What the Hell Is a Crow Sage?!

When the kids in an ordinary family did something seriously wrong, their parents would usually give them a brutal beating. Perhaps the consequences could no longer be undone, but at least the elders would feel better.

Perhaps that was part of filial piety too... How touching.

Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima looked at Gamabunta lying there covered in wounds and could only spare him for the moment. They had more important matters to handle... such as summoning Jiraiya back, lest their representative get himself killed!

"Hm? Reverse Summoning Jutsu?"

Jiraiya lowered his head and returned the Kusanagi Sword in his hand to Uchiha Itachi. "Itachi, take them back. I need to make a trip to the land of sages!"

"Sensei?"

The little boy tilted his head and watched helplessly as Jiraiya suddenly vanished... He could only pick up his crow, drag along the string of children, and hurry back to the town overnight.

Rescuing the town's children had made Uchiha Itachi extremely popular there. It seemed someone invited him over for a meal every day... It was a very novel experience... until one day, when a tiny frog came looking for him.

It handed Itachi a scroll, claiming that Jiraiya had sent it... The next morning, Uchiha Itachi had no choice but to leave that warm and welcoming town.

The kind-hearted man who had told them to get lost the moment they first met was on duty at the town gate. When he saw Uchiha Itachi heading out with his crow, he called out loudly, "Good morning, Lord Itachi! Going out to train again today?"

"...Don't... Fine, yes." Uchiha Itachi thought for a moment before suddenly saying, "I'm leaving today! If anything happens, you can come find me in Konoha!"

"Caw..." Kitahara called weakly. It had not been sleeping well these past few days, always dreaming that someone was saying crow stew tasted awful...

Ugh, that sounded terrifying.

The two of them were heading somewhere new today: the Land of Wind. Jiraiya had written in his letter that he would be waiting for them there.

The problem was the Land of Wind itself. Strictly speaking, they would be crossing the national border, so they would almost certainly be questioned by Sunagakure ninja, wouldn't they? If they did not want that, they would have to find a way to enter the country illegally...

"I thought we could go back to Konoha!"

"Caw..." Kitahara gave him a sidelong look. Its meaning was obvious: Were you thinking about that uncouth little brat at home again?

Uchiha Itachi nodded without trying to hide it. "Besides Sasuke, there are Father and Mother too... Well, doesn't Kitahara want to go back and see them?"

"Caw..."

Sorry, missing them was one thing, but seeing that little brat Sasuke would wash away any joy of returning... Were younger brothers created for the sole purpose of turning their older brothers into brother-obsessed freaks?

It really seemed that way.

The brotherly bonds of the ninja world were downright horrifying. Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Izuna's relationship had nearly destroyed the bond between him and Senju Hashirama... Senju Hashirama had also gone to great lengths for his younger brother.

Something about this felt very strange... Kitahara had reason to suspect that Indra's reincarnations had something going on. Perhaps Indra had thought his younger brother Asura was too useless, so he had tried every possible way to reincarnate into a family with good brothers...

And yet... no matter how he struggled against fate, he could never escape it.

When Uchiha Itachi and Kitahara reached the border of the Land of Wind, they saw Jiraiya waiting to greet them.

The old man's injuries had improved, and he was grinning smugly as he chatted with the two elderly frogs sitting on his shoulders. The moment he saw Uchiha Itachi, Jiraiya rushed over in delight. "Itachi! Finally..."

Thump!

Sage Fukasaku punched Jiraiya on the head from his shoulder, cutting him off... Then he and Sage Shima both landed on the ground and bowed humbly.

"Lord Kitahara, we are Fukasaku and Shima, attendants serving the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku. It is a great honor to meet you here..."

Uchiha Itachi: "...I..."

Jiraiya: "...It..."

Kitahara: "...Caw..."

How had it never known that it had some connection with Mount Myoboku...? Could it be... that the Great Toad Sage knew the mysterious hand behind sending it into the ninja world?

Though honestly, raising a child was quite fun...

If it could go back, that would naturally be wonderful. But before returning, it needed to clear away the dangers that would threaten the little one's future, and also find some way to keep Sasuke away...

Kitahara had been making assumptions. The two sages from Mount Myoboku had come for only one reason. "The Great Toad Sage sent us here to verify whether the Chakra within you consists solely of Yin and Yang attributes..."

Kitahara looked over in confusion. "Caw?"

"I told the Great Toad Sage about Kitahara, and the Great Sage had once foreseen fragments of the future..." Jiraiya rose while rubbing his forehead and explained, "He thinks the crow might become the fourth sage to appear... Though perhaps that is not quite right..."

"You could put it that way, little Jiraiya." Sage Shima nodded. "The instant we saw you, we believed that the future foreseen by the Great Toad Sage was accurate..."

"Caw..."

Kitahara suddenly felt a little lost. How had it suddenly become a sage? If it were the kind that could summon wind and rain and ascend to heaven, it could accept that... But the three great sages of the ninja world were really hard to describe.

The Great Toad Sage spent every day half-asleep. No one knew when he would wake up, but he was asleep most of the time. It was truly worrying that he might suddenly ascend one day...

As for the White Snake Sage, no one knew what abilities she possessed, nor what she actually did... If not for the genius Yakushi Kabuto, she had been nothing but a background character... Even after Yakushi Kabuto appeared, she was still just a background character.

Then there was the Slug Sage. They said Shikkotsu Forest had only one living creature. Such a huge slug could probably be considered a protected creature on the scale of the ninja world...

"The Great Toad Sage's prophecies have never been wrong..." Sage Fukasaku suddenly said. "He believes that you may one day become a great sage who holds every secret of the ninja world... What you know is the truth of this world."

Kitahara: "...Caw..."

That thousand-year-old frog was no simple creature! Had it discovered the truth?

That was right, I did hold all the secrets of the ninja world, but do not ask me about anything other than Uzumaki Naruto and Second Pillar. I knew nothing else...

Jiraiya asked curiously, "...No matter how I look at it, that does not seem likely! This crow cannot even speak our human language..."

"Jiraiya! What do you think a true sage is? Can all the secrets of the ninja world be casually spoken aloud?" Sage Fukasaku sternly rebuked Jiraiya, and Kitahara was delighted to watch.

So that was why it could not speak... Because it knew too much... But why the hell was it happy about that?!

Wasn't humanity's greatest pleasure sharing the little secrets they knew with others?

Besides, there really was a problem.

Kitahara could not tell Uchiha Itachi anything about the future. Strictly speaking, it had never even wanted to leak secrets. Instead, it only wanted to change things through its own strength... Had its way of thinking changed?

Or was it... fate?

The two frog sages had come for several purposes. One of them was to examine the crow's Yin- and Yang-attribute Chakra levels and determine whether it truly was a sage...

But after sensing it just slightly... there seemed to be no need for confirmation, right? The abyss-like feeling it gave others... It really did resemble a sage capable of keeping secrets!

As for Yin and Yang attributes...

"Absolute Yin and Yang attributes can neutralize natural energy to the greatest extent. That means an endless supply of senjutsu Chakra..."

For the first time, the crow discovered that it could absorb natural energy. It was as though the senjutsu Chakra feature had been unlocked... Kitahara's body suddenly began to swell!

It's so late today... I'm half-asleep... The second update will be this afternoon or evening... Can I shamelessly ask for some votes?