"Failed again?"
"I apologize, Lord Jigen… This time, we still failed to find a suitable vessel."
"The reason?"
"…Because the Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure, Rei Kaguya, created a new order. The shinobi world's wars no longer continue endlessly as before, but have gradually begun turning peaceful and orderly… Under such circumstances, it is very difficult for us to silently gather talented war orphans like before and cultivate and screen them."
"Rei… Kaguya, is it?"
Jigen, dressed in clothing that possessed both the style of the Otsutsuki clan and that of a monk, looked down at the trembling subordinate below and slowly shook his head.
"Withdraw. Then continue thinking of ways to gather vessels that may have compatibility, as well as people willing to follow us… At worst, I will simply remain hidden for a while longer. I should still be able to wait."
"Yes, yes, yes… This subordinate will definitely work harder after this!"
The man in a black robe, his entire appearance concealed, felt as if he had received amnesty. He scrambled and crawled as he fled from before Jigen, or rather, Isshiki Otsutsuki, who was controlling Jigen's body.
At that moment, Isshiki Otsutsuki exhaled deeply. A look of helplessness and exhaustion appeared in his eyes.
"Kaguya… you contemptible maggot, you loathsome traitor. Even the problems you left behind are as unexpected and incomprehensible as you are."
For Isshiki Otsutsuki, in the thousands of years after Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed, it was not as if he had never tried to find a vessel suitable for himself, complete reincarnation through the Karma technique once again, and descend upon this land anew to seize back everything Kaguya Otsutsuki had taken from him.
But the injuries he had suffered were simply too severe.
So severe that even today, he had still not fully recovered.
Within the Otsutsuki clan, although the practice of feeding the guardian to the Ten-Tails rooted in a planet in order to accelerate its maturation and make it bear a Chakra Fruit had always been carried out, a vessel for engraving Karma and achieving reincarnation and resurrection would be prepared in advance before the guardian was offered to the Ten-Tails.
Only in this way could the guardian revive as quickly and perfectly as possible, and only then could Otsutsuki pairs continue using this method to rapidly harvest one living planet after another.
But because of Kaguya Otsutsuki's betrayal, Isshiki Otsutsuki had been fed to the Ten-Tails without having prepared Karma or a vessel at all, and more than half his body had been devoured by it.
That caused him to directly lose the vast majority of the information he had accumulated through consuming Chakra Fruits in the past. For a very long time, he could not even gather enough chakra to activate a complete Karma and achieve reincarnation and resurrection.
He had truly nearly been killed completely.
Those incomparably severe injuries caused him to miss the wonderful opportunity after Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed and her two children who inherited her power, Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura Otsutsuki, passed away one after another.
By the time he finally relied on Jigen's body to secretly accumulate enough power, the bloodlines of the humans in the shinobi world had already become thin and weak through generations of inheritance, endless conflict, and slaughter.
How could mortal bodies whose bloodline power had already thinned endure his complete Karma?
As a result, Isshiki Otsutsuki's resurrection was forced to drag on again and again.
Only when Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura, appeared did the strength and bloodlines of shinobi finally recover to the point where a qualified vessel might appear.
However, just when Isshiki Otsutsuki believed he could finally select a suitable vessel from among them, use Karma to complete reincarnation, and completely cast off his current state of barely clinging to life, another accident appeared.
Rei Kaguya.
This fellow, born from the Kaguya clan that had been "abandoned" by Hamura Otsutsuki, had grown in an incomparably short time to a level sufficient to end all wars in the shinobi world.
He had even displayed the special ability inherited from Kaguya Otsutsuki—
All-Killing Ash Bones.
This made Isshiki Otsutsuki, who could not endure any disturbances in his current state, even less willing to act openly.
If it had been his prime, perhaps he would have some way to break an ability like All-Killing Ash Bones.
But now?
Jigen's frail body would irreversibly turn to ash and disappear completely as long as it was touched once by All-Killing Ash Bones. As for Isshiki, who parasitized Jigen, unless he was willing to fully decompress the Karma, he absolutely had no chance of defeating Rei Kaguya head-on.
But if he decompressed the Karma on Jigen's body, it meant that his life would enter its countdown.
Isshiki Otsutsuki was absolutely unwilling to gamble on such a thing.
So he chose to continue hiding.
He chose to continue lying dormant.
He chose to silently wait for Rei Kaguya, who was now in his prime and could even single-handedly seal back Kaguya Otsutsuki after she tried to break free again, to die from insufficient lifespan like the Sage of Six Paths, the previous person who had created such a miracle.
He had already lived inside Jigen's body for several thousand years and witnessed the entire history of the shinobi world from its birth until now.
Before that, he had been an elite among the Otsutsuki clan, one who possessed his own guardian. Through endless years, he had crossed the brilliant starry sky and consumed several mature Chakra Fruits.
A mere few decades or century—he could wait. He could absolutely wait.
"Enter slumber again… Hopefully, the next time I awaken, these lowly ants on the ground will have found me a vessel capable of housing the complete Karma."
Thinking this, Isshiki Otsutsuki slowly closed his eyes, preparing to pass through this weak period filled with torment and unwillingness through long sleep, just as he had done in the past.
Then, he sensed a tremor coming from not far away.
What happened?
The thought had only just arisen when he saw the black-robed subordinate who had only just fled miserably from before him fly backward from the direction he had left, wearing an expression as if he had seen a ghost.
At the same time, the subordinate's mouth was filled with confused and shocked muttering.
"How is this possible… How could you possibly find this place?"
Someone found this place?
An enemy?
Isshiki Otsutsuki looked coldly toward the place from which his subordinate had flown back, preparing to take down the enemy who had intruded here on the spot with the lowest consumption and fastest speed possible.
Then, he saw a young face with very distinct Otsutsuki features—one that he absolutely did not want to see at this moment no matter what.
"Checkmate, Isshiki."
Rei Kaguya appeared in Jigen's field of vision with light steps. His blue Tenseigan overflowed with radiance, and a faint smile of certain victory hung at the corner of his mouth.