"This is how the Hyuga clan in the shinobi world is."
"They divide themselves into the main family and the branch family. Members of the branch family are born with the Caged Bird Seal carved onto them, and for their entire lives, they are forced to obey the main family."
After saying this, Kiyohara looked at Kaguya.
Kaguya was stunned for a moment, but she immediately understood what he meant.
Kiyohara was saying that he was different from those arrogant members of the main family who stood high above everyone else.
As he spoke, Kiyohara naturally shifted his position.
According to studies of female psychology, if a person does not resist when someone moves closer to them, it generally means they do not find that person particularly repulsive.
Kiyohara rose from the cushion opposite Kaguya and walked over to sit beside her.
The new position was very close to Kaguya.
Kaguya's body stiffened slightly when he approached, but she did not move away.
She could smell the faint chakra aura emanating from Kiyohara's body. It was completely different from her own.
For a thousand years, no one had ever come this close to her.
Even the Sage of the Six Paths and his brother had never done so.
Kiyohara glanced at Kaguya's slightly stiff profile, secretly amused in his heart.
The trauma caused by her original family, the grievances accumulated through a thousand years of loneliness, and her fear of the main-family system.
He could patiently listen to all of it.
However, once he finished listening, he should naturally have some idea of what he intended to do next.
Still, this was not something that could be rushed.
Kaguya was not the kind of woman who could be won over with a few sweet words. Fortunately, Kiyohara had plenty of patience.
"Speaking of which."
Kiyohara suddenly changed the subject.
"I lost part of my memories regarding what happened a thousand years ago. What exactly is the process for planting the God Tree? Perhaps there will come a day when we need to use it to deal with the other Otsutsuki."
Kaguya's gaze lingered on his face for a moment, and a hint of confusion appeared in her eyes.
She was surprised that Kiyohara had actually lost part of his memories.
However, something like this was not impossible.
Especially when someone crossed the stars and descended upon another world while simultaneously integrating with the local power system, it was entirely possible for some memories to become overwritten or lost.
Moreover, Kiyohara's displayed level of strength and the purity of his bloodline were both flawless. Kaguya had long since assumed that he was a powerful member of some top-tier Otsutsuki family that she had never encountered before.
"The Ten-Tails is essentially a young God Tree. It needs the flesh and blood of an Otsutsuki as a sacrifice in order to maintain a stable existence."
"The quality of the sacrifice determines the speed at which the God Tree grows. After that, it requires a massive amount of life force and chakra to nourish it, allowing it to grow from a seedling into its complete form."
"As the God Tree grows, it absorbs all the natural energy and biological chakra in its surroundings. Once the God Tree fully matures, it produces a Chakra Fruit. Whoever consumes that fruit will obtain the power of evolution."
"As for the quality of the Chakra Fruit, that depends on the quality of the chakra used to nourish the God Tree."
Kiyohara nodded thoughtfully.
Everything she had said matched what he already knew.
And the reanimated shinobi created through Edo Tensei had one thing they never lacked.
Chakra.
Although the total amount of chakra possessed by an Edo Tensei shinobi was limited, their chakra could recover endlessly.
If powerful shinobis revived through Edo Tensei were used to nourish the God Tree, they could provide an endless supply of chakra without requiring the sacrifice of living people as Kaguya had once done.
The only problem was that Kiyohara did not know whether the chakra of the dead was fundamentally different from the chakra of the living.
At present, he had only attempted to revive several Edo Tensei shinobi. He had not yet conducted any experiments related to this particular matter.
"If planting the God Tree really becomes necessary in the future," Kiyohara said slowly, "I may need you to handle the process."
"After all, you are the only person in the entire shinobi world who has ever truly planted and grown a God Tree."
Kaguya nodded slightly.
Even if Kiyohara had not mentioned it, this was already one of her own objectives.
But as soon as she thought of this, she suddenly stopped.
Her Byakugan narrowed slightly, and a trace of vigilance surfaced deep within her pupils.
She had just unconsciously revealed the method of planting the God Tree.
Could Kiyohara's question itself have been motivated by some ulterior purpose?
He had said that he had lost part of his memories.
But what if his memories were currently recovering?
Kiyohara met her wary gaze and could not help but laugh quietly.
This was a textbook response caused by trauma.
Kaguya had already been betrayed once by her family and she also betrayed Isshiki. Now, even someone who actively approached her with kindness would be met with suspicion.
"Don't worry, Kaguya. As for the Otsutsuki flesh required for the sacrifice, I have a way to obtain it."
Kaguya tilted her head slightly, her brows drawing together.
Other than herself, the only Otsutsuki remaining in this shinobi world was Isshiki, who was hiding somewhere in the shadows.
Could Kiyohara be planning to attack her?
Or perhaps he intended to hunt down Isshiki?
But Isshiki had been hiding for a thousand years. Even Kaguya, who had once ambushed him, had been unable to locate his hiding place.
Where could Kiyohara possibly find him?
As for Kiyohara himself, Kaguya did not believe for a moment that he would use himself as the sacrifice.
Kiyohara seemed to see through her doubts.
"Isn't there a large number of them on the moon? If their blood purity isn't sufficient, perhaps you don't know this, but there is someone named Otsutsuki Toneri. He is a pure-blooded Otsutsuki who has experienced a return to his ancestral bloodline."
Kaguya froze for a moment.
The descendants of Hamura should still be guarding that place.
She had almost forgotten.
There really was another branch of the Otsutsuki bloodline there.
Although they were not pure-blooded, if there were enough of them, they would indeed be sufficient to serve as sacrifices for the God Tree.
Not to mention that there was also an Otsutsuki who had undergone a return to his ancestral bloodline.
Kaguya nodded slightly, and the vigilance in her eyes gradually receded.
However, another question immediately surfaced.
She remained silent for a moment, her pure white eyes staring directly at Kiyohara.
The assistance Kiyohara had given her had already gone far beyond what would normally be considered reasonable.
He had helped resurrect her, provided her with a physical body, concealed her presence, arranged a place for her to stay, and now he had even voluntarily offered to use the Otsutsuki flesh on the moon to help her plant a God Tree.
What exactly was the price for all of this?
She did not believe that kindness in this world could exist without a reason.
Simply sharing a common enemy should not have been enough to make someone go this far.
"Why do you trust me so much?"
Kaguya's voice was calm.
"And why are you willing to help me this much?"
Kiyohara looked at her before answering.
"For the sake of offspring."
"There are too few Otsutsuki in this world. If we want to maintain the purity of our bloodline and produce descendants powerful enough to deal with the threat posed by the main family beyond this world, then our union would be the optimal solution."
Kaguya's eyelashes trembled faintly.
This answer was completely outside her expectations.
Yet after thinking about it carefully, it made perfect sense according to the logic of the Otsutsuki clan.
Marriages between members of the main family and branch families had always been arranged with the goal of maximizing bloodline purity. Individual wishes were insignificant when compared to the continuation of the clan.
For Kiyohara to explain his actions using this reason actually sounded more believable to her than any sweet or romantic words could have.
Of course, Kiyohara himself knew that the actual situation was much simpler.
He simply wanted Kaguya.
That was all.
Naturally, he could not say that out loud.
Kaguya's understanding of the relationship between men and women probably still remained at the level of the Otsutsuki main family's functional approach to reproduction.
Approaching the matter from the perspective of bloodline purity would instead make it easier for her to lower her guard.
"I have no plans to reproduce for the time being."
Kaguya's voice returned to its usual coldness, but there was no longer the merciless rejection that had been present in her earlier words.
Kiyohara smiled faintly and did not continue pressing her.
She had not completely rejected him.
That meant there was still an opportunity.
Kiyohara reached into his sleeve and took out an exquisite lacquered wooden food box, placing it on the low table.
He opened the lid.
Inside were several small treats that he had personally prepared, neatly arranged in rows.
There were red bean daifuku, matcha yokan, and several pieces of senbei that had been baked to a beautiful golden brown.
"I made these myself."
"You've been sealed away for a thousand years, so you probably haven't tasted any of these things."
Kiyohara stood up.
When he reached the doorway, he stopped and glanced back at her.
"Of course, you don't need to eat them if you don't want to. But there's no harm in trying them occasionally."
"They're quite delicious."
His footsteps gradually faded into the distance, and the room once again became quiet.
Kaguya lowered her head and stared at the food box on the low table.
She remained silent for a long time.
Otsutsuki did not need to eat.
Since descending upon this planet, she had never consumed anything other than the Chakra Fruit.
The fragrance of food was therefore a completely unfamiliar sensory stimulus to her.
She could not even distinguish what kind of taste the aroma represented.
She only knew that after the scent entered her nostrils, her salivary glands began secreting fluid uncontrollably.
Kaguya hesitated for a moment.
In the end, she reached out and picked up a red bean daifuku between two fingers.
The outer layer was soft, sticky, and springy.
Her fingertips sank slightly into the glutinous rice skin, leaving two shallow indentations.
She brought the daifuku to her mouth and took a small bite.
The sweetness of the red bean filling spread across her tongue, blending with the delicate fragrance of the glutinous rice skin.
Kaguya's pupils widened slightly.
Her chewing stopped for a brief moment.
Then she took another bite.
On her usually expressionless face, her brows relaxed slightly.
A tiny grain of glutinous rice flour had stuck to the corner of her mouth.
She picked up a piece of matcha yokan and bit into one corner.
The slight bitterness of the matcha intertwined with the sweetness of the red bean, creating an entirely different flavor in her mouth.
These things had not existed a thousand years ago.
A thousand years ago, humans were still using extremely primitive methods of cooking.
The food of that era consisted mostly of charred beast meat and bitter wild fruits.
Although the Otsutsuki clan also possessed many kinds of delicacies, none of them carried the unique flavors of this planet.
Kaguya had absolutely no idea how Kiyohara had managed to make food taste so delicious.
The snacks in the food box soon disappeared completely.
Kaguya unconsciously licked the corner of her mouth, drawing the tiny grain of glutinous rice flour into her mouth.
The food was indeed delicious.
However, it only provided temporary satisfaction.
What she truly craved was the enormous and pure chakra within Kiyohara.
Whenever Kiyohara approached her, the aura of his chakra felt like a grand feast slowly spreading through her senses.
It stirred a hunger deep within her chest that even she herself could not completely understand.
Kaguya closed the lid of the food box and gently stroked its lacquered surface with her fingertips.
"I must endure."
Kaguya said this quietly to herself.
...
Mount Myoboku
In the ancient sacred land on the other side of the shinobi world, the air was saturated with the rich aura of natural energy.
Towering trees reached toward the heavens, while streams wound their way between moss-covered rocks.
Deep within the sacred land, the Great Toad Sage was sitting upon a stone throne.
His eyes, which were normally narrowed into thin slits, were now opened wide.
His cloudy pupils reflected a scene that only he could see.
He had seen it.
That woman.
Her chakra had suddenly lit up in the direction of the Land of Fire before being suppressed by something.
But that brief eruption of power had already been enough for the Great Toad Sage to confirm one thing.
Otsutsuki Kaguya had returned.
"Great Toad Sage."
A solemn voice suddenly sounded before him.
A pale blue point of chakra appeared out of thin air.
It slowly gathered into the shape of a human figure in front of the stone throne.
He floated cross-legged in midair, a black staff resting horizontally across his knees.
His Rinnegan stared directly at the Great Toad Sage.
The face of the Sage of the Six Paths was old and covered in wrinkles.
"Why has something like this happened?"
The Great Toad Sage slowly shook his head.
His aged head swayed slightly atop the stone throne.
"I did not anticipate this either."
"The Child of Prophecy, the blue-eyed boy, the boy who laughs as he calls out the names of the nine tailed beasts. I saw his figure countless times in my dreams. His path should have been certain."
"But now, every prophecy has been thrown into chaos."
"The blue-eyed boy is still there, but far too many beings who should never have appeared have emerged around him."
"As for that person named Kiyohara, I can no longer see his future at all."
"A layer of mist surrounds him, a mist that even my dreams cannot penetrate."
"Wherever he exists, prophecy itself loses its effectiveness."
The Sage of the Six Paths's Rinnegan narrowed slightly.
He remained silent for a long time.
"This is absolutely not what I wanted to see."
"The very existence of my mother will disrupt the balance of the present world."
"Although her chakra was greatly weakened after her resurrection, her Kekkei Mora and Rinne Sharingan are still powerful enough to overwhelm the entire world."
"Now she has concealed her presence. Even I can only sense her general location."
"She must be plotting something."
The Sage of the Six Paths tightened his grip around his black staff.
"However, before dealing with her, I need to recover some of my own strength."
"I have remained in the Pure Land for too long. The power of my spiritual body is insufficient to influence the living world."
"I need time."
The Great Toad Sage narrowed his eyes once again.
He only let out a faint, almost inaudible sigh.
...
In a mountain forest somewhere within the Land of Fire, Kiyohara was sensing the changes taking place within his body after he had completely adapted to the chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts.
The amount of chakra within his body was steadily increasing on its own.
The increase was not particularly large, but it was extremely stable.
At the same time, his adaptation to the chakra of the Dragon Vein had also advanced dramatically.
The purple chakra that had once required him to control every movement with extreme caution now flowed smoothly through his meridians, just like the chakra of the Nine-Tails.
The combination of the Dragon Vein's power and the Flying Thunder God Technique had produced a qualitative transformation that even Kiyohara had not anticipated.
Kiyohara raised his right hand.
Purple lightning emerged from his palm.
He casually swung his hand and released a bolt of lightning.
As the lightning shot forward, Kiyohara's figure had already disappeared.
In the next instant, he appeared at the exact location struck by the lightning.
The mobility of the Flying Thunder God Technique had been elevated to an entirely new level.
He no longer needed to prepare kunai in advance.
He no longer needed to touch something in order to place a mark.
The technique itself had become the mark.
Wherever his ninjutsu struck, he could instantly teleport there.
As long as he possessed enough chakra, the entire battlefield could become his range of teleportation.
However, that was not all.
Kiyohara took a deep breath and began extracting the Dragon Vein chakra within his body.
Purple chakra surged violently out of him, forming a layer of blazing radiance around his body.
A purple, dragon-shaped phantom slowly took form behind him.
At the same time, the cloak formed from purple chakra fluttered wildly behind him.
Dragon Vein Chakra Mode.
In this state, his affinity with space-time ninjutsu increased dramatically.
At the exact moment Kiyohara activated Dragon Vein Chakra Mode, Kaguya suddenly raised her head.
Her Byakugan automatically activated.
Her vision pierced through the mountains and saw the barrier Kiyohara had established.
Kiyohara had only set up the most basic anti-observation barrier.
Against Byakugan at Kaguya's level, it was practically useless.
She saw the dragon-shaped shadow formed from the purple chakra.
She also saw the spatial ripples that continuously opened and rapidly closed in the surrounding air.
Kaguya guessed that this was probably not an ability belonging to the Otsutsuki clan.
"Is this a power native to this planet?"
Kaguya frowned.
She remembered seeing the Dragon Vein a thousand years ago.
As she thought about it, Kaguya's lips parted slightly.
Her salivary glands began secreting uncontrollably.
The aura of the purple chakra entered her senses through her Byakugan.
It was like the fragrance of a delicious dessert drifting out from a distant kitchen.
It was faint and intermittent, yet it was enough to stir the hunger that had been suppressed within her for a thousand years.
At that moment, a mass of black substance resembling ink seeped through the cracks in the floor.
Black Zetsu emerged from beneath the ground.
His body had shrunk into a fist-sized mass of black residue.
He rubbed himself against Kaguya's feet like a stray cat that had finally found its owner.
He had traveled a very long distance this time.
After going through so much trouble, he had finally managed to return.
"Mother, I'm back."
He was just about to launch into a long explanation of all the hardships he had endured when Kaguya raised a hand and interrupted him.
"Zetsu, continue infiltrating the outside world and gather information."
"I want to know more about the current state of the shinobi world."
"Especially information regarding Kiyohara."
"I want everything."
Black Zetsu froze.
He had only just returned.
He had not even managed to drink a cup of hot water.
Yet his mother was already sending him back outside.
Worse, the target of this mission was Kiyohara.
He had worked so hard to gather information about the Jinchuriki of the Tailed Beasts on Kiyohara's behalf.
Now that Mother had finally been resurrected, he had thought that he could finally stop working for Kiyohara.
Instead, the task Mother was giving him was still to investigate Kiyohara.
A very ominous premonition suddenly appeared in Black Zetsu's heart.
A certain scene flashed through his mind.
It was a scene he absolutely did not want to think about any further.
"Mother, Kiyohara-sama... did he perhaps tell you something?"
"Go."
Kaguya's voice contained no emotion.
But that single word carried enough weight to make Black Zetsu dare not ask another question.
Black Zetsu pulled a bitter expression and slowly retreated into the crack in the floor.
His black, residue-like body gradually seeped beneath the tatami and disappeared into the earth.
He absolutely did not want to suddenly gain another father.
Absolutely not.
...
Evening.
Kiyohara returned from outside.
When he pushed open the front door, only a single dim lamp was illuminated in the living room.
Tsunade was lying face-down on the sofa.
Her long golden hair was not tied into its usual ponytail. Instead, it was spread messily across the cushion, with several strands hanging over the edge of the sofa.
The hem of her casual short shirt had ridden up slightly, revealing a small section of her fair waist and the rounded curve of her hips.
Her sleeping position had pressed the shape of her hips against the sofa, while the fabric of her fitted skirt stretched tightly across her body.
On the low table sat an empty sake flask and half a plate of unfinished edamame.
The faint fragrance of fermented rice lingered in the air.
Kiyohara crouched down beside the sofa and gently brushed the golden hair away from Tsunade's forehead.
Tsunade's brows were slightly furrowed.
Even in sleep, she had not completely relaxed.
She had indeed been far too busy lately.
The comprehensive rollout of the Hashirama Cell vaccine required her to personally oversee the process.
The allocation of personnel at Konoha Hospital, monitoring of side effects, compilation of medical data, and countless other matters all required her signature.
Sometimes she would complain that although Kiyohara was the one serving as Hokage, she was the one worrying about everything.
(End of Chapter)