Chapter 534: A Familiar Action
"Ryo Uzumaki, thank you for saving me," Kaguya spoke again, her voice soft and gentle, her pristine white eyes looking at Teuchi with profound tenderness...
Ryo took a deep breath: "Teuchi, when you swore that Hagoromo and Hamura weren't your children, I actually freaking believed you! If you had just told me this was the situation from the start, I wouldn't have tried to stop her resurrection at all!"
Teuchi stood completely dumbfounded for a long moment. He looked at Kaguya, looked at Ryo, and then looked down at his own hands, his face painted with absolute bewilderment.
Could it actually have been me?!
Ryo paused when he saw Teuchi's reaction. He could tell Teuchi's expression of sheer confusion wasn't faked. A sudden flash of inspiration struck Ryo's mind, and he began to evaluate Kaguya with a look of profound surprise...
"She didn't deploy the God: Deep Forest Emergence to siphon the chakra of the entire shinobi world. Plus, she's missing half of the Nine-Tails and the entirety of the Two-Tails. Her chakra reserves are only marginally higher than my own. She should be very easy to handle, maybe I could even secure a total victory... Bah, spit!" Ryo shook his head aggressively. "The critical issue right now isn't whether or not I can handle her in a fight! It's..."
"Hagoromo Otsutsuki, get over here!" Ryo suddenly bellowed at the top of his lungs, giving Teuchi a massive fright.
Kaguya shifted her gaze smoothly: "Hagoromo? Where is my son? Eh, could you perhaps be Ryo Uzumaki's son? Did the two of you rescue me together?"
Ryo pursed his lips and exchanged a deadpan look with Teuchi.
Ryo wasn't entirely surprised that Kaguya couldn't see through the fact that Teuchi was a Shadow Clone. After all, in the original storyline, Kaguya couldn't see through Naruto's clones, while Six Paths Madara could see through them with a single glance—this was the exact primary argument used by certain fans who insisted Six Paths Madara was stronger than Kaguya...
"Stating that I am your son with such a natural expression completely proves that the two of you definitely didn't have that kind of relationship," Ryo deduced.
"Absolutely not!" Teuchi nodded repeatedly, then asked in confusion, "She called you my son, and you're actually not furious about it?"
"Right now, I have a much more critical matter that requires confirmation." Ryo shook his head. "Kaguya, we weren't the ones who saved you. It was Tenji!"
"Oh... it was him," Kaguya nodded, a trace of melancholy washing over her flawless features. "Did he finally feel remorse for what happened back then? It is a pity that Aino has already..."
At the mention of Aino, Kaguya's expression was filled with genuine sorrow, completely devoid of anger, let alone any trace of murderous intent...
"What exactly is going on here?" Teuchi muttered in disbelief.
Ryo let out a light chuckle: "It's Black Zetsu. Black Zetsu is Kaguya's physical will, representing her absolute dark side—and he was already completely obliterated by me! Therefore, the current Kaguya harbors absolutely zero darkness in her heart. Before any new darkness has a chance to breed, she should be highly receptive to rational communication. We just need to give her a proper educational alignment. This is the perfect moment for your wife to make her grand entrance."
Teuchi stood frozen for a long moment: "Main body, you are genuinely capable... you even managed to kill Black Zetsu... This makes things exponentially better!"
He gently waved his hand, and a petite, beautiful young woman with black hair and black eyes instantly materialized right beside him.
Ryo was taken aback: "Black hair?"
Aino turned and offered Ryo a polite, elegant smile.
"Aino?!" Kaguya gasped in shock, rapidly floating down from the sky blocks to land gently on the dirt.
"Back at the ramen stand, I had her dye her hair red and alter her makeup aesthetic slightly. I was terrified that your lard-filled brain might occasionally experience a spark of inspiration and find her face familiar," Teuchi chuckled lightly, taking Aino's hand and leading her forward to greet Kaguya.
Ryo rolled his eyes violently: "To actually call my brain lard-filled... You are literally a Shadow Clone, you only possess exactly half of my total IQ..."
"Is it really... Aino?"
"It is me, Lady Kaguya. Ryo Uzumaki was the one who saved me," Aino spoke with a soft, gentle cadence.
Ryo aggressively facepalmed. Aino's voice, overflowing with such profound affection as she said the name 'Ryo Uzumaki', violently pierced his heart. If only someone would call his name with that exact tone... There should still be a chance, I've already secured Naori's cells.
"Ryo Uzumaki saved you? Then the two of you..."
If this were the Kaguya from before her dark side was eradicated, she definitely would have harbored intense suspicion regarding the events of the past. But the current Kaguya naturally gravitated toward the most positive interpretation of everything: "Thank you so much, Ryo Uzumaki."
Teuchi nodded, offering a highly awkward, stiff smile.
Kaguya pulled Aino into a deep embrace, then suddenly cast a gentle, radiant gaze toward Ryo: "So, you must be the son of Aino and Ryo Uzumaki, correct?"
Ryo: "..."
Teuchi grinned so wide his front teeth were fully exposed.
"Are you not?" Kaguya tilted her head innocently.
Ryo shook his head, utterly speechless. He viscerally felt as though the entity standing before him was an Otsutsuki version of Hinata. She was supposed to be the majestic Progenitor of Chakra; how on earth did her personality devolve into this aesthetic?!
"You three can go ahead and catch up for a while. I'm going over to check on Naruto."
"Why did he leave so abruptly? Did I say something wrong?" Kaguya asked, her face a picture of absolute innocence.
Aino smiled warmly: "Lady Kaguya, you are much more... adorable than you used to be!"
Kaguya gently rubbed Aino's hair: "Aino, you would have never spoken to me like that in the past. Ryo Uzumaki, exactly what kind of experiences have you two gone through over all these years?"
...
On the alternative side of the perimeter, Ryo had taken over Karin's rotation, deploying his medical ninjutsu arrays to stabilize Naruto.
This was the only intact patch of flat terrain remaining in the entirety of the Land of Rivers. Both Ryo and the Sage of Six Paths—who harbored immense guilt toward Naruto—had consciously restricted their catastrophic shockwaves from reaching these specific coordinates during their brawl.
"Great-Great-Grandpa, you didn't manage to retrieve the Nine-Tails? And what exactly was that colossal eyeball floating in the sky just now?"
Ryo nodded: "Retrieving the Nine-Tails is off the table. But it's fine. Once the owner of that eyeball comes over here, I will simply have her partition a fraction of the Nine-Tails' power back to Naruto."
Naruto and Sasuke had undeniably drawn the absolute worst luck during this rotation. One lost the Nine-Tails, while the other lost his Eternal Mangekyo.
However, seeing as Kaguya was currently so incredibly agreeable and easy to talk to, Ryo calculated that requesting a portion of her power wouldn't pose any logistical issues whatsoever. After all, Naruto technically operated as one of the primary 'great contributors' to her successful resurrection.
"Wait for... the owner of the eyeball to come over?"
"I'll introduce you to her in a minute."
Ryo refrained from extending his explanation. Internally, he was feeling a profound trace of discomfort. A mere Shadow Clone had not only managed to marry the petite and adorable Aino but had also secured a monumentally positive relationship with the Progenitor of Ninja, Kaguya...
He was the absolute main body!
"Tsk, the petty jealousy of mortals," Ryo mocked himself under his breath. "A brittle Shadow Clone who could pop and disappear at any given micro-second, and Kaguya's maid whose biological lifespan is rapidly hitting its terminal limit—who isn't even a supreme beauty, just adorable. How could they possibly compare to the absolute gorgeousness of Naori?
Teuchi and Aino's days are strictly numbered, whereas the Great Ancestor and Naori have a massive, boundless future ahead of us..."
Right at that exact fraction of a second, a brilliant flash of golden light violently erupted beside Ryo's flank. Minato materialized, his dual hands heavily dragging the massive blade, Samehada.
"Grand Elder, Kushina, is Naruto holding up alright?" Minato handed over the massive sword. "This particular weapon is completely refusing to cooperate..."
Then, Minato could only watch in sheer disbelief as Samehada aggressively violently tore itself free from his grip, rapidly slithering over to Ryo's side and affectionately rubbing against his leg. Observing Minato's deeply awkward expression, Ryo genuinely felt his wounded, jealous heart receive a wave of soothing comfort from Samehada's absolute loyalty.
"Should I just keep it permanently?"
"Yo, Teacher, do you still require Samehada's utility?" Nagato asked.
"God, incoming entities approaching our coordinates," Kimimaro reported.
"Master, it's the alternative version of you. And... wow, that woman is incredibly tall, her eyes are so white, and why does she have a slit on her forehead? A third eye?!" Haku exclaimed in shock.
"Stop making such a massive fuss," Ryo laughed lightly, shifting his gaze toward the approaching trio.
Whether evaluating her sheer height or her sovereign, ethereal aura, Kaguya was undeniably, exceptionally striking...
"A Shadow Clone is fundamentally flawed," Ryo curled the corners of his mouth upward, cleanly discarding his previous envy, jealousy, and hatred. "His baseline aura is being completely, thoroughly outclassed and left eighteen miles in the dust by Kaguya and the Old Ancestor!"
Teuchi still wore a radiant, joyful smile. Flanked by Aino on his left and guiding Kaguya on his right, he walked toward the gathered group, playfully wiggling his eyebrows at Ryo: "Everyone, it has been a monumentally long time! This is my wife, Aino, and the entity standing directly behind me is... Urgh!"
Teuchi's vocal cadence violently halted. He slowly, agonizingly lowered his head in absolute, unvarnished disbelief, staring blankly at the lethal, ash-gray bone spike that had brutally pierced straight through the center of his chest.
"Kaguya... exactly why?!" he murmured, his voice trembling.
Poof!
Teuchi violently detonated into a cloud of white smoke, instantly dissolving into absolute nothingness.
"Ryo!" Aino screamed in sheer, absolute horror, covering her mouth.
This catastrophic, abrupt betrayal left every single individual present with their jaws violently unhinged in sheer shock. Even Ryo's cognitive parameters were completely overwhelmed, leaving him momentarily dazed and at an absolute loss. Although his internal logic continuously mandated that Teuchi was strictly a brittle Shadow Clone destined to pop eventually, this specific termination was far too abrupt and visceral!
"Lady Kaguya, why did you..."
Kaguya turned her head to look at Aino, her expression completely flat and devoid of any emotion.
"Karin!" Ryo violently snapped back to absolute clarity, instantly terminating his medical ninjutsu arrays. Executing a maximum-velocity Body Flicker, he materialized point-blank directly beside Aino, aggressively sweeping her straight into the absolute safety of his Eight Trigrams pocket space.
Ryo lifted his head, his facial complexion monumentally dark and grave as he locked his focus onto Kaguya: "I genuinely never calculated that the majestic, sovereign Princess Kaguya Otsutsuki would actually stoop to executing a theatrical facade of pure-hearted kindness?"
Kaguya locked her gaze onto Ryo. Suddenly, her facial muscles warped to execute a highly specific, intimately familiar physical action—a movement that sent an absolute, freezing wave of bone-chilling terror straight down Ryo's spine!
She extended a long, serpentine tongue... and slowly, methodically licked the corner of her mouth!