Man, is Kotoamatsukami seriously this easy to get?
Looking at the crow in his hand, and the Mangekyō Sharingan in its eye sockets, Qingwu felt like this was somewhat surreal. Even he felt he could not understand Itachi Uchiha's play here.
Qingwu had not expected Itachi Uchiha to come find him before leaving.
He even left Shisui's right eye with him.
The price was to help him take good care of Sasuke, because Itachi Uchiha had discovered some clues left behind by Shisui (the Phantom God)—the Konoha High Command was entirely untrustworthy, and they did things by any means necessary.
It seems Fugaku Uchiha also has the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Is Itachi Uchiha getting a new trump card with this? Or is this him digging a hole for me?!
If one day in the future, I fail to take care of Sasuke properly, or if I become...
He'll leak the fact that I possess Shisui's right eye to Danzo, that Darkness of the Ninja World, or to the Konoha High Command led by the Third, detonating this bomb and making me fight to the death with them.
After all, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Danzo would absolutely never allow the power of Shisui's Kotoamatsukami to fall into the hands of anyone else in the village. They would undoubtedly acquire it by any means necessary, making this a fight to the death with no quarter.
I have to hand it to you, Itachi Uchiha. Your scheming is truly terrifying. You knew nobody could refuse the power of Shisui's Kotoamatsukami. Talk about an undeniable open conspiracy.
So I'm basically forced to protect Sasuke well, huh?
Impressive.
Having binged so many video conspiracy theories in his past life, watched so many inner-palace political dramas, and various court and political dramas of unseen slaughter across different dynasties... a moment's thought made it all clear.
No problem. I take people's money to help avert their disasters. As for how Sasuke chooses in the end, that's his own business.
I'll make him feel a father's love as heavy as a mountain.
Qingwu smiled very happily.
The tall figure had already blushed fiercely: Qingwu-kun~
Because he knew that even without him.
Sasuke would turn out just fine.
The reincarnation of Indra, son of Six Paths, wasn't someone just anyone could meddle with. If things went sideways, there might even be a "substitute player" dropping in...
The Twins of Fate.
Whoever touched them died.
And he only needed a tiny bit of guidance.
It was essentially a freebie.
Having a Kotoamatsukami clone was the most absolute perfection; having just one was enough for the Demon Refining Pot to analyze all of it.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
Just you wait.
As for the other one over at Danzo's, Qingwu offered an evil smile, implying: What makes you think I didn't take that one back?
When he tried to alter Sasuke's will.
It failed.
That fleeting spike of chakra.
Seemed like it might have been Indra's power.
A mysterious location.
A pair of purple pupils opened, mysterious and majestic.
Hmm?! A variable, is it~
Space-time shifted, and countless projections surfaced, shockingly depicting the past, present, and future of the ninja world, various kinds of outcomes...
Different timelines, different developments.
The Ninja World War won, Naruto and Sasuke sealing Kaguya, the fallen revived, a happy family reunion, and the ninja world ushering in a peaceful future~
A world of despair under the Infinite Tsukuyomi, everyone enveloped and sinking into illusions, turned into White Zetsu...
None of them?!
With a wave of a massive hand, the images shifted once more~
Naruto crossing into the future... meeting Minato Namikaze...
Sasuke and Boruto traveling through space-time... saving past Konoha... fighting Urashiki Otsutsuki...
The Otsutsuki trio...
The Otsutsuki Clan descending, the future destruction of the ninja world...
An era of withered shinobi, a future dominated by technology...
Boruto Uzumaki...
Uzumaki Menma destroying Konoha, shattering the Limited Tsukuyomi, and coming to the ninja world on a brutal slaughter spree in the future...
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki...
Still nothing?!
Everything above was still normal, within the mysterious person's control. No matter what happened, he would be the ultimate victor, becoming a true god and gaining the opportunity for transcendence.
Yet now, it had appeared.
A completely blank future...
What?! Just what on earth happened?!? Why can't I see anything...
He had run deductions countless times and opened the third blood-red eye on his forehead, yet he still found no trace of the problem. A cold glint flashed in the mysterious person's eyes before he helplessly closed them.
Is it you people? The Otsutsuki Clan?! Haven't I killed enough over these past thousand years??!
Or could it be your mysterious clan leader?! The God of Otsutsuki...
Hmph~ No matter what kind of thing you are, any existence that blocks my transcendence must be destroyed.
The truth was that his current state did not allow him to strike. Through a millennium of accumulation, he was undergoing a metamorphosis.
Moreover, when he probed the mechanism of destiny just now, he had felt a profound terror, as if continuing to explore would bring about a massive crisis.
Even the eye on his forehead was weeping black blood.
He had suffered a backlash from that power.
He decisively stopped.
Filled with both terror and greed.
That grand will, that transcendental state of being.
It was precisely what he pursued.
No matter what that is, as long as it appears in the ninja world, it belongs to me. This old man eagerly anticipates your descent...
By devouring you, this old man will surely achieve transcendence.
The final voice faded.
The mysterious location.
Returned to peace once more.
The Demon Refining Pot: Hmph~ Mere ants, and you dare attempt to peer at the host?! If I hadn't been severely damaged, I would have blasted you to death just now~
Unbeknownst to him.
The Artifact of Creation blocked the heavenly secrets.
A dignified Artifact of Creation.
If it were calculated by some native of the ninja world.
That would be the ultimate joke.
The backlash across space injuring the mysterious person could probably buy quite a bit of time for Qingwu's growth.
Qingwu was still far too weak.
He could not unleash the true power of the Demon Refining Pot.
Holy crap~ Probing from within space-time... This hardcore...
Qingwu received the reminder from the Demon Refining Pot, and he formed a guess as to who that person prying into him was.
Anyone with this ability could only be Sage of Six Paths Otsutsuki Hagoromo, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, or...
One of Isshiki's many Otsutsuki experimental subjects...
The Otsutsuki Clan was practically toxic.
Experimental subjects.
The more failed they were, the stronger they became.
Their abilities grew weirder and harder to kill. Isshiki couldn't do anything about many of them and could only find ways to seal them away in slumber.
After so many years.
Just how many experimental subjects were there?
Isshiki himself probably couldn't remember clearly anymore.
Who knew if among these guys.
There were any of those sly bastards whose consciousness had transcended space-time.
No one could say for sure.
The Dark Forest Law.
Nobody knew how many unknown existences there were in this ninja world. Every single unknown existence was like a hunter carrying a hunting rifle, lurking and hiding in the darkness.
When one unknown discovered another unknown, and the alignment of the other party could not be determined, the best course of action was to eliminate the other party to prevent a potential threat.
Damn it, I keep saying I shouldn't stand out too much. The ninja world is too dangerous, there are too many old schemers... Qingwu grew even more steadfast in his strategy of developing in secret without making waves, continuing to accumulate his power.
I'm not cowing out.
In shinobi matters, how can one call it cowering?
It's playing it safe...
The turmoil in the Pure Land.
Inside Cixuan, the lingering, on-the-verge-of-death Ōtsutsuki Isshiki raged: This feeling of being watched, damn it, it's that woman's son again. What on earth is he trying to do?!
You Renegades, daring to steal my power. Once I find a suitable vessel for reincarnation, I'll kill every last one of you, grind your bones to dust, you native... mongrels~
That Jōgan is mine... damned mongrel...
Roar~
His Ten-Tails roared along with him.
In truth, Isshiki's rage was fueled by utter powerlessness; he knew that bastard kid was simply not someone he could contend with.
For over a thousand years, he had watched with his own eyes as that kid cleared out and devoured native deities, otherworldly visitors, and various members of the Otsutsuki Clan who happened to arrive here, growing stronger bit by bit.
He had overwritten the original cultivation system with his own power.
Replacing Kaguya to become the Progenitor of Chakra.
Using the ninja world as a seedling nursery and shinobi as seeds, he continuously absorbed natural energy to strengthen the chakra system, and then harvested their souls and chakra after death, repeating the cycle on and on~
Now, he didn't even want to imagine.
Just how strong that brat called the Sage of Six Paths was.
We only wanted the God Tree's fruit; it was just that the environment was a bit worse, cutting off the transcendent power.
As for him? Souls, flesh, chakra—he wants the whole lot, and he still makes people thank him and revere him as their ancestor~
Dammit, they call us the bad guys, but I'd say he's even more vicious than our Otsutsuki Clan.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki felt profoundly aggrieved.
Rōran~
The Land of Demons~
The Land of Water Seas~
The Land of Hot Water:...
The twenty-seven masks of the Mask Storage Hall: It's that demon. Not only did he kill us, but he even turned us into puppets~
The Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku: Hagoromo is enraged. I can no longer see the future; little Jiraiya, you're on your own, sigh~
Katsuyu Sage of Shikkotsu Forest: Sob sob~ How terrifying...
A cold glint flashed in the eyes of the white snake in Ryūchi Cave: Hagoromo?! You want to use me as nutrients? This old body vows to resist to the death~
The Moon: Nii-san~ You...
My, my, the ninja world is hiding quite a few big fish.
Qingwu clicked his tongue.
However, he wasn't afraid. The Sharingan pupillary power and bloodline samples he had collected that day had already been copied out by the Demon Refining Pot.
Analyzed and fused.
Yet the Uchiha who had awakened their eyes in this era were still far too few; those who had awakened eyes did not exceed two hundred people, and the majority were one-tomoe and two-tomoe, with no more than fifty. The elite three-tomoe numbered fewer than twenty.
The pupillary power samples were too scarce, though there were quite a few bloodlines. Counting civilians, the entire Uchiha clan numbered over 1,200 people, with around 500 shinobi.
The Demon Refining Pot had no choice but to massively copy the samples, then cross-fuse them to replicate new bloodlines, and copy-fuse them once more.
Until the bloodline potential was entirely wrung dry.
The final result was.
A blood-red Rinnegan eyeball over a meter in diameter, without a single tomoe generated—a purely oversized Rinnegan.
There were no densely packed eyeballs, either.
The Demon Refining Pot had directly reduced them to their original essence.
Otherwise, it would have been several times larger.
Small as it was, its power was terrifying.
Qingwu had tossed it to the Divine Self to nurture.
He believed it would give his enemies a big "surprise" in the future.
Meanwhile.
Amegakure, the Akatsuki.
"I'm Itachi Uchiha. I look forward to working with you all~"
Before you continue