Ōtsutsuki Isshiki now felt his mind buzzing.
What he feared the most had finally happened!
Looking at the Ōtsutsuki Urashiki before him—continuously stepping back, his face full of wariness, distrust, and even traces of fear and anger—
His hatred surged until his teeth clenched. He simply could not understand how the Ōtsutsuki Clan produced something like Genshiki!
Madness was one thing, but did he have to slander others everywhere he went?
He clearly wanted to devour him, yet for some reason kept dragging him into everything?
Ōtsutsuki Genshiki, where has your conscience gone?
"Don't make that face. Things aren't what you think."
Isshiki's expression was full of pain as he forced himself to steady his emotions and spoke.
"That guy Genshiki is a lunatic. I—"
"A lunatic? He certainly is!"
The moment Urashiki thought of how he had been beaten senseless by Kitagawa Gen—so thoroughly that he lost completely and without dignity—his pain was overshadowed entirely by resentment.
"But he said all his ideals came from you! He said he was going to carry your will with him as he walked some so-called 'Divine Ascension Staircase'! Do you dare say you're innocent?!"
"I truly am innocent. Just look at the state I'm in—how am I any different from you?"
"Hmph. That bastard Genshiki said you did the same!"
"…"
"You killed Kaguya, devoured the fruit, and now you're only doing this to avoid our investigation and pursuit!"
"…"
"I never thought it, Isshiki—you're this ruthless. Even more unexpected is that you broke free from the constraints of the rules and unleashed Genshiki's ambition!"
"…"
Isshiki felt his fists go completely rigid at that moment.
He had clearly said nothing. He had clearly done nothing.
It was all Genshiki—Genshiki, damn it!
He was the victim. So how had he suddenly become the mastermind behind everything?
"Stop spouting nonsense! I haven't done anything!"
Isshiki finally cracked. He forcefully cut off Urashiki's accusations, then rubbed his brow and continued explaining.
"It was all Genshiki. He's already gone insane. He's spouting pure nonsense. He's only framing me—I'm being wronged!"
"Wronged?"
Urashiki let out a cold laugh, still watching Isshiki with extreme vigilance as he spoke in a low voice.
"Then where is Kaguya?"
"She was sealed."
Isshiki answered helplessly, and Urashiki immediately laughed.
"Sealed? Sealed by you? I don't think it was just sealing. You killed her, didn't you? She didn't even get the chance for a Kāma!"
"I didn't. She was sealed by someone else."
"And the fruit?"
"The fruit was—"
"And the one who nurtured the fruit—who was it?"
"…"
"You're not going to say she attacked you, used you as a sacrifice, and then devoured the fruit, are you?"
"…"
Seeing Urashiki's expression—as if to say, 'do you take me for an idiot?'—Isshiki fell silent.
At this point, he truly felt numb.
It was the truth, but he suddenly realized that saying it out loud sounded exactly like the nonsense that lunatic Genshiki had been spouting.
No one would believe it!
Isshiki felt lost. He couldn't understand what was happening to this world—why did no one believe the truth anymore?
Yet that lunatic Genshiki—whatever he said, everyone believed?
Even he had to admit that if he himself heard what Genshiki claimed, he would probably believe it more too.
"No matter what you think, none of Genshiki's actions have anything to do with me."
Isshiki took a long breath. His fists felt harder and harder.
Even so, he still needed to explain. Urashiki, this idiot, was his natural ally.
And Genshiki was far too difficult to deal with. He absolutely needed someone to cooperate with him.
"I'm a victim as well. That guy already encountered me—he even forced me to resurrect in some useless host, and I had no choice but to transfer the Kāma again!"
"Hmph."
Urashiki snorted coldly without answering. His vigilant gaze seemed to say, 'go on, keep lying.'
"And besides, if I were really the same as him, would your Kāma have escaped?"
Isshiki had no other options—he could only resort to a form of "threat."
"You only just applied yours, while my vessel can already open the 'second stage.' Our vessels are even in the same organization!"
"Hiss—"
Urashiki drew in a sharp breath, looking as if he had just escaped a tiger's jaws only to fall straight into a wolf's.
"And stop thinking about all that nonsense. We now share a common enemy."
Isshiki spoke helplessly; he could only continue.
"Besides, I haven't returned for a thousand years. The ones searching for me and Kaguya aren't limited to just you, right?"
"Mm."
Urashiki nodded thoughtfully. He would not deny that point.
"There's also Momoshiki and Kinshiki."
"Exactly. Once they arrive as well, even if you don't trust me, there's no way I could escape from the three of you."
Isshiki found it terribly humiliating to say this, but if it helped clear his name, he had no other choice.
"Once everything is settled, I'll go back with you under your surveillance. As long as we return to the clan grounds—"
"—we'll know immediately whether I've lied or not!"
The Ōtsutsuki clan's domain lay beyond the reaches of the starry sky. They possessed not only overwhelming power but also kinds of "technology" far beyond imagination.
With such technologies, lies had nowhere to hide.
"Then I'll… tentatively believe you."
Although Urashiki still didn't trust Isshiki at all, he had no other choice at this point.
After all, compared to Isshiki, he hated Genshiki far more.
That bastard not only beat him into this miserable state but also "refined" him. No matter what, that debt had to be repaid!
As for Isshiki…
As long as he stayed cautious and dragged things out until Momoshiki and Kinshiki arrived, the crisis would resolve itself.
"Then tell me about Genshiki's situation."
With that thought in mind, Urashiki remained at a distance, but his stance relaxed slightly.
"What's with that guy? How is he that strong?"
"The reason is simple. He accepted something unique to this world."
Isshiki did not conceal anything; instead, he spoke with a solemn expression.
"This world is somewhat complicated. The people here can use chakra."
"Just a group of inferior, chakra-using lower lifeforms."
Urashiki cut him off with pure disdain, but Isshiki ignored him and continued speaking.
"They only have a few decades to live, yet the amount of battle they experience in that span even surpasses what we accumulate in thousands of years."
"Mm?"
Urashiki frowned, while Isshiki spoke with a trace of lament.
"It seems that during the past thousand years, someone has been deliberately guiding wars. Battles break out constantly, so from the moment they're born, they begin training."
"From birth?"
"Yes. Some even enter the battlefield at only a few years old. They spend their entire lives fighting, and their combat experience and accumulation are continuously inherited, refined, and passed down to this day."
"And in the end, Genshiki learned it?"
Urashiki's expression grew increasingly grave. A thousand years of constant warfare, constant brutal battles.
The sheer accumulation of such experience and combat techniques—continuously refined and inherited—
Just thinking about it was terrifying!
The Ōtsutsuki had long lifespans and innate power.
Even when they encountered resistance from natives while harvesting planets, they could crush everything with ease.
Combat had never posed any difficulty.
They had never needed to accumulate battle experience, nor refine any combat techniques.
Their bloodline power alone was enough!
But now, someone had appeared—someone who had learned a millennium of others' combat experience, refined and improved those combat techniques, and possessed Ōtsutsuki blood.
"Which bastard guided such a thousand-year war and created something like this?"
Urashiki had already realized how serious the problem was; he couldn't help cursing in fury.
"And that lunatic Genshiki gets to benefit from it in the end—just my damn luck!"
"That's why I said our interests align."
Isshiki did not refute his complaints. He simply looked at Urashiki and then walked forward.
"So, can we cooperate now?"
"Mm."
Urashiki nodded—but the moment he saw Isshiki suddenly walking toward him, he instinctively stepped back a pace.
"…"
"…"
That one step instantly plunged the two of them into silence.
Urashiki looked a bit embarrassed, yet his eyes remained full of vigilance.
Isshiki's expression was blank, and he said nothing.
But in that instant, his fists had truly become completely rigid.
...
"Your parents… were actually the Fourth Hokage and his wife?"
On the streets of Konohagakure.
Sasuke stared in disbelief at Naruto, who was glaring back at him with panda-like dark circles under his eyes. Then he turned to the idle Kitagawa Gen beside him.
"Senpai, is this true?!"
"Ah? You really didn't know?"
Kitagawa Gen leaned against a tree, looking at Sasuke with some confusion.
"Has no one ever told you?"
"No."
Sasuke shook his head blankly, then glared fiercely at Naruto.
"You bastard, why didn't you ever say anything?!"
"You never asked."
Naruto rubbed his panda-like eyes, then spoke in a troubled tone.
"Besides, Grandpa Third and the Pervy Sage told me not to talk about it. And you know I've got that stinky fox inside me, so…"
Although the chakra of his parents inside him had already been awakened long ago, this was still one of Konohagakure's top-level secrets.
Even if some things hadn't been completely hidden from Sasuke, they still couldn't be explained clearly.
And now that the chakra of the Namikaze Minato couple had been awakened, Naruto couldn't pretend he didn't know anymore—he could only come up with an excuse to cover it.
"Alright, you know Naruto's situation. There are things he has to keep secret."
Kitagawa Gen naturally noticed Naruto's embarrassment, so he simply stepped in to help. Sasuke nodded obediently.
"I understand, Senpai. It's just… hard to believe."
"Hard to believe what?"
"I mean, the Fourth Hokage was so powerful, so how is Naruto—"
"Hey! Bastard, what's that supposed to mean?!"
"It's very clear. Aside from the hair color, what part of you resembles him?"
"You damn jerk—!"
"The son of the Hokage is actually a dead-last idiot. Unbelievable."
Sasuke tossed out a few casual lines, instantly igniting Naruto's fury, and the two began bickering again.
Watching from the side, Kitagawa Gen couldn't help finding it amusing. Truly worthy of being brothers descended from chakra reincarnations—just a couple of words were enough to make them fight.
'But this is pretty good.'
Kitagawa Gen clasped his hands behind his head, thinking casually to himself. He had already resolved the Impure World Reincarnation issue, and he hadn't paid much attention to the aftermath.
After all, he himself had gone to the moon to deal with the most troublesome problem. But now, looking at things, everything seemed to be going very well.
'Kakashi and his father Hatake Sakumo have already reconciled. Nohara Rin apparently still feels a bit out of place, and as for the Namikaze couple—they're the simplest.'
The chakra that couple had left inside Naruto allowed them to seamlessly integrate into everything happening now.
It really spared everyone a lot of trouble—especially Naruto.
This way, there would be no sense of emotional discontinuity, and those three years of feelings wouldn't simply disappear.
Of course, it also spared Kitagawa Gen a great deal of trouble!
'The more people like this there are, the easier it is for me to slack off…'
Kitagawa Gen had long decided that he would become Konohagakure's "Supreme Emperor," so naturally, he needed plenty of capable ministers and fierce generals under him.
Otherwise, if no one was there to handle things for him, wouldn't he end up becoming the actual Third Hokage?
The more powerhouses there were, the more comfortable he would be!
But soon, he seemed to remember something and turned his head toward the two who were still "spouting insults" at each other.
"You two, cut it out for a moment. Sasuke, how are your eyes now?"
"Idiot."
Sasuke shot Naruto a fierce glare, then instantly turned respectful when he faced Kitagawa Gen.
"Lady Tsunade said a simple eye replacement can begin anytime, but the specific procedure still needs to be figured out, so…"
"I see. Understood."
Kitagawa Gen could only nod when he heard this. After all, he still had a mission to complete involving Sasuke.
The eye issue was indeed troublesome—there was far too little information.
But now, he suddenly realized that he might be able to consult someone else…
"So you have indeed integrated into this world and started living together with these people."
As he was thinking, a cold voice echoed through his mind—and that person was Kaguya.
Kitagawa Gen had said he could bring out a portion of her chakra, allowing her to properly observe this world.
Although she still didn't fully trust Kitagawa Gen, whether because she had been sealed for too long or because she wanted to verify his words—
In the end, she made her decision: she would come out and take a look.
Right now, her chakra was hidden within Kitagawa Gen's body, in a situation somewhat similar to Naruto's from back then.
Except everything was entirely under Kitagawa Gen's control. He wasn't about to bring a "living ancestor" into his body to torment himself.
"What's wrong with it? Humans are social creatures. They need all kinds of emotional bonds."
Hearing her voice, Kitagawa Gen replied with a smile.
"Forget that—for now I have something to ask you. Do you know how to handle this kid's eyes?"
"With only half the power remaining, you still need to ask me how to deal with it?"
Kaguya remained icy cold. Her gaze followed Kitagawa Gen's line of sight, locking onto Sasuke and Naruto. Only after a long moment did she speak coldly again.
"No wonder I felt something familiar. So that's the reason."
"Mm?"
Kitagawa Gen froze for a moment, but before he could speak, Kaguya's cold voice rang out again.
"So I still underestimated Hagoromo's cruelty!"
"?"
"I originally thought that after Indra and Asura went to the Pure Land, only their descendants continued to fight endlessly."
"…"
"But I didn't expect he wouldn't even give his own two sons a chance to rest in the Pure Land—he actually had them reincarnate again and again to continue fighting!"
"…"
"Hagoromo… you are truly ruthless."
"Hiss—"
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