As the two of them looked on, Kanon and Kaguya had just separated. Although the Rasengan had connected, Kaguya's regenerative power allowed her to recover in an instant.
Suddenly, a black rift materialized behind Naruto and Sasuke. Indeed, in that very moment, a Yomotsu Hirasaka had opened right behind them.
Kaguya reached out, gripping Naruto and Sasuke's chins in her hands. Tears streamed from her eyes.
"My children, who stole away my chakra..."
"Come, return to Mother," Kaguya whispered. Black Zetsu's form had already melded into the left and right sides of their bodies.
"Our chakra is being drained... Sasuke!"
Black Zetsu spoke calmly, his voice chillingly detached: "Seeing you two, Kaguya is reminded of her two sons."
"How affectionate, isn't it?"
"A pitiful mother, sealed away by her own flesh and blood."
"Why would the Sage of Six Paths seal his own mother?!" Naruto demanded, struggling. "Wasn't it the Ten-Tails he sealed?"
Black Zetsu replied nonchalantly: "It seems you have misunderstood a few things."
"Zetsu, just who are you exactly..." Sasuke gritted his teeth.
Black Zetsu then began to explain the history of Kaguya, Hamura, and Hagoromo to everyone present, culminating in the brothers sealing their mother.
His voice turned cold: "The battle between Mother and the Hagoromo brothers ended there, but I, left behind, possessed no power of my own."
"So, I had no choice but to lurk in the shadows, carefully crafting the plan to resurrect her."
"Meanwhile, unaware of all this, Hagoromo fathered two sons, Indra and Asura."
"He even created that foolish institution called Ninshu. Before he breathed his last, he dispersed the Tailed Beasts across the world."
"There are two requirements to resurrect Mother: one is the God Tree, and the other is the Infinite Tsukuyomi manifested by the Rinnegan."
"However, the Hagoromo chakra required for the Rinnegan was scattered between Indra and Asura. The Tailed Beasts, capable of reforming the Ten-Tails, were also spread to the four corners of the world."
"To resurrect Mother, I had to gather all these elements."
"I needed a vast amount of time."
"First, to re-collect Hagoromo's chakra, I decided to manipulate Indra, who had lost the succession battle."
"I incited him, and then..."
"I made the Uchiha clan, descendants of Indra, the characters in my story."
"I even slightly modified the stone tablet, that shoddy script written by Hagoromo."
Upon hearing this, Sasuke's expression curdled in horror. In the distance, Kanon let out a cold, sharp laugh. As someone who had always regarded the Uchiha name as her pride, she didn't give a shred of credibility to Zetsu's narrative; to her, it was merely noise.
"How could this be..." Sasuke frowned.
"That's right. The stele beneath the Naka Shrine of the Uchiha? It is precisely what Hagoromo left behind."
"I rewrote it. I made it say that only the Infinite Tsukuyomi could save the Uchiha. And you, the Uchiha, never realized a thing, you played your roles perfectly."
"Bastard!" Sasuke erupted with fury.
"Indra and the Uchiha, Asura and the Senju. The plot of them fighting for power was established."
"I cannot count how many times I approached the reincarnates of Indra and Asura, hoping to trigger the Rinnegan, only to fail time and time again."
"Just executing those steps took over a thousand years."
"But when the reincarnates became Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju... I finally knew that Madara had the potential to succeed. That was the first step to Mother's resurrection."
"However... Madara was defeated by Hashirama at the Valley of the End. I thought everything had returned to zero."
"But fate did not abandon me."
"To a ninja, a corpse is a treasure trove."
"Tobirama, who studied the secrets of the Sharingan with such devotion, didn't dispose of the body. Instead, he hid Madara in the mountains of Konoha."
"Madara was no fool. He had calculated that even if he lost, Tobirama wouldn't simply discard his body, so he performed a technique on himself, a delayed-action Jutsu stored within his own eye."
"Sasuke, it is just like how Itachi and Kanon hid Amaterasu and the Flower Realm in your eyes with a time delay."
"Madara had set Izanagi in his right eye. He sacrificed the eye to rewrite reality and resurrect himself."
"He left a shadow clone in his place as a corpse and spat out the flesh he had bitten off from Hashirama, transplanting it into his own wounds."
"Afterward, Madara finally awakened the Rinnegan."
"He summoned the Gedo Mazo and used it to cultivate Hashirama's flesh, seeking eternal life."
"In that process, he stumbled upon a creature: the White Zetsu."
"But in truth, I simply extracted the people who had once been caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi from the statue and showed them to him."
"When two opposing powers act upon each other, they attain the power of the Sage of Six Paths. Just as the text on the tablet decreed, Madara's obsession with Hashirama grew ever stronger."
"I made myself the shadow of the Uchiha, pretending that Madara had created me. I manipulated Obito and began the plan to recover the Tailed Beasts."
"I urged the formation of the Akatsuki and guided them toward war."
"But at that moment, the birth of a young girl disrupted many of my plans. That's right, the existence of Kanon Uchiha."
"For the sake of my plan's success, I deliberately allowed Kabuto to find Madara's corpse and guided him to join Kanon and Obito in launching this Fourth Great Ninja War."
"But to be precise, the initiative of this war was seized by Kanon. She has always operated outside my plans, and she has been watching me with particular scrutiny."
"I was extremely cautious, but in the end, the goal remained the same: to ensure this war forced the activation of the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
"The chakra of the vast number of humans scattered across the lands was gathered, and Mother was finally resurrected."
Just as he finished speaking, a terrifying, monumental blade of energy slashed through the air, instantly cleaving the area in two. It was a Chidori Sharp Spear, spanning hundreds of thousands of meters, obliterating Black Zetsu's half of the body in a heartbeat.
Black Zetsu let out a shrill, piercing scream. His manifested half dissolved into nothingness in a fit of frustration, while the other half retreated into Kaguya's body.
"It seems Old Man Madara did quite a lot for his dream. To me, a man who strives for his own dream is the coolest man in existence!"
"He fought for his own aspirations and wishes, he was never a pawn to someone like you!"
At these words, Naruto and Sasuke were stunned. Naruto looked up at Kanon in the sky, his expression dazed, his heart trembling. Striving for a dream...
He had always been fighting for his dream. Kanon had once told him that, in her eyes, the way he worked toward that dream was truly cool. Hearing those words again now, Naruto felt his entire being resonate.
Yes, in this moment, he finally understood: he truly loved Kanon, loved her ideals, loved her words, loved everything that belonged to her.
If they weren't in the middle of a battle, he would have dragged her to that cliffside from their past just to talk properly.
Naruto gazed at Kanon longingly. The Rinnegan in her eyes shimmered, and Naruto's heart solidified with renewed resolve.
The Chidori Sharp Spear faded, and Kanon sheathed her Kusanagi blade. With Naruto and Sasuke now safe, they took this split second to pull back from Kaguya and land beside Kanon.
"Kanon, thank you for saving us!" Naruto patted Kanon on the shoulder in gratitude.
Sasuke, meanwhile, looked at Kanon with a complex expression. This girl, his own flesh and blood, was now so cold toward him.
Kanon said nothing, merely staring at Kaguya with a playful, predatory gaze. In her eyes, Kaguya was already nothing more than a chakra fruit waiting to be harvested.
"I hate you both! Hagoromo, Hamura, you are my..." Kaguya shrieked, tears flowing.
"The history of ninjas doesn't belong only to you!"
"Besides... shouldn't a mother be happy when her children leave home to become independent?!"
Naruto hurled a Rasenshuriken, but Kaguya dismissed it with a single sweep of her palm, blowing it to pieces.
Sasuke moved beside Kanon and Naruto, whispering, "We have to find a way to create an opening to use the sealing technique, Naruto."
"Yeah... I guess we have no choice but to use that jutsu," Naruto said.
"What? You don't mean that one, do you?" Kanon's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Naruto in surprise.
"Exactly! Kanon, you catch on fast. You really are my favorite... I mean, my best friend!"
"What technique?" Sasuke asked, confused.
"Kanon, Sasuke, lean in."
Kanon was speechless. Even though she already knew the technique, she leaned in nonetheless.
Naruto began to explain the tactics to Kanon and Sasuke. In truth, Kanon didn't need any tactical plan to fight Kaguya, the moment she went all-out, this entire star system would likely be reduced to nothingness.
But for now, sealing her was the better choice. Even though she possessed her own sealing arts, she wanted to experience one last coordinated effort with the members of Team 7.
Because this would be the final time they fought together, Kanon leaned in close to Naruto, ready to play her part.
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NOTE: This fic has been completely translated. If you want to read the whole story head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]