Before his words had even faded, Hii Kōri suddenly sensed an unnatural spiritual wave from afar.
Even as he the turned, he formed more than ten hand seals, raised his hand, and flung a fine black thread toward the spirit wave's location.
That black line shot through everything in its path like the seam of a photograph neatly cut and reassembled trees, gravel, all pierced with tiny holes.
Magnet Release: Divine Dust.
This was a ninjutsu Hii Kōri had developed referencing sandblasting equipment principle, giving fine iron sand powerful cutting ability at super high speed. Quite excellent in piercing power and speed.
"What's wrong, Teacher?"
The three children naturally noticed Hii Kōri's obvious movement. Still somewhat weak, Yahiko climbed up from the ground, kunai in hand, warily scanning surroundings.
"With me here, it's not your turn to act, rookie."
A hand chop, neither light nor heavy, struck Yahiko's head, sending the orange-haired boy still not freed from the limb numbness after his first kill sprawling back down. Hii Kōri then picked up Yahiko and Konan one in each arm, tucked them under his armpits, and gently nudged Nagato's calf with his toe, the signaling him to rest inside.
"No lessons today. Just take time to adjust your state. If anything troubles you, come ask me. Don't bottle it up."
"Okaaay~"
Meanwhile, the iron sand thread that had pierced through forest and hill spread out over this empty wilderness, then reorganized into an iron sand clone.
The iron sand clone rolled its neck, then maneuvered iron sand sinking into the earth, searching inch by inch meticulously but found nothing.
"A mistake...? I definitely sensed something here..."
After nearly plowing the entire area, the iron sand clone muttered this way, then dispelled the technique slightly, collapsing into iron sand scattered on the ground.
"Whoa, isn't this guy a little too sharp? And his aim was incredible!"
Moments later, a yin-yang faced head emerged from the ground. The more human-like white side looked at the tiny holes where they'd just been, and exclaimed quite excitedly: "First time I've been discovered like this!"
"I saw it. No need to repeat."
The darker, more purely shadow-like side's voice spoke, gazing deeply at the riverside hut before sinking back into the earth.
When Nagato encountered Hii Kōri, Black Zetsu, monitoring Nagato, had sensed the latter's massive Yin chakra and spiritual energy. Despite priding himself on top-notch stealth technology, millennia of cautious character instinctively made Black Zetsu widen observation distance.
This past month, he'd trailed Hii Kōri's group until they reached that rundown hut, then found an opportunity to use Spore Technique to lurk in surrounding trees and rooms.
The so-called Spore Technique was actually a special clone technique or division ability unique to White Zetsu. Before spores are activated and grow, they're almost indistinguishable from dead matter, impossible to detect. And even if the user dies, the tiny spores that emerge remain around for fected.
This technique's usual application was activating latent spores to wrap parasitized targets, absorbing their chakra for added value or transfer supplementing others.
But with Black Zetsu's abilities, using spores as cameras was feasible.
Yet Black Zetsu hadn't expected that even from afar, the emotional fluctuation he experienced upon hearing Hii Kōri curse the Sage of Six Paths would be captured by Hii Kōri.
If White Zetsu's technique hadn't escaped fast enough and cut off all breath, he might really have been cornered by Hii Kōri's iron sand clone.
Going by bloodline, this guy should be an Uzumaki leaning toward Yang Release so why was he so adept with Yin Release?
Had Indra's chakra reincarnation wrong lineage?
That couldn't be right Uchiha Madara wasn't dead yet.
Undoubtedly, Black Zetsu's age exceeded even the history of the 'ninja' profession. Since the Sage of Six Paths Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo established Ninshū, he'd witnessed chakra bursting with infinite possibilities in human hands.
He had to admit, human creativity exceeded his imagination.
After a thousand years of evolution, the ninja clans surviving into the late Warring States period had each accumulated rich ninjutsu development experience. Back then, almost every month saw the birth of new ninjutsu, with endless effects.
Yet even so, among ninjas who had become weapons of war, those standing at the apex remained the Uchiha clan's Sharingan.
Or rather, Uchiha possessing Mangekyō Sharingan, close to the source—Ōtsutsuki.
But across these thousand years, truly genius had occasionally been born into this world.
One was Hashirama Senju whom Black Zetsu inwardly exclaimed as 'quite the throne usurper, role reversal, Mirror Flower Water Moon.' Few of Ashura's chakra reincarnations before he could single-handedly defeat Indra's chakra reincarnations; one who overwhelmed him from childhood like this had never existed.
The other was Tobirama Senju, whose sheer talent surpassed Mangekyō Sharingan.
Even now, Black Zetsu felt those brothers had something evil about them.
"Perhaps this guy's Yin Release talent even surpasses Uchiha... another Tobirama Senju..." Thinking thus, Black Zetsu began weighing whether to find an excuse to contact Hii Kōri.
In the lakeside hut, Hii Kōri, simultaneously writing and drawing on six notebooks via Spirit Thread Nerves in his hair, felt the iron sand clone's transmitted memories. His expression unchanged, his writing hand didn't even pause.
After all, Black Zetsu was also an ultra-elderly being with negligible combat ability who'd over a thousand years. Without this acumen and caution, that would be strange.
But his stance was clear, Nagato was with him. The bait was cast; the other party would bite sooner or later. No need to rush.
More importantly... now he needed to guide his disciple.
"Um... Teacher, could I ask you something?"
By the door he'd left open, Nagato was peeking in at Hii Kōri, hair disheveled, writing a bunch of notes.
"Come in. Psychological burden after first kill is normal... ask whatever troubles you."
Putting down his pen, Hii Kōri patted the space beside him, signaling Nagato to sit.
"Uh... earlier, why did you say that? Isn't the Sage of Six Paths a great person?"
Sitting beside Hii Kōri, Nagato who'd seemed to want to say something else first paused, then pinched his sleeve rather uncomfortably, hesitantly whispering.
This was also a question Nagato was curious about.
When accepting missions, choosing work, you could judge by personal preference or emotions. But when executing missions, working, don't bring personal feelinga .
Without 'joy,' you won't indulge in gain. Without 'anger,' you have no 'killing intent.' Without 'sorrow,' you feel no pity. Without 'pleasure,' you leave no weakness.
Though specific situations require specific analysis, in the vast majority of cases, this approach won't go wrong.
This was Hii Kōri's consistent philosophy, and how he taught Yahiko and the others. In Nagato's view, Hii Kōri was someone who rarely showed emotion even normally.
Of course, attacking the Konoha stronghold was exceptional his purpose then included pursuing intense emotions to counteract the mechanized thinking from overpowering processing power.
Balancing passionate emotions and combat awareness was basic literacy for jujutsu sorcerers.
So even if his tone was quite bland, to Nagato, who'd spent over a month with him, those words themselves were quite emotional.
"Hmm... why indeed? What I said was merely literal."
Tapping his chin with one finger, Hii Kōri looked up thoughtfully, then gave an example: "Have you noticed ants?"
"Ants...?"
Nagato's tone was puzzled, obviously not understanding why Teacher suddenly brought up something so unrelated, but with his always soft character, he obediently answered: "I've seen them."
"Have you seen ants fight among themselves?"
"Huh?"
This question exceeds the awareness of a child who'd only seen ants marching in lines carrying food back to their nests.
"This is actually quite complex. Some ant species fight coexist over territory, to the point of corpses covering the ground. Others choose to avoid, or coexist without hindrance. Some constantly attack coexist yet coexist peacefully with different species. Some simply prey on other species..."
Hii Kōri casually tore off a sheet of paper, drawing circles as he spoke, finally enclosing all circles with a larger circle labeled 'ants.'
"...Teacher means, even ants have so many types, making so many different choices?"
Looking down at the paper, Nagato reached out to touch those circles, seeming to see reflections of various nations within.
"Yes. Even ants have such complex ways of survival; humans are even harder to pin down."
Propping his cheek on one hand, Hii Kōri narrowed his eyes toward the window, sighing meaningfully: "Humans, other animals—the creatures of this world are driven by a fighting spirit. This isn't belittling or sarcastic, but a natural conclusion."
"Wanting to grow, wanting to survive, wanting to advance—so they begin competing for limited resources, until fighting to extinction or selecting the strongest, then repeating this process on larger scale. In this respect, humans and other animals are no different."
"But humans and beasts should differ. Human wisdom should let the power of chakra flourish of in more fields—opening up wilderness, transforming the environment, developing new technologies...In any case, better than simply using it to kill."
"Though I've seen records that he established Ninshū aiming to maintain peace, empty slogans alone cannot sustain peace."
"Thought, culture, productivity... acquiring power far beyond the capacity of the times before various aspects have matured—society will inevitably be driven by power."
"But even wielding purest violence cannot solve all problems. In the real world, you can't, like in fairy tales, attribute all problems to a concrete enemy, then resolve everything happily by eliminating them."
"Unable to unify, unable to completely eliminate all enemies so this world naturally decayed and rotted like this. So I think the Sage of Six Paths is either stupid or evil, or both."
Pass on wisdom and thought, then rely on your own strength to guide the whole world to progress? Very capable indeed.
Grant wisdom and power simultaneously? Also feasible dual-track development, switch to chakra-punk style, fine.
But leaving only strength to transcend the times while withholding wisdom what's that supposed to mean?
Breeding insects in a jar?
Turns out the Aburame clan are the purest Six Paths descendants!
"Anyway, you're not one to dwell on such things. So you had something else to tell me?"
Having said this, Hii Kōri didn't intend to continue exploring this temporarily unsolvable topic.
"Mm... I have something I want you to see, Teacher."
Taking a deep breath, Nagato seemed determined, raised his hand to push back the bangs hanging below his eyes, then slowly opened them.
Those eyes iris and sclera indistinguishable, both lavender, with concentric ring patterns.
The so-called...
"The Sage's eyes... Rinnegan."
"Teacher doesn't seem very surprised."
Nagato blinked, slightly puzzled.
"Mm... I sensed it when you refined chakra a considerable portion flows to your eyes." First shoot the arrow, then draw the target around it an excellent excuse. Hii Kōri had taught Nagato to use Uzumaki sensory abilities; this reason was quite convincing.
"Glasses are wonderful. Wear them, and even if you're just thinking about lunch, to outsiders you'll appear quite intellectual, as if pondering important questions."
Hii Kōri removed his own wide round-frame glasses and placed them on Nagato's face. "Most importantly, they conveniently obscure vision."
"A bit big now, but someday they'll fit."
"Th-these were a gift from Teacher's older brother I can't..."
The round-frame glasses, which covered half Hii Kōri's face, looked quite funny on Nagato.
The boy with the Sage's eyes scrambled to catch the slipping frames, wanting to return this special item to Hii Kōri.
"I personally dislike pantheism. Tools are just tools whether stored away or discarded, it's all the same. Entrusting emotions to objects is just self-soothing. I... don't really need that anymore."
Patting Nagato's head, Hii Kōri showed a gentle smile: "Wait a bit. I'll make you something to disguise normal-looking eyes. After that, you won't need to hide them with your hair."
"...Thank you, Teacher."
***
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