"I don't trust my own will."
The Sage of Six Paths' answer was unexpected, yet understandable. With the entire Shinobi World at stake, he would question even his own memories and thoughts.
He had created the Shinobi World himself and was acutely sensitive to everything that happened in it. There was no way he could sense something amiss yet believe nothing had happened.
That alone was enough of a contradiction.
The Sage of Six Paths said, "Since the world had been recreated, there were few sources of help I could find on short notice. So I came to the moon and found Hamura's consciousness, which had merged with the Tenseigan."
"And that was when Hamura discovered the 'Scum' in my memory world."
"Only then did I realize that even this portion of my chakra had already fallen under the God of Ōtsutsuki's Divine Art."
"Although I couldn't be certain, I concluded that something extremely important had been erased from my memories by his Divine Art. It was even continuing to eat away at my memories."
"Although Hamura didn't know the full story, he believed me. Just as he had all those years ago when we fought our mother. He didn't understand why I chose the people, but he still stood by my side."
"He soon transferred the Scum from my memories into his own memory world. He also moved all the power of his lineage's consciousnesses into his memory world, using it as a battlefield to stop the Divine Art from eroding us further. He left the space within the Tenseigan to preserve this portion of my chakra."
The Nine-Tails fell silent. Judging by what had happened afterward, things clearly hadn't been that simple.
"But Hamura soon came under attack from the Scum as well. Within the memory world, they