"Kaguya seems a bit off." Naruto, with the sharpest senses, spotted the problem first.
Sasuke dropped his pitying look and turned his eyes to Kaguya: "Yeah, something's wrong. She seems to be smiling."
"Smiling about what?" Kurama looked just as confused.
Sasuke shook his head and didn't answer.
"Facing all three of us at once, and she can still smile?" Naruto felt angry. This woman wasn't taking them seriously at all. "I haven't even gone all out yet. If I did, I'd have sealed her a long time ago!"
Sasuke nodded in agreement.
"I believe everything except that last part." Kurama stretched his neck. "Sasuke hasn't used his Rinnegan yet, Naruto hasn't used his Tenseigan, and me... heh heh heh, I'm not at full power either right now."
Kaguya could hold up against them now, but could she handle them going all out?
Kurama thought probably not.
He looked up at the sky. In this ice and snow space, there was no flow of time, no day or night. Looking up, all you could see was a blanket of white clouds, with light shining through them onto the ground.
The ground was also a sheet of white snow. Aside from the marks from the fight, there were hardly any other colors.
The shadows of the clouds covered the snow, but even so, they couldn't hide that pure white.
"This needs to end." Kurama looked straight ahead, his tone so serious. "Kaguya, this world doesn't need you."
His serious tone made Naruto and Sasuke beside him freeze for a moment, looking at Kurama with puzzled eyes.
It was as if she had heard Kurama's voice. Kaguya's gaze shifted over: "Ever since I came to this planet, the second half of my life has been filled with hate, whether toward the nobles, the Land of Ancestors, Hagoromo and Hamura, or... toward you all..."
"Hate drove me to create White Zetsu, and hate drove me to revive and face you..." Kaguya's eyes dimmed a little. "I don't want to die, so I have to kill you and take back my chakra. But things look bad for me now, so... did I do something wrong?"
The servant girl was killed, so she went for revenge. Was that wrong?
To survive and protect this planet, she turned humans into White Zetsu. Was that wrong?
She was sealed by two children, finally broke free, and wanted to take back her own chakra. Was that wrong?
Did I... do something wrong?
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glance, their eyes full of confusion.
Kurama just shook his head: "No, from my point of view, you didn't do anything wrong."
"Then why seal me?" Kaguya asked.
"Good question, but it means nothing." Kurama laughed, throwing his head back. "In the old days, the nobles saw servant girls the same way your Otsutsuki clan sees the natives of this planet. Would you care about the life of an ant?"
Kaguya pressed her lips together: "But she was an important... person to me."
"Yes..." Kurama nodded. "But her death brought peace to an entire country."
Kaguya froze.
Kurama shrugged, his tone casual: "Humans are unreasonable creatures. You treasure the people important to you, and humans do the same. So your servant died, you got mad and wiped out the Land of Ancestors, and their families and friends died, so they got mad and wiped you out."
Kaguya felt like she was starting to understand.
"As for the chakra, that's even simpler." Kurama laughed again. "Is this power yours? No, no, no. After thousands of years of change, it's not yours anymore. It's humanity's. Don't worry about where it came from. All that matters is it's with humans now, right?"
"So... taking my power and using it against me, that's the unreasonable part of humans?" Kaguya clenched her fists.
"Not quite." Kurama shook his head, his smile turning mocking. "This power was given to them willingly by the Sage of Six Paths. Once it's given, it's theirs. The one trying to take it back isn't them—it's you... That's what most humans think. That's their unreasonable side."
Humans, those double-standard creatures who never admit it, are like that. But it's not just them, because Kaguya is the same—double-standard and won't admit it.
In a way, Otsutsuki and humans aren't so different, right? No rational beings in this world can avoid conflict. At this point, does the reason for the fight even matter?
It matters a lot to Kurama, but for the others...
Kurama didn't even bother thinking about what was in those guys' heads. It had nothing to do with him anyway.
"All I need to do now is beat you. That's it."
Kaguya stood there with her fists clenched, staring at Kurama without a word.
Naruto looked at Kaguya, then at Sasuke, rubbing the back of his head, wanting to speak but not sure how to start.
Sasuke saw the look on his face and the corner of his mouth suddenly curved up: "If you have something to say, just say it. I've seen your talk-no-jutsu plenty of times. I wouldn't mind seeing it again now."
"What talk-no-jutsu? My mouth is pretty clumsy." Hearing Sasuke, Naruto muttered without thinking.
But... he didn't speak right away. Instead, he asked Sasuke: "Sasuke, are humans really as bad as Kurama says?"
"You're asking the right guy. Yeah, some are." Sasuke didn't know about others, but for himself... just think about what he's been through.
Naruto fell silent again.
Sasuke glanced at him, then rolled his eyes: "Say what you want to say quick. The fight's about to start. If you wait till then, Kurama will just complain we're mixing flashbacks with the battle again."
"What!" Naruto pouted. "I just... don't know how to say it."
"Huh?" Sasuke looked at Naruto in total surprise.
This guy didn't know how to use talk-no-jutsu?
That was a good thing!
Naruto stayed quiet for a bit, then finally looked at Kaguya in the distance and spoke: "Kurama's right. Our power was given to us by Grandpa Hagoromo, so we can't give it back. But it's not because we think it's ours. It's because if we hand it over, we'll die."
"Just like you don't want us to seal you, we don't want to die either. So one of us has to win." Naruto looked at his fist. "I know using death as a solution doesn't work. It just creates more hate."
"Like how you hate Grandpa Hagoromo and Grandpa Hamura, you'll hate us too..." Naruto looked helpless. "So I don't know how to say this... I just know I have to seal you, or we'll all die. This fight isn't just for my life—it's for everyone else's too... the people I know, the ones I don't, all their lives. I'm fighting you to protect them."
"I won't hesitate. I won't lose. And the winner takes all... that's it."
Naruto looked up at Kaguya.
"So... Kurama's right. Humans are double-standard and unreasonable by nature."
"Including me."
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