Moonlight like white frost—
so bright in the heart,
yet so cold.
Everyone carries a sorrow they try to hide, only to reveal it all the more.
The battlefield lay silent. Who would imagine that a young shinobi of Konoha had just "fallen" here?
Who would bear witness to lives that left behind no gravestones?
The long road had reached its end…
Hadn't it?
Of course not.
Hagoromo was a highly—ahem—cunningly intelligent person. No matter what, he wasn't about to die so easily.
Near midnight, the storm conjured by ninjutsu had long since passed. Bright moonlight spilled from the sky, casting jagged shadows over the broken terrain.
Layer upon layer.
As for how the White Yasha survived Dust Release—the answer was simple.
It certainly wasn't Izanagi. He wasn't that high-end, and his method of cheating death was far clumsier.
But clumsy or not, surviving was what mattered.
The truth was that Hagoromo had already fought Ōnoki with everything he had—and inevitably took a direct hit from Dust Release. It wasn't that he refused to use his "LV5" trump card; he simply couldn't at the time.
In the night, unseen by anyone, a quiet exchange took place.
"Big Sis, have all the Iwagakure ninja withdrawn?"
"Hagoromo, there are no ninja nearby."
"Big Sis, are you sure? If you're wrong, I'll get killed the moment I show myself. I'm not exactly in great shape."
"I'm su—… let me check again… Yes. There are no enemies."
"That figures… Iwa's probably busy clashing with Kumo now. They wouldn't linger here.
By the way—getting hit by Dust Release feels… strange. That sense of being atomized… for a moment, I honestly thought I'd ascended again."
…Wait. Again?
"Hagoromo… strictly speaking, you actually did ascend."
The artificial storm was gone, but the lake created by ninjutsu remained.
In the moonlit shadows, ripples spread gently across the water.
Then—
Something white surfaced.
Yes, you guessed it.
Hagoromo.
And his Big Sis.
A gigantic slug—large enough to swallow a person whole—rose from the lake and slowly crawled ashore.
Then it split open along its midsection, revealing Hagoromo inside, dressed in Iwagakure gear.
"Cough… cough…"
He climbed out, suppressing his coughs and gulping down fresh air.
Being able to breathe freely again felt indescribably wonderful.
As for the strange, sticky sensation coating his entire body—
Please ignore that.
As for "Big Sis"…
Yes, the title was odd. It was Hagoromo's personal honorific for Lady Katsuyu, the great slug summon of Lady Tsunade.
When Hagoromo had once glimpsed Katsuyu's true body in Shikkotsu Forest, one of the Three Great Summoning Lands, she had been—
Very big.
Extremely big.
In truth, Katsuyu had no gender. Hagoromo had been corrected more than once, but for reasons of his own, he stubbornly stuck to the title.
Earlier, after Hagoromo unleashed Kirin, he never reappeared on the surface.
Only his clone acted.
When the lightning faded, the real Hagoromo—hidden beneath the lake—rapidly executed several techniques.
First, he created a Shadow Clone, sending it out to surface and die in his place.
Then he summoned Katsuyu, hid within her body, and submerged again.
After that—
He waited.
From the information returned when the clone was destroyed, the plan had gone far better than expected.
The lake-wide explosion caused by the clone wasn't just meant to roast Kitsuchi—it was primarily to conceal the fact that Hagoromo's real body still lay hidden underwater.
After taking two S-rank techniques head-on, no one would naturally assume someone was still hiding there.
Then, at just the right moment, the clone was erased by Dust Release, leaving nothing behind.
That perfectly concealed the truth that it had been a clone.
Ironically, the Third Tsuchikage—who arrived specifically to break defenses—ended up helping Hagoromo.
Of course, there had been no guarantee of success. If the clone had been exposed, Hagoromo would have fled with his real body instead.
But the plan worked.
So Hagoromo stayed hidden underwater, surviving by breathing air delivered through Katsuyu's split bodies—uncomfortable, but not lethal.
And by Hagoromo's judgment, Iwagakure wouldn't waste time thoroughly searching underwater. Their mission took priority.
Just as expected, Katsuyu soon confirmed that Iwagakure withdrew rapidly.
As for the corpses—many were dealt with on the spot. Those that could be sealed were sealed; the rest were burned or buried with Earth Release.
Even so, Hagoromo stayed hidden until now, just to be safe.
"Hagoromo, what will you do next?" Katsuyu asked once his breathing finally steadied.
"I'd love to see how badly Kumo and Iwa are tearing into each other," he replied.
"But considering how hard I've been flirting with death lately, I've burned through things even more precious than chakra… so I'll pass. In my current state, I really don't want to run into Tsuchikage-class fighters or Jinchūriki."
"Next, I'll probably follow your suggestion—head east, cross the Land of Lightning, then loop back to the Land of Fire from the eastern sea."
His return plans had several options.
He could follow Iwa's invasion route, cross the sea, pass through the Land of Frost, and return to Konoha.
Theoretically viable—but given Iwa's movements, the risk of encountering enemy ninja was too high.
Heading straight south through the Land of Rice Fields would be the shortest route—but he'd have to cross Kumogakure's front lines first. Even worse.
So safety first.
He chose the eastern route: through the Land of Lightning, then the Land of Hot Water, onward to the Land of Iron, and finally back to the Land of Fire.
If he could still summon Yatagarasu, none of this would matter—he'd just fly.
But unfortunately, his chakra was overdrawn.
If he dismissed Katsuyu and resummoned her now, she'd probably be about the size of Naruto's tadpole.
As for his bird—Yatagarasu had taken a direct hit earlier and been forcibly sent back to the summoning realm. It was likely still recovering; even if summoned now, it wouldn't be able to fly.
So—
He'd walk.
Hagoromo quickly changed disguises. The Iwagakure uniform came off—wearing that in the Land of Lightning was practically begging for death.
He treated his wounds as best he could, changed into pre-prepared civilian clothes, discarded the broken mask, and stored his forehead protector.
He dismissed Katsuyu, agreeing to summon her again once he reached the Land of Hot Water.
Then—now disguised as an utterly ordinary youth of indeterminate gender—
Hagoromo dragged his exhausted, wounded body eastward.
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