In front of acquaintances, Ryouma didn't shove all the blame onto the serpent.
After briefly laying out all the information about Jigen that could be made public, he gave his final summary.
"In short, the enemy has already been killed by me. You don't need to worry anymore about this place being turned into a battlefield again for quite some time."
A warm smile hung on Masamune's face. "What are you saying? Even if that enemy had somehow escaped, my doors would forever be open to welcome you."
"This is the first time I've seen you so hospitable," Orochimaru said unhurriedly.
Masamune immediately shot back, "There's plenty you haven't seen."
After saying that, he turned his head and looked at Shiori with a full smile, politely asking, "May I ask who this young lady is?"
"Oh, she's Uchiha Shiori, my girlfriend," Ryouma introduced calmly.
"Haha, just as I guessed. The two of you standing together really look like a couple."
An adult's social finesse is always revealed in the details. Masamune understood this well. He simply chose to display it only for those he deemed worth it.
However, these few simple lines of dialogue between the two caused the entire forge room to suddenly fall silent. The corners of Shiori's lips lifted slightly as she gently nodded, clearly very satisfied with Ryouma's introduction.
Orochimaru and Kirin, on the other hand, both widened their eyes slightly, their gazes snapping toward the woman who had been quietly standing beside Ryouma without saying a word.
In the former's eyes, there was only a fleeting trace of surprise. In the latter's, however, there was pure shock, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard.
Kirin's eyes instantly lost their light, as though all the sparkle had drained away.
"Um... I remember the camellia by the entrance hasn't been watered yet today. Please excuse me for a moment."
She forced a smile. It was as if she had lost her soul. Her steps unsteady, she staggered toward the exit.
Sigh... she had finally fallen for someone for the first time, only to realize she never stood a chance from the very beginning.
Seeing this, Masamune immediately raised his voice and called out, "Hey, Kirin! You haven't even taken them to their guest rooms yet. Where are you running off to?"
Hearing his voice, Kirin not only failed to turn back, she actually sped up, disappearing in a flash.
He scratched his head awkwardly and looked apologetically at the three of them.
"Please wait a moment while I put out the fire. I'll arrange the rooms."
"Mm, no rush," Ryouma replied.
As he spoke, he turned his head and looked in the direction the girl had run off.
Although thinking this way might seem a bit self-centered, based on his sharp eye, honed from reading countless youth and school manga in his previous life, Kirin had probably developed some feelings for him. Her behavior had been far too obvious.
Especially that defeated, heartbroken look. It instantly reminded him of Mei from years ago. She had worn the exact same expression.
Speaking of her, he suddenly remembered that he had made an agreement with her before.
She was responsible for monitoring Yagura's condition, and in return, he promised to remove the Flying Thunder God mark he had left on her wrist in the future.
But how long had they agreed she would monitor him? Five years? Or a few years?
If it was five years, then by now, the time should be about up.
Hmm... it had been so long that he couldn't quite remember. He decided not to think about it anymore. After all, he wasn't the one who needed to be anxious.
That contingency plan had been meant as a safeguard against Madara. Now that guy had already been sent to the Pure Land by him, and likely wouldn't be stirring up any trouble ever again.
"Alright, sorry to keep you waiting."
Masamune quickly tidied up the forge room, grabbed the loose kimono hanging on the rack by the door, draped it over himself, tied it casually, and raised his hand in a welcoming gesture.
"Please follow me this way."
---
Masamune led the three of them through the open-air corridor in the backyard, laid out in a square "loop" pattern, and stopped in the guest room area on the left.
"These two rooms were originally prepared for clients who occasionally come to commission custom weapons. Kirin cleans them carefully on a regular basis, so you can stay here with peace of mind."
"Then I'll take the one on the right. That's fine, isn't it, Ryouma?"
As Orochimaru spoke, he walked into the slightly smaller room on the right without waiting for an answer.
Of course, even though it was described as smaller, in an old-established family estate like that of the Chiko clan, it was still far more spacious than the suite they had stayed in at the inn earlier.
"Well, um, actually Shiori and I..."
Ryouma glanced at the large room on the left and was just about to say something when he saw Masamune wink at him exaggeratedly and whisper, "The other empty rooms haven't really been cleaned lately, so they're not suitable for staying in."
Masamune was a man with experience. He understood perfectly. At this age, young men and women only needed the slightest catalyst.
"I see it's getting late, so I won't disturb the two of you any longer. Please get some rest."
Having settled the guests, Masamune's mind was already full of thoughts of returning to his forge. Once he got into the zone, it was nothing unusual for him to stay in the forge for days and nights on end. Before leaving, he even deliberately shot Ryouma a meaningful look that needed no words.
Shiori, standing to the side, tilted her head slightly and cast a quick glance at him before stepping into the room first.
"Don't just stand around outside like an idiot. It's just sharing a room. We've done it before."
"That was on the battlefield. How is that the same?"
Ryouma argued, but his body was very honest as he followed right behind her.
Who would have thought that Shiori would suddenly stop and turn around? The distance between them instantly shrank, so close that they could clearly hear each other's breathing.
"What's so different? Or is it that... you want to do something different?"
Her voice slipped into Ryouma's ear, making the back of his neck inexplicably itch.
"Cough, cough." Ryouma hurriedly let out a cough, took a few steps around Shiori, and said with his back to her, "Don't play with fire, or I'll go back to Konoha tonight."
"Boring."
Shiori shot Ryouma a look, raised her hand to pinch her ears, red and slightly burning, then turned and closed the door. She was already being this proactive, yet she had no idea what this guy was still hesitating over.
---
The next morning, soft sunlight spilled over the village, half of which lay in ruins while the other half remained relatively intact.
Ryouma found Masamune and asked him for a quiet room. Masamune readily agreed, not even asking for the reason.
Inside the quiet room, Ryouma took out a sealing scroll and slowly formed hand seals with both hands.
With a loud bang, Isshiki's shattered body appeared on the ground.
"So this guy is Isshiki, the one who was inside Jigen... right?"
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed slightly, like a predator locking onto its prey, his gaze fixed firmly on Isshiki's mangled wounds. Relying on his many years of accumulated experience in anatomy, he could tell at a glance that the tissue composition of this corpse was nothing like that of a normal human.
Shiori, on the other hand, wasn't particularly interested in the corpse's identity. She extended a finger and pointed at Isshiki's eyes, asking curiously, "Was this Byakugan transplanted from the Hyūga clan? And that strange eye, what kind of bloodline limit is that?"
Ryouma rubbed his temples.
He knew it. Whenever someone saw Isshiki's body, they were bound to fire off a barrage of questions like this.
"I don't know that much about those things either, which is why I was planning to use a secret technique to read his brain."
"But wouldn't that be dangerous?"
Shiori hesitated, speaking softly.
"Why don't we wait until we return to Konoha and let the Yamanaka clan examine him first?"
"That's a great idea!"
Shukaku, who had been listening from the side, immediately shouted in excited agreement, its tail slapping against Ryouma's back.
"This time the cold-faced girl is totally right. Konoha's got tons of ninjas who are good at mind reading. Just let them handle it!"
"Cold-faced... girl?"
Hearing that nickname, Shiori's eyes instantly turned crimson, and the power of her Mangekyō surged toward Shukaku like overwhelming water pressure from all directions.
Almost in an instant, Shukaku was hit. Its eyes transformed into the same Sharingan pattern.
Under Shiori's genjutsu, it became like a puppet on strings, jumping down from Ryouma's shoulder and repeatedly doing backward flips in place with both hands and feet.
Why did you have to go and provoke her? Ryouma silently complained to himself. He then raised his hand and smacked Shukaku on the head, dispelling the genjutsu.
Shukaku jolted awake, its whole body flushing red as it opened its mouth to snap back.
"You damn cold..."
Ryouma reacted lightning-fast, quickly clamping a hand over Shukaku's mouth.
"Alright, Shukaku, cut it out. We've got serious business to handle."
Shukaku rubbed against Ryouma's palm, nodded, and after letting out a cold snort, finally fell silent. Shiori cast a faint glance at Shukaku, then turned back to Ryouma and continued pressing the issue.
"So? Are you going to consider my suggestion?"
"No need." Ryouma shook his head. "I took this guy down while he was alive. There's even less to worry about now that he's dead. You and Orochimaru just keep watch on the surroundings for me."
With that, he returned his attention to the corpse lying at the center of the silent chamber.
As for the Ōtsutsuki clan, even Ryouma, despite possessing foreknowledge of the plot, knew very little about them. Because these aliens had the bizarre trait of turning to ash after death, the remaining fragment of Isshiki's body was especially precious.
If the Sage of Six Paths were to learn of this, he would probably show up in person to have a discussion with Ryouma.
He slowly let out a breath, pushing aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind. He raised his right hand and gently placed it on Isshiki's forehead.
"Alright then. Let me see it for myself. Just what secrets does the Ōtsutsuki clan truly hide?"
Mind Body Transmission Technique activated!
---
"Virgo." This was the name of the Ōtsutsuki clan's homeworld.
It lay roughly 28,000 light-years from the shinobi world, at the junction between the Sagittarius Arm and the Norma Arm of the Milky Way.
An isolated star cluster formed by the interlocking of two spiral arms like this naturally possessed a unique ecological environment.
A binary star system was the greatest distinction between this Earth-like planet and others.
There was no night here. Two stars poured out vast, unrestrained energy, endlessly sustaining the planet. Through the convergence of countless subtle cosmic coincidences, the first God Tree burst from the soil. Its emergence sent ripples across the world, setting off an explosive proliferation of plant life that spread to every corner of the planet.
Over days and years, the first God Tree grew without restraint. Its massive branches multiplied and extended, weaving across the surface of the world until they formed an immense, interlocking canopy. Beneath it, the planet was claimed in its entirety, all of its energy drawn upward and consumed.
Its kin, suppressed beneath its overwhelming dominance, were unable to draw sufficient nourishment for a long time. Helpless, they curled beneath the God Tree's vast shadow, sinking into a prolonged dormancy.
After an untold span of ages, the God Tree, like all plants in the world, entered the stage of flowering and bearing fruit.
That enormous fruit hung high at the planet's highest point, growing fuller and more mature under the carving influence of various forms of cosmic radiation. At the same time, the God Tree's own energy began to shift quietly, gathering little by little into that single fruit.
Because of this, withered branches continually fell from the planet's surface.
The other God Tree saplings, long forced into hibernation underground, barely surviving by siphoning off the meager energy of stray branches, finally glimpsed a chance at life. Yet just as those saplings believed they had finally endured to the end, a sudden change occurred.
The first God Tree's fruit had fully ripened. In that instant, the crimson fruit actively released a strange and unique pheromone. Under the influence of this mysterious power, all the God Tree saplings on the planet were injected with a violent catalyst and erupted into frenzy.
They transformed into ferocious beasts bearing a single Nine-Tomoe Rinnegan, charging en masse toward the fruit that was emitting the pheromone.
In the chaos, one God Tree sapling was exceptionally fortunate. It seized the chakra fruit first. The moment it devoured the fruit, a powerful force surged within it. It began an astonishing evolution, transforming into a more complete lifeform.
The Nine-Tomoe Rinnegan that had once gleamed with a crimson light was completely suppressed by a pair of pure white eyes.
And thus, the first Ōtsutsuki clansman was born.
Its consciousness could be called newborn, or it could be called a continuation of the God Tree's fruit itself. In any case, it instinctively knew from birth that it existed for only two purposes: "reproduction" and "evolution."
This was the ancient tale passed down within the Ōtsutsuki clan regarding their own origins. As for whether the story was true or not, Isshiki naturally had no way of knowing.
All he knew was that, because the purity of his innate Byakugan was sufficiently high, he had been designated within the clan as a protected one. He did not need to share the fate of the lower-ranked members, who were forced to become mere nourishment for juvenile Ten-Tails.
As for the true origin of the race, who really cared?
Even the useless knowledge just recounted had only been mentioned in passing because the adult clansman had grown fed up with Urashiki's endless questions in the training chamber, and casually told the story to Isshiki's group of protected ones along the way.