Chapter 486: Underhanded Schemes
At the top of the Hokage Residence.
Over on one side, people were still weeping in profound grief over Hiruzen's passing, while over on this side, Ryo had abruptly collapsed flat on his back.
The gathering descendants stared at one another in complete, blank bewilderment. Overwhelming sorrow? This performance is a fraction too melodramatic, isn't it...
After a prolonged, thoroughly awkward silence, Obito finally tiptoed over to stand in front of the flat-lying Ryo. Half-squatting his body, he whispered tentatively: "Master? Why on earth are you lying on the floor? The ground is dirty, dirty, dirty... Wait, he's not breathing?!"
"What?!" The four ninjas maintaining the Four Violet Flames Formation simultaneously cried out in absolute shock, immediately canceling the barrier to flash via Body Flicker right to Ryo's side.
On the other side of the roof, Hiruzen's relatives similarly shifted their gaze over. Asuma, maintaining a thoroughly stiff, emotionless face, shoved a cigarette right into his mouth: "There's no practical need to go this far..."
"The Great Ancestor... has... died too?" Konohamaru sobbed violently.
Tsunade concentrated her absolute focus to administer a diagnostic sweep. Her brow furrowed tightly into a lock: "His physical body is perfectly alive, but his soul parameters have decoupled from his vessel. He should be fine; he likely slipped straight into his pocket space."
Kushina let out a massive, sweeping sigh of relief: "Scared me to absolute death. Exactly what ghostly game is the Great grandfather playing now..."
Minato scanned the immediate perimeter: "Kushina, we must prioritize relocating the Elder immediately."
Now that those two minutes had fully ticked away, the vast crowd of active shinobi below had steadily calmed down. Recognizing that it wasn't appropriate to climb up to disrupt the immediate family, they were content to wait until Hiruzen's official funeral blocks to formally pay their respects to his mortal remains.
The children, however, wouldn't care a single shred about such logistical etiquette. With the barrier dismantled, a massive cluster of kids was already tentatively attempting to scale the walls of the Hokage Residence. If they caught sight of Ryo in this 'half-dead' condition, their resulting shouting would smoothly broadcast the incident to every corner of the village, creating a catastrophic commotion.
Kushina was clearly razor-sharp to this baseline reality. Sharing a firm nod with Minato, the two along with the 'semi-deceased' Ryo simultaneously vanished out of thin air, returning straight back to Kushina's residence.
Following that, a second bright flash of gold light ripped through the air, and a newly ascended Naruto and Tsukika—who had barely managed to scale the summit of the Hokage Residence—simultaneously vanished from the roof as well...
Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged a complex look: "Head over to the Senior's side first. I will remain right here to accompany the Teacher for a bit longer."
On another corner of the plaza, Sakura spoke up with a highly confused face beside Sasuke: "Sasuke, what's wrong? Are we not heading up to pay our respects to Lord Third?"
Sasuke slowly shook his head. Naruto... had magically vanished. Under these physical parameters, Naruto should rightfully have been the very first person to charge toward the Third Hokage's side. Did an active anomaly strike?
The Netherworld (陰間).
Ryo wore a thoroughly stiff, flat face as he stared directly at the Sage of Six Paths, who was currently sitting suspended in mid-air opposite him. Even though the Sage's countenance was entirely devoid of any visible expression, within Ryo's visual parameters, the old man appeared to be carrying a highly smug, starstruck grin...
"This is a fraction excessive, old buddy Six Paths. Refusing to pull Hiruzen down, but pulling me instead?"
"Learned it directly from you."
Ryo was instantly choked by his words. Shaking his head, he countered: "If you had mounted this hidden ambush half a year ago, you might have genuinely stood a decent hope of succeeding. But as for right now..."
His dual six-tomoe Rinne Sharingan spun in a rhythmic sequence, and Ryo effortlessly pulverized the absolute wall of suppressive constraint the Sage of Six Paths had blanketed around his soul. Being dragged inside was strictly due to a momentary oversight on his part. Given his current baseline attributes, he was fully capable of tearing a rift even inside the dead center of the Netherworld; if he desired to depart, the old man possessed zero capability to obstruct his movement...
"Hold on!" The Sage of Six Paths slammed his staff firmly against the mist floor. "I dragged your consciousness in specifically because I possess a matter to articulate to you."
"Exactly what prose cannot be comfortably declared right inside my Spiritual Space?"
"Having visited your territory twice, it is only proper that you travel to the Netherworld to take a meticulous look around as well," the Sage of Six Paths responded smoothly.
"This Netherworld of yours is thoroughly garbage, packed to the absolute brim with endless smoke and fog; a person can't even parse out a single detail clearly," Ryo shook his head with a face full of unadorned disdain. "Exactly what is the matter, hurry up and declare it. If we waste any more duration, my physical vessel back home is going to turn completely chilly."
"The soul trauma racking your disciple, Hitomi Uzumaki, has officially concluded its integration and nurturing phase. You can smoothly take him away now."
Ryo given a subtle pause: "Yo, quite proactive and self-aware, aren't you?"
"Possessing your current tier of raw strength, even if I drag you inside the Netherworld, it won't inflict any major structural complications across your baseline anyway. Consequentially, over the subsequent duration, if you desire the soul parameters of any specific individual, you can directly initiate contact with me. No matter whom you choose to resurrect, I will absolutely offer zero obstruction!"
Ryo was thoroughly astounded: "This generous? Brilliant, provided you refrain from tossing out a follow-up improper request next."
The Sage of Six Paths: "..."
Ryo raised his eyebrows: "Genuinely holding back your words? Then thank you very much. Hand Hitomi's soul over to me first; as for the alternative souls, let them remain temporarily deposited under your safekeeping for a bit longer. I'm structurally different from you; I must guarantee an excellent baseline quality of life for my ghosts, and my slot parameters are currently limited. Once my individual capability marks another step forward, I will systematically collect every single one of them!"
"Marking another step forward?" The Sage of Six Paths was visibly startled. "You are actively charting a political trap to lay hands on the Divine Tree too?"
Ryo shook his head smoothly: "The Great Ancestor is naturally endowed with matchless talent; relying strictly on basic, independent cultivation is more than sufficient for me to advance my tier. I possess zero practical need for that kind of junk!"
The Sage of Six Paths: Heh.
Nevertheless, Ryo's explicit declaration that he wouldn't touch the Divine Tree allowed the Sage of Six Paths to let out a long internal sigh of relief. He finally voiced his follow-up improper request: "I hope that when I move to entirely eradicate and purge that alternative variant of you who is currently mounting chaotic disruptions across the shinobi world, you will refrain from executing any biased intervention on his behalf!"
Hearing those words, Ryo's countenance turned monumentally eccentric. Raising his eyebrows, he spoke up: "He... couldn't possibly be your biological father, could he?"
The Sage of Six Paths' face instantly went dark: "Mother was a pure practitioner of absolute abstinence. Hamura and I were brought into existence driven strictly by the collective blessings of the entire commoner populace."
"Exactly who constitutes this 'pop populace'?"
The Sage of Six Paths: ???
Ryo smiled gently: "Very well, if you say he isn't, then he isn't. I'll believe it, alright? Return Hitomi's soul to me now; as for the logistics of your upcoming clash against him, I can comfortably commit to holding my hand."
With a sweep of his majestic staff, the Sage of Six Paths caused Hitomi's soul to materialize right in front of them: "Ryo Uzumaki, I expect you to be a man of your word."
Ryo squinted his dual eyes to appraise Hitomi's soul, which was currently enveloped in a blanket of pure white mist, a warm smile playing across his face: "Rest your mind easy. Being a man of my word is precisely my Ninja Way (Shinobi-do)!"
A man of his word? A Ninja Way? The Sage of Six Paths suddenly felt an instinctual premonition that he had placed his structural trust in entirely the wrong individual...
Ryo chuckled softly, bringing up the primary objective that had originally prompted him to launch a tug-of-war against the old man to begin with: "Naori is currently suffering from absolute blindness. Exactly how can her ocular structures be restored to operational parameters?"
"The absolute degradation of ocular chakra and visual power can strictly be mended via a physical eye transplant. Under a pure soul state... it is fundamentally impossible to resolve."
"Is that how things map out..." Ryo murmured softly to himself. "It seems I can only comfortably arrange to execute an eye transplant for her subsequent to her formal resurrection. Furthermore, Kagami presents a minor technical dilemma as well; those dual eyes of his have been nurtured by the Great Ancestor to a tier where they can no longer be stuffed back inside his native sockets smoothly. As for Madara... let him continue to remain completely blind then. Hashirama can comfortably operate as his primary set of eyes."
Pondering the details for several moments, Ryo failed to parse any alternative immediate utility from the Sage of Six Paths. Taking several quick paces forward, his right hand clamped firmly onto Hitomi's soul parameters, and with a heavy swing of his arm, he cleanly tore a path out of the Netherworld.
The Sage of Six Paths stood frozen on the spot for a brief duration. Tapping his staff against the floor, he caused the surrounding waves of thick fog to rapidly close in, steadily blanketing his figure entirely within the white mist...
Inside Ryo's Spiritual Space.
Hiruzen had barely finished receiving a highly enthusiastic, boisterous welcome from the collective gathering of historical ghosts, when Ryo seamlessly stepped inside to escort a brand-new newcomer into the block.
"Hitomi has arrived!"
Hitomi steadily re-harvested his baseline consciousness. His active memory tracking remained perfectly locked right at his final historical clash against Ryo. Scanning the vast expanse of the perimeter, he paused: "Master? Nanako, Iyoriko..."
Murmuring one name after another down the lineage, Hitomi suddenly burst into a violent, torrential wave of tears: "Master! I was wrong! To think I actually managed to kick you to absolute death back then..."
"Beat it!" Ryo cleanly flicked his wrist to slide Hitomi straight into the dead center of the ghost crowd. "You guys offer him a comprehensive explanation regarding the logistics of our current system parameters. I must make a swift trip back to the outside world first, I'll return to mingle with you guys later!"
At Kushina's house.
Ryo's 'corpse' was resting flat across Naruto's mattress, heavily encircled by a dense perimeter of his immediate descendants.
The absolute millisecond his soul parameters integrated back into his vessel, Ryo completely disregarded the rigid, stagnant sensation locking his muscles, instantly executing a vertical bounce to leap straight to his feet. He frantically and meticulously checked every single fabric column of his apparel. Only after verifying that everything remained perfectly neat and tidy did he let out a massive, sweeping sigh of relief.
The collective gathering of descendants cleanly purged the deep worry from their countenances, swapping their expressions for a face full of complete, blank bewilderment. What on earth is this... did he drop some loose items inside?
"Great Ancestor, you scared this princess to absolute pieces!" Tsukika patted her miniature chest parameters.
Ryo gently ruffled her hair, before leaning down with a face full of deep concern to fiercely roll up his pants legs to inspect his limbs.
Phew, thank the heavens. The fresh crop of leg hair that had newly sprouted across his limbs hadn't been subjected to a hidden, underhanded scheme by Kushina's hands...
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