"Still not coming out? Kaguya Ōtsutsuki!"
As this voice echoed through the icy world, all the ice spikes began to slowly disappear.
Then, a black jigsaw-like distortion gradually spread across the sky in the distance. Once it expanded enough for a person to pass through, a graceful figure slowly stepped out from the black space into the world of ice and snow.
"Why?" Kaguya suddenly spoke. She stared at Natsuro, a look of confusion in her eyes. "Why can a mere human reach such heights?"
Natsuro smiled as he looked at her and replied, "Because, you know, I once heard something — that the potential of humanity is limitless!"
"Hmph, ignorance." Kaguya was dissatisfied with the answer. The blood-red Rinne Sharingan on her forehead suddenly widened.
In the next moment, the space around them shifted again. This time, however, it wasn't the lava or icy realms from before. It was a plain world with a violet-red ground.
This was Kaguya's Genesis Dimension. Now, even she had come to understand that the various dimensions within the Amenominaka technique held little advantage against Natsuro.
The lava world had been completely countered by Natsuro's vermilion bird. The ice world's edge was nullified once Natsuro developed Ice Release himself.
As for the other three dimensions…
The desert world was merely hotter than the ordinary world, hardly a problem for someone like Natsuro, who could survive even beneath lava. It clearly wasn't a good place to trap him.
As for the High Gravity World and Sea of Acid, even Kaguya herself was cautious about using them due to their dangerous nature.
The high gravity dimension could still potentially be leveraged physically, but the Sea of Acid was something even Kaguya preferred to avoid.
Now, Kaguya stood high in the sky. Her long hair, far longer than her body, suddenly unraveled and whipped around.
"Kekkei Mōra: Rabbit Hair Needle!"
With her voice, it began to rain from the sky. Countless strands of hair turned into glowing white needles, shooting down at Natsuro below.
At this moment, Natsuro pulled out a special metallic bead. Lightning erupted around his body, and the surrounding magnetic field spiked sharply.
The intensity of the magnetic field was so great that even the surrounding space seemed to warp slightly.
Then, Natsuro flicked the metallic bead with his finger. Instantly, it shot out with dazzling streaks of light, accelerating rapidly toward Kaguya.
"Sage Art ~ Lightning Release: Railgun!!"
Even after launching the attack, Natsuro's chakra showed no signs of depleting. Another jutsu followed immediately.
"Shadow Shuriken Jutsu!"
In a flash, countless lightning-charged shuriken, glowing like beams of white laser, shot up toward the rain of rabbit-hair needles.
At this moment, the descending stream of glowing white needles clashed head-on with the lightning barrage of the Railgun in a breathtaking showdown!
"Boom!!!"
In just a moment, the Railgun met the Rabbit Hair Needles in midair.
Though the custom metallic beads managed to briefly halt the needles, they were soon shattered. It looked as if the next moment, the needles would pierce right through.
Natsuro, of course, knew that no earthly metal could truly block the Rabbit Hair Needles.
But then again, he had never intended to block them purely with metal and electromagnetic acceleration. As he watched the beads shatter, the corner of his mouth curled into a smile.
He brought his hands together like Deidara and formed a hand seal at his chest, then spoke a single word... "Explode!!"
In an instant, massive explosions erupted in the space between him and Kaguya.
Amid the chaos, Natsuro's divine armor fluttered violently in the blast wind. Behind him, nine Truth-Seeking Orbs floated steadily.
A few of the Rabbit Hair Needles, however, had still broken through the explosions and were heading his way.
Natsuro frowned slightly, muttering how terrifying the attack was. He then moved one of the Truth-Seeking Orbs to intercept the needles.
To his surprise, the orb, which had only ever been pierced by Madara's Sage Art: Storm Release Light Fang, was effortlessly penetrated by the Rabbit Hair Needle.
Natsuro wasn't hit, though. At the moment the needle pierced the orb, he had already used Flying Thunder God to teleport out of the way.
Clicking his tongue, he muttered to himself, Now that's what you call "brute force throws bricks."
To think something that could pierce a Truth-Seeking Orb could be fired so casually that it filled the entire sky!
Upon closer thought, though, it made sense. The Truth-Seeking Orbs were formed from the fusion of all seven chakra natures. As a Kekkei Mōra ability, the Rabbit Hair Needles also contained all seven.
So their ability to pierce the orbs wasn't entirely unreasonable.
Natsuro took a deep breath, his inner alarm growing louder. He couldn't afford to be careless.
Even though Kaguya's dimensions weren't particularly effective against him, her sheer power meant that one mistake could spell his doom.
He had been cautious before. But after breezing through the Lava and Ice Worlds, he had begun to feel that maybe Kaguya wasn't so hard to deal with?
Now, it was clear, maybe her abilities weren't hard to counter, but if she landed even one decisive hit, it could all be over.
Natsuro's eyes narrowed. He stared at the explosions in the sky and suddenly vanished from his spot, reappearing beside a kunai. During the earlier battle, he had already scattered Flying Thunder God kunai across the battlefield.
At that moment, at the spot where he had been just seconds earlier, a black spatial rift opened. A hand reached out of it, had he stayed, he would've been caught.
"Yomotsu Hirasaka, what a troublesome ability," Natsuro muttered, watching the black rift with a serious expression. This was undoubtedly one of the most advanced space-time techniques, and he could only sense its fluctuations after it was already activated.
But since he could sense it, it wasn't a deadly threat anymore.
"Tch, Flying Thunder God really is an annoying space-time ninjutsu," muttered Black Zetsu. Then, as if realizing something, his eyes widened, and he shouted, "Natsuro Shindōkawa, how do you know that technique is called Yomotsu Hirasaka?!"
"Hmm? I just do. Is that a problem?" Natsuro replied with a smile, not about to tell him the truth.
If Black Zetsu weren't pitch black and emotionless-looking, his face would likely be twisting with anxiety. He began to consider why Natsuro knew the technique's name.
Soon, he thought of the Six Paths power that Natsuro wielded and asked, "Did the Sage of Six Paths tell you?"
"Who knows?" Natsuro shrugged casually.
"Hmph." Black Zetsu was clearly unhappy with that answer. He suddenly grinned darkly and said, "Natsuro Shindōkawa, I truly pity the ninja of this world."
Natsuro glanced coldly at Black Zetsu, who was still nestled within Kaguya's sleeve. He remained unmoved.
And Kaguya herself, at this moment, made no move to attack either, as if she were waiting for Black Zetsu to finish speaking.
In the face of Natsuro's indifference, Black Zetsu wasn't fazed. He continued to smirk darkly and said,"In the eyes of the ninja world, you, Natsuro, are the savior. But they have no idea... that their so-called final savior turned out to be someone like you!"
"Oh? And what kind of person am I?" Natsuro suddenly showed some interest and looked at Black Zetsu.
"With your power, Natsuro, stopping this disaster before it began should have been easy for you, shouldn't it?"
Though phrased as a question, Black Zetsu's tone made it clear he had already decided the answer.
"So, Natsuro, you never intended to stop this catastrophe. In fact, you even helped it along!" Black Zetsu stared at him as he spoke.
"And during the Fourth Great Ninja War, you could have stopped it. With your power, you could have wiped everything out before Madara even resurrected my mother and prevented Infinite Tsukuyomi entirely. But you didn't!"
Black Zetsu began to laugh.
"I always wondered how Obito got his hands on that chakra orb containing the Nine-Tails' chakra. Now it's clear, that orb didn't just fall into his hands. You gave it to him on purpose!"
Natsuri raised an eyebrow at those words. After a moment, he simply nodded, "I did. So what?"
"Hmph! Natsuro, don't you feel any shame?" Black Zetsu stared at him, genuinely frustrated. He had just exposed Natsuri's hidden deeds, and yet the man acted like nothing had happened.
"Heh. Why should I feel ashamed?" Natsuro replied, grinning like a clown as he stared back at Black Zetsu. "You're just now pulling back the curtain... But let me ask you, where's the audience?"
Black Zetsu froze.
In that moment, he realized, all the 'audience' had already been turned into nourishment for the God Tree. In this space, not even the Sage of Six Paths could enter!
"So even if you expose me, so what? Who's going to hear it?" Natsuro gave a strange smile, then added, "Actually, Black Zetsu, I should thank you. You're the one who gave me this position in the first place."
That sentence left Black Zetsu completely stunned. Inside his mind, a storm of thoughts surged.He stared wide-eyed at Natsuro, an expression of disbelief on his face.
"C-could it be...?" Seeing Black Zetsu's astonishment, Natsuri smiled brightly, almost mockingly.
He said, "Honestly? Even if you hadn't existed, maybe one day... I would've done the exact same thing you're doing."
"Th-that's impossible!" Black Zetsu couldn't believe it. Everything he'd done, it had all been laying the groundwork... for someone else's success?
"Why not? For a long time, I hesitated whether or not to go through with all of it. But you know my strength. And it's boring when there are no worthy opponents. You followed Madara Uchiha for so long, you should understand that, right?"
"So what, you just decided to create a worthy opponent?" Black Zetsu accused.
"Not exactly. My desire for battle isn't that intense. What I really wanted was to go further.As you know, the upper limit of chakra in this world was basically Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju. To surpass that, gathering all nine tailed beasts to recreate the Ten Tails was essential."
"But you already did surpass that limit!"
"And yet... I'm still not satisfied." Natsuro let out a soft laugh, then shouted,
"Black Zetsu! Do you know what else is limitless? Human desire!" He stared at Black Zetsu, his eyes filled with an obsession for power, and continued:
"When I was young, all I wanted was to survive in this world and protect my family. After I became Hokage, I thought I could use the position to build something greater. But when I truly became the strongest in the world, my desire shifted again…" He grinned broadly, then burst into laughter.
"I want to become the strongest person in this entire world! Forget Madara Uchiha! Forget Hashirama Senju! Even the Sage of Six Paths, even your mother, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki— none of them will be my equal... Black Zetsu, I should really thank you! Because you helped me accomplish everything I ever wanted. You even let me carry the title of 'savior' for the entire world."
At this point, Natsuro couldn't hold back anymore. His whole body trembled, overwhelmed by joy.It was like he had intended to do something terribly evil… But before he even had to make up his mind, someone else had already done it for him, and taken on all the guilt, all the infamy — while he was pushed up as the world's great hero.
It was simply too perfect. Too delightful.
Looking at Black Zetsu's dumbfounded expression, Natsuro couldn't hold back any longer.He held his stomach and burst into unrestrained laughter.
"Heh… hahahahaha…"
Right now, Natsuro finally understood what true satisfaction felt like.
Only he knew the full truth. Someone else bore all the sin. He carried all the glory and the ultimate rewards, were his and his alone.
This joy… this pleasure…
Unprecedented!
"So, Black Zetsu," Natsuro said, still laughing, his eyes gleaming with amusement, "Did you really think that just because Madara manipulated Obito… and you manipulated Madara… That made you the mastermind behind it all?"
"The moment I made my decision, I became the true mastermind and I will be the final victor."
If you want to read more...
Check out the patreon and get 55 chapters in advance -> SaintXI
Next Chapter: Attaining a Kekkei Mōra