It's over.
Black Zetsu's mind went blank with despair. No chance of saving Mother now.
Ōtsutsuki Toneri stood before them, a member of the branch family who'd survived the internal clan war. With him guarding the moon, breaking Mother's seal would be impossible.
As a human ninja, how could Naruto possibly match someone from the Ōtsutsuki clan? The gap was insurmountable. Absolute. Final.
"The scent of a mole." Toneri's voice carried cold amusement as his gaze settled on Black Zetsu. "So it's you. I wondered why I kept sensing someone hiding on the moon these past years, yet could never locate the source. But no matter. Now that you've revealed yourself, you can die."
His eyes held the temperature of deep space—distant, uncaring, absolute.
For years, Toneri had lived alone in the lunar castle. Ever since the branch and main families destroyed each other over ideological differences, he'd been the sole survivor. Just him and the golem in the castle's depths.
Only once in the past decade had he left the moon, descending to the shinobi world. He'd fallen in love with a pair of eyes—pure white, perfect Byakugan. He'd been waiting for their owner to mature before capturing her, bringing her to the moon, and claiming those eyes for himself.
Her body could serve another purpose: bearing offspring to continue the Ōtsutsuki bloodline. The clan's legacy couldn't be allowed to die.
Today, while resting in the castle, he'd sensed thick chakra suddenly appearing on the lunar surface. Toneri had immediately investigated.
And found humans. Trespassing. On his moon.
Humans were nothing but livestock to the Ōtsutsuki clan. Cattle allowed to graze in the shinobi world until harvest time came.
"I'm also from the Ōtsutsuki family!" Black Zetsu's voice rose with indignation at being called a mole. He drew himself up as much as his small form allowed. "I'm Kaguya's son! That makes me Ōtsutsuki too!"
"Hmph." Toneri's contempt was palpable. "Members of the Ōtsutsuki clan are not that dark. Nor that ugly. Whatever you are, you're certainly not one of us."
Black Zetsu's entire body trembled with rage.
While they argued, Naruto studied Toneri carefully. He knew the Ōtsutsuki clan's history from the other timeline—how they'd come to the shinobi world to plant the Divine Tree and harvest chakra fruit. How they'd seeded the ability to use chakra among humans for their own purposes.
In that world, Sasuke and Naruto had cut down the sacred tree, suppressed Kaguya, and ended the clan's conspiracy.
But in this world, everything had changed because of his influence. The Ten-Tails wouldn't manifest. The Divine Tree wouldn't sprout. The shinobi of this world would never fall under the Ōtsutsuki clan's manipulation again.
"You're Ōtsutsuki Toneri?" Naruto stepped forward, positioning himself between Black Zetsu and the pale-haired alien.
"Human insects who dare step on the moon are doomed to die." Toneri didn't answer the question, his tone suggesting Naruto's words weren't worth acknowledging.
Naruto didn't care about the dismissal. He looked at Toneri with genuine curiosity. "The Ōtsutsuki Clan... now that I think about it, I haven't become friends with anyone from your family yet. Would you like to be the first? Be my friend?"
The offer hung in the lunar atmosphere.
Toneri's expression shifted to something approaching pity. He regarded Naruto the way a human might regard an ant attempting conversation. "Hmph. Humans are not worthy of friendship with the Ōtsutsuki clan."
His voice carried absolute certainty. "We are gods. Deities. We do not befriend people. Just as humans do not become friends with cattle or sheep."
Relief washed through Naruto's chest, a weight he hadn't realized he'd been carrying suddenly lifting. "Thank you for rejecting me. If you'd agreed, I wouldn't have had the heart to do this to a friend."
He cracked his knuckles, golden light beginning to flicker along his skin. "Actually, I didn't want to be friends with you anyway. I don't like your eyes very much."
Then he moved.
One moment standing ten meters away. The next, directly in Toneri's face, fist already in motion.
"Seeking death." Toneri's voice remained calm. Foolish human. Attacking with taijutsu? Does he not know the Ōtsutsuki clan possesses the hardest bodies in existence?
He probably didn't. Humans in the shinobi world lacked even the qualifications to learn about the Ōtsutsuki. Their ignorance was complete.
I won't even need techniques. I'll meet his fist with mine and show him the difference between gods and insects.
Toneri's fist rose to intercept Naruto's strike.
The two fists met.
Toneri's expression shattered.
The instant their knuckles connected, brilliant golden light erupted from Naruto's hand. Then came the sensation—bones in Toneri's fingers breaking, fracturing under pressure that shouldn't exist, couldn't exist.
WHAM. WHAM. WHAM.
Fists. Feet. Shoulders. Elbows. Knees. Headbutts. Every part of Naruto's body became a weapon, a blur of golden-lit violence that gave Toneri no space to retreat, no opening to counter.
Personal combat. Close-quarters brutality.
Toneri tried to disengage, to create distance and use his techniques. Naruto wouldn't allow it. Every attempt to retreat met with hands grabbing his clothes, yanking him back into range. Forced into hand-to-hand combat against an opponent whose body seemed made of divine metal.
Each contact point sent agony shooting through Toneri's nervous system. Fists like hammers. Feet like axes. Even Naruto's chest muscles seemed to flex and strike independently.
"Why is your body so hard?!" Toneri's face contorted with pain and disbelief. "I'm Ōtsutsuki! My body should be—"
CRACK. Naruto's knee found his ribs.
As a member of the Ōtsutsuki clan, Toneri possessed god-like regeneration. Without it, he'd have died from accumulated damage already. But regeneration couldn't keep pace with destruction. His body was falling apart faster than it could repair.
Worse, this blonde monster fought with his entire body. Chest muscles would flex and strike like fists. Back muscles would ripple and slam like clubs. Even his hair—that absurdly long golden hair—would whip around and lash Toneri's face, leaving burning welts.
Naruto had transformed himself into a living weapon, every inch of his form capable of delivering devastating force. He stuck close, never allowing separation, beating Toneri backward step by step.
Shockwaves from their collisions sent lunar dust billowing. The moon's already cratered surface gained fresh wounds, pockmarks spreading from the impact site like disease.
Black Zetsu watched, jaw hanging open.
Naruto glowed like a miniature sun, golden radiance pouring from his skin. Toneri—proud Ōtsutsuki descendant—was being beaten like a training dummy.
Is it real? The stories in those books Kurama wrote? Did Naruto actually transform into the sun and fight gods?
At this moment, Black Zetsu couldn't help believing.
Four years. It had only been four years since they'd last fought together. And Naruto's strength had increased beyond comprehension.
The worry in Black Zetsu's heart evaporated. Toneri could no longer prevent Mother's rescue. Mother would be freed.
Though even if Toneri is being crushed, he still couldn't match Mother. The thought comforted him. No matter what grievances I have with her, Mother is invincible.
"Tell me," Naruto growled between strikes, "why did you try to steal my wife?!"
WHAM.
"I didn't steal your wife!" Toneri's protest emerged through a mouthful of blood. What kind of monster is this? "I haven't even taken those eyes yet! I'm still waiting for her to—"
"Don't lie to me!" Another devastating combination. "Those are Hinata's eyes you're after!"
"I never—I've been in the lunar castle! I haven't stolen anyone!"
"Liar! Say you won't steal my wife!"
"I REALLY DIDN'T STEAL YOUR WIFE!"
Golden light flared in Toneri's vision. Then everything went dark.
Under Naruto's final punch, Ōtsutsuki Toneri's body shattered completely. Fragments scattered across the lunar surface like grotesque confetti, each piece glowing faintly with residual chakra before fading.
Black Zetsu hurried to Naruto's side as the last pieces settled. "Naruto, Toneri's dead. Let's save Mother now."
Naruto watched the body fragments fall, expression thoughtful. "He said he really didn't steal my wife. Was he lying?"
Black Zetsu's eye twitched. "Naruto, you're not even married yet. How do you have a wife to steal?"
"Oh." Naruto considered this. "You're right, Black Zetsu. Toneri really didn't steal my wife. I misunderstood him." He looked genuinely regretful. "If he were still alive, I'd apologize."
"He's dead," Black Zetsu said flatly.
"Yes. Dead." Naruto's voice carried philosophical weight. "There are only two types of people in this world."
Despite his urgency to free Mother, Black Zetsu couldn't resist asking. "Two types? Which two?"
Naruto's blue eyes met his directly. "One type is my friend. The other type is dead."
Black Zetsu opened his mouth, then closed it. No response seemed adequate.
After a pause, worry crept into his voice. "Naruto... you said you want to be friends with Mother, right?"
"Right."
"So if Mother refuses to become your friend... will you kill her like you killed Toneri?"
"No." Naruto's certainty was absolute. "Your mother will become friends with me."
"Why?" Black Zetsu couldn't help his skeptical tone.
"Because sincerity opens all doors." Naruto smiled. "Come on, Black Zetsu. Time to rescue your mother."
He grabbed Black Zetsu, and they shot into the lunar sky. Within seconds, the entire moon spread beneath Naruto's feet, a grey sphere hanging in the void.
"Naruto, how exactly are you rescuing Mother?" Black Zetsu had been trying to get this answer for years. "You never explained your method."
"I'm going to blow away the moon and the seal."
"Blow it away?" Black Zetsu's voice rose. "How?!"
"Stand back."
Black Zetsu immediately retreated several hundred meters. He wanted to witness whatever impossible thing Naruto planned to attempt.
Once Black Zetsu cleared the area, Naruto's Indestructible Body Form activated at full power. His figure expanded rapidly, golden light intensifying until it hurt to look at directly.
In one breath, a thousand-meter-tall golden giant stood above the moon.
"This is..." Black Zetsu's words died. His mind simply couldn't process the scale.
"THOUSAND BUDDHAS ASCEND TO HEAVEN!"
The golden giant's fist moved.
Reality itself seemed to crack like glass around the punch's trajectory. Space fractured, shattered, reformed. The fist descended toward the lunar surface with force sufficient to penetrate the entire celestial body.
The moon screamed.
Not metaphorically. The entire satellite vibrated with such violence that it produced sound—a deep, grinding roar that emanated from the core and radiated outward in concentric waves.
Not just the surface. The interior shook too, every cavern and chamber experiencing the catastrophic force.
Deep within the moon's center, in a tiny pocket dimension, a stone bed occupied the only space. Upon that bed lay a woman with delicate features and impossibly long white hair.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Black Zetsu's mother.
The moment Naruto's golden fist struck the moon, the vibration woke her. Her eyes—one Byakugan, one Rinne Sharingan—opened after centuries of slumber. The seal's power fluctuated wildly, weakening under the assault.
Is it my child? Has someone come to rescue me?
She sensed the seal's integrity failing, barriers that had held for a millennium beginning to crack.
"Yes." Joy flooded her voice despite no one being present to hear. "My child is coming. After a thousand years of loneliness, I can finally leave this prison."
At the beginning of her imprisonment, Kaguya hadn't experienced true loneliness. Her son Hamura had remained behind to guard her, and while he was one of those who'd sealed her, having someone to talk to had made the isolation bearable.
Even an enemy's company was better than none.
But Hamura hadn't stayed long. Eventually, Kaguya had been left alone. Completely alone. Guarding this simple space, enduring solitude that stretched across centuries.
Boredom had driven her to sleep for longer and longer periods, hoping her sons would eventually rescue her from this fate.
And now it seemed they had.
Kaguya's heart raced with excitement.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped wide. In her chakra sense, the seal collapsed. Just... disintegrated entirely under overwhelming force.
But the next instant, alarm replaced joy.
A golden fist punched through the moon, passing completely through the satellite's mass and entering her pocket dimension. Heading straight for her position.
My son came to rescue me. So why does this look like an assassination attempt?!
The fist's power was terrifying, unlike anything she'd sensed in a thousand years. She didn't dare underestimate it.
"Yomotsu Hirasaka!"
Her technique activated instantly, tearing open a portal to Earth's atmosphere. She fled through it just as the golden fist obliterated the space she'd occupied microseconds earlier.
Black Zetsu watched Naruto's punch penetrate completely through the moon, emerging from the opposite side with a spray of pulverized rock.
Mother won't be dead from that punch, right? No, Mother is the strongest being in existence. Nothing can hurt her.
He repeated it like a mantra.
Then, in the space before him, a dimensional portal opened. A woman stepped through—tall, pale-skinned, with horns protruding from her forehead and that distinctive third eye blazing red on her brow.
"MOTHER!"
Black Zetsu's entire body trembled. His voice cracked. He launched himself toward her, desperate to reach the arms he'd been separated from for a thousand years.
For this moment, he'd endured millennia of scheming, manipulation, loneliness. Only Black Zetsu knew the full depth of his suffering. The twists and turns, the failures and near-misses, the endless patience required.
And now Mother was free!
Kaguya emerged fully from the portal. The first thing she saw was a thousand-meter golden giant, still crouched in the punching position, fist extended toward where the moon now had a massive hole punched completely through it.
The second thing she registered was Black Zetsu screaming "Mother!" and flying toward her for an embrace.
Her eyes flickered with barely perceptible distaste. Her hand rose—not to welcome him, but to stop his approach with a gentle palm.
Black Zetsu froze mid-flight, hurt flashing across his dark features.
Then a voice rang out, clear and enthusiastic.
"Ōtsutsuki Kaguya! Let's be friends!"