Concepts like a four-day workweek, nine-to-five hours, standard retirement benefits, and bans on child labor sounded utterly absurd to the old-school hardliners in the Allied Shinobi Forces.
"If we work four days and take three off, what happens if our enemies work five days and only take two off?" one ninja barked.
"We only honor shinobi who die in glorious battle, not retired freeloaders!"
"Why give them such luxurious welfare? If we shower ninjas with handouts, how will they ever maintain a survival mindset?"
"Comfort makes men soft! It ruins their fighting spirit—they won't train or bleed for the village anymore."
"Exactly! Shinobi are built on enduring hardship. Our entire way of life is about suffering through pain."
"And what about war orphans? Everyone knows true geniuses are forged in trauma. Banning lethal training is just ridiculous."
"This Kazekage just wants to sabotage the human resources of other villages! His intentions are pure poison!"
"Why should we be forbidden from researching forbidden jutsu? We ought to be developing more apocalypse-class jutsu, not less!"
"Fixed operational hours are a complete joke. What are we supposed to do—call a truce at five o'clock sharp? What if the enemy launches a sneak attack off the clock?"
"Of course you would bring that up, you treacherous Mist ninja!"
"Look who's talking! Cloud ninja are the sleaziest backstabbers on the map!"
"Please, you Konoha hypocrites take the prize for fake virtue. You're an embarrassment to the shinobi world!"
"You're all absolute garbage!"
What started as pushback against Mufasa's labor reforms quickly deteriorated into an all-out, chaotic shouting match.
Even the Kage were bickering violently among themselves.
Mufasa let out a heavy, weary sigh as he watched the circus unfold.
'The rat race has rotted their brains straight down to the bone marrow,' he thought. 'Curing this level of institutional toxicity is going to be a nightmare.'
Maybe that classic sci-fi trope held some truth after all.
Perhaps true mutual understanding and global unity could only happen when alien invaders descended and humanity stared absolute extinction in the face.
Speak of the devil.
Right on the horizon of the battlefield, Momoshiki Otsutsuki and Kinshiki Otsutsuki descended from the clouds.
Their chalk-white skin, jagged horns, and celestial white robes instantly drew every gaze from the ground below.
"Who the hell are those two?" Kakuzu muttered, glancing sideways at Hidan. "Are they new recruits from your blood-cult?"
"Hell no!" Hidan spat, leaning on his scythe. "Lord Jashin's faithful paint themselves with proper ritual marks. Those two look like weird porcelain dolls."
Among the vast ninja ranks, only two individuals recognized their true origin.
One was Black Zetsu.
'Are they... Mother's clan members? Or her partners?' Black Zetsu wondered, his form tensing inside the shadows. 'What are they doing here now?'
The other was Jigen—or rather, Isshiki Otsutsuki—who was quietly lurking within the allied ranks under disguise.
The arrival of Momoshiki and Kinshiki was catastrophic news for him.
It could only mean the main Otsutsuki branch had lost patience and dispatched enforcers to execute him and Kaguya.
'If they wipe out the shinobi and harvest this world, what happens to my vessel?' Isshiki thought, his eyes narrowing in calculation.
Up in the air, Momoshiki and Kinshiki ignored the ground troops entirely, floating directly between Mufasa's giant war mech and Hashirama's massive wooden avatar.
A single glance told them that these two colossal giants were the epicenters of power on this battlefield.
Naturally, the bastard who set up the trap for Urashiki had to be here.
The Kage on the wooden canopy all tilted their heads skyward.
"What kind of shinobi are those two?" Madara asked, his eyes scanning them with disdain. "Do you recognize them, Hashirama?"
Hashirama scratched the back of his head, thoroughly stumped. "Never seen them in my life."
"They certainly don't look like honorable shinobi," Onoki grumbled. "A bit flashy, like those Cloud ninja."
The Raikage flared with anger. "Watch your mouth, old man! Since when do Cloud ninja look like pale corpses?!"
"I'm talking about the style, you hothead!" Onoki shot back.
"Style my foot!"
While the Kage traded insults, Momoshiki and Kinshiki drifted into position directly overhead.
Momoshiki looked down on the assembled leaders with undisguised contempt, his chin raised high.
"Which one of you lower lifeforms is in charge here?" Momoshiki demanded coldly.
The Kage exchanged puzzled looks.
The Fourth Raikage snapped first. "You arrogant bastard! Who gave you permission to look down on us? Get down here!"
"Lightning Style: Lightning Whip!"
A crackling whip of condensed lightning snapped through the air, whipping furiously toward the two interlopers.
Momoshiki offered a mocking smirk.
Raising his right hand, the red Rinnegan embedded in his palm flared with light, suctioning the entire lightning whip into his skin in an instant.
He smoothly raised his left hand, and the matching red Rinnegan flashed.
CRACK!
A thunderous bolt of crimson lightning—three times thicker and infinitely more destructive than the original attack—blasted straight back down at the Fourth Raikage.
"What kind of jutsu is that?!" the Raikage gasped in disbelief.
Onoki reacted swiftly, clapping his hands to raise a reinforced earth wall to intercept the blast.
"Attack together!" the Raikage roared.
In a flash, the various Kage unleashed a torrent of high-tier elemental ninjutsu directly toward Momoshiki.
Momoshiki possessed a crimson Rinnegan in the palm of each hand.
His right palm could absorb all forms of chakra and ninjutsu, converting them into stamina while generating black chakra receivers to pin down opponents.
His left palm could magnify the power of absorbed jutsu several times over and redirect them with catastrophic force.
Facing the storm of elemental attacks, Momoshiki's smile turned positively wicked.
Absorbing with his right, amplifying with his left.
He toyed with the legendary Kage as if they were squabbling children, brushing off their ultimate attacks while raining amplified devastation back down, sending them scrambling for cover.
Meanwhile, Mufasa was casually leaning against his console, reading the live data feed forwarded from the aerial fortress.
'Oh? They took down an Otsutsuki?'
'The Gundam had to trigger a self-destruct?'
His gaze lingered on the biological scan attached to the file.
'A black diamond mark burned onto Setsuna's palm... Could this be the Otsutsuki Karma seal?'
'And these corrupted data files... they're Urashiki's digitized genetic backup?'
A broad, genuine smile spread across Mufasa's face.
'Now that is fascinating. Who would've thought we'd harvest the greatest secret of the Otsutsuki clan so easily?'
Overhead, Hashirama jumped to the front, yelling toward the sky. "Hold your fire! What is your purpose here?!"
Momoshiki ignored him, pointing a pale finger toward the descending lunar mass blotting out the upper atmosphere.
"Who brought down this moon?"
Every single shinobi on the canopy turned and pointed directly at Mufasa.
"Live long and prosper," Mufasa said, raising his hand to flash the iconic Vulcan salute—splitting his middle and ring fingers into a crisp V.
Momoshiki blinked, completely derailed by the strange gesture.
"What kind of bizarre hand sign is that? Are you challenging me, insect?"
Mufasa shook his head with mock disappointment.
"And here I thought celestial beings from outer space would have a shred of cosmic culture."
"Turns out you don't even recognize a standard Vulcan greeting. How uncultured."
'Vulcan? Who the hell is Vulcan?'
Momoshiki and Kinshiki exchanged a brief, baffled glance.
Neither had ever encountered such a title across their travels, but one thing was certain—the cheeky monkey in front of them was baiting them.
Momoshiki pointed back up at the celestial mass. "Did you drag this moon down from orbit?"
Mufasa shrugged modestly, gesturing toward the giant mech beneath his feet.
"Just a little joint project between me and my fellow villagers."
He waved a casual hand. "A trivial trick, really. Hardly worth mentioning."
Hearing that, Momoshiki secretly breathed a small sigh of relief.
'If a single mortal had the raw power to yank a celestial body out of orbit through sheer force, I'd actually have to take him seriously,' Momoshiki thought. 'If he's just drawing juice from a massive colony puppet full of chakra batteries, he's nothing to fear.'
Momoshiki gestured toward the battered Allied Shinobi Forces below.
"So, you dropped this celestial rock just to crush these primitive bugs?"
Mufasa nodded cheerfully. "Naturally. I wanted to give them a little Sunagakure hospitality."
"Then you didn't orchestrate this whole display as a deliberate trap to ambush us?" Momoshiki asked.
Mufasa looked genuinely insulted.
"Who the hell do you think you are?"
"You think I pulled a whole damn moon down just to ambush two clowns in bathrobes?"
"Get over yourself."
Momoshiki's pale face flushed with rage.
"Insolent ape! I'll show you what true power looks like!"
He decided right then and there to give these primitive creatures an unforgettable lesson in divine supremacy.
Raising his left arm, a colossal blade of solid golden chakra manifested from his palm, extending into the sky like a spear of pure light.
The glowing blade stretched without limit, piercing straight through the center of the descending moon.
CRACK!
A collective gasp ripped through the Allied Shinobi Forces.
"He... he pierced the moon!"
"What kind of monstrous strength is that?!"
The Great Toad Sage began trembling violently, ancient memories of Kaguya Otsutsuki's tyrannical reign flooding back into his mind.
'Pale skin, horns, divine arrogance... They belong to the same celestial clan!'
'Is the dark age of the Otsutsuki returning to engulf the world again?'
The old toad stared in absolute terror. 'Who can possibly save the shinobi world now?!'
"Mother—! Mother, no!"
A blood-curdling, tragic wail echoed from the fringes of the battlefield, so steeped in raw grief that it made nearby shinobi shudder.
Obito glanced down at Black Zetsu, genuinely bewildered by the weeping mass of black sludge.
"Do plant creatures even have mothers?" Obito asked dryly.
Black Zetsu glared through his tears. "You're half-grafted with Hashirama Cells yourself, you jerk! Plants have lineage too!"
"I have a mother!"
"What does your mother have to do with the moon getting poked?" Obito asked.
Black Zetsu couldn't blow his cover, so he wiped his metaphorical tears and choked out an excuse.
"Whenever I miss my mother, I look at the moon! Now that the moon is vandalized, it feels like my mother is being violated! Don't you understand the agony of losing the one you love most?!"
Obito's eye softened, struck right in the heart. "I understand... Rin..."
The two of them huddled together, weeping over their respective traumas.
"By the way," Obito sniffled, "why do you only ever cry for your mother? What about your dad?"
Black Zetsu wept even harder. 'Because I don't have a damn dad to begin with!'
Even Mufasa winced slightly, looking up at the pierced moon.
'Man, if that blade went all the way through, did he just impale Kaguya in the chest?'
'If she got stabbed through her seal, that poor woman really has the worst luck in the cosmos.'
'She traveled across the stars for work, fell in love with a local barbarian prince, got betrayed while pregnant, ate the forbidden fruit to fight back, and went full dark empress.'
'Then her own ungrateful sons got brainwashed by a giant toad and sealed her inside a cold lunar rock for thousands of years.'
'And just before she gets parole, some uninvited relative stabs her through the ceiling with a giant laser sword. That's tragic novel protagonist tier right there.'
Momoshiki wasn't finished.
With a vicious sweep of his arm, he dragged the golden chakra blade downward in a colossal cleaving arc.
KRAAA-BOOM!
The entire celestial mass sheared in two, breaking along a blinding golden fault line.
The entire Allied Shinobi Forces erupted into mass panic.
The moon—the celestial body hanging over their heads since the dawn of time—had just been cleaved in half.
Worse, the two severed halves weren't drifting back into space; they were tumbling directly toward the earth under gravity's pull.
If those twin landmasses slammed into the crust, the resulting impact would vaporize the continent.
Hovering triumphantly above the falling debris, Momoshiki threw his head back and laughed maniacally.
"Hahaha!"
"Do you see it now, insects?!"
"This is the supreme might of the Otsutsuki clan!"
"Mother! Nooooo!" Black Zetsu wailed in absolute despair.
Thousands of years of meticulous planning, and his mother had just been bisected before she could even wake up.
Down in the crowd, Isshiki disguised as Jigen clicked his tongue in pure disgust.
'That reckless, brainless fool... What does he think he's accomplishing with this pointless spectacle?'
Momoshiki looked down at the ninja scurrying around like panicked ants, his ego swelling with ecstatic satisfaction.
'There is nothing sweeter than absolute subjugation.'
Whoosh.
A blurred, dark silhouette materialized in the empty air directly in front of his face.
Momoshiki froze, his laughter cutting off instantly.
"What—how did you get up here?!"
The corners of Mufasa's mouth pulled back into a sharp, mocking grin.
"Flying? It's pretty basic, honestly."
"Didn't your parents ever teach you proper manners before barging into someone else's home?"
"Showing up without an invitation is bad enough, but casually dropping trash all over my front yard?"
"Bratty, ill-mannered tourists like you really get on my nerves."
Momoshiki bristled with fury. "You dare—"
SLAP!
A deafening backhand cracked across Momoshiki's cheek, the kinetic shockwave shattering the sound barrier and snapping his head around violently.
"If your elders never bothered to raise you right," Mufasa murmured coldly, "then I'll teach you some manners myself."