"I originally thought that if that guy Yagura said all those pretty words but refused to send someone from the conservative faction forward to become the Jinchuriki, I would have to properly reason with them. In the end, not only did that guy take the lead and step forward to accept the responsibility of becoming the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, he even grabbed hold of the places where I was being a little too wishful and attacked me without any courtesy. Truly… I ended up being taught a lesson in reverse."
Under moonlight as clear as water, Rei sat inside a cave covered everywhere in corrosion marks.
While bathing in the cold moonlight spilling down through the "skylight" that had been smashed open by violence, he said this to the Six-Tails, Saiken, who was hiding inside the cave and blowing bubbles.
"So, you came here preparing to vent your anger on me?"
The Six-Tails, Saiken, leaned its body against the severely corroded mountain wall that it could smash apart with just a light push. It looked warily at the uninvited guest before it.
"Why say it like that? If I did not even have the capacity to admit my own mistakes, then those conservatives who still follow all kinds of ideas from the Third Mizukage's era would have been purged by me long ago. How could they still get the chance to embarrass me in a public jonin meeting?"
Rei casually grabbed a small stone and threw it toward Saiken.
The enormous Six-Tails slug did not dodge. It relied only on the acidic gas floating around it to corrode the small stone completely.
Then it raised its head and spoke to Rei in a tone that carried audible confusion.
"Since you know you can do that, why not do it? For you humans, if you cannot find a way to solve a problem, directly solving the person who raised the problem is also a very common method, right? Those annoying former Mizukage of Kirigakure did that quite often."
"That is why, in their hands, Kirigakure could only remain a power clinging to this overseas land of the Land of Water, unable to rise or fall."
Rei jumped down from where he sat.
His figure flickered only slightly before he appeared atop Saiken's head, which was constantly secreting acid.
Saiken, who had long witnessed Rei's inhuman strength, was not stupid enough to resist head-on. It merely twisted its head unhappily, expressing its dissatisfaction toward Rei as he continued speaking.
"If I merely wanted to become the king standing at the highest point of this land, watching people prostrate themselves before me with unwilling gazes and listening to them praise my achievements through gritted teeth, then directly solving those who raised objections would indeed be the simplest and easiest method…"
"But I passed the age where I imagined myself as the enemy of the world and felt my blood boil because of it long ago. Now, I would rather unite the overwhelming majority of people in the world around me, then laugh without restraint together with them at those whose souls are bound by rotten, backward thoughts."
"And if I want to accomplish that, I cannot only think about solving the people who raise problems."
After listening to Rei's words, Saiken gurgled and spat out a few bubbles. It responded without much emotional fluctuation.
"Oh. Then work hard. As long as you guarantee that your subordinates will not come bother me in the future, I will not casually attack the human towns under your rule either."
"Is there any need to be so uncooperative, Saiken?"
Rei patted the other party's soft and elastic feeler and said casually, "I thought you might be willing to provide me with some help when I conquer this land."
"Unless you become my Jinchuriki, I do not want to be sealed inside any other shinobi."
Saiken sprayed out a mouthful of highly acidic mist, and its entire body began secreting acid even stronger than Mei Terumi's.
"If you become my Jinchuriki, then at least I will accept my loss wholeheartedly… But your answer will definitely be no, right, Rei Kaguya?"
"If you were the Nine-Tails, I could consider becoming your Jinchuriki."
Rei honestly told Saiken why he did not want to do it.
"But your strength is quite a bit weaker than the Nine-Tails, Saiken. Even if I became your Jinchuriki, you would not be able to improve my strength much. Would that not be a pure waste of resources?"
"I truly apologize that my strength is inferior to the Nine-Tails."
Saiken snorted angrily. It was very displeased as it smashed the nearby mountain wall with its tail.
"Don't be so angry, Saiken…"
Rei comfortingly patted Saiken's smooth, springy head. Then his tone shifted, and he asked with great curiosity, "But now that we are on the topic, back then, all nine of you Tailed Beasts were sealed inside the Sage of Six Paths. In theory, your relationship with that old man should not have had any difference in closeness, right?"
"What are you asking this for?"
Saiken asked back somewhat warily.
"Pure curiosity, obviously."
Rei waved his hand and continued questioning with a serious expression.
"If the relationship between you nine Tailed Beasts and the Sage of Six Paths was the same, then when he divided the Ten-Tails' power among you, logically, he should have distributed that power equally to each Tailed Beast, right? Why would there be a situation where the power of the Nine-Tails alone is far stronger than any other Tailed Beast?"
"Could it really be like the ancient book I found guessed? When the Sage of Six Paths distributed power to all of you, he did it according to the method of 'one share to the One-Tails, one share to the Nine-Tails; one share to the Two-Tails, one share to the Nine-Tails… one share to the Eight-Tails, one share to the Nine-Tails'?"
"…I do not know. I have never thought about that question."
Although Saiken stubbornly said this, judging from the way it suddenly spoke as though something had stuck in its throat, Rei knew his question had truly struck the Six-Tails' heart and made it seriously start thinking about it.
Why?
They were all chakra divided from the Ten-Tails.
They had all followed the Sage of Six Paths until the end of his life.
There should not have been any reason for one to receive more of the Sage of Six Paths' favor than the others.
But if the Sage of Six Paths' love for them did not differ, then why, after they were separated from his body, did the power between them differ so much? Why were some strong and some weak?
Saiken could not help sinking into deep confusion.
Rei, meanwhile, looked toward the starry sky outside the "skylight" while Saiken doubted its beastly life and slowly exhaled.
It was already late summer of Konoha Year 50.
According to the original timeline, it was almost time for the protagonist of this story, Naruto Uzumaki, to be born and for the entire course of the world's history to change because of the arrival of this Child of Prophecy.
But because of Rei's appearance and activity, some things that happened before Naruto Uzumaki's birth had already undergone considerable changes.
For example, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki had both been stabbed clean through the abdomen by him during the Third Shinobi World War. Although Konoha's medical ninjutsu was indeed the best in the world at this stage, it was hard to say whether those injuries would affect the couple's success rate in making a child…
Furthermore, because he had killed Danzo Shimura early, destroyed the organization that handled Konoha's dirtiest work, directly or indirectly caused a series of incidents such as Orochimaru's early defection and the Uchiha clan's repeated petitions regarding Shisui Uchiha, and established a terrifying enemy close at hand for Konoha, Minato Namikaze's work schedule, according to Kirigakure spies, had already become so busy that he only returned home once after a very long time.
Under such circumstances, whether that husband and wife had the time and energy to make a child was also an unknown.
"Naruto Uzumaki… I wonder, under the influence of so many changes, whether you can still be born on schedule. And will the Nine-Tails' attack that changed the trajectory of your life still happen as it originally did?"
"If all of those things change… will you still be the reincarnation of Asura chosen by the Sage of Six Paths?"
Amid Saiken's self-doubting mutters, Rei thought this to himself with a faint smile hanging at the corner of his mouth that no one could understand.
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