"Aiya! Teacher is always like this, turning everything into a riddle whenever he feels like it, acting mysterious and then leaving!"
Gamamaru stomped his foot, muttering gloomily with a sulky face. But as his thoughts drifted, an extremely bold yet strangely reasonable guess suddenly exploded in his mind.
'Could it be… could it be that Teacher is from the previous era?!', The moment the thought appeared, Gamamaru's whole body trembled, and a chill crept up his back.
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
Maybe in a distant past, so far back that Mount Myoboku had just been established and even Kaguya hadn't appeared yet,
humanity had already developed a highly advanced civilization. The cameras, machinery, even the periodic table he was painstakingly inventing now might have already been created in that previous era.
And that glorious age had most likely been completely wiped out for some unknown reason, buried deep in history, leaving no trace behind.
His teacher, Arisu, was very likely the only survivor of that era, choosing to live in seclusion at Mount Myoboku and avoid the world.
And that was also why his teacher forbade him from developing weapons of mass destruction.
It wasn't that he wasn't allowed, but that his teacher had personally witnessed the devastation those weapons brought and understood their horror.
And the reason his teacher was so familiar with all inventions was because he had already seen, used, and even come into contact with all of them in that previous era.
"So how long has Teacher lived… thousands of years? Or… tens of thousands?!"
At that thought, Gamamaru couldn't help but feel a chill run through him, an indescribable shock sweeping over his entire body.
But in the end, these were just his guesses, without a shred of evidence.
In all of Mount Myoboku, the only one who might know Teacher Arisu's true origin was that white-browed Great Toad Sage.
But the white-browed toad had been dead for hundreds of years. Who else could possibly know now?
The White Ape King might also know, but he too had been dead for hundreds of years.
'Forget it. Teacher said it well, the more you know, the less happy you become.', Gamamaru shook his round head, tossing aside all those wild and unsettling speculations.
Instead of overthinking and guessing his teacher's origins, it was better to honestly do what he should be doing and continue studying his inventions and the knowledge from his dreams.
Meanwhile, inside the Immortal Great Hall of Mount Myoboku.
Arisu's figure slowly condensed out of the thick mist. He raised his hand and lightly brushed his sleeve, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips.
"Heh, Gamamaru's dream is quite interesting."
Arisu paid no attention to Gamamaru's earlier probing and subsequent guesses. To him, those were nothing more than a junior's idle thoughts.
At that moment, a series of light footsteps came from outside the hall. White Zetsu stood at the doorway with a respectful posture and bowed deeply toward Arisu.
"Sage, the Dragon Vein has already been investigated by Shima and Gamabunta. Everything is normal."
Arisu nodded slightly at the words, his tone calm and steady, "Good work. Pass down the order. Have them seal off the Dragon Vein site. No one is allowed to approach or investigate. There must be no mistakes."
"Yes!", White Zetsu immediately accepted the order, a warm feeling rising in his heart.
The Great Immortal always valued and respected his subordinates. He had never treated them White Zetsu as mere tools, but as true subordinates. This kind of respect made him deeply convinced and loyal.
"Oh right, there's one more thing.", Arisu suddenly spoke and casually took out a blueprint he had already drawn, handing it over.
"Organize people to search for a spacetime treasure called 'Plow.' Its appearance is like a turtle. Use your abilities. You must find it."
In a sense, its form could be considered a kind of summoning beast.
This explanation is to prevent readers who haven't seen it from being confused. Most should know about it anyway, since Sasuke and Boruto traveling to the past is something everyone's aware of.
The reason he was simultaneously laying out plans around the Dragon Vein and searching for the Plow had only one core purpose... to eliminate all possibilities of spacetime travel.
Arisu would never allow people from the future to intrude into this era!
Nor could he tolerate any disorder in the timeline. All forces capable of interfering with time and space had to be firmly controlled in his own hands.
So, he would rule alone for a thousand years.
In a way, it was also ruling alone for a thousand years by personally cutting off the possibility of time travel within his own timeline.
"Yes!"
White Zetsu accepted the blueprint with both hands, bowed respectfully again, then turned and quickly left to arrange the search.
After White Zetsu departed, silence returned to the hall.
Arisu slowly walked to the center, his eyes narrowing slightly, his gaze deep as an abyss as his thoughts settled on the Dragon Vein.
The reason Arisu insisted on controlling the Dragon Vein was not a whim, but because of two extremely important reasons.
First, to cut off the possibility of others using the Dragon Vein for time travel and eliminate spacetime disorder at its root.
Second, an even crazier and grander plan...
to use the Dragon Vein's nearly infinite chakra to create an entirely new space.
Ever since obtaining the Rinnegan, Arisu had been deeply researching entities such as the King of Hell, the Pure Land, and the Shinigami from the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
These things had appeared in the legends of the Naruto world. He originally intended to use the power of the Rinnegan to find their source, but the deeper he researched, the more confused he became.
Because he clearly discovered that these things seemed not to exist at all.
The Pure Land, the King of Hell, the Shinigami… none of them had physical forms, nor did they have any fixed "spawn locations."
But Arisu did not believe they truly didn't exist.
Because they had appeared in the original story. It was impossible for them not to exist.
"Then why don't I think about it from the opposite angle?"
A shocking thought suddenly exploded in Arisu's mind.
If they couldn't be found, then was it possible... that these things needed to be created by him in the first place?
Could it be that only by personally creating the Pure Land, and shaping the Shinigami and the King of Hell with his own hands, would these legendary existences truly be born in this world?
At that thought, Arisu's pupils trembled slightly. He couldn't help but murmur under his breath, a sense of clarity and relief in his voice.
"No wonder… no wonder…"
Instead of spending a lifetime searching for an illusory Pure Land, it would be better to personally create a realm of life and death that belonged to this world.
"Instead of searching for the Pure Land, it's better to create the Pure Land."
Arisu nodded meaningfully.
What Arisu intended to do was to use the Dragon Vein's endless chakra as the foundation, and the Rinnegan's supreme authority over life and death as the catalyst, to personally create a Pure Land space.
"Oh right, there's another matter to deal with.", Arisu muttered softly, a hint of realization flashing in his eyes.
He had accumulated quite a few souls in his hands now.
"There's Hagoromo's source soul, Yatagarasu's exclusive soul, and the remnants of the brothers Asura and Indra…"
"Izumichi, Shuichi, Katsu, Mio, Hikari… their souls are all here as well."
"Oh, right, and there's also that kid Otsutsuki Hamura's soul."
Speaking of that soul, it was quite an unexpected incident.
One afternoon, on a whim, Arisu extended his perception into Otsutsuki Hamura's body.
It was just a casual check, yet at the very core of Hamura's origin, he unexpectedly discovered a hidden remnant of chakra soul.
"Good grief.", Arisu couldn't help but twitch his lips, a mix of amusement and exasperation flashing in his eyes.
He had originally thought Hamura had a steady personality, an honest Otsutsuki descendant.
After all, Arisu himself had praised Hamura as a good person.
Looking back, when he first subdued him, he hadn't carefully inspected his soul. Who would have thought that this guy, just like his brother Hagoromo, had secretly retained a portion of his source soul inside his body.
Fortunately, that strand of soul had been firmly suppressed by Arisu's sealing technique and had remained in a deep dormant state, never revealing even the slightest trace.
'So these two brothers… not a single one of them is truly honest.', Arisu curled his lips helplessly, grumbling inwardly.
He didn't know why Hamura had secretly kept that strand of soul, but it was probably nothing more than leaving a backup plan.
Maybe he intended to appear at some point in the future to hand over a power-up, or perhaps he had some unfinished plan hidden away.
'Kaguya… your whole family, huh, none of you are honest. At least have some conscience when being people!"