Interlude: The Sage Of Six Paths, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki

The smallest of ripples can have the largest of changes. What was once a tiny wave can build, grow, and devour fate itself. Indeed, even your path was once unknown, inconsequential. You could have lived as the prince of a mindless kingdom. Yet... you and your brother chose another path. A better path.

Thus, your tiny ripples exploded into a massive crescendo that swallowed your mother whole. The waves did not stop there, however. They continued to rise, changing the world itself. You travelled the land, met a number of interesting individuals, found a wife that would eventually birth two sons and later on, you had another set of "children."

You won't forget those that came after. The nine. As much of your family as any other.

Alas, even you could not control the rippling waves that eventually surged into a raging whirlpool. You dreamed of a world engulfed in peace. The world, however, did not make that easy.

Oh, Indra... I'm sorry...

Even though your body and soul were spread over the world as you died, you could feel all that transpired. Of the treachery, of the violence, of the war.

The world was consumed by hatred, yet you knew things would change. Surrounded by nothingness- feeling nothing and being nothing you blissfully recalled your life. Even as time stretched out to infinity, you question if there was anything else you could have done. Your mother was mad- a truly alien mind. Your words did not reach her, as much as you wished that they did.

How much different could things have turned out if she simply listened?

Even after all this time, can you say that you love her?

...

Heh. Is there even a need to ask?

Your soul breathes in, soaking in the world's ethereal winds. The cycle goes on. You left everything to your sons and their souls continue to hold the banner. Even after what happened, you can't help but smile at that. Smile? Ah... how you miss that. It's the little things that truly get to you.

At times you feel despair's wretched fingers coiling around your ankle, you remember all that came before. This state of half existence isn't so bad. The world moves on and you move with it. Perhaps one day you'll be able to scrounge up what remains of your existence and manage to speak to those below.

Yes.

That'd be just grand...

...

...

...

A nudge, followed by a knock. Something scrapes against the boundaries between your world and... well, you can't quite describe it. Not the realm of the dead, but something else.

The gentle knocking erupts into harsh strikes. Cracks begin to weave themselves into the very fabric of existence.

Each strike carries more power. One. Two. Three. And then, on the fourth, the walls shatter like a common window.

A single, minuscule light slips through the world's oozing wound. It whizzes past you and falls to the world below, forming tiny ripples as it drops.

Though the gaping hole in space, you see a massive, golden eye. It follows the glittering light until it finally flickers and fades. Then, the eye turns its attention on you.

Oh...

Primordial fear shakes your very soul. You stare into the eye, finding naught but your own reflection.

Hollow.

How long do you lock gazes with the creature? A few seconds? A few hours? An eternity? You know not, but the entirety of your being is focused on it. Should you look away, you fear there will be nothing left. You will be swallowed whole.

Wait... nothing? You are nothing. How could nothing be le-

The wounded walls slowly sow themselves shut. You refuse to look away. Even as the walls close in around the eye, shunting it out of your world- you refuse.

Don't look away. Never look away.

And then, all is still. All is normal.

Truly... you have the worst of luck when it comes to alien intelligence. Eventually, the fear fades and you gaze down at the world.

Ripples become waves. Waves become a storm. And the raging storm of change moves the world.

"Oh? Curious..."

Truly... interesting...