Chapter 436: Choosing You Would Mean Denying Himself

Every single word was like a red-hot branding iron, searing itself into Indra's heart!

This description... these ideals... how similar they were to the image of his father, the Sage of Six Paths, and the "way" he had always preached!

No. They were practically... identical!

Black Zetsu's voice continued, like an echo rising from the abyss of history, recounting a tragedy that had been destined to unfold.

"Later... the conflict between the goddess and her two sons, who had grown increasingly powerful yet held completely different ideals, deepened because of their fundamental ideological differences. It became more and more impossible to reconcile."

"At last... the conflict erupted."

"And in the end..."

It paused, allowing the weight of that conclusion to settle.

"The goddess's two sons... joined forces."

"They defeated their mother..."

"And completely... overthrew her rule."

When the words fell, Black Zetsu said nothing more.

It slowly raised its gaze and looked meaningfully at Indra with an extraordinarily complicated expression—a mixture of pity, mockery, fate, and profound implication.

Everything that needed to be said was left unspoken.

There was no need for another word. That terrifying implication, that soul-shuddering parallel, had already pierced through every one of Indra's psychological defenses like the sharpest ice spike!

He stood frozen where he was, as if transformed into a lifeless statue.

The pressure around him sank to its absolute lowest, as though even light and sound had been swallowed by his rigid will.

Only his scarlet Sharingan remained, nearly overflowing from his eyes in uncontrollable shock and confusion!

He remained silent for what felt like an entire century.

So long that even the starlight outside the window seemed to grow dimmer.

At last, he slowly, painfully... opened his mouth.

His voice was dry and hoarse, as though every word had been forced from a soul that had been crushed to pieces.

"So..."

He stared fixedly at Black Zetsu, a storm of turbulent emotions raging in his eyes.

"The elder son of this... goddess you spoke of..."

He drew a deep breath. Gathering every ounce of strength he possessed, he finally asked the question whose answer he had long guessed, yet never dared face.

"Was... my father..."

"The Sage... of Six Paths?"

Faced with this question that struck directly at the heart of the matter, Black Zetsu did not evade it in the slightest.

Slowly, yet with absolute clarity... it nodded.

"That's right."

Its voice was calm, yet it sounded like a final judgment.

"Your father, the Sage of Six Paths..."

"Was that... elder son."

With one final statement, it delivered the conclusion to this story—and to every doubt within Indra's heart.

"The ideal he has believed in most deeply, and pursued most stubbornly throughout his life, has always been..."

"The belief that people should understand one another."

"And..."

It watched Indra's violently trembling pupils and added meaningfully:

"His utter hatred of 'dictatorship' and the rule of absolute power."

The image on the Heavenly Curtain finally froze upon Indra's face.

His entire being had gone rigid from overwhelming shock, as though his entire worldview had collapsed. Within his Sharingan, the crimson light flickered chaotically and wildly.

Father... the Sage of Six Paths...

Had once been the son of another "absolute ruler"...

Because he opposed his mother's "dictatorship"...

Because he believed in "mutual understanding"...

He had ultimately... joined forces with his younger brother and personally overthrown his mother's rule?

Then was Father's choice of Asura as his successor because...

He saw, within Asura, a reflection of his younger self—the person he had once been, someone willing to humble himself and speak with ordinary people?

And Indra himself—the son who revered strength, efficiency, and the supremacy of the strong...

Had he become, in his father's eyes... a reflection or continuation of the "dictatorial" mother whom his father had once overthrown?!

Was that why... Father "didn't like" him?

Was that why... Father "didn't choose" him?

Was everything, from the very beginning, nothing more than a fated rejection and denial born from the shadows of history and an irreconcilable conflict of ideals?

Black Zetsu's story was like the darkest of mirrors. It revealed the "historical roots" behind his father's actions, while also revealing the seemingly fated chain of cause and effect behind Indra's own predicament!

At this moment, all his pain, resentment, and confusion seemed to have found an answer far grander—and far crueler—than mere favoritism or an assessment of his abilities.

An answer rooted in history itself!

Indra stood there in a daze, as though his soul had been torn from his body.

Black Zetsu's revelation about his father's past was like a bolt of lightning tearing through the night, instantly illuminating every corner of confusion within his heart.

The doubts, resentment, and self-questioning that had plagued him for so long now seemed to have found a cruel yet "reasonable" answer.

It wasn't that he wasn't good enough.

It wasn't that he lacked ability.

Perhaps it wasn't even simply because his father favored one son over the other...

At the very core of his being, he represented the kind of existence his father had spent his entire life opposing and rejecting—the worshiper of absolute power, a ruler devoid of "warmth."

Black Zetsu stood nearby like the calmest of observers and coldly summarized Indra's realization in a single sentence.

"That is why your father... will never pass the Ninshū on to you."

"Because choosing you... would mean denying the ideals he has believed in throughout his entire life."

"It would mean denying the 'correct' choice he made when he... personally overthrew his mother's rule."

Those words were the final straw that shattered Indra's last remaining illusion that his father might have treated him fairly—or that the bond between father and son had meant what he once believed.

He closed his eyes in agony and pressed his fingertips firmly against his brow, as though trying to restrain the chaotic emotions threatening to burst from his mind.

Resentment burned through his organs like poisonous flames. Anger surged through his veins like molten lava. Grievance seeped into his bones like ice water...

Countless emotions intertwined and tore at one another, nearly ripping him apart.

Black Zetsu said nothing. It merely stood silently in the shadows like a patient hunter, watching its prey undergo its final struggle—and transformation—within the trap.

It knew that some seeds needed time to break through the soil on their own.

A long silence followed.

So long that the starlight outside the window seemed to have shifted across the sky.

At last, Indra slowly opened his eyes.

The confusion, pain, and struggle that had filled those scarlet Sharingan seemed to have been swept away by a raging blizzard and settled into something else.

A bottomless, icy sharpness.

His gaze was like a blade as it pierced directly into the shadows.

"You..."

"Who exactly are you?"

He had asked this question before, but the meaning behind it was completely different now.

After all, it was this mysterious being that had revealed the "truth" to him.

At his question, Black Zetsu gave a soft, inscrutable chuckle. The sound echoed through the silence, carrying an eerie detachment from the world.

It did not answer.

Instead, its body slowly began to sink, as though melting away, silently merging into the cold ground beneath its feet.