With the cosmos as its backdrop, divinity as its banner, and planting and harvesting as its purpose—
For the first time, the people of the shinobi world looked up at the Heavenly Curtain and clearly realized something terrifying:
The world their ancestors had inhabited for generations might, on a grander scale, be nothing more than a… farm chosen by "gods."
And those who cultivated chakra—
Shinobi—
Might, in some sense, be crops nourished by the energy of the God Tree's fruit.
Or perhaps even part of the soil itself.
A chill born from the very foundation of civilization crept up every spine.
Within the Heavenly Curtain
The vast cosmos stretched endlessly.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki floated in the void, her Byakugan calmly gazing at the blue-green planet wrapped in clouds and oceans below.
Designation: C-1738.
The future shinobi world.
"So this… is the planet I am assigned to oversee?"
Her voice was cool and distant, tinged with the detached assessment of an executor—and the faintest trace of resistance toward a long, lonely mission.
"I hope the energy here is abundant. The sooner the task is completed… the sooner I can return and report."
To her, this was routine duty.
A mission.
Nothing more.
Then—
A small, utterly incongruous movement stirred within the wide sleeve of her white robe.
Rustle… squirm…
A mass of black, amorphous substance wriggled out from the edge of her sleeve.
It looked like living ink.
Or condensed shadow.
Its surface occasionally flickered with a faint crimson sheen.
The black mass struggled to "raise" itself and turned toward Kaguya, producing a sticky, clinging voice filled with childlike innocence.
"Mommy~ It's okay~ I'll stay with you forever~ I won't let you be lonely~"
Its tone brimmed with unconditional attachment.
Kaguya lowered her gaze toward the black "pet" at her sleeve.
On her otherwise icy, immaculate face, the faintest hint of something almost like helpless amusement appeared.
She extended a slender, pale finger and gently pinched the soft, cool shadow.
"Black Zetsu," she corrected calmly, "how many times must I tell you? Do not call me 'Mother.'"
Her tone remained cool, but it lacked the distant indifference she had shown toward the cosmos.
"You are my creation. My pet. You should call me… Master."
Black Zetsu did not argue.
Instead, its formless body pressed more tightly against her finger, stubbornly murmuring in a tiny voice:
"Mother… Mother…"
Kaguya seemed accustomed to this.
She neither scolded it nor responded further.
Her attention returned to the planet below as she began planning the "planting" of the God Tree.
Black Zetsu curled at her sleeve like a loyal shadow-hound, wriggling occasionally as if to confirm her presence.
In the Real World – A Dark Corner
The real Black Zetsu was not well.
Its pitch-black body expanded and contracted violently under the force of overwhelming shock—and rage.
"NOT A PET!!!"
Its shrill scream cracked the air.
"That's Mother! She is my mother!"
"Who is that in the Heavenly Curtain?! How dare they slander me! How dare they distort my relationship with Mother?!"
Black Zetsu trembled with fury.
If it could, it would have rushed into the screen and torn the culprit apart.
This was the ultimate insult to its thousand-year devotion.
But as the roar left its mouth, it suddenly froze.
"Wait… that's not right…"
Its chaotic thoughts seized upon a critical contradiction.
"When Mother first arrived in this world… she hadn't created me yet."
Yet in the Heavenly Curtain's depiction, it already existed before she even descended.
And she had called it her "pet."
"What… what is going on?"
For the first time, Black Zetsu experienced something dangerously close to cognitive dissonance.
Had it remembered wrong?
No.
The Heavenly Curtain had revealed too many truths before—truths that aligned with reality, even exceeding its own knowledge.
It did not doubt the Curtain.
It doubted itself.
A Sealed Dimension
In a strange, unknown space layered with powerful seals—
There was no light.
No sound.
Only eternal stillness and confinement.
Yet the Heavenly Curtain's light and voice pierced through all barriers, illuminating this sealed domain as if no force could obstruct it.
At the center of the space, a woman slowly lifted her head.
Her face was identical to the Kaguya shown on the Curtain.
Pale skin.
Byakugan.
It was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself—sealed for over a thousand years.
The Progenitor of Chakra.
The Rabbit Goddess.
The origin of the shinobi world's conflicts.
She stared expressionlessly at the "past" unfolding before her.
Not out of cold detachment—
But because she was, quite frankly, baffled.
What… is this thing even showing?
For the first time, confusion flickered within her pristine Byakugan.
Her "past" and "settings" felt as though someone had taken them and casually rewritten them.
And yet—
As she watched the version of herself descend upon C-1738 with that absurd "pet" Black Zetsu—
A subtle ripple stirred in her millennium-still heart.
Things were becoming complicated.
And unexpectedly—
Interesting.
The Ancient Shinobi World
The scene continued.
The newly arrived Kaguya—accompanied by her stubborn "Mother"-calling Black Zetsu—walked the ancient lands of C-1738 like a shadow from beyond.
She did not immediately begin planting the God Tree.
Instead, like a meticulous inspector—or perhaps a curious tourist—she quietly observed the world she was tasked to oversee.
Through her Byakugan—capable of perceiving both the microscopic and the vast—and through the Heavenly Curtain's sweeping perspective, the shinobi world of a thousand years ago unfolded like a weathered, sprawling tapestry.
The mountains and rivers bore familiar shapes.
But the forests were denser, more primal.
The earth less scarred by civilization.
The world was ancient.
Untamed.
Waiting.
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