Chapter 758: Concluding Remarks

Afterword

This is where the main storyline ends.

Originally, I was thinking of writing until Naruto and the others grew up, but after careful thought, I felt there was too little content to write.

Ultimately, I decided to stop after the fight with Otsutsuki, and write the remaining content as side stories—that would be easier to write and easier to write well.

Here, Xiaoju wants to share some heartfelt words.

First, I want to thank the readers who have been following along and those who have subscribed.

Because this book's early performance was really quite poor, it almost made Xiaoju give up writing.

The book Xiaoju wrote as a junior (The Night of the Nine-Tails) managed to get on Sanjiang, but this book, which Xiaoju thought was a step up in skill and better in content, couldn't even get on Sanjiang.

Xiaoju almost thought he had forgotten how to write, that it was just pure self-satisfaction.

Fortunately, with the support of my brothers, this book that never made Sanjiang fought its way up, and at its peak, it was only a few dozen average subscriptions away from 20,000.

This kind of achievement is quite rare among fan works, and Xiaoju is very satisfied.

However, although the results exceeded expectations, Xiaoju still has some regrets about this book.

This book is the first book Xiaoju has written that exceeds three million words. For a newcomer like Xiaoju, that's really a lot—this one book is longer than the previous two combined.

Due to a lack of experience in writing long serials, many problems appeared along the way.

There are three that stand out most in Xiaoju's memory.

The Rain Country Ninja Teacher plot, the fight against Uchiha Madara, and the parallel world Fourth Great Ninja War.

The Rain Country is a major plot that runs through the main storyline and plays a very important role in this book, but due to various complicated reasons, it didn't achieve the effect Xiaoju wanted.

There are many reasons, but in my opinion, they mainly come down to two issues.

First, the protagonist's character design; second, the lack of writing experience in this area, which led to hollow content and a lack of tension.

To go into detail on the latter would take thousands of words, so let me talk about the character design issue.

At the very beginning, I imagined Muyue as just a graduate who understood human relationships well, without any particular ambition. Having traveled alone to another world, he would feel fear and loneliness, and thus become a selfish person with not much emotion.

But as the protagonist of a Xiaoju story that loves happy reunions, could Muyue stay that way?

Obviously, no.

In the plot I designed, Muyue's initial contact with his disciples was just because he coveted the rewards they brought—he wanted to farm rewards and coins to get stronger and survive.

But during their interactions, the sincere feelings of his disciples moved Muyue, his mindset gradually changed, and he genuinely wanted to protect these disciples.

Mutual redemption—that was the theme I set for the disciples and the protagonist.

Muyue changes the tragic lives of his disciples, while the disciples use their sincerity to heal a lonely traveler who had almost closed himself off.

Although Xiaoju felt the idea was good, actually writing it out was full of difficulties.

In the early part, because the protagonist acted purely for profit, many people commented that he wasn't fit to be a teacher, that he was too selfish. Or that he was too dark.

This was the first time Xiaoju's protagonist got criticized, and he was completely bewildered. Combined with the poor results at the time, Xiaoju could only try to minimize this aspect of characterization.

This then led to mistakes in the character's transformation, and problems followed in the Rain Country Ninja Teacher plot.

In Xiaoju's outline, Muyue's change in mindset is very important. After completing the mutual redemption with his disciples, Muyue no longer views the ninja world through the eyes of a traveler, no longer looks down on it as an outsider.

Such a Muyue can then more deeply feel the cruelty of the ninja world, recall the education he received, recall the great people he respected, and finally decide to change the ninja world and bring it peace.

One mistake led to another, causing the Rain Country Ninja Teacher arc to drop the ball. And since this was an important plot running through the main storyline, Xiaoju could only delete as much of the Rain Country content as possible to maintain readability.

It's precisely for this reason that Xiaoju has always had the idea of writing a side story about Muyue without a cheat system, to flesh out Muyue's character more.

Instead of just being the disciples' old grandpa, an emotionless mission machine, and a camera.

The fight against Uchiha Madara—the problem wasn't as serious as the Ninja Teacher arc. It just wasn't as good, not that it was bad.

The reason it left such a deep impression is that Uchiha Madara is the core boss of the main world, built up for a long time, but was killed off in a mere 27,000 words.

Many readers said it was too hasty, that he died too easily, that the content wasn't rich enough, and that the emotions weren't fully released.

After thinking it over, Xiaoju agreed—the content could have been richer.

The reason for this, aside from writing issues, is actually that I'm easily influenced by comments.

When most comments say to kill off the villain quickly, Xiaoju also subconsciously speeds up the pace.

This has both pros and cons. The advantage is that it's easy to know what readers want to see; the disadvantage is that it's easy to run into problems, after all, readers aren't professional authors, and not sticking to one's own ideas can lead to misjudgment.

Hopefully, in the future, Xiaoju can become an author who both takes in opinions and stands firm in their own ideas.

As for the parallel world Fourth War, in my opinion, it's a regret on par with the Rain Country Ninja Division, or even greater.

Unlike the Rain Country Ninja Division which runs through the main plotline, the original intention of the parallel world Fourth War was just to have fun, to enjoy beating up bosses that weren't defeated, offering more flexibility.

Also, unlike the Rain Country storyline which was criticized from the start, the parallel world had a good beginning—everyone praised it as more interesting than expected, so it's fair to call it a high start.

But because Xiaoju's mental state was poor at the time, coupled with not carefully checking the previously written outline, a major issue that Xiaoju hadn't anticipated appeared, ultimately turning a high start into a low finish.

The biggest conflict in the existing parallel world mainly lies in the protagonist's strength.

If the protagonist arrives together with Obito and the others, then Six Paths Obito and Six Paths Madara won't even appear—they'd all be dealt with in no time.

But in the outline, the whole point of coming to the parallel world was to fight bosses that don't exist in the main world, like Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and Six Paths Madara.

So the protagonist could only show up at the very end, or else the outline would be trashed directly.

If it were just a matter of rewriting the outline, Xiaoju would be willing to spend more effort, but the problem is that when Xiaoju realized this, the parallel world's progress was already close to one-third, making major revisions impossible.

Xiaoju had no choice but to grit their teeth and keep writing.

Back then, every day after finishing a chapter, when Xiaoju opened it to check the comments, they had to spend over twenty minutes building up the courage to tap open the page.

At that time, with poor mental resilience, Xiaoju really wanted to uninstall both Qidian and Writer's Assistant.

But not reading the comments was also out of the question—since there were already problems, writing blindly would only make things worse.

After finishing the parallel world, Xiaoju thought a lot, mostly about how to write a Fourth War that was more fun and satisfying.

In the end, Xiaoju felt that maybe it would be better not to include those Six Paths-level characters.

Because the battles were too intense, the characters couldn't even chat.

But this was the scene of a brutal war—you can't just call a timeout mid-war for a chat, can you?

If given another chance, Xiaoju would focus on the interactions between characters like the two Obitos and the two Kakashis (young and adult).

As for the bosses, if they don't get fought, so be it—it's not really that meaningful anyway, and it's not worth sacrificing the story just to fight a boss.

Additionally, although the main story is finished, this book isn't over yet. Next, Xiaoju will write some side stories.

Aside from side stories that supplement the main plot, there will also be side stories independent of the main plot. Here's a rough list.

Side stories:

1. An IF timeline where Mu Yue has no system.

This time, Mu Yue has no cheat. Will he still cross paths with Obito and the others, and what actions will he take?

2. Obito travels to the original world.

Obito wakes up one day and suddenly finds himself transported alone to a parallel world.

"Since this parallel world has no Immortal Mu Yue, then I'll become the Immortal Mu Yue here!"

3. An IF timeline where Mu Yue is killed through underhanded means.

For unknown reasons, Mu Yue dies in battle against Uchiha Madara, and Rin Nohara is taken away by Uchiha Madara.

The disciples' ideals gradually diverge, eventually going their separate ways.

Some are willing to go to any lengths to revive Mu Yue and return to the good times, while others believe they should carry on Mu Yue's will and move forward with his hopes.

(Will not return to the original timeline)

4. Supplementary side stories to the main plot.

These are more numerous and varied, covering the future lives of the main cast as well as content about the next generation like Naruto and Sasuke growing up.

Basically all the side stories Xiaoju has mentioned before will be written.

If anyone has interesting ideas or wants to see a particular side story, feel free to leave a comment. Xiaoju will selectively take them into consideration.