And so, the crisis of the moon's fall, which had developed all the way from Otsutsuki Shinya's reckless actions, along with another hidden disaster behind it that was sufficient to destroy the civilization of the shinobi world, was successfully resolved at the moment when it was about to become irreversible.
Kaguya Otsutsuki did not believe that Rei Kaguya, Unfilial Son Number Three, was worthy of her unconditional trust.
But after wasting several thousand years inside the seal, she no longer had the room to grit her teeth and gamble on whether Rei Kaguya was bluffing.
After Rei Kaguya used his dojutsu Voidless to seal away her most crucial method of escape, the only choice left to Kaguya Otsutsuki from the beginning was to cooperate with Rei Kaguya.
And without Kaguya Otsutsuki interfering, stopping the moon's fall was naturally not much of a difficult matter for Rei Kaguya, who had now ascended to the Six Paths level, possessed strength comparable to both Hagoromo and Hamura, and also had the Tenseigan.
He slowly decelerated the moon, which had already turned into a blazing meteor falling at high speed, then drew back the fragments around it that had broken apart because of the changes in the gravitational environment.
Standing atop the already-destroyed Boundary Lake, Rei Kaguya's azure Tenseigan bloomed with radiance visible even to those on the ground. Like a god of creation, he calmed this disaster known as the moon's fall.
And after the small half of the moon that he had previously cut away during his battle with Kaguya Otsutsuki using Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion in Tenseigan Chakra Mode was also pulled back, the moon, which had already fallen to a highly dangerous distance for the shinobi world, finally began rising back toward its original orbit.
Moving stars and shifting the moon could be done in the blink of an eye.
Creation and destruction of worlds could be decided with a single thought.
Six Paths power—or rather, the power possessed by pure-blooded Otsutsuki—was just that powerful, powerful enough to make heaven and earth submit and all things kneel. It was just that magnificent, enough that mortals could not raise even the slightest will to resist.
"Is it finally over?"
No one knew where Orochimaru had hidden earlier, but he had indeed avoided being crushed to pieces by the aftershocks of Rei Kaguya and Kaguya Otsutsuki's battle.
Emerging from the mouth of a summoned great snake, he asked Rei Kaguya, who had just withdrawn his ocular power and was pressing his brow somewhat tiredly.
"I suppose it is over. Temporarily."
Rei Kaguya lowered his head and looked at the Karma existing like a tattoo on his right palm.
The corner of his mouth curved into a relaxed smile that suggested everything had gone according to plan. He turned his head and casually asked Orochimaru, whose whole body was covered in mucus,
"How does it feel to stand on the moon and overlook the shinobi world?"
"Just as you said, Rei-kun. The shinobi world is merely an incomparably narrow stage, one that can at most accommodate a single person giving a speech."
Orochimaru walked to Rei Kaguya's side and looked down together with him at the azure planet below.
His expression carried some absent-mindedness, some emotion, and some helplessness.
"Standing here and looking down, the mountain ranges that are enough to divide national borders are nothing more than tiny undulations, so faint they are difficult to notice. The battlefields that once ground countless shinobi lives to pieces through repeated struggle and left behind countless hatred and sorrow are so small that one cannot even find their exact positions at a glance…
"In the eyes of the Otsutsuki who grasp divine power, the bloody wars of the shinobi world are probably like ants fighting—ants whose outward differences cannot even be distinguished."
"At times like this, we really have to thank the Sage of Six Paths and Ancestor Hamura, those two saviors who were clearly pure-blooded Otsutsuki, yet developed emotions connected to humanity… It is a rare thing for gods who were born sitting high upon sacred clouds to naturally feel true empathy with slaves so lowly they roll in the mud."
Rei Kaguya stretched hard.
Then he turned to look at Obito Uchiha, who was being escorted over by his bone clones, covered from head to toe in sealing formulas and unable to move even a finger.
With a half-smile, he asked the silent, lowered-headed Obito,
"How does it feel? This feeling of being treated as worthless roadside weeds, then being casually taken down during the battle with the true owner—does it feel pleasant, Obito Uchiha?"
Obito Uchiha did not answer.
He merely clenched his teeth and stared at the "ice sculpture" not far behind Rei Kaguya. Only after a very long time did he finally open his mouth and ask,
"So that is… Black Zetsu's true objective?"
"Correct."
Rei Kaguya nodded lightly. Taking advantage of the time while he was returning the moon to its original orbit, he prepared with great interest to let Obito Uchiha die with understanding.
"She is the true progenitor of chakra in the shinobi world, the Rabbit Goddess Kaguya Otsutsuki, who was jointly sealed by the Sage of Six Paths and his younger brother, Hamura Otsutsuki. Black Zetsu is the third child she gave birth to before being sealed, in order to undo the seal placed on her by those two rebellious sons… As for the so-called seal, it is the moon beneath our feet."
"…It has existed since the mythical age?"
"Naturally. The conflict between the Sage of Six Paths' two sons, Asura and Indra, the thousand-year entanglement between the Uchiha clan and Senju clan, were all schemes personally arranged by it. Even the contents Madara Uchiha saw on the Uchiha Stone Tablet were a version it had altered by its own hand… Surprised? Unexpected?"
Obito Uchiha closed his eyes.
On his half-destroyed face, emotions mixed like a palette—shock, realization, sudden awareness, regret, powerlessness, despair, bitterness, sorrow, self-mockery, and many more.
Only after a long time did he finally ask again in a voice so low it could barely be lower.
"…Then the Eye of the Moon Plan was nothing but empty talk too?"
"It was not completely empty talk. After all, once the Infinite Tsukuyomi is activated and every human in the shinobi world is hung on the Divine Tree, they will indeed dream."
Rei Kaguya raised an eyebrow and maliciously struck at him.
"Everyone dreams together in a 'peaceful' illusion full of loopholes, with no substantive breakthrough compared to reality, and unable to withstand even the slightest deeper thought. Then everyone gets hung on the Divine Tree and turns into White Zetsu who have lost themselves. It sounds rather suitable as the end point reached by people like you and Madara Uchiha, who only know how to escape reality."
"Even peace inside a dream is better than this terrible reality, where there is no hope of change and people only spin again and again in the cycle of war."
Obito Uchiha raised his head.
On his half-destroyed, hideous face appeared the dazed expression of a person falling from a cliff who had grabbed a straw that could temporarily delay death.
At this, Rei Kaguya simply shook his head with pity and mercilessly said,
"If you want the dead to accompany you again inside a dream, then just say so directly. Who are you trying to fool with nonsense like the shinobi world having no hope of change?"
"As long as chakra still exists, the age of ninja will never end. The cycle of war, hatred, and pain will eventually return, destroying the world you believed you had completely changed."
As if experiencing a final flash of clarity, Obito Uchiha's mind suddenly became sharp.
He widened his Mangekyo Sharingan and almost sneered as he spoke to Rei Kaguya.
"Just you watch, Rei Kaguya… Like Hashirama Senju back then, all you can create is an era that pretends to be peaceful because it fears your personal strength. Once you die, the darkness that was suppressed while you lived will immediately return and turn everything you thought you had completely changed into weapons for mutual attacks and harm."
"I will wait silently in hell for that moment to arrive."
"Ridiculous. You are just a brat who cannot imagine any profession besides ninja, who does not even know how you would start a family with Rin Nohara after peace arrives, how you would raise children with Rin Nohara, or how you would grow old together with Rin Nohara in a peaceful life. And you still have the nerve to say something like that?"
Rei Kaguya speechlessly rolled his Tenseigan.
Then he pressed his hand against Obito Uchiha's face, which had suddenly flushed red but remained clenched in hatred, and said to him word by word,
"Originally, I intended to send you directly to meet Rin Nohara… But now I have changed my mind, Obito Uchiha."
"A twisted, self-righteous brat like you should become the core of a human puppet while remaining fully conscious, be stuffed into the lowest-grade puppet body, and then be unable to move, raging helplessly as you watch how I change this world little by little from its very foundation, turning things you could never even dream of into reality enjoyed by the vast majority of people in the shinobi world."