Chapter 255 - 259: The Otsutsuki Kaguya Template

Night fell.

After dinner in the Hidden Rain, Natsuki, Konan, and Nagato returned to the Hidden Leaf.

Nagato headed the Shinobi World Police Force now, so he was living in Konoha for the time being — quartered with the Alliance’s people. Konan, as head of the Leaf’s Anbu, lived at the Anbu compound.

"Natsuki-sensei, Konan — see you tomorrow." Nagato peeled off at the Alliance building.

"See you tomorrow." Natsuki opened a second doorway, and he and Konan came out at the Anbu base.

"Natsuki-sensei." Konan stopped. "Thank you for today."

"Don’t mention it." He smiled. "You already gave me a thank-you gift."

Konan went still.

It took her a second to work out which gift he meant.

Honestly, she still didn’t know what had come over her.

"Then... I’ll go in, Natsuki-sensei." Her face had gone pink.

Natsuki caught her wrist.

Konan turned back, puzzled.

"That thank-you wasn’t sincere enough."

He pulled her in and kissed her.

Her whole body locked up — and before she could recover, he pressed the point considerably further.

She had no idea what she was doing. Her face went steadily redder. She didn’t pull away either. If anything, she applied herself to the problem with real diligence.

"Good night." Natsuki patted her head.

Konan, breathing unevenly, didn’t nod. She just looked at him with her eyes gone soft and unfocused.

A moment later she came back to herself and fled.

The next morning.

Natsuki walked into the Hokage’s office.

"Good morning, Natsuki." Mikoto’s smile was warm and unhurried.

He crossed to the desk, running a hand over her as he passed, and sat down.

Then he opened a map.

The Land of Snow was clear. Time for the second country.

He looked it over and settled on today’s target: the Land of Earth.

It was eight o’clock — an hour before he was due to meet the Police Force. He kept that hour aside deliberately for paperwork, and Mikoto, knowing that, had volunteered to help lighten the load.

Natsuki settled in and picked up the first document.

They both worked through the stack with considerable focus.

"I’m going to the Land of Earth with the Police Force today. If anything comes up in the village, come find me."

An hour later, he set the last one down, feeling substantially lighter.

"Mm," Mikoto answered at once.

Natsuki stood and left the office.

Konan materialized behind him. When she had no other assignment, she stood watch at the Hokage’s door.

She caught a trace of perfume — one she’d smelled on Uchiha Mikoto before.

She didn’t ask. She just fell in behind him.

The two of them reached the Police Force building, where Minato, Nagato, and the others were already waiting.

After the usual courtesies, the group took the teleportation formation into the Land of Earth and started the day’s sweep.

Natsuki and Konan went up on the manta ray, as before.

Byakugan.

Observation Haki.

Standing on the giant ray, Natsuki sent invisible waves rolling outward in every direction.

A moment later, his eyebrow went up.

He’d found Jigen.

"Konan, wait here. I’ll be back."

He vanished.

A lavish residence somewhere in the Land of Earth.

Jigen was swirling a glass of red wine.

Deeply improper conduct for a monk — but he wasn’t himself anymore. He was a vessel: body running, consciousness dead.

Otsutsuki Isshiki was the one at the controls, and unlike Jigen, he was both ruthless and perfectly willing to enjoy himself.

Footsteps sounded.

Isshiki’s hand paused, and he looked up.

His eyes narrowed at the sight of Natsuki.

Isshiki wasn’t the sort to lock himself away and ignore the world. Like Madara, like Black Zetsu, he kept watch on the shinobi world continuously.

He knew who Natsuki was.

What he didn’t know was why the man was standing in his sitting room.

"What do you want with me?" Isshiki asked, unhurried.

Natsuki’s record in the Third War struck everyone else as absurd. To Isshiki it was unremarkable. He could do the same, and with less effort.

"To kill you," Natsuki said, conversationally.

"You have no idea how far above you the sky sits." Isshiki set the glass down and rose. "The Kage and jinchuriki you stepped on aren’t worth mentioning in front of me."

His right eye shuddered.

Black cubes materialized out of nothing, packed shoulder to shoulder, and came down on Natsuki like a landslide.

Isshiki’s left eye was a Byakugan. His right was something else entirely, and it did two things: Sukunahikona and Daikokuten. The first shrank anything, though it could shrink no living thing but himself. The second stored objects in a separate dimension — and pulled them back out.

The cubes came from there. They carried crushing weight, and they blocked a target’s senses on top of it.

Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!

Natsuki clenched his fists.

In an instant the air filled with strikes, saturating every cubic inch of the space, and every cube falling out of the sky was swatted aside.

"The Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack?"

Isshiki’s composure cracked. "What is your relationship with Otsutsuki Kaguya? Are you her vessel?"

His first assumption was that Kaguya had implanted a Karma in Natsuki before dying.

He discarded it almost immediately. Kaguya had been sealed by her sons, not killed. And without dying, no Karma could be formed.

Natsuki didn’t answer.

He vanished.

Hirenkyaku.

He reappeared behind Isshiki.

Heilig Pfeil!

Natsuki thrust out a palm, and monstrous chakra compressed itself into an arrow and tore forward.

A chill ran the length of Isshiki’s spine.

His left eye pulsed with invisible waves.

Sukunahikona!

He shrank in an instant and the arrow passed through empty air.

Natsuki brought Observation Haki up, locked onto him, and raised a hand.

Void Sword!

Demonic aura surged out and condensed into an enormous blade that came down on him.

Isshiki’s face went grim as he backpedaled and reached for Daikokuten again. A black cube slammed into the Void Sword and knocked it off its line.

He used the opening to break away and return to full size.

"What are you?" Isshiki’s voice dropped.

Natsuki was more dangerous than he’d assumed. And those three techniques — Hirenkyaku, the arrow, the Void Sword — he had never seen any of them.

Natsuki wasn’t interested in talking.

He raised a hand.

Heilig Pfeil, mass volley!

Light flashed between his fingers, and arrows poured out by the hundred.

Isshiki felt the danger and reached for Daikokuten a third time — but what came out this time weren’t cubes.

Black rods. Chakra receivers, made through Yin-Yang Release, capable of draining an opponent’s chakra and jamming their chakra points until their flow ran wild.

Arrows and rods collided in midair and locked.

Before Isshiki could take any comfort in that, Natsuki drew Minazuki and swung.

Excalibur!

A golden beam fell out of the sky, and every black rod in its path ceased to exist.

Sukunahikona!

Isshiki fixed his left eye on the beam, and the light began to shrink.

Natsuki simply poured in more chakra.

The gold shuddered, then swelled outward again.

Pain flared behind Isshiki’s left eye, and his stomach dropped.

Natsuki had more chakra than he did?

That was impossible. Even within the Otsutsuki clan, only those who had eaten a chakra fruit outstripped him by that margin.

Isshiki tore open a black portal without a second’s hesitation.

He hated conceding it, but he could not beat this man today. He had never been a battle junkie and had no intention of dying to prove a point.

He’d assessed the gap and made his choice: run.

Demonic Aura Fist!

Natsuki punched.

Isshiki slipped through the portal — and before it sealed, the fist of demonic aura followed him in.

Daikokuten!

He threw up a black cube. The fist detonated against it with a roar and dispersed into loose aura.

Isshiki let out a breath.

Fortunately, Natsuki had no ability to seal space. Otherwise that would have been the end of him.

But where had the man come from? How was he this far ahead?

Was he one of the clansmen the Otsutsuki had sent? If so, shouldn’t he be hunting Kaguya instead?

Turning it over, Isshiki stepped out of the portal.

He emerged in the Land of Water.

A clever rabbit keeps more than one exit. He’d prepared a residence here too.

And a giant sword came down out of the sky directly above his head.

Shocked as he was, Isshiki reacted on pure reflex — Sukunahikona — and the sword shrank rapidly.

At which point Natsuki appeared behind him.

Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void!

Isshiki, entirely unprepared, took the full flood of information and reeled.

Natsuki wove seals in the opening, and a battery of sealing techniques settled over Isshiki until he couldn’t move a finger.

Natsuki nodded, satisfied.

He genuinely had no way to seal space. What he did have was the Grudge Demon Sword, whose function was straightforward: it hunted anything carrying demonic aura.

That was what the Demonic Aura Fist had been for. He hadn’t been trying to land it. He’d been marking him.

The instant Isshiki stepped out of the portal, the sword found him.

Natsuki waved a hand.

Isshiki’s body convulsed, his face twisting with pain, and both of his eyes were pulled bodily out of his skull to float in the air between them.

Transplanting eyes was routine in the shinobi world. Natsuki could have taken Isshiki’s and gained the abilities that came with them.

He had a different idea.

Other people’s eyes never sat quite right. He didn’t want the organs — he wanted the techniques. That way he’d still be using his own.

Natsuki stroked his chin.

So who should get them?

He certainly didn’t need them. With the Hogyoku he could learn Sukunahikona and Daikokuten under his own power.

He didn’t dwell on it. Tsunade, Nawaki, Kushina, Konan — any of them would do.

He raised a hand and laid it against Isshiki’s right eye, feeding chakra in.

The Daikokuten dimension opened to him at once.

Natsuki raised an eyebrow. Exactly as expected.

The infant Ten-Tails was in there.

That was the reason he’d kept Isshiki breathing — so he could feed the man to it. Combined with his own limitless energy, it would produce a new chakra fruit without much trouble at all.

[You have awakened the Otsutsuki Kaguya template.]

Natsuki blinked.

Beating Isshiki had triggered the Kaguya template?

That was well outside what he’d expected. It had been a long time since he’d picked up a template native to this world.

[Name: Otsutsuki Kaguya][Period: Final][World: Naruto][Rank: S]

[Ability 1: Immortality — UNLOCKED][Effect: Recovery from any injury. Cannot be killed by any means except sealing.]

[Ability 2: Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball — LOCKED][Effect: Exceeds an ordinary Truth-Seeking Ball. Power scales with chakra invested, without a known ceiling. Designed to unmake and remake a world.][Unlock Condition: Create two Six Paths-level shinobi.]

[Ability 3: Rinne Sharingan — LOCKED][Effect: Awakened by consuming a chakra fruit. Grants Amenominaka and the Infinite Tsukuyomi.][Unlock Condition: Plant a new God Tree and bring it to fruit.]

Natsuki finished reading with a single reaction: this was an enormous haul.

Ability 1 barely needed comment. He already had immortality from several directions. Stacking Kaguya’s on top of the pile left him unable to think of a mechanism that would actually kill him.

Ability 2: the Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball.

Plenty of characters in the original story could produce Truth-Seeking Balls — physical constructs made through Yin-Yang Release, packed with high-density chakra across all seven natures. Broadly comparable to a Tailed Beast Bomb, and appalling in output.

The Expansive version was a Truth-Seeking Ball scaled up past reason, and only Kaguya had ever used one. The stated purpose — unmaking a world and building a new one on the wreckage — said enough about the yield.

In theory, given enough chakra, its power had no upper bound at all.

The condition was to create two Six Paths-level shinobi.

Natsuki’s first thought went to the Sage of Six Paths and his brother Hamura.

But "create" was a flexible word. Fathering two Six Paths-tier children would count. Forcibly elevating two existing shinobi to that tier ought to count as well.

He’d try the second route first.

Ability 3: the Rinne Sharingan.

In a story so preoccupied with eyes, the Rinne Sharingan sat at the very top of the hierarchy.

By rights, a woman holding it should never have been sealed. Kaguya had simply had no combat experience and had never come close to using what she had.

Most importantly, the unlock condition was to plant a new God Tree and bring it to fruit.

Which meant Natsuki would end up with two chakra fruits.

Because the Rinne Sharingan the template offered was, functionally, a chakra fruit in its own right.