The inscriptions in the old temple at sea could not be copied directly by rubbing.
Whenever a buoy came within ten feet, the stone wall sank beneath the water on its own.
The rescue ship could only wait for low tide, take a series of photographs from different angles at a distance, then send the incomplete strokes to three separate locations.
Konoha received the shapes.
The Land of Rain received the chakra fluctuations.
The Land of Rivers Maritime Guild kept the complete images, but took no responsibility for interpreting the Sage of Six Paths' meaning.
None of the three parties received enough material to reconstruct the full text alone.
To avoid conflating different periods, the Land of Rivers brought in two artisans who studied only stone.
They knew nothing about ninjutsu and took no part in interpreting the inscriptions.
Judging by the depth of salt erosion, the two determined that the old temple at sea had undergone at least three rounds of recarving.
The deepest layer had been created at the same time as the temple pillars.
Large sections of the middle layer had been ground away.
The shallowest layer contained tiny pores into which a black substance had seeped.
The so-called third version was not an inherently complete truth, either.
It was simply the layer closest to the original stone surface among the materials found so far.
Konoha's archives already contained a copy of the last words of the Six Paths.
It came from the Uchiha's old collection.
Its contents emphasized that Eye Power could reveal the source of dispersed chakra, and described the Rinnegan as the path to that source.
Fugaku did not take it as the original text on that basis.
The Uchiha's transcription process could itself have incorporated the interpretations of Sharingan wielders.
Besides, Black Zetsu's