Walking along the ancient bluestone path behind A-Bao, Genshin was still digesting and analyzing the massive amount of information he had just received.
The Great Panda Sage had solo-killed an Otsutsuki a thousand years ago, and Kaguya and Isshiki had also descended upon the Shinobi World a thousand years ago.
The fact that it hadn’t encountered Kaguya at that point meant that Kaguya and Isshiki had arrived in the Shinobi World afterward.
Perhaps their purpose wasn’t only to plant the tree, but also included a mission to find the missing Otsutsuki.
What’s more, the Great Panda Sage’s Senjutsu was quite interesting too.
The way it required resonating with heaven, earth, and nature during cultivation was similar to Hamon.
Just now, while conversing with it, Genshin had noticed that the sage’s breathing—its inhalations and exhalations—carried a special rhythm, just like Hamon.
So Genshin could make a bold hypothesis: the Great Panda Sage’s Senjutsu was a form of Hamon!
The fact that, after cultivating Senjutsu to an extremely profound realm, the sage could see the future also lined up.
As far as Genshin knew, when Hamon was cultivated to a profound realm, one could indeed see far into the future—including the moment of another person’s death.
In the original work, Tonpetty, the leader of the Tibetan Hamon monks, could do exactly this.
He had precisely foreseen the manner and place of Will Anthonio Zeppeli’s death.
That said, it wasn’t as though the Shinobi World lacked beings capable of prophecy.
Among the three great holy lands was the Great Toad Sage, who could foresee the future through fragmented dreams.
But given its relationship with the Sage of Six Paths—and considering that the Sage of Six Paths’ spectral Chakra still existed somewhere in the Shinobi World—it was hard to say whether this was genuine foresight or the Sage of Six Paths sending dreams.
Genshin sighed.
There was still too little information… He’d only be able to figure out what was really going on once he trained in the Fallen Star Pool’s Senjutsu.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the flat ground in the distance, at the foot of the mountains beside a sea of bamboo.
Two enormous, sky-blotting balls of fluffy flesh, like two black-and-white mountains quietly coiled in place, lay prostrate and slumbering on the open ground at the mountain’s base.
Holy crap, what huge pandas!
“Pops!
Ma!
I’m home!”
These were A-Bao’s parents?!
Wait—now Genshin suddenly remembered that A-Bao had said earlier the sage had arranged for its parents to go find him.
The thought of two giant bears squatting in Konoha Village and summoning him, the Child of Destiny, to come out…
——Please, not that crooked-mouthed Dragon King kind of plotline!
The tiny A-Bao immediately bounced and sprang in front of the giant bears, puffed out its chest, and—still doing the hands-on-hips panda meme pose—introduced them to Genshin: “These are A-Bao’s pops and ma!
Impressive, right!”
It waved a paw with a totally slacker look on its face: “From now on, if you get into a fight or someone bullies you, just call for Pops and Ma.
A-Bao will be in charge of cheering you on!”
Seemingly having heard the voice of their cub, the two mountain-like pandas at the foot of the slope slowly stirred their bodies.
Their eyelids lifted the barest sliver, and their pitch-black eyes swept over Genshin’s figure.
Then they lazily raised their enormous bear paws, gave them a gentle little wave as a greeting, and promptly closed their eyes again, sinking back into a peaceful slumber.
Genshin: “…”
He felt like he now understood where A-Bao’s slacker attitude came from.
As A-Bao activated the Reverse Summoning Technique, the familiar sensation of spatial distortion once again wrapped around Genshin’s body.
As the wisps of smoke dispersed, the figures of one man and one bear instantly vanished from within the Fallen Star Pool’s secret realm.
That night.
After his bath, Genshin paid no mind to A-Bao, who was curiously rummaging through every drawer and chest in the room.
Arms spread wide, he leapt into a spread-eagle and flopped onto the bed.
His brain had been overworked today and simply couldn’t hold on any longer—it was going on strike.
Even if the sky came crashing down, that was a matter for tomorrow!
…
The next day, at the Senju Ancestral Compound’s training field.
“Wuhuu hahahaha—so cute!”
“A little thing like you was born just to be gobbled up by big sis, gucci-gucci-gucci—”
This was Shizune, who had been won over by A-Bao at first sight and was now clutching the constantly struggling A-Bao, huffing and sniffing it with heaving breaths.
After being battered by yesterday’s surreal deluge of information, seeing Shizune playing the comic-relief role as always, Genshin instantly felt an immense sense of relief.
He really had to say a big thank-you to Sis Shizune for this!
And now, standing before Genshin, was Tsunade with her arms crossed and a stern expression.
Just now Genshin had told Tsunade everything about his experience at the Fallen Star Pool, holding nothing back—but he hadn’t spoken the name “Otsutsuki” plainly.
At this juncture, the fewer people who knew that name, the better.
He worried that revealing it now would trigger a stress reaction in Black Zetsu, who was desperate to save his mother, causing uncontrollable changes to the plot later on.
Tsunade pondered for a long while, then spoke.
“You’re not making up a story?”
“I’m not.”
“You’re not lying to me?”
“No, Teacher.”
Tsunade sighed, lowered her head, and pressed both hands to her skull in agony.
“Why is it that every so often you have to spring some new bombshell on me, aaaghhh—”
“Do you have some kind of constitution that specifically attracts trouble, you little devil!”
Tsunade writhed miserably on the desk like a maggot.
Suddenly, the maggot—er, Tsunade—stopped.
“Forget it, come with me.”
“I’ll take you to see the Great Slug Sage.”
At that moment, A-Bao’s exasperated voice came from off to the side.
“That’s enough out of you, you female, aaaghhh—!”
Splat!
A furious, fur-bristling A-Bao left a bright-red paw-pad print on Shizune’s face, and she collapsed with a blissful pervert’s grin, blood trickling from her nose.
Yep, her voice and countenance live on in memory.
“Oh right, and you, you little thing—come along too.”
Tsunade grabbed A-Bao by the scruff of its neck, hoisted it up, and tossed it over to Genshin.
Genshin caught it in his arms, and Tsunade immediately activated the Reverse Summoning Technique.
“Shizune, I’m heading to Shikkotsu Forest for a bit.
Watch the house!”
Poof!
As the wisps of smoke dispersed, the whole group vanished from the training field.
…
Compared with the Fallen Star Pool, Shikkotsu Forest presented an entirely different scene.
Everywhere the eye could see were layer upon layer of emerald moss, softly blanketing the ground—stepping onto it was cushiony and silent, carrying the faintly damp, humid scent of grass and trees.
Thin mists lingered all around, and gentle, mild Natural Energy was everywhere.
Slugs large and small dwelt upon it, wriggling and crawling along, leaving trail after trail of slime in their wake.
A-Bao took one look at the slime-covered ground and shuddered all over, resolutely choosing not to let its own paw pads make contact—instead it leapt onto Genshin’s shoulder and let human labor do the traveling.
Just then, the ground trembled faintly, and the mild mist slowly parted to either side.
A colossal creature slowly appeared—an enormous slug, snow-white and glistening all over, its soft body sprawling out to cover heaven and earth, countless fine wrinkles unfurling.
Its massive form nearly took up the entire forest clearing.
This was none other than the ruler of Shikkotsu Forest, the Great Slug Sage.
Having met a sage before, this time Genshin was far more composed.
This body size… wasn’t it about the same as Hashirama’s True Several Thousand Hands?
He even had the leisure to mentally measure it up.
The Great Slug Sage’s gaze fell upon Tsunade, its tone soft and lilting.
“You’ve brought along a little one carrying such a nostalgic aura, little Tsunade.”
Ohhhh… That’s Mamiko Noto’s voice!
So lovely!
Its body was massive and looked incredibly oppressive, yet somehow its voice was this gentle and soft.
What do I do?
I’m starting to find even slugs handsome and easy on the eyes.
At this point Tsunade’s voice cut off Genshin’s wandering thoughts.
Her expression was stern, utterly lacking her usual casual carelessness: “Lord Slug, I have come today because there is something I wish to confirm with you.”
“Have you ever heard the name ‘Fallen Star Pool’?”
P.S.: Yukako Yamagishi in JoJo is also voiced by Sis Noto.
Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: DanMachi: