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Emanating a dazzling, eye-piercing golden radiance, its colossal golden limbs propping up the very heavens and earth, towering high above, possessing a divine visage that no mere mortal could ever glimpse—a single step forward from it was enough to collapse mountains and rivers, to dim the sun and moon. It was the supreme god who brought divine punishment upon the mortal realm, the deity who embodied the very wrath of heaven itself—the Gold-Clad World-Destroying God!
From this day onward, the narrative above gradually began to spread throughout the Hidden Rain Village. Over the decades to come, it would slowly, inexorably, transform into a legend.
A hundred years later, after this generation and the next had mostly passed away, those who remained would regard this legend of the Gold-Clad World-Destroying God as a fantasy fabricated by their ancestors. They would still tell this legend to their own children, but they would no longer believe it. Because they would never be able to believe that it was not a legend... but the truth.
"I... was spared?"
Nagato gazed in the direction where Kagaya had vanished, finding it somewhat unbelievable.
Konan stood at his side, looking at Nagato with deep concern.
"Nagato... what do we do now?"
Nagato smiled. "What do we do? We continue advancing our plan, of course! Perhaps what Uchiha Kagaya said just now is true—perhaps this path of ours is indeed wrong. But I... I can only see this one path. The road leading to peace... I will walk it to the very end. Even if it's wrong, it will still be worthwhile. At the very least... it will serve to mark out a wrong path for those who come after."
Konan furrowed her brow and spoke.
"But the Five-Tails has already been taken away by Uchiha Kagaya."
Nagato shook his head.
"It doesn't matter. Even missing one Tailed Beast, the remaining eight are still sufficient to intimidate the shinobi world and forge peace."
Several days later. A colossal white beast strode through a forest. Every step forward caused the very earth to quake and shudder. Beneath its feet, trees were continuously toppled and pushed aside. A perfectly good stretch of forest was forcibly trampled by this white beast into a wide, barren plain.
"Hey, brat. Traveling around with me like this... don't you think it's a little too conspicuous?" The Five-Tails looked at Kagaya and spoke softly.
Kagaya, acclimating himself to the tremors caused by the Five-Tails' movements, didn't even lift his head as he spoke after hearing its words.
"You realize that too, huh? Then why don't you hurry up and leave? With you following us around like this, we can barely even travel, you know that?" His tone was absolutely brimming with annoyment.
The Five-Tails froze. "You're just going to let me go like that?"
Kagaya rolled his eyes. "Did I ever say you couldn't leave?"
The Five-Tails thought it over. That did seem to be the case. From beginning to end, Kagaya had never said it had to follow him, nor had he said it couldn't leave.
"Alright... I did misunderstand, then. But before I go, let me ask you one question. Can you tell me... when exactly did we meet?"
Kagaya cast a sidelong glance at the Five-Tails, then lowered his head again, refocusing on traveling. "That was before you were even sealed."
The Five-Tails was visibly taken aback. "Are you serious?! Brat... at your current age, back then... you wouldn't have even been born yet, would you?"
Kagaya clicked his tongue.
"The reason is very complicated. There's no way for me to explain it to you. Fine... I'll just let you recover your memories instead."
As he spoke, Kagaya pulled out a scroll from within his robes and opened it. In an instant, chakra rapidly spilled forth from the scroll. One could very clearly sense that as the chakra dissipated, a jutsu formula within the scroll also swiftly vanished. It must have been the technique that sealed memories.
In the very next second, the Five-Tails went utterly and completely rigid, as if it were receiving some immense influx of information, completely losing all perception of the outside world.
A flame ignited in Kagaya's hand, and he burned the entire scroll to ash. Then, he looked at Karin and the others and spoke.
"Let's go."
As if sensing something, Karin spoke up. "Aren't we going to wait for it?"
Kagaya shook his head.
"No."
Immediately, the group departed from this place, leaving behind the Five-Tails, still standing there in a daze.
The reason Kagaya had saved the Five-Tails was purely because, back in the Warring States era, the Five-Tails had indeed shared some degree of friendship with him. Thus, Kagaya had intervened to save it. But Kagaya had no desire to keep the Five-Tails by his side. How to put it... a century of imprisonment—Kagaya hadn't experienced such agony himself, but he could certainly imagine it. Therefore, after rescuing the Five-Tails, rather than having it follow him, Kagaya much preferred that it be free.
Freedom, to a sentient, intelligent being, was of paramount importance. No one wanted to be a slave, and no one would ever be willing to be a slave.
Besides, no matter how you looked at it, traveling around with a Tailed Beast was simply far too ostentatious.
Halfway through their journey, Ajisai finally woke up. Immediately, she launched into another bout of worrying about her Angel and Lord Pain, and scrutinizing Kagaya from left to right, terrified that he might have been injured. In short, the moment this girl woke up, she had a mountain of questions. It took Kagaya considerable effort to explain everything clearly to her.
In the end, Kagaya sighed and spoke. "I've realized something. You're a hassle too. I should have left you back in your Hidden Rain Village. A grave miscalculation... damn it."
Ajisai puffed out her cheeks and spoke with great dissatisfaction. "What do you mean, 'a hassle'?! You... you weren't saying that when you made me help take care of that crow summon of yours!"
Although Ajisai was merely a Chunin, inferior to Kagaya and the others in every aspect, there was one single area where her ability far, far surpassed theirs: the raising and capturing of summon beasts.
Kagaya's strength lay in his terrifying combat power. Karin's strength lay in her radar-like sensory perception and her exceedingly powerful healing abilities. Haku's strength lay in the formidable combat ability granted by his Kekkei Genkai. But when it came to the matter of summon beasts... none of the three truly had any expertise whatsoever.
Originally, Shisui had planned to teach Kagaya about summon beasts. But due to unforeseen tragedy, Shisui had ultimately only left behind a single crow and the Kotoamatsukami for Kagaya. Regarding the knowledge of summon beasts... he had taught him practically nothing. And Kagaya hadn't gone on to learn about it afterward either.
Thus, after Ajisai had arrived, Kagaya had used a mix of threats and coaxing to get her to help raise his little crow for him. Although the crow didn't seem to mind Kagaya's utterly abysmal summon-raising skills, Kagaya still hoped to provide a slightly better life for it. So, this glorious task had been delegated to the unpaid laborer—Ajisai!
It was precisely because Ajisai was helping him raise the crow that Kagaya hadn't handed her back to Konan. What he had just said was merely a casual gripe. How could he possibly let such a useful unpaid laborer go so easily?!
Now, faced with Ajisai's retort, the corner of Kagaya's mouth twitched. He didn't know how to talk back.
Seeing Kagaya at a loss for words, Ajisai let out a couple of proud, triumphant huffs.
Watching this, Haku smiled faintly. Toward this Ajisai, Haku was actually quite fond. Most of the time, Ajisai, like Haku, belonged to the relatively calm, stoic type. It was only on rare occasions that she became less stone-faced. Someone with such similar behavioral habits... Haku naturally couldn't dislike her.
Karin, on the other hand, stared at Ajisai with a face full of vigilance, muttering under her breath in an exceedingly tiny voice.
"Kagaya is mine. Kagaya is mine. Kagaya is mine!"
And so, with laughter and chatter, the group of four made their way back to the vicinity of Ryuchi Cave.
Returning here, there was no need to guess—Kagaya was, of course, going to continue training in Inorganic Reanimation. Even though his strength was already more than sufficient, his sights had always been set on the future Fourth Great Ninja War. His current level of strength wouldn't be enough to survive that war unscathed.
Kagaya had actually considered using his power to forcibly prevent the Akatsuki from capturing the Tailed Beasts, thereby cutting off the possibility of the Fourth Great Ninja War and Kaguya's resurrection altogether. But after careful deliberation, he had abandoned that notion.
Kaguya had been sealed for an exceedingly long time. Although the Planetary Devastation was immensely powerful, after being sealed for so long, the seal must have loosened, to at least some degree. If Kagaya prevented Kaguya's resurrection now, he could only stop it for a time. Kaguya was immortal. She could not die. But the seal of the Planetary Devastation could not possibly hold Kaguya forever. Sooner or later, she was certain to break free.
If he prevented Kaguya's resurrection now, it would be equivalent to Kagaya personally disrupting history. Everything about the future would become completely unknown to him. If, at some unknown point in the future, Kaguya suddenly resurrected, and Kagaya was caught completely unprepared... then he would truly be dead beyond any doubt.
Therefore, after much careful thought, Kagaya concluded that between a Kaguya who could resurrect at any unknown time and a Kaguya whose resurrection time could be roughly predicted... the latter was preferable. At least then, Kagaya could make preparations in advance. Everything would be far, far better.
Of course, this was merely the current plan. Kagaya wouldn't stop the Akatsuki from capturing the Tailed Beasts, but he would certainly interfere with their process of capturing them. He would consciously control the timing of Kaguya's resurrection—neither too fast, nor too slow.
Too fast, and he wouldn't have time to prepare. Too slow, and things might spiral out of control.
At the very least...
Kagaya closed his eyes and focused on sensing the changes within his own eyes. ...Completely imperceptible.
The changes were far, far too minuscule!
He could only rely on his intuition to sense that his eyes were undergoing some kind of transformation. But as to what exactly was changing... Kagaya had absolutely no idea.
For now, Kagaya could only hope that this was the transformation preceding the evolution into the Rinnegan.
At the very least, Kaguya's resurrection had to wait until after his Rinnegan manifested.
Still, thinking so far ahead was useless right now. The Akatsuki had only captured a single Seven-Tails so far, which they couldn't even seal yet. Kaguya's resurrection was still far too distant.
For now, focusing on training and increasing his own strength was the true path.
BOOM! BOOM!
As if a colossal war hammer were pounding against the earth, the entire ground trembled faintly. Kagaya had just been about to settle his mind and begin training when these sudden tremors forcibly jolted him to a halt.
A white, dolphin-like head stretched out right in front of Kagaya's face and smiled faintly, as if to say: Found you.
"Kid... leaving without saying goodbye... is an act of discourtesy."
Kagaya looked at the Five-Tails, which had suddenly appeared before him, and sighed in exasperation. "Interrupting someone's training... is also an act of discourtesy."
The Five-Tails retorted in its gentle voice. "You were discourteous first!"
Kagaya pressed a hand to his forehead. "Fine. I apologize. Now tell me—why have you chased after me again? You should have recovered your memories by now. Since you now know what happened between us, there shouldn't be anything left you need to ask me, right?"
The Five-Tails smiled as it spoke. "No... there still is."
Kagaya spoke. "Fine. Then hurry up and ask. After you're done, I still need to get back to training."
"In such a rush? Why do I get the feeling you're... disgusted by me or something?"
"I'm not!"
"You are!"
"I'm not! I said I'm not, so I'm not!"
"You are! I said you are, so you are!"
"..."
The Five-Tails looked at Kagaya, whose face was utterly speechless, and spoke triumphantly.
"See? You really are disgusted by me!"
Kagaya replied. "Um... does me being disgusted by you... make you happy?"
The Five-Tails froze for a second, then erupted in fury.
"That's right! You bastard! A mere weak, insignificant human... and you dare be disgusted by me?!"
Kagaya: "..."
After a "small-scale" battle that transformed several stretches of forest into plains, Kagaya and the Five-Tails finally stopped to negotiate peace.
Kagaya stared at those forests now turned into "plains" and spoke, utterly speechless.
"How did you get so violent after nearly a century without seeing each other?"
The Five-Tails also felt rather embarrassed. It had only wanted to roughhouse a bit with Kagaya. But after a hundred years of imprisonment, a hundred years without ever lifting a finger, the Five-Tails, now suddenly free, had found it somewhat difficult to control its power. That was what had led to this scene.
"Ah... um... I'm sorry..."
The Five-Tails' true nature leaned toward gentleness. Causing such a scene... it felt deeply apologetic about it.
Kagaya sighed. He could understand the Five-Tails' situation. Just a casual sensory probe was enough to tell—the Five-Tails' chakra usage was sometimes absurdly excessive, and at other times absurdly minuscule.
"Alright, forget it. Let's not talk about that. You said earlier you had something to ask me. What exactly was it?"
The Five-Tails paused for a moment, then spoke. "Um... would you like to become a Jinchuriki?"
Kagaya was stunned for two full seconds before reacting.
"Ha?! Did a century of being sealed make you stupid or something?"
The Five-Tails erupted in fury. "What's that supposed to mean?! Bastard!"
"Then why, after finally breaking free, do you want to be sealed again?"
"You'd dare to seal me?!"
"Fine, I wouldn't dare, alright? So hurry up and go back to wherever you came from."
"If you don't dare, then there's no problem."
"What do you mean?"
"Perfect Jinchuriki, Perfect Jinchuriki. Ever heard of it?"
"It's all the same. Tell me—wouldn't being out here, free and unrestrained, be far better than some stupid Perfect Jinchuriki?"
"But what if I get captured again?"
"You're a Tailed Beast! Have some confidence!"
"I've already been captured once!"
"Fine. Then if you get captured, you get captured."
"You rescued me, and now you'd just let me get captured again?!"
"No, let me correct you. It was you who rescued me. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead by now."
"Then that's perfect! I saved you, so I demand you repay me—by becoming my Jinchuriki!"
"Damn it! Are you even a Tailed Beast?! I've never seen such a weird Tailed Beast before."
"Are you cursing me again?!"
"I'm not cursing you!"
A long, long time later, Kagaya and the Five-Tails finally ceased their argument.
Kagaya had more or less understood why the Five-Tails wanted him to become its Jinchuriki. The first reason was what the Five-Tails had just mentioned—if it simply ran off on its own, there was a very high probability it would be captured once again by one of the great shinobi nations. The great nations of this era had all developed methods to deal with Tailed Beasts. As long as they were given a bit of time, they could quickly capture one.
This was different from a Tailed Beast rampage. A rampage usually occurred within the village itself, with the Tailed Beast directly slaughtering inside the village. Under those circumstances, the great nation's village had no time whatsoever to prepare countermeasures. If they took any longer, all the villagers would be slaughtered. So they were forced to confront the Tailed Beast head-on, and the result was invariably devastating casualties.
But a Tailed Beast roaming in the wild was entirely different. The great nations had all the time in the world to prepare. When fully prepared, they could capture a Tailed Beast without suffering excessive casualties.
Thus, avoiding capture by the great nations was one reason. The other reason was that, after recovering its memories, the Five-Tails wanted to repay Kagaya for coming to its rescue, and therefore wanted Kagaya to become its Jinchuriki.
After hearing all this, Kagaya promptly vetoed both reasons! Afraid of being captured by the great nations? Fine. I'll help you with that. Whoever tries to capture you, I'll go beat them up! Want to repay me? Mm, I appreciate the sentiment, but becoming a Jinchuriki really isn't necessary.
But unfortunately... the Five-Tails simply refused to listen!
Thus, Kagaya had no choice but to go and ask the White Snake Sage about the method of sealing a Tailed Beast within one's own body.