Ino and Reiichi both stared blankly at the scene before them.
No matter how they thought about it, they just couldn't understand—how could two people who had never met before get that excited over a single exchanged phrase?
Ino tilted her head, listening to her husband and this "Gekko Hoshiyomi" talking about being "from the same hometown."
After thinking it over, she asked her beloved son:
"Sweetie, is this Uncle Hoshiyomi you brought home also from Kirigakure like your dad?"
Reiichi's head was also full of question marks. Hearing his mother's question, he shook his head.
"I haven't heard that. Uncle Hoshiyomi only said he's from Konoha. I really don't know if he's originally from Kirigakure."
Ino's previously warm expression suddenly gained a trace of suspicion as she looked at Hoshiyomi, who was still hugging her husband.
She didn't bother hiding her thoughts and asked directly:
"Honey, are you very familiar with Mr. Hoshiyomi? I rarely see you this excited."
Kimimaro had finally calmed down from his earlier excitement.
He released Hoshiyomi, patted him on the shoulder, and replied to his wife:
"Hoshiyomi and I were born very close to each other. Hearing a childhood rhyme from home after so many years… I simply lost control for a moment."
At that point, he also realized that talking about another world in front of his wife and child would be impossible to explain.
So he chose the simpler route and said:
"Dear, Hoshiyomi and I hit it off right away. We want to find a place to chat about our hometown a bit.
I'll tell you the details when I come back tonight."
Having finally met a real fellow transmigrant, Kimimaro didn't care whether his wife might misunderstand. He slung an arm around Hoshiyomi's shoulders.
"Come on, let's go find a place to talk."
Ino cared deeply about preserving her husband's dignity in front of others, so despite her confusion, she forced down her curiosity and smiled gently:
"Go ahead. Just remember to be back for dinner."
With his wife's approval, Kimimaro flashed a bright grin, wrapped an arm around Hoshiyomi, and disappeared from sight.
Hoshiyomi felt the world blur around him.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself inside a cave he had never seen before.
As he stared at the cave in confusion, then at Kimimaro—who seemed perfectly at ease—he hesitated before asking:
"This is… Flying Thunder God?"
Kimimaro chuckled and shook his head.
"No, it's just an ability that manifests when the Shikotsumyaku is trained to its absolute limits.
It's similar to Flying Thunder God, but it can only teleport me, not other objects."
Hoshiyomi nodded—half understanding, half not—and looked around the cave.
It was extraordinary.
Inside was a vast underground lake, and from the water's surface, enormous multicolored bubbles occasionally rose.
Even with all his years traveling the shinobi world, Hoshiyomi had never seen a place like this.
Kimimaro noticed his bewilderment and explained:
"This is the only passage in the shinobi world that leads to the moon.
After I returned from the moon, I sealed it off.
For now, I'm the only person in the entire world who knows this place exists."
Hearing that, Hoshiyomi immediately realized where they were. After thinking for a moment, his eyes widened.
"From here… going down leads straight to the moon to meet Ōtsutsuki Toneri?
Don't tell me—this is that bubble lake from THE LAST?"
Kimimaro had been carefully watching Hoshiyomi's expression.
The moment Hoshiyomi exposed the location's origin, Kimimaro's smile grew even wider.
"Just as I suspected—you and I didn't transmigrate too far apart in time.
I arrived in 2017.
Big Brother, when did you cross into the Naruto world?"
Hearing "2017," Hoshiyomi raised an eyebrow before replying:
"I arrived in 2020.
So yeah—we're not far apart at all."
With that, their conversation grew even livelier.
Kimimaro kept asking questions, wanting to know every major and minor event that had happened on Earth during the three years after his own transmigration.
Only after hearing everything did he smack his lips in amazement:
"Didn't expect Earth to change that much in just three years."
Hoshiyomi wasn't very invested in those topics.
Both of them knew the truth—each of them had already developed in their respective shinobi worlds to near-peak levels, had their own families, and had lived more than thirty years here.
There was no way either of them wanted to go back to Earth.
Hoshiyomi was far more interested in Kimimaro's experiences in this version of the Naruto world.
With that in mind, he followed up on an earlier topic:
"By the way, Big Brother—you said you've been to the moon.
Don't tell me you already took down Ōtsutsuki Toneri?"
Kimimaro didn't hide anything.
He pointed at his own eyes and said:
"Hey, let's drop the whole 'big brother, little bro' thing. Just call me by my name.
And yeah—you're right. I met Toneri.
Honestly, the only reason I awakened these eyes was thanks to that guy's blood."
"But I didn't kill him.
I left him alone on the moon to meditate on his mistakes."
Seeing Kimimaro being so straightforward about his secrets, Hoshiyomi relaxed as well.
He was never the scheming type—if the other person was sincere, he would be too.
So he asked openly:
"So that's your cheat ability then?
Extracting abilities from other people's blood?"
He didn't expect Kimimaro to freeze for a moment before giving a strange, almost jealous response:
"You have a cheat? Holy sh*t, I'm jealous."
"…Huh?"
Hoshiyomi blinked, then scratched his cheek in mild embarrassment.
"Well… calling it a cheat is kind of an overstatement.
Compared to those webnovel cheats from my previous life, mine is pretty weak.
It's called the 'Sword Heart System.'
All it really does is let me grow without being limited by talent, plus I get one skill every time I level up."
He had always thought his cheat was on the pathetic side.
But Kimimaro slapped him on the shoulder with a sigh full of grief and injustice:
"Man, you should be grateful.
At least you have a cheat.
When I transmigrated, I had nothing.
During the Chūnin Exams, Orochimaru grabbed me and almost killed me experimenting."
"If I hadn't gotten stupidly lucky and successfully transplanted Hashirama's cells, I'd already have a tombstone with grass growing three feet tall."
Hearing that, Hoshiyomi suddenly felt a bit ashamed.
He'd always believed his transmigration treatment was pitiful, but compared to that…
Turns out he wasn't the unluckiest.
As they exchanged their life stories, Hoshiyomi grew more and more impressed.
Kimimaro had no cheat, no system—just his own brains and willpower.
He deduced on his own that the Shikotsumyaku was connected to the Hamura-branch Ōtsutsuki's "Sage Body."
Following that theory, he:
-barely survived receiving Hashirama's cells,
-obtained Hinata's blood,
-obtained Toneri's blood,
-used these as clues to trace his lineage backward,
-and eventually awakened his dormant Ōtsutsuki bloodline and reached his current power.
He was, without exaggeration, a role model for transmigrators.
...
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