Chapter 626: The Sage of Six Paths Appears

“Huh?”

The original Naruto was completely caught off guard by his dark side’s sudden refusal.

What was that term again?

Makoto had mentioned it before.

Oh, right.

A contrarian personality.

At a time like this, instead of taking the senjutsu chakra and saving himself, Dark Naruto was standing there trying to look cool while declaring that his favorite thing was saying “No.”

If that wasn’t his contrarian side kicking in, what was?

Unfortunately, Naruto only knew the term. He had no idea how to deal with someone like that.

“Man…”

Naruto sighed.

If Dark Naruto wanted to refuse, then fine.

He wasn’t the one who would suffer anyway. Naruto himself couldn’t feel anything while trapped inside the mental world.

And as for his body?

Like they had already established, his real body was outside Engraved Tsukuyomi.

What did he have to fear?

His mind wouldn’t be harmed.

His real body wouldn’t be harmed.

So from Naruto’s perspective, wasn’t everything perfectly fine?

But was it really that simple?

The moment Dark Naruto became so obsessed with opposing the original that he ignored the danger outside, it meant he had already gotten carried away.

He was starting to lose rationality.

And once someone reached that point, there was no reason to assume they would stop after merely rejecting the original’s goodwill.

Naruto sighed again and was just about to go back to skipping stones across the water out of boredom when—

Everything suddenly went black.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself somewhere both unfamiliar and strangely familiar.

Wasn’t this Kusagakure?

The same place he had been watching Dark Naruto through the mental world’s Falls of Truth?

Why was he here?

Wait.

He was outside?!

Naruto immediately looked inward toward the mental world.

Dark Naruto was now standing in front of the spiritual Falls of Truth.

He had fulfilled the condition Killer B had warned them about—returning to the Falls of Truth within seven days.

The waterfall was already beginning to engulf Dark Naruto’s body.

Yet Dark Naruto showed no fear whatsoever.

Instead, he laughed.

“Hahahahaha!”

“Original, enjoy yourself!”

“I won’t disappear!”

“I’m what you’ll become in the future!”

“I’ll wait in the darkness until the day you call me out again!”

Naruto had no idea what half of that was supposed to mean.

Dark Naruto continued laughing even as the waters of the Falls of Truth gradually erased him.

At the same time, the spiritual waterfall itself began slowly fading away.

Unfortunately—

None of that mattered compared to the cruel reality outside.

Naruto went blank.

Hold on.

If Dark Naruto was going back inside and giving him control again, couldn’t he at least have returned the senjutsu chakra first?!

So now there was good news and bad news.

The good news was that Dark Naruto had voluntarily chosen to disappear, which meant the Nine-Tails chakra would eventually return to Naruto as well.

The bad news was that Naruto had to wait until Dark Naruto and the spiritual Falls of Truth completely vanished before that happened.

And the senjutsu chakra Naruto had generously lent him was trapped in the same process.

So Naruto had regained control of the body—

while still being restrained by the Adamantine Sealing Chains and Heavenly Prison.

His only realistic way to break free was using senjutsu.

And now…

Naruto stared blankly.

The audience watching from outside, meanwhile, felt incredibly vindicated.

Served him right.

This was what he got for insisting on being a saint every time something went wrong.

He had given every last drop of senjutsu chakra to Dark Naruto without keeping any in reserve, only for Dark Naruto to decide that even his own life wasn’t worth cooperating and pull a complete reversal at the last second.

So what now?

Naruto was completely helpless.

Then—

Obito!

If Obito appeared in time, maybe he could still save him.

Naruto clung to the thought for barely a moment before giving up on it.

Obito had teleported him out precisely because Isshiki had supposedly attacked inside Kamui.

Obito himself might not even be alive anymore.

Expecting him to suddenly show up and save Naruto was completely unrealistic.

While Naruto desperately tried to think of another escape plan, Karin’s Adamantine Sealing Chains dragged him toward the sacrificial cavern.

The interior of the cave was dazzlingly ornate, almost covered in gold.

At the very center stood an altar.

And resting atop that altar was not some ancestral tablet—

but the sacred relic of the Sage of Six Paths.

Karin detached the chains from her own body and anchored them into the walls of the cavern instead.

Then she walked out.

The stone door slammed shut behind her.

“The chains can be detached?”

Naruto’s eyes lit up.

That changed things.

He still couldn’t break Heavenly Prison, but if Karin had physically separated the Adamantine Sealing Chains from herself, then they were no longer being continuously supplied with chakra.

That meant Naruto might actually have a chance to force his way free!

Maybe he could—

Could he really?

The moment the stone door closed, the Sage of Six Paths’ sacred relic began moving like a legendary divine weapon awakening from its seal.

Naruto stared at the relic as it flew toward him.

And suddenly—

he remembered the past.

Regret filled his heart.

He really shouldn’t have gone along with Makoto’s prank back then.

Helping Crazy Diamond smash open the septic system had seemed hilarious at the time.

That day, the villagers of Konoha had experienced a literal flood of sorrow.

Even Kakashi would have suffered horribly if he hadn’t used Kamui in time to warp the filth away.

Only Naruto had been standing there laughing his head off.

And now—

Was this finally his punishment?

Was he about to experience the same misery those villagers had suffered?

Sure enough.

Retribution might be late, but it always arrived eventually.

Even if Naruto wanted to gather more senjutsu chakra now, it was too late.

His Sage Mode “starter” had been permanently sealed inside the Kamui dimension.

Unless Obito somehow helped him from inside Kamui, Naruto had no way to activate his shortcut at all.

He closed his eyes in despair.

Time passed.

Second by second.

Naruto’s life force grew weaker and weaker.

Originally, the plan had been to absorb the Nine-Tails chakra from Naruto and rely on his Uzumaki constitution to keep him alive long enough for Fū to enjoy what remained.

But now Dark Naruto—the one carrying all of the Nine-Tails chakra—had switched places with him.

The Naruto currently being drained possessed only his own chakra.

As his body approached death, Naruto’s consciousness slipped into a dim mental space.

The surroundings felt incredibly familiar.

Wait.

Wasn’t this the exact place from the beginning of the game?

The character-creation scene where he had met that old man, the Sage of Six Paths?

“Did I die?”

Naruto slowly pushed himself off the ground and looked around in confusion.

“Did the game restart?”

He genuinely thought Engraved Tsukuyomi had reset.

“Naruto.”

A familiar voice emerged from the darkness.

Then—

The Sage of Six Paths appeared, floating cross-legged in midair with his Six Paths staff in hand.

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!”

Naruto immediately recoiled in horror and covered himself protectively.

“?”

The Sage of Six Paths stared at him in complete confusion.

This was the Engraved Tsukuyomi version of the Sage of Six Paths.

His programmed appearance condition was simple:

He would manifest whenever the Child of Prophecy was on the verge of death.

So naturally, the moment Naruto became critically endangered, the Sage appeared to grant him power.

What he couldn’t understand was—

Why was Naruto so terrified of him?

Could it be because the person who had nearly killed Naruto also possessed the Rinnegan?

“Naruto, don’t be afraid.”

The Sage of Six Paths deliberately softened his voice.

“I have no hostile intentions.”

“I came here to give you something.”

“NO!”

Naruto’s face turned even paler.

“DON’T GIVE ME ANYTHING!”

“I DON’T WANT IT!”

As if he had just realized what the Sage meant, Naruto shook his head frantically and backed away even faster.