Mo Ke gathered his thoughts and poured his spiritual pressure through every inch of Naruto's body.
Spirit and chakra alternated in delicate waves as he probed again and again. Mo Ke's brows slowly knit tighter.
Nothing abnormal.
He was hunting for Asura's chakra.
Mo Ke drew his spiritual power back and sank into quiet contemplation.
From Naruto's late conversation with the Sage of Six Paths in the original tale, even Naruto himself could vaguely sense that Asura's chakra existed within him.
Right. Chakra. Naruto had not started training yet, which meant his body had not produced chakra at all.
Chakra is born from mixing spiritual power and physical energy in equal measure. Which means Asura's chakra at this stage should still be split back into its parts, spiritual and physical power, lying dormant inside Naruto.
Asura's imprint can subtly steer a host's will. Also, Asura and Indra can only reincarnate into bodies that carry the Sage's bloodline.
Which points to a single conclusion. The scheming toad has been rubbing your belly this whole time. There is only one truth.
In fact, what reincarnates from Asura and Indra is not their souls but their ideals, their temperament, their mental energy.
When a new host begins refining chakra, that mental energy melds with bloodline flesh to form chakra stamped with the marks of Asura or Indra.
Maybe Hashirama, Madara, Naruto, and Sasuke were not strong because they were reincarnations. Maybe they were chosen as reincarnations because they already had overwhelming potential and personalities aligned to those ancient ideals.
Hashirama's power alone eclipsed many generations of Asura's vessels. As for Naruto, without the Sage's direct blessing he would have been far behind.
Even after Asura's chakra moved on to a new life, Hashirama cells remained one of the world's greatest cheats. That says it all. Power did not come only from Asura's mark.
A soul cannot be copied. Ideas can. That is why different generations of Asura and Indra can stand in the same era as distinct people.
And when Indra's chakra left Madara's body, his strength did not vanish.
Each vessel is a complete, self-willed soul. Under Asura's or Indra's long, soft pull, the person simply grows into a familiar shape.
Once that shape hardens, what effect can a new cycle of ideas have on the previous life.
So where does that mental energy rest. In the soul, without a doubt.
In the shinobi world, Orochimaru may be the most devoted student of souls. Even so, his craft would not yet touch the secrets of Asura and Indra.
But who is Mo Ke. Not only a modern man who knows the story, not only the Nine Tailed Fox, but a shinigami.
What is hard for ninja is not so hard for a being made of soul.
Resolved, Mo Ke focused spiritual light into his eyes.
Naruto slowly turned into a pale blue silhouette in his sight.
Naruto's soul.
Mo Ke examined him with care. Soon he found the thread he was after.
To his eyes the soul was whole, smooth, without scars.
Yet in the mind of a child not even two, one small region pulsed with faint notions. Love. Peace. I must earn everyone's recognition. Unity is the greatest power in the ninja world. Anyone with a working brain would notice the mismatch.
The thoughts were weak, but lay them in place for years and they will steer a person's nature along a set path.
With the lesion found, the cure was simple. Mo Ke channeled spiritual power with surgical care and performed a tiny operation on Naruto's soul.
He did not remove Asura's mental energy. That would throw away Naruto's future key to Six Paths power.
Nor did he dare erase Asura's will from this world. Black Zetsu was not the only watcher. There was also a certain old man with a staff.
If Mo Ke wiped Asura at the start, a truth seeking orb might have fallen out of the void and flattened him on the spot.
He only scattered that cluster of mental power. To outsiders, Naruto would still bear Asura's imprint. But since the idea was now unshaped and fragmented, it would only transmit in pieces. The influence on Naruto's character should shrink to almost nothing.
As for the little that remained, Mo Ke was confident he could raise Naruto with a sound compass. Return kindness with virtue. Face resentment with straightness.
Truth be told, Asura's sway over Naruto was never as great as people imagined. In Mo Ke's eyes, most of the new generation in Naruto's world had shaky mental foundations. On or off, all or nothing.
They loved so hard they would throw away their lives. Or they hated so hard they wanted to scatter the ashes of the earth.
Obito needs no commentary. Anyone who passed primary school would struggle to twist their mind into his shape.
Gaara's childhood was several times harsher than Naruto's. Yet a stranger spoke a few sharp sentences and the monster who wished to kill the world turned into a Kage willing to die for his village. Sakura swore every day she would die for Sasuke, then when he would not stay for her, she pivoted to try a knife in his back.
Nagato. Parents killed by Konoha in childhood. As a teen he lost a brother in a scheme also tied to Konoha. He spent a decade stacking corpses, fixed his resolve, chose his road.
This was a man who did not blink when killing Jiraiya, the only elder who had shown him kindness after ruin.
In the end he snapped his fingers and cast Rinne Tensei. A massage for Konoha right after they had finally tasted pain.
A tyrant. More like a punch line.
Oddly enough it was Uchiha Sasuke who, tugged between Naruto and Itachi, flashed black and white until he rejected both scripts and thought for himself. He went gray.
He even shouted slogans for revolution and unification.
If fate had favored him, and if he had not eaten a beating every time he postured and lost half his fans, we would be calling him not fair weather Sasuke but God Sasuke.
Modern audiences are simple and sincere. You can be a villain, but keep the style points high and I am buying your merch.
As for grown up Naruto, to say he became another Asura is less precise than saying he became another Third.
Promises rarely fulfilled. Not to the whole world and not even at home. The Hyuga remained the Hyuga. Toneri pounded them so hard they doubted themselves. The caged birds of the branch house stayed caged.
I am kind in my heart, so I will be a Hokage who stands in the sunlight. Sasuke, my best friend, become the second Danzo for me.
Sasuke Retsuden confirmed it. He spent most of his later years outside the village handling the darkness for Konoha.
It is a world where travel is on foot and communication is a shout. Information flows too thinly. Unlike my last life, where the flood starts in grade school, minds here are simple and easy to push off a cliff.
Mo Ke, a veteran of nine years of mandatory schooling, felt very confident.
While probing, he also stumbled upon something rather interesting.
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