I no longer need such trivial privileges to survive...' He simply answered. But there was no sign of appreciation or gratitude in his tone, not even for Trea's warm hospitality. 'In case you haven't caught on, this is the wizard I told you about from back then, the one being who bestowed upon me these-... Powers; powers I've used to do many unlikely things in these past years...' She looked at me. She didn't know whether to be reassured or nervous about it all hearing this, but I could easily sense her uncertainty. 'The fact that she is present now means that you have broken my trust, Hagoromo... I know what happened during the Sanada clan massacre and what you did later, but I will save that for last...' The wizard hadn't come to make everyday chit-chats, and I could feel it. This was serious business, and I had to pay only the utmost attention to what he had to say...
A part of me wanted to ask what he meant by that, another wanted me to beg his pardon for his apparent rudeness, while a third but more dark side of me wanted to tell him to go to hell for even daring to state such a thing in my home, to offend both me and my wife like that. Simultaneously, I knew what he meant, and I knew he was right. So instead of replying, I looked down, as if acknowledging what we both thought. As I looked up again, our eyes met. We probably sat like that for a minute or two as silence filled the room, both of us expecting the other to continue the conversation as time slowly passed by. Since none of us had uttered a single word during those two minutes of silence however, Trea eventually sensed that neither one of us were going to be the one to budge. So, she earnestly tried to make things happen by gently and carefully collecting two cups and placed them on the table between us, before she then filled them up with sake, despite the fact that the wizard had just told her he didn't require such trivial things anymore. She looked at us with a bright smile on her face in an attempt to loosen up the mood a little, and even if the face of the wizard was like stone, I couldn't help crack up a smile myself seeing her efforts. He turned his attention towards her as he looked at her almost as if in disbelief. Both Trea and I expected him to carefully shove the cup away from himself in rejection, but instead, he just accepted it and let it be, as he then resumed his stern glance at me. It was as if he now didn't care anymore, he just wanted me to admit that I had done something wrong to his face rather than remaining silent about it. This certainly felt like a tug-o-war, as it just got more and more awkward by the second. Wasn't he going to say something? I certainly didn't know what else to say, he was after all the one to visit me with information, not the other way around. I tried to look away, but it was as if his eyes had already pierced my skull. I couldn't escape his gaze, so I figured I just had to say something, no matter what it was. I picked up the cup Trea had presented me as I downed my sake in one go. I then spoke. 'You were once a mortal human being too, weren't you?? I mean, you must have been...' I started, but I wasn't sure what he would say in return. Would he even give me an honest answer? I had to say something to break the silence, and this was the first thing that came to my mind. 'I was... Before I ventured to the past.' He briefly replied. 'The past?' I followed up. 'By now you must have realized that I do not belong in this era... I did tell you back then the last time we met that we would talk more about the future, more about a certain individual named Uzumaki Naruto, which is the same name that was given to you during your stay in the Sanada clan. Do you remember that I told you this? I told you I would save it for the next time we met, regardless of when that would be. The matter of fact is, I do not see the future, Hagoromo, I am from the future...' I couldn't believe it. So that was how he did it, but still, I was very confused. 'We also need to talk about the past wielders of the Master Sword too. This is the proper time I said would one day come, to have those conversations, but unfortunately, it is not just as simple as that. There is a lot to discuss...' Looking at me, the wizard then seemed as if he was breaking his immense character a bit, as if Trea's goofiness earlier had actually softened him up a little.
The next thing I knew, the wizard then did something totally unexpected. He reached up to his helmet as he proceeded to remove it from his head, placing it beside him on the table. It was the face of a young individual that met us. He was blond, had blue eyes, and probably weren't older than 32, two years older than me at the time. If, my assumption was right that is, after all, it was only an educated guess, nothing more... I was baffled. 'I thought you said last time that revealing your true face would change the outcome of the future forever? Did you forget about that, or do you simply not care for the small details anymore? And how can you be this young, shouldn't you have been older to be this wise and powerful?' I hadn't expected him to forsake his mysterious and strongly built character any time soon, and I had definitely not expected it to belong to the face of this young man of all the people imaginable in the world, so I was indeed surprised. Who really was this guy? 'I'm older and wiser than you seem lead to believe, don't let this appearance deceive you... You already know some of what I'm capable of, so this shouldn't be a surprise to you at all. I may look young, but I'm far from it I can assure you.' He wasn't fooling around, but it was still strange to see this mysterious, holy figure that was supposed to be all-knowing, appearing my age. He continued, 'And I know what I said last time but at this point, I'm a bit tired of following everything I'm set out to do, point by point, bit by bit. Before I leave today, I had intended to say that you might find out who I truly was one day when everything comes to an end. That even though I've had many shapes and forms, many names and aliases, who I used to be was no longer important, only whom I'll be in the future. That if you had to have a name to go by, you could call me Menma, in which you would have asked "Menma?" And I would have told you that it was a name I picked up along the way. Then you would have followed up by asking me what else lied ahead, in which I would have told you that I'm afraid you'll have to find that out for yourself from this point on... Truth be told, I don't think it really matters if I go entirely by the book or not anymore, as the outcome will still be the same in the end regardless, even if the story isn't written by the same writer, or even if it doesn't pan out the exact same way as it's suppose to up until then. So, I might as well just be honest with you from the start instead. What's important, is this-...' What exactly was on his mind?? He seemed more human than ever before, and if not removing the helmet helped create that image, then the way he now spoke surely did the trick. It was less mystery and more straight-forward. At first he was all formal with everything he said, but as soon as he removed that helmet, his spoken lines suddenly started to sound more like my own. Something did indeed feel off about him. What was this sudden feeling of regret I could pick up from him? Maybe regret wasn't the right word, but still... 'Some time in the future, long passed your death, you will be resurrected by someone named Kabuto, just like this helmet is called. There you will be cast under his control and forced to fight someone that looks just like me. In fact, it is me, or my past-self, and my real name, is indeed Uzumaki Naruto.' I looked at him. What was I supposed to say to this? All I could do was to listen. He was the one with all the cards in his hands now, I simply had to wait for his next move before making mine...
'I once met up with Yukimura in an alternative form of mine like I mentioned last time we spoke two years ago, and just like the first time you and I met when you were almost sixteen and were on a brief journey spreading around the teachings of the Holy Sect of Peace, I did not look like this at all... In the appearance of an old man, I told him that I'd had a premonition of the future, that he would one day come across a young man and a girl in the Sacred Forest where the Legendary Blade rested. Once he met up with them, they would be lost, having barely survived a massacre, and on top of that, the man would already have been able to both draw and claim the Legendary Blade for himself. I told him that it was utmost important that he would take these two into his clan and give them protection under his wing until the day that the young man was ready to join the war and bring it to an end came. Only this way would the Thousand Years' War finally end. In order to protect the man's identity, he would have to give him a cover name to use as long as he remained a part of the clan. I told him that the name he should give you was Uzumaki Naruto, and I also warned him that whatever he did, he could never tell you about this meeting. The fate of the world now rested upon his shoulders.' All this information was new to me as Yukimura had never told me about any of this, but he had indeed been almost as if hinting towards it the day I set out to meet with the wizard myself, two years ago, right before the Sanada clan massacre took place. But all this made me wonder... If the wizard could just change his appearance to look like anyone he wanted, then why the need for a helmet? And as this question became clearer to me, I decided to ask him about it. His answer was surprisingly simple-minded, even for me. 'It's a matter of dividing my powers. I can only change appearance when there's no other way to get a message through without coming off as-... Odd. No one will take a masked man serious in the time of war other than when he's uttering hostile words at them. Something more caring like the face of an old man could do the work and get the message through twice as fast. You see, my remaining powers from the future is only limited although my reserve is vast, so I can only rely on a portion of it at a time, and changing appearance requires a lot of it. One day, it will all deplenish, and so will my great life-force... The reason I don't go around looking like I do now before you, like my real self, is because if all the wielders of the Master Sword knew who I was and what I looked like, it would obliterate the consistency of time. My past-self can't know that we are the same before the time is nigh, so I have to keep my identity hidden, even from those I'm suppose to guide. Like I said though, I don't think it matters whether or not I reveal my identity to you, as long as you can keep it a secret that is... I'm certain if Revan and Aragon could do it, so can you...' I understood what he meant, but there was no way I could possibly picture his situation in my head, or even how big this power-reserve of his was. All this delicate planning... It must have been exhausting...
He then continued. 'Yukimura didn't believe what I had said to him at first, but as soon as he witnessed the events unfolding one by one before his eyes, he always kept a close eye towards you, didn't he? He knew I was right, he knew that I wasn't some crazy old lunatic, but that I indeed had already foreseen the future, exactly as I had laid it out for him that day.' Looking at the two of us, the wizard seemed relatively calm, but at the same time, it felt like he was almost a bit arrogant. Even if he hadn't intended to, he had got a small, sudden burst of anger building up inside of me with his last remark, but since he already knew all about the future, he could probably already foresee it coming his way as well. I said; 'If you knew all of this and the things that were going to happen, why haven't you interfered and saved the land with your powers, why haven't you prevented all the bad that has happened in my life if you've had the ability to do so all along?!' I stood up from my chair as I slammed my hands into the table, almost tipping over his cup of sake in the process, demanding answers. 'If I had, the future wouldn't have come to be and the world would have forever been lost.' He delicately put it. 'I couldn't interfere, no matter the pain nor the cost. You had to grow into the man you are now, the man you soon will be, in order for the world to progress correctly. If the future doesn't happen, then the world will forever be thrown into a dark void, never to be the same again.' For the second part of his sentence, he was a lot more serious than he had been with the first, and it seemed as if even he didn't find his own spoken lines that easily said. I could sense it... Maybe he always wanted to do things his own way but that he knew he couldn't? I could only imagine what that would be like, to stand idle by and watch the world burn. I couldn't even begin to understand how I would have been able to do that, especially if I had the powers to do something about it, but as the thought struck me, another one suddenly snuck inside. A thought that was far more pressing and far outranked the other; 'If that's true, then why did you save my life two years ago after I defeated my grandparents?! You saved me back then didn't you, you were the one who healed my wounds?!' I looked at him. I knew where he was coming from but I couldn't help feel infuriated. 'I would have liked to say yes, but that wasn't me...' 'What?! Then who?! Answer me!' I continuously pressed on to get an answer as I was just about to reach out and grab a hold on to him, but as we were about to make contact, it was as if I was being pulled back to the chair I previously sat on and forced to sit down again by a mysterious force. It had to be of his doing, that much I knew...
'Just be quiet for a bit and let me explain. There's no need to become upset, in time, everything shall become clear. That man was not me, and even if I know who it is, it's up to you to find that out for yourself.' 'Fine, I'll settle down, but there are so many things I want to ask you! You told me that my real father was never known, but you knew... You knew that it was Nobunaga all along, didn't you? You knew the story of how he had been controlled by my grandparents to do their bidding and wreak havoc in the land for decades, didn't you??' 'Yes I knew.' He said with a sign of regret in his voice. 'Then how can I possibly trust anything you say?! What more have you kept from me?!' 'Calm down, Hagoromo... It's not like I'm forcing you to accept anything that I have to say nor is it my job to tell you everything and live your life for you. What I can say is that just like the identity of the man who saved your life two years ago is for you alone to find out, you had to find that out for yourself back then. You were the one who had to free your father, not me. If I had told you all that before, and if I tell you now, the future-...' 'Alright, alright, the future, I know...' 'Besides, there's no fun in life if you know everything that's going to happen, am I right?? And if I hadn't opened up the way for you to learn about your inner powers, you wouldn't have survived that Sanada clan massacre in the first place, would you? So what I have to offer is not totally useless to you no matter what you may think. Just be patient... I'm not here to cause you harm.' He had a point although I sure didn't like to admit it. 'Yeah, yeah... So let's cut to the chase then, shall we?...' I had finally calmed down, but I was indeed starting to get impatient. However, I knew this conversation was very far from being over, so there wasn't much else to do than to keep at it. This could indeed end up being a long night, I thought to myself...
'I told Yukimura to give you my name as a cover name for one purpose, and one purpose alone, and that was for you to remember it by heart, even passed your death. As I was saying, the man you will be fighting in the future when you get resurrected, is me, and it is crucial that you at no time refer back to this exact meeting, that you actually know who he is. You can tell him that your name was once Naruto Uzumaki as well and that he looks similar to your younger-self, but in truth, you are really referring to me. The only thing you can mention is that like the Great Toad Sage has told him, he will meet someone named The Wizard who keeps his identity hidden from the world, but that you never saw his-... My, true face, even though you did. When the right time comes, they will meet, just like you had met with me once before in your life and were bestowed upon the Founding Book of Jutsu and the Staff of Fortune & Destiny back then. You can give him lessons and some powers, but you need to keep certain details out of it. If you reveal that both he and the wizard are the same person, just from different periods of time, it will completely mess up the time/space continuity. Only I can tell him that we are the same once the time comes, once he's ready, but not before then.'
Explaining to me how the encounter would pan out, I became just more and more baffled. Everything about the future, our battle in what was supposed to be another dimension, and using the Master Sword to escape that said dimension, several titans, different forms of powered-up modes, the Great Toad Sage, the Giant Toad of Mt. Myobokuzan, and then what he referred to as the God of War... I wasn't even sure how I would remember all of it, yet along after my apparent death. 'You will remember, that I can guarantee. There's no need to worry about it. In fact, in the distant future before your death, you will face these Titans of the Underworld for yourself in battle after venturing to this magical place called Mt. Myobokuzan that I mentioned. They are called the Titans of the Underworld because you were the one to seal them away to this dimension using the Master Sword. You will know what I'm talking about when the time comes. That will prepare you for what happens after your passing. Now, what's also important to remember is that when the time is nigh and the Circle of Hatred has reached the end some years later after this event that takes place after your death, all the wielders of the Master Sword will meet once more to free the world forever, and so will you be brought back yet again. At this time, Naruto Uzumaki, my past-self, will be much older than last time you met him, and you won't need to battle him this time either. You won't even recognize him at first though due to his age. Also, my current form of the wizard will also be present then to guide you all, and only at the end can you hint at the identity of the wizard and Naruto being the same person, both being me.' I hadn't been this confused in a while, but at the same time, most of it also made sense somehow. But if all of this happened after I had died and right before I died, why was it important now?? I simply nodded back at him.
'There's so much I could have told you about the future and about the past, but I need to keep things simple...' "Keep things simple??!" I hopelessly thought to myself, although I knew he was serious. 'After you have battled my past-self in the future, my past-self will then take over the role as the guardian of the world and become immortal. That's how I came to be in my current state. After the Circle of Hatred has been broken and my past-self has faced me, which is the route I'm heading for now as the wizard, my past-self will then have to travel to the past to become the wizard, to become me. In fact, I traveled 7000 years back in time, which by now is 6000 years ago, to eventually get here, in this room, right now, with the two of you. The curious thing is that before I jumped time, I looked old, but once I touched ground in the past, I looked like my younger-self again, like my appearance now. There is however, still 1000 years to go for me before I can finally rest...' There was a sense of resentment as he said that, but he already knew how it all would end. It was the waiting around that was the hard part. He continued. 'To be noted, you are the 8th and final wielder of the Master Sword. It happens to be that you have to pass the Master Sword over to my past-self in order for me to escape your dimensional transportation technique, but in truth, I am the 2nd wielder of the Master Sword, meaning that I was already predestined to claim it even in the future, without already having been to the past first. The Master Sword already recognized me as its wielder due to my future adventures in the past. Chronologically, I had already claimed it before, and thus, I was able to redraw it again despite it being a future-self of me in the past that had originally claimed it... Otherwise, the condition for passing on the Master Sword to the next wielder is by shaking hands, like the 1st wielder Revan did with me, like I did with the 3rd wielder Aragon, and so forth, as you already know. You did however never meet the 7th wielder of the Master Sword, but it was I who passed the "crest" over to you back then the first time we met when you were younger and still in the Sect, just like we talked about during our last meeting when you were still among the Sanada clan...'
I simply nodded back once more. It was a ton of information to swallow, but I was certain that as long as I understood the main points of it, then that was all that really mattered. 'When I look at you now, I can clearly see that your lineage is strong in you, even to the degree that the famous horns of the Otsutsuki clan is beginning to show. The same can't be said about some certain other individuals within the clan, at least not yet...' He was on to something. By now, what seemed to be two small mishaps during my birth, was indeed starting to look like the foundation of two horns growing out of my head, although I hadn't really noticed it much before now. Come to think of it, both my grandparents had the same thing, and I had already come to peace with my true origins realizing this but only after Trea had convinced me of otherwise. I was certain she would leave me once they started to appear. Luckily, she wasn't like that. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I was sure of it, despite the fact that she called me pathetic for thinking she would do such a thing... As I reflected upon her words from that time, another thought hit me. Not that it really mattered though, but I had to wonder what he meant by that last part?? What other clan members of the Otsutsuki clan did this wizard, this Naruto, know of?? I let the thought slide. There was already too much information out on the table, and there was no way he was going to tell me more about that now, knowing him... 'So now that we have that out of the way, what's more to talk about? I'm certain that you're actually here for a whole other reason than just to tell me all this??' I wanted to think that most of what the wizard wanted to say was in fact already out there in the open, but the truth was that only now would he really start talking about what he came here for, and as I had expected, there weren't exactly many praises to be heard in my favor, rather the opposite...
'Fine, now over to something else then and I have a feeling you know what it is... I mentioned when I came today that you had broken my promise, Hagoromo...' His tone had changed once more. From joyful and easy-going, he was now suddenly dead serious. I couldn't help getting nervous and it was as if he realized this while looking on me. 'The strange part about it all is that I already knew you would break it... It was your destiny to break my trust and revive Trea...' Turning his attention towards her, she couldn't help taking a step back. 'Leave her out of this, okay!' Standing up once more, I decided to step in between them in sudden fear that he would actually decide to pull a wise one on me, and only act friendly up until now to further his own agenda, whatever that could be. 'What's done is done, I won't let any harm come to your wife, so relax Hagoromo.' He wasn't going to do something after all? No, that couldn't be it, why would he mention it otherwise?? 'You sure seem too fixated on my wife being alive than to not have anything up your sleeve... Don't think for a second that I will allow you to pull any tricks even if we've had a friendly talk so far...' I countered. 'Will you just listen to me for once!!' Suddenly, the wizard, or rather, Naruto raised his voice for the first time, as if having adopted his human side even more. I was shocked to say the least as both Trea and I took another step back. 'If I wanted to pull something, none of you would have still been alive, I can assure you that. And if that was the case, I would have done it by now...' He was sincere, but at the same time, you could easily see that he was only joking. On the other hand though, I knew he was strong and getting him on his nerve would spell bad, even for me. 'However, I am on your side... Besides, it's not my call. If something was to happen to your wife, there wouldn't be a future to look towards, Hagoromo...' Still seated on his chair, Naruto then proceeded to take a sip out of the sake in front of him, much to our amazement. 'You actually tasted it?' I cleverly stated. He simply ignored my remark and continued. I hadn't felt more dumbstruck in days. 'The reason I say this, is that in order for my own existence to ever happen, the world needs your daughter and both your sons to be born in the future...' 'Our children?? What do you mean?' Leaning out from behind me, Trea was courageous enough to ask him what was on her mind, having remained silent almost all the way up until now. 'Like I said, it was your destiny to bring your wife back into this world, so even if I was both aware that you would break my promise in order to do so, and knew what that would ultimately lead down to, I had to let it happen. As it was your destiny to revive her, it was also your destiny to create the curse...' 'The curse??' I replied hesitantly, realizing that Naruto's face had become more concerned. 'Reviving your wife was only the first cause, but using your powers for even more selfish desires and creating the Five Treasure Tools of Destruction was what truly created the curse... The Curse of the Jubi, the Manifestation of Hatred. I warned you not to use these powers for your own good, I warned you of the consequences, didn't I??' Crossing his arms together, Naruto let out a deep sigh, but somehow, he refused to take his own words seriously enough for him to feel the need to get up from his chair in order to fully express it, rather the contrary, as he sat glued to it and only mumbled the words...
I didn't know what to say in response to this... Had I somehow forgotten the warnings he had given me? Had I truly let my own despair and selfishness get the better of me? This was what Yukimura talked about wasn't it? Why he forbade me from reviving him in the first place, in fear that something like this would happen? If he hadn't, I would have had him revived by now for certain. No... If I hadn't made the tools, how would I have been able to defeat my grandparents to begin with? My father said that I required something special in order to beat them, and I was certain that this was it. It was my destiny to do it, regardless of what I wanted, wasn't it? What exactly did Naruto expect of me having said all that? What did he want from me, if he knew it would happen no matter what I did?? 'What do I do, what will happen? What is the Jubi?' I uttered. 'In time, you will find out... A great dark curse is brewing in the shadows, and it will soon be upon us. Only you and your brother have the powers to oppose this creature, which will change the world as you know it forever. Only you can stop it from taking over the world.' 'But I haven't even met my brother yet?! I don't even know if Hamura is alive, neither my mother Kaguya??' 'Your father Nobunaga entrusted you to find them, did he not? He believed in you, didn't he?' He was right... There was no time to despair now. 'A Divine Tree will first sprout from the blood-soaked soil of the land in the near future, and shortly thereafter will you encounter the Jubi. That is all I can say about it. What you need to remember is that you are the last wielder of the Master Sword for a reason, don't forget about that. You were chosen for a purpose, so use its powers to guide you, and don't let the power of chakra blind you, as the moment you neglect the Master Sword's powers in search for other more powerful sources, is the moment you fail...' 'But how??' 'You must awaken the True Master Sword which will guide you through the darkness, and you also have to awaken your own true powers by becoming the wielder of the Three Symbols of Wisdom, Courage and Power if you ever hope to be strong enough to face the Jubi with your brother, and what's to come after...' The Symbols of Wisdom, Courage and Power... Hadn't he mentioned this before somewhere?? 'To help explain to you what I mean, I want you to meet someone. In fact, one of them have already visited you in a dream.' At this point I could only wait and see what he meant. 'Come, let's head outside for the final phase.' 'And Trea??' I vaguely asked. 'Bring her if you want.' He answered.
[...]
The next thing I knew, the three of us were out in the open. The sky was darkened by the absent of the sun, but the weather was on a standstill for now. Only a faint wind could be felt upon our skins, but it didn't bother me much. There was so much more to the wizard, to this Uzumaki Naruto, than what met the eye, I could feel it... What was his true role in all this? Was he just a guide? Who had chosen him to go through with this journey? Did truly a supernatural being like a god, a ruler of fate and destiny exist? Someone must have given him this task other than an alternative future version of himself? All these questions ran through my head, but I knew there was no reason to ponder any further. Clapping his hands together, Naruto began to channel his chakra as a bright light struck down from the sky and enveloped us all in a small circle. Everything then turned white as we were now suddenly standing in a white room, indescribable in comparison to anything else in the world. 'Where are we??' I asked. 'This is what I call the Overworld dimension, or rather, the Skyworld, if you like. In a sense, it's suppose to be the polar opposite of the Underworld, both of which are dimensions accessible to those who have mastered the Sage of Six Paths' Powers, your ultimate Powers. One dimension represents the Yin, the other the Yang, and when combined, they create Yin-Yang, the essence of life itself. In this dimension, nothingness is shaped and given a form, while in the Underworld, that form is given life. This is a place you'll be spending a lot of time down the road.... Curiously enough, like I'm teaching you about this stuff now, so will you hand down this knowledge to my past-self in return in the future. Looking at it from a different point of view, you have already taught me about most of what I've just told and taught you, ages ago. Now that I reflect upon it, it's kind of ironic, don't you think? Everything you learn from me, I've learned from you, and vise-versa. It's impossible to wrap your head around it without becoming dizzy...' It was as if his fountain of knowledge never ended. Although I managed to grasp most of what he said, it all felt beyond my understanding at times. What did he exactly mean by the Sage of Six Paths' Powers, my ultimate Powers? I remember thinking that to myself at the time. This guy knew even more about me than I knew myself...
'While we're at it, why don't we formally greet??' The wizard then suddenly reached his hand out in which I could only look at him with an intrigued yet perplexed look on my face. 'But I already know your name, don't I?' I replied. 'Yes, but we haven't formally met until we shake hands with our real names out in the open, have we??' A bright warm smile formed on his face. Something about him felt so familiar, but what could it be? Even through all this time, it was as if he still remembered his old-self from before he became the wizard, remembered how to still be a human being. 'You don't have to be nervous, take my hand, Hagoromo...' He followed up. I saw no reason not to so I approached him. 'Be careful Hagoromo...' Trea uttered beside me. 'There's no reason to worry, I think I know what I'm doing...' 'You think? You better be sure, for heaven's sake!' Her remark almost made me chuckle, but I had to keep a serious face so I simply smiled at it. Coming in contact with his hand, it was as if I caught a glimpse of everything he had been through. From his past life before he became immortal, before he traveled to the past, and everything after. In a bright flash, it was as if he wanted me to see, to better understand parts of it and how it felt. This guy actually had a simple life like me once, filled with both joy and sorrow, and yet, this was only just a tiny, tiny part of his now prolonged life. I could only imagine all he had been through.
'My name, is Uzumaki Naruto. I was once something called a Hokage, a protector and a leader of my village, my home, and then later, I was elected to become something called Sekaiteki-Kage, a Global Shadow, a Keeper of Peace. I had many friends and allies like you, even a family and children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on, but as time went by, everything faded to memory, everyone around me moved on but me. I am not that guy anymore, after having traveled to the past and through 6000 years, guiding the upcoming wielders of the Master Sword one by one, I'm having trouble remembering who I was, what it used to be like living in the future, living a simply life, like a commoner... I don't know why I was chosen for this job, for this fate, but all I know, all I remember is that once my journey is over, I can move on to the afterlife and meet my beloved ones once more, like my future-self did after our meeting... Like you, Hagoromo, I also still have a job to do, and I must make sure I don't forget about that fact until the destined day finally arrives.' His face changed when he said that... I knew it would have taken a 100 years alone for him to explain every little details, time we surely didn't have. Even if he was just a shadow of his former-self, I knew that this man was both the strongest and most honorable man I had ever met.
'Who you're about to meet is someone I met just as I arrived here in the past, 6000 years ago. Although he died in a battle to stop an evil lord shortly thereafter, his "essence" is still around, even to this date. I mentioned the name Menma before... Well, you see once I hit the ground here, I suffered a memory lose, an amnesia. Menma was the name Revan gave me until I could remember who I was and why and how I had gotten here... Revan was the creator of the Master Sword, the 1st wielder, and he was apprentice under the one who visited you in your dream all those years ago...' 'The dream?' I had to stop and think for a moment but it was getting clearer now. 'Wait, this dream of yours Hagoromo... Is it the same as back then after the Sect massacre?' Speaking her mind, Trea looked at me. She was right, it was just the dream that Naruto was talking about, the one I had remembered just as we had crawled out of the secret tunnel and found ourselves in the Sacred Forest all those years ago.. 'Hylia...' I mumbled. 'Wasn't her name Hylia??' I continued. 'She told me to find the legendary blade and claim it for myself as its next wielder... When I looked upon her, she reminded me of a Goddess...' Scratching my head, I wasn't really sure why all this mattered now, but I knew what Naruto was referring to. He then took a step closer to me as he laid his left hand on my shoulder. 'Let's find out then, shall we?' As he said, two figures suddenly stood behind him. One man and one woman. The man had green eyes, short trimmed brow hair tied up in a knot on the back of his head, and a long light-brown robe covering his entire body. He had to be in his 20s when he died, at least he looked younger than me. This, had to be Revan...
On his side she stood, just like I remembered her to be. Her eyes were yellow, her hair white, long and elegant. She too had a brown robe wrapped around her body. It was as if an indistinct glow transmitted from her body and I deemed it impossible to guess her age. She could be in her 20s, her 40s, her 60s, but were they even human beings to begin with? Did their lifespan differ from ours in such a way that appearance really didn't reflect our idea of age? In fact, I wasn't even sure what to file my own life under. Being half human, half Otsutsuki, there was no telling. Both of them though seemed to be changing from being materialized to being mere holograms. What exactly could this mean? Turning around, Naruto then greeted the two. 'It's been forever, hasn't it Revan??' 'For you it might seem that way, but for me it was just a mere moment ago...' 'Right, I keep forgetting...' Again the hint of mystery was present. Did Naruto and Revan refer to lifespan differences, or did they simply refer to the fact that Revan was actually already dead and that the last thing he remembered was in fact just that? Maybe it was both? I could only ponder further. 'The reason I've called you here is to help-...' 'We know, Menma... Hylia predicted this...' Revan quickly added before Naruto could finish his sentence. 'Yeah, her powers...' He firmly replied. Turning around towards me again, Naruto then addressed me personally. 'In case you're wondering, Hylia here is truly the only person I've ever encountered, here in the past, who can see glimpse of the future... All I know comes from what I already knew before getting here. It was part of her essence that helped you create the Great Toad Sage from the Giant Toad of Mt. Myobokuzan...' 'Okay okay, slow down a bit here, I'm trying to wrap my head around all this.' It wasn't like I didn't understand or weren't paying attention, but with everything he had just told me since getting here, and now with all of this... I wasn't sure if I could remember it all. Looking over at Trea, I sought a reassuring nod that she would help me out, help me remember all this for later, but instead, she just giggled back at me. I knew that this was all on me, Naruto and these two, I couldn't really expect Trea to help me get through this...
'Hagoromo, was it??' Taking a few steps forward, Revan halted beside Naruto as he looked at me. I had to pay attention now, there was no way around it. 'Yeah...' I simply uttered. 'Like Naruto has told you, you need to awaken the True Master Sword, and the reason is that only the True Master Sword can fully contain its powerful sealing abilities... You've encountered it before, haven't you??' A piercing image went through my mind. Come to think of it, he was right. After I had used up my last strength to deal the finishing blow to my grandfather, Kuroi, his body did indeed get sucked into the Master Sword itself, but how? Or even, why? What did I do differently then, than what I had done before? Could only true evil be sealed away or was there some other requirement? 'In order to awaken the Master Sword's true abilities, you need to prove yourself worthy as its wielder.' Crossing his arms together, Revan seemed as calm and recollected as ever despite knowing the fact that he was already dead. Was this similar to what I would be going through after my death when I would be brought back in the future? 'Are you paying attention, Hagoromo?' Breaking in, Naruto had caught on my mind drifting away temporarily. I only gave him a brief nod to avoid any unnecessary side-tracking in this conversation as it was already complicated enough as it was. I was however, inclined enough to ask a question for myself this time around. 'Now that we're on the subject, what's exactly the purpose of the Master Sword and its wielders??' Naruto looked back at me perplexed, but he seemed to already know the answer to my question, or at least his view on it. 'There can only be one wielder at a time.' He noted. 'In that you are correct, Naruto.' Revan followed up. 'The Master Sword is just a powerful weapon that only a few can wield, but if you unlock its special powers, it really can become more than just a mere weapon per see... The Master Sword gets attracted to those with a strong will towards justice, even to the degree that by now, passing on the crest might not even be necessary in order to find the next successor. In a way, you could say that the Master Sword has its own will.' 'So in truth, there can only be one person at a time wielding the Master Sword or does it mean that there can only exists one wielder at a time??' I curiously replied. Naruto once again spoke. 'Both scenarios might be possible but neither is probably correct thinking back on our history. If either I or Revan wanted to, we could probably be able to wield the Master Sword right now, but let's not waste energy nor time in order to find out.' Naruto was moving things forward and I could easily tell. 'There's a great Tower in the West, Hagoromo, in the middle of an enriched forest just beside a mountain. A Great Village will be founded there in the future, a village I was very fond of and connected to. You will have to travel there in order to test your resolve and to make up for the mistakes of the past, to get your path straightened out once more. It will be the toughest threat and the greatest challenge you've faced so far, and you will need to rely on everything you've learned. However, do not bring any of your Treasured Tools with you for this test, as it is a test of spirit and resolve rather than might alone. In order to prepare for this challenge, I advise you to seek out a Grandmaster in hand-to-hand combat who lives not too far away from the Tower. If you want to succeed, your Taijutsu needs to improve...'
'I understand, if that's what I need to do then that is where I'll go.' I answered, although I still didn't know much about what exactly was ahead of me now. I did however, know a small portion of everything in general, but would it be enough? 'Aren't you forgetting one thing now Naruto??' Having remained quiet up until now, Hylia then stepped forward. Turning towards her, Naruto seemed puzzled. 'Are you referring to the explanation of how the sealing ability of the Master Sword works?' He swiftly asked. 'Precisely.' She concurred. 'Well in that case, let me explain...' Nodding firmly, Revan seemed to know exactly what to say, so he decided to take over. 'The sealing ability was an experiment I never truly got to incorporate back in the days; it's rather something that the Master Sword itself has developed over time. You see, the sealing ability has only been used once so far in time, and you are the first one to use it. I have a faint feeling that the Master Sword somehow reacted to your special resolve, and that is how it can be unlocked. By obtaining the crests of Power, Courage and Wisdom, you will be able to contain the sealing powers, making the Master Sword even deadlier than it already is. Want to explain the rest, Naruto?' Looking over at him, Revan left a grin on his face. 'Right. The thing is Hagoromo, that after I retrieved the Master Sword during my battle with you in the future, the Master Sword already had its sealing ability contained, having been used to seal away the Titans to the Underworld in the past. Actually, the only way I could defeat your resurrected body in our fight, was to seal away your soul to the Underworld as well...' 'Huh??' All this talk about the future made my head spin. No matter how I looked at it, it now seemed like my soul would never be able to rest, even after my death, but luckily, I still remembered that Naruto told me earlier that we all would be brought back somehow once more later on, which would suggest that even I would be able to move on after that, instead of being sealed away in never-ending battle for good. Naruto continued. 'After that, I had to rely on the sealing ability of the Master Sword another time over a 100 years later in order to save a key figure and an apprentice of mine in the 6th Great Shinobi War, but I suppose that in this period of time, the term Shinobi doesn't even exist yet. Anyways, after sealing his enemy away to the Underworld, the sealing ability of the Master Sword was never used again, although I had to rely on the Master Sword's special ability to kill my future-self, to kill the wizard and finally give him peace and give the world the true final peace it had craved for. So yeah, I will not only die by my own hands in the future, but my past-self will use the Master Sword to call upon the previous wielders and use their combined powers to open up a portal through time. I don't think you were present that time though, were you Revan?' Looking at him, Naruto seemed to be taking the explanation through a side-track and I was so baffled that I didn't even bother to say something. 'I wasn't... The reason is simple, and it's a two-part answer. One, you guys didn't need me, two, you were going to see me the first thing you did when you traveled to the past... But you know all of this already, and it's beside the point, isn't it?' Looking back at him, Revan's facial expression seemed to have gone wearied. 'Yeah I think you're right about that...' 'Boys...' Suddenly calling their attention, Hylia then spoke once more. 'It is time...' Looking at her, Naruto knew that time was running out so he turned back to me and said; 'Have you been able to get all this??' I wanted to laugh, but in respect of the individuals present I kept my tongue in check and instead gave him a nod. I only remembered what I felt was important, and for now, I could only focus on the things that were in my own hands, like getting to that Tower and taking that challenge...
It all made sense now, but it also seemed too simple in a way. Looking over at Revan, I was certain that there was something more to be said, but to my surprise there wasn't. Giving Naruto a nod, both Revan and Hylia started to walk away from us and before they had gone too far, they were gone. In the next few seconds the whiteness around us began to break as we suddenly found ourselves on the ground in the real world once more. Naruto then looked up at the sky as rain had begun to pour down upon us. Trea looked at me, as if telling me that she had heard enough as I nodded back at her. She then went inside our home in order to not get soaking wet by the rain as I walked over to Naruto and stopped by his side. For some reason, I felt like asking him a question I'm not even sure if he had expected me to ask. In fact, I didn't even know where it came from, it just did. 'Looking back, was it all worth it, Naruto??' I paused as he turned his head towards me. He seemed puzzled for once, a facial expression I had yet to see upon his face. 'What do you mean?' He answered. 'To give up your life and become immortal, to go through everything you have... I can only imagine how painful and lonely it must have been...' Something in what I said must have gotten to him. The mysterious emotionless wizard of the old, was actually capable of still showing emotions. I was certain that it was what I saw, it couldn't have been the rain, could it? Looking at him, I saw a tear leaving his right eye. Was it something I said that made him remember something? Walking away from me, he then turned around as he took up what seemed to be a battle-stance. 'Fate... Destiny... Whatever we do in life, is it really all predetermined?? Still to this date I can't answer that question. My family and my friends...They said they understood what I was going through, that they realized the burden I had taken upon me... Even the face of my future-self as I watched him finally being able to move on after the 7000 years' long journey. I always held that feeling I had back then high, knowing that no matter how far I went, I would eventually meet my end too. To see my family and friends again... Was it worth it? No... But did I have a choice? Could I have done things differently? If I had declined the Great Toad Sage and never taken his place, what would have become of the future? Would the world never have known its true peace then?? These are all questions beyond my capability to answer. Somewhere out there, there has to be a being that preordained this destiny for me. All I know Hagoromo, is that I still have a job to do, and once it's finally over... Hinata... My children... My friends... I will meet with you again.'
I was stunned... There was no word in existence that I could use to grasp what he had been through, to understand his submerged feelings, to comfort him. All I could do was to listen to what he had to say, and accept our fates... It felt like I had always known him, like he had always been by my side for as long as I could remember. There was something about him that made me feel warm, happy, something that set me in a good mood. But even if I enjoyed his company for whatever reason, I couldn't simply stop feeling bad for him. 'My powers won't last forever, and I'm getting weaker by the moment, with every day that goes by... In one way, the immortality bestowed upon me by the Great Toad Sage shouldn't have lasted more than a thousand years. I do suspect that traveling back in time somewhat extended that even though one of the requirements were to actually give it up. I had to give up most of my inner powers too, the Tailed Beasts, to be able to jump time, but I still possess some of my former powers whenever I need to rely on them in certain situations, like I mentioned earlier... When I first got here, it was almost as if I was reborn. After I regained the knowledge of who I was, it didn't take long however before the side-effects really started to take a toll on me. For a time during the rise of the 3rd wielder of the Master Sword, and for a long time after the rise of the 4th wielder, all I could do was meditate, and I had to do that for almost a thousand years before I could move around fully again... I have a feeling that this is why I was able to kill my future-self before I went through time, how my past-self in the future will send me off to the afterlife in the same manner. My powers are declining and I will probably have spent up all my life-force by the time that day comes...' For someone who had lived this long and already knew about his own future death, Naruto didn't seem to worry much. All he could think of was getting things done. 'Like the Great Toad Sage, I can also transfer some of my extensive life-force and thereby some of my immortality to others for a brief time if needed, extending their life beyond normal span... Before I go, there's some things I need to say... Among all the wielders of the Master Sword that I have met, you, Hagoromo... Is the one who resembles me the most... I want to thank you for giving me this chance to finally be my true self again... It's been too many years since I last remembered how it was like to be human... This, will be the final time we meet, until the afterlife claims you and you meet my past-self in the future. Only at the circle's end will we meet in these forms again, and only then can we reflect back upon the past and say that the world shall know True Eternal Peace...' I didn't even need to say another word, I could almost read his mind. I had never put much into our last meeting, at least not into more than the crucial things he had told me, but with this final meeting of ours now, I knew I would keep most of everything he had said close to my heart, forever... His character was not the same, and I deemed it impossible to compare him now with back then... I knew what his next words would be... And it wasn't words, but lessons... I drew the Master Sword from my back as the rain continued to pour heavily. In return, he too as well drew what seemed to be a mysterious sword and faced it towards me. He wanted to test my current strength through a mock-battle, and there wasn't any chance he would allow me to hold back. 'For this battle, I want you to focus solely on using the Master Sword. Its importance in your future acts is bigger than you might think. Only if you can wield it perfectly can you stand against the forces of evil. Without chakra, without hidden abilities, we are but men with our swords. Remember this, because it will be important that you pass this lesson on to my past-self in the future.'
There was no need for talk, it was time for battle. I leaped out forward as our swords met amidst the rain. We fought what seemed like an hour but it probably wasn't more than ten minutes. He was too strong, too skilled with the blade for me to beat him and I realized this early on. I still kept going though until I was completely out of breath. Holstering his sword, Naruto reached his hand out to me as he helped me up to my feet again. What now followed was his last words in ages. 'Good... It was just as I expected. These two years of peace have made you rusty. Fear not though, this upcoming test is exactly what you need. I have great faith in you Hagoromo, although going by destiny, I already know you will succeed. No matter what you do, don't rely on fate alone because the moment you lose focus is the moment things may go wrong. Even if you are destined to become the Sage of Six Paths, doesn't that mean you can't die before you get there or fail along the way. If you do, this world will forever be lost, remember that... As nothing is impossible if you believe in yourself. Destiny may sometimes be hard, but we were all chosen for a reason. It's not the small things that will change the world, but the lasting impression all the wielders combined can make.' A smile formed on Naruto's face as he said that. 'I still remember the last day I saw my family, the face on Hinata as I saw them walk away. I had my mission, even if it cost me part of my humanity and the precious time I had in life, things that I would have spent otherwise if I could choose again... That is the fate of the chosen. You can only value the time you have...' And just as the smile had formed, equally fast was it gone. I knew the time had come. Reaching his hand out, he then tapped me on the forehead with his finger as he looked at me. A strange feeling surged through me but it was over before I managed to act on it. 'I leave you with a parting gift to help you on your road... A gift that otherwise would require massive training to be able to achieve. You will find out soon enough what it is, and with it, I've also transferred some of my life-force, which you will need in order to create the Great Toad Sage, who will then go on and live for a thousand years after your passing...' 'So this is it huh? So I will never see you again in this lifetime??' I knew he had said what he came for... There was no reason to linger any longer. 'Probably not... At least not until after your death like I said before... Make sure you will look for the Key to Peace, so that your legacy can fulfill what you've started.' 'I will... So where will you be going in the meantime, Naruto?' He had already done what he set out to do, but knowing that he still had a thousand years ahead of himself, I dreaded the thought of him just passing time alone until that day came. What would be ten lifetimes for me, would be a time of patience for him. 'Why are you asking?' He simply said. 'You don't have to spend all that time alone. Our home will always be open, even for you.' 'You're the first person to ask me that in all my time here in the past, but I am afraid I can't. It's not a matter of will, I want you to know that.' Looking down, Naruto seemed as if saddened. He then concluded our meeting. 'Hagoromo, it's been... An honor.' 'The honor is mine, Naruto...'
Just as I expected him to leave, he suddenly reacted on my final words as a grin formed on his face. He then added one last piece of advice. 'Funny you should say that...' 'Why?' I curiously asked. 'That's the same thing I said to you when our battled ended in the future... Heh, well like a wise old man once told me, "Always keep in mind that true courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one..." Goodbye Hagoromo...' As the rain continued to pour hard down on the ground, he was suddenly gone. I could feel the mark of his finger on my forehead slowly beginning to fade as I looked around. He was truly gone this time. Just like a raindrop hitting the ground, he had vanished before me. He had left an everlasting impression that never quite left my mind. I ventured inside the house as Trea helped me get out of the wet clothes. What followed was some steamy hot ***... Not that I'm implying by any means that you, my children, would want to be hearing anything about that aspect of this story. In any case, I knew that I had a lot in front of me and that I had to start as soon as possible.
[...]
The very next day I was ready. Mounting on one of the two horses we owned, Trea was there to see me off. I knew where I was going and there was no time to lose. Before I headed to the Tower however, there was a certain clan I had to go see first. A few hours later, I arrived at the new camp of the Sanada clan. It was even bigger and better built than the last one and rather than being a mere camp, this was indeed a castle. Its name, was Ueda Castle, the home of the Sanada clan. At the front gate I was greeted by their new leader, Danivass "Daihachi" Sanada, the son of Yukimura, the one I had promised him that I would look after and make sure would become a great leader. He welcomed me inside as I told him we had a lot to discuss. Gathering the higher-ranking members of the clan in the great dining hall, I sat down before them as I laid out some of the details of my recent meeting with the wizard. Most of them didn't even know what to say so they kept quiet for now, but they all realized that this meeting would be more than just a formal one, in fact, they all knew I had some things to say that would change the view on the current peace altogether...
'So not even this peace will really last then??' Danivass exclaimed. 'I am afraid not, Dani...' I knew he took this news with a feeling of regret. After all, the Sanada clan was one of the clans who had lost the most during the final stage of the Thousand Years' War. To think that all they had fought for, all they had sacrificed and endured, would only be for yet another great battle to happen in the future. If I felt I had lost a lot throughout my life, these guys could most definitely relate to my pain. Somehow, Dani took the news harder than I had expected. Even if he was as strong and brave as his father, Dani was more self-centered with the safety of his own clan rather than worrying about the rest of the world for now. Yukimura on the other hand would gladly sacrifice about everything if it meant that peace could finally happen, any time of the year, so that the dead could be avenged and ultimately be put to a well-deserved rest... 'So what does this mean, Hagoromo? What now??' He questioned. I had visited the clan because I knew I had some things I wanted to get off my chest, and only Dani could help me with that now. I was however, not entirely sure where to begin... We ended up discussing back and forth for about an hour. About the end of the war, about the current peace, about the other clans, and lastly, about Yukimura, and my own and Trea's stay with the clan for all those years.
'I don't know if I had the chance to tell you this Dani, but I visited the Azai about a year ago...' I began. 'There, I met up with Nagamasa and his wife Oichi, Nobunaga's sister... My aunt.' I paused for a second as Dani looked at me. He seemed surprised, but at the same time, he knew where I came from and where I was going with this, so I continued. 'As you know, I hadn't revealed all the details of Yukimura and I's battle with Nobunaga and Tadakatsu to anyone beside you and our clan, the Sanada, and later to the remainder of the Oda clan... I did however finally decide to tell Nagamasa and Oichi, so I went to see them. If anyone deserved to know the truth about Nobunaga, it's his kin and clansmen...' Changing my position, I walked over to a table and took a sip out of a cup that Dani had had brought in before our meeting began. Together with him, about seven other high-ranking Sanada members were present. Filling up my cup, I took another sip before I turned around towards Dani and the rest, whom were kicked back on their chairs paying close attention. 'My father always showed great affection towards you Hagoromo... In the end he looked at you as one of his brothers, but even more so his rival, despite the fact that you were never present in any of our earlier battles during your stay. He always claimed that you would join him one day when the time was right, and that it was as if destiny had foreseen that you would have a great impact on the war once you did...' Calm and recollected, Dani seemed to have already come to peace with the fact that there would be more battles to come in the future, despite his earlier expressions... Looking at him in his new gear, seeing him in his new position as the leader of the clan, I couldn't help think of Yukimura... At times, he was his spitting image. 'My father believed in the prophecy from the very beginning... I was present when that old man told him his premonition of the future. It was simply too unreal to believe at the time, but my father was always strong in faith, even if he declined to admit it in front of me. The signs were all there; finding you in the Sacred forest with the blade in your hands, the blue phoenix vanishing over the recruitment camp, symbolizing that "A Hero would rise to defend the people and bring on peace." I would never have believed that the day would come, albeit only temporarily... Maybe there's more to the prophecy than what we first thought...' Crossing his arms together, Dani proceeded to close his eyes taking a deep breath. Something about it all seemed to be occupying his mind, but I couldn't tell exactly what... 'If it hadn't been for the prophecy, there's hard to tell what would have become of you... Neither you nor Trea would have been where you are today without it I imagine. It's unusual for a clan to take in stray men with limited background, even as recruits...' 'I know what you mean...' I looked at him. There was no point denying it, everything he said was in fact true. No other circumstances would have allowed us the hospitality we received from the Sanada clan over the years, our position...
'The Sanada clan has given us everything, more than we could have ever hoped for, and for that, I'm forever grateful. We were not samurai, but we were still treated with unimaginable respect. The samurai code and ethics are of utmost importance for all clans... But honor and loyalty is always valued higher in some people's eyes, especially your father's.' Dani nodded back at me. Although we hadn't conversed much up through the years, it was as if we had known each other for a long time. The thing was, that as a part of the Sanada clan, Trea and I were limited to certain quarters, to certain people due to our status. In all the years we lived there, we rarely saw or talked to any of the upper high-ranking family members of the past leader of the clan. Only Yukimura, as the man and general he was, had graced us with his present. Even I didn't know what they had talked about when it came to us remaining in the clan, but I suspected that Yukimura had negotiated in our favors on more than one occasion... Yet, Yukimura never mentioned it. 'The land is now at peace, but like I said, there are things to come, things even I don't know the full extent of yet...' I continued. 'I haven't told you all the details that were left for me, but for now, I think it's for the better that I keep them for myself, at least until I can figure out just what he meant.' 'I understand.' Dani simply answered. At this, some of the other ones present looked at him as if in a disagreement with his decision not to pursuit the conversation any further, but none of them voiced their mind about it either, knowing well that Dani had the final say, and that he trusted anything I set out to do. Nodding back at me, Dani then stood up as he leaned over to one of his generals who promptly rose from his chair and left the room. Only a minute later, he returned, only this time with what seemed to be a sword wrapped in sheets...
Dani then walked over to me as he laid his hand gently on my shoulder. 'Whatever road you take from now on Hagoromo, you will always have my support... The clan's support, whenever you may need it.' Enfolding his hands, Dani bowed his head in respect toward me. I had never seen him do this to me before, in fact I hadn't seen him do this to anyone... Turning to his side, the samurai who had gone and retrieved the sword then handed it over to him as Dani in turn, reached it out and presented it to me. 'You want me to have this sword??' I questioned. 'But I already have one.' Pointing at my back, I then turned my attention back at him. 'A true samurai always carries two swords with him. If you lose one, then use the other.' I had never heard more sounding words... I enfolded my hands as well as I too bowed towards him in respect. I gladly accepted the sword which not only was a sign of our friendship, but a sign that the Sanada clan viewed me as much of their own, as a samurai, than any other. 'Right, I suppose this concludes our meeting then...' Watching as Dani took a seat, I went to take another sip of my glass before I continued. 'There's a Great Tower in the West, that holds a challenge I need to complete. It's the only way I can move forward from here.' 'A Tower in the West??' Dani thought out loud to himself. 'I'm not sure I've heard about it.' Turning around to the other guys present, one of the older samurai said that he had heard of it but that its challenge was unknown to him. He had heard rumors that the Tower was called, the Tower of Death. 'Tower of Death??' Dani questioned. 'Doesn't sound safe at all... Are you going alone, Hagoromo??' 'Yeah...' I simply said. I knew this was a task that Naruto had entrusted me to take upon myself, so I couldn't be bringing any assistance. If I could, what was stopping me from bringing my Treasured Tools in the first place? 'It's too risky to bring anyone else with me, especially you, Dani... The clan needs you here.' Dani looked at me, it was as if he wanted to object but he knew it would be in vain. I had already made up my mind, nothing could change that. 'Another time, Dani...' I said, giving him a reassuring smile. 'No need to worry, I'll be fine.' Taking one final sip out of my cup, I decided to put it down as I unwrapped the sword Dani had presented me and stationed it on my left side. 'I should be going then I guess...' I was just about to announce my leave when suddenly the sound of approaching hooves of a 100 horses could be heard from outside, even from within the room we were in. I looked at Dani in question. 'The two of us had a lot to discuss and that is why you came here, but, there's also a reason to why I stalled our meeting to this day. I summoned the Heads of the other clans in the land to have a meeting.' 'A meeting??' I was surprised, but I knew Dani's intentions were good. 'And I would like to have you present for it before you go, if you don't mind...' He firmly said. 'So what's the meeting about?' I asked. 'Stay and find out for yourself then...'
It didn't take long before everyone was gathered in the dining hall of the Sanada clan. Even with its great size, it had trouble housing all the important guests and warlords, yet along fitting enough seats for them all. The different clans and their leaders were as follows: Nagamasa and the Azai clan; Ieyasu and the Tokugawa clan, together with his trusted man Hanzo Hattori; Kenshin and the Uesugi clan; Masamune and the Date clan; Mitsuhide and the Akechi clan; Kotaro and the Fuma clan; Toshiie and the Maeda clan, together with his nephew Toshimasu, better know as Keiji, and Hideyoshi and the Toyotomi Clan. As for the Oda clan, after the passing of Nobunaga and his brother Nobuyuki in the war, Nobunaga's only known and generally accepted son, Nobutada, had taken over the clan. This was indeed a big surprise for me after the war ended. In our final talk, Nobunaga didn't even mention that he had another son. As I visited the remainder of the Oda clan a few months later, about one and a half year ago, I quickly discovered that it was Nobutada that had succeeded him as the rightful heir. You could only imagine my surprise once I discovered that he was in fact my half-brother, and as he too realized this after I shared the details of the truth of that day in the burning castle with him, neither one of us knew whether to embrace each other in happiness or to just stare awkwardly at each other... Also present in this sudden meeting of the samurai clans were famed names like Mitsunari Ishida and Kanetsugu Naoe- close friends of the late Yukimura, and Sakon Shima, Magoichi Saika and Mushashi Miyamoto. Being the host for this meeting, Dani proposed that everyone took to their seats as the meeting could begin...
As the initial customary greetings got over with, Dani went on to explain why he had called everyone for this meeting. Not only was it the first meeting between the clan leaders in the land in decades, but it was also the first time in ages that the land had prospered under such peaceful circumstance that had been present for the last two years. Taking his seat, Dani then looked over to the leader of the Uesugi clan, Kenshin Uesugi, as he had requested to take the word, in which Dani obviously had granted. Kenshin did not however, open by talking about peace and joy, he was leaning more towards something else entirely as he rose to his feet. 'I remember the late Takeda clan and its leader for the past decades, Shingen Takeda... Our two clans battled many times over the years, but there was not a single man alive I respected more than him. He was my eternal rival, and could quite possibly have been an eternal friend in a different time, under different circumstances than those we grew up with... This land has known war for a long time now, nothing but battles between clans for land and power. None of us present here today has experienced anything like this, like the last two years... I am however, not here to talk about peace.' Halting for a second, everyone's attention was fixed on this great but mysterious man. 'Even if Shingen and I were rivals, even if we had countless battles over the years, we always honored the samurai code. If one clan was weakened, the other gave it time to regain its strength, if one clan fell short to a sudden ambush attack by another clan, we allowed them to fend off their new opponents in order to protect their lands. Our battle was still not for none however... Both our clans had accepted that if one clan was to fall or to lose their land, it was to be to the other, their rival opponents, and not anyone else. If this were to happen, it could only happen in a respectful way, by a fair and decent battle between us...' Everyone was expecting him to get to the point any minute now. I could easily feel the tensity in the air by now, in fact it was fairly obvious. Even though all the clans were at peace for now and that the land had finally been able to experience it for the first time in a great while, there was still a lot of resentment between the clans, not only for battles in their lifetime, but for battles between their clans for the last thousand years. They wouldn't simply make up and be friends just like that as their experience and memories of war was not something easily forgotten by a sudden proclaimed peace, a peace that most of these clans had no part in creating to begin with. 'However... Shingen was assassinated... By a cowardly joint attack of the Oda and the Tokugawa, which not only saw the extinction of the entire clan in the chaos that followed, but also wiped out most of the Sanada clan's forces, including several of Danivass' uncles and his grandfather, the past long-standing leader of the clan...' We were all silenced... Either no one dared oppose him, or no one simply knew what to say in response to this. Silence filled the room once more...
Somehow I felt his anger was directed at certain individuals, and even if it was hard to pinpoint that for some, I immediately knew who he was blaming. Nobunaga was no more, but his son and the current leader of the Oda clan, as well as Ieyasu the leader of the Tokugawa, were... I looked at both Dani, Nagamasa, Nobutada and Ieyasu to see their responses to this, but neither one of them felt like answering. Dani looked concerned, Nobutada looked depressed as if feeling guilty, Ieyasu looked uneased, while Nagamasa still kept his firm glance for now. Kenshin then pointed his hand towards Ieyasu and his followers as his hand landed on none other than Hanzo himself. 'I've heard rumors that he indeed was assassinated by someone only as skilled and renowned as you, Hanzo, the notorious assassin...' Kenshin didn't seem mad even though his face suggested otherwise, but in the same manner that Tadakatsu himself always seemed to be of a strong composure, Kenshin just seemed that way regardless of his inner thoughts. The man seemed dangerous despite his age. In his time, Kenshin had been nicknamed the "God of War," and was not only recognized as extremely talented, but as one of the more honorable men around. Even I was impressed by the man and ended up using his nickname for one of my creations later on. Kenshin didn't state things for no reason. Kenshin was both powerful and wise indeed. Having heard enough of his unreasonable babble towards his most trusted man however, Ieyasu then finally rose to his feet and took to the word. 'The past is the past, Kenshin, so there's no reason for this now... Besides, if you were so against it, where were you and your clan during their downfall to oppose the Tokugawa-Oda attack? I'm not holding any grudges and neither should a man like you...' Taking his seat again, Ieyasu didn't feel the need to press this further. Staring at him, a sense of resentment was apparent in Kenshin's eyes, but he firmly nodded back at him as he finally sat down on his chair. 'I still question if this peace will really last before someone tries to break it again though, like any other times in the thousand years' long war...' Kenshin concluded. In a way he was right... How could any one of those present be sure that this was the peace they had longed for? Who knew how long it would last before someone got ambitious with great power again. Hearing what he had to say, I briefly looked over at Hanzo. If anyone had a reason to hate him, it was me, so if even I could forgive him, the Oda and the Tokugawa, why couldn't Kenshin? Noticing my gaze, Hanzo gave me a nod in return as I steered my attention towards Dani. It did not take long though before another man rose to speak his mind, this time the leader of the Fuma clan, Kotaro Fuma...
'I think Kenshin is close to something... I even heard that after Nobunaga perished, you guys surrendered and was only spared at the mercy of Nagamasa here... If anything, you guys are not in favor of anyone here.' Much like Hanzo, Kotaro was also a renowned ninja in the land, and even though he and Hanzo had never formally done battle, they both knew of each others' reputation. They were rivals without being rivals in a sense. But unlike any other rivalry, there was a lot of hate towards each other. There was no mutual respect to be sighted. 'I don't even know how a washed up ninja like you managed to take down Shingen unless he asked you for it!' 'What did you say to me?!' Not sitting around taking crap from his rival, Hanzo was about to rise to his feet from behind Ieyasu, but Ieyasu was quick to tell him not to take his bait that easily. Cursing to himself, Hanzo took to his seat. 'I figured as much.' Kotaro simply said before sitting down again. Dani then rose to his feet once more having remained calm for awhile since the meeting started. 'I can feel that there's a lot of distrust here amongst you... Every one of us has felt the impact of war throughout our lives, and every one of us has lost someone dear to them... But let's not stir up old habits and instead try to come to peace with ourselves. Only we can decide how long this peace will last. The Thousand Years' War was only allowed to last this long because people refused to put down their arms. Hatred created hatred, and the only way to stop it from spreading is to try and understand each other, to combine our strength for a common cause...' I hadn't expected Dani to speak those words, but he was more right than ever. In the eyes of my father-in-law, the old monk of the sect, and in the eyes of Naruto himself, truer words could not have been spoken. Yukimura's dream had been passed on to his son, there was no question about it. Sitting down again, Dani picked up a cup that every one of the clan leaders had been offered as they were all filled up with sake. Raising it in the air, he signaled them all to forget about the tragedy and the pain of the past, and to instead look towards the future in harmony. Joining him in his toast, nearly about every clan leader drank from their cups. One man who didn't, then got up to his feet. He was the nephew of the leader of the Maeda clan, and his name was Toshimasu. Everyone present knew him as Keiji Maeda, another fierce warrior and samurai of the land...
'Your words are indeed inspiring young Sanada lord. Your father's nobility has been transferred to you... However, we can't completely ignore the past if we hope to work together. There are certain details that some of us possess, that is highly desired for the rest of us to obtain...' He began. Could he possibly be pointing to the aforementioned details of how the war did in fact come to an end? He continued. 'I remember one time when we were fighting the Tokugawa clan and victory was within our grasp... Moral was high and we were beaming with confidence, moving forward at a rapid pace. We could even see the enemy base up ahead, but up there on the horizon, he stood... The one man capable of defying all odds, defeating any foe or number. That was the first time I laid my eyes upon Tadakatsu Honda. I had heard his name and about his might, but with our momentum, with our numbers, there was no way we could lose, or so I thought. Not only did he hold his ground against the 300 of us as we surrounded him, he even won a duel against me after I requested to be able to fight him alone. There was no way defeating him, not even for me. Just the fact that he opposed us all alone meant that there was no way we could continue our attack from there. We were defeated at the hands of one man. There was only shame in pressing forward. I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to do battle with him one day again, knowing very well that we had been lucky not to have lost a single man against him. Had he held back? Who knows... This man was famed for being merciless after all... One could wonder what he fought for. Was it the excitement of battle, was it his loyalty to Ieyasu, or was it something else? What powered this man up to such a degree that he became invincible?' Keiji started slowly building up to his point, and even his uncle behind him knew where this was going. Keiji wasn't the leader of his clan, but he was easily the most distinguished and powerful one of them. If Tadakatsu was the mightiest samurai in the land, Keiji wasn't far from being up there amongst the top, or so they said. 'Even though he was perhaps misguided in the end by Nobunaga's evil ambition, in the same manner that Ieyasu was, he was still the greatest warrior to grace this earth. Which begs the real question, how was he defeated?' Listening to what he said, Ieyasu rose to his feet once more. 'I don't know where you are going with this, but I did notice you refused to drink to the toast earlier. You should be careful about labeling people's loyalty and if they were fighting for good or evil. I was very close to Tadakatsu, and even if he was feared, even if my clan was feared, even if we sided with Nobunaga, we, like every other clan in the past thousand years of war, have been fighting for ourselves and our beliefs, what we believed was right. Your clan, my clan, none of us are more right than the other, although at the end of the day, Nobunaga might have forsaken the man he once was...' Sitting down again, Ieyasu pondered to himself on the resolve of the late Nobunaga, his old friend and the very man he had followed. Even he knew that Nobunaga had no longer been the same as he was before, before the Otsutsuki clan arrived, but never did he abandon his lifetime friend. 'Fine then.' Keiji simply said as he too took to his chair. Up until now, the meeting really hadn't gone anywhere, and it was as if some of the leaders expressed their annoyance and displeasure of being here. After all, not all the leaders had gladly accepted Dani's invite, some of them needed some heavily persuasion to be here...
Keiji however, wasn't quite done with his agenda yet, as he tossed out a follow-up question in regards to Ieyasu's counter-argument. 'One's got to wonder though, that as mighty as Tadakatsu was, who was able to defeat him, yet along kill him in the process?? Surely that man couldn't have survived the encounter himself, could he?? I wonder why there's such a mystery surrounding Nobunaga and Tadakatsu's final stand... Some say Yukimura gave his life to defeat them, but there was no way he could pull that off alone. I won't take anything from Yukimura as a warrior, but if even I couldn't land a scratch on Tadakatsu, there's no way Yukimura was able to sacrifice himself in order to do away with him. And let's not forget that he could only have gotten to Nobunaga if Tadakatsu had fallen, am I right? If he somehow by a miracle managed to trick Tadakatsu and catch him off guard, there's no way he could have been in any condition to deal with Nobunaga afterwards... I feel like there's not a lot of information going around in regards to that event two years ago. In fact, I haven't encountered anyone yet who happens to know the details! In one moment there was a great war, and in the next the land is in an unanimous agreement of peace? I honestly can't believe that. Something must have happened to the two of them, and I suspect you know something Ieyasu! We deserve to know the truth. If we don't know the reason for this peace, how can any one of you expect us to uphold it??' Keiji was right... Not a lot of people knew what had happened that day, in fact, there was only a certain few that knew I was with Yukimura that night and battled Nobunaga while he fought Tadakatsu in the burning castle, and even fewer than that again knew the details of how Tadakatsu perished and what Nobunaga had told me, and about my grandparents. Some would say that ignorance would be bliss, but I had begun to believe otherwise. These samurai gathered here today were not mere spectators and neither could I expect them to be. Keiji's reasoning was just, who was I to blame him? Ieyasu didn't answer, he just simply looked away. The matter of fact was that even Ieyasu himself didn't know what happened. He was busy enough retreating with Hanzo that day and once he had managed to regroup what was left of his force, the war was already over. I looked over at Dani to see if he could provide an answer. He simply shook his head back at me, so I resorted to meeting eye-contact with Nagamasa instead, but he too gave me the same answer. Nobutada? No... Every one of them seemed to think that revealing all the details was a bad thing, but were we right to keep this information from the rest? Could truly the peace last this way if some of the clans were kept in the shadows? I closed my eyes as I pondered on the question. Shouldn't this have been Dani's intention of bringing all the clans together in the first place? To let everyone in on the deal? Why else would he want me to be here for it if he somehow hadn't intended to use me as the spokesman in his favor? Indistinct chattering began to occur between the clan leaders and their personal convoys. Something would soon happen for sure, I could sense it...
It was then that it happened. First one of the men present, then another, and another, and another. Soon, everyone present was looking my way, and I didn't even notice at first. The chattering stopped as silence filled the room yet again. I knew something was up now, there was no denying it. Not a lot of people knew who I was or about my participation and effort in ending the war. For those who did know about me outside the Sanada, Oda, Azai, and to a certain degree, the Tokugawa camp, I was only a traveling monk, someone who had continued the Holy Sect of Peace and their goals and teachings. By now, most people had indeed hear of its massacre at the hands of the Oda clan all those years ago, but no one seemed to be able to tie-in the connection of me once being a part of it as well. I was simply someone of the same ideals, someone who knew his way with words as I traveled around the land to spread my teaching. In truth, I hadn't accomplished nearly as much as I had intended, it basically seemed like I was nowhere closer to my dream now than when the war ended two years ago. I was a nobody to them, but for those clans I had a closer relationship with, I was one of the silent heroes of the war, a man who had stayed by Yukimura to the end and brought Nobunaga to justice. Right now however, it seemed that somehow, part of that information had been spread around the room to those present. Opening my eyes again, I realized that every man present in the room's attention and eyes were upon me. I didn't know how to respond...
All the clan leaders sat at the front row, one in each of the four corners of the dining hall, and one by each of the four walls which made up the square we were gathered in; with everyone facing the center, and with their men on the back rows behind them. Dani, myself and the Sanada clan members sat by the side closest to the exit, Ieyasu and his men sat at the opposite side of us, Nagamasa and his men to our right, Nobutada and his men to the left, and everyone else filled in the dots in between us. At the center was a table with some lights on it to brighten up the room a little so that we all could see a little better. I sat about two rows behind Dani, but also a little to the side so that I could see his face. I looked over at him once more, but this time with an uncertainty on my face. Right now, everyone had either looked across the floor towards my direction, or turned around towards the back rows to get a view of me. Would it be wise of me to say something? Chattering amongst the clans then spread out once more before the young but respected leader of the Date clan then decided to have his say in all this. Standing up to his feet, he gathered everyone's attention. His name was Masamune Date, and his eyes, or rather eye, was fixated right at me. 'I'm not really sure who you are or what your role in all this is, but everyone seems to agree that you are someone special... You're part of the Sanada clan, am I right?' I simply nodded. Even if I knew by now that my powers exceeded everyone in the room, it would neither be wise nor respectful of me to ignore these clan leaders in order to protect my secrets, especially not before this man. They were all famous amongst themselves... I had to be modest, I had to act like I was just a regular guy in all this, even if my role, my destiny, like Naruto claimed it to be, was far more important than anything any one of them would ever accomplish. In order to make peace last, we needed every one of these clans on our side. It wouldn't be anything but naive of me to think I could accomplish it all by myself. 'So what is your name?? Something tells me there's more than meets the eye with you... Have we met before?' He was both determined and straight-forward, and even if he probably was ten years younger than me now, he had definitely gained the respect of most people around. Clan and name meant everything in these times; if you didn't posses a respected name nor was part of a renown clan, your existence meant little to some of these men. However, being addressed regardless of that was at least better than nothing in most cases. In comparison between the clans, the Sanada clan had lost a lot of its integrity after Dani's grandfather was killed and Yukimura took over. Not because of Yukimura himself, but because of the reduced position of the clan. If that wasn't bad enough, the sudden change to the inexperience 17 years old Danivass didn't exactly give the Sanada back its once high reputation, while for instance Kenshin and the Uesugi clan on other hand, was one of the most respected in the land due to their consistent line of leadership. The two strongest clans of the Oda and the Sanada had indeed taken a great plunge in the last few years, and only remained as shadows of their former-selves for now. The reason why Masamune was so respected as a leader though, was the fact that he even at a young age had already claimed a name for himself, so even if he was still only 20 years old, he was like a veteran of war in some people's eyes. It had to be said though that a planned change in leadership far outranked a sudden and drastic change when it came to keeping up appearance amongst the other clans. In worst case scenario, such changes could totally destroy the foundation of which the clan was built upon and put it to ruin in the chaos that would follow. A sudden change meant a weakness, something to exploit by not only power-hungry men from within the clan, but also by others from outside of its realm wanting a piece of the cake... I remained silent upon Masamune's question. What would be the wise thing to do now? Use my cover name, or go all out with my real one? I looked over to Nagamasa but even he didn't know what to tell me, it was all on me to find the answer on how to approach this situation. 'Don't look to others to answer my questions before you, I asked you a question so what will it be? Your name?' Masamune pressed. I stared at him, but I couldn't make up my mind. One of his followers then stood up and leaned into his ear as Masamune continued. 'My man here tells me that your name is... Naruto Uzumaki??' Before he managed to press his question even further or before I managed to react upon it, another one of his men also stood up and leaned in to him as well, in which Masamune then followed up by asking yet another question, only this time, it was more like a statement than a question to me. 'But that's not really true, is it?? That has always been a cover name, hasn't it? Every man in this room surely thinks the same by now... You played a bigger role in the war than most people think, didn't you?? Now speak...'
When it seemed like I had no other choice than to speak my mind however, Nagamasa then suddenly rose to his feet in my stead, catching everyone off guard. 'Alright, alright... His name is Hagoromo, and the truth is that Hagoromo was the one to defeat Nobunaga and the invincible warrior Tadakatsu, together with Yukimura at the final phase of the war... If it hadn't been for them, the land would not have been at peace right now. Danivass' father gave his life for this peace. We should not question the details of how it all went down, but at least now you know what happened.' A slip of tongue or a carefully planned sentence? Nagamasa's sudden disclosure surprised me, but I knew he was only trying to help, to not burden everything on my shoulders. My true name however, was now in the open. 'I knew Yukimura wasn't alone in defeating the two of them and ending the war, I knew it!' Getting back up on his feet, Keiji shared his excitement. 'But how?' He continued. 'So his name really is Hagoromo...' Masamune was quick to turn towards Nagamasa and follow up on his questioning. Even with only one eye left, he didn't miss a single thing. He knew he could force information out of Nagamasa now. This time though, Nagamasa wasn't as quick to come up with a reply. Several of the clan leaders were now standing, and people weren't really sure where to pinpoint their attention. I knew that of those who were still alive, only Trea, Naruto, Dani, Nagamasa, Oichi, Nobutada, some of the Sanada clansmen, as well as myself, knew the full extent of the details of that day, of our battle with Nobunaga and Tadakatsu. If it all got out now, trouble could be on the rise. Just as the meeting seemed to be getting at a standstill, another man who had yet to speak his mind then rose to his feet. His name was Mitsunari Ishida, once a close friend of Yukimura's. 'So your name, or should I say real name, is Hagoromo, isn't it? You did go by the name Naruto Uzumaki in the war if I'm not mistaken? Hmm... By any chance, your full name doesn't happen to be Hagoromo Otsutsuki??' Everyone went quiet. I knew there was no other choice than to confirm my name now so I did... Chattering spread once more as some people had heard the name, while others were clueless. Keiji scratched his head as he struggled to find his seat, while Nagamasa on the other hand almost seemed relieved. Even Masamune sat down to discuss this with his men as Mitsunari continued. 'I did hear rumors spreading about there actually being an Otsutsuki clan member fighting for the Sanada clan, amongst us humans in the war. I just didn't believe it would be true. I suppose those... Thorns sticking out from your head aren't just headwear after all, like mine??' Pausing for a brief second, no one managed to reply before he answered his own question. 'Sorry, I beg forgiveness for my rudeness, I didn't mean to put it that way...' Looking at me with a strange expression on his face, I wasn't sure what to say to this. Mitsunari then turned to another man present. Now it was his turn to ask, and his name, was Kanetsugu Naoe...
'I also heard the same as Mitsunari here... If you really did fight side-by-side with Yukimura, even up until his final stand against Tadakatsu, it's an honor to meet you. Yukimura was also a great friend of mine when we were younger, and it saddened me to hear of his passing.' 'The honor is mine.' I replied, realizing only afterward that it was just the same thing I had told Naruto as he left. As I was still gathering my thoughts, Dani then turned around and leaned in on my ear while both Mitsunari and Kanetsugu found their seats again. 'What are you doing Hagoromo?? I know Nagamasa might have said a little too much, but there's no reason for you to further that mistake, is it?' I looked at him. One part of me wanted to tell him that he was wrong, another completely understood his worrying. 'Don't worry about it, I know what I'm doing. Let me take care of this' I simply said. Just as I did, yet another samurai got up from his chair. This man was known for his defining personality, and he rarely held anything back if he had something on his mind. His name was Magoichi Saika, or that was the name he was known for. And like his reputation had preceded, he did indeed hold nothing back. 'Otsutsuki?!?! Am I the only one who heard this?!' Raising his voice, Magoichi did indeed seem concerned. Even though he was not a leader of a clan himself, he was, much like Mitsunari and Kanetsugu, highly respected and renown throughout the land. I had however, never heard of him before now, but I would soon get to know that name as I could feel his thoughts drill deep inside me. 'You're part of that horrible Otsutsuki clan who almost destroyed us, threatening the entire human race all those years ago?!' If the discussion had been on the brink since the beginning, it really went through the roof right now. This man wasn't going to leave anything behind. With him, some other people started voicing their mind too as some threw different kinds of bad words my way. At that moment, I decided that it was time that I took the center of the stage, so I got up from my chair and made my way through to the middle. He didn't wait long before he found his seat that Magoichi, seeing that I approached him, but he wasn't about to let that stop his bombardment, not yet anyways. I sighed, but at least now I had everyone's attention. Expecting that I would finally speak, Mitsunari threw what seemed to be a sandal Magoichi's way, telling him to be quiet. Seeing this, Magoichi simply crossed his arms like a spoiled brat as I then finally spoke to the gathering of men. I hadn't spoken to such a crowd in ages, so I couldn't help think that maybe I couldn't pull it off. I took a deep breath. Now was the time. 'Perhaps it is time that you all know the entire truth of what happened then, of what went down that day... In the end, this way might be for the better.' I looked around as I said that. I really had people's attention now...
Just as I was about to continue however, Nagamasa then stood up and went over to me. Putting his hand to my ear, he then started to whisper, much to the displeasure of some of the men around. 'Are you sure that this is wise, Hagoromo?? In worst case scenario, we could have a situation at our hands. It's not guaranteed that everyone will be at peace with this... I think the wise thing would be to leave them with the details already revealed. Any more could work against us...' Before I managed to resonate on his worries, Nobutada also got up as he was just about to get over to me to express his concerns as well. Having been paying close attention to the entire meeting thus far and having yet to speak a mind of his own, he only now deemed it necessary to say something, and I immediately realized that it had to be serious because of it. Maybe this wasn't the right time after all?? Maybe the other clans weren't ready to hear this, to adapt to the truth? It was then that one of the last clan leaders also yet to have his say in all this, got up to his feet as well. His name was Mitsuhide Akechi. 'You have no reason to stand up, you better damn well get back to your seat, Nobutada!' Nobody understood this sudden demand as their attention turned to him. He was the first of the clan leaders to directly threaten another so far, and that could by no means bode well for this meeting if it was allowed to continue. 'If anyone should remain quiet in this meeting, it is definitely you and the remainder of the evil Oda clan!! They've done enough damage already, don't you think?!' Nobutada was so taken back that he didn't know what to do. He wanted to answer, but he wasn't sure if he dared, if he could find the strength within himself to do so. He hesitantly looked at Nagamasa and I, before quietly taking his seat again. Another man named Sakon Shima then rose in his defense, although he wanted to make clear that he was not here to take any side. 'That's uncalled for Mitsuhide... If he's not allowed to speak his mind, then what reason does the Oda clan have to be here in the first place? This is supposed to be a peaceful meeting is it not? Don't let past grudges get to your head...' Mitsuhide simply ignored him, but even he wasn't stubborn enough to not allow Sakon to continue. 'Evil as they may have been, a clan member follows his clan, simple as that. It's Nobutada's father that has caused most of the pain these past 20 or so years, don't let the name of the clan blind you...' Mitsuhide simply sighed and shook his head at this as he too found his place at last. Sakon then asked the question on everyone's minds. 'If everyone gathered here now could hold their tongues for a minute or two, maybe this Hagoromo here, can finally speak his mind, mhm?' Sitting down, Sakon was then applauded by a man named Mushashi Miyamoto, although it did sound rather sarcastically. Mushashi wasn't known for his words, but what he lacked in words he made up with his sword skills. Sakon simply faked a smile back at him. Some of these guys were indeed strangers than most people I had met so far...
What I did realize now however, was that it was time to share the details with everyone despite the risk. Nagamasa quickly found his seat as I looked at Dani and Nobutada who both nodded in return before I went on. I decided to leave no details out of it, so I started with the massacre of the sect, how I was allowed to stay in the Sanada clan with my wife, how I had met a mysterious mystic and learned some unusual powers, how I had survived the slaughter at the Sanada camp, then about our stay at the Azai and bringing Trea back to life, before we finally got to the final phase of the war where Yukimura and I encountered Tadakatsu and Nobunaga at the top floor of the castle. I explained how the battle had gone down, what Nobunaga had told me after I realized he was under some wicked spell by my grandparents and forced to do their bidding, that Nobunaga was indeed my real father and that I was in fact Nobutada's half-brother, and the nephew of Nagamasa's wife, Oichi. I told them how Nobunaga did the honorable thing of ending his own life by his own hands through Seppuku, and that I in fact, didn't strike him down like some were lead to believe. I then told them about Yukimura and Tadakatsu's battle, how Tadakatsu went on his way and how I had helped Yukimura outside of the burning castle although it was already too late to save him. Then I told them how Nagamasa and Dani eventually arrived with reinforcement and that the rest of it was history. None of the clan leaders knew what to say but I spotted both Dani and Nagamasa nodding their heads in agreement to this statement. I then decided to tell the rest of the tale, the one part that no one beside Naruto and Trea knew about...
'After that and as time went by, I knew I had to do justice to Nobunaga and those that had died in my life. I couldn't let my grandparents get away with what they had done.' I paused. I could feel that this was harder to explain than I had thought, not in choosing the right words, but the impact it had on me to recollect these events in front of everyone. I knew it was the only way to move forward though. I then told them how I had made it my own responsibility, that I had to bring my grandparents to justice for everything they had done alone. Not only for the things they had done to make my life a hell at times, but what they had done to the entire land as well. The people present were baffled by this as they whispered amongst themselves. Neither Nagamasa nor Dani seemed to blink at this new information though. I knew they had my back no matter what. It then all got quiet for a minute or two before Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the head of the Toyotomi clan then spoke his mind. 'If this is the entire truth, how about showing some off your powers to prove it?' I didn't expect that to be the first thing to come up, but it was indeed an honest question. To most of them, all this sounded just like a fairytale. I first looked at Dani, then at Nobutada, before landing my eyes on Nagamasa. They all gave me a nod. I decided that I had nothing to lose so I went along with his request. Reaching my hand out, I concentrated my powers as a faint hint of chakra, spiraling around in the palm of my hand, formed, but it only lasted for about ten seconds before it vanished. Seeing this, Mitsuhide decided to be the first one to raise his voice again as he then rose to his feet and drew his sword at me. Only now did I realize Dani and Nagamasa's concerns. One wrong move and we could have a new war on our hands. Everyone around were shocked. Luckily, both Dani, Nagamasa, Nobutada and their respective followers present took up arms as well and stepped in front of me. Mitsunari immediately demanded that Mitsuhide would give them all an answer to this sudden move and for taking up arms in a peaceful meeting, putting shame to himself. 'It doesn't matter if this guy was part of saving this land, we all know about his clan and their evil powers. As long as they exist on this earth, there can never be lasting peace. He's an abomination, a disgrace to the human kind and those present.' Something in his words set my mind ablaze, even to the point that I had to control my feelings. I hadn't felt like this in two years, not since my battle with Nobunaga. These words, they were all too familiar to me. Flashes of my encounter with my father briefly flew by. His words from when he was still under the spell of my grandparents resurfaced. "You're nothing but an abomination and I will never accept you as my legitimate son." Even though Nobunaga was under Kuroi's spell at the time, those words never truly left me. Why did I feel the sudden need to be accepted? Why did it feel like I suddenly didn't belong here, amongst these humans? Why did Mitsuhide say that?? Chaos broke out shortly thereafter as the room was practically divided in half.
On one side, Danivass, Nagamasa, Nobutada, Mitsunari, Kanetsugu, Sakon, and Mushashi, on the other, Mitsuhide, Hideyoshi, Keiji and his father, Kotaro, Masamune and Magoichi. Those samurai representing their respectively clans also stood on each side. Everyone had drawn their weapons as Nagamasa urged them all to lay down their weapons and talk like men. Still in their chairs on the side though, both Ieyasu and Kenshin both remained seated with their convoys. I looked at them as Kenshin crossed his arms together as he shouted out; 'How old are you kids?!' Being the oldest present, Kenshin had seen his bits of arguments up through the years, and he was probably dead tired of it. Everyone froze on the spot hearing his clear voice reach out through the room. Kenshin then walked over to the fray as his men quickly followed. 'If you want this peace to end here and now and have this meeting act as an opposite effect of what its intentions were, then go ahead and slaughter each other. If you want to actually try to establish a working system that will last, I suggest that you try to behave like men instead of spoiled brats...' Walking right in the middle of the two sides and right passed us, Kenshin then headed for the door. 'Where are you going, Kenshin?' Danivass exclaimed. 'I'm tired of this, it's always them same no matter what happens. I want no part in this silly argument.' Taking his leave, Kenshin and his men were gone. Ieyasu then rose as he walked over to the side defending me, as he too spoke. 'That Kenshin is right. If anyone should know what he's talking about, it should be me. Both my clan and Nobutada's clan opposed Nagamasa and the Sanada in the war... Now look, we're all standing together on the same side...' At the realization of this, more and more men regardless of affiliation started walking over to our side. Mitsuhide grunted at this and refused to back down, as well as some others. I then decided to step forward. There was no reason to have the others defend me anymore, I knew I could settle this if I only got through to Mitsuhide. 'If you want me gone, I'll leave. There is no reason for any bloodshed. This land has seen enough of it already' I was certain I had said the right thing, but Mitsuhide was not a man easily persuaded. At this, he simply snapped, he had to be thinking that I was incredible arrogant and naive for saying that, but that was not my intent. Before I knew it, a sword was suddenly coming my way to everyone's amazement. No time to lose. I quickly drew the Master Sword as it cut Misuhide's sword in half, right through the middle of the blade with one swift motion, stopping right before it was about to cut through the hilt, hitting his fingers. 'Impossible?!' He uttered, almost falling over in the process as he dropped the broken sword. The Master Sword glowed brightly as Magoichi was blinded by its might, realizing that it was indeed the Legendary Blade, the most powerful weapon in the world. He then proceeded to walk over to our side without as much of a word being said. It seemed like the only thing these samurai understood was might, even in negotiation. And just like he suddenly changed sides, so did Keiji and his father follow rapidly thereafter. The same did Hideyoshi and his clan, leaving only Mitsuhide, Masamune and Kotaro and their clans left on the other side.
I knew this confrontation was over, so I holstered the Master Sword on my back as I looked over to Dani, nodding at him. Dani instantly realized what I meant, that it was time for me to leave for the Tower, now that the meeting was more or less over. I didn't even need to say a word to him as he nodded back. With that, I decided to take my leave. As I was walking towards the exit, I could hear Mitsuhide shouting at me from behind but I couldn't pay more attention to it. Coming outside I looked at the sky above and I realized that the meeting didn't really have an end to it, at least not a customary one. The only thing it did was to introduce me to the other clan leaders and their clans if you didn't include the fact that now, anyone with power in the land knew that there was something else out there, something not human, of this earth. Not only me, but the Otsutsuki clan as well. Maybe this was how I was suppose to unite the land and guide them to the future? This had to be one step on the way towards what Naruto talked about and I knew it. I couldn't create peace if I didn't know about the struggle of the different clans. Uniting them in common cause had to be a priority. Just as I was about to leave, I noticed that the three remaining clans of Akechi, Date and Fuma, the ones that had yet to come to peace with my origins before I left, had begun to take their leave as well, as they all mounted their horses and went in the opposite direction of where I was going. They sure seemed in a hurry to get home, but at least no one was injured even when the argument was heated the most. I couldn't help wondering if there would be more meetings like this in the future and if everyone would come to peace with each other from now on. I didn't want to have to worry about those three clans of Akechi, Date and Fuma starting up a new war, did I? Everyone had been fighting for their own ideals, for the path they saw as the only true and righteous one. No odds mattered, they would always honor the samurai code and fight for their masters until the very end even if it meant their downfall. There was no right or wrong, no good or evil in the eyes of the samurai. All that mattered was what they deemed to be right. There had to be a way to end this stubborn straight-forward way of thinking, to unite everyone under the same banner, but I had no idea how just yet. I quickly shook the feeling away as I saw Dani, Nagamasa and Nobutada, as well as the others at the gate of the Sanada camp readying themselves to leave. They were all heading home now and Dani was the one to see them off. Meeting eye contact with Nagamasa, Nobutada and Dani one last time, I knew the only thing left for me now was to head on my way. And with that, the first samurai meeting in ages came to an end. I set my eyes upon finding the grandmaster of Taijutsu that Naruto mentioned, to improve and learn more about my hand-to-hand combat. If I was to live through this great challenge at the Tower of Death that I had ahead of me, I had to rely on any training I could get. Riding on my horse I came upon a mountain-side not much unlike the one I had lived on top of with my foster parents all those years ago. I gazed upon it for a while as I let my mind slip away and reminisce the past. It was then that I saw it. First the smoke, then the pipe and finally the hut. It had to be up there, this had to be the place. Making my way up the hill, I finally arrived at my destination, the final stop in my journey towards the Tower. As I approached the hut, an elderly man came out to greet me, and it was as if he knew that I would come, like he had expected me. But who was this guy and was he the grandmaster I was looking for? There was only one way to find out.
[...]
It didn't take long however before I realized that he was the one, and that there were no questions about it. Even at his age, he still packed a punch. I decided to fully endorse myself in his teachings, as the hours turned to days and days into weeks. I had ended up spending more time there than I originally had thought, but I refused to leave prematurely before I had received the grandmaster's blessing. "A little more, my young one. Just a little more." He always said holding up his fingers to show me exactly how much I had to go before I was ready. He had been saying that since the second day of my arrival, but in reality, I was apparently nowhere closer now than back then judging by his fingers. I swiftly decided that if I was going to spend this much time here, I had to notify Trea. Getting together a short letter, I summoned a lonely bird that was sitting up in a nearby tree, getting its attention drawn towards me with some breadcrumbs. As soon as he landed on my hand, I touched its forehead with my index and channeled a faint hint of chakra into him, with that, he was temporarily under my control as I let it fly with the letter tied neatly on its back. As I sat down and watched as it flew away, the grandmaster then walked up to me. 'Your body is training hard... But you forget to train your brain equally so!' Smacking my head with some sort of a personalized hand-fan, the elderly man then turned away from me and started walking towards the hut again. 'What was that for?!' I shouted after him. 'Love trains heart, determination sharpens brain.' I couldn't get over how strange this man was and the way he talked. Was he even human? What relation had Naruto to this guy? I decided to follow him inside as he handed me a cup with warm tea. I drank as silence filled the room. I tried to say something but yet again, he smacked me with his hand-fan, stating; 'Silence soothes the soul, heals the troubled mind, prepares the unprepared, strengthens your senses. Be silent to train, talk to relax.' 'Huh??' I was totally confused but I wasn't really surprised either. In the three weeks I had now been here, we had only had about three decent conversations, and none of them lasted more than a minute apiece. I let out a deep sigh as I closed my eyes to take in the surroundings. When I opened them again, the elderly man was suddenly playing a flute. 'What happened to being silent?!' I retorted. 'Silence good, music better.'
Another day then passed. I had just awoken and was ready to start the day fresh, however, the elderly man felt totally different that morning. He was noisy, he was disturbed. I couldn't pinpoint if something was wrong or if this was just another side to him. He then suddenly started talking to me. I was completely taken back. Three weeks and not even a decent conversation, now he suddenly wanted to talk? Couldn't he at least wait until my eyes followed my body in waking up?? 'Time is running short, we must talk now. You got a lot of questions, I got some answers, Hagoromo...' Something was definitely up. 'How do you know my name?? You said; "No names," the first day we met, remember??' 'Time changes, mind changes. Come.' Walking outside the hut, I had to rush into my cloths in order to be able to keep up with him. As he sat down on a rock, I simply leaned my back towards the nearby tree waiting for his further instructions. 'Today no practice, you master hand-to-hand. I have no more, to teach.' Just like that, and my training was already over. 'So who are you really old man?' I finally bothered to ask again, having been shot down all the previous times. 'My name is... Well, I don't have one.' His tone and way of speaking had changed. It was as if it was in a completely different dialect altogether, and now, he was clearer than he had ever been. 'What do you mean?' I pressed. 'I am just a grandmaster of hand-to-hand combat...' 'So how do you know the wizard?? Are you like him?' 'But of course, I am like him. In fact, I am he.' I didn't even know what to say anymore. Nothing was really surprising me these days. 'He's my creator... So no, I'm not human, but I'm not an animal either. I've lived for a long time already, but my purpose has never been more important than this.' So he was something that Naruto had created with his life-force, with his immortality? Maybe this guy was something like the Great Toad Sage that Naruto had mentioned a couple of times to me? The one being I was supposed to create for myself one day? 'You are going to the Tower, aren't you?' The grandmaster continued. 'I know one of the guardians there from my earlier days. He happens to be a former student of mine. He should be stationed at the first floor and he specializes himself in flying-kicks. That is all I'm going to say about the Tower of Death however, the rest is for you to find out.' I looked at him. This guy was totally different from Naruto himself. Short, wrinkly, having eyes that barley could see due to his facial structure, but at the same time, he seemed like the jokester type. White hair tied up in a ponytail and always smiling...
'Now, let me tell you how the land has been shaped and formed by the wars over the years, so make sure you pay attention.' He began. 'The human kind has existed for about 10 000 years, but there's speculation that a different species of humanoid creatures like myself exist outside the realm of the earth, and that they have continued to do so for millenniums upon millenniums of years longer than us. Anyways, the first war as far back as the land can remember, was a confrontation between two powerful beings from outer-space. One in quest for chaos, the other in quest for peace. The Demon Lord Demise was beaten back however by the righteous Revan, but not without having to sacrifice his life...' So that was how Revan went, he was indeed not human after all, just like I had expected. Neither Hylia then in that regard? So the Otsutsuki clan wasn't the only ones to have stepped on this earth from outer-space? I thought to myself. But wasn't Naruto there too in the battle with Demise or was I missing something? The grandmaster then continued. 'Later came the first usurper of men, his name was Ganondorf. His tyranny did not last long however as a hero rose to oppose him. His name was Aragon. Sealing away Ganondorf did not bring on the expected peace however, as both Demise and Ganondorf returned much later to wreak havoc in a war against each other. This was the first real war that affected the entire land and diminished the population to half of its previous numbers. In the end, Ganondorf won the battle, but was later defeated by a new hero named Levi, who sacrificed himself to kill the King of Evil. This first period of war was later named the Hyrulean War...'
War had always been a part of our existence... Was war just another human instinct that we could not evade, that we could not escape? Could there really be no lasting peace? I looked down for a moment to settle my thoughts, but I knew this was only the beginning as he continued. 'Three thousand years then passed without any real wars taking place, but even then did the land experience its skirmishes. Then came a period of 20 years where a darkness slowly grew forth. From the shadows came Ganondorf resurrected, and only a new hero wielding the Legendary Blade could defeat him. His name was Link. Peace once again resumed its place but as another two thousand years passed, a new war rose in the land. This war is now known as the Unification War of the Three Kingdoms, which ultimately lead into the Thousand Years' War you are so acquainted with by now I presume. I suppose it's not long now before we will rename this long-lasting war into the Warring States period of the Samurai, mhm...' I knew all this new information would somehow work to my advantage in the future, but I had yet to realize exactly what. The grandmaster then got up to his feet as he walked over to me by the tree I was leaning in to as he looked down on the fabulous view present before him, off the mountain-side...
He then said; 'I must ask you Hagoromo... Do you know what the shared cause for all the wars up through time is?' I stumbled on his words before I made up my mind. 'If I knew, or if mankind knew for that matter, don't you think we would have been able to prevent the wars?' I cleverly said, but maybe my words weren't as cleaver as I initially thought, were they? I followed up with something else. 'Well it must be the greed and hatred of men, but I suspect it isn't as simple as that.' 'Humans...' He simply replied. 'Humans??' I asked with a surprised tone. 'Although they have evolved over the years, one thing always remains the same... Their ultimately selfish desires for power and riches.' Maybe he was on to something, but then what? 'So is there a way to change this?' The grandmaster then turned his head towards me as he looked at me, squinting with his narrow eyes to get a better view of my face. 'Do you know how the Thousand Years' War started, Hagoromo??' He said. I shook my head in response. Even if I had collected my share of information on history by now, I never really knew how the war started, even to this day. 'After the Three Kingdoms Era came to an end, peace lasted for a great while and harmony and stability ruled the land. However, it also made men weak, repeating history over yet again. Where there's peace, there's a desire for war. Peace had cost them their strength. Victory had defeated them. The turmoil started on a whim. Those in control couldn't apprehend the uprising, couldn't uphold much-needed order, and therefore they failed to maintain the peace. There's a saying that goes; "A true warrior should always be ready, even in time of peace." Nothing was truer that day. Their weakness cost them their peace.' I had exhausted my reserves by now, nothing I could say would make up a defining answer to my ultimate question. How could peace last? The most important question I ever asked myself. Could there be war without peace? And could there be peace without war? In the same manner that the light needs the darkness, did the two depend on each other too? Was the only way to lasting peace to live in a land without men? I had a lot of thinking to do... 'What is it that I must do, that the wizard has entrusted me with, how can I make any difference compared to anyone in the past? If the peace last 10 years, is that good enough? What about a 100, or a 1000 years? Peace did last for 3000 years before, did it not? But in the end, what difference did it make?' I felt lost. If neither Naruto nor this man knew the answers, how could I ever find them?
'The difference is whether you choose to believe in yourself or not. If you start doubting yourself and your path, then there's definitely no hope, is there? As long as you believe you can do it, then who knows, maybe you one day will. The difference is that even if your life wasn't lived in peace, future generations can live their lives the way we always wanted. If the difference is not for us, then it has to be for the future...' He was right, I couldn't keep beating myself down like this. Everyone had put their trust in me, this was my destiny, I simply had to believe in the own words I had been preaching about over the last two years. 'Even though there's peace now, doesn't mean that you can blindly put your trust in it. There have been periods of time in the Thousand Years' War before, where there has been temporary peace, but it is not called the Thousand Years' War for no reason, be sure to remember that. Like I told you, the moment you let down your guard and starts taking things for granted, is the moment you will fail.' 'I understand...' I truly did, but I still couldn't help feel troubled for carrying this sole burden on my shoulder, the entire human race's trust in finding and creating a peace that would last. That had to be my goal moving forward. I had to find a peace where one peace is everyone's peace, a peace where everyone shared in the same harmony, where everyone completely understands what's deep in each others' hearts without the need for speech or emotions to express it. 'I can feel that you are troubled...' The grandmaster simply said, before he said something that remained with me for the remainder of my life, for the remainder of my path, never to be forgotten. 'In order to create a truly peaceful world, we must bury the one built on samurai warfare. It must be done in such a way that makes it clear to one and all. However, I fear that only something extraordinary can help the world towards this peaceful existence, and it's up to you to find out what that answer is for yourself.' Everything that needed to be said was said, everything that needed to be taught was taught... I was now prepared for my future, and I simply couldn't have done it without this man's guidance. His knowledge equaled that of Naruto himself, and I suspected that Taijutsu was not the only reason to why he had sent me here. He wanted this man to say the things he could not. 'I will not disappoint you, Master.' Leaning away from the tree, I enfolded my hands in front of me as I bowed respectfully to him, that was the least I could do. He nodded back as he gave me a smile. He then pointed down the hill with his hand, and I knew there and then that it was time, there was no reason to linger any further as I set off. My training was complete. This was the last time I ever spoke to him.
[...]
Not long after, I had finally begun approaching my final destination. Two days had passed since I left the hut and the elderly grandmaster, and I now found myself exiting a dense forest as an open field appeared in front of me. It was then that I saw it... The Tower was not only taller than I had expected, its surrounding areas were even more breath-taking than I could have dreamt of. Now that I had finally seen it for myself, I concluded that it looked more like a pagoda than a tower, but I didn't really leave it much else thought than that. I looked around as I realized that all the roads around lead to this tower, this palace, it was as if it was the center of the land, a monument to honor the gods. I was standing on top of a green hill as I was gazing down on the temple grounds around the tower before me. It was surrounded by hills on all sides with all the roads leading directly down towards the front gate. The only thing I could think of was who in their right mind had the capacity to build such a thing? And for whom? I let the thoughts slide, after all, I wouldn't get anywhere by standing around admiring the view, would I? As I got closer to the temple, I suddenly spotted two men walking down towards the tower as well from two other roads, as our roads intertwined with each other just as we reached the temple grounds. One man came from the North-East, the other from the South-East, and I came from the East. What were the odds? And who were these men? The stranger from the North-East had dark short-trimmed hair and was fully dressed in a yellow-black jumpsuit, while the other one from the South-East, was a bit different. His hair-style was much less cared for as he had long hair that went passed his shoulders and down his back. Its color was dim-grey, and his eyes were pale white. At the time I didn't have the impudence to ask why his eyes were like that, heck, we didn't even have the time to talk. We all just arrived at the same time in front of the main gate, all from different directions, different backgrounds. Who was I to judge? I knew nothing about these men, neither was that the reason I was here. We all just looked upon each other, but none said a word as we laid our eyes upon the entrance doorway. I knew nothing of what I would see in there, what could I possibly expect? The grandmaster had talked about a guardian that was a former student of his positioned on the first floor. Did that mean I had to progress the different levels and make it to the top in order to complete this challenge?? As we now were just meters away from reaching the gate, the man in the yellow and black jumpsuit then suddenly decided to break the silence. 'Is that two horns sticking out of your head?' He wasn't going to be blunt about it, was he? Some sort of distraction strategy? I had no idea, but before I managed to reply, he answered his own question. 'Nevertheless, I find it very interesting for sure.' That was all the talk we had time for... We had arrived at our destination as I gazed upon the large double steel-enforced doors in front of me, leading into the Pagoda, into the Tower of Death. On a rock by the entrance, sat a peculiar figure. He was dressed up in some sort of attire painted in all colors, and he looked more like a jokester than any doorman I had seen...
'I welcome thee, to the Great Tower of Death, my ambitious challengers!' He was brief but unflinching that man, I thought to myself. 'I warn thee, you may only enter if you are confident in your own abilities, and that the risks of death are ever present within the tower. That is why it is called a Game of Death, and no one has won at it yet!' I looked at the other two men beside me, did they even know what this was all about? Did they know more about this tower than I did? We all nodded back at The Gatekeeper, acknowledging that we all were here for the same thing and that we all had made up our minds to undertake this challenge. 'I must say though that I find it particularly intriguing that you all arrived at the same time! Usually only one challenger appears every year or so!!' I was baffled. Could this be just winner's luck or maybe it was even fate? After all, the more the merrier, right? I calculated that with these two men, even if they were just that, men... They would reduce the threat of the challenge just by drawing attention towards them. Maybe Naruto had predicted this? 'But that is not all!!!' The gatekeeper continued. 'In fact, three other men already went inside to take the challenge half an hour ago! I wonder whether you all know each other and planned for this to happen, or if it's just a coincident?? To me, it seems like you two at least know who this guy is, am I right??' Pointing at the two men beside me, I wasn't sure what he was onto about. How could they know who I was? 'That's impossible, I've never seen these men in my life.' I uttered. 'However, now that we are all here, we might as well cooperate on this challenge if we want to make it to the top...' 'Well then, to the top you must go!!' The gatekeeper exclaimed. It was as if just talking to us made this guy excited. Yet again the same lingering question fell over me. What about this guy, was he human? As I pondered about, the one with the pale eyes then finally said something. 'So why are you here, what is your purpose other than sitting on this rock welcoming us?' This guy didn't joke around, he wanted answers, and he wanted them right away. 'That... Is none of your business!!' Keeping up his cheerful yet disturbing tone, the gatekeeper didn't seem human at all, I was certain of it. 'However... I will reveal to you that it is a job that has been passed down and entrusted to my family for generations, although I only somewhat reluctantly tell you of this.' Maybe he was human after all? I needed to stop with my questioning... After all, that wasn't really important now, what was however, was getting inside this gate. 'I will now inform you of the much needed details of how this tower is divided into different floors, so make sure you pay attention because I'm only going to tell you this once, okay?!' 'Right, let's hear it so that we can get on with this already...' I was already getting bored and impatient of this man's attitude. It belonged nowhere in the human race, and I could say that with confidence without being fully human myself. The gatekeeper then laid out the corresponding details of the challenge, and it was mapped out something like this...
The Ground Floor had tons of opponents with one boss at the end. This floor was called the Temple of Great Training. Next, if we could surpass that, came the 2nd Floor, which was supposed to house two mystical opponents. It was called the Temple of the Raven. The 3rd Floor had a weapons expert. This was the Temple of the Tiger. The 4th Floor, if we ever got that far, based itself on hand-to-hand combat and had an expert within this field as its guardian. That was the Temple of the Phoenix, a floor where my training with the grandmaster would hopefully come to use. On the 5th Floor waited an all-rounded expert, but that was all the information we were going to get. It was called the Temple of the Dragon. Then came the 6th Floor, where only those inhabiting "special ability" would be able to fight and prevail, whatever that meant. It was named the Temple of the Gifted. And finally came, the Final Floor. For this floor, the gatekeeper would not reveal even a single hint of information. In fact, even he didn't know what was up there and what the prize for winning this challenge was, but he understood for a fact that it was at the top of the pagoda. All he knew, was that the final floor was called the Temple of the Unknown...
'So have I made everything clear to you, oh brave samurai warriors? You agree upon the rules I've laid out and the risks of this challenge, am I right? This will be the last chance to turn back, so do not regret it as there are no safe-words here, no turning back! Either you die, or you complete this challenge, understood??' The gatekeeper boasted. 'Perfectly.' I added. As I did, the steel doors suddenly began to open up inwards as a shocking view met us. All three of us stepped within the entrance as the doors began to close equally as fast as they had opened. Before they closed completely behind us however, the gatekeeper shouted out one last thing...
'Then I welcome thee to the Tower of Death, brave young men, and to a Game of Death!!'
Fun Fact & Author's Note:
1:The first fact is probably the most important fact of all so far and it has to do with my previous works. Although this series works as a standalone, it is necessary for me to tie it in with my other stories being that all of them takes place within the same Universe (The Master Timeline, as mentioned before). An important note to this so far, comes from the various references to The Legendary Sage of Konoha Returns, to the chapters that detailed Naruto's battle with the Sage of Six Paths, who had been resurrected through Edo Tensei in the war back then by Kabuto. Some of the dialogues even mirrors some spoken lines that were said in a few of those chapters, and the curious thing is that Naruto and Hagoromo's roles are switched this time. The final line of; "Always keep in mind that true courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one..." is actually the last thing The Sage of Six Paths told Naruto in Returns as he was sealed away to the Underworld. It took 2 years to get there, but finally, the pieces are starting to fall in place. There's also some other tie-ins scattered through the chapter for the keen readers, but I kind of doubt that any of you would remember or even notice unless you went back to check and compare. As for the quote itself, it's actually taken from the first Hobbit Movie, and it's a line spoken by Gandalf to Bilbo after he finds the Elven Blade "Sting" in the Troll Cave and gave it to him.
2: I thought I would toss out some pics of the different Sengoku Era characters, or at least of the way they have been portrayed in certain mediums, and how I portrait them for this story;
Keiji Maeda:
Masamune Date:
Kenshin Uesugi:
Shingen Takeda:
Mitsunari Ishida:
Kanetsugu Naoe:
Sakon Shima:
Nagamasa Azai:
Nobutada Oda:
Ieyasu Tokugawa:
Hanzo Hattori:
Kotaro Fuma:
Musashi Miyamoto:
Magoichi Saika:
Mitsuhide Akechi:
Hideyoshi Toyotomi:
In case you haven't figured it out yet, it is indeed Tadakatsu Honda, Yukimura Sanada, Hagoromo and Nobunaga Oda that's in the pic at the beginning of this thread, in that order
3: That's about all I got as it's already big enough as it is I suppose. It's just at the 150 K Letters limit of a thread, don't know how I timed that but I did xd Had to alter my notes a few times after release in order to fit everything though.
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The Legendary Sage of Six Paths, Chapter 7;
One's Destiny Bestowed,
The Wizard's Final Lesson
As The Samurai Clans Assembles
The Wizard's Final Lesson
As The Samurai Clans Assembles
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Pre-Reading Notes:
Hey everyone, I'm back! I thought I would give those who are unaware a heads-up. This chapter is enormous, in fact, it's the 2nd biggest chapter I've ever written, only beaten by my One-Shot from a few years back. Since that's the case, I decided to go back to something traditional and "divide" the scenes of this chapter with "[...]" for reading purposes, so if you can't go through it all in one read, taking a breather when you see a "[...]" could be a good idea. I've placed them strategically, so in one way you could look upon it as this chapter being divided in parts, in scenes... Anyways, with that out of the way, I thought I would say that this comeback has been much expected after a 3 months' hiatus. This chapter marks the beginning of the "2nd arc" of this storyline, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it! Be sure to check the Author's Note at the end for more "exclusive" details (ha-ha)!
Just when I had come to an agreement with myself that maintaining peace would finally be my main and only goal to strive for in the years to come, and to grow old with Trea and have children of my own who would one day carry on my legacy while my only worry from then on and out would be to make sure I had enough sake for any potential guests, the wizard had suddenly come to see me once more to make sure that any plans I had for an early retirement, would not happen. He had after all told me during our last meeting that he even back then had a feeling that we would meet again some time in the future, and after claiming to be able to see the future itself, I should have known better than to be naive enough to think that our next encounter would not take place after all. I suppose I just never expected it to be this soon, and definitely not because of the things he now had on his mind...
'I am sure you are surprised, Hagoromo... But at the same time, I have a feeling you know why I am here' Sitting down on a chair, the wizard continued to keep his firm, unaltering look through his menacing mask. 'Do you want me to leave the room, Hagoromo?' Trea, who was also present, carefully asked, understanding that this could potentially be a meeting the two of us would like to have in private. I was still standing inside the frame that made up the door leading into another section of the house, not entirely sure if I could really believe that it was the wizard that I saw in the living room in front of me. It was indeed him however, no mistake about it... I knew right away that his appearance here now meant that the peace we had fought so hard for to establish throughout the land, would not last, despite all the efforts I had personally put into it and the sacrifices I had been unwillingly forced to endure during my life in order to make sure it would finally come to be. I immediately realized that my journey was still far from being over. Looking at Trea, a smile formed on my face, although deep down inside, a part of me wished that it didn't have to come to this. Couldn't it all be just a dream, couldn't my life just be that of an ordinary one? Couldn't I just be left in peace and live on with my life? Hadn't I contributed enough, hadn't I fought long enough? What more did I have to do?? It had however, never been that easy before, so there was no reason for me to think otherwise now. Why would it be? Such a life was not possible in this world, and I knew it... 'It's okay, you might want to hear this.' I causally replied to her. 'Can I offer you something?' Looking at the wizard, Trea seemed a bit tense regarding the situation. No wonder though, this mysterious figure wearing a mask had suddenly just strolled inside our house, sitting down on one of our chairs asking for my name. Any wife with sane thoughts would be skeptical. He could basically be anyone; a Thief, a Murderer, a Messenger, a Friend, an Enemy, or something else entirely... I knew there was no danger however, so I finally entered the room and sat down by one of the chairs too, to sort of give her a signal that she could relax. 'I no longer need such trivial privileges to survive...' He simply answered. But there was no sign of appreciation or gratitude in his tone, not even for Trea's warm hospitality. 'In case you haven't caught on, this is the wizard I told you about from back then, the one being who bestowed upon me these-... Powers; powers I've used to do many unlikely things in these past years...' She looked at me. She didn't know whether to be reassured or nervous about it all hearing this, but I could easily sense her uncertainty. 'The fact that she is present now means that you have broken my trust, Hagoromo... I know what happened during the Sanada clan massacre and what you did later, but I will save that for last...' The wizard hadn't come to make everyday chit-chats, and I could feel it. This was serious business, and I had to pay only the utmost attention to what he had to say...
A part of me wanted to ask what he meant by that, another wanted me to beg his pardon for his apparent rudeness, while a third but more dark side of me wanted to tell him to go to hell for even daring to state such a thing in my home, to offend both me and my wife like that. Simultaneously, I knew what he meant, and I knew he was right. So instead of replying, I looked down, as if acknowledging what we both thought. As I looked up again, our eyes met. We probably sat like that for a minute or two as silence filled the room, both of us expecting the other to continue the conversation as time slowly passed by. Since none of us had uttered a single word during those two minutes of silence however, Trea eventually sensed that neither one of us were going to be the one to budge. So, she earnestly tried to make things happen by gently and carefully collecting two cups and placed them on the table between us, before she then filled them up with sake, despite the fact that the wizard had just told her he didn't require such trivial things anymore. She looked at us with a bright smile on her face in an attempt to loosen up the mood a little, and even if the face of the wizard was like stone, I couldn't help crack up a smile myself seeing her efforts. He turned his attention towards her as he looked at her almost as if in disbelief. Both Trea and I expected him to carefully shove the cup away from himself in rejection, but instead, he just accepted it and let it be, as he then resumed his stern glance at me. It was as if he now didn't care anymore, he just wanted me to admit that I had done something wrong to his face rather than remaining silent about it. This certainly felt like a tug-o-war, as it just got more and more awkward by the second. Wasn't he going to say something? I certainly didn't know what else to say, he was after all the one to visit me with information, not the other way around. I tried to look away, but it was as if his eyes had already pierced my skull. I couldn't escape his gaze, so I figured I just had to say something, no matter what it was. I picked up the cup Trea had presented me as I downed my sake in one go. I then spoke. 'You were once a mortal human being too, weren't you?? I mean, you must have been...' I started, but I wasn't sure what he would say in return. Would he even give me an honest answer? I had to say something to break the silence, and this was the first thing that came to my mind. 'I was... Before I ventured to the past.' He briefly replied. 'The past?' I followed up. 'By now you must have realized that I do not belong in this era... I did tell you back then the last time we met that we would talk more about the future, more about a certain individual named Uzumaki Naruto, which is the same name that was given to you during your stay in the Sanada clan. Do you remember that I told you this? I told you I would save it for the next time we met, regardless of when that would be. The matter of fact is, I do not see the future, Hagoromo, I am from the future...' I couldn't believe it. So that was how he did it, but still, I was very confused. 'We also need to talk about the past wielders of the Master Sword too. This is the proper time I said would one day come, to have those conversations, but unfortunately, it is not just as simple as that. There is a lot to discuss...' Looking at me, the wizard then seemed as if he was breaking his immense character a bit, as if Trea's goofiness earlier had actually softened him up a little.
The next thing I knew, the wizard then did something totally unexpected. He reached up to his helmet as he proceeded to remove it from his head, placing it beside him on the table. It was the face of a young individual that met us. He was blond, had blue eyes, and probably weren't older than 32, two years older than me at the time. If, my assumption was right that is, after all, it was only an educated guess, nothing more... I was baffled. 'I thought you said last time that revealing your true face would change the outcome of the future forever? Did you forget about that, or do you simply not care for the small details anymore? And how can you be this young, shouldn't you have been older to be this wise and powerful?' I hadn't expected him to forsake his mysterious and strongly built character any time soon, and I had definitely not expected it to belong to the face of this young man of all the people imaginable in the world, so I was indeed surprised. Who really was this guy? 'I'm older and wiser than you seem lead to believe, don't let this appearance deceive you... You already know some of what I'm capable of, so this shouldn't be a surprise to you at all. I may look young, but I'm far from it I can assure you.' He wasn't fooling around, but it was still strange to see this mysterious, holy figure that was supposed to be all-knowing, appearing my age. He continued, 'And I know what I said last time but at this point, I'm a bit tired of following everything I'm set out to do, point by point, bit by bit. Before I leave today, I had intended to say that you might find out who I truly was one day when everything comes to an end. That even though I've had many shapes and forms, many names and aliases, who I used to be was no longer important, only whom I'll be in the future. That if you had to have a name to go by, you could call me Menma, in which you would have asked "Menma?" And I would have told you that it was a name I picked up along the way. Then you would have followed up by asking me what else lied ahead, in which I would have told you that I'm afraid you'll have to find that out for yourself from this point on... Truth be told, I don't think it really matters if I go entirely by the book or not anymore, as the outcome will still be the same in the end regardless, even if the story isn't written by the same writer, or even if it doesn't pan out the exact same way as it's suppose to up until then. So, I might as well just be honest with you from the start instead. What's important, is this-...' What exactly was on his mind?? He seemed more human than ever before, and if not removing the helmet helped create that image, then the way he now spoke surely did the trick. It was less mystery and more straight-forward. At first he was all formal with everything he said, but as soon as he removed that helmet, his spoken lines suddenly started to sound more like my own. Something did indeed feel off about him. What was this sudden feeling of regret I could pick up from him? Maybe regret wasn't the right word, but still... 'Some time in the future, long passed your death, you will be resurrected by someone named Kabuto, just like this helmet is called. There you will be cast under his control and forced to fight someone that looks just like me. In fact, it is me, or my past-self, and my real name, is indeed Uzumaki Naruto.' I looked at him. What was I supposed to say to this? All I could do was to listen. He was the one with all the cards in his hands now, I simply had to wait for his next move before making mine...
'I once met up with Yukimura in an alternative form of mine like I mentioned last time we spoke two years ago, and just like the first time you and I met when you were almost sixteen and were on a brief journey spreading around the teachings of the Holy Sect of Peace, I did not look like this at all... In the appearance of an old man, I told him that I'd had a premonition of the future, that he would one day come across a young man and a girl in the Sacred Forest where the Legendary Blade rested. Once he met up with them, they would be lost, having barely survived a massacre, and on top of that, the man would already have been able to both draw and claim the Legendary Blade for himself. I told him that it was utmost important that he would take these two into his clan and give them protection under his wing until the day that the young man was ready to join the war and bring it to an end came. Only this way would the Thousand Years' War finally end. In order to protect the man's identity, he would have to give him a cover name to use as long as he remained a part of the clan. I told him that the name he should give you was Uzumaki Naruto, and I also warned him that whatever he did, he could never tell you about this meeting. The fate of the world now rested upon his shoulders.' All this information was new to me as Yukimura had never told me about any of this, but he had indeed been almost as if hinting towards it the day I set out to meet with the wizard myself, two years ago, right before the Sanada clan massacre took place. But all this made me wonder... If the wizard could just change his appearance to look like anyone he wanted, then why the need for a helmet? And as this question became clearer to me, I decided to ask him about it. His answer was surprisingly simple-minded, even for me. 'It's a matter of dividing my powers. I can only change appearance when there's no other way to get a message through without coming off as-... Odd. No one will take a masked man serious in the time of war other than when he's uttering hostile words at them. Something more caring like the face of an old man could do the work and get the message through twice as fast. You see, my remaining powers from the future is only limited although my reserve is vast, so I can only rely on a portion of it at a time, and changing appearance requires a lot of it. One day, it will all deplenish, and so will my great life-force... The reason I don't go around looking like I do now before you, like my real self, is because if all the wielders of the Master Sword knew who I was and what I looked like, it would obliterate the consistency of time. My past-self can't know that we are the same before the time is nigh, so I have to keep my identity hidden, even from those I'm suppose to guide. Like I said though, I don't think it matters whether or not I reveal my identity to you, as long as you can keep it a secret that is... I'm certain if Revan and Aragon could do it, so can you...' I understood what he meant, but there was no way I could possibly picture his situation in my head, or even how big this power-reserve of his was. All this delicate planning... It must have been exhausting...
He then continued. 'Yukimura didn't believe what I had said to him at first, but as soon as he witnessed the events unfolding one by one before his eyes, he always kept a close eye towards you, didn't he? He knew I was right, he knew that I wasn't some crazy old lunatic, but that I indeed had already foreseen the future, exactly as I had laid it out for him that day.' Looking at the two of us, the wizard seemed relatively calm, but at the same time, it felt like he was almost a bit arrogant. Even if he hadn't intended to, he had got a small, sudden burst of anger building up inside of me with his last remark, but since he already knew all about the future, he could probably already foresee it coming his way as well. I said; 'If you knew all of this and the things that were going to happen, why haven't you interfered and saved the land with your powers, why haven't you prevented all the bad that has happened in my life if you've had the ability to do so all along?!' I stood up from my chair as I slammed my hands into the table, almost tipping over his cup of sake in the process, demanding answers. 'If I had, the future wouldn't have come to be and the world would have forever been lost.' He delicately put it. 'I couldn't interfere, no matter the pain nor the cost. You had to grow into the man you are now, the man you soon will be, in order for the world to progress correctly. If the future doesn't happen, then the world will forever be thrown into a dark void, never to be the same again.' For the second part of his sentence, he was a lot more serious than he had been with the first, and it seemed as if even he didn't find his own spoken lines that easily said. I could sense it... Maybe he always wanted to do things his own way but that he knew he couldn't? I could only imagine what that would be like, to stand idle by and watch the world burn. I couldn't even begin to understand how I would have been able to do that, especially if I had the powers to do something about it, but as the thought struck me, another one suddenly snuck inside. A thought that was far more pressing and far outranked the other; 'If that's true, then why did you save my life two years ago after I defeated my grandparents?! You saved me back then didn't you, you were the one who healed my wounds?!' I looked at him. I knew where he was coming from but I couldn't help feel infuriated. 'I would have liked to say yes, but that wasn't me...' 'What?! Then who?! Answer me!' I continuously pressed on to get an answer as I was just about to reach out and grab a hold on to him, but as we were about to make contact, it was as if I was being pulled back to the chair I previously sat on and forced to sit down again by a mysterious force. It had to be of his doing, that much I knew...
'Just be quiet for a bit and let me explain. There's no need to become upset, in time, everything shall become clear. That man was not me, and even if I know who it is, it's up to you to find that out for yourself.' 'Fine, I'll settle down, but there are so many things I want to ask you! You told me that my real father was never known, but you knew... You knew that it was Nobunaga all along, didn't you? You knew the story of how he had been controlled by my grandparents to do their bidding and wreak havoc in the land for decades, didn't you??' 'Yes I knew.' He said with a sign of regret in his voice. 'Then how can I possibly trust anything you say?! What more have you kept from me?!' 'Calm down, Hagoromo... It's not like I'm forcing you to accept anything that I have to say nor is it my job to tell you everything and live your life for you. What I can say is that just like the identity of the man who saved your life two years ago is for you alone to find out, you had to find that out for yourself back then. You were the one who had to free your father, not me. If I had told you all that before, and if I tell you now, the future-...' 'Alright, alright, the future, I know...' 'Besides, there's no fun in life if you know everything that's going to happen, am I right?? And if I hadn't opened up the way for you to learn about your inner powers, you wouldn't have survived that Sanada clan massacre in the first place, would you? So what I have to offer is not totally useless to you no matter what you may think. Just be patient... I'm not here to cause you harm.' He had a point although I sure didn't like to admit it. 'Yeah, yeah... So let's cut to the chase then, shall we?...' I had finally calmed down, but I was indeed starting to get impatient. However, I knew this conversation was very far from being over, so there wasn't much else to do than to keep at it. This could indeed end up being a long night, I thought to myself...
'I told Yukimura to give you my name as a cover name for one purpose, and one purpose alone, and that was for you to remember it by heart, even passed your death. As I was saying, the man you will be fighting in the future when you get resurrected, is me, and it is crucial that you at no time refer back to this exact meeting, that you actually know who he is. You can tell him that your name was once Naruto Uzumaki as well and that he looks similar to your younger-self, but in truth, you are really referring to me. The only thing you can mention is that like the Great Toad Sage has told him, he will meet someone named The Wizard who keeps his identity hidden from the world, but that you never saw his-... My, true face, even though you did. When the right time comes, they will meet, just like you had met with me once before in your life and were bestowed upon the Founding Book of Jutsu and the Staff of Fortune & Destiny back then. You can give him lessons and some powers, but you need to keep certain details out of it. If you reveal that both he and the wizard are the same person, just from different periods of time, it will completely mess up the time/space continuity. Only I can tell him that we are the same once the time comes, once he's ready, but not before then.'
Explaining to me how the encounter would pan out, I became just more and more baffled. Everything about the future, our battle in what was supposed to be another dimension, and using the Master Sword to escape that said dimension, several titans, different forms of powered-up modes, the Great Toad Sage, the Giant Toad of Mt. Myobokuzan, and then what he referred to as the God of War... I wasn't even sure how I would remember all of it, yet along after my apparent death. 'You will remember, that I can guarantee. There's no need to worry about it. In fact, in the distant future before your death, you will face these Titans of the Underworld for yourself in battle after venturing to this magical place called Mt. Myobokuzan that I mentioned. They are called the Titans of the Underworld because you were the one to seal them away to this dimension using the Master Sword. You will know what I'm talking about when the time comes. That will prepare you for what happens after your passing. Now, what's also important to remember is that when the time is nigh and the Circle of Hatred has reached the end some years later after this event that takes place after your death, all the wielders of the Master Sword will meet once more to free the world forever, and so will you be brought back yet again. At this time, Naruto Uzumaki, my past-self, will be much older than last time you met him, and you won't need to battle him this time either. You won't even recognize him at first though due to his age. Also, my current form of the wizard will also be present then to guide you all, and only at the end can you hint at the identity of the wizard and Naruto being the same person, both being me.' I hadn't been this confused in a while, but at the same time, most of it also made sense somehow. But if all of this happened after I had died and right before I died, why was it important now?? I simply nodded back at him.
'There's so much I could have told you about the future and about the past, but I need to keep things simple...' "Keep things simple??!" I hopelessly thought to myself, although I knew he was serious. 'After you have battled my past-self in the future, my past-self will then take over the role as the guardian of the world and become immortal. That's how I came to be in my current state. After the Circle of Hatred has been broken and my past-self has faced me, which is the route I'm heading for now as the wizard, my past-self will then have to travel to the past to become the wizard, to become me. In fact, I traveled 7000 years back in time, which by now is 6000 years ago, to eventually get here, in this room, right now, with the two of you. The curious thing is that before I jumped time, I looked old, but once I touched ground in the past, I looked like my younger-self again, like my appearance now. There is however, still 1000 years to go for me before I can finally rest...' There was a sense of resentment as he said that, but he already knew how it all would end. It was the waiting around that was the hard part. He continued. 'To be noted, you are the 8th and final wielder of the Master Sword. It happens to be that you have to pass the Master Sword over to my past-self in order for me to escape your dimensional transportation technique, but in truth, I am the 2nd wielder of the Master Sword, meaning that I was already predestined to claim it even in the future, without already having been to the past first. The Master Sword already recognized me as its wielder due to my future adventures in the past. Chronologically, I had already claimed it before, and thus, I was able to redraw it again despite it being a future-self of me in the past that had originally claimed it... Otherwise, the condition for passing on the Master Sword to the next wielder is by shaking hands, like the 1st wielder Revan did with me, like I did with the 3rd wielder Aragon, and so forth, as you already know. You did however never meet the 7th wielder of the Master Sword, but it was I who passed the "crest" over to you back then the first time we met when you were younger and still in the Sect, just like we talked about during our last meeting when you were still among the Sanada clan...'
I simply nodded back once more. It was a ton of information to swallow, but I was certain that as long as I understood the main points of it, then that was all that really mattered. 'When I look at you now, I can clearly see that your lineage is strong in you, even to the degree that the famous horns of the Otsutsuki clan is beginning to show. The same can't be said about some certain other individuals within the clan, at least not yet...' He was on to something. By now, what seemed to be two small mishaps during my birth, was indeed starting to look like the foundation of two horns growing out of my head, although I hadn't really noticed it much before now. Come to think of it, both my grandparents had the same thing, and I had already come to peace with my true origins realizing this but only after Trea had convinced me of otherwise. I was certain she would leave me once they started to appear. Luckily, she wasn't like that. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I was sure of it, despite the fact that she called me pathetic for thinking she would do such a thing... As I reflected upon her words from that time, another thought hit me. Not that it really mattered though, but I had to wonder what he meant by that last part?? What other clan members of the Otsutsuki clan did this wizard, this Naruto, know of?? I let the thought slide. There was already too much information out on the table, and there was no way he was going to tell me more about that now, knowing him... 'So now that we have that out of the way, what's more to talk about? I'm certain that you're actually here for a whole other reason than just to tell me all this??' I wanted to think that most of what the wizard wanted to say was in fact already out there in the open, but the truth was that only now would he really start talking about what he came here for, and as I had expected, there weren't exactly many praises to be heard in my favor, rather the opposite...
'Fine, now over to something else then and I have a feeling you know what it is... I mentioned when I came today that you had broken my promise, Hagoromo...' His tone had changed once more. From joyful and easy-going, he was now suddenly dead serious. I couldn't help getting nervous and it was as if he realized this while looking on me. 'The strange part about it all is that I already knew you would break it... It was your destiny to break my trust and revive Trea...' Turning his attention towards her, she couldn't help taking a step back. 'Leave her out of this, okay!' Standing up once more, I decided to step in between them in sudden fear that he would actually decide to pull a wise one on me, and only act friendly up until now to further his own agenda, whatever that could be. 'What's done is done, I won't let any harm come to your wife, so relax Hagoromo.' He wasn't going to do something after all? No, that couldn't be it, why would he mention it otherwise?? 'You sure seem too fixated on my wife being alive than to not have anything up your sleeve... Don't think for a second that I will allow you to pull any tricks even if we've had a friendly talk so far...' I countered. 'Will you just listen to me for once!!' Suddenly, the wizard, or rather, Naruto raised his voice for the first time, as if having adopted his human side even more. I was shocked to say the least as both Trea and I took another step back. 'If I wanted to pull something, none of you would have still been alive, I can assure you that. And if that was the case, I would have done it by now...' He was sincere, but at the same time, you could easily see that he was only joking. On the other hand though, I knew he was strong and getting him on his nerve would spell bad, even for me. 'However, I am on your side... Besides, it's not my call. If something was to happen to your wife, there wouldn't be a future to look towards, Hagoromo...' Still seated on his chair, Naruto then proceeded to take a sip out of the sake in front of him, much to our amazement. 'You actually tasted it?' I cleverly stated. He simply ignored my remark and continued. I hadn't felt more dumbstruck in days. 'The reason I say this, is that in order for my own existence to ever happen, the world needs your daughter and both your sons to be born in the future...' 'Our children?? What do you mean?' Leaning out from behind me, Trea was courageous enough to ask him what was on her mind, having remained silent almost all the way up until now. 'Like I said, it was your destiny to bring your wife back into this world, so even if I was both aware that you would break my promise in order to do so, and knew what that would ultimately lead down to, I had to let it happen. As it was your destiny to revive her, it was also your destiny to create the curse...' 'The curse??' I replied hesitantly, realizing that Naruto's face had become more concerned. 'Reviving your wife was only the first cause, but using your powers for even more selfish desires and creating the Five Treasure Tools of Destruction was what truly created the curse... The Curse of the Jubi, the Manifestation of Hatred. I warned you not to use these powers for your own good, I warned you of the consequences, didn't I??' Crossing his arms together, Naruto let out a deep sigh, but somehow, he refused to take his own words seriously enough for him to feel the need to get up from his chair in order to fully express it, rather the contrary, as he sat glued to it and only mumbled the words...
I didn't know what to say in response to this... Had I somehow forgotten the warnings he had given me? Had I truly let my own despair and selfishness get the better of me? This was what Yukimura talked about wasn't it? Why he forbade me from reviving him in the first place, in fear that something like this would happen? If he hadn't, I would have had him revived by now for certain. No... If I hadn't made the tools, how would I have been able to defeat my grandparents to begin with? My father said that I required something special in order to beat them, and I was certain that this was it. It was my destiny to do it, regardless of what I wanted, wasn't it? What exactly did Naruto expect of me having said all that? What did he want from me, if he knew it would happen no matter what I did?? 'What do I do, what will happen? What is the Jubi?' I uttered. 'In time, you will find out... A great dark curse is brewing in the shadows, and it will soon be upon us. Only you and your brother have the powers to oppose this creature, which will change the world as you know it forever. Only you can stop it from taking over the world.' 'But I haven't even met my brother yet?! I don't even know if Hamura is alive, neither my mother Kaguya??' 'Your father Nobunaga entrusted you to find them, did he not? He believed in you, didn't he?' He was right... There was no time to despair now. 'A Divine Tree will first sprout from the blood-soaked soil of the land in the near future, and shortly thereafter will you encounter the Jubi. That is all I can say about it. What you need to remember is that you are the last wielder of the Master Sword for a reason, don't forget about that. You were chosen for a purpose, so use its powers to guide you, and don't let the power of chakra blind you, as the moment you neglect the Master Sword's powers in search for other more powerful sources, is the moment you fail...' 'But how??' 'You must awaken the True Master Sword which will guide you through the darkness, and you also have to awaken your own true powers by becoming the wielder of the Three Symbols of Wisdom, Courage and Power if you ever hope to be strong enough to face the Jubi with your brother, and what's to come after...' The Symbols of Wisdom, Courage and Power... Hadn't he mentioned this before somewhere?? 'To help explain to you what I mean, I want you to meet someone. In fact, one of them have already visited you in a dream.' At this point I could only wait and see what he meant. 'Come, let's head outside for the final phase.' 'And Trea??' I vaguely asked. 'Bring her if you want.' He answered.
[...]
The next thing I knew, the three of us were out in the open. The sky was darkened by the absent of the sun, but the weather was on a standstill for now. Only a faint wind could be felt upon our skins, but it didn't bother me much. There was so much more to the wizard, to this Uzumaki Naruto, than what met the eye, I could feel it... What was his true role in all this? Was he just a guide? Who had chosen him to go through with this journey? Did truly a supernatural being like a god, a ruler of fate and destiny exist? Someone must have given him this task other than an alternative future version of himself? All these questions ran through my head, but I knew there was no reason to ponder any further. Clapping his hands together, Naruto began to channel his chakra as a bright light struck down from the sky and enveloped us all in a small circle. Everything then turned white as we were now suddenly standing in a white room, indescribable in comparison to anything else in the world. 'Where are we??' I asked. 'This is what I call the Overworld dimension, or rather, the Skyworld, if you like. In a sense, it's suppose to be the polar opposite of the Underworld, both of which are dimensions accessible to those who have mastered the Sage of Six Paths' Powers, your ultimate Powers. One dimension represents the Yin, the other the Yang, and when combined, they create Yin-Yang, the essence of life itself. In this dimension, nothingness is shaped and given a form, while in the Underworld, that form is given life. This is a place you'll be spending a lot of time down the road.... Curiously enough, like I'm teaching you about this stuff now, so will you hand down this knowledge to my past-self in return in the future. Looking at it from a different point of view, you have already taught me about most of what I've just told and taught you, ages ago. Now that I reflect upon it, it's kind of ironic, don't you think? Everything you learn from me, I've learned from you, and vise-versa. It's impossible to wrap your head around it without becoming dizzy...' It was as if his fountain of knowledge never ended. Although I managed to grasp most of what he said, it all felt beyond my understanding at times. What did he exactly mean by the Sage of Six Paths' Powers, my ultimate Powers? I remember thinking that to myself at the time. This guy knew even more about me than I knew myself...
'While we're at it, why don't we formally greet??' The wizard then suddenly reached his hand out in which I could only look at him with an intrigued yet perplexed look on my face. 'But I already know your name, don't I?' I replied. 'Yes, but we haven't formally met until we shake hands with our real names out in the open, have we??' A bright warm smile formed on his face. Something about him felt so familiar, but what could it be? Even through all this time, it was as if he still remembered his old-self from before he became the wizard, remembered how to still be a human being. 'You don't have to be nervous, take my hand, Hagoromo...' He followed up. I saw no reason not to so I approached him. 'Be careful Hagoromo...' Trea uttered beside me. 'There's no reason to worry, I think I know what I'm doing...' 'You think? You better be sure, for heaven's sake!' Her remark almost made me chuckle, but I had to keep a serious face so I simply smiled at it. Coming in contact with his hand, it was as if I caught a glimpse of everything he had been through. From his past life before he became immortal, before he traveled to the past, and everything after. In a bright flash, it was as if he wanted me to see, to better understand parts of it and how it felt. This guy actually had a simple life like me once, filled with both joy and sorrow, and yet, this was only just a tiny, tiny part of his now prolonged life. I could only imagine all he had been through.
'My name, is Uzumaki Naruto. I was once something called a Hokage, a protector and a leader of my village, my home, and then later, I was elected to become something called Sekaiteki-Kage, a Global Shadow, a Keeper of Peace. I had many friends and allies like you, even a family and children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on, but as time went by, everything faded to memory, everyone around me moved on but me. I am not that guy anymore, after having traveled to the past and through 6000 years, guiding the upcoming wielders of the Master Sword one by one, I'm having trouble remembering who I was, what it used to be like living in the future, living a simply life, like a commoner... I don't know why I was chosen for this job, for this fate, but all I know, all I remember is that once my journey is over, I can move on to the afterlife and meet my beloved ones once more, like my future-self did after our meeting... Like you, Hagoromo, I also still have a job to do, and I must make sure I don't forget about that fact until the destined day finally arrives.' His face changed when he said that... I knew it would have taken a 100 years alone for him to explain every little details, time we surely didn't have. Even if he was just a shadow of his former-self, I knew that this man was both the strongest and most honorable man I had ever met.
'Who you're about to meet is someone I met just as I arrived here in the past, 6000 years ago. Although he died in a battle to stop an evil lord shortly thereafter, his "essence" is still around, even to this date. I mentioned the name Menma before... Well, you see once I hit the ground here, I suffered a memory lose, an amnesia. Menma was the name Revan gave me until I could remember who I was and why and how I had gotten here... Revan was the creator of the Master Sword, the 1st wielder, and he was apprentice under the one who visited you in your dream all those years ago...' 'The dream?' I had to stop and think for a moment but it was getting clearer now. 'Wait, this dream of yours Hagoromo... Is it the same as back then after the Sect massacre?' Speaking her mind, Trea looked at me. She was right, it was just the dream that Naruto was talking about, the one I had remembered just as we had crawled out of the secret tunnel and found ourselves in the Sacred Forest all those years ago.. 'Hylia...' I mumbled. 'Wasn't her name Hylia??' I continued. 'She told me to find the legendary blade and claim it for myself as its next wielder... When I looked upon her, she reminded me of a Goddess...' Scratching my head, I wasn't really sure why all this mattered now, but I knew what Naruto was referring to. He then took a step closer to me as he laid his left hand on my shoulder. 'Let's find out then, shall we?' As he said, two figures suddenly stood behind him. One man and one woman. The man had green eyes, short trimmed brow hair tied up in a knot on the back of his head, and a long light-brown robe covering his entire body. He had to be in his 20s when he died, at least he looked younger than me. This, had to be Revan...
On his side she stood, just like I remembered her to be. Her eyes were yellow, her hair white, long and elegant. She too had a brown robe wrapped around her body. It was as if an indistinct glow transmitted from her body and I deemed it impossible to guess her age. She could be in her 20s, her 40s, her 60s, but were they even human beings to begin with? Did their lifespan differ from ours in such a way that appearance really didn't reflect our idea of age? In fact, I wasn't even sure what to file my own life under. Being half human, half Otsutsuki, there was no telling. Both of them though seemed to be changing from being materialized to being mere holograms. What exactly could this mean? Turning around, Naruto then greeted the two. 'It's been forever, hasn't it Revan??' 'For you it might seem that way, but for me it was just a mere moment ago...' 'Right, I keep forgetting...' Again the hint of mystery was present. Did Naruto and Revan refer to lifespan differences, or did they simply refer to the fact that Revan was actually already dead and that the last thing he remembered was in fact just that? Maybe it was both? I could only ponder further. 'The reason I've called you here is to help-...' 'We know, Menma... Hylia predicted this...' Revan quickly added before Naruto could finish his sentence. 'Yeah, her powers...' He firmly replied. Turning around towards me again, Naruto then addressed me personally. 'In case you're wondering, Hylia here is truly the only person I've ever encountered, here in the past, who can see glimpse of the future... All I know comes from what I already knew before getting here. It was part of her essence that helped you create the Great Toad Sage from the Giant Toad of Mt. Myobokuzan...' 'Okay okay, slow down a bit here, I'm trying to wrap my head around all this.' It wasn't like I didn't understand or weren't paying attention, but with everything he had just told me since getting here, and now with all of this... I wasn't sure if I could remember it all. Looking over at Trea, I sought a reassuring nod that she would help me out, help me remember all this for later, but instead, she just giggled back at me. I knew that this was all on me, Naruto and these two, I couldn't really expect Trea to help me get through this...
'Hagoromo, was it??' Taking a few steps forward, Revan halted beside Naruto as he looked at me. I had to pay attention now, there was no way around it. 'Yeah...' I simply uttered. 'Like Naruto has told you, you need to awaken the True Master Sword, and the reason is that only the True Master Sword can fully contain its powerful sealing abilities... You've encountered it before, haven't you??' A piercing image went through my mind. Come to think of it, he was right. After I had used up my last strength to deal the finishing blow to my grandfather, Kuroi, his body did indeed get sucked into the Master Sword itself, but how? Or even, why? What did I do differently then, than what I had done before? Could only true evil be sealed away or was there some other requirement? 'In order to awaken the Master Sword's true abilities, you need to prove yourself worthy as its wielder.' Crossing his arms together, Revan seemed as calm and recollected as ever despite knowing the fact that he was already dead. Was this similar to what I would be going through after my death when I would be brought back in the future? 'Are you paying attention, Hagoromo?' Breaking in, Naruto had caught on my mind drifting away temporarily. I only gave him a brief nod to avoid any unnecessary side-tracking in this conversation as it was already complicated enough as it was. I was however, inclined enough to ask a question for myself this time around. 'Now that we're on the subject, what's exactly the purpose of the Master Sword and its wielders??' Naruto looked back at me perplexed, but he seemed to already know the answer to my question, or at least his view on it. 'There can only be one wielder at a time.' He noted. 'In that you are correct, Naruto.' Revan followed up. 'The Master Sword is just a powerful weapon that only a few can wield, but if you unlock its special powers, it really can become more than just a mere weapon per see... The Master Sword gets attracted to those with a strong will towards justice, even to the degree that by now, passing on the crest might not even be necessary in order to find the next successor. In a way, you could say that the Master Sword has its own will.' 'So in truth, there can only be one person at a time wielding the Master Sword or does it mean that there can only exists one wielder at a time??' I curiously replied. Naruto once again spoke. 'Both scenarios might be possible but neither is probably correct thinking back on our history. If either I or Revan wanted to, we could probably be able to wield the Master Sword right now, but let's not waste energy nor time in order to find out.' Naruto was moving things forward and I could easily tell. 'There's a great Tower in the West, Hagoromo, in the middle of an enriched forest just beside a mountain. A Great Village will be founded there in the future, a village I was very fond of and connected to. You will have to travel there in order to test your resolve and to make up for the mistakes of the past, to get your path straightened out once more. It will be the toughest threat and the greatest challenge you've faced so far, and you will need to rely on everything you've learned. However, do not bring any of your Treasured Tools with you for this test, as it is a test of spirit and resolve rather than might alone. In order to prepare for this challenge, I advise you to seek out a Grandmaster in hand-to-hand combat who lives not too far away from the Tower. If you want to succeed, your Taijutsu needs to improve...'
'I understand, if that's what I need to do then that is where I'll go.' I answered, although I still didn't know much about what exactly was ahead of me now. I did however, know a small portion of everything in general, but would it be enough? 'Aren't you forgetting one thing now Naruto??' Having remained quiet up until now, Hylia then stepped forward. Turning towards her, Naruto seemed puzzled. 'Are you referring to the explanation of how the sealing ability of the Master Sword works?' He swiftly asked. 'Precisely.' She concurred. 'Well in that case, let me explain...' Nodding firmly, Revan seemed to know exactly what to say, so he decided to take over. 'The sealing ability was an experiment I never truly got to incorporate back in the days; it's rather something that the Master Sword itself has developed over time. You see, the sealing ability has only been used once so far in time, and you are the first one to use it. I have a faint feeling that the Master Sword somehow reacted to your special resolve, and that is how it can be unlocked. By obtaining the crests of Power, Courage and Wisdom, you will be able to contain the sealing powers, making the Master Sword even deadlier than it already is. Want to explain the rest, Naruto?' Looking over at him, Revan left a grin on his face. 'Right. The thing is Hagoromo, that after I retrieved the Master Sword during my battle with you in the future, the Master Sword already had its sealing ability contained, having been used to seal away the Titans to the Underworld in the past. Actually, the only way I could defeat your resurrected body in our fight, was to seal away your soul to the Underworld as well...' 'Huh??' All this talk about the future made my head spin. No matter how I looked at it, it now seemed like my soul would never be able to rest, even after my death, but luckily, I still remembered that Naruto told me earlier that we all would be brought back somehow once more later on, which would suggest that even I would be able to move on after that, instead of being sealed away in never-ending battle for good. Naruto continued. 'After that, I had to rely on the sealing ability of the Master Sword another time over a 100 years later in order to save a key figure and an apprentice of mine in the 6th Great Shinobi War, but I suppose that in this period of time, the term Shinobi doesn't even exist yet. Anyways, after sealing his enemy away to the Underworld, the sealing ability of the Master Sword was never used again, although I had to rely on the Master Sword's special ability to kill my future-self, to kill the wizard and finally give him peace and give the world the true final peace it had craved for. So yeah, I will not only die by my own hands in the future, but my past-self will use the Master Sword to call upon the previous wielders and use their combined powers to open up a portal through time. I don't think you were present that time though, were you Revan?' Looking at him, Naruto seemed to be taking the explanation through a side-track and I was so baffled that I didn't even bother to say something. 'I wasn't... The reason is simple, and it's a two-part answer. One, you guys didn't need me, two, you were going to see me the first thing you did when you traveled to the past... But you know all of this already, and it's beside the point, isn't it?' Looking back at him, Revan's facial expression seemed to have gone wearied. 'Yeah I think you're right about that...' 'Boys...' Suddenly calling their attention, Hylia then spoke once more. 'It is time...' Looking at her, Naruto knew that time was running out so he turned back to me and said; 'Have you been able to get all this??' I wanted to laugh, but in respect of the individuals present I kept my tongue in check and instead gave him a nod. I only remembered what I felt was important, and for now, I could only focus on the things that were in my own hands, like getting to that Tower and taking that challenge...
It all made sense now, but it also seemed too simple in a way. Looking over at Revan, I was certain that there was something more to be said, but to my surprise there wasn't. Giving Naruto a nod, both Revan and Hylia started to walk away from us and before they had gone too far, they were gone. In the next few seconds the whiteness around us began to break as we suddenly found ourselves on the ground in the real world once more. Naruto then looked up at the sky as rain had begun to pour down upon us. Trea looked at me, as if telling me that she had heard enough as I nodded back at her. She then went inside our home in order to not get soaking wet by the rain as I walked over to Naruto and stopped by his side. For some reason, I felt like asking him a question I'm not even sure if he had expected me to ask. In fact, I didn't even know where it came from, it just did. 'Looking back, was it all worth it, Naruto??' I paused as he turned his head towards me. He seemed puzzled for once, a facial expression I had yet to see upon his face. 'What do you mean?' He answered. 'To give up your life and become immortal, to go through everything you have... I can only imagine how painful and lonely it must have been...' Something in what I said must have gotten to him. The mysterious emotionless wizard of the old, was actually capable of still showing emotions. I was certain that it was what I saw, it couldn't have been the rain, could it? Looking at him, I saw a tear leaving his right eye. Was it something I said that made him remember something? Walking away from me, he then turned around as he took up what seemed to be a battle-stance. 'Fate... Destiny... Whatever we do in life, is it really all predetermined?? Still to this date I can't answer that question. My family and my friends...They said they understood what I was going through, that they realized the burden I had taken upon me... Even the face of my future-self as I watched him finally being able to move on after the 7000 years' long journey. I always held that feeling I had back then high, knowing that no matter how far I went, I would eventually meet my end too. To see my family and friends again... Was it worth it? No... But did I have a choice? Could I have done things differently? If I had declined the Great Toad Sage and never taken his place, what would have become of the future? Would the world never have known its true peace then?? These are all questions beyond my capability to answer. Somewhere out there, there has to be a being that preordained this destiny for me. All I know Hagoromo, is that I still have a job to do, and once it's finally over... Hinata... My children... My friends... I will meet with you again.'
I was stunned... There was no word in existence that I could use to grasp what he had been through, to understand his submerged feelings, to comfort him. All I could do was to listen to what he had to say, and accept our fates... It felt like I had always known him, like he had always been by my side for as long as I could remember. There was something about him that made me feel warm, happy, something that set me in a good mood. But even if I enjoyed his company for whatever reason, I couldn't simply stop feeling bad for him. 'My powers won't last forever, and I'm getting weaker by the moment, with every day that goes by... In one way, the immortality bestowed upon me by the Great Toad Sage shouldn't have lasted more than a thousand years. I do suspect that traveling back in time somewhat extended that even though one of the requirements were to actually give it up. I had to give up most of my inner powers too, the Tailed Beasts, to be able to jump time, but I still possess some of my former powers whenever I need to rely on them in certain situations, like I mentioned earlier... When I first got here, it was almost as if I was reborn. After I regained the knowledge of who I was, it didn't take long however before the side-effects really started to take a toll on me. For a time during the rise of the 3rd wielder of the Master Sword, and for a long time after the rise of the 4th wielder, all I could do was meditate, and I had to do that for almost a thousand years before I could move around fully again... I have a feeling that this is why I was able to kill my future-self before I went through time, how my past-self in the future will send me off to the afterlife in the same manner. My powers are declining and I will probably have spent up all my life-force by the time that day comes...' For someone who had lived this long and already knew about his own future death, Naruto didn't seem to worry much. All he could think of was getting things done. 'Like the Great Toad Sage, I can also transfer some of my extensive life-force and thereby some of my immortality to others for a brief time if needed, extending their life beyond normal span... Before I go, there's some things I need to say... Among all the wielders of the Master Sword that I have met, you, Hagoromo... Is the one who resembles me the most... I want to thank you for giving me this chance to finally be my true self again... It's been too many years since I last remembered how it was like to be human... This, will be the final time we meet, until the afterlife claims you and you meet my past-self in the future. Only at the circle's end will we meet in these forms again, and only then can we reflect back upon the past and say that the world shall know True Eternal Peace...' I didn't even need to say another word, I could almost read his mind. I had never put much into our last meeting, at least not into more than the crucial things he had told me, but with this final meeting of ours now, I knew I would keep most of everything he had said close to my heart, forever... His character was not the same, and I deemed it impossible to compare him now with back then... I knew what his next words would be... And it wasn't words, but lessons... I drew the Master Sword from my back as the rain continued to pour heavily. In return, he too as well drew what seemed to be a mysterious sword and faced it towards me. He wanted to test my current strength through a mock-battle, and there wasn't any chance he would allow me to hold back. 'For this battle, I want you to focus solely on using the Master Sword. Its importance in your future acts is bigger than you might think. Only if you can wield it perfectly can you stand against the forces of evil. Without chakra, without hidden abilities, we are but men with our swords. Remember this, because it will be important that you pass this lesson on to my past-self in the future.'
There was no need for talk, it was time for battle. I leaped out forward as our swords met amidst the rain. We fought what seemed like an hour but it probably wasn't more than ten minutes. He was too strong, too skilled with the blade for me to beat him and I realized this early on. I still kept going though until I was completely out of breath. Holstering his sword, Naruto reached his hand out to me as he helped me up to my feet again. What now followed was his last words in ages. 'Good... It was just as I expected. These two years of peace have made you rusty. Fear not though, this upcoming test is exactly what you need. I have great faith in you Hagoromo, although going by destiny, I already know you will succeed. No matter what you do, don't rely on fate alone because the moment you lose focus is the moment things may go wrong. Even if you are destined to become the Sage of Six Paths, doesn't that mean you can't die before you get there or fail along the way. If you do, this world will forever be lost, remember that... As nothing is impossible if you believe in yourself. Destiny may sometimes be hard, but we were all chosen for a reason. It's not the small things that will change the world, but the lasting impression all the wielders combined can make.' A smile formed on Naruto's face as he said that. 'I still remember the last day I saw my family, the face on Hinata as I saw them walk away. I had my mission, even if it cost me part of my humanity and the precious time I had in life, things that I would have spent otherwise if I could choose again... That is the fate of the chosen. You can only value the time you have...' And just as the smile had formed, equally fast was it gone. I knew the time had come. Reaching his hand out, he then tapped me on the forehead with his finger as he looked at me. A strange feeling surged through me but it was over before I managed to act on it. 'I leave you with a parting gift to help you on your road... A gift that otherwise would require massive training to be able to achieve. You will find out soon enough what it is, and with it, I've also transferred some of my life-force, which you will need in order to create the Great Toad Sage, who will then go on and live for a thousand years after your passing...' 'So this is it huh? So I will never see you again in this lifetime??' I knew he had said what he came for... There was no reason to linger any longer. 'Probably not... At least not until after your death like I said before... Make sure you will look for the Key to Peace, so that your legacy can fulfill what you've started.' 'I will... So where will you be going in the meantime, Naruto?' He had already done what he set out to do, but knowing that he still had a thousand years ahead of himself, I dreaded the thought of him just passing time alone until that day came. What would be ten lifetimes for me, would be a time of patience for him. 'Why are you asking?' He simply said. 'You don't have to spend all that time alone. Our home will always be open, even for you.' 'You're the first person to ask me that in all my time here in the past, but I am afraid I can't. It's not a matter of will, I want you to know that.' Looking down, Naruto seemed as if saddened. He then concluded our meeting. 'Hagoromo, it's been... An honor.' 'The honor is mine, Naruto...'
Just as I expected him to leave, he suddenly reacted on my final words as a grin formed on his face. He then added one last piece of advice. 'Funny you should say that...' 'Why?' I curiously asked. 'That's the same thing I said to you when our battled ended in the future... Heh, well like a wise old man once told me, "Always keep in mind that true courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one..." Goodbye Hagoromo...' As the rain continued to pour hard down on the ground, he was suddenly gone. I could feel the mark of his finger on my forehead slowly beginning to fade as I looked around. He was truly gone this time. Just like a raindrop hitting the ground, he had vanished before me. He had left an everlasting impression that never quite left my mind. I ventured inside the house as Trea helped me get out of the wet clothes. What followed was some steamy hot ***... Not that I'm implying by any means that you, my children, would want to be hearing anything about that aspect of this story. In any case, I knew that I had a lot in front of me and that I had to start as soon as possible.
[...]
The very next day I was ready. Mounting on one of the two horses we owned, Trea was there to see me off. I knew where I was going and there was no time to lose. Before I headed to the Tower however, there was a certain clan I had to go see first. A few hours later, I arrived at the new camp of the Sanada clan. It was even bigger and better built than the last one and rather than being a mere camp, this was indeed a castle. Its name, was Ueda Castle, the home of the Sanada clan. At the front gate I was greeted by their new leader, Danivass "Daihachi" Sanada, the son of Yukimura, the one I had promised him that I would look after and make sure would become a great leader. He welcomed me inside as I told him we had a lot to discuss. Gathering the higher-ranking members of the clan in the great dining hall, I sat down before them as I laid out some of the details of my recent meeting with the wizard. Most of them didn't even know what to say so they kept quiet for now, but they all realized that this meeting would be more than just a formal one, in fact, they all knew I had some things to say that would change the view on the current peace altogether...
'So not even this peace will really last then??' Danivass exclaimed. 'I am afraid not, Dani...' I knew he took this news with a feeling of regret. After all, the Sanada clan was one of the clans who had lost the most during the final stage of the Thousand Years' War. To think that all they had fought for, all they had sacrificed and endured, would only be for yet another great battle to happen in the future. If I felt I had lost a lot throughout my life, these guys could most definitely relate to my pain. Somehow, Dani took the news harder than I had expected. Even if he was as strong and brave as his father, Dani was more self-centered with the safety of his own clan rather than worrying about the rest of the world for now. Yukimura on the other hand would gladly sacrifice about everything if it meant that peace could finally happen, any time of the year, so that the dead could be avenged and ultimately be put to a well-deserved rest... 'So what does this mean, Hagoromo? What now??' He questioned. I had visited the clan because I knew I had some things I wanted to get off my chest, and only Dani could help me with that now. I was however, not entirely sure where to begin... We ended up discussing back and forth for about an hour. About the end of the war, about the current peace, about the other clans, and lastly, about Yukimura, and my own and Trea's stay with the clan for all those years.
'I don't know if I had the chance to tell you this Dani, but I visited the Azai about a year ago...' I began. 'There, I met up with Nagamasa and his wife Oichi, Nobunaga's sister... My aunt.' I paused for a second as Dani looked at me. He seemed surprised, but at the same time, he knew where I came from and where I was going with this, so I continued. 'As you know, I hadn't revealed all the details of Yukimura and I's battle with Nobunaga and Tadakatsu to anyone beside you and our clan, the Sanada, and later to the remainder of the Oda clan... I did however finally decide to tell Nagamasa and Oichi, so I went to see them. If anyone deserved to know the truth about Nobunaga, it's his kin and clansmen...' Changing my position, I walked over to a table and took a sip out of a cup that Dani had had brought in before our meeting began. Together with him, about seven other high-ranking Sanada members were present. Filling up my cup, I took another sip before I turned around towards Dani and the rest, whom were kicked back on their chairs paying close attention. 'My father always showed great affection towards you Hagoromo... In the end he looked at you as one of his brothers, but even more so his rival, despite the fact that you were never present in any of our earlier battles during your stay. He always claimed that you would join him one day when the time was right, and that it was as if destiny had foreseen that you would have a great impact on the war once you did...' Calm and recollected, Dani seemed to have already come to peace with the fact that there would be more battles to come in the future, despite his earlier expressions... Looking at him in his new gear, seeing him in his new position as the leader of the clan, I couldn't help think of Yukimura... At times, he was his spitting image. 'My father believed in the prophecy from the very beginning... I was present when that old man told him his premonition of the future. It was simply too unreal to believe at the time, but my father was always strong in faith, even if he declined to admit it in front of me. The signs were all there; finding you in the Sacred forest with the blade in your hands, the blue phoenix vanishing over the recruitment camp, symbolizing that "A Hero would rise to defend the people and bring on peace." I would never have believed that the day would come, albeit only temporarily... Maybe there's more to the prophecy than what we first thought...' Crossing his arms together, Dani proceeded to close his eyes taking a deep breath. Something about it all seemed to be occupying his mind, but I couldn't tell exactly what... 'If it hadn't been for the prophecy, there's hard to tell what would have become of you... Neither you nor Trea would have been where you are today without it I imagine. It's unusual for a clan to take in stray men with limited background, even as recruits...' 'I know what you mean...' I looked at him. There was no point denying it, everything he said was in fact true. No other circumstances would have allowed us the hospitality we received from the Sanada clan over the years, our position...
'The Sanada clan has given us everything, more than we could have ever hoped for, and for that, I'm forever grateful. We were not samurai, but we were still treated with unimaginable respect. The samurai code and ethics are of utmost importance for all clans... But honor and loyalty is always valued higher in some people's eyes, especially your father's.' Dani nodded back at me. Although we hadn't conversed much up through the years, it was as if we had known each other for a long time. The thing was, that as a part of the Sanada clan, Trea and I were limited to certain quarters, to certain people due to our status. In all the years we lived there, we rarely saw or talked to any of the upper high-ranking family members of the past leader of the clan. Only Yukimura, as the man and general he was, had graced us with his present. Even I didn't know what they had talked about when it came to us remaining in the clan, but I suspected that Yukimura had negotiated in our favors on more than one occasion... Yet, Yukimura never mentioned it. 'The land is now at peace, but like I said, there are things to come, things even I don't know the full extent of yet...' I continued. 'I haven't told you all the details that were left for me, but for now, I think it's for the better that I keep them for myself, at least until I can figure out just what he meant.' 'I understand.' Dani simply answered. At this, some of the other ones present looked at him as if in a disagreement with his decision not to pursuit the conversation any further, but none of them voiced their mind about it either, knowing well that Dani had the final say, and that he trusted anything I set out to do. Nodding back at me, Dani then stood up as he leaned over to one of his generals who promptly rose from his chair and left the room. Only a minute later, he returned, only this time with what seemed to be a sword wrapped in sheets...
Dani then walked over to me as he laid his hand gently on my shoulder. 'Whatever road you take from now on Hagoromo, you will always have my support... The clan's support, whenever you may need it.' Enfolding his hands, Dani bowed his head in respect toward me. I had never seen him do this to me before, in fact I hadn't seen him do this to anyone... Turning to his side, the samurai who had gone and retrieved the sword then handed it over to him as Dani in turn, reached it out and presented it to me. 'You want me to have this sword??' I questioned. 'But I already have one.' Pointing at my back, I then turned my attention back at him. 'A true samurai always carries two swords with him. If you lose one, then use the other.' I had never heard more sounding words... I enfolded my hands as well as I too bowed towards him in respect. I gladly accepted the sword which not only was a sign of our friendship, but a sign that the Sanada clan viewed me as much of their own, as a samurai, than any other. 'Right, I suppose this concludes our meeting then...' Watching as Dani took a seat, I went to take another sip of my glass before I continued. 'There's a Great Tower in the West, that holds a challenge I need to complete. It's the only way I can move forward from here.' 'A Tower in the West??' Dani thought out loud to himself. 'I'm not sure I've heard about it.' Turning around to the other guys present, one of the older samurai said that he had heard of it but that its challenge was unknown to him. He had heard rumors that the Tower was called, the Tower of Death. 'Tower of Death??' Dani questioned. 'Doesn't sound safe at all... Are you going alone, Hagoromo??' 'Yeah...' I simply said. I knew this was a task that Naruto had entrusted me to take upon myself, so I couldn't be bringing any assistance. If I could, what was stopping me from bringing my Treasured Tools in the first place? 'It's too risky to bring anyone else with me, especially you, Dani... The clan needs you here.' Dani looked at me, it was as if he wanted to object but he knew it would be in vain. I had already made up my mind, nothing could change that. 'Another time, Dani...' I said, giving him a reassuring smile. 'No need to worry, I'll be fine.' Taking one final sip out of my cup, I decided to put it down as I unwrapped the sword Dani had presented me and stationed it on my left side. 'I should be going then I guess...' I was just about to announce my leave when suddenly the sound of approaching hooves of a 100 horses could be heard from outside, even from within the room we were in. I looked at Dani in question. 'The two of us had a lot to discuss and that is why you came here, but, there's also a reason to why I stalled our meeting to this day. I summoned the Heads of the other clans in the land to have a meeting.' 'A meeting??' I was surprised, but I knew Dani's intentions were good. 'And I would like to have you present for it before you go, if you don't mind...' He firmly said. 'So what's the meeting about?' I asked. 'Stay and find out for yourself then...'
It didn't take long before everyone was gathered in the dining hall of the Sanada clan. Even with its great size, it had trouble housing all the important guests and warlords, yet along fitting enough seats for them all. The different clans and their leaders were as follows: Nagamasa and the Azai clan; Ieyasu and the Tokugawa clan, together with his trusted man Hanzo Hattori; Kenshin and the Uesugi clan; Masamune and the Date clan; Mitsuhide and the Akechi clan; Kotaro and the Fuma clan; Toshiie and the Maeda clan, together with his nephew Toshimasu, better know as Keiji, and Hideyoshi and the Toyotomi Clan. As for the Oda clan, after the passing of Nobunaga and his brother Nobuyuki in the war, Nobunaga's only known and generally accepted son, Nobutada, had taken over the clan. This was indeed a big surprise for me after the war ended. In our final talk, Nobunaga didn't even mention that he had another son. As I visited the remainder of the Oda clan a few months later, about one and a half year ago, I quickly discovered that it was Nobutada that had succeeded him as the rightful heir. You could only imagine my surprise once I discovered that he was in fact my half-brother, and as he too realized this after I shared the details of the truth of that day in the burning castle with him, neither one of us knew whether to embrace each other in happiness or to just stare awkwardly at each other... Also present in this sudden meeting of the samurai clans were famed names like Mitsunari Ishida and Kanetsugu Naoe- close friends of the late Yukimura, and Sakon Shima, Magoichi Saika and Mushashi Miyamoto. Being the host for this meeting, Dani proposed that everyone took to their seats as the meeting could begin...
As the initial customary greetings got over with, Dani went on to explain why he had called everyone for this meeting. Not only was it the first meeting between the clan leaders in the land in decades, but it was also the first time in ages that the land had prospered under such peaceful circumstance that had been present for the last two years. Taking his seat, Dani then looked over to the leader of the Uesugi clan, Kenshin Uesugi, as he had requested to take the word, in which Dani obviously had granted. Kenshin did not however, open by talking about peace and joy, he was leaning more towards something else entirely as he rose to his feet. 'I remember the late Takeda clan and its leader for the past decades, Shingen Takeda... Our two clans battled many times over the years, but there was not a single man alive I respected more than him. He was my eternal rival, and could quite possibly have been an eternal friend in a different time, under different circumstances than those we grew up with... This land has known war for a long time now, nothing but battles between clans for land and power. None of us present here today has experienced anything like this, like the last two years... I am however, not here to talk about peace.' Halting for a second, everyone's attention was fixed on this great but mysterious man. 'Even if Shingen and I were rivals, even if we had countless battles over the years, we always honored the samurai code. If one clan was weakened, the other gave it time to regain its strength, if one clan fell short to a sudden ambush attack by another clan, we allowed them to fend off their new opponents in order to protect their lands. Our battle was still not for none however... Both our clans had accepted that if one clan was to fall or to lose their land, it was to be to the other, their rival opponents, and not anyone else. If this were to happen, it could only happen in a respectful way, by a fair and decent battle between us...' Everyone was expecting him to get to the point any minute now. I could easily feel the tensity in the air by now, in fact it was fairly obvious. Even though all the clans were at peace for now and that the land had finally been able to experience it for the first time in a great while, there was still a lot of resentment between the clans, not only for battles in their lifetime, but for battles between their clans for the last thousand years. They wouldn't simply make up and be friends just like that as their experience and memories of war was not something easily forgotten by a sudden proclaimed peace, a peace that most of these clans had no part in creating to begin with. 'However... Shingen was assassinated... By a cowardly joint attack of the Oda and the Tokugawa, which not only saw the extinction of the entire clan in the chaos that followed, but also wiped out most of the Sanada clan's forces, including several of Danivass' uncles and his grandfather, the past long-standing leader of the clan...' We were all silenced... Either no one dared oppose him, or no one simply knew what to say in response to this. Silence filled the room once more...
Somehow I felt his anger was directed at certain individuals, and even if it was hard to pinpoint that for some, I immediately knew who he was blaming. Nobunaga was no more, but his son and the current leader of the Oda clan, as well as Ieyasu the leader of the Tokugawa, were... I looked at both Dani, Nagamasa, Nobutada and Ieyasu to see their responses to this, but neither one of them felt like answering. Dani looked concerned, Nobutada looked depressed as if feeling guilty, Ieyasu looked uneased, while Nagamasa still kept his firm glance for now. Kenshin then pointed his hand towards Ieyasu and his followers as his hand landed on none other than Hanzo himself. 'I've heard rumors that he indeed was assassinated by someone only as skilled and renowned as you, Hanzo, the notorious assassin...' Kenshin didn't seem mad even though his face suggested otherwise, but in the same manner that Tadakatsu himself always seemed to be of a strong composure, Kenshin just seemed that way regardless of his inner thoughts. The man seemed dangerous despite his age. In his time, Kenshin had been nicknamed the "God of War," and was not only recognized as extremely talented, but as one of the more honorable men around. Even I was impressed by the man and ended up using his nickname for one of my creations later on. Kenshin didn't state things for no reason. Kenshin was both powerful and wise indeed. Having heard enough of his unreasonable babble towards his most trusted man however, Ieyasu then finally rose to his feet and took to the word. 'The past is the past, Kenshin, so there's no reason for this now... Besides, if you were so against it, where were you and your clan during their downfall to oppose the Tokugawa-Oda attack? I'm not holding any grudges and neither should a man like you...' Taking his seat again, Ieyasu didn't feel the need to press this further. Staring at him, a sense of resentment was apparent in Kenshin's eyes, but he firmly nodded back at him as he finally sat down on his chair. 'I still question if this peace will really last before someone tries to break it again though, like any other times in the thousand years' long war...' Kenshin concluded. In a way he was right... How could any one of those present be sure that this was the peace they had longed for? Who knew how long it would last before someone got ambitious with great power again. Hearing what he had to say, I briefly looked over at Hanzo. If anyone had a reason to hate him, it was me, so if even I could forgive him, the Oda and the Tokugawa, why couldn't Kenshin? Noticing my gaze, Hanzo gave me a nod in return as I steered my attention towards Dani. It did not take long though before another man rose to speak his mind, this time the leader of the Fuma clan, Kotaro Fuma...
'I think Kenshin is close to something... I even heard that after Nobunaga perished, you guys surrendered and was only spared at the mercy of Nagamasa here... If anything, you guys are not in favor of anyone here.' Much like Hanzo, Kotaro was also a renowned ninja in the land, and even though he and Hanzo had never formally done battle, they both knew of each others' reputation. They were rivals without being rivals in a sense. But unlike any other rivalry, there was a lot of hate towards each other. There was no mutual respect to be sighted. 'I don't even know how a washed up ninja like you managed to take down Shingen unless he asked you for it!' 'What did you say to me?!' Not sitting around taking crap from his rival, Hanzo was about to rise to his feet from behind Ieyasu, but Ieyasu was quick to tell him not to take his bait that easily. Cursing to himself, Hanzo took to his seat. 'I figured as much.' Kotaro simply said before sitting down again. Dani then rose to his feet once more having remained calm for awhile since the meeting started. 'I can feel that there's a lot of distrust here amongst you... Every one of us has felt the impact of war throughout our lives, and every one of us has lost someone dear to them... But let's not stir up old habits and instead try to come to peace with ourselves. Only we can decide how long this peace will last. The Thousand Years' War was only allowed to last this long because people refused to put down their arms. Hatred created hatred, and the only way to stop it from spreading is to try and understand each other, to combine our strength for a common cause...' I hadn't expected Dani to speak those words, but he was more right than ever. In the eyes of my father-in-law, the old monk of the sect, and in the eyes of Naruto himself, truer words could not have been spoken. Yukimura's dream had been passed on to his son, there was no question about it. Sitting down again, Dani picked up a cup that every one of the clan leaders had been offered as they were all filled up with sake. Raising it in the air, he signaled them all to forget about the tragedy and the pain of the past, and to instead look towards the future in harmony. Joining him in his toast, nearly about every clan leader drank from their cups. One man who didn't, then got up to his feet. He was the nephew of the leader of the Maeda clan, and his name was Toshimasu. Everyone present knew him as Keiji Maeda, another fierce warrior and samurai of the land...
'Your words are indeed inspiring young Sanada lord. Your father's nobility has been transferred to you... However, we can't completely ignore the past if we hope to work together. There are certain details that some of us possess, that is highly desired for the rest of us to obtain...' He began. Could he possibly be pointing to the aforementioned details of how the war did in fact come to an end? He continued. 'I remember one time when we were fighting the Tokugawa clan and victory was within our grasp... Moral was high and we were beaming with confidence, moving forward at a rapid pace. We could even see the enemy base up ahead, but up there on the horizon, he stood... The one man capable of defying all odds, defeating any foe or number. That was the first time I laid my eyes upon Tadakatsu Honda. I had heard his name and about his might, but with our momentum, with our numbers, there was no way we could lose, or so I thought. Not only did he hold his ground against the 300 of us as we surrounded him, he even won a duel against me after I requested to be able to fight him alone. There was no way defeating him, not even for me. Just the fact that he opposed us all alone meant that there was no way we could continue our attack from there. We were defeated at the hands of one man. There was only shame in pressing forward. I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to do battle with him one day again, knowing very well that we had been lucky not to have lost a single man against him. Had he held back? Who knows... This man was famed for being merciless after all... One could wonder what he fought for. Was it the excitement of battle, was it his loyalty to Ieyasu, or was it something else? What powered this man up to such a degree that he became invincible?' Keiji started slowly building up to his point, and even his uncle behind him knew where this was going. Keiji wasn't the leader of his clan, but he was easily the most distinguished and powerful one of them. If Tadakatsu was the mightiest samurai in the land, Keiji wasn't far from being up there amongst the top, or so they said. 'Even though he was perhaps misguided in the end by Nobunaga's evil ambition, in the same manner that Ieyasu was, he was still the greatest warrior to grace this earth. Which begs the real question, how was he defeated?' Listening to what he said, Ieyasu rose to his feet once more. 'I don't know where you are going with this, but I did notice you refused to drink to the toast earlier. You should be careful about labeling people's loyalty and if they were fighting for good or evil. I was very close to Tadakatsu, and even if he was feared, even if my clan was feared, even if we sided with Nobunaga, we, like every other clan in the past thousand years of war, have been fighting for ourselves and our beliefs, what we believed was right. Your clan, my clan, none of us are more right than the other, although at the end of the day, Nobunaga might have forsaken the man he once was...' Sitting down again, Ieyasu pondered to himself on the resolve of the late Nobunaga, his old friend and the very man he had followed. Even he knew that Nobunaga had no longer been the same as he was before, before the Otsutsuki clan arrived, but never did he abandon his lifetime friend. 'Fine then.' Keiji simply said as he too took to his chair. Up until now, the meeting really hadn't gone anywhere, and it was as if some of the leaders expressed their annoyance and displeasure of being here. After all, not all the leaders had gladly accepted Dani's invite, some of them needed some heavily persuasion to be here...
Keiji however, wasn't quite done with his agenda yet, as he tossed out a follow-up question in regards to Ieyasu's counter-argument. 'One's got to wonder though, that as mighty as Tadakatsu was, who was able to defeat him, yet along kill him in the process?? Surely that man couldn't have survived the encounter himself, could he?? I wonder why there's such a mystery surrounding Nobunaga and Tadakatsu's final stand... Some say Yukimura gave his life to defeat them, but there was no way he could pull that off alone. I won't take anything from Yukimura as a warrior, but if even I couldn't land a scratch on Tadakatsu, there's no way Yukimura was able to sacrifice himself in order to do away with him. And let's not forget that he could only have gotten to Nobunaga if Tadakatsu had fallen, am I right? If he somehow by a miracle managed to trick Tadakatsu and catch him off guard, there's no way he could have been in any condition to deal with Nobunaga afterwards... I feel like there's not a lot of information going around in regards to that event two years ago. In fact, I haven't encountered anyone yet who happens to know the details! In one moment there was a great war, and in the next the land is in an unanimous agreement of peace? I honestly can't believe that. Something must have happened to the two of them, and I suspect you know something Ieyasu! We deserve to know the truth. If we don't know the reason for this peace, how can any one of you expect us to uphold it??' Keiji was right... Not a lot of people knew what had happened that day, in fact, there was only a certain few that knew I was with Yukimura that night and battled Nobunaga while he fought Tadakatsu in the burning castle, and even fewer than that again knew the details of how Tadakatsu perished and what Nobunaga had told me, and about my grandparents. Some would say that ignorance would be bliss, but I had begun to believe otherwise. These samurai gathered here today were not mere spectators and neither could I expect them to be. Keiji's reasoning was just, who was I to blame him? Ieyasu didn't answer, he just simply looked away. The matter of fact was that even Ieyasu himself didn't know what happened. He was busy enough retreating with Hanzo that day and once he had managed to regroup what was left of his force, the war was already over. I looked over at Dani to see if he could provide an answer. He simply shook his head back at me, so I resorted to meeting eye-contact with Nagamasa instead, but he too gave me the same answer. Nobutada? No... Every one of them seemed to think that revealing all the details was a bad thing, but were we right to keep this information from the rest? Could truly the peace last this way if some of the clans were kept in the shadows? I closed my eyes as I pondered on the question. Shouldn't this have been Dani's intention of bringing all the clans together in the first place? To let everyone in on the deal? Why else would he want me to be here for it if he somehow hadn't intended to use me as the spokesman in his favor? Indistinct chattering began to occur between the clan leaders and their personal convoys. Something would soon happen for sure, I could sense it...
It was then that it happened. First one of the men present, then another, and another, and another. Soon, everyone present was looking my way, and I didn't even notice at first. The chattering stopped as silence filled the room yet again. I knew something was up now, there was no denying it. Not a lot of people knew who I was or about my participation and effort in ending the war. For those who did know about me outside the Sanada, Oda, Azai, and to a certain degree, the Tokugawa camp, I was only a traveling monk, someone who had continued the Holy Sect of Peace and their goals and teachings. By now, most people had indeed hear of its massacre at the hands of the Oda clan all those years ago, but no one seemed to be able to tie-in the connection of me once being a part of it as well. I was simply someone of the same ideals, someone who knew his way with words as I traveled around the land to spread my teaching. In truth, I hadn't accomplished nearly as much as I had intended, it basically seemed like I was nowhere closer to my dream now than when the war ended two years ago. I was a nobody to them, but for those clans I had a closer relationship with, I was one of the silent heroes of the war, a man who had stayed by Yukimura to the end and brought Nobunaga to justice. Right now however, it seemed that somehow, part of that information had been spread around the room to those present. Opening my eyes again, I realized that every man present in the room's attention and eyes were upon me. I didn't know how to respond...
All the clan leaders sat at the front row, one in each of the four corners of the dining hall, and one by each of the four walls which made up the square we were gathered in; with everyone facing the center, and with their men on the back rows behind them. Dani, myself and the Sanada clan members sat by the side closest to the exit, Ieyasu and his men sat at the opposite side of us, Nagamasa and his men to our right, Nobutada and his men to the left, and everyone else filled in the dots in between us. At the center was a table with some lights on it to brighten up the room a little so that we all could see a little better. I sat about two rows behind Dani, but also a little to the side so that I could see his face. I looked over at him once more, but this time with an uncertainty on my face. Right now, everyone had either looked across the floor towards my direction, or turned around towards the back rows to get a view of me. Would it be wise of me to say something? Chattering amongst the clans then spread out once more before the young but respected leader of the Date clan then decided to have his say in all this. Standing up to his feet, he gathered everyone's attention. His name was Masamune Date, and his eyes, or rather eye, was fixated right at me. 'I'm not really sure who you are or what your role in all this is, but everyone seems to agree that you are someone special... You're part of the Sanada clan, am I right?' I simply nodded. Even if I knew by now that my powers exceeded everyone in the room, it would neither be wise nor respectful of me to ignore these clan leaders in order to protect my secrets, especially not before this man. They were all famous amongst themselves... I had to be modest, I had to act like I was just a regular guy in all this, even if my role, my destiny, like Naruto claimed it to be, was far more important than anything any one of them would ever accomplish. In order to make peace last, we needed every one of these clans on our side. It wouldn't be anything but naive of me to think I could accomplish it all by myself. 'So what is your name?? Something tells me there's more than meets the eye with you... Have we met before?' He was both determined and straight-forward, and even if he probably was ten years younger than me now, he had definitely gained the respect of most people around. Clan and name meant everything in these times; if you didn't posses a respected name nor was part of a renown clan, your existence meant little to some of these men. However, being addressed regardless of that was at least better than nothing in most cases. In comparison between the clans, the Sanada clan had lost a lot of its integrity after Dani's grandfather was killed and Yukimura took over. Not because of Yukimura himself, but because of the reduced position of the clan. If that wasn't bad enough, the sudden change to the inexperience 17 years old Danivass didn't exactly give the Sanada back its once high reputation, while for instance Kenshin and the Uesugi clan on other hand, was one of the most respected in the land due to their consistent line of leadership. The two strongest clans of the Oda and the Sanada had indeed taken a great plunge in the last few years, and only remained as shadows of their former-selves for now. The reason why Masamune was so respected as a leader though, was the fact that he even at a young age had already claimed a name for himself, so even if he was still only 20 years old, he was like a veteran of war in some people's eyes. It had to be said though that a planned change in leadership far outranked a sudden and drastic change when it came to keeping up appearance amongst the other clans. In worst case scenario, such changes could totally destroy the foundation of which the clan was built upon and put it to ruin in the chaos that would follow. A sudden change meant a weakness, something to exploit by not only power-hungry men from within the clan, but also by others from outside of its realm wanting a piece of the cake... I remained silent upon Masamune's question. What would be the wise thing to do now? Use my cover name, or go all out with my real one? I looked over to Nagamasa but even he didn't know what to tell me, it was all on me to find the answer on how to approach this situation. 'Don't look to others to answer my questions before you, I asked you a question so what will it be? Your name?' Masamune pressed. I stared at him, but I couldn't make up my mind. One of his followers then stood up and leaned into his ear as Masamune continued. 'My man here tells me that your name is... Naruto Uzumaki??' Before he managed to press his question even further or before I managed to react upon it, another one of his men also stood up and leaned in to him as well, in which Masamune then followed up by asking yet another question, only this time, it was more like a statement than a question to me. 'But that's not really true, is it?? That has always been a cover name, hasn't it? Every man in this room surely thinks the same by now... You played a bigger role in the war than most people think, didn't you?? Now speak...'
When it seemed like I had no other choice than to speak my mind however, Nagamasa then suddenly rose to his feet in my stead, catching everyone off guard. 'Alright, alright... His name is Hagoromo, and the truth is that Hagoromo was the one to defeat Nobunaga and the invincible warrior Tadakatsu, together with Yukimura at the final phase of the war... If it hadn't been for them, the land would not have been at peace right now. Danivass' father gave his life for this peace. We should not question the details of how it all went down, but at least now you know what happened.' A slip of tongue or a carefully planned sentence? Nagamasa's sudden disclosure surprised me, but I knew he was only trying to help, to not burden everything on my shoulders. My true name however, was now in the open. 'I knew Yukimura wasn't alone in defeating the two of them and ending the war, I knew it!' Getting back up on his feet, Keiji shared his excitement. 'But how?' He continued. 'So his name really is Hagoromo...' Masamune was quick to turn towards Nagamasa and follow up on his questioning. Even with only one eye left, he didn't miss a single thing. He knew he could force information out of Nagamasa now. This time though, Nagamasa wasn't as quick to come up with a reply. Several of the clan leaders were now standing, and people weren't really sure where to pinpoint their attention. I knew that of those who were still alive, only Trea, Naruto, Dani, Nagamasa, Oichi, Nobutada, some of the Sanada clansmen, as well as myself, knew the full extent of the details of that day, of our battle with Nobunaga and Tadakatsu. If it all got out now, trouble could be on the rise. Just as the meeting seemed to be getting at a standstill, another man who had yet to speak his mind then rose to his feet. His name was Mitsunari Ishida, once a close friend of Yukimura's. 'So your name, or should I say real name, is Hagoromo, isn't it? You did go by the name Naruto Uzumaki in the war if I'm not mistaken? Hmm... By any chance, your full name doesn't happen to be Hagoromo Otsutsuki??' Everyone went quiet. I knew there was no other choice than to confirm my name now so I did... Chattering spread once more as some people had heard the name, while others were clueless. Keiji scratched his head as he struggled to find his seat, while Nagamasa on the other hand almost seemed relieved. Even Masamune sat down to discuss this with his men as Mitsunari continued. 'I did hear rumors spreading about there actually being an Otsutsuki clan member fighting for the Sanada clan, amongst us humans in the war. I just didn't believe it would be true. I suppose those... Thorns sticking out from your head aren't just headwear after all, like mine??' Pausing for a brief second, no one managed to reply before he answered his own question. 'Sorry, I beg forgiveness for my rudeness, I didn't mean to put it that way...' Looking at me with a strange expression on his face, I wasn't sure what to say to this. Mitsunari then turned to another man present. Now it was his turn to ask, and his name, was Kanetsugu Naoe...
'I also heard the same as Mitsunari here... If you really did fight side-by-side with Yukimura, even up until his final stand against Tadakatsu, it's an honor to meet you. Yukimura was also a great friend of mine when we were younger, and it saddened me to hear of his passing.' 'The honor is mine.' I replied, realizing only afterward that it was just the same thing I had told Naruto as he left. As I was still gathering my thoughts, Dani then turned around and leaned in on my ear while both Mitsunari and Kanetsugu found their seats again. 'What are you doing Hagoromo?? I know Nagamasa might have said a little too much, but there's no reason for you to further that mistake, is it?' I looked at him. One part of me wanted to tell him that he was wrong, another completely understood his worrying. 'Don't worry about it, I know what I'm doing. Let me take care of this' I simply said. Just as I did, yet another samurai got up from his chair. This man was known for his defining personality, and he rarely held anything back if he had something on his mind. His name was Magoichi Saika, or that was the name he was known for. And like his reputation had preceded, he did indeed hold nothing back. 'Otsutsuki?!?! Am I the only one who heard this?!' Raising his voice, Magoichi did indeed seem concerned. Even though he was not a leader of a clan himself, he was, much like Mitsunari and Kanetsugu, highly respected and renown throughout the land. I had however, never heard of him before now, but I would soon get to know that name as I could feel his thoughts drill deep inside me. 'You're part of that horrible Otsutsuki clan who almost destroyed us, threatening the entire human race all those years ago?!' If the discussion had been on the brink since the beginning, it really went through the roof right now. This man wasn't going to leave anything behind. With him, some other people started voicing their mind too as some threw different kinds of bad words my way. At that moment, I decided that it was time that I took the center of the stage, so I got up from my chair and made my way through to the middle. He didn't wait long before he found his seat that Magoichi, seeing that I approached him, but he wasn't about to let that stop his bombardment, not yet anyways. I sighed, but at least now I had everyone's attention. Expecting that I would finally speak, Mitsunari threw what seemed to be a sandal Magoichi's way, telling him to be quiet. Seeing this, Magoichi simply crossed his arms like a spoiled brat as I then finally spoke to the gathering of men. I hadn't spoken to such a crowd in ages, so I couldn't help think that maybe I couldn't pull it off. I took a deep breath. Now was the time. 'Perhaps it is time that you all know the entire truth of what happened then, of what went down that day... In the end, this way might be for the better.' I looked around as I said that. I really had people's attention now...
Just as I was about to continue however, Nagamasa then stood up and went over to me. Putting his hand to my ear, he then started to whisper, much to the displeasure of some of the men around. 'Are you sure that this is wise, Hagoromo?? In worst case scenario, we could have a situation at our hands. It's not guaranteed that everyone will be at peace with this... I think the wise thing would be to leave them with the details already revealed. Any more could work against us...' Before I managed to resonate on his worries, Nobutada also got up as he was just about to get over to me to express his concerns as well. Having been paying close attention to the entire meeting thus far and having yet to speak a mind of his own, he only now deemed it necessary to say something, and I immediately realized that it had to be serious because of it. Maybe this wasn't the right time after all?? Maybe the other clans weren't ready to hear this, to adapt to the truth? It was then that one of the last clan leaders also yet to have his say in all this, got up to his feet as well. His name was Mitsuhide Akechi. 'You have no reason to stand up, you better damn well get back to your seat, Nobutada!' Nobody understood this sudden demand as their attention turned to him. He was the first of the clan leaders to directly threaten another so far, and that could by no means bode well for this meeting if it was allowed to continue. 'If anyone should remain quiet in this meeting, it is definitely you and the remainder of the evil Oda clan!! They've done enough damage already, don't you think?!' Nobutada was so taken back that he didn't know what to do. He wanted to answer, but he wasn't sure if he dared, if he could find the strength within himself to do so. He hesitantly looked at Nagamasa and I, before quietly taking his seat again. Another man named Sakon Shima then rose in his defense, although he wanted to make clear that he was not here to take any side. 'That's uncalled for Mitsuhide... If he's not allowed to speak his mind, then what reason does the Oda clan have to be here in the first place? This is supposed to be a peaceful meeting is it not? Don't let past grudges get to your head...' Mitsuhide simply ignored him, but even he wasn't stubborn enough to not allow Sakon to continue. 'Evil as they may have been, a clan member follows his clan, simple as that. It's Nobutada's father that has caused most of the pain these past 20 or so years, don't let the name of the clan blind you...' Mitsuhide simply sighed and shook his head at this as he too found his place at last. Sakon then asked the question on everyone's minds. 'If everyone gathered here now could hold their tongues for a minute or two, maybe this Hagoromo here, can finally speak his mind, mhm?' Sitting down, Sakon was then applauded by a man named Mushashi Miyamoto, although it did sound rather sarcastically. Mushashi wasn't known for his words, but what he lacked in words he made up with his sword skills. Sakon simply faked a smile back at him. Some of these guys were indeed strangers than most people I had met so far...
What I did realize now however, was that it was time to share the details with everyone despite the risk. Nagamasa quickly found his seat as I looked at Dani and Nobutada who both nodded in return before I went on. I decided to leave no details out of it, so I started with the massacre of the sect, how I was allowed to stay in the Sanada clan with my wife, how I had met a mysterious mystic and learned some unusual powers, how I had survived the slaughter at the Sanada camp, then about our stay at the Azai and bringing Trea back to life, before we finally got to the final phase of the war where Yukimura and I encountered Tadakatsu and Nobunaga at the top floor of the castle. I explained how the battle had gone down, what Nobunaga had told me after I realized he was under some wicked spell by my grandparents and forced to do their bidding, that Nobunaga was indeed my real father and that I was in fact Nobutada's half-brother, and the nephew of Nagamasa's wife, Oichi. I told them how Nobunaga did the honorable thing of ending his own life by his own hands through Seppuku, and that I in fact, didn't strike him down like some were lead to believe. I then told them about Yukimura and Tadakatsu's battle, how Tadakatsu went on his way and how I had helped Yukimura outside of the burning castle although it was already too late to save him. Then I told them how Nagamasa and Dani eventually arrived with reinforcement and that the rest of it was history. None of the clan leaders knew what to say but I spotted both Dani and Nagamasa nodding their heads in agreement to this statement. I then decided to tell the rest of the tale, the one part that no one beside Naruto and Trea knew about...
'After that and as time went by, I knew I had to do justice to Nobunaga and those that had died in my life. I couldn't let my grandparents get away with what they had done.' I paused. I could feel that this was harder to explain than I had thought, not in choosing the right words, but the impact it had on me to recollect these events in front of everyone. I knew it was the only way to move forward though. I then told them how I had made it my own responsibility, that I had to bring my grandparents to justice for everything they had done alone. Not only for the things they had done to make my life a hell at times, but what they had done to the entire land as well. The people present were baffled by this as they whispered amongst themselves. Neither Nagamasa nor Dani seemed to blink at this new information though. I knew they had my back no matter what. It then all got quiet for a minute or two before Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the head of the Toyotomi clan then spoke his mind. 'If this is the entire truth, how about showing some off your powers to prove it?' I didn't expect that to be the first thing to come up, but it was indeed an honest question. To most of them, all this sounded just like a fairytale. I first looked at Dani, then at Nobutada, before landing my eyes on Nagamasa. They all gave me a nod. I decided that I had nothing to lose so I went along with his request. Reaching my hand out, I concentrated my powers as a faint hint of chakra, spiraling around in the palm of my hand, formed, but it only lasted for about ten seconds before it vanished. Seeing this, Mitsuhide decided to be the first one to raise his voice again as he then rose to his feet and drew his sword at me. Only now did I realize Dani and Nagamasa's concerns. One wrong move and we could have a new war on our hands. Everyone around were shocked. Luckily, both Dani, Nagamasa, Nobutada and their respective followers present took up arms as well and stepped in front of me. Mitsunari immediately demanded that Mitsuhide would give them all an answer to this sudden move and for taking up arms in a peaceful meeting, putting shame to himself. 'It doesn't matter if this guy was part of saving this land, we all know about his clan and their evil powers. As long as they exist on this earth, there can never be lasting peace. He's an abomination, a disgrace to the human kind and those present.' Something in his words set my mind ablaze, even to the point that I had to control my feelings. I hadn't felt like this in two years, not since my battle with Nobunaga. These words, they were all too familiar to me. Flashes of my encounter with my father briefly flew by. His words from when he was still under the spell of my grandparents resurfaced. "You're nothing but an abomination and I will never accept you as my legitimate son." Even though Nobunaga was under Kuroi's spell at the time, those words never truly left me. Why did I feel the sudden need to be accepted? Why did it feel like I suddenly didn't belong here, amongst these humans? Why did Mitsuhide say that?? Chaos broke out shortly thereafter as the room was practically divided in half.
On one side, Danivass, Nagamasa, Nobutada, Mitsunari, Kanetsugu, Sakon, and Mushashi, on the other, Mitsuhide, Hideyoshi, Keiji and his father, Kotaro, Masamune and Magoichi. Those samurai representing their respectively clans also stood on each side. Everyone had drawn their weapons as Nagamasa urged them all to lay down their weapons and talk like men. Still in their chairs on the side though, both Ieyasu and Kenshin both remained seated with their convoys. I looked at them as Kenshin crossed his arms together as he shouted out; 'How old are you kids?!' Being the oldest present, Kenshin had seen his bits of arguments up through the years, and he was probably dead tired of it. Everyone froze on the spot hearing his clear voice reach out through the room. Kenshin then walked over to the fray as his men quickly followed. 'If you want this peace to end here and now and have this meeting act as an opposite effect of what its intentions were, then go ahead and slaughter each other. If you want to actually try to establish a working system that will last, I suggest that you try to behave like men instead of spoiled brats...' Walking right in the middle of the two sides and right passed us, Kenshin then headed for the door. 'Where are you going, Kenshin?' Danivass exclaimed. 'I'm tired of this, it's always them same no matter what happens. I want no part in this silly argument.' Taking his leave, Kenshin and his men were gone. Ieyasu then rose as he walked over to the side defending me, as he too spoke. 'That Kenshin is right. If anyone should know what he's talking about, it should be me. Both my clan and Nobutada's clan opposed Nagamasa and the Sanada in the war... Now look, we're all standing together on the same side...' At the realization of this, more and more men regardless of affiliation started walking over to our side. Mitsuhide grunted at this and refused to back down, as well as some others. I then decided to step forward. There was no reason to have the others defend me anymore, I knew I could settle this if I only got through to Mitsuhide. 'If you want me gone, I'll leave. There is no reason for any bloodshed. This land has seen enough of it already' I was certain I had said the right thing, but Mitsuhide was not a man easily persuaded. At this, he simply snapped, he had to be thinking that I was incredible arrogant and naive for saying that, but that was not my intent. Before I knew it, a sword was suddenly coming my way to everyone's amazement. No time to lose. I quickly drew the Master Sword as it cut Misuhide's sword in half, right through the middle of the blade with one swift motion, stopping right before it was about to cut through the hilt, hitting his fingers. 'Impossible?!' He uttered, almost falling over in the process as he dropped the broken sword. The Master Sword glowed brightly as Magoichi was blinded by its might, realizing that it was indeed the Legendary Blade, the most powerful weapon in the world. He then proceeded to walk over to our side without as much of a word being said. It seemed like the only thing these samurai understood was might, even in negotiation. And just like he suddenly changed sides, so did Keiji and his father follow rapidly thereafter. The same did Hideyoshi and his clan, leaving only Mitsuhide, Masamune and Kotaro and their clans left on the other side.
I knew this confrontation was over, so I holstered the Master Sword on my back as I looked over to Dani, nodding at him. Dani instantly realized what I meant, that it was time for me to leave for the Tower, now that the meeting was more or less over. I didn't even need to say a word to him as he nodded back. With that, I decided to take my leave. As I was walking towards the exit, I could hear Mitsuhide shouting at me from behind but I couldn't pay more attention to it. Coming outside I looked at the sky above and I realized that the meeting didn't really have an end to it, at least not a customary one. The only thing it did was to introduce me to the other clan leaders and their clans if you didn't include the fact that now, anyone with power in the land knew that there was something else out there, something not human, of this earth. Not only me, but the Otsutsuki clan as well. Maybe this was how I was suppose to unite the land and guide them to the future? This had to be one step on the way towards what Naruto talked about and I knew it. I couldn't create peace if I didn't know about the struggle of the different clans. Uniting them in common cause had to be a priority. Just as I was about to leave, I noticed that the three remaining clans of Akechi, Date and Fuma, the ones that had yet to come to peace with my origins before I left, had begun to take their leave as well, as they all mounted their horses and went in the opposite direction of where I was going. They sure seemed in a hurry to get home, but at least no one was injured even when the argument was heated the most. I couldn't help wondering if there would be more meetings like this in the future and if everyone would come to peace with each other from now on. I didn't want to have to worry about those three clans of Akechi, Date and Fuma starting up a new war, did I? Everyone had been fighting for their own ideals, for the path they saw as the only true and righteous one. No odds mattered, they would always honor the samurai code and fight for their masters until the very end even if it meant their downfall. There was no right or wrong, no good or evil in the eyes of the samurai. All that mattered was what they deemed to be right. There had to be a way to end this stubborn straight-forward way of thinking, to unite everyone under the same banner, but I had no idea how just yet. I quickly shook the feeling away as I saw Dani, Nagamasa and Nobutada, as well as the others at the gate of the Sanada camp readying themselves to leave. They were all heading home now and Dani was the one to see them off. Meeting eye contact with Nagamasa, Nobutada and Dani one last time, I knew the only thing left for me now was to head on my way. And with that, the first samurai meeting in ages came to an end. I set my eyes upon finding the grandmaster of Taijutsu that Naruto mentioned, to improve and learn more about my hand-to-hand combat. If I was to live through this great challenge at the Tower of Death that I had ahead of me, I had to rely on any training I could get. Riding on my horse I came upon a mountain-side not much unlike the one I had lived on top of with my foster parents all those years ago. I gazed upon it for a while as I let my mind slip away and reminisce the past. It was then that I saw it. First the smoke, then the pipe and finally the hut. It had to be up there, this had to be the place. Making my way up the hill, I finally arrived at my destination, the final stop in my journey towards the Tower. As I approached the hut, an elderly man came out to greet me, and it was as if he knew that I would come, like he had expected me. But who was this guy and was he the grandmaster I was looking for? There was only one way to find out.
[...]
It didn't take long however before I realized that he was the one, and that there were no questions about it. Even at his age, he still packed a punch. I decided to fully endorse myself in his teachings, as the hours turned to days and days into weeks. I had ended up spending more time there than I originally had thought, but I refused to leave prematurely before I had received the grandmaster's blessing. "A little more, my young one. Just a little more." He always said holding up his fingers to show me exactly how much I had to go before I was ready. He had been saying that since the second day of my arrival, but in reality, I was apparently nowhere closer now than back then judging by his fingers. I swiftly decided that if I was going to spend this much time here, I had to notify Trea. Getting together a short letter, I summoned a lonely bird that was sitting up in a nearby tree, getting its attention drawn towards me with some breadcrumbs. As soon as he landed on my hand, I touched its forehead with my index and channeled a faint hint of chakra into him, with that, he was temporarily under my control as I let it fly with the letter tied neatly on its back. As I sat down and watched as it flew away, the grandmaster then walked up to me. 'Your body is training hard... But you forget to train your brain equally so!' Smacking my head with some sort of a personalized hand-fan, the elderly man then turned away from me and started walking towards the hut again. 'What was that for?!' I shouted after him. 'Love trains heart, determination sharpens brain.' I couldn't get over how strange this man was and the way he talked. Was he even human? What relation had Naruto to this guy? I decided to follow him inside as he handed me a cup with warm tea. I drank as silence filled the room. I tried to say something but yet again, he smacked me with his hand-fan, stating; 'Silence soothes the soul, heals the troubled mind, prepares the unprepared, strengthens your senses. Be silent to train, talk to relax.' 'Huh??' I was totally confused but I wasn't really surprised either. In the three weeks I had now been here, we had only had about three decent conversations, and none of them lasted more than a minute apiece. I let out a deep sigh as I closed my eyes to take in the surroundings. When I opened them again, the elderly man was suddenly playing a flute. 'What happened to being silent?!' I retorted. 'Silence good, music better.'
Another day then passed. I had just awoken and was ready to start the day fresh, however, the elderly man felt totally different that morning. He was noisy, he was disturbed. I couldn't pinpoint if something was wrong or if this was just another side to him. He then suddenly started talking to me. I was completely taken back. Three weeks and not even a decent conversation, now he suddenly wanted to talk? Couldn't he at least wait until my eyes followed my body in waking up?? 'Time is running short, we must talk now. You got a lot of questions, I got some answers, Hagoromo...' Something was definitely up. 'How do you know my name?? You said; "No names," the first day we met, remember??' 'Time changes, mind changes. Come.' Walking outside the hut, I had to rush into my cloths in order to be able to keep up with him. As he sat down on a rock, I simply leaned my back towards the nearby tree waiting for his further instructions. 'Today no practice, you master hand-to-hand. I have no more, to teach.' Just like that, and my training was already over. 'So who are you really old man?' I finally bothered to ask again, having been shot down all the previous times. 'My name is... Well, I don't have one.' His tone and way of speaking had changed. It was as if it was in a completely different dialect altogether, and now, he was clearer than he had ever been. 'What do you mean?' I pressed. 'I am just a grandmaster of hand-to-hand combat...' 'So how do you know the wizard?? Are you like him?' 'But of course, I am like him. In fact, I am he.' I didn't even know what to say anymore. Nothing was really surprising me these days. 'He's my creator... So no, I'm not human, but I'm not an animal either. I've lived for a long time already, but my purpose has never been more important than this.' So he was something that Naruto had created with his life-force, with his immortality? Maybe this guy was something like the Great Toad Sage that Naruto had mentioned a couple of times to me? The one being I was supposed to create for myself one day? 'You are going to the Tower, aren't you?' The grandmaster continued. 'I know one of the guardians there from my earlier days. He happens to be a former student of mine. He should be stationed at the first floor and he specializes himself in flying-kicks. That is all I'm going to say about the Tower of Death however, the rest is for you to find out.' I looked at him. This guy was totally different from Naruto himself. Short, wrinkly, having eyes that barley could see due to his facial structure, but at the same time, he seemed like the jokester type. White hair tied up in a ponytail and always smiling...
'Now, let me tell you how the land has been shaped and formed by the wars over the years, so make sure you pay attention.' He began. 'The human kind has existed for about 10 000 years, but there's speculation that a different species of humanoid creatures like myself exist outside the realm of the earth, and that they have continued to do so for millenniums upon millenniums of years longer than us. Anyways, the first war as far back as the land can remember, was a confrontation between two powerful beings from outer-space. One in quest for chaos, the other in quest for peace. The Demon Lord Demise was beaten back however by the righteous Revan, but not without having to sacrifice his life...' So that was how Revan went, he was indeed not human after all, just like I had expected. Neither Hylia then in that regard? So the Otsutsuki clan wasn't the only ones to have stepped on this earth from outer-space? I thought to myself. But wasn't Naruto there too in the battle with Demise or was I missing something? The grandmaster then continued. 'Later came the first usurper of men, his name was Ganondorf. His tyranny did not last long however as a hero rose to oppose him. His name was Aragon. Sealing away Ganondorf did not bring on the expected peace however, as both Demise and Ganondorf returned much later to wreak havoc in a war against each other. This was the first real war that affected the entire land and diminished the population to half of its previous numbers. In the end, Ganondorf won the battle, but was later defeated by a new hero named Levi, who sacrificed himself to kill the King of Evil. This first period of war was later named the Hyrulean War...'
War had always been a part of our existence... Was war just another human instinct that we could not evade, that we could not escape? Could there really be no lasting peace? I looked down for a moment to settle my thoughts, but I knew this was only the beginning as he continued. 'Three thousand years then passed without any real wars taking place, but even then did the land experience its skirmishes. Then came a period of 20 years where a darkness slowly grew forth. From the shadows came Ganondorf resurrected, and only a new hero wielding the Legendary Blade could defeat him. His name was Link. Peace once again resumed its place but as another two thousand years passed, a new war rose in the land. This war is now known as the Unification War of the Three Kingdoms, which ultimately lead into the Thousand Years' War you are so acquainted with by now I presume. I suppose it's not long now before we will rename this long-lasting war into the Warring States period of the Samurai, mhm...' I knew all this new information would somehow work to my advantage in the future, but I had yet to realize exactly what. The grandmaster then got up to his feet as he walked over to me by the tree I was leaning in to as he looked down on the fabulous view present before him, off the mountain-side...
He then said; 'I must ask you Hagoromo... Do you know what the shared cause for all the wars up through time is?' I stumbled on his words before I made up my mind. 'If I knew, or if mankind knew for that matter, don't you think we would have been able to prevent the wars?' I cleverly said, but maybe my words weren't as cleaver as I initially thought, were they? I followed up with something else. 'Well it must be the greed and hatred of men, but I suspect it isn't as simple as that.' 'Humans...' He simply replied. 'Humans??' I asked with a surprised tone. 'Although they have evolved over the years, one thing always remains the same... Their ultimately selfish desires for power and riches.' Maybe he was on to something, but then what? 'So is there a way to change this?' The grandmaster then turned his head towards me as he looked at me, squinting with his narrow eyes to get a better view of my face. 'Do you know how the Thousand Years' War started, Hagoromo??' He said. I shook my head in response. Even if I had collected my share of information on history by now, I never really knew how the war started, even to this day. 'After the Three Kingdoms Era came to an end, peace lasted for a great while and harmony and stability ruled the land. However, it also made men weak, repeating history over yet again. Where there's peace, there's a desire for war. Peace had cost them their strength. Victory had defeated them. The turmoil started on a whim. Those in control couldn't apprehend the uprising, couldn't uphold much-needed order, and therefore they failed to maintain the peace. There's a saying that goes; "A true warrior should always be ready, even in time of peace." Nothing was truer that day. Their weakness cost them their peace.' I had exhausted my reserves by now, nothing I could say would make up a defining answer to my ultimate question. How could peace last? The most important question I ever asked myself. Could there be war without peace? And could there be peace without war? In the same manner that the light needs the darkness, did the two depend on each other too? Was the only way to lasting peace to live in a land without men? I had a lot of thinking to do... 'What is it that I must do, that the wizard has entrusted me with, how can I make any difference compared to anyone in the past? If the peace last 10 years, is that good enough? What about a 100, or a 1000 years? Peace did last for 3000 years before, did it not? But in the end, what difference did it make?' I felt lost. If neither Naruto nor this man knew the answers, how could I ever find them?
'The difference is whether you choose to believe in yourself or not. If you start doubting yourself and your path, then there's definitely no hope, is there? As long as you believe you can do it, then who knows, maybe you one day will. The difference is that even if your life wasn't lived in peace, future generations can live their lives the way we always wanted. If the difference is not for us, then it has to be for the future...' He was right, I couldn't keep beating myself down like this. Everyone had put their trust in me, this was my destiny, I simply had to believe in the own words I had been preaching about over the last two years. 'Even though there's peace now, doesn't mean that you can blindly put your trust in it. There have been periods of time in the Thousand Years' War before, where there has been temporary peace, but it is not called the Thousand Years' War for no reason, be sure to remember that. Like I told you, the moment you let down your guard and starts taking things for granted, is the moment you will fail.' 'I understand...' I truly did, but I still couldn't help feel troubled for carrying this sole burden on my shoulder, the entire human race's trust in finding and creating a peace that would last. That had to be my goal moving forward. I had to find a peace where one peace is everyone's peace, a peace where everyone shared in the same harmony, where everyone completely understands what's deep in each others' hearts without the need for speech or emotions to express it. 'I can feel that you are troubled...' The grandmaster simply said, before he said something that remained with me for the remainder of my life, for the remainder of my path, never to be forgotten. 'In order to create a truly peaceful world, we must bury the one built on samurai warfare. It must be done in such a way that makes it clear to one and all. However, I fear that only something extraordinary can help the world towards this peaceful existence, and it's up to you to find out what that answer is for yourself.' Everything that needed to be said was said, everything that needed to be taught was taught... I was now prepared for my future, and I simply couldn't have done it without this man's guidance. His knowledge equaled that of Naruto himself, and I suspected that Taijutsu was not the only reason to why he had sent me here. He wanted this man to say the things he could not. 'I will not disappoint you, Master.' Leaning away from the tree, I enfolded my hands in front of me as I bowed respectfully to him, that was the least I could do. He nodded back as he gave me a smile. He then pointed down the hill with his hand, and I knew there and then that it was time, there was no reason to linger any further as I set off. My training was complete. This was the last time I ever spoke to him.
[...]
Not long after, I had finally begun approaching my final destination. Two days had passed since I left the hut and the elderly grandmaster, and I now found myself exiting a dense forest as an open field appeared in front of me. It was then that I saw it... The Tower was not only taller than I had expected, its surrounding areas were even more breath-taking than I could have dreamt of. Now that I had finally seen it for myself, I concluded that it looked more like a pagoda than a tower, but I didn't really leave it much else thought than that. I looked around as I realized that all the roads around lead to this tower, this palace, it was as if it was the center of the land, a monument to honor the gods. I was standing on top of a green hill as I was gazing down on the temple grounds around the tower before me. It was surrounded by hills on all sides with all the roads leading directly down towards the front gate. The only thing I could think of was who in their right mind had the capacity to build such a thing? And for whom? I let the thoughts slide, after all, I wouldn't get anywhere by standing around admiring the view, would I? As I got closer to the temple, I suddenly spotted two men walking down towards the tower as well from two other roads, as our roads intertwined with each other just as we reached the temple grounds. One man came from the North-East, the other from the South-East, and I came from the East. What were the odds? And who were these men? The stranger from the North-East had dark short-trimmed hair and was fully dressed in a yellow-black jumpsuit, while the other one from the South-East, was a bit different. His hair-style was much less cared for as he had long hair that went passed his shoulders and down his back. Its color was dim-grey, and his eyes were pale white. At the time I didn't have the impudence to ask why his eyes were like that, heck, we didn't even have the time to talk. We all just arrived at the same time in front of the main gate, all from different directions, different backgrounds. Who was I to judge? I knew nothing about these men, neither was that the reason I was here. We all just looked upon each other, but none said a word as we laid our eyes upon the entrance doorway. I knew nothing of what I would see in there, what could I possibly expect? The grandmaster had talked about a guardian that was a former student of his positioned on the first floor. Did that mean I had to progress the different levels and make it to the top in order to complete this challenge?? As we now were just meters away from reaching the gate, the man in the yellow and black jumpsuit then suddenly decided to break the silence. 'Is that two horns sticking out of your head?' He wasn't going to be blunt about it, was he? Some sort of distraction strategy? I had no idea, but before I managed to reply, he answered his own question. 'Nevertheless, I find it very interesting for sure.' That was all the talk we had time for... We had arrived at our destination as I gazed upon the large double steel-enforced doors in front of me, leading into the Pagoda, into the Tower of Death. On a rock by the entrance, sat a peculiar figure. He was dressed up in some sort of attire painted in all colors, and he looked more like a jokester than any doorman I had seen...
'I welcome thee, to the Great Tower of Death, my ambitious challengers!' He was brief but unflinching that man, I thought to myself. 'I warn thee, you may only enter if you are confident in your own abilities, and that the risks of death are ever present within the tower. That is why it is called a Game of Death, and no one has won at it yet!' I looked at the other two men beside me, did they even know what this was all about? Did they know more about this tower than I did? We all nodded back at The Gatekeeper, acknowledging that we all were here for the same thing and that we all had made up our minds to undertake this challenge. 'I must say though that I find it particularly intriguing that you all arrived at the same time! Usually only one challenger appears every year or so!!' I was baffled. Could this be just winner's luck or maybe it was even fate? After all, the more the merrier, right? I calculated that with these two men, even if they were just that, men... They would reduce the threat of the challenge just by drawing attention towards them. Maybe Naruto had predicted this? 'But that is not all!!!' The gatekeeper continued. 'In fact, three other men already went inside to take the challenge half an hour ago! I wonder whether you all know each other and planned for this to happen, or if it's just a coincident?? To me, it seems like you two at least know who this guy is, am I right??' Pointing at the two men beside me, I wasn't sure what he was onto about. How could they know who I was? 'That's impossible, I've never seen these men in my life.' I uttered. 'However, now that we are all here, we might as well cooperate on this challenge if we want to make it to the top...' 'Well then, to the top you must go!!' The gatekeeper exclaimed. It was as if just talking to us made this guy excited. Yet again the same lingering question fell over me. What about this guy, was he human? As I pondered about, the one with the pale eyes then finally said something. 'So why are you here, what is your purpose other than sitting on this rock welcoming us?' This guy didn't joke around, he wanted answers, and he wanted them right away. 'That... Is none of your business!!' Keeping up his cheerful yet disturbing tone, the gatekeeper didn't seem human at all, I was certain of it. 'However... I will reveal to you that it is a job that has been passed down and entrusted to my family for generations, although I only somewhat reluctantly tell you of this.' Maybe he was human after all? I needed to stop with my questioning... After all, that wasn't really important now, what was however, was getting inside this gate. 'I will now inform you of the much needed details of how this tower is divided into different floors, so make sure you pay attention because I'm only going to tell you this once, okay?!' 'Right, let's hear it so that we can get on with this already...' I was already getting bored and impatient of this man's attitude. It belonged nowhere in the human race, and I could say that with confidence without being fully human myself. The gatekeeper then laid out the corresponding details of the challenge, and it was mapped out something like this...
The Ground Floor had tons of opponents with one boss at the end. This floor was called the Temple of Great Training. Next, if we could surpass that, came the 2nd Floor, which was supposed to house two mystical opponents. It was called the Temple of the Raven. The 3rd Floor had a weapons expert. This was the Temple of the Tiger. The 4th Floor, if we ever got that far, based itself on hand-to-hand combat and had an expert within this field as its guardian. That was the Temple of the Phoenix, a floor where my training with the grandmaster would hopefully come to use. On the 5th Floor waited an all-rounded expert, but that was all the information we were going to get. It was called the Temple of the Dragon. Then came the 6th Floor, where only those inhabiting "special ability" would be able to fight and prevail, whatever that meant. It was named the Temple of the Gifted. And finally came, the Final Floor. For this floor, the gatekeeper would not reveal even a single hint of information. In fact, even he didn't know what was up there and what the prize for winning this challenge was, but he understood for a fact that it was at the top of the pagoda. All he knew, was that the final floor was called the Temple of the Unknown...
'So have I made everything clear to you, oh brave samurai warriors? You agree upon the rules I've laid out and the risks of this challenge, am I right? This will be the last chance to turn back, so do not regret it as there are no safe-words here, no turning back! Either you die, or you complete this challenge, understood??' The gatekeeper boasted. 'Perfectly.' I added. As I did, the steel doors suddenly began to open up inwards as a shocking view met us. All three of us stepped within the entrance as the doors began to close equally as fast as they had opened. Before they closed completely behind us however, the gatekeeper shouted out one last thing...
'Then I welcome thee to the Tower of Death, brave young men, and to a Game of Death!!'
~ End of Chapter 7
Fun Fact & Author's Note:
1:The first fact is probably the most important fact of all so far and it has to do with my previous works. Although this series works as a standalone, it is necessary for me to tie it in with my other stories being that all of them takes place within the same Universe (The Master Timeline, as mentioned before). An important note to this so far, comes from the various references to The Legendary Sage of Konoha Returns, to the chapters that detailed Naruto's battle with the Sage of Six Paths, who had been resurrected through Edo Tensei in the war back then by Kabuto. Some of the dialogues even mirrors some spoken lines that were said in a few of those chapters, and the curious thing is that Naruto and Hagoromo's roles are switched this time. The final line of; "Always keep in mind that true courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one..." is actually the last thing The Sage of Six Paths told Naruto in Returns as he was sealed away to the Underworld. It took 2 years to get there, but finally, the pieces are starting to fall in place. There's also some other tie-ins scattered through the chapter for the keen readers, but I kind of doubt that any of you would remember or even notice unless you went back to check and compare. As for the quote itself, it's actually taken from the first Hobbit Movie, and it's a line spoken by Gandalf to Bilbo after he finds the Elven Blade "Sting" in the Troll Cave and gave it to him.
2: I thought I would toss out some pics of the different Sengoku Era characters, or at least of the way they have been portrayed in certain mediums, and how I portrait them for this story;
Keiji Maeda:
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Masamune Date:
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Kenshin Uesugi:
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Shingen Takeda:
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Mitsunari Ishida:
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Kanetsugu Naoe:
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Sakon Shima:
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Nagamasa Azai:
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Nobutada Oda:
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Ieyasu Tokugawa:
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Hanzo Hattori:
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Kotaro Fuma:
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Musashi Miyamoto:
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Magoichi Saika:
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Mitsuhide Akechi:
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Hideyoshi Toyotomi:
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In case you haven't figured it out yet, it is indeed Tadakatsu Honda, Yukimura Sanada, Hagoromo and Nobunaga Oda that's in the pic at the beginning of this thread, in that order
3: That's about all I got as it's already big enough as it is I suppose. It's just at the 150 K Letters limit of a thread, don't know how I timed that but I did xd Had to alter my notes a few times after release in order to fit everything though.
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