Otsutsuki Hamura was a peculiar man, there was no denying it. Yet his words had, in their own strange way, confirmed Natsuhiko's suspicions.
The man hadn't offered a single useful piece of information, but Natsuhiko still felt as though he had been completely seen through.
The sensation was unpleasant, yet it also brought him a strange sense of security. If events truly unfolded the way he believed they would, then he was, for the moment, safe.
Still, speculation remained speculation. He needed more concrete details before he could be certain.
To be honest, only now did Natsuhiko begin to seriously study the elderly Otsutsuki before him.
What unsettled him was that no matter how closely he looked, Hamura remained veiled in a layer of mist. He could make out an aged yet graceful old man, and nothing more. The feeling of something being right in front of him while remaining utterly unreachable was deeply uncomfortable.
Natsuhiko sighed inwardly. The gap between them was simply too vast.
"Hamura-sama, a ninja's analysis of intelligence requires sufficient information to begin with."
Natsuhiko composed himself before speaking in a measured tone.
"I lack that information, so I won't presume to guess your intentions. A wrong guess could lead to unpleasant consequences."
"Is that so?"
Hamura continued to regard him with that same faint, unreadable smile, but he did not press further.
He lightly tapped the table. In an instant, the pale golden space transformed. It became a hall of countless mirrors, each reflecting scenes in constant motion.
Natsuhiko raised his head. The moment he saw the images within the mirrors—scenes from the past, the present of the original timeline, and even fragments of what should have been the future—he knew his earlier suspicions had been correct.
There was no longer any point in pretending ignorance.
Hamura was openly demonstrating that he knew the past, the present, and the future.
The silent declaration exerted enormous pressure on Natsuhiko, even though he had already anticipated something like this. Seeing it manifested before his eyes was an entirely different matter.
"So? Do you have enough information now?"
Hamura asked with a smile.
"I mentioned earlier that you should have guessed a few things. My opinion hasn't changed. Would you care to share what you've concluded?"
"I suppose I can."
Natsuhiko offered a wry smile. He still didn't understand why Hamura insisted on hearing it from him, but since the man wanted an answer, he would give one.
"I assume you've been watching me and already know that I obtained the power of the Ryūmyaku. After acquiring it, I discovered that this power appeared capable of severing the bonds of time—though I never tested it. The experience left a strong impression. It made me wonder whether someone in this world could transcend time itself and glimpse, or even reach, the future."
He paused and glanced at Hamura's expression. The old man's face remained perfectly serene.
Natsuhiko realized there was no point trying to read him and continued, laying out every thought he had previously kept to himself.
"Based on that, I concluded you can see the future. My appearance therefore poses no real threat to you. In fact, it may have already altered the future you once observed. What I don't understand is why my presence hasn't affected the future you foresaw, and why, if you possess this ability, you haven't simply changed the future yourselves."
Natsuhiko was genuinely curious about how Hamura and his brother viewed both him and the future. With such power at their disposal, why not intervene?
Time clearly held no sway over these two. Looking at the floating mirrors that displayed everything like fragments of shattered space, Natsuhiko had no doubt of that.
"Actually," Hamura said after taking another slow sip of tea, "what I want you to understand is that because of your existence, we can no longer see how the future will unfold at all."
Natsuhiko's expression froze. His appearance had rendered the future invisible to them? That was impossible.
He had just begun to dismiss the idea when another thought struck him.
He himself couldn't block future sight, but there was something else residing within him—his system.
He still didn't know where the system had come from, yet its capabilities had already surpassed anything he could have imagined. It could extract compatible essences from materials and integrate them into his body. The Nine-Tails and the Jōgan had both proven that. Even his bloodline continued to evolve under its influence.
If the system could shield information regarding his own future, then it wasn't difficult to understand why these two could no longer peer ahead.
But that also meant he had become an unpredictable variable—an uncontrollable factor.
If Natsuhiko had encountered such an existence himself, he might have moved to eliminate the uncertainty. Yet these two showed no such inclination. Were they simply that confident, or did they have other plans?
The question left him silent once more.
Natsuhiko had always been a deep thinker. Sometimes that served him well; sometimes it only created more doubts.
Hamura watched him for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle.
If he couldn't see through Natsuhiko's current state, then all his years of observation had been wasted.
He had watched Natsuhiko ever since the boy had accidentally shattered the world's barrier and arrived in this realm. Both he and his brother had kept a close eye on him from the beginning. He knew Natsuhiko's growth, his experiences, and his temperament.
Honestly, he didn't particularly like people like Natsuhiko—someone who always seemed to wear a mask, impossible to truly approach, yet had grown to such frightening heights. His future was completely unreadable. If his brother hadn't wanted to see what this unknown variable would bring to a world whose every future they had already witnessed countless times, Hamura would have long since removed him from the board.
He had never considered killing Natsuhiko. Not because he lacked the power, but because he saw no need. At their level, they had already reached the point of understanding, perceiving, and merging with nature itself. Natsuhiko's arrival was a massive deviation, yet it could also be viewed as nature exercising its own will.
And nature's choices were the most terrifying forces in existence.
People believed they could alter nature. In truth, they were merely uncovering what nature had long concealed.
Since Hamura had already classified Natsuhiko as one of nature's choices, there was even less reason to interfere.
"Don't overthink it," Hamura said, shaking his head gently. "Overthinking will only lead you down the wrong path. Besides, you already know we can see the future. Even if your appearance has made the current future unreadable to us, we can still compare it against the futures we observed in the past and determine whether the change is for the better or worse."
Natsuhiko nodded slowly. That reasoning held weight.
His presence had indeed altered many events, steering several of them toward outcomes far better than those in the original timeline. Minato Namikaze, for example—while Naruto had lost the Nine-Tails because of Natsuhiko's actions, the boy now grew up with both parents. Without the original hellish trials, Naruto might never reach the same peak, but his personality had changed, his strength had developed differently, and Natsuhiko had revived Senju Hashirama. The boy spent nearly every day with the First Hokage. It was entirely possible he could still become a worthy successor to Ashura's will even without relying on the Nine-Tails.
Many uncertainties remained, yet under Natsuhiko's influence the world had already shifted in profound ways. Perhaps those shifts had given the two brothers—who had grown accustomed to watching the same predictable outcomes repeat endlessly—a reason to observe something new.
"I think I understand, Hamura-sama."
Natsuhiko exhaled quietly, tension easing from his shoulders. At the very least, he now knew where he stood in their eyes.
"Thank you for clarifying things. At least I no longer have to worry blindly."
"I told you not to overthink," Hamura replied with a faint smile. He tapped the table once more, and the golden space returned to its original state.
"Very well, child. It seems you now understand our stance toward you and that some minor misunderstandings have been cleared. Now we can discuss something more interesting. Your growth has far exceeded our expectations. You have brought hope and vitality to the shinobi world… but you have also drawn certain individuals here far earlier than they were meant to arrive."
"You're referring to Otsutsuki Urashiki?"
Natsuhiko understood immediately. This was likely the real reason Hamura had brought him here.
Urashiki himself had admitted he came because he was drawn by the chakra released during the evolution of Natsuhiko's eyes.
Natsuhiko didn't know the full extent of the disruption their arrival had caused, but he knew it couldn't be ignored. Otherwise this ancient being—who had hidden in the shadows of the ninja shinobi for who knew how long—would never have revealed himself and dragged Natsuhiko into this place.
He sighed. "My apologies, Hamura-sama. I didn't expect matters to escalate like this. I was careless."
"Actually, this matter isn't entirely your fault," Hamura sighed before speaking in a more serious tone. "But it has still caused quite a significant impact in the end. Their early arrival may greatly disrupt some of the arrangements and plans we have for the ninja world. Strictly speaking, this is truly not good news."
Hamura paused for a moment and looked at Natsuhiko with deeper meaning.
"After all, you are the only exception in the ninja world. Although you have already realized the seriousness of the problem, the growth of the ninja world is still far from sufficient."
Natsuhiko fell silent.
For the entire shinobi world, he was indeed an extreme outlier. A man carrying a system like his was unlikely to exist anywhere else — unless another transmigrator from his original world had also arrived. Yet after all these years, especially during his time in the ANBU, he had never encountered any sign of such a person. If one existed, they would have surfaced during the Third Great Ninja War. Hiding had its limits, and overt ninjas were far less capable of concealment than those in the shadows.
According to Hamura, Natsuhiko had also taken actions that could be considered worrisome. He had revived Senju Hashirama and Tobirama, even if his initial purpose hadn't been to target the Otsutsuki. But he had done it, and the results had been significant. Without Hashirama's protection during Urashiki's assault on Konoha, Natsuhiko didn't dare imagine what state the village would be in now.
Still, none of that was the most critical point.
What mattered most was Hamura's statement that the ninja world still needed to grow.
Grow into what? And how?
"Even so," Natsuhiko said after a moment, brows furrowed, "isn't the plan to let Indra's and Ashura's reincarnations mature? During the Fourth Great Ninja War, Naruto and Sasuke already proved they could handle the situation. Everyone else was mostly just providing support. When it came time to face Otsutsuki Kaguya, the others were trapped in Infinite Tsukuyomi and contributed nothing. So what else does the shinobi world need to grow for?"
He paused, recalling another detail.
The Sage of Six Paths had reclaimed the external powers he had granted Naruto and Sasuke. In later years, even without those powers, Naruto and Sasuke had managed to defeat Otsutsuki Toneri, Momoshiki, and Kinshiki — with some help from Boruto. But compared to their Fourth War selves, they had been vastly weaker. At best, their limit might have been around Natsuhiko's current level.
So the goal is to make the shinobi world strong enough to resist the Otsutsuki on its own?
The thought felt dangerous, yet it aligned with everything he had heard so far. To confirm it, however, he needed clearer answers.
After a brief hesitation, he asked, "Hamura-sama, if I may… what exactly is Infinite Tsukuyomi? I don't mean its effects — I want to know its true nature."
"Infinite Tsukuyomi?"
Hamura blinked, then smiled and asked back.
"Don't you already have the answer to that question? Whether from the records in this temple or what you saw in the Uchiha temple."
"No, Hamura-shinobi ."
Natsuhiko shook his head, his expression becoming more serious.
"What I want to know is the essence of Infinite Tsukuyomi. What it truly is."
"The essence of Infinite Tsukuyomi, huh?"
Seeing Natsuhiko's demeanor, Hamura also became more serious.
"It's a terrifying technique that can plunge the world into a dream and fulfill all the desires of those caught within it."
"Just that?"
Hearing this answer, Natsuhiko felt somewhat disappointed. If that was all, it was meaningless. He'd already seen the Infinite Tsukuyomi in the original story, knew its effects. But that wasn't what he wanted. At this point, he was genuinely let down.
"Of course, I also have another interpretation of this technique." Hamura spoke again, his expression still grave, devoid of his earlier lightness. "I prefer to see it as a transaction—or rather, a forced transaction."
"A transaction?" Natsuhiko raised an eyebrow. That wording carried strong implications.
"Using a genjutsu that cannot be refused, it pulls people into a beautiful dream world where they can obtain everything they desire — power, status, fulfillment of every wish. But in exchange, their bodies are claimed by the God Tree. Their wills are stripped away, their souls trapped forever in the dream, while their physical forms are transformed…"
Hamura closed his eyes for a moment, as though recalling something painful.
"They become weapons," he said at last. "Or rather… an army."
The word "army" carried weight. Hamura would not use it lightly.
Natsuhiko had long wondered why Kaguya created so many White Zetsu. From what little he remembered of his previous life, the most plausible reason was to build an army capable of resisting other Otsutsuki invaders. Yet creating such an army by essentially ending the world still struck him as insane.
Now it seemed someone had genuinely believed it was the only viable path.
"But why would Kaguya go that far?" Natsuhiko asked. "If her goal was to resist other Otsutsuki, why destroy the world in the process?"
Images of Kinshiki, Momoshiki, and Urashiki's dying words flashed through his mind. A new possibility surfaced.
What if Kaguya had not come to this world alone?
What if she had killed her companion for some reason and, fearing retaliation from the main Otsutsuki clan, had prepared an army in advance?
To create that army, she would have needed to harvest the world's life force — hence the God Tree and Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Hagoromo and Hamura, deeply connected to humanity, had naturally opposed her.
"But then, what did you mean when you said the shinobi world needs to grow?"
Natsuhiko felt a headache coming on. The information he could obtain was too little, and his analysis wasn't sufficient.
"Have you figured it out?"
Just as Natsuhiko was feeling extremely frustrated, Hamura spoke again.
"You seem to have thought of something interesting, or perhaps sensed some of our intentions through my words. I have to say, you're truly sharp, kid. Such sharpness isn't something ordinary people possess. However…"
Hamura gave Natsuhiko a strange look, then shook his head and sighed.
"Why don't you just ask me directly if you have questions? I brought you to this place. Do you think I'd refuse to answer questions I can answer? Besides, we also hope you'll lead the ninja world in a good direction. In many ways, your existence already serves as important proof of the correctness of our views."
Natsuhiko looked at him speechlessly. For some reason, he always felt like this guy was treating him as a lab rat.
His existence was proof of their views? What views exactly, and proving to whom?
Shaking his head, Natsuhiko sighed inwardly before speaking.
"Alright, Hamura-sama. I really do have too many questions I need answers to. May I ask — what exactly is going on? Why was your mother so wary of the other Otsutsuki? Did she do something bad? And what do you mean by 'growth,' and what role do I play in all of this?"
This time, Natsuhiko had completely voiced all his doubts.
He had a feeling that if he got answers this time, they would be earth-shattering.
Hamura pondered for a while, then nodded seriously.
"It seems you've considered more than I imagined. You're truly an excellent ninja — able to uncover so many secrets from just a few words. Well then, I can tell you some things you're allowed to know."
Hamura picked up his teacup again, took a gentle sip, with steam rising and the aroma spreading.
He unconsciously swirled the cup in his hand, then spoke in a low, steady voice.
"You're right. My mother was indeed guarding against those Otsutsuki, and she did take certain actions that led to the current situation. As for what exactly, I won't say. Perhaps you'll find an answer in the future."
"She believed the Otsutsuki could not be defeated through conventional means. The only solution, in her eyes, was to create a massive, obedient army. She intended to use Infinite Tsukuyomi to trap the entire world in dreams while harvesting their bodies to serve as that army."
"My brother and I could not accept that path. We believe humanity carries infinite potential because they were chosen by nature itself. As long as humanity receives sufficient tempering, they will eventually be strong enough to face the Otsutsuki."
"Because of this, the conflict between us and our mother became increasingly uncontrollable, until finally we sealed her away."
Hamura sighed deeply. Natsuhiko felt a chill run down his spine.
He could now completely confirm that his earlier guess had been correct.
Sure enough, Hamura soon revealed the rest.
"After sealing our mother, we still needed to prove our belief was correct. The shinobi world could not rely on our protection forever. If we revealed ourselves openly, the trouble we would face would be far greater than any threat we currently face.
"That is why my brother established Ninshū and spread the power of chakra to the world. With chakra came power, but how to better utilize and apply that power also became a big problem."
"When our mother was sealed, she left behind a child — our younger brother — whose purpose was to rescue her. So we made use of his existence, which also meant making use of Indra and Ashura."
"The war between Indra and Ashura was cruel, but their conflict allowed the entire shinobi world to be tempered. A millennium of unimaginably brutal wars soaked every corner of the shinobi world in blood. But those thousand years of war also allowed the people of the shinobi world to skillfully, familiarly, and purposefully use chakra."
"Growth requires sacrifice. Humanity must learn to stand against the Otsutsuki on their own. Our mother's arrival did not lead to humanity's extinction, but other Otsutsuki would certainly show no mercy."
"However, war is also cruel, so my brother has always secretly helped and nurtured people in shinobi world who truly value peace. Such people seemed out of place during the millennium of wars, but their existence has always conveyed hope. Even if such actions were like a drop in the bucket compared to the blood and corpses buried over a thousand years, with this belief the light would never extinguish. When humanity resists the Otsutsuki, they will inevitably unite because of such a terrifying external enemy. At least, that is the future we once saw."
Hamura stopped speaking. His tone was particularly calm, his expression returned to indifference.
He quietly looked at the silent Natsuhiko for a while before speaking softly.
"This is the truth of shinobi world. This is the answer you wanted to know."