〖Year 19〗
By sensing your own body, you pull yourself into the Divine Domain via Kamui's connection.
However, you don't sever your link to the outside world. Instead, you deliberately draw in natural energy, accelerating your swordsmanship training to promote the fusion of rule-based powers.
Twenty Truth-Seeking Orbs, formed from Senjutsu and the Tenseigan, float in neat rows on either side of you.
You stand at the convergence of the crimson sky and the endless emerald sea within the Divine Domain, rule energy coiling around your form.
At last, as the energies merge, the space of the Divine Domain stabilizes, and a brand-new Divine Art is born within it.
A beam of light—both vibrant green and withered yellow—shoots from your body and fuses into the space.
Within the Divine Domain, nothing seems to have changed… and yet, something feels different.
To test it, you use Kamui to draw a small fish from the outside world. It splashes into the water and swims lively—success!
Previously, this space couldn't sustain any life aside from you. Any living being brought in would be petrified within five minutes, turned into a state neither living nor dead, irreversibly lost.
But now, living creatures can move freely within...
Still, should you will it, you can completely control any creature brought in.
You name this new Divine Art Wither and Bloom.
You raise your hand toward the fish and release a beam of light. Instantly, one side of its body begins rapidly multiplying like cancerous tissue, while the other withers away and decays...
"Incredible," you murmur, awed by the sheer power of this Divine Art.
But then, an overwhelming emptiness and hunger assaults you. You're not surprised—just as expected, gaining a new Divine Art has once again increased your physical limits.
You'll need to absorb a massive amount of energy, and even enter a partial hibernation, to refill the void in your body.
Once it's replenished, your strength will ascend to a whole new level!
After giving a few instructions to Boss Black-Cat and having him pass messages to the Cat Sage, the Shark Sage, and the Eel Sage...
You devour all the fruits and seaweed you had in storage, gather various metals, and dive straight into the Dragon Vein. You close your eyes and begin drawing in massive amounts of natural energy to fill this body...
...
〖Year 20〗
You fall into deep sleep.
Aside from Boss Black-Cat, who periodically tosses natural energy-filled fruits and seaweed into the Dragon Vein, no other summon beast is allowed to approach.
Meanwhile, a new-star team from Konoha continues their journey, helping survivors ravaged by war. Wherever they go, they rebuild homes and use ninjutsu to reclaim land from the scorched earth.
Once a trio barely surviving the flames of war, they've steadily grown in both numbers and reputation. In every region they pass, cheers follow them—for their arrival dispels the darkness of battle and rekindles the hope of life.
Peace... has finally arrived.
Ninjutsu and chakra have returned to the ideals of the early Ninja Sect.
If one ignores the cost paid... it is a joyful thing.
Elsewhere, in the Shikkotsu Forest, the Slug Sage—always a creature of peace—decides to merge her body with the Dragon Vein. She fuses the remains and power of fallen shinobi into it, to restore vitality to the planet and heal the scars upon the land.
After her departure, the White Ape Sage, who has been in cultivation for over twenty years, opens his eyes.
Gazing upon his barely repaired, scarred body, hatred burns in his old eyes. The Slug Sage's discipline hadn't helped him—on the contrary, it only deepened his grudge against you!
With effort, the old monkey steps forward, leaving the Shikkotsu Forest without a trace.
He reappears at the entrance of a remote cave in the shinobi world.
However, his body—already heavily wounded—has lost a critical part of his divine powers, leaving him prone on the ground, barely able to absorb the thinnest strands of natural energy.
...
Outside the Water Curtain Cave, protected by your layered barriers and magnetic field disruptions, no shinobi or summon beast can approach without permission.
But during this time, Boss Black-Cat notices a strange ninja drifting across the turbulent sea on a fragile bamboo raft.
Neither male nor female, with pale skin, long hair, and serpent-like eyes...
Searching for something...
From your previous intel, Boss Black-Cat recognizes this person as Orochimaru—and hires him on your behalf.
Orochimaru begins researching that mysterious metal—cut from the Staff—that rivals the hardness of Truth-Seeking Orbs...
...
〖Year 21〗
Your consciousness remains dormant, but your body instinctively begins channeling both Senjutsu and your Breathing Technique in tandem, greedily devouring the power of the Dragon Vein.
Even the Shark Sage and the Eel Sage, dwelling on either side of the dragon's spine, feel a sharp drop in the natural energy density around their homes...
The White Ape's body is still far too weak.
Even after lying in place for a full year, the natural energy he absorbed is barely enough to keep him active for a short while.
All he can do is stare longingly at the cave before him.
And that's when an uninvited guest arrives—
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
Having long discovered the wonders of the shinobi world in his effort to restore his power, Isshiki knows it houses not only the corpse of the Ōtsutsuki God...
But also relics from powerful beings across other worlds.
Though proud by nature, Isshiki doesn't mind absorbing foreign power while he's at his lowest.
To him, even a powerful summon beast is viable material—either to be handed to Kara for bio-weapon experimentation, or to extract its unique strength.
Faced with imminent death, the White Ape suddenly abandons his fury and starts pleading with Isshiki.
The two reach an agreement: once the White Ape rebuilds his body and fulfills his revenge, he will offer his vessel to Isshiki for resurrection.
Although he lacks Ōtsutsuki blood, his body—at this level—is still strong enough to help Isshiki regain a measure of his former power.
With Isshiki's assistance, the White Ape enters the cave and retrieves a final trump card he left behind: the most precious relic in Buddhist legacy—
Relic Pearl.
...
〖Year 22〗
The Dragon Vein beneath Water Curtain Cave is nearly depleted, yet you remain in deep sleep.
Your Breathing Technique and Ryūchi Cave's Senjutsu have become so integrated, it's hard to tell them apart, but there are still no signs of awakening.
Following your instructions, the Shark Sage and Eel Sage have collected top-tier shinobi body techniques from the postwar shinobi world, such as "Lightning Armor" and "Seven Heavens Breathing Method."
They also tracked down scattered, now-reactivating, immense Tailed Beast chakra, and secured a heavily damaged limb from the Gedo Statue—all sealed and preserved safely.
After the war, the concept of shinobi villages has faded into history. The once-mighty Konoha has long since disappeared.
Only one surviving team carries the Konoha name, continuously working to save a collapsing world.
Across the shinobi lands, statues of Sasuke, Naruto, and Enra rise skyward—these three have become the very embodiment of faith in this world...
Inside the cave, aided by the power of the Relic Pearl, the White Ape not only reconstructs his old body—but emerges even stronger.
Even his Body technique has broken through from Level 5 to Level 7, just one step away from perfection.
And true to his word, the old monkey allows Ōtsutsuki Isshiki to engrave a Kāma seal, marking his body as a potential vessel for resurrection.