Brook used the Kamui Sharingan to absorb several ninja blades engraved with the Flying Thunder God formula.
As expected, Flying Thunder God could not sense the spatial marks inside Kamui space.
Obito's Mangekyo space really was something special.
"I am the God of Death," Brook said casually while speaking to Minato Namikaze, "and I've come to recast the cycle of reincarnation in this world, so that you people won't even have the chance to reincarnate."
As he spoke, he deliberately sucked some trash into Kamui space with malicious amusement.
He really wanted to see Obito's face when he returned and found his secret dimension full of garbage.
Kakashi never had enough chakra to waste Kamui on something like that.
Brook did.
He had Hashirama's bloodline, his own monstrous reserves, and the Yin Nine Tails as a chakra battery in his hands.
"Then why did you force the Third Hokage to die and impersonate me to become Konoha's Hokage?" Minato asked in a low voice.
He wanted more information.
He had overheard part of the exchange between Brook and the Sage of Six Paths, but even now, he still could not fully understand what kind of monster stood in front of him.
"To save time," Brook said impatiently. "And to gather the blood of gods."
"The reincarnation god of this world was killed by the ancestor of the Sage of Six Paths. The Sage inherited part of that power and awakened the Rinnegan."
"And most of the ninja bloodlines with special power are descendants of the Otsutsuki clan."
Brook was already thinking about whether he should create another Minato clone or simply borrow Uchiha Shisui's Kotoamatsukami to completely rewrite Minato Namikaze's will.
"You plan to kill those special bloodline ninja?" Minato frowned deeply.
The great clans of Konoha all possessed bloodline techniques in one form or another.
If this mysterious powerhouse was targeting them, then Konoha would truly face disaster.
"Most of them aren't even qualified yet," Brook said lightly.
Right now, the only things that truly interested him were Isshiki Otsutsuki, Kaguya Otsutsuki, the complete Ten Tails, Uchiha Madara's Rinnegan, and other top level bloodline powers, Bloodline Limits, Bloodline Elimination, or Bloodline Net techniques.
"I don't know your name," Minato said after a pause. "But what exactly do you want us to do?"
He had calmed down now.
Both he and Kushina were already under Brook's control and had no way to resist. All he could do was find a path that minimized the damage to Konoha.
"Call me the God of Death," Brook answered. "You only need to obey me and keep Konoha running."
"Normally, I won't touch ninja below the Kage level."
Brook's real priority now was locating Uchiha Madara and Otsutsuki Isshiki, then using the divine power left behind by the Western Underworld God, Jin, to devour those powerful bloodlines.
He even wanted to enter Obito's Kamui space and use it as a node to trace the current location of Obito and Madara.
After all, Obito had fled back to Madara's lair to recover after being injured by Minato.
"I should have left a White Zetsu alive," Brook thought with annoyance. "If I'd let one run, I could have followed the trail back."
Now, if he moved quickly enough, he might still catch one of the White Zetsu wandering outside collecting information.
Besides, if Minato truly submitted, Brook would still need a White Zetsu body for him to inhabit.
At that moment, Kushina approached with Naruto in her arms.
She looked at the God of Death uneasily, then turned toward Minato with desperate hope in her eyes.
She wanted her husband to obey.
For Naruto's sake.
She truly did not want to leave their child.
But to Minato Namikaze, the village still weighed more heavily than his son.
There were tens of thousands in the village.
He had only one son.
Even if he pretended to submit on the surface, there was every chance he was already plotting something in secret.
Brook saw through it at once.
"Still stalling?"
He clicked his tongue.
"Forget it. Talking was never my strength."
In the next instant, Brook vanished with Flying Thunder God and appeared beside Uchiha Shisui, whose body also carried one of his marks.
The moment he disappeared, Minato's already hesitant expression changed drastically.
Kushina, still holding Naruto, turned and screamed at her husband.
"You! Why didn't you agree to him?"
Her eyes were red, her voice sharp with grief and rage.
"Do we really have to keep giving everything to this village even after we're dead?!"
When Minato had decided to seal the Nine Tails into Naruto, Kushina had already opposed him fiercely.
She had been willing to die together with Kurama if it meant saving her husband and son.
Even if the Nine Tails would revive many years later, she would have accepted it.
She only wanted Minato and Naruto to live.
But Minato had insisted on preserving the Nine Tails for Konoha.
He had been willing to die for the village.
He had chosen to seal the beast into Naruto, even if that meant their newborn child would become an orphaned jinchuriki.
And he had believed that the Third Hokage would properly care for Naruto.
"Kushina, I…"
Minato could not meet her eyes.
Between his son and the village, he had chosen the village.
And now that truth was finally laid bare between them.
For the first time, he truly understood the pain of those Uchiha who had tried to balance family and village.
Which mattered more?
The family in front of you?
Or the village behind you?
That choice was enough to tear a person apart.
"You want to sacrifice everything for Konoha!" Kushina shouted through tears. "But I would give up everything for Naruto!"
When she was young, she had watched Uzushiogakure fall.
She had come to Konoha as a survivor from the nearly extinct Uzumaki clan. With her red hair, her foreign blood, and her reckless dream of one day becoming Hokage, she had endured endless ridicule and bullying.
Then she met Minato.
That warm, gentle little sun.
For him, she gave up her own Hokage dream, handed that dream to him instead, and devoted everything to Konoha.
But they had already died for the village.
That should have been enough.
Now they had another chance, not to live again, but at least to remain and watch their son grow.
And Minato was still hesitating because of Konoha.
Kushina could not accept that.
She looked down at Naruto in her arms, then at her husband's soul.
And for the first time, she made her choice clearly.
Her living son came before her dead husband.
She was willing to submit to the Death God if it meant even a small chance to stay by Naruto's side as he grew up.
··
Meanwhile, on the other side, "Namikaze Minato" had already appeared before Uchiha Shisui.
Brook directly told him that he wanted to borrow his eyes for a bit of research.
And he added something that made Shisui's heart skip.
Brook said he would not allow [Kotoamatsukami] to enter a cooldown of more than ten years.
With Hashirama's bloodline, Brook could accelerate Sharingan recovery and greatly shorten the cooldown period of Kotoamatsukami.
In the original timeline, Danzo had been exposed quickly after using Kotoamatsukami on Mifune.
Later, by the time he fought Sasuke, the technique was almost ready to use again.
Danzo had planned to kill Sasuke through Izanagi first, then use [Kotoamatsukami] to control Obito, whom he believed to be Uchiha Madara.
But Danzo was too arrogant to waste Kotoamatsukami on Sasuke, and in the end he died before he could use it on his true target.
-----------
Although Uchiha Shisui was extremely reluctant to lend out his Sharingan, he found that he had no real way to resist the Fourth Hokage.
So he could only cling to one small hope.
That the Hokage would not use his Kotoamatsukami carelessly.
If it was used on the radical faction within the Uchiha clan, then perhaps that was still acceptable.
But of course, the best outcome would be not using it at all.
Shisui did not want to get back a pair of Mangekyo eyes that would immediately enter a cooldown period of more than ten years.
Inside Orochimaru's laboratory, Orochimaru watched as Uchiha Shisui's Sharingan was removed. He quietly took the chance to collect some of Shisui's blood, and his curiosity only deepened.
The Fourth Hokage had said the eyes would only be borrowed for a few hours before being returned.
That made Orochimaru even more interested.
He did not actually know that Uchiha Shisui had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, but he had already guessed that those eyes possessed some very rare and terrifying ability.
The way the Fourth Hokage valued them all but confirmed it.
His gaze toward Shisui became even more fanatical.
Meanwhile, inside Minato Namikaze's residence, the atmosphere between Minato and Kushina had grown painfully cold.
There was far more sorrow in Kushina's eyes now.
How wonderful it would have been if they could have survived together.
But if the God of Death truly intended to erase them both, then Kushina was ready to abandon her husband for Naruto's sake.
Minato, meanwhile, was still trying to think of a solution.
But he could not break the control the Death God held over their souls.
He could not leave.
He could not even use ninjutsu.
"That's enough," Brook said at last. "Let's settle this once and for all."
He looked at the three Mangekyo Sharingan implanted in his arm, then smiled at the Minato couple.
"Lord Death!" Kushina fell to her knees at once, still holding Naruto in her arms. "I'm willing to submit! Please don't erase me. Please, just give me the chance to take care of Naruto!"
She was truly afraid now.
And at this moment, she felt even more disappointed in her husband, who still had not lowered his head.
"Don't worry," Brook said. "You can both continue to exist."
Then, without hesitation, he used [Kotoamatsukami] on both souls.
From now on, they would devote everything to God of Death and obey all of his commands.
Compared to the grand task of rebuilding the cycle of life, the so called Will of Fire was meaningless.
Brook had already seen enough proof of Kotoamatsukami's nature.
Even the reanimated body of Uchiha Itachi had been able to break free from Kabuto's control through Kotoamatsukami.
For beings whose level did not surpass the power of the Mangekyo's pupil force, changing their will silently was not difficult at all.
"God of Death." x2
Minato and Kushina both knelt before Brook, their eyes now holding only absolute loyalty.
"From now on, you can both appear openly," Brook ordered. "Until I find a suitable host body for you, Namikaze Minato will act as my special shadow clone and continue handling the government."
"Kushina will act as my special summoning and remain specifically to care for Naruto."
"Yes, sir." x2
Both of them answered instantly and began preparing to carry out their roles.
Brook then examined the Kotoamatsukami Sharingan in his arm and began estimating its cooldown.
"Hm? Even with Hashirama's cells accelerating recovery, the Mangekyo still suffers permanent damage?"
He could feel that Kotoamatsukami's eye had been worn down slightly, almost like a pencil being sharpened. It could be used again, yes, but every use permanently shortened it.
"Shisui has no brothers or sisters. So there's no way for this Kotoamatsukami Mangekyo to evolve into an Eternal Mangekyo. That means every use is one use fewer forever."
Brook found that deeply irritating.
He had finally gotten his hands on something good, only to discover it was not truly sustainable.
So the old fantasy that Hashirama's cells plus Kotoamatsukami could create an infinite control loop really was unrealistic.
A normal Mangekyo Sharingan could not be used forever.
Not even Hashirama's cells could fully restore it.
"Well then," Brook chuckled, "who should I control next? Orochimaru, perhaps?"
He waited quietly for Kotoamatsukami to cool down again.
Since he had already dug out Shisui's eyes and borrowed them anyway, he fully intended to use both casts.
A few hours later, as soon as Kotoamatsukami had cooled down, Brook immediately used Flying Thunder God to return to Orochimaru's lab and took Orochimaru for himself as well.
The scientist's will was silently changed.
From now on, Orochimaru would follow God of Death in pursuit of immortality.
As for the other Kotoamatsukami, Brook chose a more unexpected target.
He used it on Orochimaru's summoning beast, Manda.
Brook had already set his sights on the White Snake Sage of Ryuchi Cave.
At the right time, all he needed was for Manda to use Reverse Summoning and bring both Brook and Orochimaru into Ryuchi Cave. Then Brook could launch a surprise attack on those ancient native sage beasts.
As Uchiha Shisui anxiously waited, the eyes were finally ready again by the early hours of the morning.
They had indeed suffered some permanent damage, but they were still usable.
Brook hoped Shisui would not take it too badly.
Under Orochimaru's surgery, Uchiha Shisui received his Sharingan back and regained his vision.
He could still feel that Kotoamatsukami remained usable and had not entered a long cooldown, which reassured him greatly.
As expected, Lord Hokage was trustworthy.
Only one thing bothered him.
Why did his vision feel slightly blurrier than before?
Orochimaru calmly explained that the eyes had simply been outside their sockets for too long and had suffered some damage.
Shisui had no choice but to accept that answer.
Still, he thought he sensed a faint trace of Kotoamatsukami's pupil power coming from Orochimaru himself.
But when he confirmed that his own eyes were still active and not on cooldown, he had no choice but to suppress that suspicion.
After that, he returned to the Uchiha compound to rest.
Brook, on the other hand, had no need to rest at all.
He immediately began tracking the Flying Thunder God mark on Obito's body while also recalling White Zetsu bodies through the marks he had left.
Minato Namikaze handled political work in the Hokage office in Brook's place.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru and a few ANBU left the village to find Tsunade and Jiraiya and summon them back for the Third Hokage's funeral.
Brook returned to his Earth appearance and headed straight for the Land of Rain.
Where Nagato was, White Zetsu would never be far away.
And Brook had already set his eyes on the Rinnegan.
By now, Uchiha Madara was most likely already dead.
That meant Obito and Black Zetsu were probably in the Land of Rain, secretly planning to kill Yahiko, force Nagato into darkness, and set the Moon Eye Plan in motion.
Brook found it all somewhat ridiculous.
For all their power, Madara, Nagato, and Obito were only pitiful pawns.
The true enemy he cared about now was the alien race above them all.
The Otsutsuki clan.
And once he thought of Isshiki Otsutsuki, who still had not fully recovered and was hiding inside Jigen while searching for the perfect vessel to resurrect through Karma, Brook's expression hardened.
That monster was the most dangerous one.
Because Isshiki could call the rest of the Otsutsuki.
"It looks like once I get the Rinnegan, I should immediately go find Isshiki Otsutsuki."
"And it would be best if I could drag the Sage of Six Paths along too."
Brook needed more power under his control.
Otherwise, whether it was Hagoromo or Isshiki, either one could still ambush him at any time.
.....
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