"This is a historical trend, and also a necessary stage of growth for all living beings in the world."
"If I interfere too forcefully as your teacher, it will only push the ninja world toward another extreme, which would actually be the inferior choice.", Arisu said calmly.
He had long surpassed the ordinary levels of combat power and the structure of the ninja world.
If he rashly interfered, he would only turn himself into the enemy of the entire ninja world.
Rather than using brute force to overturn everything, it would be better to influence things quietly, like moisture soaking into the earth, slowly changing the world through subtle guidance.
Besides, Arisu had lived for so long that his heart had grown somewhat indifferent. Human suffering? He had already seen far too much of it...
In earlier times, Arisu would still use his sage arts to heal ordinary people. But ever since he withdrew from the world, he had basically stopped doing those things.
The closer one moved toward the path of the Six Paths, the more emotionless one became.
Kurama lowered its ears. Although it felt unwilling, it knew that its teacher's words were never wrong, so it could only swing its huge tail.
"Alright, teacher, I'll listen to you! But we haven't seen each other for so many years. Since you came specially to find me, you must have something important, right?", The Nine-Tails said.
Arisu nodded slightly, "Right now the ninja world is filled with war and chaos everywhere."
"First, I thought of old ties and wanted to see how you nine tailed beasts have been doing."
"Second, I intend to personally protect you so that you won't be targeted and persecuted by various forces, wandering from place to place in misery."
As soon as he said this, Kurama's drooping ears instantly stood upright. Extreme joy burst out in its crimson beast eyes, and even its massive body trembled slightly.
It had known it. Its teacher would never truly abandon them disciples.
"Teacher! You're really going to help us? Then what are you planning to do?", Kurama quickly leaned closer and asked impatiently.
Arisu looked at its eager expression and chuckled lightly, his tone carrying the unfathomable air of an immortal.
"Well, an immortal naturally has his own clever plan. Just wait peacefully."
Seeing his teacher deliberately keep it mysterious, Kurama didn't press further. It simply nodded obediently and waited happily for the result.
Looking at Arisu's immortal-like appearance, Kurama could not help asking, "Hey, teacher, did you change your clothes? What happened to the old ones?"
"Oh? I am now a figure of faith in the mortal world. If people saw me as I truly am, it would surely cause a huge uproar."
"So I fixed my appearance to look about sixty or seventy years old.", Arisu said while looking at his robe.
Kurama immediately laughed. "Teacher, you really have the bearing of an immortal. Looking at it this way, I feel like you look even more like a sage now."
———
The next day, Arisu bid farewell to Kurama and set out to travel across the ninja world.
With Arisu's heaven-defying abilities, finding the nine tailed beasts was naturally an easy task.
He first traveled north and found the Two-Tails Matatabi and the Eight-Tails Gyuki in the wild mountain ranges of the Land of Lightning.
When the two tailed beasts saw Arisu, they were extremely excited and surrounded him, chattering endlessly about the frustration of being hunted by ninja clans over the years.
After that Arisu traveled west and met the Five-Tails Kokuo in the barren desert plains at the border between the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind.
Then in the poisonous miasma deep within the mountains he found the Seven-Tails Chomei.
These tailed beasts had lived alone for years and suffered from endless conflicts. When they saw the old man who had once guided them, every one of them showed the purest closeness and dependence.
Next Arisu traveled south and met Shukaku, Isobu, and the others in sequence...
In just three short days, Arisu visited all nine tailed beasts, reminisced with them, and quietly laid down a hidden move that would change the balance of the world.
Arisu activated all the hidden lines of Mount Myoboku in the mortal world.
After hundreds of years of accumulation, Mount Myoboku had already secretly controlled an invisible network formed by the world's wealth, public opinion and media, religion, and the bounty exchange system.
With only a slight push, the situation of the world could be changed.
The way Mount Myoboku secretly controlled the world was extremely hidden.
Even the highest-ranking daimyo in the world did not know that a force like Mount Myoboku existed.
They only knew that there was an invisible hand...
Very quickly, a sudden change swept through the ninja world.
The craze of hunting tailed beasts, which had been sweeping through every nation and growing more intense, suddenly seemed to have a pause button pressed by an invisible hand. It vanished without a trace.
The great nations and the various ninja clans that had carved up territories all mysteriously stopped their pursuit of the tailed beasts.
Immediately after, in the Six Paths temples that stood throughout the ninja world, brand-new teachings began to spread.
Monks in the temples went everywhere preaching that the tailed beasts were divine beasts, guardians that protected peace in the human world.
They were absolutely not monsters that brought disaster, and all living beings should treat them kindly and must not capture or imprison them.
These teachings instantly spread across the ninja world.
In less than half a month, the daimyo of every nation issued decrees one after another, listing the tailed beasts as special-class protected divine beasts of the ninja world and explicitly forbidding any force from hunting or enslaving them.
They had directly turned the tailed beasts into protected animals.
Although ninja clans were powerful, they did not engage in production.
Farming, forging weapons, and daily supplies all had to be provided by the nations.
On top of that, some ninja clans were weak and could not capture tailed beasts anyway. Instead of watching stronger clans capture them, it was better to collectively oppose capturing them.
That way the powerful clans would not become even stronger after obtaining the tailed beasts.
Very quickly, the tailed beasts, once seen as incarnations of disaster, suddenly transformed overnight into auspicious divine beasts and protected animals.
Ordinary people in the world even began treating the tailed beasts as symbols of good fortune. Rumors spread that seeing a tailed beast would bring blessings and wealth.
It was like the dragons in legends from a previous life. Basically, anyone who saw one would gain fortune.
Throughout the entire ninja world, no one knew where this earth-shaking change had come from.
They only felt that an invisible hand was quietly controlling public opinion and the structure of the world, pulling the nine tailed beasts completely out of the desperate situation of being hunted.
———
[Senju Clan Territory]
"Clan leader! Something unbelievable happened! Those tailed beast monsters… have suddenly become protected animals overnight!", A Senju clan member shouted.
Senju Shuichi sat in the main seat, lightly tapping the armrest with his finger. Hearing this, he simply raised his eyebrow slightly.
Then he spoke, "Oh? How is that a bad thing? It's clearly a great thing."
He had already calculated this in his heart. Recently the Uchiha, Uzumaki, Hyuga, and several other clans had been crazily searching for tailed beasts, determined to tame these ferocious beasts for war.
The Senju were already troubled enough dealing with the Uchiha's Sharingan. If they were allowed to gain the power of tailed beasts as well, the Senju clan would surely fall into a desperate situation.
Now that the tailed beasts had become protected animals and all capture operations had suddenly stopped, it happened to solve the Senju's urgent crisis.
"Clan leader, this is too strange!"
"Think about it. Just a few days ago every clan was staring at the tailed beasts greedily, desperately trying to capture them. Why did they suddenly all stop?"
"Do you think… they secretly made some hidden alliance behind the scenes and are preparing something against us?"
The Senju clan member leaned forward and spoke cautiously in a low voice.
"Hahaha, you're thinking too much.", Senju Shuichi waved his hand and laughed loudly.
The clans had deep grudges against one another, and the relationship between the Uchiha and Hyuga was not good either. He absolutely did not believe these people could easily reach a consensus.
"Enough, stop guessing."
Senju Shuichi stroked his chin, becoming somewhat curious instead, "What I want to know is what kind of ability could make that guy Uchiha Izumiichi give up hunting tailed beasts."
"Just a few days ago when we met, he was still threatening that he would lead the Nine-Tails to trample my Senju clan territory."