Chapter 164: The Demonic Statue of the Heretic
The Sage of Six Paths was the first soul he killed after arriving in this world, or perhaps the first person altogether.
Yes. No matter what world he was in, Aizen Sosuke's first target was always the administrator of the Pure Land.
That authority was intolerable.
The one who ruled the Pure Land held jurisdiction over every soul within it. He could summon the dead, pull their chakra into the living world, and weaponize the past as easily as breathing. The moment Aizen began researching the cycle of life and death, he nearly acted without hesitation and nailed that administrator directly into the Pure Land itself.
The reason was simple.
Aizen had far too much to do within the boundary between life and death. Shinigami transformation, spiritual projection, the essence of souls and chakra, the fusion of body and spirit. Why only flesh, blood, and genes could summon a soul while other mediums could not. These were not curiosities, they were necessities. They were the foundation of everything he intended to build.
No matter how carefully he summoned souls, no matter how many layers of modification he wrapped around the method, it could never escape the gaze of the Pure Land's ruler. This was objective reality. Someone had always held authority there. Even if that being seemed absent at times, his existence was far too obvious to ignore.
So Aizen killed him.
There was nothing dramatic about it. Aizen did not find it shocking, either. It was simply what had to be done.
He anchored the administrator's existence, deceived him with the power of Kyoka Suigetsu, then nailed him into the Pure Land and let his authority scatter into nature.
The target died without understanding who had struck him, or why such malice existed at all. But to Aizen, it felt inevitable. If one wished to examine the history of this world and the structure of its afterlife, one could not bypass the master of that sacred land. His soul and his ninjutsu were immense. From Aizen's perspective, erasing him immediately simply bought time, time for research, time for contemplation, time to shape the world before the world shaped him.
At first, Aizen did consider communication. Negotiation. Contact.
That thought died quickly.
After witnessing the ninja world's history, after watching that administrator's aloofness and indifference toward suffering, Aizen no longer cared whether the man was righteous. Aizen had once killed to overturn the corruption of the four noble families and the Soul King, and the ruler of the Pure Land had merely watched.
Aizen observed him for a long time before moving. Yet aside from mechanically collecting the souls of the powerful, the Pure Land's master displayed no meaningful action, no philosophy, no will that could be called human. It was as if he never possessed such things at all. Death and terror spread through the ninja world, unchecked. He had the ability to stop it. He had the authority to summon souls, to bend the balance, to change the course of eras. And still, he did nothing.
For Aizen, there was no psychological burden in killing him.
Even if the man had endured humiliation. Even if he was a so called good person. Aizen did not regret decisions, he only evaluated results.
It was only later, during deeper investigation, that the truth became clear.
The one pierced through the chest twice, beheaded, dismembered, sealed, and still able to control the entire Pure Land through chakra signals, had a name recognized across this world.
The Sage of Six Paths.
Aizen had killed the Sage of Six Paths at the very beginning.
And because of that single comparison, his understanding of the so called aliens quickly formed into a complete system.
By comparing the Sage's legends with the story of Princess Kaguya, by cross referencing accounts from those closest to that era, and by tracing countless later records and testimonies, Aizen arrived at the simplest answer.
The Otsutsuki clan was not what he had imagined.
They were not cosmic tyrants who could casually reshape biospheres, herd chakra across the starry sky, traverse the universe at will, and treat worlds like clay. They could not destroy a planet with a wave, much less a star.
They were seed planters.
They traveled, sowed Divine Trees, drained a world of chakra, and refined what remained into elixirs that granted longevity and power. An enemy so crude, so unimaginably straightforward, could only be the sort of final threat created by authors who wanted an ending that looked grand from a distance.
And their appearance made it obvious.
Bodies pale and pure, Wood Release pushed to excess, horns that proliferated like growths, eyes complex enough to unsettle the mind. All of it belonged to the Otsutsuki.
Urashiki Otsutsuki, the one who once threw himself into another world, was likely one of the stronger ones.
But what truly destroyed the ninja world was not some great filter. It was not a superior species that treated humanity as livestock.
It was simpler, and far more ridiculous.
Two sons of the Sage of Six Paths refused to submit to each other. Their twisted struggle became the root. That root, empowered by chakra, was passed down for a thousand years through reincarnation.
Even in an era without supernatural powers, the power struggles of the highest nations create unrest and catastrophe. How much worse in the ninja world, where the apex of power was embodied by two individuals. Their chakra cycled and reincarnated, maintaining conflict as a permanent state. How could any normal person accept a world built like that? Their reincarnations often inherited gifts that forced them into the center of history, ensuring the struggle could never truly die.
And the Sage of Six Paths, the manager of the Pure Land, the one capable of summoning souls and expelling them, the one who could raise an army of the dead at any time, simply watched as his sons committed evil across eras.
It was not incomprehensible. They were his sons. They were equally dear to him.
But that kind of answer, rooted purely in emotion and utterly devoid of logic, had shaped the ninja world from the moment it began. The discovery left Aizen unable to name what he felt.
For so long, he had prepared for something terrifying. A powerful filter. A sudden death. An enemy beyond comprehension. He hid, he hesitated, he initiated an era of universal evolution from the shadows, all to guard against an unknown that might descend from the sky.
And the final enemy was… this.
Aizen did not regret it. He simply found it amusing. Almost funny.
If he had known earlier, he would have acted earlier. He would not have needed to hide. He would not have needed to hesitate.
But it was not too late.
He was a Shinigami. A Shinigami's lifespan allowed patience on a scale humans could not understand. And Aizen Sosuke had always been patient. He could wait calmly for opportunity, then imprint his will upon the world when the moment arrived.
"It looks like your dream is about to come true, Aizen."
Tsunade stepped out of the shadows, arms crossed.
Behind her, separated by a paper door, the strange figures were drinking and chatting with Naruto, who had already activated his Tailed Beast Mode.
In truth, once you discarded your preconceived notions, those warped forms did not seem so impossible to accept. Their hearts had not changed, only their focus. They had simply become more honest about what they were.
For someone like Naruto, sensitive to acceptance and desperate to be acknowledged, appearance did not decide whether a person was human. Just as Aizen predicted, Naruto quickly sank into memory and reunion, letting the warmth of familiar chakra override the shock of unfamiliar shapes.
It was not a place for an old woman like Tsunade to intrude.
As one of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya's relationship with Aizen was complicated. They avoided meeting whenever possible.
Jiraiya was still searching for an exit in that dark space, but that would only last one day. After today, Aizen would release a technique that had never existed in the history of the ninja world, and by all logic should not exist at all.
The ultimate summoning technique.
A ninjutsu that pushed space and time to the limit, using chakra's ability to rewind and fuse. Combining the power of the nine tailed beasts and the Divine Tree, it would summon another world into this one and make it a neighbor in a spatial sense.
The Tsunade of the past would have cursed such a technique as madness.
But now, after everything she had seen, Tsunade understood the root of the problem. She had become numb to the idea of worlds touching. She could not even tell whether it was theory that convinced her, or Aizen himself.
She had seen it.
In images from the Seireitei, she had seen herself in another world, living beside Kato Dan.
According to Aizen, homomorphic interaction could lead to the transmission of spatial phenomena. It was one of chakra's characteristics. Countless pieces of evidence, countless results, had brought Tsunade to this point.
She wanted to see more. She wanted that beautiful, theoretically peaceful world to become real in this one.
"It's not just my dream, Tsunade senpai," Aizen said. "It is the dream of everyone in the ninja world."
Tsunade sat cross legged on the tatami beside him, gaze distant. Aizen took a small sip of sake and spoke softly.
"Naruto can't hear us from there. If you have questions, ask them now. I will fulfill what I have said all along today."
Tsunade's voice was low. "What does Konoha mean to you?"
"Konoha?" Aizen repeated, then smiled faintly. "I have no feelings for any place. Konoha Village is only one part of my journey."
He lifted the bottle from the tray and filled the small sake cup again. Then he looked at Tsunade with the calm warmth of a courteous monster.
"It's like traveling. I cannot call every inn I stay in a home. Nor can I call the place I dream of reaching a home. I am only a traveler moving forward. I only want to see more beautiful, moving scenery."
Tsunade watched him. "So you saw it?"
"Soon," Aizen replied. "Or rather, Naruto's existence helped me confirm many things. My thoughts and logic have finally connected. In this world, there are probably no special secrets left for me."
Outside, the night held no true light, only a faint glow over a village that felt like a corpse pretending to breathe.
Aizen spoke his most arrogant words without restraint, yet his tone made them sound like natural truth.
And Tsunade believed him. She had no reason to think he was lying.
She opened her mouth, wanting to ask everything. Why he was obsessed with solving mysteries. Why he hid for so long, only to strike without hesitation once the answer was found. Why he planned to conquer the entire world in a single day.
In Tsunade's eyes, his actions were contradictions stacked upon contradictions. Meaningless. Perplexing.
And yet, some unseen force made her swallow the questions back down.
For some reason, she felt that if she asked the wrong one, the fragile deal between them would end immediately.
Aizen, usually willing to explain, fell silent as well. He stared ahead, turning the sake cup in his fingers, occasionally taking a sip, as if he truly did not care.
After a while, the sliding door was pulled open. Pale blond hair brightened the dim space like a sudden flame.
"Oh, Granny Tsunade and Uncle Aizen are both here?" Naruto asked, voice light. "Is the reunion over? Or do you want me to wait another day?"
Aizen looked at the optimistic young man and returned a friendly smile.
"Personally, I can accept that request," Aizen said. "My technology is not fully verified. There may be risks. If you feel uneasy, I can spend a few days explaining it. My plan also requires the Nine Tails inside you."
Inside Naruto, Kurama did not dare utter a single word.
Or rather, it knew words were useless.
While the others drank and bragged, Kurama had already pieced together what Aizen Sosuke truly was.
The last chakra of the Sage of Six Paths had been destroyed by Aizen's hands. The Pure Land had become his territory. In the war between Ashura and Indra, Ashura's chakra had already been erased. Only Indra remained. Capturing Indra's reincarnation was only a matter of time.
There was no proof carved in stone, but Sasuke was almost certainly Indra's reincarnation. Kurama understood that nothing it did would change the outcome. If it wanted to survive, it should obey.
As a tailed beast capable of sensing malice and intent, Kurama could feel exactly how Aizen regarded it.
A tool.
A tool that allowed Aizen to reach his ideals and build the future he wanted.
Naruto, as the protagonist, now held a strange respect for the man before him. He had listened to his companions. He had heard how Aizen arrived in this world, how much he sacrificed for Konoha's progress.
The man had transformed Konoha's interior into a massive research base. He had given Naruto's classmates tools, paths, and methods. Their strength now was undeniable. And frankly, after Ashura's chakra was removed, Aizen's ideals felt clearer.
Aizen hated the idea of someone controlling the world from behind. He claimed he wanted people to return to freedom. Naruto, who always believed he should stand on the side of justice, felt he should support Konoha's technical advisor.
After all, he had helped the village. A great deal. And his actions looked like the actions of someone chasing peace.
So there was nothing more to say.
Power was not meant for destruction. It was meant to become a cornerstone for peace and the future, just like Aizen said.
"I'll help you, Aizen san," Naruto said, voice earnest. "You're going back to your original world, right? Just tell me what you need!"
"Now that your reunion is over," Aizen answered smoothly, "it's simple. We can do it now."
Naruto blinked, startled.
Aizen's smile sharpened by a hair, polite enough to be gentle, cold enough to be fatal.
"Spiritualization Technique, Heretic Statue."
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