In the quiet bamboo forest, bamboo leaves were blown loose by the aftershock of the battle, rustling as they drifted down and covered the ground in patches of green and yellow.
Otsutsuki Hagoromo's clothes were torn and ruined, the chakra around his body extremely chaotic.
He lay on the fallen leaves in a miserable state, unable to even raise a hand, as if all his strength had already been drained.
Arisu stood in front of him with his hands behind his back. His clothes were spotless, and his breathing was steady, as if the earth-shaking battle just now had never happened at all.
"Hagoromo, do you still have anything to say?"
Arisu lowered his eyes and looked at Hagoromo on the ground. His tone was calm and without any emotion, impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry.
Hagoromo's dry, cracked lips moved slightly. Weak but stubborn, he spoke. His voice was full of confusion that refused to fade.
"Teacher, I don't understand…"
"Why are you helping Indra? What exactly is Indra to you? That unique hand-seal method of his… did you personally teach it to him?"
Hagoromo looked up at Arisu. His cloudy eyes were filled with confusion and questioning.
Arisu did not deny it. He simply nodded lightly and said calmly, "Yes. The reason I helped Indra is because Indra is my disciple."
"Then am I not your disciple too?"
"I am also a good student you treated sincerely! Ashura is even your grand-disciple!"
Hagoromo suddenly raised his voice, with a bit of stubbornness in his tone.
He was not truly jealous. He simply could not understand it at all.
He and Arisu had been master and disciple together for several hundred years, with deep feelings between them.
Indra had only followed the teacher for a little more than ten years. Why could he make this unfathomable old man personally step in to help him?
Could it really be that only the noisy child gets the most favor?
The child who cries gets candy?
What he wanted to know even more was what kind of reason could make his teacher willing to face him in battle.
When Arisu heard this, a trace of faint surprise flashed across his face.
He had lived for so many long years, and the disciples he had accepted were already too many to count: Hagoromo, Gamamaru, Fukasaku, Shima, and even the nine tailed beasts… every one of them he treated sincerely.
In his heart, each of these disciples was obedient and lovable, and he had never divided them into favorites or not. For a moment, he could not even say which one he favored the most.
There are no traitorous ministers, they are all loyal ministers.
Seeing Arisu fall silent, Hagoromo forced himself to speak again and asked the thing he was most worried about.
"Teacher, what will you do next? Are you really going to help Indra take control of the Ninja Sect? Or…"
"I will not help Indra take control of the Ninja Sect."
Arisu interrupted him directly. His tone was still calm.
"Indra's way of thinking is too extreme, and his temperament is still too immature. He does not understand the true meaning of the Ninja Sect continuing to exist at all."
"If he were to inherit the position of Ninja Sect, in the end it would only create a terrifying centralized dictatorship and bring disaster to the world."
As for Indra, he only stepped in to keep him alive because of their master-disciple relationship, along with some benefit considerations.
Having lived for thousands of years, his view had long surpassed ordinary people. He saw further than anyone else.
Naturally he knew that Indra's violent and solitary path simply would not work, and he would never allow him to act recklessly.
"So teacher… you already knew everything…", After hearing this, Hagoromo could not help but smile bitterly.
He had been uneasy the whole time before, thinking that his teacher wanted to join hands with Indra and try to rule the entire world. Only now did he realize that he had worried too much.
Arisu looked at him and slowly spoke. His voice carried a distant clarity that had been polished by countless years.
"As your teacher… I understand far more than you imagine…"
The bitterness at the corner of Hagoromo's mouth grew stronger. His cloudy eyes were full of the confusion of half his life.
Supporting his broken body, he asked softly, "Teacher, what kind of belief is truly correct? The Ninja Sect that I created with all my effort… was it right or wrong?"
Arisu crouched down.
When a person is about to die, his words are kind. Since Hagoromo sincerely asked, then as his teacher, he would answer seriously.
Arisu gently pinched a falling bamboo leaf between his fingers. Looking toward the depths of the bamboo forest, he spoke slowly and deeply, with a clarity that seemed to pass through a thousand years.
"Hagoromo, from the very beginning, you mistook 'the only one' for 'the correct one.'"
"There has never been an absolutely correct belief in this world. Just like heaven and earth are divided into yin and yang, and the sun and moon divide day and night."
"Indra's lonely sharpness is a path, and Ashura's gentle tolerance is also a path."
"You are obsessed with deciding who is right and who is wrong. You are obsessed with making the Ninja Sect follow one fixed road. That itself is already being trapped by appearances."
"You ask me whether the Ninja Sect is right?"
"Your original intention was never wrong."
"You saw the conflicts in the world. You used chakra to connect people's hearts, and used bonds to resolve hatred. This is the most genuine meaning of the Ninja Sect..."
"It is not a tool for ruling, not a chain for inheritance. It is a bridge, connecting different people, different thoughts, and different paths."
Hagoromo's pupils trembled slightly as he listened blankly.
"You feel lost because you want everyone to walk the same road. You want the Ninja Sect to become a perfect rule that can never be wrong."
"But the living beings of this world are countless. Some are like Indra, protecting through strength."
"Some are like Ashura, living together through kindness. No one has to copy the way someone else lives."
"Who can guarantee everything will be the same?"
"The truly correct belief is never a single answer. It is 'tolerance.'"
"The true meaning of the Ninja Sect is not choosing a perfect successor. It is allowing every person walking the path of nin to keep their own original intention."
"Not bullying the weak with strength, not abandoning bonds, not turning power into a blade, but only using it as a shield to protect."
Arisu released his hand. The bamboo leaf drifted away with the wind and landed in Hagoromo's palm.
"You created the Ninja Sect to stop war, not to set rules; to connect hearts, not to rule over them."
"As long as you keep this original intention, the Ninja Sect will always be right."
"As for whether beliefs are right or wrong, leave that to time, leave it to all living beings. You don't need to cling to it alone."
"In short, later generations will have their own blessings. Believe in the wisdom of those who come later!", Arisu said with relief.
Hagoromo looked at the bamboo leaf in his palm, then at Arisu's calm eyes. The confusion that had piled up for a hundred years suddenly scattered. His mind opened up, and a trace of clarity finally appeared in his cloudy eyes.
"Believe in the wisdom of later generations… wonderful, wonderful, wonderful…", Hagoromo murmured a few times.
"Cough, cough, cough. Teacher, this bamboo forest… seems to be the place where you fought Mother back then…", Hagoromo suddenly said with a smile.
Hearing this, Arisu looked at the bamboo forest and a trace of emotion flashed in his eyes.
"Yes. After going around and around, we came back to this bamboo forest again."
The bamboo forest was still the bamboo forest from those years.
Only many things and people had already been replaced generation after generation.
Hagoromo nodded lightly and showed a relieved smile.
"Thank you. As my teacher, you gave me the final lesson of my life. I almost killed my own son. Whether it is Indra or Ashura, they are both my good sons."
"As for the world and the Ninja Sect… leave them to the later generations!", Seeing Hagoromo relieved, Arisu smiled slightly.
"Alright, class dismissed.", After saying this, Arisu turned his back and prepared to leave.
"Wait, teacher!", Hagoromo suddenly spoke and stopped Arisu.
"Teacher, I do not have much time left…"
"My Rinnegan may be useful to you. You can treat it as a gift from your disciple.", Hagoromo closed his eyes and said softly.
Arisu's face suddenly stiffened, and his body paused.
'Damn it, I was so busy acting cool and talking about great principles that I almost forgot the important matter!'
"Since you insist…", Arisu put his hands behind his back.
Still the same sentence.
'I will not be polite!'