Takemikazuchi

"The Eye of the Thunder God?"

Long Ye looked puzzled and turned to the others.

Pakura and Sasori of the Red Sands both looked blank, clearly having no idea what it was.

"It's only natural that you haven't heard of it. The name 'Eye of the Thunder God' was coined by our own Candle clan. Outsiders wouldn't know it."

"Then what exactly is it?" Pakura pressed.

"We don't know!"

Candle Tiger shook his head.

"That's something our clan has always wanted to find out. Decades ago, our previous chief happened upon a ruined shrine in that Thunder Domain. A barrier enveloped the shrine, and lightning spread out from within..."

"After my elder brother became chief, I accompanied him there once. It was a glowing orb the size of an eyeball. It emitted electromagnetic energy, drawing clouds and mist overhead and sending lightning raging everywhere."

The others clicked their tongues in wonder.

Candle Tiger continued:

"We didn't call it the Eye of the Thunder God without reason. According to the inscription on the shrine's sacred tablet, it was Takemikazuchi's right eyeball."

Sasori of the Red Sands laughed at that.

"Takemikazuchi? That's just mythology. Who would believe he ever really existed?"

Long Ye was well acquainted with the powerful figures of the Shinobi World, as well as some of its myths and legends.

Myths were myths precisely because they predated history by so long.

The history of the Shinobi World began with the God Tree and Kaguya Otsutsuki, but the world had existed long before the God Tree. That earlier period was the age of myth.

Takemikazuchi had many names among the common people: the god of thunder, the god of martial prowess, the god of war, the god of swords, and so on.

Hearing that an ancient, ruined shrine actually contained