Unexpectedly, Indra shook his head.
He was much more patient with Sasuke, perhaps because Sasuke was his descendant, or perhaps because of the loneliness that came from rarely awakening over those long years.
"I have no grandfather."
Indra's voice held no emotion. He was simply stating a fact.
"My grandmother pacified a world torn by war and was revered as the 'Rabbit Goddess.'
According to the accounts passed down, she resonated with heaven and earth amid the blessings and prayers of the people, conceived without a partner, and gave birth to two sons.
They were my father, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, and my uncle, Hamura Otsutsuki."
He paused, seemingly sorting through those distant fragments of memory, gradually pieced together across countless reincarnations:
"As for more about my grandmother, such as why my father and uncle later joined forces to seal her away...
Those older, more secret truths were things I only slowly pieced together and came to understand in part over a thousand years of chakra reincarnation, drawing on the experiences and knowledge of successive reincarnations, as well as the scattered memories I glimpsed."
His words lifted a corner of the veil over something more mysterious, and more brutal, behind the Shinobi World's creation myth.
Gods were not born perfect. Behind power lay sacrifice and betrayal, while the truth of history was often buried beneath layers of reincarnation and the long river of time.
Sasuke silently digested this information.
Otsutsuki, Kaguya Princess, conception without a partner, sealing... Every term challenged his existing understanding of the world.
And where would the appearance of this man who called himself Indra lead him-this ancient soul who shared his eyes, yet bore a thousand-year grudge?
"If you have any other questions, ask them now."
Indra's eyes, their three tomoe spinning, stared unblinkingly at Sasuke's face. His