"This body… is mine!"
Momoshiki's soul turned into a beam of light, his heart surging with the dream of returning to the peak—perhaps even rivaling the gods of the Ōtsutsuki clan—all because of that Tenseigan!
But in the next instant, he slammed straight into a strange purple light surrounding Boruto's body. The light shimmered, thin as silk, yet it struck Momoshiki's soul like a bolt of lightning, sending waves of unbearable pain through him.
"What is this?!"
He cried out in shock, only to find himself involuntarily lifting his gaze.
Before him stood the towering, majestic silhouette of the Sage of Six Paths.
By his side, eighty-one Truth-Seeking Orbs rotated slowly, reflecting countless starry worlds within them—yet also sealing them, as though they contained the entirety of those realms.
The sight hit Momoshiki like a mental explosion.
The being before him was far stronger than anything he had imagined, without question on the same level as the divine beings within the Ōtsutsuki clan and perhaps even among them, there were many Momoshiki had never seen nor even heard of.
Yet, despite the overwhelming presence of the Sage's shadow, a faint trace of bloodline familiarity flowed from him, making Momoshiki feel an odd sense of kinship.
"Could it be…?"
This strange eye of Boruto's—could it truly be the Tenseigan? And had it already been marked by a god of their clan? Even within the Ōtsutsuki today, the only known bearer of the Tenseigan was the missing Ōtsutsuki god who possessed a pair of them.
Now, with the current Ōtsutsuki leader—Shinsiki—having awakened a single eye, there were merely three in existence.
It was said that one who possessed a full pair of Tenseigan could reach the same domain once walked by the Ōtsutsuki god…
Momoshiki's thoughts stalled, yet even so, countless possibilities flashed in his mind. But each one was far beyond his reach.
And with this Tenseigan already claimed by one of the clan's strongest, there was nothing he could do.
In that moment, he realized he had stumbled into an unimaginably vast scheme—one that could plunge the upper ranks of the Ōtsutsuki into a blood-soaked civil war.
"My apologies… I… I didn't know this was your prey…"
Trembling, Momoshiki's soul bowed toward the Sage of Six Paths, then slowly began to retreat.
When he had put enough distance between them, he didn't look back—his soul transformed into a serpent of light, darting off in a random direction at full speed.
A flash of white struck him.
Some of his memories vanished, but strangely, his spirit felt lighter and far more at ease…
...
On the battlefield, a blood-red figure suddenly appeared. With a crimson scythe, it reaped the divine power released by Momoshiki's self-destruction, harvesting it all in an instant.
To directly devour a god—this was a pleasure that made Jashin laugh aloud before he returned to the Shinobi World.
Those drifting in space also escaped the blast from Momoshiki's self-destruction. Soon after regaining consciousness, they each gathered some precious materials dropped from him before returning to the Shinobi World.
At that moment, a white ribbon of light emerged from the Dragon Vein that stretched to the Second Moon. Testing the air with her tongue, she lunged forward, her massive body chasing in the direction Momoshiki's soul had fled.
But before long, the White Snake Sage could no longer adapt to the environment of space, forcing her to abandon the pursuit.
Less than three years remained until the arrival of the great Ōtsutsuki fleet foretold by the Toad Sage.
It was then that the Sage of Six Paths stepped forward, urging the Slug Sage to stop the chase. Momoshiki's status within the clan was high—if he were spared, the Sage could use his identity as a surviving branch member of the Ōtsutsuki to perhaps negotiate a path of survival for the Shinobi World.
Such an idea was utterly unacceptable to the Slug Sage and the native gods of the Shinobi World. Conflict broke out immediately.
Though it was purely a clash of energy, the revived Sage of Six Paths now wielded greater strength than the Slug Sage herself. Even with the power of the Dragon Vein, plus aid from Jashin, the Mountain God, and the White Snake Sage, they were still slightly outmatched.
And so, the Shinobi World was once more forced onto the path the Sage of Six Paths had laid out.
"To become nothing more than a breeding ground, supplying the Ōtsutsuki with an endless army…"
Within the sun, Uchiha Kirin smiled faintly, opening his eyes to see the shifts of the future.
Now that he had completely abandoned chakra, he was walking his own true path. He no longer needed the energy system built by those who had sought to rival the Ōtsutsuki god.
And because of this, though his life level was not far above that of the Sage of Six Paths, what he could see was far beyond them.
"Momoshiki still has something I need…"
Besides, Uchiha Kirin had no intention of letting the Sage's plan succeed.
"Then… let's stir fate."
A Limbo clone stepped out from within him, hands drawing arcs to form a portal of space and time.
Momoshiki's fleeing soul tumbled into it on its own, suddenly appearing in the clone's grasp—this was Momoshiki from six months in the future, just before he was to make contact with the incoming Ōtsutsuki reinforcements.
"Give me everything."
Uchiha Kirin used a space-time crystal to activate the God Tree seed in his palm. A single root easily pierced into Momoshiki's soul, effortlessly extracting and categorizing his power.
With another wave of his hand, he summoned the now-useless body of Urashiki left in Hoshigakure and sacrificed it to nourish the God Tree's growth.
In an instant, the God Tree—having absorbed both—was laden with countless fruits.
Each fruit represented a different power of Momoshiki: some divine techniques, some chakra, and many more fragments of knowledge.
This was not an ability of the original God Tree, but rather born from Uchiha Kirin's mastery over space-time.
Each fruit existed in a separate branch of the same moment in time, maximizing the extraction from Momoshiki—to obtain the most precious thing from this Ōtsutsuki prodigy: his knowledge of the clan, its centuries of accumulated technology, and its techniques.
Momoshiki would vanish years later, just before the fleet rendezvous.
Uchiha Kirin closed his eyes, fully immersing himself in absorbing this power, preparing to turn this starry sky into his hunting grounds for the Ōtsutsuki.
...
Meanwhile, though the native forces of the Shinobi World had been forced to yield to the Sage of Six Paths' arrangement, the Slug Sage still poured the Dragon Vein's energy into healing the world's scarred lands.
Not for politics, but because this was the planet she cherished—the home to countless lives she had nurtured. In the time left, she would give all she could.
The Shinobi Alliance seized this chance to reclaim land, train shinobi, and prepare for the battles to come—for their home.
In the eyes of the gods, their short, fleeting lives were nothing more than bargaining chips or idle amusements.
Only Naruto, from time to time, would raise his head and gaze at the heavens.
The thing he had fought for all his life—had it already been decided?
What were these lofty sages and gods scheming? As a mortal, he could never set foot in that realm.
Until, one day, years later—
A dark, shadowy fleet appeared beyond the edge of the heavens.
The Ōtsutsuki fleet… had arrived!
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