Ninja World.
The fourth Epoch
The Epoch Of Verdant Silence
No one knows how many years have passed since the death of humans.
Maybe thousands… maybe millions…
or perhaps even more time than any mind can measure.
Yatagarasu Temple.
This was the place…
the sacred land where the divine beast Yatagarasu received his name
from the fallen god — Akira Uchiha.
Because of that, this place was also known as
The Epoch Cradle
'Where a new era began and the old one ended. '
Akira Uchiha…
the contractor of Yatagarasu…
the one who named the deity in this very place…
and the one who lived his last few dying breaths here.
This was the land where the ninja world crossed the boundary of eras—
leaving behind the Age of Ancient Humans,
and transforming into the world that existed now.
Around the temple stood trees hundreds of meters tall,
their trunks forming hollow pillars like natural cathedrals.
Inside the hollow center grew bushes, vines,
and flowers blooming in colors unseen in the human era.
On one of the giant branches,
resting quietly,
sat a black raven.
Just by looking at it…
any creature could feel it—
this was no ordinary bird.
Below the raven stood a dozen humanoid beings.
They had green hair and long, pointed ears.
Their clothes were not made of fibre…
but of woven leaves and living plants.
If Akira had seen them,
he would have instantly recognized them—
dryads, or forest elves,
beings that once existed only in myths and novels.
But now…
they were the dominant humanoid race of the ninja world.
Forest elves were unlike humans.
They did not destroy the world.
They built it.
Since the birth of the first forest elf, hundreds of thousands of years ago,
they had improved the world itself.
Even the old Sand Nation—once an endless desert—
had become an evergreen forest.
Many things had changed in these countless ages.
Just then, a voice echoed from below.
One of the dryads raised her gentle voice toward the raven perched above.
"Yatagarasu," she asked sweetly, "sama… can you tell us about the First, Second, and Third Epoch?"
For a moment, Yatagarasu did not answer.
He simply stared at the sky—
at the place where the moon should be.
Even though daylight washed out the heavens,
Yatagarasu could still see the moon as clearly as ever.
The dryads did not feel disappointed.
They simply waited, as patiently as only beings born from forests could.
Finally, after several long breaths,
Yatagarasu lowered his head.
Black feathers loosened from his body—
falling like drifting shadows,
gathering on the branch beneath him,
spreading outward in a feathered circle.
The feathers rose again, swirling like a small typhoon.
And from within that storm of black feathers,
a human silhouette formed.
A young man stepped out—
around twenty or twenty-one years old,
with long, jet-black hair,
wearing deep black robes,
and behind him, a pair of dark wings unfurled effortlessly.
If someone from Akira's previous world had seen him,
they would have immediately whispered a single word:
Angel.
Or rather—
fallen angel.
But Yatagarasu knew none of those terms.
He nodded gently at the dryads and leapt from the tree,
his wings carrying him gracefully to the ground.
Landing softly, he folded his wings and spoke:
"Well, Lily," he said with a faint smile,
"you want to learn about the First, Second, and Third Epoch?"
The dryad whose name he called—Lily—beamed brightly.
"Yes. I've asked the elders many times,
but they always said my age was too young.
Now that I've grown enough,
I want to know."
Yatagarasu didn't reply immediately.
Instead, he glanced toward the sky again, as if remembering.
"The First Epoch," Yatagarasu began softly,
"was the era when the world first remembered how to breathe.
In the beginning, life appeared quietly—
small sparks in the deep waters,
creatures that swam long before names existed.
From those waters came beasts who walked on land,
and from them, the scaled ones who basked beneath the sun.
After them rose the feathered sky-born,
and the countless tiny lives that crawled, buzzed, and whispered through the soil.
Epoch One lasted longer than any story,
longer than the memory of stone or ocean.
It was the age when the world created endlessly,
and all things—great and small—were born from its dreaming."
He paused.
"This Epoch was called the
The Luminous Veil Epoch
(an age where life first emerged, shrouded in mystery) "
Lily and the others listened with wide, curious eyes.
"After the First epoch came the Second epoch," Yatagarasu continued.
"The Second Epoch," Yatagarasu continued,
"was the era when the world learned to speak through beings who carried fire in their hearts."
"During this age, the children of ash and breath—humans—were born.
They looked much like you,
yet their eyes held storms,
and their spirits carried both tenderness and destruction."
"They lived side by side,
raised homes from stone and soil,
wove great cities not beneath branches,
but upon open plains, burning deserts, jagged mountains,
and islands that trembled with the ocean's pulse."
"In time, they became the rulers of the surface world.
And despite their flaws,
they, too, listened to the earth's whisper.
They healed lands broken by ancient storms,
brought rivers to thirsty sands,
and turned barren places into realms of green and life."
"For a while, harmony walked with them."
Yatagarasu closed his eyes briefly,
as if remembering a world that no longer existed.
"This age," he said softly,
"is known as TheDawn of Ashen Souls—
the Second Epoch."
---
Yatagarasu's wings folded close as he closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them, their black shine had dimmed.
"Then came The Epoch of Shattered Harmony," he whispered.
"The Third Epoch… the era when the world bled."
"This age began with the arrival of an outsider—
an invader from realms beyond light and shadow.
Her name was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki."
"She reached into the heart of our world
and tore away its origin—
the sacred essence from which all life had once bloomed."
"And with that stolen power,
she touched the souls of humans
and awakened within them the Seven Deadly Sins."
He raised a hand, as if each sin were a weight pressing against his palm.
"Pride," he said,
"the belief that one stands above all others,
even above the world itself."
"Lust,"
"the hunger to possess what was never meant to be held."
"Greed,"
"an endless desire that devours more than it gains."
"Gluttony,"
"the craving to consume without purpose,
until the world is emptied."
"Envy,"
"the poison that twists joy into resentment."
"Sloth,"
"the surrender of will,
letting decay replace effort."
And finally—
"Wrath,"
"the fire that destroys simply for the sake of destruction."
When Yatagarasu finished,
the forest elves exchanged bewildered looks.
Their green hair rustled, not with wind,
but with confusion.
"Yatagarasu-sama..." Lily whispered,
"humans… did this?
To each other?"
He nodded slowly.
"To you, such things are unthinkable.
Your kind shares without question.
You give life freely.
And nothing—no fruit, no water, no treasure—
is worth more to you than a single heartbeat."
"But humans… after the corruption of the Third Epoch,
saw the world differently."
His tone darkened.
"War began."
The elves stiffened.
It was a word they had heard only in myths but never understood.
"A war," Yatagarasu explained softly,
"is when humans fight…
and kill one another.
For land.
For resources.
For ambition.
For sins."
Gasps rose from the forest elves—
a sound of pure horror.
"In that era, humans learned to wield the elements themselves.
Fire.
Water.
Earth.
Lightning.
Wind.
Sand.
Ice.
And many more."
"And with these powers…
they scarred the world."
Yatagarasu pointed around the serene forest.
"This place you see now as an endless evergreen…
was once a desert stretching thousands of kilometers.
There were lands where water had vanished completely,
lands where only jagged mountains remained,
lands where life had forgotten how to grow."
"And there was one shining place—
a single land blessed with everything."
His voice tightened.
"And because it had everything…
every other land declared war upon it."
Silence fell.
The elves trembled.
That was when Yatagarasu continued in a quieter, deeper voice:
"During that age…
the fallen god Akira Uchiha was born."
"My contractor."
He touched his chest lightly, remembering.
"I first met him when he had reached his eleventh year."
"He was bloodied, exhausted,
fighting to protect his homeland
from others of his own kind."
"I met him when I was wounded.
He found me, sheltered me,
fed me, healed me…
and shared the little life he had."
"For months, we lived together.
I watched.
He protected.
He laughed when he could,
cried when he couldn't,
and never stopped moving forward."
"Eventually…
we forged a contract.
He became my partner.
My chosen human.
My destiny."
Yatagarasu's wings trembled slightly.
"When Akira reached thirteen,
he awakened his godhood.
With that divine power,
he did what no being before him dared."
"He sent all corrupted humans—
every soul twisted by sin—
to a heaven of their own making.
A world where their desires could no longer harm this one."
"He sealed our world from the outside,
so no alien god
or wandering Ōtsutsuki
could ever invade again."
"But every act of salvation…
demands a price."
Yatagarasu's voice cracked,
the first hint of pain Lily had ever heard from him.
"And the price…
was Akira's life."
"Even as his life faded,
I stayed with him.
He named me Yatagarasu—
the one who guides destiny,
who walks the line between the divine and the fallen."
He looked toward the sky,
toward the moon Akira had once sealed.
"That was his final gift
to this world…
and to me."
---
He lowered his voice, wings folding as if shielding ancient truth.
"And that… is why we seal the moon every thousand years."
The moment those words left Yatagarasu's beak, Lily's eyes widened, shimmering like dew catching starlight.
She straightened proudly, as if she had finally connected a puzzle she'd been holding onto for ages.
"Then—I know the answer!" she said, almost bouncing.
"It's so we can stop that alien woman from returning…
from turning us, the Dryad race, into monsters—
just like she twisted the humans long ago!"
Yatagarasu blinked.
Then another blink.
Then his feathers puffed slightly in amusement.
"Lily… you are far sharper than your age suggests."
A warm smile formed, not on a face—since ravens lacked such luxuries—
but in the tilt of his head, the softness of his gaze,
and the quiet pride vibrating in his tone.
Lily's ears perked, and she practically glowed.
Being praised by a legendary summoning beast wasn't something that happened every day.
She clutched her hands to her chest, as if she'd just achieved a world-shaking milestone.
Seeing her reaction, Yatagarasu let out a soft croak of laughter.
"Since the tale has been told…"
He hopped backward, spread his great wings,
and a gust of wind swirled beneath him as he rose.
His form liquefied into black mist—
shadow turning into feathers, feathers collapsing into the shape of a raven—
until he returned to his original compact, ominous form.
Hovering above Lily, the ancient bird rotated once in the air.
Then, in a voice not entirely his own—
a voice woven with the echo of a distant oath—
he spoke again:
" I shall take my leave."
His tone carried a strange layering—
one voice mortal, the other ancient,
the two overlapping like two moons in eclipse.
The last syllable drifted across the forest,
leaving Lily in awe,
and the world slightly colder than before.
And so, Yatagarasu took flight once more, wandering the reborn world Akira had sacrificed himself to protect—a world now living under the hush of the Epoch of Verdant Silence.
---