The moment that voice cracked through the ruins, the altar's light twisted in on itself.
Chakra surged.
Not the human kind — this was the sort that felt like it had been siphoned from the birth of the world.
A figure congealed from the radiance, bones first, then flesh, then robes woven from pure chakra.
Long horns curved from each side of his forehead.
A third eye glowed on his brow — rippled, purple, hungry.
An Ōtsutsuki.
His feet didn't even bother touching the ground.
He hovered above the altar, looking down at Raizen the way nobles look at a stain on their silk.
"Pathetic. A creature without Ōtsutsuki blood, yet you wield Rinnegan and Byakugan? Ridiculous."
His tone dripped with offense, as if Raizen had personally insulted his ancestors by daring to exist.
"Kaguya-hime… that thieving woman stole the Divine Tree's power."
He sneered, speaking like Raizen was furniture.
"No matter. I've arrived. Its power belongs to me now."
Raizen's jaw clenched.
The man wasn't just arrogant — he was unstable. His chakra flowed wrong, like a stolen password being forced into the wrong lock.
"So the puppets were your doing," Raizen thought.
"You drained shinobi dry to patch your own chakra."
The Ōtsutsuki shifted his gaze from the altar back to Raizen.
"Rubbish like you—kneel and kill yourself."
Raizen cracked his neck.
"Do all you space-Vikings talk like idiots, or is it just you?"
For a heartbeat, the Ōtsutsuki froze. Then fury twisted his face.
He didn't know what "idiot" meant, but he knew it wasn't praise.
"Insolent filth!"
A black staff snapped into existence in his hand.
"Kneel before godhood!"
Raizen's stomach tightened.
A Truth-Seeking staff.
Fantastic.
The Ōtsutsuki vanished — space bending around his movement — and reappeared right in front of Raizen, staff already swinging at his skull.
Raizen extended his palm.
"Shinra Tensei."
A pulse of gravitational force exploded outward.
BOOM.
The staff flew from the Ōtsutsuki's grip.
His body slammed backward through the air.
He caught himself mid-fall, glaring.
Then he smiled.
Greedy.
Starving.
"Power like that… once I consume you, it will be mine!"
His robes began to lift around him, fluttering despite the dead-still air.
Chakra built beneath his skin, swelling, screaming, cracking the space around him.
Then—
He shot upward, blasting straight through the shrine roof.
Snow, ice, and stone erupted skyward.
Raizen grumbled under his breath.
"Great. Now we're fighting in the open. Hate this arc already."
He levitated after the Ōtsutsuki, rising until they were face-to-face in the frozen sky.
The Ōtsutsuki spread his arms as his chakra stormed outward, shaking the horizon itself.
Raizen felt the air vibrate.
This wasn't just raw power — it was the kind of pressure the Nine Tails gave off when enraged.
Far away, two signatures responded.
Senju Hashirama.
Uchiha Madara.
They both felt the chakra spike even before reaching the snowfields.
Hashirama increased his speed immediately.
Madara grinned like a man who'd found his favorite kind of trouble.
But Raizen didn't have time to worry about either of them — not with the thing floating in front of him.
The Ōtsutsuki tremor stopped.
His presence sharpened.
He reached for the fallen black staff — it shot into his hand like iron drawn to a magnet.
"Understand this, human."
His voice had changed — no longer mocking, no longer emotional.
Cold.
Measured.
Final.
"Every use of my full power drains my lifespan. I avoid it because it brings me closer to death."
He raised the staff.
The air bent around it.
"But for you, I will make an exception."
The Ōtsutsuki's eyes — all three — focused entirely on Raizen.
And this time, the arrogance was gone.
What replaced it was infinitely worse:
A quiet, unshakeable certainty.
An existence that believed it was born above all things.
Raizen felt the truth like cold water poured down his spine:
This wasn't a tantrum anymore.
This was a god preparing to kill.