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Kaguya Ōtsutsuki did not immediately reply to Qianyu's proposal. She seemed to be thinking, but in reality, she was communicating telepathically with Black Zetsu hidden in her sleeve.
'Black Zetsu, what do you think of this human's proposal?'
'Mother! This Qianyu brat is a smooth-talking, lying little shit! You can't believe a single punctuation mark that comes out of his mouth!'
Kaguya wasn't surprised by Black Zetsu's answer. Of course, this human before her couldn't be trusted. But after obtaining Hagoromo's power, he now possessed enough strength to threaten her.
If she refused Qianyu's proposal and they fought here and now… she had no guarantee of victory. If she was sealed again…
That place. A sunless hell where she couldn't even perceive the flow of time. A thousand years stretched into an eternity. Just the thought of it made her heart clench with dread.
'Mother, you need not worry. You can play along with this brat for now. Pretend to cooperate. Once you reclaim all the chakra scattered across this planet, dealing with him will be child's play.'
Sensing Kaguya's worry, Black Zetsu quickly offered a plan.
The God Tree's revival had been a massive disturbance. Yet, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki hadn't shown himself. This meant Isshiki was either long dead or in such a poor state he couldn't intervene. So, for now, their focus should be solely on dealing with Qianyu.
'Hm.'
Kaguya gave a slight nod. Black Zetsu's plan seemed feasible. She looked at Qianyu. "Very well. I am willing to cooperate. Once the God Tree's fruit matures, I shall extract three-tenths of its chakra to share with you."
"Three-tenths?" Qianyu shook his head vigorously, his tone turning sharp and aggressive. "No, no, no. I want half."
He pressed on. "And, to ensure you don't renege and swallow the whole fruit for yourself, Princess Kaguya, I'll need a little… concession from you. As a show of good faith."
With his current strength, Qianyu acted with utter impunity.
"Half? A… concession?" Kaguya was taken aback. Inside her sleeve, Black Zetsu gnashed his teeth in fury. This shameless, troublesome little brat!
"Half is too much. Three-tenths is my limit," Kaguya said after a moment's silence, prompted by Black Zetsu. "And what does this 'concession' entail?"
"Release the Infinite Tsukuyomi. I'll take half the planet's population with me. If you break our deal, I'll wipe them all out. You won't get a single speck of chakra from them."
Qianyu spread his hands. "You control the God Tree. It's only reasonable for me to take precautions, right? You understand."
He leaned in, his voice dropping to a dangerous calm. "You agree, we both benefit. You refuse, I camp right next to your precious tree. You fix it once, I break it once. Neither of us gets anything."
"Your choice." Qianyu concluded with a smile. "Figure it out."
Kaguya: "…"
Black Zetsu: "…"
It seemed like they had a choice. In reality, Qianyu hadn't left them any room to choose at all.
"Oh! One more thing." Qianyu snapped his fingers as if remembering something. "I'll be the one to release the Infinite Tsukuyomi. That way, the people I saved earlier will be among the rescued, singing my praises. The survivors will be grateful. It'll make ruling them afterward much easier."
'He's digging his own grave! His ambition will be the dirt that buries him! Mother, agree! Agree now!'
Hearing this, Black Zetsu almost screamed in excitement, writhing within Kaguya's sleeve.
'Yes, my child. You are correct.'
A flicker of delight passed through Kaguya's heart. A sly gleam flashed in her beautiful eyes as she looked at Qianyu.
Releasing the Infinite Tsukuyomi required projecting ocular power onto the moon once more. The moment the caster's power connected with the lunar reflection, there would be a brief instant where they couldn't use their ocular techniques.
That fleeting moment would be her perfect opportunity to strike. Just like when she had ambushed Isshiki Ōtsutsuki all those years ago!
The current Qianyu was strong, but he still fell short compared to Isshiki. If she could kill Isshiki back then, she could eliminate Qianyu now!
"…Very well. I accept." Kaguya made a show of wrestling with the decision, her silver teeth lightly biting her lip as if she'd finally, reluctantly, made up her mind.
"Excellent, Princess Kaguya. A deal, then." Qianyu smiled, thoroughly pleased. "I'll go release the Infinite Tsukuyomi and take my half of the population. You can keep the other half for your… extraction. Once I receive my share of the chakra fruit output, our contract is complete."
"Agreed." Kaguya gave a graceful, slight nod.
Whoosh!
Qianyu's figure vanished instantly. Kaguya knew he'd gone to play the savior in front of those other humans.
She silently used the God Tree's root network to sense the chakra fluctuations nearby. Her beautiful eyes fixed on the blood-red moon in the sky, patiently awaiting her chance to strike.
…
"Look! It's Qianyu!"
"He's back already? A few minutes and he's done?!"
Qianyu's figure appeared above the confused Tobirama and the others. He formed a single-handed seal, his Rinnegan gazing at the moon above.
"Infinite Tsukuyomi—RELEASE!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
As Qianyu's ocular power surged towards the moon, the bloody hue staining its surface began to fade. The human cocoons hanging from the God Tree's branches fell one after another, hitting the ground with dull thumps.
Simultaneously, the ribbon-like branches encasing the cocoons withered, melting away like spring snow, gradually revealing the people trapped inside.
Everything was progressing perfectly.
Then, the unexpected happened.
"Amenominaka!"
"QIANYU!!!"
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's figure materialized directly behind Qianyu. Her slender hands plunged viciously into his chest. In the same motion, her ocular technique activated again, and both of them vanished—leaving behind only a furious, helpless Tobirama and the others.
…
A scorching, otherworldly space. The air reeked of brimstone. Rivers of molten rock flowed everywhere.
Kaguya and Qianyu appeared abruptly. Her hands were still buried in his chest. Black Zetsu's form oozed endlessly from her sleeves like a living stain, engulfing over half of Qianyu's body in inky blackness.
"This is my world. You can do nothing here!"
Kaguya's beautiful eyes, fixed on Qianyu, were filled with triumph. With their power being close, her perfectly-timed ambush—striking when he couldn't use his ocular techniques—had secured her an absolute advantage.
Now, her chakra completely suppressed his. Qianyu couldn't muster a single bit of chakra to resist.
"Giggle… My task is complete. Qianyu, come now. Return to the embrace of our all-powerful Mother." Black Zetsu's voice, thick with malicious glee, echoed. His fluid body writhed violently, accelerating the devouring of Qianyu's chakra.
"Can't move a muscle…" Qianyu's voice was strained, yet a low chuckle escaped him. It grew, swelling into full-blown, maniacal laughter. "HAHAHAHAHA! But you really think you've got me?!"
Even in this dire predicament, he laughed like the victor. "This situation… is exactly what I planned for!"
"Hmph. Babbling nonsense as death approaches? Your mind is already failing." Black Zetsu sneered. "Even that unfilial son Hagoromo couldn't break free from Mother's and my restraints. Just accept your fate as nourishment, Qianyu. There is no way for you to turn this around now!"
"Oh? Is that so?" Qianyu's voice was unnervingly calm, despite his inability to twitch a finger. Because in his field of vision, unseen by Kaguya and Black Zetsu, his system interface was flooding with notifications.
"It seems the people outside have truly broken free from the Infinite Tsukuyomi… saved from their destined, near-death state," Qianyu murmured. "And in the system's judgment… the one who released it… just saved all of humanity."
[Ding! Rescue successful. Congratulations, Host, for obtaining…!]
*[Ding! Rescue successful. Congratulations, Host, for obtaining "Chakra Enhancement"476!]
*[Ding! Rescue successful. Congratulations, Host, for obtaining "Physique Enhancement"127!]
[Ding! Rescue successful…!]
Billions of people across the shinobi world. Even if only one in a million, one in ten million, provided a useful reward… the quantity was staggering!
All his earlier feints and bluffs against Kaguya… it was all for this moment. For these rewards.
Yes. This was the "bold idea" he'd had from the start.
The rewards for saving humanity were rich enough to gamble everything. And since Kaguya and her ilk knew nothing of the system, they'd likely be swayed by his "reasonable" proposal. The risk of this plan wasn't actually that high.
"And now… my plan succeeded. To think you could stand against me, after I've charged countless 648s? You never stood a chance!"
BOOM!
The warm, transformative energy the system used to modify his body—usually a gentle stream—now felt like a vast, roiling ocean. As the rewards were distributed, it surged into Qianyu's being with terrifying, overwhelming force.
If not for his current Six Paths body, the influx might have torn him apart.
"Qianyu, you…?! GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Black Zetsu was the first to sense the change within Qianyu. He didn't even have time to be shocked before Qianyu's violently erupting chakra blasted through him, reducing the millennium-old schemer to dust. No final words. Just a swift, unceremonious exit.
Whoosh!
Kaguya's instincts fired again. She instantly put distance between herself and Qianyu, her beautiful eyes wide with shock and suspicion as she scanned him.
What… just happened?!
In the blink of an eye, Qianyu's wounds had healed. Not only that, his power had suddenly skyrocketed to a level she could no longer suppress.
"Let's have a good fight, Princess Kaguya!"
Qianyu himself didn't know how strong he was now. Because he was still getting stronger. The deluge of power kept pouring in, making his body feel swollen, the surging power filling him with restless energy. This was the downside of an abnormal power surge—he desperately needed to vent this boundless energy on someone.
And the alien beauty before him was the perfect candidate.
He'd never sparred with an extraterrestrial beauty before!
"Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!"
Seeing Qianyu roar and lunge at her with excitement stamped on his face, Kaguya flinched in alarm. She immediately unleashed her signature, most powerful taijutsu.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Kaguya condensed chakra refined to its utmost limit into her palms. In an instant, she unleashed a barrage of countless chakra fists. Each fist was a space-shattering blow, forming an impenetrable net around Qianyu, sealing every possible angle of escape.
"Good! I like your hand speed!" Qianyu laughed with excitement. He met the onslaught fist for fist. His own ferocious chakra punched straight through, easily tearing holes in the dense, sky-blotting net of attacks.
This technique, which in the original timeline could shatter a perfect Susanoo and obliterate countless of Naruto's Six Paths clones in an instant… now couldn't even mess up Qianyu's hair.
"Expansive Truth-Seeker Ball!"
Seeing her attack fail utterly, a flicker of panic crossed Kaguya's eyes. She hurled a massive Truth-Seeker Orb at Qianyu and immediately activated her ocular technique again.
Amenominaka!
She transported herself to a world blanketed in endless ice and snow.
"That orb annihilates all nature transformations, consumes all five elements and Yin-Yang. It should buy me some time…" Kaguya breathed, heart still racing. She clenched her small fists in frustration. "Just moments ago, I had him completely suppressed! I was so close to devouring him entirely! How… how did his power become so terrifying in an instant?!"
"Simple." The familiar voice, low and mocking, whispered right beside her ear. It sent a chill straight to Kaguya's core. "I used cheats."
"Amenominaka!"
Kaguya vanished again, a startled rabbit hopping frantically through space. She flickered through several of her dimensions before finally arriving in her core dimension.
"Stop running. You're not getting away." Qianyu's form materialized behind her, his arms wrapping around her before she could flee again. He spoke softly, amused, right into her ear. "Save your strength. You'll need it for our little… sparring session."
With sufficient chakra, teleporting through dimensions? Qianyu could do this all day.
"All-Killing Ash Bones!"
Knowing escape was futile, Kaguya finally resolved herself for a life-or-death struggle.
She let out a sharp cry. A sickening crack-crack-crack echoed from within her body. In the next instant, over a dozen gleaming, razor-sharp bone spikes, each four to five meters long, erupted from her back and sides.
They pierced straight through Qianyu, who was still holding her, turning him into a human pincushion.
"A direct hit! Now perish!" Sensing her bones penetrate his real body, Kaguya felt a surge of triumph. The All-Killing Ash Bones were a certain-kill technique. The victim's body would crumble into ash from the point of contact, disintegrating alongside the bone.
If she hadn't wanted to devour his chakra earlier, she would have used this to erase him from existence!
"Useless." Qianyu's voice was calm. "Izanagi."
With a surge of chakra, he shattered the ash bones inside him. The forbidden ocular technique activated, rewriting reality, resetting his own state and nullifying the "certain-kill" property of the attack completely.
"H-how…?" Kaguya's triumphant smile froze, then shattered as she saw Qianyu utterly unharmed.
"Alright, Princess Kaguya. Enough struggling." Qianyu's patience had worn thin. His tone turned ominous. "You don't want to be sealed away for another thousand years, do you?"
As he spoke, the powers of Yin and Yang began to flicker alternately in his hands. Kaguya's body trembled violently, like a leaf in a storm. All will to resist evaporated instantly.
"W-what are you going to do to me?" Kaguya turned her head, looking up at him with pitiable eyes. The gap in their power was now an abyss. Resistance was impossible. She was at his mercy.
"Heh. Just be a good girl and listen." Qianyu's smirk widened. "Now, squat down. Open your mouth. I'm on a tight schedule."
"Eh? You want to…? Mmmph! Mmmph mmmph mmmph!"
"You wanted to suck my chakra, right? I've got plenty. Let's see if you can swallow any of it down!"
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