Chapter 556: Heading to the Land of Demons

The lights in the Hokage’s Office finally went out.

After signing the last document and confirming the arrangements for various tasks in the village for the next few days, Naruto Uzumaki let out a long sigh of relief.

If he had known, he wouldn’t have slacked off during the day. Also, because he was so happy when he first returned, he had granted Shikamaru a month’s leave, so Shikamaru hadn’t come to work either.

Shikaku was still on his way back, and things outside had basically stabilized.

Hidden Leaf Village, this massive machine, had initially gotten onto the track of efficient operation; even if he left briefly, it could maintain basic stability.

It was time to set off.

His next destination was the Land of Demons, which was far from the conflicts of the Five Great Nations and famous for its unique priestess culture.

He had three purposes, and all of them were crucial.

First, it was for Kato Dan.

Jiraiya had already gone ahead to the Land of Demons, bringing along the physical body belonging to Kato Dan that Orochimaru had cultivated using cloning technology.

According to intelligence, Kato Dan’s soul, which was on the verge of dissipating due to a Forbidden Jutsu and years of being sealed, had temporarily stabilized with the help of Shion, the current priestess of the Land of Demons.

However, a soul separated from its physical body for a long time is ultimately like duckweed without roots. Even with the nourishment of the priestess’s power, it is not a long-term solution. The soul must return to its place and fuse with the cloned body as soon as possible to resurrect this former Hidden Leaf Village Jonin once again.

Naruto needed to obtain crucial intelligence from Kato Dan regarding the specific situation of Izanami Slope and the Pure Land.

As someone who had once deeply researched the Spiritualization Technique and whose soul had even wandered on the boundary between life and death, Kato Dan’s understanding of Izanami Slope—which connected the living world and the Pure Land—and the Pure Land itself far exceeded that of ordinary people.

This intelligence was the key to Naruto’s next plan.

His second purpose was precisely based on this: to attempt to actively enter the Pure Land through Izanami Slope.

The souls of the three Hokage, Kushina, and Mito had been forcibly pulled back to the Pure Land, and he needed to find a way to bring them back to the Shinobi World.

They can go back on their own, or I can let them go back, but no one is allowed to snatch them away from under my, Naruto Uzumaki’s, nose!

The Main Body consciousness of the Sage of Six Paths likely exists deep within the Pure Land as well.

Ever since he mastered the prototype of the Yin-Yang Release and condensed his own Truth-Seeking Ball, the vague premonition in Naruto’s heart had grown stronger and stronger.

Between him and the Sage of Six Paths, there would eventually be a battle.

It was not out of malice or a struggle for power, but rather a fundamental divergence in philosophy, path, and even the future direction of this world.

The Sage of Six Paths created Ninshū, but he also left behind the destined Samsara of Indra and Asura.

What Naruto pursued was a peaceful world that broke destiny, transcended hatred, and where everyone understood one another. This would inevitably touch upon certain ‘rules’ or ‘arrangements’ left behind by the Sage of Six Paths.

This ‘battle’ might not be a clash of swords, but it would certainly be a collision of will, philosophy, and power.

Naruto had to be prepared.

And mastering the Truth-Seeking Ball was a crucial part of his preparations.

As the power of ‘Kekkei Mōra’ produced by fusing Yin-Yang Release and the five basic elemental Chakras to the limit, the Truth-Seeking Ball is one of the symbols of stepping into the’Six Paths’ level.

Not only is it infinitely powerful, capable of easily destroying All Creation, but it also possesses absolute suppression over powers below the Six Paths level.

For those who cannot use Yin-Yang Release, the Truth-Seeking Ball is a complete dimensional strike—it could be said that a mere graze means death, and a touch means demise.

Even more terrifying, the attack of the Truth-Seeking Ball directly targets the Origin of the soul. Those killed by it will have their souls directly annihilated, without even the chance to enter the Pure Land for Samsara.

Previously, Naruto feared the Truth-Seeking Ball, to the point where he didn’t even dare to fight Toneri with his Main Body.

Now, by groping his way to mastering the prototype of the Yin-Yang Release and then condensing his own Truth-Seeking Ball, the meaning was entirely different. This meant he had truly stepped into that Domain, possessing the capital to converse with or even oppose the Sage of Six Paths.

At least, he no longer needed to worry about being instantly killed by the Sage of Six Paths using the Truth-Seeking Ball, a method that was virtually unsolvable for conventional shinobi.

In addition to these two core purposes, Naruto also had a strong interest in the Land of Demons itself, especially in that priestess, Shion.

Why was the priestess’s Chakra so special?

It could not only stabilize souls and predict the future, but also possessed powerful sealing strength?

Did their Inheritance system and source of power share the same Origin but flow differently from Ninshū’s Chakra system, or did they involve even more ancient and mysterious forces?

There were many special powers in the Shinobi World, but most of them were just different applications of Natural Energy.

For example, the so-called Gift of the Hermit Group of the Fire Temple, as well as the Dragon Vein of Loulan, and so on.

Naruto was very curious about whether the priestess’s power system was based on Natural Energy, Chakra, or something else.

At the same time, he was also extremely eager to understand the Sealing Technique passed down through the priestess’s lineage.

Different from the Sealing Technique of Ninjas, which was based on Chakra and hand Seals, the Sealing Technique of the priestess seemed to focus more on prediction, barriers, and purification, which might have miraculous effects in dealing with situations involving souls, evil spirits, or special energy bodies.

This was a valuable supplement of knowledge for Naruto, who might face the Otsutsuki Clan or other unknown threats in the future.

Finally, if time permitted, Naruto also planned to conveniently help the Land of Demons resolve that ancient demon, Moryo, which had troubled them for a long time.

This was both fulfilling his responsibility as the Hokage after unifying the Shinobi World to maintain regional stability, and perhaps he could also learn more about negative energy and dark Chakra from a unique existence like Moryo.

Standing on the Hokage Rock, overlooking Konoha dotted with lights under the night sky, Naruto took a deep breath of the cool night breeze.

Gold Dust surged from his cuffs, gathering beneath his feet into a golden cloud that lifted him up.

“Well then, let’s set off.”

He took one last look at the peaceful village, and his figure transformed into a golden stream of light, streaking across the night sky and rushing toward the distant Land of Demons.

Not long after Naruto left.

Rip!

An unstable space-time rift was forcibly torn open, like a hideous wound in the Universe.

Immediately after, a dragon shadow entirely covered in white scales tumbled out of the rift in an extremely wretched state, as if thrown out violently by a colossal force.

The dragon shadow rolled in the air a few times, barely stabilizing itself. Then, with a flash of light, it rapidly shrank and deformed, finally turning into a woman with waist-length white hair, a haggard face, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, and clothes torn in multiple places.

She was none other than Otsutsuki Otohime, who had fled from the ‘future’ timeline.

“Cough, cough… Heh, heh-heh…”

Otohime knelt on one knee, one hand clutching her violently heaving chest and the other wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth. She let out a low, hoarse laugh, but her eyes were filled with the palpitation of surviving a disaster and cold killing intent.

“Finally… I’ve finally gotten rid of that damned ‘Sixth Hokage’…”

Panting, she recalled the blonde figure she had encountered at the end of the original timeline—Hidden Leaf Village’s Sixth Hokage.

The power he displayed, especially that fighting style which seemed capable of connecting to and mobilizing the will of the entire world, made even an Otsutsuki like her, who came from a higher dimension, feel that it was troublesome and feel a trace of inexplicable fear.

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