Hearing this,Fumori Masaki almost laughed out loud. It wasn't just a simple matter of whether there was a conspiracy or not; there was a conspiracy so vast it couldn't be any larger. For many years, Black Zetsu had been lurking behind the scenes, guiding the reincarnations of Indra and Asura to oppose each other, all to revive Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Originally, during the era of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama, Black Zetsu's long-cherished wish was about to be fulfilled. Uchiha Madara would steal Asura's power and combine it with his own awakened Indra power, thereby manifesting the Six Paths Power, allowing the Rinnegan, the only eye that could control the Gedo Mazo, to appear in the world.
However, due to Fumori Masaki's obstruction, Black Zetsu's hard-won hope was dashed. Yet, that guy refused to give up and continued to act stealthily. This time, Black Zetsu even personally orchestrated events like Uchiha Setsuna's. Although the outcome was relatively good for Konoha Village, it allowed the reincarnation of Indra to possess the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Although Fumori Masaki speculated that to fully awaken Indra's power, the reincarnation needed to possess a Mangekyo Sharingan that would never lose its light, he had no concrete evidence. This was merely a deduction based on Black Zetsu's claim that he saw the potential for the Rinnegan to awaken in Uchiha Madara. Perhaps awakening Indra's power and pushing an ordinary Mangekyo Sharingan to its limit could also achieve it.
Therefore, dealing with Black Zetsu was already a matter of urgency. However, due to Black Zetsu's powerful stealth ability, it was almost impossible to find him without any leads. How to find him was not something Fumori Masaki could achieve alone.
Recalling that Black Zetsu also had the title of Ōtsutsuki Chenxiang in Fumori Masaki's previous life, who toiled for a thousand years to unseal his mother, no matter how moving and filial he appeared, inFumori Masaki's eyes, he was not as good as the "unfilial" Six Paths brothers. This was because Black Zetsu's stance was always against humanity, while the Six Paths brothers stood with humanity.
No matter how filial, how righteous, or how moving Black Zetsu's actions were,Fumori Masaki would not heed any of his thoughts. An enemy was an enemy; there was nothing to say. Others, at least, were matters between fellow humans, but Black Zetsu was a non-human entity, and he intended to revive Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, who sought to control all of humanity. There was simply no possibility of reconciliation between them.
"I discussed this with you before; in the Uchiha Setsuna incident, there seemed to be a mastermind at play,"Fumori Masaki said calmly. "I've never really believed in the inevitability of fate. The reincarnations of Lord Indra and Lord Asura will certainly become entangled due to the pull of reincarnation, but their opposition is a matter of the reincarnations' own thoughts, unrelated to Lord Indra and Lord Asura. Otherwise, Lord Hashirama and Lord Madara would not have been able to reconcile."
Uchiha Kagami nodded silently. According to the scriptures of the Sage of Six Paths, after the Sage's death, Indra and Asura erupted into a great war over the succession of Ninshū. After Asura barely won, facing his exhausted elder brother, he chose not to kill him but to banish him from the central continent where Ninshū was then based—equivalent to the Central Plains—driving him far away. And the banished Indra never bowed to Asura.
From the stone tablet that Kana saw in the Land of Demons, it was clear that even in his later years, Asura never managed to get Indra to agree with his ideas. Both sides remained in opposition, neither ever having the slightest thought of bowing to the other. If the reincarnations' thoughts were also influenced by them, then the reincarnations would inevitably be in opposition, with no possibility of reconciliation.
The example of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara corroborates that the actions of reincarnations are still determined by the reincarnations' individual thoughts. Even if the reincarnations are truly the soul reincarnations of the two great lords, their will would not be that of the two lords. Uchiha Kagami, who possessed Madara's life memories, was perfectly clear on this point.
The divergence between Madara and Hashirama was due to their differing ideals, and these ideals were determined by their innate personalities and their life experiences acquired later on.
It could be said to be completely unrelated to those two from a thousand years ago. At least, Uchiha Kagami, who had experienced Madara's past life, did not feel any so-called past life thoughts, at most, it was the legacy of past life power.
Yes, Uchiha Kagami could feel that at a certain moment, when Madara felt a special power awaken within him, that should have been the inheritance of Lord Indra's power. It was precisely because of this that Madara, adapting to this power, chose to fight Lord Hashirama at the Valley of the End.
"Lord Madara chose to deviate, not only because his ideals differed from Lord Hashirama's, but also because he was deceived by the inscription on the stone tablet," Uchiha Kagami said. "Why would the stone tablet record such a deceptive thing as the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"
"Perhaps it was tampered with by someone for other purposes,"Fumori Masaki said.
"Tampered with?" Uchiha Kagami pondered for a moment, feeling that tampering was a possibility. The Uchiha clan had experienced multiple upheavals over the past thousand years. According to investigations, there were even several times in the Uchiha clan's history when they were on the verge of extinction, leading to the loss of a large amount of historical data. Currently, the clan records preserved within the Uchiha clan only go back four hundred years; older records are either vague or completely nonexistent.
And the Naka Shrine stone tablet, located beneath the Uchiha clan's shrine, had suffered years of wear and tear and was already badly broken. It was only after multiple repairs that it maintained its current appearance. If someone had tampered with it, it might indeed have been possible.
"Who was it, and for what purpose?" Uchiha Kagami murmured to himself, as if deep in thought.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that the other party is focused on the reincarnation of Lord Indra and Lord Asura,"Fumori Masaki couldn't directly state Black Zetsu's purpose, because without detailed evidence, overly specific claims would only make people think he was fantasizing. He could only deduce from the existing evidence.
"Then what exactly is it for?" Uchiha Kagami murmured to himself again. "Could it be for upgrading the Rinnegan? Lord Madara, because of the inscription on the stone tablet, intended to steal the Senju power from Lord Hashirama, hoping to awaken the Rinnegan, and thereby learn the method to achieve the Infinite Tsukuyomi... Wait, the method to achieve the Infinite Tsukuyomi? If the inscription on the stone tablet was tampered with, then was the purpose of the tampering to achieve the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"
Uchiha Kagami's guess was very close to the truth, so Fumori Masaki continued, building on Uchiha Kagami's speculation: "I think what you said makes sense. The mastermind's goal might be the Rinnegan and the method to achieve the Infinite Tsukuyomi. If the other party falsely claims that the Infinite Tsukuyomi is the way to maintain peace, then they hope to revive the power of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, the mother of the Sage of Six Paths, to rule the world. Considering that Kaguya Ōtsutsuki never truly died, but was sealed in the heavens, do you think the other party might be planning to unseal Kaguya Ōtsutsuki?"
This sentence exploded in Uchiha Kagami's ears like a clap of thunder. Uchiha Kagami's body trembled. Although he had never seen Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, from fragments of others' words and historical records, he knew that Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was a "god" with immense power and extreme arrogance, even a "malicious god." If the other party's goal was to revive her, it would be a huge disaster for the ninja world.
"But who exactly wants to revive Kaguya Ōtsutsuki? If the stone tablet was tampered with by them, then their conspiracy began hundreds of years ago, or even after Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was sealed. And now there are still people active. Are they an organization? Or a family legacy?" Uchiha Kagami kept guessing.
"Perhaps it's someone with a deep connection to Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. After all, the source of your Uchiha clan's kekkei genkai is Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. If they can tamper with the stone tablet, they must also possess a power of the same origin. Kaguya Ōtsutsuki is immortal, isn't she? If the mastermind is also like her—"
"No way, are you saying the mastermind is someone who has lived for a thousand years?" Uchiha Kagami looked shocked. No matter how much he guessed, he couldn't have reached this conclusion.
"It's just a guess. For now, we can only confirm that the opponent's goal might be to upgrade the Rinnegan and achieve the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and that they possess powerful stealth abilities,"Fumori Masaki said. "Regardless, we must be careful in the future. This person will surely continue to be active. From what we can see, the opponent shouldn't have any particularly strong combat capabilities, at least nothing beyond the top experts in the current ninja world. Otherwise, they wouldn't always be acting secretly. This is, reluctantly, good news."
"Hmm, so the main thing is to guard against schemes and deception?" Uchiha Kagami muttered softly.
"We can't just sit back and wait; we must take the initiative. And we need to consider that, because of their possible connection to Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, they might possess some unexpected special abilities. Even if they're not immortal, a certain degree of tenacious vitality must be taken into account, as well as their powerful stealth ability. They might also be very good at escaping. Once we find them, we must kill them with one blow,"Fumori Masaki said. "This will be a secret mission between us. In the future, we can only bring in trusted individuals, understand? Kagami, this is an S-rank mission. The reason it's called S-rank is simply because S-rank is the highest, but in reality, it's a mission concerning the survival of the ninja world; it's the highest possible rank."
Uchiha Kagami nodded silently. After this analysis, he began to realize the importance of the matter. The enemy was clearly terrifying, not in terms of strength, but in their insidious cruelty that had persisted for a thousand years. This was far beyond what an ordinary person could achieve.
At the same time, because the specific situation of the opponent was unknown, and they couldn't alert the enemy, they couldn't use the strength of the entire ninja village; that would be too obvious. Only a small number of people could focus on this matter. In other words, the confrontation with this person would not be like a ninja world war, where the overall strength of the ninja village determined the outcome, but rather a battle between individuals.
However, there was nothing to fear. Ninjas were inherently a profession for solo combat. In the past, ninja battles were one-on-one. Now, it was just a return to basics.