It had been a long day for Hagoromo.
Sort of.
Technically speaking, he didn't really have days - as an all powerful being who's spirit was tied to very essence the world, time was really more of an endless blur than a collection of nights and days. Still, he felt the expression was entirely fitting for how drained he felt as he watched the scene unfolding before him. It was one he had seen many, many times.
Literally.
When time was as fluid as it was for Hagoromo, it was only natural to want to go back and change things. In fact, going back and altering the past was something that he had recently been doing quite a lot of, each time hoping the ripples created from a small change would carry through to the present.
The world seemed to be cursed though. No matter what Hagoromo tried, no matter what he changed, it always came down to this final battle.
He was ashamed to admit that he had been lulled into a false sense of security after his mother, Kaguya, had been sealed away.
'This is it...' Hagoromo thought after the Infinite Tsukuyomi had been undone, '...the final battle has been fought.'
'We were successful.'
As time passed he soon came to realise that this was certainly not the case.
That was not the final battle.
He returned his attention to the current war zone in front of him, noting the countless dead bodies haphazardly strewn around the vast clearing. Hagoromo shook his head. They never really stood a chance against the Invaders.
Only the two strongest of them all were still left standing, as it had been in nearly every single one of the previous versions that had played out so far.
It was the fourteenth time he had tried to change the outcome of this battle, and while this particular iteration seemed to be leading to a result equally as disheartening as the rest, he couldn't help but hold onto the small glimmer of hope that somehow...somehow...it would be different this time.
That glimmer of hope promptly faded as one of the Ōtsutsuki Invaders, members of Kaguya's own clan, sent five All-Killing Ash Bones flying in Sasuke's direction.
Half blind, the man himself was so consumed with another Ōtsutsuki opponent that he was completely unaware of the lethal projections headed straight at him.
By the time he realised, it would be too late. Hagoromo closed his eyes knowing full well how anything those bones touched would turn to ash. He didn't really want to see what came next.
"Sasuke!"
The desperate cry came from a small distance away, forcing Hagoromo's eyes open in surprise. Shrouded in swirling, golden-orange chakra, Naruto moved towards his friend at an incredible speed, the characteristic fangs of his tailed beast mode bared in exertion.
Alerted by the call, Sasuke turned in time to witness the blonde launching himself at the Ash Bones, each making a sickening crunch as they pierced his body. Momentum continued to carry him further back, the cloak of chakra diminishing into nothing as he sailed through the air, eventually landing on his feet with a heavy thump.
For a few moments everything stood still as they all paused to process what had just happened, Naruto himself included, until finally his legs gave out.
Sasuke, recovering quickly from his shock, swiftly reached out and grabbed his falling friend. The intense despair that filled him replenished his strength, and chakra born of pure emotion surged through him as he enclosed them both within the protective cover of the Susano'o he couldn't produce a few minutes ago.
He kneeled, gently setting his former rival down, and then watched in horror as blue eyed man slowly turned to ash.
Naruto smiled weakly.
"S-Sorry teme…looks like it's all up to you now."
A strangled cough escaped his lips, the blood dripping down the sides of his mouth garishly bright against his greying skin. He wanted to say so much more, but when he tried to speak again he found that his voice was lost and his mouth wouldn't move and his lungs were dust.
And soon his mouth was dust too.
And then his eyes.
And for a brief moment, Naruto knew no other sensation but unbearable pain in the silent darkness.
And then, blissfully, even that was gone.
An anguished cry ripped its way free from Sasuke's throat as Naruto's body disintegrated. He was the only one left now.
It was in this moment that Hagoromo decided he had seen enough, and promptly pulled himself back into time-space limbo.
He was no longer here nor there, nor then nor now, but rather everywhere and nowhere at once. Here, in this place, the battle he had just witnessed had both happened and also not yet happened, and could potentially never happen or happen in a different way.
Don't worry, it was confusing the first time he came here too.
Long story short: Time was a fickle bitch. When it came to the future she really liked to keep her options open.
And it was for this precise reason that Hagoromo knew the world could be saved. The future wasn't set in stone, and if he could just figure out what exactly needed to be changed in the past, then everything would be ok and the world wouldn't end.
Thus, for the fifteenth time, Hagoromo began to plan his newest intervention in history.
"Think you old goat turd…what are you missing?" He mused out loud, reflecting on the previous versions of what he'd just seen.
The very first time the attack had happened it had taken everyone by surprise.
They had all assumed that a new era of peace had finally come upon them after defeating Madara and Kaguya, and after nearly coming to a complete halt the world and it's inhabitants began to focus on putting the war behind them.
And for the most part, they succeeded. Little by little, everyone started to relax, easing into peacetime as if the devastation of only a few years ago was just a bad dream.
Perhaps that was why the very first attack was the most devastating of all the versions Hagoromo had witnessed.
No one saw it coming.
It had been an extremely normal night in Konoha, the streets bustling with people enjoying the cherry blossoms in full bloom and vendors selling their goods in the cool spring air.
That was until the sky was torn apart by violent purple lightning and streams of fire as two beings descended rapidly towards the ground, landing just outside the village — their impact so strong it shook buildings and shattered windows, the streets dusted with pale pink petals falling off branches like snow.
There was a sense of eerie beauty in the sudden destruction, enhanced by the still quiet that followed it.
As the two Invaders from the sky flew up from where they landed to hover above, there was a heavy pause, the villagers watching in horror as they tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
Then, without a single word, all hell broke loose as they began attacking anything and everything in sight.
In Hagoromo's personal opinion, their entrance was way over the top. Really? Lightning and fire from the sky?
That was so two millennia ago.
'Tsk…the Ōtsutsuki are all the same. Mother's arrival on this planet was no less flashy,' he thought, knowing immediately who the attackers were without a need for their introduction.
If their etherial features and unique hue weren't confirmation enough, their impressive Dōjutsu certainly was. One of them even bore a familial resemblance to Kaguya so strong that Hagoromo absently wondered if he was looking at his own uncle.
With the thought of his mother, the Sage of Six Paths frowned. At least when she had arrived, she didn't destroy everything she laid eyes on. If these two were indeed after the chakra fruit of the Divine Tree, and being his mother's kin he was sure that they were, then they wouldn't really get too far by killing everyone.
Very quickly however, an incredibly familiar scene began taking place before Hagoromo's very eyes. The branches of the Divine Tree sprung up from the depths of the earth, encasing anyone that possessed even a sliver of chakra within them.
Everything was happening too fast.
By the time the officials of Konoha had even grasped what was going on most of the chakra-less civilians were dead and more than half the shinobi were trapped within the vines of tree, their chakra being sucked out of them.
A few unlucky ones, usually those that put up more resistance, were disintegrated into ash by the clan's special bones — their chakra, freed from the physical constraint of a body, reabsorbed through the earth and into the tree that way.
Hagoromo grimly watched as Naruto and the other remaining nin fought the Invaders, a valiant attempt for sure, but futile nonetheless. The golden boy was only one half of a whole and with Sasuke miles away, still undertaking his journey of atonement, the counterattacks weren't quite as strong.
It was hard enough with just one ridiculously overpowered Ōtsutsuki…but two? They never really stood a chance.
Things weren't fairing too well in any of the other countries either from what he could tell, the reach of the God Tree circumambulating the entire world as its branches destroyed everything in search of stolen chakra.
Hagoromo stuck around until Naruto himself was turned into ash before he stopped watching.
The world had effectively ended.
Not wanting to see the victorious Invaders reap the rewards of the tree's fruit, growing large and heavy with the massive sudden influx of chakra, he had pulled himself back into time-space limbo.
And then immediately got to work.
The Sage of Six Paths was no idiot, he knew that the answer lay in the past. Somewhere along the way, there had to be a key point in time, a moment or an event that could be changed which would lead to a different outcome. And so he began formulating different theories, changing different things each time to see what would happen.
Whilst he was prohibited by the laws of Time to directly inform someone about the details of the future, he was allowed to show them snippets of what he had seen, and he decided to use that to his full advantage. Initially, Hagoromo had believed that the fault came from the separation of Naruto and Sasuke, and he was sure that if they worked together, they could prevent this less than savoury outcome. Just as they had with Kaguya.
So he went back a few months, confident that this time he would see those alien weirdos going down. After showing Sasuke what he had seen, the boy had immediately returned to Konoha, just as he had hoped.
The outcome was still the same.
Even working together, the two reincarnations of his children could not defeat the Invaders, and it was back to the drawing board for Hagoromo. His thirteen subsequent attempts at meddling with time yielded varying results.
The tenth attempt was probably the worst.
He had decided, on a whim, to see what the outcome of saving the lives Naruto's parents would be…
'I'm glad to see you're doing so well Kushina! I see your son inherited Minato's beautiful blue eyes.'
'Yeah, they really do look alike huh?'
'Have you decided on a name?'
'We have! Mikoto…meet Menma! He's g—'
*Hagoromo has exited this time-space*
…and very quickly realised that it wasn't the right move.
*shudder* Menma.
Aside from that one, most of his attempts almost always ended the same way. No matter how hard he tried to steer the future in a different direction it always came looping back.
Something was missing.
He needed to think outside the box.
Sasuke and Naruto were the key, that much he was certain of. If they could overcome his mother then they were the only ones with a chance at beating the Invaders. Hagoromo thought back to their fight with Kaguya.
What had changed the direction of the battle in their favour? Certainly their teamwork played a huge part. Informing them of their link to his own sons Indra and Asura, and splitting his power between them had been a pivotal point too.
At that, a small lightbulb pinged in the back of his mind.
Hagoromo was sure that he had to change something from Naruto's time. Changing something too far in the past would create a future immensely different — *shudder* Menma — from the path it was supposed to take. However, Naruto and Sasuke were direct reincarnations of his sons, and perhaps the answer on what to do lay with them, during his own time alive on this planet.
It was a bit of a stretch, but he was currently at such a loss on what to do that he was willing to try anything out. Backtracking along the continuum of time, he plunged himself into the years following Indra's birth. He may as well start from the start.
As all the notable occurrences of their childhood played out before him, one particular event caught his attention, drawing out genuine laughter from deep within his belly.
It was a small thing, something he had forgotten entirely until now. When Indra was eleven he had walked in on Hagoromo…er…partaking in a certain physical activity with a woman.
They were both completely naked.
There was a lot of thrusting.
The look on innocent Indra's face still bought tears of laughter to his eyes.
For a quick moment he wondered about what happened to Karai, the woman who he…ah…partook in physical activities with.
His wife's death immediately after Asura's birth had left him lonely once the grief dulled, and years after her passing he and Karai eventually became lovers. He had always shared a strong connection with her as one of his earliest disciples, a feeling enhanced by Ninshū, but it had only ever just been friendly up until then.
She shared his bed for only a few short months however, disappearing one night without a word, and over the many years that followed he forgot her.
Overcome with nostalgia, Hagoromo decided to take a slight break in his search for a solution, manipulating time-space to watch Karai the night she left. He looked on as she met up with another woman, one he'd never seen before, under the dim light of the crescent moon.
They were speaking so quietly he almost had to read their lips to fully grasp what they were saying.
"This is a big step Karai, do you really plan on not coming back?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure you do not wish to tell him?"
Karai remained silent for a few minutes, her face a reflection of the apparent turmoil within her. At long last, she let out a resigned sigh.
"No…Hagoromo must never know."
His eyes widened at the mention of his name. Intrigued, Hagoromo moved even closer to try and pick up all the snippets of their hushed conversation.
The other woman rested her hand on his lover's shoulder and squeezed as she spoke. A comforting gesture.
"Do you know what it is?"
With this, Karai's troubled expression softened. Smiling gently she wrapped her arms protectively around her stomach.
"A girl."
Hagoromo froze.
His brain sluggishly tried to process what he already knew. In a moment of panic he flung himself back into time-space limbo, not even noticing as the scene dissolved away while his mind tried to play catch up.
He stood in silence for a few minutes.
Then, to no one in particular, he finally said it.
"I have a daughter."
Her name was Aira.
Indra, Asura and Aira.
Even her name fit the bill.
His initial shock had quickly turned into fury that Karai had kept his own child a secret from him for all those years, but that anger slowly ebbed.
With all the politics and drama surrounding the inheritance of Ninshū, he supposed he could understand why she wanted to keep their child away.
Entering the past again, he skimmed quickly through Aira's youth, not wanting to get attached. The anger at being denied the chance to know his own daughter would return if he did, and he had to be practical. The world was at stake.
He did not know this child.
He would leave it at that.
At some point in her teens, Aira had returned to his village to pursue Ninshū, her natural gift for it both unsurprising and uncontainable considering her lineage. Hagoromo was taken aback at that, and he quickly skimmed his memory to see if had any recollection of the girl.
He didn't.
Shame began to fill his mind, even though he knew it was unjustified, at the realisation that he had been only a few meters away from his own child all that time and he didn't even notice.
At least she lived a full life, that girl, and for that he was happy. At least she wasn't tainted by the endless war between her brothers. At least she never knew true sorrow.
He told himself what he needed to in order to feel better, repeating the words like a mantra.
It was hard, but he eventually managed to push aside the whirlwind of emotions he felt and tried to figure out how she tied into everything. No matter which angle he looked at he couldn't really see how she fit into the grand scheme of things, and the events of her life didn't really offer him any clues on what he had to do to remedy the future.
Perhaps he was just letting the shock of this discovery get the better of him. New information wasn't necessarily important information, no matter how unexpected it may be.
Sighing he refocussed his attention back on his sons. After all they were tied to Naruto and Sasuke's very being. The answer lay with them, he was sure of it.
His mind wandered to the night Indra made the vow to be born again and again until Ninshū was no more. At the time he couldn't believe what he was hearing, and he was even more shocked when Asura decided to follow in suit, vowing to defend it for however many lifetimes it took for Indra to make peace.
Simply speaking of reincarnating one's essence was one thing but actually going through with it was another, and he had taken solace in the hope that neither of his sons were fool enough to truly do it. As usual though, his hope was misplaced. Following his passing, Hagoromo watched, unseen as a spirit and unable to do anything, as Indra, and shortly after Asura, committed their souls to the cycle of rebirth in a complex ritual.
Hagoromo suddenly took in a sharp breath, wrenched out of his own memories. Realisation had just hit him as hard as a ton of rocks.
'The ritual!' He exclaimed out loud.
It had involved the shedding of one's own blood, in a contract of sorts that tied them to the fabric of time. That same blood, that very same Ōtsutsuki blood with all its unknown and mystical properties, ran through their sister's veins.
Could it be...?
For someone blessed with incredibly powerful eyes, Hagoromo had no idea how he had been so blind.
There was always three.
There had always been three.
His excitement was building.
Over and over again.
Always three.
Throughout the generations.
He never noticed, so focussed on balancing the two halves he believed each of his sons represented to realise that there was never just two halves to begin with. He had found the missing piece, and everything was coming together in his mind.
If his sons were trapped in a cycle of reincarnation…
…then who's to say his daughter wasn't either?