"I'm leaving, but sooner or later, I'll come back."
At the end, Namikawa Yū said to his family before him, "I hope you'll have a surprise for me when that day comes."
"Hagoromo, Hamura."
He called his two children by name. "From now on, I'm leaving this country in your hands."
"I hope you'll take up this undertaking and treat it with care."
"We will."
The Hagoromo Brothers nodded earnestly. "We'll take our country and its people seriously until the day you return, Father."
"Then I can rest easy."
Namikawa Yū nodded, then changed the subject. "And what about your mother?"
"What do you think of her?"
He took the opportunity to ask while Kaguya was away.
"Mother..."
Hearing Namikawa Yū's words, Hagoromo and Hamura fell silent, unsure what to say for the moment.
Namikawa Yū could see their thoughts in their silence and could only sigh helplessly.
"You've grown up, after all. Whatever you want to do from now on, go ahead and do it."
"I have only one request."
He looked at Hagoromo and Hamura before him, his expression solemn. "If one day you come into conflict with your mother again, I won't ask you not to fight. I only hope you won't go too far."
"Just let her stay peacefully in the palace. There's no need to take things too far."
"Do you understand what I'm saying?"
He spoke with a solemn expression.
He had made a point of telling them this because Kaguya's fate in the original storyline was far too tragic.
After being defeated by her own children, she was sealed inside the moon, left in lonely silence for thousands of years.
Just imagining such an experience felt like torture.
And that was something Namikawa Yū could not accept.
As her husband, he could tolerate Kaguya being defeated, but he could not accept such a tragic ending for her.
Especially when the ones responsible for all of it were none other than his own two children.
It was precisely because he knew this ending that Namikawa Yū had made a point of giving them these instructions.
"We understand."
Meeting Namikawa Yū's gaze, Hagoromo and Hamura exchanged a look, then nodded, giving their agreement.
Only then did Namikawa Yū breathe a sigh of relief.
"I'd like to meet the Toad Sage backing you."
Before leaving, Namikawa Yū expressed his wish to meet the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku.
Naturally, Hagoromo and Hamura would not refuse this request and readily agreed.
That night, the Toad Sage arrived at the palace in the Land of Ancestors and met Namikawa Yū inside.
It was Namikawa Yū's first time meeting the Toad Sage.
To him, this Toad Sage seemed extraordinary. Though he looked like an ordinary toad, he was enormous, and his intelligence also seemed out of the ordinary.
"Are you the Toad Sage?"
Namikawa Yū looked at the Toad Sage before him, curiosity in his eyes.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The Toad Sage wore a respectful expression as he faced Namikawa Yū. "I heard you wished to see me?"
"Yes."
Namikawa Yū nodded. "I heard you have the ability to predict the future, so I wanted to ask you something."
"What will my future be like?"
"Your Majesty's future is beyond the reach of my ability."
The Toad Sage shook his head. "What is called foreseeing the future is merely seeing countless possibilities for the future in dreams. It is far from making me a prophet, and it is impossible for me to know everything that will happen."
"And you do not appear in my dreams, Your Majesty."
"You mean you can't see my future?"
Namikawa Yū looked thoughtful.
"Yes."
The Toad Sage nodded. "In fact, the future as it stands is already different from what I foresaw in my dreams."
"In my dreams, your wife should already have been sealed away by Hagoromo."
"But at present, your wife is still there, perfectly fine, and has not been sealed away."
Hearing this, Namikawa Yū fell silent, pondering something.
His main reason for wanting to meet the Toad Sage was to see what he could do.
In the original story, although the Toad Sage did not have much of a presence, he played a major role on many occasions.
Without his guidance, Hagoromo and Hamura could not have grown rapidly and gained the power to stand against Kaguya.
In later generations, without his prophecy, Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, could not have embarked on his journey to find the so-called Child of Destiny either.
Namikawa Yū was quite curious about someone who, despite his limited presence, had continually exerted an influence. That was why he had made a special point of meeting him before leaving.
Upon meeting him, he found that the Toad Sage's abilities did not seem as powerful as he had imagined.
At least when it came to an outsider like Namikawa Yū, the Toad Sage had failed to foresee him and had overlooked him entirely.
"I've already given Kaguya instructions."
Namikawa Yū spoke softly. "After this, control over the God Tree will be transferred to Hagoromo and Hamura."
"I believe that under their control, the God Tree's growth rate can be managed reasonably, rather than being allowed to continue as before."
Planting the God Tree was necessary for them, and even Hagoromo and Hamura knew this.
But as long as they controlled the God Tree's growth rate and slowed the speed at which it plundered natural energy, many problems could be alleviated, and things would not be as tense as they were now.
"I understand. Thank you, Your Majesty."
Hearing Namikawa Yū's words, the Toad Sage nodded and solemnly expressed his thanks.
The recovery of natural energy in the Ninja World was extremely important to sacred lands such as Mount Myōboku.
That was because the very existence of sacred lands like Mount Myōboku depended on natural energy.
If all the natural energy in the world were absorbed, not only would the world be destroyed, but sacred lands such as Mount Myōboku would also collapse, and sooner or later, they would all face extinction.
That was precisely why the Toad Sage had sought out the Hagoromo Brothers: to prevent that outcome.
"I'm very interested in Mount Myōboku's senjutsu training. Could you give me a copy of the secrets recorded in it?"
Namikawa Yū continued speaking.
Obtaining Mount Myōboku's senjutsu legacy was his second reason for meeting the Toad Sage.
He had already obtained similar senjutsu legacies from Hagoromo and Hamura, versions each of them had compiled.
But the senjutsu legacies they had compiled might not suit Namikawa Yū.
After all, their starting point was far too high, and the Sage Mode they ultimately developed through their training also placed higher demands on its practitioners.
Namikawa Yū might not be able to meet those requirements.
By comparison, the original version of the senjutsu legacy was more suitable for Namikawa Yū.
After all, in theory, even an ordinary person could learn it.