Asuma stared down at the letter Kazuki had left him, unconsciously snuffing out his cigarette. The ashtray before him was already full of butts.
"…Asuma, you are a worthy inheritor of the Will of Fire. I'm glad we became friends. Never forget who you are…"
That letter was the reason Asuma had returned to the Ninja Academy to teach.
In terms of strength, Asuma knew he was just an ordinary man. He couldn't help Kazuki in any meaningful way…
Let alone the Sage of Six Paths—
Even an average Kage-level opponent was beyond his ability to handle.
Amid this grief, Asuma could only rely on his identity as the son of the Hokage to help turn Kazuki into a legend—planting an unforgettable memory of him deep in the hearts of the next generation of ninja students.
It was the only thing he could still do.
But thanks to that heartfelt resolve…
Kaguya began to develop a fascination with Kazuki's story.
...
In the Root.
Hiruko's eyes were bloodshot as he manically collected all five types of kekkei genkai, desperately trying to refine his Chimera Technique to its ultimate form.
He finally understood—
Why Kazuki had suddenly appeared aboard the Tobirama and handed him a pair of Sharingan.
It was because Kazuki-sama had gone to suppress the Sage of Six Paths!
In other words, even at the edge of life and death, facing such a monumental battle, Kazuki had still remembered him—just an ordinary jōnin of Konoha!
He still held him in his heart!
That kind of grace made Hiruko's chest burn with emotion… and ache all the more painfully.
He had to do something for Kazuki.
And whatever it was, it required power.
"Kazuki-sama! I will complete the Chimera Technique, and with the others—I will help you slay a god!"
Hiruko roared madly in the middle of his body modifications, deep within Root's labs where no one else was present.
...
In another chamber of the Root—
Kakuzu and Sakumo were undergoing a dangerous Hashirama Cell transplantation procedure.
In order to rescue Kazuki, every Root member was gambling with their lives, trying to gain even a sliver more strength.
...
Far away in Kirigakure—
Hiashi, having stepped down from guarding Kazuki's seal, was now racing back toward Konoha.
He intended to mobilize the Hyūga Clan.
To observe Kazuki's seal in the most precise and comprehensive way possible, there was no tool better than the Byakugan.
And if the main branch of the Hyūga clan refused…
Hiashi wouldn't mind forcing them to 'save face'.
All for the sake of Kazuki-sama's return.
...
In the Senju compound—
Tsunade hesitated for a long time before finally reaching out with trembling fingers to break the wax seal on the envelope Kazuki had left her.
This was the quiet message he had written after embracing her on the battlefield.
Tsunade read the words written on the envelope.
Inside, Kazuki had carefully explained how to prepare a truly delicious bowl of hen soup.
There was no mention of the Sage of Six Paths.
Just a reminder to eat on time… and to live a good life in the days ahead.
As if—
As if he had deliberately chosen not to say anything emotional, for fear of making her feel even more regret.
Only quiet, ordinary care.
But that care…
Only made Tsunade's heart ache more deeply.
Kazuki had once approached her in just this gentle way, pulling her out of a world shrouded in despair.
And now—
It felt like Kazuki had quietly left again.
Tsunade didn't even dare imagine how he was facing the mythical Sage of Six Paths—
alone—sealed inside a coffin.
...
All of Konoha's emotions were surging like a tidal wave toward Kazuki.
The collective will of the people made the karma surrounding him grow thicker and heavier.
And Kazuki—the one they were all so desperately worried about—
was, in fact, in the middle of a standoff…
But instead of the Sage of the Six Paths, it was the mother of the Sage.
And it was one heated standoff.
"Even though I've limited your power to the level of a ninja academy student…"
Kazuki looked at the red-faced Kaguya with a complicated expression.
"Kaguya, I'm not trying to criticize you, but you're the Rabbit Goddess—a member of the Ōtsutsuki branch family—how can you still not manage to perform even a basic Clone Technique?"
"But… it's really hard!"
Having failed once again, Kaguya fell into deep confusion.
"Kazuki, what should I do?"
"Help me!"
Kaguya wanted Kazuki to help her…
But Kazuki never expected that Kaguya's fundamentals would be this poor...
If Kaguya still possessed her abundant chakra and could wield her Rinne Sharingan with nine tomoe—
Then no ninjutsu in the world would be more than child's play before her!
But the problem was—Kazuki forbade her from using any of those abilities.
After leaving the Blackwater Nine-Dragon Coffin, in order to avoid detection by the Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, and others, Kaguya had voluntarily lent her power to Kazuki, letting him freely control it for the time being.
And during their training in the Three Basic Techniques…
Kazuki did not return her power, only giving her 'the average chakra amount of a regular academy student', and further instructed her to relax her body and mind while channeling chakra to suppress her natural constitution, forcing herself to imitate the appearance of an ordinary chunin.
Thus—
Kaguya, who had always enjoyed the superior talents of the Ōtsutsuki clan and relied on overwhelming chakra to work miracles, finally realized just how hard ninjutsu actually was to control!
"Kazuki, with this little chakra, how am I supposed to form a proper technique?"
As a member of the Ōtsutsuki, Kaguya had lost her ability to simply clap her hands and make anything appear at will. Now, after repeatedly performing hand seals and failing the Three Basic Techniques again, she muttered in confusion: "I really can't do it!!"
The Rabbit Goddess had never fought such a poor man's battle in her entire life…
"Could it be that others can't do it either? Kazuki, maybe your expectations are too high. You should start from something even more basic!"
Seeing the half-smile in Kazuki's eyes, Kaguya snapped in embarrassment and frustration, "I don't believe that something I can't do could be mastered by those little kids in the ninja academy!"
Kazuki raised an eyebrow.
If this were just a class of average children, few at their age would be able to perform the Three Basic Techniques proficiently.
After all, that's the content of the graduation exam.
But seated next to Kazuki were none other than Uchiha Itachi and Kabuto.
Putting aside Itachi's character, his talent was among the finest within the Uchiha clan.
In the original timeline, Itachi had already begun his self-directed training at this age—a training that caught the eye of Orochimaru, whose voyeurism sparked a greedy obsession in the mad scientist from that very moment.
As for Kabuto, even more need not be said.
Were it not for the one-time kill of Izanami, he had been someone who surpassed Eternal Mangekyō Uchiha Sasuke with nothing but a mortal's body…
His talent was astounding.
And having grown up in Root's orphanage, Kabuto had never lacked resources.
"You see? Getting impatient again…"
Kazuki shook his head.
"Even though mortals, no matter how refined their techniques, can't compare to a single casual strike from an Ōtsutsuki, we who are born poor must cling tightly to the few resources we have—spending every bit of our focus breaking one portion of chakra into five different uses..."
Kaguya covered her ears. "I don't believe it, I don't believe it! If all mortals were like you, then the Ōtsutsuki clan should be called the mortal clan instead!"
Kazuki chuckled silently.
And at that moment—thanks to Hashirama, Tsunade, Shisui, Might Duy, and others…
Each having read the letter Kazuki left behind and channeling their emotions toward him, the special talent of the Child of Fate caused Kazuki's karmic fortune to grow even stronger.
No one else could sense it.
But Kaguya, residing within Kazuki's body, could clearly feel the surge in his power.
"Why is natural energy continuously pouring into his body…"
Kaguya murmured in shock inside his mind, "Isn't this a power only the God Tree possesses? Am I the Ōtsutsuki here, or is he?!"
The God Tree absorbed natural energy by force—through violent means.
But Kazuki, wrapped in the karmic luck of the ninja world, was naturally favored by the world itself. As his fate became increasingly heavy, natural energy joyfully surged into his body—at a rate even faster than the God Tree's!
To produce a single chakra fruit, the God Tree had to root itself into the earth for a thousand years…
Kaguya believed that if Kazuki continued absorbing natural energy at this rate, he wouldn't even need a thousand years—it might only take two or three hundred!
What Kaguya couldn't understand was…
When she first met Kazuki, the two of them had even exchanged blows. At that time, though Kazuki was powerful and his combat skills were extraordinarily refined, he had yet to awaken any traits like this. At best, he could barely be considered a sage.
But only a few days had passed—
After the series of preparations Kazuki had set in motion began to unfold, and with the final bonds from the people of Konohagakure and all the emotions converging toward him—
In Kaguya's eyes, Kazuki seemed to have rocketed upward, his strength rising rapidly, so much so that even she couldn't keep up.
"Even within the main family... someone who can grow this fast would be considered a genius among geniuses…" Kaguya murmured to herself.
At this moment, Kaguya was truly glad that—through a twist of fate—she had ended up sealed by Kazuki.
Because that gave her a chance to interact with him.
If Kazuki had grown naturally without interference, and the seal had broken after a hundred years, Kaguya believed that even if she had gathered the full power of the Ten Tails, Kazuki—through his absorption of natural energy—would be barely any different from someone who had consumed a chakra fruit.
Kaguya didn't even dare imagine…
If Kazuki's power stood on the same level as hers, how much more brutal would his methods of beating her be compared to before?
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