"Konoha Hurricane!"
The sharp crack of a kick slammed into a block, but this time, I didn't fly back. My arm, shrouded in a thick, violet haze of Ether, caught Might Guy's ankle mid-air.
"You've become predictable," I exhaled.
A sudden jerk toward me, followed by a free-hand strike to the solar plexus. Guy's simulacrum dissolved into pixels.
Breathing heavily, I flopped onto my back, staring up at the infinite white ceiling. During these months (in my personal time), I had gone through hell. My child's body, fueled by Ether, was developing at a terrifying rate. My muscles had densified; my tendons were like steel cables. I had grown a few centimeters, now looking not like a six-year-old, but a solid eight or nine.
But the greatest achievement wasn't the muscle. It was understanding the essence of Ether.
It isn't Chakra. Chakra is the union of spiritual and physical energy—it creates "form." Ether, however, is the foundation. It is what matter is made of.
"System, next stage," I commanded, standing up. "Test capability: Metamorphosis."
A new mannequin appeared before me. This time it wasn't a fighter, but an ordinary adult man—a peasant I had seen in that soldier's memories.
In Naruto, the Henge (Transformation) technique is an illusion, a layer of chakra around the body. Even Orochimaru's advanced techniques required someone else's face or body. But Ether allowed me to rewrite reality.
I closed my eyes and visualized the DNA structure of the man before me. I felt the Ether within me begin to vibrate, penetrating every cell, every atom of my being.
Bone to bone. Flesh to flesh. Change the structure. Retain consciousness.
The pain was hellish. It felt as if I were being disassembled and put back together in a fraction of a second. Bones snapped, skin stretched, and eye pigments shifted.
When I opened my eyes, I was a meter taller. I looked at my hands—they were broad and calloused, with dirt under the nails. I stepped toward a mirrored surface created by the system.
The peasant stared back at me. This wasn't an illusion. I had his vocal cords, his fingerprints—even the scar on his left cheek was real scar tissue, not makeup.
"Perfect..." I said in a deep, foreign bass. "Neither Byakugan, nor Sharingan, nor even the Sage of Six Paths' sensory abilities will tell the difference. Because it's not a fake. I became him."
I cancelled the technique. With a sickening squelch, the body collapsed back into the form of a child.
I would call this ability "True Incarnation." With it, I could get close to anyone.
"Kaguya..." I whispered into the void.
The thought of the Rabbit Goddess made my heart beat faster. I knew the canon. I knew she would arrive cold, detached, hunted by the fear of her own clan. Tenji? That pathetic little emperor isn't worthy of even looking at her. In my story, he won't lay a finger on her.
I will be the one to meet her. I will be the one she loves. And I will be the father of the legendary brothers.
But I also knew there wouldn't be a happy ending just yet. For the story to follow the necessary path—so that chakra would appear in humans, so that Zetsu would begin his game—she must be sealed. It will be painful. I will allow her to go mad with power; I will allow her sons to rebel against their mother, and I myself might stand in the shadows, clenching my fists in helplessness, because that is how it must be.
But when the seal breaks millennia later... I will be waiting. And then, no one will ever separate us again.
"Time to head back," I decided. "My vacation in timelessness is over."
Real World. Forest of the Land of Ancestors.
I opened my eyes in the same cave. Outside, twilight was deepening. My stomach gave a treacherous growl—the body demanded food. Ether could sustain my strength, but biology couldn't be ignored entirely.
I stepped out of the shelter. I moved differently now. Not like a frightened child, but like a predator. Quiet, fluid steps. A gaze that fixed on every detail.
In the distance, from the direction of the main road, came a noise. The clatter of weapons, screams, and the thundering of hooves.
I leaped soundlessly onto a tree branch—using Ether to lighten my weight had become second nature—and raced toward the sound.
A drama was unfolding on the forest road. A small squad—judging by the crests, the personal guard of Emperor Tenji himself—had surrounded a carriage. But they weren't protecting it. They were attacking.
"Hand over the girl, and maybe we won't slaughter you!" yelled a rider in a plumed helmet.
The carriage's defenders had been cut down; only one old man with a sword remained, trembling with fear, alongside a girl peeking out from behind the curtain.
It wasn't Kaguya. Too early. It was an ordinary human girl, but dressed richly. Perhaps the daughter of some minor lord or... a future maid in the palace? Aino?
My gaze locked onto the rider. A perfect target for a test.
"Well then," I smirked, activating True Incarnation.
My body began to shift. I decided not to copy anyone specific, but to create an image that would inspire awe in this superstitious age. A tall, silver-haired warrior in strange robes. An image I had glimpsed in the database: a young Hashirama Senju, but with white hair and the attire of a monk.
I dropped from the branch directly into the center of the circle, creating a small shockwave that sent the horses rearing in terror.
"Who dares disturb the silence of my forest?" My voice, amplified by Ether, didn't just sound loud. It vibrated in the chests of everyone present, triggering an irrational, animalistic dread.
The riders froze. The horses snorted and backed away, sensing a predator at the top of the food chain.
"Who do you think you are, you charlatan?" The squad leader, trying to hide the tremor in his voice, pointed his sword at me. "These are the people of a rebel lord! Get out of the way, monk, or we'll put your head on a pike next to theirs!"
I didn't even move. My gaze slid toward the carriage. From behind the curtain, the large, tear-filled eyes of a young girl watched me. Yes, it was definitely Aino. The very one who, in the future, would become Kaguya's only friend and die trying to protect her.
"'Get out of the way'?" I repeated, the corner of my mouth twitching into a slight smirk. "It seems you don't understand. You are already dead. You just haven't realized it was time to fall yet."
"Take him!" the commander shrieked.
Two soldiers leaped from their horses and rushed me, swinging axes. I stood motionless, hands tucked into the wide sleeves of my robes.
When the blades were a centimeter from my neck, I simply released a short pulse of Ether. No gestures. No words.
CRUNCH.
The sound was horrific. Wet and sharp. Both soldiers crumpled simultaneously at unnatural angles, as if an invisible press had crushed them into the earth. Their armor buckled like paper, and their bodies were reduced to a mess of bone and flesh. They didn't even have time to scream.
A deathly silence hung over the clearing.
"W-what..." whispered one of the riders, his face turning ghostly pale. "Sorcery! He's a demon!"
"I am no demon," I said calmly, taking a step forward. Not even a dry twig snapped under my foot. "I am the order of this place. And you... are trash."
I raised my hand and slowly clenched my fingers into a fist.
Around the remaining riders, the air thickened. The Ether, obedient to my will, clamped around them like invisible vices. In this era, people didn't know what chakra was. They didn't know how to reinforce their bodies. They were fragile.
"Vanish."
I snapped my hand down.
Ten riders, along with their horses, were flattened against the ground by a monstrous gravitational wave. The earth shuddered, kicking up a cloud of dust. Trees nearby groaned and leaned away from the shockwave. When the dust settled, only a deep crater remained on the road, filled with a jumble of twisted metal and what used to be men.
No blood on my clothes. No wasted movement. Absolute, overwhelming power.
I turned my head toward the carriage. The old defender dropped his sword, falling to his knees and muttering prayers. Aino stared at me without blinking. In her eyes was fear mixed with reverence.
I approached the carriage, looming over them in my artificial body.
"You are free," I said. "Go. And remember: this forest is henceforth closed to those who carry malice in their hearts."
"H-how... how shall I call you, My Lord?" Aino asked in a trembling voice, climbing out of the carriage and bowing deeply.
I thought for a second. I needed a name that would command respect from Emperor Tenji when the rumors reached him.
"Call me Akuma (Demon/Devil)," I said, but then softened my tone. "Or Shin (Truth). The choice is yours. Now, go."
Without waiting for an answer, I shrouded myself in Ether, refracting the light, and "dissolved" into the air before their very eyes like a ghost.
A safe place. Deep in the forest.
As soon as I was sure they couldn't see me, I dropped the transformation. The body of the tall warrior shrank, and I became a nine-year-old boy again. Exhaustion hit me instantly—maintaining True Incarnation and manipulating gravity still required immense concentration.
I leaned against a tree, catching my breath.
The plan worked. Aino survived. She would reach the capital, and tales of the "White-Haired Forest God" would reach Tenji's ears.
A picture of the future was already forming in my head. In ten years, when the sky cracks open and Kaguya descends, I will be ready. I've already figured out how to save her.
Cloning... I looked at my hands.
My "True Incarnation" ability allows me to change my own body. But if I develop Ether control to its absolute limit, I'll be able to create separate biological shells. Empty vessels. I will create a perfect copy of Kaguya. A body identical to her down to the last cell, down to the last chakra pathway (which she will have in abundance). At the moment Hagoromo and Hamura—my future sons—deliver the final blow to seal their mother... I will swap her out. The world will see Kaguya being sealed. Zetsu will see it. Но the real Kaguya will be with me, in my personal dimension—a sub-space created from pure Ether where time has no power. There we will live while the history of the shinobi world completes its bloody circle.
"But that's for later," I pushed off the tree. "Now, I need to establish a foothold in this world. And the best place for that is the Emperor's capital. It's time for an 'orphan' to accidentally find his way to civilization."