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JST Chapter 224: The Sage of the Six Paths’ Ultimate Gambit
🕑 Added 2025-03-23 23:46:25 +0000 UTC"What do you think, Tobirama?" Kazuki furrowed his brows. "This sage's family affairs are already convoluted enough, and the solution he left behind is even more astonishing."
"But if you think about it carefully, if this method could eliminate the dissatisfaction in people's hearts, it might not be the worst idea. What do you think?"
"This is the destruction of the shinobi world!" Senju Tobirama swung his arm forcefully, his face filled with fury. "What a childish idea!"
"From my years of research, I’ve learned that achieving difficult goals is never a straight path—it’s always a process of twists and turns, progressing in a spiral rather than a direct line!"
"If every time we encountered hardship, we just reset everything, that would be absurd! Is the Sage of the Six Paths treating the shinobi world like some kind of experimental field?"
Kazuki glanced at Tobirama in surprise. Since when did he start summarizing philosophical principles?
Finding the unity between progress and setbacks, huh?
The so-called 'evil old Senju ghost' was actually a philosopher, possessing a rather dialectical way of thinking...
Indra, Asura, the competition for the Ninshu's inheritance, the Nine-Tomoe Rinne Sharingan that absorbs the Tailed Beasts' chakra, the God Tree, the Ten-Tails, the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan...
These elements collided in Senju Tobirama's mind, sparks of thought flashing rapidly!
"I understand now!"
After a brief moment, Tobirama’s eyes widened in realization.
"This is a conspiracy!"
"This stone tablet is a fabricated lie by the Sage of the Six Paths! Everything we’ve read up until now was just a distraction—the real key is this final part about the Infinite Tsukuyomi!"
"I believe the Infinite Tsukuyomi isn’t a path to peace at all—it’s a ritual to resurrect him!"
"That lunatic sage must have tried to initiate the Infinite Tsukuyomi a thousand years ago, but was stopped by Indra and Asura, leading to his eventual sealing!"
Kazuki stared blankly at Tobirama, exhaling a soft, astonished breath.
He almost felt like applauding Tobirama.
His guesses were incredibly on point!
Plot, motives, characters—Tobirama had pieced it all together. There were slight discrepancies, but the general trajectory of the truth was the same.
"Listen to me carefully, Kazuki!" Tobirama's Sharingan glowed with an intense crimson light. "I have completely unraveled the past of the Sage of the Six Paths!"
"Tobirama, I think I lost track of your reasoning—it’s jumping around too much..." Kazuki played along, feigning confusion as he pondered aloud. "What made you think this way?"
"According to your theory, Asura and Indra sealed away their own father. Isn’t that a little too far-fetched?"
Senju Tobirama waved his hand dismissively, his eyes gleaming with sharp insight, though there was an underlying tinge of frustration.
To him, if this had been the Kazuki of old, he would have kept up effortlessly, making bold deductions to uncover the truth behind all this.
But now, Kazuki was under too much pressure. His body was still being affected by the corruption, and his once-quick thinking was undoubtedly being hindered.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t need to ask—he would have figured it out himself!
"Kazuki, my theory may seem like a leap, but the logic aligns perfectly with the clues we have."
Tobirama stared intently at the stone tablet, his Sharingan spinning as thoughts raced through his mind. "Let’s work backward from the facts. The Infinite Tsukuyomi—was it truly meant to save the world, or was it a means of destroying it?"
"Reclaiming all chakra, merging the nine Tailed Beasts back into the Ten-Tails, and trapping the entire shinobi world in an illusion to erase the very desire for conflict—this so-called peace..."
Tobirama scoffed. "It sounds nice, but in reality, it’s just mass slaughter disguised as salvation."
"No rational person—no one with a sound mind—would ever believe in such a thing. Only someone completely consumed by their own obsessions would fall for it."
Kazuki cleared his throat lightly. "Alright, Tobirama, stop beating around the bush. You’re talking about the Uchiha, aren’t you?"
Tobirama nodded without hesitation. "I’m not hinting—I’m stating it outright."
"The Sage of the Six Paths wasn’t a simple man, Kazuki. Don’t assume his plan was foolish."
He continued, his voice grave. "He understood the cycle of the shinobi world well—peace and chaos are two sides of the same coin, destined to alternate over time. True, lasting stability is impossible."
"And his understanding of the Uchiha was even deeper. Those red-eyed warriors are always drawn to extremes. Take Madara, for example. When he argued with my brother, he constantly spoke of achieving ‘eternal’ peace—seeking an ultimate, irreversible solution."
"To an ordinary person, this stone tablet is full of logical flaws. But to an Uchiha with powerful eyes, an unstable temperament, and a mind consumed by darkness, this is nothing short of divine revelation."
Huh.
Tobirama wasn’t wrong.
The average person would never accept the Infinite Tsukuyomi. But an Uchiha? That was another story.
Madara was proof enough. Then there was Obito…
Kazuki frowned, following Tobirama’s train of thought. "So, this stone tablet—it’s actually the Sage’s hidden escape plan?"
"Because war in the shinobi world is inevitable, sooner or later, a powerful Uchiha would seek a permanent peace. And when the right person stumbles upon this tablet, the Sage’s resurrection becomes possible…"
"In other words, the Sage of the Six Paths used the Uchiha’s nature, along with the ever-repeating cycles of war and peace, to orchestrate his own revival?"
Tobirama gave a satisfied nod. "Exactly, Kazuki. You summed it up perfectly."
Kazuki mulled over the idea, then posed another question. "But even if the Sage’s method is absurd, why do you think he was originally sealed away for trying to destroy the world?"
"History records his teachings—the Ninshu was founded on mutual understanding as the path to peace. What if he simply regretted his past choices and wanted to restart the shinobi world?"
Tobirama chuckled. "Kazuki, you graduated with top marks in the Will of Fire curriculum. Do you remember how they taught your class that the Third Hokage was the strongest Hokage?"
"Well… isn’t he? To be fair, Uncle Hiruzen seemed to have better results in the will of fire than you," Kazuki teased.
"..."
Tobirama’s expression darkened. He had originally intended to justify Hiruzen’s political decisions as necessary for maintaining Konoha’s stability.
But after hearing Kazuki’s remark… Well, now he felt compelled to prove himself.
Kazuki had unknowingly fueled Tobirama’s growing desire to give Sarutobi Hiruzen a proper lesson.
"Alright, Tobirama. I get what you mean. Keep going."
Tobirama ground his teeth but pressed on. "History is like a malleable child, shaped by those who write it. Every record is embellished or altered—it can only serve as a partial reference."
"What we can truly trust are the facts we uncover for ourselves."
"Consider your own Nine-Tomoe Rinne Sharingan, Kazuki. The way it forcefully absorbs the Tailed Beasts’ chakra—combine that with the stone tablet’s mention of chakra reclamation, and it’s clear whose work this is."
Tobirama’s voice turned solemn. "That level of chakra absorption—it’s fast, brutal, like a starving man scrambling for his last meal."
"That alone proves that the message on this tablet is a lie. If the shinobi world were truly at peace, there would be no need for the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and that eye wouldn’t be stealing your chakra, Kazuki."
Kazuki nodded thoughtfully. "You’re making a lot of sense."
"Kazuki, when this eye absorbs the Tailed Beasts’ chakra, do you feel anything?"
"Not really… If you hadn’t pointed it out, I might not have even noticed."
Tobirama nodded firmly. "Then that explains everything!"
"If I weren’t inside you, this eye would have silently drained your chakra to strengthen itself..."
"Hmph, his plan was well thought out, but he overlooked one crucial factor—"
"He never considered that the Uchiha Clan would produce someone like you, Kazuki—someone with incredibly powerful ocular abilities and a rational mind. And, more importantly, someone who has me inside him!"
Senju Tobirama continued explaining his theory: "Now, let’s think about this—who was powerful enough to stop the Sage of the Six Paths when he tried to destroy the world?"
"It's obvious—it could only have been his two sons, the ancestors of the Uchiha and Senju clans!"
"The so-called successor selection for the Ninshu that the Sage established was the biggest flaw in his plan. Deciding the future of the world through such a childish method? Even selecting a class representative at the Ninja Academy is more formal than that."
"There must have been a serious rift between the Sage and his sons. And if anyone could have stopped him, it had to be them..."
Kazuki, however, shook his head in disagreement. "Tobirama, that doesn’t make sense."
"If the ancestors of the Uchiha and Senju worked together to stop the Sage of the Six Paths, then their descendants should be united. But instead, they’ve been locked in conflict for over a thousand years without ever reaching peace. Why?"
Tobirama sighed. "Kazuki, I’m really starting to worry about you. Your thinking is getting slow."
"Think about this stone tablet—after a few generations, after countless wars and divisions in the shinobi world, the Uchiha who read it would naturally develop resentment toward the Senju."
Tobirama fixed his gaze on the Uchiha stone tablet, his crimson Sharingan gleaming like fresh blood as he placed himself in the mindset of an Uchiha. "They wouldn’t accept it..."
"Wars that drive the world forward in painful cycles would only fuel the Uchiha’s hatred. And the story inscribed on this tablet—of an unfair succession—would magnify that resentment."
"In the end, the descendants of those who once stood side by side to save the shinobi world would drift apart, their bonds erased by the tide of history..."
"The Sage of the Six Paths was a genius. He saw history from a higher plane, beyond the scope of ordinary men. It’s no wonder he was once the supreme being."
Kazuki blinked.
Wait… Did he just call me slow?
No, that wasn’t important.
The logic behind Tobirama’s deductions was airtight—he had basically nailed the Sage of the Six Paths as the ultimate villain, leaving no room for redemption.
