Really.
The moment Namikaze Kirito saw the old man's eyes light up, he knew the other party had come here with a purpose.
But exposing him right away would be too boring.
Kirito tilted his head slightly and looked at him with a playful smile.
"Who are you supposed to be, old man? Ōtsutsuki Kaguya is my trophy. I was planning to take her back and admire her every day."
Hearing that, the old man's aged face darkened with visible displeasure.
"Young one… even if she strayed from the right path, she is still the ancestor of chakra. She is not someone you may humiliate as you please."
He paused before continuing in a solemn tone.
"As for who I am… forgive the late introduction. I am the one you know as the Sage of Six Paths."
Kirito's smile deepened.
"Didn't you die a long time ago?"
"Yes. My physical body perished long ago. My soul now resides within the Pure Land. However, for the sake of protecting this world, I left a fragment of myself behind."
The Sage of Six Paths looked toward Kaguya's fallen body.
"If my mother were ever to return, this remnant would awaken and entrust the method of sealing her to the next inheritors."
His gaze shifted back toward Kirito.
"I did not expect to awaken only to find that she had already been defeated by you."
After a brief silence, he continued.
"If it is power you seek, I still possess some remaining chakra. I may pass it on to you. Although…"
The Sage looked directly into Kirito's eyes.
"…judging by your expression, I doubt that interests you."
Kirito laughed.
The sound echoed through the silent dimension.
The Sage's brows slowly furrowed.
"Young one," he said calmly, "I do not know what you find amusing."
Kirito slowly stopped laughing.
Then his expression became slightly strange.
"No… I was just wondering something."
The Sage remained silent.
Kirito looked at him meaningfully.
"You've been watching me for a long time, haven't you?"
The Sage's eyes narrowed slightly.
"What are you implying?"
Kirito smiled lazily.
"Nothing much."
He slowly raised one finger.
"If this world needs balance, then it needs a beginning and an end."
"The beginning moves toward the end. The end returns everything to the beginning."
"A cycle."
"Like a planet endlessly circling the sun."
The Sage listened quietly.
Kirito's eyes slowly sharpened.
"But if someone maintains that cycle forever… then eventually they stop being merely part of the world."
"They become the thing guiding it."
His gaze shifted toward Kaguya.
"She is both the beginning and the end."
"Yet every cycle still continued perfectly."
Kirito looked back at the Sage.
"That means someone was always there to guide things back onto the correct path whenever they deviated."
Silence filled the air.
Kirito smiled faintly.
"Am I wrong, Sage of Six Paths?"
The old man remained quiet for several seconds.
Then he sighed softly.
"…No."
For the first time, exhaustion appeared on the Sage's ancient face.
"I tried to stop it."
Kirito's expression changed slightly.
The Sage's voice became heavy.
"For countless cycles, I maintained this world's balance. Even when my mother resisted her fate, I could still guide the flow back onto its destined path."
"But after your birth… something from beyond this world began interfering."
Kirito's eyes narrowed.
"Beyond this world?"
"A higher dimension."
For the first time, fear appeared in the Sage's eyes.
"Something even I cannot fully perceive."
"It watched this world through me."
"And once you severed Kaguya's fate… I could no longer suppress it."
Kirito's smile slowly faded.
The Sage continued quietly.
"Do you understand what your existence caused?"
"This world had already repeated itself three hundred and twenty-one thousand times."
His voice carried a strange bitterness.
"Kaguya's descent. The rise of chakra. The era of shinobi. Conflict. Sealing. Rebirth."
"Again."
"And again."
"And again."
Kirito listened silently.
"But your arrival changed things."
The Sage slowly looked toward the distant world beyond the dimension.
"The people around you began changing."
"They developed wills beyond the framework of the cycle."
"They became… real."
A strange silence filled the space.
The Sage clenched his staff tightly.
"That was when it noticed this world completely."
Kirito spoke calmly.
"That higher-dimensional existence?"
The Sage nodded.
"At first, it merely observed."
"But each time I attempted to correct the cycle… I could feel it growing closer."
His expression darkened.
"It wanted to erase you many times."
Kirito's eyes narrowed slightly.
"But it couldn't."
"No."
The Sage admitted it directly.
"As the will maintaining this world's balance, It could not interfere without cause."
"You were an anomaly."
"But the cycle itself still existed."
"So It could only watch."
The Sage's gaze slowly fell upon Kaguya.
"But once you severed her fate…"
The space trembled faintly.
"The cycle collapsed."
"And the moment that happened…"
Crack.
A strange sound echoed through the dimension.
Kirito's eyes instantly sharpened.
The Sage suddenly froze in place.
Black fractures slowly spread across his translucent body like cracks crawling across glass.
"…!"
For the first time, genuine panic appeared on Hagoromo's face.
"No…"
The pressure in the surrounding space suddenly became incomparably heavier.
"…not now."
The cracks spread faster.
Dark chakra seeped from them like smoke leaking from a broken seal.
The Sage's expression twisted violently.
Kirito looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"You finally lost control?"
The Sage's body trembled.
"I suppressed it for as long as I could…"
His voice became distorted halfway through the sentence.
"It was waiting for—"
The Sage's trembling body slowly straightened.
The panic vanished from his face completely.
His expression became calm.
"I should thank you, Namikaze Kirito."
"You have brought me an unexpected opportunity."
"I will erase all of you."
"And afterward, I will create life again."
His voice became absolute.
"Then your power to travel between different realities will belong to me."
At that moment...
Kaguya's "corpse" trembled faintly.
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