Within the dim spiritual world, seven mirrors stood around a vast hall.
Each mirror reflected a different world.
Each showed a different life.
Each told a different story.
The rotating surfaces refracted countless colors—dark, deep, and boundless.
Shiraishi's true consciousness stood before them, staring at the seven spinning mirrors, a trace of bewilderment in his eyes.
Birth.
Aging.
Sickness.
Death.
Hatred.
Separation.
Unfulfilled desire…
Every slight change in one life produced an entirely different trajectory.
Suddenly—
The seventh mirror—the one that represented Shiraishi—began to distort violently.
Cracks spread across its surface.
Within it, Shiraishi was detonating chains of explosive tags, annihilating everything around him.
In the reflection, his body was blown apart and slowly collapsed.
Just as everything was about to end—
His glasses activated.
A gentle light enveloped him.
The glasses forcibly teleported Shiraishi into a distant forest.
They had refused to let their host die.
A crisp sound echoed through the hall like a requiem.
In the sea of mirrors and memories, Shiraishi stared at the mysterious reflections, his eyes full of uncertainty.
"Was it coincidence… or inevitability?"
He had always believed that obtaining the glasses and these fragments of memory was mere chance.
But now, standing at the brink of death, he realized something was deeply wrong with his soul.
In this world, when people die, their souls return to the Pure Land.
But when his soul left his body, there was no chakra mark of the Pure Land.
Instead, it returned directly to the world of the seven mirrors.
The place where Shiraishi was teleported to was within the Land of Rivers—
But it had another name.
The Forest of Asura.
Through countless ages, mountains and rivers changed names.
But one thing never faded—
The will and legacy left behind.
This vast forest was formed from the legendary technique
Wood Release – True Several Thousand Hands – Buddha on the Summit.
A single strike that reshaped the environment itself.
That was the power of ancient sages.
As time passed and forces deliberately erased history, Asura's homeland vanished from records.
And since the Land of Rivers' forests were connected to Konoha's, no one noticed anything unusual.
Deep beneath the ground lay a terrifying amount of life force.
At that moment, the glasses activated a special absorption mode.
They began pulling the forest's life energy into Shiraishi's body.
Vast life power poured into him, rapidly repairing his shattered flesh.
But the side effect soon appeared.
Plants began growing from Shiraishi's body as if he were being swallowed by a forest.
Excess life force always produced such results.
This was Asura's Wood Release—far stronger than even the First Hokage's.
Ordinary people would be devoured by it.
But then—
The glasses flared.
They absorbed and converted the Wood Release energy, purging the excess from Shiraishi's body.
"My god… have these glasses become sentient?"
In the distance, the orange cat sage was nearly scared to death.
It had never seen a pair of glasses gain intelligence before.
What kind of insane world was this?
"…Where am I?"
Shiraishi opened his eyes.
He rubbed them, picked up his glasses, and struggled to stand.
Wasn't he just fighting Kirigakure?
This was the depths of the Land of Rivers forest.
He had been right on the verge of reaching Sunagakure's camp.
Who saved him?
He looked at the strange, fat orange cat in front of him.
Was it this thing?
The man and the cat stared at each other.
Inside the system, the summoning-beast interface began analyzing the orange cat's value.
Far away in the Sunagakure camp, Puppet Shiraishi's expression turned grim.
He could feel his main body was in terrible condition.
Then the massive explosion reached him.
As a puppet body powered by regeneration cores, he and the other four could survive even if the real Shiraishi died.
Fragments of memory flooded into his mind—
Juzo.
Fuguki.
The final explosion.
It made him shudder.
But once the real Shiraishi stabilized inside the mysterious forest, the link was restored.
Kirigakure had lifted their blockade, believing him dead.
After a brief mental exchange, the puppet decided to continue acting as Shiraishi.
It would let Kirigakure believe their lie.
And hide the truth—that the real one was still alive.
The puppet removed its black cloak, changed back into Shiraishi's usual attire, and walked out of the Sunagakure camp.
Kirigakure's explosion tally:
45 dead.
125 were severely injured.
Both Juzo and Fuguki were wounded.
"This kid is insane…"
Juzo muttered as he dragged the unconscious Mangetsu.
He never imagined Shiraishi would choose mutual destruction.
But at least the enemy was gone.
"No body found?"
"None… likely vaporized."
Fuguki frowned.
"Release the report. Black Mist Shiraishi is dead."
Then news arrived.
Sunagakure had already welcomed Black Mist Shiraishi back.
Both Juzo and Fuguki froze.
"Confirmed? Not a transformation?"
"Chakra signature matches…"
Fuguki personally checked and sensed the same chakra far away.
Impossible.
And deep in the forest—
Man and cat continued staring.
"A raccoon?"
Raccoon your ass!
I am a cat sage!
The orange cat could only meow angrily.
"Oh. A cat. You're so fat I couldn't tell."
Fat your sister!
But to Shiraishi, it just looked adorable.
"…I'm hungry."
The cat's fur exploded in terror.
The system evaluated it as a low-grade green summoning beast.
Suggested use:
Capture as a house pet. Feed the cat food.
Shiraishi ignored the cat and turned to gaze at the massive forest.
The Forest of Asura.
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