Chapter 638: Great Toad Sage

Chapter 638: Chapter 638: Great Toad Sage

Chapter 638: Great Toad Sage

Mount Myoboku, Ryuchi Cave, and Shikkotsu Forest were regarded as the three most unique sacred regions in this world.

Kenichi had never paid much attention to them before. After all, the so-called sages living in these places no longer seemed particularly impressive to him, so he had never bothered visiting.

However, Jiraiya’s strange look earlier had given him an idea.

Kenichi decided to visit these sages, investigate what allowed them to survive for so long, and study the Sage Arts they had mastered. Perhaps he could gain something useful for his other research.

He decided to visit the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku first, since it possessed the ability to predict the future to a certain extent.

After that would come Ryuchi Cave.

Finally, Shikkotsu Forest.

That was the order Kenichi settled on.

Jiraiya had already left to carry out Kenichi’s instructions, gathering the remaining members of Kara so they could contribute to maintaining peace in this world.

Kenichi watched him leave with a faint smile before walking out of the hospital.

He could roughly guess what Jiraiya was thinking.

After all, based on what Kenichi remembered from the original story, Jiraiya had always been a rather unusual person.

He was willing to sacrifice himself when he believed it necessary, regardless of the danger.

That was obvious from the incident in which Nagato killed him.

During their battle, Nagato had actually held back quite a bit, giving Jiraiya several opportunities to escape.

But Jiraiya remained behind because he wanted to gather enough intelligence.

Only when Nagato realized that allowing Jiraiya to survive might interfere with his plans did he finally kill him.

Kenichi could tell that Jiraiya probably had some suspicions about him.

But he did not care.

Jiraiya could not defeat him.

More importantly, Kenichi had no intention of doing anything harmful to this world.

The entire Shinobi World currently shared one primary objective.

Prepare for the possible arrival of the Otsutsuki Clan.

Under those circumstances, Kenichi did not care much about what Jiraiya thought or did.

He left Konoha Hospital without bothering to greet Tsunade.

His plans had already begun moving forward.

From this point on, the entire Shinobi World would gradually advance according to the direction he had established.

As for exactly what would emerge from that development, Kenichi could not predict it.

Even after becoming this powerful, he was nowhere near omniscient.

With that thought in mind, Kenichi left Konoha.

He boarded an airship and headed toward Mount Myoboku.

There were obviously faster methods available to him, but he was not interested in using them right now.

He wanted some time to quietly think through several problems.

He had nothing urgent to do anyway.

He might as well continue thinking about his research while traveling.

If Amado had not been busy with experiments, Kenichi might even have brought him along.

As the airship traveled deeper into the mountains, Kenichi began seeing strange-looking toads living around the quiet streams below.

Some crouched beside the water.

Others jumped between rocks.

They came in all shapes and sizes.

Their skin displayed all kinds of colors.

Some were as green as lush mountains.

Others were as blue as deep lakes.

Their eyes carried curiosity toward the unfamiliar object crossing the sky above them.

Strange stone statues were scattered throughout the mountains.

Kenichi immediately understood what they were.

They were probably practitioners who had failed while training in Sage Mode and had been petrified.

Now they silently guarded the ancient landscape.

Kenichi wondered whether those petrified people could somehow be restored.

The statues had many different expressions.

Weathering had carved deep marks across their surfaces.

They stood silently as time, wind, and rain continued wearing them down.

Then the tranquility of Mount Myoboku was shattered.

The airship appeared overhead.

Its enormous mechanical body looked completely out of place within this ancient sacred land.

It hovered above the mountains while releasing a deep mechanical hum, almost like an envoy from another world descending upon them.

The toads immediately panicked.

Their cries overlapped into a chaotic chorus.

Smaller toads curled themselves into balls.

Larger ones opened their enormous mouths as though preparing to swallow the intruder whole.

Their bellies expanded and contracted as they released threatening calls, yet none of them could completely hide their fear.

The airship showed no reaction to their unease.

It continued slowly through the sky, seemingly searching for something.

Then a massive toad crawled out from behind the shadow of a stone statue.

Its skin was rougher and more weathered than that of the others, giving it a much older appearance.

It slowly raised its head.

Its enormous eyes stared directly at the airship, as though judging the intentions of the visitor above.

For a moment, the airship and the giant toad simply faced each other.

The atmosphere became tense and strange.

Kenichi smiled.

He immediately recognized the enormous toad below.

The Great Toad Sage.

The one supposedly capable of seeing the future.

Had it already predicted that Kenichi would come here?

If so, that was genuinely interesting.

"These toads are rather interesting."

A familiar voice suddenly sounded beside him.

Kenichi paused.

He turned his head.

Kaguya was standing next to him.

She looked down at the toads below, curiosity and thoughtfulness visible in her pale eyes.

Kenichi’s mouth twitched.

Why was Kaguya here?

He genuinely had not expected her to appear.

She seemed to have plenty of opinions about him and normally did not act particularly friendly, so Kenichi had never gone out of his way to bother her.

But now she had appeared on her own.

Kenichi immediately developed a headache.

Was she here because she intended to do something to him?

If so, how exactly was he supposed to respond?

Kenichi was not sure.

Still, he was not especially worried.

Kaguya had always possessed a peculiar personality.

Besides, with Hagoromo around, even if Kaguya had grievances against Kenichi, she probably would not openly act on them.

That made things much easier.

Kenichi cleared his throat and prepared to say something.

Before he could speak, Kaguya stepped closer.

She stopped at a strange distance beside him.

Kenichi glanced down.

They were standing close enough that either of them could hold the other’s hand simply by reaching out.

That immediately reminded him of some of the memories he had fabricated for her.

Before he could say anything, the entire world suddenly changed.

Kenichi found himself somewhere else.

A quiet lake stretched before him.

Its surface was smooth as a mirror, reflecting every star in the night sky.

Cherry blossom trees stood beside the water.

Their pink petals swayed gently in the breeze, releasing a faint fragrance.

The flowers were so dense and beautiful that they resembled colorful clouds.

Bees and butterflies moved through them, dancing lightly between the blossoms.

A path beside the lake was covered with golden ginkgo leaves.

Whenever the wind passed, they rustled softly as though whispering stories from the past.

Kaguya stood beside that path with her hands behind her back.

Nearby, dew covered a lush green lawn.

Under the moonlight, every droplet sparkled like a gemstone embedded in the grass.

The surrounding trees stood quietly and solemnly, almost as though they were guarding the peaceful scene.

Above them, a flawless full moon hung in the sky.

The galaxy stretched across the heavens like a brilliant ribbon, while countless stars glittered like flowers blooming in the darkness.

Kenichi pressed his lips together.

He immediately recognized this place.

It came from the memories he had fabricated and implanted into Kaguya.

This was the place where, within those false memories, he and Kaguya had shared their first date.

It was also where he had proposed to her.

Of course, other intimate moments had supposedly happened here afterward.

Kenichi had never expected Kaguya to deliberately bring him into an illusion recreating this place.

What exactly was she planning?

For the first time, Kenichi wondered if he had been slightly too confident.

Hagoromo was not here.

If Kaguya suddenly decided to attack him, dealing with her would become troublesome.

Kenichi looked at her with a headache.

Kaguya stood before him with her hands behind her back.

Then she raised one hand and gently adjusted her hair.

Her pale eyes remained fixed on him.

Kenichi instinctively swallowed.

"Are you planning to..."

He looked at Kaguya strangely.

A peculiar smile appeared on her face.

Then she suddenly disappeared.

At the same instant, Kenichi was dragged back into the real world.

Mount Myoboku reappeared beneath the airship.

The place beside him where Kaguya had been standing was now completely empty.

Kenichi stood there for a moment, genuinely unable to understand what had just happened.

Kaguya had appeared suddenly.

Dragged him into that illusion.

Then disappeared just as abruptly.

Kenichi had no idea what she wanted.

Since she was gone now, however, he decided to ignore it.

Whatever she intended to do had little to do with his current objective.

He would simply continue handling his own affairs.

Whatever came later, he would deal with it when it happened.

Kenichi looked down again.

The Great Toad Sage was staring at the airship in obvious fear.

It seemed the old toad had sensed Kaguya’s presence just now.

That was hardly surprising.

Kaguya was the Progenitor of Chakra.

Her strength was overwhelming, and she had made no effort to conceal her presence when she arrived.

Still, Kenichi found the situation somewhat amusing.

The Great Toad Sage did not seem to be anything Kaguya considered particularly important.

From her perspective, this so-called sage might be little more than an unusual pet.

Kenichi shook his head.

The introduction of Kaguya into the story really had caused the entire scale of combat power to become strange.

Earlier in the story, the difference between shinobi and ordinary humans had not seemed overwhelmingly enormous.

The Land of Waves was a good example.

After fighting Zabuza, Kakashi had still taken ordinary bandits seriously.

Later on, dealing with those same bandits probably would have required only a single ninjutsu.

The power of shinobi battles continued increasing over time, but there had still been some sort of understandable standard.

Then Kaguya appeared.

At that point, the entire scale nearly collapsed.

Kenichi found it rather ridiculous.

Kaguya’s strength was simply too far above most of the characters who had come before her, instantly raising the upper limit of the entire era.

And although that had initially seemed extreme, the later events of Boruto had somehow made even Kaguya look somewhat unimpressive by comparison.

Kenichi had nothing to say about that.

He had already done what he needed to do.

Isshiki was dead.

He now had plenty of time to slowly pursue his own objectives.

With that thought, Kenichi jumped from the airship.

He landed directly in front of the Great Toad Sage.

The enormous toad stared at him in terror.

There was still disbelief in its eyes.

Kenichi studied it carefully.

At first glance, it simply looked like an extraordinarily large toad.

There was nothing obviously remarkable about it.

Kenichi could not understand how such a creature was supposedly able to predict the future.

Predicting future events was not something that should be easy.

Then Kenichi frowned slightly.

He activated his analytical ability.

The next moment, he saw something familiar.

Kenichi froze.

He genuinely had not expected this.

Within the Great Toad Sage was a tiny trace of the same peculiar energy used by the time machine.

The amount was extremely small.

But there was no mistaking it.

Time machine energy.

Kenichi immediately understood.

So that was why the Great Toad Sage could occasionally predict the future.

At some point, it had encountered this special energy and somehow learned to borrow a tiny amount of its effects.

But its method of using that power was extremely crude.

That explained why its prophecies were irregular and only appeared from time to time.

Kenichi rubbed his chin.

If he had not already learned how to reproduce and study this energy himself, the Great Toad Sage might have become a very interesting research subject.

But now that Kenichi already understood the energy, there was no real need to do anything to the old toad.

"Great Toad Sage?"

Kenichi smiled at it.

The enormous toad visibly swallowed.

Then it lowered its head humbly.

It did not dare look directly into Kenichi’s eyes.

.....

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