Tap!
With a soft footstep, ripples of light slowly rose across the black, water-like ground, spreading outward without end like circular waves of light.
"Oh... so this is the core of the world? Why is it so dark? I remember... it wasn't this dark."
Then, a calm voice carrying even a hint of appraisal rang out through the silent world.
Afterward, a beam of light gradually lit up, illuminating everything within the area. It came from a young man clad in a Chakra cloak, his left eye's Rinnegan rings turning, his right eye shining brilliantly, and an eye at his brow resembling a blood-red full moon, with Rinnegan patterns as its base and nine tomoe as adornments, exuding an aura strangely compatible with this Dark Space.
It was Chiba's true body.
"Oh... you've come."
At that moment, before Chiba, at the edge of where the Chakra cloak's light could barely reach, an elderly man slowly emerged. He wore a wide-sleeved robe patterned with tomoe that resembled white flames, seated atop nine tomoe. Seeing Chiba, he curled his lips into a faint smile and spoke.
It was the Sage of Six Paths.
"As agreed, I brought the heart."
Hearing those words and seeing that gentle smile, Chiba dropped his appraising tone and spoke seriously and earnestly.
His voice was low, yet carried an unusual gentleness.
Then, he slowly raised his right hand. As his clenched fist opened, a cluster of brilliant pure-white flame-like light burst forth in an instant. In that moment, everything between them was illuminated as bright as snow, while the oppressive darkness seemed to be driven away, forming a circle around them as though the two were enclosed beneath a dome made of light.
And at that very moment, a heart that looked as though it had been