Sarutobi Hiruzen snapped out of his contemplation.
He had heard what Kaguya said...
Negotiating terms...
And complaining that he was ignoring her?
In truth, Hiruzen had never deliberately ignored Kaguya.
It was simply that when he was handling government affairs or thinking about his training, the Hokage was under no obligation to answer every nonsensical question Kaguya threw at him.
He had to focus on his own affairs first.
But Kaguya clearly wasn't used to that...
A mere mortal dared treat her like this?
Yet there was nothing she could do about it.
After all, Hiruzen didn't refuse to answer her. He simply wouldn't answer immediately, and once he had some free time, he would still explain things to her...
So Kaguya could only wait.
That made Kaguya realize that he wasn't desperate to cooperate with her.
And after comparing notes with the other timeline, Kaguya had also come to understand why such an absurd shinobi world had managed to continue existing: the other version of her had never successfully escaped her seal and remained imprisoned by the Sage of Six Paths...
That realization dealt Kaguya a modest blow.
So the other her really hadn't broken free and slaughtered everyone?
In that case...
Cooperation was the only choice!
"Cooperate with me..."
"Isn't cooperation one of the meanings behind your Will of Fire?"
Kaguya said something unexpectedly reasonable.
Hiruzen paused.
It seemed this mysterious woman had actually done some thinking during the time she'd spent inside him.
Though her understanding still felt somewhat one-sided...
"Cooperation itself isn't a problem."
Hiruzen spoke softly.
"But cooperation requires a foundation of trust. So far, all we've done is exchange names. I haven't hidden my circumstances from you."
"You know exactly who I am."
"But I still don't know who you are..."
Hiruzen's gaze gradually sharpened.
A supernatural being had suddenly appeared inside his body. Had his Ten Thousand Seals Body Integration Seal not already reached a respectable level of development, he might have ended up like Uchiha Madara...
Possessed without even realizing it, only to suddenly have his body taken over one day.
Kaguya felt somewhat awkward about that particular issue.
She obviously couldn't tell him that a thousand years ago she'd planned to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi and turn humanity into White Zetsu, could she?
And that afterward, she'd been sealed away by the two sons she'd created herself.
That would be far too humiliating...
On this particular point, Kaguya even felt a strange sense of kinship with Hiruzen. She thought the two of them were rather alike...
As for how?
The Sarutobi Hiruzen of the other timeline had also fought his own disciple, Orochimaru, sacrificing his life only to seal away the man's arms...
Round things off a little and it was practically the same thing.
"You may have heard of my true identity before."
"I was once known to the world as the Rabbit Goddess, the progenitor who brought an age of chaos to an end. But my two sons became obsessed with terrifying power and attempted to grow the Divine Tree..."
Kaguya paused.
This was her first time lying, and she wasn't particularly good at it.
"To protect the shinobi world, I had no choice but to stop them. In the end, I severely wounded both of my sons, but they managed to seal me away as well—in what you now call the moon..."
Hiruzen stared blankly as he listened.
"Are you about to tell me that if I rescue you from the moon, you'll make me supreme commander of the shinobi world, but first I need to send you some chakra?"
Hiruzen couldn't resist making the jab.
This was basically the shinobi world's version of an 'I'm royalty, send money' scam...
Hokage-sama at least had that much fraud awareness.
"How did you know what I was going to say?" Kaguya asked in astonishment.
She had spent ages carefully working out this pitch...
Was it really that obvious?
"Who are your two sons?"
Hiruzen asked with a wooden expression.
He was sitting in the Hokage's office handling government affairs. How had this suddenly turned into ancient mythology?
"One is named Ōtsutsuki Hamura. He could be considered the ancestor of your village's Hyūga and Kaguya Clans. He was a good child, but unfortunately he was led astray..."
The moment Kaguya reached the Sage of Six Paths, irritation began to gnaw at her.
"The other is named Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo!"
"The very founder of Ninshū you mentioned—the so-called Sage of Six Paths! That bastard had terrifying ambitions and an insatiable hunger for chakra..."
"He wanted to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi to transform every human in the shinobi world into special creatures so he could fight the Ōtsutsuki Clan—or me, once I escaped..."
"You were able to summon me because your body contains the merged chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts. That power originally belonged to me, which allowed a resonance to form."
Kaguya continued explaining how she had manifested.
"And after that bastard Hagoromo stole my power, there's no way he could have digested it easily. So I imagine he eventually separated the Ten-Tails from his body as well..."
"But I don't believe he's dead. He's probably hiding somewhere."
"The so-called Ten-Tails is the Divine Tree, while the Tailed Beasts are fragments separated from the Ten-Tails."
"I come from the Ōtsutsuki Clan beyond this world. Our purpose is to plant Divine Trees and absorb the essence of planets, but I never agreed with that way of life."
Kaguya mixed truth with lies as she continued.
"Several thousand years ago, Isshiki and I came to the shinobi world to plant a Divine Tree. But I grew fond of this world's environment and way of life, so I stopped his invasion..."
"I can confirm that Isshiki is possessing the shinobi named Uchiha Madara. I've already told you about that."
"Because the Sage of Six Paths prevented me from developing the shinobi world, more than a thousand precious years have been wasted. The situation is extremely urgent now!"
"The time for harvesting the Divine Tree passed long ago. Under normal circumstances, Isshiki and I should already have returned to the clan and delivered the Chakra Fruit..."
"By custom, the main family will eventually send people to investigate!"
"In other words, you'll have to face at least two beings on Hagoromo's level. And there is absolutely no possibility of negotiating peace with them. Every one of them is exceptionally cruel and arrogant..."
Kaguya tried to frighten Hiruzen.
In reality, however, Kaguya didn't believe ordinary members of the main family could defeat that outrageous son of hers...
Back then, Kaguya truly hadn't expected it.
The Chakra Fruit produced by a world as exceptional as this one was an exquisite prize that practically any Ōtsutsuki would covet. After gaining that power, she should have been virtually invincible among those of her level...
Yet somehow she'd still lost!
At the time, the Sage of Six Paths had possessed only a small portion of Kaguya's power. Yet through his mastery of natural energy and the sealing techniques he developed himself, he had managed to overcome an opponent far beyond him and accomplish something that should have been impossible...
Isshiki couldn't have done it.
And Kaguya didn't believe any of the other Ōtsutsuki she knew could have done it either.
That was why Kaguya's feelings toward the Sage of Six Paths had always been complicated.
She hated him.
But she was also proud of him.
"So you need to understand how serious the situation is..."
Kaguya continued applying pressure.
"The Sage of Six Paths hiding somewhere is one..."
"There will be at least two pursuers from the main family, but there could even be three!"
The standard two-man team, plus Urashiki, who loved sticking his nose into everything.
"That's four enemies who would all be regarded as 'sages' by the shinobi world..."
"Sarutobi Hiruzen, you need my power!"
After spending months rehearsing it in her head, Kaguya finally delivered what she considered a reasonably intimidating negotiating speech.
What she hadn't expected...
Was for Hiruzen to simply listen in silence, barely reacting emotionally at all.
He might never have met a sage before, but he'd been through plenty of negotiations like this...
Grand promises, visions of the future, and intimidating displays of strength were all standard tricks.
Besides, Hiruzen still remembered the things Kaguya had muttered when she first appeared...
They certainly hadn't sounded like something a Rabbit Goddess devoted to protecting the shinobi world would say.
She'd sounded more like a lunatic obsessed with revenge...
"Hmm..."
Hiruzen remained thoughtful. He didn't rush to respond, instead taking some time to digest everything Kaguya had said.
Between her and the Sage of Six Paths, who was good and who was evil?
Hiruzen had no way to verify that.
But judging from his first impression of Kaguya and the surviving records concerning Ninshū, it seemed more likely that the Sage of Six Paths had ultimately sided with the shinobi world.
There was also some supporting evidence from the Nine-Tails.
While living with Mito, the Nine-Tails, who had practically come to regard Konoha as its home, would occasionally let something about the past slip. All of that information had eventually been compiled and passed on to Hiruzen...
"To tell you the truth..."
"I'm more inclined to believe that you and Isshiki originally came here together to plant the Divine Tree. But because you were the subordinate of the pair, Isshiki probably made some demand that seriously harmed your interests..."
"Or perhaps the Chakra Fruit produced by the shinobi world was simply valuable enough to give you sufficient reason to betray him, so you stabbed him in the back."
Hiruzen spoke casually.
He couldn't guarantee that his guess was correct.
But that was the nature of negotiations conducted with incomplete information. During the initial probing, both sides were free to exaggerate their intelligence and the cards they held.
As long as you happened to touch on something the other side was wary of, that was enough.
"As for the Sage of Six Paths and your other son..."
"From what I've learned about you, I suspect that deep down you felt unable to properly control such power. So you tried dividing it into subordinate entities in order to turn that power into something manageable..."
"You don't understand combat. You don't even understand how to properly use chakra, Kaguya. There's no need to pretend otherwise."
"People have exaggeratedly praised me as the Professor of Ninjutsu. It may be a flattering title, but there is at least some truth behind it..."
Sarutobi Hiruzen said quietly.
Kaguya's heart skipped a beat.
This was bad!
How had this happened?
This wasn't how scheming was supposed to work!
After hearing that she was the Rabbit Goddess, he was supposed to immediately submit to her, help her figure out how to escape the Chibaku Tensei, and then she would reluctantly agree to let him serve as her deputy...
Why was he suddenly digging up her entire past?!
Kaguya even began to suspect that Hiruzen possessed some kind of dōjutsu comparable to those of the Ōtsutsuki, one capable of seeing into the past...
Kaguya's emotions began to fluctuate.
But Hiruzen hadn't finished his analysis.
"As for the Sage of Six Paths..."
Hiruzen stroked the Five-Tails and spoke softly.
"Kokuō, do you and the other Tailed Beasts know about the Sage of Six Paths? I've heard a few things from the Nine-Tails..."
"I won't ask about anything you don't feel comfortable answering."
"Do you think he was a good person? Someone who genuinely wanted peace?"
The little horse, currently chewing on a document, froze.
Why was Hiruzen suddenly asking about the old man?
Strictly speaking, the Sage of Six Paths had forbidden them from mentioning his existence...
But Hiruzen seemed different...
"The old man used to be obsessed with the toads' prophecy."
"How did it go again?"
"A blue-eyed youth would call the Tailed Beasts by their true names, bring an age of chaos to an end, and usher in peace..."
Kokuō tried its hardest to remember.
The 'youth' part didn't really fit Sarutobi Hiruzen, but Kokuō knew that Hiruzen had become young again, so perhaps it barely counted...
After all, from the Sage of Six Paths' perspective, wouldn't a fifty-year-old still be a youngster?
As for the blue eyes, that part really did fit!
The Byakugan didn't count, and the Sharingan could hardly be called blue. But when Hiruzen entered Spirit Release Chakra Mode, his pale blue eyes could certainly qualify as 'blue eyes'...
And as for cheerfully calling the Tailed Beasts by their true names...
Hiruzen was certainly someone who smiled a lot.
The way Hiruzen had learned Kokuō's name was actually very simple. He had introduced himself first, and then one day while chatting with the little horse, he'd casually asked its name.
So Kokuō had simply told him...
'Didn't Mount Myōboku already call Hiruzen the "Teacher of the Prophecy"? And he's always using Ninshū as an example. Looking at it now, isn't he exactly the person the old man was waiting for?!'
Kokuō pondered inwardly.
What it didn't know was that Hiruzen had always had a habit of prefacing his arguments with claims about how things had been done since ancient times.
It actually had nothing to do with Ninshū or being the 'Teacher of the Prophecy.'
"We really were created by the Sage of Six Paths..."
"The old man was a very, very good person. He loved peace and constantly taught us that Tailed Beasts and humans could live together peacefully. It just took a thousand years for that day to finally arrive."
Kokuō leaned against Hiruzen's leg and sighed.
"He once said someone would make all of this happen. We thought he'd simply gotten senile and started believing too much in prophecies, but now it seems it might really be true. That person is you, Hiruzen..."
Kaguya took a deep breath.
This was bad. What was wrong with these little beasts?!
"A prophecy?"
Hiruzen listened to the prophecy Kokuō had described, then smiled and shook his head.
"I don't have blue eyes, and I'm certainly not a youth. You were the one who told me your true name, and I don't even know the names of the other Tailed Beasts..."
Kokuō blinked.
"Isn't it normal not to know? Or... do you want to try guessing?"
"If I absolutely have to guess..."
Hiruzen joked.
"I've always had a certain fondness for the Four-Tails. When I was young, I once dreamed about an ape who dared rebel against every injustice he encountered. He was far stronger than the Four-Tails, and if I remember correctly, his name was... Son Gokū."
Kokuō's eyes instantly widened.
Wait...
It told him to guess and he actually guessed it?!
"The Four-Tails really is named Son Gokū..."
Kokuō said in utter astonishment.
"So the prophecy really was true!"
If Hiruzen had guessed the names of the One-, Three-, Six-, Seven-, or Nine-Tails, Kokuō might not have considered it conclusive. Those Tailed Beasts were all currently in Konoha.
Given Konoha's current atmosphere, they might have voluntarily told their jinchūriki their names...
But the Four-Tails was in Iwagakure!
"Huh?"
Hiruzen was stunned as well.
"Then it's probably just a coincidence. You can't take that as proof..."
Kokuō shook its head furiously.
Hiruzen's humility was acting up again!
He was always like this...
Kokuō had already decided that it was going to tell all the other Tailed Beasts about this.
Their cooperation with Hiruzen had to be strengthened even further...
This was destiny!
Meanwhile, Kaguya was practically numb from listening.
So her jinchūriki was actually the chosen one selected by that rebellious son of hers?
Had she simply gone from one prison straight into another?
And on top of that, the brilliant argument she'd spent so long devising had been dismantled by Sarutobi Hiruzen in a few sentences. Kaguya was starting to fall apart...
"Keep your emotions steady."
Hiruzen noticed something was wrong with Kaguya and spoke gently.
"Even so, I don't believe the Sage of Six Paths was necessarily right about everything."
"No matter what happened, your dispute with him took place a thousand years ago. There's little value in obsessively arguing over it in the shinobi world of today."
With Kaguya's personality, Hiruzen felt that relentlessly dragging up the past would only intensify the conflict.
In his eyes, Kaguya was actually somewhat like an Uchiha.
The classic rather foolish type.
You had to handle her gently.
Give her a little trust that didn't seem entirely rational, regardless of whether that trust was genuine, and there was a chance she would repay it many times over...
"If we're going to cooperate, we first need to set those disputes aside and identify what we have in common."
Hiruzen's tone became serious.
"First, you need to oppose the Ōtsutsuki main family, correct? Whether it was because you wanted the Chakra Fruit for yourself or because you wanted to protect the shinobi world, you attacked an enemy named Ōtsutsuki Isshiki..."
Put simply, Kaguya was the Ōtsutsuki Clan's missing-nin.
Kaguya pursed her lips and nodded.
"That's right..."
"You said the Sage of Six Paths used the Infinite Tsukuyomi to create an army of creatures derived from the Divine Tree..."
Hiruzen couldn't help laughing as he spoke.
"I don't know why the Sage of Six Paths would have done that, but he probably regretted it afterward. Otherwise, he never would have passed chakra down to humanity..."
"That clearly proves that shinobi capable of learning and improving are stronger than those creatures."
Even Kaguya couldn't keep a straight face after hearing that.
Could she really be blamed for that?
How was she supposed to know that chakra—which even she barely knew how to use properly—would become so versatile in human hands that they would develop countless different techniques with it...
They'd even learned to harness natural energy!
Had someone told her that from the beginning, Kaguya genuinely thought she wouldn't have cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. She could simply have led the shinobi forward, accumulated strength for a thousand years, and then crushed the Ōtsutsuki main family when they arrived...
Who could have known human creativity would be this ridiculous?
"So on that basis, neither you nor the Sage of Six Paths would use the Infinite Tsukuyomi again."
"Because the Ōtsutsuki main family is the common enemy of you, the Sage of Six Paths, and the entire shinobi world. None of us has room to retreat. We have to unite and increase each other's strength as much as possible..."
"Even if there are old scores to settle, they can wait until every external enemy has been dealt with. Your dispute with the Sage of Six Paths can be considered a family matter, as well as an internal conflict within the shinobi world. There will always be some way to resolve it."
"Am I wrong?"
Hiruzen asked softly.
Kaguya reluctantly nodded.
That was, in fact, the basic truth of the matter...
No one had ever tried talking her through it before. Kaguya had never been able to let go of the anger she felt over being sealed by her rebellious sons, which prevented her from calmly thinking the matter through.
But the shinobi world Hiruzen had developed was right in front of her.
Kaguya had to admit that although its inhabitants were still little more than ants in her eyes, the present shinobi world was unquestionably far more valuable than an army of White Zetsu...
The widespread adoption of Fūinjutsu meant that even these ants now had the potential to injure an Ōtsutsuki.
White Zetsu were generally stronger than ordinary people and relied mostly on physical combat, but against an actual Ōtsutsuki, the amount of help they could provide was almost comical...
"That's enough, Kaguya."
"The Ōtsutsuki Clan is our common enemy. That is the strongest possible foundation for our cooperation. Everyone can agree on it, and nothing can shake it."
There was a faint, almost imperceptible persuasiveness in Hiruzen's voice.
"As for your circumstances, I understand them now."
"Please forgive me. At present, I don't have the ability to release you from the moon. But I can make you a promise, sworn upon my Will of Fire and my name as Hokage..."
Within the mental space, Hiruzen met Kaguya's eyes with an unwavering gaze.
"As long as you sincerely help the shinobi world, I will free you from the moon. Even if we defeat the Ōtsutsuki and the Sage of Six Paths comes looking for trouble afterward..."
"I'll stand on your side."
"As for the controversies surrounding what you and the Sage of Six Paths did to the shinobi world in the past, trust me. I'll find a way to make sure the shinobi don't hold them against either of you."
"You will still be the Rabbit Goddess who ended an age of chaos, and the Sage of Six Paths will still be the founder of Ninshū. I believe your family will eventually find a way to sit down together and reconcile..."
Hiruzen offered Kaguya one reassurance after another, easing the psychological pressure weighing on her.
In truth, Kaguya really was worried...
Having once cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, she lacked any foundation of trust among the shinobi. What if the Sage of Six Paths rallied everyone against her and sealed her again?
But Hiruzen had just made her a promise.
If it had been anyone else, Kaguya wouldn't have believed them. She had experienced betrayal before.
Yet there was one particular quality in Hiruzen that Kaguya valued enormously...
When everyone had turned against his teacher, the shinobi named Senju Tobirama, Sarutobi Hiruzen had never abandoned him. No matter how much pressure he faced, he had continued supporting him without yielding a single step...
That made Kaguya's eyes light up!
That kind of unwavering support was precisely what had been missing between her and the Sage of Six Paths...
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