Chapter 10: Kaguya's Plan
Once the great war began, events no longer moved according to anyone's preferences.
The Daimyo of the Land of That had originally believed he could easily suppress Minamikawa Yuu's sudden declaration of war.
He quickly learned that he was wrong.
After years of development, the Land of That had been deeply infiltrated.
Just as there were many people from the Land of That embedded inside the Land of Ancestors, there were also countless operatives from the Land of Ancestors hidden within the Land of That.
In fact, there were even more of them.
The moment war broke out, a large number of samurai within the Land of That defected immediately. Border defenses collapsed one after another, and the front lines fell at a terrifying pace.
In only a few short months, the army had marched straight to the capital of the Land of That.
Only then did the Daimyo of the Land of That truly panic.
He hurriedly sent an envoy to deliver his daughter, trying to fulfill their former marriage contract and convince Yuu to withdraw his troops.
It changed nothing.
What a joke.
Having fought to this point, there was no such thing as retreat.
If he did not take down the Land of That in one decisive sweep, was he supposed to leave such a menace alive behind him?
Yuu ordered the envoy detained and continued the siege without pause.
The following month, the capital of the Land of That fell.
Insiders within the city opened the gates from within and presented the Daimyo, who had been attempting to flee.
With that, the Land of That was declared destroyed.
The fall of the Land of That carried immense significance for the Land of Ancestors, but it was only the beginning.
In the years that followed, Minamikawa Yuu campaigned across the continent, crushing every large and small nation in every direction until all were wiped away.
He unified the entire continent.
Thus, the Land of Ancestors became the sole power.
Beneath the magnificent God Tree, Kaguya and Yuu arrived hand in hand.
Kaguya looked up at the God Tree before her, but her heart held little emotion. She simply watched its vast canopy in silence.
Within the sight of her Byakugan, a flower was slowly blooming, and within it, another fruit seemed to be taking shape.
A new chakra fruit was forming.
However, compared to the last one, its growth was painfully slow.
Judging by its condition, it was impossible to tell how long it would take to fully mature.
At the very least, this fruit would never finish forming before the Ōtsutsuki Main Family arrived in this world to collect the chakra fruit.
There was no way around it.
The God Tree came to this world by taking root and absorbing the world's Natural Energy.
In the beginning, the Natural Energy here had been abundant. The God Tree's growth had been beyond imagination, and it produced a chakra fruit at the fastest possible speed.
But once the first fruit was created, much of that once abundant Natural Energy was consumed.
Naturally, the time required for the God Tree to bear fruit again became extremely long.
In fact, if not for the Ninja World's unusually rich foundation, under normal circumstances, a single fruit would have been enough to exhaust an entire world's reserves, leaving no possibility of producing a second chakra fruit.
Thinking of that, a trace of melancholy appeared in Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's eyes.
"Besides Natural Energy, are there other ways for the God Tree to bear fruit?" Yuu asked, standing beside her.
"Yes."
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya nodded and began to explain.
After swallowing the chakra fruit, she no longer kept anything from Yuu. She spoke plainly, recounting everything she knew without holding back.
At this point, she had no reservations.
The God Tree was a tool the Ōtsutsuki Clan used to increase their power.
It could absorb many forms of energy, then produce pure chakra fruits for the Ōtsutsuki Clan to consume.
Simply put, it was an extremely efficient energy collection tool, converting energy that ordinary beings could not use directly into chakra fruits that could instantly increase one's power.
However, there were restrictions in the process.
For example, for the God Tree to grow successfully, an Ōtsutsuki had to be offered as a sacrifice.
"Wait…"
Yuu's eyes narrowed in surprise.
"According to what you're saying, the God Tree must have a sacrifice to grow."
"Then who was sacrificed for the God Tree in front of us?"
"It was me," Ōtsutsuki Kaguya said.
"I fed my original body to the God Tree, then reincarnated into another body that had been prepared long ago."
Sacrificing one's original body to the God Tree, then reincarnating into a new vessel, was also a viable method.
To the Ōtsutsuki, a body was merely a tool. Even if it was consumed by the God Tree, it did not matter, because they could still continue living.
However, because her original body had been fed to the God Tree, and her current vessel was only a newly developed body, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's strength had been so weak.
It was almost like beginning again from nothing.
"I see."
Yuu nodded. A doubt buried in his heart finally loosened.
At this moment, he could roughly confirm something.
The Ninja World before him was likely not the orthodox history, but a parallel timeline.
He knew the orthodox story of the Ninja World.
In that story, two people had come to plant the God Tree.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was meant to be sacrificed to it, while another Ōtsutsuki served as the harvester.
But at the critical moment, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya launched a sneak attack, fed that person's body to the God Tree, then seized the chakra fruit for herself, triggering the chain of events that followed.
In the orthodox story, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya had no husband, and the brothers known later as the Sage of Six Paths were said to have been born from the blessings of all living things.
But this world was clearly different.
Yuu's eyes lowered, landing on Kaguya's gradually swelling abdomen, and the thought passed through his mind like a cold spark.
He then returned to the matter at hand.
As an energy collector, besides directly absorbing high grade energy like Natural Energy, the God Tree could also draw in Life Energy and chakra.
The chakra fruit itself was something formed from high purity chakra. It was only natural that chakra could be absorbed by the God Tree and refined into a chakra fruit.
As for Life Energy, it was one of the core energies used to synthesize chakra, so it was also natural that the God Tree could utilize it.
"Life Energy and chakra…"
Yuu murmured, thinking.
"Yuu."
Kaguya spoke again, revealing her plan without hesitation.
She wanted to kill everyone in the entire Ninja World except those close to Yuu and turn them into sacrifices.
To her, ordinary native mortals were nothing but ants.
Before this, because of Yuu, she had never truly cared about the lives of these Ninja World natives. She felt neither affection nor hatred toward them.
But after what happened with the Land of That, she had developed a deep disgust toward mortals.
Now, the thought of exterminating all life in the Ninja World did not surprise her in the slightest.
"Why?"
Hearing Kaguya's idea, Yuu remained calm. He simply asked a single question.
"Is there any benefit to doing that?"
"The Life Energy of the sacrifices can accelerate the growth rate of the God Tree's fruit," Kaguya answered.
"As long as there are enough sacrifices, it might be possible for the God Tree to gestate another chakra fruit."