That had proved an... enlightening conversation.
Gamamaru had known frustratingly little, but that little was still something.
I could build off something. It would take time, yes, but I could do it nonetheless.
It would probably help if I were to be concise...
Well; Two wielders of Darkness came to this World, one killed the other. They apparently came in by way of Gummi Block, as they'd fallen from the sky, according to Gamamaru.
Afterwards, I learned, the survivor had gone onwards to antagonize a nearby village, which, since this had occurred roughly the same time that the Sage of Six Paths had still walked the earth, had not ended well for him.
Gamamaru wasn't entirely clear on the details there, but the survivor had apparently attracted the Sage of Six Path's attention directly, and...
Gamamaru wasn't sure what had happened specifically, but the Sage had later continued his journeys and the survivor was never seen again.
So he'd either left the World, or 'the survivor' was innacurate.
...
I was leaning towards the latter, given the existence of the seal that was currently containing the rest of me. It was considerably likely that it had been created to contain them, since whacking it with a Keyblade didn't immediately get rid of it...
Hmm. Seal's meant to contain a Keyblader, I hadn't yet found anything that could actually breach Keyblade Armour that wasn't related to Darkness and Light...
There's a horrifying implication that... actually, there's multiple horrifying implications there.
I... I really have to investigate this more.
But first...
I floated closer to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, all three of whom were currently at the...
Well, I don't think it has a specific name, but it's that place where all the Toad statues and Toad Oil is.
Toad statues that, I couldn't help but notice, still had faint, lingering traces of Chakra present.
Kind of like a fresh corpse.
Creepy.
Still, no Hearts or Souls, which I guess is a good thing. Being permanently stuck, undying, as a statue for the rest of eternity would have sucked a lot.
"...ust be completely unmoving to draw in Natural Energy." I heard Fukasaku explain.
I still didn't really get that. Nothing in nature was still, after all; plants moved a surprising amount, animals were... animals, water flows, wind blows...
Scale up, and both planets and stars are continuously moving through space. Scale down, and you get the likes of Electrons, Protons, and Neutrons, all three of which move so long as they had even the smallest amount of energy...
Come to think of it, wasn't the entire deal with Jugo's clan that they passively absorb Natural Energy and that mutates them or something?
Why was absolute stillness needed at all? And stillness relative to what, exactly?
Fukasaku and Shima both moved around when they fused with Jiraiya, on account of Jiraiya himself moving. Sure, they themselves were pretty still, but they were moving through the environment, were they not?
...
Great, now I have more questions.
Bleh... No. Later. I came here for a reason and asking those particular questions wasn't it.
I'll call it mystical bullshit for now and ask later.
"Hey." I greeted.
"Yo!" Naruto punched his fist in the air, smiling. "What's up?"
"Nothing." I looked at Jiraiya, Fukasaku, and Shima for a moment. "Just thought I'd say goodbye before I disappear for a while."
Sasuke looked at me, wordlessly questioning.
"Just some things I want to check out now that I've heard of them from Gamamaru." And something to keep me busy until Nagato, or any of the Akatsuki for that matter, slip up and I find them.
They nodded.
"Good luck in your training, you three."
And with that, I vanished.
"Shikaku?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm going to go check on a few things. I'll be back in a couple days."
"Right."
"I'm afraid that what I learned from Gamamaru are the kind of matters that require my attention." I stated.
Hiruzen nodded. "You'll be keeping an eye out for Nagato?"
"Yes." I nodded. "I haven't seen hide or hair from him. Nor of any of the other members of the Akatsuki, actually. He's been keeping his head down, and frankly, I don't like that."
"He's planning something." Hiruzen stated.
"Undoubtedly. The question is what he's planning." Finding some way to get rid of me, almost unquestionably. My very existence, to say nothing of my habits and abilities, were a threat to his plans.
No doubt Obito is also doing the same.
Unfortunately, both were rather adept at avoiding me. Even if I did stumble upon them, I'd have to find a way to make sure they don't just leave. So long as Nagato could summon himself away, and so long as Obito could use Kamui, I would have a fairly hard time locking them both down.
Irritating.
Somewhat south of the Land of Lightning, and east of the Land of Hot Water, was another landmass, considerably large but almost entirely uninhabited by Humans.
The clue to why was in its name; the Land of Tsunamis.
Constant, near weekly tsunamis had a tendency to flood the majority of the land with water, which had resulted in the land eroding away over the millennia.
Subsequently, the flora was hardy, tough, and near impossible to get rid of, covering absolutely fucking everything.
There weren't many animals here either, mostly amphibians and birds.
It apparently hadn't always been like this, given that Gamamaru had lived here when he was younger, and, underneath the vegetation, you could occasionally find the odd several hundred year old ruin that tantalized at previous inhabitants.
It was also where the wielders of Darkness had once fell. If there was any indications as to what happened to them, I'd find it here, or I wouldn't find it at all.
...
The latter was more likely, given the state of this place.
Still... It wasn't like I had much better to do.