Faced with Otsutsuki Momoshiki's natural-disaster-like attack, the Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, stepped forward to protect everyone, just like the Hokage before him.
Whether it was the Third Hokage's final battle driving back Orochimaru, the Fourth Hokage's final battle sealing the Nine-Tails, or Hatake Kakashi dying in battle for Konoha to protect the next generation, that principle had never changed.
And Uzumaki Naruto, who at this stage was still a junior everyone felt they needed to protect, had already become someone who, decades later, could step forward in the same way, inherit the Will of Fire, and protect the entire village.
In the video, Uzumaki Boruto seemed to finally understand what kind of person his father truly was for the first time. He put on the old clothes that had belonged to his father as a child, the ones he had once thrown away, and looked into the mirror. "I really am trash."
"You're not wrong about that."
At that moment, the middle-aged Sasuke appeared and said, "During the exam, everyone blamed you. Your Forehead Protector was taken away too. Right now, you can no longer be called a ninja."
"On top of that, you made your little sister cry, your mom got hurt, and your dad is missing. If your sister didn't still love you, and your mom wasn't still worried about you, you'd be just like your father used to be."
Uchiha Sasuke slowly walked up behind Uzumaki Boruto. Looking at him through the mirror, he spoke with cold, merciless sharpness.
"So, what are you going to do?" Uchiha Sasuke asked, looking at Uzumaki Boruto's lowered head in the mirror.
Hearing that question, Uzumaki Boruto turned around. He looked at Uchiha Sasuke and asked, "Dad… what did Dad do?"
"Looks like you're not only interested in his weaknesses anymore." Uchiha Sasuke finally showed the faintest hint of a smile and teased him. "Go ask him yourself. I'm going to rescue him. I can still sense his Chakra. That means he's still alive."
Hearing Uchiha Sasuke's words, Uzumaki Boruto asked in a low voice, "Uncle Sasuke, why are you still bothering with someone like me?"
"Because you're actually a very powerful ninja. I lost to him, but you can surpass him."
Uchiha Sasuke gave an answer no one expected.
Even the young Uchiha Sasuke watching the diary was stunned. Why did his future self look so completely lacking in ambition? Even if his current self had been moved by Naruto's willingness to step forward, there was still no reason to just admit he was inferior to Uzumaki Naruto.
How spineless.
"Why would you say that?" Uzumaki Boruto asked.
"Because you're his son, and you're my student, aren't you? Besides, right now, you look more like a Dead Last than he ever did," Uchiha Sasuke said.
"Dead Last? What does that mean?"
"It means someone who refuses to give up."
A faint smile appeared on Uchiha Sasuke's face.
There was no doubt that, to the middle-aged Uchiha Sasuke, even though he was still saying Dead Last, it had clearly become a completely different evaluation from when he had called Uzumaki Naruto the Dead Last in their youth.
At that moment, the remaining members of the Five Kage had also gathered, preparing to join the operation to rescue Uzumaki Naruto.
"The Five Kage can actually work together this unitedly?"
Jiraiya found it hard to believe. He had lived through the era of war, so he understood better than most the grudges, hatred, and slaughter between villages.
That was exactly why he had always hoped that one day, people could reach a world where everyone understood and helped one another.
But even he had only thought of it as an ideal. In reality, it was basically impossible. Ordinary people could not even forgive each other over petty little things, let alone understand each other when it came to major conflicts.
But now, what the video showed gave him a brand-new kind of hope. Perhaps even decades into the future, it would still be impossible for every person to fully understand one another.
But it was already possible for the Kage of the five villages to understand one another. The Kage of four villages were even willing to risk themselves to rescue the Hokage. In the present, that was completely unimaginable.
In other words, although it was still far from the heavenly ideal he had dreamed of, a future of mutual understanding had already begun to reveal itself.
"Child of Prophecy, huh? Looks like believing in the wisdom of the next generation really wasn't wrong."
Jiraiya scratched the back of his head and burst into laughter.
The previous generation: believe in the wisdom of those who come after us!
The next generation: damn, the old guys guessed right!
"So these are the Five Kage of the future?"
Hatake Kakashi silently memorized the remaining Kage from the other villages. Being able to know the future Kage of other villages in advance was itself intelligence of tremendous strategic value.
With a great battle imminent, Uzumaki Boruto tied on the Ninja Headband in front of his mother. For an instant, Hyuga Hinata saw Uzumaki Naruto from back then in him, as though the Naruto of the past had appeared again.
Everyone felt their blood starting to heat up despite themselves.
"As expected of my grandson."
Namikaze Minato grinned faintly. Boruto had made mistakes, but his courage was commendable.
At that moment, the scene shifted. They had arrived before a giant tree. Uzumaki Naruto was bound to it by its branches, and Otsutsuki Momoshiki was slowly drawing the Nine-Tails' Chakra out of his body.
Uzumaki Naruto kept letting out pained screams. Just hearing them made everyone's hearts tighten.
"This is taking far too long."
Otsutsuki Momoshiki spoke with impatience. So much time had passed, yet he still had not stripped the Nine-Tails out. He was beginning to grow irritated.
Perhaps he had never encountered such a troublesome opponent before.
The natives on the planets he had visited in the past had never been his match either, but the Shinobi World was the most special of them all. The ninja who trained in the Shinobi World were, in essence, practitioners of the same system as the Otsutsuki.
Their power system was simply far inferior.
"Sorry about that. You should understand, we ninja don't die that easily." Uzumaki Naruto panted, but his voice remained firm.
At that moment, the rescue team from Konoha had already arrived. They instantly forced the two Otsutsuki back and saved Uzumaki Naruto.
"Don't think you can get away from us."
Gaara spoke.
"Mortals!"
Otsutsuki Momoshiki coldly opened the Rinnegan in his palm.
Uzumaki Naruto looked at Uzumaki Boruto, who had appeared wearing his childhood clothes, and could not help teasing him. It was like looking at one of his own shadow clones.
The same hair color, the same whisker marks on his face, the same clear blue eyes. Wasn't this just a copy of Uzumaki Naruto when he was young?
Especially to the current Uchiha Sasuke, who was around that same age and saw Uzumaki Naruto practically every day, the resemblance really was striking.
Just as Uchiha Sasuke was thinking that, the battle between the Five Kage and the two Otsutsuki had already begun in the video.
At that moment, Uchiha Sasuke also reminded everyone not to use Ninjutsu. They could only fight with Taijutsu. Otherwise, Otsutsuki Momoshiki would absorb the attacks and release them back.
But now, Otsutsuki Momoshiki truly displayed his terrifying side. The slash he swung with his full strength not only forced everyone back, but the terrifying wind blade it raised cut a massive tree trunk as large as a small mountain clean in half. Its power far exceeded S-Rank Ninjutsu.
Only after reaching this point did Otsutsuki Kinshiki seem to finally burn out. Under the combined assault of the Five Kage and Uchiha Sasuke, he had already exhausted everything he had.
"Come, Lord Momoshiki. Please use all of my Chakra, just as my own guardians entrusted their power to me long ago. Do not hesitate!"
Otsutsuki Kinshiki spoke humbly.
The next scene made everyone's eyes widen. Something truly horrifying happened.
"Naturally!"
Otsutsuki Momoshiki instantly opened his Rinnegan and turned Otsutsuki Kinshiki's entire body into a massive Chakra Fruit. Then, bite by bite, he swallowed the Chakra that Otsutsuki Kinshiki had transformed into.
The sight of him directly devouring one of his own kind left everyone completely dumbfounded.
That included everyone watching the diary. They were stunned too, because none of them had ever imagined they would witness such a horrifying scene.
"This, this, this…" Jiraiya stared in shock at the scene inside the diary video, his heart shaken beyond belief. Seeing someone sacrifice his subordinate so casually, without even the slightest hesitation, left him deeply horrified. "How can he do that…"
"What kind of clan is this?"
Tsunade murmured to herself.
Throughout the entire process, Otsutsuki Momoshiki had never once coerced Otsutsuki Kinshiki. Yet Otsutsuki Kinshiki had directly offered up his life and transformed into a Chakra Fruit. Clearly, this was nothing unusual to him.
Namikaze Minato's expression turned cold and grave. For someone like him, a little sun in human form, a clan that ate people like this was impossible to accept.
When he had seen members of the Otsutsuki Clan before, they had looked human and could speak human language, so he had subconsciously treated them as human beings.
But now, Otsutsuki Momoshiki's actions had directly declared one thing. He was not human. He was not even the kind of creature humans could imagine.
They had already left the realm that human morality could observe.
In their world, eating each other like this was clearly not a problem at all.
If all of them were striving toward becoming gods, toward transcendence, then they had already gone completely insane.
"Does the Otsutsuki Clan have a strict hierarchy?" Hatake Kakashi could not help thinking when he saw this. "According to the Otsutsuki Clan's habit of operating in pairs, Otsutsuki Kaguya Hime should have been the lower-ranked member, while Otsutsuki Isshiki was probably originally the higher-ranked one.
"No wonder Kaede Kitahara said Otsutsuki Isshiki had suffered terrible luck. If we go by the conversation between Otsutsuki Momoshiki and Otsutsuki Kinshiki, then Otsutsuki Kinshiki can sacrifice himself for Otsutsuki Momoshiki without the slightest complaint and offer up his own body.
"And Otsutsuki Kinshiki had also had partners in the past. His partners had offered themselves up just as completely. Not one of these people thought there was anything wrong with this method.
"So although the Otsutsuki Clan is mocked as the Clan of Gods, they have a hierarchy just like mortal races do, and one far stricter than anything we can imagine.
"The lower-ranked members must sacrifice themselves unconditionally for the higher-ranked ones.
"And with that, Otsutsuki Kaguya Hime's reason for rebelling is already obvious."