Aoba had already pushed Sage Mode to its limits.
Because the human body naturally contained chakra, there was a limit to how much Natural Energy could be stored.
In the shinobi world, only a handful of shinobi could even use Natural Energy to begin with, let alone guide him in advancing his training.
Right now, in Konoha, the only other shinobi who could fully utilize Sage Mode was Namikaze Minato.
In fact, Minato had already begun teaching Naruto how to use Sage Mode, though Naruto was still in the early stages.
Aoba had also attempted to teach Sasuke Sage Mode, but he quickly realized that Sasuke's chakra actively rejected Natural Energy.
Or rather, Natural Energy rejected Sasuke's chakra.
As a result, Sasuke had always struggled to achieve a complete Sage Mode, relying instead on the Cursed Seal, a crude, inferior version of the real thing.
Yet, this very issue gave Aoba an idea.
He attempted to simulate the structure of the Cursed Seal, using it to increase his capacity for Natural Energy.
It worked, but only to a limited degree.
It was nowhere near what Aoba needed.
After all, before sealing his chakra, Aoba had already neared Six Paths-level strength.
If he wanted to reproduce that level of power using only Natural Energy, he still had a long way to go.
Despite all his efforts, Aoba was beginning to feel something he rarely experienced, frustration.
Now, he understood why the Sage of Six Paths had never directly intervened.
The old bastard didn't need to.
All he had to do was set a few small traps, and Aoba was already struggling.
The seal suppressing his chakra wouldn't last forever.
Aoba estimated that in three months, at most, the seal would fail completely.
At that point, his chakra would fully merge, evolving him into a true Six Paths-level being...
But that power wouldn't be under his control.
For Aoba, that would be a nightmare.
If it came to that, his only option would be to use Shiki Fūjin to kill himself, then have Kakashi and the others resurrect him into a new body.
Now that he thought about it… perhaps the lack of a true reincarnation cycle wasn't entirely a bad thing.
But still, Aoba had no intention of dying if he could help it.
And then, death. The thought struck him like a lightning bolt. All the native gods of the shinobi world were supposed to be dead.
But in reality, that wasn't entirely true.
At least two still existed. The Death God… and the "Evil God" that Hidan worshipped.
Of course, neither of them was fully alive either. But they weren't dead, either.
The spirits of the slain gods had once told Aoba that in order to fully master Natural Energy, he had to become a native god of the shinobi world.
Aoba believed this information was true. But something about it felt off. Instinctively, he wanted to verify it with an actual god. The Death God was out of the question.
Aoba had encountered it multiple times, and each time, he had managed to outmaneuver it.
As a result, whatever was left of the Death God's mind absolutely hated him.
Even if communication was possible, the Death God wouldn't want to talk.
That left one other option, the Evil God. The Evil God was even more peculiar.
It undeniably existed, there was no question about that.
But no one had ever truly seen it. Even Hidan himself had admitted that while he could sense the Evil God's presence, he had never once seen its true form.
However, something had happened during a previous experiment with Hidan.
An unexpected anomaly.That anomaly had led Aoba to a new realization, the Evil God was real.
And more than that, it wasn't somewhere far away. It was inside Hidan.
Dormant. Sealed. Sleeping.
Now, all Aoba had to do was wake it up.
And have a face-to-face conversation.
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Currently on Chapter 357 - The Hesitant God of Death