Chapter 129: The Rinnegan as a Revival Coin
After hearing what Shiromo said, Adult Sasuke's body trembled slightly.
He could understand the meaning behind Shiromo's words, and he could also tell that Shiromo had indeed answered his question perfectly.
But Adult Sasuke's "tremble" wasn't because of that.
He had already been jolted earlier by that so-called "Tsukuyomi deception."
Now, with Shiromo's speech, Adult Sasuke was suddenly reminded of his former self.
That version of himself who, on a whim, could… do anything.
The difference was that Shiromo was wiser than his own hot-blooded self back then. Even the Akatsuki and his older brother had become Shiromo's helpers.
Not only that, while gathering intelligence, Adult Sasuke had also learned about his own fate in this era.
Perhaps in this world altered by Shiromo, he and his brother no longer needed to experience life-and-death struggles, no longer needed to rely on Impure World Reincarnation to reconcile.
"I understand now. You said earlier that you transcend time. That means you've changed the future, and you yourself won't be affected by it. So, can you preserve other things, or other people?"
Sasuke directly began discussing things with Shiromo.
As for Shiromo's actions, he had already tacitly accepted them.
"Preserve? Are you asking whether I can leave Boruto behind? I'm not sure."
"If it's objects, then it should be possible. After all, inanimate things have much less impact than living beings."
Shiromo shrugged slightly. "The things I brought back from the future, photos, recordings, even the clothes and pants I was wearing, haven't shown any signs of disappearing."
What Shiromo meant, of course, wasn't the outfit he was currently wearing. He wasn't so unhygienic as to never change clothes.
"Very well. Time is of the essence. Let's move, let's go save Naruto."
After hearing this, Adult Sasuke merely nodded calmly and walked toward the cave entrance.
This scene left Shiromo momentarily stunned, his brows knitting together.
Itachi also noticed that something was off.
First of all, Adult Sasuke definitely hadn't asked that question out of fear of death or worry about himself disappearing.
That was why Shiromo had asked whether he wanted to preserve Boruto's life.
Even knowing that Momoshiki resided within Boruto.
But after receiving Shiromo's response, which was almost a denial that people could be preserved, Adult Sasuke showed no concern at all.
So what exactly was he planning to do?
"Forget it. Don't overthink it."
Shiromo patted Itachi on the shoulder and followed Adult Sasuke out of the cave.
Outside, Adult Sasuke stood awkwardly by the river, completely at a loss.
With no chakra, he couldn't even walk on water, and the cliff beside him was extremely steep, leaving no way out.
"Haha, don't worry, Shadow Hokage. I'll restore your chakra."
Shiromo couldn't help laughing at Adult Sasuke's miserable state.
It was hard to imagine that the wielder of the Rinnegan, one of the two strongest figures of the future shinobi world, someone whose battles could shatter heaven and earth, would be restrained by a single river.
All one could say was that sometimes, "going good makes you three points weaker" actually made sense.
If this were the younger Sasuke from before, he could stab even his teammate Karin straight through the heart with Chidori.
If that Sasuke had obtained the Rinnegan, a mere lack of chakra wouldn't matter. Even if he didn't target Naruto, Jiraiya would've been drained.
And if he didn't touch Jiraiya either, he would've casually drained a few shinobi back in Konoha to fill himself up.
With moral shackles in place, Sasuke had ended up weakened for so many days without absorbing a single person.
The Preta Path had truly become a hungry ghost, with nothing to eat.
"Restore…?"
Sasuke was a bit surprised.
"This is the Mangekyō Sharingan ability of one of your clansmen from the Warring States period, who was sealed away long ago."
Shiromo placed his hand on the back of Sasuke's hand.
What Shiromo was referring to was, naturally, Hikari's 'Yachihoko'.
Hikari had mentioned before that the marks of Yachihoko, unlike Flying Thunder God, could be removed.
But there was one thing Yachihoko could do that Flying Thunder God couldn't.
That was indirect imprinting.
For example, Uchiha Hikari could use VR games to place marks on people who played together.
Or she could use "Engraved Tsukuyomi," allowing anyone caught in Tsukuyomi to be marked as well.
In this era, there was no VR, and no one had the leisure to play VR games.
As for Engraved Tsukuyomi, Hikari didn't have that much chakra and couldn't use it anyway.
But there were other ways.
Shiromo had asked Hikari before, and after modification, she said she could transmit it one extra time.
So Shiromo had Hikari leave a mark on him.
And now, he transferred that mark onto Adult Sasuke.
Shiromo believed that Hikari had sensed it on her end.
And even if she hadn't sensed it, she would've seen it while watching the live broadcast.
"Thank you. Let's move."
Adult Sasuke felt the chakra surging within his body in surprise. After thanking him, he leapt upward, running along the sheer cliff face.
Shiromo and Itachi followed.
"By the way, how much chakra did you recover?"
On the way, Shiromo suddenly thought of something and asked Adult Sasuke.
"At least enough for me to use Amenotejikara five times."
"Oh. Got it."
Hearing this, Shiromo nodded.
That explained why Adult Sasuke didn't immediately activate Susanoo and fly off to rescue his close friend, instead he is moving slowly by running and jumping.
The chakra stored in the Gedo Statue from the Dragon Vein was enormous.
Shiromo hadn't expected Uchiha Hikari to turn into such a "miser," giving out only a tiny bit.
Meanwhile.
"Hehe."
Hikari snickered and transferred a small portion of chakra from the Gedo Statue to Sasuke, topping him up a little.
This was precisely an application of Yachihoko.
At this moment, everyone watching also saw Shiromo ask Sasuke how much chakra he had recovered. They immediately sensed something was off and turned to look at the snickering Uchiha Hikari.
"I knew it, you were guarding against Uchiha Sasuke, weren't you?"
Tobirama crossed his arms, wearing an expression of "I've figured it out."
"Guarding against Sasuke?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen was puzzled.
"Of course. Who knows whether this Uchiha Sasuke is sincere or just pretending? What if you give him too much chakra and he stops acting, betraying Shiromo directly?"
Uchiha Hikari snorted and lifted her chin.
In her opinion, she'd done nothing wrong.
"But have you considered this?" Hiruzen frowned deeply as he countered her. "What if Sasuke truly intends to help Shiromo wholeheartedly, but because you gave him too little chakra, he ends up in danger?"
"It's fine. That Uchiha Sasuke also has the Rinnegan. When the time comes, we can just control him and make him use Rinne Rebirth."
Little Hikari wore a smug 'all-according-to-plan' expression and giggled.
"..."
Everyone else was completely speechless.
Why was this Uchiha great-grandmother always thinking about using the Rinnegan as a revival coin for Shiromo?
Nagato was like this. Sasuke was also like this.
Good grief.
At this point, it seemed very likely that when Uchiha Hikari so readily agreed to let Shiromo transfer chakra to Sasuke, this was what she had been planning all along.
Yachihoko could practically be called the Uchiha version of "Hashirama Cells." The terror of its atavistic ability was such that even peak-state Sasuke, excluding Six Paths power, would have to activate Susanoo to resist the erosion of Engraved Tsukuyomi.
This meant that relying on the Rinnegan alone, Sasuke could still be controlled by a Mangekyō Sharingan of a lower tier.
(End of this chapter)