God Damn It, Kyuubi!

The legends are not all lies you know

Note: Did I promise OP Kakashi in this update? Whoops, I guess the plotbunnies overrode his appearance. Next chapter we might have Obito waking up to the human disaster named Hatake Kakashi.
And hopefully Kaguya's POV too if I can fit it in.

  -★-

The creation of shinobi was the first story that was taught to shinobi children.
A history told as old wives' tales—dismissed by the civilians yet held dear by the shinobi—a reminder of their origins and roots.
It started when a star fell onto the Earth.

From the star, grew a tree so powerful it has a will of its own and power so coveted by the humans.

However, any humans that braved the task to conquer the tree never made it back. They were consumed alive, becoming a part of the tree, enslaved for eternity.

So many warriors had tried to conquer the tree, but they all failed.

It wasn't long before the greed to conquer the tree morphed to fear of the divine. Humanity hailed the tree as a divine power. They set up a shrine for the tree and offered offerings in the form of human sacrifice to appease the tree.

It took a century later for the practice to stop as a goddess graced the Earth with her presence, declaring herself as the guardian of the divine tree.

She was the embodiment of peace—divine and powerful, yet so gentle and serene. The goddess longed for peace among Earthlings. She humbly wandered the Earth, attempting to resolve conflicts between humans. She yearned for peace, gracing the humanity with her prowess in her journey to stop blood from keep spilling into the Earth. She made friends with the mortals, extending a helping hand to those in need, lashing her divine power to those who hurt others and accepting young orphans as her companions in her mission for peace.

But human's greed was a powerful tool.

The human plotted and planned to conquer the goddess—eyeing her beloved companions and her human husband as their targets—completely unaware that their plot would lead to their own demise.

The greed-driven plot was successful. The goddess lost her companions to the deceitful plot. She didn't even have time to grieve as she was hunted by the man she loved—the father of her unborn child—and was framed for the crime that she didn't commit.

She was framed as the murderer of her own companions.

Anguished and angered, she committed an act that changed the whole history of mankind.

She ate the fruit of the divine tree and became the sole ruler of the Earth.

Legends have it that she enslaved all humans as a part of the tree, stopping the wars and conflicts altogether as mankind became a part of the divine tree. Her heart grew colder as the years went on—the longing of absolute peace for her children has distorted her, turning the once gentle goddess to a cold cruel empress of the world.

The tale of her cruel rule was passed on in so many versions, yet the gist was the same.

She enslaved mankind as the sustenance for the divine tree and enforced absolute control over the few selected humans that she freed from the enslavement.

She chose the candidates from a diverse group of humans that passed her judgement.

These were the humans who would be less likely to start conflicts. Thus, she freed them to ensure that mankind would not go extinct.

The first batch she freed would later be known as the ancestors of all civilians. They were not held within the tree for long—only for a few decades—thus, when they were freed, they didn't change and remain like the human they once were. They possessed no chakra and were not bestowed with the gifts that the later groups would be given.