"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 196: Gan, I'm Here to Negotiate
Using White Zetsu's senses as an extension, Yūshin indirectly manipulated the Sage of Six Paths' corpse, thereby temporarily gaining the power of the Rinnegan.
These eyes were truly miraculous. The moment he controlled them, countless pieces of information flooded into White Zetsu's mind, allowing Yūshin to peruse through it all... It was like reading the Rinnegan's user manual.
Indeed, there was a reason the Sage of Six Paths was called the "Sage of the Six Paths."
The reason lay in Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo's mastery of the Six Paths Power. So what exactly was this Six Paths Power? Simply put, all the abilities that Nagato wielded as the "Six Paths of Pain" could be used by the Sage's Rinnegan.
These abilities were merely the Sage of Six Paths' "standard configuration"—as for those "optional" high-tier abilities, Yūshin couldn't even fully comprehend them... Fortunately, he didn't need those abilities; what he needed were precisely these standard features.
The Sage of Six Paths was born with the Rinnegan, born with innate knowledge of it. This knowledge stored in his brain saved Yūshin considerable time.
At this moment, Yūshin felt like he was piloting a "Gundam"—he was in the "cockpit ready, feeling good" state.
The world would slip from the Sage of Six Paths' control for only one to two months. Yūshin's time was limited, so he had to race against the clock to begin his work.
But just as he was about to pull out scroll after scroll from behind him, his movements suddenly froze... A chakra signature was rapidly approaching at high speed.
"Tch, an uninvited guest."
Time was already scarce, yet someone still came to cause trouble. Yūshin instinctively felt a surge of irritation.
He took several deep breaths, instinctively suppressing this emotion and striving to restore his calm and rationality... There was no use being hasty—regardless, things had to be done step by step.
Having cultivated his mind and character for so many years, Yūshin's self-control was beyond question, naturally reaching extraordinary heights. Thus he "refreshed" his state and, with crystal-clear awareness, moved forward to meet the enemy.
Shortly after leaving the cave, Yūshin intercepted Indra, who was rushing toward him at high speed.
In this world, aside from Yūshin, only Indra still needed the Rinnegan... Or rather, it was Black Zetsu behind Indra who needed the Rinnegan.
Indra had been manipulated by Black Zetsu, yet remained unaware—his intelligence level was no different from Uchiha Madara's.
At this very moment, it was the perfect opportunity for Black Zetsu to heroically rescue his mother. Missing this chance, who knew when the next would come?
However, Yūshin absolutely could not hand over the Rinnegan.
"Gan, step aside. I need to see my father... I sensed his chakra has dissipated."
Indra remained as he always was—just looking at him made one feel disgusted... Yūshin was preparing to work, so he had every right to dislike anyone who disturbed his labor.
Yūshin thought to himself: Did you really sense it yourself? Do you have any self-awareness?
"My apologies, but the Sage entrusted his final affairs to me. According to his last wishes, you have no right to approach his body... You don't even have the qualifications to inherit the Ninja Sect, do you?"
For people like Indra, Yūshin understood all too well how to apply the right stimulus to make their minds crash further.
These words instantly made Indra grit his teeth. His inability to inherit the Ninja Sect had always been his chronic ailment—he believed his younger brother was inferior to him in every way, yet their father chose his brother as successor. This was utterly unfair.
"People should have self-awareness. I am one who inherited the Six Paths bloodline—I advise you not to court disaster."
Indra teetered on the edge of losing control, yet surprisingly hadn't exploded.
"Self-awareness? I have it. Six Paths blood? I have it too, and mine is even purer than yours."
At this moment, Yūshin had absolutely no desire to compare strength with Indra—he truly had no mood for battle... Fighting? He hadn't fought in years.
Not because the Sage of Six Paths' mind-cultivating "Ninja Sect Chakra Taijiquan" had taken effect, but because Yūshin had more important matters to attend to. He had no spare time to waste on combat.
So...
As Yūshin's words fell, a tall, gaunt figure walked step by step, slowly yet steadily, to his side.
"Father, aren't you already..."
Indra was instantly stunned. The Sage of Six Paths' appearance immediately crushed his arrogance into the dirt.
What should he do next? Indra momentarily lost his composure.
Surely it wouldn't become a scene of "commoner Zhu Yuanzhang paying respects to Emperor Yongle"—that would be too absurd.
However, after Indra's shock-induced stress response, he displayed the Uchiha's traditional talent: the more agitated his emotions, the higher his intelligence rose. He noticed this Sage of Six Paths seemed somewhat wooden.
"Gan, what have you done to my father's remains? Do you think such a puppet can frighten me?"
"Puppet?"
At this time, Yūshin's chakra quality was equivalent to the God Tree's chakra quality. What he lacked was merely chakra scale, yet he didn't want to engage Indra in a protracted battle.
As he spoke, Yūshin activated the Rinnegan with his own chakra.
The "Sage of Six Paths" extended his left arm, opening his palm toward Indra:
"Banshō Ten'in" (Universal Pull)
A black-hole-like... no, sun-like... no, planetary-level...
Well, an irresistible gravitational force instantly applied itself to Indra, pulling him uncontrollably toward Yūshin.
After drawing him over, the "Sage of Six Paths" pressed his wrist downward, instantly changing the force applied to Indra and slamming him ninety degrees into the bedrock.
BOOM!
After a meteor-impact-like thunderous crash, Indra's body was embedded in the rock layers.
Who am I, where am I, what happened?
Had Indra suffered much since childhood?
That was truly fatherly love like a mountain.
So this was Indra's first time experiencing the Rinnegan's power with his own body—he was left somewhat dazed after just one exchange.
Rinnegan and Rinnegan are different. The Sage of Six Paths' eyes were born from his Ōtsutsuki mother after consuming the Chakra Fruit.
In comparison, Uchiha Madara's Rinnegan? Just Asura's power plus Indra's power, and that after being inherited through over 180 generations. Were they even the same concept?
Indra, embedded in the crater, had no time to savor the fatherly love. Though somewhat dazed, his body's combat instincts remained. With his brain nearly shut down, he rolled to the side through muscle memory.
The next moment, a massive pillar of blue-flamed ice shot up from where he had just been lying.
Indra wasn't directly hit, but the blue flames merely grazed his side, instantly freezing his entire arm.
The burning sensation from flesh to spiritual level made cold sweat instantly cover Indra's forehead. He dared not move this arm at all, because any movement would shatter it to pieces... Well, he couldn't move it even if he wanted to, since the nerves, bones, and muscle tissue in his arm had all ceased functioning.
From Indra to Uchiha Madara to Uchiha Sasuke, the entire Uchiha clan truly possessed excellent arm-severing genes.
Under normal circumstances, Yūshin's techniques wouldn't hit an enemy of Indra's caliber so easily, but...
Fatherly love weighed so heavily that Indra couldn't catch his breath.
"Leave. I won't hold back next time," Yūshin said coldly.
This was somewhat deceptive—he hadn't held back just now either, merely hadn't landed a solid hit.
The "Sage of Six Paths" raised his arm like aiming a sniper rifle at Indra, seemingly ready to unleash a new round of fatherly love at any moment.
Indra's face shifted between light and dark, but ultimately he followed his heart's principle, dragging his injured arm away without a word.
This was Black Zetsu's weakness—his manipulation was merely a form of guidance. Whether weak or strong guidance, it fundamentally lacked compulsive force... The one controlling Indra's body had always been Indra's own mind.
Though this mind was diseased, it could still exercise basic judgment—he couldn't fight to the death here; he needed to preserve his useful body to battle his younger brother.
Black Zetsu ultimately couldn't directly possess Indra's body. If he could possess Indra's body, he would certainly fight to the death to reclaim the Rinnegan.
Unfortunately, Black Zetsu was ultimately just a creature of the gutter, fundamentally unable to take center stage.
After frightening away Indra, Yūshin secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had barely managed to bluff him. If they had truly fought, regardless of the outcome, the battle wouldn't have ended quickly.
What Yūshin lacked most right now was time.
To prevent Indra from returning, he immediately began relocating with the Sage of Six Paths' body, selecting an excellent hiding location only after three days.
After putting the White Zetsu plugin version Sage of Six Paths on standby, Yūshin took out scroll after scroll.
The first scroll bore the characters "Fūma."
Yūshin unsealed it, and a corpse appeared.
"Gorō Fūma, you probably died the most miserably."
Gorō Fūma had died covering the main force's retreat, killed by enemy encirclement. His corpse looked as if it had been swept by machine gun fire.
Yūshin placed his palm over this corpse's chest, then injected chakra while using Yin-Yang Release.
His Yin-Yang Release hadn't been studied in vain. Before long, Gorō Fūma's body was restored, even his chest began rising and falling... The scene was somewhat eerie, easily causing observers to lose sanity points.
"Ho, lifelike indeed."
Wasn't it lifelike? Yūshin had used Yin-Yang Release to restore this body's vitality. Except for lacking a soul, this was a standard vegetative state.
After handling this body, Yūshin immediately switched to the second one.
"Wutong, died rather precisely—pierced through the heart."
Wutong had experienced multiple heart piercings, as he was a ninja capable of using Earth Grudge Fear.
Yūshin was pressed for time and had no leisure to restore Wutong's Earth Grudge Fear. Instead, he extracted the Earth Grudge Fear from this person and directly restored his original body.
"Kansen Morinaga..."
"Ryūnosuke Hayasaka..."
"Kizuki Akimichi..."
From the Kikyō Castle encounter to Konoha's founding, the Fireflies organization had lost quite a few ninja. Yūshin had successfully recovered over seventy corpses.
He had always carried these corpses with him—honestly, he had to thank himself for this practice.
He made this place look like a morgue, arranging these corpses in neat rows like stacked tiles.
Everyone was dead, yet each was breathing...
"And also, Shichimi Uchiha."
Yūshin specifically examined Shichimi's eyes, finding that only ordinary eyeballs had regenerated. This left him somewhat disappointed, though it was reasonable.
From a metaphysical perspective, Yūshin had come to this era because of Shichimi's Sharingan power. If another pair of identical eyes were born in this era, wouldn't that conflict with the power maintaining Yūshin's presence in this time?
After restoring everyone's bodies, Yūshin stopped to rest for a moment.
To answer that crucial question: if the old version of Yūshin lived until the era when the Kikyō Castle battle erupted, why didn't he aid the young version of Yūshin?
The answer was simple—because he had already provided aid long ago.
This "long ago" was even as early as a thousand years before.
What brought Yūshin inspiration was the Pure Land chronicles written by an ancestor of the Kato clan.
The other information in these chronicles was irrelevant; the most important point was that this Kato ancestor not only saw his own ancestors in the Pure Land, but even saw descendants who hadn't yet been born at that time but would die later.
In other words, the Pure Land was a place without time concepts.
Whether a person's soul was in the Pure Land, and when, didn't follow timeline rules. Yūshin guessed it followed an exclusivity principle.
The so-called exclusivity principle meant that except for the time period from birth to death, a person's soul spent all remaining time in the Pure Land.
Except for life, there was death.
Unless this person was alive, they could be summoned.
Except for the time period when they existed in the present world, they were always in the Pure Land.
To give the simplest example: if Yūshin, currently in the era of a thousand years ago, could meet the conditions for Edo Tensei, he could summon Hashirama Senju to this era... because Hashirama was dead in this era.
Or rather, except for the period around Konoha's founding when Hashirama was alive, Yūshin could summon Hashirama at any point on the timeline.
Previously, no one had exploited the Pure Land's lack of time concepts, for very clear reasons.
First, the present world and Pure Land were two non-interfering worlds—present world was present world, Pure Land was Pure Land, with no additional entanglements between them.
Normal humans wouldn't develop such unethical ninjutsu as Edo Tensei.
Second, people at timeline point B couldn't travel to earlier point A, so no one at A would summon people from B.
Finally, people at timeline point B knew nothing about later point C, so no one at B would summon people from C.
Taking a step back, even if people at B learned information about strong individuals at C through special events and tried to summon C at point B, they still wouldn't have C's body tissue as a summoning foundation.
In the Shinobi World, only three people could perform "cross-timezone" summoning of Pure Land souls at this time:
Yūshin.
Orochimaru.
Future Kurama.
The Sage of Six Paths' chakra didn't enter the Pure Land—his chakra remained in the present world observing the Shinobi World, so he wouldn't interfere with the timeline and was thus excluded.
Future Kurama was unlikely to carry "beloved ones'" flesh and blood with him, so he was temporarily safe.
Therefore, Orochimaru—who understood Edo Tensei and excelled at conspiracies and schemes—was highlighted...
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