Chapter 261: The Tale of the Sage
"Teacher, where have you been? We were worried about you."
Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan stood before Ragnar, their faces lit with unguarded joy. The emotion was raw and genuine, straight from the heart.
"Went to meet someone," Ragnar replied simply.
He offered no further details. The name Uchiha Madara remained locked behind his teeth. Telling them now would serve no purpose—it would only plant seeds of confusion or fear. Some knowledge needed roots to grow; other knowledge only poisoned the soil.
Nagato, however, felt something stir in the depths of his mind. A flicker of intuition, sharp and inexplicable. The person the teacher had met... it had something to do with him. Specifically, with his eyes. He couldn't explain why he knew this. He just did.
Yahiko, untroubled by such complexities, had already moved on. His carefree, innocent nature reasserted itself. "Teacher, what is this little thing? It scared me half to death! Nagato said its power felt even greater than yours!"
He crouched down, peering at Kokuō with wide, curious eyes. A giant question mark might as well have been painted on his forehead.
"Little thing?!" Kokuō's voice pitched upward with indignation. "You tiny human brat! I am the legendary Five-Tails!"
She had remained silent since appearing before the children. Why bother speaking to humans who didn't matter? Especially little ones. But being called a little thing? That demanded correction.
"Tailed Beast? Five-Tails? What's that? Never heard of it!"
Yahiko rubbed the back of his head, utterly unoffended by Kokuō's haughty tone. In his eyes, she was just a peculiar little animal. And who got angry at an animal?
"Damn you! You've never heard of ME?!" Kokuō fumed, her five tails puffing up with indignation.
Ragnar reached down and unceremoniously scooped Kokuō up by her stubby legs, leaving her dangling upside-down in the air. "It's just a pet I picked up on the road. I didn't want it at first. It stuck to me like glue—dog-skin plaster, as they say. I had no choice but to bring it along."
"Uh... dog-skin plaster...?"
The words pierced Kokuō's tiny heart with surgical precision. She went limp in Ragnar's grip, emotionally devastated.
"But she's so cute!" Konan covered her mouth, giggling, then leaned in close to study Kokuō with fascinated eyes.
"Come inside. We'll talk there."
Still carrying the deflated Kokuō, Ragnar strode toward the cabin. The three orphans followed close behind, their hearts thrumming with excitement and anticipation. Curiosity burned bright in each of them.
Inside the cabin, the four of them arranged themselves around the worn wooden table. As students, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan sat upright, their postures respectful despite their eagerness. Some habits had been carved deep.
Ragnar deposited Kokuō in the center of the table. Instantly, she became the focal point of three intense, youthful stares. The miniature Tailed Beast found herself surrounded, scrutinized from every angle like a rare specimen under glass. Her five tails curled inward self-consciously.
"Teacher," Nagato spoke first, his Rinnegan fixed on the small white creature, "though you call her a pet... I suspect she is no ordinary animal."
Ragnar glanced at Nagato. A flicker of appreciation passed through his eyes. The boy's perception was sharpening.
"First," Ragnar began, "let me explain what a Tailed Beast is. Tailed Beasts, as the name implies, are living beings distinguished by the number of their tails. There are nine in total, from One-Tail to Nine-Tails. Their defining characteristic is longevity—they have existed for thousands of years. And within each of them is sealed an immense, cataclysmic power."
He paused, letting the weight settle.
"Today, each of the Five Great Shinobi Villages possesses at least one, sometimes two. But do you know what the Tailed Beasts are for?"
"Pets!" Yahiko blurted out. "They're pretty cute... I guess."
"Yahiko." Konan's voice carried gentle exasperation. "If it were that simple, would the teacher be explaining it so seriously?"
"War," Nagato said. His voice was quiet, but there was iron certainty in it. "They're used to fight wars."
Ragnar nodded approvingly. "Nagato spoke true. War. Every Tailed Beast contains power that makes nations covetous. Every Hidden Village desires to control this destructive force."
"But she's so tiny..." Yahiko stared at Kokuō, struggling to reconcile the adorable creature before him with the concept of a living weapon of mass destruction.
"Hmph! Ignorant brat." Kokuō's disdain was palpable. "My true body is larger than a mountain. If I revealed my full form, you'd be scared to tears."
"Bigger than a mountain?!" Yahiko's jaw dropped.
Nagato leaned forward slightly, his expression contemplative. "Teacher... why do Tailed Beasts exist? How were they born?"
It was a profound question, and a perceptive one. The very existence of the Tailed Beasts disrupted the natural balance of the shinobi world. No ordinary ninja's power could compare to theirs. They were anomalies—divine leftovers from a forgotten age.
"This," Ragnar said, "is connected to an ancient legend. Do you want to hear it?"
"Yes! Yes!" Yahiko practically bounced in his seat, his face alight with excitement.
Even Nagato's composed expression cracked with anticipation. Something deep within him stirred—an instinct, a premonition that what he was about to hear would matter greatly.
And Kokuō... Kokuō's ears perked forward. Not many in this world still knew the true origin of the Tailed Beasts. Millennia had passed. History had fractured, crumbled, been rewritten by the victors. Did anyone still remember that ancient era?
"The birth of the Tailed Beasts," Ragnar began, "is inseparable from a legendary figure. The founder of the Ninja Sect. The Sage of Six Paths."
The Sage of Six Paths.
Nagato's breath caught. It was not the first time he had heard that name. It echoed in the corridors of his mind, reverberating through the chambers of his Rinnegan. The eyes he possessed... they were said to be the same eyes the Sage once wielded. Eyes that could create and destroy worlds.
"In an age so ancient it has been nearly forgotten," Ragnar continued, "a being from beyond the stars descended upon this world. It was called the Divine Tree. The Divine Tree took root in the earth and began to drain the world's life force. Catastrophes swept across the land. Eventually, the Tree transformed into a monstrous entity—the Ten-Tails—and ravaged the human world."
His voice was steady, measured, each word painting a picture in the lamplight.
"The Sage of Six Paths rose to meet this threat. Together with his brother, he fought and sealed the Ten-Tails. He took its immense power into his own body, becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki."
"He really was a god among men," Yahiko breathed, awe softening his voice. "To defeat even the Ten-Tails..."
Kokuō remained silent, but her mind was churning. The story Ragnar told was nearly eighty percent accurate to the true history. Remarkably close. The real history involved the Sage dealing with Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, who had merged with the Divine Tree itself, but Ragnar's account spoke only of the Ten-Tails. No mention of Kaguya at all.
Was that a coincidence? Or deliberate omission?
"After the chaos of the Ten-Tails ended, the world returned to peace. The Sage, now the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki, possessed power nearly equal to that of a god. Yet even he could not escape the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death."
Ragnar's gaze swept across his three students.
"On his deathbed, the Sage feared what would happen when he passed. The Ten-Tails' power sealed within him might one day break free and wreak havoc upon the world once more. So he made a choice. He divided the Ten-Tails' chakra into nine separate beings and scattered them across the corners of the earth."
He gestured toward Kokuō.
"This is the origin of the nine Tailed Beasts. Each one of them... is a fragment of the Ten-Tails made manifest."
Silence enveloped the cabin.
Kokuō's small body trembled. How does he know this? In such detail? Few humans in any era had ever been privy to this knowledge. Even the Kage of the great villages possessed only fragments and distortions of the truth.
"So she has such an incredible background!" Yahiko stared at Kokuō with renewed wonder, his earlier dismissal completely forgotten.
"Now you understand my magnificence!" Kokuō puffed her chest out, basking in the astonished gazes of the children. Her pride, so recently wounded, was being rapidly restored. Her tail-tips curled with satisfaction as her gaze swept over Yahiko and Konan.
Then she looked at Nagato.
And froze.
A strange breeze, unbidden, swept through the cabin. It lifted the crimson bangs that hung over Nagato's eyes, revealing what lay beneath.
Kokuō's entire body went rigid.
Her eyes locked onto the ripple-patterned irises that stared back at her. Eyes she had not seen since the age of the Sage himself. Eyes that carried the weight of divinity and destruction intertwined.
"This is—!"
She leaped upright like a fish springing from water, her small form trembling on the tabletop.
"The Rinnegan!"
End of Chapter
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