"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
The ninja breathed wind from his mouth, blowing away the approaching water jutsu. The fighting was intense, as was the political situation. The borders were the most dangerous areas right now, and it was evident.
"You're on the Land of Fire ground! What are you doing here?" the ninja asked.
"I have nothing to say to you. Water Style: Liquid Bullets!"
The two resumed fighting, using their respective nature transformations. The Konoha ninja, while not far more powerful, held the upper hand in this exchange. He weaved the hand signs for another wind release and readied his hidden weapons.
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
He clasped his hands together. Wind was compressed and, by applying it to his shuriken, he threw them towards the Amegakure ninja. They shot through the air before the Ame nin could dodge entirely and cut through his body.
"AARGH!" the man screamed in pain.
He fell to the ground, bleeding and missing several chunks of his body. He hadn't died only because the Konoha nin wanted to interrogate him. However, something grabbed his attention. Their fight had caused quite a lot of damage, since the battle didn't just include the two of them. And while the fight had taken place, a strange-looking white root had become visible underground.
"What is this?" the Konoha nin asked.
He approached the strangely white-coloured root, forgetting about the Ame nin, who had fallen unconscious by this point. Captivated, the Konoha nin weaved hand signs and used another wind jutsu.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough."
The wind unearthed more of the root. He didn't stop that and continued with it, finally understanding that what he was seeing was merely the tip of this root. The deeper he got, the wider it grew. It took considerable chakra for the ninja to see the whole thing finally. It was roughly three times as big as he was.
"What is this?"
Naturally, the Konoha nin didn't do this out of enjoyment. He wanted to find out what the Amegakure nin were doing in the Land of Fire. He assumed that this was the secret they had found or tried to hide from Konoha, and that couldn't happen.
"Huff... huff... just what is this root... huff..."
He was out of breath and chakra. But he felt that he was almost through to the core and used a final jutsu, infusing it with all the chakra he had left. A mistake on his part. And a grave one.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Sword."
The wind cut apart the hard roots and finally revealed the prize underneath. The white wooden parts of the root were pushed to the side, and the ninja looked at... a person. The man had straight black hair, almost white skin, and a black dot where his glabella was. He looked strange to the man.
"Huh?! A man? What is th--"
The man opened his eyes wide, revealing white sclerae and with speed surprising the Konoha ninja, swung his hands through the air as if he held a sword. But what followed wouldn't be understood for a long while. The ninja suddenly felt strange and gasped.
"Wha... AAAAAHHHHH... kakkk..."
He held his throat in pain and fell to his knees. He choked as if his throat had been cut and fell face-first on the ground.
.
"What... what is this?"
Tenji looked around, confused. He was in a forest, standing on what could only be a battlefield. Next to him lay two bodies. One wore blue clothes, and the other wore black with red accents. One of them seemed to have bled to death. The second one had his throat cut. How peculiar. They both wore different headbands. A form of identification, he guessed.
Tenji closed his eyes, remembering the last thing that happened.
'Swords... and arrows. The soldiers of Sou and Ka. I died in that fight!'
"Hufff... hufff..." Tenji gasped, kneeling on the ground in shock.
His brain finally caught up with his body, and at that moment, his spirit aligned again. He wasn't dead, he was alive. What had happened? So many thoughts flashed through his head, but one image pushed everything else away.
"Kaguya!"
The image of his wife appeared in his mind. He grew anxious. What happened to her? Where was he? Where was she? Why wasn't he dead? Tenji forced himself to calm down, thinking about it logically. Since he was alive, it must mean that Kaguya had done something. She told him about her powers and what they were capable of. But why was he here, and she wasn't? Was this not planned?
Something had gone wrong.
"Hm?"
Tenji looked at the man lying on the ground in front of him. He kneeled down and touched his body. Understanding flooded his body.
"... did I...?"
When Tenji had been fighting against the soldiers, he had been focused on nothing but killing as many of them as possible and giving Kaguya enough time to reach the Divine Tree. So when he woke up, his mind hadn't caught up with the new situation and acted on the last instinct it had when he died, to cut down anything in front of him.
Naturally, that hadn't gone without results, as he had entered a state of understanding and reached a new stage in swordsmanship never seen before or since.
Mind Sword.
That's the name of the technique.
.
The settlement was small, too small to matter much, but that made it perfect for Tenji. After nearly drowning in worry and questions, he had decided to ignore all of it and simply get going. No matter the reality of his situation, it started with a single step. He needed information desperately. So after taking everything the dead men had on them, Tenji chose a random direction and started walking.
Tenji stopped at a food merchant's stall near the road. He saw dried goods and a few cheap tools laid out with care. The man behind it looked ordinary enough. Sun-browned skin, sharp eyes fitting for a good negotiator and a round figure. He seemed to be doing well as a merchant, which was why he could afford to be overweight. Or so Tenji assumed.
"Greetings, dearest customer. Are you interested in buying meat?" the man asked.
"Tell me," Tenji asked casually, while picking up a strip of dried meat," have you ever tasted the meat the Land of Ancestors produced? Is yours comparable?"
The merchant blinked once. Only once, but that was enough to tell that he hadn't.
"The Land of... Ancestors?" he frowned, scratching his beard. "Can't say that I have. Is that some minor country? East of here, maybe? Or off the coast?"
Tenji hummed softly, neither confirming nor denying it. He had a specific goal and needed to act the part.
"I see," he said. "And if someone were to be looking for it... where do you think such knowledge would be found?"
The merchant squinted at him now, interest and suspicion piqued. He understood when someone was walking the thin line between light and shadow. And in his eyes, Tenji was looking for information. This meant he could get something out of it.
"Depends. Old maps, maybe. Temple records, I hear the Land of Fire has some. Or old men like the Third Hokage who have access to a lot of information, hahahaha. But I've travelled plenty, friend, and that name doesn't ring a bell."
Tenji gave a faint smile. It seemed this was the right way to go about it. But to hear that the Land of Ancestors didn't exist, that was painful for him. He could only hope that the merchant simply didn't know it, or he had been transported to a faraway land somehow.
"Then it is as I thought," he said. "If you don't know it, I shouldn't..."
The merchant looked confused and intrigued.
"Shouldn't?"
Tenji leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice just enough to suggest discretion rather than presenting as a threat.
"Some names are tied to things best not mentioned out loud," he said. "If you don't recognise it, that means you've lived a safer life than most. I would hate to be the one to change that."
The merchant chuckled suddenly.
"Now hold on. You ask me about some land I've never heard of, then tell me I'm better off staying ignorant? That's not fair at all, is it?"
"Fairness has nothing to do with it," Tenji said.
The merchant studied him for a long moment. Tenji's clothes were simple, but in very good condition. His posture was tense and guarded, suggesting...
"Hahaha, oh my. To think I would see the day. Let me guess, you're looking for treasures."
"Huh?"
"Oh, don't give me that look. Do you think I'm new to this business? I know when someone is trying to get information out of me, while brushing it off. You act all mysterious. You're new to this."
Tenji looked at the man without saying anything. It depended on what he said next.
"Alright," the merchant said with a sly smile. "Let's say I'm curious. And let's say I trade in information as much as goods."
Tenji tilted his head.
"Come now, you didn't think you would get to keep treasure all to your own, did you?"
"I guess not," Tenji said.
The merchant grinned.
"So we understand each other. I'll give you some information that will interest you as well, something good. But you tell me where this Land of Ancestors was supposed to be and everything you know about it."
Tenji hesitated. It seemed humans hadn't changed. It was a deliberate hesitation on Tenji's part. He couldn't appear to have rehearsed this, which he didn't, but still.
"...Very well," he said at last. "But only if your information is truly good."
The merchant leaned forward, eager to hear about an ancient land filled with treasure.
"It was said to lie west of here," Tenji continued, "bordering lands which were bigger and had larger armies at the time. A relatively small country. But prosperous and peaceful, for a long time."
The merchant's expression shifted. "West... small... peaceful..." He clicked his tongue. "Which countries did it border?"
"It bordered the Land of That, the Land of This, the--"
"Hold on!"
"What is it?"
"The Land of That? The Land of This? Those still exist. And you're saying this Land of Ancestors bordered those?" the merchant was excited.
"Really?! Where are they located? I mean, from here?"
"Haha, you must not have been keeping up with your geography lessons. Of course, those still exist. But if you are saying that your land bordered them... then the only conclusion would be that we are currently ON the ground that used to be the Land of Ancestors!"
"What?!"
Tenji was confused. So he was on the land of Ancestors, or where it used to be. Then...
"Yes, the Land of This and the Land of That both border the Land of Fire and the Land of Sand. But if you say it was prosperous, it had to have been the Land of Fire. Hahaha, quite the coincidence."
"Indeed. A coincidence."
The merchant exhaled slowly.
"Alright. My turn."
He leaned back against his stall and thought about what he should tell the man. Theoretically, he had most of what he wanted. The Land of Fire used to be called the Land of Ancestors. Although that made no sense to him, since Tenji said it was a smaller country than the Land of That and This. But then again, those two countries were bigger in the past.
"I assume that the land you're looking for was here. But both the Land of This and That are minuscule in comparison to the Land of Fire. I can only assume that due to what the Senju and Uchiha Clans did, both countries were reduced in size. However, if the Land of Ancestors existed that long ago for me not to remember, then its name wouldn't have survived the wars. Especially not after the Second Shinobi War."
Tenji's eyes narrowed.
"Why the Second Shinobi War?" he asked.
"Well, obviously, because that was the last great mess before things settled into this fragile nonsense we have now. Villages burned, borders redrawn, records lost. If your Land of Ancestors vanished before that, no one would remember it, if it had existed when the great nations were founded."
Tenji nodded slowly.
"And if it vanished after?"
"Then it would've been swallowed," the merchant said without hesitation. "By one of the larger powers. Unless they had a strong ninja village, and from what you told me, they sound more like a trading heaven."
"Swallowed," Tenji repeated.
"Wouldn't be the first time."
Tenji looked away, toward the road stretching westward.
"Tell me," he said, as if following a different thread, "what do people say about the world now? What have you heard about the borders?"
The merchant shrugged.
"The usual, I suppose. That it's ruled by shinobi, with their jutsu usage and the Hidden villages pulling the strings while daimyō pretend they still matter."
"Jutsu," Tenji repeated.
"Yeah, Ninjutsu, genjutsu, all that. A gift from the Sage of Six Paths or something. Much of a gift it was."
"I see."
"However, if you're thinking of travelling west," the merchant said, lowering his voice, "you should know tensions are rising again. The smaller nations are already getting anxious between the big ones. The political stability has gone down the drain. Another war is looming, no doubt."
Tenji nodded his head.
"One last thing," the merchant said. "If someone wished to learn more about this forgotten land... what names might still be remembered if anything? Names survive longer than countries, after all. Just look at Hashirama Senju or the Ghost of the Uchiha..."
"I agree. If you are looking for names, then I would know two. Kaguya and Emperor Tenji, her husband."
The merchant froze.
"... Emperor," he said slowly. "There hasn't been an emperor in... ever. I have never heard of an Emperor of any country. The daimyō control the economy and fund the hidden villages, but an emperor... that's a grand title."
Tenji inclined his head, satisfied and bothered about what he learned. He had been gone for a long time, it would seem.
"Thank you," he said. "You've been most helpful."
The merchant frowned.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"I've confirmed what I needed. I seem to be out of time."
He turned and walked back toward the road heading westward, leaving the merchant staring after him.