〖Year 7〗
Under your guidance, the Cat Clan began preparing for relocation. However, due to their dealings in the black market for summoning beasts and the extensive information trade they manage, the clan was deeply entrenched with various communication and teleportation barriers. On top of that, they wished to avoid alerting the toads of Mount Myōboku. Thus, the relocation could only proceed gradually, in batches.
Aside from sharpening your mind and body through the Battle Saint Scripture, you also began systematic training in one of the two divine powers, "Heavenly Ear." Once mastered, this ability would allow you to perceive events simply by listening—no more need to scatter your spirit or chakra to scan vast areas.
By year's end, you had reached the seventh level of the Battle Saint Scripture. With this advancement, negative emotions in your heart began surfacing more frequently, fueling a faster growth in your Sharingan's Ocular Power.
At the same time, your inner clarity sharpened. Even some dark thoughts from your past life were cleansed away, and your comprehension ability rose significantly.
...
〖Year 8〗
With the entire intelligence network moved to the island and the reverse summoning formation constructed, the first phase of the Cat Clan's relocation was complete.
You advanced the Battle Saint Scripture to the eighth level. Negative emotions surged up continuously from within, only to be absorbed by your Sharingan.
As your strength soared, you noticed your heart becoming calmer—no longer so quick to anger or agitation over trivial matters.
That same year, you succeeded in cultivating "Heavenly Ear," but it still felt lacking. Trying to listen to events consumed a large amount of energy each time.
It was like the difference between a true divine art imbued with rule-based power, and a hollow imitation. That was also why you had requested the Rule of Life from the Slug Sage...
You resolved to uncover the true connection between divine powers and divine techniques, and began cultivating "Divine Foot" as well.
...
〖Year 9〗
Phase two of the Cat Clan's relocation was completed. Their freight and storage departments were rebuilt on the island, offering far more space than the cramped corner they had once occupied in the offshoots of Mount Myōboku.
However, according to the Cat Sage, Mount Myōboku might have grown suspicious and was preparing to investigate and pressure the Cat Clan. You reassured them that if Mount Myōboku took action, you could handle it—they had nothing to fear.
Back in the day, a white monkey prodigy from the White Ape Clan witnessed his entire clan's slaughter and was exiled by you. Now, having lost his kin, he could no longer return to the summoning world.
He wandered alone through the human world, enduring countless hardships and being kidnapped multiple times by malicious shinobi.
He had no strength, no jutsu, and no suitable weapon. Weak and defenseless, he became a target of greed and was used as a plaything and battle tool.
But after enduring so much, he eventually gained decent strength and finally broke free.
That white ape, Enra, now had enough power to protect himself. Yet, having been implanted with the Seed of Indra's Will, what he truly desired was even greater strength—so he could one day take revenge on you.
Roaming the shinobi world, Enra sought ways to increase his power and began meeting like-minded individuals...
By all reasoning, the Battle Saint Scripture had no entry barrier, but the deeper one went, the harder it became to cultivate. It required regular meditation, fasting, recitation of sutras, and study of Buddhist doctrine to purge inner malice.
However, your Sharingan continuously purified this malice—turning it into nourishment instead.
As this negative energy arose and dissipated again and again, you found your heart growing ever clearer, and your talents sharpening in turn.
A bizarre phenomenon occurred: what should have been increasingly difficult with each level was now rising by one tier per year.
And this was happening even while you divided your focus to also train in Divine Foot.
After mastering it, you gained the ability to move instantly with a single step. Though it consumed a great deal of energy, thankfully, this energy could come from chakra or other sources.
As long as you didn't use it tens of thousands of times in a row, the cost was manageable.
And at the moment you mastered Divine Foot, you were struck by an insight—perhaps divine powers and divine techniques were, at their core, the same thing.
If that was true, then what you still lacked... was the power of rules.
...
〖Year 10〗
The Cat Clan was about to complete its final stage of relocation. This, however, alerted Mount Myōboku. A large group of toads was dispatched to pressure the Cat Clan into continuing their tribute—or else pay a massive penalty all at once.
The Cat Sage, strongest of the Cat Clan, fought with all their might but still couldn't defeat the massive toads, especially since the Toad Boss hadn't even taken the field.
You used Heavenly Ear to gather intel, then stepped forward and entered Mount Myōboku directly to confront the Toad Sage in person.
That very day, the Cat Clan left the offshoots of Mount Myōboku without so much as a scratch—and even took a certain stone monument with them.
However, after your departure, the Toad Sage gave a prophecy—or rather, a curse.
A curse that you would one day be killed by the returning White Ape Sage!
You had long since purified your malice through the Battle Saint Scripture. With a serene heart, the curse delivered via Heavenly Ear didn't even anger you.
You were simply curious about the return of the White Ape Sage.
It was obvious. After training for more than a decade and steadily growing stronger, your calm mind was starting to itch for action—you needed a punching bag...
Meanwhile, Enra, wandering in search of power and allies, happened to encounter Uchiha Sasuke, who was also out investigating his brother's death.
After a battle, the two—man and monkey—felt they had met kindred spirits. They chose to travel together.
That same year, you mastered the tenth layer of the Battle Saint Scripture.
After ten years, you finally fully digested the Buddhist inheritance of the White Ape Clan.
A constant surge of malevolent aura rolled up from within you. An ordinary person would've gone mad on the spot, consumed by endless bloodlust.
But you? You merely thought your Sharingan's Ocular Power still wasn't growing fast enough.
...
〖Year 11〗
Through careful study, you finally discovered the truth behind divine techniques and divine powers: there was no essential difference.
The two scrolls the Slug Sage had extracted from the White Ape long ago—one for Heavenly Ear and one for Divine Foot—were, in fact, the Rule of Power made manifest, necessary for cultivation.
Through special Buddhist rituals, those formless rules had been transfigured into tangible material forms...
In other words, if you integrated both scrolls into yourself, you could complete the final stage of cultivation—
And obtain complete divine powers.
But doing so would also expose you to the same risk the White Ape Sage had faced: the stripping of your divine powers.
So, you chose not to do that.
Instead, you turned your attention to the Rule of Life gifted by the Slug Sage.
You intended to integrate it into yourself and—drawing from your experience with "Burn the Heavens, Boil the Seas"—use it to anchor a nascent divine domain and construct a divine technique of your own.
With the pseudo-divine technique "Cellular Reconstruction" as your foundation, and the experience of past success behind you, your confidence solidified.
...
The once-famous clash between the White Ape and the Flood Dragon had long faded from memory in the shinobi world.
Now, all eyes turned toward the escalating tensions of yet another looming Shinobi World War.
Uchiha Sasuke, Enra, Naruto, and others had, under subtle influence from your Wood Clone, formed solid bonds of friendship and were constantly training and growing stronger out in the world..
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