CHAPTER 21: A Dangerous Conclusion
"SHIN: AMENOMINAKA (True: Amenominaka)!"
A blinding light was emitted from Kaguya's powerful third eye, the Rinne Sharingan, the eye that she acquired after the Earth's Chakra Fruit. The light completely enveloped not only the vision but also every other physical sense of those who were present on the battlefield…
"Damn you…!" Momoshiki roared towards Kaguya.
"Kaguyaaaa…!" Isshiki did the same as their voice slowly disappeared into nothingness…
"…!"
Sasuke and the rest of the Shinobi ended up also closing their eyes due to the blinding light emitted by Kaguya's jutsu…
"…"
And after a few seconds of complete numbness due to the sudden development… Kakashi, Sakura, Hinata, and Sasuke, with the unconscious Naruto on his shoulder, found themselves in the middle of the street of a very familiar ground…
"This place…" Sakura muttered as she looked around… she saw the familiar structures and buildings, even familiar faces of civilians, from her beloved Village…
"Konoha…" Kakashi said in surprise as well, as he also looked around the same way as Sakura and Hinata did… "Sasuke…!"
"This wasn't a Genjutsu…" Sasuke said with a serious expression. "My Rinnegan saw everything. Kaguya sent us back to Konoha thru the technique that she just activated."
"…!" Now being closer to the unconscious Naruto than she was on the battlefield, Hinata immediately ran towards the unconscious Naruto. "Naruto-kun!"
Sasuke simply nodded to her, and gently handed Naruto to the Hyuuga Princess, with the unconscious blonde Shinobi's right arm hanging on the back of her neck while Hinata was hugging him to her side with her left arm.
"What happened, Sasuke?!" Kakashi immediately asked as citizens of Konoha now noticed and began gathering around them due to their sudden appearance from out of nowhere. "Where are the Otsutsukis? What did Kaguya do?!"
"…We can ask her directly…" Sasuke replied with a dangerous glare as the Uchiha looked towards an empty space a few meters just above them.
And in that instance, a rift in space-time appeared… and from there, Kaguya Otsutsuki slowly revealed herself… making her levitate a few meters above the ground, and also in good distance away from them, surprising the now gathering citizens of Konoha…
Kaguya was now looking down towards them with a neutral yet dangerous expression. Her glance alone was more than enough to make the nearby citizens tremble, some lose the strength from their legs, making them fall to the ground, due to the sudden appearance of intimidating pressure… with some even losing their consciousness just by looking at the powerful being on their field of vision.
"…" Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi immediately prepared a fighting stance, but with much visible wariness on their faces. They were currently within the Konoha Village, and with civilians around them, and worst, with Naruto still out of commission, they were in a very bad situation right now if Kaguya ended up engaging them in battle at this very moment…
"Rokudaime… Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata!" Ino Yamanaka immediately contacted the group thru her remote communication jutsu. "What happened…?! Why did you all suddenly appear out of nowhere?! You guys looked all beaten up! What happened to Naruto?! And what is that powerful presence that was levitating near your location right now?!"
"One at a time Ino…" Sakura was the one who answered thru the mind link. "…though we don't have time to leisurely answer your questions right now. To make things short, due to how the battles against the Otsutsukis transpired, we ended up being transported here due to Kaguya's jutsu… together with her…"
"…!" Ino said with a surprised expression… as she also transmitted Sakura's response to every Konoha Shinobi that was left in the Village since the majority of their military forces were sent to the Land of Demons to combat the now already defeated Moryo's Army. "So this is an Otsutsuki… and this is… Otsutsuki Kaguya… a godlike being known as the Mother of All Chakra… Even in distance… her presence alone was so strong that it made me want to vomit…"
"Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke! Hold on, I'll send all the remaining active Shinobi there to aid you against Kaguya!" Shikamaru yelled thru the transmitted communications.
"Don't, Shikamaru." Kakashi simply replied without removing his glare towards the levitating Kaguya in front of them. "It will not make any difference."
"But we can't just do nothing and wait! A powerful enemy was currently within our Village!"
"Let's just say that the moment Kaguya entered the Village, the Village was already doomed to be destroyed," Kakashi muttered without any hints of sarcasm. "Unless… she deliberately decided not to destroy it on her own…"
On the other hand… Sasuke, despite feeling the fatigue of the long battle and now once again feeling the stress of his previously concluded operation for the transplant of his new left arm, slowly walked towards Kaguya's direction.
With a few meters away from each other, Sasuke now glared towards Kaguya's levitating form while the female Otsutsuki simply looked down towards Sasuke with a cold expression, as if her Byakugan was trying to bore a hole in his head…
"Otsutsuki Kaguya… what did you just do? What is this jutsu that you cast, and what happened to Isshiki and his group, together with Momoshiki and Kinshiki?!"
"As you have already known… the Amenominaka is a special technique that allows the user to perform a powerful space-time technique that sends me and my targets within a specific range to one of the dimensions within my domain… at the cost of huge amounts of Chakra. It is a technique that I can easily use on a whim if the Shinju that I have implanted was existing in this world… since the Shinju will provide me the near-infinite Chakra that I need to use the technique at any possible time…"
"However… as you and Naruto have already observed during our battle earlier, this is a technique that I can't just use randomly if a Shinju cannot supply me with the huge amount of Chakra that the technique requires for it to be used. While I still have huge Chakra reserves, I can only use Amenominaka for a few times during a specific period of time…"
"We already knew that much…" Sasuke muttered, his glare against the female Otsutsuki unwavering. "…you don't have any intention to use Amenominaka against us during our entire battle since you're preserving your Chakra to use that technique as a last resort against us, or against those whom you're so wary off… more specifically, those were the other Otsutsukis… those of your kind…"
"And it did pay off," Kaguya replied emotionlessly. "Because even if I use Amenominaka against Momoshiki and Isshiki, they have their own variants of the same space-time jutsu that they can use to simply open a void portal and travel back to this planet. That's why I have both you and Uzumaki Naruto push them to the brink at first so as that they won't have capabilities to use their space-time jutsus and escape the strongest variant of my Amenominaka…"
"The Shin: Amenominaka…" Sasuke muttered in a low voice.
"That's right." Kaguya acknowledged Sasuke's observation. "Unlike the original variant, the Shin: Amenominaka allows the user to execute a powerful space-time technique that sends everyone within its range to anywhere the user had intended… from a designated location… like this Village of Konoha…"
"…up to beyond the furthest dimensions, worlds beyond my domain, at the cost of much steeper Chakra cost… specifically if I intended to send my targets to those furthest dimensions…"
"…I have sent Momoshiki and Kinshiki to one of those furthest dimensions… and separately on another of the same dimension… I have also sent Isshiki and his followers…"
"…" Sasuke, despite not trying to, displayed a hint of surprise on his face. 'That was one very dangerous ability…' He thought.
"But what made you so sure that this is the right choice to do against them? Is it really enough to make sure that they won't be returning to this world?" Kakashi inquired this time.
"No. That is not enough. As I have told you, Otsutsukis have an innate capability to use space-time jutsus. Even with such a vast distance from where I have sent them, they'll definitely be able to find their way back here sooner or later. All that we did was to delay the worst outcome, and use that delay as the appropriate time to prepare for their inevitable return..." Kaguya answered Kakashi, still with a stern voice.
"And the very reason why I also have you all push Momoshiki and Isshiki to their limits was not just for them to be able to counter or negate my Shin: Amenominaka, but also to further delay their return, since Isshiki's host… Jigen, was already about to self-destruct due to him not being capable of handling Isshiki's true power… while Momoshiki was also on the verge of Chakra overflow that could also destroy him from the inside…"
"What I'm trying to say is that… since you pushed them to their limits, they must need to do something first to physically recover from the current damage on their body before they could even attempt to return to this world. And much worst for them, if they were able to recover at full power the earliest possible, using their space-time portal to travel back here will also consume huge amounts of Chakra since they were currently on the furthest dimensions…"
"…so they'll also end up being greatly weakened once they return here… thus needing to recover their lost Chakra again for quite some time… and it can be taken advantage of by Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke to finish them once and for all."
-Scene Change-
One of the furthest dimensions…
On a cold, dark, rocky terrain on a world nearly devoid of light and the existence of life…
Momoshiki was kneeling on the ground on all fours… vomiting a huge amount of liquid and Chakra due to the near Chakra overflow that he was experiencing after Naruto bombarded him with a seemingly nigh-unlimited Chakra supply that was used for casting that massive Rasengan…
"Momoshiki-sama…!"
"Don't… Kinshiki…" Momoshiki roared as he continued to roll on the ground in pain from internal damage. "Let me savor… this pain… Let me engrave this… in my mind and body…"
"…so I can be constantly reminded… of the blasphemy that those two did against me…"
"…Kaguya, the one who sent us to this distant dimension… and Uzumaki Naruto… the one who humiliated me like this…!"
"Just wait… for I'll make sure that the two of you… will pay for making someone like me… Otsutsuki Momoshiki… like this…!"
-Scene Change-
Another of the furthest dimensions…
On the red sands of a seemingly infinite desert with near boiling temperature, lies Isshiki Otsutsuki, now with Jigen's body having cracks all over the place…
"You, once again, got me… Kaguya…"
Isshiki didn't attempt to move for now… persevering in the overwhelming hot atmosphere of the dimension where Kaguya sent him.
"I can sense that Boro and Delta were also sent here by Kaguya… so I know that we'll be able to rendezvous sooner or later…"
"…but still… for Kaguya to have thought of such strategy against me…"
Isshiki cursed himself once again, not because he was outsmarted by Kaguya, but because he underestimated not only her but also the capabilities of the Shinobi who fought against him, specifically Uzumaki Naruto. Her former partner used Uzumaki Naruto to weaken his vessel, knowing that Jigen cannot withstand too much damage and also, cannot fully handle his overwhelming power, making him unable to react against Kaguya's true intent against him during the entirety of the battle.
Right now, he fully intended to return to that world as soon as possible. But due to the current state of his body, if he cast his space-time portal right now, the huge Chakra consumption that his portal would consume will totally destroy Jigen's body since the furthest dimensions were so far away from the Shinobi World… that he will need to recover his weakened self and knead appropriate amount of Chakra first for him to cast the portal… and use further Chakra to locate and teleport back to that world…
…and even with Jigen's body in 100% condition, that task of performing such space-time jutsu will still greatly damage Jigen's body… to the point that even if he was able to return back to the Shinobi World, he will end up being on the same state as he was right now due to that space-time jutsus Chakra consumption… rendering him vulnerable against the possible ambush from Kaguya, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke…
"This will be the last time… that I'll underestimate you, Kaguya…"
"Because next time… I'll make sure to destroy your so-called nursery… and erase your existence once and for all…"
-Scene Change-
"…"
Kakashi and Sasuke then saw how Kaguya have carefully planned everything, even considering multiple scenarios, so the Shinobi World can prepare once the Otsutsukis return…
"…I can't believe I am saying this… but I would like to thank you for helping us during our fight against the Otsutsukis." Kakashi gave Kaguya an eye smile.
"…" Kaguya then emitted powerful pressure against Kakashi and everyone near the area, lightly shaking the ground so that even Sasuke was prompted to prepare a fighting stance against the Rabbit Goddess' sudden intimidation.
"You…!" Sasuke roared as he once again clad himself with Six Paths: Lightning Armor Chakra Mode and clad his sword with Susanoo: Asshuku.
"Don't get your hopes high, Shinobi…" Kaguya said with overwhelming bloodlust towards Kakashi and Sasuke. "If it seemed like I fought together with you, then you're all gravely mistaken. I simply did the best choice for my survival. My goal is still the same and will always be the same…"
"…to get back all the Chakra you Shinobi stole from me… All Chakra still and must return to me…!"
"Then you'll need to get past through me first…!" Sasuke was now about to attack Kaguya, pushing his physical limits on his attempt to fight the Rabbit Goddess…
"…"
Kaguya and Sasuke's powerful eyes met… as if trying to assert dominance against each other.
And after a few more seconds, Kaguya then closed her eyes…
"I, too… am no longer in condition to further fight against all of you…" Kaguya said as she opened a Yomutsu Hirasaka portal beside her. She then slowly entered the newly created space-time rift. "You're the same, Uchiha Sasuke… you're also nearing the physical limitations of your body since you've been fighting this entire time while being weakened by your new left arm…"
"…on the other hand, my Chakra was already at its lowest possible point due to my usage of Shin: Amenominaka. So I don't intend to fight anymore… for now…"
"…unless you forced me to do so…"
'I see… Obito told me the same thing during that time that were locating Sasuke after Kaguya sent him to another of her dimensions during the 4th War.' Sakura thought to herself. 'Kaguya's dimensions were so far away that it took my Byakugo-enhanced Chakra and his Dual Kamui to the brink just to barely locate Sasuke. If the dimensions where Kaguya those Otsutsukis were much farther than that, then even Kaguya herself will exhaust her huge Chakra reserves with just by using Shin: Ameominaka for even just a single instance…'
"I have told you before, didn't I?!" Sasuke said with overflowing killing intent against Kaguya. "If you ever betray the trust Naruto gave you, I'll stop at nothing just to make sure that I'll kill you!"
"It is the other way around…" Kaguya continued her slow entry on her Yomutsu Hirasaka. "…If you ever attempt to attack me, right here, right now, I still have enough power to destroy this entire Village in an instant. If you do that… you'll be the one who will betray the trust that Uzumaki Naruto had given the both of us… doesn't it…?"
"Tsk…!"
"I am only leaving right now due to the trust that Uzumaki Naruto has given me for this one-time proposition. Next time we meet, we'll be enemies again… and once we do fight… I'll make sure that I'll take back both yours and Naruto's Chakra and make them my own once again…"
"…"
And after a few more seconds, Kaguya was able to completely enter her portal, and her presence disappeared from the entirety of Konoha.
"…"
Sasuke continued to glare at the space where Kaguya have just disappeared…
Indeed… Kaguya did all those not for the sake of giving the Shinobi World a fighting chance against the Otsutsukis, but she only did so for herself. She gave herself the necessary time to be able to prepare herself once the banished Otsutsukis return to this world. And after hearing Kaguya's last few words, it was more than enough for Sasuke to realize that Kaguya had her own means for her to recover her lost powers due to the recently concluded battle… and that will be her own means to prepare against Kinshiki, Momoshiki, and Isshiki…
Otsutsuki Kaguya, despite protecting her world she dubbed as her own nursery… still was… an enemy of the Shinobi…
'At the end of the day… we still need to prepare ourselves for their inevitable return…'
Sasuke then dispelled all his transformations, lost the strength of his legs, then was about to fall down to the ground.
'Fighting against Otsutsuki Kaguya… the Chakra Goddess… then against those other Otsutsukis with the same power level, if not higher… than hers… with the physical strain of my body due to the recently concluded left arm operation…'
'…I badly need a rest as well…'
Sakura then caught Sasuke's now unconscious body.
"Sasuke-kun, are you alright?!"
"I think he's fine." Kakashi then gave an eye smile as his Mangekyou Sharingan also vanished, reverting his eyes back to regular ones. 'It seemed like the Naruto clone that was acting as a medium to Sara to transmit the Ryumyaku leyline had also been dispersed…' Kakashi then felt greatly weakened, but Sakura was also able to catch the falling form their former Sensei…
"Hey guys?! Hinata and I were also hurt during the battle! Don't pass out at the same time!" Sakura yelled comically to Kakashi. The Rokudaime simply returned the gesture with a weakened smile…
It was then that Shikamaru and the other active Shinobi of Konoha arrived on the scene… sending the unconscious Naruto, Sasuke, and the weakened Kakashi to Konoha's General Hospital for immediate treatment…
-Scene Change-
"So the battle… was over, huh?" Gaara said not particularly to anyone, but enough for the comms to hear. "To think that there were multiple Otsutsukis out there with powers that rival and even surpass Kaguya… with only Naruto and Sasuke among all of us capable of fighting against them…"
Gaara and Oonoki, together with the advance army of the Shinobi Alliance, were still at their camp near the borders of the Land of Demons where they fought Moryo's Army until Moryo's defeat. The two Kages were linked in a mind communication jutsu by the Intelligence Unit of the Shinobi Alliance to discuss the current situation and circumstances…
"Just thinking about it made me feel shivers down my spine." Mizukage Mei also said as she also had the reinforcement army that she was leading on their way to the borders of the Land of Demons stop to camp as the battle against the Otsutsukis unfolded and concluded. "We still don't have the full details on how the battle unfolded, but I can feel that if this news about such powerful Otsutsukis came to the public, it will cause a major uproar and panic in the society."
"We need to decide on how we must handle that dangerous information as soon as possible. However, it seemed like the Hokage won't be able to join us right now since he also fought against those Otsutsukis together with Naruto and Sasuke." Oonoki shared his thoughts to his fellow Kages.
"And that's where the big problem lies." Raikage A said as he slammed on his table. He was currently at the Hidden Village of the Cloud, on the exact location where his Chakra Particle Cannon was located. "As the Mizukage has said, we still don't know how the battle against the Otsutsukis unfolded. All that we know was that the Otsutsukis were godlike entities with power surpassing the likes of the Sage of the Six Paths himself…"
"…and only Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke… both from Konoha… were capable of fighting directly against them. The power balance of this world was totally in disarray with Konoha having all the Bijuus and the Rinnegan!"
"What are you implying, Raikage?" Gaara narrowed his eyes upon hearing Raikage's complaints. Even during the previous Kage conference during Naruto's return, he was very verbal of his opposition to having all the Bijuus being sealed within Naruto. And with the Hokage not in the current conversation, it seemed like the Raikage is at it again.
"The 4th War happened due to the influence of the Bijuus and the Rinnegan, and the ones who instigated that War weren't the Akatsuki. Most of the benefactors of the Akatsuki were all from Konoha!" Raikage said with his usual loud, dominating voice. "Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Madara, and even Kabuto Yakushi is an apprentice of the Konoha's Sannin, Orochimaru!"
"…" The Kages didn't react upon hearing Raikage's words.
"Even those who made important contributions during the War were Edo Tensei of the former Hokages of Konoha! And the one who revived them was Orochimaru, who's also from Konoha!"
"What I mean was, even before the conclusion of the 4th War, Konoha was already a powerful Village in their own right. And now that the Jinchuuriki of all the Bijuus and another Uchiha with the Rinnegan were among their ranks, what is the assurance that they won't turn the tables against us?!"
"And now… with such powerful threats on the horizon, Konoha seemed to be the only ones capable of protecting themselves against those Otsutsukis due to their monopoly of the Bijuus and the Rinnegan! And that's what I am trying to say to all of you even before you outvoted me during that time that you allowed all the Bijuus to be sealed within Uzumaki Naruto!"
The Kages went silent after hearing the Raikage's rant. Even Gaara, who was a close friend to Naruto, also understood what the Raikage was pointing at.
"But still, if we ended up splitting the Bijuus into the Villages evenly just like from the past, if the Otsutsukis return, we still don't have the assurance that our Villages will be able to handle them… since the Otsutsukis were way past Bijuu-levels of power…" Gaara retorted.
"And what if the Otsutsukis were already defeated by then?" Raikage snapped back. "Remember, the major players who instigated the conflicts from the past were the powerful Shinobi from Konoha. If you allowed them to continue gaining power, what made you so sure that the power of both Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke possess won't corrupt them like what happened to Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito, both of whom also acquired the power of the Bijuus and the Rinnegan?"
"Then… that might be the reason why the Daimyos implemented that law. If powerful Shinobi like Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke would had arranged marriages with women from our own Villages, then that could easily mean that Konoha alone could no longer monopolize their power." Mei Terumi suddenly said in a mischievous tone.
"Might be right. But still, my point still stands." Raikage said with a serious expression. "We must reconsider the placement of the Bijuus on Konoha's Jinchuuriki, and have the Rinnegan wielder be not affiliated specifically with Konoha alone, but should serve the entire Shinobi Alliance administration. That is what I believe that we should have agreed upon…"
"…or else… this Shinobi Alliance we currently had would form its cracks from the inside, and would break apart if not handled in the right direction…"
-Scene Change-
Konoha General Hospital…
Uchiha Sasuke was lying unconscious in one of the hospital beds of a private hospital room with some medical equipment attached to his right arm. On another bed in the same room, Sakura was also resting while talking with Tsunade and Karin.
"So that's all that happened, huh…" Tsunade muttered as she was applying medical healing ninjutsu to her apprentice. Sakura also received a lot of damage while fighting against Kaguya, Boro, and Delta, to the point that she nearly exhausted her stored Chakra from her Byakugo Seal, that's why Tsunade opted to take care of her.
"Good thing I didn't force myself to come with you," Karin said to Sakura. "I'll be more of a dead weight on that fight instead of an assistance, considering that someone like you, who's an apprentice of Tsunade-sama, was barely able to put up a fight against those Otsutsukis…"
"Yeah. That's the feeling I had the entire time, a dead weight." Sakura said as she looked towards the unconscious Sasuke.
"But you and Hinata were able to handle the other Otsutsuki's followers. That's more than enough. I bet things would have turned out differently if you and Hinata weren't there." Tsunade said as she patted her apprentice on the head, as tears began falling from Sakura's face while looking down at her lap. "So don't beat yourself up. You're not from some prestigious Shinobi Clan, and also not a reincarnation of some powerful figure from the past, yet you were still able to fight together with Naruto and Sasuke against such powerful beings. So don't beat yourself too much…"
"Thanks… Shisho…" Sakura said with a small smile. Tsunade and Sakura then exchanged a mother-and-daughter-like hug, with Karin giving Sakura a huge smile on the sideline.
-Scene Change-
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata muttered as she looked towards the unconscious Naruto lying on his hospital bed. Same as Sasuke and Sakura's, Hinata was also confined for recovery in the same private hospital room as of her beloved fiancée…
They were visited earlier by Hiashi and Hanabi, that's why she was able to settle for now. Yet Naruto's unconscious form reminded her of how Naruto fought valiantly against those powerful Otsutskis, the same way as he used to during their childhood days… fighting against difficult odds and coming out of it as a stronger person…
Then…
"Naruto! Hinata!"
A now familiar red-haired girl entered the room with worry painted on her delicate face.
"Sara…" Hinata greeted her fellow fiancée with a small smile.
The former Queen of Rouran immediately ran towards Hinata and gave her a light hug.
"I've heard everything from Shikamaru-san…" Sara said with great concern. "Are you really alright?"
"Yes, I am already fine. It was a difficult battle, but we were still able to return here."
"I'm glad to hear that… Hinata…" Sara lightly sighed in relief. She then looked towards Naruto's unconscious form. "How about Naruto, how is he?"
"He's still unconscious due to physical and mental stress. But as of now, his vitals were fine." Hinata answered, then she gave her a nod.
Sara then walked towards Naruto's bed and sat by its edge. She then gently touched his left cheek, and with the back of her right index finger, traced that cheek delicately…
"He's always like this… Even while fighting against Mukade… and according to your story, while fighting against the Akatsuki and during the 4th Shinobi War." Sara said with a sad smile, with tears forming in her eyes. "He'll always end up beaten up, his body covered with bruises and injuries, yet will still continue to fight with everything that he's got."
"Yeah. Most of the time, Naruto-kun always ended up in the hospital bed after every mission." Hinata said from the background, remembering some painful yet beautiful memories she had with Naruto. "Yet during his most vulnerable state, what I saw in him is a person who will never lose his way… A person I can always strive to catch up to… a person whom I want to live the rest of my life with…"
"I'm glad… that both of you were fine… I'm glad that both of you were able to return back to Konoha…" Sara then returned her attention to Hinata despite still sitting on the edge of Naruto's bed. "I might not be a Shinobi, but I promise to the both of you that I will support the two of you not just as a family, but also as a citizen of Konoha. I might not be on the same battlefield with the two of you, but I'll also do my best to protect Konoha in my own way."
"Naruto-kun will be glad to hear that coming from you, Sara. I know you will become a great Administrative Advisor to the Hokage."
The two girls then exchanged a mutual smile as of that of two close sisters…
-Scene Change-
A certain unknown location…
A dimension rift from the very thin air, with a powerful entity coming out of it gracefully…
"So this place… was left untouched since then…" that entity, Otsutsuki Kaguya, muttered to herself. "Black Zetsu did a good job of preserving this place and hiding it away from those Shinobi… for more than a millenia…"
She then began walking forward in a seemingly huge, dark cavern…
As she continued walking, the place seemed to recognize her very existence, as the sides of the cavern began emitting small light made of Chakra implanted on its walls, similar to that of a lantern installed on a wall…
As she continued to progress further… the walls of the colossal cavern began changing their appearance… as it slowly turned into a huge hallway gigantic pillar, with its ceilings and walls engraved with unique, somewhat foreign, almost alien-like designs…
As she reached the seeming end of the now majestic hallway, a massive door with a similar appearance to that of a Rashomon Gates, yet about five times of its size filled with multiple sealing talisman that wasn't created by Shinobi Fuinjutsu, appeared right before her…
And with a single touch from her index finger, the talismans burned away in an instant, unlocking the massive door, making it open as its sides slowly made its way to the nearest walls with an eerie sound coming from its huge hinges…
Kaguya then entered that door with her steps displaying familiarity with the said place…
"Since I don't have the Shinju and the Juubi right now, with the vessel assimilated by the Gedo Mazo having a premature Rinnegan, I don't have any means to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi as of now…"
Kaguya muttered to herself as she slowly looked up at the seemingly unmoving gigantic creature in front of her.
"I have already projected before that sooner or later, the Otsutsukis will come to this world, my nursery, and attempt to take this world from me after they knew of my plans of betraying Isshiki…"
"That's why I created some forms of contingency plans against them, like the army of White Zetsus from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, conceiving Hagoromo and Hamura whom I expected would fight together with me against them while also acting as possible backup body whom I can implant my Karma Seal into them…"
"…and also… this… creature…"
The seemingly unmoving creature was so gigantic that it could rival the size of the Shinju that was created during the 4th war… with that Shinju itself already greatly dwarfing the Juubi, the mountains, and the entire landscape.
"A creature I mutated thru another Juubi that I have hidden from Isshiki… meld it with the sovereigns of this world… through the use of Creation of All Things… Banbutsu Sozo, a jutsu that Hagoromo inherited from me…"
After all, each pair of Otsutsukis who intended to harvest and consume a Chakra Fruit from their targeted planet must first plant their own Juubi. Thus, each pair of Otsutsuki have its own Juubi that they will use as a seedling to plant it to their targeted world, cultivate it, making them grow into a Shinju, consuming the sovereigns of that entire planet.
When Isshiki and Kaguya intended to use the Shinobi World for that same purpose more than a millenia ago, the two of them had a Juubi that they will use that they harvested from the last planet they consumed, as of the usual Otsutsuki's way of continuous growth and survival.
Isshiki used that Juubi on the Shinobi World… yet Kaguya betrayed him, making a part of Isshiki's physical body be consumed by that Juubi, thus making it grow into a Shinju of the Shinobi World, with Isshiki surviving her betrayal of him, with Kaguya not knowing about it…
And due to how things happened… Kaguya was defeated by Hagoromo and Hamura, with the power of the Juubi split into Nine Bijuus, with all of them now sealed within Uzumaki Naruto…
So there should be no other Juubi available… yet Kaguya heard that Isshiki, just on this recently concluded battle, intended to use her as a sacrifice and to be fed to seemingly another Juubi to cultivate that Juubi into a Shinju. And that could simply mean that aside from the Juubi that they implanted on the Shinobi World a millenia ago, Isshiki must have hidden a Juubi of his own somewhere…
A Juubi that might have already been in Isshiki's possession even before the two of them intended to visit they the Shinobi World from the past, or a Juubi that he just recently acquired thru some unknown means just recently.
But that doesn't matter now. All that Kaguya knew as of now was that Isshiki also have his own Juubi, and he intended to use her as nourishment for that new Juubi.
"So Isshiki and I happen to have ended up thinking along the same lines…" Kaguya muttered to herself.
After all, Kaguya was also hiding a Juubi of her own from Isshiki due to the plans that she intended to do in this world, her so-called nursery. She intended to do something about her own Juubi once she was able to properly execute her plans against Isshiki by that time. And since she was able to do so…
…she then used her own Juubi for another purpose… recreated it with Banbutsu Sozo to change its properties by using the planet's sovereigns thru different means, thus changing it into an entirely different being… a creature that will serve as a backup power source for her… just in case that things won't go well as she planned…
"…I never would have thought that I'd end up needing the power of this former Juubi…"
Kaguya then touched the unmoving gigantic creature. The very moment that she touched it, the creature began moving… slowly at the start, then began its rampage all over the place…
Kaguya then released a fragment of her Chakra, making the beast recognize her existence…
"When Hagoromo and Hamura betrayed me, I intended to use you as a means to fight back against them. But they have already grown to powerful by that time… so I got cornered with no means of acquiring your power, leaving me no choice but to meld with the Shinju implanted on the world during that time…"
"GGGRRRR…" The beast seemed to recognize its creator… as it lowered its head… revealing a white mask that displayed a human-like face…
Kaguya used her Chakra and Byakugan in her attempt to see if there was something wrong with the creature she created this entire time of its slumber, however, she saw some rather interesting memories from the said creature.
"It seemed like Black Zetsu deliberately took a tiny fragment of your power and handed it to the Sky Country of the past on his attempt to revive a Rinnegan from one of Indra's successors and ignite a war to do so a few hundred years ago… yet he failed. And that Sky Country ended up being destroyed by the so-called 'Five Great Shinobi Nations'."
"And the remnants of that Sky Country were still able to cultivate that fragment into a being that powered their weapon… and once again attempted to ignite another war just recently… yet it also ended up being defeated… by the combined power of Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto…"
"Interesting… very interesting…"
Kaguya gave an evil smile…
"So you already were holding so much hatred against those two…"
"Then… let me use your power… as a creature I created from the combination of a Juubi and the sovereigns of this planet…"
"My very own former Juubi…"
"Now known as… the Reibi (Zero Tails)…"