Sunagakure
Life after reincarnating in Sunagakure was interesting for Maddy... so interesting that she often wondered if something had happened to the genetics of the sand people in the centuries since she last saw them—something that may have turned them into fools.
She was sure it wasn't inbreeding. The descendants of those who lived during The Apogee were learned in the art of common sense... well, common sense-ish.
For example, it was common sense that mating with close relatives was bad for the bloodline; hence, no one tried to keep it pure.
Now, this might be generally recognized throughout the Omniverse as a good example of common sense: don't fuck your sister. But... it can't be said that their common sense was that... common, per se.
This example might explain how their common sense is skewed in strange ways: In Sunagakure, it is common sense to start practicing sage arts after the first osteo-script. Considering that the first osteo-script is typically branded at the tender age of seven, it's common sense among the people of the sand that about 85% of the population are sages. It's also common sense that the average lifespan is measured in centuries.
You see, for these people, the passing of 'Aya-sama' was just a few generations ago. This created the current situation, which drove Maddy to wonder if they were all fools.
Here she was, barely a week old, sitting in the middle of a conference surrounded by the other elders, 'discussing' topics of national interest and accepting a few reports to update her on the changes and progress of Sunagakure since the last time she was here.
Maddy, throughout all of her reincarnations, has been an abnormal baby. A baby that doesn't cry, a baby that doesn't bite the nipple when she starts teething, a baby that eats her vegetables, a baby who helps at home, a baby that doesn't need education, a baby that takes care of other babies, and a baby that explodes. But even with all these extraordinary feats, she was truly a baby.
Which means she can't talk, her muscle control is poor, she needs plenty of sleep, she needs her milk often, she can't access most of Lucian's powers, and let's not even talk about her chakra.
This is why she is convinced that something must have happened to the people of the sand that made them all fools.
She won't complain about how informative the meetings have been so far, because they were very useful in getting her up to speed, but she was a baby. She felt sleepy, annoyed, angry, and she just shat herself because her sphincter refuses to be tamed. Now, her privates are going to be exposed for all to see... after they decide who is the lucky one in charge of changing her diapers this time...
Because not even this could these fools be normal about. Apparently, taking care of her diapers—or whatever need of hers, for that matter—was a great honor. So, the fools had arguments about who was next every time she shat her little butt.
She was certain that at some point, these arguments would escalate, given how fanatical they were about her.
'Did we do something that might deserve this level of fanaticism?'
|You were something akin to Moses for them.|
'I... I guess I can see the resemblance in some of my actions.'
|You led them to the promised land, brought them news about their goddess whenever you visited Kaguya, massively improved their living conditions, taught them, saved them, healed them, and blessed them with longer lifespans and healthier, sturdier bodies... and now you've returned from the dead. To them, you're a mix of Jesus and Moses. If we add the fact that they 100% believe you're the reincarnation of Madi Futagami—even if you never publicly confirmed it—we can conclude that you're a blend of Jesus, Moses, and YHWH.|
'... I don't think any of those figures had their droppings worshipped.'
|Not that I know of, but Jesus had the 'Holy Prepuce', and the objects of his execution were worshipped. The cross, the crown of thorns, the holy lance, and even the cloth that covered his body. Holy Droppings doesn't sound so bad in comparison.|
'... You're not wrong, but I don't feel like agreeing with you.'
"Aya-sama, regarding territory expansion, before your journey to the Pure Lands, you instructed us not to expand the city until we had a feasible way of growing our underground territory."- Asahi said.
Asahi was the leading elder of the council that ran Sunagakure and a descendant of Aya's little brother. Although he was 200 years old, he looked just like any other 30-year-old.
"Thanks to the help of Sunamushi-sama and her kind, we have expanded our underground territory to five levels. Each level is bigger than the previous one, forming a pyramidal arrangement, with the first level—the one closest to the surface—being the one Kaguya-Hime left for us."- Asahi explained as he used his magnetic manipulation to create a replica of the underground levels of the city made of gold dust.
"We used some of the scripts you graciously left us for reinforcement, and Sunamushi-sama tested the integrity of our walls using her sage arts. With her approval, we've been creating new levels as the need arose."- A sandworm made of gold dust was created to represent Sunamushi.
"To be clear, we are not suffering from overpopulation like you sagely warned us about in your past life. However, since preparing the soil for agriculture takes us a few decades, we have to plan ahead. As of now, the fifth floor is unoccupied, but the soil should be ready for use in another two or three decades."
'Why would it take them that long?'
|The scripture I left for soil setting and enhancement was designed to use mostly natural energy instead of chakra because it would have been impossible for them to supplement the cost with their small chakra pools. Since we used most energy pockets during our time as Sunamushi and then set up a cycle of chakra-natural energy in Ryūmyaku, the density of natural energy has lowered.|
'That would explain it. You kind of went crazy with the grind, absorbing energy pockets one after the other.'
"In terms of arable land, we have something close to two-thirds of the Land of Fire."
'God damn! That's a lot of arable land for this small a population. What are they doing with the excess produce?'
|They likely store a part in stasis, but as a population, they probably consume more than any other, given that most of them are sages, and on average, a sage eats more than a regular human.|
'Why would they store so much food?'
|They were caught off-guard during The Fall. They have scripture for time-stop storage, so it would make sense if the original inhabitants passed down the custom of always keeping supplies with them. I can't peer into their storage scripts at the moment, but I bet they have ridiculous amounts of food in each of their personal storages.|
'... That makes sense in a traumatic way.'
|Most lessons are learned through some form of trauma.|
'That's sad but true.'
"On another note, to prevent script from falling into the hands of the Uragirimono and their bellicose ways, we've been dispatching teams to scour the ruins left from the era of The Apogee. We've recovered a few ancient scriptures—not as many as we would like—but the main objective was to prevent your blessing from being misused."- Asahi continued his report.
"The script is brought back to one of the grandmaster scribes to be updated to today's standards or studied if it is more advanced than ours."
"Unfortunately, we've had a few run-ins with the Uragirimono. They are not particularly strong, but from time to time, we have encountered a few monsters among them, so we've been forced to create a division specialized in combat and escape. We apologize, Aya-sama. I know you never intended for your blessing to be twisted this way, but we had to develop a branch of scripture dedicated to harming others in order to protect our scripture recovery teams."- Asahi bowed deeply to the baby, and the other elders followed suit.
"Waah! Waah!"- Aya gave them the universal cry of approval in the world-renowned language of toddler-speak.
"We thank you for your magnanimity!"- The elders said in unison.
'This is basically dungeon delving.'
|Except instead of monsters, they run into warmonger ninjas.|
'And instead of treasure, they recover scripture.'
|... It feels like the people of the sand are playing a different game from the rest of the world.|
'Right?! These guys are playing a chimera of kingdom building and open-world adventure with the occasional 'monster' encounter.'
|The others are playing a weird ninja version of survival where you wake up in a clan that uses child soldiers instead of in a wagon.|
'At least there are no monsters in the game, just monster-like people.'
|Well, there's the remnants of Kaguya's parasitic people.|
'Sure, but I'm pretty sure we got most of them when my heart blew up into a reality-warping, time-space displacement singularity of cause-and-effect overwrite.'
|Is that what you named it?|
'I still don't know what it was, so that's my best description of what I saw.'
|Think of a black hole that not only affects space and time but also travels through the timestream to prevent them from time-traveling to the past or future to escape from it, while also denying and overwriting cause and effect to circumvent abilities that may deny damage or attacks or might reflect damage or attacks.|
'How did you even design that? It makes no sense.'
|It's because this world is weak. According to what I know, worlds can be classified into two categories: those created by an all-powerful being and those that create themselves. If it's a world of the first category, there's a pervasive domain from the all-powerful being that restricts and polices the world. In these types of worlds, I can't have as much mobility as I want, I believe.|
'Right, because no one would want an intruder or guest changing stuff in their home.'
|Correct. Then there's the second type of world, the type this world belongs to. This world wasn't created by anyone; it simply exists—probably born from a paradox of The Void—and the seat of power is currently occupied by Shibai. This means that the world doesn't mind or need someone to overlord it, so it doesn't restrict others that much because it doesn't care. Its inhabitants can self-destruct for all it cares, and it still wouldn't affect it.|
'So? You bent the rules of reality to create the thing?'
|No. I used the heart as a medium to use my Creation and made the thing. It's easier to create stuff with Play-Doh if you don't have to follow rules or requirements and be mindful of restrictions and regulations. You just make what you want and you're done.|
'I would think that creating is more difficult than using already existing tools.'
|Not if you can simply create the laws that rule your creation and ignore the preexisting notions.|
'... I think I sort of understand. It's like participating in a long-distance shooting competition with the only objective of destroying the target. If you follow the rules, you have to get the sniper rifle, the sight, the bullets, and everything just like they approve of, but with Creation, you can just use a predator drone loaded with a big enough payload to blow the whole site.'
|Pretty much. You still have to follow rules of your own understanding, but you won't have to follow the pre-established laws. Creation is not omnipotence.|
'I see... Now, stop distracting me. My baby brain can't multitask, and I need to pay attention!'
|...|
"We've mostly been avoiding people from the exterior. In some cases, those who are lost in the desert and pass our screenings are added to our numbers and are forbidden from ever leaving our underground city. This is to add new blood to our people and because we were once individuals who needed a saving hand, which Aya-sama provided."- Asahi said, his eyes shining with reverence.
"Waah! Waah!"
"We will forever be grateful!"- The elders, like zealots, again thanked the baby.
After a long two-hour meeting—because that was how long Aya could stay awake—she was returned to her parents, who were, coincidentally, the envy of Sunagakure at the moment, for her to feed.
Aya's mother in this life was named Kaede, a ginger-haired woman with long, wavy hair and bright orange eyes. She had scripture tattooed across her body, as was customary in Sunagakure. Even children received their first script—a location-tracking script—when they began to walk on their own.
Yuudai, her father, was much like her mother; he carried scripture on his skin with pride. He was a green-haired man with red eyes.
Both were past their first century of age, and Aya was the first child they had been granted permission to bring into the world. It was normal that not everyone would enjoy the privilege of having children. Initially, their underground city was large but not unlimited in space. So, under Aya's advice and Ayumi's orders, strict population control was established.
Aya had recreated a contraceptive script from the Age of Apogee, and it became law that every individual would receive one at the onset of puberty.
Later, the right to have children was determined by contributions and whether a useful gene was found in their blood. There were other exceptions; for example, the descendants of Aya's brother had lighter regulations, and another exception was when new blood was brought in from outside. The system wasn't perfect, but it greatly benefited Sunagakure.
"Ah, my beautiful daughter is back."- Yuudai said softly, as if lamenting something.
"I can't believe these fools would take my princess away like that!"- He complained as he tenderly rubbed his nose against Aya's.
Aya giggled at her father's antics and care.
'Humph! I've got a nice father in this life!'
|I believe so.|
'So don't go yandere on him, alright?!'
|I don't think I will have to.|
"Was it boring, my girl?"- Yuudai asked as he carried her in his arms to Kaede.
"Waah! Waah!"- She confessed.
"I knew it! I should have argued more strongly, but those fools strong-armed me into lending you out for a few hours every three days or so."- Yuudai bemoaned.
|I can't blame him for that. The council wouldn't leave the house, and there was a mob forming outside demanding that 'Aya-sama' be officially introduced to the population.|
'Crazy zealots! They stood between me and my mother's heavenly provider nipples!'
"Flame, here's our Aya. She's been returned from the hands of the baby slaver council."- Yuudai affectionately said to Kaede.
"Who would have thought I would have to share my first daughter with the country like this?"- Kaede complained. She extended her arms to Yuudai, asking for Aya.
"Come here, girl. I've kept your lunch warm for you."- She smiled at Aya and exposed her milk-leaking breasts.
"Kaede, Aya invited me to lunch."- Yuudai said matter-of-factly.
"Idiot."- Kaede muttered with a smile and a flushed face.
'At least I have my own room.'
|I wanted to observe the leg spreading, but I guess it won't happen.|
'Voyeur much?'
|Similar to those guys recording wildlife for Animal Planet.|
'Maybe all higher life forms like you are voyeurs.'
|Wildlife researcher.|
'You can tell yourself tha—Damn! This milk is heavenly! Probably the best I've had. Any ideas why?'
|Probably the script on her chest. I don't recognize it, but it's likely something related to nutritional value. Kaede's milk is indeed unusually nutritious.|
'These guys really took scripture and made it their thing.'
|It became a part of their culture. They even tattoo their scalps to have more beautiful and healthier hair.|
"Aya, my little girl, do you want to meet Sunamushi-sama?"- Kaede asked while she wiped Aya's cheek, still latched to her breast.
"Waah!"- Aya declined after pausing her meal.
"Uhmmm, do you want to wait until you can talk?"- Yuudai asked.
"Waah! Waah!"- Aya confirmed.
'We need to ask her if she found any other sage beasts like you extrapolated they existed.'
|It would be interesting to study a few other samples.|
'Mhmm, would a snake sage beast be something like an eastern dragon?'
|Maybe a sage chicken turns into a phoenix.|
'Very interesting! I can't wait to talk with the little girl.'
"I don't know how to feel about those fools always returning my Aya with a new diaper."- Kaede had a twitching smile as she saw Aya was not wearing the diaper she had when she left.
"Those perverts, don't you mean?"- Yuudai huffed in unhappiness.
"I don't know what to think anymore."- Kaede confessed.
"At least taking care of Aya has become an S-Rank contribution task. It won't be long before we have enough contribution points to apply for a permit for a sister or brother for Aya."- Yuudai said.
"'For Aya,' you say?"- Kaede found it amusing how her husband was masking his desire for more children as Aya's.
'Hey, Luci, should we start purifying the chakra beasts in this life?'
|We might as well. Maybe we'll run into Kaguya's Will.|
'You're right; it should be keeping an eye on the chakra beasts. Perhaps it will know why the twins betrayed us.'
|It's possible. The survivors of The Fall didn't have any new information aside from what Kaguya told us. If this Will of hers is as stealthy as Kaguya implied, then maybe it spied on the twins and might know some facts we currently ignore.|
'I'm almost of a mind to believe they became mentally challenged in the years following our absence.'
|We were dying, and I couldn't peer into their minds, but I also suspect they may have lost a few trillion neurons shortly after our departure.|
'Fucking idiots.'
|Indeed.|
"Hey! Of course, my little girl would like a younger sibling. During her time as Aya-sama, she was known for her fondness of children. Tell her, little Aya!"- Yuudai wiggled a finger on her belly and made her laugh.
"Kyahehe!"- Aya giggled.
"She's having her milk! Don't make her laugh!"- Kaede scolded Yuudai.
|We'll start with the One-Tails, I assume.|
'Yes, Asahi said it settled down in the east sector. It also appears to have a territorial dispute with Sunamushi.'
|The desert is so vast; I wonder why they're fighting over territory.|
'Beats me. That little girl was very patient. If I had to bet, I'd say it's the One-Tails' fault.'
|We'll talk about this later. You should go to sleep.|
'Yeah, it's past my midday nap time.'
Kaede and Yuudai fawned over Aya for a few minutes before they saw her rapidly falling asleep.
"Those meetings were too much for our little girl."- Kaede said in reproach.
"I agree with you, Flame. But you know Aya is a bit different. When we last checked, she was paying attention to the Elders' report. Whether we like it or not, it seems we'll have to share the parenthood of our daughter with the rest of the village."- Yuudai said softly as he petted the tufts of green hair on Aya.
"*Sigh*... There wasn't much parenthood left due to Aya's circumstances, and now we have to share the little that remains."- Kaede lamented, feeling that the mother-daughter bonding moments she was supposed to share were stolen from her.
Neither she nor Yuudai regretted it—they loved Aya no matter what—but parenthood turned out far differently than they had expected.
"I partially agree with you, but part of me is also glad our first baby was Aya."- Yuudai confessed.
"Why?"
"Normally, parents screw up with their first child. In our case, that won't apply, and when we're ready for our second child, the person with the most experience in the world in raising kids will be there to help us where we lack."- Yuudai said, referencing the sleeping Aya.
"... I guess it's true that Aya-sama was the mother of our village, not to mention whatever else she experienced in her lives between the second and this one."- Even though her life as Aya-sama was her first reincarnation, to the population of Sunagakure, her first life was as Madi Futagami.
"Yes. I hope one day Aya will tell us about her other lives."- Yuudai added.
Kaede didn't verbally respond, but she was also curious about the other lives of her daughter.
_______________________
One year later, when Aya fully regained her verbal abilities, Yuudai, Kaede, and Asahi went outside the underground city. Next to the crystal spire with the eternal flame, the parents and the toddler watched as Asahi bit his thumb and slammed his hand down on the sand.
A technique formula appeared at the point of impact, and with a cloud of smoke and a Poof!, Sunamushi appeared in her gargantuan glory.
Asahi, being the current strongest person in the village, held the right to summon the Guardian Sage Beast of Sunagakure.
"Asahi, what seems to be—"- Sunamushi paused as she noticed the eyes of the toddler in the parents' arms.
"..."- She stared in silence, as if waiting for something.
"Shai-Hulud!"- Aya said cheerfully, using the word for 'God of the Desert,' referring to Sunamushi.
"Sayyadina & Lisan al-Gaib?"- Sunamushi asked, using the words for Maddy and Lucian, meaning 'Priestess' and 'Voice from the Outer World.'
"Hehehehe!"- Aya giggled in affirmation.
"Oh! What a surprise, Lady Madelyne and Lord Lucian are here!"- Sunamushi exclaimed merrily in perfect English.
She had spent so much time with them that she could boast of knowing them best. In their mindscapes, Maddy often taught her about their culture to pass the time while Lucian controlled the body, or later on, while he taught Sunamushi different Sage Arts.
"Hello, little girl. Look at you! Just as gorgeous as the day we left you!"- Aya responded in English.
"Lady Madelyne, you should look at yourself before commenting about me. Huhuhu!"- Sunamushi chuckled, and as she did, the sand around her stirred in resonance patterns.
"Well, that's the staple of my life. I've been a baby so many times!"- Madelyne exclaimed in joyful resignation.
"I can only imagine. How many lives does this one make?"- Sunamushi asked curiously.
"This is my eighth. I probably still have three or five more to go."- Madelyne replied.
"That's more than I expected. Did you have a few early deaths?"- Sunamushi knew they aimed to average 100 years per life. While she was aware they might exceed that value, this was beyond her estimates.
"I had to blow myself up once as a newborn, died as a child once, and had an early death another time."- Aya recounted.
"You blew yourself up as a newborn?!"- Sunamushi had a skewed common sense, because one, she was a sage sandworm, two, she grew up with Madelyne and Lucian, and three, most of her interactions were with the One-Tails and the Sunagakure people, neither an example of 'common'. But even to her, an exploding newborn was abnormal.
"I had a bitch of a mother who was going to feed me to the wolves. I had Luci take her down with us..."- Aya said nonchalantly.
"... Karma's a bitch?!"- Sunamushi said questioningly.
"KYAHEHEHEHE! Yeah, Sunamushi. Karma is indeed a bitch!"- Aya found it hilarious that the humongous sandworm, who was both like a daughter and a friend, was using phrases from her world.
As the two old friends continued conversing in a language the others didn't understand, Asahi created a roof with his golden sand to shield them from the scorching sun and the harsh desert winds.
"Hey, Sunamushi, how did you end up as 'rivals' with the One-Tails?"- Aya asked.
"Ah, that was that temperamental tanuki's fault. He fought with the Nine-Tails a few years back. He was stomped by his brother, so he thought he could use an external power source to match up to the Nine-Tails. He decided to go after my Ryūmyaku. I declined his demands, and we proceeded to talk things out... with overwhelming violence. Hehehehe!"- Sunamushi laughed evilly, and the sand's pattern changed.
"I figured it would be the One-Tails' fault. How did you come out on top?"
"The first time, he attacked me in my sage lands. The scripture Lord Lucian left for me killed him using the Ryūmyaku and the surplus natural energy."- She explained. She didn't even get the chance to talk him down before the security system blew him up.
"The second time, he ambushed me while I was working on a task with my contractor from two generations ago. Between the two of us, we killed him."- This time, she got to talk to him, but her contractor lost it when the One-Tails demanded the sage lands Aya-sama had left for Sunamushi.
"The third time, he tried to attack me while I was working around here. It was during the time we were expanding the third floor. I tried to talk him down again, but he didn't listen. The entire military force of the village felt his chakra, came out, and he was captured and forced to work for the village for six decades as punishment for attacking the village's guardian beast. That's how we completed the rest of the floors so easily; he was used as a battery."- Sunamushi said with mirth in her voice.
"Later, he attacked and killed a few of my sandworms, so I asked the village to help me capture him again. That time, he was forced to work for me for eight decades and was later executed."- She snarled.
"From that point on, we no longer tried to make peace with him. Whenever he resurrects, we hunt him down. It became some sort of hunting festival; it happens every few years. Sometimes the tanuki takes longer to return than others. Regardless, he never lives for longer than half a year."- Sunamushi said with sadistic delight in her voice.
"... Woah... Just... Woah."- Aya said.
Initially, she felt angry, as the attack was clearly unprovoked, but as the story continued, all she felt was pity for the tanuki.
|It is to be expected. Script is meant to be a form of energy manipulation, and chakra beasts are physical bodies of energy. If you mix chakra beings with a village that has manipulated chakra as a form of culture since its early years, the result can't be a surprise. I bet they didn't seal him off forever only because they knew he was a part of the goddess they revered.|
'Yeah, probably even that fūinjutsu is the bane of their existence.'
|I believe so. I haven't seen what the Uzumaki can do, but if the rumors are a fraction of what we heard in our previous lives, then most likely you're correct.|
"I don't believe we were in the wrong, but maybe hunting him as a tradition was a bit too much."- Sunamushi said after rethinking their past actions a bit.
"I'll talk things out with him when I meet him. When is he due for rebirth?"- Aya didn't care if they had gone too far; she believed that if you start as the aggressor, you end as the aggressor, no matter how pitiful you look by the end.
"Maybe in 7 to 10 years. Why do you want to meet him, Lady Madelyne?"- Sunamushi couldn't imagine Madelyne and Lucian bullying the weak tanuki; she knew they were never the type to bully the weak, which is why she was curious about the purpose of the meeting.
"In the future, to free Kaguya, the chakra beasts will be reunited with her. To prevent the chakra corruption from overwhelming her again, we need to purify it from the source."- Aya openly explained.
"Oh, that's great! You found a way to unseal your friend—other than waiting for Lord Lucian to heal, that is."- Sunamushi, familiar with Madelyne's plight to free their friend, responded.
"Yes, that's correct!"- Aya said with a beaming smile.
"I'm glad for you. By the way, as Lord Lucian had speculated, other sage beasts exist."- Sunamushi shared the news she knew they would be interested in.
"Oh! That's fascinating. What do you have on them?"
"I was approached by three different sage beasts representing three different summoning domains. The first to approach me was a toad from Mount Myōboku named Fukasaku. They wanted to form an alliance with me and my sandworms. I obviously declined because I lacked information on them."- During one of Fukasaku's travels close to the Land of Rivers, he felt a powerful presence of senjutsu chakra along with a higher concentration of natural energy coming from the desert.
He ventured close enough to spot Sunamushi's Ryūmyaku and then returned to Mount Myōboku to report his findings. Later, under the orders of Gamamaru, he was sent as an envoy to establish friendly relations with the emerging sage clan of the Sandworms.
"The second one to approach me was a snake from Ryūchi Cave, Tagorihime. She claimed that the White Snake Sage sent her after I rejected the toad's offer. They were apparently enemies of the toads and wanted to either ally with us or for me to stay neutral. I chose neutrality because I wanted nothing to do with fights occurring outside my desert; those were obviously not my concern."- Aside from the One-Tails, she had no enemies, and no one would catch her trying to make more.
"The last to visit me was a sage slug called Katsuyu. She was the leader of Shikkotsu Forest. She was nice and taught me about the summoning jutsu and how to work with contractors. I later had the one who became my first contractor create a summoning scroll for me, and that's the one that's been passed down in Sunagakure."
"So that's where that came from. Did you make a treaty with the slug?"- Madelyne inquired.
"I did ally Ryūmyaku with Shikkotsu Forest. Katsuyu is neutral, so we matched perfectly. Oh, and she is bigger than me! Can you believe that?"- That was a surprise for Sunamushi. She thought that aside from the God Tree, she was the biggest living being on Earth, but now she knew she was at least in third place.
"That's huge. I would like to visit this Shikkotsu Forest sometime later, but only after I recover some of my strength."- Madelyne, or more accurately Lucian, said, intrigued by the existence of other sage beasts.
"I'll talk to Katsuyu when you're ready."- Sunamushi offered, also eager to introduce her friends.
"Aside from their disputes, did they seem friendly? How strong were they?"- Lucian asked through Madelyne.
"In terms of strength, I carry more senjutsu chakra but in terms of experience, they probably have me beaten since all of the sage land leaders are older than me. About the first question, the toads and Katsuyu are either friendly or dismissive towards humans, as far as I understood. The snakes are... weird?"- Sunamushi said, hesitating.
"According to what Katsuyu told me, they eat their summoners when they fail a certain trial to become sages."
"Doesn't that mean they're hostile, then?"- Aya surmised.
"That's why they're weird. As long as a human desires it strongly enough, they can find their domain, and the snakes will provide them with the tools to attempt to grasp the power of sagehood. So, while it's true that the snakes prey on their failed sages, they've had far more summoners than the other sage lands. Katsuyu mentioned she hasn't had a contractor in centuries, and the same goes for the toads."
"So they're more open to helping humans, but they're also coldly logical and ruthless... Very much in line with their serpent nature."- Aya concluded.
"Yes, unlike the other summoning domains, they at least left a path open for humanity."- Sunamushi agreed.
"Then, how do the other lands get their contractors?"- Madelyne asked. Sunamushi's comment implied that the other sage lands were hidden and inaccessible through common means.
"From time to time, the sage beasts distribute instructions for the summoning technique among humans. When a contract-less human attempts the technique, they'll end up in the home of the animal they have a natural affinity for."
The sage beast would go out on missions and distribute either scrolls or tablets with the information needed to reach their domains or attempt the summoning technique. Ever since chakra was shared among humanity the latter method became the go-to.
"That's curious... Why would they want contractors?"
"It varies. It could be for dietary purposes, to send their young ones to practice in human wars, to learn about the outside world and keep up with the times, or to absorb chakra from their contractors. Some ask for food, weapons, or luxury items. Katsuyu does it to study the anatomy of her contractors and keep her healing techniques up to date, so the reasons are wide-ranging and different."
In the old times, they also needed the contractors to obtain certain commodities they couldn't make for themselves.
"And I guess they also use their contractors to discover other sage beasts like yourself?"- Madelyne speculated.
"Ehh, no. That's unlikely, Lady Madelyne."- Sunamushi denied.
"Why?"- Aya asked, finding her speculation logical. Otherwise, how did they discover Sunamushi? There were no other sage beasts in the desert or its surroundings when they checked, and they wandered the desert for decades, yet, Lucian never found anything with more sagacity than a desert wolf.
"Because no new sage beast has been born since the arrival of the God Tree, aside from me. That's why the main sage clans sent representatives to meet me. Katsuyu said I was a rarity, something they thought wouldn't happen again."
|Madelyne, please ask her the following.|- Lucian spoke in Madelyne's soul.
"Sunamushi, was the existence of the God Tree detrimental to all sage clans?"- Aya repeated what Lucian said in her soul.
"Yes. Katsuyu mentioned she was afraid of how low the levels of natural energy were getting. She said that, before the God Tree, the normal concentration level was close to the density of natural energy in my Ryūmyaku."
|...|
'What are you thinking, Lucian?'
|That aside from Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, the sage clans were the ones who benefited from the potential demise of Kaguya and consequently the God Tree. Isshiki wanted Kaguya down, and the sage clans wanted the tree destroyed. So maybe instead of Isshiki manipulating the twins, it was a sage beast or clan who did it. That is, assuming the twins didn't just turn stupid one day.|
'... Is that why you tasked Sunamushi with finding other sage beasts?'
|There was no chakra before Kaguya distributed it. The only other person who could have manipulated the twins and potentially had the power to do so was Isshiki. But he was too weak by the time we left, and since humanity was too feeble and they loved her, we can rule them out. Isshiki was injured, so he wouldn't have dared.|
|But that's where things get strange. Isshiki may not have been at his 100%, but he was strong enough to join the fight, which, according to what Kaguya told us about her kind and what I sensed of his power level, shouldn't have been possible.|
'So there was another enemy.'
|Yes. One cunning enough to manipulate the twins but not strong enough to join the fight. I assumed if such an enemy existed, it must have been someone experienced who benefited from Kaguya's fall. But I hadn't considered that maybe the target wasn't Kaguya, but the God Tree.|
'What do you mean by experienced?'- Madelyne asked after mulling Lucian's explanation over a few times.
|Either someone old or someone who could obtain memories and/or experience, and through them, learn about the human heart and how to control it. Because the twins shouldn't have been stupid enough to fall for obvious manipulation, at least not your usual type of manipulation.|
'Like an empath? Or a telepath?'
|Not a telepath because I would have detected the imprint of mental manipulation in the twins. So, yes, something similar to an empath or someone with a power that allowed them to predict or peer into the future and learn from what they saw while using it to their advantage, or like I said, someone older with plenty of experience.|
'So probably an old being, right? Since it's unlikely those powers existed before chakra.'
|That's what I thought, but natural energy has existed since before Kaguya.|
'But you can't manipulate natural energy without chakra.'- Madelyne said. An example of this was Sunamushi; without the chakra inherited from birth, Lucian couldn't have manipulated it to absorb natural energy and turn it into senjutsu chakra.
There used to be no chakra-able beasts, but after The Fall, the combination of dispersed chakra and rioting natural energy left from the fight mutated the environment as a whole, beasts and plants included. Otherwise, a feeble chakra-less humanity wouldn't have survived if the average beast had chakra like they do now.
|That's what we observed. But that doesn't mean that before the God Tree's arrival, when the natural energy was more densely concentrated, beasts didn't mutate more easily.|
'Wait! So instead of the chakra-able beasts we naturally have now, you're saying there used to be natural energy-able beasts who could possibly have had powers similar to empathy, telepathy, prophecy, or predictions?'
|Yes. Just ask Sunamushi if the slug mentioned something about it.|
"Sunamushi, do you know if there are or were any sage beasts with special abilities?"- Aya immediately asked.
"Abilities like what, Lady Madelyne? Like my sand, wind, and sound manipulation? Like the sage arts?"
"No, something like mind reading or empaths."
"No, not as far as I know. Oh! But Katsuyu mentioned that the leader of the toads sometimes had dreams of the future."
...
...
...
When Sunamushi finished speaking, the wind stilled, and the sands stopped moving.
The light seemed to dim, and the living beings present felt a deep dread and existential fear emanating from the baby...
Lucian had awakened his first emotion after Madelyne's rage resonated with him.
Soon enough, Lucian's rage overwhelmed Aya's baby body, and she passed out, followed by the adults, and...
*BOOM!*- Sunamushi's body fell to the side, unconscious.
_________________________________________
The next day, when the adults and the sandworm awoke, they found the curious scene of a baby doing a dogeza in the sand.
Aya begged for forgiveness for almost breaking their hearts (wills).
With no other choice—aside from keeping the baby kneeling in the sand for longer—the adults accepted Aya's apologies.
Sunamushi agreed to help her collect more information on the toad sage clan after Aya explained what happened.
Needless to say, the adults were seething when they understood the reason for Aya's outburst. If there was anything the people of Sunagakure were, it was fanatics.
They zealously revered two people, Aya (Madi Futagami) and their Kaguya-Hime. Even after several generations, the mythos of the two of them were inherited.
They couldn't deny it even if they wanted. For one, the first level of their underground paradise was created for them by Kaguya, which was the same goddess who was leading humanity to a bountiful future before she was betrayed. This was the goddess their ancestors had the pleasure of following. Secondly, Madi Futagami created the scripture that is today part of their culture, the same being who later reincarnated as Aya-sama and rescued their ancestors after they were dispersed following The Fall.
But this was not all. In her next life, she guided their guardian beast, Sunamushi, into fixing the crazy weather and the hazardous conditions of the world by erasing the pockets of chakra and calming the rioting natural energy in the atmosphere.
For these and many other reasons, they loved these two individuals.
Eventually, the news about the possible manipulator behind the fall of their goddess was shared with the leaders of the village, and an initiative was born. An initiative to track down the location of Mount Myōboku.
The three sage lands shared a pact of secrecy about not sharing the location of their domains with outsiders. This pact was signed after the arrival of Kaguya, which was to be expected because if one sage clan wanted to get rid of another, they believed that they could have walked to Kaguya and sicced her onto their enemies. To avoid mutual destruction, this pact of secrecy was born.
Lucian created a variation of the summoning technique to allow the recall of people under certain conditions, and then the able-bodied and those with the highest chances of survivability started to use the summoning technique without signing a contract, all in the chance that one of them had an affinity with the toads.
There were a few hundred or thousand that returned gravely injured, but with their advanced medicine, as long as they made it back alive, they could be restored to full health.
By doing such a massive exercise of summoning, the population discovered and contracted with a few new summoning clans. Hawks, wolves, tigers, scorpions, spiders, deer, hares, bunnies, different forms of aquatic life, and several others were examples of these new summoning clans. Some even ended up in the Ryūchi Cave and were immediately accepted once the sage snakes realized that they were 'natural sages'—as natural as the script in their bones was.
Of course, the majority of the sand people who were part of the exercise ended up in the Ryūmyaku. Since it was natural for them to have an affinity with the sage beast they shared their desert with.
Overall, even if no one found Mount Myōboku, the benefits outweighed the detriments, because even if Sunagakure was not part of the ongoing conflicts and wars of the outside, help and strength were always appreciated, and that's what they got when they contracted with a summoning beast.
Lucian concluded that you couldn't have a high affinity with a summoning beast you were hatefully hunting for, so they suspended the exercise—or at least tried to. The sand people enjoyed the thrill. They said that it was like playing a gacha game but with your life on the line, so it was kept as a fun practice for those thrill-seekers.
Sunagakure was about half a millennia more advanced than the outside, with computers, railway transportation, electricity, telephones, radiowave communication, cars, refrigeration, and many other 'modern' technologies part of their culture, such as gacha games.
The only reason Sunagakure hadn't taken over the surface was that Aya-sama left clear instructions. The loophole they found was in the wording 'surface', so they took it upon themselves to conquer and expand upon the underground, which they were achieving.
With the conclusion of the exercise and the advantages that this one brought, came the end of a chapter. The matter of seeking vengeance was left to Aya, as she requested, but the village agreed to keep the scouting and explorer parties—which normally explored ruins—on the surface under a more dynamic rotation, all with the objective of keeping an ear open about toads or toad summoners.
Kaede and Yuudai were part of the ruin explorer teams, but since Aya was still somewhat dependent on them, they were staying at home with her.
This longer stay, coupled with the enough credits they amassed by taking care of Aya, gifted them a second child. A normal one this time.
Aya was granted the honor of naming her, and she named her Sahara. Although it didn't follow the standard naming convention, the parents agreed when Aya told them that this was a name from the home of Madi Futagami.
Sahara inherited the ginger hair of Kaede and the green eyes of Yuudai's mother.
Madelyne felt that the color combination of her sister's eyes and hair reminded her of Jean Grey, but so much time had passed since the name mattered to her that she only found it mildly curious.
Kaede and Yuudai were hit hard with the reality of what a normal newborn demanded.
Regular health check-ups, random sleeping schedules, spontaneous crying, poop without convenient forewarnings, and many more normal baby occurrences were part of their life now.
Aya didn't say it, but she was pleased that their intimate life was being affected, given that she was still annoyed about how little restraint they showed when she was the only baby around... In reality, she didn't care that much, but she resented that Kaede's breasts were dry during the mornings, the reason being obviously Yuudai. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who found Kaede's milk delicious.
Much to her regret, Aya's weaning period arrived. During those difficult times, it was common to find Aya glaring at Sahara while Kaede was breastfeeding the baby girl—or at Yuudai in the mornings when Kaede's breasts appeared saggy and not full.
It didn't help that Yuudai would smirk at her, but Aya took her revenge by having Lucian gift him a mild case of erectile dysfunction. One day, Kaede returned from a walk with Sahara to find Aya using Yuudai as her mount, literally. For a week, Aya didn't float or walk anywhere; she used her loyal mount, four-legged Yuudai.
Kaede may have appeared nonchalant about the situation, but she was the one who had pushed Yuudai to the breaking point. When she realized what was going on between her older daughter and her husband—and who was responsible for her dry spell—she constantly teased and seduced Yuudai. She even went over a week without wearing underwear, 'accidentally' flashing Yuudai regularly.
Later, the people of the sand looked at Yuudai strangely because Aya would sometimes feel like going for a walk—more accurately, a ride. Somehow, word got out about why Yuudai acted as Aya's mount for a week, and needless to say, Yuudai had a few difficult weeks until the joke died down.
Obviously, Aya had nothing to do with the spreading of this rumor.
A few years later, when Aya was 5 and Sahara 4 years old, Yuudai and Kaede returned to the field, much to their displeasure. Sahara was left in Aya's care, and they went from seeing their parents every day to about five days every two weeks, the standard duration of an expedition.
This was not exactly a problem, as Aya was more than capable of taking care of Sahara, and the villagers' help—on account of spending more time near Aya—came in handy.
Sahara and Aya got used to their new life, and time moved on.
A few things changed over the years. For example, using Lucian's modifications to the summoning technique, the recall technique was born.
The recall technique performed the same type of teleportation (summoning) as the original, but on a person. The difference was that the teleportation could be initiated from the side of the summoned through a script. The downside was the time it took for the teleportation to occur.
This delay was due to a lag in communication between the script on the summoned and the place of summoning. The unique aspect of this technique was that the summoned did not bear the chakra cost; it was prepaid by loading a script with chakra before going out on the expedition.
For security reasons, the location where the loaded script was kept had to be guarded, so a secure location was built above ground.
These factors led to the main disadvantages of the recall technique:
1- The time it took for the script—the one tattooed on the summoned—to connect to the loaded script and summon the individual depended on the distance between the two scripts.
2- As the distance between the two connected scripts increased, the needed prepaid chakra also increased.
3- Since the distance between the two connected scripts couldn't be accurately measured beforehand, it was unknown how much chakra needed to be prepaid. If the prepaid chakra wasn't sufficient, the charge would be lost, and the summoned would have to return physically.
4- As with summoning, anyone in contact with the summoned would be transported. The same applied to the recall, which could increase the chakra cost and might unintentionally bring enemies back. This made the recall a tactical risk, as enemies could use it to piggyback to Sunagakure.
To mitigate these issues, Sunagakure built 10 different forts near the borders of the 10 Lands that the desert shared borders with.
Using these forts as destinations for the recall technique lessened disadvantages 1, 3, and 4.
On the other hand, this revealed that the people of the desert were a strong enough force to man 10 forts and build them up in less than a quarter of a year.
Previously, the people of the sand were known as explorers who ventured into ruins from the ancient era and traded habitually for information. They were recognized as capable enough to deal with bandits and brigands, but since they avoided the clans, they weren't seen as a threat—just a grouping of nomads inhabiting the desert.
In fact, this last classification—nomads—was based on assumptions because there was never a mention of a village in the desert, and no one escaped the sands once they stepped in, except for the people of the sand. But this assumption was overturned when more sand people were spotted in recent years, and the forts confirmed suspicions.
To merchants, this meant the existence of a blue ocean—a whole village of considerable power to trade with!
Of course, contrary to what they expected, the sand people only allowed trade in the forts, and the location of Sunagakure remained a secret to outsiders.
This didn't mean much to the clans—they were too busy killing each other—since the ninja villages hadn't been founded yet, and they didn't care about anyone outside their territory or enemies.
For a few years, things remained this way until what did capture the clans' attention was the sand people's familiarity with scripture. They all bore it on their skin and weapons.
The clans did what they did best—they kidnapped a few sand people for questioning. That's how they discovered that the sand people were capable of space-time displacement.
No matter what approach the clans took—whether knocking them out first, trapping them in genjutsu, restricting their movements, or attempting possession—none of it mattered. Every technique they tried ended with the script activating automatically or manually, and the sand people being summoned. Worst of all, when one of their clan members was dragged along, they never returned.
This sparked the irritation of the clans and the jealousy of the merchants and nobles.
The irritation of the clans was understandable. They had never faced an enemy like this, the closest being the summons, who would be unsummoned when close to defeat. But since they didn't have a method to overcome the time-space jutsu and the sand people would not involve themselves in clan matters, they let it go—for the moment—and focused back on killing each other—just as they had been doing for centuries.
The jealousy of the merchants and nobles stemmed from a different, yet somewhat related, point of view.
Merchants and nobles had a special relationship with the clans.
From the nobles' side, they couldn't allow the clans to grow stronger, break the cycle of hatred they had between each other, and point their kunai at them. So when a particular clan was losing ground to another, they would often find a way to sponsor the losing clan, so that they would keep restraining each other.
However, they could also not remove the clans entirely because they didn't have the power to do so, and they needed the clans to control the brigand and bandit populations. They also needed the clans to handle their security and deal with their enemies. Said enemies could go from other nobles, merchants, or enemy clans of clans they sponsor.
From the merchants' side, the war between the clans was a very lucrative business, and this involved more than just war supplies. As expected, when a clan's focus was entirely on war, no one had time to plow the land and cultivate it. So the clans bought not only weapons but also food, textiles, construction supplies, ores, and a varied array of consumables.
However, the majority of brigands were former clan members who escaped from their clans and the war, and these delinquents affected the merchants' business, which meant they needed to hire clan members for protection.
The three parties formed a complicated web of dependency, where the clans were both the problem and the solution, the customers and the service providers, their security and their enemies' armed forces. This interdependency applied no matter which perspective you took.
But the recall technique meant that, for a merchant, they wouldn't have to worry about the trip, and for a noble, security was just seconds away. Hence the jealousy of the merchants and nobles.
Of course, nobles and merchants tasked different clans with obtaining the technique from the sand people, but since the clans had already failed, not much came of it—at least for the moment.
In their minds, they often thought about the sand people and their recall technique. Ambitious members of the clans dedicated effort to creating their own variation of this technique, though without much success. If space-time ninjutsu were so easy, there would be multiple Tobiramas and Yellow Flashes.
But a stalemate was reached, and with it, time passed.
________________________________________________________________
The chapter continues in the next chapter.