Land of Fire, southeastern border, checkpoint port.
Although the actual combat and border defense were handled by Konoha ninjas, the territory of the Land of Fire was simply too vast. Even if tens of thousands of ninjas were scattered across such a long border, they would barely make a splash.
Therefore, at the various official ports and major thoroughfares, the routine immigration inspections and management were still mostly handled by officials of the Land of Fire and ordinary soldiers.
They were responsible for verifying the identity documents of passing merchants and travelers, collecting customs duties, registering goods, and repeating the same dull and trivial work day after day.
As for uninvited guests who did not come through the front gate and carried no papers, that was not within the scope of their duties; that was Konoha's problem.
At this moment, in front of the inspection gate, a young checkpoint official looked up at the monk standing before the window.
The monk was plainly dressed, wearing an entirely gray monk's robe, holding an alms bowl in his hand, his expression as calm as still water, and his face mild and plain.
For some reason, this official felt that this monk, who looked so ordinary, was somehow different from the itinerant monks who usually passed through. Yet, he could not put his finger on exactly what was different.
He gave a light cough and asked in a routine manner, "Monk, where do you come from, and where are you headed?"
The monk smiled faintly and replied calmly, "This humble monk is Ichisun. I come from a small temple in the Land of Tea and have wandered as far as this place. I heard that Konoha is going to hold a grand event and is establishing a society to discuss the original intentions of ninjas and return to the ancestors' intent. It is said that before the Sage of Six Paths founded Ninja Creed, he too had once been a monk. Although this humble one is not a ninja, I am still somewhat curious about the original aspirations of this Buddhist predecessor, and I thought that if I could go and take a look, it would also be a kind of karmic connection."
The so-called Ichisun was naturally the monk's own dharma name. The body he had taken up residence in, Jigen, had originally been a monk, and after a thousand years, he had long since grown used to walking the world in the guise of one.
Over the years, while searching for Shibai's whereabouts, he had flipped through countless ancient Buddhist scriptures. He had likely read more sutras than any monk in the Shinobi World.
The precepts, rituals, anecdotes, and terminology of Buddhism had long since become second nature to him.
If one were truly to discuss his attainments in Buddhist doctrine, calling him an eminent monk of great virtue would not be an exaggeration in the slightest.
Ichisun, this dharma name naturally carried its own meaning.
This monk's shell, inhabited by the power of Kama, had clung to life for a thousand years, tiny as a mustard seed.
And yet within that mustard seed was hidden a god from beyond the heavens.
A mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru; seeing the great within the small!
Wasn't he, Isshiki Otsutsuki, precisely that Mount Sumeru hidden within a mustard seed?
Residing within this weak mortal body, lingering on the verge of death, and yet still a terrifying existence beyond the imagination of anyone on this land.
As for why Ichisun Hoshi, or rather, Isshiki Otsutsuki, was honestly taking the official route and accepting inspection under the identity of an ordinary monk, the reason was simple: He was in the mood.
During his thousand-year-long journey, he had often had such moments, completely immersing himself in a role and going somewhere in the most ordinary way possible.
.....
And just as Isshiki Otsutsuki, on a whim, turned himself into an ordinary monk, at the northwestern border of the Land of Fire, at an immigration checkpoint, Madara Uchiha, who had likewise found some amusement and started playing at role-playing, fell silent for a moment when the official asked for his dharma name, then said, Nitai.
Naturally, Madara Uchiha had no interest whatsoever in Buddhist scriptures, but back when he succeeded to the position of Clan Head of the Uchiha, he had once browsed the ancient texts in the clan that only the Clan Head was qualified to access. At that time, he had unexpectedly found several ancient Buddhist scriptures.
At first, he had thought they were some sort of secret Ninjutsu scroll disguised as Buddhist texts, but after opening them and discovering they were genuine, he had casually tossed them aside.
Still, a few things from inside had entered his mind.
For example, that one line: "All buddhas rely on the two truths to preach the dharma to sentient beings."
So, when asked for a dharma name, Madara Uchiha, after thinking for a moment, gave the name Nitai.
Why Nitai? In Buddhism, the two truths refer to the ultimate and conventional truths.
Ultimate truth is the ultimate reality, while conventional truth is worldly expedience, which matched Madara Uchiha's mentality on this trip.
In his view, that kid Shinichi Higashino's so-called understanding of the Sage of Six Paths' original intent was conventional truth, while the Infinite Tsukuyomi that he, Madara Uchiha, had read about on the stone tablet was the ultimate truth, the only truth the Sage of Six Paths had left behind in this world.
And perhaps what even Madara Uchiha himself had not realized was that, if one looked one level deeper, Madara Uchiha himself was the most thorough embodiment of the two truths.
He was one of Konoha's founders, yet also Konoha's greatest rebel ninja. He had once stood shoulder to shoulder with his closest friend beneath the sunlight and had also plotted schemes alone in the darkness underground. Within a single person, he simultaneously carried merit and sin, light and darkness, creation and destruction, protection and betrayal.
And at the very moment when monk Ichisun and monk Nitai, one from the east and one from the west, stepped into the Land of Fire and began making their way toward Konoha, Shinichi also returned home from the Hokage's office.
In his hand was a thick stack of documents.
These were only preliminary summaries; for the fuller, more detailed experimental records and data, he would have to inspect them personally.
However, Shinichi had no intention of reading them at this moment. He merely glanced at the label on the cover, then gently set them down on the desk, before turning his gaze toward the row of bookshelves on the other side of the room, where volume after volume of Buddhist scriptures rested.
Sūtras, Vinaya, Treatises…
Shinichi recited silently in his heart.
Then let it be called… Genjo!
(Note: Originally Tang Sanzang, but I translated it to Japanese, which is Genjo Sanzo)
It was precisely the name that had suddenly surfaced in Shinichi's mind earlier, when he saw that golden cicada beneath the old tree by the roadside on his way back to the village.
He had already weighed it over repeatedly before: the new clone's name should ideally have ties to Buddhism, yet it could not directly make use of the world-honored one's title.