133 -=Choice=-

-=- Time

"Time... sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse" A deep ancient voice said

the figure of the toad sage appeared in the cave, his eyes empty, seemingly looking at something that was not physically in front of him

true to his own words, this very toad has seen so many futures that you couldn't even count how many anymore

From his very first prophecy, he has seen many, many world ending futures, at one point he discovered that when he told exactly what he has seen, those results seemed almost guaranteed

He could still move, contrary to what most thought, but chose not to, knowing that even something small like this, can have unforgiving consequences for the future

Naruto? Sasuke? he has seen those two reincarnations millions upon millions of times, fighting, killing each other, conquering the world, or ending themselves because of guilt, it all mattered little to him, but recently something changed

strangely, he could see less and less of the future recently, only ever seeing a choice and a consequence of that, which intrigued him, in over a thousand years, this has never happened, he even predicted most of the events of the Otsutsuki clan, in more than 20 years from now

there was only one possibility... Someone could also see the future and was using this to their personal benefit

something silly, he thought, this gift was not meant for personal gains, he knows such, for he was once as careless as this other person

the question still remained, who was this person? he had no idea

remembering his previous visions, he felt a chill go down his spine

he recalled calling Jiraya and telling him about something in this vision, only to be immediately killed right after, together with every single toad as well

following how his visions have been working recently, he could guess that telling Jiraya something was the action that brought the destruction of his clan

he was weirdly calm with this, for the solution was as simple as not calling Jiraya there

speaking of Jiraya he wondered, which of his possible futures would come true? would he find the kid of prophecy and bring peace to the world, would he die a stupid death, or die of old age, for those where the futures he saw for him... doesn't matter

Speaking of the child of prophecy, that bullshit he once told Jiraya to achieve a better future, he wondered, calling him here would have the same consequences as calling Jiraya, but leaving him as he is currently, seemed even worse since Kaguya would probably win in that scenario, such a difficult choice between his clan and the world, if there was no choice, he would choose the world above his clan, but... the point was, there was a chance

in most of the futures he saw, that kid tried to make a contract with the monkeys, not having success... could he change that? surely he could... but... would that bring destruction to the monkey clan instead? such a question was what he was currently looking into the future for

after a long time, his eyes regained clarity, his vision ended, he called for some toads nearby and gave an order

"Call in one of our favors with the monkey clan, ask them to accept Uzumaki Naruto as a summoner" He said

indeed, this action had a 50-50 chance of destroying the monkey clan, but it was for the greater good

it has always been

it will always be

unfortunately for him, time was but a concept, and this concept was easily controlled by special skill, like [Time] that has been in someone's possession ever since his visions got blurry

truly, something intriguing, no?

-=- Snak

hidden deep inside the ground of the Elemental Nations, there was a base

Orochimaru's new base, while it was technically Obito's base, Orochimaru took control of it

when the masked idiot he knew appeared in front of him, he thought that the Akatsuki finally had decided to hunt him for betraying them, but that was not the case

it was... amusing, to say the least, to see that idiot pretend to be all high and mighty, saying that he killed Pain and whatnot and was now in command of the Akatsuki

he showed one rinnegan as proof and asked Orochimaru to join him, to which he agreed since there was no harm in doing so

"I will only warn you once, don't try anything funny" Obito said, trying to be intimidating

"Kufufufu... You think I am ssssstupid?" Orochimaru answered

he was in the Akatsuki previously, and he noticed that the 'Pain' he tried to take the rinnegan of waa but a mere puppet, and seeing the effects of forcefully transplanting a dojutsu, he deduced that this was not pain's rinnegan, and now, not Obito's as well, so they are actually incapable of properly using this eyes

though, there was one thing whort his time on this deal, because Obito was acting on his own, Black Zetsu knew he was incapable of finishing his plan, and since he knew that one rinnegan was far from enough to beat Rimuru, he decided to give the other one, which Rimuru threw away, to Orochimaru in exchange of him bringing Madara back

the idea was simple, bring Madara back, gather the bijuus and use him to bring Kaguya back, then it mattered little how strong Rimuru was, his mother could beat him easily

... Do we tell him, or...?

"Interessssting..." Orochimaru licked his own lips weirdly as he got his hands on the Rinnegan, it was obviously a bet on Zetsu's part, but what could he do? even worse is that he knew that even both Orochimaru, Obito, and maybe even Madara may not be enough to beat that damn Rimuru

But then, if the rinnegan alone isn't enough, then he just needs another dojutsu as strong as it

He thought of the Tenseigan, from his 'Not quite brother' Hamura... he didn't like the idea, as with both a rinnegan and a tenseigan Kaguya could be sealed again, but he put his bets on being able to manipulate either one of those dojutsu users into losing their eyes if worst came to be...

A target to awake it was a harsh thing to find, but he had time on his side

at least he thought he had

His worse fear was that Rimuru would go after the bijuus, but thankfully he didn't seem to be doing it... thankfully