freenovelworld Chapter 336 - 335: The Lone Soul from Beyond the Heavens
Chapter 336 - 335: The Lone Soul from Beyond the Heavens
Chapter 335: The Lone Soul from Beyond the Heavens
After leaving the Third’s house, Naruto went to find Sakura.
Kurenai Yuhi hadn’t been taken to the Grass Ninja Village by Shikaku at that time, as the Village needed protective forces.
Not to mention Old Ma and Kurenai Yuhi, even the Ino–Shika–Chō trio had been split up.
Choza was by Shikaku’s side, while Inoichi stayed in the Village.
Fearing a raid on their home base, Inoichi was now single-handedly managing both the Intelligence and Sensory Squads.
If nothing went wrong, Old Ma should have already headed toward Sunagakure by now.
Currently, Hidden Leaf Village had deployed most of its Ninja. Since the First Hokage had also left, the Second Hokage was the head of security, and Might Guy was both the principal and a head of security.
Sakumo Hatake and Jiraiya each led three teams to gather intelligence on the Land of Water and the Land of Lightning, returning just before Naruto did.
Originally, after learning that Naruto was Minato’s son, the Raikage wanted to go to the Land of Earth to strike Naruto, but the vanguard led by him and Killer Bee was intercepted by Jiraiya and Sakumo’s teams.
In other words, the next target was the Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning.
The difficulty of the Land of Water instance was too low; once Naruto had rested enough, he would go strike the Raikage before dealing with the Land of Water.
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A dusky space existing somewhere between reality and nothingness.
There was no concept of direction here, no real sense of the passage of time, only a boundless expanse filled with colors like a frozen twilight.
In the center of this strange space, an old man sat cross-legged, suspended in the air.
He wore a simple white robe, and there was a clear red Sun Mark on his forehead.
His face was aged and benevolent, with a long beard reaching his chest, exuding a sense of tranquility and majesty accumulated through endless ages.
Across his lap lay a pitch-black tin staff.
His hands firmly gripped the tin staff at points roughly three-fifths from either end.
The old man’s eyes were closed, as if lost in eternal meditation, or perhaps quietly keeping watch over something.
Directly opposite him, the space rippled slightly, and a figure ’appeared’ there somewhat dazed. It was Senju Hashirama.
Hashirama looked around, his face filled with confusion.
He remembered he should have been near the border of the Land of Wind, planting trees with Naruto’s Wood Clone.
How had he arrived in this strange place in the blink of an eye?
"Where... is this?"
Hashirama scratched his head. He tried to sense Chakra and his surroundings, but found that everything here was fundamentally different from the reality he knew.
There was no earth, no sky, no sign of life, and even the flow of Chakra was exceptionally sluggish, as if blocked by this dusky "air."
Even stranger, he realized that while his consciousness was clear and he could think and move, his body... didn’t seem to be physical. It was more like a pure condensation of energy or spirit.
Just then, the white-robed old man sitting in the air slowly opened his eyes.
They were a pair of purple eyes, like the deepest starry sky, yet appearing as though they could see through the past and future.
Within the pupils, mysterious concentric ripples spread out.
It was the Rinnegan!
The old man’s gaze fell calmly upon Hashirama.
He spoke, his voice aged and resonant.
"You... are the previous incarnation of Asura."
"Hmm?"
Hearing this, the simple-mindedness and confusion on Hashirama’s face vanished instantly, replaced by extreme alertness and seriousness.
His Aura shifted abruptly. Though he had no physical body at the moment, the steadiness and pressure belonging to the "God of Shinobi" who had survived countless bloody battles naturally emanated from him.
"Though I don’t know what you mean by ’previous incarnation of Asura’..."
Hashirama’s voice lowered as he stared sharply into the old man’s eyes.
"But... those eyes of yours are the ’Rinnegan’?"
He recognized the characteristics of that legendary Dōjutsu, making him even more cautious.
Every existence possessing the Rinnegan was a powerhouse with world-shaking strength, and the feeling this old man gave him was far more... than Nagato or the Otsutsuki Urashiki he had encountered before.
Unfathomable, as if he were one with this strange space.
"Yes."
The old man admitted frankly, his tone devoid of joy or sorrow.
"My name is Otsutsuki Hagoromo. In the legends of your later generations, I am called... the Six Paths Sage."
The Six Paths Sage!
This title exploded in Hashirama’s heart like a clap of thunder.
Even as steady as he was, he felt a wave of unbelievable shock at this moment.
The Six Paths Sage was a figure who only existed in myths and ancient records!
He... actually existed.
And he was appearing right before him now.
"Six Paths... Sage?"
Hashirama murmured, his vigilance instantly reaching its peak.
He forced himself to calm down and asked in a deep voice: "Then where... exactly is this? What is your purpose in bringing me here?"
The Six Paths Sage looked at him calmly and said slowly, "I have temporarily taken your Soul... away from the living world and brought it to the edge of the ’Pure Land.’"
This is the blurred zone where the living and the dead meet, and it is the place where I can speak with you directly."
"Pure Land?"
Hashirama’s gaze instantly became fierce, and the previously peaceful Aura around him suddenly turned dangerous. A powerful and invisible wave of Chakra faintly began to condense and erupt!
"Did you kill me?"
His voice carried a cold fury.
If the other party truly was the legendary Six Paths Sage, it wouldn’t be strange for him to possess such means, but that didn’t mean Hashirama would just wait for death.
Even facing a Sage, he had the courage to fight!
"I will not kill you."
The Six Paths Sage shook his head, his tone remaining steady, as if Hashirama’s surging Chakra had no effect on him at all.
"You were already a dead person, a Soul forcibly summoned back to the living world by the forbidden technique ’Edo Tensei,’ who obtained a suitable vessel and regained life.
I have merely guided your Soul here temporarily because I wish to have a chat with you."
Hearing that he only wanted to chat, Hashirama’s tense nerves relaxed slightly, but his vigilance did not disappear.
The ability to easily strip his Soul from an edo tensei body and bring it here was far beyond his understanding.
"What do you want to talk about?"
Hashirama asked; he didn’t believe this legendary Old Ancestor had summoned him just for small talk.
The Six Paths Sage’s gaze became profound as he stared at Hashirama and spoke slowly, asking a question that caught Hashirama off guard:
"Do you know Uzumaki Naruto’s true background?"
Hashirama was slightly stunned.
Naruto’s background?
What kind of question was that?
Regarding Naruto’s origins, Hashirama believed he knew well enough.
"He is the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and Uzumaki Kushina."
Hashirama gave his answer.
This was something all of Hidden Leaf Village knew after the Chunin Exams.
However, the Six Paths Sage gently shook his head, negating Hashirama’s answer.
"No."
The Six Paths Sage’s voice carried a calmness that saw through the truth.
"He is a lone Soul from ’beyond the heavens,’ not an existence native to this world."
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