"Matatabi… she… she actually died?"
Hearing this, Arisu froze in place.
Those eyes that had always been gentle and calm suddenly tightened sharply, his pupils surging with disbelief and shock!
Arisu had been a sage for so long, and rarely lost his composure.
Arisu suddenly turned his head, his gaze like something tangible as it swept fiercely across the eight-clan alliance before him.
The allied ninjas who were swept by that gaze all felt their hearts tighten.
Their legs went weak uncontrollably, and they all instinctively stepped back in unison. The originally tight formation instantly fell into disorder.
Without the slightest hesitation, Arisu instantly spread out his perception. Vast sage chakra, like a sea of stars, swept across the entire battlefield in an instant.
Every inch of land, every trace of drifting chakra was completely captured in his awareness.
When he clearly sensed that in the air there remained only the shattered, faint, completely lifeless remnants of the Two-Tails Matatabi's chakra
Arisu's heart sank all the way to the bottom. An indescribable regret and pain gripped his heart tightly.
"To think… this master was wrong!", Arisu murmured in a low voice, filled with self-blame.
He vaguely sensed that there was something strange about this siege. How could Matatabi have died so easily…
But Matatabi's death was already an undeniable fact.
At this moment, Arisu's mind was in chaos. He had no time to carefully think through the details, nor did he want to recall what felt off.
Right now, there was only one thought in his mind.
To avenge Matatabi.
Uncontrollably, scenes from the past surfaced in Arisu's mind. Moments spent with Matatabi flashed by like a lantern reel.
That blue-flamed cat, usually proud yet lively, would always cling to his side and act spoiled. The most obedient tailed beast, the one Arisu liked the most.
But now, that vivid life had vanished before his eyes.
It was even very likely that she had been burned alive by the Uchiha clan's black flames of Amaterasu. At the thought of this, a towering rage instantly broke through all his restraint.
"This old man is the Great Sage, the strongest in this world, yet I watched Matatabi die before me. Even with heaven-reaching cultivation, what does it amount to?"
At Arisu's feet, Shukaku was already trembling from crying, his voice hoarse. "Wuu… Teacher, you must avenge Matatabi! It was them, these people who cruelly killed her!"
Listening to Shukaku's heart-wrenching cries and looking at the scattered remnants of the Two-Tails' chakra across the ground, Arisu closed his eyes tightly, his fingers clenching slightly.
Gamamaru, your dream has come true.
At this moment, all hesitation, all inaction, all thoughts of letting things settle peacefully vanished completely.
It was his fault. He had been too indulgent.
And that had led to today's tragedy.
BOOM!!
A terrifying aura burst out from Arisu's body. Overwhelming chakra, carrying ancient sage power, surged wildly upward, shooting straight into the sky.
BOOM!!!
A violent wind rose all around.
The originally gloomy battlefield sky was illuminated by this power.
Arisu's figure underwent an extreme transformation within this power. His drooping white beard fell off at a visible speed.
The wrinkled skin rapidly shed its age, becoming tight and smooth again. His head of white hair gradually turned back to jet black.
In just an instant, that aged Great Sage of Mount Myoboku reverted directly to youth, becoming a tall, extraordinary young man. The pressure radiating from him was more than a hundred times stronger than before.
"Sword, come!"
Arisu suddenly opened his eyes. The Rinnegan in his eyes shone brilliantly.
The Tenseigan on his forehead became like the sun.
He raised his hand and let out a light shout toward the void.
The voice was not loud, yet it seemed to pierce through the boundaries of space and time, echoing across the entire ninja world and the summoning world.
———
At the same time, at the very top of the Sage Hall in Mount Myoboku, the Six Paths Sword hanging in the center suddenly burst forth with dazzling sage light.
On the pitch-black blade, patterns woven from Six Paths power and sage techniques flowed. The terrifying fluctuation of power instantly shook the entire Mount Myoboku.
The Six Paths Sword trembled violently, breaking free from its restraints. It turned into a streak of black light, breaking through layer after layer of Mount Myoboku's barriers.
Its speed reached the extreme, cutting across the sky and leaving behind a black trail.
In the blink of an eye, it crossed a thousand miles and landed precisely in Arisu's raised hand.
At the moment the sword entered his grasp, Arisu and the Six Paths Sword instantly became one, perfectly fused.
An unparalleled pressure spread out completely. The entire battlefield fell into dead silence, with only the sound of wind and the hum of the Six Paths Sword echoing.
The stronger the will, the stronger the Six Paths Sword.
At this moment, Arisu's will had already reached the heavens.
That overwhelming will directly broke through the barrier.
In an instant, Arisu suddenly felt his power elevate.
Behind him, pitch-black Truth-Seeking Balls began to condense.
[Ding! System prompt: Strength has reached beyond Six Paths level.]
'This is!? Six Paths level!'
A flash of understanding passed through Arisu's Rinnegan.
In an instant, he understood. Truly understood.
Arisu recalled the words that the White-Brow Toad had once told him. It turned out they had long hinted at how to take that next step.
This realm is a state of mind.
Over these years, he really had changed somewhat. Now, Matatabi's death had directly "corrected" him back.
"So that's how it is… but… Matatabi is already dead."
"If I can't even protect my own student, then even if I possess heaven-reaching cultivation, what does it amount to?", Arisu said bitterly.
The tens of thousands of ninjas from the eight-clan alliance looked at the completely transformed Arisu before them... now young, holding a heaven-reaching pure black giant sword.
Every one of them was filled with shock, their faces written with disbelief. Even the hands gripping their weapons began to tremble.
"This is… who exactly is this person?!"
"I think I've seen him in the murals of the Six Paths Temple in our clan! When I was little, I even knelt and worshipped in front of that painting with the clan leader!"
"Impossible… this is absolutely impossible!"
"That sword… that's right, it's exactly the same as the Six Paths Sword in the painting!"
"Six… Six Paths Sage!? He's the legendary Six Paths Sage!"
"Isn't that just a myth?!"
Terrified discussions erupted within the alliance. More and more ninjas recognized Arisu's identity.
Some even had their legs give out and collapsed to their knees with a thud, trembling as they kowtowed toward Arisu, unable to muster even the slightest will to resist.
Senju Hiruka's long hair was blown wildly by the fierce wind, his clothes flapping loudly. He stared fixedly at Arisu, his face full of panic and disbelief.
"Shuhaku! What's going on?! Is this real or fake?! Is it a transformation technique or an illusion?! Say something!"
Senju Hiruka shouted to Uchiha Shuhaku beside him.
But at this moment, Uchiha Shuhaku had long lost his previous calm and dominance. He stood frozen in place as if stunned.
"This… this can't be… it's actually real… the legendary Six Paths Sage… actually exists…"
Uchiha Shuhaku's eyes automatically activated the Mangekyo Sharingan as he stared fixedly at the Six Paths Sword in Arisu's hand, muttering to himself.
Not only Senju Hiruka and Uchiha Shuhaku, but also the clan heads of the Sarutobi, Shimura, Uzumaki, and the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance all had pale faces.
They stared at Arisu as if facing a great enemy, their bodies stiff and unable to move, their hearts filled with nothing but endless shock.
A myth had stepped into reality?
No one had expected that a mission to capture tailed beasts would actually alarm the legendary creator sage of the ninja world.
This plan, which had originally been certain to succeed, had now completely spiraled out of control.
"...."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/XenosX
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰