Chapter 279: A Gift from the Sage of the Six Paths
Am I actually getting old?
For a moment, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki felt something almost like the weariness of age settle over him.
A thousand years of stillness, and somewhere along the way he seemed to have forgotten what it meant to actually fight.
But the Great Toad Sage was dead now. There was nothing left to say about it.
Hagoromo looked down at Sakura, still wearing that defiant smile as she looked back up at him, and found he wasn't angry.
As far as he was concerned, even with the Great Toad Sage's body destroyed, that was only the death of the flesh.
His soul would pass on to the Pure Land. Same as any shinobi.
The destruction of the body wasn't true death. Only the loss of the soul was true death.
And he already understood the full shape of what had happened here — the prophecy the Great Toad Sage had spoken of, he understood that too.
The prophecy was worth taking seriously, the same as it had been a thousand years ago.
But Hagoromo held to a simple principle: someone who hadn't yet done wrong wasn't yet a villain.
Would a person err at some point in the future? Perhaps. But did that justify destroying them now, before it happened?
She was innocent, as she stood now.
And the prophecy itself had never stated with certainty that she would err.
As far as Hagoromo was concerned, the Great Toad Sage's real flaw had always been his conviction that he was infallible.
"Won't you talk with me?"
Watching the pink-haired woman visibly readying herself to leave, Hagoromo spoke, calm.
Sakura glanced back at the old man, a thoughtful gleam in her eyes.
This one's relationship with the Great Toad Sage doesn't seem nearly as close as I assumed.
"Talk about what?"
"You're not here to avenge that toad, are you?"
She eyed the old man now floating in front of her, wary.
"Everything about this was already decided before it began."
"The moment the Great Toad Sage chose to bring you here to Mount Myōboku, this outcome was already set."
Hagoromo shook his head lightly — but seeing the girl's brow tighten at that, he rephrased it.
"I'm not here to avenge him."
At that, her expression eased slightly.
"What do you want to talk about, then?"
Sakura asked.
Below, a white-clad figure watched the two of them locked in place high above, not daring to look away for even an instant, the sleeping Mirai cradled in her arms.
Yuki.
Or — to be more precise —
Matatabi, the Two-Tails.
"Old man..."
Matatabi stared up at that achingly familiar figure in the sky, tears glinting in her eyes.
How many years has it been.
How many years.
She was finally seeing this old man again. The one she could call, without exaggeration, her father.
Hagoromo noticed her gaze and let out a sigh.
"Let's go down and talk."
Sakura's brow furrowed slightly, but she agreed.
As the two of them descended, Matatabi could no longer hold back her emotions — she wanted to throw herself into Hagoromo's arms. But glancing down at the body she currently occupied, and the sleeping human child in Sakura's arms, she forced the impulse down.
"Old man."
Matatabi swallowed the surge of feeling and simply stood there, crying quietly.
Sakura glanced at her a beat longer than necessary — after all, this was a face wearing Yuki's features while crying like this.
Didn't expect that irritable cat to have a side like this.
"It's been a long time, Matatabi."
Hagoromo reached out and gently patted Yuki's head, his voice warm — which only made her crying grow harder.
"So. What is it?"
Sakura took the sleeping Mirai from Yuki's arms, sat down on the ground, and looked at this display of fatherly affection with open curiosity.
"All right, that's enough crying. I still have business to attend to."
Once he'd settled Matatabi somewhat, Hagoromo sat across from Sakura, his expression mild.
"You know of my existence. Do you also know of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki?"
Sakura glanced at him, and rather than answering directly, said:
"Talk. I'm listening."
Taking that as his cue, Hagoromo began recounting the story of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, piece by piece.
"A thousand years ago..."
As time slipped by, Hagoromo laid out the entire history of Kaguya — and not just Kaguya, but the whole of the Ōtsutsuki clan, down to the finest detail.
Matatabi listened, mind reeling.
She'd already known that tailed beasts, when combined with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, could form the Ten-Tails.
But she hadn't known there were a whole line of beings like the Ten-Tails — the Ōtsutsuki.
That the Ten-Tails, in fact, was little more than a tool the Ōtsutsuki clan had built.
It wasn't just Matatabi who was stunned. Even Yuki herself, hearing all this, was left speechless.
"So."
"What is it you want from me?"
Sakura's expression didn't shift as she looked at Hagoromo.
"You're exceptional. There are ways in which even I fall short of you."
Hagoromo said, looking at her.
"Even I, born into an environment like Konoha, with nothing but an ordinary mortal body — I'm not certain I could have reached your level."
"I might have managed it eventually. But it would have taken me decades."
He studied the young woman before him carefully.
Just as Yomi — the one Sakura had already defeated — had said.
She was a variable. An anomaly.
What is a soul?
A soul is spiritual force.
And what is spiritual force?
Yin Release.
Thinking back to what he'd just witnessed from Inner Sakura, Hagoromo found himself struck by the thought.
Sixteen years old, and already commanding Yin Release of that magnitude.
And her own self-protective instincts had produced a second, independent personality, simply because the Yin Release inside her was too powerful to contain in one.
Even if she died right now, that Yin Release alone would be enough to let her linger on in the world.
Assuming, of course, there was no Pure Land waiting to receive her.
The Pure Land existed precisely to keep beings like that — the dead who refused to fully leave the world — in check.
Even Hagoromo had to admit: this one had a future ahead of her, vast enough to matter.
"You didn't call me down here just to compliment me, did you?"
Sakura eyed the Sage of the Six Paths, suspicious.
"The threat the Ōtsutsuki clan poses concerns every living thing on this planet."
"And you're not alone in this world. You have a sister. Parents. Companions. You're the Hokage of Konoha."
"I think you understand what I'm telling you."
Hagoromo's words were direct, and their meaning needed no further explanation.
If you want to protect the people around you, you'll have no choice but to stand against — and if necessary, defeat, and kill — the Ōtsutsuki clan.
"It's been a thousand years since my mother's arrival."
"I believe it won't be much longer before the Ōtsutsuki return to this world once more."
Sakura glanced down at Mirai, shifting slightly against her, her expression calm.
There was nothing left to say, really.
Her goal, from the very start, had always been to reach the very top of everything.
Which meant the Ōtsutsuki were never something she could avoid.
"When the so-called Ōtsutsuki show up, just say the word."
Sakura shook her head, already turning to leave.
"Naturally. When that day comes, it will be the moment every living creature on this planet sets aside its grudges and stands together against a common enemy."
Hagoromo held both hands out, palms up, in front of her.
On his left palm, a black crescent-moon pattern. On his right, a white sun-disc pattern.
Yin. Yang.
The power of Yin, and the power of Yang.
"You cultivate both Yin Release and Yang Release."
"With these two forces added to what you already have, I believe you could achieve true Yin-Yang Release."
Hagoromo watched her, calm.
Sakura narrowed her eyes at the patterns glowing in his palms.
As someone who'd spent years cultivating both Yin and Yang Release herself, she recognized the terrifying power contained within them instantly.
Power beyond anything she currently possessed.
Yang's power, given to Naruto. Yin's power, given to Sasuke.
In the original story, those two Children of Prophecy had used exactly this gift to utterly overwhelm Madara Uchiha even after he'd achieved his own Six Paths form.
Which meant, by extension, that the so-called Six Paths Madara had never truly been a match for the man standing in front of her now.
His defeat had been sealed from the very beginning. A gift handed down to two ordinary shinobi had been enough to crush a Six Paths-level being outright.
And that told her exactly what kind of existence she was looking at right now.
Six Paths-level.
If she accepted this power, she could step into Six Paths-level herself. On the spot.
No effort required. No exhausting struggle to grow stronger by inches, scraping together every possible advantage.
All she had to do was accept him.
Every obstacle standing in her way, anywhere in the shinobi world, would crumble to dust before power like that.
All she had to do was accept him.
Every voice of opposition would fall silent.
All she had to do was accept him.
The threshold to Six Paths-level power — she could simply step across it.
But—
If she accepted these two forces...
Everything she'd fought and struggled and bled for up to this point would become, in the face of that Yin-Yang power, faintly ridiculous.
No matter how hard she'd worked, how far she'd pushed herself — this man in front of her could hand her the same result, effortlessly, on a whim.
That feeling...
Was genuinely unpleasant.
Like she'd be nothing more than a clown for having tried at all.
"Are you trying to tell me everything I've done doesn't matter?"
Sakura raised her head to look at the old man.
"You may not understand what these two forces actually represent."
Hagoromo said, calm.
"With them, there would be nothing left in this shinobi world capable of standing in your way."
"And your understanding of Yin and Yang Release would deepen beyond anything you currently have."
Sakura listened to all of it without reacting.
"I can already do everything I want to do without this Yin-Yang power."
"I don't need it."
"I just want to stay... pure."
Stay pure...
Hagoromo looked at her, thoughtful.
But given that answer, he had nothing further to say. He drew both hands back, under the eager, hopeful gaze of Matatabi the whole time.
Old man, if the pink-haired one doesn't want it, give it to ME!
"I suppose I got ahead of myself."
The Sage of the Six Paths nodded slightly.
Given her temperament, refusing the Yin-Yang power wasn't entirely unexpected.
"In that case — you won't refuse this gift, will you?"
He said, and produced a small orb of light from seemingly nowhere.
"What's this?"
Sakura's brow furrowed slightly.
"Every scrap of knowledge on Yang Release and Yin Release accumulated across the shinobi world over the past thousand years. It also contains my own insights, and those of my brother Hamura, on Yin-Yang Release."
"If you intend to walk your own path, I believe this will be of use to you."
Having actually spoken with her directly now, Hagoromo understood exactly what kind of person she was.
She was carving out a path that belonged to no one but herself.
Any external gift that could make someone stronger instantly, effortlessly — to most people, that would be a treasure beyond price.
To this one, it was nothing more than an unremarkable weed on the roadside.
What she needed had never been raw power. It was method. A way forward.
Take what was useful, fold it into what she already was, and forge it into something that belonged, entirely, to Sakura Haruno.
Her path was unknown, even to him. Only she would ever know how hard the road ahead really was.
But Hagoromo found himself, unexpectedly, curious.
Curious just how far someone like this could go.
Stubborn to the bone. Or maybe—
Mulish?
For some reason, the thought nearly made him laugh.
Sakura studied him for a moment, and this time, rather than refuse, she spoke seriously.
"In that case — aside from anything involving the Ōtsutsuki clan, consider it a debt I owe you."
Standing against the Ōtsutsuki was already part of what she owed the world regardless — meaning, beyond that, she'd grant him one favor in return.
"No need for that."
"I never expected to gain anything from you in the first place."
Hagoromo shook his head, and the orb of light in his hand drifted toward Sakura's forehead.
As the light sank into her mind, countless streams of text unfolded inside her head — knowledge on Yang Release, Yin Release, and even Yin-Yang Release, converging and settling into a quiet corner of her consciousness.
Whenever she wanted it, she'd only need to reach for it.
She wasn't worried he meant her harm.
If Hagoromo had actually wanted to kill her, he could have simply come in person — his true, Six Paths-level self could crush her with one hand. There would have been no need for any of this elaborate exchange.
"Whether you use it is your business."
"I've given my word, and I don't go back on it."
"Whether you want to make use of it — that's up to you."
Sakura stood, Mirai still in her arms. This business was finished.
She was ready to leave. She had other things to attend to.
"In that case, I'll take you at your word."
Hagoromo looked at the young woman before him without saying anything further. His body dissolved into white flame, dissipating bit by bit — he, too, was leaving.
"Old man..."
Matatabi watched him fading away completely, her expression complicated.
"Matatabi. Tell the tailed beasts—"
"Do as you see fit. I won't interfere."
With those words, the last trace of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki vanished from the world entirely.
"What are you looking at? Time to go."
Sakura glanced at Matatabi, Mirai still asleep in her arms.
Matatabi bared her teeth at the pink-haired woman, hackles half-raised on instinct — but remembering how much the old man clearly valued her, she swallowed the impulse.
She promptly handed control of the body back to Yuki. As for the pink-haired woman herself, Matatabi decided the wisest course of action was simply to retreat.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Sakura glanced back once at the wreckage that had once been Mount Myōboku, her eyes betraying nothing at all, and vanished in a puff of white smoke.
Yuki followed close behind.
She'd come to Mount Myōboku today for one purpose from the very start: to kill.
She hadn't expected, on top of that, to walk away with a thousand years of accumulated knowledge on Yang Release, Yin Release, and Yin-Yang Release from Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki himself.
And with that, the road ahead of her seemed, all at once, a great deal clearer.
(End of chapter.)
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