The one who crawled out from the ruins of the mountain basin was none other than Uchiha Sasuke.
At the instant Isshiki's Heavenly Sun Spear pierced through the center of his forehead, the Rinne Seal Hagoromo had left on his brow was shattered as well.
The seal locking his eyes was released.
In the split second between life and death, Sasuke instinctively activated the Amenotejikara of his left eye and swapped the positions of his brain and left kidney.
In the past, such a feat would have been utterly unimaginable.
It was only possible now because he had awakened Rinnegan in both eyes, granting him vastly enhanced ocular power.
Even stranger, although only his brain had been moved to the location of his left kidney, the two completely different organs had connected to the surrounding nerves, blood vessels, and chakra pathways in a bizarre yet seamless way.
The left kidney that had been swapped into his skull and then destroyed was one thing.
More astonishingly, the brain relocated into his abdominal cavity had suffered no infection and caused no discomfort whatsoever.
During the several hours he had lain unconscious underground, Hashirama's cells had already repaired the skin burned by the explosion.
Sasuke touched his forehead and the back of his skull.
Beneath the newly grown skin, he could clearly feel a sunken softness, like the fontanelle of an infant.
"It seems the hole blasted through my skull hasn't healed. Hashirama's cells can regenerate flesh, but bone is another matter."
"My left kidney was completely destroyed. My cranial cavity should currently be filled with high-pressure blood."
"I need to remove the dead kidney as soon as possible. Otherwise, blood clots could form and compress my optic nerves."
"After all, my eyes are theoretically sitting right next to a kidney now."
Amenotejikara's new capabilities were still unfamiliar to him.
He had no idea what condition his body was truly in.
One mistake here would be fatal.
So he did not dare recklessly swap his brain back into his skull.
He touched the area where his left kidney should have been and muttered, "This feels strange… as if I'm thinking with my lower body."
Sasuke looked at his right palm.
The Yin Seal Hagoromo had bestowed upon him was gone.
I'm not dead, so the mark should not have disappeared on its own.
Which means…
Hagoromo must have retrieved it, believing I had died.
"If that's the case, Naruto can no longer sense me. Hagoromo, however, likely still can."
He looked down at his waist.
The Ame-no-Nuboko Sword was also gone.
Had Hagoromo taken that back as well?
"Still, in the instant of the explosion, I vaguely sensed something forming a barrier and absorbing part of the blast."
"Otherwise, my injuries would have been far worse than superficial burns."
"So the souls residing in the Truth-Seeking Orbs that composed the sword… the Mitama Truth-Seeking Orbs… must have shielded me."
"After confirming what he believed was my death, Hagoromo recalled both the sword and the Yin power."
He narrowed his eyes.
"And the Rinne Seal is too important a power to be casually destroyed."
"When my head was blown open, the seal formula likely returned to Hagoromo himself."
"That explanation is the most logical."
He exhaled softly.
"I can't exactly call it kicking me while I'm down."
"Hagoromo has no ill intentions toward Naruto or me."
"He is simply too afraid of his mother and too desperate to stop her."
Sasuke lowered his hand.
"In that case, I don't need to worry about him doing anything reckless to Naruto."
"I should deal with my own problems first."
"I've already grasped the principles behind Six Paths Yin Power. Recreating the seal later should be possible."
"As for the Rinne Seal…"
"In the instant it shattered, I caught a glimpse of its underlying structure."
"Reconstructing it should only be a matter of time."
"So this is what they mean by destruction paving the way for rebirth."
He looked at his body.
"The priority now is to confirm my physical condition so I can proceed without concern."
"For that, I need someone skilled and reliable."
A faint smirk appeared on his lips.
"When it comes to this sort of thing, there's no one I trust more than Orochimaru."
…
At the exact moment Sasuke burst through the ruins, Hagoromo sensed it.
Sasuke… survived.
He survived an attack powerful enough to trigger the retrieval failsafe on my Rinne Seal.
Even under those circumstances, he lived.
In that situation, he shouldn't even have had time to activate Izanagi.
Hagoromo let out a quiet sigh.
At least this eases some of my guilt.
It was my decision to seal Sasuke's ocular powers.
Because of that, he was unable to use his right eye's ability to reflect Isshiki's attack.
Naruto had been overwhelmed by too many catastrophes to sort through them one by one.
But once he calmed down and began thinking clearly, he might very well blame me for what happened to Sasuke.
This outcome is for the best.
Still…
There's no need to tell Naruto that Sasuke is alive.
On the matter of Uchiha Jin, Sasuke clearly harbors thoughts of his own.
Even the Great Toad Sage's prophecy might not convince him.
After all, the prophecy never explicitly stated that Uchiha Jin was the heavenly fiend.
And Sasuke, of all people, can always find bones in an egg.
Naruto had only just steeled his resolve to march against Dark Hidden Village and confront Kaguya and Uchiha Jin.
There was no need to introduce further complications.
…
Naruto knew nothing of Hagoromo's thoughts.
His eyes red, he recounted everything that had happened to Gaara.
Half a month earlier, while returning to Sunagakure after the Chūnin Exams incident, Gaara had been attacked by Urashiki's fishing hook.
Since then, he had not left the village even once.
He could scarcely believe that in less than two weeks, Konoha had been devastated, Naruto had lost his wife and son, been abandoned by the people, and stripped of the Hokage title he had earned through countless hardships.
As Naruto spoke, his emotions grew more and more intense.
His Mangekyō Sharingan appeared within his eyes, glowing with a crimson light so fierce that even Gaara felt his heart tremble.
"That's what happened!"
"That's the Great Toad Sage's prophecy!"
"It was all the doing of the Otsutsuki possessing Uchiha Jin!"
"Dark Hidden Village is the demon's nest he built!"
"He keeps Jin's own children and many innocent children at his side!"
"On the surface, he appears to be raising them!"
"But in reality, he intends to use them as shields when his lies are exposed!"
Naruto clenched his fists.
"We can't remain passive any longer!"
"Before this fiend grows stronger, we have to uproot his lair at any cost!"
"We must seal Uchiha Jin!"
"We must seal Kaguya!"
"We must rescue those children!"
"We must save the future of the shinobi world!"
"And fulfill the prophecy entrusted to us by the Great Toad Sage!"
Gaara's eyes reddened.
His heart broke.
But what shattered him was not Naruto's story itself.
It was Naruto's state of mind after enduring so much tragedy.
The man before him looked like someone possessed.
Naruto now resembled the boy Gaara once saw reflected in his own mirror.
Naruto…
When I wasn't looking, in places I never knew, just how much suffering have you endured?
But Gaara was the Kazekage.
The lives of twenty-three thousand Sunagakure shinobi rested on his shoulders.
Mobilizing his entire village to attack another hidden village was not a decision he could make lightly.
Clenching his hand over his shoulder, he forced down his emotions and spoke as calmly as he could.
"Naruto."
"Although the Great Toad Sage's prophecy described an Uchiha possessed by an Otsutsuki, and those characteristics closely resemble Uchiha Jin…"
"We cannot completely rule out the possibility that it refers to someone else."
Gaara's gaze sharpened.
"And if Uchiha Jin truly bears a Kāma from another Otsutsuki, then he should display markings like the ones we saw on Hyūga Tarō."
"But when we fought him, we never saw any such marks on his body."
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