"Would you like to give me the details, Mito-san?"
Yoichi asked. He kept his voice flat, watching her with fixation.
He did not let her shock disturb him.
Instead, he noted how the matriarch's composure had finally splintered.
Mito smoothed the paper, her breath hitching.
"The Murakami were the eyes of the world long before the Great Clans rose," she began. She explained they were keepers of the earth from the era of the Sage of the Six Paths, a force of nature that predated the very concept of shinobi.
They heard heartbeats through miles of stone, existing as myths even during the founding of the leaf.
"Although I don't know the specifics, based on my memories, there were successors for this secretive clan until it was passed down to my sensei," Mito said, her eyes clouding. She told him her teacher was the last to carry that weight, vanishing into the soil once the village was founded.
"You actually look like him, Yoichi. I thought that presence died with him."
Yoichi grew quiet, his mind shifting into a deep, contemplative state. He analyzed the timeline with cold logic, wondering if this sensei was another transmigrator like him who had arrived in that ancient era. He considered the possibility of being an incarnation, yet the lack of data on the Sage's time left his origin a total mystery.
He stood like a statue, mapping out the likelihoods.
If a man with his face once commanded a lineage from the dawn of chakra, his arrival was no accident. He realized he was standing in the middle of a history he hadn't written, facing a ghost he didn't yet know.
"Then how did he die though?" Yoichi asked.
In his mind, it's very much impossible to die as a transmigrator with knowledge in the Naruto Verse.
The same coincidence happened with Martial Ancestor. Yoichi thought. This predecessor should be the one who created the Murakami Clan. But for what reason? Oh, I have a bad feeling about this...
Mito's gaze drifted toward the falling leaves. "He did not fall in battle, Yoichi," she whispered, her voice softening with a painful, reminiscent smile.
"He simply reached his limit right in front of us. At forty years old, he was reduced to ashes, his body crumbling as if the earth were reclaiming its own."
"He stood before Hashirama, Tobirama, and me, smiling as his hands turned to grey dust," Mito continued, her eyes glassing over. "The wind carried him away after we reached out."
"He told us, 'This is the curse linked to my existence, he wished someone to end this fate,' but he never explained what that curse truly was."
"He kept the details of that burden to himself until the very end," she murmured, her tone full of lingering regret. "He left us with only questions and a fading shadow. To see you now, with his same look... it feels as though the ghost has finally returned."
Yoichi processed the details of the spontaneous information with cold logic. He didn't know for sure if he was tied to that fate, but he started to pick the mystery apart with his own thoughts.
Turning to ash... Was that a failure of his body, or an unknown sinister force behind the curtains?
He wasn't ready to believe he was on a countdown, but the idea of a forty-year limit felt like a ticking clock in the back of his head.
"For my last question, Mito-sama..." Yoichi knelt on the wooden floor and held Mito's hand, his grip firm. He looked up at her with a sharp focus, his mind burning with a single question.
"What is his name?"
Mito's lips trembled as she prepared to answer, but her consciousness was suddenly dragged into her mindscape. She stood before the towering iron bars of the seal, where the air reeked of old blood. A massive, slitted eye opened in the darkness, glowing with a fierce and ancient heat.
"Quiet, woman!" Kurama's voice boomed, shaking the cage. The Nine-Tails pressed his snout against the bars, his chakra flaring in a violent warning. "Do you want him to be like your sensei? Agitated and desperate once he knows his fate?"
The Fox growled, a low sound that vibrated through Mito's soul. He spoke of the madness that consumes a man when he realizes his life is a flickering candle. He made it clear that some names should remain buried in the ash to prevent the past from repeating itself.
Outside, Yoichi saw Mito's eyes glaze over as her seal pulsed with a dark, flickering light. He stayed on his knee, holding her hand while the beast within her strangled the truth. He felt the heat of the Fox's malice, realizing the secret was guarded by a power that feared the name as much as she did.
Yoichi felt the air turn cold as red chakra leaked from Mito's skin. He tightened his grip on her hand, preparing to flare his own energy. This interference was an obstacle he refused to accept, and he pushed his presence forward to break the trance.
A heavy pressure suddenly slammed into his mind. Through Mito's eyes, a giant, slitted pupil flashed with ancient hatred. The room grew thick with the scent of scorched earth as the beast within the seal bared its teeth.
"Don't even think about it, brat," Kurama's voice echoed directly in the boy's head. The Fox projected a vision of a man crumbling into grey dust, a face identical to Yoichi's twisted in agony.
"If you force her to speak that name, you'll start a fire you aren't ready to burn in."
A jagged laugh followed, vibrating through Yoichi's teeth. The Fox warned that the truth was a one-way door and that the predecessor had spent his final years as a hollow shell of fear. The message was clear: digging into this grave would only lead to madness.
Sweat beaded on Yoichi's forehead, but his hand remained steady. He stared back at the flickering red light, weighing the beast's malice.
It was clear now that the curse was a mental weight, one that had crushed a legend's spirit long before the body ever turned to ash.
Yoichi relaxed his grip, lowering his chakra to signal a retreat.
He realized his presence was only fueling the beast's hostility.
He didn't want Mito caught in the crossfire between his curiosity and the Fox's ancient trauma.
Within the mindscape, Mito's spirit surged with gold light. She manifested the Adamantine Chains, which erupted from the dark water to coil around Kurama's neck and limbs.
The glowing links slammed the massive head into the floor, reinforcing the cage with a violent rattle.
"Enough, Nine-Tailed Fox!" Mito's voice rang out, her authority over the seal absolute.
She tightened the chains, forcing the red chakra back behind the bars.
The beast thrashed, but the Uzumaki sealing art held him in a crushing, golden embrace.
Kurama let out a final, muffled huff as he was dragged into the shadows. Before the connection severed, his voice echoed in Yoichi's mind with a jagged, begrudging tone.
"Don't be a fool, brat. That man's end wasn't just a death—it was a tragedy I don't care to watch twice. Drop it, if you want to keep your soul in one piece."
Mito's eyes snapped open in the physical world, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
She slumped against Yoichi, her body trembling from the strain of subjugating the beast. She looked at him with exhaustion, the golden glow of her chains slowly fading into the dim light of the room.
"I apologize, Mito-san," Yoichi said, softening his voice as he supported her trembling frame. He regretted pushing his inquiry to the point of a mental breakdown, realizing his search for data had nearly shattered her stability.
Mito shook her head and rested her forehead against his shoulder to catch her breath. She explained that the secret was never meant for a child, as the name itself carried a gravity that her seal struggled to contain.
"I was too reckless," Yoichi murmured, watching the last of the red chakra fade. He chose to set aside his questions, prioritizing her health over his curiosity. He guided her to a more comfortable position, his movements careful and quiet.
Mito looked at him with relief and thanked him for stopping. She admitted the Fox was right about the dangers of the past before reaching out to pat his cheek with a warm, motherly touch.
Yoichi stayed by her side, focusing entirely on her recovery. He realized some walls were built for a reason and decided he would need a more calculated approach to dismantle them in the future.
He then walked Mito back to the Senju compound, supporting her until she was in the care of her attendants. Once alone in his quarters, he sat in silence. He stared at his hands, wondering if they were truly destined to turn to ash as the man Mito described.
The Nine-Tails isn't just a beast; it's a witness.
Yoichi thought, his gaze fixed on the floor. He speculated that the Fox's warning came from the trauma of seeing a powerful existence crumble.
This forty-year limit sat in his mind as a possible ticking clock, a potential flaw he didn't yet understand.
If knowledge is a weapon, what could have gone wrong? he wondered, dissecting the fragments of the story.
He suspected the predecessor might have hit a wall in the natural laws of this world.
The idea of a pre-determined end felt like a cage, making the air in the room feel thin.
He considered the Innate Realm and the Murakami Clan, searching for a link between his power and that tragic fate. Is the clan a legacy or a warning? he asked himself.
He feared that blindly following the same path might turn him into just another ghost for the wind to carry away.
Yoichi closed his eyes, his breathing leveling out as he weighed his theories. He wasn't certain of the mechanics, but he suspected a fatal error in the predecessor's formula.
He admitted that to survive, he had to find a way to avoid a fate he was only beginning to guess at.
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Sorry for the yappathon. This is a crucial spot that I wanted to highlight in the first place hehehe.
Thanks again to doomslayer24, Snowwwww, and Daemonic_Dragon for the Power Stones! Thank you so much for still reading and continuing to read my fanfic! Hope this chapter helps!