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As his last words faded—his figure began to turn transparent, dissolving into the air itself, vanishing as if he'd never existed.
"Wait..."
Hagoromo and Hamura's pupils contracted sharply, disbelief written across their faces. The ability to disappear into thin air like that—no ordinary person could do such a thing.
"Brother, look around us!" Hamura activated his Byakugan, his voice laced with shock.
Both brothers spun around—and found that the thatched hut had vanished without a trace. The hearth, the clay pot, the wooden table—everything was gone.
Nothing remained but endless white snow and the frozen lake, as though everything they'd just experienced had been an impossibly vivid dream.
The bitter wind swept snowflakes across their faces, stinging cold against their skin.
Hagoromo and Hamura stood frozen in place, staring at each other—confusion and awe tangled together in their chests.
Then, sothing clicked in Hagoromo's mind. His expression shifted.
"Hamura—think about that man's face. Doesn't he look exactly like the portrait of Manji in the temple??"
Hamura flinched—and the mont his brother said it, the resemblance beca impossible to ignore.
"Could it be…? No—that's impossible."
.....
Leaving the frozen lakeshore behind—
Manji's figure reappeared on Mount Myōboku in the very next instant.
Over the past decade-plus, he'd devoted himself entirely to researching and refining Sage Arts.
Along the way—almost as a hobby—he'd also recreated so techniques that wouldn't normally exist until future eras.
Rasengan. Lightning Cutter. Kirin. Various elental release jutsu.
Of course, these were just for fun. Manji had no intention of using any of them against Kaguya.
His primary weapons would always be Sage Arts.
He'd created and mastered an enormous repertoire of Sage techniques. He'd even developed a sealing-type Sage Art modeled after the Myōjinmon Gate—specifically designed to counter the Ten-Tails—using the Shikkotsu Forest's energy as a base.
And yet—despite everything—his raw power seed capped by so invisible ceiling, refusing to budge. The only way to grow stronger was through breadth—expanding his arsenal rather than his baseline power.
A dozen years, for an immortal, passed in the blink of an eye.
Literally—one blink, and they were gone.
But ti had left its mark in other ways. Manji could feel himself becoming steadier, more patient, more composed with each passing year. His temperant had llowed like fine wine.
.....
Mount Myōboku, Longevity Peak.
Cloud and mist wreathed the summit, rging with the sky itself.
This was the na Manji had given his dwelling.
The mont he stepped through the cave entrance, a plump, bouncing figure ca hopping to greet him—Gamamaru, now a half-grown toad of considerable size.
"Master, how are things out there?"
Gamamaru asked with earnest respect.
Manji settled into a stone chair at the central table, his fingertip brushing the surface—and a thread of Sage chakra flowed into Mount Myōboku's crystal ball.
Ethereal projections of Hagoromo and Hamura materialized above the table, a replay of the lakeside encounter.
"Sa as before. Those two children have grown up—their minds are maturing. The ti has co."
Manji's voice was calm and unhurried.
Then his gaze sharpened as it fell on Gamamaru. "In a few days, follow my instructions."
"Find a way to approach them and reveal the truth about the Divine Tree. But rember—you must not tell them directly. Leave breadcrumbs. Guide them to investigate on their own. People only truly believe what they've seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears—and only then will they develop the will to resist."
Gamamaru's admiration surged. 'As expected of Master—every move calculated three steps ahead.'
"You can count on , Master!"
The toad straightened up and thumped his chest with a front leg, brimming with confidence.
He'd harbored his own grievances about Kaguya's reign for quite so ti. If the Divine Tree continued draining the earth, Mount Myōboku would eventually be affected too.
But the mont his declaration left his mouth—Gamamaru deflated. His round body curled inward, and he fidgeted with the look of soone who wanted to say sothing but couldn't find the words.
"Gamamaru—you have sothing else on your mind."
Nothing escaped Manji's notice. He read the toad like an open book.
Gamamaru hesitated—then dropped to his knees with a heavy thud, pressing his head low, his voice turning grave.
"Master… I had a dream."
"I dread that Kaguya and her two sons fought beneath the Divine Tree—a battle so devastating the entire world was being torn apart…"
"Oh?"
Manji's eyebrow rose with genuine interest.
He was well aware of Gamamaru's prophetic dream ability—it was one of the key reasons he'd insisted on contracting this seemingly ordinary little toad in the first place.
In the original story, it was precisely Gamamaru's prophetic dreams that set the Sage of Six Paths on the path to confronting Kaguya. And now, even with Manji's interference as a variable, history's inertia was still grinding forward along its predetermined tracks.
"In that dream—was I anywhere in the picture?"
Manji asked, genuinely curious. He was a transmigrator with knowledge of the general plot—but he wanted to know exactly what ripples his butterfly effect had created, and what role he'd play in that fated battle.
"No, Master. I replayed the dream in my head over and over—from beginning to end, you were nowhere to be seen. It was as if… you'd never been part of that fight at all."
Gamamaru looked up, confusion plain on his face, and shook his head.
"Is that so…"
Manji's finger paused mid-tap. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes—then settled back into calm.
His future couldn't be predicted?
Now that's interesting...
He wasn't a native of this world to begin with. And he carried an immortality granted by the System—a constitution that existed outside the natural order. Perhaps that very uniqueness placed him beyond the reach of fate's gaze, making him an unpredictable variable in every sense.
"That works just fine…"
A faint smile curved Manji's lips, his eyes deep and unreadable.
Being watched by destiny had never sat well with him. An unknown future was far more worth exploring.
.....
Several days later—
A small village plunged into sudden panic.
The river they depended on for survival had inexplicably dried up. The riverbed lay exposed—cracked earth and dust—leaving the villagers scrambling for water, facing an imminent crisis.
Word reached Hagoromo and Hamura quickly.
Over the years, at their mother's direction, the brothers had regularly patrolled the land and assisted ordinary people with their problems. Their reputation among the populace had grown imnse.
They raced to the scene and swiftly found the source upstream.
A massive boulder—the size of a small hill—sat wedged across the river channel, damming the flow completely.
"A boulder blocking the river?"
Hamura frowned, his Byakugan flaring to life as he scanned the obstruction.
"This doesn't look like a natural rockslide."
Hagoromo had noticed the irregularity too.
Without wasting words, he raised one hand—concentrated Lightning Release chakra crackling to life in his palm.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A blinding flash—and the boulder was blown to powder, fragnts scattering in every direction.
At that exact mont—a round, plump figure bounded out from the nearby treeline and landed squarely in front of them.
Gamamaru.
"You two must be Hagoromo and Hamura, right?"
"Allow to introduce myself—my na is Gamamaru."
The toad's voice carried a deliberately asured gravitas—a far cry from the eager, puppy-like deanor he showed around Manji.
Both brothers jolted in surprise, disbelief flashing across their faces.
Hamura instinctively activated his Byakugan, probing the toad's nature—but sensed only a pure, unfamiliar chakra signature. No hostility whatsoever.
Sage energy, of course—but Hamura had no fra of reference for it.
"You… you can talk?"
Hagoromo blurted out in astonishnt.
Gamamaru ignored the question. He waved a front leg with an air of practiced mystery. "The two of you—follow . There's sothing you need to see."
And with that, he turned and bounced into the depths of the forest.
Hagoromo and Hamura exchanged a glance—every instinct telling them this enigmatic toad was far more than he appeared.
Without hesitation, they followed.
Gamamaru moved with startling speed, weaving nimbly through the trees. The brothers kept pace, and before long—they erged at the summit of a towering peak.
The view from the top was breathtaking.
In the distance—the Divine Tree pierced the sky, its trunk impossibly thick, its canopy sprawling endlessly, radiating a tidal wave of chakra so imnse it felt as though the tree alone was holding up the world.
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