Six Paths Sage

"Ah!" "Ah!" "Aah—"

Ye Wuyue's screams rose and fell through the space. After a while, the red-clad beauty finally stopped. Ye Wuyue also learned her identity. Just as he had expected, she was Flowing Blade, Like Fire.

As for why she had beaten him... according to her, she had gotten annoyed by him constantly calling her name. Moreover, she would not allow Ye Wuyue to call her full name. Unless he was releasing his Zanpakuto, he could only call her Flowing Fire.

"If you'd responded sooner, wouldn't I have stopped calling?" Ye Wuyue muttered softly, rubbing his face after learning the reason.

Yet Flowing Fire still heard him.

"Hmph! Why do you think I didn't respond sooner?" Flowing Fire snorted coldly in return.

Ye Wuyue had no answer. Normally, a Zanpakuto would respond once its true name was called. Why had Flowing Fire refused to respond to him all this time?

"Could it be that Miss Flowing Fire was injured?" Shinso appeared there at some point and asked.

Only after hearing Shinso did Ye Wuyue realize that when he had first seen Flowing Fire, her clothes had been torn, and this space had been devastated. It really did look as though a great battle had taken place.

Flowing Fire glanced at Shinso. "You've got some eyesight, at least."

Then she looked at Ye Wuyue again. "You still remember the night you first arrived in this world, don't you?"

At her words, Ye Wuyue began recalling that night six years ago.

Back then, he had just bound the system and arrived in the Naruto world. Soon afterward, he was discovered by a Shinigami of this world while in soul form. Just as he was about to be taken away by the Shinigami, the system compensated him with Flowing Blade, Like Fire and a Hollow Mask, allowing him to survive.

Afterward, he fought the Nine-Tails and defeated it. Then he found Sasuke, who was not yet a year old, and fused with his soul. Oh, right—there had also seemed to be a strange mass of Chakra that fused with them at the time!

Thinking about it now, that mass of Chakra seemed very similar to the Chakra lingering in this space.

Ye Wuyue felt as though he had discovered something, yet he could never grasp the crucial point. It made him feel rather miserable.

"That night, I was suddenly brought to this world by a force. My wielder changed from Yamamoto Genryusai to you. At first, I was quite happy that my wielder had changed from an old man into a young man, and besides... Yamamoto had already died by then." Flowing Fire's expression became somewhat lonely when she said this. The death of a companion who had been by her side for thousands of years had to be painful for her. Her feelings probably were not as relaxed as she made them sound.

But Flowing Fire quickly became furious. Her gaze at Ye Wuyue seemed ready to spit flames, making him a little frightened.

Ye Wuyue unconsciously edged closer to Shinso, hoping to gain some sense of security, but Shinso mercilessly moved away.

"But I never expected that a soul as weak as yours would cause me such enormous trouble the moment you arrived. Not long after I helped you kill that fox with nine tails, an old man with a target-shaped mark on his forehead suddenly invaded your soul space and tried to attack your soul.

"If you died, I would dissipate after a while as well, so I dragged him into my space.

"And then my space suffered a disaster. That old man was not only insane, but absurdly powerful. He kept attacking me while shouting, 'Give me back my son!'

"His abilities were extremely strange. One of them created a small black sphere. That sphere generated a tremendous gravitational force and pulled everything onto it. My space was destroyed like that."

After hearing Flowing Fire's description, Ye Wuyue suddenly understood. An old man with a target-shaped mark on his forehead—wasn't that the Six Paths Sage?

"Were there also many black spheres floating around that old man?" Ye Wuyue asked, just to be safe.

"That's right. The black spheres around him were also extremely destructive. If I was even slightly careless and got grazed by one, I would be injured. Fortunately, this space is made of spirit particles, so I could constantly draw Spiritual Power from it to heal myself.

"And those black spheres could absorb elements, so my flames were completely useless. However, high temperatures were unaffected." Flowing Fire nodded.

Now Ye Wuyue could confirm the old man Flowing Fire had mentioned was none other than the Six Paths Sage. Then the small mass of Chakra that had fused with him back then must have belonged to Indra. Without that mass of Chakra, Indra could never reincarnate again. That was no different from killing him, so it was no wonder the Six Paths Sage had come after him.

It seemed the Six Paths Sage still had considerable control over the shinobi world. Even after his body had died and only his Chakra remained, he could still sense Indra's condition. The Six Paths Sage could not be underestimated.

"What happened in the end?" Ye Wuyue asked.

"Of course I won. Although he was powerful, possessed endless abilities, and could even make my flames ineffective, he couldn't resist the heat of my flames. And my swordsmanship was not something he could withstand either," Flowing Fire said proudly.

"Then did you kill him?"

"No. Although I won, I was still seriously injured, so he escaped. After that, I remained in my space to recover."

After saying that, Flowing Fire clenched her fists and looked at Ye Wuyue.

"Yet while I was recovering, you called for me every single day, and I couldn't even block out your voice. Going on about wanting me to tell you how to train Bankai—don't you have any idea how strong you are? Bankai? If you hadn't already known my name, you wouldn't even have been able to complete Shikai. And you wanted to learn Bankai?

"Even now, your Spiritual Pressure is still roughly two or three times short of what is needed to train Bankai. And I only mean that you would meet the conditions to train Bankai, not that you would definitely succeed.

"Meeting the Spiritual Pressure requirement would only allow me to materialize in the real world. And when that time comes, the conditions for earning my approval will be decided by me. I can set a condition that is completely impossible to fulfill, so that you! Will! Never! Ever! Complete! Bankai!" Flowing Fire poked Ye Wuyue's head with every word of that final sentence.

Ye Wuyue now realized the severity of the problem. He had offended his own Zanpakuto.

"Big Sister Flowing Fire, I was wrong!!! Please, be magnanimous and spare me this once! From now on, I definitely won't bother you when there's nothing important. I'll do whatever you tell me to do. I only ask that you show mercy and give me a chance. I'm begging you!"

Ye Wuyue grabbed Flowing Fire's long legs and shouted with heartfelt anguish, his words utterly sincere.

"And that Six Paths Sage who injured you—I'll personally kill him someday and avenge you!" Ye Wuyue promised, patting his chest.

Watching this scene from the side, Shinso felt that their current wielder was not very reliable. He was far inferior to the previous squinty-eyed one, but this one was more interesting.