"Aoba, who exactly are you?"
The first question from Itachi made Aoba furrow his brow slightly.
It was a delicate question, one that could touch upon his most important secret.
But Aoba did not hesitate. He answered directly.
"I am Aoba Kamikawa."
Itachi stared at him for a long moment, his dark, ordinary eyes studying Aoba with an unreadable expression. Then, he nodded, seemingly accepting the answer.
"Second question. Aoba Kamikawa, will you harm Konoha? Will you harm the shinobi world?"
"No. As you can see, I am trying to save it."
"Third question. Why must you oppose him? As far as I know, he has never harmed us."
The third question was, without a doubt, the most critical.
Aoba had long anticipated that someone would eventually ask him this question.
He just hadn't expected the first to do so would be Uchiha Itachi.
Like Itachi said, the Sage of Six Paths had never directly harmed the shinobi world.
At least, not in an obvious way.
But Aoba now knew what the Sage had truly done.
"No, that is only what you perceive.If I told you that for thousands of years, every war in the shinobi world was orchestrated by him from the shadows, would you be surprised?"
Itachi did not react. "And what else?"
"The cycle of life and death in the shinobi world has been altered. The dead do not find peace. The living do not find freedom. We are all merely his chess pieces. You do not sense any danger now because he has not yet obtained what he seeks. But once he does… it will be too late."
By now, Aoba had gathered enough information to be certain, the Sage of Six Paths had altered the Pure Land and taken control of it.
He was stealing chakra permissions from the spirits trapped there.
Every shinobi possessed a tiny fragment of chakra permissions, but alone, they were insignificant.
So, he had spent millennia collecting them, gradually accumulating enough to reshape the world.
In this process, every deceased soul was denied reincarnation.
Aoba theorized that after extracting their chakra permissions, their memories were erased, and they were sent back into the world, reincarnated with no recollection of their past lives.
In other words, the shinobi world had been fighting with the same souls for thousands of years.
It was a perfectly engineered system to maintain the "stability" that the Sage desired.
The same souls… fighting the same conflicts… over and over again.
Perhaps only the reincarnations of Asura and Indra were treated differently, given slightly greater awareness.
And if one examined history carefully, the pattern was clear...
Indra's reincarnation was always the one seeking change.
And Asura's reincarnation was always the one stopping him.
Madara had sought to unite the world, Hashirama defeated him, ensuring the world remained divided and at war.
Later, Sasuke sought to kill the Kage and unite the world, Naruto stopped him, allowing the cycle of division to continue.
History was repeating itself over and over again.
Until Aoba appeared, an entirely new soul.
He had disrupted the established cycle.
And the shinobi world had begun to change.
Aoba still didn't understand why the Sage had never intervened directly.
Perhaps altering the Pure Land's rules wasn't easy.
Perhaps he had paid a price for doing so, one that prevented him from acting freely.
That was the only reason Aoba had any time to prepare.
But he didn't believe for a second that the Sage had done nothing in response.
While Aoba prepared, the Sage was undoubtedly preparing his own countermeasures.
At the very least, he had two major pieces, Obito and Hashirama.
And given his dominion over the Pure Land, there was no telling what other weapons he might wield.
That was why Aoba never let his guard down.
Itachi's gaze did not waver.
Then, he asked his final question.
"Do you have confidence that you will succeed?"
"…No."
This time, Aoba answered without hesitation.
Because it was the truth.
He had no certainty of success.
Despite all his progress, all his preparations.
Everything he had achieved so far had been before the Sage had made a move.
The moment the Sage acted, that would mark the true beginning of a battle to the death.
And right now, Aoba had no confidence in defeating the Sage.
Itachi let out a slow breath.
Then, he spoke words Aoba hadn't expected.
"Aoba Kamikawa… I believe you. I have information for you. Something you might find… interesting."**
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Currently on Chapter 354 - Long Time No See