Under the force of the rain, the flames that raged here and there began to go out. The power of nature is perhaps the most powerful phenomenon that a person has ever seen in his life. And this rain, with gray clouds that covered the entire sky, gave people hope. The last time it rained was perhaps a year ago, marking a tragic, long period of drought for many. But today, on this strange morning, it was as if the sky itself was crying or mourning someone. People, fearing that it might be an illusion or a trick of demons, they, as they were often called by superstitious individuals, were wary of taking to the streets.
Someone's child ran out despite the prohibition of his parents, ran out into the street and laughed happily, making everyone wary. They were afraid of the consequences that could come at any second, but nothing happened.
The small little toad that was looking after this place smiled sadly, its gaze was fixed somewhere in the sky. As if trying to find an answer to its questions there, the toad disappeared in a small cloud of smoke. Once on the other side of the world, she noticed a large crowd of her relatives near the contract scroll and smoothly jumped there. Among the other toads, she had no trouble finding someone who could answer her questions.
— Father! What's going on here? — Finding herself at the side of the toad boss, she asked. After all, in her memory, it was the first time that all her relatives gathered together.
— Seeing off Gamako. — He replied with a hint of sadness, watching the name of his partner and friend gradually disappear from the huge contract scroll.
— There is no need to be sad because of his death, Gamakichi, for him life in recent years has been a heavy burden. — Landing with a crash, a large old toad emerged from the rising dust.
— Grandpa! And here you are! — Little Hamamo wondered, looking at Gamabunta towering over them.
Looking at the past head of the family, the girl saw for the first time how her grandfather held a huge bottle in his hands for the first time, from which she smelled of concentrated alcohol. For her, this was nonsense, because, according to her father's stories, she remembered that her grandfather swore and quit all alcohol after the death of one person. Jiraiya, the name of the mentioned person popped up in my memory, and then more. The knowledge gained from the scrolls and simply casually dropped phrases and mentions of this person, helped to form an easy picture of what was happening. That person was somehow connected to the name that was once in the clan scroll, maybe they were relatives or they were connected by a bond of teacher and disciple?
— How do you know what it was like for him? We weren't there, or do you need to remind me why we had to cut off all ties with Naruto?! — Gamakichi suddenly jumped to the boiling point, glancing angrily at his father.
— It's not for you to judge me, I had a choice before me, and you know perfectly well that even now my choice has not changed. We have already lost our two elders who kept the wisdom of senjutsu, as well as the great sage toad and sacrifice something else for the sake of the human world, the toads will no longer be for the preservation of our home. — Taking a sip of the bottle, the red toad unexpectedly threw it away and pounced on his son, with the crash of broken stone hills and mountains, knocked him to the ground and took out a blade from under his haori and put it to his throat.
— Grandpa, what are you doing?! Please stop, don't kill Dad! — Not hiding her fear and concern for her parent, she asked.
— To be silent and not to move to anyone, if you honor the life of our "leader"! — He shouted loudly, forcing everyone who was about to throw Gamakichi to stop.
— We, the sage toads, one of the three strongest living summons, have lost our shrines over the past couple of decades, and all because of humans! If we helped this person and lost our domain in case of failure, you know what would await us in the near future? No, you don't, because Fukasaku took this secret with him, not daring to tell us! We would have been completely degraded and regressed to the level of mere animals! Remember the legendary phoenixes famous for their immortality, or the notorious hydras that were known for their vitality? Do you think they just cut off all ties with the rest of the domains? No! These are all damn people, because of them they were dragged into their stupid and ignorant wars for their false ideals, which ruined them! And then more! Five years ago, five more communities disappeared from the face of the earth in one day: foxes, owls, bears, lizards, as well as hedgehogs, which were completely fucking pacifists and tried not to get anywhere! They were all waiting for regression and we are already on its verge, because why does each of our subsequent generations become less and less physiologically?! The only thing that saves us and makes us sentient so far is a cursed contract scroll and one that will be able to exist for a couple of more years without feeding people! And then you already understand what will happen! What a fate awaits us all! — After waiting for the right reaction from his relatives, the toad that was worried about his family told everyone the truth that had been hidden before.
— And what do you propose, Father?! — In the eyes of the son, there was awareness and understanding of the situation in which they found themselves, and now, looking at this situation from a different point of view, he had to share the views of his parent.
Hearing a satisfactory answer from his son, the old man removed the blade from his throat and helped him up. He had to become cruel and almost kill his son if he did not share his point of view, but he made the right choice. And this made it much easier to save their family, because the inauguration of the new elders was about to take place, it was disrupted! And even now they could only carry a title, a simple word of power, and not some real power or knowledge.
And he would never be able to forgive himself again if he killed his son, especially in front of his granddaughter. For this innocent generation should not have paid for their mistakes!
— We will temporarily go into complete isolation and try to restore our shrines. As for people... From now on, we will stop teaching them the secrets of the fighting style of toads and the art of senjutsu, but we will still continue to make contracts so that the scroll receives nourishment. We will not sacrifice ourselves in battle for the sake of people, because we are not a bargaining chip! — The bellicose speech, which did not hide the revolutionary messages, inspired everyone, and even the corrupt government, to which many were bending, could not stop them.
The entity watching all this smiled contentedly, because something similar was happening in other domains as well. The seeds that the last war sowed in itself had finally sprouted and now this world was waiting for grandiose changes. People and other living rational beings who believe in miracles and faith have already created something new and unusual. The remnants of the past will soon be forgotten by the merciless flow of time, but they will always remember. She was one of these two entities that people created by their faith. It was ironic until she realized her own capabilities.
For the time being, they did not interfere in this world as mere observers, but that ten-tailed spawn and this woman who was called Kaguya for the first time made them waver in their choice of global intervention. But what could they oppose to them? These beings were not born in this world and came from another world at all, so how could they interfere? Fortunately for them, they were lucky that then this goddess left two heirs who once defeated them, but whether it was irony or the will of fate, but that catastrophe repeated itself again and now he appeared again! The one who carried the power of two worlds defeated that monster, albeit at the cost of his life.
— What gave you the strength to live, Uzumaki Naruto? — Coming out of nowhere, the essence asked.
In a dark place that still had the rotten smell of decomposing bodies and the energy background was several times higher than normal, which seemed something absurd even to them. Stepping on the ground for so long, a human figure appeared that, recreating on her hand the plane, illuminated the darkness of this place. She did not pay attention to the carcasses of monsters lying here and there, but just walked slowly, not paying any attention to the acidic blood bubbling here and there, calmly stepping on it with her bare feet. There were strange twinkles of interest in her eyes, for one anomaly of this world still could not find its peace.
Making her way through the dead bodies, she was looking for something that she herself could not understand and explain. As she walked step by step, she came across his last weapon, a broken scythe. Seeing this, she involuntarily smiled, remembering one of the few weapons that her opposite had used. Its blade was partially shattered, and the broken wand was frozen with blood that was still saturated with life. Touching the hilt, she wiped off the remnants with her fingers, and then did something that filled her eyes with life.
— Delicious! — She whispered blissfully, licking the blood from her fingers. At the same time, she felt a strange unusual warmth that filled her being.
She did this for two reasons: to neutralize the influence of the background not her feelings, and also to facilitate his search, because his blood itself would direct her. And she managed to find the lying hand much faster. His severed hand, which was lost during a fierce battle. Taking it, the creature sniffed it, noticing that a piece of his soul was still hiding in it, and this was not surprising, because what is a soul? And what was the body for the soul? The answer is simple, the shell that kept her throughout her life, before she got to them.
Opening her mouth, she involuntarily blushed and tasted the man's flesh and blood. That strange warmth began to spread through the body again, creating an incomprehensible heat in the abdomen. Exhaling steam and breathing heavily, she already clearly felt where his soul was. She would definitely go there, but the first thing she had to do was to satisfy her hunger? Yes, hunger, that was the only way to call that strange feeling that first disturbed such an entity.