11 Serious Talk

After some discussion, we came to a conclusion to name a clan 'Hihibana'. After that, I used a few of the captured beasts and transferred their life force into Ozawa. I still was not really good with the manipulation of life force on other beings while being a little bit better at myself. On my rough estimate, using my alteration, I can extend my life for somewhere around 170-200 years, while for others, it's about 140-150 years of life. It was more than triple the average life expectancy that ordinary people had during this time.

I knew that because we used medical ninjutsu to some degree, we would be able to increase the lifespan of people in our country so they can live 60-80 years old normally, while in extreme cases, maximum life expectancy should be around 100-120 years. And that is only in case one is lucky enough not to inflict some permanent damage that could not be healed using our current level of technology and chakra application. Still, the genetic modification should be done to increase it more, which is simply impossible because of the lack of technology, experience and limited chakra application. It didn't help that I had never researched genetics and was very bad at biology. The only hope I have is that in time. We will eventually achieve something like that or get someone Orachimaru's biology talent level, which is also unlikely.

After we were done, I stayed with Ozawa and talked about her concerns and other things while we remained on the fire Island, where Matatabi and Kurama liked spending their time. I didn't hide anything from tailed beasts. It was impossible since we shared a connection too many times, and therefore there was some form of exchange in memories.

Slowly days passed, and during my regular duties, I was in my office along with Ozawa and 25 other people. Those were 5 unit teams that were formed from our fresh graduates that stepped on the duty as warriors or, as I refer to them, Ninja, they didn't understand my reasoning for calling them Ninja yet, but soon when the Ninja will spread through the lands they will understand, but it was little matter for now.

"All of you might be similar to each other since you used to study together, but if you are not, make sure to get to know each other after the meeting is concluded. First, I will explain to you what is the purpose of the teams. Each of your teams contains five units, each responsible for something. Each team has a medic that will heal and support you in case of any injuries. Another important unit is the Fuinjutsu expert. This unit is responsible for erasing traces, preparing grounds for your job and if the situation requires sealing something dangerous. Other units are battle oriented, one of the said 3 is a sensor, and another is a front fighter with good Taijutsu or Nintaijutsu level of mastery. The latter is an expert in attacks from a distance, whether using Ninjutsu or weapons.

Now for your purpose, these teams are required in order to stabilize an area of our influence. Your job is to handle problems that arise within a country or the possible elimination of the threat that brings a lot of harm to the world. Now for the missions"

I looked towards the first team, "Team one"

"Hai" A boy stepped in front of me. All of them were wearing armour that protected their vital points while also wearing masks, which were mandatory to hide their identities outside the community.

An important fact is that those teams were formed from the best graduates with the best results, psychological analysis, and preparation to work in the unit as a whole. I didn't want to risk sending those that were not the best graduate to the first official teams since I wanted to test how things would work out using this small-scale extermination. From experience, we will later build up a working system for everything else that graduated.

"You mission details are in this scroll, but let me inform you of the general premise. There is a businessman on the borders of the main continent somewhere around 400 km away from our location. Recently we came to know that he is taking part in slave trading and other illegal activities, such as drugs. He is a part of the underground faction and has mercenaries guarding him, be careful and don't get caught, we don't want to reveal the news of our existence. Your mission is to remove the threat any way you want while ensuring the slaves are to be released or if needed taken here or to the sea island and innocent are not to be killed or harmed."

"Hai!" said the boy and left along with his team.

"Team 2. Your mission is investigation and possible elimination. Recently one of the cities where one family rules. There has been chain of 'accidents' that killed people that are next in line for the taking ownership of the city. Suspect is a cunning man that wishes to get his hands on the land under the family's rule unless you find information contradicting this claim. We don't know who in particular is responsible for those accidents, but I want you to investigate the cause and if proven dangerous, eliminate the target."

"Hai"

"Team 3. There has been news about some strange events taking place in one of the villages on the mainland in the sand plains. There is a strange chain of events when people forget days of their life and later discover that they miss their belongings, food, gold or other things. I want you to investigate the cause of those memory losses and capture the culprit. If proven unstable and violent - eliminate.

"Hai"

"Team 4. There is a group of mercenaries in the Sea Island that takes nasty jobs for the highest bidder, I want you to find them and capture them for the imprisonment, they are responsible for several cases of kidnapping and blackmail of our citizen. I want you to either capture or eliminate those that cause instability."

"Team 5. I got some reports about something strange, some kind of sage that teaches children, but strangely enough some of the children that went to the training went missing, while others returned to their families saying they are unworthy of being taught. I want you only to investigate about the one that teaches them, do not get caught and do not engage in battle. There is a rumour that said culprit is someone that calls himself ' Immortal Sage'. If this claims are not baseless, than in no conditions you can engage in a fight. "

"Hai"

When the last team left, I took a seat and poured myself a nice fragrant cup of tea.

"This is it for today, I guess." I spoke aloud so Ozawa could hear me.

"Don't you find it strange? Immortal Sage, missing children. Something smells fishy in this mission. I never heard of this Sage and we have best information gathering services that I know of, how could he escape it while calling himself Immortal Sage." spoke Ozawa rubbing her templates.

"You might be right, that is why I just asked them to investigate, and not to engage. Hopefully it is just a rumor or we might have some hidden threats that we are not aware of." I concluded what I could from the information we had on our hands.

'Soma, Hagoromo contacted me and said that he wanted to talk to you' spoke Matatabi in my head.

I turned to Ozawa with a small smile. "I guess we soon need to go somewhere"

"Huh, where, what?" She tilted her head to the side.

"Remember you told me you wanted to meet Sage of the Six Paths? Well you soon to meet with him, we are leaving in few hours, please inform someone to take charge of the office for the time we are gone." I explained the reason and was quite surprised at how quickly her face showed shock. I didn't know she respected the man this much. Well, you learn something new every day.

"Really?" She almost jumped on me with her eyes wide like a moon. "Oh I mean, yes, good. I will be ready in few hours" I saw how her cheeks turned red before she dashed out of the office.

Shaking my head, I smirked, rubbing my chin. "Interesting, interesting."

Soon enough, everything was ready, and we went towards the middle of the main continent at a rapid pace. It took us several days before we arrived at the village that almost didn't change. All the changes that I could see were new houses, but other than that, there was nothing major.

Like always, I walked to the house where Hagoromo lived and knocked on the door. Before long, he opened the door revealing himself. Just by looking at the man, I could say that he lost another 20% of his power during those 10 years, which is a significant matter, but other than this I felt another presence that I didn't remember before.

"It's good to see you Soma, and who might this be?" He looked towards Ozawa.

"Her name is Ozowa Namikaze, she is a student of mine." I replied, looking at the girl that had a glint of craziness in her eyes.

She started to talk before I could finish "It's pleasure to see you Hagoromo-sama. Can I ask you a question please?" he slowly nodded "Is it true that when you fought your mother the earth itself was split in half? That every clash when your forces collided sent a powerful gust of wind that travelled across the world? Is it true that only because you had the support of your brother were you able to finish her off? "

"Ozawa." I said, trying to stop her.

"Is it true that you can see true nature of any person you encounter?" she kept going on.

"Ozawa!" I shouted I didn't want, but the way she assaulted the poor man was too much.

Her head went down as she silenced her mouth, eyes dropped while her fingers kept fidgeting.

"I didn't know you liked this kind of people to be your students, Soma?" Hagoromo spoke with clear amusement.

*Sigh*

"To be honest, she hid this well enough that even I, despite being by her side for the last 10 years didn't notice her… interest? Well as I say ' It's never too late to learn' and despite that, would it be interesting knowing all about someone else?"

He shook his head. "No, I guess not. Well, why don't we come in, there is someone I want you to meet, and also I have something to talk to you about."

"Sure," I stepped aside. "Ladies first", Ozawa, that stood silent, lightly nodded and walked inside, followed by small Matatabi, that already needed to reduce her side.

"You go first, smart ass that knows nothing about the world!" spoke Kurama. He looked kinda cute in his small form. I guess he is still upset that there was nothing he could really do to help and was therefore deemed useless for the task, I guess this hurt his pride.

We went inside his study, where I found someone very similar to the Hagoromo himself, yet he had unique eyes that I had yet to encounter. I guess this is the infamous Byuakugan. So this is Hagoromo's brother; he is definitely stronger than Hagoromo right now but a bit weaker than Hagoromo was at his peak.

"Let me introduce you. This is my brother Hamura Otsutsuki, I hope you will get along"

"Pleasure to meet you." He spoke with a stoic face.

Hamura stretched his hand, and I took it, shaking it firmly. "Pleasure of mine to see a brother of my friend"

We engaged in a conversation that lasted for a few hours, I talked about my country, which was slowly growing. Hamura spoke about his children and how they bring a lot of trouble, but since he lived on the moon, there was nobody they could bring trouble to but their parents.

During our talk, I figured out that Hamura, in fact, didn't only possess Byuakugan but something much more powerful, eyes called Tenseigan. Overall it was a nice day, and I got to know Hagoromo's brother.

His attitude was very serious, but I could see how much he wished for the peace that they established to last. He showed great admiration for characteristics such as honour while also preferring always to be formal and collected.

When our meeting concluded, Hamura evaporated in thin air, or to be honest, and he teleported back to the moon in one moment. Damn, those space-time techniques are such a cheat, but I don't have fancy eyes that give you such an ability. I'm just a simple man, and I will need to work hard to develop something similar to that. I remember that several characters from the final fight were able to teleport, so it is definitely possible, but it is no easy feat, and I have no base that could give me something where I can start from.

When everyone else but me and Haromo remained, he manifested a barrier around us. I guess there is something very important that he wishes to share or something to discuss.

"So what did you want to discuss with me?" I asked, being quite curious about things he wanted to discuss.

"There is 3 pressing matters I want to address, one of which includes one of your desires, while another is a concern of mine. And lastly will be my final lesson that will allow you to learn the final and strongest technique that I ever possessed."

"Alright, you got me interested. Let's start with your concern"

"You remember Asura and Indra, right?" I slowly nodded, worrying about what was happening. To be honest, I was worried for the boys. They were nice and quite intelligent, both in their own area. "I gave them a quest. Quest to prove their worth and show which one of the two will take my position as Sage in this world."

"I feel there is something going on and you don't like it" I spoke what I assumed was correct.

He showed me a smile that didn't show any joy or happiness. "They are different. Asura is someone with kind heart, with passion for sorting things using compassion and words. Sometimes his good nature is a bit too much, but I believe that he will adjust. The problem lies in his brother, Indra. He is too emotionless, like you used to be. He doesn't think from the perspective of understanding others. Rather he is too calculative, therefore thinks that way of violence is one that is right and more efficient."

"You want me to teach him or something like that? I don't quite understand yet."

"No, I wish for you not to involve yourself. I taught them equally, I told them the same ideals and the same dreams. The rest is up to them, the rest is up to their decision. If Indra fails to learn the lesson, I want you not to intervene, I wish for you to stay idle unless Indra ends up as a Sage, I want you to stay away from the family conflict if it would arise."

"I can do that, but I have to ask, they are your children and I know them quite well. I don't think it is the best course of actions to leave them to their own decision." I spoke about my concerns.

He shook his head. "No, I need someone that can come to the conclusions on his own, not the one I guide all the time. It's my final decision." He said with words awaiting no obligations.

"As you wish, I won't intervene in your family matters, but as long as the scale doesn't affect too many lives that are not supposed to be a part of this to be lost."

"I agree to that as well, thank you for that"

I shrugged. "No need, I don't know how to thank you for your gifts already, and I think you are about to give me more than my promise worth."

Now it was his time to shrug. "My teaching is something I will give you, but another gift will not be mine. I'm but a messenger"

"Alright, let's move to your last lesson before your mysterious desire of mine", I spoke in a somewhat joking nature, but I was nervous too. I knew that he wouldn't be serious if the matter was not too important. But I don't have anything to offer to get any more help from someone Sage wants me to talk to"

"Alright, what I'm about to teach you is something I call Senjutsu of the Six Paths. It is simply an empowered version of the Senjutsu, but to achieve that, you have to have chakra of all tailed-beasts mixed together with Nature energy. I know you already had established connection with all beasts. Try to use their chakra together with your chakra and nature energy to enter sage mode."

I nodded and took a seat. I needed some time to pull this off. It is no small feat. Slowly I drew some power from every single tailed-beasts just as much as my body could handle while also mixing nature energy forming an imaginary yin-yang circle in my abdomen where the third was my chakra, the third was tailed beast power, and the third was nature energy.

Slowly I felt my body heating up before I exploded with power. I could feel how everything within me was almost endless, almost like I could do anything.

I looked above and found nine black orbs that were moving in a particular pattern. One stayed right above my head, without moving, while the rest were rotating around the middle.

Wait, isn't it a solar system? Sun in the middle, then Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Why would they be here?

Then I willed for Neptune to be in hand, and it formed into a shaft. I willed it to form a shield, and it formed into a shield. I tried to experiment for a few minutes before my body forcefully disconnected me from this chakra mode, and I felt my muscles numb and my chakra quite hectic. Breathing deeply, I calmed down my chakra and relaxed my body.

"I gotta tell, this takes a lot of out of me."

"It's no surprise, your body isn't fit for such a power, it's already a miracle you could stay like that for a few minutes."

"Well, we will work on that in the future. Now something that you deemed more important than what you showed me right here must be something of a higher scale, so let's move to that." I spoke in anticipation about what and who I will be talking to.

"Alright, as you wish." I saw how his eyes started to glow, and a literal black hole opened beneath our legs, with a huge head slowly emerging out of the hole. Its height was higher than the two of me, and it was only the head. His eyes were similar to the Hagoromo, his skin purple and his features unlike any human.

"King of hell, this is a person you wished to talk to." Hagoromo left the barrier and sealed the space completely, so I lost connection to the outside world. So now I'm in a separate dimension, huh?

I saw how his tongue started to expand and stretch towards me, I tried to move, but my body didn't even flinch. When his tongue was wrapped around my whole body, I felt like I was being pulled apart, and soon enough, I saw my body standing in front of me and said tongue was still around me.

Did he pull apart my soul and body? What the hell is this creature? Oh wait, he is the King of Hell, damn. I'm talking to the big boss here.

"Now tell me what you wish to achieve in your life? Power? Authority? Wealth? Higher state of mind?" spoke the creature, not bothering to move its mouth.

"I wish to bring peace to the world." I spoke in a firm voice, looking right inside the huge mouth.

"LIES!"

Shit!

"Ahhhhhhh", I felt like I was burning alive, like the skin was peeled right from my body. I felt like thousands of needles pierced every muscle like my eyes were plucked out with a crude knife. All kinds of torture I knew of at the same time.

"I will give you one more chance, answer me truthfully, know this that if someone was to lie in front of me a single time I would take their soul to be my slave in the underworld, so don't take your chances and answer my question. What is your ultimate goal in life?"

"I wish to…

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