How could a mere mortal be called a natural disaster? The idea struck the White Snake Sage as absurd. The Uchiha clan were merely distant descendants of the Sage of Six Paths, a drop of his blood lost to the ages. Nothing more. Admittedly, during her recent examination, she had been unable to discern the essence of this Uchiha Yue, but that was hardly surprising.
Though she was called "omniscient," she knew how exaggerated that title was. The world was full of mysteries, beyond even her wisdom. The appearance of yet another Uchiha, whose soul she had failed to probe, was merely an annoying nuisance, not a sign of the end of the world.
Uchiha Yue might be powerful, but she dismissed with contempt the idea that a mortal could destroy the world. Who did he think he was? Ōtsutsuki Kaguya? A new incarnation of the Sage?
Destroy the world... With what? With that pair of Mangekyo Sharingan? How naive! Does he even imagine the true extent of this world?
Katsuyu, standing nearby, bowed her head submissively at the White Snake's words. Just a human. With her gentle nature, she didn't look down on humans, but she also couldn't fathom the idea that a human could cause the destruction of all existence. It was simply impossible.
In that case...
"Well, I think I'll be going," she said softly, preparing to return to her forest.
"Do you really think a human is incapable of this?" the Great Toad Sage's voice rasped, freezing them. "You know nothing of Uchiha Yue. He's not a human. He's a monster. A supreme calamity that has no place in this world!"
He looked at them with an ancient, weary gaze.
"If you don't believe him, send scouts. See for yourself. But remember one thing: under no circumstances, under no circumstances, enter the area where he resides!" he declared, his voice laced with iron.
The Great Toad Sage understood their skepticism. On the one hand, he was truly unbearably old and sometimes lapsed into unconsciousness. On the other, what he spoke of was beyond all imaginable bounds.
In the last thousand years, who but Kaguya, who came from without, possessed the power to break the back of this world? Even if the three great sacred lands had combined their powers, they would have failed. The entire shinobi world would have united and crushed them like dust.
After Kaguya's sealing, powerful shinobi emerged, and new Mangekyo Sharingans awakened. But who among them could even imagine confronting the entire world alone? None. Theoretically, only the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki was capable of such a thing. And Uchiha Yue, as they discovered, possessed a normal Mangekyo, not the divine Rinnegan, and was certainly not a vessel for a Bijuu.
To the White Snake and Katsuyu, the old toad's prophecy sounded as absurd as the tale of an ant determined to crush a mountain single-handedly.
"Shhh..." The White Snake Sage, her forked tongue lolling out, leaned forward, peering into the soothsayer's motionless face.
"Great Toad Sage, could you tell me more about him?" Katsuyu asked, her voice trembling with doubt.
Soon, the Great Toad Sage told them everything he knew, focusing on the story of Jiraiya, who disobeyed advice, invaded the Uchiha's domain by force, and was destroyed so swiftly that he nearly took Fukasaku and Shima with him.
After some time, the White Snake Sage and Katsuyu left Mount Myōboku.
If all that was said was true, if Uchiha Yue truly could absorb natural energy and grow without limit, then he was more than just a disaster. He was the end. When the Realm of Dead Silence covers the entire planet, nothing will remain. No sacred lands, no immortal sages. Only death.
It was tantamount to the revelation of a new Divine Tree.
"Something so terrible has happened in Konoha... Tsunade must be notified," flashed through Katsuyu's mind as soon as her incarnation merged with her main body in the Shikkotsu Forest. She couldn't have imagined that, peacefully dwelling in her abode, she would find herself on the brink of universal destruction. It was unthinkable. And absurdly unfair.
And Shimura Danzo... Truly a legend. Single-handedly changed the fate of an entire world. After all, no one but a handful of renegades knew until now that it was he who pulled the main strings on the night of the Uchiha Clan's destruction.
Returning to Ryūchi Cave, the White Snake Sage immediately ordered the snakes to summon Orochimaru. She directly questioned him, her most cunning and knowledgeable "contractor," about the events in Konoha.
Orochimaru had just left the very same region heading for destruction. Hearing his patroness's question, he openly told her everything he had seen and known.
Orochimaru's words were the final nail in the coffin of her peace. Cold scales of fear crawled across her gigantic body. At that moment, she wished with all her heart that the old toad was just a senile lunatic, not a prophet of the true apocalypse.
"This... this is illogical! This can't be! Where could a monster capable of destroying everything have come from?!"
The thoughts in her ancient head were jumbled. Though she called herself a sage, at heart she was nothing more than an old, cunning, and cruel snake who hadn't left her cave for centuries. She was neither a brilliant strategist nor an enlightened being. The crisis with Kaguya had been resolved by the Ōtsutsuki brothers, not by her.
But now there was no second Sage of the Six Paths who could save the world.
Her reaction was natural. For a thousand years, she had grown accustomed to her status as a superior being, a denizen of a sacred land, an immortal sage. And humans... they had always been just humans.
And now one of those she despised, some mortal, could take her life without even trying. Simply by existing.
"Orochimaru, you may go. I need to think," the White Snake Sage hissed.
As her student's silhouette dissolved into the darkness, she sank into heavy thoughts. But the information was too scant, and no conclusions came together. And in the darkest corner of her mind, a flicker of desperate hope still smoldered. What if?..
What if Uchiha Yue fails to destroy this world after all?
What if all of this... is a mistake?