Why the hell is something as filthy as the Sage of Six Paths inside my body?
Was he some kind of Child of Prophecy?
That made no sense.
Everything Yako had—every bloodline, every power—had been granted by the system.
What did any of it have to do with the Sage of Six Paths?
So why… was he inside him?
In the next instant, Yako narrowed his eyes.
A chill ran through his heart.
His body—
Was changing beyond his control.
The Uchiha bloodline cells in his eyes drove him to stare fixedly at the Sage of Six Paths.
He wanted to look away.
He couldn't.
The Senju bloodline in his muscles compelled him to slowly walk toward the Sage.
He wanted to stop.
He couldn't.
And beyond Senju and Uchiha—
The countless fragments of other bloodline cells scattered throughout his body—
All seemed to come alive.
A cold feeling rose in Yako's chest.
If he had truly inherited the Sage's bloodline naturally, he could have accepted it.
At worst, it would just mean some ancient ancestor had something to say.
But he hadn't.
He was a civilian.
Every drop of bloodline power in his body had been given to him by the system.
This feeling—
Of being possessed.
Of being controlled.
It was disgusting.
Even dead for a thousand years, the Sage of Six Paths still influenced the world through bloodline cells.
In the original story, he had granted Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha Six Paths Yang Release and Yin Release the same way—
Through bloodline resonance.
The Sage's soul and chakra flowed on through countless descendants.
At this moment—
Worshiping the Sage of Six Paths was Yako's biological instinct.
But Yako refused.
The power of the Wrathful King exploded forth.
A blood-red, three-headed, six-armed Trailokyavijaya Myōō Avatar manifested around him!
The fifty cycles of life and death granted by the system had made the Conqueror of the Three Worlds overwhelmingly powerful—
It was now his greatest trump card.
The Sage of Six Paths was visibly startled.
Some force that transcended life and death suppressed the power of bloodline instinct.
Yako's steps stopped.
He regained control of his body.
The Sharingan that had activated automatically upon seeing the Sage—
He forcibly shut it down.
The bulging muscles across his body relaxed under his own will.
Within him—
Only the Wrathful King power born from fifty cycles of reincarnation remained.
The Sage of Six Paths floated in the distance, looking at Yako with astonishment.
His aged voice echoed through the endless void, sending ripples across the shallow water beneath them.
"The third person to surpass the limits of shinobi, after Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, has appeared.
Your bloodline is absurdly complex.
Senju. Uzumaki. Uchiha. Hyūga… and more.
Unbelievable.
How did you accomplish this?
Experimentation? Transplantation?
Yet another bloody method by which ordinary people seek power?
A man capable of changing the shinobi world—
And yet you are neither a descendant of Asura…
Nor of Indra.
So tell me—
Who are you?"
Yako immediately understood something.
The Sage of Six Paths clearly didn't like him very much.
Of course—
Naruto and Sasuke were his descendants, so naturally he treated them well.
But Yako?
A man who had acquired Six Paths-related bloodline power through unnatural means?
That was another matter entirely.
As long as the Sage's bloodline existed inside him—
The moment Yako broke past his limits—
It would inevitably awaken the Sage's chakra and soul lurking within those cells.
This is basically possession disguised as inheritance, Yako thought.
Separated by the crimson Wrathful King avatar, Yako looked at the Sage.
The Sage appeared entirely red through his eyes.
Whether that was the Sage's killing intent—
Or Yako's own hostility—
Or both—
He couldn't tell.
The two remained silent for several minutes.
The mental space was utterly still.
Then the Sage of Six Paths finally said:
"I am an ancient man who died long ago.
My name is Hagoromo.
I founded Ninshū.
I am the embodiment of peace and order.
In order to create hope, I established Ninshū—"
"Stop."
Yako cut him off.
The Wrathful King's hideous, furious faces glared at the Sage.
"The hope you speak of is only your version of hope.
In reality, there was never any hope.
Surely you don't actually think this world still has hope, do you?
And the order you speak of?
That's only your idea of order.
In reality, there has never been order.
Do you know how many people have died meaningless deaths over the last thousand years?
You don't need to give me some long-winded self-introduction.
Just tell me—
What exactly do you want?"
The Sage of Six Paths fell silent.
If the person before him had been the reincarnation of Asura or Indra—
He could have easily influenced them through bloodline resonance.
But Yako was clearly on guard against him.
That blood-red avatar surrounding him—
So different from the Sage's own power—
Left Hagoromo with no obvious way in.
Yako studied him coldly.
In Yako's eyes—
Chakra itself was neither good nor evil.
It was just a tool.
The conflict within the Ōtsutsuki lineage had utterly destabilized the world's foundational order.
Kaguya.
Black Zetsu.
Indra.
Asura.
All of them had been catalysts for disaster, one after another.
Even the Sage of Six Paths himself—
Along with all these beings who should have remained dead—
Continued to drift through the shinobi world like ghosts, perpetuating catastrophe.
At that moment, Yako reached a conclusion.
Who among the Ōtsutsuki was good or evil—
Didn't matter.
What mattered was this:
There should be no Ōtsutsuki at all.
Chakra needed to return to being what it should have always been—
A tool.
No different from a shovel or a walking cane.
Not something monopolized by one monstrous family, repeatedly dragging the world into bloodshed and chaos.
Sensing Yako's hostility, the Sage of Six Paths said:
"Yako, I understand that my sudden appearance must be unsettling to you.
But I am not your enemy.
My mother, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya—
She is your enemy.
She is the enemy of all shinobi.
If she revives, the God Tree will use its roots to connect every person on earth—
And all people will become living slaves, reduced to chakra sources.
You possess my bloodline, and your bloodline power is extraordinarily strong.
That is why my soul took notice of you.
I hope you will work with me—
To guide the Child of Prophecy—
And permanently resolve the threat of the God Tree."
Yako did not say what he was truly thinking.
There was no point arguing with the Sage of Six Paths.
A man on that level, with that kind of will—
Did not survive for a thousand years as a lingering soul by being easily persuaded.
Debate would be useless.
Whatever the Sage wanted didn't matter.
What mattered—
Was a world without the Sage of Six Paths.
A world returned to ordinary people.
A world where chakra was simply a tool.
That was Yako's ideal.
He suddenly recalled the scene from the original story where Frog Kata had worked against Six Paths Obito.
That was when something clicked.
Pure chakra alone could never truly defeat the Ōtsutsuki.
Because chakra, in the end—
Belonged to the Ōtsutsuki in the first place.
Trying to defeat the Ōtsutsuki using chakra was like trying to outplay the inventor with his own invention.
Even the strongest ninjutsu would be absorbed by Six Paths-level techniques or Truth-Seeking Balls.
If one wanted to truly oppose the Ōtsutsuki—
One had to find something else.
Something beyond the Six Paths system.
And the shinobi world still possessed other traditions.
The Uzumaki clan's Shinigami.
The evil god behind Hidan.
Natural energy and Sage Arts from the Three Great Sacred Lands.
The Buddhist-infused techniques of the Fire Temple.
Among all of them—
The Sage Arts of the Three Sacred Lands were by far the most mature.
If he could master those now—
He would immediately gain the ability to threaten Six Paths-level beings.
And beyond that—
Taijutsu, the oldest and most direct form of physical force, could also threaten the Ōtsutsuki.
Yako's future path was now clear.
He would seek out, research, and develop alternate systems of power—
Non-Six Paths power—
And use them to completely eradicate the Ōtsutsuki from the shinobi world.
Only then would the world truly be clean.
Once he had sorted out his future path, Yako relaxed.
Then—
He started acting.
He pretended to be interested in the Sage's mention of the Child of Prophecy and said:
"So that's something I can understand.
You said I should guide the Child of Prophecy?
That sounds suspiciously similar to all the nonsense Jiraiya keeps shouting about.
I heard he's been wandering the world for years searching for this so-called Child of Prophecy."
The Sage of Six Paths immediately reacted.
"So there are others searching for the Child of Prophecy besides me?
Then the one you speak of must be following Gamamaru's guidance.
Gamamaru was my teacher in Sage Arts.
He is a long-lived toad.
Like me, he has waited for the appearance of the Child of Prophecy—
A person who may prevent this world from falling into ruin."
Yako waited until the Sage finished, then asked in a drifting, curious tone:
"If it's related to the things Jiraiya has been chasing…
Then maybe I am a little interested.
Sage of Six Paths—
What exactly am I supposed to do?
How do I guide the Child of Prophecy?"
The Sage replied:
"You already share a deep connection with the Child of Prophecy.
When the time comes—
You will naturally help him.
And when the Child of Prophecy needs me—
I will appear again."
With that—
The Sage of Six Paths' soul vanished.
Yako was pulled out of the mental world.
The so-called mastermind behind the curtain…
Clearly didn't trust him much.
Yako had originally intended to keep acting.
To play the role of a loyal supporter of the Ōtsutsuki cause in front of Hagoromo.
But the Sage hadn't given him the chance.
The Wrathful King avatar smashed the tree in front of him with one furious punch.
The world needed a brutal medicine.
A violent cure.
Ordinary people in the shinobi world needed the means to fight back against these invading Ōtsutsuki monsters.
The Sage of Six Paths had spent over a thousand years meddling in the world—
And what had he accomplished?
Did he even understand the role he was playing?
The shinobi world had only grown more desperate under his "guidance."
In Konoha alone, nine out of ten shinobi were varying degrees of mentally broken.
After killing so many people—
What shinobi could still truly be called a good person?
And outside Konoha—
It was even worse.
Death and plunder everywhere.
In many ways, Konoha was only loved because people had seen how much more miserable life outside it could be.
A sage who shaped the world?
If Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo could do it—
Then why couldn't Yako?