The Eternal Northern Gaze.

Two people, one young boy and a relatively older looking man were sitting on top of the head of the buddha statue looking out into the distance, seemingly at a land beyond the horizon where the dense forest and the sky met.

The young boy was holding onto a snow white rabbit as he stroked its fur and pet it while it slept in a relaxed fashion.

Megumi had come to sit up top just to get away from everything for a while and so that he could clear his head with fresh air, but having been here for too long since nearly the afternoon he found himself accompanied by Hashirama sometime recently.

"Oh! Grandpa Hokage, did you really seal that giant fiery gorilla back into the volcano?" Megumi began the conversation as he looked at the forests that had been regrown and the volcanic mountain looked the same it did earlier before Megumi's fight with the Fiery gorillas and after seeing Hashirama here, he figured it was probably him.

"HAHAHA! Yes I did! Of course it was me! That was the body of the four tails that was left behind after it's spirit was taken away."

"Four tails? Taken away?" Megumi asked bewildered, that simple sentence contained a lot of information and implications for him to handle at once.

"Yep, a stupid man who betrayed all his other comrades took all the beasts and their progeny away after splitting them all apart from their bodies to make a stupid thing like the chakra tailed beasts who don't even know how they were created and that they have a life to get back to."

"Was it the Sage of Six paths?"

"Oh? You know about it?" Hashirama asked as he turned to look at Megumi who was also looking at him with an intrigued and a slightly confused expression.

"Well…. We had our guesses…but nothing really concrete to pin it on to him."

"We?"

"All of us, Tsuna-nee, Kushina-sama, Sakura, the Fourth Hokage each had our own guesses, it was mostly between either the Toad Sage or the Sage of Six paths, since both of them can look at the future and are doing nothing for some reason. Why and when did you suspect him?"

"Do you remember what exactly happened in the future?" Hashirama asked instead of answering the question, but Megumi gave in since he had nothing better to do.

"It'd be too long to explain the entire thing but in short, Uchiha Madara succeeded in pulling off the Infinite Tsukuyomi but was back stabbed by black Zetsu who turned him into Kaguya who was supposed to be sealed into the moon. When she was fighting three ninja she somehow ended up sending Sakura back in time along with me."

"I see." Hashirama turned back to look over the horizon seemingly contemplating something.

"Grandpa Hokage, can I ask you something?"

"You got so entranced by my awesome powers that you want me to train you, don't you!? Hehe! But don't talk about that right now! If Mito finds out you want to train and I let you do so she'll kill me faster than my trees grow from the ground. Save it for when Mito says you're fully healed and don't need to rest anymore."

"A…. no I meant to ask if you're holding yourself back from fully dying on purpose so that your strength isn't going to be used in a detrimental way?"

Hashirama's eyes widened a bit as he just laughed softly.

"How did you figure such a thing out?"

"Well…I remember the Sage of Six paths mention that you were supposed to be the reincarnation of his child and that you end up reincarnating once again as the next person who'll end up bringing peace to the Ninja world."

"Hahaha! Peace! It's such a funny word." Megumi heard Hashirama laugh but could feel the weight and the grip the word held on him.

Megumi just went back to staring at the horizon along with Hashirama as a soft silence reigned between them for a few minutes.

"You know when I finally formed the Hidden leaf village with Madara I had thought it was finally going to be peaceful from then on. Then when I fought and put down any thoughts of wars from the other Shinobi villages after they also formed mimicking us, I thought I had finally attained peace. Even after I defeated Madara when he defected from the village I thought I had found peace. But it was only one random day when I saw Tsuna-chan laughing while gambling with me did I stop to think what exactly was I trying to make peace for? Or where was the peace I was trying to achieve in the first place? Why did it feel so elusive that as soon as word of my ill health leaked, everyone began making preparations for war."

Not knowing how to respond, Megumi just stared ahead, making guesses that it should've been around this time that Hashirama would've started suspecting that something was up.

"Hey, kiddo, do you know how exactly are the properties of-"

"-tenketsus found?" Megumi interrupted snapping his head faster than the flick of a whip, not minding the sudden change in conversation.

"Haha! So you have thought about it!"

"Do you know how!?"

"Of course I know how! I'm the strongest ninja to have ever existed in the ninja world!"

"How?"

"Do you know about the fire temple?"

"Yes, doesn't it have the monks who have that jutsu- Oh! Their jutsu is quite similar to yours? With the thousand hands thing?"

"Yes, it is quite similar, in fact it could to some extent be considered the exact same thing. Can you guess how it works?"

"The fire temple monks have a chakra construct that they use to fight for them, but you can't fight directly with chakra so it probably has some elemental nature transformation? Like you have the Mokuton kekkei genkai, but how would they figure out the properties of tenketsu like that? Unless the chakra itself responds to them in some way? Perhaps they have a secret measuring tool that has been passed down through generations? But in a world filled with Ninjas such a thing wouldn't be kept hidden for long, so it has to be something that is unique only to them and can not be replicated? It wouldn't be a kekkei genkai since I'm sure the other hidden villages would love to just kidnap a random monk or a priest baby….hmm…..I'm not sure but they have some way to communicate with chakra itself?" Megumi went on a rant trying to deduce exactly what Hashirama was eluding to.

"You are right, but also wrong." Hashirama stated casually while Megumi looked confused.

"Kid, do you know what chakra actually is?"

"I do not."

"Oh! I didn't expect you to be so mature about it. Most people go on a rant about how it is the combination of spiritual and physical energies when I ask them about it, rarely does anyone ever admit they do not know what it actually is."

"..."

"Chakra is not the combination of your physical energy and your spiritual energy. It is in fact not the combination of anything. It is just a way for you to extend your control over the physical energies that already are a part of the planet."

"But…can't chakra not be decomposed back into spiritual and physical energies?"

"Who said you can't?"

"I mean naturally by a human."

"Again, like I said, who said you can't?" Hashirama reinstated as Megumi's eyes widened a little at the revelation.

Hashirama pushed out his hand in front of him from which extended a sliver of chakra in the form of a thread, under Megumi's penetrative gaze the chakra thread split into a greenish physical energy and another invisible part that could only be seen since it was distorting the space around it.

"...what? How..?"

"If you had reached here the proper way, you would have been able to do this too, but you reached here through some random way, which is why you can't. At least not yet." Hashirama said swiping his hands to flick away the chakra thread he had decomposed.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know how you did but at some point you separated from your body, your chakra and your mind which activated the mark I had placed on Tsunade, or in this case your body since it was made from Tsunade's."

"....separated from my body, mind and chakra…? Hmm… Oh! I know, we met someone during our trip to the capital who did something that felt like that to heavily damage us all, I think it was the Sage of Six paths."

Hashirama cocked his eyebrows as he looked at Megumi as if asking for a deeper explanation.

"Well, a few months ago, right before I came to the forest outside, I along with everyone else was on a trip to the Fire Nation's capital. During our trip we were ambushed by a few bandits who had banded together or were made to band together by a group called the Akatsuki so that they could probably take money from the people who were going to be travelling to the capital because of the Hokage's new reforms. Once the ninja dealt with the bandits, we were ambushed by this….voice? Yeah, voice that felt like it spoke by vibrating space itself. That was when somehow even though everyone was harmed a lot as they began to bleed I remained unharmed by the attack. Kushina-san did something then to get the Sage of Six paths kicked out of something she called the fabric of fates."

"Was that when you felt you were separated from everything for the first time?"

"First time?"

"Yes, I noticed earlier when I was checking up on you that you've done such a thing thrice accidentally somehow."

"Oh! The second time would probably be right before I came here. It was when Tsuna-nee transferred me into my new body."

"What the hell kind of a thing did she make now that she can give people bodies?"

"I know right… Tsuna-nee is a genius!"

"Haha! Of course she is! She's my granddaughter after all!"

Megumi smiled a little when he remembered how hard Tsuna-nee was working to create it but soon became miffed when he remembered the fact that he couldn't contact anyone back home for as long as he was inside the buddha statue.

"So tell me about the third time then, how did you achieve it inside the forest?"

"...? I don't remember doing such a thing myself really. Perhaps you're talking about the time I teleported?"

"Huh? Teleported? You did it all by yourself the third time?"

"....? Yes?"

"What? How aren't you dead then?"

".....?"

"To separate yourself from your body, mind and chakra is equivalent to completely obliterating yourself and becoming one with the universe again, nothing can survive that at least not unless they know what they're doing."

"...?Oh! Then maybe it was because while I was teleporting I could keep my sanity just long enough to teleport into this space that you've established here inside the forest, around the wooden statue, where you live yourself."

"That's fine and I understand that but…How did you learn to do elemental transformation in the first place, such a thing shouldn't be possible for you with the mark on your body, it should've stopped you from doing any such thing like teleporting in the first place."

"What is this mark you keep talking about and why will it stop me from learning elemental nature transformation?"

"The mark is a seal on the body, written down into the cells, to stop you from being recorded into the fabric of fates, its a thing that keeps track of your history and all the things that the planet can expect you to do in the future."

"...?"

"Forget about it for now, just remember that the fabric of fates is a thing that keeps track of all your actions involving your spiritual energy on the planet that use some form of energy from the planet, be it chakra or just physical energy or anything similar."

"So how does it stop me from learning elemental nature transformation?"

"The mark blocks your body from being able to come in contact with nature chakra."

"Huh? Why would you do that?"

"So that if Tsuna-chan is ever separated from her body, she does not end up in the fabric of fates where she could be hurt by the Sage of Six paths who rules the space over there. I must thank Mito for teaching Kushina well enough that she could figure out a way to kick him away from there."

"So that's why I can't change my chakra nature easily? Because I shouldn't be able to come in contact with nature chakra?"

"Yes, and not just not easily, it shouldn't be possible at all, your body, because of the mark, should be invisible to the nature energy in the surroundings in the first place. It can be in contact with physical energy but the mark blocks any contact with the planet's spiritual energy so that there is no record of you in the fabric of fates. It can not keep track of you and hence cannot provide you with nature energy."

"....but I can do elemental nature transformation quite well though."

Hashirama had a few veins pop out on his forehead but he patiently spoke, "Show me what you're doing then."

"..alright."

Making a hand seal, Megumi produced a full fledged lightning clone right beside him on the head of the buddha statue, sitting and swinging his single leg.

Hashirama touched the clone, fully expecting his hands to just pass through but was coloured surprised as he clearly felt the physicality of the clone.

"...? What? How are you doing this!?" Hashirama asked Megumi with stars inside his eyes.

Megumi recoiled a little but began explaining after seeing that Hashirama didn't back down.

"I found the method of slowing down my breathing to a crawling pace when I first realized that each time I was about to die I could do elemental nature transformation, but I later realized I don't need to keep my metabolism so slow, all I have to do is to allow my chakra to be fully manipulated by the natural energy outside, so I simply hand over the control after making the framework for my jutsu and the transformation just happens? It just works?"

Hashirama went a little wide eyed at what Megumi said but then quickly burst out laughing with tears appearing in his eyes.

"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! THAT'S SO STUPID!!! You additionally removed your control over chakra to let it become converted by nature chakra into nature chakra itself, that's a crazy way to achieve elemental nature transformation but definitely one way to achieve it. It must've been hard to figure out such a method in the first place."

"It was!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Don't laugh it was all your fault in the first place!"

"Well in a way it probably is, since you arrived here in the first place because you ended up having the mark. But anyway, as I was saying earlier, chakra is just you attempting to establish your control over the physical energies of the planet. But have you ever wondered what happens if you manifest the planet's consciousness into your chakra construct? Or in simpler words, could you get the planet to control a clone you constructed after splitting nature energy into its constituents and the use the spiritual energy of the planet in your jutsu?"

"Oh..? So the planet controls the clone and tells the fire temple's monks about the attributes?"

"No not exactly, the monks use the clone that is controlled by the planet's consciousness to experiment with the differences between their own chakra system and tenketsu points. The process cannot be copied since the monks do special things to maintain their bodies in a way that allows them to generate yang nature chakra that is able to house the spirit of the planet."

"But… that…"

"It brings out several other questions doesn't it? Like how the other people found about the properties of tenketsus before the fire temple was established or before it was protected by all the shinobi nations and its information shared with everyone? Along with other things like why would the planet ever do such a tedious thing as control a clone that a random person makes and how does one split apart nature chakra into its constituents itself and why isn't it a well known thing?"

"Yes…."

"HAHA!" Hashirama just bushed Megumi's head as he laughed and continued. "You can talk about that later when I can teach you more about chakra, for now you should eat food Mito has made for dinner and make sure you can recover well, since given you've lost two of your limbs you should start feeling the impact it has on the amount of chakra you can produce. Let's go!"

Hashirama climbed up from the head of the buddha statue and went back into the tree statue house as Megumi followed behind him to have his food made by the legendary figure of granny Mito.

'Ha! When some day I'm back to meeting Tsuna-nee and everyone else, I wonder how jealous they'll all be of me having had food made by Mito baa-san. Mum's food is still the best though.'

'I wonder when I'll be able to meet them again since I can't just teleport back without a marker.'

…..

Under the dark night, with the white moon hanging up above in the sky that was glittered with several small stars, planets and galaxies, two people talked to each other inside the room of a giant statue.

"What do you think about him Hashi?"

"....he's sad he can't go home, but he's a nice kid."

"He tries to be so silly all the time during the day yet I haven't seen him for one night look away from Norther direction for the entire last month he has been here, awake."

*sigh*

"Has Kaguya been back ever since he's woken up?" Hashirama asked Mito.

"No. She said, it was better for him to just know the rabbit for now, she could introduce herself to him later when it was actually necessary to do so by possessing the rabbit like she always does."

"Hmm…"

"Are you going to teach him?"

"...I might? He seems like a fun kid to teach, I was waiting for Tsuna-chan but he's not bad either, I'm sure once he leaves he'll help her out too. Did you know he got past my seal on his body by giving up control of his own chakra to the planet! He's a crazy kid. Who would be ballsy enough to give up control of their own power? I wish more ninja were like him, people who didn't hoard power and understood that by simply giving away control they can own the world. "

"He did find a way, but he also probably did because he was forced to by the circumstances so keep in mind that he's been through a heavy ordeal no one should have to go through."

"Hm~m, I will. I wonder if he gambles, it might be fun to play after all this time again."

*Bonk*

"No gambling Hashi!"

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Thank you for reading!

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