While the Sage of Six Paths and his brother looked utterly lost, their worldview shaken to its foundations and words caught in their throats, Naruto Uzumaki remained much calmer.
After all, he had been through quite a lot. He might not have been some old, bandage-wrapped schemer, but he could handle a few situations by now.
As though he hadn't noticed their shifting expressions or the bizarre atmosphere, he casually waved toward Hagoromo Otsutsuki, either greeting him or cutting off whatever questions or lectures he might have been preparing.
"All right, let's put the pleasantries and family drama aside."
Naruto's tone returned to its usual calm directness as he fixed the Sage of Six Paths with a sharp gaze. "Sage of Six Paths, we finally meet in person."
He paused, then asked a question that seemed unrelated to the current situation, yet had lingered in his mind for a long time:
"The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, the Second, Tobirama Senju, and my parents... Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, along with the other resurrected Konoha ninja-were you the one who 'took them away'?"
Naruto had already wondered who in the shinobi world could have taken their souls away right after the First and the others had been resurrected.
No matter how he thought it through, the only possibility was the Sage of Six Paths, whose abilities were practically those of an immortal cultivator.
Anyone else either had to pay a price to summon souls or found it extremely difficult.
Yet during the Fourth Shinobi World War in the original timeline, the Sage of Six Paths had summoned the souls of the previous Kage with a wave of his hand to replenish Naruto's and Sasuke's chakra.
At those words, the Sage of Six Paths regained his customary composure and dignity, as though