At its core, the conflict between Aoba and the Sage of Six Paths was a battle for chakra authority.
Because every human in the ninja world possessed chakra, if the Sage succeeded in gaining total control over all chakra, then the entire ninja world would become nothing more than his personal playground.
Forget all the talk about the Sage being a lover of peace.
Looking at the history of the ninja world, the intensity of war exploded after the Sage introduced chakra.Before that, people just swung swords and spears at each other, three to five days of battle might result in a few thousand deaths.
But once chakra appeared, the speed and scale of killing multiplied hundreds of times.
The legend says the Sage gave chakra to humanity to eliminate misunderstandings between people…But in truth, chakra is just a tool.
Sure, to someone like Aoba, a transmigrator from a more advanced world, chakra's real value lies in productivity. But the people of this world never reached that level of understanding. To them, chakra was simply a weapon.
Honestly, the entire ninja world owes Hashirama a huge debt. If he hadn't appeared and ended the Warring States era, the world probably would've fought itself into collapse.
If the Sage truly wanted peace, he should have intervened in those wars, guided people toward other uses of chakra.
But he didn't.
Instead, while the world was drenched in blood, the old man hid in the Pure Land, quietly stealing away the world's chakra permissions behind the scenes.
That alone proves he's far from benevolent.
Look deeper, and the truth gets even uglier: He was only able to manipulate the world to this extent because he betrayed his own mother. Anyone who becomes a divine figure by backstabbing their mom… probably won't do anything good once they ascend.
Even if, hypothetically, the Sage were entirely selfless, Aoba still wouldn't tolerate a god above him, silently watching and controlling his every move.
The Sage wanted to become the one and only supreme being. That path demanded caution and strategy:
He had to keep the ninja world in constant conflict to ensure shinobi activity, allowing him to keep collecting chakra authority.
But also prevent anyone from growing too powerful, in case they discovered his plan.
Hashirama may have been the first to sense something was off. But he was a reincarnation of Asura, one of the earliest permissions the Sage seized, so he never stood a chance. Even in death, he couldn't rest in peace.
Madara was the second threat. And so, Black Zetsu screwed him over completely, while the Sage didn't lift a finger. Never forget: by canon lore, Madara was the reincarnation of Indra, supposedly destined to help save the world.
If the Sage really wanted peace, he could've protected Hashirama and Madara like he did Naruto and Sasuke. Give both of them Six Paths power, and they would've beaten Kaguya into the dirt.
But he didn't dare.
Because Six Paths power equals high-level chakra authority, close to the core authority. If someone like Madara gained that level of access, he might uncover the truth at any moment.
That's where Madara and Aoba are the same: Neither of them would ever tolerate a god controlling their every move.
And compared to Aoba, Madara had an even lower tolerance threshold, which made him more dangerous.
So instead, the Sage chose to back Naruto and Sasuke, a much riskier combo, but ultimately easier to manipulate.
Aoba's strategy to fight back was simple: fight for authority. And in just a few years, he'd already pushed the Sage close to the edge.
Why?Because Aoba wasn't afraid of letting chakra authority "leak."
He could freely empower Sasuke, Toneri, Kakashi, Itachi, even Madara himself.
Give them Rinnegan, Six Paths power, Ōtsutsuki bodies, and Tenseigan. All of these were marks of advanced chakra authority.
The Sage had spent a thousand years carefully suppressing the world's strength precisely to prevent this kind of decentralization.
But Aoba didn't need chakra, and he didn't care who else held those permissions. So he just gave them all away.
Now, with multiple Six Paths–tier or near–Six Paths fighters in Konoha, they might not yet rival the Sage's millennium of accumulation, But they were already enough to threaten him.
After all, a thousand regular ninja still couldn't compare to a single Rinnegan wielder.
At this pace, once Aoba finished raising the next generation of Rinnegan or Six Paths–tier fighters, He'd siphon off even more permissions, eventually forcing the Sage into an early, direct confrontation.
After Toneri, the most promising candidates were Hinata, Neji, and the young Hanabi. All three were Hyuga, and genetically closest to the Ōtsutsuki lineage.
Hinata and Hanabi had the best compatibility; Neji was slightly behind.
These three made up the second wave of ninja receiving Ōtsutsuki genetic enhancement. Progress was good, but because they started weaker, full fusion would take more time.
Meanwhile, after unlocking his Rinnegan, Madara officially pledged loyalty to Aoba. He even handed over his entire stash of spare Sharingan.
"Even if the so-called 'Eyes of God' are starting to become common," Madara said, "as an Uchiha, I can live with it. Let's go with your plan, I'm starting to get curious about the future."
He didn't have as many Sharingan as Aoba expected, just ten pairs. These were his private stash, prepared as emergency spares.
As for the bulk of the Uchiha eye collection, it had gone to Obito after Madara's original death. And who knew how many of those Obito still had…
The thought that Obito, under the Sage's influence, might have destroyed them all left Aoba deeply frustrated. Hopefully that wasn't the case.
Currently, Konoha had already developed artificial Sharingan evolution methods. With enough time and resources, mass-upgrading them into Mangekyō was very possible.
But upgrading to Rinnegan, that was trickier.
Sasuke could help, but after several forced evolutions, He'd started to notice something was wrong.
His ability to forcibly evolve Mangekyō into Rinnegan had started to weaken.
Or rather, it wasn't weaker, it had become significantly harder to succeed.
Aoba had anticipated this.
Back when Obito and Hashirama attacked and the Sage saw Kakashi and Sasuke's Rinnegan. He must have already guessed Aoba's plan.
Some minor interference was expected.
While Aoba had sealed Konoha with nature energy to block spying, The Sage had spent a thousand years preparing. If he didn't have countermeasures, that would be the real surprise.
This interference wasn't fatal, but it was definitely effective.
Still, Aoba's real challenge now wasn't evolving more Rinnegan.
It was dealing with…
The Pure Land itself.
If you would like to read more...
The novel has be completed (Chp. 362) on the patreon -> SaintXI