Well, this was an unexpected bonus. Sage Fukasaku clearly knew something, judging by his expression, and Nishikawa Tetsu felt pleased.
"Sage Fukasaku?" Minato had noticed his unusual reaction too and called out tentatively.
"Ah..."
After a long while, Sage Fukasaku let out a deep sigh.
He turned to Nishikawa Tetsu and Minato, whose faces were full of curiosity, and slowly began to speak.
"Little Nishikawa Tetsu, that enormous creature you mentioned, the one capable of neutralizing natural energy, and those Deep-Sea Ruins..."
Sage Fukasaku's voice grew low.
"To be honest, I've never seen them myself."
"But in Mount Myōboku's oldest records, and in the occasional fragments the great elder mutters in his sleep, I have heard a few very scattered legends about them."
Sage Fukasaku walked over to a flat boulder and sat down, gesturing for Nishikawa Tetsu and Minato to sit as well.
"They date back to an age unimaginably distant from our own, an age buried completely by the passage of time."
Sage Fukasaku's gaze grew profound, as though it could pierce the mists of time. "You know of Kaguya Otsutsuki, don't you? The Rabbit Goddess known as the Progenitor of Chakra, who descended from beyond the heavens and was ultimately sealed by the Sage of Six Paths and his brother."
Nishikawa Tetsu and Minato exchanged a glance and nodded in unison. Nishikawa Tetsu, in particular, understood Kaguya more deeply than anyone in the Shinobi World.
"People believe that when Kaguya descended into this world, humanity was still living in an age of ignorance, slaughtering one another and praying for the protection of the gods. Only when Kaguya brought the God Tree and chakra did humans gain power beyond nature."
Sage Fukasaku shook his head, a trace of wistfulness in his voice.
"But according to the oral history