You can now gain access to advanced chapters on p@treon.com/The_Editor982
"Normal Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
[Year X785]
~ With Shisui, in Crocus ~
As Shisui continued his leisurely walk with a snack in hand, a memory hit him mid-bite—sharp and sudden. His shadow clone, dispatched days earlier to explore the vast regions of Fiore, had dispersed, sending its gathered information flooding back to him. He finished his snack in one bite, eyes unfocused for just a moment as his mind sorted through the influx of new memories, separating them from his own experiences.
He found a nearby bench and took a seat on it, before the world around him faded as the forest memories took precedence in his consciousness.
His clone had been moving through dense woodland, the kind where the trees stand so close together that the sunlight could only reach the ground in broken patterns. The air there was different—thicker somehow. The forest floor felt almost like walking on a living thing, each step met with a gentle give of moss and leaves.
It was during the third day of exploration that the clone had came across something unexpected. The trees suddenly gave way to a perfectly circular clearing, as if someone had used a giant cookie-cutter on the forest. At the center stood a house—if you could call it that.
The structure seemed to have been grown rather than been built, its walls formed from living wood that curved and flowed in ways that lumber simply couldn't. Vines crawled up its sides, not as invaders but as integral parts of the design. Windows of various shapes and sizes were scattered across its surface without any apparent pattern, and what appeared to be chimney sprouted branches with actual leaves.
The clone had approached cautiously, senses alert for any signs of danger. The clearing hummed with a strange energy that made the hairs on the back of its neck stand up. Not threatening, exactly, but decidedly not normal. It felt old, like standing in the presence of something that had witnessed decades pass by.
Just as the clone reached the edge of the clearing, its awareness picked up movement from the forest to the east—someone was approaching. In an instant, the clone had vanished from the open, melting into the shadows of a massive oak tree. Breath controlled, chakra suppressed, body perfectly still—techniques ingrained through years of ANBU training.
The approaching figure emerged from the trees—an elderly man who seemed to be part plant himself. His skin had the texture of bark, and small vines grew along his arms. He walked with a wooden staff that appeared freshly cut, yet sprouted green leaves. The clone watched, perfectly concealed, as the man walked directly across the clearing toward the strange house.
Then, without warning, the man stopped. His posture didn't change, but something in the air did—a shift so subtle that only someone with the clone's training could notice it.
"I know you're hiding there," the man said, his voice surprisingly strong for someone who appeared so ancient. He did not turn, did not even glance in the clone's direction. "Whoever you are, I suggest showing yourself before I take your actions as a hostile one towards me."
The clone's first instinct was to retreat—to disappear deeper into the forest and circle back once the strange tree-man had gone. It was the logical choice. Revealing oneself to an unknown entity of clearly significant power went against every principle of shinobi operations.
And yet...
Something stopped the clone—an intuition that did not come with tactical training, but with experience. Shisui had always possessed what his comrades called "unnervingly good instincts," an almost supernatural ability to sense when the handbook approach was wrong. Those instincts now screamed that running would be a mistake. That this encounter, unexpected as it was, might be important.
For three heartbeats, the clone remained frozen in indecision. The tree-man waited, patient as the forest itself, giving no indication that he would act aggressively but making it clear that he would not simply walk away.
The clone's hand hovered near the kunai concealed at its waist—a reflexive preparation for trouble. But another part of its programming—the part carrying Shisui's judgment—overrode the defensive response.
"I mean no harm," the clone called out, stepping from the shadows with deliberate movements that communicated non-aggression.
The tree-man turned then, his eyes a startling vibrant green that evaluated the clone. His face, weathered like old wood, cracked into a smile.
"I should hope not," he said, his tone suddenly lighter. "It would be terribly inconvenient to have to regrow this clearing if we had to fight. The trees here are just beginning to appreciate their arrangement."
The clone blinked, caught off-guard by the shift from warning to what seemed almost like humor.
"I'm simply exploring," the clone explained, maintaining a respectful distance. "I didn't realize this area was someone's home."
The tree-man studied him for a long moment, his gaze penetrating in a way that made the clone wonder if his disguise as an ordinary human was as effective as it should have been.
"Exploring, hmm? Well, explorer, I am Warrod Sequen. And you've wandered rather far from the typical paths." He gestured toward the house with his staff. "Since you've come all this way, perhaps you'd like some tea before you continue your... exploration?"
The invitation surprised the clone, but those same instincts that had prevented it from fleeing now suggested that accepting might be the wisest course. There was power here, but no sense of immediate threat.
"I would be honored," the clone had replied, following the man called Warrod Sequen toward the strange, living house.
Back in the tavern, Shisui blinks, returning to the present moment. The memories continue to unfold in his mind, but he had processed enough to understand the significance of what his clone encountered. Someone had detected him despite his stealth techniques—someone who could be connected to the very forest itself.
Someone worth knowing more about. Closing his eyes, Shisui took a deep breath before reviewing the memories once again.
~ Earlier with Shisui's clone ~
Inside, Warrod's home defied conventional architecture even more than its exterior suggested. Furniture sprouts directly from the floor—chairs with backs that resemble unfurling ferns, tables with surfaces smooth as polished stone but clearly made of living wood. Shisui sat across from Warrod at one such table, a cup of tea steaming before him, untouched. The silence between them was evident, neither uncomfortable nor comfortable, simply waiting to be broken like a surface of still water.
Shisui's senses remained on high alert despite the peaceful setting. Shisui may not have been an expert at detecting Ethernano, but the sheer pressure of Warrod's magical presence filled the room like an invisible fog. It reminded him of standing in the Third Hokage's office during moments of seriousness—that subtle weight of power held in careful check, the feeling that what you were perceiving was merely the tip of something vast and deep.
Yet it was different. The Third's chakra had felt like fire reduced to embers but ready to roar to life in an instant. Warrod's energy felt more like the forest itself—patient and calming, but capable of sudden and overwhelming growth. If Shisui had to place it, Warrod's strength seemed comparable to the Third Hokage—though not in his prime, but rather in his later years when he had aged.
Warrod's fingers, more like twigs than human fingers, tapped against the table's surface. A small flower bloomed where his index finger touched, white petals unfurling and reaching toward the sunlight streaming through a round window.
"So," Warrod finally broke the silence, "what brings a young man with your particular... talents... to my secluded corner of the woods?" His eyes fixed on Shisui with an intensity that betrayed his otherwise relaxed demeanor. "There are no towns nearby, no job postings that would bring a mage this way."
Shisui took a careful sip of the tea, buying time to consider his response. It tasted of honey and mint, with undertones of something unfamiliar but pleasant.
"I'm not a mage," he said truthfully. "Just a traveler. I like to explore places off the beaten path."
"Just a traveler," Warrod repeated, amusement crinkling the bark-like texture of his face. "One who moves without disturbing a single twig and suppresses his presence so completely that even the birds would not notice him. Interesting skills for 'just a traveler.'"
Shisui offered a modest smile. "Just some things I picked up during my travels. The world can be dangerous. Learning to move quietly has saved my life more than once."
"Indeed it can, and indeed it has, I'd wager." Warrod leaned back, his chair seeming to reshape itself to better accommodate him. "And where has your quiet traveling taken you before you found your way to my doorstep?"
Here was the question that Shisui had been anticipating. The clone's heart rate increased slightly, though nothing in his external demeanor changed. The reality was that he had been nowhere in this world except parts of Fiore. A month was not long enough to explore beyond the kingdom, especially when much of that time was spent simply learning how this world functioned.
"Many places," he answered, mind racing through his actual experiences in his own world, translating them into something that would make sense here. "I've always had a restless spirit."
"Such as?" Warrod pressed, but his tone remains conversational, genuinely curious rather than suspicious.
Shisui set down his teacup, composing the narrative carefully. "There's a peninsula to the far east where the mist is so thick you can scoop it up like water. The people there build their homes on stilts that rise above the mist, and they navigate by the sound of bells placed at important locations." He was describing the Land of Water without naming it, the memory of a mission there years ago still vivid.
Warrod's eyebrows raised with interest. "I've not heard of such a place in Ishgar."
~ End of Chapter 05 ~