Inside the Kamui dimension.
"Boss."
"Ryun."
"Dad."
The moment Ryun appeared, his family and followers immediately gathered around him.
"Yes." Ryun nodded in acknowledgment, but his gaze instinctively fell on Kaguya Otsutsuki on the ground.
Her powers were now completely sealed by the Truth-Seeking Black Rods. She could not even move, let alone recover from her injuries or break free from her restraints.
"Boss, as you ordered, we finished off that guy, Black Zetsu. That mud-like thing wasn't strong, but it was surprisingly hard to kill. It took the few of us using intense flames to refine it for a long time before we finally burned it to death."
Deidara stepped forward to report on the mission.
Looking at a patch of charred ashes on the ground, Ryun smiled and nodded. "Well done."
Black Zetsu was indeed completely dead. He had deliberately sensed his Kamui pocket dimension just now and found no abnormalities.
"Dad, why did your hair turn white? Is it because you absorbed the Ten-Tails?" Nanaise asked curiously.
As a sage herself, she could sense the terrifying power contained within Ryun's body.
"Yes."
"The Ten-Tails Jinchuriki." Nagato could not help but mutter, his expression filled with awe.
"Heh. The power is beginning to return to its origin. I look forward to seeing your next moves. Can we go out now?" Orochimaru licked his lips excitedly.
He wanted to see with his own eyes what changes would happen to the world next.
"There is still a powerful enemy on the main battlefield. For your safety, I suggest you stay here a while longer." Ryun said with a serious expression.
"What powerful enemy?" Orochimaru asked instinctively. He was very curious about who could be considered a powerful enemy by Ryun.
"The Sage of Six Paths." Ryun answered directly.
"Who?"
It was fine if Ryun did not mention that name, but once he did, the curiosity of everyone in the Akatsuki was immediately piqued.
After all, that was a figure from a thousand years ago, practically the 'Ancestor of Shinobi'. It was the Sage of Six Paths who spread chakra throughout the world a millennium ago.
"Take me out. I am not afraid of danger. If I die, it is on me."
"Yes, yes, me too. Boss, take me with you."
"And me!"
Hearing all these fearless guys clamoring to go out, Ryun felt a headache coming on.
"Enough. If you want to satisfy your curiosity, then create a shadow clone. Do not treat your lives so carelessly. On the battlefield, I truly will not have the extra energy to look after you."
A Six Paths level expert could casually throw out a large-scale technique, and even grazing them would likely be fatal. Dying just to satisfy curiosity was completely unnecessary.
Seeing Ryun's serious expression, everyone dared not bargain further. They all performed special clone techniques that allowed memory sharing. Soon after, Ryun descended upon the Black Iron Plains with multiple clones in tow.
Only one figure remained on the main battlefield of the Black Iron Plains now. Ryun flew towards him.
"My god. Is this still our world?"
Everyone from the Akatsuki wore expressions of disbelief.
The entire world was now deathly silent. The moon in the sky was large and round. The earth was covered with countless dense and thick tree roots. On some of these trees hung scattered, human-shaped cocoons.
The eerie environment made everyone's scalps prickle.
"It should be correct. We are still in the Black Iron Plains." Kisame pulled a piece of black iron ore from the roots. This kind of raw ore was common everywhere in the Black Iron Plains. Their location was still the main battlefield.
"Hey, Lord Orochimaru, the boss has already left. We should hurry up and fly over."
Deidara took out a clay giant dragon and invited everyone to board.
Orochimaru originally wanted to pull down a human-shaped cocoon to see what was inside, but he tried twice without success. The Divine Tree protected these cocoons tightly. The moment Orochimaru tried to open one, the Divine Tree immediately rewrapped it.
Seeing everyone waiting for him, Orochimaru had to give up on the idea of pulling someone out to question. He jumped onto the clay giant dragon and followed everyone as they flew towards Ryun.
"Sage, were you waiting for me?"
Ryun greeted the Sage of Six Paths with a smile as soon as he arrived before him.
In his perception, Naruto and Sasuke were indeed not dead. They had already withdrawn from the battlefield and returned to Konoha.
These two had become mere ants in front of Ryun now. They were no longer the protagonists of this world's destiny.
"Yes. I did not expect you to still become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. I am curious. Why did you not become the Jinchuriki years ago when you had the Divine Tree, but waited until now?"
Seeing that Ryun was willing to communicate, the Sage proactively asked his question.
"So it was you spying on me from a great distance back then." Ryun nodded, not looking too surprised.
"The reason I did not become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki immediately was because I had not yet awakened the Rinnegan. You know, without the Rinnegan, it is very difficult to fully control the Ten-Tails."
Hearing this, Hagoromo Otsutsuki nodded with a grave expression, then asked another question.
"You do not have the chakra of Indra or Asura, nor do you have my chakra. How exactly did you awaken this Rinnegan?"
"Heh. What, is the Rinnegan your family's exclusive property? I thought a Sage's perspective would be broader." Ryun could not help but tease him.
The Sage's words made it sound like the Rinnegan was his exclusive eye. Ryun felt compelled to retort.
He was not Uchiha Madara. He did not need any Six Paths chakra to awaken the Rinnegan.
"..."
"Without using my chakra, it seems you must have directly absorbed the Ten-Tails' power. It appears you already know many secrets."
Actually, the Sage was even more surprised by the audacity of Ryun's actions. Directly absorbing Ten-Tails chakra was very risky. One could easily be assimilated by the Ten-Tails' power.
The most typical example was his mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki. After eating the fruit of the God Tree, she transformed into an alien creature resembling a rabbit. This was actually a form of deep assimilation. Furthermore, her mind was affected by the God Tree, turning her into an obsessive monster only focused on reclaiming chakra.
"To deduce the origin of my eyes, you old fellow, you know quite a bit too." Ryun was not surprised. After all, the Sage of Six Paths was the second Ten-Tails Jinchuriki after Kaguya Otsutsuki. He must have deeply researched the Ten-Tails.
"Can you tell me where you learned all these secrets? The abilities of that sage snake from Ryuchi Cave should not be sufficient to deduce such things, right?" The Sage of Six Paths was truly curious.
Sage Body, Eternal Mangekyo, Rinnegan, Sage Power, Ten-Tails power. All these top-tier powers of the shinobi world were gathered in one person. The birth of such a monster was definitely not accidental. The Sage of Six Paths wanted to know where the problem lay.
If he could not figure out the truth, killing one Uchiha Ryun did not mean another Uchiha Ryun would not appear. Then the world would never know peace.
"You are asking quite a few questions. Is it not time you answered some of mine?"
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