Chapter 82: The Rinnegan
Just as his words fell, Hiiro Rinko suddenly felt an unnatural spiritual fluctuation coming from the distance.
Turning around, he formed more than ten hand seals. He raised his hand and shot a dense black line toward the source of the spiritual fluctuation.
The black line pierced through everything in its path like the seam of a landscape photo neatly cut and rejoined—trees, sand, rocks, beasts that didn't escape in time—all pierced with a tiny hole.
Magnet Release: Divine Dust.
This was a ninjutsu Rinko developed based on the principle of sandblasting equipment, granting tiny particles of Iron Sand powerful cutting ability at ultra-high speeds, excellent in both armor penetration and velocity.
"What's wrong, Sensei?"
The three children naturally noticed Rinko's obvious movement. Yahiko, still a bit weak, climbed up from the ground, gripping a kunai and looking around warily.
"With me here, it's not your turn to fight, rookie."
A light chop on Yahiko's head sent the orange-haired boy, who hadn't recovered from the numbness of his first kill, back to the ground. Rinko picked up Yahiko and Konan one under each arm, then nudged Nagato's calf with his toe, signaling him to return to the room.
"No class today. Just adjust your state properly. If there's anything you can't figure out, ask me. Don't bottle it up."
"Okay~ got it~"
Meanwhile, the line of Iron Sand that had pierced through the jungle and hills dispersed in the empty wilderness, then reassembled into an Iron Sand Clone.
The clone cracked its neck, then manipulated the Iron Sand to sink into the earth, searching inch by inch, but found nothing.
"Is it an illusion...? I clearly felt something over here..."
After almost plowing the surrounding area, the Iron Sand Clone muttered discontentedly, then reluctantly dispelled the jutsu, turning into a pile of iron sand scattered on the ground.
"Wow, is this guy overly sensitive? That shot was way too accurate!"
A moment later, a head with a black-and-white face popped out of the ground. The white side, looking more human, examined the tiny hole where they had just been, exclaiming excitedly, "This is the first time we've been discovered like this!"
"I saw it. No need to repeat it."
The voice from the black side, closer to a pure shadow, was low and gloomy. He stared deeply at the riverside cabin in the distance, then sank back into the earth.
When Nagato met Rinko, Black Zetsu, who was monitoring Nagato, noticed the massive Yin Release Chakra and spiritual power on the latter. Even confident in his superb stealth skills, the cautious nature cultivated over a millennium made Black Zetsu instinctively increase the observation distance.
For the past month, he had been trailing Rinko's group. Only after they reached the dilapidated cabin did Black Zetsu find an opportunity to use the Spore Technique to lurk in the surrounding trees and rooms.
The Spore Technique was actually a special clone technique or splitting ability unique to White Zetsu. Before the spores were activated and grew, they were almost equivalent to dead objects and undetectable. And even if the user died, it wouldn't affect the tiny split spores.
The usual use of this jutsu was to activate the lurking spores, wrap around the host, and absorb their Chakra for growth or transfer to others.
But with Black Zetsu's ability, using spores as cameras wasn't impossible.
However, Black Zetsu didn't expect that even from a distance, the slight emotional fluctuation he produced when hearing Rinko curse the Sage of Six Paths was captured by Rinko.
If White Zetsu's Mayfly technique hadn't been fast enough and able to cut off all presence, he might really have been caught by Rinko's Iron Sand Clone.
Based on bloodline, this guy should be an Uzumaki inclined more toward Yang Release. Why is he so adept with Yin Release?
Did Indra's Chakra reincarnate into the wrong bloodline?
That's not right either; Uchiha Madara isn't dead yet.
Undoubtedly, Black Zetsu's age was even longer than the history of the profession of 'ninja.' From the establishment of Ninshū by the Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, he had witnessed the infinite possibilities of Chakra in human hands.
He had to admit, human creativity was beyond his imagination.
After a thousand years of evolution, the ninja clans surviving until the late Warring States period had accumulated rich experience in ninjutsu development. At that time, new ninjutsu with various effects were born almost every month.
But even so, among the ninja turned into weapons of war, the one standing at the apex was still the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan.
Or rather, the Uchiha Clan possessing the Mangekyō Sharingan, which was closer to the source, the Ōtsutsuki.
But in this millennium, true geniuses were eventually born in this world.
One of them was Senju Hashirama, who made Black Zetsu exclaim at the complete role reversal. Among the previous Asura Chakra reincarnations, few could beat the Indra Chakra reincarnation single-handedly, let alone suppress them from childhood to adulthood like this.
And the other was Senju Tobirama, who surpassed the Mangekyō Sharingan with pure talent.
Mentioning them now, Black Zetsu felt these brothers were indeed a bit eerie.
"Maybe this guy's talent in Yin Release is even better than the Uchiha. Another Senju Tobirama...?" Thinking this, Black Zetsu began to weigh whether to find a reason to contact Rinko.
In the cabin by the lake, Rinko, writing and drawing on six notebooks simultaneously using the Ether Lines in his hair, sensed the memory returned by the Iron Sand Clone. His expression remained unchanged; even his writing didn't pause.
After all, Black Zetsu was a super-senior citizen who had survived for over a thousand years without much combat ability. It would be unreasonable if he didn't have this level of acuity and caution.
But his attitude was clear, and Nagato was with him. The bait was cast; the other party biting the hook was sooner or later, no need to rush.
More importantly... now it was more important to counsel his disciple.
"Um... Sensei, I have something to ask you, is that okay?"
By the door intentionally left open, Nagato was peeking at Rinko, who was writing notes with disheveled hair.
"Come in. It's normal to have a psychological burden after killing for the first time... ask whatever you can't figure out."
Putting down the pen, Rinko patted the empty space beside him, signaling Nagato to sit.
"Um... just now, why did Sensei say that? Isn't the Sage of Six Paths a great person?"
Sitting beside Rinko, Nagato, who seemed to want to say something else, was stunned at first, then awkwardly pinched his sleeve, asking hesitantly in a low voice.
Of course, this was also a question Nagato was somewhat curious about.
When accepting tasks or choosing jobs, one can judge based on preferences or other emotions, but when executing tasks or working, one should not involve personal feelings.
No 'joy' means no indulgence in harvest; no 'anger' means no 'killing intent'; no 'sorrow' means no pity; no 'pleasure' means leaving no weakness.
Although specific situations require specific analysis, responding this way is correct in most cases.
This was the philosophy Rinko always upheld and taught Yahiko and the others. In Nagato's view, Rinko was someone who rarely showed emotion normally.
Of course, the attack on the Konoha stronghold was an exception. At that time, his goal included pursuing intense emotions to dilute the mechanized thinking brought by excessive calculation power.
How to balance extreme emotions and combat consciousness was a basic lesson for Jujutsu Sorcerers.
So even if his tone was flat, for Nagato who had lived with him for over a month, those words themselves were already quite emotional.
"Hmm... why? Actually, what I said was just literal."
Tapping his chin with his index finger, Rinko looked up and thought for a moment, then gave an example. "Have you ever noticed ants?"
"Ants...?"
Nagato sounded confused, clearly not understanding why his teacher suddenly brought up such an irrelevant topic, but with his soft personality, he answered honestly, "I have."
"Have you seen battles between ants?"
"Eh?"
This question exceeded the cognition of a child who had only seen ants marching in line to carry food back to the nest.
"This is actually a complex question. Some species of ants fight with their own kind for territory until corpses litter the field. Some species choose to avoid or coexist with the same kind without hindrance. Some species constantly attack their own kind but live in peace with other species of ants. Some species simply feed on other species..."
Rinko tore off a piece of paper, drawing circles on it as he spoke, finally encircling all the circles with a big circle labeled 'Ants.'
"...Sensei means that even ants have so many types and make so many different choices?"
Looking down at the paper, Nagato reached out thoughtfully to touch the circles, as if seeing the shadows of various countries in them.
"Yeah, even ants have such complex survival methods; humans are even harder to define."
Propping his cheek on one hand, Rinko squinted out the window, sighing meaningfully. "Humans, animals... the creatures of this world are driven by the spirit of struggle. This isn't disparagement or satire, but a natural conclusion."
"Wanting to grow, wanting to survive, wanting to go further... so they start fighting for limited resources until they kill each other to extinction or select the strongest, then repeat the process on a larger scale. In this regard, humans are no different from other animals."
"But there should be a difference between humans and beasts. Human wisdom should have allowed the power of Chakra to shine in more fields—reclaiming wilderness, modifying the environment, developing new technologies... anyway, better than just using it for killing."
"Although I read in the records that he founded 'Ninshū' with the goal of maintaining peace, peace cannot be maintained by empty slogans alone."
"Thought, culture, productivity... obtaining power far beyond what the era can bear when various aspects haven't grown up yet, this society will inevitably be driven by power in turn."
"But even holding the purest violence cannot solve all problems. After all, in the real world, you can't just attribute all problems to a specific enemy like in fairy tales and then solve everything happily by eliminating them."
"Can't achieve unification, can't completely eliminate all enemies, and then this world naturally degenerated and rotted into this state... so I think the Sage of Six Paths was either stupid or bad, or both."
Teaching wisdom and thought, then guiding the whole world to progress with his own power? That's capable.
Granting wisdom and power simultaneously? That works too; parallel development, turning to Chakra-punk style is also good.
But what does it mean to leave behind only power beyond what the wisdom of the era can bear?
Is he raising Gu here?
Turns out the Aburame Clan are the purest descendants of the Sage!
"But with your personality, you shouldn't care about this. So, do you have something else to tell me?"
Having said this, Rinko didn't intend to explore this temporarily unchangeable topic further.
"Um, I... have something I want you to see, Sensei."
Taking a deep breath, Nagato seemed to have made up his mind. He lifted the bangs covering his eyes and slowly opened them.
It was a pair of eyes with a ripple pattern, entirely light purple without distinction between iris and sclera.
The so-called...
"The Eyes of the Sage, the Rinnegan..."
"Sensei doesn't seem very surprised."
Nagato blinked, slightly confused.
"Mhm... I felt it when you were refining Chakra. A significant part of your Chakra flows to your eyes."
The excuse of drawing the bullseye after shooting the arrow was too easy to think of. Rinko had taught Nagato to use the sensory ability of the Uzumaki Clan before; this reason was indeed persuasive.
"Glasses are a good thing. As long as you wear glasses, even if you're just thinking about what to eat for lunch, you'll look quite intellectual to outsiders, as if pondering some important question."
Rinko took off his large round glasses and put them on Nagato's face. "Most importantly, they can conveniently hide your gaze."
"Although they're a bit big now, they'll fit eventually."
"Th-this is a gift from Sensei's big brother to you, I can't..."
Wearing the round glasses that covered half of Rinko's face, Nagato looked quite comical.
The boy with the Eyes of the Sage flusteredly held the slipping frame, wanting to return this item with special meaning to Rinko.
"Personally, I hate pantheism. Objects are just objects; whether put on a pedestal or discarded like shoes, it makes no difference. Pinning emotions on objects is just self-comfort. As for me, I don't need them much anymore."
Patting Nagato's head, Rinko revealed a gentle smile. "Wait a moment. I'll make something for you to disguise your eyes as normal ones. Then you won't need to cover them with hair all the time."
"...Thank you, Sensei."