The reason Naruto had been unable to gather senjutsu chakra before was simple: the key "tool" he relied on had been permanently sealed inside the Kamui dimension.
Without access to it, Naruto couldn't enter that peculiar state where his mind emptied completely, which meant he couldn't activate Sage Mode through his usual shortcut.
But after waking up this time, Naruto suddenly realized something.
Apparently—
he had more than one "key."
At last, Naruto understood the true happiness of being a bond-type shinobi.
Even if his primary system had been sealed away, there was still an emergency backup!
"SAGE MODE—ACTIVATE!"
Naruto roared.
Natural energy surged through him, and with one violent burst of chakra, he blasted the Sage of Six Paths' remains away and sent the relic crashing into the ground.
Naruto turned toward the entrance of the cavern.
The sealed stone door could trap helpless sacrifices whose chakra had already been drained, but it would never stop him now that he had entered Sage Mode.
Yet Naruto didn't run.
He had suffered himself.
Now he understood the suffering of others.
And once he understood that pain, he could no longer simply ignore it.
Naruto no longer feared the sacred relic.
What he needed to do now was prevent this evil thing from ever hurting anyone again.
If he escaped today, Karin would simply find more sacrifices tomorrow.
More people would suffer.
"Come on!"
Naruto planted his feet and raised his fists, his expression firm.
The Sage of Six Paths' remains possessed no real consciousness.
They were driven only by the instinct to return to the one place they regarded as home.
At that moment, the relic moved much like the Konoha septic system after Crazy Diamond had altered it, desperately trying to return to its original state.
It shot straight toward Naruto like an arrow released from a bow.
Naruto didn't flinch.
With the enhanced perception of Sage Mode and Frog Kata, he swung a fist and knocked the sacred relic away again.
"Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan!"
Without giving it even a moment to recover, Naruto rushed after it and slammed a massive Rasengan directly into the remains.
The entire cavern shook violently.
Stone cracked.
Dust filled the air.
But when everything finally settled—
the sacred relic remained completely intact.
Naruto's face darkened.
Of course.
These were the remains of the Sage of Six Paths himself.
How could something like an ordinary Rasengan possibly destroy them?
Naruto touched his tongue.
There, imprinted upon it, was a small sun-shaped mark.
The Six Paths Yang Power Hagoromo had given him inside the mental space.
According to the Sage, if Kaguya were ever resurrected, Naruto and Sasuke would have to combine their powers and seal her away again.
But there was an obvious problem.
Sasuke wasn't here.
Naruto didn't even know whether this world's Sasuke had received the Yin Power.
And the Yang Power alone couldn't activate the sealing function.
Which meant Naruto had no way to use it to seal the relic.
Then another thought struck him.
Makoto had once explained the whole business about Naruto and Sasuke being reincarnations of Asura and Indra.
Sasuke had listened carefully.
Naruto, naturally, hadn't cared at all.
But now fragments of that conversation suddenly resurfaced in his mind.
For the Sage of Six Paths to appear, Naruto was supposedly required to possess chakra from all nine Tailed Beasts, becoming the Child of Prophecy.
In the real world, Naruto did indeed carry chakra from all nine.
But inside Engraved Tsukuyomi?
He had almost nothing.
At most, Dark Naruto had killed Gaara and taken Shukaku's chakra.
So Naruto should have possessed only the One-Tail and Nine-Tails.
Why had Hagoromo appeared anyway?
Had Engraved Tsukuyomi somehow made a mistake and detected the nine Tailed Beast chakras inside Naruto's real body?
Or was the activation condition for this world's Sage of Six Paths completely different?
Naruto thought for a moment.
Then it clicked.
Makoto had once explained that the Sage of Six Paths had also been a jinchūriki.
The Ten-Tails jinchūriki.
And the nine Tailed Beasts were created when Hagoromo split the Ten-Tails apart.
For many years afterward, all nine lived beside him under his care.
In other words—
the Sage of Six Paths had once possessed the Ten-Tails while also carrying the chakra of all nine individual Tailed Beasts.
And not long ago, Obito had explained that Karin didn't strengthen herself by drinking Hero Water.
Instead, she relied on a special Uzumaki constitution that allowed her to absorb other people's chakra.
Nagato had apparently survived summoning the sacred relic in much the same way.
The relic tried to drain him—
and Nagato's Uzumaki body instinctively drained chakra back.
That mutual absorption had allowed him to survive.
Which meant…
When Naruto had been pushed to the brink of death just now, his own Uzumaki constitution must have activated too.
He had subconsciously absorbed chakra from the Sage's remains.
Naruto was ultimately still the Nine-Tails' child, though. His Uzumaki blood was weak enough that he didn't even have the clan's trademark red hair.
His hair was golden instead, much closer to his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode appearance.
So he couldn't absorb enough to survive solely through the Uzumaki constitution like Nagato had.
But he had absorbed some.
And unlike Nagato, Naruto had been unable to break free.
Nagato had drained only a little chakra before canceling the summoning.
Naruto, meanwhile, had remained trapped in direct contact the entire time.
Meaning…
He had absorbed the residual chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts from the Sage of Six Paths' remains!
The amount was pitifully small.
Not even enough to form a Tailed Beast cloak.
But Naruto had genuinely obtained traces of all nine.
That must have fulfilled the Child of Prophecy condition and triggered Hagoromo's appearance.
"Shukaku!"
Naruto shouted inward.
"Help me! Sealing techniques are your specialty, right?"
The chakra portions from the other Tailed Beasts were far too small to use in combat.
But Shukaku was different.
Dark Naruto had extracted the entire One-Tail from Gaara.
There was more than enough chakra to fight with.
"You bastard, Naruto!"
Shukaku's furious voice exploded inside his mind.
"You killed Gaara, the human who loved you so much, and now you want my help?! Piss off!"
"That wasn't me!"
Naruto awkwardly tried to explain.
"That was my dark side!"
To Shukaku, however, that sounded exactly like an excuse.
"Oh, yeah? Well, my dark side is controlling me right now too!"
Shukaku snarled.
"And my dark side says you can screw off!"
"…"
Naruto hadn't even figured out what to say when Shukaku abruptly stopped.
"Wait."
His tone changed completely.
"Kid… why do you smell like the old man?"
Shukaku sounded genuinely puzzled.
Because Dark Naruto had absorbed Shukaku rather than sealing him in the conventional sense, their relationship wasn't truly that of a jinchūriki and Tailed Beast.
It was closer to a seal and the thing trapped inside it.
Which meant Shukaku had no idea what had been happening outside.
"…"
Naruto's expression turned mournful.
After everything that had just happened, how could he not smell like the Sage of Six Paths?
Still, if he wanted Shukaku's help sealing the relic, Naruto had no choice but to use his brain.
"That's right!"
Naruto immediately straightened.
"I'm the Child of Prophecy the old man talked about!"
"The one destined to bring happiness to all nine of you Tailed Beasts!"
"Shukaku, are you really going to defy the Sage of Six Paths' wishes and the will of destiny itself?"
Shukaku hesitated.
A moment later—
Naruto felt power pouring into him.
"Yes!"
His eyes lit up.
"Perfect!"
"Now die—Magnet Release: Rasengan!"
Naruto formed a distorted black-and-white Rasengan infused with Shukaku's Magnet Release and drove it into the sacred relic.
The sealing power steadily spread across its surface.
Then—
a familiar pattern appeared.
Naruto stared.
It was unmistakable.
The very same sealing formula that had once been used on Jiraiya—
the Gecko Seal.
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