After the Round Table Conference, chinatsu silently returned to her room. Lying on her bed, she stared blankly at the ceiling while absentmindedly holding the glass bottle containing the single Rinnegan she had taken from Obito. The crimson glow of her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan reflected faintly off the bottle's surface, making the lonely eye inside appear even more mysterious.
Her original plan had been simple: keep both Rinnegan out of Madara's hands, prevent the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and ensure that Kaguya Ōtsutsuki could never be revived.
But the sudden arrival of Momoshiki and Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki had shattered that plan in an instant.
For the first time since arriving in this world, chinatsu felt that her "invincible" strength was no longer enough. It truly was a case of being invincible beneath the heavens, only for an enemy to descend from the sky.
The gap between the Six Paths Realm and ordinary shinobi was simply too vast.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, if they fought together, could threaten or even kill a Kage-level shinobi. Likewise, several Kage-level shinobi working together could force even a Super Kage-level opponent into a difficult battle.
The Six Paths Realm, however, was completely different.
Once someone stepped into that domain, numbers alone became meaningless. No matter how many ordinary Kage or even Super Kage-level shinobi attacked together, they would struggle to inflict even the slightest injury.
Well… nothing was truly absolute.
For example, Might Guy using the Eighth Gate of Death nearly killed Ten-Tails Jinchūriki Madara with Night Guy. If one Eight Gates Guy could push Six Paths Madara to the brink of death, then two or three of them might genuinely beat him into the ground.
Unfortunately…
There was no such "if."
Still staring at the ceiling, chinatsu slowly closed her eyes.
Should she learn the Eight Inner Gates as well?
Her current strength had already reached a bottleneck. Improving further through ordinary training would be incredibly difficult. If she mastered the Eight Gates, then perhaps, by combining it with Izanami and her other trump cards, she might stand a chance against the Ōtsutsuki even if the battle ended in mutual destruction.
For a brief moment, chinatsu even wondered whether interfering with the original storyline had been a mistake.
If she had simply allowed history to follow its original course…
Would everything have turned out differently?
"…Did I make the wrong choice?"
She opened her eyes again.
"No."
"I don't regret it."
How could hesitation stop her now?
What exactly had she done wrong?
Was she supposed to transmigrate into this world only to watch every tragedy unfold exactly as it had in the manga? Was she expected to stand by while the Uchiha Clan Massacre, Pain's invasion, the Fourth Great Ninja War, and countless other disasters happened before her eyes?
That was impossible.
The moment she awakened in the body of an Uchiha, she had already become part of this world's history. If she had done nothing, she might not even have survived Danzō Shimura's schemes, let alone everything that followed.
Since she had chosen to interfere…
Then she would continue moving forward.
Now, there was only one question left.
How could she defeat the Ōtsutsuki?
chinatsu slowly clenched her fist.
Crack.
A crisp sound echoed through the quiet room.
She looked down in surprise.
Without realizing it, she had almost crushed the glass bottle containing the Rinnegan. Tiny cracks spread across the surface, while the lone purple eye inside remained completely unharmed, seemingly trembling ever so slightly.
Rinnegan: Everyone else stares at me with greed before immediately stuffing me into their eye socket. You're the only one trying to crush me instead!
chinatsu: Implant you? Then what? Throw away my Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?
She wasn't someone like Obito, who constantly swapped eyes whenever the situation demanded it.
Both of her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan were functioning perfectly.
Why would she remove one?
Would she abandon Kotoamatsukami?
Or give up the other Mangekyō ability she had painstakingly awakened?
Besides, simply implanting one Rinnegan wouldn't dramatically increase her combat strength. Nagato had wielded both Rinnegan for years, yet he had still been defeated. A single eye certainly wasn't enough to bridge the enormous gap between her and the Ōtsutsuki.
Unless…
She used the Rinnegan for something entirely different.
"…The Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki?"
chinatsu's pupils suddenly contracted.
A bold possibility emerged in her mind.
"…This might actually work."
If she became the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki, she would step into the Six Paths Realm, gaining power comparable to the Sage of Six Paths' successors. At the same time, as long as she never awakened the Rinne Sharingan to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Black Zetsu would have no opportunity to use her body as Kaguya's vessel.
More importantly…
Becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki would finally give her a real chance to stand against Momoshiki and Kinshiki instead of merely surviving their attacks.
For the first time since sensing the arrival of the Ōtsutsuki…
A glimmer of hope appeared in chinatsu's eyes.
chinatsu thought about it for a long time, yet an inexplicable sense of unease lingered in her heart. It felt as though taking that path would only lead to even greater trouble.
The Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki…
chinatsu slowly closed her eyes, caught in a dilemma.
In the end, she couldn't bring herself to immediately carry out the plan of becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki.
After all…
Wasn't there a saying that a woman's intuition should never be underestimated?
"…Tomorrow."
"I'll visit Might Guy tomorrow morning."
"But for now…"
"I should get some sleep."
Rolling over on her bed, chinatsu pulled the blanket over herself. The moment she relaxed her mind, fatigue flooded over her, and before long, she drifted into a deep sleep.
chinatsu rarely dreamed.
Most nights, she would close her eyes, and when she opened them again, dawn had already arrived, as though the passage of time between the two moments had simply vanished.
People often said that dreaming was a sign of light sleep, while dreamless sleep indicated deep rest. Even when ordinary people dreamed, most of those memories faded within minutes of waking.
Yet there was one dream chinatsu had never forgotten.
Shortly after transmigrating into this world, she had dreamed of an endless ocean stretching beyond the horizon.
A lone wooden boat floated quietly upon the sea.
Lying inside the boat was a girl who looked almost identical to her.
Beside the girl rested three strange blades, each different from the others.
Although the dream appeared ordinary, it remained deeply engraved in chinatsu's memory, refusing to fade with time.
This night, after closing her eyes once again, she slipped into sleep.
Only…
This time was different.
Instead of ordinary sleep, her consciousness descended into the deepest part of her spiritual world.
…
When chinatsu opened her eyes again, she found herself standing inside a vast, pale-white space.
There was no sky.
No earth.
Only endless whiteness stretching in every direction.
She walked forward without any destination until a solitary figure gradually appeared before her.
As the distance closed, chinatsu finally saw him clearly.
The man had two horns protruding from his head and long brown hair flowing behind his back. He wore a loose white robe decorated with six black magatama across his chest, while beneath the spiral emblem on his back rested nine magatama arranged in three neat rows.
He sat cross-legged in midair with a black Truth-Seeking Ball floating silently behind him.
His eyes remained closed, as though he had been waiting there for countless years.
chinatsu almost wanted to call him an old swindler.
Yet she also knew that the man before her was anything but ordinary.
He was the legendary founder of Ninshū…
The man later revered throughout history as the Sage of Six Paths.
Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki.
chinatsu stared at him in surprise.
She had never expected that the person appearing in her dream would actually be Hagoromo.
Still, her emotions settled down almost immediately.
"…It's probably just because I've been thinking too much about the Ōtsutsuki lately."
She silently reached that conclusion.
After all, she had read the Naruto manga and watched the anime countless times in her previous life. She knew Hagoromo's appearance better than most people.
Since the appearance of Momoshiki, Kinshiki, and Isshiki had been weighing heavily on her mind, dreaming about the Sage of Six Paths didn't seem particularly strange.
Thinking that, chinatsu casually circled around Hagoromo several times, observing him from every possible angle with her chin resting thoughtfully on one hand.
"Hmm…"
"He really does look exactly like the manga."
Unable to resist her curiosity, she slowly reached out and gently stroked his long beard.
"So this is what the Sage of Six Paths' beard feels like…"
Just as chinatsu was about to comment, "Not bad~", the Sage of Six Paths suddenly opened his eyes.
A pair of ripple-patterned Rinnegan quietly looked straight at her.
The two stared at one another.
The atmosphere instantly became awkward.
chinatsu slowly withdrew the hand that was still holding his beard.
"…Oh."
"…So you were awake."
"…Should I pretend none of that happened?"
Hagoromo remained silent for a brief moment before speaking in a calm, dignified voice.
"My name is Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki."
"I am the founder of Ninshū…"
"…the one later known throughout the shinobi world as the Sage of Six Paths."
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