More importantly, Xin had been willing to show them his greatest trump card without hiding anything.
That meant Xin bore Konoha no hostility and could be trusted.
At this thought, the Third Hokage felt deeply reassured.
He looked at Xin, his eyes gaining the affection of an elder looking at a junior.
The Third Hokage had no idea.
Uchiha Xin, standing before him at that moment, was secretly feeling pleased with himself.
Looking at the two men he had thoroughly stunned, Xin silently activated the great art of bullshit he had long prepared in his mind.
The office was so quiet they could have heard a pin drop.
The Third Hokage took a couple of puffs from his pipe, steadying himself after the shock.
He looked at Uchiha Xin, his expression turning grave.
"Xin, this important matter you mentioned that concerns the survival of the Shinobi World-could it have something to do with your Mangekyō Sharingan?"
The Third Hokage ventured a guess.
Xin nodded without hesitation, confirming it.
Rather than rushing to reveal his conclusion, he folded his arms across his chest and asked them a question in return.
"Lord Hokage, Lord Jiraiya."
Xin's gaze swept across their faces.
"Do you think the chakra we shinobi use is something humans have possessed since the beginning, or did it only appear later?"
Jiraiya frowned slightly at the question.
He thought this was simply a matter of common knowledge.
"Does that even need asking?"
Jiraiya answered bluntly.
"Chakra is the product of a perfect fusion of the spiritual and physical energies within the human body."
"Anyone can extract chakra through diligent training."
Xin gave a meaningful smile at that answer.
He shook his head lightly.
"Lord Jiraiya, you're only half right, and only on the most superficial level."
Xin turned his back to them and looked out the window at Konoha.
"I've decided to tell you a story about the true origin of chakra. A true story that was completely erased from history."
The Third Hokage and Jiraiya exchanged glances, each seeing a hint of confusion in the other's eyes, but they continued listening quietly.
Xin's voice was low and measured, carrying a certain spellbinding quality.
"In a distant age of war, there were no shinobi at all upon the earth. People knew only how to slaughter one another with blades."
Xin slowly told the story.
"In those days, a God Tree grew upon the earth, towering into the clouds. People regarded it as a god and worshipped it. One day, the God Tree bore a fruit."
"That fruit gave off an eerie light. In their reverence and fear of the divine, no one dared touch it."
Xin turned around, his gaze deep.
"Until one day, a divine maiden named Otsutsuki Kaguya descended from the heavens. Defying the taboo, she picked and ate that God Tree Fruit."
"From that moment on, she became the first person in this world to possess chakra. She was the Progenitor of Chakra."
The Third Hokage and Jiraiya listened in stunned bewilderment.
This tale, so much like a myth, completely overturned their understanding of the Shinobi World.
Xin ignored their shock and continued.
"With the absolute power granted by the God Tree Fruit, Kaguya single-handedly ended the wars of the world. People honored her as the Rabbit Goddess."
"Later, she gave birth to two sons, Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura Otsutsuki."
Xin's tone suddenly shifted, becoming somewhat cold.
"But power often breeds greed, and Kaguya gradually lost herself in her immense power."
"To obtain more chakra, she planted the God Tree and cast an ultimate genjutsu called Infinite Tsukuyomi."
"She hung all humans upon the God Tree, turning them into living nourishment for chakra and constantly absorbing their chakra."
At this point, the Third Hokage could no longer hold back.
"That... how is that possible?!"
The Third Hokage nearly dropped his pipe as he urgently pressed for an answer.
"If everyone had their chakra absorbed, where did the humans alive today come from?"
Xin raised a hand and made a downward gesture.
"Please be patient, Lord Hokage."
Xin continued.
"Kaguya's tyrannical rule provoked resistance from her two sons."
"Unable to bear seeing the people suffer, Hagoromo and Hamura joined forces against their own mother."
"After a devastating, world-shattering battle, the brothers overcame immense hardships and finally sealed Kaguya."
Xin stared into Jiraiya's eyes and pronounced that name, word by word.
"And that Hagoromo Otsutsuki later traveled throughout the Shinobi World, teaching the true meaning of chakra and founding Ninshu."
"The world honored him as-the Sage of Six Paths."
Boom!
At the mention of the Sage of Six Paths, the Third Hokage's and Jiraiya's expressions immediately turned extremely serious.
The Sage of Six Paths was not an entirely fanciful myth.
Konoha's ancient documents did contain scattered records of this progenitor of the Shinobi World.
Jiraiya, in particular, shuddered.
The disciple he had taken in back in the Land of Rain-Nagato-instantly surfaced in his mind.
Nagato's Rinnegan, with their concentric ripples, were precisely the divine eyes that, according to legend, only the Sage of Six Paths possessed.
"These ancient myths you're telling us..."
Jiraiya took a deep breath and asked urgently.
"What exactly are you getting at? What do they have to do with your Mangekyō Sharingan?"
Xin smiled faintly and dropped his biggest bombshell.
"The Sage of Six Paths later had two sons as well."
Xin held up two fingers.
"His eldest son, Indra, inherited the Sage Eyes; his younger son, Asura, inherited the Sage Body."
"The two brothers clashed over their beliefs as they contested the position of successor, loving and fighting each other across lifetime after lifetime."
Xin looked at the two shocked men.
"And the descendants of these two brothers have continued down to this day. They are-the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan!"
Clatter!
The pipe in the Third Hokage's hand fell to the floor with a sharp clatter.
"You... are you certain?"
The Third Hokage stared fixedly at Xin, his voice trembling.
The Senju and the Uchiha, the two founders of Konoha, were actually descended from brothers?
Xin gave an affirmative answer without hesitation.
"Absolutely certain."
To thoroughly substantiate his bluff.
Xin took a sealing scroll out of his ninja tool pouch.
He spread the scroll flat on the floor and rapidly formed hand seals.
"Release!"
Bang!
A huge cloud of white smoke burst forth.
An enormous stone tablet, two meters tall and exuding an ancient, weathered air, appeared out of nowhere in the center of the office.
Xin had secretly forged this tablet using the system and Earth Release. It was densely covered with strange runes.
Xin stepped forward, pressed his hand against the tablet, and poured a vast amount of chakra into it.
Hum!
The runes on the tablet instantly lit up with a deep blue glow.
The light interwove in midair, actually projecting the ancient scenes Xin had just described.
The God Tree, Kaguya, the Sage of Six Paths, and the battle between Indra and Asura appeared vividly before the two men.
What was even more devastating was this.
At the very bottom of the tablet, a glowing line of text was clearly inscribed.
[When the Sage Eyes and Sage Body merge, the product of the Sharingan evolving to its utmost limit is the Rinnegan, which governs life and death.]
Jiraiya's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he read it.
"Impossible!"
Jiraiya immediately refuted it loudly, utterly unwilling to believe this fact.
"The Rinnegan are divine eyes! How could they possibly have evolved from the Sharingan?!"
If this was true, wouldn't that mean Nagato's Rinnegan had countless ties to the Uchiha Clan?