Chapter 287: Immortals Are Actually High Level Alien Civilizations
Deidara's matter was easy to handle.
After all, Kenichi now had a basic grasp of how to fuse explosives with chakra. To put it simply, once you found the trick to it and worked backward from there, the problem became much easier to solve.
But if you failed to find the key point, then you would have to waste a huge amount of time experimenting and thinking about how to solve it. That was also one of the main reasons Kenichi had been troubled by it for so long.
Of course, this also had something to do with his limited knowledge of explosives in his previous life.
Kenichi was not omnipotent. In his previous life, he had worked in genetics, so he naturally had a solid grasp of genes. But explosives belonged to a completely different discipline. Different fields were like different mountains.
"Deidara, go find some black powder or something similar and start experimenting with it. Just make sure you take proper safety precautions," Kenichi said, reminding the excited Deidara.
He was actually quite fond of this kid. After all, Deidara was his little fan.
And besides, explosives and Deidara's own Explosion Release were both inherently dangerous. Kenichi did not know whether combining them would make the power rise further, since he had not tested it himself, so being careful was always the better choice.
"Understood, Amamiya senpai! I definitely won't let you down!" Deidara left in high spirits.
Originally, he had not been especially interested in these things, but the moment he heard they could increase the power of his Explosion Release, he became instantly invested.
Art was an explosion.
As long as it could help his art, Deidara was willing to learn it. This was also why he admired Kenichi so much. After all, that mushroom cloud from that day was still deeply burned into his memory.
Deidara's dream was to create a bomb with power equal to, or even greater than, the mushroom cloud Kenichi had created that day.
"Uncle Amado, did you need something from me?" Kenichi asked after seeing Deidara off, then went to the reception room nearby to meet Amado.
Speaking of which, the reception room had only been built because his teacher insisted on it. At first, Kenichi had thought it was a bit unnecessary, but now it turned out to be genuinely useful.
"Kenichi, it's like this. Do you have any research related to souls?" Amado had been chatting with his daughter. Once he saw Kenichi walk in, he set his teacup down and got straight to the point.
"Souls?" Kenichi frowned slightly.
To be honest, he had not done much research on souls. Or rather, there had not been much serious research on souls in his previous life to begin with. The most famous example was probably the soul weight experiment.
But that experiment itself was riddled with problems, and no one had successfully reproduced it afterward. Moreover, no scientific instrument had ever detected the existence of any so called soul, so in his previous life, the concept of a soul leaned far more toward metaphysics.
It was like the eighteen layers of hell, a strange tale passed down by people, not something built on an actual scientific foundation.
In the ninja world, however, souls undeniably existed.
The souls in the Pure Land did not even age. They retained the appearance they had at the time of death, and could seemingly even choose to appear as they had during different periods of their lives.
Of course, that conclusion was based on Obito becoming young Obito again and leaving with Rin after death. Whether that was universally true still needed verification.
"I have not done much research, but souls definitely exist," Kenichi answered vaguely as he looked at Amado.
Did he answer? Yes.
Did he also not really answer? Also yes.
Amado naturally understood what that meant.
"It's like this. While I was researching Edo Tensei, I discovered a few small issues..." Amado inwardly cursed this little fox.
Kenichi would not show his cards unless he saw the rabbit first. If Amado wanted an honest discussion, he would have to reveal something from his own side first.
Kenichi listened very carefully, because he knew Amado truly was a capable researcher. There was no doubt about that. Kenichi himself understood it very clearly.
But after listening for a while, Kenichi could not help but look surprised, because he had not expected Amado to have not only technological expertise, but also this level of research into ninjutsu.
This man had actually developed something like that?
"...After I successfully created this soul restraint device, I tested it myself, and you've already seen the result." Amado gestured slightly with his chin.
Kenichi naturally knew he was referring to his daughter.
He looked toward Akebi. The quiet and gentle girl indeed had a decorative accessory on her head. It looked delicate, and at first Kenichi had assumed it was just a small ornament Amado gave her. He had not paid attention to it.
Now, however, he realized that thing was actually the soul restraint device Amado had developed.
The soul restraint device, invented by Amado, could effectively prevent a soul from returning to the Pure Land.
At the same time, it could also be applied to Edo Tensei, specifically to extend the length of time an Edo Tensei soul could remain in the world of the living.
Previously, even if Edo Tensei was successfully maintained, it could not last very long. On one hand, the living sacrifice body had to be replaced. On the other, the souls of the dead had an irresistible attachment to the Pure Land.
That attraction constantly made them want to escape the body imprisoning them and return to the Pure Land, where they felt at peace.
This device was basically equivalent to a stimulant like coffee or tea. It prevented the soul from feeling that exhausting discomfort so strongly.
Once the soul no longer resisted the sacrifice body as intensely, it could naturally remain in the living world much longer. If this could continue, perhaps resurrection itself might become possible someday.
"But now a new problem has appeared..." Amado kept explaining his findings.
Kenichi also pushed aside his other thoughts and continued listening attentively.
Very soon, he understood.
The biggest problem Amado was facing at the moment was this: although his daughter's soul was being restrained by the device and no longer yearned to return to the Pure Land, after remaining in the world of the living for exactly one month, it would still abruptly return to the Pure Land.
Originally, Amado had assumed there was something wrong with the restraint device. But the device itself worked normally, and could still function the next time as well.
He had even observed the process carefully himself, but after exactly one month, his daughter's soul still vanished without warning, and the Edo Tensei automatically released.
He had repeated the experiment many times, but had found no answer. This time, he had originally planned to discuss the problem with Orochimaru, but on the way he happened to notice the two giant war machines and came over first, which led to him running into Kenichi.
"So that's how it is..." Kenichi stroked his chin thoughtfully.
To be honest, neither he nor Orochimaru knew the maximum duration Edo Tensei could normally be maintained.
The reason was simple. The ninjas revived through Edo Tensei were attached to the Pure Land.
It was like a biological rhythm, a built in habit. Just as most people felt sleepy at night and wanted to sleep, souls in the living world felt drawn toward the Pure Land. Staying in the world of the living for them was like staying awake endlessly. The longer it went on, the stronger that exhaustion became.
And this soul restraint device was equivalent to caffeine. It suppressed that exhaustion and delayed the effect.
Of course, if the Sage of Six Paths himself took action, then he could likely keep souls in the world of the living for a very long time.
So with that in mind, could the problem Amado encountered be related to the Sage of Six Paths?
After all, since the device itself was not damaged and could continue to restrain the soul, there was no reason for the soul to suddenly break free and return to the Pure Land after one month.
That left only two possibilities.
The first was that the restraint device itself still had flaws. It might have an upper time limit, and that limit happened to be one month. Beyond that point, it would stop working properly and the soul would return to the Pure Land.
The second possibility was more troublesome.
The Sage of Six Paths had noticed what was happening and taken Amado's daughter away himself.
If it really were the Sage of Six Paths, then doing something like that should not be difficult for him. He existed within the Pure Land and still seemed to retain considerable power.
That said, another question followed. Why would he take Amado's daughter away, but not give Amado any kind of warning?
Then again, whether using Edo Tensei at all would trigger the Sage's attention was itself still unproven.
Kenichi personally felt there was a decent chance it would.
After all, the Pure Land was effectively the Sage's territory. Amado's current behavior was basically the equivalent of entering the Sage's house every day, taking someone out without permission, and keeping that person for a month at a time.
Naturally, that might draw attention.
"Mr. Amado, have you done any research into the Pure Land itself?" Kenichi asked as he looked at him.
There was no helping it. When it came to the Pure Land and souls, Amado probably had the deepest research of anyone currently available.
Of course, compared to Orochimaru, that was hard to say. Orochimaru had also mastered powerful techniques like Edo Tensei, which clearly involved the manipulation of souls as well.
The problem was that the Naruto storyline was too short and the timeline progressed too quickly. Even by Boruto, Orochimaru was only that age, old perhaps, but not truly ancient. Whether he had taken Edo Tensei research much farther was still uncertain.
"That place, the Pure Land. I asked Akebi about it. She said it was a pure white space where the dead felt very comfortable. They could also meet certain people and chat a little. But that world didn't seem fully interconnected. Akebi only saw a few people, and all of them had some sort of connection to her," Amado replied frankly.
Naturally, he had researched the Pure Land. Otherwise, how could he possibly have created such a device?
His original goal from the beginning had been very simple. He wanted to keep his daughter here, and eventually revive her.
Kenichi nodded.
Originally, he had thought the Pure Land might have developed into some sort of alternate society. He had not expected it to be like that, and it even sounded as if souls there were divided into small circles based on prior relationships.
If that were true, then Hashirama's soul was probably together with Tobirama and the others.
"Actually, I have two ideas regarding your problem," Kenichi said as he picked up his teacup, took a sip of hot tea, and looked at Amado.
Amado nodded after hearing the first theory. He had thought of that possibility himself.
After all, most scientific creations had upper limits. His own ninjutsu reflection device, for example, could not reflect every ninjutsu in existence.
If it could, he would already be invincible.
So he understood very well that his restraint device might simply have its own technical limitations.
But after hearing the second possibility, Amado's expression became more subtle.
Naturally, he knew who the Sage of Six Paths was. But frankly, he had always regarded that figure as more myth than reality, and he had never imagined that the Pure Land itself might have anything to do with him.
"Mr. Amado, let me make this clear. I'm about ninety percent certain about the Sage of Six Paths angle," Kenichi said.
He could see the doubt in Amado's eyes, which was normal. For a scientist, suddenly being forced to consider the existence of a Sage was not exactly an easy adjustment.
"I understand." Amado nodded.
Of course he understood that Kenichi was being serious. If he were not, there would be no reason to say any of this at all. The problem was simply that it sounded too unbelievable.
"Actually, Mr. Amado, you don't need to think of it as something so mystical. You know the old creation myths, right? The ones that say the ninja world was created by people who came from beyond the stars, and that the Sage of Six Paths created ninshu..." Kenichi explained patiently.
In truth, whether someone was called an immortal or not was not the important part.
All you had to do was change your perspective.
The so called immortals were really just beings from a far more advanced civilization.
To put it another way, if the ninjas of this world were transported into his previous life, they too might be viewed as cultivators or divine beings. Someone like Madara would absolutely be treated as a mythological figure.
So Kenichi felt that those so called immortals were probably just highly advanced extraterrestrials.
Their technology, or perhaps the extraordinary powers they wielded, were simply so far beyond normal human understanding that the gap had become impossible to bridge. It was only natural for such beings to be worshipped as immortals.
The Sage of Six Paths was the same.
And on top of that, Kenichi knew something else.
The Sage of Six Paths and Kaguya, the so called progenitor of chakra, were fundamentally aliens. They were both members of the Otsutsuki clan. In fact, they could even be considered members of relatively low rank within that clan.
Otherwise, Kaguya would never have been chosen as nourishment for the Divine Tree.
"So what you mean is... what happened to my daughter may have been done by that Sage of Six Paths?" Amado asked, frowning.
.....
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