The glorious, stabilizing beam of light had torn open a permanent pathway home, a testament to their will and a rebuke to Kaguya's nihilism. But the progenitor of chakra was not yet defeated. The shock on her face solidified into something colder, more desperate. The sight of that open gateway to the world she sought to reclaim—and which had just rejected her ultimate power—ignited a final, terrifying fury.
Kaguya: (Her voice was no longer an echo, but a crackling, multi-tonal distortion that shook the very dimensional flux) NO. YOU WILL NOT RETURN. YOU WILL NOT CARRY THIS DEFIANCE BACK. IF I CANNOT RECLAIM MY GARDEN… I WILL BURN IT FROM HERE.
Her silver hair lashed like stellar filaments. The All-Seeing Eye on her forehead pulsed with a light that hurt to perceive. Around her, the chaotic energy of the flux, the remnants of the dissolved Truth-Seeking Orbs, and her own seemingly infinite chakra began to coalesce once more. But this was different. This was not a technique; it was a convulsion of her very being.
Black Zetsu: (Shrieking in a perverse mix of terror and glee) YES, MOTHER! UNMAKE THE SPACE BETWEEN! ERASE THE CANVAS!
From her body, not dozens, but thousands of Expansive Truth-Seeker Orbs began to bloom. They didn't just appear around her; they manifested in every direction, filling the entire dimensional corridor, blotting out the light of the gateway, pressing in with the absolute, silent promise of annihilation. This wasn't an attack meant to be dodged or countered. It was the detonation of her core authority over this non-space. She was going to collapse the interstitial realm itself, taking them—and potentially causing catastrophic reverberations into the real world—into absolute nothingness.
The pressure was immeasurable. Naruto's golden cloak flickered violently. Sasuke's Susanoo groaned as cracks spiderwebbed across its armor. The beautiful cocoon lattice Rias had created began to dissolve under the sheer conceptual weight of so much concentrated negation.
Naruto: (Straining, his voice gritted) It's… everywhere! There's no way to block it all!
Sasuke: (His Rinnegan and Mangekyō spinning wildly, analyzing futile escape vectors) She's overloading the local laws of existence! A direct hit will erase us conceptually!
Indra and Rias stood back-to-back. The calm, analytical focus in Indra's eyes had sharpened to a razor's edge. He looked at the encroaching wall of silent oblivion, then at the strained faces of his allies, and finally, his gaze met Rias's.
In that instant, a silent, profound conversation transpired between them, faster than thought. A calculus of risk, of capacity, of final options. They had fought at less than half their power, then at eighty percent, showcasing mastery and control. Now, the equation demanded the final variable.
Indra: (His voice, for the first time in the entire conflict, held no clinical distance, only absolute, resolute certainty) Rias. It's time.
Rias: (A slow, deep breath filled her lungs. She didn't look scared; she looked focused, like a musician preparing for the performance of a lifetime. She nodded once, a fierce light in her gold-flecked eyes) Together. All of it.
Indra turned his head slightly, addressing Naruto and Sasuke without taking his eyes off the collapsing universe around them.
Indra: Do not resist the next pull. No matter what you see or feel. Trust the process.
Before they could question, Indra closed his eyes. The orbiting sigils on his Rinnegan—Palkia, Dialga, Giratina—and the faint, nascent glimmer of Arceus, flared with an intensity that rivaled Kaguya's All-Seeing Eye. He didn't raise his hands to fight the orbs. Instead, he placed a palm over his own heart, and the other reached back to grasp Rias's hand.
Indra: Sovereign Decree: Inner World Aperture — Absolute Manifestation. Temporal Law: Dilation Anchor — Established. Spatial Law: Inviolable Domain — Open.
The world unfolded.
It wasn't a portal. It was a replacement. The terrifying, orb-filled void, Kaguya's raging form, the flickering gateway home—all of it was wiped away like a mist. One moment they were in the collapsing between-space, the next, they stood… elsewhere.
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INDRA'S INNER WORLD
It was a realm of sublime, impossible order. The "sky" was a geometric lattice of softly glowing silver lines against a deep cobalt background, like a celestial blueprint. The "ground" was a surface of seamless, dark material that felt solid yet hummed with potential. In the distance, structures that defied conventional geometry—floating libraries of crystal, forges where lightning was hammered into solid shape, gardens of light that grew in fractal patterns—stood as testaments to a mind built for creation and control. At the center of it all pulsed a silent, titanic engine of chakra, a fusion of Uchiha fire, Uzumaki vitality, and something entirely other—the core of his System, his Templates, his sovereign will. The air thrummed with a quiet, immense power. This was not a landscape; it was the manifest architecture of Indra's soul and potential.
Naruto and Sasuke stumbled, their senses reeling. The crushing, existential pressure of Kaguya's attack was gone, replaced by this profound, controlled intensity.
Naruto: (Looking around, jaw slack) Whoa… where is this? It feels like… inside a giant, really calm machine?
Sasuke: (His Rinnegan instinctively trying to analyze the environment and failing to find conventional natural energy) This isn't a genjutsu. This is a… physical subspace. A pocket reality generated and sustained by his own chakra and will. The scale… it's impossible.
Their attention was snapped forward. A hundred meters away, Kaguya and Black Zetsu had also been translated. The progenitor of chakra looked momentarily disoriented, her Expansive Truth-Seeker Orbs absent. Her All-Seeing Eye darted around, analyzing this new prison.
Black Zetsu: (Clutching at her, his voice shrill) What is this place? Mother, I cannot feel the outer world! The chakra… it's all him!
Indra and Rias stood between their allies and the threat. They had not moved, but their posture had changed utterly. Indra stood straighter, as if a weight he'd been carrying for years had been lifted. Here, in his domain, he was not a shinobi using power; he was the source of the local laws. Rias beside him seemed to harmonize perfectly with the environment; the fractal light-gardens brightened at her presence.
Indra: (His voice echoed slightly, carrying the full authority of the world around them) Welcome to the crucible, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. This is my Inner World. Here, the variables are controlled. Here, your infinite chakra meets a finite, but perfectly efficient, system. And here, time is a resource we now possess in abundance.
He gestured vaguely upward. Within the geometric lattice of the sky, a complex, clock-like mechanism of light formed, its gears interlocking with the silver lines.
Indra: Temporal Dilation Protocol: Engaged. Ratio: One external day equals one internal subjective year.
The words hung in the air, their implication staggering.
Sasuke: (Whispering, horrified and awed) A… a year? Inside a day?
Naruto: A whole year of fighting? That's… that's crazy!
Kaguya: (Her disorientation burned away by cold fury) A temporal trap. A child's attempt to delay the inevitable. My endurance is eternal. You will break long before I weary.
Rias: (Cracking her neck, a smile that was all sharp edges on her lips) "Eternal" just means you're very, very slow. We're going to see how eternal you feel after a year of this.
She didn't wait. There was no signal, no further declaration. The final battle within the Inner World began not with a cataclysm, but with a sudden, terrifying seriousness.
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DAY 1 – MONTH 3: THE TEST OF ENDURANCE
The first clash set the tone for the grueling year. Kaguya, adapting swiftly, sought to overwhelm them with sheer, relentless force. She launched torrents of All-Killing Ash Bones, summoned Rabbit Hair Blades that could pierce dimensions, and manifested localized Expansive Truth-Seeker Orbs within the Inner World itself, testing its stability.
Indra and Rias did not meet force with greater force. They met it with perfect force.
An Ash Bone volley aimed at Naruto was intercepted not by a shield, but by a Spatial Law: Recursive Fold, causing the bones to endlessly loop in a one-meter cube of space until their energy dissipated. A Truth-Seeker Orb that manifested above Rias was subjected to a Temporal Law: Accelerated Entropy Field, aging it from a stable construct to harmless dust in three seconds. Kaguya's attempt to phase through the ground was countered by Giratina's Authority: Distorted Substance, turning the solid floor beneath her into a morass of non-Newtonian fluid that trapped her limb.
Rias was everywhere, her movements a blur of harmonic precision.
She used Sonic Release: Silent World not as an attack, but as a sensory deprivation field around Kaguya, forcing the goddess to rely solely on her All-Seeing Eye, draining its focus. She countered Rabbit Hair Blades with Destruction Release: Unraveling Touch, her fingers brushing the projectiles and persuading their cohesive form to simply cease. When Kaguya tried to flood the area with acidic chakra, Rias responded with True Wood Release: Purifying Grove, causing fast-growing, singing trees to erupt and metabolize the poison into fragrant, harmless blossoms.
Naruto and Sasuke, after the initial shock, found themselves relegated to the periphery—not as fighters, but as horrified, awestruck students. They were ordered to defend a fixed point, a symbolic "core" of the Inner World, from any stray attacks. It was a make-work task; Indra and Rias intercepted 99% of everything. It gave the two boys a front-row seat to a year-long masterclass in transcendent warfare.
Week 4: The battles raged across the artificial landscapes of the Inner World—across the lightning forges, through the fractal gardens, over the silent libraries. There were no nights, only the constant, luminous glow of the geometric sky. Kaguya showed no signs of fatigue. Neither did Indra or Rias.
Naruto: (Watching as Rias seamlessly transitioned from weaving a sonic barrier to growing a wooden fist that punched through a bone spear, to flash-freezing a wave of chakra with Ice Release) How… how are they not even breathing hard? We've been fighting for a month!
Sasuke: (His Sharingan and Rinnegan constantly recording, analyzing, struggling to keep up) They're not expending unnecessary energy. Every movement, every technique, is perfectly calculated for maximum effect with minimum cost. He manipulates the fundamental laws to do most of the work. She… she convinces reality to help her. They're not fighting her. They're managing her.
Month 3: The first major shift occurred. Kaguya, frustrated by her inability to land a decisive blow or break their flawless defense, attempted her dimensional shift technique. Space around her warped, trying to tear a hole out of the Inner World.
Indra: (Without even looking up from a spatial calculation he was mentally performing) Denied. Spatial Law: Domain Lock. Palkia's Authority: Sovereign Boundary.
The warping space snapped back into place like a overstretched rubber band. The Inner World shuddered, but held. Kaguya staggered, a flicker of something beyond anger in her eyes—the first seed of doubt.
Kaguya: This realm… it rejects my authority. How?
Rias: (Wiping a faint sheen of sweat from her brow—the first visible sign of exertion after three months) It's not a realm, it's a statement. And the statement is: you don't make the rules here.
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MONTH 4 – MONTH 9: THE REALIZATION OF HORROR
The war of attrition deepened. Kaguya grew more creative, more brutal. She tried genjutsu on a planetary scale, flooding the Inner World with illusions of infinite Tsukuyomi. Indra dismissed it with a Temporal Law: Causal Reset, rewinding the local area's perception by a picosecond, breaking the illusion's inception. She tried creating clones of herself from the environment's chakra. Rias identified the harmonic dissonance in each clone and shattered them with a single, resonant Sonic Release: Shattersong.
Through it all, Indra and Rias fought. They didn't eat, they didn't sleep in any conventional sense. They would occasionally retreat to a pre-designated "rest zone"—a calm plinth near the central engine—where they would sit back-to-back, eyes closed, for what might have been an external hour (subjective two weeks). During these "breaks," their chakra would visibly recycle, wounds (rare as they were) would heal instantly from the ambient energy of the world, and they would communicate in hushed, rapid technical speech, refining their strategies.
Naruto and Sasuke, in their defensive position, were sustained by concentrated chakra-infused nutrients that condensed from the air itself—a function of the Inner World. They trained, they argued, they slept in shifts, and they watched.
Month 6: Sasuke made a chilling observation.
Sasuke: They're learning her. Not just her techniques. Her rhythm. Her decision-making pathways. Indra is predicting her attacks not by sight, but by modeling her psychological state. Rias is anticipating her emotional resonance and pre-tuning her harmonic counters. They are… reverse-engineering a goddess.
Month 8: Kaguya landed her first significant blow. In a moment of blinding speed, she bypassed a spatial fold and drove a Bone Ash spear through Rias's shoulder. Rias didn't cry out. She gripped the bone, her hand glowing with Destruction energy, and dissolved it before it could spread. The wound closed over with glowing wood fibers in seconds. But the hit had happened.
Kaguya did not look triumphant. She looked… confused. And that confusion curdled into a dawning, icy horror.
The relentless, year-long pressure (from her perspective) was having its effect. Not on Indra and Rias's endurance, but on Kaguya's understanding. The flawless synchronization, the effortless law-breaking, the total lack of desperation—it was not the behavior of mortals, even powerful ones. It was the behavior of… principles.
The final straw came in Month 9. After a particularly complex exchange where Indra used a Gravity Inversion Field to send her own Truth-Seeker Orb back at her, which Rias then harmonically destabilized into a shower of light, Kaguya disengaged. She hovered in the center of the battleground, her hair and robes disheveled, her All-Seeing Eye fixed on the two figures standing calmly amidst the aesthetic wreckage of their own world.
Her voice, when it came, had lost its divine distortion. It was raw, quiet, and laced with a fear she had not felt since her sons betrayed her.
Kaguya: What are you?
The question hung in the luminous air. Naruto and Sasuke held their breath.
Kaguya: You do not fight like humans. You do not tire like mortals. You do not rage like my son, or hope like the other. You move… like the turning of stars. You enforce… like the erosion of mountains. You create and uncreate… like primordial forces given will. Her white eyes widened. You are not of this world. Not truly. You are… concepts. Incarnate.
Indra looked at her, his expression unreadable. Rias tilted her head, as if listening to a faint, interesting melody.
Indra: Incorrect. We are of this world. We are simply the first of it to fully understand the tools we were given and choose to build with them, rather than merely consume. You see forces of nature. We see physics. You see primordial beings. We see potential.
Rias: You're scared because you finally see something you can't overpower. You can't overpower a law. You can only obey it, or be broken by it. In here, we are the law.
The horror fully dawned on Kaguya's face. She wasn't fighting enemies. She was trapped in a self-contained, logical system that was methodically proving her own existence within it was an error. The desire to escape, not to win, but to flee this terrifyingly rational place, became overwhelming.
Kaguya: RELEASE ME!
She unleashed a wave of power greater than any before, not to attack, but to break the world itself. Space fractured. Time stuttered.
Indra: (His voice cut through the chaos, firm and final) Denied. You will see this through to its conclusion. Sovereign Decree: Containment Sustained.
The Inner World absorbed the outburst, the fractures healing instantly, the temporal stutter smoothed over by the great clock in the sky. There was no escape.
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MONTH 10 – YEAR'S END: THE FINAL LESSON
The last three months were a grim procession. Kaguya's attacks became more frantic, less precise. The goddess was being worn down not by physical damage, but by psychological attrition—by the inexorable, unchanging reality of her opponents' unwavering sovereignty. Black Zetsu had long since ceased his screams, clinging to his mother in silent, terrified despair.
Indra and Rias, meanwhile, had reached a state of such seamless unity they seemed to share a single consciousness. A glance was a strategy session. A touch was a chakra transfer. They fought with the serene, terrible beauty of a dual-star system, their orbits perfectly aligned, their gravity defining the battlefield.
Finally, the subjective year drew to a close. The great clock in the geometric sky completed its final, symbolic cycle with a deep, resonant chime that echoed through every atom of the Inner World.
Indra and Rias stood together. They looked… not tired, but complete. The year-long crucible had been the final step in their synchronization. The 100% templates were not just numbers; they were a lived, experienced reality.
Indra: (He looked at Naruto and Sasuke) The preparation phase is complete. The target's will is fractured. Her power is mapped. The environment is stabilized. You have your seals. It is time.
Naruto: (He looked older, not in body, but in eyes. He had watched a war within a war. He clenched his fist, the Sun Seal glowing brightly) We're ready.
Sasuke: (His Rinnegan held a new depth of understanding. He gave a single, sharp nod) Let's finish this.
Indra: Sovereign Decree: Inner World Reversion. Temporal Dilation: Concluded.
The world folded again.
________________________________________
THE DIMENSIONAL FLUX – EXTERNAL TIME: 1 DAY LATER
They reappeared in the chaotic, colorless flux. From the perspective of the Allied Forces waiting with bated breath on the other side of the gateway, only a single day had passed. For the combatants, a year of relentless, transcendent conflict had been endured.
Kaguya stumbled as the familiar, formless void returned. But she was not the same. The imperious, detached goddess was gone. In her place was a being whose eyes held the haunted, exhausted look of something that had been dissected under a microscope for a century. Her chakra was undiminished, but her will was shattered. She saw Indra and Rias, and a visceral flinch ran through her. They were not opponents; they were walking reminders of her own obsolescence.
Black Zetsu: (Reviving, his voice a weak croak) Mother… we must…
Indra: (Ignoring him, speaking to Naruto and Sasuke) Now. While her conceptual resistance is at its nadir. Use the seal your mentor gave you.
Naruto and Sasuke didn't hesitate. They lunged forward, not with anger, but with a solemn sense of duty. Kaguya tried to raise a hand, to summon an orb, but her movements were slow, haunted by a year of perfect counters.
Naruto & Sasuke: SIX PATHS: CHIBAKU TENSEI!
The power of the Sun and Moon Seals erupted from their palms. This was not the planetary creation of pain. This was a targeted, divine sealing. Gravitational force, amplified by Six Paths Chakra and the authority of the Sage's gifts, enveloped Kaguya. She didn't scream. She simply looked at Indra and Rias one last time, her expression one of exhausted, final understanding, and then at the vast, connected world visible through the gateway—the world that had produced her end.
Kaguya: (A final, soft whisper) …A better song…
Stone, drawn from the very fabric of the dimensional flux, encased her, layer upon layer, forming a massive, rocky moon that hung suspended in the colorless void. The All-Seeing Eye's light was extinguished. The progenitor of chakra was sealed.
Black Zetsu, severed from his mother, let out a piercing shriek of absolute loss and hatred. He tried to melt into the void, to escape.
Indra: (His hand snapped out) Not you. Spatial Law: Pinpoint Capture. Conceptual Stasis Seal: Engram of Malice.
A cube of perfectly transparent, crystalline force, lined with shimmering Uzumaki and Uchiha fuinjutsu of unimaginable complexity, snapped into existence around the flailing Zetsu. He slammed against the walls, which didn't budge. Inside the cube, time, space, and thought were locked in an absolute stasis. He was a fossil of hatred, frozen in his final moment of despair.
Indra floated over to the cube, examining it dispassionately.
Rias: (Coming to stand beside him, a year of tension finally leaving her shoulders) A permanent prison?
Indra: (Shook his head) No. He is a persistent cognitive hazard. A memetic virus of spite. Imprisonment risks corruption or release. He must be deleted.
He held his hand over the stasis cube. The Dialga sigil on his Rinnegan glowed.
Indra: Temporal Law: Accelerated Decay Field. Maximum Compression.
Inside the cube, time began to race forward at a terrifying, exponential rate. Black Zetsu's form blurred. They watched as millennia of decay were compressed into seconds. His form withered, cracked, crumbled into dust, the dust lost cohesion, and then even the elemental particles, stripped of the malicious will that bound them, dispersed into harmless background energy. In less than ten seconds, an entity as old as Kaguya's betrayal was erased from all existence, not by destruction, but by the simple, irrevocable passage of time.
Silence descended upon the flux. The massive Chibaku Tensei moon hovered peacefully. The gateway home shone brightly, steadfast. The war was over.
Naruto and Sasuke slumped, the immense output of the sealing technique and the psychological weight of the year-long observation finally hitting them. They simply stared at the moon, then at Indra and Rias, with a respect that bordered on reverence.
Indra: (Turning to face the gateway, his arm sliding around Rias's waist, supporting her as she leaned into him) The threat is neutralized. The system is secure. It is time to go home.
Together, the four of them—the sovereigns and the inheritors—turned their backs on the sealed moon and the empty void, and walked toward the light of their own world, ready to face the future they had fought a subjective year to protect.
End of Chapter – 122.