The Mysterious Scroll

Shikaku and the other two had to head out early the next morning, so the four of them didn't stay out long. After dinner, they each went home.

By the time the four came out after dinner, it was already late. Only a few people passed along the streets, and under the bright moonlight, Yemo made his way home. It was already eight or nine at night when he arrived.

Yemo took off his shoes and coat, went into the living room, and poured himself a cup of milk that had been heated earlier. He had drunk several flasks of sake that evening. Though sake wasn't very strong, he had drunk a lot of it, and his head felt a little dizzy. After he downed the warm milk, it was as though a warm current spread throughout his body, and his head immediately cleared quite a bit.

Shaking his still-dizzy head, Yemo muttered, "Drinking really feels awful. I'm not drinking with those guys again."

With that, Yemo headed for the bathroom. It was getting late, and after washing up, he was going to bed.

Suddenly, Yemo swept his arm out and accidentally hit something hard. There was a thump, followed by a clatter. Startled, Yemo hurriedly looked down at the floor.

He had accidentally knocked a glass off the table. It had fallen to the floor and shattered, spilling the water inside all over the ground.

"Sigh!"

Yemo helplessly patted his forehead and fetched a wastebasket. He planned to pick up the broken glass first, then mop up the water on the floor.

As he bent down to pick up the glass, Yemo happened to glance aside and suddenly noticed something under the table.

"Huh? Why is there something under the table?"

With a curious sound, Yemo walked over to the table and bent down to peer underneath it. It was pitch-dark beneath the tabletop, and he could barely make out what looked like something fastened underneath.

Pressing close to the table, Yemo reached out and slowly felt his way along it toward the object. At last, he felt something that seemed to be a cylinder and carefully took it out.

When Yemo brought the object out from under the tabletop and held it up to the light, he realized it wasn't a cylinder at all, but a tied-up scroll. It looked very old, with fine cracks running through it in places.

Yemo stared at the scroll, utterly puzzled. What was it, and why had it been deliberately hidden under the table? Could it have been his sister?

After thinking it over, Yemo shook his head and dismissed the guess. It probably wasn't his sister. Why would she hide something like this under the table?

"Why worry about it? I'll know what's inside once I open it."

Yemo carefully untied the cord around the scroll, then unrolled it with great care. The scroll was very old and cracked in many places, so he had to be careful or he could easily tear it apart.

As Yemo opened the scroll little by little, its contents slowly came into view. At the beginning was a picture of a starry sky, countless brilliant stars shining like a river of stars flowing slowly through the universe.

That was the first picture. In the second, the scene changed to five planets revolving in a circle. The five planets were all different, but they had one thing in common: each had a towering tree on it, surrounded by countless densely packed white figures.

"The God Tree!" Yemo cried out instinctively.

Familiar as he was with Hokage, he instantly recognized the trees planted on the planets as God Trees, and the densely packed white figures beside them as White Zetsu.

By this point, Yemo already had a guess, and his breathing had quickened without him noticing. If it was really what he thought, then what this scroll recorded was simply astonishing.

After taking a deep breath and calming down, Yemo continued unrolling the scroll. The third picture appeared. It was simple: a circular bagua, half burning with orange-yellow flames and half with dark flames. Five symbols surrounded the circle, representing metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

It wasn't hard to understand. It depicted the seven major Chakra attributes, with yin and yang supreme, followed by the five attributes of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

But Yemo couldn't understand what the picture meant here. Was it saying that the God Tree gave birth to Chakra, which possessed the seven attributes? Yemo wondered.

Unable to make sense of it, Yemo decided to open the next picture and see what followed. As the scroll rolled open, the fourth picture appeared. It showed a human figure, white and without the slightest facial features or distinguishing traits, nothing more than a vague silhouette.

The figure in the picture held both hands together around a circle. The contents of the circle were extremely similar to the third picture, but with one difference: they had merged into one.

Putting the fourth picture together with the third, Yemo finally understood them. There were seven Chakra natures in the world: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, plus yin and yang. Someone had combined the transformations of all seven Chakra natures into one.

In the entire world of Hokage, very few could combine all seven Chakra natures into one. They could be counted on one hand, and they all shared the same name: Ōtsutsuki.

It was a name buried by history. Their existence was the reason the entire ninja world came to be, and they could be called the creators of the world.

But in the ninja world, the number of people who knew the name was probably close to zero. With the passage of time and human intervention, the surname Ōtsutsuki was rarely heard in the world anymore.

This was already the fourth picture. Yemo didn't know whether there would be a fifth or sixth, or whether it ended here.

He gently pushed open the still-rolled portion of the scroll. It slid slowly, making a creaking sound in the quiet room. Yemo concentrated, all his attention fixed on the opening scroll.

Under Yemo's intent gaze, the scroll slowly unrolled, revealing another picture. It was the fifth.

The fifth picture showed a woman with white hair that reached past her heels. She wore an enormous white robe embroidered with black Tomoe.

She held a planet in her arms, looking down like a deity upon everything on it. An enormous God Tree stood on the planet, while symbols representing the seven Chakra attributes floated behind her.

Most striking were the woman's eyes. She had three, with a vertical eye on her forehead. At first glance, it looked like a Sharingan, but a slightly closer look revealed a great difference.

The vertical eye was blood-red and had nine Tomoe in all. It looked extremely eerie and was filled with a mysterious power that drew Yemo's gaze deep into it.

Thump...

Yemo's whole body shuddered, and he fell toward the floor. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and caught the edge of the table with both hands in time to keep himself from falling.

Huff, huff...

Yemo gasped for breath as though he had just undergone strenuous exercise. His face was pale, his head was covered in sweat, and his clothes had become soaked through at the back without his noticing. His limbs were weak and aching.

Yet all these changes had taken place in the span of a single minute. Even now, Yemo hadn't registered what had happened.

Yemo only vaguely remembered that when he saw the vertical eye, it seemed to give off a mysterious pull that drew at his gaze and mind. It felt like a black hole exerting a force in front of him, steadily pulling him inside.

Faced with being swallowed by the black hole, Yemo naturally struggled with all his might, but no matter how he fought, he couldn't resist its pull. Just as he felt he was about to be drawn inside, the force suddenly vanished and everything returned to normal, leading to what happened afterward.

After panting for more than ten seconds, Yemo's breathing gradually steadied. His limbs were still weak and aching, however, and he could only remain standing by leaning on the edge of the table with both hands.

"Who on earth hid a Genjutsu in the fifth picture?" Yemo murmured thoughtfully. He had clearly just fallen under a Genjutsu.

The Genjutsu had disappeared. Now, when Yemo looked at the fifth picture, nothing strange happened. It was an ordinary picture.

Yemo didn't need a second look at the fifth picture. The moment he saw it, he knew the woman in it was the Progenitor of Chakra, Otsutsuki Kaguya!!

As for the five pictures, they merely explained Otsutsuki Kaguya's existence, her origins among the stars, and her identity as the Progenitor of Chakra.

Fortunately, Yemo was familiar with Hokage. Had it been someone else, they would have had great difficulty understanding what the five pictures meant. Of course, that didn't apply to those who knew of the Ōtsutsuki Clan and the history of Chakra.

There were five pictures on the scroll, but the information they conveyed had already left Yemo deeply shaken. He felt he needed to calm down before he could look through the rest.

It wasn't that Yemo lacked resolve. What the scroll recorded was simply too shocking. If word got out, it would probably shake the entire Shinobi World.