"Chakra..."
"Chakra... It's all my chakra!"
"Hamura, Hagoromo, you two traitors..."
"Zetsu, did your plan succeed? As expected of my son. I'll reward you handsomely!"
Kaguya's voice lingered beside Hiruzen's ear, growing clearer and clearer from its original indistinct murmur until the Hokage could hear every word distinctly.
The bizarre phenomenon immediately set alarm bells ringing in Hiruzen's mind!
His Ten Thousand Seals Body Integration Seal had already reached an initial level of mastery, and the Evil Sealing Method component in particular had been tempered with the help of the entire Uchiha Clan...
The Kurama Clan's ability to make genjutsu manifest as reality had also contributed greatly.
It wasn't that Hiruzen lacked humility. There might still be ninjutsu in the shinobi world that he couldn't break.
But when it came to genjutsu, he didn't believe there was anything capable of catching him without him noticing...
After all, the Mangekyō Sharingan and the Kurama Clan were widely recognized as the pinnacle of genjutsu in the shinobi world.
But Kaguya's appearance clearly taught Hiruzen a lesson.
"Impressive, Ōnoki. Third Raikage..."
As Hiruzen spoke, he entered his Spirit Release Chakra Mode.
Bluish-white light wrapped around his body and spread through the space around him as he attempted to wash away, through complete coverage, whatever genjutsu chakra he assumed had slipped past his awareness.
But this only made Kaguya's voice even louder...
The reason Kaguya's voice could appear beside Hiruzen's ear was that during this battle, his repeated use of large-scale Spirit Release: Shock Form had, in practical terms, broken apart the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts and encouraged them to merge together.
That chakra had originally belonged to Kaguya, and once it combined into a small integrated whole, it formed an anchor through which Kaguya's consciousness could descend.
Using Spirit Release to scour his own body only accelerated the process.
"To think Kumogakure and Iwagakure were hiding a genjutsu like this..."
"It seems I underestimated the shinobi of this world!"
"If you've got anything else, use it!" Hiruzen said in a deep voice.
Ōnoki and the Third Raikage exchanged a look, each one's eyes asking the same question...
Why are you still provoking him?
Don't pull tricks like this!
Just fight him properly, lose, and then negotiate afterward...
"Was that you?"
"Don't do this..."
The Third Raikage and Ōnoki instinctively asked each other.
After all, both Kumogakure and Iwagakure were notably weak in the field of genjutsu. Each had assumed the other side must have been hiding some ultimate technique until now—one powerful enough to affect even the Hokage!
"Hokage, I have no idea what you're talking about. Whatever is happening with the genjutsu has absolutely nothing to do with Iwagakure..."
Ōnoki chose his words carefully before calling out loudly.
"At this point, the outcome of the war has essentially already been decided. You, the Raikage, and I will settle things with one final battle. No other shinobi will interfere..."
"The winner takes everything."
If Hiruzen's reputation hadn't been so solid, even Ōnoki might have wondered whether the Hokage was deliberately pretending to have fallen under a genjutsu so he could claim to have been attacked and wipe out Kumogakure and Iwagakure in one stroke!
"It definitely has nothing to do with Kumogakure either."
The Third Raikage hurriedly added, "Our village has never been into genjutsu!"
Hiruzen paused.
It wasn't that he simply believed Ōnoki and the Third Raikage at their word...
Rather, he had confidence in his own Spirit Release and sealing abilities.
Most importantly, Hiruzen had never heard of a genjutsu whose effect was to make a woman chatter endlessly beside his ear, rambling incoherently as though she'd completely lost it...
Did a technique like that have any use besides being annoying?
So clearly, something beyond Hiruzen's current understanding was happening!
'No...'
'Why can't I descend into this vessel?!'
'The chakra is far too little. Why is there only this much...?'
'Sealing techniques? They can't compare to Hagoromo's, but the scale and structure...'
'This feeling? Is it Kekkei Mōra? It resembles it, but not quite...'
'No! Did the main family send pursuers after me?! Who are you?!'
Kaguya's voice alternated between loud and soft, calm one moment and frantic the next. Her emotions rose and fell like a roller coaster, making Hiruzen shake his head slightly from the noise.
By examining his own body, Hiruzen had already identified the source of this strange phenomenon...
It came from the chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts he had absorbed earlier, which had melted together into a bizarre red-and-white sphere.
Under Hiruzen's control, that sphere now floated inside the 'circulatory palace' within his body, a structure built with multiple Four Symbols Seals as pillars and other sealing techniques serving as beams and supporting materials.
Only then did the woman's voice become somewhat more manageable, though she was still shouting loudly.
Hiruzen clicked his tongue.
'I've spent all this time worrying about the deus ex machina problem, and the first thing to manifest in this world immediately locked onto me...'
'That's fine. If it had landed on some other shinobi, I wouldn't trust the situation.'
'With me, at least I can quickly obtain firsthand information about the enemy...'
Hiruzen understood almost immediately.
Anything capable of seeming bizarre even to him at this point was probably already outside the framework of the current shinobi world...
"Hello."
Hiruzen's steady voice sounded beside Kaguya's ear in turn.
"Who are you?! What are you trying to do?! Were you sent by Hagoromo or Hamura? Or by the main family?!"
"Tell me!!!"
Kaguya's shrill voice exploded through Hiruzen's mind, painfully piercing.
The Rabbit Goddess was panicking as well. This situation was exceptionally unfavorable for her...
She considered her combat skill to be quite refined, but raw power had always been one of her major advantages too. Neither could be missing.
So when she realized that she apparently couldn't return to the shinobi world in anything close to her prime condition, her confidence instinctively evaporated, and she blurted out things she shouldn't have said.
In short, she started hissing.
Hiruzen endured the noise and silently committed several key words to memory.
For some reason, Hokage-sama suddenly found himself missing Danzō...
In Konoha, it wasn't as though no troublemakers had ever tried to stir things up when new policies were being implemented...
After all, the village was large enough to contain every kind of person. There would always be a small minority who wanted a bigger share for themselves.
They would make a scene much like Kaguya was now, shouting loudly in an attempt to secure more benefits...
But with Danzō around, such people were generally dealt with before the problem even had a chance to surface.
With Hizashi working alongside him as well, Hiruzen's usual administrative work and policy implementation had always gone smoothly. He had never run into someone like Kaguya, who opened negotiations by screaming and making a scene...
Unfortunately, this wasn't Konoha. Danzō and Hizashi couldn't do anything for him here.
"Here's what I think happened..."
Hiruzen coughed lightly and continued in a calm, steady tone.
"You were probably summoned here by the Tailed Beast chakra that condensed inside my body."
"What do you mean the chakra inside your body?! That's mine! My chakra!"
Kaguya's shrill voice erupted again, trembling with anger.
"All chakra in the shinobi world belongs to me!"
"Oh..."
Hiruzen's eyes flickered.
That high-ranking, huh?
Looks like he'd hooked a very big fish...
The Third Raikage and Ōnoki could only watch as Hiruzen sat atop the Five-Tails, raised a hand beside his ear in a gesture like he was talking on the phone, then waved toward the two of them.
The two Kage exchanged a glance, sighed helplessly, and spread their hands.
Nothing they could do...
When you were under someone else's roof, you had to bow your head.
Even if they wanted to at least salvage some dignity, nothing could happen until Hiruzen gave the word.
After all, the Hokage himself had said it...
He was currently under a genjutsu!
Ending the war with a Kage-versus-Kage battle still carried at least a little personal warmth and the feel of a legend in the making.
But if a sneak attack got mixed into it, that changed the entire nature of the matter!
Being despised by the whole shinobi world would be one thing. Worse, after losing the war, they would suffer badly at the negotiating table...
"Here's the situation. There's been a misunderstanding between us."
Hiruzen's tone didn't change, remaining steady and forceful.
"I bear you no ill will. Please believe me. So I suggest you calm down first..."
"We should first analyze our respective situations and what caused this phenomenon. Once we identify the source of the problem, we can work together to find a way to resolve it."
"If there's a problem, then we identify it and solve it. Getting angry like this doesn't accomplish anything."
Kaguya's expression stiffened, and she was just about to flare up at Hiruzen again.
How dare he lecture her!
But Hiruzen seemed to anticipate exactly what she was thinking and spoke softly.
"This benefits you too. Haven't you noticed that you know nothing about my situation, yet you've already revealed quite a lot about yourself?"
"Ōtsutsuki. The main family. Hamura and Hagoromo. All chakra in the shinobi world belonging to you..."
Hiruzen repeated those key terms.
"I hope we can ultimately resolve this problem—or perhaps reach some form of cooperation—in a way that satisfies both of us."
"You and I may both be victims here."
"I'm not going to exploit the intelligence advantage I currently have. I'm warning you because I want to demonstrate sincerity..."
"Don't you think that makes sense?"
Hiruzen displayed the emotional composure expected of a Hokage.
What he was saying was actually a lie...
It wasn't that Hiruzen didn't want to take advantage of her.
Rather, at this point he judged that the mysterious woman had probably already realized she'd said too much. Continuing to bait her into talking wasn't likely to yield much more intelligence.
It would only make the conversation afterward more difficult.
This was a textbook example of retreating in order to advance during negotiations.
"..."
Kaguya fell silent, somewhat stunned.
After being sealed for a thousand years, part of what she was doing was venting all the emotions she had kept bottled up. Another part was simply using all that shouting as a way to cope with emotions she couldn't control.
More importantly, this had always been her personality. In fact, one could say that both the Sage of Six Paths and Hamura had inherited this trait from her.
Otherwise, back during their war, they wouldn't have fought for months without ever managing to properly talk things through.
The Sage of Six Paths had handled Indra terribly, while Hamura's management of his descendants had been just as disastrous...
At that moment, the disturbance affecting the moon also startled Hamura's descendants.
Although only two of Hamura's descendants remained now: one named Ōtsutsuki Toneri, and the other his father.
The rest of Hamura's descendants had split over differing interpretations of Hamura's final instructions. The main family and branch family slaughtered each other until only Toneri and his father remained.
The Byakugan of the dead clansmen had then been fused together, forming the Giant Tenseigan...
It was worth mentioning that although Toneri was still young, his special constitution, resembling that of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, meant that both his mind and body had already developed to nearly adolescent levels.
At that moment...
Toneri's father was staring down at the shinobi world and muttering in a low voice.
"Damn it! The flawed world created by the Sage of Six Paths has already suffered endless wars for a thousand years. It was fundamentally wrong from the start..."
"As if the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path being stolen wasn't enough, now they're even disturbing the seal!"
"I've heard there are shinobi down there who possess the Byakugan, and that they use cruel methods to oppress branch family members just like you and me. That world should have been destroyed long ago..."
Toneri listened silently. Despite his youth, he strongly resisted these ideas.
The slaughter among their own clansmen had simply been too brutal.
"You don't believe me, Toneri...?"
Toneri's father shook his head helplessly.
"Then your father will make some preparations and take you to the shinobi world to see it for yourself! Seeing is believing. Surely that will satisfy you?"
"After that, you must prepare yourself to carry out the true will of our ancestor Hamura!"
Only then did Toneri answer softly.
"Yes, Father..."
What the father and son didn't know, however, was that Kaguya hadn't truly been released.
Rather, Hiruzen now had a coordinate within his body capable of receiving her consciousness.
In theory, the two could briefly achieve something resembling possession, but control rested with the owner of the seals—Hiruzen.
Most of the time, it was more like 'making a phone call' than becoming a true jinchūriki.
At that moment, deep within the moon, Kaguya was thinking about how she should respond to Hiruzen...
Her family tended to solve things through shouting, arguing, and, whenever possible, throwing hands instead of reasoning with one another. Whoever had the biggest fist got the final say...
They absolutely regretted things afterward, of course. But instead of admitting it, they would stubbornly remain silent and sigh to themselves.
Kaguya, the Sage of Six Paths, and Indra were all the same in that regard...
Someone like Hiruzen, who could genuinely pursue 'mutual understanding' and 'put himself in another person's position,' was unlike anyone Kaguya had ever encountered among either the Ōtsutsuki or the shinobi world.
So... people could actually just talk things out properly?
"Mm..."
Kaguya thought for a long time before tentatively replying.
"Fine. We'll do it your way for now."
Hiruzen's excessively stable emotions and polite attitude had left the raging Kaguya completely unsure how to respond...
Of course, the most important factor was still the Ten Thousand Seals Body Integration Seal he had spent so long refining. It forced the Rabbit Goddess, currently in an extremely weakened state with only a tiny portion of chakra available, into a condition where she could actually talk things through...
"All right. Thank you for cooperating."
Hiruzen let out a breath of relief.
"I still have something to deal with here. Could I ask you to wait for a little while? I'm currently in the middle of a battle. Once that's finished, we can set aside a good amount of time and talk everything through properly. Would that be all right?"
Not bad...
She didn't seem completely unreasonable after all...
He had the feeling she was easier to communicate with than Danzō!
After all, Kaguya had yet to master Danzō's two ultimate techniques—'You'll regret this' and 'slamming the door on his way out'—for refusing further discussion.
As long as they could talk, anything was possible...
Kaguya paused.
A battle?
Now that was her specialty!
Back when she was still with the Ōtsutsuki Clan, who hadn't praised her talent?
'Perhaps I can offer him some guidance with my astonishing combat skills...'
Kaguya thought to herself.
'After all, if he truly is a creature of the shinobi world, his understanding of chakra must be extremely primitive...'
'This seems like an excellent opportunity to make him submit to me!'
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