As his words fell, his figure slowly became transparent, as if blending into the air, and gradually disappeared.
"Wait!? You!"
Hagoromo and Hamura's pupils suddenly shrank, shock spreading across their faces. The ability to vanish into thin air like that was definitely not something an ordinary person could have.
"Big brother, look around!" Hamura suddenly activated his Byakugan and spoke in shock.
The two of them quickly turned their heads to look around, only to find that the thatched hut from just now had disappeared without a trace. The stove fire, the clay pot, the wooden table, all of it was gone.
All that remained was the endless white snow and the frozen lake, as if everything that had just happened had only been a very real illusion.
The cold wind carried snowflakes as it swept across their faces, bringing a biting chill.
Hagoromo and Hamura stood where they were, looking at each other, confusion and shock mixed together in their hearts.
However, Hagoromo seemed to think of something, and his expression suddenly changed.
"Hamura, think about what that man looked like just now. Didn't he look exactly like Arisu in the portrait at the temple!?" Hagoromo said in shock.
Hearing this, Hamura was also startled. Now that his brother mentioned it, he really did look a bit similar.
"Could it be… no… that's impossible."
———
Leaving the icy, snowy land by the lake, Arisu's figure appeared at Mount Myoboku in the very next moment.
Over these past dozen years, Arisu had been studying sage arts.
At the same time, he also created some techniques that would only appear in later generations.
Such as Rasengan, Raikiri, Kirin, and all kinds of nature release techniques…
Of course, these were just created for fun. Arisu never planned to use them to truly fight Kaguya.
Arisu's main power would always be sage arts.
He created and learned many sage art methods.
At the same time, in order to deal with the Ten-Tails, he also used the sage arts of Shikkotsu Forest to develop a sage technique similar to the Myojin Gate.
However, Arisu's strength seemed to be suppressed by an invisible force, and no matter what he did, he could not improve any further.
He could only use other methods to make himself stronger.
More than ten years of time, to an immortal like him, was nothing more than the blink of an eye.
It truly was just a moment.
More than that, it was the effect of time on Arisu.
Arisu felt that he had really become more and more steady, and his temperament had grown better and better.
Mount Myoboku, Peak of Longevity.
The peak was surrounded by clouds and mist, as if connected to the sky.
This was the name Arisu had given to his residence.
As soon as he stepped into the cave dwelling, a chubby figure came hopping over to greet him. It was Gamamaru, who had already grown into a half-grown toad.
"Teacher, how are things outside?" Gamamaru asked respectfully.
Arisu slowly walked to the stone table in the center of the cave and sat down. With a light tap of his fingertip on the table, a faint stream of sage chakra flowed into the crystal ball of Mount Myoboku.
On the stone table appeared the illusory images of Hagoromo and Hamura, the very scene from their encounter by the lake.
"Still the same as before. Those two children have grown up, and their minds have gradually matured. The time has come." Arisu spoke calmly, his tone steady and without waves.
Then he raised his eyes to look at Gamamaru, his gaze sharpening slightly. "In a few days, follow my method and act."
"Find a way to get close to the two of them and talk about the Divine Tree, but remember, you must not directly tell them the truth."
"You only need to leave clues and guide them to investigate on their own. Only what people see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears will they truly believe, and only then will the will to resist arise."
Hearing this, Gamamaru felt deep admiration. As expected of Teacher, his thinking was so careful.
"Don't worry, Teacher!"
Gamamaru immediately straightened up and patted his chest in assurance.
He had long been dissatisfied with Kaguya's rule. If the Divine Tree drained the land dry, Mount Myoboku would also be affected.
But just as his words fell, Gamamaru lowered his head again. His chubby body curled slightly, looking as if he wanted to speak but hesitated.
"Gamamaru, do you still have something to say?" Arisu was extremely sharp. With one glance, he saw through his thoughts and asked calmly.
Gamamaru hesitated for a moment, but in the end he still knelt down with a thud, lowering his head deeply, his voice carrying a bit of heaviness. "Teacher, I… I had a dream."
"In my dream, Kaguya and her two sons were fighting beneath the Divine Tree. The battle turned the world upside down, and it felt as if the entire world was about to be destroyed…"
"Oh?" Arisu raised his eyebrow slightly.
He naturally knew of Gamamaru's prophetic dream ability. That was one of the reasons he had insisted on signing a contract with this seemingly ordinary little toad in the first place.
In the original story, it was Gamamaru's prophetic dream that pushed the Sage of Six Paths to fight against Kaguya.
Now it seemed that even with him, this variable, interfering, the inertia of history was still quietly moving forward.
"In that dream, was there any sign of me?"
Arisu asked with interest. It would be a lie to say he was not curious.
Although he was a transmigrator and knew the general plot, he also wanted to know what kind of waves he, this "butterfly," would stir up in the future, and what role he would play in that destined battle.
"No, Teacher. I went over the scenes in the dream again and again. From beginning to end, I did not see you at all. It was as if… you had never taken part in that battle."
Gamamaru raised his head, his eyes full of confusion, and shook his head.
"I see…"
Arisu's fingertip paused slightly, a trace of surprise flashing through his eyes before returning to calm.
His own future could not be predicted?
That was interesting.
He was not originally from this world.
And he carried an immortal body granted by the system. Perhaps it was this uniqueness that allowed him to step outside the path of fate and become an unpredictable variable.
"That's fine… that's fine…"
A faint smile curved at Arisu's lips, his gaze deep.
The feeling of having one's fate spied upon was not very pleasant. An unknown future was far more worth exploring.
A few days later, a small village suddenly fell into panic.
The river the village depended on for survival had somehow stopped flowing. The riverbed dried up, revealing cracked earth. The villagers struggled to get water and were about to face a water shortage crisis.
The news quickly reached Hagoromo and Hamura.
Over the years, they often traveled under their mother's orders, inspecting various places and helping ordinary people solve their difficulties. In the hearts of the people, they had already built up extremely high prestige.
The two rushed over at full speed and soon arrived at the upper reaches of the river.
From afar, they saw a giant boulder as large as a small mountain lying across the middle of the river, completely blocking the flow of water.
"A giant rock blocking the river?"
Hamura frowned and activated his Byakugan, carefully examining the situation of the boulder.
"It doesn't look like it fell naturally."
Hagoromo also sensed something unusual.
He said nothing more, simply raising his hand as a condensed mass of lightning release chakra gathered in his palm.
With a loud boom, lightning flashed, and the giant boulder was instantly shattered into pieces, fragments flying everywhere.
At that moment, a chubby figure jumped out from the nearby forest and landed in front of the two of them.
It was Gamamaru.
"You two must be Hagoromo and Hamura, right?"
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Gamamaru."
Gamamaru spoke, his voice carrying a deliberately deep and steady tone, completely different from the obedient way he acted in front of Arisu.
Hagoromo and Hamura were both shocked, disbelief showing on their faces.
Hamura instinctively activated his Byakugan to examine Gamamaru's background, but he only sensed a pure and special chakra, without any malice.
After all, Hamura did not understand sage arts.
"You… you can talk?" Hagoromo asked in surprise.
Gamamaru did not answer. He simply waved his front limbs and said mysteriously, "You two, follow me. There's something I want to show you."
After saying that, he turned and hopped toward the depths of the forest.
Hagoromo and Hamura exchanged a glance. Although their hearts were full of doubts, their instincts told them that this mysterious toad was definitely not simple.
The two did not hesitate and immediately followed Gamamaru's steps into the depths of the forest.
Gamamaru moved extremely fast, weaving flexibly through the woods. Hagoromo and Hamura followed closely behind. Before long, they arrived at the top of a towering mountain peak.
Standing at the peak, their view suddenly became wide and open.
In the distance, that Divine Tree that seemed to hold up the sky and earth came clearly into view. Its trunk was thick, its branches lush, and it emitted a vast aura of chakra, as if it were supporting the entire world.