Below, Gamamaru sat cross-legged atop a massive moss-covered boulder, as though he had become one with the surrounding wilderness. Slowly, he opened his eyes.
The moment he saw his visitor, a clear flicker of surprise passed through his amphibian eyes. He evidently hadn’t expected his guest to come directly to this place.
“Hagoromo,” Gamamaru said. His voice was calm, though a subtle distance and wariness lay beneath it.
“…What brings you here?”
The Sage of Six Paths slowly descended, his feet touching the damp moss.
He did not answer immediately. Instead, he stood there in silence, his gaze sweeping across the timeless and spiritually vibrant scenery before finally settling on Gamamaru’s body—a body that seemed untouched by the passage of time.
The silence lingered, oppressive and heavy.
At last, he raised his eyes. The usual gentleness and profound calm in his gaze were gone, replaced by an almost obsessive, unwavering intensity as he fixed his eyes on Gamamaru.
“Gamamaru.”
The Sage of Six Paths’ voice was dry, but every word was deliberate.
“Tell me… just how have you survived for such an incredibly long time?”
He took half a step forward. The fluctuations in his aura betrayed the turmoil raging within him.
“I cannot die yet. Ninshū has only just been established, and the path of Chakra is only beginning to flourish. My two sons still need guidance, and the future of the shinobi world has yet to truly stabilize…”
“Until I have completely made this shinobi world a better place and achieved true peace and prosperity, I cannot die!”
His tone shifted from a firm declaration into an almost pleading urgency, yet it still carried an unmistakable forcefulness that brooked no refusal.
“That’s why I need your help. Tell me the secret of your longevity…!”
The final words were practically growled.
At his words, the calm expression on Gamamaru’s face instantly shattered!
The pupils in his wise eyes contracted sharply, and even the peaceful aura surrounding him seemed to falter.
He stared steadily at the old friend who had once fought alongside him and helped usher in a new era. His gaze was like an icy probe, trying to pierce through the distorted façade created by Hagoromo’s obsession.
Only after a long while did Gamamaru finally speak. But his voice had become completely cold, devoid of any warmth.
“I possess no ‘method of immortality.'”
His denial was absolute, almost indifferent.
“This is merely a characteristic of my toad clan—or rather, a trait that emerged from my own deep resonance with this sacred land and nature itself.”
“It has nothing to do with Chakra, nothing to do with any technique, and it certainly isn’t some ‘secret’ that can be passed on to another. Hagoromo, you’ve come to the wrong place.”
“How can you dismiss me like that?!”
The Sage of Six Paths seemed stung by the outright refusal. He suddenly took another step forward, his voice rising with urgency and anger and echoing faintly through the valley.
“Everything I have done—from sealing my mother, to repairing this world, founding Ninshū, and spreading Chakra…”
“Which of those things did I do for myself?! It was all for the good of the shinobi world! For the future of all living beings!”
The Sage of Six Paths extended a hand, as though trying to grasp some intangible hope.
“Now, I merely wish to live a few more years! To witness with my own eyes the fruits of everything I have created and ensure that it does not stray from the right path!”
“Is that too much to ask?”
“I don’t ask for much. Truly, I don’t! All I want is time! Just help me gain enough time!”
The Sage of Six Paths’ words were filled with righteous self-justification. His fear of death and his desire for immortality were carefully wrapped in the magnificent excuse of “for the sake of the shinobi world.”
Gamamaru fell silent.
This silence was even longer and heavier than the last.
He looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar “Hagoromo” before him. He saw the obsession nearly burning in the man’s eyes and sensed the increasingly obvious instability within his aura…
As well as a certain suppressed, dark restlessness.
At last, Gamamaru drew a deep breath, as though reaching some difficult decision.
He lifted his head. No longer avoiding Hagoromo’s gaze, he looked directly at the Sage of Six Paths with understanding and pity in his eyes, speaking each word with crystal clarity.
“Hagoromo… wake up!”
His voice was not loud, yet it struck like thunder, shattering the tragic façade Hagoromo had constructed around himself.
“Look at yourself! The person you are now… has already been deeply influenced by the obsession and paranoia left behind by the Evil Self you claimed had long since ‘disappeared’!”
“Is what you truly want really ‘for the sake of the shinobi world’?”
“Or… can you simply not accept that, as a mortal, you too are destined to die?!”
“The Evil Self?!”
Those two words were like a forbidden key, violently unlocking a deeply buried corner of the Sage of Six Paths’ heart—something he had deliberately forgotten and desperately tried to conceal!
The urgency, grief, and self-righteous emotion on his face froze instantly.
Then they twisted into an expression of horror, denial, and furious rage—the look of a man whose most carefully hidden wound had been exposed!
“Shut up!!”
He roared, his voice tearing with violent emotion and reverberating thunderously through the valley.
“The Evil Self disappeared long ago! It disappeared completely!! There is no such thing as a Good Self or an Evil Self in this world anymore! There is only me!”
“Only… the Sage of Six Paths!”
“I am the one and only true self! I am everything!!”
His vehement denial and desperate attempt to sever himself from his past only served to confirm the truth of Gamamaru’s words.
The fusion had not created a perfect new self. The shadow of evil had never truly vanished. It had merely lain dormant, quietly growing beneath the nourishment of fear and desire.
Gamamaru watched his almost hysterical denial, and the last traces of expectation and warmth in his eyes finally faded away.
He said nothing more. He merely gave the Sage of Six Paths one last long, complicated look.
There was disappointment in that gaze. Wariness, too. Perhaps even a final farewell to the friendship they had once shared.
Then—
Whoosh!
Gamamaru sprang into the air. Swift as lightning and without the slightest hesitation, he shot toward the enormous waterfall roaring behind his dwelling, where mist filled the air.
His figure was instantly swallowed by the rushing water, and his presence vanished as completely as a drop of water disappearing into the sea.
“Trying to run?!”
The Sage of Six Paths’ expression darkened. The obsession churning within his eyes instantly transformed into icy fury and determination!
How could the Sage of Six Paths allow the “secret of immortality” to escape right before his eyes?
Almost at the exact instant Gamamaru vanished, he made his move!
An immense surge of Chakra, infused with Senjutsu, transformed into an incomparably fierce purple beam of light that blasted toward the waterfall!
He intended to forcibly destroy whatever cave or hidden passage Gamamaru had used as a refuge!
However—
Buzz!
A barrier resembling strands of spider silk suddenly shot out from behind the curtain of water without warning. Delicate and flexible in appearance, yet unimaginably resilient, the silver-white strands rapidly intertwined into a massive net, firmly blocking the path of the purple beam!
Screeeech—!
The beam of light collided violently with the silken barrier, producing a piercing sound of friction!