The Sage of Six Paths maintained his usual elusive tactics, always avoiding direct confrontation with Aoba.
But that didn't mean he wasn't taking action. Perhaps Sasuke's rapid growth had provoked the Sage of Six Paths. Because the day after Sasuke achieved Six Paths-level power, Naruto disappeared.
This was astonishing, considering that Aoba had long prepared for such an event. The previous reincarnation of Asura had been completely ruined by the Sage of Six Paths. So, there was no way Aoba would leave this reincarnation of Asura unguarded.
Once he fully revealed his stance against the Sage of Six Paths, Aoba deliberately distanced himself from Naruto, excluding him from major decisions.
At first, Minato had objected to this, but after a private conversation with Aoba, he never brought it up again. Aoba didn't blame those assigned to monitor Naruto. After all, if the Sage of Six Paths wanted to act, no one using chakra could stop him. And the fact that he only took Naruto?
That was already within Aoba's calculations.
The destined opposition between Naruto and Sasuke had once again aligned with its original trajectory, even within the battle between Aoba and the Sage. As soon as Naruto was taken, Aoba immediately summoned Toneri. Toneri, who had been placed under Kotoamatsukami, had always been one of Aoba's trump cards.
Long ago, there had been two paths among the Ōtsutsuki, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, who pursued power through chakra and Hamura Ōtsutsuki, who pursued power through genetic evolution.
By this time in history, it seemed that the Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo, had won.
Hamura's descendants, who had retreated to the moon, suffered through internal strife, failed experiments, and ultimately, near-extinction.
But Aoba never believed they had truly failed.
In fact, he always thought that Hamura's approach was the more correct one.
By the time Aoba had crossed into this world, Boruto had already aired quite a bit.
He hadn't watched much, given how awful its reputation was, but he had seen a few key episodes.
One of the most important takeaways?
The fully grown Naruto and Sasuke had to join forces to fight the Ōtsutsuki who descended from the heavens. But Aoba wasn't focusing on the flashy battles, he was paying attention to the biological traits of the Ōtsutsuki.
Their eyes weren't Rinnegan. They were Byakugan. Their fighting style wasn't Uchiha-style kenjutsu or Ninjutsu-heavy combat. It was Gentle Fist, even Kaguya demonstrated this, she had the Byakugan.
Her Rinne-Sharingan was something separate, planted on her forehead.
This made it clear... The Byakugan's genetic structure was much closer to that of the original Ōtsutsuki.
Meanwhile, the Sharingan and Rinnegan were mutations, powers granted by the God Tree fruit, mere byproducts of an external force.
Toneri, as the last known descendant of Hamura's lunar clan, was unique.
His genetic sequence was extremely close to the true Ōtsutsuki, but with some crucial defects.
However, interestingly enough, this era happened to hold the key to fixing those defects.
That key was Hinata and Hanabi. Those two were the missing puzzle pieces that could perfect Toneri's genetic makeup. Hinata, in particular, could compensate for Toneri's physical deficiencies.
This was precisely why Toneri had been so desperate to marry her. He knew that their child would likely inherit the best of both bloodlines, achieving true genetic reversion to the ancient Ōtsutsuki.
Hanabi, on the other hand, was the key to perfecting his eyes and assisting in awakening the Tenseigan. Using his knowledge of the future, Aoba had secretly collected genetic samples from all three of them. Within Konoha's top-secret research division, one of their most classified projects was the fusion of their three genetic lines.
That's right, Aoba wanted the complete Ōtsutsuki genetic code. More precisely, he wanted an army of Ōtsutsuki. But before he could achieve that, he first needed a fully stable Ōtsutsuki genetic sequence.
The lab had been working tirelessly, and they had already made substantial progress. In fact, they had successfully fused all three genetic lines, even using this new genetic code to clone a fully functional body.
But when Aoba inspected the results... He was not satisfied.
It wasn't strong enough. It felt like something was still missing.
If you would like to read more...
The novel has be completed (Chp. 362) on the patreon -> SaintXI