Having said that, Gamamaru did not wait for Black Zetsu's answer. His figure blurred, seeming to merge into the night breeze and the shadows of the trees, before vanishing completely and leaving behind an even deeper silence.
Black Zetsu remained alone where it stood, like a pool of solidified darkness.
Gamamaru's departure and suspicions did nothing to move it. Instead, in the silence, it let out an even stranger, more chilling low laugh. The sound echoed through the empty forest, filled with twisted delight.
"Meaning? Hehehe... The meaning behind all this runs far deeper than you can imagine."
Slowly, it raised its head, its yellow eyes gazing at the bright yet frigid moon overhead. The mockery in its voice gradually faded, replaced by an obsession and filial devotion etched deep into its very bones.
"I never expected that idiot Indra to actually kill Hagoromo..."
"What I want is for Hagoromo himself to have a taste of what it feels like to be betrayed by his own flesh and blood, and by the very path he chose!"
"I want him to experience the pain of having his trust collapse and his ideals torn apart by the hands of someone close to him!"
Its voice grew lower, yet firmer, as though it were making a vow to the moon:
"Mother... did you see that? This is only the beginning. I will make Hagoromo pay. I will find a way—a real way... to free you from that cold seal and let you see the light of this world again."
As its words fell, Black Zetsu's figure vanished soundlessly into the boundless darkness like a drop of ink swallowed by the night, as though it had never been there at all.
The conspiracy spanning millennia, the calculations, the suspicions between father and son, the turning of master against disciple, and that twisted obsession stretching across time—all of it was like cold, viscous ink splashed across the hearts of every viewer.
After a brief deathly silence, cries of shock and sharp gasps erupted almost simultaneously throughout the Shinobi World like a tidal wave!
"Gasp! T-There was actually another layer to all this?!"
"Good heavens! That freak Black Zetsu was actually working with Gamamaru of Mount Myoboku?!"
"Working together? This was clearly a carefully coordinated scheme, with each side taking what it wanted!"
"Those old fossils from the sacred lands were plotting against the Sage of Six Paths, trying to use the Pure Land to trap him in the world of the dead and prevent him from easily returning to the living world;"
"Black Zetsu was even more ruthless! It used Indra as a blade to turn father and son against each other and make them spill blood at the Ninshū! They're all scheming old monsters who'd devour people without even spitting out the bones!"
"Scheming against Indra is one thing, but scheming against the Sage of Six Paths... Hmph, Hagoromo brought that upon himself! If he hadn't coveted immortality and attacked his teacher and close friend to steal that inheritance, would anyone have been able to turn his own scheme against him? He reaped what he sowed!"
"Exactly! Now I just want to see what expression the Sage of Six Paths will have on that perpetually compassionate face when the son he personally raised comes knocking at his door with a blade in hand!"
"When he sealed his own mother all those years ago, did he ever imagine he'd have a day like this? Hahaha! The wheel of karma turns indeed—retribution always comes!"
"Wait! Didn't Kaguya curse the world before she was sealed, saying that this world was full of betrayal? Looking at things now, wasn't that prophetic? If she knew Hagoromo would end up like this too, she'd probably be laughing even inside that seal!"
"You've got it wrong! Kaguya wasn't talking about any particular person. She was cursing the entire world! What she said was that 'this world is filled with betrayal'! She was condemning everyone!"
"So what if she was?" a hoarse voice coldly cut in, carrying the numbness of someone who had seen through the ways of the world. "Was she wrong? She said that everyone is born with the seeds of betrayal in their bones. Why are you getting so worked up? Did that hit a little too close to home?"
"Of course I know what she meant! But... but she was talking about the entire world! She was calling all of us—the living and everyone who ever lived—traitors! That's... that's simply..."
"Simply the truth, isn't it?" another voice interrupted, its tone filled with mockery and profound weariness. "Think about it calmly. From the Warring States Period until today, our Shinobi World has been killing and fighting—from clans to villages, from masters and disciples to comrades... Betrayal, schemes, selling others out, stabbing people in the back—which of those has ever been absent? That's simply the underlying color of our profession, of this world! What's so surprising about it? Kaguya merely stated the bloody reality in the most vicious and direct way possible."
Those final words were like a bucket of ice water poured over everyone's heads.
The previously boisterous crowds, buzzing with discussion, suddenly fell silent. An indescribable silence—a mixture of embarrassment, reflection, agreement, and sorrow—quickly spread through the air.
Indeed.
Thinking carefully about it, from individuals to clans, from ninja villages to great nations, what page in the long scroll of ninja history had not been stained by the ink of betrayal?
For missions, for profit, for ideals, for survival, or even for reasons too trivial to mention...
Betraying and being betrayed had always been part of how this cruel world functioned. It was commonplace, even written into the very laws of survival.
Their earlier shock and outrage, their mockery of the Sage of Six Paths, their attempts to dispute Kaguya's words... suddenly seemed somewhat pale and even self-deceptive in the face of the bloody, indisputable reality of their profession and the nature of humanity.
The Heavenly Curtain had not merely exposed an ancient conspiracy. It was more like a cold and merciless mirror, reflecting the fundamental nature of the Shinobi World—a nature that had remained unchanged since ancient times.
The chill brought by that realization penetrated far deeper than learning any particular historical truth.
Beneath the Heavenly Curtain, within the Pure Land.
The Sage of Six Paths' usually compassionate and impassive face was now a truly remarkable sight.
Shock, anger, embarrassment, a trace of irritation at having been exposed, and even deeper doubts mingled and shifted across his features like paints spilled across a palette.
Every one of Gamamaru's accusations was like a poisoned needle, unbearable to him.
Self-interest? Perhaps he could admit that he had some.
A desire for control? He could not completely deny it.
But hadn't all of it been for the sake of guiding the Shinobi World toward a more orderly and peaceful future?
How had that made him a "dictator"?
How had that become "treating the Shinobi World as his private property"?
And besides, he had never done any of the things shown on the Heavenly Curtain.
"Hmph!"
A cold snort filled with immense anger and pressure escaped his throat before he could restrain it.
The sound was not loud, yet it caused the laws of the Pure Land to tremble faintly. Countless wandering souls drifting about in a dazed state seemed to sense the chill of an anger emanating from the very source of their existence, and all froze for an instant.
"The one behind this Heavenly Curtain... is becoming far too presumptuous." The Sage of Six Paths spoke in a low voice, suppressing his fury and deep apprehension.
When the Heavenly Curtain had first appeared, he had chosen to observe it, even hoping to use it to discern the intentions of the person behind it and the changes it might bring to the Shinobi World.
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