Black Zetsu briefly explained the current situation of the shinobi world, placing special emphasis on "spiritual power," "Shinigami," "Quincy," and, of course, Yuki Yoru.
But in the face of Black Zetsu's heavy explanation, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya remained indifferent.
In her era, the shinobi world wasn't yet the shinobi world. There weren't even "ninja" as an occupation. Shrine maidens, samurai, onmyōji… it had been an age of diversity, where each profession wielded different powers. Yet under the divine oppression of the Rabbit Goddess, all those energies had been forcibly transformed into chakra—fuel for her own might.
Spiritual power might be unusual, but to Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, it was all the same.
The only thing truly worth her attention was the man standing before her—Yuki Yoru.
"Your power is worthy of becoming a warrior under my command. I will give you one chance, Yuki Yoru," Kaguya said coolly.
"Find Hagoromo and Hamura, before I reclaim all the energy in this garden."
Yoru chuckled softly.
"So condescending… just like those other two."
"And what if I refuse?"
"Then you die."
There was no hesitation, no more words. The instant Yoru's refusal left his lips, an overwhelming, boundless pressure erupted from Kaguya's body.
The warped space twisted the very world. In the blink of an eye, Yoru felt his surroundings spin violently. The devastated earth beneath his feet vanished, replaced by a churning sea of molten lava.
Above, where once stretched the endless sky, there now loomed what looked like massive stalactites of magma, hanging down like pillars.
"With the energy within you, combined with the others in this world, I could certainly bear yet another fine chakra fruit," Kaguya said coldly, floating in the bizarre altered dimension, her presence pulling her closer to him.
"Dimensional Shift: Amenominaka, huh."
Yoru showed no panic. He knew very well the ocular techniques Kaguya possessed. Back in the dream world, he had clashed for quite some time against a false Kaguya created by Gamamaru.
This technique might be fatal to ordinary foes—but to him, it was little more than a "home-field buff."
More than that, the impression Kaguya gave him was identical to that of Momoshiki and Kinshiki, whom he had encountered not long ago in space. She was a true Ōtsutsuki.
Arrogant. Conceited. With an insatiable hunger for power.
Attacking recklessly without even understanding her target's abilities.
Compared to the likes of the Sage of Six Paths or Isshiki Ōtsutsuki—cunning veterans tempered by a thousand years of mortal experience—dealing with someone like her was far simpler.
The moment the lava dimension appeared, the energy-hungry Kaguya struck. Raising her slender hand, she condensed chakra into invisible needles. Her Byakugan flared, and the deadly barrage shot toward Yoru.
Expressionless, Yoru let spiritual power surge around him, erasing the incoming chakra needles effortlessly.
Kaguya showed no surprise. She simply clenched her hand into a fist, pouring chakra into it.
Her Byakugan locked onto its target. In an instant, her seemingly delicate fist lashed out, unleashing a terrifying force that made the world itself shudder.
Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!
A strike of divine might, shaking the heavens—both offense and defense, merciless and absolute.
Once, even Toneri Ōtsutsuki had invoked this technique with the aid of the Tenseigan. But compared to what Kaguya unleashed now, his attempt was utterly insignificant.
Facing such an attack, Yuki Yoru dared not take it lightly. Kaguya might lack refined combat intellect, but her raw attributes were overwhelming. One careless move, and even he could be overturned.
At the very instant this world-shattering strike descended, ripples spread across Yuki Yoru's body. In the next heartbeat, his figure was struck head-on by Kaguya's fist. The terrifying force tore through his body and smashed into the seething magma below, sending monstrous waves of molten rock surging skyward with a deafening roar.
It was a blow capable of destroying the world. Had it landed in the real world, it would have been enough to shatter the massive island where Kirigakure stood.
Yet, before Kaguya could even retract her hand, Yoru's form silently appeared behind her. His black blade swung down, aimed straight at her neck.
Clang!
Her white hair surged outward, intercepting the blade in time. Infused with chakra, those silky strands had become countless times tougher than steel.
But in the very next instant, a jet-black Heilig Pfeil pierced clean through Kaguya's chest.
"What…?"
Kaguya looked down at her wound in astonishment. Even with her Byakugan's all-encompassing vision, she had failed to perceive Yoru's attack!
"Your reactions aren't slow, but your battle instinct is worse than that of the dead toad," Yoru's faint voice came from the side. The so-called Rabbit Goddess gave him far less pressure than the counterfeit version he'd fought within the dream world.
Kaguya's expression did not change in the face of such naked mockery. But she understood, from the pain in her chest, that Yuki Yoru would never obediently serve as nourishment for a new chakra fruit.
At her will, the magma dimension trembled violently.
Just as Gamamaru had maximized the dream world's power, so too did Kaguya now draw upon her own dimension. This realm was her domain, and she could command its strength to unleash her most devastating attacks.
The magma roiled as countless flaming pillars erupted skyward under her chakra's guidance. The violent aura rose with the surging inferno, and with her identity as the master of this dimension, Kaguya became a goddess of destruction born from the flames.
"So you're switching straight to brute-force stat crushing. A wise choice," Yoru muttered.
His form flickered constantly between the rising fire pillars, dodging their blasts. But suddenly, Kaguya vanished from sight. At the very moment Yoru slipped past one of the fiery eruptions, a pitch-black rift opened silently behind him.
Kaguya's wrathful strike came crashing down upon his back—
"BOOM!!"
The force behind this strike was overwhelmingly terrifying. Because it was a sudden assault launched at such close range, Yuki Yoru had nowhere to dodge.
Yet on the face of the Master of Souls, there wasn't the slightest trace of panic. On the contrary, at that very moment, the corners of his lips curved upward ever so slightly. In his eye sockets, countless eyes suddenly appeared.
I've already seen it.
The overwhelming force that symbolized the Kekkei Mōra slammed down upon Yuki Yoru with crushing power—yet his figure did not show the slightest sign of collapse.
From the sleeve, Black Zetsu immediately sensed something amiss. Instinctively, it let out a startled cry: "Not good! Mother, watch out!"
But unfortunately, it was already too late.
Yuki Yoru swung his black blade in a reverse strike, cleaving straight into Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's chest and shattering her body.
Even the flesh of the progenitor of chakra could not withstand his attack.
"This power…"
In Kaguya's pure white eyes flickered a trace of disbelief. In that instant just now, she had sensed an extremely familiar force—one that belonged to the Ōtsutsuki, the power of an old acquaintance of hers!
"So, you've realized."
Yoru opened his palm, revealing a golden Six-Tomoe Rinnegan, his tone calm:
"This eye… looks familiar, doesn't it?"
"Momoshi—! You actually obtained Momoshiki's third eye? That's impossible!"
For the first time, shock crossed Kaguya's face. She stopped her assault on Yoru, focusing instead on regenerating her body with chakra while demanding:
"Where did you encounter Momoshiki? Was there any residual energy signature? Fool—do you even understand what that eye in your hand truly represents?!"
Yoru's response was casual:
"Relax. That guy has no chance of resurrection anymore, so there's no need for you to be so tense."
Even as he spoke, Yoru's form appeared silently in front of her once again, his black blade slashing down mercilessly and smashing Kaguya's freshly restored body back into the magma below.
But before he could pursue further, the scorching magma dimension shifted without a sound.
A bitter cold wind swept through—an endless frozen wasteland.
Crack!
In an instant, Yoru's body was encased within a block of eternal ice. At the same time, Kaguya's figure appeared silently behind him, her palm unleashing several gray-black bone spikes.
The Kekkei Mōra, capable of erasing everything, shot forth. Yet the moment her attack fell, Yoru's form vanished from within the frozen block.
"Impossible?!"
Black Zetsu, hidden within her sleeve, was horrified. He couldn't comprehend how Yoru had managed to evade Kaguya's strike under such conditions. Even with precognition, once frozen in ice, foresight alone should have been useless!
"It's not just precognition," Yoru's calm voice replied. "There's also time-freeze… and YYomotsu Hirasaka."
Behind him, a pitch-black void opened, the same that had once swallowed Kaguya herself. It devoured Yoru's figure—only for him to reappear above her head a moment later.
With a casual swing of his black blade, he knocked aside the incoming All-Killing Ash Bones, his expression steady as he gazed at the Rabbit Goddess before him:
"You should know these abilities well, shouldn't you, Rabbit Goddess? In a way, by wielding Momoshiki's powers, I could almost be considered one of your clan. But while you only command the power of the Ōtsutsuki… I command the power of the soul as well."
The might of All-Knowing and All-Powerful was already enough to oppose the Rabbit Goddess. He had demonstrated that much back in the dream world.
But here, under the domain-boost of the Amenominaka, and with the true goddess's power far surpassing the counterfeit version—bolstered by secret techniques the fake never possessed—this battle between Yuki Yoru and Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was evenly matched, fifty-fifty.
Yet now, with the addition of Momoshiki's power—especially the ocular techniques contained within that eye—Yoru's strength had exploded once again to an entirely new level!
As for exactly how much his power had grown… at this moment, no one knew better than Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Within the Ōtsutsuki clan, her status was not just "low"—it was pitifully so.
In the distant past, when she descended to Earth alongside Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, her role had been nothing more than a servant—a "sacrifice." In terms of rank, she was on the same level as Kinshiki, the lowest tier within the Ōtsutsuki hierarchy.
The clan's power structure was stricter than anything in the ninja world. To the main family, these low-level attendants were nothing but "emergency rations," "tools," or "toys." Because of this, Kaguya knew better than anyone just how terrifying the true strength of the main branch really was.
If she hadn't devoured a chakra fruit, she wouldn't even have the qualifications to stand and speak before Yuki Yoru now!
But after hearing the truth—that Momoshiki had been defeated—Kaguya's mind cleared somewhat. The "Moon Eye" at her brow flashed with divine light, and in an instant, she once again activated Amenominaka.
Space twisted—scenery shifted in a blink. Gone was the frozen glacier from before; in its place stretched a desolate wasteland.
Hum—!
The next moment, a powerful repulsive force enveloped Yoru, restricting his movements to some degree.
But instead of pressing her attack after shifting space, Kaguya instead activated the most basic space-time technique of the Ōtsutsuki—Yomotsu Hirasaka—seeking to disengage and flee.
She needed to leave Amenominaka, return to the shinobi world, and draw upon the Ten Tails' God Tree. By devouring the world's power and raising her strength to its peak, she would then come back to destroy Yuki Yoru.
A black rift of Yomotsu Hirasaka opened, and Kaguya thrust herself headlong into it.
But to Yoru, this meant nothing.
The moment Kaguya's wormhole appeared, one opened before him as well, pulling him inside.
Reality shifted again. Kaguya barely had time to re-emerge in the shinobi world before Yoru followed directly on her heels.
"Where do you think you can run?"
"Damn that Momoshiki!"
Kaguya's expression twisted in fury. If not for that fool strengthening her enemy, then with her power, she might not have crushed Yoru instantly—but at least within the Amenominaka dimension, she could have suppressed and restrained him completely.
How had things come to this?!