Chapter 136: Aren't You Afraid Your Brother Will Be Drained Dry?
"So, all we need to do is feed Boruto to the Gedo Statue, and Kaguya can be revived?"
Sasuke asked again, just to make sure.
"Not necessarily."
Shiromo shook his head slightly. "If you threw him in together with the Kāma, the probability would be much higher. But now that the Kāma is gone, it's honestly hard to say."
In the original timeline, Boruto and Kawaki could serve as sacrifices for the Ten-Tails because their respective "sponsors," Momoshiki and Isshiki, had one give up on resurrection and the other die completely.
That made the two of them the "sole heirs." (Code's white Kāma doesn't count.)
And neither of them had ever been separated from their Kāma.
When the Kāma was decompressed halfway, turning them into half-Ōtsutsuki, where was the remaining half?
It was stored inside the Kāma on their bodies.
But Boruto now was different.
Momoshiki had "injected" him with the power of the Kāma, half Ōtsutsuki cells, and that really was only half.
Sasuke thought for a moment: "Then we should start as soon as possible. I'll watch from the side. If Kaguya turns out to be different from what you said, then…"
Sasuke's idea was to act as a safety net. If Kaguya couldn't be persuaded by Shiromo to become an ally, he would intervene.
But halfway through his sentence, Sasuke suddenly realized that he didn't seem to be a match for Kaguya at all.
Not to mention his current weakened state, even at full strength, he and Naruto had needed to work together just to seal her.
That left things rather awkward.
"All right. I'll notify everyone."
Fortunately, Shiromo didn't pay much attention to Sasuke's words.
This matter really couldn't be delayed.
If they wasted too much time and Boruto disappeared outright, wouldn't that be a complete waste?
"Okay."
Sasuke silently walked off to the side and waited.
With Boruto and Momoshiki defeated, he could clearly feel spacetime turbulence about to erase them.
The key reason he was still able to remain here was Boruto, this "node."
Now Sasuke somewhat understood why Shiromo referred to their future world simply as "Boruto."
Perhaps Boruto really was the new "Child of Prophecy" of their era.
But Sasuke didn't care.
Naruto had once been the Child of Prophecy too. The Great Toad Sage said he would bring lasting peace, so what happened?
Uchiha Madara had placed absolute faith in the stone tablet left behind by the Sage of Six Paths, what was the result?
Don't believe in the wisdom of predecessors. Believe in your own judgment. Fate should be held in your own hands.
Shiromo sent out notifications to both sides.
One side was the group currently watching the live feed.
The other was the Akatsuki organization itself.
He informed the members that they were about to attempt reviving Kaguya, and that anyone interested could come watch.
This was mainly to notify Black Zetsu.
After all, even in the original plan, reviving Kaguya through collecting the tailed beasts and activating the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Black Zetsu was required as a catalyst and medium for it to work.
After waiting for a while, everyone arrived and took their positions.
The people from Amegakure were brought over directly by Senju Tobirama using the Flying Thunder God.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, meanwhile, took a completely confused Naruto back to Konoha.
Hiruzen knew Naruto's personality very well. No matter what you told him, it would be useless. Once Naruto formed a bond with Boruto, if he knew what was about to happen, he would definitely try to stop it.
So the best approach was simply not to let him know.
Coincidentally, taking Naruto back to Konoha also allowed Hiruzen to visit Tsunade and explain his situation, so she could properly understand Shiromo's existence and not make any more mistakes.
"Summoning Jutsu: Gedo Statue!"
Nagato summoned the massive Gedo Statue.
Because the statue had already "eaten its fill" at the Dragon Vein earlier, it didn't absorb Nagato's chakra this time.
After completing the summoning, Nagato looked at Shiromo.
"Then…"
"Wait."
Sasuke stepped forward, interrupting Shiromo.
"Before that, I want to return something to my brother."
Under everyone's gaze, Sasuke directly reached up with one hand and dug toward his own eyeball.
"Nani?!"
Even Itachi was shocked by Sasuke's action.
He was just about to move when he saw Shiromo appear beside Sasuke, grabbing his arm and stopping him.
Itachi let out a sigh of relief.
"Why?"
Sasuke frowned and looked at Shiromo in confusion.
He didn't understand why Shiromo was stopping him.
He was going to disappear anyway, why not let him return the eyes he had once transplanted from his brother?
That was the very reason he had previously asked Shiromo whether things could be preserved.
"I'm just stopping you from using such a primitive method like gouging out your eyeballs. Take a look at Nagato, oh, wait, sorry. Look at this instead."
Shiromo had just been about to point Sasuke toward Nagato, but then remembered that Nagato had already recovered after absorbing the Eight-Tails' chakra. So he took out a photograph instead.
It was a photo of Nagato from the past.
"I…"
Sasuke stared at the skeletal Nagato in the picture, like someone who'd been squeezed dry after ten straight days of kidney failure.
He had seen Nagato's appearance in the illusion where the masked man told his story, and had thought that state was caused by using the Rinne Rebirth Technique (Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique).
But he had already looked like that before?
"Think about it. Even with the Uzumaki clan's chakra and vitality, it's only barely possible to use the Rinnegan. And you want your already sick brother to transplant the Rinnegan, are you afraid he won't die fast enough?"
Shiromo's blunt words made Sasuke break out in a cold sweat.
He was right.
Sasuke had been too emotional just now and hadn't considered this.
Forget Itachi, even Sasuke himself needed to consume massive amounts of chakra to use the Rinnegan's techniques.
His current weakened state wasn't just because Urashiki had fished away his chakra; the Rinnegan's enormous consumption was another major reason.
"Then who should get it? Me as I am now? Or Naruto? It can't be wasted."
Sasuke's thoughts were a mess.
"You'll still have a chance to awaken the Rinnegan in the future, maybe an even more complete version than the one you have now. There's no need to transplant it and force things to grow prematurely."
"As for Naruto? Do you really think he'd want your eyes?"
If it weren't the eyes from above, maybe Naruto would consider it.
"…That's true. Then what do we do?"
"Come here."
"..."
Shiromo raised his hand and brushed it across Sasuke's eye socket. A small, thin disc was pulled out.
At the same time, Sasuke's Rinnegan instantly turned gray and lifeless.
"Damn, it can only extract one eye."
Shiromo looked at the small disc in his hand, engraved with a tomoe Rinnegan, and felt a bit speechless.
As expected, this move really was best against the Ōtsutsuki.
Extracting Sasuke's ability required taking the two eyes separately.
"Forget it. I don't think the other one is necessary anyway."
Shiromo waved his hand.
The Eternal Mangekyō with Kagutsuchi was completely outmatched against the Ōtsutsuki.
Its value was basically no different from an ordinary Sharingan.
"Thank you."
Sasuke thanked him and stepped back to the side.
"Then, let's begin."
Shiromo grabbed Boruto, who had already given up on thinking altogether, flew into the air, and threw him straight into the mouth of the Gedo Statue.
(End of this chapter)