Two days earlier.
On the Revolutionary Army's side, Nagato and Itachi's identities had already been confirmed. And that kind of confirmation brought real change.
To put it simply, before this, Nagato might've trusted Itachi, but Itachi was still considered an enemy.
Now, the entire Revolutionary Army could trust Itachi. Because even if he was once an enemy, he was now clearly against the immortals.
And since Itachi had once been the brains of the Revolutionary Army, things felt completely different now that trust was back.
As someone who was the reincarnation of Indra, Itachi had huge potential. After dealing with Obito and Black Zetsu, he went straight with Nagato to the Revolutionary Army's headquarters.
"Itachi, since the power within both of us comes from the children of the ancient Sage of Six Paths, we need to get ready," Nagato said.
Itachi didn't fully understand what Nagato meant, but he didn't interrupt.
Nagato might know more than he did. In this age, a lot of things can't be explained clearly. If you don't understand history, you won't know which path to take.
That's why the Poneglyphs are so important. Once there's a break in history, everything that should've been passed down gets lost. And people like them—without knowing where they came from—won't know where they're going either.
Nagato had once been in that very situation.
"I don't know exactly what you're planning," Itachi said, "but we both agree that the real enemy is the immortals."
"Yeah."
Itachi nodded.
"It's kind of awkward to say, but even though I'm Asura, I'm not actually that powerful—just a bit stronger than your average immortal.
Compared to someone like Shanks, I'm nowhere near that level."
"But to beat the immortals, we need to be really strong. I've been searching for a chance to power up."
Hearing that, Itachi understood.
"You found it?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure if the Rinnegan has that kind of power.
But in theory, it should be possible. Since we're the reincarnations of Asura and Indra, all we need to do is awaken the power of Asura and Indra."
"We both have that potential. I may not be sure about everything else, but the connection between Asura and Indra… it's probably not that simple."
Nagato kept talking.
Itachi stayed silent and listened, giving him a nod to continue.
"It's related to the Poneglyphs, right? Did you learn that from Shanks?"
"More or less."
Nagato thought for a moment. Shanks didn't say that much, but honestly, it was already quite a lot.
"In the ancient era of the Divine Tree, Kaguya was an outsider who ruled over the ninja world.
In the end, Kaguya was sealed by Rikudou Sennin.
But actually, it wasn't just him — it was Rikudou Sennin and his brother who sealed her together."
"And Ashura and Indra were brothers too.
It's likely Rikudou Sennin placed some kind of power between them. That's just my guess — but as the power of the Dragon Veins grows stronger, I've been able to use the Rinnegan to observe the Dragon Veins, and I've seen some things."
"There really is a link between Ashura and Indra. It might have been left by Rikudou Sennin as a way to one day fight the sages.
He gave both of them enough power."
Nagato went on.
The Rinnegan isn't weak — and with the rise of the Dragon Veins' power, it's gotten even stronger.
Or maybe it's because Nagato himself is getting stronger, which allows him to use the Rinnegan to study the Dragon Veins and pull useful information from them.
"So you're saying the two of us have to be together in order to fully awaken the power of Ashura and Indra?"
"In theory, yes."
Nagato nodded.
"So how do we do that?"
Itachi looked at Nagato, who didn't seem in a hurry.
"We use the Divine Tree. Since Ashura and Indra were Rikudou Sennin's sons, they were different from normal people. To trace that power back to its source, we have to use the Divine Tree."
Nagato had been studying the Divine Tree for a long time — and Shanks could honestly be seen as someone even more gifted than the Otsutsuki clan.
Shanks directly used the Divine Tree as a way to trace power back to its roots.
By combining the Divine Tree with ninjutsu, he created Devil Fruits.
Well, technically, he didn't create them — but everyone basically gave him the credit anyway.
Now, if Nagato wanted to gain Ashura's power, he needed to find the reincarnation of Indra.
He couldn't do it alone.
But in reality?
In reality, Nagato and Itachi weren't Ashura and Indra's reincarnations at all.
But Nagato didn't think that mattered — because by using the Divine Tree as a medium, he could trace his power back.
And honestly, it's not so easy to say he's wrong.
If you say Nagato isn't Ashura — that's true.
But as a member of the Uzumaki clan, he *is* connected to Ashura.
And here's the crazy part about the ninja world — the way bloodlines work.
In this world, bloodline traits like Kekkei Genkai are passed down in an unbelievably stable way. The power people get from their bloodline is incredibly consistent.
That kind of bloodline inheritance is basically like a chunk of code — and by using sub-code, you can find the original code it came from.
That's what Nagato saw.
Just because I'm not Ashura… doesn't mean I *can't* be Ashura.
Ashura was, after all, an ancestor of the Uzumaki clan.
And with how stable and ridiculous bloodline inheritance is in the ninja world, Nagato could totally trace his blood back to Ashura's level.
And once he reached that level… would there really be any difference between Nagato and Ashura?
In the end, there was no real difference.
With a stable bloodline, Nagato had a chance to gain all of Asura's power.
In fact, Nagato could potentially go beyond Asura's power—though even he didn't know exactly how to do it.
But once he had a goal, everything changed. And this goal… it wasn't exactly hard, but it wasn't easy either.
Normally, people only look forward—they don't go digging into the past the way Nagato did. But Nagato did exactly that.
Starting from the stable bloodline of the Uzumaki clan, he began looking into his origins, and naturally ended up tracing it back to Asura. That part made sense—anyone from the Uzumaki clan could do the same.
But the difference was, among the Uzumaki, only Nagato had the Rinnegan.
What's the Rinnegan? It's called the Eye of the Sage. That alone is already crazy—maybe even crazier than Asura himself.
That's why Nagato could see things so clearly with the Rinnegan.
But if he really wanted to gain Asura's power, it couldn't be done by himself alone.
On his own, he didn't have the qualifications to trace the bloodline fully. He needed someone to work with—and not just anyone.
Once Nagato learned who he was, he also figured out who the other person had to be. And once he knew Itachi's identity, he was sure.
In fact, Itachi's situation wasn't much different from his.
Just because I'm not Indra's reincarnation doesn't mean I can't gain Indra's power.
The Uchiha are Indra's descendants. As long as someone from the Uchiha can dig deep enough into their roots, they can also gain Indra's power.
And this way of gaining power is no different from the original powers of Asura and Indra. That's what happens when you have stable bloodlines in the ninja world.
I'm still myself—but the power in me can become the power of anyone in my bloodline.
So, in truth, getting Asura's and Indra's power isn't that hard.
At least for Nagato and Itachi now, everything had become much clearer. Both of them had a solid plan in mind.
As Nagato summoned the ragged-looking Ten Tails, the power inside Itachi started to grow unstable.
"This malice is insane… it's coming from the Divine Tree."
"Well, it is something foreign to this world. Being rejected by the world is normal. But we need that kind of power to fully unlock the strength inside us."
"Itachi, let's begin."
Right after speaking, chakra burst out from Nagato's body, twisted and swirling around him.
Seeing Nagato's signal, Itachi turned toward him, and his own chakra exploded outward as well.
Their chakra merged right away—much more easily than expected. The two flows came together almost perfectly, with no sign of conflict.
Outside, Konan and the others were silently shocked.
They might not fully understand the new era, but when it came to chakra, everyone here was experienced.
Normally, combining chakra like this was nearly impossible. It always caused friction. But with Nagato and Itachi, there wasn't even the slightest clash.
"So this is the power of Asura and Indra?"
"It's even more unreal than I thought. I can't believe chakra like this exists..."
"Their chakra blends almost perfectly. It's like it came from one person."
Kakuzu was amazed. He had spent years studying chakra. Earth Grudge Fear let him use all five nature types, but even then, those chakras couldn't truly combine.
Compared to that, the chakra between Nagato and Itachi was flawless.
But in reality, if you took any strong Uzumaki and paired them with a strong Uchiha, they could pull this off too.
It couldn't be helped—this was the overpowered bloodline strength of the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans. To be fair, strong members of the Senju clan could've taken the Uzumaki's place too.
But since no one really knew about that, everyone just assumed it was something special about Asura and Indra.
"Get ready to defend in case something happens."
Konan snapped out of her thoughts and told everyone to prepare.
The next moment, the chakra from both Nagato and Itachi rushed into the Ten Tails' body. That caused the sleeping power inside it to awaken, and a strange, heavy presence quickly covered all of Amegakure Village.
Above Amegakure, thunder rolled in and the rain got even heavier. Wild natural energy began gathering over the village.
Nagato and Itachi also began giving off strange natural energy from their bodies.
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