Chapter 163: The Source of Struggle
Main character.
In the novels and manga I read long ago, protagonists were usually extremes. Hot blooded, cold blooded, ruthless, unwavering. Their emotions and choices always swung to the edges of the human spectrum, like that was the only way a story could move forward.
Over the past year, I not only confirmed this timeline, I also dug through the fragments of memory I carried from elsewhere, and finally confirmed the protagonist of this world.
Naruto Uzumaki.
The Nine Tails jinchuriki with whisker marks on his cheeks, a face that resembles Minato Namikaze, and an optimism that looks almost absurd. If I had to describe it, he reminded me of a certain unforgettable figure from the past.
Perhaps that is simply the nature of shonen protagonists.
They are passionate, generous, willing to bleed for friends. They preach friendship, hard work, victory.
None of it has anything to do with me.
And yet, I would still have to crush those beautiful things with my own hands. Because I knew, from the beginning, that Naruto Uzumaki carried the answer inside him.
Back when my knowledge of this story was limited, my understanding of the ninja world was wrong in every way that mattered. I only knew that beings from beyond the sky would arrive one day, that something was wrong with the moon, that Madara Uchiha would eventually threaten the world. I also knew that the protagonist had something else sealed within him.
But details, the true structure, the logic behind it all, I did not have.
That ignorance forced me into caution.
I spent years in a constant state of restrained anxiety, because I had no way to measure how terrifying the enemies in those stories truly were. I have always carried a sense of crisis. I am polite. I am measured. I speak like a schemer. But the truth is simple. My ideals never changed.
I do not want people to trample me for no reason. I do not want a world rotting in stagnation. I want renewal. Change. I want to see brilliant lights of humanity rise from the mud and burn through the dark.
I waited far too long.
I waited for the protagonist. I waited for the world and my perception to overlap, for reality and my knowledge to finally resonate. I waited until I could confirm what was true, and what was merely fiction leaking into my assumptions.
Naruto Uzumaki was the anchor point. The Nine Tails inside him, the hidden power, the trace left by that power, the potential futures, the existence of extraterrestrials, the capability to destroy an ecosystem.
Everything I prepared for was preparation for uncertainty.
Then Urashiki appeared. Then Naruto stood in front of me.
And I finally allowed myself a small, relaxed smile.
The crux of the problem was clear.
The protagonist's existence made the enemy possible. No matter the setting, no matter the plot's disguise, the protagonist's first duty is always the same, avoid being erased at the start. Even if he should die, the world would provide an explanation, a loophole, a countermeasure. That is how stories protect their core.
Using only fragments, I searched for years. And at last, in this world, I found the answer.
Because I arrived too early.
Naruto Uzumaki was not even born when I first stepped into this timeline. I did not know Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki were his parents, because most children carry the father's name. I searched through the Uzumaki clan's traces and found nothing that matched the shape of the threat I feared. Kurama was only a battery to me. I could not find anything there that resembled the power of those outer enemies.
Without a main character, without events unfolding, with my information incomplete, I could not gamble. I needed knowledge. I needed skill. I needed to determine my correct position in this world before the real problem arrived.
The true threat was never the village's petty wars.
It was what followed from the sky, and what else might be hiding behind it.
So I expanded carefully. I grew influence only inside known boundaries. I built frameworks. I observed. If something was uncertain, I watched it until it became certain. Fighting in the known is always superior to fighting in the unknown.
I never revealed my strongest side. I let the world flow. I let it change. I turned the unknown into the known.
And with Naruto's arrival, the answer finally surfaced.
If this truly was all there was, then there was nothing left to fear.
"The chakra of Ashura," I said, "and the chakra of Indra. The source of struggle in this world, if not all of it, then at least most of it, begins with these two."
Naruto's lips trembled. "What… does that mean?"
"It means," I answered evenly, "that you were used as a puppet without ever knowing it, Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto stared at the third chakra drawn from his body, shock barely contained.
He understood the Nine Tails seal. He understood that besides his own chakra and Kurama's chakra, there could be traces of sealing chakra. A third chakra existing was not the shocking part.
The shocking part was what that chakra was.
The seal had not been activated. My extraction had been careful. I had not torn apart his structure, because damaging the host would damage the answer.
What emerged was pale gold.
It pulsed with a strange living fluctuation as it was pulled from his body, unwillingly confined inside an interlaced black sphere.
Simply looking at that gentle golden light warmed the mind. It felt like standing beside Naruto as he shouted on broken ground, fist clenched, refusing to bend. It carried a strange intimacy, like a spiritual touch linking hearts together.
A person bearing this chakra would speak with sincerity strong enough to move others. Words are the sharpest blade in conversation, the most important thing is not volume but acceptance. This chakra did not merely make speech persuasive, it made people with compatible chakra listen before they even realized they were listening.
Naruto, bewildered, was set down on the ground as if he had already served his purpose.
I held the golden sphere in my palm and looked at the nonhuman figures gathered around us.
"Ashura's chakra connects minds," I said. "It understands words, and it makes words understood. In this endless cycle of war, his contribution may not be absolute, but his conflict with the other will accounts for nearly everything."
"Ninjas who carry these two chakras become outstanding figures of their era. Under the influence of chakra, they recognize each other, draw close, become brothers. Their growth accelerates. Their strength surges. They rise to the peak of their generation."
"And then, as the world loves to repeat, their friendship fractures. Their understanding collapses. They are drawn toward the source of that chakra and split into opposing ideals. One side preaches peace through understanding, dialogue, connection. The other side preaches strength, violence, the supremacy of the self. And they begin to fight."
"No matter how close they once were, no matter how deep their bond, chakra pushes them into conflict. They will always arrive at the same choice."
"In this world, humans are slaves to chakra. That is the foundation."
…
Naruto wanted to scream.
What are you saying? What kind of madness is this?
But Kurama inside him went quiet, as if thinking. And Naruto himself was not stupid.
The moment that chakra was pulled away, his thoughts became clearer, as if fog had been scraped from his skull. Emotions that used to dominate him, the village, Sasuke, the desperate need to be accepted, suddenly loosened their grip.
Why should I give everything to a village that cursed me? Why should I keep bleeding for a system that treated me like a disease?
The thought flashed through him only once, but it was enough for Naruto to realize what had been taken from him.
Something fundamental.
Something that might have been steering him all along.
Two powerful ninjas fought each other, I continued, and their followers split. Peace became war. Even if they built harmony, it shattered again. The damage was never repaired before the next wave arrived.
"A generation is twenty years," I said. "And this axis turns endlessly. Some wars may no longer be caused directly by their hands, but the inertia is inseparable from their struggle. When the beauty of the past is torn apart, when trust is crushed into something worse than pigs and dogs, what remains is betrayal and blood."
"They do not trust friends, because even the closest friend can become an enemy. They do not trust systems, because even the most perfect system can be destroyed from within. Culture, knowledge, cognition, all of it bends under the examples set at the highest level. In this world, the themes are always the same."
"And their dream of peace through mutual understanding is nothing but self deception."
I watched the orb flicker in my hand, warm and restless, as if it wanted to speak. Chakra that had endured since the age of myth trembled within the black sphere, as if it could transform into something else.
I did not allow it.
I clenched my fist. The black sphere compressed instantly, collapsing into an impossibly dense point.
Like a bubble popping, the pale gold vanished.
Naruto opened his mouth, stunned. When he finally managed to speak, only one sentence came out.
"…Erasing chakra like that is too much."
"Why keep it?" I asked him, truly puzzled.
"Whatever their ideals, whatever their beliefs, their thousand year struggle has left this world full of holes. If even one of them had possessed the chakra to recognize how wrong the world had become, it would not be like this. Their conflict has indirectly and directly caused deaths across a millennium. The number is likely in the billions."
"Every time peace appears, the era produces another outstanding pair, and the rift returns. The cycle repeats. Why should I feel empathy for the two most vicious influences in the ninja world?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Father…?"
I answered without hesitation. "If you mean the Sage of Six Paths, then yes. Dead."
Naruto froze. "…Dead?"
"If you are referring to the being in the Pure Land, the one with Truth Seeking Balls, complex abilities, and considerable chakra," I continued calmly, "I killed him. It has been nearly a year."
Naruto's expression cracked. "Why…?"
"Because I will not allow someone who controls souls and understands the past to continue ruling the Pure Land," I said. "Even if he claims it is for peace."
Naruto's voice rose, desperate. "For peace, then why…"
"Because his Pure Land enabled this cycle," I replied. "It is the designated pathway. Only through the Pure Land can the soul's chakra cycle continue. That structure was created under the Sage's will."
I did not deny the Sage's contributions. I did not deny the achievements of his sons.
But the reason I killed him was simple.
"He blocked my path. That is all."
The black rods dissolved into shadow, returning to the darkness as if they had never existed.
Naruto and Kurama had found no opening to resist, no angle to argue. They could only watch as I drew out what should not have been there, then proved my judgment through power.
Naruto sat on the ground, breathing hard, and strange emotions bloomed inside him. Even drained, even shaken, he felt a warmth he could not name, as if something oppressive had been lifted.
"I will not make excuses," I said. "I killed him for my own benefit."
My hand returned to its original color. I nodded at Naruto where he sat.
"If I want to liberate this world from its constraints, releasing the souls of the Pure Land is necessary. Therefore the Sage's chakra had to be erased. What I did not expect is that the first person I found and killed, in another world and in this one, would be so important."
Naruto remained silent.
I gave him a small, courteous smile.
"I will not disturb your reunion any longer. Once you are ready, we can proceed with the next step, extracting Indra's chakra from your close friend, Sasuke. That will solve the cycle at its root."
Naruto's voice trembled. "You…"
"I did consider doing it myself," I admitted. "Now that we have confirmed the chakra and Sasuke's location, it would not take long. A day would be enough."
I paused, as if genuinely giving it thought again.
"But I decided to give you young people a chance to experience it. You must make your own choices."
I looked directly at Naruto.
"I hope you make the right one."
With that, I turned, calm as a passing storm, and gestured toward the strangely shaped figures that had once been Naruto's friends.
Even with the unpleasant moment, the purpose of this gathering remained unchanged. This banquet was held for Naruto.
He needed to measure his progress during his time away against the village's progress.
And then would come the real day.
The day they would go after Sasuke.
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