"Pfft." A mouthful of blood sprayed from Uchiha Musashi's lips, and clear black tears streamed from both eyes.
The body Pitou's Toy Repairer had just mended was injured again, and not much better than before. Otsutsuki Toneri's Tenseigan was just too ferocious.
"As expected, even though my Sharingan has mutated and isn't much worse than the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, it still falls short compared with the Tenseigan, which is on the same tier as the Rinnegan. Even if its raw power isn't above the Rinnegan's, it's not something these eyes can match. What I don't get is how Toneri got the Tenseigan now, since in the original he advanced by taking Hyuga Hanabi's eyes. Did he still take Hanabi's eyes?"
"Never thought I'd run into a monster that only showed up in the movie. And that movie had tons of plot holes."
Musashi traded countless blows with Toneri. Though Musashi's current strength ranked among the very top in the Naruto world, he still struggled against the cheat-level Otsutsuki. Strictly speaking, he himself also counted as Otsutsuki.
"What the hell is the true body doing?! Taking this long against a mere Kaguya? Fine, even with Black Zetsu, at his level it shouldn't be any real threat." Even now, Musashi still had the leisure to gripe.
But on this point, Musashi did wrong Meruem. While the true body's power was in a different dimension than a clone's,
Kaguya's strength was likewise in a different dimension from everyone else's. In canon, Naruto and Sasuke sealed Kaguya with plot armor, an extreme burst, and Hagoromo Otsutsuki's aid.
Otherwise—seal her? From start to finish, Kaguya didn't take a single real wound. The arm being torn off was only due to the Truth-Seeking Orbs' special nature—she could reattach it whenever she wanted.
If not, why was the Sage of Six Paths completely drained after the sealing, unable even to stop Naruto and Sasuke's duel? It wasn't that he wouldn't—it was that he couldn't. His power was exhausted and had to recover slowly.
Kaguya may have seemed cold and resolute, but as a mother, how could she not love her children? On the surface it looked like life and death between her and the Sage and Hamura, but was that really the truth? Who knows.
Most importantly, Asura and Indra were, strictly speaking, her grandsons. They say elders dote on the next generation most. Kaguya (grandma) fighting Asura and Indra (the two grandsons) reincarnated as Sasuke and Naruto—who believes she didn't hold back?
Believe it or not, I don't.
Her only real disadvantage was the mass of tailed beasts in her body and the rabbit-shaped chakra conglomerate—and that was because the nine tailed beasts' chakra rioted inside her.
"But good thing I had a card up my sleeve and was ready!" Musashi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Sasuke! Naruto! How much longer are you going to wait?! It's time to move!"
"???!!!"
"What? Are you insane? Those two have long since—no way! My body!" Before he finished, his right hand clutched his chest. Pain twisted Asura's features.
"Yo—Musashi-nii. Sorry to keep you waiting!" The Six Paths whisker marks reappeared on that goofy face, and Naruto's sunshine smile replaced the mechanical deadpan.
They say Asura once led a band of shinobi masters, but after too much time passed, he forgot how to smile. That bright grin meant only one thing: the carefree Naruto was back.
The same happened to Indra—Sasuke's punchable ice-cool expression surfaced beneath Indra's face.
"When did this happen?" Indra seemed to be faring better than Asura, able to force out words.
"Wanna know? Not telling!"
Want the reason? Everyone seemed to have forgotten someone's existence—or rather, a certain clone that looked disconnected but had always been there.
In truth, it was another of Meruem's clones—the gold cicada gu on Naruto's head.
Though it lacked combat ability, it had some support capabilities. Awakening Naruto and Sasuke's consciousness was well within its power.
Asura and Indra didn't know that, so of course they got played.
Deep blue chakra slowly welled up from Sasuke and Naruto, and faces emerged on that vast chakra.
They were Asura and Indra! Their souls were being forced out of Sasuke and Naruto little by little.
"No! Absolutely not!" The two souls being driven out clawed to get back in. A tug-of-war began.
"Damn it!" In the end, Asura and Indra failed to have their way, and their souls drifted in the air. Even so, no one dared underestimate them.
They had chakra bodies bordering on tangible form. Without vessels, their output would drop—but that didn't deny their great strength.
As for Sasuke and Naruto, stripped of Asura and Indra's power, they couldn't be dismissed either. Even without those cheat-level boosts, the two were still among the strongest in the shinobi world.
By the way, if Sasuke, Naruto, Asura, and Indra aligned as one, the power they could manifest would be the true strength of the world's Children of Destiny.
That really could go head-to-head with Kaguya. Even Toneri, with the Tenseigan, might not match them.
"Musashi-nii! Heh, sorry we're late!" Naruto flashed a huge thumbs-up at Musashi.
"Sasuke! Naruto! That one over there is the true threat to the shinobi world! If left unchecked, they'll destroy it! You two know this! That guy isn't even human!" Seeing Naruto so close to Musashi, Asura snapped.
"Shut up!!!" Before he could continue, Naruto cut him off with a shout.
"I don't care what kind of person Musashi-nii is! I don't care whether the gold cicada is non-human! While you were controlling me, I thought about a lot—a lot. I'm no good with big words, but I figured one thing out: from start to finish, Musashi-nii never once said he was going to destroy the shinobi world or humanity. Is it Musashi-nii who wants to destroy it… or is it you who just want to keep your place and keep ruling? Either way—he's still my big brother!"
"Leave those two chatterboxes to me and the show-off Sasuke!" Clenching his fists, Naruto turned with Sasuke toward Asura and Indra.
"Forget it, Naruto. Let the Chimera Ants take this one. He's right—we're not human." Musashi stopped the eager Naruto. Getting this far was already no small thing for Naruto.
Right now, he and Sasuke stood opposite the entire shinobi world.
Hearing Musashi's blunt admission, Naruto's face fell, and Sasuke remained expressionless as ever.
"But you're right about one thing—we didn't come to destroy the world. And not to wipe out humanity either." As he said this, Musashi quietly ordered the Chimera Ant army to release the captives taken from the villages.
"Then why are you here?" By now, everyone had stopped fighting, Chimera Ants and Allied shinobi alike. The question came from one shinobi—but it voiced everyone's thoughts.
"For chakra!" Musashi silently gave the man a thumbs-up in his heart.
"Chakra?"
"That's right. Legend says chakra was spread by the Sage of Six Paths to bring happiness to all—but the truth isn't like that. Because of chakra, shinobi gained great power—and that's why war appeared…" Musashi launched into a full-throated critique of chakra's consequences, pinning the original sin of war on it. At first blush it sounded reasonable—but it was nonsense. Without chakra, would humans not fight? Nonsense. Where there are people, there's conflict and discontent.
A place of absolute fairness and absolute peace—how could it exist? In his prior life, Meruem's world had no chakra. Was it peaceful? Nonsense.
But Meruem understood. Others didn't. They hadn't lived in a world without chakra—how could they know if such a world would be peaceful?
Shifting blame—pushing some things onto others—is one of humanity's original sins.
The Chimera Ants had started as a church, and their ability to sway people was by no means weak. Even if some sharp minds sensed something off, they wouldn't speak up.
Better a bad life than a good death. Those monsters held the absolute advantage. The worst outcome was only losing chakra—no need to object. A small number even chose to play dumb.
"So our goal is simply to take away chakra—and return peace to you. Someone with an agenda provoked things, and that's why we're at war. Think about it—you attacked us first." Musashi wasn't wrong: the war between the Chimera Ants and the Alliance did start because of Asura and Indra.
"Despicable." In a battle of words, Asura and Indra—long dormant—were no match for Musashi. Even knowing he was spouting sophistry didn't help. Toneri, for his part, didn't bother—he never cared about ordinary human deaths.
"Excuse me—did I miss the show?" Just then, a rift opened in the sky, and a figure stepped out.
"King!!!" ×N
(End of Chapter)
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