"So, in short, the chakra of your sons has continued to reincarnate throughout the ages, carrying on their petty little feud," Sasuke recapitulated. "I'm Indra reborn, just as Madara was before me, and the same goes for Senju Hashirama and that dunce Naruto?"
"You catch on quick, unlike your brother," the Sage of Six Paths said appreciatively. "Yes, that is indeed the gist of it."
Sasuke fell silent, but just as Hagoromo was about to move on to the next part of his story, he spoke up again. Before deciding whether to believe this suspicious old man, there were a few details he needed clarified.
"If that were truly the case, then how can Madara and I both exist at the same time, if we're both incarnations of Indra?" he asked. "Surely you must know that he's been revived… he's the bastard who cut Sakura in half."
"You are not incarnates in the traditional sense, your souls are yours and yours alone," Hagoromo explained. "Your bloodline factors, your predispositions, your souls, those are what attracted my sons' disembodied chakras to yours. It is the other way around: my sons' chakras did not make you similar to them, it was your similitude to them that drew them to you."
He shook his head sadly.
"To answer your question," he went on, "Indra's chakra no longer dwells within Madara, but in you alone—"
"—like parasites, infecting Naruto and me with their accursed karma," Sasuke said scornfully. "I'm still not sure if I should trust you, but Naruto and I, we're teammates. We may not get along all the time, but we've been together through thick and thin. It would take a lot more than your wild stories to destroy our bonds... and I'm sure Naruto would agree."
According to the Sage of Six Paths, it was his sons' karma to continue reincarnating until the end of time, destined to clash whenever they met. Judging by the old man's mournful expression, it was clear that he did not expect this situation to change any time soon...
"I sincerely hope the cycle eventually ends, for your sakes," Hagoromo sighed. "In any case, as I was saying, Madara implanted some of Hashirama's flesh into his own body, which he had bitten from his chest during their final battle... and in doing so, absorbed some of Ashura's power as well. Many years later, as he lay on his deathbed, Ashura's chakra and his own Indra chakra finally became one... and from their union he derived my power, that of the Sage of Six Paths, awakening the Rinnegan."
Sasuke's eyebrow rose.
"Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it?" Hagoromo said ruefully. "The girl you know as Sakura possesses the power to absorb others' traits... and she exercises it with frightful frequency. She has gone even further than you have, stealing not only my bloodline descendants' chakra, but my little brother's as well, and from the two has integrated something far more sinister…"
"What about Sakura? I can sense your animosity towards her," Sasuke said coldly. "I'm warning you right now, if you mean my future wife any harm…"
The Sage of Six Paths struck the surface of the still water at their feet with his ringed staff.
"Through Ninshū, my ninja creed, I preached that chakra ought to be a power that links people together, not one that elevates the individual at others' expense," he said. "Didn't you just feel my apprehension through my voice? Don't you see that our spiritual energies are linked? There can be no lies in this place. Our words come not from the deceitful tongue, but directly from the language of the heart. Instinctively, you know that everything I have said so far is the truth."
Sasuke fell silent. He was not sure how it was possible, but he knew in his heart of hearts that the old man was telling the truth.
"This Sakura of yours has gone even further than Madara ever dared," Hagoromo explained. "As I was saying earlier, not only has she made my descendants' powers her own; the Uchiha's Sharingan, the Senju clan's physique, the Uzumaki clan's vitality, and the Hagoromo clan's bodily control; but she has also absorbed the bloodlines of my brother's descendants: the Kaguya clan's Shikotsumyaku and the Hyūga clan's Byakugan... and in doing so, she finally derived my mother's power."
Sasuke said nothing, even though his heart ached terribly.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and neither Indra nor Mother nor your Sakura is pure of heart, not like my son Ashura and his incarnations," Hagoromo went on. "Left to their own devices, they would surrender themselves to their urges until their very own instincts possessed them, like animals... and woe betide anyone unfortunate enough to be trampled in their madness."
"…Why are you telling me this?" Sasuke finally said.
The Sage of Six Paths closed his eyes.
"I am speaking to Naruto at the same time I am speaking to you," he said, opening his ringed eyes with a sigh. "Just a few seconds ago, he affirmed my beliefs, that I am right to meddle and arbitrarily go against the natural flow of events... that is to say, Mother's way of doing things, where armed conflicts settle disputes and the Tailed Beasts exist as nothing more than weapons of war…"
"But…?" Sasuke prompted.
"Even though these are my own thoughts, I cannot help but think them naïve," Hagoromo said, sighing again. "The last time I left the future to my sons, I unilaterally chose Ashura as the successor to my ninja creed, completely sidelining my other son, Indra. That ultimately led to their millennia-long feud... so I was thinking that this time, I should like to have some… insurance."
War and peace, peace and war… there could not be one without the other, as long as humanity existed. Balance, in all things… perhaps that was the way to go.
"Naruto may be the Child of Prophecy, the blue-eyed youth who can name and frolic amongst all nine of the Tailed Beasts I created from Mother's Ten-Tailed monster, but at the end of the day, he is still too soft," Hagoromo said with finality. "However, you, Sasuke, are not afraid to do what needs to be done. Should your lady friend lose her sanity, I fear Naruto may not be prepared to do what it takes to save this world. It may not happen now, or even in the next few years, but mark my words, it will eventually come to pass. So, this time, I shall grant you both a portion of my power and entrust the future of humanity to you…"
Before Sasuke accepted, there was only one thing he wanted to know…
"Just tell me one thing," Sasuke said softly. "Is Sakura… truly Uchiha?"