"A golden eagle that yearns for freedom will never resign itself to being caged and left at another's mercy. Even knowing it might batter itself to death, it will strike the cage in pursuit of freedom."
Asura's gentle expression visibly froze.
A complicated emotion flickered through his eyes.
It was not anger, but something closer to profound bewilderment and surprise.
"The Pure Land... is not a cage."
He shook his head gently, his voice still calm, yet seemingly bearing the weight of the entire Pure Land.
"This is a place where souls find rest, a home at the end of a long journey.
It offers eternal peace, not confinement."
His gaze settled on Naruto's wood clone, who looked eager to fight, and he continued, "And you are not caged birds.
You are heirs who carry hope and the possibility of change. You are those in whom Father...
In whom so many have entrusted the future."
"Rest? A home?"
The wood clone's lips curved into a sharp smile.
"When that 'rest' and that 'home' are predetermined, arranged, even used as tools to perpetuate some thousand-year cycle, how are they any different from an exquisitely decorated cage?"
He raised his wooden sword slightly, pointing its tip at Asura. It was not the opening stance of an attack, but more a declaration that he would cut through all falsehood.
"As for being heirs to hope and change..."
"If this 'inheritance' means we must shoulder the struggle you brothers have left unfinished for a thousand years, if it means our paths, our bonds, and the future we want to create must forever remain beneath the shadow of our destined reincarnations as Indra and Asura..."
He stepped forward, and the pale "ground" beneath his feet seemed to tremble under the force of this living being's