A gentle spring rain drizzled over the newly founded Hidden Leaf Village.
At the village entrance, a middle-aged man sat quietly in a wheelchair, watching the endless stream of people passing through the gates.
Time had reached Konoha's first year. The village had only recently been established, yet more and more clans continued to arrive, each choosing to settle within its walls.
What had begun with only a handful of clans rapidly grew into a thriving village.
Uchiha Kagami's father had been gravely wounded during the final battle of the Warring States Era, leaving him permanently confined to a wheelchair.
The young girl, Mikoto, had naturally taken on the responsibility of pushing him around.
Compared to many others, Kagami's father was fortunate.
Countless people had perished during the Warring States Era. His wife had died on the battlefield, and Mikoto's parents had suffered the same fate.
Now, only Hayashi, Mikoto, and Uchiha Kagami remained, relying on one another as family.
The sight of two children, barely seven or eight years old, pushing a wheelchair was somewhat amusing, but none of them cared.
They simply sat beneath the warm sunlight, quietly watching the constant flow of people entering Konoha.
"Those are the Ino, Shika, and Chō clans," Uchiha Kagami explained.
Since Hayashi claimed to have lost his memory, Kagami patiently introduced the people and clans arriving at the village, hoping something would help him remember.
At this point in history, the Ino, Shika, and Chō clans were merely close allies rather than the inseparable alliance they would later become. Their territories were still separate, unlike the future generations who would live side by side within Konoha.
Their true rise would come under Konoha's protection.
The Nara Clan, in particular, had always possessed remarkable judgment when it came to choosing the winning side.
"That's the Sarutobi Clan Head," Mikoto said as she pointed toward a broad-shouldered man with a thick beard while peeling an orange.
Half of the peeled orange immediately found its way into Uchiha Kagami's mouth.
She handed another piece to Hayashi.
The remaining slices she happily kept for herself.
"Hey! That orange was supposed to be my recovery gift!"
"Kagami, what are you doing here?"
A cheerful voice interrupted them as a young boy hurried over through the crowd.
It was none other than the young Hiruzen Sarutobi.
At this age, Hiruzen looked bright and sincere, wearing a clean smile free of any worries.
If anything, he looked remarkably similar to the young Asuma Sarutobi.
Yet Hayashi knew exactly what kind of man Hiruzen would eventually become, an elderly Hokage with a thick beard, constantly smoking a pipe.
Some time earlier, Hiruzen had accompanied his father, Sasuke Sarutobi, to discuss the Sarutobi Clan's entry into Konoha. During that visit, he and Uchiha Kagami had become acquainted.
None of it truly concerned Hayashi.
Everything before him existed only within a genjutsu.
No matter what happened here, history itself would never change.
He was merely an observer, witnessing an era he had never personally lived through.
It was a strange feeling.
He watched Konoha rise from nothing.
He witnessed the friendship between Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara with his own eyes.
More than once, Hashirama could be seen carrying bottles of sake into the Uchiha Clan compound alone. He would inevitably drink himself unconscious beside Madara, mumbling incoherent nonsense until Madara carried him back to his room.
The following morning, only then would Hashirama emerge.
Time continued to pass.
Before long, several more children had begun gathering around Hayashi.
Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Danzō Shimura.
Homura Mitokado.
Koharu Utatane.
The children all admired Uchiha Kagami.
He was not only an exceptional prodigy but also a member of the prestigious Uchiha Clan.
During this era, both the Uchiha and Senju clans stood at the peak of the shinobi world. As the Uchiha Clan Head, Madara was openly competing with Hashirama for the position of the First Hokage.
Back then, these future leaders were vastly different from the people history would remember.
Danzō already carried the ruthless temperament forged during the Warring States Era. His sharp eyes remained wary of everyone around him.
Koharu, on the other hand, had been carefully protected by her father, the clan head. Rarely exposed to the battlefield, she still possessed the innocence expected of a young girl.
Hayashi could easily tell that she had already begun developing feelings for Uchiha Kagami.
Time flowed onward.
Konoha entered its second year.
That year, Uchiha Madara failed to become the First Hokage.
Without taking a single clansman or follower, he quietly left the village alone.
Several years later, Hashirama Senju and Madara clashed at the Valley of the End.
Madara was believed to have died.
Hashirama survived but suffered severe injuries.
Soon afterward, Senju Tobirama accepted Uchiha Kagami and the other five children as his disciples, hoping to strengthen unity among Konoha's various clans and stabilize the village.
From then on, Mikoto was no longer the only one helping push Hayashi's wheelchair.
Koharu joined her as well.
Yet something else was changing.
Hayashi slowly began forgetting pieces of his past.
He could no longer remember how he had first arrived here.
Those memories simply disappeared.
It was as though the final years of his original twenty-two years of life had been cleanly severed.
Hayashi understood why.
This was the power of Taikōjin.
Anyone trapped within the technique would gradually lose their true memories, mistake the illusion for reality, and eventually die within the fabricated world.
Still, Hayashi never tried to resist.
His purpose had always been to experience this complete life in order to awaken the Rinnegan.
So he allowed the process to continue.
With every passing year, more memories vanished.
It resembled a life being rewound.
His original memories steadily faded while his body within the genjutsu continued to age.
Time passed.
Konoha reached its thirteenth year.
By then, Uchiha Kagami's father was already over fifty years old.
As for Hayashi, he could only remember memories from when he was ten years old.
That had been Konoha's thirtieth year, the year he graduated from the Ninja Academy and stepped onto the battlefield during the Second Great Ninja War.
Within the illusion, however, another era unfolded.
Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, passed away.
Senju Tobirama succeeded him as the Second Hokage.
Meanwhile, the shinobi world grew increasingly unstable.
After more than a decade of peace, the First Great Ninja War erupted.
Its outbreak proved that the lasting peace Hashirama had dreamed of had ultimately failed.
Far away from the public eye, Uchiha Madara survived by using Izanagi.
Hidden in the shadows, he transplanted Hashirama's cells into his own body and silently observed the world Hashirama had created.
The more he watched, the deeper his despair became.
The First Great Ninja War raged for five long years.
During that time, Hayashi witnessed Tobirama's death.
He saw Uzumaki Mito stabilize Konoha during its darkest days.
He also watched Hiruzen and his teammates gradually rise to prominence.
People came.
People left.
Years slipped away.
Konoha entered its twentieth year.
Hayashi had now spent twenty years living inside Taikōjin.
Uchiha Kagami's father had passed sixty years of age.
His hair had turned completely white, and his frail body showed every sign of old age.
Meanwhile, Hayashi's remaining memories had dwindled to those of his two-year-old self.
That was the year he had first met the equally young Uchiha Mikoto.
Inside Konoha Hospital, Hayashi sat quietly in his wheelchair, gazing out at the scenery beyond the window.
Suddenly, someone gave his left shoulder a firm pat.
He turned.
No one was there.
He looked to the other side.
Still no one.
Hayashi deliberately widened his eyes in surprise.
With a splash, a little girl sprang up from where she had been crouching nearby and burst into laughter.
"Did I scare you?"
Hayashi narrowed his eyes as a gentle smile spread across his face.
Standing before him was none other than the ten-year-old Senju Tsunade.