[Uzumaki Naruto, open your eyes. I am the Sage of Six Paths.]
In the dimly lit space, a pale old man floated cross-legged in midair.
"Ohhh! This is so realistic!"
The moment Naruto opened his eyes and saw the Sage of Six Paths, he immediately grew excited.
"And I know this part! I've seen it before!"
Back when Obito had first entered the Engraved Tsukuyomi game, Naruto had pestered Kakashi into letting him watch the recording.
Obito had also been greeted by a guide when he first entered.
Except Obito's guide had been Sasuke.
That one had started with something like:
[Uchiha Obito, open your eyes. I am Sasuke.]
This wasn't all that different.
They had simply replaced Sasuke with the Sage of Six Paths.
But why the Sage of Six Paths?
Had Kakashi-sensei secretly given Naruto some kind of special privilege so he could have an even better time inside?
Naruto was already starting to look forward to it.
"Naruto, you seem to have misunderstood something."
The Sage of Six Paths noticed that Naruto's reaction was completely wrong and hurriedly explained.
"I am not a character created by this illusion.
"I am merely using the illusion as a medium to speak with you. There are things I need to tell you."
And he was telling the truth.
The Sage of Six Paths standing before Naruto really wasn't an NPC.
There were several conditions that could allow Hagoromo to manifest.
The first was related to power.
A Rinnegan had to appear, and its wielder needed to be capable of drawing out and controlling most of its power.
Only then could Hagoromo project his own power through it.
Sasuke had already fulfilled that condition before Madara's resurrection.
The second condition was the appearance of the Child of Prophecy.
All nine Tailed Beasts had to gather within Naruto.
Naruto had technically achieved that condition ahead of schedule as well.
Granted, the Tailed Beasts were only gathered inside him in a physical sense.
Because of the prophecy, several of them were currently more wary of Naruto than supportive of him.
The third condition was Kaguya approaching resurrection—or, more accurately, the release of her seal.
There was no need to explain that one.
Before Black Zetsu was sealed away again, Kaguya had already managed to briefly project some of her power through him.
And one of Makoto's group's stated objectives was to unseal Kaguya in the first place.
There was no way Hagoromo would fail to notice something like that.
There was also the matter of a Ten-Tails jinchūriki.
That condition had not appeared yet.
Nor had Naruto and Sasuke simultaneously been brought to the brink of death.
So Hagoromo still could not simply appear to them in a dream the way he normally would.
His only option was to perform something resembling a hack and slip into Engraved Tsukuyomi to contact Naruto directly.
And why wasn't Hagoromo willing to wait a little longer?
Because he had sensed something was wrong.
If he truly waited until Naruto and Sasuke were both near death before giving them power and guidance, there was a good chance it would already be too late.
Not long ago, Momoshiki, Urashiki, and Makoto had all displayed power on the level of the Ōtsutsuki.
Hagoromo knew nothing about visitors from beyond the world.
All he could determine was that these were powers comparable to his mother Kaguya's—
Which meant they were threats of the same magnitude.
"I know, I know. Hurry up and tell me already."
Naruto waved impatiently.
"I still need to create my character. Hehehe… this time it's finally my turn to be Sasuke."
He rubbed his hands together eagerly.
Naruto could hardly wait to experience what it was like to be Sasuke and have all the girls in class fawning over him.
"As expected of Asura's reincarnation."
Hagoromo somehow interpreted Naruto's excitement in the most flattering possible way.
"Even inside an illusion, you seek to think as another thinks, to experience the life of Indra's reincarnation so that the two of you may better understand one another.
"You are a good child."
Whether Hagoromo's brain was functioning properly was difficult to say.
After praising Naruto, he finally returned to the real subject.
"Uzumaki Naruto, all nine Tailed Beasts have gathered within you.
"You are the Child of Prophecy.
"I hope that you and Indra's reincarnation will join forces to prevent my mother's resurrection—
"More precisely, to prevent the release of her seal.
"Only then can you save the shinobi world as it exists today."
"Stop your mother from being unsealed?"
Naruto froze.
"But…"
Between movie promotions and the internal information he had heard, Naruto already knew what everyone in the real world was currently trying to do.
Their mission was supposed to be to unseal Kaguya and bring her back.
So why was the Sage of Six Paths asking him to stop that?
"Oh! I get it!"
Naruto suddenly slapped his hands together in realization.
"This is the Engraved Tsukuyomi world!
"It's just like that Limited Tsukuyomi novel—the setting is supposed to be the opposite of the real shinobi world!"
Having arrived at this explanation, Naruto began grinning proudly.
His own intelligence had truly become terrifying.
At this rate, Shikamaru probably wasn't much smarter than him.
"Naruto, what do you mean by 'the opposite'?"
Hagoromo frowned.
"I already told you. I am not a character from this illusion.
"Listen carefully. The story I am about to tell you begins with my mother, Kaguya—"
"I know!"
Naruto interrupted enthusiastically.
"You're the Sage of Six Paths, which means you're the sage who monopolized the Six-Tails'… whatever path.
"Your mother Kaguya banned people from being too fond of furry creatures, so you sealed her away.
"Then you personally created nine furry beasts for yourself to enjoy—the Tailed Beasts!
"You also had a younger brother named Hamura, right?
"But because you hogged all the Tailed Beasts and refused to share even one with him, and then he found out your mother was technically a rabbit lady too, he ran off to the moon.
"Am I right?"
Naruto finished with an enormously smug expression.
And here, a serious problem became obvious.
When Kakashi had asked Naruto to memorize those two absurdly long "privacy commands" earlier, Naruto had struggled for ages.
In the end, he had needed to exploit the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique just to memorize them.
But the storylines from Limited Tsukuyomi?
Naruto had seen them once.
Once.
And yet he remembered them so clearly that he could recite the entire thing as naturally as eating and drinking.
"Correct—"
Hagoromo froze.
"No! Incorrect!"
Naruto had completely scrambled his thoughts.
How did Naruto know all of this?
More importantly, why were the people and major historical events all correct?
Kaguya being sealed.
Hagoromo splitting the Ten-Tails into nine Tailed Beasts.
Hamura going to the moon.
Those were all true.
Only the motivations had somehow become completely deranged.
Hagoromo was baffled.
Had a thousand years without any proper historians really caused the truth to mutate this badly through rumor and retelling?
But why had it mutated in this direction?
And what exactly was that line about him being "the sage who monopolized the Six-Tails' whatever path"?
Wasn't that euphemism a little too obscure?
Most importantly—
What did furry mean?
It sounded oddly auspicious!
Was it some modern equivalent of the ancient term auspicious beast?
"Fortune" was a good thing.
"Auspiciousness" was a good thing too.
And Naruto was calling the Tailed Beasts "furries."
Did that mean humans and Tailed Beasts had finally learned to coexist peacefully in this era?
Hagoromo had no idea.
In his previous state, he could only vaguely sense major chakra disturbances—
Shinobi World Wars.
Tailed Beast rampages.
Events on that scale.
"So my main quest is stopping Kaguya from coming back?"
Naruto's eyes widened with excitement.
"That means my enemies in this game are actually Akatsuki and Makoto's group?!
"Oh man, this is awesome!
"Kakashi-sensei, I love you!"
Naruto practically vibrated with anticipation.
Then he looked back at Hagoromo.
"Hey, Six Paths old man, why'd you stop talking?
"Hurry up already! I can't wait to help you create a wonderful furry world~"
"…"
Hagoromo fell silent.
For a moment, he genuinely had no idea how to explain any of this.
"Damn it, did the game freeze?"
Naruto's excitement began turning into irritation.
"When I get out, I'm definitely telling Kakashi-sensei to submit feedback."
"These story scenes need a skip button."
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