blenderwars Chapter 428 The Truth About the Rinnegan
Chapter 428 The Truth About the Rinnegan
Nagato lowered his head, and silence continued to spread in the secret room, with only the incessant sound of rain from Amegakure faintly heard in the distance.
He raised his face again. In his eyes, there was no longer the majesty of a god, only deep weariness and a near-shattered confusion.
"...If what you said is true...the Rinnegan is the power of the 'Otsutsuki' clan..."
"...Then why do I have these eyes?"
Naruto looked at the confusion and pain in Nagato's eyes regarding the origin of his own existence, and calmly gave his answer.
"Because we are all descendants of the Sage of Six Paths."
He began to trace another chapter of history, a chapter about the origins of the ninja clan, the inheritance of bloodlines, and the truth about the true path of those eyes.
"The Uzumaki clan, the Uchiha clan, and the Senju clan—these three ancient ninja clans can all trace their bloodline back to the two sons of the Sage of Six Paths."
His gaze shifted to Satsuki, who was standing quietly to the side, also listening intently.
"The eldest son of the Sage of Six Paths was named Indra. He inherited his father's powerful eye power, talent, and abilities, as well as... a stubborn nature. Indra's descendants, through long years and changes, eventually evolved into the present-day Uchiha clan."
Zuo Yue's eyes flickered slightly beneath her mask. This was the first time she had heard so clearly the origin of her clan, which was directly connected to the legendary Sage of Six Paths.
Naruto continued, "The Rinnegan, in essence, is the Sharingan evolved to its ultimate form under specific conditions. It is the ultimate manifestation of the power lineage belonging to Indra, which is deeply hidden in the Uchiha bloodline."
His gaze returned to Nagato.
"However, I am not a member of the Uchiha clan."
Nagato replied in a low voice, his tone filled with self-mockery and bitterness. He knew the blood of the Uzumaki clan flowed in his veins… if all of this was true…
His body trembled slightly due to the intense emotional fluctuations, causing his body, which was covered with black rods, to make a soft rubbing sound.
Yes, if these eyes truly possess power that "belongs to me"... why did using them turn me into this half-dead, wretched state?
He had always believed that these eyes were a tool bestowed upon him by fate to change the world, and he was willing to pay any heavy price for it. But what if even this "tool" itself was merely a foreign object meticulously designed by someone else, temporarily placed in his "warm bed"...
"Yes. The story that follows will be a bit long, but... this is the truth of the world."
"As I said before, as long as we capture 'Zetsu,' everything will come to light." Naruto emphasized this key point, "Because even the true owner of these eyes—the one who 'cultivated' them—was just a pawn being manipulated by that guy."
He looked directly into Nagato and Konan's eyes, which were filled with suspicion and horror, and dropped yet another shocking secret.
"'Absolute'... He is not human, not even a life form in the conventional sense."
"He is Kaguya Otsutsuki's third 'child'."
"That's impossible!"
Xiao Nan instinctively retorted, her face utterly utterly skeptical. How could that two-faced, unpredictable guy possibly be the child of some mythical being?!
"Of course, using the word 'child' is not entirely accurate."
Naruto explained, "He is not like the Sage of Six Paths and his brothers, who were born of Kaguya and inherited the orthodox power and bloodline as children of God."
"Zetsu is a 'consciousness product' forcibly created by Kaguya using Yin-Yang Release techniques at the moment she was sealed away. It carries a portion of her will and obsession. It is born with an infinite lifespan and, most importantly, a mission engraved into the core of its existence."
"To resurrect his mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki."
Nagato and Konan were so shocked they were numb, and could only passively absorb this revolutionary information.
"However, to revive Kaguya, it is necessary to gather all of her scattered chakra, as well as a perfect vessel to contain her immense divine power. This was originally an impossible task for Zetsu, who had almost no ability to fight directly and could only manipulate people's hearts from the shadows."
Connecting the dots from the previous narrative, a terrifying chain of logic gradually becomes clear.
"The Sage of Six Paths...distributed his chakra among the world..." he murmured. "In other words...the Infinite Tsukuyomi...that so-called 'Eye of the Moon Project'...its true purpose wasn't to create some illusory peaceful world at all...but rather...to forcibly reclaim and gather all of Kaguya's scattered chakra?!"
"That's right." Naruto confirmed his speculation. "It's a highly efficient, global chakra recovery and purification ritual. And the humans trapped in the genjutsu will have their bodies absorbed by the roots of the Divine Tree and transformed into White Zetsu."
"To achieve this goal, Zetsu began a plan that spanned a thousand years. He altered the stone tablet left by the Sage of Six Paths beneath the Uchiha clan's Naka Shrine—a sacred relic passed down through generations of the Uchiha. Zetsu altered the original text of the stone tablet with his own fabricated content, such as 'Infinite Tsukuyomi is the only way to save the world.'"
For the next thousand years, Judah continually sowed discord and incited hatred among the descendants of Indra and Asura, causing them to fight and kill each other.
"He did this in the hope that a descendant of Indra in a certain generation would be able to defeat the descendants of Asura in the same era and seize the latter's power."
"Only when the powers of Indra and Ashura are combined can the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan be guided to evolve into its final form—the Rinnegan."
"Only by activating the Rinnegan can one see through the 'deeper' content on the stone tablet that Zetsu has altered, and thus 'comprehend' the so-called 'Eye of the Moon Plan'."
However, throughout history, despite the constant struggles, no Indra reincarnation has ever been able to defeat an Asura reincarnation.
"Until...decades ago."
Naruto shifts the focus to an era more familiar to Nagato and Konan.
"The reincarnation of this generation came to Hashirama Senju and met Madara Uchiha."
Konan couldn't help but say, "But... according to all the records and legends, in the battle at the Valley of the End, Madara Uchiha was defeated and killed. Hashirama Senju emerged victorious."
"No, that's not the whole truth." Naruto shook his head. "Before the final battle, Madara Uchiha pre-set Izanagi on one of his Sharingan eyes—a forbidden technique of the Uchiha clan. It can transform an unfavorable 'reality' into a 'dream' by sacrificing the light of that eye, thereby rewriting the outcome."
"He used Izanagi to rewrite the reality of his 'instant death.' At the same time, during his battle with Hashirama, he successfully seized a small piece of Hashirama's body tissue. Then, with this trophy, he faked his death and went into hiding."
"Next came a long period of waiting and nurturing, long enough to consume most of a ninja's life. Madara transplanted the body containing Ashura's power from Hashirama Senju into his own body, attempting to catalyze the fusion and evolution of his own power."
"However, it was ultimately only a small part of the body that was stolen, not the complete power of Ashura. Madara Uchiha spent decades until the moment when his life was about to end and he was on the verge of death, when his long-desired Rinnegan finally awakened."
"Nagato...!"
Konan called out anxiously. She saw that as Naruto's story progressed, especially when he heard key points such as "Madara cultivated the Rinnegan" and "it only awakened when his lifespan was about to end," Nagato froze completely.
His entire body exuded an aura of despair and coldness.
Why did I suddenly awaken the Rinnegan when I was a child?
Why does using these eyes consume so much of my life force and cause my body to break down?
Why was he given the leadership of Akatsuki and the grand mission of "collecting the tailed beasts and creating peace"?
"And he devised a massive plan." Naruto's voice continued, "The dying Madara Uchiha needs a proxy to continue the 'Eye of the Moon Plan' after his death."
"That person is my long-standing goal—Obito Uchiha."
"Zetsu deceived Madara, and Madara deceived Obito. And Obito..."
"He killed your Akatsuki's original members, deceived you, made you believe in the path of creating peace through suffering, made you willingly become the 'custodian' and 'user' of these two Rinnegan, and even more so, made you the most important pawn in his collection of tailed beasts and the final activation of the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
"..."
The path he believed in and practiced throughout his life, enduring pain... the Rinnegan he regarded as his salvation and mission... the Akatsuki he, Yahiko, and Konan built together... everything...
So, it was all just a meticulously crafted, cold-blooded, and massive scam spanning a thousand years?
I... have never been a "child of prophecy," a "god," or even a "revolutionary" with independent will.
Am I merely a chosen "container" to temporarily store important parts, a pathetic puppet driven by lies and heading towards the goal of destroying the world?
He didn't want to believe it.
Reason screamed in resistance; it was too bizarre, too dark, too hopeless.
But... at this moment, what need would Naruto have to fabricate such a complex, detailed, and subversive story to deceive two prisoners who were already powerless to resist? To show off? To torture them? Neither of these seems to have a sufficient motive.
The origins of those eyes, the cost of using them, the strangeness of Obito and Zetsu's actions, the subtle incongruity in the description of Infinite Tsukuyomi... all the details that he had ignored or forcibly explained in the past now found a chilling and reasonable explanation under this "deception theory".