Chapter 324: Let's Go Kill Isshiki First, as a Show of Good Faith
Another punch.
Back in the ultra-gravity dimension, Sakura had already gathered her strength again, ready to shatter space itself in search of Sasuke.
Breaking space open with a single punch, connecting two separate worlds together — that should have been all but impossible. And yet, right now, Sakura could do exactly that.
A blow that looked deceptively ordinary carried power beyond imagining.
In the original story, Might Guy — after opening the eighth and final Gate of Death — had once kicked hard enough to warp space itself in his fight against a Six Paths Madara. What Sakura was doing now surpassed even that.
As savage force poured out from the point of her fist, another sound rang out — glass shattering all over again.
Beneath that fist, all things bowed.
And this time, the punch didn't disappoint her — through the newly-shattered gap in space, Sakura caught sight of an endless stretch of desert sand on the other side, and a single, solitary figure standing in the middle of it.
Sasuke!
"Over here!"
Sakura called out to him through the fractured passage between worlds.
The instant the space cracked open, Sasuke spotted her, and didn't waste a second thinking about how or why — he simply charged toward Sakura at full speed.
But the moment he got close to the broken passage, an incomprehensible weight came crashing down on him.
Sakura understood his situation immediately.
She was currently standing inside the ultra-gravity dimension within Amenominakanushi — a place whose gravity she herself could ignore entirely. But Sasuke couldn't.
Even Kaguya herself, stepping into a dimension of her own creation, would be subject to its crushing weight.
Without hesitation, Sakura sprang forward and dove straight through into the desert world where Sasuke was trapped.
The moment she left, the fractured passage behind her slowly began to seal itself shut.
"Sakura — that was one of Kaguya's dimensions too?"
Sasuke had long since gotten used to Sakura's ability to shrug off that inexplicable crushing pressure without a second thought.
She was, after all, standing next to him — a girl whose sheer raw strength was frankly terrifying.
There probably wasn't a single person left in the entire shinobi world who could out-muscle her.
"Yeah. One of Kaguya's spaces."
"Doesn't matter now, though. Let's go find Naruto."
"Stay behind me."
Sakura gave a small nod, clearly not in the mood for further conversation, and began gathering her strength once more.
...
Meanwhile, back in the frozen wasteland, Kaguya — having just been on the receiving end of Naruto's Reverse Harem Technique — found even her famously placid temperament fraying at the edges into genuine irritation.
After all, since the moment she'd descended onto this planet, who in this world had ever dared to try seducing her?
Facing down an enraged Rabbit Goddess now, Naruto was already starting to feel the strain.
His Reverse Harem Technique had only ever bought him a moment's opening — and once that moment passed, he still had to face a Kaguya who'd just been thoroughly, successfully mocked.
Naruto scrambled and dodged, nimble as ever, weathering wave after wave of Eighty Divinities — Void Strikes.
But by now, Kaguya had lost all patience for playing games with this blond brat.
Her pure white eyes narrowed slightly, and in the next instant, both her and Naruto's forms vanished from where they'd been standing.
Amenominakanushi.
The technique activated again, and Naruto and Kaguya reappeared together in a world made entirely of red, jagged stone.
This was the core region of Amenominakanushi itself — the Genesis Realm.
Here, Kaguya could draw chakra directly from anyone bound by the Infinite Tsukuyomi to sustain herself, letting her fight on, effectively, forever.
Where the hell did we end up now...
Naruto scanned his surroundings, breathing hard.
His strength had exploded thanks to the Yang power, sure — but facing an existence like Kaguya alone, with no backup, defeat was only a matter of time.
"I'll deal with this one first."
Yomotsu Hirasaka.
Kaguya murmured to herself, looking down at Naruto below her. A black portal snapped open right beside her, and Naruto's stomach dropped at the sight.
That was the same technique she'd used to block Sakura's strike against the Divine Tree.
What is she planning...
Earlier, when Kaguya had used that trick to intercept Sakura's attack, Naruto's whole focus had been on Kaguya herself — he hadn't paid much attention to the strange black portal itself.
Now, silently, without warning, the other end of Yomotsu Hirasaka opened up directly behind him.
Kaguya thrust one hand into the black portal in front of her, and Naruto — some instinct kicking in — dodged reflexively to the side. But an overwhelming sense of danger slammed into him a heartbeat later.
Countless white needles, thin as a thousand slivers, came sweeping toward him from every direction, blotting out the sky!
Rabbit-Hair Needles in front of him. Yomotsu Hirasaka behind.
Naruto shot straight upward without a moment's hesitation — only to find Kaguya had already raised her other hand toward him.
Eighty Divinities — Void Strike!
Against a strike like that, even Naruto's strongest technique — Boiling Release — Supernatural Might — couldn't hope to stand up to it. The blow caught him nearly head-on.
His golden-haired form went flying, and Kaguya reached through the open Yomotsu Hirasaka and yanked him by the collar, pulling him straight through.
The next instant, Naruto was locked in Kaguya's grip.
Watching the black portal seal shut behind him, Naruto understood immediately — the two ends of that portal were connected to each other.
This was exactly the trick she'd used earlier to redirect Sakura's strike against the Divine Tree.
"Caught you."
The white-haired, coolly composed goddess looked down at the boy pinned in her grasp, her tone even.
"Uh — heh heh. Hey there..."
Naruto caught a flash of genuine anger in her eyes and laughed weakly.
"Ashura's reincarnation."
"You belong to me now."
Kaguya had no interest in trading words with him — or, more accurately, wasn't the type prone to idle conversation in general.
A gray, bone-like protrusion sprouted from the palm of her free hand.
Coordinated Kill — Gray Bones!
"Wait — hold on, can we, uh, talk this over~~~"
Naruto's face went pale, staring at the bone in her hand.
One of his shadow clones had already taken that particular lesson for him.
Unblockable. Fatal on contact.
Pinned like this, with no way to escape, what could he possibly do?
Kaguya thrust the bone forward without hesitation, straight toward Naruto's chest.
Just as it was about to strike home—
Everything changed.
The sky above shattered like glass, and an avalanche of yellow sand came pouring down from above — and with it, two figures came hurtling toward Kaguya and Naruto below.
Sasuke, wreathed in the black lightning of his Yin-fused Chidori, charged at Kaguya without a moment's hesitation. Kaguya, undeterred, kept driving the bone toward Naruto's chest.
If she could eliminate the source of the Yang power first, then whatever Yin power remained wouldn't be enough to seal her away on its own.
At the same instant, Sakura — arriving right alongside Sasuke — narrowed her eyes.
A small, colorful hatchet, forged entirely from woven chakra, materialized in her hand out of nowhere.
Both Sakura and Sasuke were still too far away to reach Kaguya in time on raw speed alone.
Which meant—
Sage Technique — Yin-Yang Release — Mountain Splitter!
Yin, Yang, and all five basic natures surged together in an instant.
An axe vast enough to look like it could cleave heaven and earth themselves materialized out of nothing between them.
"Sakura!"
Naruto shouted, seeing his rescue arrive.
"Cleave!"
Sakura's jade eyes flashed sharp, and the boundless, savage chakra took the shape of a divine axe — vast enough, it seemed, to sever the very pillars holding up the sky.
The axe came down, as though the heavens themselves were tipping over.
Kaguya looked up at that sky-blotting weapon, and for the first time, genuine terror flickered across her face.
If that blow landed square on her, she would die.
As the Rabbit Goddess, she understood immediately, on instinct, the sheer magnitude of power packed into that axe.
This was only the second time in her long existence that Kaguya had ever felt true fear.
The first had been the moment she'd betrayed and ambushed the senior Ōtsutsuki Isshiki. Now, that same primal fear for her own survival was rising in her chest all over again.
Not even facing her own two sons had ever made her feel this way.
Because she'd always known — Hamura and Hagoromo would never actually kill her.
Facing the axe now tilting over her like the collapsing sky, Kaguya's instinct screamed at her to flee — to trigger Yomotsu Hirasaka and drag Naruto away with her, out of danger.
But she found, to her disbelief, that the damned blond brat had turned the tables on her at exactly the wrong moment, grabbing hold of her arm and refusing, stubbornly, to let go.
Kaguya couldn't help but glare at her own grandson's reincarnation.
You little bastard. Are you seriously planning to die alongside your own grandmother?
But then — right as the divine axe descended, on the very edge of striking — it stopped. Frozen, hanging just inches from Kaguya's forehead.
Kaguya stared, eyes trembling, at the blade suspended right in front of her.
Stopped. It had... stopped...
Kaguya had already resigned herself to the worst outcome. If that axe truly took her life here, her only recourse would be to possess Naruto, the nearest available body, through her Covenant Mark.
But it had been a thousand years since her arrival in this world. By her own estimate, the rest of the Ōtsutsuki clan wouldn't reach this planet for another twenty years.
If she really ended up possessing this blond brat's body, she'd not only have to fight him for control of it, she'd need to scramble to recover her own strength on top of that — and rebuild an entire White Zetsu army besides.
Twenty years simply wasn't enough time for all of that.
And this blond boy wasn't weak, either. Fully seizing control of his body would take decades on its own, at the very least.
"I made a promise to Hagoromo."
"I won't kill you. Let Naruto go."
Above them, Sakura, hatchet still in hand, spoke down at Kaguya, calm and even.
"Hagoromo..."
That familiar, foreign name made Kaguya's expression waver.
Toward Hagoromo, she felt both disappointment and something like relief in equal measure.
Disappointment, that her own son had turned against his own mother — and sealed her away for a thousand years — over a bunch of ants scurrying around in her own garden.
Relief, that in the end, Hagoromo was still her son.
"And if this one refuses to let him go?"
Kaguya glanced sideways at Naruto, still clinging desperately to her arm.
"I've already given you your chance."
"Even if I killed you right now, that old man wouldn't have a single word to say about it."
In an instant — barely a blink — Sakura went from standing far above them in the empty air to right in front of Kaguya.
"You—!"
A chill ran through Kaguya. She raised her free hand and fired off a full Eighty Divinities — Void Strike straight at Sakura.
Sakura raised her own hand at the same moment, unleashing Mountain Lord fist against palm.
The two forces met head-on, and invisible shockwaves erupted from the point of contact, colliding into a violent gale that tore through the Genesis Realm.
Countless surrounding rock formations were reduced to rubble in the aftershock of that single clash.
Sasuke, still airborne, was forced to drop to the ground to steady himself, and Naruto — still holding onto Kaguya's arm for dear life — was buffeted so hard by the wind he could barely keep his teeth from chattering.
From that single exchange, Kaguya was blown backward through the air, stumbling more than a dozen steps, staring at the calm-faced pink-haired woman in front of her with open disbelief.
"Who exactly are you?"
"Power on this level — even among the Ōtsutsuki, there are barely a handful who could match it..."
Hearing that, Sakura's expression sharpened, something rippling through her thoughts.
Even having reached this level myself — is there really still someone within the so-called Ōtsutsuki clan, beyond that shadowy, half-legendary Ōtsutsuki Shibai, who could rival me?
Sakura had always had a clear-eyed picture of exactly where she stood against the Ōtsutsuki.
Even before reaching Six Paths level, her raw combat strength alone had already surpassed something like Ōtsutsuki Kinshiki. She could hold her own even against Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, or a Momoshiki who'd absorbed Kinshiki's power.
As for Ōtsutsuki Urashiki—
that particular waste of space wasn't even worth mentioning.
Sakura had never let herself grow complacent. But she'd never sold herself short, either.
She hadn't expected that even now, having reached Six Paths herself, there was still — by Kaguya's own account — an Ōtsutsuki out there stronger than her.
"Is it Isshiki?"
Her jade eyes narrowed, the gold flame behind them flaring so bright that Kaguya could barely meet her gaze.
"Who — who are you, exactly?!"
Kaguya's expression finally, genuinely shifted, looking at the woman in front of her.
If her earlier reaction had been raw fear at Sakura's sheer power, this was something closer to shock, at just how much Sakura clearly already knew.
"Sakura's just Sakura. Why do you care so much?"
Naruto, still clinging to Kaguya's arm, cut in without hesitation.
Kaguya frowned faintly at the boy stubbornly refusing to let go of her, but didn't spare him much more thought than that.
He was still her leverage, for the moment. She'd tolerate it a little longer.
"We have a common enemy."
"You didn't want to be devoured by Isshiki, so you turned on your own senior."
"And I have no interest in watching my world get poisoned by the Ōtsutsuki either."
"So — I'd say we have grounds to work together."
Watching the Rabbit Goddess in front of her, something turned over in Sakura's mind, and she spoke.
"Work together..."
"This world is this one's own garden—"
Kaguya started to reassert her claim over the shinobi world, but Sakura cut her off.
"That was a thousand years ago."
"Now, it's mine."
"If you want it, you're welcome to try taking it from me."
"But personally, I'd recommend against it."
Hearing that, Kaguya fell silent for a moment.
"You still haven't told this one who you are."
"Me?"
"I'm just one being among the billions living in this world. That's all."
Kaguya didn't believe a single word of that.
She understood this world. Understood it far, far too well.
A thousand years ago, the strongest beings in this world had been the demon-class entities.
And those so-called "demons" wouldn't have lasted a single exchange against this pink-haired woman standing in front of her now.
Even Naruto and Sasuke — the two who'd just managed to trade real blows with her — were her own grandsons, in a manner of speaking.
The reincarnations of Indra and Ashura. Both of them carried Ōtsutsuki blood in their veins.
At the end of the day, this whole fight between herself and Naruto and Sasuke was really just an internal squabble within the Ōtsutsuki family.
But this one—
Kaguya studied the woman in front of her.
Nothing.
Not a single drop of Ōtsutsuki blood in her at all.
Just like the ordinary mortals she'd seen scattered across this world a thousand years ago.
Common. Unremarkable. Ants, every last one of them.
And yet — one of those ants had transformed into a true dragon?
That was almost laughable.
"I'll help you deal with Isshiki. In exchange, you stand with me against the rest of the Ōtsutsuki when they arrive. How's that sound?"
"This is the most sincere offer I'm going to make you."
Sakura extended a hand toward Kaguya.
"And why should this one trust you?"
Kaguya eyed the outstretched hand, clearly torn.
Watching her hesitate, Sakura felt a strange sort of amusement well up inside her.
This one's ridiculously easy to fool.
Not that Sakura had actually intended to trick her — but the fact that Kaguya was willing to take her at her word this readily was still a genuine surprise. This was, after all, a being who'd lived for thousands of years.
Such a simple, straightforward mind, for all of that.
Sakura had originally been fully prepared for a fight to the death, settling things once and for all — and somehow, through pure happenstance, things had ended up here instead.
Reading the moment correctly was an art in itself.
Or, more accurately — the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
"We can have Hagoromo witness this."
"Let's go kill Isshiki together first, as a show of good faith. What do you say?"
Sakura said it lightly, unhurried.
Isshiki was still somewhere out there in the shinobi world. No matter how well he'd hidden himself, with Ji'gen's — wait, with his own name and appearance to go on, he could be found.
Given Konoha's intelligence network, even if this man hid himself thoroughly, three years wouldn't pass before they turned up every stone in the world looking for him.
"Isshiki, hm..."
Kaguya seemed to drift for a moment, lost in thought.
Once, it had been fear of becoming a sacrifice that drove her to betray and ambush Isshiki in the first place.
She'd never expected things to come to this, now.
But if the four of them — herself, this woman in front of her, and the two boys — worked together, with Hagoromo's help besides, the odds of taking down Isshiki were extremely high.
No — call it certain. A hundred percent, even.
After all, no one understood the Ōtsutsuki better than the Ōtsutsuki themselves.
When Kaguya had originally betrayed and ambushed Isshiki, she'd very nearly cut him in half at the waist, feeding his lower body to the Ten-Tails.
A wound like that, without a suitable vessel to accelerate recovery, could only heal at an agonizingly slow pace.
Even after a thousand years, Kaguya was confident Isshiki still hadn't fully recovered.
"...Fine."
"But to be safe, this one needs to place a Covenant Mark on this boy."
Kaguya looked over at Naruto, who was still stubbornly refusing to let go of her.
"Huh?"
Naruto blinked, not entirely following what was happening, but sensing — vaguely — that he'd just been designated as Kaguya's insurance policy against Sakura.
"This..."
Sakura blinked too, momentarily thrown.
Of course. What else did I expect. Everything always comes back to Naruto somehow.
"Fine."
Sakura mulled it over briefly.
The Covenant Mark, put simply, was an enhanced version of Orochimaru's Curse Mark. Whoever carried it could draw on a portion of the marked Ōtsutsuki's power, growing more capable over time — until, eventually, once the bearer could fully wield the entirety of that Ōtsutsuki's power, the bearer would no longer be themselves at all. They would simply become that Ōtsutsuki.
This was, in fact, the secret behind the Ōtsutsuki clan's near-immortality.
But since Kaguya herself wasn't dying, there was no need for her to be reincarnated through Naruto's body.
Her choice to mark him now was purely a matter of self-preservation. If Sakura ever turned on her partway through — teaming up with the others to finish her off — Kaguya could still be reborn through Naruto's body as a fallback.
"Fine — but once Isshiki's dead, you have to remove the Covenant Mark from Naruto."
"And in the meantime, if it ever progresses past the second stage, I'll kill you without a moment's hesitation."
Sakura's brow furrowed as she laid out her terms.
If it stayed at the first stage, Sakura could still handle it — the same way she'd once suppressed Inner Sakura, she could go directly into Naruto's body and eliminate the Kaguya-fragment within.
Once it hit the second stage, that meant Naruto's body had already begun merging with Kaguya's essence.
At that point, it would be a parasite burrowed too deep to remove.
And if it ever reached the third and final stage — there'd be essentially no saving him at all.
"...Fine."
Kaguya's brow creased slightly, but she agreed in the end.
She hadn't expected this pink-haired woman to understand the Covenant Mark's mechanics down to the exact stages.
The moment Sakura had mentioned the "second stage" specifically, Kaguya knew — this woman understood the Ōtsutsuki clan inside and out.
"Ashura. Give this one your hand."
Kaguya turned to Naruto.
"..."
Naruto currently felt very much like he'd just been sold out by Sakura.
"Hold your hand out, Naruto."
Sakura said.
Naruto, reluctant, offered his palm.
Kaguya pressed her own palm against his. With the Yang power already coursing through him, Naruto's body was now nearly indistinguishable from an Ōtsutsuki's in raw durability — the Mark took easily.
As Kaguya withdrew her hand, a black, diamond-shaped mark had settled into Naruto's palm.
Kaguya's own Covenant Mark.
There was a real risk of eventually being replaced entirely — but from this moment on, Naruto could draw on a portion of Kaguya's power.
Not that he'd have much luck pulling off her three genuinely broken abilities — Amenominakanushi, Coordinated Kill — Gray Bones, or the expanding Truth-Seeking Ball.
But Eighty Divinities — Void Strike, at least, seemed worth trying.
"Naruto. Your hand."
Sakura turned to him.
Naruto looked down at the Mark in his palm, a little put out, but he trusted Sakura wouldn't let anything bad happen to him.
If it meant bringing a goddess like this over to their side, Naruto was willing to put up with a little personal risk. And more than that — this was Sakura's call to make.
Watching Naruto extend his hand toward her, Sakura pressed her own palm against his, just as Kaguya had.
When she pulled her hand away, a thin layer of pink had bloomed over the black diamond mark already sitting in his palm.
At the same time, Sakura pressed a hand to his wrist.
A small cherry blossom pattern appeared there.
The mark on his wrist was Sakura's own Flying Thunder God anchor, letting her reach Naruto's side instantly, anywhere, anytime.
The mark in his palm carried a portion of Sakura's own chakra, left there so she could monitor exactly how far Kaguya's Mark had progressed in merging with him at any given moment.
If Kaguya ever tried anything, that fragment of Sakura's chakra would temporarily suppress the Mark, buying time until Sakura herself could arrive.
"Sakura's chakra, huh."
Naruto stared thoughtfully at the pink glow in his palm, then brightened and pointed at it.
"Hey — if I ever get bored, can I talk to it? Like, chat with you through this?"
Chakra was, in its own way, an expression of consciousness — the same way the fragments of chakra Minato and Kushina had left behind in Naruto carried their own independent thought, despite being only part of them.
In a sense, it wasn't unreasonable for Naruto to think of that trace of Sakura's chakra as something like a small extension of her.
"If you don't mind getting yelled at, sure, go ahead and chat."
Sakura waved a hand, not particularly interested in dwelling on the subject further.
Then she turned back to Kaguya.
"So — does that work for you?"
Kaguya gave one long look at the pink mark now settled in Naruto's palm and gave a small nod.
"It'll do."
The instant she finished speaking, the scenery around them shifted, and Kaguya, Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke all left the Genesis Realm behind, reappearing back in the shinobi world.
"Sakura!"
Kakashi started forward — then caught sight of Kaguya standing beside her and froze mid-step.
It wasn't just Kakashi. Tobirama, Minato, Itachi — every last one of them tensed, bracing as though for imminent battle.
Even Hashirama's expression turned grave, staring at Kaguya.
"It's fine."
"She's an ally now."
Sakura extended a hand toward Kaguya.
Kaguya looked at the outstretched hand for a moment, hesitating, then took it — her expression still every bit as cool and distant as before, as she spoke:
"To be precise — a collaborator."
Sakura let out a faintly awkward, barely-visible smile at that.
This Rabbit Goddess's people skills leave a little something to be desired.
"Collaborate?"
Tobirama frowned at that, studying Kaguya as though he could hardly believe what he was seeing.
"It's a long story."
"I'll explain it all later. Kaguya — go ahead and dispel the Infinite Tsukuyomi first."
Sakura glanced over at the distant Divine Tree — she'd originally planned to cut it down herself, before all this had happened.
Fate had other plans, it seemed.
Kaguya looked toward the tree stretching between heaven and earth in the distance and took a few steps toward it, then paused. Her cool, composed brow furrowed slightly, and with a flick of her sleeve, eight football-sized shapes came tumbling out of it — along with one more, larger figure.
Sparing the eight small objects one glance, Kaguya showed not a trace of sentiment and continued on toward the tree.
"Is that Madara — and eight tailed beasts?"
Minato stared, blinking, at the scene.
Madara lay collapsed on the ground, bare-chested, unconscious, entirely stripped of his Six Paths power. That part wasn't a mystery.
But those eight things that looked like they belonged in someone's pet collection — those were the tailed beasts?
It was hardly Minato's fault for being baffled. All eight of the little creatures looked freshly hatched, impossibly small and adorable, nothing at all like the fearsome monsters he remembered.
The Seven-Tails, in particular, was currently a caterpillar.
But why only eight?
Where had the Three-Tails gone?
Sakura studied the little cluster of baby tailed beasts, something occurring to her.
Kaguya had drained away all of their chakra, leaving nothing behind but bare consciousness. And Kaguya, unwilling to tolerate any other consciousness lingering inside her own body, had simply discarded them once she was done.
As for why the Three-Tails wasn't among them — that was because Isobu was still sitting comfortably in the fish tank back in her office.
Not that she had any idea whether anyone had bothered changing his water, with the entire shinobi world caught under the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Hagoromo watched all of this unfold in silence.
Ever since Kaguya's seal had been undone, he'd felt too ashamed to face his own mother, and had instinctively kept himself hidden away.
He hadn't expected things to turn out like this.
As the Infinite Tsukuyomi finally dispelled, Sakura watched the tree slowly release its grip on the countless Konoha shinobi and coalition forces it had been holding, something stirring in her chest.
The coalition army had been routed. Konoha now had — counting herself, Naruto, and Sasuke, plus an off-the-books Kaguya besides — a full four Six Paths–level beings.
The shinobi world's future was already coming into view.
Then, off toward the horizon, a streak of gold light broke across the sea's surface.
Sakura looked out at the rising sun and murmured, half to herself:
"Old man. Do you think I've finally lived up to what you hoped for me?"
Hiruzen's Edo Tensei revival had already dissolved of its own accord, on his own terms. There was no one left to answer Sakura's question.
But it hardly needed answering. Sakura had already fulfilled everything Hiruzen had ever hoped she would become.
Hagoromo glanced over at the young woman in the distance, and a certain prophecy from Mount Myōboku's Great Toad Sage surfaced unbidden in his mind.
Facing the future, back to destruction.
Wasn't this, right now, exactly what that prophecy had foretold?
Standing with her back to the wreckage of war, facing a newly-dawning future...
You brought this on yourself, in the end, old toad.
Made by your own prophecy — undone by it too.
Too obsessed with foreseeing the future, too convinced he could bend it to his will — never realizing he himself had already been captured by the very prophecy he chased, walking a path of his own paranoid making.
"Mama."
"Mama."
A dark, formless shape called out from inside a wooden cage, toward Kaguya.
Recognizing Black Zetsu's voice, Kaguya walked over and opened the cage for him.
Her revival had, after all, come about entirely through Black Zetsu's own thousand-year, unrelenting persistence.
Sakura glanced over at Black Zetsu once, and left it at that.
Well — this whole story could just as easily have been titled "Black Zetsu's Quest to Save His Mother," when you got right down to it.
A proper, devoted son, through and through. Genuinely, unironically wholesome.
Meanwhile, Madara stared blankly up at the sky, his eyes hollow.
He already understood everything now. The so-called Infinite Tsukuyomi had simply been Kaguya's own revival technique, all along.
He'd been deceived.
A figure came and sat down beside him.
"Is that you, Hashirama?"
Madara asked, staring up at the sky, a note of finality already in his voice.
"Yeah."
"Madara. You were wrong."
Hashirama said, subdued.
"I was wrong."
Nearly all of Madara's remaining life force had already been drained away by Kaguya. He didn't have much time left.
"Hashirama. You weren't right, either."
"Like that Sakura Haruno said — the hidden village system you built only bred more death, in the end."
"We both walked the wrong path."
"Maybe... she's the one who's actually right."
Madara struggled to turn his head, his blurring vision catching a streak of pink drawing closer to him.
Hashirama sat there in silence, looking down at Madara.
He still didn't agree with Sakura's philosophy, not really.
But Madara, having lived through his own failure, had clearly come around to accepting it.
Unification, huh...
"You seem to have more sense than Hashirama does."
Sakura came to stand in front of Madara, looking down at the dying man, calm.
"Him? He's always been a stubborn fool."
Madara seemed, in this final moment, to have seen through everything — a faint, resigned smile crossing his face.
"I'll take your eyes after you're gone. Give them to Hashirama."
"Let him nurture them back to life. Let him be the one who gets to become a Six Paths Hashirama."
Sakura's calm words carried an edge of cruelty as she looked down at him.
"What?!"
"That's not going to happen!"
Hashirama objected almost on reflex.
"Do you think you get a say in this?"
"Go sit at the table with the weasel."
Sakura looked at him, calm, and left no room for argument.
"My eyes, hm?"
Madara, oddly enough, didn't seem to mind the idea at all.
The Rinnegan was all but ruined by now — but it could still be restored to its former power.
Back when he and Hashirama had fought their final duel at the Valley of the End, Madara had used one Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to fake his death with Izanagi, escaping in the aftermath.
And by combining that with a piece of flesh bitten off from Hashirama's own body, the Sharingan that had cast Izanagi had gradually recovered its light, eventually ascending into the Rinnegan.
If Hashirama took up this nearly-spent pair of eyes now, there was every reason to believe the Rinnegan would reclaim its full power before long.
And with Hashirama's cells running through every inch of his body, he'd be able to wield the eyes without any real resistance at all.
"Don't refuse this, Hashirama."
"Consider it — seeing the peace that comes after unification, on my behalf..."
Madara gripped Hashirama's hand tightly, something almost like a plea in his voice.
"Madara..."
Hashirama looked at the friend gripping his hand so tightly, at a loss for words.
Unification. Would it really bring peace...
Hashirama didn't believe it.
But Madara, seemingly oblivious to the doubt still written across Hashirama's face, reached up and rested a hand against the side of his own chest — the place where a graft of Hashirama's own cells had once been transplanted into him.
"Once, I took a piece of your flesh."
"Now, you take my eyes."
"That's only fair, isn't it, Hashirama."
Hashirama looked down at the man in front of him and said nothing.
"Peace, huh..."
"I really would have liked to see it, with my own eyes..."
With those last words, Madara's final breath left him.
Sakura watched the scene unfold, calm. Even in death, Madara never once let go of Hashirama's hand.
"Hashirama. What's your choice, then?"
Sakura looked over at Hashirama, still standing there in silence.
"I'll honor Madara's dying wish."
"But that doesn't mean I'll ever endorse you."
Hashirama lifted his head to meet Sakura's eyes.
"Heh. Suit yourself. Who knows — maybe you'll end up my staunchest supporter yet."
Sakura smiled faintly at the righteous defiance still burning in front of her.
"That's never going to happen."
"A unification built on crushing others by force will never last."
Hashirama's stubborn streak hadn't gone anywhere.
"It doesn't need to last that long. I'm not asking for much."
"Three hundred years of peace would satisfy me just fine."
Sakura waved a hand dismissively.
Three hundred years...
Hashirama faltered slightly at that.
The hidden village system he himself had founded had barely outlasted his own death before wars broke out all over again — and here was this Hokage, claiming with a straight face that unification could hold three hundred years of peace?
Absurd. Utterly, laughably absurd.
"Rin!"
"Rin!"
"Rin, don't go!!"
"Rin!!"
Off in the distance, a wail of anguish rang out, and Sakura's eye twitched involuntarily.
Well, would you look at that. He actually dreamed about Rin Nohara after all.
Unbelievable.
But Sakura had no intention of going over to deal with Obito right now. Instead, her attention turned in another direction entirely, and in the next instant, she vanished from where she stood.
Freshly freed from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Orochimaru had been trying to slip quietly away while everyone else was distracted.
"And where exactly do you think you're going?"
"Senior brother."
A voice rang out behind him — the one voice Orochimaru least wanted to hear, right now.
"Heh heh. I didn't realize you cared so much about me, little sister."
Orochimaru turned to face the Fifth Hokage, resigned.
He knew perfectly well there was no realistic chance of escape in a situation like this.
"How could I not care."
Sakura took a single step, and in an instant had Orochimaru's throat locked in her grip, a cold smile spreading across her face.
"After all, senior brother, you've caused me plenty of trouble over the years."
His throat pinned tight, Orochimaru showed not the slightest discomfort, meeting Sakura's gaze with a mocking sneer.
"People die chasing wealth; birds die chasing food."
"We each just have our own goals."
"And besides — my adorable little sister. Do you honestly think you can actually kill me?"
Sakura's smile only sharpened at that. Pink flame kindled to life around her hand.
"What do you think?"
"You don't actually believe your own knowledge — as a mere Kage-tier shinobi — is enough to accurately gauge my current strength, do you?"
The gulf between Six Paths and even a Super Kage-level opponent was, quite literally, unbridgeable — let alone something as far below that as a Kage.
Even Obito, who'd been the Six Paths' doormat in the original story, had been leagues beyond anything Hashirama could match. What chance did Orochimaru have against her?
A technique concerning souls was already taking shape in Sakura's mind, fully formed, almost instantly.
Six Paths–level Yin Release represented the absolute pinnacle of "technique" itself — something entirely beyond Orochimaru's ability to even comprehend, let alone touch.
"What are you talking about?"
Orochimaru's expression shifted, just slightly.
Sakura's voice stayed calm as she answered:
"Right now, can you still sense the fragment of your soul hidden inside your Curse Mark?"
"You're so obsessed with immortality."
"Which means death, for you, would be the single most agonizing fate imaginable."
"So I'll do this instead — I'll drag you out to Konoha's public execution grounds, and let the most ordinary person there, with the most ordinary blade, be the one to kill an existence as arrogant as you."
Orochimaru's expression turned ashen. Just as Sakura had said, he could no longer sense the soul fragment he'd hidden away.
And for some reason he couldn't explain, his own consciousness felt — larger, somehow. Expanding.
No — it wasn't his consciousness expanding at all. It was countless invisible fragments of soul, imperceptible to the eye, flowing back into his body, piece by piece.
Clearly, through some technique Sakura had cast that Orochimaru had no hope of understanding, his own scattered soul was slowly being drawn back together.
"Wait — wait, you can't do this!"
"I can do research for you! I have technical expertise!"
For the first time, Orochimaru genuinely felt death closing in on him, terror plain on his face.
"In a hurry now, are you?"
"I liked you better before — arrogant and unbothered. This suits you a lot less."
Sakura sneered down at him.
She was, frankly, done with this man.
She'd run into Orochimaru right at the start of her career, and then during the Fourth Great Ninja War, he'd sold her out to the enemy without a second thought. And this time — Edo Tensei, chakra cannons, one thing after another.
Orochimaru had spent his entire existence dancing back and forth across every line Sakura had ever drawn.
Orochimaru, forcing himself to calm down, looked up at the pink-haired woman with something like genuine sincerity.
"If you don't kill me, I can research the chakra cannon for you."
"Tobirama could do that."
"I can help you refine and perfect all kinds of forbidden techniques."
"Tobirama could do that."
"I can help you research advanced technology."
"Tobirama could do that."
"I could also—"
Orochimaru's teeth ached at this point. For the first time in his life, he genuinely, deeply resented the Second Hokage.
"Seems like your skills really aren't much to speak of, in the end."
"Not even half of what Tobirama can do."
Sensing that Orochimaru's soul had fully reassembled itself by now, Sakura showed no mercy at all, slapping a Four-Symbols Seal squarely onto him, cutting off his chakra completely.
Off to one side, Tobirama — who'd been listening to the entire exchange — couldn't help the corner of his mouth twitching.
Great. Just great. So it's "Tobirama could do that" for absolutely everything, is it?
(End of Chapter)
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