At 7:00 AM, the usually cloudy skies of Mount Myoboku should have cleared to let brilliant sunlight shine down, awakening all living things.
Yet at this moment, the entirety of Mount Myoboku was plunged into a pitch-black darkness where one could not even see their own outstretched hand. The heavens and the earth had completely dimmed, save for a single point right in the center of southern Mount Myoboku. It shone with a high-intensity radiance, emitting a dazzling platinum-gold glow!
However, this light flickered unsteadily like a candle in the wind, repeatedly attempting to break free from its shackles and rise into a pillar of light connecting heaven and earth, yet failing each time.
Within this flame-like, platinum-gold cluster of light sat a youth with an elegant demeanor and outstanding appearance. His cross-legged figure was surrounded by numerous shimmering, pale white particles of light.
This person was none other than Hyuga Yu!
At this moment, the absolute chaos of the outside world and the bizarre atmospheric anomalies failed to disrupt Hyuga Yu's current cultivation in the slightest.
In Hyuga Yu's eyes, the structural framework of the entire world had already transformed into a completely different form. The Mount Myoboku that was originally sunny, filled with the fragrance of flowers and the singing of birds, and isolated like a fairyland had vanished from his sight. It was replaced by countless multicolored, brilliantly vibrant particles of light that constituted everything in existence. These diverse specks of light floated in the air and connected with one another, forming the basic outlines of all objects. Within these outlines, even smaller specks of light were constantly in motion, and within those even smaller specks, microscopic particles vibrated and flowed without end.
Through the embryonic Tenseigan, this vision continuously magnified, scaling down further and further. As the Buddhist proverb goes: To see a world in a grain of sand, and a Buddha in a single tree.
Hyuga Yu's embryonic Tenseigan continuously magnified a single floating speck of light in front of him, drawing him deeper into a microscopic realm. From cells, to cell nuclei, to molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, photons, gluons, and quarks—a microscopic vision that originally should have reached its absolute limit at the atomic level was pushed even further under the empowerment of a bizarre force, plunging deeper and deeper!
Ultimately, Hyuga Yu saw a vast expanse of blank space, like a sheet of white paper left entirely to someone's whim to write or draw upon.
That was the truest, most primordial state of life—originally, not a single thing exists, yet the strike of a brush leaves a dot of black.
Immediately following that, the blank space was partitioned, and formless things began to flow. The operation of all creation emerged from this very source.
Gazing upon this flowing void, Hyuga Yu suddenly attained a realization. What natural energy, physical energy, or spiritual energy? There were actually never so many distinct classifications. All things were born from the flow. It could even be said that absolutely anything could be natural energy, physical energy, or spiritual energy.
The only distinction between them was—
Who would act as that primordial "One"?
How does one become that singular exception? And what does such an exception truly signify?
A greater power? A more profound state of mind? Or did it mean starting from the "One" to forge an even vaster world?
Hyuga Yu did not know.
However, it reminded him of a state very similar to the one he was currently perceiving—the "Insight" state of the Six Paths Sage Mode.
Yes, it was precisely the state that the future Naruto Uzumaki entered after receiving power from the old Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki. More accurately, however, that was not just a mere state, nor was it some uniquely powerful, tangible force, let alone the so-called "Six Paths Sage Body."
It was a specific "jutsu" explicitly defined within the settings of the Third Databook (Sha no Sho).
The user of this jutsu could perceive the flow of all life, reaching the realm of "Insight" regarding the world's structure. It allowed them to interact with others without violating the natural order of things, enabling them to turn their adversaries into companions.
Many people claimed that Naruto's parameters in Six Paths Sage Mode were even higher than Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's. But fundamentally speaking, the Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki's lineage rating had always remained at a set baseline without much alteration. Whatever he was like before death was exactly how he remained within the Pure Land. His lineage rating was not as high as Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's, and the corresponding level of power he wielded could not theoretically surpass the supreme Kekkei Mōra.
The lineage hierarchy among the Ōtsutsuki was exceptionally strict. As long as your bloodline was a tier lower, it was an insurmountable chasm.
It was just like the difference between an ordinary Sharingan and a Mangekyō Sharingan—the two were fundamentally not a difference of 1 and 2, but a difference of 1 and 200.
Yet the anomaly lay in the fact that Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, under circumstances where his bloodline underwent absolutely no change, managed to defeat his mother, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, in her prime, all while dragging along his dead-weight younger brother, Hamura Ōtsutsuki.
What did he rely on?
The Mangekyō Sharingan? The Rinnegan? Or the Six Paths Yang Power inherited from Kaguya?
It was all of them, and yet it was none of them.
He primarily relied on this Six Paths Sage Jutsu, which he had comprehended and cultivated right here at Mount Myoboku!
By relying on this jutsu to reach the realm of "Insight," he could make all things—and even the attacks of his enemies—become his allies, turning them around to be used for his own purposes. He integrated his entirely complex system of powers into a unified whole, arbitrarily manipulating Six Paths Sage Jutsu, Yang Power, the Ten-Tails' power, and the Ōtsutsuki power to touch the principles of all creation and control the universe itself.
It was only under the empowerment of this ultimate jutsu principle that Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki finally accomplished the impossible—spending several months forcibly draining Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's massive chakra reserves until she could be sealed.
Understanding it from this perspective, how did Naruto Uzumaki's Shadow Clones manage to clash head-on against the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack? Was it truly just a matter of basic parameters?
No, it was based on this very jutsu principle. The exact instant their chakras made contact, Naruto Uzumaki completed the unification of all forces, including the force of the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack itself.
This was an unconscious act, a phenomenon generated completely naturally. When manifested outwardly, it took the form of Shadow Clones clashing evenly against the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack.
Otherwise, if a mere Shadow Clone possessed parameters high enough to clash head-on against the terrifying piercing and disintegrating power of the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, Naruto wouldn't have needed to struggle so hard when fighting Sasuke's Majestic Attire: Susanoo.
A single slap from a Shadow Clone would have been enough to rip the pilot straight out of the cockpit.
By the same logic, this also explained why Naruto—before even entering the so-called "Six Paths Sage Mode" and remaining merely in his base state—could kick away Madara Uchiha's Truth-Seeking Ball, which was capable of dissolving all things, without even the clothing making contact suffering any damage whatsoever.
Because the moment the power was transferred to him, this jutsu had already been activated.
Theoretically speaking, things like the Six Paths Yang Power, the power bestowed by the nine Tailed Beasts, and the Six Paths Sage Body were all objects meant to be purely dominated when facing Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, who possessed the source of everything, the Kekkei Mōra. Yet under the empowerment of this heaven-defying Six Paths Sage Jutsu principle, even if Naruto Uzumaki were strictly wearing his ordinary tracksuit, he could still fight back and forth with Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. Furthermore, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki could absolutely never kill him, including with the attacks of the All-Killing Ash Bones.
And this was "Insight"!
Or, to understand it using a more convenient and intuitive scientific terminology, this was the unification of all forces, including the four fundamental forces of the universe—the Grand Unified Theory that Albert Einstein had painstakingly sought in his later years to explain everything, yet could fundamentally never be explained!
And now, because he had manually modified his own body into a state that almost perfectly adapted to all natural energy, he had stumbled his way into being accepted and guided by all natural energy. Hyuga Yu had inadvertently touched upon a certain "threshold" that Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki had reached when he first comprehended this Sage Jutsu.
He had triggered an earth-shattering bug. As a result, under circumstances where Hyuga Yu completely lacked the mental state required to master this level of power, he had prematurely entered this world of "Insight."
Consequently, despite Hyuga Yu's exceptionally calm personality, his pupils could not help but tremble violently at this moment. Because while the Six Paths Sage Jutsu was excellent;
And being able to witness a corner of this world of "Insight" was also very satisfying;
If he could comprehend an even more powerful Sage Jutsu because of this, it would simply far exceed his expectations—it would be absolutely fantastic!
However, it seemed... he didn't know how to get back out?
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