The spike formed by "the unknown."
"So that's how it is, but..."
Ryosuke recalled the way Uchiha Itachi died.
"This dagger made of the unknown is really smeared full of irony."
The Great Toad Sage let out a long yawn, opened his teacup, and an extremely rich tea fragrance floated out. He took a big sip and said, "So, if you add Heavenly Great Life to my foresight, maybe we really can see through the darkness ahead of time, find the source where it begins, and even find a way to crack it in advance."
"But the corresponding price is too high. Not worth it."
Ryosuke nodded slightly.
He lowered his head and looked straight at Heavenly Great Life, understanding the source of the unease he had felt earlier.
Thinking about it that way, it had only two uses.
First, to deduce some trivial matters that don't matter.
Like, Does she like me?
Or like, She's different from other women, right?
And so on.
Even if it stirs up waves of the unknown, the spikes formed would be small, at most the kind of bad luck you'd get in daily life, nothing that would lead to death.
Second, to use Heavenly Great Life at the moment when life is truly on the line and the road ahead is hopeless, in order to grasp a sliver of survival.
Although the unknown backlash that follows would grow stronger… at least it lets you stay alive for the moment, giving you a chance to write your will.
"I suddenly have an idea."
Ryosuke rubbed his chin, thinking as he spoke, "If I transplant Heavenly Great Life into a Hidan clone, and use the Yamanaka Clan's secret technique to control the Hidan puppet to activate the deduction ability…"
"Then take the obtained information, without passing through any person, and directly output it into a computer… would the unknown backlash still appear?"
According to common sense, the unknown backlash would fall on the Hidan puppet that has the Sharingan implanted.
But the puppet has no consciousness. The one activating the ability is the Yamanaka Clan experimenter. The unknown backlash should be more suitable to target the experimenter.
But the experimenter doesn't receive the information.
The information has already been exported into the computer. The real beneficiary is the computer.
It can't be that whoever reads the information will suffer the unknown backlash, right?
If so, that's not Heavenly Great Life anymore, that's Sadako-chan.
Great Toad Sage, "..."
He opened his mouth.
He felt that he really was a bit old, unable to keep up with young people's way of thinking.
After pondering for quite a while, he couldn't figure anything out, and could only sigh, 'Ryosuke truly deserves to be an Uchiha. When it comes to Sharingan matters, he is indeed more skilled.'
The Great Toad Sage scratched his head and said, "I don't know the answer to this question. I can only remind you, Ryosuke, don't try to fool the 'unknown.'"
"Is this your experience from cultivating the Path of the Future?" Ryosuke asked.
"No, this is simply a bit of life experience from an old guy who has lived too long."
Ryosuke nodded seriously, indicating he had taken note.
Actually, aside from the aggressive plan above, Ryosuke also thought of a more conservative strategy.
Shut down the active information-searching ability of Heavenly Great Life, and manually feed it fragmented information, letting it perform an 'offline' deduction.
Equivalent to a biological supercomputer.
This kind of purely information-type Sharingan would definitely reach its greatest value only if handed over to the research institute.
Ryosuke planned to wait until he returned and then discuss its usage with the experts at the institute.
He put Heavenly Great Life back into the thermos cup and tossed it back into the ghost room.
Ryosuke sat cross-legged, thinking about the next steps.
After visiting the Slug Sage and learning the dangers of the Path of the Past, he immediately went to find the Great Toad Sage for the purpose of verifying the situation with the Absolute Darkness.
If the Absolute Darkness had already disappeared and the future was bright and open, Ryosuke wouldn't need to take any risks.
He was different from others.
Ryosuke had stand-ins.
As long as he could someday draw a healing stand like Crazy Diamond, or an absolute-defense stand like 20th Century Boy, no matter how much or how violent the energy, Ryosuke would have a way to handle it.
But Absolute Darkness was still there. The threat of the unknown still existed.
To deal with this threat, Ryosuke couldn't wait. He needed to ensure he stayed at peak condition.
"I must cultivate the Path of the Past."
Ryosuke made his decision.
"Exploring the moon also can't stop."
"Whether it's investigating the attitude of the remaining Ōtsutsuki descendants, or leaving humanity a refuge in the event of a change in Absolute Darkness, the moon must be visited."
"And also, the next dimensional-elevation star core might appear only after stepping onto the moon."
After thinking it through, Ryosuke stood up, said farewell to the Great Toad Sage, and headed back the way he came.
Passing by the White Snake Sage, he thought for a moment, then took out a coin and tossed it into the White Snake Sage's mouth, put his hands together, and gently patted it.
"Lord Ryosuke, this is… what are you doing?" Little Slug was stunned.
Ryosuke closed his eyes and said, "Seeking good luck."
Little Slug tilted its head slightly, "Actually, I wanted to say earlier, Lord Ryosuke, the 'Absolute Darkness' you and the Great Toad Sage were discussing… could it be because you cultivated the Path of the Past…"
Little Slug didn't finish the sentence, but Ryosuke understood its meaning, Ryosuke died during the cultivation process, so the world headed toward an unknown darkness.
"I don't know."
Ryosuke's voice was calm and firm, "Precisely because I don't know, between stopping and moving forward, I choose to move forward."
Rather than wait passively and regret when disaster arrives, it's better to hold the initiative in your own hands.
Ryosuke opened his eyes, gently patted the White Snake Sage's head, and said, "Let's go back."
"Yes!"
———
Obito was studying the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned his head and saw Kabuto walking over. He asked, "What is it?"
"The first round of Hidan's restoration is complete. Do you want to come take a look?"
After cooperating with Obito, they used White Zetsu cells to attempt building Hidan a new body.
They had previously worried about problems, not daring to attempt the surgery lightly.
Unexpectedly, Itachi volunteered to act as the test subject, giving them a chance to trial and error. After several attempts, they finally found a cell ratio suitable for Hidan.
If Hidan could recover, this would be an extremely important breakthrough for their team.
Ryosuke's research institute, warships, and battle armor… all made large-scale use of Hidan's flesh. As long as Hidan regained mobility, he could infiltrate Ryosuke's inner circle.
However…
Thinking of Hidan's arrogant and domineering personality, he felt that this matter still needed discussion.
If someone discovered it and he instead passed on false information, that would be terrible.
Obito pointed at the Demonic Statue before him, "Wait a moment, I'll go over as soon as I'm done adjusting this."
"Alright."
Kabuto turned to leave, but after walking two steps, he stopped again, "Oh right, Obito, the White Snake Sage has found the location of Kinkaku and Ginkaku's corpses. Is your body in good enough condition to move?"
Obito nodded.
It had been three months since the war ended. His body had long since returned to peak condition.
Fighting Ryosuke, he didn't dare.
Digging graves, though, no problem.
"After we reincarnate Kinkaku and Ginkaku with Edo Tensei and extract the Nine-Tails chakra in their bodies, then…"
"The chakra of One-Tail to Nine-Tails will be complete."
Although many are just chakra without the tailed beasts themselves, making the resurrected Ten-Tails comparatively weaker, that's only compared to the original Ten-Tails.
"As long as we, before the tailed beast chakra runs out, use overwhelming power to recapture all the tailed beasts that escaped, that's enough."
"At that time, as the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, I…"
"Will be unbeatable!"
Thinking of this, a smile curved at Obito's lips.
Suddenly, his smile froze.
'Wait?!'
"Stop!"
Obito jerked his head around to look at Kabuto, pupils dilating, "Y-you… what did you just call me?"