Chapter 300: Sage of Six Paths X The River Styx on the Other Shore
Madara Uchiha?!
Roy narrowed his eyes, and the two great suns within his pupils suddenly shot out two rays of divine light. Piercing through the mist of history and life and death, he looked along that faintly discernible thread of karma... Those Rinnegan, overflowing wantonly with the vicissitudes of time, fixed upon him.
It was as if they had leisurely awakened from within life and death. Across a thousand years of time, penetrating into the future, they met Roy's gaze from afar. A trace of imperceptible astonishment leaked out upon that aged face...
Not Madara Uchiha, it is—the Sage of Six Paths!
Those characteristic horns inherited from the Otsutsuki clan... Aside from a pair of Rinnegan, his glabella was split open, embedding a Sharingan.
The white haori draped over his chest was clearly branded with six tomoe... Just a single glance at him brought an immense wave of pressure... Roy recognized the Sage of Six Paths. With another glance, he shifted his vision downward... and saw that an unfathomably deep River Styx invisibly separated him and the other party.
The river water was as dead and silent as an ancient well without ripples. It appeared peaceful, but in reality, it isolated him on the opposite shore.
Roy took a deep breath and raised his eyes to look at the Sage of Six Paths again. He saw him ponder for a long while before a leisurely voice drifted over: "Young man, do you know this old man?"
The eyesight of the progenitor of Ninshu was extraordinary... From Roy's gaze, the Sage of Six Paths detected a multitude of emotions.
There was shock, there was astonishment, there was thoughtfulness, but uniquely, there was no... curiosity!
It was as if he and the young boy had crossed paths before and knew each other well... The Sage of Six Paths awakened from his chakra and briefly searched his memories. For a thousand years, he truly could not find that he had ever befriended a figure like this young boy during his lengthy journey of life.
Moreover, judging from the slight baby fat on the boy's face and his youthful bone structure, he clearly wasn't very old... Truly... bizarre!
"I am sorry, we... do not know each other," Roy said frankly. "This is also my first time seeing you."
Splash... The peaceful River Styx suddenly began to flow... Vast and mighty, it was unknown where its source lay, nor where it was heading... It carried an endless aura of primal wilderness and deathly stillness, bearing bleached white bones as it drifted downstream...
Leaving behind the old and young on opposite shores, lost in mutual contemplation, falling into a brief silence...
After an unknown amount of time, the Sage of Six Paths, his long brown hair draped behind his back, sat cross-legged on the shore. He looked at Roy again and asked, "Young man, where do you come from, and where are you going?"
Roy's consciousness was immersed, while his physical body in reality still clutched the pendant given by Tsunade. He smiled brightly and said, "I certainly won't go to die. I am still young and want to see the world."
"My mind arriving here is nothing but a coincidence..."
The young boy appeared carefree, invisibly exuding an indescribable aura.
Waves of light rippled within the Sage of Six Path's Rinnegan. He stared at Roy for a good while longer, then shook his head and laughed, "For you to come here is absolutely no coincidence. This old man can sense the auras of Yin and Yang on your body."
The strange thing was... aside from the two chakras of Yin and Yang, the Sage of Six Paths narrowed his eyes to study Roy, always feeling that there was an additional wisp of something on the boy... something he could not clearly explain or describe, making it incredibly perplexing!
It seems it truly is due to the blending of Yin and Yang, Roy's gaze shifted as he thought to himself... In the original story, it was precisely when Naruto as Yang and Sasuke as Yin blended together that they pierced the mist of chakra to meet the Sage of Six Paths... And,
For himself just now, newly awakening the Sharingan constituted Yin, and then touching the pendant passed down from Hashirama Senju, which touched upon the reincarnation of Asura, constituted Yang... Thus, this meeting spanning across a thousand years came to be.
Buzz... Two entirely distinct streams of Nen aura dispersed from the surface of Roy's body and gathered again...
In Konoha, within the Uchiha clan compound, at Fugaku's house.
Fugaku, Tsunade, Shizune, and Itachi were sitting across a tatami mat. They suddenly saw Roy close his eyes and stop moving right after receiving the pendant! The group exchanged glances, staring in speechless bewilderment.
"Otou-san... cold..." At this moment, Itachi, who was leaning against Roy, suddenly sneezed. Shivering, he said to Fugaku Uchiha, "Nii-san is so cold!"
Fugaku Uchiha narrowed his eyes and looked at Roy. The side of the boy's forehead facing him was clearly emitting hot steam, so how could he be cold? He turned his head and glanced at Tsunade, intending to ask her what exactly she had given Roy.
However, Tsunade's brow was tightly furrowed. Noticing Itachi reaching out to pull Roy's arm in an attempt to wake him, she hurriedly signaled Shizune to pull the boy away!
"Do not touch him, his current state is very abnormal... it is best not to move him recklessly!"
"Tsunade-sama, did you see anything?" Fugaku asked, frowning.
Tsunade remained silent. Being extremely sensitive to chakra, not only did she know the human body inside out, but if she claimed to be second in medical ninjutsu in the shinobi world, no one would dare claim to be first. Across the tatami mat, the woman spoke after a long pause, "He is experiencing Yin and Yang..."
"As for the specifics, we must wait until he wakes up to be certain."
The modest living room instantly fell into a long silence once more. Clang... Faintly, only the sound of Mikoto Uchiha wielding her spatula to stir-fry dishes drifted intermittently from the kitchen...
Buzz... Two streams of Nen aura, one red and one black, occupied half of Roy's body each, clearly distinct yet blending with one another...
Consciousness immersed... Separated by the River Styx, Roy imitated the Sage of Six Paths and sat cross-legged on this side of the shore. Resting his chin in his hand, he looked across the distance at the Sage of Six Paths on the other side and said, "You overpraise me. My meager cultivation is completely unworthy of mention compared to yours."
"Being able to sit here now and speak with you is merely taking advantage of a loophole..."
Behind the white haori of the Sage of Six Paths, a red spiral and nine pitch-black tomoe slowly rotated. He smiled and said, "Let this old man guess, perhaps it is related to another power on your body?"
Roy neither admitted nor denied it. Ultimately, the difference merely lay in the properties and scope of "Chakra" versus "Nen aura"...
The boy's black hair blew in the clear breeze sweeping over the River Styx. He nodded slightly and said, "I call it the Targeted Tracking Technique, aiming to trace back to the source!"
Just like the pendant—it seemingly originated from Hashirama Senju, being a wisp of chakra he injected into it in the past. But in reality... its root did not lie with Hashirama Senju, but with Asura, and with the one who separated his own chakra into Asura and Indra... the Sage of Six Paths, also known as... Hagoromo Otsutsuki!
The Sage of Six Paths stroked his beard, murmuring softly, "Tracing back to the source... it fits quite well with Targeted Tracking, a pity..."
The old man possessed a majestic presence. As the blood-red spiral on his glabella slowly rotated, he looked deeply at Roy and said, "You still have not 'tracked' to the true 'root'..."
"Back then, this old man was nothing but a confused youth who luckily obtained some power..."
The Sage of Six Paths thought of his younger brother, thought of his mother. His brow and eyes were filled with dense, chasm-like wrinkles, densely packed with an unspeakable and endless amount of time and vicissitudes...
Just as he said, whether it was Yin and Yang, or Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and Lightning... when speaking of the source of chakra, he, the Sage of Six Paths, still could not claim the first place!
However... Roy cast a sidelong glance at the Sage of Six Paths and blinked, "After all, that person isn't on this planet, correct?"
The Sage of Six Paths froze abruptly, looking at Roy once more... The mysterious young boy wore a smile, looking as if he knew nothing, yet simultaneously appearing as if he knew everything, plunging the Sage of Six Paths into a deep state of bewilderment for a moment...
The old man narrowed his eyes at Roy. As his Rinnegan slowly rotated, he asked in a deep voice, "Who exactly are you?!"
Roy let out a laugh, sensing that this River Styx and world of consciousness were faintly collapsing. He anticipated that... this convergence of Yin and Yang had already reached its end due to his insufficient Nen volume.
He stood up tall.
Letting his black hair sway with the wind, he laughed aloud, "Why must the Sage get to the bottom of it? If you truly wish to know the answer, I can only tell you..." The boy pointed at the River Styx before him and said, "This youngster is merely an ordinary person struggling to cross the River Styx, struggling to survive..."
Splash... The River Styx burst its banks. Accompanied by the intense consumption of Roy's Nen aura, the opposite shore pulled away, growing further and further apart. The Sage of Six Paths sat cross-legged on the shore, just as he had waited quietly for a thousand years. This time, he watched deeply as Roy drifted away, his figure gradually fading. After a moment of silence, the old man suddenly spoke to Roy with a leisurely voice, "Young man, what is your name?"
"Jin."
"To be honest with the Sage, my name is Uchiha..."
The Sage of Six Paths froze slightly, then smiled... It made sense; a descendant of Indra was also his descendant.
The old man abruptly stood up. Also speaking with a prolonged voice, he smiled at Roy and said, "Descendant, you must work hard. Next time, I hope you can last a little longer."
A faint arc traced the corner of Roy's mouth. Waving his hand at the old man with his back turned, he merely said, "Got it."
In the next glance, his consciousness returned.
Clutching the pendant in his hand, he leisurely opened his eyes...
Phew~ Half of his forehead was dripping with hot sweat, while the other half was condensed with frost. Roy awakened, the Yin and Yang receding, and he slowly exhaled a breath of stale air... like a long dragon winding into the sky... Recalling the events just now, it felt like having a brief dream...
As the saying goes, "When the false becomes true, the true also becomes false; where there is nothing, there is something, and where there is something, there is nothing."
"This dream within a dream is quite fresh and interesting..."
The faint smile hanging on the corner of his mouth had not completely faded... After exhaling, Roy raised his eyes and noticed that Fugaku Uchiha, Tsunade, Shizune, and Itachi were all looking at him with concern.
The boy gave a gentle smile and said, "I got a food coma from eating too much, so I just took a simple nap."
Fugaku X Tsunade X Shizune: "..."
Looking at each other, they were actually speechless...
Leaving Itachi to carefully lean over, poking his arm and saying, "Nii-san, Kaa-san hasn't finished making breakfast yet."
How could he get a food coma?
Little did he know, before Itachi could even finish his sentence, Roy grabbed his head, instantly refining him, and he obediently shut his mouth.
"Itachi, who said you can't get a food coma without eating?" Roy rubbed the boy's head vigorously, turning his head to look at Tsunade again, "Tsunade-sama, I do not have the habit of accepting gifts from others for nothing. I will take the pendant. If there is anything you need, as long as I can help, just ask."
The pendant contained a wisp of Hashirama Senju's chakra. According to the panel's prompt, although the effect of direct absorption was not as good as "Life Energy" and "Faith Power", still... considering the quality of Hashirama's chakra and the massive "vitality" contained within it,
For Roy, the improvement would undoubtedly be... massive!
"I do not need it!" Tsunade crossed her arms over her chest, slightly raising her chin and saying proudly, "If I give it to you, take it. I am not so old that I need help from a brat!"
Beside her, Shizune looked over, her gaze wandering between Tsunade and Roy, hesitating to speak...
Sizzle... Tea smoke curled up from the teacups... Fugaku sat quietly on the side, pouring tea for everyone... Itachi leaned against Roy, half-sitting in his lap, looking at Tsunade and then at Shizune. Precocious like a little adult, he faintly sensed something; his sensitive mind was already showing its beginnings...
Roy took the freshly poured tea from Fugaku and took a shallow sip, nodding in deep agreement, "That is also true. After all, this is our first time meeting, so we are somewhat unfamiliar. Then how about this,"
Roy gently placed the teacup on the table. With clear and bright eyes, he looked calmly at Tsunade and said, "Then let your younger brother and your beloved speak with you. After all, they know you best and know what you need..."
Fugaku X Shizune abruptly looked over... Before the two could even cast their gazes on Roy, a crisp smack rang out. The tatami groaned under the unbearable weight, and two deep palm prints were shockingly left on the smooth tabletop!
Sitting in Roy's lap, Itachi looked up.
Tsunade braced her hands on the tatami, leaning forward. Her two massive, snow-white assets were practically bursting out. Her face was almost thrust right in front of Roy, pressing against the tip of his nose, as she glared at him in disbelief, "What did you say?"
Up close,
The unique fragrance of a woman's body wafted over...
Roy's expression remained unchanged. Just like before, he smiled and said, "I said let your younger brother and your beloved speak with you. After all,"
"As the people closest to Tsunade-sama, they should be the ones who understand Tsunade-sama's preferences the best..."
Tsunade's gaze shifted, staring dead at Roy.
Her lips trembled and moved... Before she could speak, she was interrupted by Fugaku's words, dragged back to the waking world!
"Jin, do not mess around!" Fugaku Uchiha glared fiercely at Roy. "Nawaki and Dan Kato are heroes of Konoha, they absolutely cannot be joked about!"
"Shut up!" Smack, Tsunade suddenly gave a stern shout, smashing the tatami into splinters with a direct palm strike... The massive commotion alarmed the kitchen! The curtain was pulled open, and Mikoto Uchiha poked her head out, asking in panic, "Anata, what happened?"
Fugaku frowned, remaining completely silent, staring at Tsunade and Roy.
He saw—
Tsunade staring silently at Roy, asking with a tremble, "Do you really have a way?"
Roy maintained his smile unchanged. With a casual glance, the chakra naturally dissipating from the crown of Tsunade's head presented an excited flush and a faint yearning...
The young boy spoke seriously, declaring solemnly, "Of course!"
"I have always admired the heroes who died in battle for the village, whether they are Senju or Uchiha, wouldn't you say? Hokage-sama!"
Roy abruptly shot a glance through the roof, looking toward the sky!
In the unseen world, a gaze shuddered violently, causing... the crystal ball placed on the wide desk in the Hokage office to tremble on its surface...
The flashing light made Hiruzen Sarutobi's old eyes sting slightly, twitching fiercely!
☆☆☆
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