"It… ended just like that?"
Seeing Rei Kaguya slowly descend from the sky while dragging a prison that looked as though it had been forged from crystal in his hand, even Naruto Uzumaki—who was absolutely certain that the output of his Sage Art: Super Massive Tailed Beast Rasengan just now was no weaker than, and perhaps even far exceeded, the upper limit of his Baryon Mode output—could not help revealing a somewhat stunned expression.
Even an Otsutsuki elite like Isshiki would definitely suffer heavy injuries after taking that strike.
Even so, he still had not expected this.
"What? Did you think this operation of ours would require us to fight Isshiki for a very long time?"
Rei lightly tossed up the crystalline prison formed by the Abyssal Star Prison technique. Then, using the Tenseigan's gravitational control, he made it revolve around him like a satellite while asking back in amusement.
"He is Isshiki Otsutsuki, after all. A terrifying enemy even an existence like Kaguya Otsutsuki had to offer her life to again and again… right?"
Naruto Uzumaki looked at the crystalline prison beside Rei with a conflicted face and said gloomily,
"In the end, I did not even exchange more than a few rounds with Isshiki after meeting him again, and he already… lost so easily?"
"Easily? Do not misunderstand, Naruto Uzumaki."
Rei raised a finger and gently wagged it at Naruto Uzumaki. At the same time, he spoke in a deep tone, his gaze profound.
"Remember this. In this battle, we deliberately attacked an unaware enemy while fully prepared. We ambushed a dying man in his prime while we were at full strength. We held an absolute intelligence advantage, and under circumstances where Isshiki himself did not know it, we obtained nearly complete information about him, his habits, and his combat style.
"Only then did we suddenly strike at a time when Isshiki had no path of retreat and no external force he could borrow, while he was completely unaware.
"We had stacked that many advantages beforehand, and there was no difference in level between our strengths. Ending the battle cleanly and returning in complete victory was only natural.
"But if we were facing another Otsutsuki member we knew very little about, even with the same arrangement, it would be very difficult to reproduce this brilliant result."
"That is true."
Once he thought about how Isshiki had been defeated by the intelligence he, a person from the future, had brought back, and by the information Rei had obtained from the Ten-Tails through a whimsical idea, Naruto's somewhat dazed expression returned to normal.
Then, curious, he floated forward and looked at the crystalline prison circling Rei's body before asking,
"But are you sure sealing Isshiki inside this thing is better than killing him directly? Maybe he has some Otsutsuki secret technique hidden on him that we do not know about, something that might help him regain his freedom one day."
"He will not have the chance."
Rei raised his brow and spoke with absolute certainty and confidence.
"Why?" Naruto asked at exactly the right time.
"Because, at most ten years from now, he will be fed to the Divine Tree Ten-Tails after it takes root on another planet, becoming nourishment for it."
"Another… planet?"
Naruto first froze, then immediately understood what Rei wanted to do based on the information he had learned from the Ten-Tails.
His brows instantly locked together, and he asked in a very worried tone,
"Are you planning to imitate the Otsutsuki clan and also set foot on the path of conquering the stars?"
"Is that such a strange idea, Naruto Uzumaki?"
Rei lightly snapped his fingers. Using Yomotsu Hirasaka, the space-time ninjutsu commonly used by the Otsutsuki clan, he tore open a spatial passage beside him large enough for a person to pass through. His tone rose as he asked back,
"Like every human who has once looked up at the starry sky, I also fantasized in childhood about the vastness of the sea of stars, the mystery of the universe, and whether there might be other intelligent life capable of thought like us beyond the earth where we live…
"But unlike the vast majority of mortals who are powerless to touch the truth of the stars, I now possess the qualifications to break free from the restraints of our mother planet and head toward the universe, this unprecedentedly vast world, to explore the truth of the world even further.
"In that case, why should I limit myself to the shinobi world, such a narrow stage only large enough for one person to dance and speak upon?"
"But didn't you say before… something about unifying the shinobi world?"
Naruto Uzumaki did not refute Rei's explorer-like speech regarding the mystery and magnificence of the universe. Instead, he looked at Rei, whose words had grown passionate, with a subtle gaze and revealed a distracted expression, as if thinking about something.
"The shinobi world of this era only walked in a completely different direction from our era because it relied entirely on your power and will, right? Although I did not stay in Kirigakure for very long, and I did not see that much, there is no way to ignore that worship and longing for you lingering around every person.
"If, under these circumstances, you alone set off on the path of exploring the stars… the order of the shinobi world might collapse all at once into something even crueler than the past."
"What are you even saying?"
Rei reached out somewhat speechlessly and flicked Naruto Uzumaki on the forehead, then said irritably,
"When did I ever say I wanted to be like the Otsutsuki clan, bring one Ten-Tails with me, and start searching the universe for planets to become a plantation owner, then set aside the shinobi world I worked so hard to pull onto the right track and leave it alone?"
"Eh? You are not?"
Naruto Uzumaki revealed a foolish expression. Scratching his head, he frowned in confusion.
"But in this world, you are the only shinobi whose strength has reached the level of the Otsutsuki, right? Without strength as powerful as theirs, how could anyone accomplish the feat of crossing the stars?"
"…Then why don't you guess why I heavily use Orochimaru, why I created a satellite fortress in orbital space, and why I am trying to extensively reform its internal environment through artificial means?"
"If I knew that, I would not have asked that question just now."
Naruto Uzumaki folded his hands behind his head and answered with a completely resigned expression.
"Hiss—"
Rei drew in a deep breath, causing the surrounding temperature to drop by nearly ten degrees.
"Hiss, so cold…"
"Be grateful that Nara Shikamaru, the one who served as your Hokage advisor, did not return to this era with you… Otherwise, I would definitely dissect Nara Shikamaru's brain in front of you together with Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi, so we could properly see exactly what kind of thinking process he used to assist you, the Seventh Hokage, in handling national affairs."
"Why are you suddenly showing such obvious hostility toward Shikamaru!?"
"Because not only did he allow you to waste your precious energy on meaningless trivial matters, he also cultivated your strategic vision as a national leader into something shallow and crude."
Rei paused slightly, then looked at Naruto Uzumaki, who was awkwardly laughing, with an expression of frustration over iron that refused to become steel.
"The path of conquering the universe and harvesting planets through powerful individual strength is one that the Otsutsuki clan has already walked for a very long time. Even with my perspective and wisdom, if I boarded that road halfway, I would need a very, very long time before I had a chance to surpass most of their members.
"Competing with them on that track is inefficient, and it is difficult to come up with anything fresh. It wastes time, and there is no need for it.
"If I want to overtake the Otsutsuki clan, these pioneers, on a curve, then I must gather enough people with wisdom and talent around me to pool ideas and effort. By relying on the massive population base of humanity, which far exceeds the Otsutsuki clan's numbers, we can explore a brand-new path of civilization development different from that of the Otsutsuki clan."
"Specifically?" Naruto Uzumaki pricked up his ears, revealing an expression of serious listening.
Rei organized his thoughts, then spoke solemnly.
"In this era, I am the only person capable of directly confronting members of the Otsutsuki clan. Even in another ten years, this situation probably will not change much.
"So after you and Sasuke Uchiha return to your own era, using the Ten-Tails to harvest Chakra Fruits from other planets and creating new guardians of the shinobi world capable of opposing the Otsutsuki clan will be inevitable.
"But based on Kaguya Otsutsuki's experience, simply allowing the Divine Tree to produce a mature Chakra Fruit will not cause all life on an entire planet to completely die out. At the very least, after she ate the Chakra Fruit and became the Rabbit Goddess, humans who worshiped and feared her still existed in the shinobi world.
"In that case, as long as the guardian who eats the Chakra Fruit returns part of that chakra to the earth, the living beings of that planet will still be able to multiply and thrive again. From the natural energy that gradually germinates, they will obtain special talents and powers, just like the founders of the three great sage regions on the shinobi world's side.
"While accumulating guardians capable of simultaneously responding to multiple Otsutsuki clan members, I will think of ways to accelerate reform in the shinobi world, increase the speed at which chakra enters people's production and daily lives as a tool, and temporarily suppress some contradictions in the reform process through methods such as maintaining the speed of productive force development and opening extraterrestrial colonial planets.
"That way, the people of the shinobi world can, as quickly as possible, obtain and grow accustomed to their identity as members of an interstellar civilization through the technology left behind by the Otsutsuki clan."
"Wait, wait, wait!? Technology left behind by the Otsutsuki clan? Besides chakra and Kekkei Genkai, what else did they leave behind in the shinobi world!?"
Naruto quickly interrupted Rei's speech.
His pale blue eyes widened as he voiced his confusion in the tone of a poor student who had been distracted in class.
"I am talking about the Otsutsuki living on the moon. Otsutsuki Hamura, Otsutsuki Toneri, and their branch."
Rei looked disdainfully at Naruto, who still did not understand what he was saying, and sighed speechlessly.
"As someone who once set foot on the moon and witnessed an environment there almost no different from the earth, were you not curious about how the Otsutsuki on the moon managed to transform the interior of an artificial, barren planet into such a lively natural environment where everything flourished and humans from the shinobi world could freely live?"
"…Sorry for never thinking about that."
Naruto Uzumaki awkwardly turned his face away.
This silent action proved the fact that, during his journey to the moon, his head had been entirely filled with Hinata Hyuga, and he had never considered why a natural environment almost no different from the shinobi world appeared on the moon.
"I did not expect you to think about things in that direction. But the fact that the other Konoha shinobi who went to the moon with you also did not think about this is rather laughable."
Rei rolled his Tenseigan and continued his sharp critique.
"That kind of technology, capable of transforming even the barren moon into a paradise—if you had mastered it and used it as bargaining chips in trade with the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, Sunagakure and Iwagakure would have long since become Konoha's most loyal and reliable friends, perhaps even bootlickers. How could there still have been all those messy incidents?
"All I can say is that you people truly are old-fashioned fellows whose souls are bound by gravity."
Naruto Uzumaki did not speak.
But that did not stop him from imagining the desert-filled Land of Wind and the barren, rocky mountains of the Land of Earth being transformed into landscapes of green mountains, clear waters, and peace.
"Enough. Let us stop here for now. I estimate you will not understand much of what comes later either. After we recover the other Ten-Tails Isshiki Otsutsuki hid away and return to the Land of Rain to prepare for the Dawn Conference, we can pull Sasuke Uchiha along and continue this discussion."
Rei shook his head and turned to enter the spatial passage he had already opened.
Naruto Uzumaki also snapped awake at that moment. He hurriedly followed Rei through the spatial passage, then asked in astonishment,
"You knew Isshiki was hiding another Ten-Tails? And you can even find it inside a hidden alternate space?"
"Aside from freezing the surrounding space so enemies cannot use space-time ninjutsu to escape from before me, the dojutsu Voidless also possesses the effect of sensing the unique spatial fluctuations created when the other party tries to tear open alternate space."
Rei looked at the alternate space before him, where countless strangely shaped cubes were stored. While shaking his head and tearing open another spatial passage, he casually explained to Naruto Uzumaki, whose face was full of surprise,
"Every space-time ninjutsu user creates entirely different spatial fluctuations when opening space. If you record the characteristics of these fluctuations and then imitate them exactly to open a new spatial passage, it becomes very easy to find the space the other party originally intended to reach…"
"Heh. Looks like our luck is not bad. When Isshiki was at the end of his rope, he really did try to open the space where the Ten-Tails was hidden."
Rei looked at the motionless Ten-Tails before him, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.