Ōtsutsuki Yuren tried to resist.
But he found that he couldn't even move...
The moment the Sage of Six Paths acted, the Konoha villagers around them continued going about their business as usual, seemingly unable to perceive this isolated corner...
The Sage of Six Paths was still merciful enough to leave Ōtsutsuki Yuren just enough strength to lift his head beneath the sole of his shoe. Gasping heavily, Yuren shouted, "Who the hell are you?!"
"I am..."
The Sage of Six Paths paused.
He couldn't exactly say he was the Sage of Six Paths, could he?
No matter how he looked at it, that would amount to bullying someone far beneath him. It would be far too unfair...
"My name is 'Tobirama.' I am a forerunner who came to the shinobi world to verify the will of Ancestor Hamura and the Sage of Six Paths..."
Without a change in expression, the Sage of Six Paths continued, "I am deeply disappointed in you descendants! I already know what happened on the moon..."
"Slaughtering your own kin—is that how you interpret Ancestor Hamura's will?"
"Open your eyes and take a good look!"
"Tell me. Is this shinobi world right or wrong?"
As people grew older, they generally became gentler and more even-tempered, and the Sage of Six Paths was no exception.
But more than anything, he had simply learned to restrain himself while contemplating how the shinobi world might develop peacefully...
Back when he was young, once his temper flared, even facing Kaguya in her complete Ten-Tails jinchūriki state wouldn't stop him from throwing himself straight into battle without a second thought...
And once they started fighting, they fought for months. Not a single word was exchanged the entire time. It was nothing but pure combat!
Strictly speaking, the Uchiha's battle-loving genes hadn't been inherited from Indra.
They came from the Sage of Six Paths himself...
Of course, the Sage of Six Paths hadn't acted this time because he had overheard Yuren badmouthing him right in front of his stall. He simply didn't want the people of Konoha getting hurt...
If the enemy had been part of the shinobi world, the Sage of Six Paths wouldn't have helped Konoha. That was the kind of problem the village needed to face on its own...
He had always been reluctant to interfere too much in the shinobi world.
But when it came to Hamura's descendants—visitors from the moon—the Sage of Six Paths felt that a tiny bit of intervention was still warranted...
Besides, if this caused an incident and turned the last of Hamura's bloodline against Konoha, his younger brother's lineage could very easily die out...
Therefore, the Sage of Six Paths decided this didn't count as interfering in the shinobi world.
He was merely dealing with a family matter...
As for why he had chosen the name "Tobirama"...
The Sage of Six Paths regularly browsed the shinobi forums and sat in on Hokage meetings. You could say he'd learned to follow local customs...
Besides, borrowing someone else's name could cause trouble for them, so he couldn't just pick anyone.
Tobirama, however, clearly didn't have to worry about that. So many things had already been pinned on him that one more wouldn't make much difference...
Yuren barely managed to lift his head, only to find himself staring at the sole of the Sage's shoe.
'You aren't exactly letting me look!'
Even so, Yuren was shocked by Konoha...
He had seen the unmanned puppet system developed on the moon using the Giant Tenseigan, something they had always taken immense pride in, appearing throughout Konoha on a massive scale...
"Impossible!"
Yuren craned his neck, disbelief filling his eyes. "It wasn't like this the last time I looked! How did this village become like this?!"
The last time Yuren had observed the shinobi world through the Giant Tenseigan, more than a decade ago, had happened to be during the Second Shinobi World War. He therefore had a basic understanding of the wars in the shinobi world and the level of infrastructure in its various villages...
Because of his bloodline, his perception of time was duller than that of ordinary shinobi, making Konoha's transformation—and that of the shinobi world as a whole—even more astonishing to him...
"The shinobi world created by the Sage of Six Paths was wrong from the very beginning!"
"Every time I observed the shinobi world, I saw war after war without end! Even after you created these so-called 'villages,' shinobi never stopped killing one another..."
"Why did this happen? Why?!"
Even pinned to the ground, Ōtsutsuki Yuren—the man who had fought the main family almost to extinction over whether the Sage of Six Paths had been right—couldn't accept such a dramatic turn of events...
The Sage of Six Paths gave Yuren a surprised glance.
Well...
If pinning his head down had been enough to make Yuren drop to his knees and beg for mercy, the Sage would instead have thought this descendant of Hamura was an embarrassment and not worth talking to...
However, faced with Yuren's question, even the Sage of Six Paths couldn't immediately come up with a good answer.
This particular subject was well outside his area of expertise.
"Father, are you all right?"
The eyeless Ōtsutsuki Toneri spoke anxiously.
"Tobirama-sama, please don't kill my father..."
"Kid, tell me the truth. Do you think the main and branch families slaughtering each other on the moon was right?"
The Sage of Six Paths glanced at Toneri's fairly handsome features and nodded thoughtfully.
After all, the shinobi world was something he and Hamura had protected together...
Yet the Senju and Uchiha were thriving in Konoha while the Hyūga lacked enough exceptional bloodlines.
That was clearly unfair...
If the shinobi world eventually achieved a grand reconciliation, what would people think of him then?
Someone might even start spreading rumors about him!
He might unquestionably be the elder brother, but he still had to look after his younger brother and his descendants...
Having the entire lineage wiped out would look terrible.
"I actually think it's wrong. We're all family. Why can't everyone just sit down and talk things through...?"
Toneri hadn't yet been led astray by his father Yuren. For now, he was still just an innocent boy.
He simply didn't want to see bloodshed...
"Toneri, what are you—"
Yuren had barely begun to scold his son when the shoe planted on his head suddenly pressed down harder, forcing the rest of his words back down his throat.
A lot of people loved talking about what they had been like in their younger days...
But the Sage of Six Paths never wanted to discuss his own youth.
It had been far too bloody and brutal.
So why did people always insist on forcing his hand?
The Sage of Six Paths sighed, dodged Yuren's head as he tried to attack the sole of his shoe, then brushed a finger across Toneri's empty eye sockets.
A beautiful pair of eyes immediately appeared within them...
Their purity wasn't particularly high, but they were genuine Byakugan nonetheless.
Toneri's eyes opened wide as he eagerly and excitedly swept his gaze over everything around him...
The excitement of a blind person suddenly gaining sight was almost impossible to put into words.
"Father, isn't this place even better than the future you told me about?"
Toneri drew a deep breath and spoke earnestly.
According to Yuren's plan, Toneri would awaken the Tenseigan in the future, reset the corrupted shinobi world, and transform it into a pure world...
But the very first sight Toneri saw in Konoha was already far more prosperous than the future world Yuren had described to him.
There wasn't much that could be done about that. After spending far too long on the remote and impoverished moon, Yuren's imagination had become rather limited. His vision always came back to the same idyllic world of birdsong and blooming flowers...
There was simply no comparison with Konoha, the center of the entire shinobi world.
Besides, even if you wanted that sort of pastoral atmosphere, Konoha had plenty of that too...
"Don't say anything in a moment."
The Sage of Six Paths suddenly sensed something and said in a low voice, "Someone is coming who can answer your question!"
Toneri and Yuren's archaic clothing instantly transformed into the sort of ordinary clothes worn throughout the Land of Fire.
Father and son were now dressed in simple cloth garments, looking like people from out of town who had come to Konoha to stay with relatives...
The genjutsu was released, and the flow of time within the area returned to normal.
Because Hiruzen was approaching...
The Sage of Six Paths sometimes found this successor of his mysterious as well.
Despite the Sage's constant guidance and training, Hiruzen's talent was astonishingly good...
He wasn't a direct descendant of Kaguya, yet he had overcome obstacle after obstacle, independently developed a rudimentary version of the Kekkei Mōra, and was still continuing to perfect it...
Since the Third Shinobi World War, the Sage of Six Paths had even noticed a faint trace of an Ōtsutsuki presence around Hiruzen—stronger than the one coming from Yuren...
But the Sage of Six Paths hadn't investigated Hiruzen any further.
Because no one understood Fūinjutsu better than he did.
Hiruzen had turned his own body into a living seal, practically closed off without a single leak.
His level of Fūinjutsu still wasn't the highest, and it might not be enough to block the Sage of Six Paths if he truly used the power of the Pure Land to observe him...
But if the Sage forcibly pried into him, Hiruzen would definitely notice...
And that would ruin everything!
It would make it look as though he were interfering with the natural development of the shinobi world...
Indra's example had taught the Sage of Six Paths that doing such a thing would sow the seeds of future disaster.
You could say Hiruzen was the one enjoying the shade from the tree Indra had planted...
In the distance.
Hiruzen approached from the direction of the Valley of the End, holding Naruto's hand in one hand and Sasuke's in the other...
Hiruzen had gone to the Valley of the End to work on the Death Gate of the Eight Gates when he discovered that the two little brats, Sasuke and Naruto, were already fighting each other there...
They had even damaged Hashirama and Madara's statues!
They were still young, but neither of them had held back much. They had even started throwing around all kinds of advanced ninjutsu!
"You two brats, if you want to fight, go somewhere else..."
Hiruzen put on a stern expression as he addressed the dejected Sasuke and Naruto.
"The Valley of the End symbolizes reconciliation now. Didn't you see Hashirama-sama and Uchiha Madara standing opposite each other, forming the Seal of Reconciliation?"
"Yes, Third-ojiichan..."
Sasuke lowered his head.
"It's all Naruto's fault! He complains every single day about how annoying his engagement is. I've heard it so many times my ears are about to fall off, so I couldn't help trying to shut him up..."
"Huh? Aren't you my best friend, Sasuke?! What's wrong with listening to me complain a little...?"
Naruto protested unhappily.
"Can't you understand how I feel? I've never even met that girl named Hinata, and my mom and dad already arranged my marriage to her..."
"That's not fair!"
"Third-ojiichan, I know it was wrong for me to damage Hashirama-sama and Madara-sama's statues..."
"But you're the best! Can't you help me and get my mom and dad to cancel the engagement? I think arranged marriages between kids violate the Will of Fire. I want freedom..."
Naruto grinned, wrapped himself around Hiruzen's leg, and rubbed against him pleadingly.
Hiruzen stared at him in surprise.
Compared with the Naruto from the alternate timeline, the Naruto here had grown up with parents, companions, and friends. So although he was still cheerful and warmhearted, he was also considerably more outgoing...
He was also very articulate. At his age, he was already capable of talking about things like the Will of Fire and freedom...
"Hinata, huh?"
Hiruzen thought about it.
He understood what had happened...
Ever since Nagato had received transplanted Byakugan, Orochimaru had discovered that combining Uzumaki and Hyūga bloodlines seemed to produce a rather interesting synergy...
So after Tenzō and Minato discussed it, both for the talent of their grandchildren's generation and to ensure the Uzumaki bloodline could continue and flourish...
Kushina and Minato had arranged Naruto's marriage while he was still very young.
His partner was Hinata, the daughter of Hyūga Hiashi.
Naruto, however, was clearly very unhappy about it.
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