The woods were thick. Ivy twined around fat trunks, down to the roots of mossy trees, erasing the border between tree and earth. This particular tree that stretched its branches to the heavens, seeking the light of the sun, was hundreds of years old. But beyond it were young buds not yet grown.
Someone was looking down on it all. The left eye that barely peeked out from the hair hanging across his face was the supreme rinnegan. At first glance, the right looked to be a normal eye, but it housed the sharingan, the kekkei genkai of the Uchiha clan. The man’s name was Uchiha Sasuke.
At the top of the massive tree, Sasuke looked out at the view in all directions. He had made it through the Fourth Great Ninja War and come back a shinobi of Konoha once more. However, rather than staying in the village, he had set out on a journey.
I want to know how this ninja world—how the world looks to me now.
He had been traveling for several years, and had seen things he probably wouldn’t have noticed when he was steeped in darkness. There had also been times when he looked back gently on the past he had tried to break free of. There were moments when he remembered his friends. He saw with his own eyes the scars of the war; he touched on people’s sadness, and felt the futility of revenge.
In the past, Sasuke had endured the pain and suffering of having his family and his clan taken from him with the powerful medicine of revenge. But in the depth of that darkness, he had become confused about what path to go down. He had lost sight of what was important. It had taken a very long time to be able to understand and accept that, but Sasuke truly felt it now.
He felt the changes in the world as well. The five Kage had moved to make major wars disappear, and maintain peace and order. Once, the power of the ninja was used to protect their own countries, and to invade and attack other nations. Now, it was being made use of to develop equipment that did not require chakra to instantly transmit information, to maintain medical facilities, to actively communicate with other nations, and to enhance distribution systems, among other things. The world was stepping into a new age of growth.
Which was exactly why he could not overlook one particular issue.
Otsutsuki Kaguya.
The woman who had taken in her mouth the fruit of the Divine Tree—said to be forbidden—gained chakra, and brought calm to a turbulent world. But she had been consumed by the immense power, and after a time when she ran wild, her own children, Hamura and Hagoromo, had sealed her away.
That very Kaguya had come back to this world, and Sasuke had, along with his comrades in Team 7 and Uchiha Obito, sealed her away once more. Once the threat that had rocked the world had passed, people rejoiced, but something about it bothered Sasuke.
Through Black Zetsu’s secret maneuvering to bring her back, Kaguya had linked the people she cast Infinite Tsukiyomi on to the roots of the Divine Tree, transforming them over many years into her personal soldiers. The end result was the army of White Zetsu.
Formerly known as the Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya changed somehow after she had freed the world from conflict, so the people connected to the Divine Tree also came after the peace she brought about. Why, in a world where fighting was supposed to have ended, was there a need to use the Infinite Tsukiyomi on people and turn them into soldiers? To play cruelly with those who had power, to control human beings with fear; a number of reasons came to mind, but Sasuke could see no clear answer.
He was chasing after the traces Kaguya had left behind to clear away his doubts, but his opponent was the progenitor of chakra. Sasuke might have had the rinnegan, but picking up her trail was no easy feat.
“Mm?” Sensing an aura, he looked toward the southwest. When he squinted, he could see something flying in his direction. At first glance, it was a small bird flapping its wings, but circulating in that bird was not blood, but ink and text brought to life by chakra.
Sasuke quickly pulled out a scroll, and the bird flew toward it as if called. Konoha ninja Sai’s Art of Cartoon Beast Mimicry. The figure of the bird disappeared, and in its place, text spread out on the open scroll.
Thinking that he needed to have a more diverse view of the world in order to know Kaguya, Sasuke had recently deliberately begun communicating with Konoha more often, asking them to send him information on the state of the village and of the world.
He turned his gaze to the words on the page, thinking it was one of those missives, but his brow furrowed at the content. “This …”
It was a message from the current Hokage, Hatake Kakashi. Apparently, a large number of ninja from Kirigakure and Kumogakure had suddenly disappeared. There was no sign of a fight, and information was limited, so the Hokage was asking him to contact Konoha if he found anything suspicious that might have been related to the incident.
“More than a hundred ninja suddenly vanish?”
If a person was behind it, it was possible that they were a genjutsu user. In which case, it would be best for Sasuke, with his superior ocular jutsu, to respond. If he used the sharingan, he might be able to see what other ninja couldn’t.