A dozen seconds later, a smile appeared on Shinju's face. "Got it!"
As his words fell, Shinju connected his left eye to another dimension, instantly opening a circular spatial gate!!
As this strange doorway appeared, Sasuke lifted his foot, intending to step inside and see what was going on.
Shinju reached out in time to stop him.
"I'll go in first and take a look. It might be something Kaguya Ōtsutsuki left behind. Could be dangerous."
After saying that, Shinju stepped inside first…
...
At the bottom of the lava cave, Shikamaru and Sasuke waited anxiously.
Shikamaru casually picked a topic.
"Has Shinju still not decided what to name his left eye?"
Sasuke: "With his terrible naming sense, what good name could he come up with… Reincarnation Samsara Eye does fit pretty well, but the name's way too long."
Shikamaru: "That eye of his was really beautiful when it awakened… I actually thought of a good name…"
Sasuke: "So what is it? Pretty Eye? Shiny Eye?"
Shikamaru: (ー_ー)!!
With Sasuke like this, how does he even have the nerve to say Shinju is bad at naming…
"I'm not telling you."
...
A few dozen seconds later.
Shinju's hand reached out from the spatial gate, beckoning to Sasuke and Shikamaru outside, signaling that they could come in now.
Receiving Shinju's signal, the two slowly walked into the spatial gate…
The space shifted from dark and cramped to wide and dimly lit!
Once they fully entered, a vast plain appeared before them!
However, although the place was open, it felt gloomy and lifeless. There wasn't even a single blade of grass on the ground…
At this moment, Shinju stood beside them and explained,
"I can sense traces of Kaguya's remaining chakra here. This space was probably created by her…"
As he spoke, Shinju raised his hand and pointed ahead. "Kaguya might have lived over there. (•̀⌄•́)"
Sasuke and Shikamaru followed the direction of his finger and saw a towering building!
The structure resembled a church, and in front of it stood two massive statues. Because of the distance, their faces couldn't be seen clearly!
Soon, the group arrived in front of the shrine and finally saw the statues' faces.
Sasuke: "I thought these two statues would be Kaguya's sons, Hagoromo and Hamura, but they don't look like them at all…"
Shinju chuckled beside him.
"Maybe that's just what they looked like when they were young. ( ˙º˙)╯︎"
Shikamaru: "We really shouldn't casually discuss sages like this…"
At that point, Shikamaru suddenly felt that something was off…
He had heard that during the Fourth Great War, Shinju had even talked back to the Sage to his face. Talking behind his back probably wasn't a big deal either! (≖╻≖;)
Sasuke: "Even if people look very different when they're young versus old, the Sage of Six Paths' horns were definitely not this big, not this exaggerated…"
As he spoke, Sasuke gestured. On these statues, the horns were even longer than their heads!
Shinju didn't keep arguing the point and started thinking instead.
"I've seen both the Sage of Six Paths and Ōtsutsuki Hamura. They only had small fleshy horns, but Kaguya definitely had horns… So could these horns be a symbol of the pure Ōtsutsuki clan? (⊙o⊙)"
"Let's go inside and take a look," Shikamaru suggested.
Just like when entering the other dimension, Shinju pushed the door open first. Only after confirming it was safe did he call Sasuke and Shikamaru in…
Soon, they entered the ruined main hall.
The hall was in complete disrepair, covered in a thick layer of dust!
Shikamaru coughed twice from the dust. "If this place was really built by Kaguya, then this hall must have existed for thousands of years…"
Sasuke pointed at the huge hole in the roof.
"Put that way, having a giant hole up there actually makes sense. -(￢∀￢)σ"
Shinju ignored the two of them and began searching the hall for any useful information…
He first looked at the statue placed inside the hall. It wasn't much different from the two outside, just even uglier…
However, when Shinju looked at the statue's base, he noticed a strange bulge!
He reached out and touched it, discovering that it was actually a scroll. Because it had been left there for so long, it was covered in thick dust, making it look like a small mound of dirt.
"Whoosh!"
Shinju spread the scroll open and carefully examined its contents!
Hearing the movement, Sasuke and Shikamaru came over as well.
Just like that, the three of them studied the scroll covered in strange writing for several minutes!
In the end, they reached a conclusion: they couldn't understand it at all!! (ー_ー)!!
Shikamaru: "This script doesn't belong to any country on the continent. It might be exclusive to the Ōtsutsuki clan?"
Shinju nodded. "That makes sense. This scroll is the only useful thing in the entire hall. It might record some important information. Let's take it back and have the Code Analysis Division take a good look at it… (Ծ‸ Ծ)"
After that, the three of them searched this other dimension for a long time. Aside from the scroll, they found nothing else of value.
So, after leaving behind a Flying Thunder God kunai, Shinju took Shikamaru and Sasuke back to Konoha!
...
Konoha.
Code Analysis Division.
Shinju brought the scroll to the head of the Code Analysis Division and asked, "Can you find a way to decipher the information on this scroll?"
After glancing at the contents, the division head looked troubled.
"I've never seen this kind of cipher before… Hokage-sama, I can't guarantee anything with this. Please give me some time…"
Shinju nodded helplessly.
In the blink of an eye, a week passed.
During that week, Shinju almost asked about the progress of the scroll's deciphering every single day, but no good news ever came from the Code Analysis Division.
After Shinju urged them again, the division head spread his hands, his face full of helplessness.
"Hokage-sama, I know you're anxious, but you also said this scroll might have been left by Kaguya. We really can't find any clue on how to decode it…〒_〒"
"If we had someone from the Ōtsutsuki clan to help, it might speed things up…"
The division head's words were originally meant to make Shinju understand how difficult their work was.
But after hearing this, Shinju's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of something incredible!
"That's right! Someone from the Ōtsutsuki clan—how did I not think of that! ( ˝ᗢ̈˝ )"
...
Outside Konoha.
Sasuke, Naruto, Killer B, and Yugito looked at Shinju with curiosity.
Naruto: "Shinju, why did you call all of us here?"
Yugito looked excited. "Shinju, did you call them here to be witnesses to our relationship?! (´つヮ⊂︎)"
Shinju didn't answer their questions. Instead, he formed hand seals and used the Summoning Technique!
"Bang!!"
Smoke billowed!
The One-Tail, Three-Tails, Four-Tails, Five-Tails, Six-Tails, and Seven-Tails appeared on the scene!
After doing all that, Shinju said, "According to what the Sage of Six Paths said, to make him appear, we need the chakra of Indra, Asura, and the Nine-Tails… I was worried the Nine-Tails' chakra alone wouldn't be enough, so I gathered all the tailed beasts."
"Next, try letting your chakras converge and see if we can summon that old Six Paths guy! ( •̀∀•́ )"
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