"Teacher! Teacher! Just as you expected, the girl that Hagoromo likes was sacrificed. I'm afraid Hagoromo won't be able to hold himself back any longer!"
Gamamaru reported what he had seen to Arisu.
"Mm, I know."
Arisu showed a look that said it was exactly as expected.
Sure enough, a woman really is a man's weakness.
Hagoromo, who had originally been afraid of being punished by his mother, directly rebelled when he saw the girl he liked being sacrificed.
"Very good. Next, we just wait for them to come find me on their own. Gamamaru, go outside and meet them." Arisu put his hands behind his back and spoke calmly.
"Yes, Teacher!" Gamamaru immediately cupped his hands, unable to help admiring his teacher's ability to foresee things.
He truly had the bearing of a sage.
———
[Late at Night]
"Haori, wait for me to come save you!"
The figures of Hagoromo and Hamura sped through the night.
Hagoromo clenched his fists, his nails almost digging into his flesh. There was only one thought in his heart, save Haori, no matter the cost.
At the foot of the God Tree, the huge roots twisted and tangled, forming deep holes one after another, like entrances leading to hell.
"Wait, big brother!"
Hamura stopped first, took a deep breath, and in an instant blue veins spread across the whites of his eyes. The Byakugan was fully activated.
Light blue chakra flowed around his eyes, piercing through layers of darkness and roots, looking deep underground.
The next second, Hamura's face suddenly changed, his pupils shrinking from extreme shock.
"Those… those are all people! They're corpses!"
Then Hamura rushed madly toward one of the deep holes.
Hagoromo's heart shook violently as he followed right behind him into the hole.
After entering, Hagoromo clearly saw the scene before him.
Underground was actually a huge hollow space. Countless roots stretched down from the base of the God Tree like greedy tentacles, wrapping around densely packed objects.
They were cocoon shaped things wrapped in green leaves, neatly stacked inside the hollow space, stretching out of sight.
You could vaguely see human shapes wrapped inside.
"Big brother, hurry and open these!"
Hamura shouted anxiously.
"Okay!"
Anger and urgency mixed in Hagoromo's eyes. Without any hesitation, he directly released a Wind Style attack.
Invisible wind blades howled out, slashing toward those cocoons like sharp knives.
Puch!
Puch!
Hagoromo's gaze was locked tightly on every cocoon that was cut open. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, both expecting and fearing what he would see.
When one of the cocoons was split open by the wind blade, a familiar figure rolled out.
The plain cloth clothes had long been soaked in sticky fluid, torn and ruined. Her gentle face had no color, her eyes tightly closed, no breath at all. It was Haori.
"Haori!!!"
Hagoromo shouted hoarsely and rushed forward without caring about anything else, pulling Haori's cold body into his arms.
His trembling hand reached toward her nose. What his fingertips felt was only stillness.
"Haori! Wake up!"
"Wake up! I came to save you! You can't die!"
Hagoromo's voice was broken and hoarse, filled with despair as he shook Haori's body hard, trying to wake her.
But the girl in his arms still had her eyes closed. There was a faint smile at the corner of her lips, almost like relief. No matter how Hagoromo called her name or shook her, she gave no response.
"Big brother…"
"Haori… she's already dead."
Hamura crouched at the side and spoke with difficulty.
"No! Impossible!"
Hagoromo held Haori's cold body tightly, as if he wanted to merge her into his own bones and blood.
The warmth in his arms faded more and more. Haori's body slowly became stiff. Those familiar brows and eyes, that gentle smile, from now on would only exist in memory.
Huge grief washed over Hagoromo like a tide, breaking through all his reason and defenses.
He felt something in his heart completely shatter, followed by extreme pain and towering anger.
He remembered the way Haori calmly accepted her fate. He remembered her gentleness when she put on the magatama necklace.
He remembered his mother's deception. He remembered the greed of the God Tree. He remembered the barrenness of this land.
Otsutsuki Hagoromo pressed his lips tightly together and said nothing.
The warmth that used to be in his eyes completely faded, leaving only cold chill and intense anger.
That God Tree standing high above, the sacred object his mother said could not be violated, in his eyes at this moment was nothing more than a monster that devoured lives.
Those so called rules were nothing but cold chains set by his mother to satisfy her own selfish desires.
Gamamaru's words rang in his ears again. The barren scene around the God Tree appeared in his mind. Haori's gentle yet hopeless smile would not leave his eyes. All the doubt and awe he once had completely collapsed at this moment.
"Ahhhh!!!"
A heart tearing roar burst out of Hagoromo's mouth.
Extreme emotions struck his body, and a power he had never felt before surged up from his eyes.
His eyes suddenly turned red. Black magatama spun rapidly in his pupils, gathering together, finally forming three fierce magatama floating in the red pupils, the Sharingan.
The three tomoe Sharingan gave off a strange red light, lighting up Hagoromo's grief stricken face and also illuminating the countless cold corpses in the hollow space.
At this moment, there was no more warmth in his eyes, only endless sorrow, anger, and the flames of revenge.
"Big brother? Your eyes!"
Hamura looked at the Sharingan in his brother's eyes, too shocked to speak.
He had never seen such eyes, and had never felt such a terrifying presence from his brother.
———
When the sky was just beginning to brighten, a pale white light appeared on the horizon.
The two stepped through the morning dew and hurried all the way, finally arriving at the mountain peak where they had met Gamamaru that day.
The terrible scene under the God Tree, Haori's cold body, the unfamiliar power brought by the three tomoe Sharingan in his eyes, and their mother's long time deception.
They were like countless threads wrapped around their hearts, making them desperate to find the truth.
"Gamamaru! Where are you? I need you!"
Hagoromo shouted into the empty valley, his voice hoarse from a sleepless night.
As soon as his voice fell, a puff of smoke suddenly burst out in front of them, and Gamamaru's chubby figure jumped out from it.
Gamamaru still had that pretending to be deep look and said lightly, "Stop shouting. I've been waiting here for you for a long time."
Hagoromo frowned, full of doubt. "Why did you know I would definitely come?"
"Hmph, because that's what my master said!"
"My master is powerful and can predict things. He already expected that you would come to find me!"
Gamamaru puffed out his chest, his face full of pride.
"Who is your master?"
Hagoromo pressed on, his curiosity completely stirred up.
Gamamaru gave a mysterious smile and said meaningfully, "Come on, I'll take you to meet him. Speaking of which, you should already know him, and even… have met him."
It paused, looked at their stunned expressions, and added, "After all, when you were little, you grew up listening to my master's stories."
"Grew up listening to his stories!?"
Hagoromo and Hamura were stunned at first. Then their faces suddenly changed, and the same name flashed through their minds at the same time, Arisu.
The heroic legends their mother told all year round, the temple portrait they worshiped every year, and the man fishing in the snow that day who mysteriously disappeared… all the clues instantly connected together.
"Could the one who was fishing that day be the Arisu Mother talked about?"
Hagoromo's pupils shrank as he muttered in shock.
"Could it really be…"
Hamura's whole body trembled, his eyes full of disbelief.
The man they saw that day looked almost exactly like the young man in the temple portrait, just with a bit more calmness and indifference that came from years passing.
The figure shaped as a hero by their mother, the person she felt guilty toward and built a temple to worship, actually truly existed, and had even crossed paths with them.
"Hehe…"
Gamamaru looked at their shocked faces and could not help laughing. It waved its front limbs. "Follow me."
The two suppressed the storm in their hearts and followed closely behind Gamamaru.