In a certain alternate dimension, the sky was dim and silent all around.
Ever since the soul of Isshiki awakened to a critical stage within this body, Isshiki had retreated from the shinobi world and taken residence in this place. It had now been thousands of years.
During those millennia, he spent most of his time in slumber, as his body could not bear the presence of Isshiki's soul.
The extended dormancy allowed his physical form to gradually adjust to the awakened essence within him.
It wasn't until recently that he awakened the second state which finally gave him enough time to freely move about the shinobi world again.
Each time he entered a short awakening period, he would search the world for a suitable "vessel."
However, Isshiki's soul demanded an extremely precise standard for such a host, and he had yet to find one that met the requirements.
He had once encountered a young Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara and quickly realized that both possessed the potential to become ideal vessels.
Regrettably, because Isshiki had been in a crucial stage of awakening to the "Contract" state at the time, he had no choice but to return to slumber.
By the time he awoke again, both Hashirama and Madara were long dead.
With no better option, he turned his gaze once more toward Konoha's three great clans, Senju, Uchiha, and Hyuga, in the hopes of finding a new candidate.
That was when the emergence of Arima caught his eye. Impressed by the boy's innate talent, Isshiki began to observe his growth closely.
During his last slumber, in order to prevent another missed opportunity, Isshiki took control of an underground shinobi network and ordered his subordinates to monitor Arima's every move.
In the twenty-third year of the Hidden Leaf, Isshiki finally awoke again.
His body had now fully adapted to the second state of "Contract." The first thing he did upon waking was review every detail his people had collected about Arima over the years.
His subordinates had done a commendable job, meticulous and efficient. As Isshiki traced the arc of Arima's development, he felt deeply satisfied with the vessel's progression.
He had also taken note of the time-traveling visitor, Shinnō, and extracted many insights about the future from him.
According to Shinno, Arima, this vessel harbored even greater potential than Jigen had imagined. But there were risks as well.
To maximize control and development of the vessel, Isshiki had made a special trip to the moon and returned with a pair of Byakugan eyes with the purest Otsutsuki lineage, along with a secret mind-control technique known as the "Mind Sphere."
To ensure complete influence over Arima, Isshiki combined the "Mind Sphere" with Sunagakure's secret Puppet Brain Technique, crafting a Yin-Yang Release technique called Deep Brain Manipulation.
This method allowed Arima to maintain his independent personality while remaining unfailingly loyal to Isshiki.
Isshiki then waited patiently for the arrival of the squad Shinno had spoken of, the one that would include Arima's future descendants.
In the twenty-sixth year of the Hidden Leaf, his subordinates reported frequent fluctuations in the power of the Ryumyaku. Isshiki recognized this as the perfect time to claim his vessel.
To test Arima's worthiness, he dispatched Shinno and Miyadera, who led the Sky Ninja to stir up chaos across the land, ultimately luring Arima away from Konoha to Roran.
Unfortunately, Arima's two children proved to be unsuitable as vessels, likely due to Tsunade's not fully pure bloodline.
Isshiki had once considered capturing Arima and marrying him off to an Otsutsuki descendant on the moon to produce an even more refined vessel.
However, after clashing with Arima in the desert, he abandoned that impractical idea. After all, no one else in the shinobi world seemed genetically closer to the Otsutsuki clan than Arima.
Now, having successfully captured and sealed Arima, Isshiki could finally commence the major plan he had studied for centuries.
On his way back from the desert, he even brought along the Zero-Tails and fed it to the Ten-Tails, giving it a little extra sustenance.
As for how Konoha would deal with the aftermath, Isshiki had no interest whatsoever. His mind was focused solely on one thing, accelerating the maturation of his perfect vessel.
The moment he returned to the alternate dimension, he ordered his subordinates to prepare the laboratory. This time, he would personally transplant the Byakugan into Arima.
Once successful, Arima's bloodline would align even closer to the Otsutsuki, accelerating his development.
Ideally, he would reach full maturity before the other Otsutsuki clansmen arrived in this world and begin harvesting this planet's chakra fruit.
Isshiki unsealed the "Divine Vessel," Arima, from the coffin and studied him carefully. The more he looked, the more satisfied he felt.
But then, he sensed something unusual. Arima seemed… different. Upon closer inspection, the feeling faded, almost like an illusion.
Still, Isshiki didn't believe it was a mistake. He theorized that the battle in the desert had caused Arima's bloodline to undergo further purification under the influence of the Ten-Tails' chakra.
Regardless, Arima was evolving, growing stronger and more perfect, and that alone thrilled Isshiki. The more flawless the vessel, the faster Isshiki's soul could fully awaken!
He removed both of Arima's eyes and began a detailed analysis of his body and ocular powers.
He discovered that Arima's right eye was different because it housed a portion of the Sage of Six Paths' chakra.
Isshiki sensed it clearly, this chakra came from the Ten-Tails once controlled by Kaguya Otsutsuki, now fragmented into the nine Tailed Beasts of the shinobi world.
Understanding the cause, Isshiki placed the right eye back into a saline container.
Staring down at the unconscious Arima on the lab table, he murmured, "You truly seize every opportunity for evolution…
Just a single shard of the Ten-Tails was enough to awaken the Rinnegan in you. It's astounding. I hope the Byakugan transplant yields the kind of evolution Shinno predicted."
He then purified the Otsutsuki bloodline within one Byakugan eye and fused it with another before transplanting it into Arima's left eye socket.
The right eye was also returned to its original place.
Following that, Isshiki used the Deep Brain Manipulation technique to thoroughly modify Arima's memories and cognitive patterns.
By the time everything was complete, half a month had passed in the shinobi world.
Looking at the nearly perfected vessel lying on the operating table, Isshiki felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and even greater anticipation for Arima's awakening.
Meanwhile, back in the shinobi world, Arima's disappearance as the Third Hokage caused political unrest.
The three Kage who had initially intended to form an alliance with Konoha began to hesitate.
They sent waves of intelligence agents to Konoha and Kumogakure to secretly monitor both villages.
Ever since returning from Roran, Tsunade had been in a state of quiet distress. She threw herself into constant work, trying to suppress the unease gnawing at her heart.
The responsibility of escorting civilians back to their homelands also fell to her.
Soon, those rescued individuals began returning to their countries under the protection of Konoha and Kumo shinobi.
The joint Konoha-Kumo alliance pressed ahead with building branch offices in the Land of Demons, the Land of Bears, and Roran itself.
As for the people of Hoshigakure, including Natsuka's parents, they were tragically wiped out.
Shinno had used them as live subjects in his research on the mysterious meteorite, dissecting them one by one.
Because of this, Tsunade had personally brought Natsuka from the Land of Demons to Konoha and arranged for her to live with Arima's mother.
At first, Tsunade intended to hide the truth about the girl's parents, hoping time would ease the pain of their loss.
But the little girl was perceptive. She noticed that many people were being sent home, yet none from her village had returned.
Sensing that the people she knew were likely gone, Natsuka began to suspect that her parents had truly left her forever.
On the day Tsunade came to fetch her, the girl quietly lay against Tsunade's shoulder, not saying a word.
With only her big brother and Tsunade left in her life, she instinctively clung tightly to Tsunade's neck, afraid this last warmth would vanish too.
Resting against her shoulder, she whispered, "Tsunade-nee, why didn't big brother come to get me?"
The mention of Arima made Tsunade's heart sink, but she didn't want to let the sadness show.
'Losing her parents is already painful enough,' Tsunade thought. 'I can't let her know about Arima's disappearance too.'
So she smiled softly and said, "Your big brother couldn't come today, but he sent me with lots of candy for you!"
As she spoke, Tsunade sighed with relief in her heart. 'Good thing I always carry sweets. Otherwise, with how sharp she is, she might've guessed the truth about Arima.'
She pulled some delicately wrapped candies from her pouch and stuffed them into Natsuka's pocket.
Noticing that Natsuka still had a good number of candies left, the ones Arima had given her, Tsunade curiously asked, "Don't you like sweets?"
Natsuka answered seriously, "Before big brother left, he said he'd come back for me. He gave me all his candies before he left!
I wanted to save them and share them with him when he came back. So I only eat one candy a day… But this time, he didn't come back."
Her voice trailed off, her expression filled with disappointment and sorrow.
Tsunade felt her chest tighten at the girl's words. How could she not miss Arima too?
What distressed her most was that his life or death remained uncertain, there wasn't even a single clue about where he had gone.
She and her two teammates, Jiraiya and Orochimaru, had secretly investigated Amegakure and Hozuki Castle, but found nothing.
Even Hanzo and his people had vanished for half a month, as if that entire group had never existed.
Suppressing her own fear and unease, Tsunade forced a smile and said.
"Your big brother is on a very tough mission right now, but he'll be back soon. You'll stay at his house for now, then you can surprise him when he comes home!"
The girl's face immediately lit up with joy, a brilliant smile blooming like sunshine.
Seeing her innocent smile, Tsunade's heart lifted slightly. She silently prayed, 'God, please watch over Arima and bring him back safely.'
With that, Tsunade carried Natsuka and made her way back toward Konoha.
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