Chapter 302: Changing the Moon
"…Finally, it's done."
In the vastness of space
The stars that once shimmered above the Ninja World were now dim, save for two lights: the distant sun… and the moon before him.
Crackslike a shattered mirrorsplit across the void of the universe.
Through those gaps, darkness could be seen within darkness, just like the vast universe Ryosuke now drifted in.
That alternate space, separated long ago from this universe, mirrored it completely.
Ryosuke stood silently, suspended in the cosmos, his gaze locked on the moon before him.
But his consciousness was splithalf fixed on this moon, the other in the alternate dimension.
"Speed, mass, gravitational pull… everything matches the moon in the other space."
He calmly raised his hand.
"Then let's begin."
Once, Ryosuke's body had lagged behind his power. He needed his pupil power to forge the Truth Seeking Orb to shield himself.
But now his body had caught up. Near immortal. He no longer required protection to exist in the crushing, unknown weight of space.
Hesitation had never been part of his nature.
He had just verified that the two moonstone from reality, one from his own world, were perfectly matched.
And so, without pause, he exchanged them.
In less than a second, everything shifted.
And yet… nothing did.
The moon still hung there, unchanged in the sky.
Its presence, its influence on the worldit all remained the same.
But deep at the moon's core… the whitehaired woman once bound and sealed had vanished.
"How is it?"
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's voice echoed into his mind, taut with nerves.
"Did you start?"
Ryosuke didn't answer.
His Tenseignan eyes remained fixed on the moon.
After a pause, he asked quietly,
"What's the status of the Ninja World?"
"Nothing's changed," Kaguya replied quickly.
There was a subtle shift in her tone of joy, carefully masked.
Though the moon now existed in Ryosuke's alternate dimension, Kaguya's power could not fully sever the connection between realms.
Through Black Zetsu and the Divine Tree, her consciousness still lingered and anchored in Uchiha Madara's body.
"Mm…"
Ryosuke nodded, eyes never leaving the moon.
Time passed
Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes to hours.
Days became weeks.
He remained motionless, watching.
One day.
Two days.
Three days.
A full month.
In the universe, Ryosuke kept his vigil.
Back in the Ninja World, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki sat calmly in the Hyuga Clan courtyard.
Beside her, a massive ancient tree soared upward, its roots stretching deep into the earth, silently surveying the world below.
She too meditated for that entire month, maintaining a continuous silent connection with Ryosuke.
No words were exchanged.
But the link never broke.
At last
"…It seems… everything is stable," Kaguya spoke softly, breaking the silence of a full month.
"Indeed. No problems."
Ryosuke responded slowly.
He had observed the moon with unwavering focus, his evolved Tenseigan locked onto every layer, internal and external.
Nothing had shifted.
No anomalies. No irregularities. No deviation.
"Then…"
He straightened his back.
Took one step forward
And vanished from the universe.
In the next instant, Ryosuke appeared in the courtyard of his residence within the Hyuga Clan's territory.
"How did it go?"
Kaguya opened her eyes, her gaze falling on the white haired man who now stood before her.
Ryosuke didn't speak. He simply closed his eyes.
His perception extended outward, slipping through soil and stone until it reached the Earth's core.
"…The data from Earth and Moon match perfectly with what we observed a month ago. Looks like we did it."
He opened his eyes and turned to face Kaguya, who had risen to her feet, visibly eager.
The exchange was complete.
Using the planetary rotation and orbital momentum as camouflage, they'd swapped the real world moon with its counterpart from the alternate dimension.
Like swapping a rear tire from a motorcycle traveling at 60 speed with another identical tire moving at the same velocitydone in under a second.
Perfect synchronization.
During that process, Ryosuke had run countless simulations, analyzing it all with his faint, unstable grasp of fate.
In the end, it confirmed one truth
They had succeeded.
Although Ryosuke could see fate's flow, he couldn't control it. Events followed no consistent logic.
So, he relied on repetition. Calculation. Correction.
"The next step is to return to the other world and destroy the old moon."
His tone had lightened. The hardest part was over. Destroying the moon was a trivial matter now.
"Ancestor, you should begin preparing for the chaos that will follow its destruction."
He turned his eyes to Kaguya.
She smiled faintly and nodded.
"I'll be waiting."
With those words, her consciousness began retreating from Uchiha Madara's body.
As her presence faded, the body lost its strength and began to wither, the powerful aura withdrawing.
Then, slowly
The nine tomoe Rinnegan on his forehead faded, and his once controlled body finally slumped.
When his eyes reopened, the expression had changed.
The passive, alien control was gone.
In its place Uchiha Madara.
A new presence emerged nearby.
Black Zetsu slid off Madara's body, slowly congealing into a humanoid shape upon the ground.
"Thank you, Ryosuke sama," he said with sincerity, bowing deeply.
"Thank you for saving Mother."
His voice trembled slightly, filled with reverence.
A thousand years of waiting. Planning. Hoping.
And now… it had finally happened.
"Now that your wish has been granted, don't try anything underhanded again."
Ryosuke accepted the gesture without resistance.
Then he turned to Uchiha Madara, who stood in silence.
"What about you, Senior?"
"When the Ancestor borrowed your body, your consciousness wasn't completely sealed. You should know everything that's happened both in the Ninja World… and within Hyuga."
"What will you do next?"
When Kaguya had taken control, it was Black Zetsu who suppressed Madara's mind.
So for the most part, he had been an observer trapped within his own body.
Now, he was free.
"…I want to return to Konoha for a while," Madara replied after a long silence.
The arrogance he once held when he first dreamed of dominating the world had long been worn down. Years of being suppressed, again and again, had extinguished his fury piece by piece.
His life, now revealed to have been nothing more than a pawn on someone else's board, had made that truth inescapable to any who watched from the sidelines.
If this had happened in the past, with the pride he once possessed, he would never have allowed himself to keep living.
Even if he had to die, he would have died restoring the dignity of the name Uchiha Madara.
But now… he had given up on that, too.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had possessed his body for far too long. Her methods utterly foreign and impossible to grasp had shown him just how vast the gulf between himself and Ryosuke was during their battle in the Land of Water.
Everything he had gained… was laid out by others. The power he wielded… gifted by others. And even now, he had yet to fully master it.
Ryosuke's power, however
That was something he forged on his own path.
A path fully under his own control.
The difference between the two had once escaped him. Blinded by the thrill of power, he'd failed to see it. But now, stripped of arrogance, he began to understand.
This world was still largely unexplored… and yet the Hyuga Clan was already venturing into other worlds.
The path to true strength was long. And Madara didn't want to be halted by pride. He wanted to go farther.
More importantly he no longer wished to be a pawn.
But before he could walk a new path, he had to first cross the shadow before him.
Would Ryosuke allow him to leave?
Having seen the Hyuga's secrets through Kaguya's borrowed vision, how could he return to Konoha and expect peace?
He knew… that if he chose to ally with the Hyuga right now, he could almost certainly save himself.
But even so, he wanted to return to Konoha first.
"Sure. Help me say hello to my old friend," Ryosuke replied, waving a hand casually. "You know who I mean."
"And if it's convenient, tell him a little about what Hyuga's been doing. If he's willing… he can choose to join us."
It had been a long time since Ryosuke had seen Naruto.
But that didn't surprise him.
Just like in Dragon Ball, Goku's path of strength eventually left only Vegeta in his view.
Companions like Piccolo, Krillin, Tien Shinhan, and Yamcha once his equals gradually faded from sight as the gap widened.
It wasn't that he had forgotten Naruto.
And the bond hadn't faded.
But their levels were different now.
Forcing Naruto to walk into Ryosuke's world would only bring harm to both of them.
And yet, time always weathers friendship.
That was inevitable.
"…I see."
Madara seemed surprised at first. But after a moment, his eyes dimmed with realization.
Without another word, he stepped forward
and vanished, slipping through spacetime toward Konoha.
He had picked up more than just despair during those years as a silent observer.
"Doesn't the old man plan to reclaim the Ten Tails?"
Ryosuke glanced sideways at Black Zetsu, who stood motionless as Madara departed.
"The Divine Tree, the Ninja World, and my mother are far too entwined now to separate," Black Zetsu explained calmly.
"In the past, it might have worked. But now that Uchiha Madara knows his entire life was orchestrated by me, he won't continue down the same path."
"If he truly wants strength, he'll have to leave the Ninja World. But once he does, he won't be able to take the Divine Tree with him. So… he'll come back."
He paused, then turned to Ryosuke.
"But Lord Ryosuke… aren't you afraid that once he leaves this world, he'll become uncontrollable? That he'll return, full of hatred?"
Ryosuke chuckled lightly, meeting his gaze.
"If I dared let him go, I'm not afraid of what he might become."
"On the contrary… I hope he surpasses me."
He leaned in slightly, his tone firm.
"And about that hatred… if he still holds any, it should be toward you. Not me."
"You're a schemer, Black Zetsu. That much is clear. But I hope, from now on, you'll put that cunning to proper use and help your mother protect Hyuga."
At those words, Black Zetsu's casual expression turned serious.
"Of course."
He didn't dare be careless with this.
Hyuga was no longer someone he could manipulate or outmaneuver.
In the face of overwhelming strength, deception was meaningless.
Besides… his mother no longer clung to ambition.
All she wanted now was to remain quietly by Hyuga's side.
He would do his part to help her protect that peace.
"That's good."
Ryosuke gave a nod of approval.
"Let's go pick up the old ancestor."
As he spoke, the scenery around them shifted
and in the blink of an eye, they were no longer in the Ninja World.
No longer in Hyuga territory.
They stood on an endless, vibrant grassland.
The air was pristine.
Natural energy overflowedricher even than in the real world.
"…Is this the alternate timespace created by Lord Ryosuke?"
Black Zetsu stared, stunned, at the world before him.
The quality of the air, the purity of the elements… it was nearly indistinguishable from the real world.
Noperhaps it was even superior.
He, too, had observed much through Kaguya's vision. And through her, Uchiha Madara had seen it as well.
But Kaguya had only witnessed the beginning. She hadn't participated in what came after.
This space, this miracle it was Ryosuke's alone.
And even Black Zetsu, the thousand-year monster, didn't know how deep the magic ran.
"…But, Lord Ryosuke," Black Zetsu asked cautiously, "are you truly going to destroy the moon here?"
"If you destroy it in this space, won't it affect the planet you built?"
"Why not return to the real universe? Fly far enough to a desolate quadrant… and destroy it there?"
"No. We'll do it here." Ryosuke shook his head.
"I want to see what kind of impact the moon's explosion will have on this different timespace."
This realm wasn't a true universe not exactly. It had limits.
And while the small planet beneath them possessed the same level of completeness as the real world…
He still felt it lacked something.
Something essential. Something celestial.
Perhaps the explosion would reveal what was missing.
"Get ready," he said quietly, his body beginning to rise
weightless, graceful, leaving the planet's gravity behind.
He hovered now, a part of this constructed universe.
And the final phase was about to begin.
[TL: You can also check out my newly released fanfic, Bleach: Ichigo Takes Over the Soul Society – just visit my profile if you want to read it.]