Naruto's gaze sharpened, and he nodded forcefully.
"Yes! I tried countless methods. It wasn't damaged at all!"
Seeing this, Sakura took a deep breath, as if confirming something of great importance.
She looked at Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji—and beyond them, as though gazing at the countless expectant eyes beyond the heavenly curtain—and slowly said:
"Then… I know what's going on."
Those words were like a massive stone crashing into a still lake, sending towering waves through everyone's hearts.
She knew.
Sakura knew the source of Naruto's information.
Did that mean… she also knew whether what Naruto said was true?
"That red stone…" Sakura's voice echoed clearly through the deathly silent crater, each word tugging at the heartstrings of millions. "It is not a product of this era."
She paused, as if recalling sealed records from ages past. Then, enunciating each word with chilling clarity, she spoke a name that made hearts tremble:
"The Covenant Stone Tablet of the First People."
"Or…"
"The Forgotten Monument of History."
The atmosphere atop the rocky platform instantly grew heavy, as if the very air had solidified.
Yet what Sakura said next took the tension in an unexpected direction.
Her emerald eyes, sharp as blades, locked onto Naruto, as though peering into every corner of his heart. Her voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable insight.
"I think… that stone tablet never recorded as much detailed information as you claimed, did it?"
She tilted her head slightly, watching the subtle shifts in Naruto's expression.
"A good portion of it… was probably pieced together by you. Fragments from the stone tablet, combined with your own experiences, your pain, your anger… and the legends and doubts you'd heard elsewhere—about the Sage of Six Paths, about shinobi history…"
"You processed them, extrapolated… maybe even imagined some of it. Isn't that right?"
"!!"
Naruto's body stiffened violently. His pupils contracted.
He instinctively wanted to refute her—but faced with Sakura's all-seeing gaze, and the shocked, scrutinizing looks from Sasuke and Neji, the words stuck in his throat.
After a suffocating silence, it was as if the last of his strength drained away. His shoulders slumped. Slowly—painfully—he nodded.
"Y-Yes…" His voice was barely audible, laced with embarrassment and a strange sense of relief. "There wasn't much on the stone tablet… A lot of it… I guessed myself, based on what I've been through…"
Boom—!!!
That admission exploded like another mental bomb inside Sasuke and Neji's minds.
"You—!!!" Sasuke's face darkened instantly, fury and humiliation blazing in his eyes.
He had nearly been shaken by Naruto's earth-shattering conspiracy theory—had even wavered for a moment.
And it turned out this idiot had filled in the gaps himself?
As expected. Nothing but nonsense. No one could be trusted.
"Naruto… you…" Neji stood stunned. The heart he had clenched in dread over the "truth" now strangely loosened upon realizing that truth might be flawed.
Subconsciously, he lifted a hand to touch his eyes and murmured, "At least… it's not the worst-case scenario…"
Beyond the heavenly curtain, the entire shinobi world erupted in uproar.
"What?! Naruto made parts of it up?!"
"I knew it! How could it be that detailed? Chakra invasion, the Sage harvesting people—sounds like the delusions of a madman!"
"That scared me to death! I thought we were living inside some grand conspiracy!"
"So it's all fake? Just Naruto overthinking and nearly destroying the world over it?!"
"This is… absurd…"
The suffocating tension eased considerably. Many faces showed visible relief.
The Pure Land
The Sage of Six Paths, who had been brooding in simmering rage, finally snorted coldly.
"Hmph! Falsehoods are still false!"
"Cheap tricks meant to deceive the masses! I knew it—these are nothing but lies fabricated by the one impersonating me, trying to tarnish my name. Foolishness!"
"I'd like to see how far this heavenly curtain—and the mastermind behind it—can spin these baseless claims."
"I refuse to believe they can make flowers bloom from thin air!"
What he didn't know… was that the true "mastermind" had already prepared something far more devastating—something that would shatter his very understanding of himself and his purpose as the founder of Ninshū.
Within the curtain, Sakura spoke again.
"However…"
Her gaze swept over Sasuke and Neji, whose expressions had changed dramatically, before settling on Naruto, who seemed resigned, bracing himself for ridicule.
"What Naruto said earlier…"
"Though processed and embellished by him…"
She inhaled deeply and delivered the next words like a hammer smashing fragile defenses:
"Most of it… is true."
"!!!"
Silence.
Deeper and colder than any before.
The anger and relief on Sasuke and Neji's faces froze—then collapsed into blank shock.
Outside the curtain, millions of faces stiffened once more.
The fragile comfort of "Thank goodness it's fake" shattered like a soap bubble, leaving behind a deeper, bottomless chill.
The air at the bottom of the crater seemed to freeze completely at Sakura's words.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji stood like statues encased in ice.
Sakura looked at them, their expressions shaken to the core. She seemed about to explain further—but ultimately shook her head lightly, her tone complicated.
"To explain everything… would be troublesome. It involves too much." Karin spoke candidly from the side. "Even within the Divine Knights, what I know is only the general outline."
Her gaze swept across Sasuke's dim Six-Tomoe Rinnegan, then Neji's Tenseigan, and finally rested on Naruto.
"But remember one thing—"
"The Sage of Six Paths… cannot be trusted."
The words carved themselves into their minds like iron law.
"The power is his," Sakura said firmly. "If he can grant it, he can take it back."
"And…" Her eyes sharpened further. "When someone gives you power… whether there's something extra hidden inside it—only the giver truly knows."
Something extra?!
Sasuke and Neji's expressions turned instantly ugly.
They instinctively felt the power within them—the Rinnegan, the awakened Tenseigan, the Six Paths chakra granted by the Sage.
A creeping sense of nausea and unseen manipulation crawled up their spines.
If Sakura was right…
Then the power they wielded was like software installed with a hidden backdoor—capable of remote control, or even recall.
Every time they used it. Every time they grew stronger.
Were they being monitored? Cultivated?
The thought was far more terrifying than simple suppression.
Neji forced down the turmoil in his heart.
"I don't understand."
He looked directly at Sakura.
"If the Sage of Six Paths—or the system he represents—is truly destroying this world's original civilization… truly an invader…"
He emphasized the next words.
"Then you—the Divine Knights—and beings like Karin. You clearly possess immense power, beyond the chakra system itself. Why haven't you stopped him?"
Sasuke nodded, eyes sharp. "Exactly. I don't know how powerful the Sage truly is. But if his power relies on chakra—and yours clearly does not—I don't believe you're incapable of doing something."
Naruto lifted his head, confusion in his eyes.
"And the Sage isn't even in the living world anymore. He's hiding in the Pure Land. There's no one here who can oppose you. So why not just… end all of this?"
It wasn't just their question.
Across the entire shinobi world, the same doubt arose.
Yes.
If the Divine Knights and Karin's power were so overwhelming—why had they watched for a thousand years as the shinobi world was "invaded"? As civilizations were overwritten? As tragedies unfolded?
What were they waiting for?
Or perhaps…
What was their true purpose?
All eyes—millions across the world, and even the enraged Sage within the Pure Land—fixed on Sakura, awaiting her answer.
Faced with their pointed questions, Sakura showed no embarrassment, no anger, no attempt at defense.
Instead—
Her expression became… strange.
After a long, heart-pounding silence—
She finally spoke, her tone calm to the point of cruelty.
A single sentence.
One that made Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji's pupils quake and their minds go blank.
One that silenced millions beyond the curtain as if struck by lightning.
One that sent violent tremors through the consciousness of the Sage of Six Paths himself.
"You…"
"Why do you assume…"
Sakura tilted her head slightly. Her pink hair swayed in the breeze. In her emerald eyes reflected their horrified faces.
"That our organization…"
"Isn't the invader?"
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Sagamaster789