Suguru was sitting in his lab, pondering the small booklet he had compiled. Papers, filled to the brim with ink, were all pressed into one binding.
Each page represented a different question. Each line was based on his recent interviews with Gyuuki and Bee.
"Hmmm,"
Looking at the ink-filled pages, he felt a sense of dissonance within what he had written.
'Oho?'
One particular observation had surfaced among the many notes he had taken.
—Clack.
Placing a kunai down to keep his notebook open, Suguru began sifting through the other books in his study. Each one had been penned by none other than himself.
And this included the scrolls.
For a few minutes, only the rustling sound of parchment and cloth could be heard. Suguru's clones, who were working silently on their tasks nearby, only served to create a studious chorus.
Flipping pages and the scratching sound of flowing handwriting.
Such an atmosphere had given rise to many bizarre discoveries and academic achievements. Now, another theory was slowly being born.
"...Does this make sense?"
Suguru looked at a short draft he had made. He admired the mess of Juinjutsu and Fuinjutsu all mixed into each other like a poorly-made pizza.
'Although it's currently a horrid sight...'
It could revolutionize the future.
"Will Hagoromo be proud of me?"
Suguru's mumblings drew the attention of his clones. Glancing over the sheet of paper, every single one of their different eyes widened. They all stopped what they were doing and blinked.
"How could we have been so blind?" One of them said.
The others all nodded.
Suguru looked up, and upon noticing the gazes of his clones, he smiled.
"It seems like we need to put more focus into ninjutsu's predecessor."
The clones all nodded again, still in a daze.
Rolling up the seal-filled scroll, Suguru took out a brush and ink. This draft was special — worthy of a title.
And it was also extremely simple. So simple that he wondered why he had never thought about it before.
Furthermore, it wasn't directly related to combat.
It was something else entirely.
Thus, what fell from Suguru's brush strokes was a simple name.
[Advanced Applications of Ninshu]
Suguru would have never thought of this if not for his interview with Gyuuki and Bee. Had he not experienced, first-hand, what it was like for thoughts and emotions to be exchanged through a clash of fists, then the precursor of ninjutsu would have eluded him like everyone else in the world.
"How amusing," Suguru laughed to himself as he completed his calligraphy. "Madara is right."
One's selfish desire for peace would create war.
And hatred would be born to protect love.
Such statements were true even for Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths. Such would be true even for Otsutsuki Kaguya.
"This world's fate is spun in such a... brutal tapestry."
Muttering these words, Suguru closed his eyes. Forming the Seal of Confrontation, he dove deep into his consciousness.
Though not as deep as he would when the Tailed Beasts would visit his mental landscape, it was still quite an unfathomable depth.
After all, what Suguru sought now was a distant mark.
A small tidbit he had instinctively left behind, unsure of what the future held for both him and Konohagakure.
It was the Cursed Seal he had left on none other than Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage.
***
It was deep in the night.
The crickets of twilight had long gone silent. There was no silver moon above shining light upon the veil of darkness.
All was calm.
Save for the heart of an old man who had no choice but to lead.
"Haah,"
Hiruzen sighed as he continued to work, even at such ungodly hours. The mountains of paperwork on his desk only grew — never shrank.
No matter how much he did, there would always be more.
It was endless like the horizon itself.
Danzo's machinations lived longer than he who had crafted them. What Hiruzen faced was a hydra in the form of commands. Hundreds, if not thousands of shinobi had become a part of the Fifth Hokage's coercions.
They each had their own tasks they would fulfill — even if Danzo had long passed away.
'It's as if he fully expected his death,' Hiruzen thought.
His brows were heavily creased with worry. No matter what he did, whether it be steeling his resolve or growing ever-more ruthless, the pawns on the chessboard kept on appearing.
Honestly, he was reaching his wit's end.
Hiruzen simply could not understand why such people would go to such lengths. His mistakes, which had seemed small on the surface, had been the seeds he had sown for his destruction.
The Third Hokage's expression was thus as dark as the night outside.
"Shit,"
Hiruzen stood up from his seat. The armor he wore on his body clanked as he moved.
—Whish!
With a swift Body Flicker Jutsu, he disappeared from his office.
His figure was a blur as he moved rapidly through the village and soon arrived at a dark, brooding facility.
Without batting an eye, he rushed in — still flickering as if eyes aplenty were keeping track of him no matter where he went.
It was crazy how much his anxieties had grown, unbeknownst to everyone around him.
—Clack.
Hiruzen then stood before a beating heart in the depths of Konohagakure's underground — deeper than the Anbu headquarters and even deeper than the location where Danzo once confined the Kyuubi's jinchuriki.
Naruto's blood stained the walls of this room, unbeknownst to the boy himself.
"That damn Danzo."
Hiruzen clicked his lips. Reaching out with his hand, he no longer hesitated on what he had to do.
However...
Just as he was about to take his next course of action—
"Hm..?"
Something stirred within his body. A far away signal had somehow flown here, bypassing everything between the sender and himself. No barrier seemed to deter its message.
Hiruzen was reminded of a Curse Mark he had allowed to take root in his body. It was a simplistic form of Juinjutsu that had no other function than mere existence.
This mark, which originated from a young silver-haired boy, resonated with the signal he had received.
'...Is this a wisp of his chakra?'
It was then—
Thoughts flowed straight into Hiruzen's mind.
—Oh... Lord Hokage...
Stunned, Hiruzen was unable to identify whether or not he was hearing Suguru's voice — or if he was merely hallucinating the child's existence.
—It seems like you have much on your mind.
Faint laughter seemed to echo throughout the vast distance.
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UwU
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