The battle had been on the verge of erupting—
Yet in the end, it never happened.
The Mizukage chose to let Hagoromo and his group leave.
Perhaps, in hindsight, she regretted being careless—regretted not bringing enough subordinates to properly assert authority.
One person holding a sign that read "Silence", another holding "Mighty", with hundreds of shinobi forming ranks on both sides—that was the proper presence of a Kage.
With only four people?
That was village-chief level at best.
No presence at all.
…Though to be fair, Terumī Mei was technically a village chief.
Hagoromo, generally speaking, was still a kind-hearted ( ? ) person.
Adhering to a philosophy of avoid trouble, minimize chaos, and don't fight if it can be helped, he obediently led the three children out of the Land of Water.
One could say he had been deported by the Minister of Defense.
As he himself had said, he had no reason to attack Mei—unless she gave him one.
With the Three-Tails now "dead," there was no longer any reason for him to remain in the freezing Land of Water.
So—
If separation was what you wanted, then separation it was.
Next, Hagoromo planned to find a place to deal with Kimimaro's kekkei genkai issue.
Incidentally—
With certain settings and adjustments in place, had the Mizukage already reached marriageable age again?
Regarding the hidden danger within Kimimaro's body, Hagoromo had no concrete evidence—nor absolute certainty.
Kimimaro himself showed no obvious negative symptoms.
However, based on Hagoromo's understanding of kekkei genkai, he could make a fairly reliable experiential judgment:
Leaving Shikotsumyaku unchecked—or abusing it—could lead to unpredictable consequences.
What kind of consequences?
Whether they even truly existed?
Hagoromo wasn't sure.
Ideally, this sort of thing should be examined by Tsunade, a medical expert.
But the problem was—
They had just parted ways.
Who knew where she had wandered off to after leaving the Land of Artisans (remote Hot Springs region)?
And Tsunade wasn't Hagoromo's unmentionable private physician. It wasn't appropriate to trouble her with everything.
If he appeared too frequently, she might not refuse outright—but disrupting her daily life too often could very well earn him a punch.
So for now, Hagoromo could only handle Kimimaro's condition himself.
Prevention first.
He couldn't eradicate the negative effects of Shikotsumyaku entirely.
What he could do was suppress it—
reduce the frequency of dangerous techniques,
and ensure Kimimaro only used it when absolutely necessary.
After leaving the Land of Water, Hagoromo needed a stable place to stay.
The Land of Lightning and Land of Earth weren't suitable for the time being.
So once again, he returned to the Land of Fire.
The group arrived at the very heart of the country—
Arguably the most peaceful and prosperous location in the entire nation.
Not Konohagakure.
But the Fire Daimyō's Capital.
In theory, the daimyō was the nation's supreme ruler. The Fire Country's constitution granted him the authority to appoint or dismiss the Hokage.
And yet, strangely enough, since the establishment of the shinobi village system, no Fire Daimyō had ever dismissed a Hokage.
"Why seal my power?"
When the moment truly came, Kimimaro still couldn't fully understand Hagoromo's actions.
Wasn't a ninja supposed to grow stronger and stronger?
Why weaken him instead?
Kimimaro sat cross-legged in the center of a rented room at an inn.
Sealing formulas spread out in every direction from his body.
Mirai and Haku had been forced into a corner, watching their companion—now resembling a test subject—with wide-eyed curiosity.
"I'm not sealing your power," Hagoromo explained as he continued inscribing formulas.
"I'm sealing the overly dangerous part—the part your body can't safely bear."
"Power that exceeds what the body can withstand isn't power anymore. It's a burden."
"The human body has limits," Hagoromo continued.
"Your situation is different from Haku's. Though both are kekkei genkai, Haku's is a chakra-nature transformation, while yours is a direct physical mutation of bone."
"Freely manipulating your own skeleton… it's hard to believe that carries no risk."
"Shikotsumyaku may lead to degeneration—
or even death."
As he spoke, Hagoromo inexplicably thought of a certain bug-level older sister named Togame Nanami…
"Because of what I told you before, I don't want you to die young," he said.
"So we'll take precautions."
"For you—
cherish life, and stay away from orthopedics."
Hagoromo sincerely hoped Kimimaro would live a long life.
But if he had to be brutally realistic—
At the very least, he wanted Kimimaro to live past twenty.
He wasn't eliminating Kimimaro's power entirely.
Discarding a powerful "weapon" would be foolish.
At most, he was installing a safety lock on the ammunition depot.
Kimimaro nodded as he listened.
He understood the general idea.
Although he'd never felt discomfort when using his abilities, he had always known—since childhood—that he wasn't the same as ordinary people.
Seeing no resistance, Hagoromo continued.
Tiger → Rabbit → Snake → Horse → Goat → Rooster → Tiger → Rabbit → Snake
As his hands moved through the seals, the scattered sealing formulas converged rapidly onto Kimimaro's body.
For a moment, it looked as though Kimimaro had been wrapped in a black mesh bodysuit.
Then the seal sank beneath his skin—
And vanished completely.
The technique Hagoromo used was a modified Evil Sealing Method, adjusted to restrict the flow of chakra toward excessive bone growth—without fully forbidding it.
"How does it feel?" Hagoromo asked.
Kimimaro stood up, clenched his fist, and carefully sensed his body before replying:
"It feels like… something is missing."
He couldn't describe the change precisely.
But for the first time, Kimimaro felt an unprecedented sense of lightness.
Whatever he'd lost—
It definitely wasn't something as rare as integrity.
More likely, it was the unconscious burden his body had been carrying all along.
That night, Mirai and the others went to sleep early.
Travel was tiring—especially for children their age.
Hagoromo left the inn alone and walked through the Fire Daimyō's capital under the night sky.
The city was brightly lit, bustling even after dark—
But the place he was heading wasn't in the busy districts.
A sudden chill swept through the streetlights.
In a quiet alley, Hagoromo found the person he was looking for.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said, sitting down on the one-legged stool beside a street stall.
"No, I just finished my shift myself," the man replied.
"Shochu?"
In the Fire Daimyō's capital, Hagoromo had exactly one acquaintance—
Sarutobi Asuma.
Naturally, he contacted him upon arrival.
Though Asuma didn't have much freedom either—his unit rotated in three shifts guarding the daimyō.
Hagoromo shook his head and declined the alcohol.
Compared to the young man beside him—already a seasoned smoker—Hagoromo could be considered free of bad habits.
Still, this was a night stall.
The vendor looked faintly resentful.
I'm very confident in my blended shochu, you know.
"I heard you haven't been staying in Konoha much these past few years?" Asuma asked.
It seemed he still paid close attention to village affairs.
"Konoha…" Hagoromo replied thoughtfully.
"I'm different from you. It's not that I don't stay there—I just leave often."
Seeing Asuma again after so many years gave Hagoromo a strange feeling.
Not quite a lifetime apart.
Not quite everything has changed.
More like—
Long time no see.
"I'm trying for an eighty-day trip around the world," Hagoromo added.
"And looking for something along the way."
"Looking for what?"
Hagoromo didn't elaborate.
Crossing millennia of pain in pursuit of a single outcome—
that wasn't something he could explain to others.
"And you?" Hagoromo asked.
"When are you going back to Konoha?"
"Me…?"
This time, Asuma fell silent.
"By the way," Hagoromo continued casually,
"Kurenai is eighteen now? Or nineteen?"
"For a girl, that's a rather dangerous age—
very easy to catch the attention of single men."
Hagoromo's words nearly made Asuma choke on his food.
Poking at someone's sore spot wasn't a good habit—
But for some reason, Hagoromo always did it.
Especially with people he was close to.
For Asuma, he was the kind of guy who was perfectly fine—
as long as he didn't speak.
"Cough!"
Asuma picked up his glass, about to respond—
Only to realize it was empty.
"Boss," he said,
"another one."
Back then, he chose to leave.
She didn't understand.
Leaving was meant to be met with someone asking him to stay.
But now—
All he could do was rely on the outline she had left behind,
guiding him through the night, so that he wouldn't feel alone.
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