Chapter 40
Decades later, on the night of the Nine-Tails attack, a copied raven landed on the shoulder of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. As the beast raged, the raven spoke in a calm, ancient voice only Minato could hear, analyzing the fox's attack patterns with preternatural accuracy and suggesting a seal variation that could split the chakra more safely. Minato, in his final moments, listened.
Years after that, a copied stray cat would nudge a lonely boy named Naruto towards a better path, or play with a young Sasuke to momentarily ease his pain. The Phantom was always there, a guardian born from the ashes of two wars.
In the Hokage monument, carved into the stone behind Tobirama's head where no one could see, a tiny, perfect fuinjutsu seal was etched. It was a marker, a signature. It read, in the oldest Senju script: *I am here. The dream endures. The fire burns in the shadows, too.*
Senju Itama, the copy, the devourer, the ghost, had become something more. He had become the eternal will of the village itself, ensuring that the peace bought with so much blood—including his own, twice over—would never truly fade. His story was not one of conquest, but of silent, perpetual creation. He was the unseen root from which the great tree grew.