Chapter 625: Heaven's Will Makes Its Move

What was he supposed to do?

Dark Naruto couldn’t accept the idea that he possessed the power of the Nine-Tails, yet was somehow about to be sacrificed first and eaten afterward.

But he was equally unwilling to surrender control of the body.

He had deceived the original Naruto when he first emerged. After watching everything from inside the mental world for so long, the original had undoubtedly realized by now that something had gone wrong.

Back then, Dark Naruto had been supremely confident.

With the Nine-Tails’ overwhelming power at his disposal, he would never need the original Naruto’s pathetic little chakra reserves. There would never be any reason to give him even the slightest opportunity to regain control of the body.

Yet somehow, the unexpected had still happened.

Was he really supposed to beg the original for help now?

At that moment, a voice suddenly sounded inside his mind.

It was Naruto’s original consciousness.

Dark Naruto’s wavering resolve had created a crack in the mental world, much like the moment Obito’s conviction faltered while wielding the Sword of Nunoboko.

Through that opening, the original Naruto could finally speak to him.

“Are you okay? Calm down first.”

“The original?!”

Dark Naruto’s expression changed instantly.

“Shut up! I’m absolutely not asking you for help!”

“I’m not helping you. I’m helping myself.”

Naruto patiently tried to reason with him.

“You’re using my body and my reputation, you know.”

The people watching from outside were completely numb.

Naruto really could forgive absolutely anyone, couldn’t he?

Dark Naruto had literally tried to take over his body permanently, yet Naruto was still attempting to Talk no Jutsu him?

Could Naruto secretly be pretending to be stupid, planning to trick Dark Naruto into handing back control first?

There was no need to even consider that possibility.

If Naruto were capable of thinking that far ahead, he wouldn’t have been sent into Engraved Tsukuyomi in the first place.

“What do you mean your body?!”

Dark Naruto furiously slapped his own chest.

“It’s mine! Mine!”

“I have the Nine-Tails’ chakra! I’m invincible in the shinobi world! What does any of this have to do with you?!”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear your voice anymore!”

“But can you even use the Nine-Tails’ chakra right now?”

Naruto sighed.

“I’ve been watching everything that’s happened to you.”

“Here. Take this.”

“This is a little senjutsu chakra I managed to gather while you were inside the Kamui dimension earlier.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Naruto tossed over a condensed mass of his own chakra mixed with natural energy.

The moment the viewers outside saw that, several of them nearly passed out from anger.

Naruto’s reasoning might have sounded vaguely sensible from Dark Naruto’s perspective, since the two of them were technically sharing the same body.

But the audience knew the truth.

Naruto had absolutely nothing to worry about.

The body inside Engraved Tsukuyomi had no connection whatsoever to Naruto’s real-world body.

And while Naruto remained sealed inside the mental world, he couldn’t physically feel anything happening outside.

In other words, no matter what horrifying treatment Dark Naruto suffered, the original Naruto would remain completely unharmed.

Naruto could simply wait until Dark Naruto’s consciousness was tortured into collapse and all his chakra had been drained, then take control of the body afterward.

The only drawback would be losing the Nine-Tails’ chakra.

Even that was better than throwing away the perfect opportunity for a counterattack and actively helping Dark Naruto survive.

The audience’s scalps tingled just watching him.

Even Makoto, who was responsible for directing the later stages of this scenario, was beginning to lose his composure.

At this point, he almost wanted to paint his face blue, turn into Dou Erdun, and steal Naruto’s damn horse himself.

Was Naruto really this impossible to teach?

“You…”

Dark Naruto caught the senjutsu chakra and stared at the original consciousness in disbelief.

“Don’t bother thanking me.”

Naruto waved dismissively.

“Just hurry up and escape. I really don’t want those two crazy women eating us.”

“Oh, and next time, can you bring a few manga or novels in here? There’s absolutely nothing to do in this place. I’m bored out of my mind.”

“That’s not what I was going to say.”

Dark Naruto frowned deeply.

“How did you gather senjutsu chakra in the first place?”

“You’re only a consciousness in here.”

“You can’t control the body outside, so how did you do it?”

That was what truly worried him.

Had the original Naruto somehow regained partial control of their body while Dark Naruto wasn’t paying attention?

Perhaps while he was sleeping?

Logically, that should have been impossible.

Until today, Dark Naruto’s resolve had remained completely firm.

Even while asleep, there shouldn’t have been any cracks for the original consciousness to exploit.

“Uh…”

Naruto’s expression stiffened.

So that was what Dark Naruto meant.

He had thought his generous act had finally moved his dark side emotionally.

Apparently he’d been flattering himself.

Still, Naruto patiently explained.

“You’re right. A consciousness alone can’t gather senjutsu chakra.”

“And yes, you really do control my body.”

“But there’s one thing you overlooked.”

Naruto proudly raised his chin and held up one finger.

“There’s actually one part of my body that you never took control of.”

“Because when you seized the body at the Falls of Truth…”

“That part wasn’t there!”

Dark Naruto froze.

Right!

The original was correct.

There really was one part of Naruto that had never been present when Dark Naruto took control, because it had already been permanently sealed inside the Kamui dimension.

And because Dark Naruto himself manifested as the fox-like feminine version of Naruto, the thought had never even crossed his mind.

“So while Obito and I were inside Kamui…”

Dark Naruto slowly realized the truth.

“You used that opportunity to gather this senjutsu chakra?”

“Exactly!”

Naruto grinned proudly.

“…So you’re the second Sage of Six Paths.”

Dark Naruto suddenly remembered the sacred relic hidden in Kusagakure.

The similarity was far too strong to ignore.

A strange sense of defeat washed over him.

He had schemed and calculated endlessly—

yet somehow one spontaneous idea from the original Naruto had accomplished more than all of it.

Perhaps that was simply talent.

Then, without warning, Dark Naruto’s body outside gave a slight tremor.

If the original Naruto could see it, he wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual.

The ordinary viewers watching from outside didn’t think much of it either.

Only the people watching alongside Makoto understood what that tiny movement meant.

Dark Naruto had just been corroded by Heaven’s Will.

As the “Lord Heaven’s Will” who could have Uchiha Hikari modify practically anything inside Engraved Tsukuyomi whenever necessary, Makoto had finally decided Naruto needed a lesson written in blood.

Sasuke had experienced the repeated horror of watching his family die over and over again inside Tsukuyomi.

But Naruto clearly wasn’t particularly affected by the prospect of losing his family.

So if that method wouldn’t work—

they would have to use something else to wake him up.

Otherwise, each decision he made was becoming more ridiculous than the last.

Lectures were useless.

Broken bones made a better textbook.

Of course, with Naruto, even broken bones might not be enough to make the lesson stick.

“All right, I explained everything.”

Naruto urged his dark side on.

“Take the senjutsu chakra outside and hurry up and escape. Stop spacing out!”

“Heh heh.”

Dark Naruto lowered his head.

“Hehehe…”

“Hahahahaha!”

He suddenly covered his face and burst into wild laughter.

Naruto stared at him blankly.

Once Dark Naruto finally finished laughing, he pointed directly at the original.

“Why should I have to do everything you tell me?”

“I’m your dark side.”

“And the thing I’m best at is looking at a self-righteous original like you and saying—”

“NO!”