After mastering Sage Mode, Senmei Asahi left Ryūchi Cave without lingering and headed to the nearest market town. The very first thing he did was simple and human: eat.
For two months underground, the worst torment hadn't been the damp air, the chill, or the silence. It had been the food.
Asahi wasn't picky — he'd happily chewed his way through tasteless dry rations on countless missions — but there were limits even for a shinobi. Roasted rats and frogs? He could force them down. Enjoy them? Never.
He found a small eatery tucked under a lantern eave and ordered enough dishes to feed a squad. Warm rice, miso broth, chargrilled fish, pickled vegetables, soft tofu shimmering with steam — the first mouthful almost made him laugh. He finished every last grain.
With hunger finally silenced, he booked a room at a hot-spring inn. He soaked until the heat pulled the ache from his muscles and the cave's smell left his skin.
*Ssshhh…*
The faint hiss of the springs emptied the mind more easily than a dozen hours of meditation.
He had integrated the First Hokage's cells and achieved Sage Mode. For a while, there would be no grand upheavals — except for the one that mattered most.
The Nine-Tails.
The timing wasn't entirely a mystery: it should strike around Konoha Year 48, on the day Uzumaki Naruto was born. He didn't yet know the exact date, but once Uzumaki Kushina's pregnancy became visible and her due date fixed, he could triangulate the night the Nine-Tails would be unleashed.
On that day, protecting the family of Namikaze Minato was only part of the mission. He had something else to do — something he would not entrust to chance.
After the bath, Asahi wandered the lantern-lit streets, letting his mind and body unwind while casually asking after the last two months' news. On the surface, the shinobi world looked quiet after the baptism of the Third Great Ninja War. In truth, each village was molting, changing under the skin.
Kirigakure most of all.
Though the village sat across the sea and was slow to trade rumors, it had not been cut off in the past. Now? Full isolation. The Land of Water had severed diplomatic contact entirely; even whispers struggled to cross the mist.
Hearing that, Asahi's private inference locked into place. The "Masked Obito" of his memories had grown in power and moved to seize Kirigakure via the Fourth Mizukage. In the original chronicles, the village closed itself, ate itself, and turned its own bloodlines into enemies. Clans with kekkei genkai were purged; civil strife swallowed streets and families whole.
Later, Terumi Mei would lead a coup and save the village from extinction. But until then, the hand behind the madness was not "policy", it was vengeance. Rin's death had been wrought in a plot centered on Kirigakure. Masked Obito's response was to make the Kirigakure drown in its own grief.
The Fourth Mizukage was a puppet; the village moved when Sharingan strings twitched. Purging bloodline clans offered Kirigakure no advantage; it offered Obito a requiem.
Beyond revenge, Asahi saw no other motive.
'The order will come soon,' he thought, 'and then Kirigakure will eat its own.' When that happened, chaos would follow — and amidst chaos, opportunities bloom.
He weighed names.
Haku. A gentle soul, terrifyingly gifted with Ice-style, yet temperamentally misaligned with the shinobi path.
Kaguya Kimimaro. Shikotsumyaku prodigy, but afflicted with a bloodline illness whose onset and progress remained variable.
Guren. Crystal-style — rare, flexible, and tactically devastating. Of the three, Guren suited Asahi's style best.
Unfortunately, the trail to Guren was obscure; only Orochimaru's later movements revealed her. If Asahi couldn't pinpoint her origin in time, he would miss the window.
Long ago, he had decided to nurture one or two personal subordinates. A single person, no matter how capable, could not pull every string alone. Konoha's resources were vast, and for intelligence work he could ride their channels quietly. But some things could never appear on village ledgers. Those had to be done by hands that were his — and only his.
Between Haku and Kimimaro, the choice was simple. Haku's heart flowed toward compassion, not command. Even Momochi Zabuza — Demon of the Mist — hadn't changed him; if anything, Haku's gentleness had softened Zabuza. Such a subordinate would be a dream for anyone needing loyalty, but a burden for someone planning ruthless contingencies.
Kimimaro, however, was reliable to the core.
Yes, he carried a kekkei genkai illness. But Asahi was a medical specialist. If he could catch the cause early — identify triggers, slow cascades, reinforce what could be reinforced — a cure or at least long-term management might be possible. That alone made the risk worth taking.
'Besides watching Uzumaki Kushina.' he decided, 'I need eyes on Kirigakure every day. If Orochimaru reaches Kimimaro first, extracting him will be ten times harder.'
Elsewhere, the map rustled without truly moving. Kumogakure and Konoha exchanged occasional sparks; Sunagakure and Iwagakure quarreled over borders and pride. But the great villages were stitching themselves back together; none were ready for a full blaze.
The small villages, however — Kusagakure, Takigakure — were busy. When giants sheathe their swords, the lesser keep theirs drawn, raiding for resources and relevance. Karin's memories in the chronicles placed Kusagakure still at war when Naruto and friends were seven or eight. The timing fit the pattern.
Thinking of Karin, Asahi made another mental note. Her sensory acuity and instantaneous healing were extraordinary, and as an Uzumaki, there might be other uses still latent. She was another asset to secure when the line ran close.
He walked a long circuit around the town, then chose a modest inn and checked in without fanfare. It was rare for him to be out like this; he had no interest in turning back quickly.
Before returning to Konoha, he intended to visit the Land of Rain — not to interfere, but to observe the Akatsuki.
The Akatsuki were a red thread woven through the entire future: the early arcs' lieutenants, the mid arcs' architects, the late arcs' catastrophe. A single organization, changing masks as the world changed, but never leaving the stage.
The Third Great Ninja War had ended. Senmei Asahi had passed his weakest point. He had grown into his own power. He no longer needed to live like a shadow of a shadow.
He could choose his battles now — and his silences.
He had no desire to prematurely disrupt Akatsuki's evolution. On the contrary, he preferred the broad strokes of the original arc to remain: the Fourth Great Ninja War, Uchiha Madara's return, and the final unveiling — the reincarnation of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Chakra, by all logic, did not belong to humans. The Divine Tree's root, its origin, its arrival — those answers lay beyond the written memory of villages. If anyone alive — or alive again — would know, it would be Kaguya.
He wanted her resurrection not to unleash her, but to interrogate the world through her. The secret history, the first contract with the Tree, the bargain that had rewritten humanity.
As for the danger? He measured it and found it tolerable.
From the original, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya did not fight with the honed instinct of a warrior-king. She wielded bottomless power and oceans of chakra, but lacked battlefield experience. The shinobi world had evolved in a thousand years; it would not kneel so easily again.
When she returned, she would be confused — a deity waking in the wrong temple. If Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke reached their destined strength, sealing Kaguya again would be possible.
Between the awakening and the sealing, there would be time.
Time for answers.
*****
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✓ Killed For 100 Years in Hueco Mundo, Aizen Invited Me To Soul Society!
✓ Naruto: Senmei Asahi
✓ Naruto: Uchiha's Intelligence Dealer
✓ Naruto: The Fifth Hokage Is Naruto's Uncle
✓ Naruto: Who Made Him a Ninja?
✓ Bleach: In My Second Reincarnation, I Became The Ninth Kenpachi
✓ To Love-Ru: Spoiler Route [R-18]
✓ Naruto: The Accidental Incubus [R-18]
✓ The Academy's Saint Is Too Popular, But He's Not the Protagonist [R-18]