Naruto left the inner world.
Karin anxiously asked, "How's the Nine-Tails?"
After the Yin Nine-Tails was fully transferred into Naruto's body, the "Little Nine-Tails" that had been outside disappeared instantly, which made her a bit worried.
"They're fighting," Naruto responded bluntly.
Karin was momentarily stunned, exclaiming, "Fighting?" She was at a loss.
Fighting? Is the conflict that intense? But why does Naruto seem so unconcerned?
"Has the Nine-Tails' power not been integrated?" After a while, she finally understood and cautiously asked, "Are they fighting over control?"
"Naruto, shouldn't you do something about it?"
Naruto smiled. "This is how they communicate. Don't worry, it's not a bad thing."
"There are no negative effects, so let them be."
Karin nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. The way he said "fighting" made it sound more like playing.
Naruto stood up, closed his eyes, formed a seal, and fully activated his "Mind's Eye of the Kagura" to search for the "laboratory" that the Second Hokage mentioned, somewhere on this mountain.
It was hidden within a natural cave on the mountainside, well-concealed.
Even after decades, the barrier left by the Second Hokage was still in effect.
However, the sealing techniques that constituted this barrier were all based on the knowledge of the Uzumaki Clan.
For Naruto and Karin, breaking the seal wasn't difficult, just a bit tedious due to the sheer number and complexity of the seals.
"The Second Hokage's sealing techniques are impressive; they've remained undiscovered for all these years," Karin remarked, glancing back at where Konoha Village was faintly visible. "If the Second Hokage hadn't mentioned it, who would have thought that Uchiha Madara's body was hidden here?"
She took out a scroll, holding it tightly in her hands, her eyes filled with anticipation.
Uchiha Madara—he was a powerful ninja who had fought the "God of Ninja," Senju Hashirama.
They should be able to uncover something that could help Naruto from his body.
Finally, the last seal was broken.
Naruto pushed the door open and walked inside.
The space was small and sparsely furnished, with only a lab table, some dirty equipment, and a completely intact, upright incubation chamber.
But both of them froze when they looked at the chamber.
"Where's Uchiha Madara?" Karin asked.
Through the glass, they could see that the chamber was empty, with only less than half of the nutrient solution remaining.
The "person" who was supposed to be inside had disappeared.
Naruto shook his head.
Karin walked over and knocked on the glass.
A clear "clink clink" sounded as the nutrient solution inside rippled slightly.
The chamber was intact.
She looked around the room, but aside from this chamber, there didn't seem to be any other place where Uchiha Madara's body could have been stored.
"Did it decompose?" she muttered, dazed.
Naruto frowned, his mind racing with thoughts.
Decades would be enough time for a body to decompose.
But even if the chamber had failed and the body rotted away, there should still be some bones left; it shouldn't have vanished completely.
Could someone have quietly learned that Uchiha Madara's body was hidden here and, after hearing of the Second Hokage's death, moved the body?
If that were the case, why bother leaving the barrier untouched, making it seem like it hadn't been broken? There was no point since the Second Hokage was dead, and no one else knew about this place.
Forcing their way in would have been easier.
The possibility of "an outsider breaking in and taking Uchiha Madara's body" was very slim.
The likelihood of "decomposition" was also almost nonexistent.
Eliminating all impossibilities, the only conclusion was...
"Uchiha Madara isn't dead." Karin's mind gradually cleared, reaching the same conclusion as Naruto. This was something they had suspected from the start.
"But if Uchiha Madara isn't dead, how did he leave here?" She stared at the empty chamber, placing her hand on it.
"Genjutsu," Naruto whispered, offering an explanation. "The Sharingan is very proficient in genjutsu."
"And Uchiha Madara would definitely know how to use it."
"Maybe from the very beginning, the First Hokage was deceived by Uchiha Madara. The person he killed wasn't actually Uchiha Madara, or he only thought he killed Uchiha Madara." He analyzed, "And what the Second Hokage obtained wasn't Uchiha Madara's body either."
"It was just a shadow clone."
"Uchiha Madara could have dispelled the technique upon learning of the Second Hokage's death."
"Or maybe there was nothing here from the start."
"It was just the Second Hokage who believed he had obtained something and placed a non-existent body into the chamber."
"Can genjutsu really achieve that?" Karin was stunned, finding it hard to believe.
Is this even ninjutsu anymore?
Naruto nodded. "Deceiving the five senses, distorting perceptions."
"This is the pinnacle of genjutsu."
He thought of Aizen.
That man possessed the ultimate "deceptive ability."
If it were him, he could easily pull off something like this.
Karin nodded, not doubting him. If Naruto said so, then this kind of unbelievable genjutsu ability must exist.
"If Uchiha Madara is still alive," she tilted her head in amazement, "he'd be over ninety, maybe a hundred years old by now?"
"What a long life."
Naruto wasn't surprised and showed no reaction.
It wasn't impossible for a ninja to live beyond seventy or eighty years, extending their life through other means.
One of the Sannin, Tsunade, was said to have the ability to remain eternally youthful.
And over a hundred years...
The Shinigami he knew didn't seem to be younger than that.
"But if he's lived this long, why would he hide from both the First and Second Hokage? What's his goal?" Karin was even more puzzled.
Naruto shook his head.
He hasn't interacted with that man yet, so how would he know what he's thinking?
But the goal of the 'Akatsuki' is to collect the Tailed Beasts.
Is it related to their goal of 'uniting the ninja world'?
"We can just ask him directly once we capture him," Naruto said quietly. "He caused my parents' deaths; he won't escape."
"But for now..."
"Let's tidy up first. Since there are ready-made facilities here, let's rest here for a while."
"By the way, there's something else I want to study."
With a flick of his hand, he summoned a scroll.
It was the same scroll used earlier to seal the 'Shinigami.'
They cleaned off the experiment table.
Karin went out to gather firewood and prepare dinner.
Naruto unrolled the scroll and released the seal.
The demon referred to as the 'Shinigami' floated out from the seal. It still appeared as dazed as it did initially.
"Can it communicate?" Naruto asked.
There was no response.
It stretched out its arms, maintaining the same dull posture.
Naruto raised his sword and cut off one of its arms.
The demon showed no reaction; it seemed to feel no pain.
Naruto stared at it.
It was completely different from the kind of truly living 'god' he had anticipated—dull and foolish, like a stone with only a 'form' and 'existence,' devoid of any self-awareness.
What kind of existence was this?
He had focused on this matter for a week.
After reaching a final conclusion and completing the last bit of research on the demon, Naruto dispersed it.
"Have you figured out what it is?" Karin asked, finishing the last line of her notes and looking up.
Although she was recording the experiment, she could hardly understand the contents—most of the terms were unfamiliar to her, and she had no idea what the numbers meant or what the strange techniques signified.
It felt like an entirely different knowledge system.
"It's not a living god," Naruto shook his head. "I thought it was some sort of soul, but that wasn't the case."
"Its essence is similar to the Nine-Tails; it's merely a mass of pure energy."
"Except the Nine-Tails is chakra."
"As for that demon..."
"It's a mixture of natural energy and chakra."
As for its soul...
It had no soul. The 'spiritual power' I had previously sensed was actually the spiritual energy mobilized by the person who performed the technique.
Karin nodded thoughtfully.
"It probably had consciousness before," Naruto said, picking up a record and frowning in thought. "But for some unknown reason, it lost its consciousness and its soul was extinguished, leaving it as nothing more than a mass of energy."
The result of the research puzzled him.
"A soul is something it should have had."
"Natural energy has a history far older than chakra."
Naruto spoke softly.
"And when it only had these two forces, it could indeed be called a 'god.'"
"But when chakra replaced the soul..."
Although there was no evidence, just a gut feeling, Naruto believed that the cause of the demon's transformation might be related to this energy called 'chakra.'
To put it bluntly...
Naruto had a feeling that 'chakra' had parasitically eroded the demon.
"Chakra is a very peculiar energy," Naruto remarked without hastily drawing any conclusions, simply shaking his head in wonder.
That was indeed his view.
Some of the uses of chakra, when closely examined, were truly astonishing.
Especially in terms of 'souls.'
Take, for example, the 'Edo Tensei' technique—the Second Hokage had never studied the Pure Land, yet he could successfully use the technique to pull souls from the Pure Land without provoking the hostility or resistance of the 'Sage of Six Paths.'
As for himself...
When he set up a three-layer barrier to temporarily hold back a soul, the 'Sage of Six Paths' intervened to forcibly break his seal.
The difference here...
Was that the power he used to retain the soul had nothing to do with chakra.
Whereas 'Edo Tensei' was a ninjutsu based on chakra.
Karin nodded thoughtfully.
"Let's go," Naruto said, glancing at the empty incubation chamber.
Karin packed up their belongings, sealed them in a scroll, and followed him: "Where are we going next?"
Naruto thought for a moment: "Let's go to the Land of Lightning."
"To find the Falls of Truth that my father mentioned."
"And while we're at it, let's gather some information on that organization called 'Akatsuki.'"
"Uchiha Madara... I really want to meet him now."
"You wanted to learn that, right? I'll teach you."
Karin cheerfully agreed.
~~~
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