Asura Chakra

Inside the Sealing Space.

Bright sunlight shone down, the boundless sea stretching into misty vastness, gentle ripples stirring its surface.

Waves lapped against the shore, their sound echoing by their ears as though whispering softly.

In such an environment, one's heart naturally turned toward boundless horizons.

"Naruto."

The refreshing sea breeze lightly stirred Menma's hair and robes, and his voice was as gentle as the breeze. "Actually, you understand what that saying means, don't you?"

Little Naruto first nodded, then hesitated for a moment before shaking his head again. His expression was full of struggle and conflict.

Menma smiled and rubbed Naruto's head. "You understand. You're just troubled over whether that saying is right or wrong."

"To kill one person to preserve the world is not to kill one person for the world's benefit; to kill oneself to preserve the world is to kill oneself for the world's benefit."

This saying came from Mozi's Da Qu.

It meant that if sacrificing one person could bring the world into the state we envisioned, that did not mean sacrificing that person was the right thing to do.

Only when we needed to sacrifice ourselves to make the world better was there reason to encourage self-sacrifice.

To lay down one's life for righteousness meant giving up one's own life, not another's.

In other words...

"Even if killing an innocent person could save the world, we have no right to decide whether that innocent person lives or dies."

However, innocent people...

Where were there any innocent people in this world?

Other than civilians, which ninja did not have blood all over their hands?

If the boundary between justice and evil were judged by human moral standards, it would be far too vague.

But that explanation clearly could not convince the still somewhat naive Little Naruto.

"Menma-nii, I don't understand..."

Seeing Naruto's stubborn little expression, Menma sighed inwardly and said helplessly, "Since you're so curious, Naruto, then I'll give you a Trolley Problem."

"A trolley? The kind of transportation mentioned in books, like a carriage but only able to travel on fixed tracks?"

Menma nodded perfunctorily, took out a pen, and bent down to draw and write on a blank sheet of paper.

Five minutes later, Menma put away the pen and handed the drawing to Little Naruto.

"Suppose five people are tied to one trolley track, while one person is tied to a backup track. At the same time, an out-of-control trolley is speeding toward them."

"And there just happens to be a lever beside you. You can pull it to divert the trolley onto the backup track, killing that one person and saving the five."

"Or you can do nothing, let the trolley crush the five people to death, and save the one person on the other track."

At that, Little Naruto's brow gradually furrowed. His expression twisted even more, and the faint chakra fluctuations around him seemed to become more pronounced.

Even the Nine-Tails beside them shifted his gaze over, his foxlike slit pupils filled with confusion and gravity.

"What chakra is that? Why does it feel so unsettling?"

As a Tailed Beast capable of sensing good and evil, he had long grown accustomed to humanity's cruelty and wickedness.

At the same time, he deeply loathed humanity's vile nature and greed.

Yet this chakra fluctuation of "ultimate goodness" made him feel a sense of hypocrisy and disgust from the bottom of his heart.

But Menma beside him seemed not to notice at all.

"So..."

He stared fixedly into Little Naruto's azure eyes and asked, "What is your choice?"

"I... I don't know."

Little Naruto's expression had twisted to the extreme, and his aura had become utterly divided.

As dazzling and gentle as sunlight, as rational and chilling as judgment.

"I want to pull the lever..."

Naruto's reason told him that to create the greatest benefit, he should pull the lever, sacrifice one person, and save five.

But the moment the words left his mouth, the chakra fluctuations around him intensified again, reaching a level visible to the naked eye.

His emotions told him that the moment he pulled the lever, he would kill an innocent person who had not been meant to die.

Little Naruto clenched his teeth, but his expression gradually became serene. "No, I can't do that! I have no right to decide whether he lives or dies!"

The Nine-Tails beside him had already straightened up, his slit pupils fixed tightly on Naruto, as though he were seeing someone else through Naruto's body.

"Menma! That Naruto brat..."

"Shh."

Menma smiled and raised a finger to his lips.

Although he was smiling, that smile was filled with icy coldness.

He said coldly, "So you choose to do nothing, to let nature take its course—to stand by and watch as the other five die?"

Standing by and watching them die...

Naruto's relaxed expression instantly turned heavy again, and the chakra fluctuations around him began to grow erratic.

This clearly conflicted with his "emotional" side once more.

"I... I don't know!!"

It was as though several completely different ways of thinking were fighting inside Naruto's head, leaving him unable to decide.

But Menma stood beside him, watching his anguish and struggle with cold eyes.

"Asura Chakra, can your Love and Bonds solve this problem?"

Without a doubt, the root of Naruto's current struggle was the influence of Asura Chakra.

As the side of "pure goodness," in a situation like this, it demanded that he do something.

But it was merely a mass of chakra with no intelligence, left only with an overwhelmingly powerful obsession. It could not find a perfect answer between these two choices.

No matter which one he chose, it would be a betrayal of its so-called "Love and Bonds."

Without Asura Chakra's interference, Menma believed Naruto could easily find the right answer instead of falling into this obsessive state of fixation.

"Menma, what exactly is going on with the chakra in that Naruto brat?"

The Nine-Tails leaned its massive head closer, its brow tightly furrowed. Its eyes were filled with shock and confusion as it looked at Little Naruto.

Yet deep in its gaze was also a trace of heartache.

After all, this was the brat it had watched grow up. Though it never said so aloud, it still cared deeply about Naruto.

"Do you know Asura?"

Without even turning his head, Menma replied flatly, "That is Asura's chakra, and Naruto is Asura's reincarnation."

"Asura's chakra? Naruto is his reincarnation? How is that possible?"

The Nine-Tails' fox eyes widened, its face full of humanlike disbelief.

Clearly, it was not entirely unfamiliar with Asura.

Asura was Old Man of the Six Paths' younger son and the second leader of Ninshu.

From childhood, Asura's talent had been poor. He could not do anything well on his own and was clumsy at everything.

But he had a kind nature, and everyone in Ninshu thought highly of him.

Back when the Sage of Six Paths had extracted the Tailed Beasts and was on the verge of death, he chose Asura to inherit the leadership of Ninshu before he died.

All nine Tailed Beasts, including the Nine-Tails, had also shared a good relationship with Asura.

Later, the eldest son Indra turned against Asura and became his enemy, seeking to reclaim his own position.

During that battle between the two, Asura had borrowed a great deal of Tailed Beast Chakra from the Nine-Tails and assumed a three-headed, six-armed fox form similar to complete Tailed Beast Transformation.

But it had witnessed Asura's death with its own eyes...

The Nine-Tails said in a low voice, "I've never heard of reincarnation. When humans die, they are dead. Their souls disappear completely, and their chakra disperses. Otherwise, why would Old Man of the Six Paths have..."

As if it had thought of something, the Nine-Tails suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Its already narrow vertical pupils contracted sharply.

"Kurama."

Menma's gaze was deep as he said meaningfully, "The sky is actually colorless. It never deceived you—your own eyes deceived you."

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