"Kazuki—Kazuki, are you alright?!" Senju Tobirama, sensing the abyssal aura coiling around Kazuki's body and the sudden upheaval of power in the nearby space, could not hide his panic.
He knew it at once—that was the Ryōshiki Kazuki had spoken of!
As expected, this Ryōshiki was far stronger than Myōshiki… Yet the curse power unleashed by Myōshiki's self-detonation had clung to Kazuki's skin like an abyssal mire, continuing to erode him!
'So that's how it is?' Kazuki did not answer Tobirama. Instead, he sank into thought, reading two entries that had appeared with his recent leap in power.
[Power of the Planet's Will]: You have obtained the force a planet accumulates as it breeds and internalizes life. Your contained energy, baseline physical attributes, and resistance to special techniques are greatly increased!
Your existence can be regarded as a moving planet. You can assimilate and erode other planets.
[Shibai's Withered Remains]: You have obtained the power contained within the divine husk of Ōtsutsuki Shibai. Your bloodline power is now fully awakened. Your energy absorption rate, the strength of your soul, and your resistance to interference techniques are greatly increased!
Two so-called "great increases."
How great, exactly?
Kazuki had no intuitive measure—but after surviving Myōshiki's self-detonation, he had his first real sense of it.
At most, Myōshiki's do-or-die strike was like a bucket of cold water poured over a mortal—chill and uncomfortable, yes, but nothing more.
Even Ryōshiki's ever-rising aura now, so far above Myōshiki's that it filled the exhausted shinobi with dread—
To Kazuki's senses, it was merely… respectable.
Space ruptured without warning!
Like a god-demon, Ryōshiki pressed his five fingers tightly together, a blade to pierce all things, and thrust straight for Kazuki's heart!
Kazuki did not move—seemingly too weakened by the blast to respond in time.
A jolt of joy flashed through Ryōshiki—"Got him!"
[Crack!]
The sharp report rang across heaven and earth.
Ryōshiki, hand spearing toward Kazuki's heart, stared in disbelief as his fingers snapped—one after another—his pupils blown wide!
Impossible!
What was happening?
Hadn't Uchiha Kazuki been blasted down to his very last breath by Myōshiki's explosion…?
"You finally showed yourself, Ryōshiki—the reputed clan leader of the Ōtsutsuki." Kazuki turned, his palm neither fast nor slow, yet landing like a verdict of fate.
No matter how Ryōshiki retreated, he could only watch in horror as Kazuki effortlessly caught him.
"To be frank, the two supreme forces within me still need time to settle… Compared to you and Myōshiki, those two are the more troublesome enemies—and I need to face them properly."
Kazuki smiled, mild and unhurried. "So I waited for you to come to me. For the moment, it isn't convenient for me to give chase."
Ryōshiki stared, dumbfounded, at Kazuki. The composure he once displayed in manipulating battles across alternate dimensions had vanished without a trace. Desperately, he tried to wrench his arm free from Kazuki's grip.
But to his terror, Ryōshiki realized that Kazuki's strength had already risen to a level beyond anything he could withstand.
Even though Ryōshiki had achieved the third transformation—a stage no member of the Ōtsutsuki clan had ever reached—before Kazuki he was like a child, utterly incapable of resistance.
"From the look on your face, you don't understand why, do you…" Kazuki gave a quiet smile, releasing a fraction of the aura of Shibai's power within him.
It was divine.
The very state that Ryōshiki and Myōshiki had pursued for tens of thousands of years, devouring countless chakra fruits, exhausting endless secret arts, yet never managing to break through that final bottleneck!
"I know—you and Myōshiki both sought to become gods, to continue walking that unattainable path to the heavens."
Kazuki's smile was faint, but razor sharp. "Since neither of you could do it… then why shouldn't I?"
Ryōshiki's thoughts spun into chaos.
When—when had it happened?
Kazuki could not have possessed Shibai's power from the beginning. If he had, there would have been no need to play this elaborate drama against himself and Myōshiki. He could have crushed them both outright.
That meant—he and Myōshiki had, without even realizing it, become stepping stones for Kazuki's ascension?
Impossible… Ryōshiki had been watching Kazuki with his Byakugan constantly, not missing even a moment—
"Could it be!"
He recalled that blind spot—the instant when he believed Kazuki would die alongside Myōshiki in mutual destruction. In that brief surge, when Kazuki's chakra spiked to an unimaginable level, even his Byakugan had lost its precision.
At that moment, Ryōshiki stopped struggling. Like a seeker who, having glimpsed the truth, cared only to understand even if it meant dying at sunset, he simply wanted to know the reason for his failure.
Kazuki no longer concealed his aura.
"So… so that's how it is?"
Ryōshiki's Byakugan trembled as it gazed into Kazuki's body. He saw the power of planetary will. He saw the divine strength of Shibai. And he saw as well the solar sigil born from the evolution of his own dōjutsu, Sumeru Vishnu!
"You had discovered me long ago… You used what seemed like a suicidal opening to seize both Shibai's power and the power of the planet. Well played, Uchiha Kazuki… well played, you so-called lowborn creature from a remote world!"
Ryōshiki burst into wild, almost deranged laughter. Ten thousand years of effort and preparation, all waiting for a single chance—only to end like this.
"Give me a swift death!" Ryōshiki stared straight into Kazuki's eyes.
"Of course."
In the next instant, Kazuki's fist pierced through Ryōshiki's chest. A vast, overwhelming force tore away the life of the Ōtsutsuki clan leader.
Schemes, immortality, godhood—
All those words, once filled with ambition, hope, and future, no longer had any meaning for Ryōshiki.
"Hah…"
Kazuki let out a faint smile. For the first time since crossing into the shinobi world ten years ago, he revealed a smile without any burden, genuine and from the heart—if someone had seen it, they might even have thought it carried a trace of childishness.
At last, it was over.
The threat that loomed over the shinobi world, the calamity that endangered this planet, had been completely eradicated.
And the beings who had endured hatred and chaos through countless hardships had finally broken their chains, at last free to savor the beauty of unity and peace.
"Everyone, now it's your turn…" Kazuki slowly removed the chakra sphere from his chest, his gaze turning cold.
Inside that sphere was the consciousness of every living being in the shinobi world.
"You no longer have any value to me…"
In an instant, the hearts of the shinobi world's beings plummeted into an icy abyss.
Had they been deceived? Or had Kazuki, after inheriting that so-called divine power, already lost his humanity?
"So, you should rest now… and enjoy a beautiful life." Kazuki's cold gaze suddenly warmed like sunlight. His smile softened as he spoke gently: "Everyone, thank you. From here on, let's build the shinobi world together!"
The people of the shinobi world rolled their eyes at this so-called god in perfect unison.
It seemed Kazuki had not lost his humanity after all… he had only gained a new taste for mischief!
Senju Tobirama folded his arms, watching Kazuki with a smile.
This was his masterpiece.
The perfect fusion of the Uchiha clan and the Will of Fire.
And as Kazuki met Tobirama's eyes, both men exchanged a smile, their thoughts converging on the same question: 'Kazuki, isn't it time you got married?'
'Tobirama, shouldn't you start a family yourself?'
...
Kazuki gazed across the scarred land.
After such an earth-shattering battle, this planet looked utterly ruined, nearly unfit for life.
Forests, streams, and mountains of old had all been obliterated in the crossfire, leaving behind only vast stretches of scorched earth, the air heavy with the stench of burnt flesh and ash.
Where Kazuki, Myōshiki, and Ryōshiki—each wielding power akin to gods—had clashed and crushed the fabric of space, the collapse still spewed out abyssal torrents of warped time-space, violent vortices draining the surrounding matter.
The planet resembled a hell where no living being could survive.
And yet, in the hearts of Kazuki and every living soul of the shinobi world—none of it mattered anymore.
After slaying Ryōshiki, clan head of the Ōtsutsuki, and Myōshiki, his second-in-command, the sword hanging over the shinobi world's neck had finally been shattered!
In the past—even if the shinobi world was free of war, flourishing with prosperity, songs, and peace, a perfect home where people lived together in harmony—it was always nothing more than an illusion.
When the judgment of the Ōtsutsuki clan arrived, all that beauty was torn apart by violence, swallowed by death and void.
But now, with that threat eliminated—though their homeland was left in ruins—the situation had fundamentally changed. No matter how dire, no matter how bleak, as long as everyone worked together, rebuilding bit by bit…
Each grain of effort would gather like sand into a tower, and eventually everything would recover.
Most importantly, they no longer needed to fear external threats. They could finally dedicate themselves wholly to repairing their home.
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