"Otherwise, if other monks were to see you, Senior Brother, what should they address you? Without such a title, how would Senior Brother know that what others call out is you? Even a fake monk must have a fake Dharma name if he is to walk the world. Otherwise, even your falsehood would be incomplete. Wouldn't that mean this kasaya was worn for nothing?"
Hearing this, that inexplicable irritation rose again in Madara Uchiha's heart. He only felt that the young monk's words were like countless flies buzzing around his ears, circling endlessly, impossible to swat to death and impossible to drive away.
He forcibly suppressed that unprovoked agitation and spoke expressionlessly, "Nitai."
"Nitai?"
Hearing this, Genjo seemed to fall into thought, and the strand of bodhisattva prayer beads in his hand paused for a brief moment before he resumed turning them one bead at a time.
"What, is there something wrong with it?" Madara Uchiha stared at him.
"There is not exactly anything wrong with it."
Genjo smiled faintly and raised his eyes. "The truth and the mundane operate together, merit and fault existing in one body. It seems that Senior Brother is someone with a story."
Merit and fault existing in one body...
When those words fell into Madara Uchiha's ears, his heart gave a slight jolt, but not the slightest ripple appeared on his face, and he only said blandly, "Then tell me, what kind of story do I have?"
"Just as this humble monk said earlier, Senior Brother is Indra."
Genjo's smile remained warm and tranquil. "Indra is the lord of the Thirty-Three Heavens, dwelling atop Mount Sumeru, his majesty and virtue extending across the four seas, enjoying all the blessings of the heavens."
"Before becoming a monk, Senior Brother must once have stood upon the summit of towering heights, holding power in his grasp, his name resounding with prestige, basking in all the glory of the world. And judging from the Senior Brother's Dharma name, Nitai refers to the ultimate truth and worldly truth."
He paused slightly and looked at Madara Uchiha with a calm gaze. "A person who takes two truths as his title must be one who holds the truth firmly in his grasp and believes deeply that his own path is the truth. It is evident that Senior Brother carries within his heart a truth he alone has acknowledged, and for its sake, he would not hesitate to cast aside everything mundane, for true and worldly cannot both be preserved. Thus, he abandoned the worldly to take hold of the truth."
"I imagine Senior Brother is now walking alone on a road with no companion by his side, yet still firmly believes that what he holds is the one and only truth, and that the road he walks is the true path of light."
"Yet though Indra's radiance is dazzling, even he cannot escape the signs of the five decays. One who once stood at the peak must also once have fallen into the abyss. One who once enjoyed supreme honor must also have endured destruction and slander."
"Merit and fault, light and darkness, creation and destruction, all reside within one body. None but two truths could bear such a thing. That is why I say Senior Brother is someone with a story."
Hearing this, Madara Uchiha's pupils contracted sharply as he stared at the young monk before him in uncertain shock.
At the side, Isshiki Otsutsuki was inwardly startled once again.
What exactly was the background of this young monk?
Every sentence he spoke clearly pointed, word by word, toward Madara Uchiha's true identity, yet he never directly exposed it, always using Buddhist metaphors as the surface.
Could he really be Kaguya's eldest son?
After a moment, Madara Uchiha drew in a deep breath, fixed his gaze on Genjo, and asked coldly, "Who exactly are you!?"
Although he had never fully laid bare before anyone, creation and destruction, glory and disgrace, the village he had personally helped build only to personally betray, the close friend who had once walked beside him only for them to later cross blades, and that self who had walked alone in darkness for decades, reviled by the world and forgotten by history, all of it had been summarized by the young monk before him, merely through the two names Indra and Nitai, encapsulating the very core of his entire life.
Faced with that overwhelming pressure from such a powerful figure, Genjo's expression remained as calm as drifting clouds. He pressed his palms together and said, "The dust of former days has already ended, old shadows are as empty as the void. The me of yesterday is no longer me. This body merely walks along the road. If this older brother asks my true name, then my true name abides nowhere. If this older brother asks whence I came, then my origin has no gate. This body is Genjo, and Genjo is this body. There is nothing beyond that."
Without waiting for Madara Uchiha to press further, he instead turned toward the gray-robed monk in the corner who had remained silent the entire time, gave a salute, and smiled. "And this Senior Brother?"
Isshiki Otsutsuki was silent for quite a while. His gaze lingered repeatedly on the young monk's face, and in the end, he still returned the salute and said, "This humble monk's Dharma name is Ichisun."
"Ichisun?"
Hearing this, Genjo's expression did not change, but inwardly he was secretly alarmed.
'So it really was him, Isshiki Otsutsuki!
In his previous life, although he had never watched the entirety of Boruto and had only seen clips of some of its major battle scenes, without knowing the full story of the sequel era, he had still happened to read in the comments section under those videos about some of Isshiki Otsutsuki's backstory.
Among them, it was mentioned that the prototype for Isshiki's name was precisely taken from that household fairy, Issun-bōshi.
At this time, in this place, with the Dharma name still being Ichisun, there was no such thing as that much of a coincidence in the world.
Inside this ruined temple, two ultimate beings who should have ruled over different eras had actually gathered together.
His heart churned endlessly, yet his smile remained calm. "Senior Brother Ichisun, within a mustard seed is contained Mount Sumeru; within the small is hidden the great thousand worlds. Senior Brother's Dharma name is quite interesting as well."
"Oh?"
Madara Uchiha's gaze swept back and forth between the two of them. "Could it be that this monk, Ichisun, also has a story?"
He certainly wanted to strike right now, seize this mysterious young monk who had laid bare every detail of him, and force out his true identity directly.
But with another party present whose depths he could not see through, he could only temporarily suppress his thoughts.
Speaking of it, tonight was truly bizarre to the extreme. He had thought that he himself was already the person hidden deepest in the Shinobi World of the present age. Yet, he had not expected to first encounter a gray-robed monk he could not see through at all, and then run into a young monk who seemed to have seen through all the details of his entire life.
"Naturally, there is a story."