We could ask for a seal instead? Then we don't have to level it.
Or ask for a utility jutsu. I bet Orochimaru invented or came across plenty of jutsu that are just as good as the fertilizer jutsu, and just never bothered to tell anyone. If we get something like that we'd be giving it to other people to level. On the other hand, that wouldn't increase our personal power much, so it may be best to go with a seal.
These are good suggestions tbh. My only issue is it means that however good it is, Orochimaru also has access to it. But I guess by that measure, maybe ask for something he's definitely better at than us. Like a bio-seal of some sort. Then again that might need him to operate so uh...maybe some biosealing notes to study/learn from?
Well I also question the maximum usefulness of a jutsu if it's not earthshaking. It's just another thing to level. So if it's not crazy dope, we wasted our time. But extra xp is just...the best. It furthers our goals and hastens them.
Couple things, we aren't asking for a jutsu but a set of 5. One for each element. That way we can power up everyone. Secondly we can try to get stunt based jutsu so just a one time investment instead of something that we have to level
I think asking for one from each element is sub-optimal. Aside from the fact that Oro isn't known for his elemental jutsu, that passes up any really good neutral jutsu that everyone could use. Plus, I feel the more constraints we place, the less we'll lose the advantage of the "idk, take a shiny, go away" mentality.
You do have a good point about the utility of Hazō himself getting a new jutsu. We already have PEA, which is earthshaking, and we still haven't had time to level it.
what's interesting is that he hasn't really been oblivious to anyone else's romantic interest in him, just Snowflake's. But to be fair, the circumstances are extremely niche and he's had other stuff to do...
Couple things, we aren't asking for a jutsu but a set of 5. One for each element. That way we can power up everyone. Secondly we can try to get stunt based jutsu so just a one time investment instead of something that we have to level
In canon, Orochimaru's primary goal was to learn all of the jutsu, and he was correspondingly the single most knowledgeable jutsu user.
I don't think we should bargain for Orochimaru's time, it's the most expensive thing he could offer and we should mostly just care about surviving 'till we outlevel everyone anyway, but if we did I think it's a safe bet that he would have plenty.
Well you see that's the difference between academia and industry. He knows all the jutsu, but he only knows how to apply in practice the ones which involve lobbing snakes at the enemy.
The day before Hazō, Mari, and Noburi rent the seals to Orochimaru...
Noburi is attempting to make Ma and Pa feel relaxed and friendly so that they will share whatever they know about the Sage's band of five. (Names, abilities, stories, appearance/descriptions, symbols, etc). They aren't averse to talking about this so he'll be able to get some information, but if he manages to beat their roll then he'll get substantially more.
Noburi, Rapport (24) + invoke "Sensitive About My Cooking" (one of Shima's Aspects that he didn't have to use Empathy to discover because she's very obvious about it) + invoke "Zone of Friendship" (his own Aspect and basically tailor made for this setting) + 3 (dice) = 33
Ma, Empathy (?) + 0 (dice) = ?
Pa, Empathy (?) + 3 (dice) = ?
"Thank you for the tea," Noburi said, nodding politely as he set the cup down. "And for the soup." He picked up the spoon and sampled, acutely aware of Shima standing over him looking expectant.
He blinked, then immediately sampled a bit more, forcing himself not to simply pick the bowl up and glug it down. "Sage, this is amazing." The words were no mere flattery; this soup was the savory equivalent of lying back, drowsy and content, in a sunny meadow with no particular place to be.
"Ha! Told you I could make that work," Shima said to her husband.
"Oh hush," Fukasaku grumbled. "I never said you couldn't. I just thought you were using a little too heavy a hand on the dill, that's all." Despite his words, the Toad patriarch was spooning the soup up just as fast as Noburi.
"Did you make the recipe up?" Noburi asked.
Few things are more horrifying than being simpered at by a two-foot tall toad with purple lipstick and purple hair.
"A little bit of tradition, a sprinkle of experimentation, and a double handful of experience," she said.
"More than a double handful," Fukasaku muttered.
"Are you calling me old, you antique coot?!"
"Actually, that reminds me of something I meant to ask you two," Noburi said quickly. "Humans generally live thirty or forty years, maybe sixty or seventy if they're very lucky. People on the Seventh Path seem to live much longer. Hundreds of years."
"Bah," Shima said, waving one webbed hand dismissively. "That's mostly nonsense. Sure, some of them like to claim they've lived for centuries, but they're mostly lying."
"We aren't lying," Fukasaku said, glowering at his wife.
"Sure, but when those Pangolin upstarts claim it they're sucking on fewmets."
"Stop being such a snob. Some of them have. That boy with his scales all adangle, for one. I remember him being around when we had that little kerfluffle on the border."
"Excuse me," Noburi siad. "'Scales adangle'?"
Fukasaku waved dismissively. "Something like that. Panty? Pants? He brags himself up by claiming his scales are dangling."
"...Do you mean 'Pantsā of the Adamant Scales'?"
"That's the one!" Fukasaku snapped his fingers and pointed at Noburi in acknowledgement. "Bah. Pretentious much?"
"Sir...Pantsā is the leader of the Pangolin Clan."
"Bah." Another dismissive wave and he went back to his soup.
"How does that work, anyway?" Noburi asked. "Clan leaders, I mean. Do they choose their own successors?"
"It varies," Shima said, patting him on the arm. "Also, it's usually complicated—or simple, depending on how you look at it. They'll say that it's a choice of the people, or of the winds of fate, or whatever. In reality, there's always one or two people who make the decision."
"Such as yourselves?"
Shima and Fukasaku exchanged amused glances. "We're much too old to weigh in on that sort of thing," Fukasaku said, reaching for the bread.
Noburi chuckled. "Meaning that I shouldn't ask."
"I knew there was a reason I liked you," Fukasaku said. "How are things going for you, boy?" The implied 'we are done with that topic' could not have been more clear.
Noburi paused to consider. "Things are..."
The ancient Toad Sages waited.
"Things are..."
"Complicated?" / "Unstable?"
"...Those fit, I guess. We've been in a war for months, Leaf has lost about a third of its ninja, but we've lost more like eighty percent of the people who actually matter in a fight."
Shima's already wide eyes went wider. "Are you going to survive?"
"Probably? There's a new organization being started. It's called the AMITY, because my sister's sister likes to name things after herself."
"Your sister's sister?" Fukasaku said, curious. He poured himself another cup of tea and leaned back in his chair, one bony green ankle resting on the other knee. "Isn't that just your sister?"
"It's complicated. I told you how the Gōketsu formed—we were tricked out of Mist, we found the Pangolin Scroll, invented the skywalker, and used all that to buy our way into Leaf and form the Gōketsu clan. My sister Kei was originally a Mori, then she became a Gōketsu when we founded the clan, and then she married into the Nara. She's still a Gōketsu, I think, but she's also a Nara. Her sister, Mori Ami, is this unstoppable engine of chaos prodigy who does whatever she wants and always gets away with it. She's also psychotically devoted to Kei, to the level where she almost decided to kill us all because she didn't like something that Mari did that put Kei in danger. Recently, Ami decided that it would make Kei safer if she ended war, so she did."
"She ended the war? On her own?" Shima asked, shocked.
Noburi laughed. "No, that's much too fiddly for Ms Prodigy. She ended all war, forever. Probably. Possibly." He poured himself another cup of tea and sipped it. "This is good tea, by the way. I didn't say this before, but thank you for having me in your home, and cooking for me."
"Whatever!" Shima said, flapping a hand at him. "What's this 'ending all war forever' thing?"
"She created an agency called the AMITY. I don't know the details, but apparently it's an alliance between the major Elemental Nations and some of the minor nations. A mutual defense pact, where if anyone attacks anyone else then everyone attacks the aggressor."
Fukasaku snorted. "Pull the other one. People down there think that has a chance of working long-term? Sure, the minor nations tried it, but they had a common enemy in the majors."
"First, 'down there'?" Noburi asked, raising an eyebrow. "What makes you think the Human Path isn't up from here?"
"Stop prattling and answer the question! Do they honestly believe it will work long-term?"
"I don't know if people believe it will work, but they at least believe it's worth talking about. There's going to be a big meeting between all the Kage and the leaders of some of the minor nations." He tipped his head in realization. "Actually, I'm not sure if it's all the Kage. I have no idea whether Rock is getting invited or not, or what will happen if they are."
"So they're going to get together and make this mutual defense treaty," Shima said. "And the day after that, someone is going to stage a false flag attack as a way of getting everyone to destroy their enemy."
Noburi shrugged. "I assume that's going to be one of the first things they talk about."
"In a thousand years, no human has ever done this? What's so special about this girl that she can convince rulers of nations to listen to her?"
Noburi shrugged again. "Like I said, she's a prodigy with Infiltration and Seduction experience. She basically does whatever she wants and gets away with it. She attracted Orochimaru's interest and survived—"
"Little Oro is still running around down there?" Shima asked. "How is that boy?"
"He's...uh...not a boy anymore, ma'am. He's a grown man, and he's terrifying."
Fukasaku clicked his tongue. "Still doing those snake things, hm?"
"Yep. He's got eyes like a snake—literally. They're bright yellow with vertical slits. According to the stories, during the Battle of the Gods he made his tongue sixty feet long and forked it three times so that he could wield three separate swords."
Both Sages rolled their eyes.
"Oh, please," Fukasaku sneered. "Tongue enhancement is the first trick any young Toad learns, and a sense of proportion is the second. Sounds like little Oro is overcompensating something fierce."
"Yes sir. Anyway, he's probably one of the five most powerful ninja in the world who isn't a Kage or a jinchūriki, and he's likely more powerful than some of those. Recently, he was going to kidnap Hazō for dissection, we think. Asuma said that he needs Orochimaru more than he needs the Gōketsu. He told us how to resolve the issue but he said that he couldn't be seen to involve himself directly."
"He what?!" Shima shouted, bolting to her feet. "I need to have a talk with that boy! How dare he—"
"Ma'am, I don't like it either, but I understand where he was coming from. Asuma is—was—in the middle of a war. Orochimaru contributes massive combat power, but more importantly he contributes a reputation that makes the other nations think twice about attacking Leaf. The Gōketsu don't. On top of that...well, I wouldn't say this to anyone on the Human Path, but Orochimaru is crazy. He's barely under control, and he's already shown that he's willing to abandon the village if he's pushed too far. Asuma is the Kage of Leaf, not the lord of the Gōketsu. He needs to prioritize thirty thousand lives over one, or even over the half dozen ninja and several hundred civilians in our clan."
"Why didn't he just order the boy to stand down? Sure, he was always headstrong, but..." She trailed off.
"Yeah. 'But.' If Orochimaru accepts the order and stands down, great. If he doesn't then Asuma can't physically force him to the way his father or Jiraiya could. Tsunade and maybe Naruto are the only ones in the village who can stop Orochimaru, but if Asuma orders them to do it then he's reminding everyone that he can't do it himself. That weakens his ability to be Kage and means that people are more likely to start questioning his orders or wanting to insert themselves into the planning process where they shouldn't be. We're in the middle of a war; we can't have that."
Shima slowly sat down, grumpiness spreading itself across her wide face. "Hrmph."
"Yeah," Noburi said, nodding and offering a 'what can you do' wave of one hand. "Anyway, a while back Orochimaru got interested in maybe dissecting Ami. In order to get out of it she created a thing called the Final Gift Program, where elderly ninja who are going to die soon give themselves to Orochimaru for experimentation in exchange for a large payment to their families."
"Where's he getting the money from?" Fukasaku asked, curious. "He was missing until twenty minutes ago, wasn't he?"
"He was, and I'm not sure. I know that he took his old house back and kicked us all out, claiming that the Tower hadn't had the right to take it from him. Maybe he did the same with his old cash reserves from before his disappearance? Or maybe the Tower is paying it. Dunno, not my area."
"Hrmph."
"My thoughts exactly. That was just one example. Ami has also toppled a Mizukage, created an organization that gives Leaf's clanless ninja almost as much power as the clans, created an organization that gives Mist's young ninja almost as much power as the clans, fought beside Naruto and Kei when they defeated the Condor Boss, and convinced both the Mizukage and the Hokage that they should let her change citizenship from Mist to Leaf. Now she's decided to end war everywhere for always."
"How old is this girl?" Shima asked.
"Not sure exactly? Eighteen, nineteen? Something like that."
"And in hundreds of years, no one ever decided to make a defense treaty that would end war?" Fukasaku demanded.
Noburi grimaced. "In fairness, it wasn't really possible until now. I think it's less that she's transforming the world through her own will and more that she's taking advantage of a situation that allows for the world to be transformed.
"I talked to Mari about this. She got pretty detailed in her breakdown and I didn't understand all of it, but the upshot is that up until very recently it wasn't possible. During the Warring Clans period there wasn't enough cohesion to form a global alliance—too many factions, too many grudges, not enough leadership. Seventy years ago, Senju Hashirama united a bunch of the strongest clans to form Leaf—"
"We know that, boy," Fukasaku snapped. "We were Jiraiya's friends for decades, you think we don't know the history of that little puddle he calls home?"
"Called." Shima laid her hand on her husband's and silence laid its hand on all of them.
"...Well," Noburi said eventually, "after Leaf was founded, the other nations condensed into their own Hidden Villages. Now, suddenly, there's enough leadership and cohesion that it's theoretically possible to condense further, but only after a couple of generations have grown up thinking that it's normal to live with and fight beside people from other clans.
"Then the Third—"
"Oh, little Hiru! He was such a good boy. What a loss."
"Yes, ma'am. The Third spent decades spreading the idea that it wasn't just clans that could work together, it was nations. He held things together for a decade before World War Three—"
"We know all this," Shima said. "And it wasn't his failure that caused the third war. Without him, it would have started at least a year earlier. There were droughts and famines for two years and people were starving. He kept things together for two years even as bandits started burning everything to the ground and people were dying left and right. Those Rock bastards kicked in the door of Claw, Claw got wedged between Wind and Rain, Lightning took a bite out of Hot Springs, and everything went to the trash. Hiru and Jiraiya both talked to us about it and asked for suggestions."
There were times when it was hard to remember that these tiny little toad people had lived through the events that Noburi only knew from history books. Not just lived through them, but influenced them.
"Right. Um, sorry. Anyway, with the First condensing the various tribes into the villages and the Third condensing the villages into something like friendly relationships, things were ripe for Ami to do what she did. Rock started this war, Lightning started to step in and then got its nose bloodied and backed out. Everyone knew that it was going to spread, so the idea of a way out that didn't mean losing face was appealing." He shrugged. "That's what Mari said, anyway."
"Why did Rock start all this, anyway?" Shima asked. "Seems like it wasn't to their interest."
Noburi shrugged helplessly. "There's been a lot of speculation. Someone said that they were having a famine and needed better farmland."
"Ridiculous!" Fukasaku snapped. "Why not just buy the food? Asuma's a good boy and he learned at his father's knee. He would have been happy to sell them food at affordable rates that would tie the nations together."
"Well, another theory is that Leaf got off relatively lightly in the Battle of the Gods, making us more powerful in comparison. Maybe Rock was worried that we would grow our power faster than they could and if they didn't strike now they wouldn't be able to strike in the future."
"Bah," Fukasaku said, flapping one hand. "Even more ridiculous. If that was the worry then they should have coordinated with Lightning, attacked you on two fronts simultaneously."
"I mean...Lightning did attack us..."
"When?"
"Um...I don't remember exactly. A couple weeks after things started?"
"Probably they made an alliance and a plan to coordinate and then Lightning hung them out to dry," Shima said, nodding to herself.
"Nah. Probably just people being dumb," Fukasaku said. "Hard to coordinate over long distances. Attacks always happen at different times."
"Different by weeks? Don't you condescend to me, you old fool! Sounds more like a false flag to me. Lightning saw their chance, so they attacked Leaf while wearing Rock's headbands. Leaf was already primed after the Collapse; they went at Rock, who fought back, and once the two were embroiled Lightning would have been able to snip off a good chunk of Fire."
"Stop making up crazy conspiracy theories, you old bat! Besides, if it was a false flag then it would make much more sense for it to be one of the minor nations. They've still got that mutual defense pact that Hiru built for them. Right, boy?"
"Uh, I think so, sir."
"Sure. They see that the majors have all been weakened by that Nagi Island disaster, so they stir the pot. If your enemy is the other Elemental Nations, no one is going to want to open up another front against the minors. It doesn't serve strategic needs and just brings more trouble down on you."
"I suppose," Noburi said. Damnit, they'd gotten off track. He was supposed to be bending this around to the Sage and his companions! That was the entire reason that Hazō had asked him to come here. "Anyway, the point is that Ami is able to do all this super impressive stuff, but at least in this case it's because most of the work was already done for her. The Third gave everyone the idea of international cooperation after the First gave them the idea of interclan cooperation after the Sage gave people the chakra to protect themselves." Okay, at least the Sage had been mentioned again. Although a simple 'hey, speaking of the Sage, how about you tell me everything you know about him and his companions' wasn't going to cut it as a segue.
Fukasaku harumphed. "The Sage. Wasn't he a font of good advice and excellent choices?"
"How do you mean, sir?"
"Oh, ignore him," Shima said. "This old coot has been jealous of the Sage as long as I've known him."
"That's not true! You snotty old bat, what do you mean talking me down in front of the boy?!"
"There, there," she said, patting his arm while wearing a smug grin. "I'm sure you're very impressive and stack up well against the living god who created our entire dimension and all the species."
"LOOK—"
"Have you studied the Sage, sir?" Noburi asked, praising his stars for the opportunity. "I admit, I actually know very little about him." He shrugged in self-deprecation. "They teach us that he's the one who created chakra and created the world, but there's not much known about him beyond that. Hazō says that Cannai, the Alpha Dog, gave him a poem about the Sage and talked about these companions he used to tool around with, but I hadn't heard of them before."
"Poem?" Fukasaku demanded.
"Yeah, I think I have it somewhere here. One sec." He made a show of checking various pockets until he found the right stack of storage seals, then riffled through them while counting silently to himself. Mari had drilled him relentlessly on how fast to riffle and how long to 'search' in order to keep the targets interested and heighten anticipation without actively annoying them.
"Here we go," he said, right as the count ended. He unsealed the paper on which Hazō had copied down the words after returning from the Seventh Path.
Unbounded you call me, yet bound I am
Wise One you call me, yet still I err
First Spinner you call me, and this I grant
I have spun your First Tale, my Great Tale
The Tale of Dog and Cat, of Hawk and Hornet.
All tales change and all tales flow
Days wend into weeks or years
Passing time brings losses, cheers
Now must I go, my children all
My bed to make among the men, who need me more.
Flow of fire, standing high
Tower the mighty waves, grave and gray and green
Water's power raised by storm-wind breath
Fire and wave in joyous chorus, the birth of earth to bring
Green the rising life shall grow
Trees of wood and iron and stone
Beware their shade, for my Lost Ones sing.
Beyond the trees my rest shall be
I leave there seven rocks with seven locks
Each rock a treasure's home
Treasures bright shall guidance give
Truth or death, no equal chance
To find the way to me.
Spin on, talespinner! Spin on!
Raise up the mighty word, unite the bounding arc of dream
With reason's bark and incisors bite
From first to last
To tread the path of wisdoms loss
Remember me, speak my name
And when the years have wended wide
Come and find me once again.
Fukasaku snatched the paper from him and read through it, Shima crowding close to read over his shoulder. It was clear when Fukasaku reached the end; he frowned, shook his head slightly, and went back to read it again. Finally, he threw the paper down on the table, prompting a grunt from Shima who hadn't finished yet. She picked it up with a glare at her husband and resumed reading.
"What is this twaddle?!" Fukasaku demanded, not noticing his wife's glare. "What sort of nonsense are they spewing over in Dog? This doesn't make any damn sense!"
"To you maybe," Shima said with a sniff. "For anyone with the slightest trace of romance in their heart, it's perfectly plain."
"And I suppose you think you have romance in your heart? Hah! You wouldn't know romance if it snuck up and bit those purple lips off!"
"I've got more romance than you do! Who remembers our anniversary, hm? Not you, that's for sure!"
"I remember it! I had an entire party for you not ten months ago!"
She thwapped him on top of the head. "Our anniversary is nine months ago, you addled old fool!"
"Don't you hit me, you crazy old bat!" Fukasaku said, rubbing his head. "Nine, ten, whatever! I was rounding!"
"You rounded nine to ten?"
"It's easier to remember!"
"You round to the nearest eight, you idiot!" said the angry and four-fingered toad matron. "Tens are for those freaky humans and their squiggly hands!" She went to thwap him again but he parried with an inside block and jabbed her in the arm with two fingers. She twisted with the attack, robbing it of much of its force, and lashed out with an open-hand slap, which he ducked under before snapping a straight kick that she flowed around, dropping low and rising up on the opposite side with the grace of the greatest festival dancers.
Noburi sat back in his chair, legs crossed at the ankles, and sipped his tea as the two ancient Sages fought their way up and down the room. He'd get his answers once they tired themselves out, but for now he wasn't going to miss the show.
The Toad Sages did eventually tire themselves out and return, grumbling, to their seats.
"If you don't mind me saying so, you two are incredible fighters," Noburi said. "The only human I ever saw who was even close to that level was Maito Gai, and he was widely known as probably the greatest taijutsu master alive."
Both of the centuries-old demigods preened like the worst stereotypes of teenage girls with a new mirror.
"Thank you, boy," Fukasaku said, puffing on his pipe. "We sparred with little Gai a few times. Had some good moves, that one."
"He was nothing compared to our Jirry," Shima said stoutly. "Took us years to teach that boy the Toad Style katas, but once he learned them there was no one on your Path who could beat him when he was trying."
Noburi forebore to say anything about how maybe the reason that no one could beat Jiraiya in taijutsu 'when he was trying' was because Jiraiya didn't actually fight with taijutsu when he was trying—no one who wielded the Rasengan could be considered a taijutsu fighter. You weren't primarily a taijutsu fighter if simply touching your opponent was enough to turn them into itty-bitty chunks.
"I've never been a taijutsu guy myself," Noburi said, trying to sound regretful. "That's Hazō's gig and I'm sure he'd be over the moon if you ever wanted to share any tips or advice with him, or just tell him stories about Jiraiya and how you trained him. He really looked up to Jiraiya. For myself, I've focused on my ninjutsu much more." He made a throwing away gesture with one hand. "Still, that's a little off-track. You guys were telling me about the Sage and his band?"
"We were?" Fukasaku asked.
Shima thwapped Fukasaku atop his tuft of white hair. "Don't be obnoxious, you old goat! You know you can't wait to show off for the boy, so don't tease him on top of it!"
Fukasaku glared at her as he rubbed his head. "Fine, fine," he grumbled. "What about him did you want to know, boy?"
"Anything you're willing to tell, sir. What was his name, who were his friends, did he really create chakra...?"
"Create chakra!" Shima laughed. "Ha! That would be like creating weight, or light!"
"I create light every time I light my pipe," Fukasaku said. "Don't show off your ignorance!"
"That's not what I meant, old goat! I meant creating all light! The very idea of light!"
"But it's not what you said! Ha!"
"Hmph." Shima pushed her chair back and stood up, striding out of the room and into the kitchen. She was back moments later with a plate in either hand, half of a fist-sized treacle tart on each plate. She slid one in front of Noburi and set the other down at her own place. "I was going to cut this in thirds, but rude people don't get dessert."
"Hey!"
"I can split this and you can have—" Noburi froze halfway through offering part of his dessert. Shima's glare promised that his entire being would be reduced to its component elements should he dare to finish the sentence.
"That's not fair!" Fukasaku said. "You can't possibly be this petty!"
"Hmph." Shima delicately lifted the gooey dessert to her lips and took a small bite. "Oh, my. That came out very well. Mm."
"Give me th—" Fukasaku was reaching for Noburi's dessert as he spoke, but he cut himself off and yanked his hand back as Shima's wooden spoon slashed down where his fingers would have been, striking so hard that it cracked the table.
"Don't you dare disrespect a guest and shame our roof!" the toad matron snapped.
"He's our Summoner! It's his duty to—"
"It's not his duty to give you his dessert! If you want dessert then you need to be nice to me!"
"I am nice to you!"
"You think snotting off to me in front of the boy is nice?!"
Noburi coughed into his fist, then focused very closely on his dessert. Both toads stopped their spat to look at him. He "didn't notice" for a few seconds, then looked up in "surprise".
"Yes, sir? Ma'am?"
Fukasaku eyed him sourly for several long seconds while Noburi maintained a completely innocent expression. Finally, the Toad Sage turned to his wife.
"I'm sorry I was snotty," he grunted, his voce extremely sotto.
"Excuse me, what was that?" Shima said, placing a hand to her earhole. "I couldn't hear you."
Noburi coughed into his fist again, once more focusing on his dessert. Once more, the Toad Sages glared at him. Eventually, Shima sighed and turned to her husband.
"I made two tarts," she said. "There's a half on the counter in the kitchen if you want one."
His fuzzy caterpillar eyebrows shot up. He opened his mouth to say something but broke off when Noburi cleared his throat, then took a nibble of the tart and sighed in pleasure, eyes drifting closed as he sampled.
"You've got a real mouth on you, boy," Fukasaku said.
"Sir?" Noburi asked in pretended surprise. "I was just thinking what a delicious tart this is. Well, and how thoughtful Shima was to make something so delicious to share with us, and how nice of her to leave a slice out for everyone. I hope Yuno and I are so happy together when we've been together for as long as you have." He ducked his head in realization. "Well, proportionally as long as you have."
Shima simpered and Fukasaku glowered.
"Oh, very well," Fukasaku said. "The boy's right, I guess. Thank you for making this, Ma. I'm sorry I was snotty."
She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, my dear old goat. Go get your slice. Oh, and there's milk in the icebox if you want some."
"Ooh! Excellent!" The Toad Sage vanished in a blur of speed and was back an instant later, his hair trailing after him in the wind of his passage. He was carrying three glasses in his left hand, a pitcher of milk in his right, and had a plate with his tart fixed to his shoulder via chakra adhesion. He proceeded to distribute the glasses and pour them full.
"Pretty ballsy of you, playing marriage counselor," Fukasaku grunted at Noburi.
"Sir? I have no idea what you mean."
Both toads grunted a laugh.
"You had some questions, boy?" Shima asked.
"About the Sage, yes. Anything you know about him, I'd be very interested. Especially about his use of chakra."
The sages exchanged glances and Fukasaku gave his wife a 'go ahead' tilt of the head.
"He didn't invent it," she said. "Chakra has always been there, just like heat or light. It comes in different flavors the same way food does, and it strengthens us the same way too. It's made from life and dances through everything that lives. It swirls and flows like water. It is made of many parts, just like life. What you humans consider chakra is just a tiny fraction of one flavor of chakra. Us Toads, we use far more of it—that's why we call it 'nature chakra', because we use all the flavors. Chakra has motion, currents, and feelings like the sea does." She smiled, nostalgia on her face. "Pa took me sailing on the ocean for our two hundredth anniversary. Just a little boat and the two of us under the stars." She basked in the memory for a moment, then shook it away.
"He didn't invent chakra but he was the first human to master it," she continued. "He worked out how to speak to it—not in words, of course. It's not intelligent." She paused. "Well, not exactly. It's more like..." She thought, then gave up. "It's not exactly intelligent the way you think of intelligence, but it's not mindless like a stone either. It's complicated.
"Anyway, after he learned how to use chakra he shared the knowledge with some of his closest friends. We don't have names for all of them but we know of seven: Dhruv, Avra, Nara, Mori, Yodomi, Raiyoke, and Tama. Very little is known of Dhruv and Avra because they only stayed with the Sage for two years and then they left. Avra went east to lands unknown while Dhruv went west. There's a bunch of different theories on why they left." She gestured to Fukasaku with a 'your turn' nod.
"One idea is that the Sage and Avra—she was the only girl in the group—dated for a while, or maybe she was his wife, and then they split," the old toad said. "Personally, I think it's unlikely. There's only one source for that theory and he was a known fraud about other things."
"I tend to go with Gamashisōka's view," Shima said. "The Sage and his band wanted to save the world. Avra and Dhruv went to map the way, learn about who else was out there, while the others stayed local to where they had been born and focused on coming up with a workable methodology in an environment that they were familiar with."
Fukasaku opened his mouth to snap something, then caught himself. Shima sighed.
"Go ahead," she said.
"There's another theory," Fukasaku said, touching his wife's webbed hand for a brief moment before turning fully back to Noburi. "The Sage and his friends were gathering an army to fight the Tenfold Abomination. Dhruv and Avra were sent away in case the others lost. They were to gather their own forces elsewhere to serve as a second and third chance if the main team fell, try to create secure fallback points for any of the survivors."
"You once mentioned that the Sage created the Seventh Path and all the species," Noburi said, nodding to Shima. "Was that part of his after-war planning? Maybe as a secure bolthole."
Both Sages shook their heads. "She was making a joke," Fukasaku said. "There's plenty of people on this Path who believe it was created by the Sage, or whatever title they call him by since no one knows his actual name. They're all wrong. The Sage wasn't actually a god and he didn't have the power to create entire universes."
"He created the demiverses," Shima corrected. "The ones that the humans use for their storage scrolls."
"He created the method for creating them, he didn't create all of them himself! Besides, that's not a universe."
"How is it not? It's got space, it's got—"
"It's got no time! How can you have a universe that exists for no time at all? You can't!"
"I thought he wasn't a sealmaster?" Noburi asked, trying to head off another violent 'debate' that could endanger the local ecology.
"We don't know for sure," Shima said. "Still, he was clearly the idea man for his team."
"I get that," Noburi said, nodding. "Hazō likes to say that he invented skywalkers because he had the idea, even though it was actually Kagome who did all the work."
"Hey, don't talk down your brother," Fukasaku said, glowering. "Nothing comes into existence until the idea does. Anyone can do the work of creating something once the hard part of inventing it has happened."
"Hah! You just say that because you don't want to share author credit with your researchers!"
"What we know for sure is the Sage and his friends created the Summoning contracts that allowed travel between worlds," Fukasaku said, visibly ignoring his wife's accusation.
"Whether that was intended as an emergency evacuation method or something else, we don't know," Shima said. "And yes, Pa's right that the Sage and his friends gathered an army to fight the Tenfold Abomination. It's not clear if that happened before he decided to end war or after, and it's not clear whether he gave humans chakra so they could fight in the war or after he saw the wreckage of the so-called 'victory.'"
"He didn't give chakra to humans," Fukasaku said.
She rolled massive eyes. "Fine. The Sage had the idea and taught his friends how to use it, but Avra was the one who actually did the work of modifying people."
"It wasn't—" Fukasaku broke off and took a breath. "The medic wasn't Avra, Ma. You know that story is apocryphal! You just like it because you want the girl to be the important one, but the timelines don't match up—the Great Melding clearly happened after the Abomination was defeated, by which time she was long gone!"
Shima sniffed. "She came back, you dingus! It clearly says—"
"Sorry, you keep mentioning the Tenfold Abomination," Noburi interrupted quickly. "What exactly was it? Something like a Tailed Beast?"
"Psh," Shima said as Fukasaku snorted in disgust.
"Tailed Beasts. I think not!" the ancient toad patriarch said. "Those are just the remnants of it after the Sage and his friends ripped it apart."
"Ripped it apart? Remnants?" Noburi echoed, eyes wide. He contemplated what it would mean for the most powerful entities of his world to be mere fragments of something.
"Sure," Fukasaku said. "The Tenfold Abomination was an External. Came from the chaos that is outside the cosmos. There's lots of those things and they keep trying to wiggle into our cosmos. Probably because it's a lot nicer here—"
"Or maybe because we only know about the ones that try to get in?" Shima said archly. "There could be gazillions of the things that are perfectly happily baking their own crazy bread out of the color green and sculpting statues out of childhood night terrors or whatever, and we only hear about the handful that want to smash through the walls of our cozy little home."
"Yes, yes, fine, whatever. Anyway, the thing got in somehow and it was destroying everything. They're poison. Everywhere they go, reality breaks and melts down into slag."
"Are the Dragons Externals?" Noburi asked. "I've seen what their scales do—they poison and dissolve anything they come in contact with."
Shima shrugged. "Maybe?"
"Of course they aren't!" Fukasaku snapped. "Those things are just horrible monsters. They dissolve things, sure, but they don't affect actual reality. Maybe they burn the skin off your hand but afterwards your skin isn't Tuesday."
"You aren't seriously going with that nonsense tablet from Karatoa, are you?" Shima demanded. "He was a drunk and a drug user, and you know it! The whole thing was nonsense, soup to nuts. Of course they are Externals. They're the ones that the Sage bound first. It said so in Volume 3 of Nakae's Annals!"
"That section is an insert by his brother! You can tell by the word choices."
"It is not! That's a dirty lie put out by Gamabobo! He was always trying to tear down Gamaatamai, and discrediting her sources was just part of that."
"Pardon," Noburi said. "You were talking about the Tenfold Abomination?"
"Oh, right," Shima said. "The Sage and his friends defeated it. It's an External, so you can't kill it and imprisoning it is problematic. Instead, they tore it apart. Its body became the Tailed Beasts. Its mind was broken into fragments, carefully divided so that no one chunk could accomplish anything on its own."
"By 'accomplish anything', she means 'go reunite with the other shards and reform the Abomination'," Fukasaku added helpfully.
"I was getting to that! Stop interrupting, you obnoxious old fart!" She looked back to Noburi. "Yes, that. The fragments aren't bound—they're just chunks of a mind, you can't tie ropes around a mind. They could go reunite with the rest of the fragments anytime they wanted and there's no way to prevent that."
"Obviously there's some way!" Fukasaku said. "You can tell on account of reality is still here."
"Fine," Shima said. "Whatever, be difficult. The Sage and his friends didn't want the fragments escaping, and they wanted to make sure that no single individual knew all the details. None of them talked to anyone or wrote down what their method was."
Noburi swallowed nervously. "That sounds very dangerous. In our family we make a point of working together, and we always come up with better ideas as a result. If only one person thinks something up, they're liable to miss something. Besides, most defenses need to be maintained; if no one knows how to do that..."
"Yup," Fukasaku said, an inappropriate amount of relish in his tone. "Reality lives balanced on a knife edge. Any day now, one of the fragments might get out of its prison and reunite with one of its others, then they would all reunite to reclaim and recombine the fragments of their body. A few hours or days later, pop!" He slammed his palm onto the table with an echoing slap. "Reality bursts like a bubble and we're all swept into nonspace to suffer in unending agony forever!" He took a big bite of his tart. "Oh, this is good, Ma! You really outdid yourself."
"It's the cinnamon," she said. "Really gives it that warmth that brings the whole thing together."
Fukasaku's massive tongue explored around his lips thoughtfully, licking up every last trace of the treacle. "Mm, mm! Really good. Is that cloves I taste? Have I told you that you're a genius in the kitchen?"
Shima glowed. "Thank you, dear."
"Um, about the fragments," Noburi said hesitantly. "Nara, Mori, the others...those are clans on the Human Path. They're all descended from one of the Sage's companions?"
"Of course," Shima said.
Noburi thought about that. "How did chakra get given to everyone then?"
"It was a recruiting method," Fukasaku said. "Join the army of the Sage to help save reality, get superpowers."
"Only at first," Shima corrected. "After the battle they tried to give it to everyone in order to balance out power. The theory was that if everyone had power, and at least part of everyone's power lay in understanding each other, there wouldn't be violence or war anymore." She shook her head. "Didn't work, unfortunately. Not everyone was able to accept the gift—or maybe the word is 'willing', it's unclear."
"Or maybe they just didn't get to it before the medic died and they forgot to write down how to do it, just like they forgot to write down so much else, including who they were!" Fukasaku said.
"That could be," Shima agreed. "Of course, it wouldn't have worked anyway. No sooner did you humans get chakra then you started using it to kill each other."
"Yeah, you humans are so violent," Fukasaku said with what Noburi felt was a shocking lack of self-awareness given how he and his wife interacted. "Sure, the chakra that got handed out before the war was all battle-themed, but everything after that was intended to promote harmony. Empathic connection, healing, sharing of minds based on skin contact, awareness of and oneness with the cosmos, that kind of thing. Took about that long"—he snapped his fingers—"before you started using it to crush each other's minds, carve up people's innards, tear secrets out of each others' brains, all that. Bah."
"It might not be completely their fault," Shima said to her husband. "When the Abomination's mind was torn apart and the Sage gathered it into the various fragments, it's quite likely that some tiny scraps were missed. Escaped into the environment and bonded to human bloodlines."
"You're saying that some humans have an External's...dreams, or whatever, corrupting their minds?"
Shima sniffed. "It's a theory."
"It's her theory," Fukasaku said, rolling his eyes. "She's been trying to prove it for sixty years."
"And I'm getting close! You saw what was in those Crow tablets!"
"Ha! Those chicken scratchings are purely bogus! Absolute nonsense! It's not pipeweed that they put in their pipes, if you know what I mean!"
"They are not! Karatoa was a very diligent scholar!"
"Diligent my very manly bottom! He was a lush! In fact, you said that yourself not five minutes ago when I talked about the Dragons!"
The conversation devolved from there until Noburi finally gave up, offered his thanks for the meal and conversation, and escaped to the relatively insanity of the Gōketsu estate. He couldn't help thinking that things were bad when the Gōketsu estate was the sane place.
