Chapter 242 : Rule Assimilation
Hagoromo Otsutsuki's gaze froze. His eyes were wide open, and the Rinnegan patterns in his pupils seemed to tremble slightly, like ripples on the water's surface scattered by the wind.
The Reaper was frozen in midair, its tongue gripped in Taiga's hand. For the first time, a vivid expression appeared on its hideous, ghostly face—bewilderment.
Uchiha Taiga casually tugged at the Reaper's tongue, feeling the sensation transmitted to his hand.
The texture didn't feel like flesh and blood; it felt more like energy. It was like grabbing a handful of flowing water or a mass of solidified light.
At this, Uchiha Taiga's brow twitched slightly, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes.
"I see."
His voice was low, but Uchiha Taiga seemed to have understood something in that moment.
"It's not just chakra, but a mixture of natural energy and chakra."
He looked at the Reaper's hideous face, the corners of his mouth curling up.
"As a native god of the Ninja World, to have now fallen under the subjugation of the chakra system... how truly pathetic."
His tone carried an inexplicable sense of lament.
Watching this scene unfold, Hagoromo Otsutsuki's heart sank.
He knew exactly what the Reaper was. It was the manifestation of the Ninja World's rules of death. It was a rule—not a living creature, not a soul, and not a chakra entity.
It had no consciousness, no emotions, and certainly no thoughts. It was merely the embodiment of a rule, much like the wind, the rain, the thunder, or the lightning.
It was untouchable and incapable of communication.
Yet, Uchiha Taiga was touching it right now, gripping its tongue as if holding onto a rope.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki's eyes flashed. Hesitating no longer, he exerted a sudden burst of force and slammed both hands onto Uchiha Taiga's chest.
Bang!!
A muffled thud echoed out.
Even though Hagoromo Otsutsuki was in a soul state—essentially a body of chakra—his hands striking Uchiha Taiga's chest still produced a physical sound.
It was dull and abrupt, like two stones clashing together.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki's hands remained pressed against Taiga's chest, his palms flat against the fabric of his clothes, fingers slightly curled.
His chakra surged from his palms, flowing down his arms and pouring into Taiga's body like two rushing rivers.
The chakra possessed no offensive or destructive properties, but it carried an assimilating power. Like ink poured into water, it sought to dye Uchiha Taiga's body into its own color.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki knew very well that the Reaper, formed from rules, could not be touched.
Because it was a rule, even he could only summon it and use chakra to exert a certain degree of control. He would never dare to touch it directly with his bare hands like Uchiha Taiga was doing.
But Uchiha Taiga had done exactly that. This meant that Uchiha Taiga's body was currently being assimilated by the Reaper, transitioning from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead, shifting from a material existence into a conceptual rule.
By acting now, Hagoromo intended to seize the opportunity of Uchiha Taiga being assimilated by the Reaper to accelerate the process.
He wasn't trying to help him; he was trying to destroy him.
That was the nature of battle. There was nothing more to say about it.
If Uchiha Taiga were completely assimilated by the Reaper, he would become a part of the rule, a part of death itself. Ultimately, he would turn into an embodiment of the rule—devoid of consciousness, emotion, and thought.
He would no longer be Uchiha Taiga; he would become death itself.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki admitted that he had underestimated Uchiha Taiga from the very beginning. But at this moment, for the sake of victory, this was his only option.
Uchiha Taiga's body showed no sign of swaying; he remained completely motionless.
His feet were planted on the ground as if they had taken root, his posture unyielding. Hagoromo Otsutsuki's hands striking his chest felt like striking a solid mountain.
At this very moment, the ferocity on his face surpassed even that of the Reaper.
To describe it in detail, his brows were tightly knit, his mouth was split into a wide grin, and his teeth were bared. He looked even more terrifying than the Reaper itself.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn't hard to notice that his features and the Reaper's were beginning to converge.
He was turning into the Reaper, and the Reaper was turning into him.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki's hands were still pressed against his chest, and chakra continued to pour into his body.
But in the next second, the ferocious expression on Uchiha Taiga's face abruptly vanished.
His brows relaxed, the corners of his mouth flattened, and his teeth closed. His expression shifted from a terrifying visage to one of calm contemplation.
The confusion in his eyes disappeared in an instant, like a cloud of fog blown away by the wind.
Uchiha Taiga looked at the Reaper again, an inexplicable smile appearing on his face.
"Is that so? Without chakra, you can't continue to exist?"
He lowered his voice, as if whispering directly to the Reaper.
"Then, as the rule of death in the Ninja World, why should you obey the orders of an outsider?"
Uchiha Taiga's tone was incredibly calm, but Hagoromo Otsutsuki's expression drastically changed once more. Unease churned in his heart; faced with this scene, he realized the situation had spiraled completely out of control.
Looking down, Hagoromo Otsutsuki stared at his own hands, and then at Uchiha Taiga's chest.
On Taiga's chest, right where he had pressed his hands, a mark had been left behind.
The mark was dual-colored in Yin and Yang—half black, half white, one solid, one ethereal. Two Tomoe, like two fish connected head to tail, slowly rotated on his clothing.
It was the mark of Yin-Yang Style, the tool he had used to accelerate the Reaper's assimilation of Uchiha Taiga.
But that mark was rapidly disappearing, like water vapor evaporating into the air, fading from dark to light, from clear to blurry.
The black half was fading—from black to gray, from gray to white, and from white to transparent.
The white half was also fading—from white to gray, from gray to black, and from black to transparent.
The two marks melted away like ice under the sun, leaving no trace behind.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki's hands slipped off Taiga's chest; once the mark vanished, his hands naturally fell away.
His arms hung by his sides, fingers trembling slightly. He stood there, frozen like a stone statue.
Uchiha Taiga didn't even look at him; his attention remained solely on the Reaper.
"So, as half a local, I will provide you with what you need. What's wrong with you falling under my control?"
His tone was absolute, so certain that it sounded like he was stating an unquestionable fact.
As his words fell, a mark suddenly appeared in the center of the Reaper's forehead.
The mark materialized abruptly, as if branded by a hot iron, going from nothing to something, from blurry to clear. It was a circle, and in its center were six curved lines radiating outward, resembling a camera shutter opening.
Looking back at Uchiha Taiga, his eyes had at some point transformed into the Mangekyo. Six curved lines radiated outward from his pupils, forming a circular pattern identical to the mark on the Reaper's forehead.
His eyes were glowing with a red and black light, shining like two lanterns in the laboratory.
Uchiha Taiga's gaze fell upon the Reaper, and the Reaper's gaze fell upon him.
The two stared at each other. The man was smiling, and the entity was smiling back.
Only then did Uchiha Taiga withdraw his gaze.
But he wasn't looking at Hagoromo Otsutsuki; he was looking at a light screen invisible to anyone else.
The screen hovered before his eyes—translucent and pale blue, with a few lines of text written on it.
His eyes swept across the screen, and the corners of his mouth curled up.
A few new words had appeared on the screen—Rule Assimilation SSS.
This was truly an extraordinary ability.
Uchiha Taiga was highly satisfied at this moment. Looking back at Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the old man gave off the aura of a beaten dog.
"Old man, you've failed."
Hagoromo Otsutsuki sighed. "Yes, I have failed, and so has the future of the Ninja World."
Uchiha Taiga's expression turned strange. "Aren't you overthinking things? You have no bearing on the future of the Ninja World."
Hagoromo Otsutsuki shook his head without speaking, but his body was gradually fading away.
"Huh?"
Uchiha Taiga was surprised and reached out to grab Hagoromo Otsutsuki, but the latter remained indifferent, merely looking at him. "Child, for the sake of the Ninja World, we will meet again."
Now, it was Uchiha Taiga's turn to be astonished. Under these circumstances, this old geezer actually still had the ability to escape?
Was this to be expected of Hagoromo Otsutsuki?
But letting him go just like that was not something Uchiha Taiga was satisfied with.
He sneered and slammed a palm onto Hagoromo Otsutsuki's chest.
In an instant, Hagoromo Otsutsuki let out a miserable scream. His gradually fading body solidified for a brief moment. And on his chest, a new pattern appeared—it was the exact pattern of Uchiha Taiga's Mangekyo.
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