The battle between Yagoromo and the Sage of Six Paths could, in a certain sense, be considered a special kind of "rehearsal." Although he intended to deal with every single tailed beast without exception, the contradiction was that he actually had no real plan to prevent Kaguya's resurrection. In fact, it was the opposite—he carried a certain expectation toward Kaguya's revival.
First, if he wanted to erase the Ōtsutsuki's influence on the shinobi world, then Kaguya was a link he could not avoid no matter what. Second, he was not afraid of such an existence.
There was also another question…
Which was simpler: erasing a living being, or erasing chakra or someone's consciousness?
To make a comparison, was it easier to kill a person or to kill a ghost?
Naturally, killing a person was easier. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception's killing power against living beings was simply off the charts. It also did not require any special comprehension. He only had to start doing it… As long as it was something alive, no matter what immortal ability it possessed, he could still kill it for you to see.
The problem was that Yagoromo would deal with the tailed beasts according to his own steps. And once the enemies hidden in the dark realized that the tailed beasts could no longer revive, would they collapse in despair, or would they search for other methods?
No one knew.
At this shrine, Yagoromo had already finished everything he needed to do. His mental state had also recovered to a certain degree, so it was time for him to choose to leave.
Looking at the ancient building, which had existed for over a thousand years, once again hiding itself within another dimension, Yagoromo was probably its only visitor in the past millennium, as well as its final visitor.
At this moment, the expression on his face was rather complicated. But after the shrine disappeared, his demeanor eventually settled into firmness.
...
"Have all the arrangements around us been completed?"
In the night, a rather cold female voice asked.
"Relax. The corresponding defenses have already been set up. We can rest for a while now."
The one who answered her was another female voice, but judging from her tone, she was a bit livelier.
"After all, this is not the Land of Fire. Although broadly speaking, it is within Konoha's sphere of influence, the village's control obviously cannot reach this far. So the preparations that should be made before resting still need to be made properly."
Judging from the feeling of her voice, the person who had spoken first was a little older. Her tone carried a hint of teaching and guidance.
"Understood. But our escort mission has already ended, and we completed it very well. Tomorrow, we can return to the Land of Fire… So, before resting, should we start a fire?"
There was no necessary connection between her "but" and her "so."
Because of the continuous rain, along with the climate and season, the night was extremely damp and gloomy. The chill and cold in the air made people very uncomfortable, even for shinobi.
But this suggestion was clearly rather unreliable. Shinobi were supposed to hide themselves. If they lit a fire in the darkness of night, then what meaning would all those arrangements they had made around them have? Would that not be openly telling others that someone was active here?
"Although the war has ended, that does not mean the hostility between villages no longer exists. No matter what, it is better for us to be a little careful." There was helplessness mixed into her persuasion. "If a squad of Sunagakure shinobi with a numerical advantage appeared and discovered that we were only two chūnin, they definitely wouldn't mind dealing with us in passing."
It was not that they would not mind.
They would definitely deal with them.
"…Yes."
That explanation was very reasonable, so the latter had no choice but to agree. However, in the end, she was still restless and rather curious. Less than three minutes later, she immediately spoke again.
"I heard this used to be quite a prosperous region. So why has it become so deserted now?"
What answered her was a long stretch of silence.
"Is there some hidden story that can't be told?"
"It's not exactly a hidden story. It's just that, several years ago, someone caused a massive explosion nearby. Because of the distance, this region was only slightly affected and did not suffer any obvious losses. But because the scene of the explosion was too terrifying, the original residents here gradually moved away afterward."
"Who was it? And what scale of explosion could scare away the residents of an entire region?"
The former's explanation was too vague and general. Obviously, it could not satisfy anyone.
"To put it simply… it was an explosion caused by the Fourth Hokage. As for the scale… he blew an entire small country bordering the Land of Wind into the sky."
This explanation was satisfying, but it also startled both women in the conversation into a cold sweat.
"Who's there?!"
The voice that suddenly sounded from behind them made the two quickly retreat. As they opened up the distance, weapons were already in their hands.
They had no choice but to be nervous. The current situation was that someone had crossed the defensive arrangements around them, then silently infiltrated to their side. If the other party had not spoken but had directly chosen to launch a sneak attack, the consequences were obvious.
The two exchanged a glance, then stared intently at the human silhouette gradually emerging from the darkness.
But after roughly seeing this person's appearance, and then connecting it with the content and tone of what he had just said, one of them relaxed from her guarded state.
"Anko, it's fine. He's one of us…"
This was the Land of Rivers. And the person who had slipped through the darkness to infiltrate beside the two female shinobi was naturally Yagoromo, returning from the Land of Birds.
And right now, the scene Yagoromo saw was actually this:
In a village in the Land of Rivers stood a Konoha girl. She always liked to wear a dress with strips of cloth and stand by the roadside. She did not speak much, but when she smiled, it was so calm and melodious. What was contained within her gentle eyes? The sorrow of longing…
Unfortunately, the person she longed for was not Yagoromo.
The two people before Yagoromo were his former teammate, Yūhi Kurenai, and the half-finished product belonging to Orochimaru's cultivation series, Mitarashi Anko.
"Kurenai, long time no see."
In fact, it had not been that long. After Yagoromo returned to Konoha, as one of his few friends, he had met Yūhi Kurenai. But because of all kinds of messy matters, along with Konoha's situation at the time, the two had not had a proper opportunity to talk.
As she grew older, leaving aside the question of just how far Kurenai's second development had progressed, compared to before, her personality seemed to have become somewhat colder. Only when facing familiar friends could one probably find traces of the feeling from the past.
After greeting Kurenai, Yagoromo continued speaking to Mitarashi Anko.
"About ten years ago, in the name of disposing of dangerous goods, the Fourth Hokage detonated the ancient city of Rōran, which was not too far from here and contained a vast amount of energy…"
As the true culprit behind this incident, Yagoromo dumped the blame onto Minato's head without a second thought.
The Fourth Hokage's coffin lid… would probably be hard to keep shut.
And Mitarashi Anko?
At this moment, she no longer cared about the explanation. She only felt that the gaze of the person before her was somewhat abnormal—so abnormal that it almost seemed to have physical sensation…
This made her involuntarily shrink her neck.
Shrinking her neck was the correct reaction, because Yagoromo was indeed staring at the young girl's long, fair neck…
Or rather, at the Heaven Cursed Seal on it.
Because he was a user of senjutsu, he was extraordinarily sensitive to natural energy. And as the first shinobi to survive after being given the Heaven Cursed Seal, Anko's body did indeed contain a high density of natural energy.
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