"How should I address you?"
["How you address me doesn't really matter, but for the sake of easier communication…"]
The man on the other end of the receiver said, ["Just call me 'Kara.'"]
Ryosuke didn't pay it much mind. Kara or Kakarot, it made no difference, he contacted the other party only to resolve the trouble caused by the moon.
"You were stopping me from going to the moon long ago. Did you foresee the alien attack in advance?"
On the other end of the line, Otsutsuki Isshiki fell silent for a moment.
This question was a bit complicated to answer.
A thousand years ago, Otsutsuki Isshiki was attacked by Kaguya and nearly died. By chance, he encountered a passing monk, Jigen, and used a secret technique to parasitize Jigen's body, surviving to this day.
However, Jigen was just an ordinary monk, lacking the qualifications for Isshiki to use the reincarnation technique, Karma, and truly revive in a perfect form.
So Isshiki clung to life, hiding his identity in the shinobi world and forming the Kara organization. Ultimately, his goal was to find a perfect vessel and revive without anyone noticing.
As for whether, after reviving, he would restart the God Tree plan or decide that the shinobi world was an unlucky dump and just leave, it would depend on his mood at the time.
Back to the topic of Isshiki stopping humanity from going to the moon.
On one hand, he didn't want humans making contact with the remaining Otsutsuki clan members.
After all, Isshiki wasn't sure whether that idiot woman Kaguya had left behind clues about him, especially now that humanity had achieved true unification, with technology, ninjutsu, and power advancing rapidly.
If, at such a critical moment, humans learned of his existence and name, combined with Ryosuke's strange little vines…
It probably wouldn't take long before they followed the trail and found him.
Reality also proved Isshiki's suspicion correct.
Wasn't Uchiha Obito exposed that way?
Isshiki, still not fully recovered, had no desire to fight Ryosuke at this stage.
On the other hand, Isshiki truly didn't want to draw down the Otsutsuki remnants living on the moon.
Kaguya was a lunatic.
Her two sons sealed their own mother, also lunatics.
With insanity passed down through the bloodline, what kind of decent descendants could come from that?
The shinobi world had been operating normally for a thousand years, why insist on exploring that damn moon?
Isshiki had indeed deceived Nakajima Taishi and other scientists in certain areas, but regarding the danger moon exploration might cause, he truly hadn't lied.
From the bottom of his heart, he believed, whether the Otsutsuki remnants on the moon held goodwill or hostility toward the shinobi world, contacting a group of people with broken minds would inevitably bring disaster.
The more prosperous humanity became, the more people were born, and the higher the chance Isshiki would find a suitable reincarnation vessel.
From this perspective, he was genuinely acting for the people.
Recalling his long journey of thoughts, Isshiki let out a light sigh and said, ["Ah… you could say that."]
["As for the group on the moon… now there's only one left. That's a good thing. In any case, I do know a bit about them."]
["Descendants of Otsutsuki Hamura, possessors of the Tenseigan, a group skilled in gravity and chakra manipulation."]
["You made this call because you want to ask me whether there's a way to deal with them, right?"]
Ryosuke gave a hum and said, "Do you have a way?"
After a brief pause, Isshiki's voice came through the receiver, ["Yes."]
"What are your conditions?" Ryosuke asked.
["Heh."]
Otsutsuki Isshiki chuckled and said, ["Ryosuke, you're smarter than I imagined."]
Now that Ryosuke was the leader of the shinobi world and destruction was imminent, Isshiki had thought Ryosuke would forcefully demand a solution from him.
After all, Isshiki and the Kara organization were also part of the shinobi world.
Ryosuke took a deep breath and quickened his speech, "You should know the resources I control, so don't waste time. State your conditions."
["Fine."]
Isshiki said, ["I want your body."]
In his thousand years in the shinobi world, Isshiki had never seen a body stronger than Ryosuke's.
This was a lifeform beyond humanity, naturally, Isshiki desired it.
In the past, he didn't dare hope for it.
To obtain Ryosuke's body, Isshiki would have to return to his peak state.
To return to his peak state, he would need Ryosuke's body.
A perfect dead loop.
What set Isshiki apart from the likes of Hiruko or Moryo was that he had truly been strong before and seen the bigger picture. He clearly understood that in his current weakened state, no matter what schemes or tricks he used, he couldn't defeat Ryosuke.
He had endured for a thousand years.
Isshiki was willing to wait.
But… times were different now.
Isshiki had gained bargaining capital.
He wasn't deceiving Ryosuke, once he completed reincarnation and returned to peak condition, Otsutsuki Isshiki could kill Toneri with one hand.
After stating his demand, Isshiki waited for Ryosuke's refusal.
He was prepared to negotiate.
However...
"Fine."
["What did you say?"]
"I said, fine."
It wasn't that Ryosuke was throwing his life away.
After obtaining past projections, Ryosuke could, by consuming stored life energy, generate a flesh-and-blood duplicate without a soul. It wasn't particularly difficult.
Once Ryosuke completed the Kars trial and gained greater control over his body, he could even make targeted differences in a clone's physical form.
For example, make this part bigger, that part stronger.
Of course, cloning it… didn't actually mean much.
Ryosuke's true strength lay in his Stand, Ripple, and Golden Spin cultivation techniques, things tightly bound to his soul.
A cloned body would at most have physical toughness.
Trading a largely useless cloned body for tens of billions of lives… to Ryosuke, that was an extremely worthwhile deal.
Ryosuke said, "But I have one condition."
"I won't hand my body over to a stranger. If you're willing to come stand in front of me and talk face to face, I can consider this deal."
"Just a face-to-face chat. That's not an unreasonable request, right?"
As he spoke, Ryosuke raised his free hand. A diamond-shaped Ripple crystal floated in his palm, with Hermit Purple wrapped around its mirror-like surface.
Mind Script activated.
Reflected within it was the face of a man in his forties, hair disheveled.
'This was the one I'm talking to.'
'Is he the leader of Kara?'
The moment the thought crossed his mind...
Bang!
The man's head exploded.
The phone fell to the ground, producing crackling, clicking static.
"He... he's dead?"
Nakajima Taishi stared blankly at the image produced by Mind Script.
He couldn't believe that the leader of the Kara organization, who had been coordinating with him, who knew so many secrets of the shinobi world and cutting-edge technology, had died just like that, without warning.
Ryosuke set the phone down.
"That wasn't his real body. It was probably a remotely controlled puppet, using mind-control–type ninjutsu."
"But… that's being overly cautious."
"The moment I asked to meet him, he didn't even try to negotiate. Afraid I'd track him down, he killed the puppet without a word."
Nakajima Taishi opened his mouth, then recovered and asked, "Should I send a carrier pigeon? I still have another, slower communication channel."
Ryosuke shook his head.
There was no need.
Even if contact could be made, Ryosuke didn't plan to trust him.
Someone who hides their head and shows their tail, at the end of the day, they're just too guilty to show their face.
In that case, it had to be done the hard way.
Rely on himself.