ONE WEEK LATER
At this point, I was keeping a constant eye on the progress of the... Zetsu centipede.
Seriously though, what the fuck was that, it looked so creepy, the 'head' was just a dozen Zetsu faces smushed together, like some sort of weird art project.
I understood why Black Zetsu and Obito went with this approach, instead of just using Earth Jutsu or something, if someone discovered them, the White Zetsus could be sacrificed, and they were undetectable with normal sensing methods, unless a Hyūga stumbled across them, it was unlikely anyone would notice.
But I was keeping an eye on that.
If everything went well, Kaguya would be resurrected without anyone noticing, no large scale fuckery, no giant Juubi running around.
Just Obito realizing his dream was for nothing and dying in despair, and Black Zetsu having his moment of triumph taken away from him by me turning him into ashes right as Kaguya was reborn.
As the tunnel was being dug, I saw something that made me pause.
A soul was just hanging out near the Statue of the Outer Path, watching the thing as it continued to twitch and move.
I immediately sent myself there, making sure I was hidden from everyone else.
The soul was... well, I suppose he would show up eventually.
"Yo, Hagoromo." I greeted the Sage of Six Paths.
He turned around and looked at me with curiosity, the man looked... old, but not in a bad way, like he had aged with grace, a long white beard and an impressive amount of wrinkles adorned his face, his eyes were the expected Rinnegan, and of course, on his forehead was the famous Rinne-Sharingan, well, not really, more like a fancy tattoo of the Rinne-Sharingan.
"You." He said, his face turning into a frown. "The being called The Watcher?"
That caused me to blink, how did he know that?
"Not many are aware of that connection." I told him carefully. "How did you figure it out?"
Hagoromo stared at me, almost judging me for my question.
"A souless Chakraless puppet? With the stench of Shinjutsu covering every inch of it?" He listed off slowly. "Do you think me a fool?"
"That's rude, it was just a simple question." I shot back, I wasn't really offended, but like, still. "So, why are you here, came to check up on your dear mother?"
His frown stayed on his face.
"A Parasite like you does not deserve my words." He stated simply.
"Woah, there seem to be some misunderstandings going on here." I said with some alarm, that was pretty harsh. "At worst, I am a symbiote in this relationship."
"You corrupt our world with your power, changing it in ways that are unfathomable." Hagoromo rebuked me. "Shaping it with the Shinjutsu powered by your followers, as if they were your playthings."
Now I was offended, that was definitely unfair.
"First off, my followers are precious to me, second, it's pretty rich accusing me of corrupting others when you yourself created Ninjutsu, turning this world into a constant battlefield."
He didn't react to my, admittedly, obvious provocation.
Hagoromo narrowed his eyes at me.
"You do not deny that you take your power from followers?" He questioned. "A Parasite, then, one that leeches from humans."
I feel like we are talking past each other, but whatever.
"I pretty sure there is a misunderstanding here, what exactly do you think I am stealing from them?"
"You reap souls in exchange for power." The Sage stated firmly.
Ah, I could see how that could be the conclusion reached, the souls did go to me before I sent them off to the Pure Lands, if you weren't in the Pure Lands or in my Divine Realm, then it would look like the souls just disappeared.
But he was still wrong.
"I'll have you know that every soul that has ever gone to my Realm has eventually been sent to the Pure Lands." I said firmly. "The only thing I take from my followers is their faith and devotion, that's it."
Hagoromo gave me a disbelieving look, I could understand his skepticism.
"Look, if you want, I can give you a tour, so you can check yourself." I offered with a sigh. "But please don't insist that I am hurting my followers, they are precious to me."
Eventually, Hagoromo's frown receded slightly, though it never went away.
"Very well." He said eventually. "But even if I believe your words, your involvement in my mother's rebirth concerns me, you are still aiding with the death of my children."
Fair enough.
"Don't worry, I can pluck out their souls once Kaguya gets resurrected, then I can give them new bodies, Saiken is already living like that, you should visit him sometime, he's working at a restaurant right now."
And for the first time in the conversation, Hagoromo was surprised, both his eyebrows jumped up, and he looked at me in slight shock.
"What?"
I ignored his surprise, I didn't want him to be an enemy of mine, and while I was a bit annoyed at his optimism, but at the end of the day, his mistake was thinking other people would be as nice as him.
"On your mother's resurrection..." I began carefully. "Are you satisfied with how that ended?"
He glanced away.
"Of course not." He said tiredly. "The..."
He paused, seemingly trying to find the right words.
"Madness and grief she experienced drove her to horrible actions, even though we were responsible for that, it does not mean I wanted her to die." He continued slowly. "I wish things had been different."
I nodded in acknowledgement.
"I'm of similar mind, even if my reasonings are colder, this whole thing with Kaguya is her last chance at redemption." I said simply. "What will her reaction be to a world where she isn't at the top? Where she can't just solve her problems with brute force?"
Hagoromo looked at me skeptically, again.
Have some faith, dude.
"From my observation, her insanity had only gotten worse, over the years." He admitted slowly. "Though my understanding of her psyche is limited, she always thought in a different way than humans, I cannot guarantee that there will be any change in her thoughts."
"And? Is it not worth trying?" I asked with a shrug. "Letting her go without seeing if she can still be redeemed would be a mistake in my eyes, and considering you are aware of where she came from, you can also understand how valuable it would be if she was dedicated to protecting this world."
There was a slight pause between us.
Eventually, Hagoromo sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead in tiredness.
"Perhaps." He answered eventually. "My mother deserves that chance, I do not agree with the path you took, but maybe it will lead to redemption for her."
And he disappeared again, leaving me alone again.
I reached out and used some DP to grab him mid-teleport.
His face as he was dragged back to the cave was hilarious.
"Did you forget something?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "What about that tour?"
This was the first time someone that was not my Star-Eaters knew about my true identity, I was totally going to show him how awesome my lands were.