Hearing Namikaze Kirito's words, the young Sasuke lowered his eyes in shame. He understood exactly what his leader meant.
It was true. In the future, he was supposed to stand on his own. How could he have been driven into such a sorry state by the enemy in front of him?
What Sasuke felt as he looked at Namikaze Kirito was something Urashiki Ōtsutsuki had no interest in knowing.
Right now, Urashiki was practically seething. Some unknown guy had appeared out of nowhere and, from the moment he arrived, acted as if Urashiki didn't exist.
He hadn't even spared him a glance. How could a mere human of this world dare to be that arrogant?
Urashiki Ōtsutsuki wasn't as obviously domineering as some of his kin at first glance, but that was only a mask.
Normally, his voice was laced with twisted sarcasm—every word polite on the surface, but carrying an unpleasant sting that made people instinctively dislike him.
Ōtsutsuki Momoshiki was openly condescending, treating this planet as nothing more than a nest of thieves who had stolen scraps of power from the Divine Tree, utterly unworthy of being compared to him.
In the end, Momoshiki lost because of that arrogance.
Urashiki's attitude wasn't as blatant as Momoshiki's, but deep down he still believed that the people of this world existed only to look up to the Ōtsutsuki.
And yet, as soon as Namikaze Kirito appeared, he went straight to the young Sasuke and began talking to him about the past, never once placing Urashiki in his eyes.
How could Urashiki not be enraged by that?
"Hey! Who are you!?"
Hearing Urashiki's furious shout, Namikaze Kirito couldn't help finding it a little amusing. He finally turned his head, looked directly at Urashiki, and replied in a calm tone.
"Didn't you come here looking for me?"
"I'm the leader of Gensokyo. You just bullied one of my subordinates pretty badly. I'll have you return all of that."
Uzumaki Boruto, who had been holding himself back this whole time, couldn't stay quiet once he heard the weight in Kirito's voice. He ran up to stand at Namikaze Kirito's side.
"Uncle, you're Uncle Kirito! That idiot old man of mine is Uzumaki Naruto—your younger brother!"
The light burning in Uzumaki Boruto's eyes was no weaker than Sasuke's.
He had grown up listening to his uncle's legends.
Now that he was finally seeing the real person in front of him, there was no way he could contain his excitement.
The young Sasuke instinctively wanted to stop Boruto, but then he glanced at Namikaze Kirito.
With their leader's intelligence, he must have already guessed the boy's identity.
So Sasuke let his hand fall and didn't interfere, allowing Uzumaki Boruto to speak freely.
"Little guy, you really do look a lot like your father."
Namikaze Kirito reached out and gently placed his hand on top of Boruto's head.
To Uzumaki Boruto, it felt like he'd finally found a savior. He immediately pointed toward Urashiki Ōtsutsuki on the other side, his voice filled with anger.
"Uncle, it's that guy! After causing chaos in our Konoha in the future and getting chased away, he came to this era, trying to steal the power of the tailed beasts!"
"Ha ha ha ha…"
Seeing Boruto's reaction, Urashiki Ōtsutsuki let out a loud laugh.
"That's right, that was me. So you're the leader of this disgusting group?"
"I can feel the terrifying energy inside you. Hand it over to me."
As he finished speaking, Urashiki flicked his wrist. The fishing rod in his hand trembled, and the hook shot straight toward Namikaze Kirito.
Kirito had long since learned about the strange power of that hook. The moment he saw it flying toward him, he simply raised a finger. In an instant, that finger turned a deep, metallic black.
Clink!
The fishhook struck his fingertip with a crisp sound and bounced straight back.
"What an interesting power…"
The failed attack didn't discourage Urashiki. If anything, the sight of Armament Haki repelling his hook made his eyes glow with even more interest.
This was a kind of power he had never encountered before.
Sasuke, on the other hand, watched Namikaze Kirito with serious expression.
"That's the leader for you… He can already manifest Armament Haki like that…"
In the future, Namikaze Kirito would personally teach his subordinates how to use Armament Haki. But the bodies and training methods of shinobi in this world were very different from the fighters of the pirate world—most powerful ninja had never systematically trained their physical bodies.
Because of that, progress with Armament Haki had been painfully slow.
Even with a body that had been strengthened, suddenly trying to use Armament Haki wouldn't bring instant results. The young Sasuke beside him could only barely coat one hand with it, and it still lacked that dense, jet-black sheen.
Of course, with his talent, it was only a matter of time before he mastered it completely.
"You're hiding a lot of secrets, you know that?"
Greed flickered clearly in Urashiki Ōtsutsuki's eyes.
He wanted to absorb this strange power from Namikaze Kirito and make it his own—and he also longed for the other man's vast chakra reserves.
To him, Kirito was nothing less than a feast.
But what he didn't realize was that Namikaze Kirito was looking at him with a similar hunger.
Yomotsu Hirasaka—the technique that allowed one to move freely through space.
And that special time-travel vessel the Ōtsutsuki used, the one that let them cross the flow of time itself.
One power to traverse space, and one tool to slip through time—if mastered properly, the possibilities were endless.
That vessel wasn't a jutsu, but a special tool that only the Ōtsutsuki clan could use.
That alone was more than enough to make Namikaze Kirito's heart burn.
On top of that, the Rinnegan's abilities—jumping through time and rewinding moments—were incredibly rare even among ocular powers.
Looks like by the end of today, I'll have a pair of Rinnegan of my own…
Urashiki Ōtsutsuki finally noticed the look in Kirito's eyes. Those weren't the eyes of prey—they were the eyes of a hunter.
This man… is treating me as prey!?
That realization sent a surge of fury through him.
The ninja world existed because of the Divine Tree's power. In other words, everything here was supposed to be his food. And yet the "food" on his plate actually dared to treat him as food?
Unforgivable.
"Your name is Namikaze Kirito, right? I've heard of you in the Konoha of the future. You've really made me angry."
Urashiki Ōtsutsuki's gaze turned razor sharp.
"As payback, I'll turn you into a pill and let you nourish my body. Accept this honor, Namikaze Kirito."
"Ha ha ha ha…"
Namikaze Kirito raised a hand and covered his face, laughing softly.
"That's perfect. We're thinking the exact same thing. Come on, then—try it."
The two of them fell silent.
A light breeze swept across the field.
Boom!
In the next instant, their figures vanished and reappeared in the very center of the battlefield. Fist and fishing rod collided head-on.
Boom!!
The shockwave blasted outward, tearing up the ground around them. That was just the overflow of their power—if a Jōnin had been standing nearby, he would have been seriously injured, if not killed outright, by that leak of force alone.
That was how terrifying their strength was.
"Tremor Style: Space Destroyer!"
A white halo wrapped around Namikaze Kirito's right fist as he punched out once more. Through his Rinnegan, Urashiki could clearly see the destructive power compressed inside that halo.
His first instinct was to reach out and absorb it, but the moment he extended his hand, his body moved on its own as he retreated in a blur.
The instant he tried to absorb that power, a fierce sense of danger exploded in his chest. It was that flash of instinctive alarm that made him abandon the idea and pull back.
Namikaze Kirito's fist cut through empty air—
But the shockwave from the Tremor-Tremor Fruit exploded forward, and the space in front of him fractured like a sheet of glass, spiderweb cracks spreading outward with a sharp, crackling sound.
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