"Then... teach... Hm? You can teach me?"
Hearing those abrupt words, Chiba did not react at first. He subconsciously continued along with the latter half of the sentence, but halfway through, those sudden words registered. His eyes widened slightly as he abruptly looked at the Sage of Six Paths.
No transaction... He did not want to know the future, but he could still teach me Yin-Yang Release?
What...
What was going on?
What was this Sage of Six Paths thinking?
It would have been one thing if he had refused to complete the transaction, but now he wanted to teach him Yin-Yang Release as well. Chiba was, after all, a transmigrator. If he had accepted the deal because he wanted to know the future and was tempted by it, agreeing to exchange Yin-Yang Release for that knowledge would have been understandable. Reasonable, even.
But to teach him a ninjutsu capable of influencing the world so easily, without asking him to pay anything...
What is he up to? Amid his astonishment, Chiba was filled with suspicion.
Rather than feeling the delight of a sudden turn for the better at the Sage of Six Paths offering to teach him Yin-Yang Release, Chiba was instead riddled with doubts.
There was no such thing as a free lunch. Having merged with the memories of his other self, he believed this even more firmly: obtaining anything required a price. Whether something was worth it or not was merely a matter of the ratio between what one gained and what one gave.
Perhaps the fusion was still incomplete, and remnants of the other Chiba's personality and consciousness were still subtly influencing him. They would not take the dominant position, but Chiba was still affected by his other self's way of thinking.
This time, he had likely