After unleashing all of Madara and Izuna's innate eye techniques, he had already sensed the existence of... the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan's ocular technique.
But Nagato's expression... had also turned strange.
How could it be such a coincidence? Such a coincidence?
Back when he had wanted to win Orochimaru over and explain why he knew certain things, he had casually made up an ocular technique called "Ayakashi," even giving it a seemingly serious set of rules based on the actual circumstances.
Something about breaking through "predestined fate," using preset conditions to look toward the future that unfolded from those conditions... Thus, he had perfectly explained why he knew things the original owner of these eyes did not, as well as futures that played out under circumstances he had not known about.
But unexpectedly... "Ayakashi" was a real technique, and it truly was related to "predestined fate."
But rather than breaking predestined fate, it... bestowed it!
Ayakashi required the power of both eyes to activate. At the cost of sacrificing ten years of the caster's lifespan, it ignored the target's physique, health, and age, forcibly shortening the target's remaining life to three years!
No power could alter it... Three years later, the victim would reach the end of their life!
It was an utterly vicious killing ocular technique!
Why had the First Hokage died?
This mystery, never revealed in the original story, made Nagato shudder as he thought it over.
In the battle at the Valley of the End back then, had Madara cast Ayakashi on Hashirama?
At the cost of ten years of his own life, he had determined Hashirama Senju's predestined fate of certain death within three years!
Otherwise... it was truly impossible to imagine what kind of powerful enemy could have caused Hashirama Senju, whom the world considered capable