The two Toad Sages and Jiraiya raced along the stone path of Mount Myōboku.
Jiraiya's heart stayed lodged in his throat; the news had shaken him badly.
"We're here."
Fukasaku's voice rang out ahead, cutting short Jiraiya's whirling thoughts.
Jiraiya looked up; only now did he realize they had arrived at a great hall.
At the far end, on a tall stone throne carved with the character for "sage," sat an enormous old toad.
A doctoral cap rested on its head, and a string of prayer-beads bearing the character for "oil" hung round its neck. Its head was lowered, eyes shut, chest rising and falling with long breaths.
—The Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku, Gamamaru.
Fukasaku hopped to the foot of the throne and called upward, "Great Lord! We've brought little Jiraiya!"
.....
There was no response.
Seeing this, Shima sighed and raised her voice, "Great Lord! Wake up! We've brought the person!"
Her cry echoed through the cavernous hall.
Several seconds passed—still nothing.
She turned to Fukasaku, her toad face looking helpless.
"Really… fallen asleep again?"
Fukasaku frowned, lifted his pipe, hesitated, then gently tapped the back of the Great Toad Sage's hand where it rested on the throne-arm.
"Great Lord, wake up. The little Jiraiya you wished to see is here."
"…Mm?"
A low grunt sounded.
The Great Toad Sage stirred; his huge head lifted bit by bit, eyelids quivering open to narrow slits.
Behind them lay eyes clouded and chaotic.
"Oh-ho…"
The Great Toad Sage looked down. "It's… Fukasaku… and little Shima."
'Honestly… every single time!'
Fukasaku sighed inwardly.
Unable to wait, Jiraiya stepped forward. "Great Toad Sage, it's me—Jiraiya."
The sage's gaze lingered on Jiraiya so long that Jiraiya feared he might nod off again.
Then the aged voice resumed, clearer now.
"Ah, little Jiraiya has arrived."
All levity gone, Jiraiya spoke gravely, "Great Toad Sage, Lord Fukasaku and Lady Shima said you have a new prophecy? A change… in the prophecy of the Child of Prophecy?"
The Great Toad Sage did not answer at once.
He sat silent, as though ordering his thoughts. Seconds crawled by; Jiraiya's fists clenched unnoticed.
At last—
"A change has indeed appeared—an immense one."
As the words fell, the air inside the hall seemed to solidify.
Before any of them could press him, the Great Toad Sage continued,
"I… dreamed a very clear dream this time."
"So vivid… it reminded me of ages long past."
He paused, cloudy eyes glazing with memory as he stared into nothing.
"Just like the vision I had a thousand years ago—exactly the same sensation."
"W-what, a thousand years?!"
"The prophecy that founded Ninshū?!"
Fukasaku and Shima blurted together, their toad faces slack with disbelief.
They knew better than anyone what "a thousand years" meant—the era of the Sage of Six Paths, the birth of the ninja way, a turning point for the very world.
Jiraiya himself jerked as though struck, pupils shrinking to pinpoints.
A thousand years? A prophecy on par with the myths of the age of the gods?
It dwarfed every notion of "change" he had harbored.
The Great Toad Sage swept a glance over the stunned pair below.
They had misunderstood.
It was not about the founding of Ninshū—rather…!!!
He offered no explanation and went on,
"The source of this new 'variable' is… the appearance of a single youth."
A youth?!
Once more, shock seized the two toads and the man.
A mere boy whose omen rivaled the mythic sealing of Kaguya a millennium ago? It defied all reason.
"Who is he? What did he do? How could—" Jiraiya burst out.
Slowly the Great Toad Sage shook his head, cutting him short.
"I cannot see his full form—too many 'lights' and 'shadows' entwine—but I know he wields Wood Release."
Whum—!!!
The instant "Wood Release" struck his ears, Jiraiya paled; thunder seemed to explode inside his skull.
Every clue, every rumor, every stunning scrap of intelligence circulating among Konoha's higher-ups flashed into a single blinding truth.
Wood Release. A youth.
Put together, one name surfaced from the depths of his mind—
Tejima Shinichi!
The black-haired boy he had seen only in photos and in the Hokage's sparse reports.
"It's… actually him…"
Jiraiya's voice was barely a whisper, eyes bloodshot with horror.
Even Fukasaku and Shima, standing right beside him, caught no more than the faint murmur.
Yet atop the throne those cloudy eyes shifted, coming to rest on Jiraiya's trembling face.
The Great Toad Sage did not expose Jiraiya's turmoil; he simply continued, unfurling a still more dreadful corner of the dream,
"In the vision I saw a clear scene: the Wood-wielding youth stood upon a place very, very high…"
His voice drifted like an echo from the dream itself. "Beneath his feet… a colossal wooden Buddha, mountain-sized—no, taller than any mountain…"
"Behind him… stood two equally youthful figures."
"One bathed in golden, sun-like chakra—warm and vast—that is the Child of Prophecy you have sought so long, little Jiraiya."
Jiraiya's body jolted; he jerked his head up.
"The other," the sage went on, "a boy in whose eyes power dwells."
"Both of them… follow behind the Wood-wielder, standing upon the Buddha's crown… facing…"
He fell silent so long that Jiraiya, Fukasaku and Shima feared the prophecy had ended there.
Then, from the ancient throat, a single word dropped—freezing the very air of Mount Myōboku's great hall,
"…god."
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