In the Hall of Longevity on Mount Myōboku, Jigen finally met the Great Toad Sage, as he had wished.
"Gamamaru, after nearly a thousand years, you've grown old and decrepit too. You even look a little like your ancestor now." Jigen sat with his legs crossed, his tone faintly teasing.
Fukasaku and Shima, who attended the sage at the foot of his seat, exchanged glances, both wearing guarded expressions.
The ancestor Jigen had mentioned was tied to the origins of the sages, and to a history that predated humanity's chakra-based civilization by several thousand years...
The sacred land of Takamagahara was where the Ōtsutsuki Clan had first risen to prominence.
But its earliest native inhabitants had not been the Ōtsutsuki.
Explaining the whole story could fill a million-word novel.
Put simply, though... it was the Naruto version of the farmer and the snake.
Most of the original inhabitants had died out. Even those lucky enough to survive had lost the homeland they depended on, and their descendants fled to lands that nurtured chakra-based civilizations.
But as the Ōtsutsuki Clan invaded those lands to plunder chakra, every one of those civilizations was destroyed.
Jigen gazed at Gamamaru's impassive face upon his seat, still smiling affably.
"Now, the only native inhabitants of Takamagahara left are the descendants of the toads, the White Snake, and Katsuyu. Honestly, you could call me your benefactor. If Kaguya and I hadn't been sent to this land to guard the Chakra Fruit, and hadn't accidentally created that little 'sideshow' called the shinobi world, would you ever have had the chance to establish your own domains here and lord it over everyone?"
"Oh," Gamamaru replied mildly. "So you came all this way to dredge up our past, Isshiki?"
"No." Jigen smiled. "I'm not that bored, of course. I'm