In the consciousness space, the two stood facing each other.
Gisei rubbed his forehead, looking exhausted. "Alright, tell me first. How does the butterfly seed actually control that experimental subject?"
"I raise the seed inside him, seal his consciousness away, and then manipulate the butterfly seed to control his body directly."
A playful smile tugged at the corner of Gisei's mouth. "Is that also one of your abilities?"
"Well, it seems you've finally figured it out."
Shiro shrugged, looking helpless. "Although I admit it's my doing, don't expect an apology."
Gisei's eye twitched. "Leaving aside the chakra absorption and the sensory abilities, there's something I've always wondered about. I've raised four mature butterfly seeds. Theoretically, the chakra they feed back to me should have pushed my levels to Kage-tier a long time ago."
"But instead, I'm stuck with the chakra reserves of an Elite Jonin. Kage level is nowhere in sight. Care to explain what's going on?"
Shiro narrowed his eyes and smiled slyly. "Of course. It's because I ate it."
Veins popped on Gisei's forehead. He was furious. "You bastard... do you really think I can't do anything to you?"
"It's just chakra. Once you unseal your acupuncture points, you'll have more chakra than you can possibly use. Do you really care about this little bit?"
"Is the chakra inside the seal the same as my own chakra?" Gisei shot back, exasperated.
His own chakra was effortless to control, like a fish swimming in water. But the chakra inside the seal? It felt wrong.
In the end, that was all chakra absorbed from other people. Using it always felt stiff and unnatural.
Take Shadow Clones, for example. With the same amount of energy, his own natural chakra could create five clones. Using the sealed chakra? He'd be lucky to get four.
It wasn't about his skill. It felt like the chakra itself was rejecting him. It was almost as if it knew he had killed its original owners.
It was too strange. Could chakra actually possess a will of its own?
He didn't understand it, so he tried to avoid using it whenever possible. His intuition screamed that relying on that stolen power would only lead to trouble.
"So, you sensed the difference too," Shiro said. "Fine. I won't eat your chakra in the future."
Gisei's mouth twitched again. "Is this really just about the chakra? No, this is about your attitude!"
"You absorb my chakra without asking—who exactly is the master here?"
Shiro went silent.
Two minutes passed before he finally spoke again. "You want to seal me away, don't you?"
"Your actions make it impossible for me to trust you," Gisei said bluntly. "I have no choice. I can't tolerate a ticking time bomb inside my own body."
After saying the words, Gisei felt a little heavy-hearted.
In the years he had spent with Shiro, they hadn't communicated much, but their relationship had been peaceful. Discovering this betrayal was hard to swallow.
If possible, he really wanted to hear Shiro's defense.
"Alright," Shiro said, his voice sounding a bit downcast. "It seems you won't let this go until you understand."
"Do you know what the very first thing I learned from you was?"
Gisei didn't answer, waiting quietly.
"It was deception. Lying to others in order to survive."
Gisei's pupils contracted slightly. He stared at Shiro coldly. "You... have been lying to me this whole time?"
Shiro smiled bitterly. "Not just you. I didn't tell the truth to Lady Mei, either."
"Actually, I can see all your memories. Including your past life. And I have to say... you really are special."
Gisei could no longer stay calm. He hadn't expected Shiro to go this far—not only deceiving him but deceiving Mei as well.
"Back then, I told Lady Mei that you had the ability to foresee the future. That was a lie. I knew perfectly well it wasn't foresight. It was because you come from the world of God."
The world of God?
"I don't think my past life was in any 'world of God,'" Gisei said, confused. "The people there aren't any different from the people here."
Shiro shook his head. "Your memories show that this world is just a comic book drawn by some bored person. But you came here, and now I can truly feel my own existence."
"We are living here, in a world that feels so real. There is no other explanation except that it was created by a god."
Gisei felt Shiro was talking nonsense. Even if this world was created by Kishimoto, so what? He lived here now, and there was no way back. Obsessing over that would only add to his problems.
"Maybe you don't care about that kind of thing, but Lady Mei would. If she knew, she would definitely slice you up for research instead of helping you."
Gisei's face turned ugly. "Is that your excuse for lying to Mei?"
"Isn't that enough? I told you, we are a shared life form. It does me no good if you die young."
"Didn't you say Mei is your mother and you absolutely cannot disobey her?"
"I did. But you should understand a child's desire to grow up and be independent. I want to become an existence like Lady Mei, too."
Shiro looked at him pointedly. "This is something I learned from you. Haven't you also kept your own abnormality a secret from your parents and your uncle?"
"Why didn't you tell them?"
What could Gisei say? He shrugged helplessly. "I'm not crazy. Why would I talk about that kind of thing?"
Shiro pointed a finger at him. "See? Isn't that exactly it? Did you keep secrets from your parents because you wanted to hurt them?"
"No. On the contrary, you love your parents very much. And I am the same. This is the deception I learned from you."
From a human perspective, there was nothing wrong with Shiro's logic. But he was a worm. Discussing human nature with a parasite felt incredibly weird.
Shiro seemed to sense his thought and flew into a rage. "What's wrong with being a worm?! I told you, now that I have a consciousness, I am no worse than a human!"
Gisei's mouth twitched. "Fine, fine. But does any of this justify you hiding your abilities from me?"
Shiro tilted his head. "You never trusted me. Don't bother lying; I can hear your thoughts."
Gisei fell silent.
Shiro continued, "You always think I am beneath you. That I am just a bug. I told you we are equals, a shared life form, but you never believed it."
"You've even thought about how to extract me from your body. Your thoughts made it impossible for me to trust you. That is why I did this."
Gisei smiled bitterly. This guy... Shiro was basically just another version of himself.
"Everything I am comes from you," Shiro said. "I am whatever you are. If you don't trust me, naturally, I won't trust you either."
Gisei was silent for a moment before asking, "If I change my mindset... will you change your actions?"
Shiro shook his head. "You said it yourself: human nature isn't that easy to change."
Gisei sighed. "It seems there's no other way."
"Planning to seal me away, right? Let me tell you upfront: the sealing jutsu your grandfather developed won't work on me. Because right now... I am stronger than you!"
Hearing this, Gisei suddenly looked up, staring dead at Shiro without saying a word.