If the world of Naruto was a small world, while reality was the greater world, then could the path to godhood in the Naruto world really transcend the rules established by reality?
Could the plan to create gods in the Naruto world truly transcend human imagination?
Absolutely not.
Take Yahiko, whom Kei had encountered.
His existence seemed to follow a framework established in the real world.
The Book of Revelation prophesied that when the world was approaching its end, the Son would descend from Heaven. He would resurrect all the dead and subject them to the Final Judgment. The righteous would ascend to Heaven and enjoy eternal bliss, while the wicked would be cast into the lake of fire and perish forever.
Thus, that day was also known as Judgment Day.
This seemed to foreshadow Uzumaki Naruto’s future path.
The Gospels also recorded that when the Final Judgment arrived, the Son would descend from Heaven. But before His return, the Antichrist would appear, attempting to steal the glory that belonged to the Lord.
The so-called Antichrist referred to Satan’s spirit disguising itself as the Son, seeking to replace Him.
And Yahiko seemed to be playing exactly such a role.
He was the substitute who appeared before the Son, the Antichrist who sought to steal the Son’s position.
That alone wasn’t frightening.
What was frightening was that Western mythology contained such a narrative, while the Eastern Investiture of the Gods contained a remarkably similar one.
When Jiang Ziya, who had been chosen to confer divine titles on Heaven’s behalf, appeared, Shen Gongbao seemed to play the role of the Antichrist as well.
For a certain period, he resembled Jiang Ziya and seemed to possess every qualification necessary to replace him.
Yet whenever a critical moment arrived, his true nature would be revealed, and he would begin opposing Jiang Ziya.
But in terms of the greater course of events, Shen Gongbao had not truly rebelled against Heaven.
He seemed to have merely served as a catalyst.
Yahiko was the same.
Similar coincidences could be found throughout virtually every mythology.
What was truly intriguing was why these stories were so similar.
Could this be an indispensable script on the path to godhood?
Just like the pilgrimage to the West in Journey to the West—was everything along the way arranged in advance?
Was it an essential part of becoming a god?
If so, what was the meaning behind it?
What benefit was there in going through all of this?
Now, the Antichrist who should have died before the Son descended had survived.
So how was the script supposed to continue from here?
If Yahiko truly was a pawn of Heaven’s Mandate, would his survival cause him to become another Shen Gongbao?
Could the Fate truly be defied?
Uchiha Kei, who had devoted himself to changing fate and defying Heaven’s Mandate, suddenly found all of this incredibly fascinating.
"Johnny, if I become a god, will your faith change?"
Kei still cared about the people around him.
Being a lone hero was never easy.
Kei needed companions.
Johnny’s answer, however, surprised him.
"Sir, you have always been the god of Naka. The God of Gods, the God who commands the gods. The shinobi of Naka firmly believe this. It is an enlightenment from the gods, a revelation bestowed upon us by the divine!"
Kei was stunned by the answer.
"How come I didn’t know that? Why have I never received such a revelation?"
Johnny shook his head.
"Sir, which god do you think should have given you that revelation?"
Kei thought about it and suddenly understood.
Everyone had a mission.
Perhaps the reason he had arrived in this world carrying such terrifying power was itself his mission.
"I did not come to bring peace to the world.
"I came to bring the sword.
"Today, I sow the seeds of fire. One day, they will burn the heavens themselves.
"Everything rotten, reactionary, backward, tyrannical, parasitic, and corrupt—everything that lives by exploiting the people—will be reduced to ashes in the blazing flames.
"And from those fertile ashes, from that scorched earth, a brand-new and flourishing nation will be born."
This was not something another person could simply tell him.
It was something he had to realize for himself.
It was each of the eighty-one trials on the journey to the Western Heaven.
It was the cultivation of his own heart.
Just as he had inexplicably come to the Land of Rain.
Just as he had inexplicably killed Hanzo of the Salamander.
Just as he had inexplicably spared Yahiko.
These were arrangements made by fate.
And yet they were also arrangements that fate itself did not want to obey.
Perhaps his duty was precisely to prevent the mythology of this world from playing out according to plan.
"Interesting. Very interesting."
Kei had no idea whether his speculation was correct, but he found the possibility fascinating.
If that was the case, then Kaguya, who possessed such overwhelming power, should be regarded as an external calamity that had invaded this world.
The Sage of Six Paths, who had manipulated and harnessed Kaguya’s power, would then be a traitor.
Naturally, the new God-King would have to rise by stepping over the corpse of the previous God-King.
There was nothing strange about that.
After all, victory was justice.
But obviously, Kaguya was not a god.
Neither was the Sage of Six Paths.
They were not qualified to be called gods.
They were merely powerful beings who had manifested within this world—not immortal, eternal gods.
After living alongside gods and monsters for so long, Kei had gradually come to understand something.
There was a fundamental difference between gods and beings as powerful as the Sage of Six Paths.
As long as there was even one person in the world who knew a god’s story, that god would exist eternally.
Even if the god were defeated or killed, the god itself could never truly be erased.
But an existence like the Sage of Six Paths was different.
Even if he became stronger than a god, he could still be killed.
And once he died, he would truly be dead.
So what were beings as powerful as the Sage of Six Paths most afraid of?
Journey to the West seemed to have already given everyone the answer.
The longer a being lived, the more it feared death.
The immortals in those stories would do anything for the Peaches of Immortality, the Ginseng Fruit, and eternal life.
The Sage of Six Paths would be no different.
He needed to become a god.
Only by becoming a god could he achieve true immortality.
And becoming a god naturally required an entire process.
Only after completing that process could one receive the world’s recognition.
Ignite the divine flame.
Seize a divine office.
Condense a divine core.
That should be the path to godhood.
Put into plain language, it meant creating an enduring myth in which he was the central protagonist.
That was the divine flame.
Within the story, he had to occupy a transcendent position.
The more transcendent his position, the more powerful the divine office he would obtain, and the greater the power that office would grant him.
Finally, everyone would believe in the story, entrust their faith to it, and thereby condense a divine core.
Clearly, the Sage of Six Paths had failed the last time he attempted to make his mother into a god and establish himself through that myth.
The shinobi world knew that the Sage of Six Paths existed.
But they did not know his story.
Moreover, the story of him sealing his own mother was hardly worthy of being celebrated.
After all, myths were often the bedtime stories mothers told their children.
What mother would want to pass down a bedtime story about someone sealing away his own mother?
So this time, the Sage of Six Paths had written himself a better script.
A more magnificent script.
This time, he was no longer the protagonist.
Instead, he occupied a position akin to that of a Creator God.
As long as this story continued to be passed down through the ages, no one would dare deny the Sage of Six Paths’ power or immortality.
Asura, Indra, and all the other characters appearing in this story would likewise become his subordinate gods, members of his divine court.
But the Three Thousand Worlds were infinite.
And yet, they were all projections of a single world.
Kei’s existence seemed to be the true god’s trial imposed upon the Sage of Six Paths.
Whether this small world known as the Naruto world could produce a grass-roots god would depend on how the struggle between Kei and the Sage of Six Paths unfolded.
But all of that was still far away.
The Chapter of Creation had long since passed.
The Chapter of Revelation was now unfolding.
And the Chapter of Destruction would be the moment when the Sage of Six Paths finally met his end.
That would be the time of the confrontation between Kei and the Sage of Six Paths.
But for now, Kei also needed to start thinking about how he would arrange his own path to godhood.
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