The White Snake Sage saw countless parallel worlds.
At the same time, it once again saw the path leading to "Infinite Tsukuyomi." Just like last time, nothing had changed. The answer was still, make a move against Ryosuke.
As long as it attacked Ryosuke and fought with the intent to kill him, it could reach the beautiful ending of Infinite Tsukuyomi.
"Obito!"
The White Snake Sage abruptly pulled itself out of its chaotic state.
It looked forward. Inside the glass nutrient tank that had housed Amenominakanushi, there was nothing left. It seemed the research institute had used some unknown method to transfer it away.
However, with the locator, Uchiha Itachi, right beside it, the White Snake Sage wasn't worried. Without overthinking, it immediately contacted Obito, trying to pass on the crucial intelligence, "Attack Ryosuke! Kill him, and your Infinite Tsukuyomi can be realized!"
"But you must be careful. Ryosuke will kill you first. You need to hide behind Otsutsuki Kinshiki… Hey! Did you hear me?"
The White Snake Sage roared in the soul-communication channel.
There was no reply.
Obito didn't respond.
Yakushi Kabuto didn't either.
A full three seconds passed before the White Snake Sage finally heard Obito's broken, intermittent voice, "I… Tsukuyomi… Ryosuke…"
'Was the soul-link communication being interfered with?!'
'How was that possible!'
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Behind them, heavy metal walls fell one after another, sealing off every retreat.
From the overhead broadcast came sharp "Beep! Beep!" alarm sounds, and a cold, mechanical female voice followed, "Self-destruct sequence activated. Explosion expected in ten seconds."
Hearing this, the White Snake Sage panicked instantly and hurriedly ordered everyone to set up defenses.
"Ten...!"
BOOM!
There was no countdown at all. The explosion's firelight erupted immediately.
The so-called countdown existed only to make these people actively choose to form hand seals and cast defensive ninjutsu, instead of using instantaneous defensive methods.
This was, naturally, a small trick from the weapons research department.
Endless explosions.
By the end, even the surrounding walls shattered and melted under the blast waves. Only then, under the dual protection of Susanoo and the Wood Golem Buddha, did everyone burst out of the sealed central machine room.
The moment they got out, the White Snake Sage felt something was wrong.
Gravity… felt lighter?
The group exchanged looks and turned toward the shattered wall ahead. Through the holes, they saw a massive azure planet slowly rotating in the distance.
Outside the hole, the ground was covered in battered meteor craters, along with deep ravines left behind from Ryosuke's battle with Otsutsuki Toneri.
"We've been sent to the Moon, three hundred eighty thousand kilometers away!"
This was the strategy Ryosuke and the research institute had planned.
Inside the institute, there was a direct teleportation gate to the Moon. Because the lunar gate was an original Hamura model, the physical sensation of teleportation was extremely faint.
Using Amenominakanushi as bait, with artillery fire and the chakra chaos inside the institute as cover, they lured the White Snake Sage and the strongest Edo Tensei army to a fixed position for teleportation.
As for Amenominakanushi earlier, the nutrient solution it was soaking in was not within the teleportation zone. To the White Snake Sage, it looked as though it had vanished into thin air.
In reality, the ones who vanished were them.
This method was used mainly because the combination of the White Snake Sage plus the Edo Tensei army was simply too troublesome.
Against these resurrected elite ninjas, artillery fire wasn't very effective.
Throwing the Edo Tensei army into Ryosuke and the Otsutsuki battlefield might not amount to much.
But if the White Snake Sage noticed Obito, Momoshiki, and the others falling into a disadvantage and got crooked ideas, leading the Edo Tensei army to attack Kyoto or Kirigakure, slaughtering recklessly to try to shake Ryosuke's resolve…
That would be a huge problem.
Since Ryosuke didn't have the time to deal with them for the moment, and no one else could either, he decided to just toss them onto the Moon and shut the gate.
After dealing with the Otsutsuki clan and Obito, he would then come back to deal with the White Snake Sage's Edo Tensei army.
"This is bad, this is bad!"
The White Snake Sage stared blankly into the vast starry sky.
Relying on Obito, Yakushi Kabuto, and the remaining Edo Tensei army to defeat Ryosuke and the Otsutsuki at the same time was far too slim a hope. It had to return to provide support immediately.
But a distance of three hundred eighty thousand kilometers was the greatest chasm in the world.
Without solving this problem, the White Snake Sage would be trapped on the Moon, only able to watch helplessly as the war spiraled out of control.
No, before solving that problem, it still had an even more urgent issue to face, that distance not only made the soul-link intermittent, it also turned the dual-core control of Edo Tensei into a single-core system maintained solely by the White Snake Sage.
Which meant, a hand reached out, tightly grabbing the White Snake Sage by the neck and smashing it heavily against the glass, cracking it with dense fissures.
Uchiha Madara's emotionless voice sounded by its ear, "Ordering me around… makes you feel happy?"
"Then next, it's my turn to be happy, right?"
———
Ryosuke glanced at the tiny point of light that had shone in the azure sky for a full minute.
The detonation device on the Moon had been activated.
That meant the plan to contain the White Snake Sage was complete. He could now focus on dealing with the enemies here, without worrying about them going berserk and sneaking attacks on the home front.
Woo~ Woo~
A deep, muffled sound came from the sky, like a steam train traveling through the air.
The signal was three long, one short, this was the code Ryosuke and Sasuke had agreed on before the operation began.
Sasuke was asking, "Otsutsuki Momoshiki has appeared. Should he act?"
If Momoshiki was the nemesis of all energy-based attacks, then Sasuke was Momoshiki's nemesis.
Ryosuke gave a slight nod and quietly raised three fingers behind his back, signaling him to prepare and wait for his cue.
The Sky Fortress.
Seeing Ryosuke's response, Sasuke sat cross-legged, resting his straight longsword across his knees. His tense mindset gradually relaxed, ensuring that at the most critical moment, he could deliver the decisive strike.
———
[The Ground Battlefield]
Obito, Momoshiki, and Kinshiki were fighting Ryosuke together.
No matter how arrogant or foolish Momoshiki was, after witnessing Ryosuke casually form a black hole with his hands and exile Isshiki, he understood exactly what level of opponent he was facing.
Similar to the previous exchange.
Obito provided fire support and charged Momoshiki.
Momoshiki handled the main output.
Kinshiki served as the team's tank, supporting whoever needed it.
A very complete team composition, with everyone fulfilling their role.
Though the three each had personality flaws, in terms of combat experience, they were all battle-hardened experts.
For a moment, the three cooperated seamlessly, like teammates who had fought together for years, that was, if one ignored the desire-filled look in Momoshiki's eyes.
He really wanted to refine Obito into a pill and eat him.
Obito glanced at Momoshiki, then turned to look at Ryosuke, shuddering for no reason, with a strange feeling that he had already died once at Ryosuke's hands.
Thinking of that, Obito stopped hesitating. He spread his arms, and his body suddenly expanded.
The mountain-sized Ten-Tails appeared, crashing down onto the ground, with Obito hiding within its body.
Obito was using the Ten-Tails' massive body as a shield, to avoid being instantly killed by Ryosuke.
It wasn't that he had heard the White Snake Sage's warning. At a distance of three hundred eighty thousand kilometers, the information from the White Snake Sage was fragmented, he only heard a single word, "Hit."
Obito was afraid of Cavalry Rotation.
A black hole appearing beside him… Obito didn't know whether Otsutsuki Isshiki could withstand it.
But he was pretty sure he couldn't.
If, at the final step to success, he got smashed to death by an iron ball, Obito wouldn't rest in peace even in death.
Anyway, his job was just to be a good power bank.
In that case, a Tailed Beast Ball in the Ten-Tails state was actually more suitable.
What mattered was staying alive.
The bold confidence he had shown when admiring his heroic figure in the lake on the way to the battlefield vanished completely within minutes. Obito returned to his comfort zone, cowering in the back, letting his teammates charge ahead, acting as a qualified rat.
In this regard, Obito was an expert.
Ryosuke clenched his fist as he looked at Obito hiding inside the Ten-Tails.
So far, seriously injuring and driving away Isshiki, kicking the White Snake Sage out of the battle, and forcing Obito to value his life and retreat to the rear, all of it was proceeding according to the pre-battle plan.
In the first round, Ryosuke had killed Obito first.
But in this round, Obito was the bargaining chip to resurrect Kaguya.
Ryosuke couldn't kill him first. Not only that, he had to keep him alive, to prevent Momoshiki from draining him dry.
Now that Isshiki had been swallowed by the black hole, Ryosuke still hadn't heard the system notification. That meant this legendary "hard-to-kill king" wasn't dead yet.
Of course, with the remaining life energy he had, even if he wasn't dead, Ryosuke estimated Isshiki wouldn't last much longer, unless, after a thousand years of failing to find a suitable reincarnation vessel, he suddenly found one right before entering the coffin.
In this world, could there really be such a coincidence?
If there really was…
Ryosuke thought of the probability calculated by the Sage, "Plan A, Nearly impossible to achieve."
Ryosuke's gaze was firm. "If such a coincidence really exists, I'll accept it."
If he could kill him once, he could kill him a second time.
All these thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, and Ryosuke's gaze locked onto Otsutsuki Kinshiki.
"If I kill Momoshiki, Kinshiki will fight desperately to save him."
"But if I kill Kinshiki, and saving him is risky, Momoshiki… will absolutely not risk his life to save him."
To put it plainly, Momoshiki treated Kinshiki as his slave, a dog kept by his side.
This was shown vividly in the original story. During Momoshiki and Kinshiki's battle with Naruto and Sasuke, when Momoshiki realized he couldn't win, with their mobility, he had a chance to escape.
Flee beyond the ninja world, into the vast universe, where no one could chase him.
But Momoshiki, in order to plant the Divine Tree in the ninja world and to vent his rage through killing, chose to devour Kinshiki, who had accompanied him for hundreds, even thousands of years.
Such behavior was treating Kinshiki as expendable material, and Kinshiki himself accepted it gladly.
Since that was the case, Ryosuke would grant this pair of ill-fated lovers their ending.
In the brief span of thought, the four had already gone through dozens more exchanges.
Ryosuke kicked Momoshiki away, then turned and pointed at a flying Tailed Beast Ball.
BOOM!
A laser cannon descended from the Sky Fortress and detonated the Tailed Beast Ball in midair.
"Damn it!"
Obito cursed loudly, about to control the Ten-Tails to attack again, when his expression suddenly changed the next second.
He saw Ryosuke raise his hand in a grasping motion. Countless crystal-clear fragments flew over, gathering in his palm to form a rein, and below it appeared a re-summoned diamond horse.
The sound of hooves rang out, like death knocking at the door.
Momoshiki and the others hurriedly launched their offensive. They didn't understand the "Golden Rectangle," but they had seen this move before. They knew that for Ryosuke to fire the iron ball that created a black hole, the horse had to run for a while.
"Absolutely cannot let it start running!"
Kinshiki entered his "God-Chasing" state, transforming into a bolt of lightning and charging at Ryosuke first. On the other side, Obito once again charged Momoshiki, while Momoshiki spread his hands and released thousands of energy blasts.
Time seemed to stretch. Ryosuke looked at the charging Kinshiki with calm eyes, not caring in the slightest that the crimson giant axe was about to fall.
No signal was needed, and no prior coordination.
"Now."
A longsword radiating pure white light suddenly left its sheath, like a line drawn by a Sage, cutting downward from above and dividing the world into two parts.
One part, overflowing with ninjutsu, dreamlike and illusory.
The other, returning to silence, peaceful and serene.
All of Momoshiki's attacks were erased.
At the same time...
"Civil War."
Countless dead appeared out of thin air and pounced onto Kinshiki.
He prided himself on the strength of his physical body and didn't care at all. He even swung his battle axe faster, intending to seriously injure Ryosuke first.
From a tactical standpoint, ignoring feints or weaker attacks and leveraging one's superior defense was a perfectly sound choice.
The problem was the white snake.
Zzz!
Two discs popped out of Kinshiki, at what seemed to them an extremely "slow" speed.
The giant axe stopped, suspended in midair.
Momoshiki still didn't understand what had happened, but Obito saw it clearly.
'The white snake?!'
Wasn't it said that after Ryosuke obtained the gravity-controlling Stand (C-Moon), he never used the white snake again?
In Obito's intelligence, losing White Snake was the condition for obtaining New Moon.
He didn't have time to think. He immediately shouted at Momoshiki, "Don't let Ryosuke pull the discs!"
"Hurry and save him!"
Hiding within the Ten-Tails' body gave Obito defense, but at the cost of mobility. He could only rely on Momoshiki to save Kinshiki.
Although Sasuke's ninjutsu nullification had temporarily sealed Momoshiki's energy attacks, Momoshiki's taijutsu was still at the Otsutsuki level.
'Delaying for even a fraction of a second would be enough,' Obito's thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
Because he saw the iron ball spinning in Ryosuke's palm fly toward Momoshiki.
"It's over."
Obito's scalp went numb.
He didn't know whether this strike was Cavalry Rotation or just a normal rotation.
But Obito knew one thing, he didn't know, and Momoshiki didn't know either.
And judging by Momoshiki's previous behavior…
"That idiot will absolutely not take even the slightest risk to save Kinshiki!"
Click!
The discs were successfully pulled out.
Ryosuke pinched the two discs and tossed them into the Ghost Room.
Then he picked up the Great Destruction Blade, placed his left hand lightly on top of Kinshiki's head, and pressed down gently.
BOOM!
Kinshiki's burly body uncontrollably dropped to both knees. The ground trembled. Ryosuke kept his gaze fixed on Momoshiki, and then, he chopped off Kinshiki's head in a single strike.
The head fell to the ground, Kinshiki's eyes wide open.
He had lost his memories, lost his consciousness, and only by relying on his final obsession did he stare straight at Momoshiki and speak his last words, "Run… my lord, run…"
With that, there was no longer any light in his eyes.
Otsutsuki Kinshiki, completely dead.
Ryosuke didn't spare Kinshiki a second glance. Stepping over his corpse, he flicked his longsword. Blood splashed across the ground, and after the blade spun once, it pointed straight at Momoshiki, "Continue."