Chapter 11: Tell It to the Toads
By: DragoonMen
'Human Thinking'
"Human Speaking"
Technique/Jutsu Use
'Bijū/Non-Human Thinking'
"Bijū/Non-Human Talking"
Published: 22/Aug/2020
Pre-Chakra Era Arc
1 Year Before the Chakra Event (BCE)
18 Years After Ōtsutsuki Arrival to Earth
Chapter 11
—Land of the Ancestors—
Aokigahara Forest
"Too slow." Jigen open hand caught a fist some inches away from his cheek as his other free hand launch itself to his opponent's chest in an open palm hit.
His opponent bent at the contact with his hand. Chakra lacing the hit slightly, visible only to the sharpest of eyes.
A variant ancestor of the Gentle Fist
"Ready to give up?" Hamura sneered at Shin's comment. The twin straightened his stance once again even though he was injured.
Hamura's fighting style was the Ōtsutsuki Clan style. However, his opponent was eighteen years ahead in experience in said style.
Jigen smirked at the kata Hamura was adopting, it was an offensive one again.
"He never learns, does he?" Isshiki said inside his mind and Jigen silently agreed with him.
Hamura raised his hand forward. One stretching out as to defend while the other stayed close ready to attack.
Hamura decided to close the distance between them. The Byakugan began giving the white-haired twin a vision of his opponent and all of his surroundings but Jigen wasn't fazed by that.
He had been training under the tutelage of Isshiki for the last eighteen years.
Once he was within arms reach, Hamura attacked. Hits and blows parried one another while both men stood there, their feet unmoving but the hands were blurring with how fast they were going at it.
Not one of them providing an advantage over the other until Hamura once again tried to finish the fight with a hit directed to Jigen's shoulder, hoping to incapacitate him.
'He never learns indeed' Jigen would have shaken his head but the intense fighting did not let him do so.
Isshiki's vessel instantly saw this. His right arm retreating from the blow exchange to block the attack.
Upon preventing the attack, his right hand snaked around the attacker's arm once upon contact and yank it.
He at the same time raised his other left arm and immediately brought it down on the offensive limb, a pained groan following soon after.
Urghh!
Hamura backed away and grasped his increasingly numb left arm. Jigen had closed the tenketsu in his left arm with his last move.
"What did you do?!" Hamura could swear he felt like a dozen bees had stung his arm.
"I incapacitated you..." Jigen once again adopted a defensive stance that could morph into an offensive if needed. "But you are welcome to try again." He flexed his finger as if to invite him to fight once again.
"Why you..." Hamura frowned at the gesture and he would have once again charged into the fight if not for his brother meddling.
"I think that is enough for today." Hagoromo had been watching the spar on the sideways. He had to admit he was very impressed with Shin's combat style.
Hamura, Hagoromo, and 'Shin' had been seeing each other for the last two months and they have been learning more and more of their Clan with their newfound relative than they could ever hope to do so with their own mother.
"You should rest, Hamura." Hagoromo approached his brother. "Our mother will start to ask questions if you return all black and blue." Once he stood next to him, the uninjured twin pressed his glowing green hand on his brother. The telltale of his healing technique. Iryō Ninjutsu.
"Hmph." Hamura looked the other way but relented, letting his twin brother heal his numb arm. Jigen watched with curious eyes the deep bond the two brothers had. A very strong one he might say.
"You are good Hamura, but you need to keep a level head. Remember that being on the offensive is not always the best option."
'The best offense is a good defense' Jigen recalled the words of an instructor when he underwent basic training in the land of That.
"What fighting style were you using?" Hagoromo asked. He had never seen fighting moves so smooth yet striking at the same time.
"I called it Jūken." Jigen adopted the original position of his unarmed combat style as for emphasis. "Why?"
"Because I can't see or feel any injury on my brother." Hagoromo was dumbfounded. A hit would always result in an injury, it was common sense.
Hamura raised his numb arm with the help of his other working limb. "Hey! My arm is still numb you know."
"That is because my hits did not harm you physically." The brothers looked at him as if he was talking crazy. "They instead close the tenketsu points in your body, more importantly in your arm."
"Tenketsu?" Hamura has never heard anything like that before.
"Yes, a Chakra user body is composed by a Chakra System called the Chakra Pathways." Jigen ran a hand through some of his visible veins due to the physical strain of his recent fight.
"Is something similar to our Circulatory System. Every single point in this massive wire system is called a Tenketsu." Jigen touched a certain point in his arm. Hagoromo guessed that was where the tenketsu is located on the arms.
"The feeling of numbness in your arms is the result of Chakra being prevented from circulating your left arm, thereby you are unable to use Chakra or use your limb at its fullest potential. Nothing more, nothing less."
Hamura nodded after 'Shin' ended his explanation. He had lost but he got more and more experience out of the fight, not to say wiser. Still, he had been able to copy some of Shin's moves, so that was a bonus.
'Perhaps I could adapt his moves to fit my own style' The white-haired male thought. He would have to change it a little to fit him anyway.
"You just watch, Shin. I will beat you in no time one of these days." Hamura pointed a finger from his right hand to Jigen.
Jigen laughed a little. "I will be waiting, then."
'Keep dreaming, Hamura'
The three men decided to rest a little and laid down on the green grass field. The meadow inside this part of the forest bestowed upon them a very peaceful view of the landscape.
No sounds came from animals or other elements but sooner or later the silence has to disappear.
"How is your mother doing?" Jigen asked out of the blue and not because of courtesy. He did so with the intention of keeping tabs on her.
"She is doing like always..." Hagoromo knew his mother is and will always be fine. She had never fallen ill or anything similar since he could remember.
Hamura looked at his brother from his lying position. "But that won't be for much longer." That raised some interest in Jigen.
"Why do you say that?" Jigen said indifferently but behind his uncaring facade he was all ears on the subject.
"The Divine Tree Ritual will be here the next week. She will be here to oversee it like she had done it since I have memory." Hamura spoke with an all-knowing tone.
Jigen recalled the tradition Kaguya had imposed in the Mainland of the Elemental Nations.
People from all nations have to send or —as Jigen would say— sacrifice some hundreds of their people by sending them to the Shinju. His own countrymen being one of the most affected by this.
'Seems like Kaguya's animosity with Ka's people will never end' Jigen could stand one hundred percent sure by that argument.
Kaguya had practically decimated the land of That some years ago.
Some months after Kaguya ate the Chakra Fruit, the Rabbit Goddess had gone on a rampage. The once-great nation of Ka was now reduced to rubble, most of their citizens killed, and those who survived were now subjugated by the Ōtsutsuki woman. Their conditions of living being inhumane.
Jigen had even heard that after Kaguya knew of the death of Lord Tenji, she had burned the Capital of the land of That in grief and hanged Lord Oda by his own intestines in the balcony of his palace but not before forcing him to watch his people being burned to death.
The Daimyō Palace being the only building untouched by the wrath of the Usagi no Megami that night. It was left alone like some kind of sick monument dedicated to the Shinigami.
"That means that you and I will have less time to see each other once she returns." Jigen returned again from his thinking state to reality when he heard Hagoromo speak.
"Don't worry. I will be here as always, cousin." Jigen assured them. He would wait more time if needed.
"So, you said before the spar that you meet a talking toad." Jigen said in a joking tone. "Is that even real?"
"Believe it or not, it is true. His name is Gamamaru." Hamura decided to humor his cousin with the funny memory of Gamamaru.
"At first, we thought it was a puppet." He looked at his brother with a grin. "Have to hand it to that frog. He is very funny with the nonsense he speaks about."
Hagoromo frowned. "It wasn't nonsense, brother." Seriousness could be touched in the voice of Hagoromo.
"Gamamaru told things similar to what you have told us." The brown-haired twin stared at his 'distant relative'. "About the tree and our Mother." Jigen went stiff at that.
'Just how much did that talking frog told them'
"How much did he tell you?" Jigen needed to be sure that whatever that toad told them would not compromise his relationship with them.
"Very few things but some of them piqued our interest." Hagoromo could feel Shin's anxiety. The reason why he did not know.
There was silence following those words. No one of the three daring to break it.
"Shin..." Hagoromo rose from his position on the grass.
Jigen looked at him from his lax position in the soft grass. His posture slightly altering to one ready to spring into action.
"We are ready..." Jigen nearly let out a sigh. It looks like nothing compromising was shared between them and that toad.
"Are you sure?" Jigen took the reins of the conversation again. "What I will tell you could leave you at no end of trouble." And also take him between their stumbling legs.
"We are and that is why we have to know what really happened." Hagoromo clenched his fist. Hamura nodded in support of his blood family.
Jigen lifted himself. "Follow me." He dusted his clothes off and strolled away to a place where he will show them what they have been ignorant of all of their lives. Hamura and Hagoromo not too far behind him.
"What I will tell you its something not to be taken lightly, so please be cautious about what you do with it." Jigen said with a stern face.
If Kaguya got a word from this, she would question the twins and once their poor believable excuse was called out, she would force them to spill the beans and it would be a matter of time before he would be on the run again.
"Some years ago, my father and your mother arrived in this land." He told them the story he and Isshiki had come up with. Just a few things being removed and other being added to not make it sound too far fetched while at the same time suit his needs.
He continued while climbing on a hill. "Their purpose was to seek something. A Fruit." He made a gesture as if grasping an apple.
"A Fruit?" Hamura didn't get it. "Why would they arrive here when you can find fruits in any other places." It was a logical impression but Hagoromo knew there had to be a reason for that.
"That is because the fruit they searched was no normal fruit. It was a Chakra Fruit." The twenty-two year old looking man explained them matter-of-factly.
Hagoromo repeated the word. "A Chakra Fruit?" He had never heard of something similar before nor a tree that gave Chakra fruits.
"Yes." Jigen answered just as they reached the top of the hill. Hagoromo and Hamura recalled the memory with Gamamaru, same as this one.
'He too took us to a hill, just like him...' Hagoromo could sense a Deja Vu once again just by simply being in here. Just like Gamamaru had done the same with them some days ago.
"A Fruit that can only be harvested every thousand years." The vessel of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki looked at the Shinju clearly visible from this lookout point.
"Right there." Jigen finger pointed at the God Tree and the mountain range surrounding it, the Peaks of Demise.
"You mean the Divine Tree gives Chakra Fruits?" Hamura asked.
It was hard to imagine a tree that supposedly killed people, would be able to bear fruits.
"That is partly right since it only gives one fruit." Jigen raised one finger. "The reason my sire and your father are dead is that your mother wanted to seize the Fruit for herself." Jigen outstretched his arms. "And here we are now." He gestured to everything around them.
Hagoromo put a fist under his jaw in a thinking pose. "Why is a simple fruit worth more than the lives of the people?"
"That my dear Hagoromo is because the Chakra Fruit is powerful, powerful enough to grant its user many abilities. Immortality is one of them..." It was too bad the Shinju had tried to kill him when he first wanted to procure it for himself.
"Kaa-san is immortal?!" Hamura's outburst nearly tore Jigen's left ear off with how close he was too him.
Jigen rubbed his ear. "Well, not entirely true since she probably just stopped aging... but the fact is your mother Kaguya will outlive you two." He signaled to both of them.
"But that is not everything... that tree you see is also a graveyard, one of these graves belongs to your own father, Lord Tenji." Jigen said with respect. The deceased Lord of So may have been a fool but at least he faced his death with dignity belonging to someone of his status.
"Why did Kaa-san killed Tou-san?" Hagoromo wanted to know the reason that warranted his father's death at the hands of his mother.
"That is because your father tried to steer her away." Jigen lied, not that the twins knew about it.
"Stear her away from who?" Jigen pointed again at the tree as an answer.
"The God Tree?" A nod from Jigen was the reply this time.
"That is no normal tree. It is an entity. An evil one. Your mother was influenced by the Shinju. Lord Tenji tried to save her but it was not to avail." Jigen tried to make him look like the good guy in his little story.
"Alas, he and other men were unable to stop her from eating the sacred fruit." Jigen looked down at the memory of his own failure. He had been so close to ending her.
"Once Kaguya did that, she merged with the tree and use it as a weapon, your father was pierced in the heart with his roots." Another lie hurled at them.
Hagoromo and Hamura look at the tree. A solemn look on their faces. They could only imagine the pain and suffering that this tree had caused to everyone during his millenary existence.
"Anything else you know about it." Hagoromo asked anyway. If Shin knew any more details, he has to share it with them. In his mind, he was already devising a plan to bring the Shinju to an end once and for all.
"Well, people used to say that everything that comes near the tree will be devoured." Jigen offered. He scratched his head sheepishly.
"Anyone?"
Jigen crossed his arms and nodded. "I can confirm it. That tree is very much alive."
"Thank you, Shin. For trusting us with this." Hagoromo closed his eyes and slightly bowed to him.
"Whatever you want, cousin."
OoOoOoO
Ōtsutsuki City State Outskirts
Jigen had waited for nearly three weeks by now in a spot in the middle of the meadow where he had and the twins had accorded to met up in the forest.
The Ōtsutsuki brothers were supposed to meet with him a week ago but they never arrived meaning that something wrong had happened.
Aside from that, Jigen did not give up. He had already gone this far and he just couldn't stop and if the twins would not go to him, he would go to the twins.
He had grown close to the sons of the Rabbit Goddess and while the relation with them was for his own benefits, he had to know whereabouts of his 'supposed' cousins.
"I hope you haven't started seeing them as friends because that would be idiocy at its finest." Isshiki commented. His vessel had to remember those two were just a means to an end. Nothing more.
"I am just worried. If Kaguya did something to them we are back to square one." Jigen said to him inside his head.
"Just remember that they can turn on you. Friendship is for the weak who cannot do things on their own." The jape was directed at him and just like that Isshiki left the current conversation on his head. Jigen would not reveal it to him but he had started to view them as that. Friends.
So, here he was now risking his neck just to see what the hell happened to them.
He was standing too close to the City, full knowing that if Kaguya caught a feel of his Chakra he would be persecuted all the way to the Distant Lands.
Isshiki had told him about Chakra sensors and how to recognize Chakra at certain distances. Thanks to this he had managed to familiarize himself with the Chakra of Hagoromo and Hamura, being able to feel it and differentiate one from another even from certain distances.
Also thanks to Isshiki's doing, the Celestial Being had taught him how to suppress his Chakra to a degree that almost looked like if he was dead. Ghosting he called it.
His Chakra Control was perfect as the result of having the blood and being the vessel of a Celestial Being.
The downside of this skill however was that he could not use a single one of his abilities since his Chakra would flare up and his cover would be blown out off the roof. Like dropping a rock on still water.
Either way, he remained a considerable distance away from the City, not wanting to test out how close he could get near Kaguya without being detected.
He had been watching the Ōtsutsuki Clan compound for some time now, waiting for the moment the twins would come out.
'And look what we have here...'
Finally, he recognized the tuff of white hair and another one of brown going out outside of the complex.
Hagoromo and Hamura exited the gates of their compound and strolled into the town outside. Jigen followed them with his eyes.
After a few minutes of passing by into the town, they diverted to a path that leads up to a river that watered the rice fields nearby.
Jigen trailed them from a considerable distance at this point. He watched as they followed the river bank to a waterfall pond where they stopped.
"Come out, Gamamaru" Jigen heard Hagoromo, then he heard a little splash from the water but nothing more.
"It seems you went to the Divine Tree, hm?" The question was a rhetorical one. Jigen could not see from his position who was speaking.
The twins form covered whoever said that. Jigen's eyes were betraying him but he knew his hearing was right.
"Come with me." There it was again but alas he could not see who that voice belonged to.
'Just who had Hagoromo and Hamura befriended in here?' Jigen could not answer that question even for his life.
He watched with curious eyes as the twins dive into the pond that the waterfall had created on its underside.
Jigen jumped out from his hidden position when he did not see anyone come out of it after a minute.
He crouched in the sideways of the water body and look at it, blackness from the deeper parts of the pond addressed his eyes.
'Where are they?'
He would have to take a gamble and discover it himself. He had no other option if he truly wanted to know what they were up to.
'Well, here goes nothing...' He prepared his lungs for the task ahead.
Jigen took a deep breath and plunged himself headfirst into the pond.
OoOoOoO
—Land of Toads—
Mount Myōboku
Jigen felt a strange sensation once he submerged down in the water.
After what felt like a minute he finally saw light in what has to be the bottom of the pond.
It was something strange since the light would have to come from the way he came in, deciding to see for himself he followed it.
He slowly started to raise his head from the water as not cause any sounds. His body from the mouth and lower still on the water.
He concentrated again on the matter ahead, following with his gaze the wet footprints from the twins to their current position into some kind of maze made from rock statues.
"... one like me can do this." He saw a small red talking toad lift a giant rock statue representing a meditating toad with one hand.
Jigen mouth fell, the water filling his cavity for some seconds before he regained his wits.
'How the hell did he do that?!'
"Indeed." Jigen heard his so-called 'owner' comment too. The alien man could hear any of his thoughts. Isshiki was pretty interested in how an animal had managed to do these feats.
He watched the toad lower the statue like nothing. Hagoromo and Hamura were flabbergasted, equally as him though.
"Follow me." Said Gamamaru. The two sons of Kaguya and the sentient toad went ahead into a path to some kind of temple.
Jigen waited until they were out of his vision to get out of the fountain. He deduced that he found himself in some kind of a strange world.
'Perhaps a new dimension' Jigen could compare it to the one he visited during his meditating moments sometimes.
He was careful to not leave any drops on the dirt or clues that he was there. It would do him no good if the twins knew he was trailing them.
He continued to pursue the direction the twins and the toad had went when he eventually reached a strange building. Jigen did not see any of the three, signifying they were probably inside by now.
'What do I do now?'
Jigen knew he just couldn't barge in like if he was at his own home. He could jump but that will give away his position due to his Chakra flaring up.
'I will have to do this the old fashioned way'
He started climbing the building from one of his pillars on its corners much like a monkey but more clumsier. Jigen clawed at the wall and sometimes he would slide down but after a few more minutes he reached the top.
Finding a vantage point with enough view of the events below was difficult but he found it regardless in a window that looked on the inside of the building.
He could see inside the shrine-like room, there was a giant ball of some kind of shiny material in the center with pillows all around it.
'Looks like stone but polished... '
Hagoromo and Hamura stopped before the toad and the stone sphere.
"This is what we called the Memory Stone." The talking animal signaled to the stone figure in the center.
"A Memory Stone?" Hamura was the first to initiate the questionnaire.
"A stone that registers everything that happens on the Earth." Gamamaru explained to the twins below. Jigen looked apprehensive at that.
'It can't be...' Jigen thought with fear. All his hard work would be crushed by the loose lips of a talking animal and his magical device.
"Get ready to bolt off if needed." Isshiki advised him. His vessel needs to learn to maintain his emotion in check.
Isshiki could not imagine that all the hard work from Jigen would be ruined by a talking toad and a piece of rock. Tell him about bad luck.
"Look at what took place in the past." The sphere started to project the origin of the Shinju and how it fell from the sky.
"A long time ago, that tree fell from the sky." The device indicated the zone where the Divine Tree impacted.
"Many years after that, your mother Kaguya and another man arrived in these lands, like if they were pursuing it." Jigen watched from his position the two lights coming from the heavens. One for Isshiki, the other for Kaguya.
"Could that be Shin's father?" Hamura looked at his brother. Hagoromo did not respond, he was too engrossed with Gamamaru's exposition.
"When Kaguya arrived, she fell in love with the Lord of these lands and had you two..." The twins watched with awed looks on their faces their father's image.
Hagoromo was the one who bore more resemblance to him but Jigen did not care for that. Jigen however, still remembered the sensation of having the face belonging to the Lord of So kissing the dirt under his feet.
"... but then warriors from another land came and destroyed the frail peace your father had created in his reign." The sphere showed the army of Ka fighting on the Capital. Jigen widened his eyes but relaxed when nothing about him was mentioned.
"This action compelled Kaguya to take drastic measures to stop them." Kaguya's image returned but an arrow was now sticking from her back. She also had the Chakra Fruit on her hands.
'Seems like Suzaku really tried his best to stop her' Jigen recalled his former squadron leader. He had been sure that he had failed due to him not having enough restrain on his impulses while in reality he had managed to injure the alien woman.
"Kaguya took the power of the Shinju and made all those who did wrong to her sacrifices to the God Tree." The images showed the decimation of the Shinju on the humans that surrounded him but Jigen did not need to see that. He had seen it in person.
"After leaving a fraction of humans alive, she erased their memories as not to extinguish them." Gamamaru continued. "Only Kaguya knows the truth." Jigen too knew it but it's not like Gamamaru would never realize that. The sphere finally turned black again.
"Where did our mother came from?!" Hagoromo demanded. "Why she protects the tree?!" Hagoromo seemed to be more impulsive than usual. Jigen watched with interest his antics.
"That I do not know." Gamamaru conceded that he was ignorant of that fact. "She may have come from the heavens, a place so far away." He offered as a theory but Jigen knew the truth from where she came from.
"But I will tell you this. The Shinju has been reducing Natural Energy from this land since it has taken roots." The stone sphere came alive once again, showing already the parts of the Earth affected by the alien tree.
"That is terrible..." Hamura voice reached Jigen ears after seeing the barren lands left by the Shinju.
"But not only from the land but the people too." More attention from the twins at that statement.
"As long as the Shinju exists, the land will continue to wither and for us the same fate awaits us..." Jigen could feel Gamamaru's sad tone even from his position above.
After a few moments of silence, Hagoromo spoke again. "We must talk to our mother." Hagoromo looked at something in his palm but Jigen could not see what it was only that whatever he had did shine.
'A necklace perhaps...' A logical thought.
"The question is... will she come to see our viewpoint and discuss it with us?" Hamura knew that their mother would simply ignore them but he reminded his brother anyway.
"Your mother Kaguya has an immense power. Sincerely, even I am not in a position to talk to her." Gamamaru looked at Hagoromo and pointed to him. "Maybe you, her son."
Hagoromo seemed to think about it. "Gamamaru, can you teach me how to use Sage Mode?"
'What is that, Isshiki?' Jigen questioned the alien that lives inside him.
"I do not know that. Continue to gather more information. I am curious about what that insect is talking about." Isshiki ordered him. It was for their own benefit to learn about the strange power these life forms below were referring to.
"Brother?!" Hamura exclaimed. "Do you pretend to fight Mother?!" The look he gave him was that like if he had lost his head.
"Just in case..."
"I see..." Hamura sighed. He could not change his brother's way of thinking so instead, he rolled with it.
Gamamaru joined again the conversation, turning to face Hagoromo. "You that inherited Kaguya power will manage to dominate Sage Mode and be capable enough to challenge her but..." The toad seemed to have some doubts.
"But what?" Hagoromo waited with crossed arms.
"It could be dangerous to teach you Sage Mode." Jigen wondered why the toad said that.
"What warrant us that you won't turn like your mother once you become Sennin?" Gamamaru's stern tone made itself known. The reptile cannot bear the thought of another tyrant around.
'So that's why he said that' So Sennin Mōdo was the kind of power with strength enough to rival Kaguya. Jigen was all in at the thought of learning Sage Mode.
"Gamamaru. Are you afraid now after coming this far?" Hagoromo bends himself lower to look straight at the eyes of the reptile.
Gamamaru looked stupefied at the notion of him being afraid. "What do you say?!"
"You are contradicting yourself. Why did you have a need for us in here then?" Hagoromo started his little monologue.
"Because since the beginning you hoped we would fight against our mother." He dared the toad to deny it but he didn't.
Gamamaru praised the twin. "For a human, you are very insightful." He had to admit it, the elder twin had read him like a scroll.
"You speak with reason... since I just had a revelation."
"A revelation?" That sounded like something a hand reader would say if Hamura could recall that word.
"A dream, we toads don't have normal dreams..." It was a normal thing for animal summons like Gamamaru to know more about the future from these events.
"... and dreams for us are similar to prophecies. I watched you two and another individual fighting against Kaguya." Jigen recoiled at that like if he has been punched in the face.
'Did he just say another one' He hoped that he was going deaf or else that meant that he was fated to face Kaguya head-on.
"Another individual..." Hamura turned to his brother. "Could that someone be Shin?"
"Probably... no other man could hope to be strong enough to help us defeat mother." It was the truth. Hagoromo had never met another man that could be on equal with them other than Shin.
Hamura suddenly remembered that the toad said that he had watched them fight. By this logic then he also knew who won. "Did we win the battle?" Gamamaru looked away.
Hagoromo caught the hidden meaning of that simple gesture. "He did not watch the outcome. If he had, he would not be so terrified to tell us."
"You can read me like a book, you surely are amazing Hagoromo-san." The toad praised the Sharingan wielding twin. The gray-skinned twin was very observant of everything.
Jigen watched as they continued to talk to things pertaining to Hagoromo's oncoming training until they returned to the topic of their extra helping hand in their battle against their mother.
"If you said that you saw us with another defeat Kaguya then we must tell Shin about this." Hagoromo's suggestion was met with the approval of Hamura. Gamamaru however looked more skeptical.
"Do as you wish, Hagoromo but remain cautious of the most sensible things I told you, ne." The toad said in what could pass as an irritated tone.
With that said, Hagoromo nodded and turned to leave with Hamura.
Jigen left the window panel and crouched down again as to remain unseen. He watched a few seconds later as his supposed cousins start walking back the way they came from after exiting the building.
He watched their retreating forms warily. He too needed to get away from whatever this place is but to do that he would need to wait until the coast was clear so to speak.
"Did you really think I wouldn't notice your presence, Ōtsutsuki Shin?" Jigen froze like a brick. Gamamaru's voice was coming out from his turned back. The shock and surprise rendering him speechless. He had been caught.
"Or should I say Uesugi Jigen?" Jigen remained still, no single word escaping his lips.
"Would that be fine with you, son of Hachiro?" If Gamamaru had to wait more time for a reply from Jigen he would have to do something drastic.
Jigen calmed and returned to his senses. "So, you sensed my presence the entire time." It was more of a fact than an observation.
"Yes, I may be a toad but Sage Power has a lot of perks." The reptile said smugly. "I could sense you even when you were stalking the twins, I will tell you it was quite hard with your Chakra suppressed to that level, I almost pass you as a corpse."
"But corpses can't move, do they?" Gamamaru said in a smug tone.
"Why did you not call me out then?" If the toad had sensed him, he could have put a stop to him from the start and end his little charade.
'Why didn't you?'
"Because as you have heard a while ago. I had a revelation." The toad stared at him. "You are to help Hagoromo and Hamura defeat Kaguya and you would not do that if I told the twins the nature of your true self or the fact that you were the one who killed their father." If Jigen was embarrassed or ashamed of that action he did a good job in hiding it.
"So, you have been aware of my existence the entire time?" Jigen knew the answer to that but asked anyway to confirm.
"Yes, the Memory Stone records all events that happened in these lands as you already know of, murderer." The stare Gamamaru was sending him could freeze the water but Jigen remained emotionless.
"But then you didn't show them the entire truth." Jigen wanted to know why this toad had concealed his past actions from the Ōtsutsukis.
"That's right. I did not do it." Gamamaru accepted the accusation. He had done it for a good reason.
"So you lied to them too. You too twisted the truth to benefit your cause..." Talk about hypocrisy. That toad was no different from him.
"Yes, I lied to them but unlike you, I did it for a cause greater than ourselves." Jigen just raised his eyebrow in confusion. Manipulation was manipulation. It did not matter if your intentions were good.
"If I have to let a double-faced menace like you remain anonymous but that ensures the twins can end a greater threat then so be it." Confidence radiated from Gamamaru in droves. He had thought of every single detail.
"But know this Jigen, I will tell them the real truth of you if I detect any harm on them or foul intentions from you in their direction. Prophecy be dammed." The aura around them turned grim. Jigen snickered at the stinking eye that Gamamaru was sending him.
"Don't worry, little frog." The man said that as a light insult. "I would never harm Hagoromo and Hamura that way. We both want Kaguya dead, isn't that it?" Gamamaru crossed his arms and puffed his cheeks. It was true enough.
"Then you must know that there is no one else better equipped to help the twins kill the Usagi no Megami than me." He jabbed a finger at his own chest.
"I, that have been trying to kill her for two decades by now. Trust me Gamamaru I only want Kaguya dead." The tone that Jigen used to assure Gamamaru could have been more a bit more trusting but he left it at that.
"I promise you that no harm will befall the Ōtsutsuki brothers." He raised one hand and the other touched his chest. Gamamaru narrowed his eyes. Like if he would trust a man like him after the things he had done but it seemed like that was out of his hands now.
"We shall see that." Gamamaru rolled his slitted eyes. "Remember Jigen, we will act like this has never happened when we see each other again. Not a word to anyone. Can you do that?" Jigen smirked at the notion implied in those words.
"Oh, can you...?" The man gave him a Cheshire grin.
Gamamaru had a bad feeling about this but he swallowed it whole. Kaguya's reign of terror has to come to an end. One way or another, even if that means allying with a felon.
End of Chapter
AN: Damm, I felt like a took an eternity writing this. I am sorry but like I said before my job is very stressful and sometimes I don't feel well in some places they deploy me.
Hope you like this. I could not concentrate very well but here you go. See ya next time.
DragoonMen