Chapter 631: The Might of the Chakra Fruit

Chapter 631: Chapter 631: The Might of the Chakra Fruit

Chapter 631: The Might of the Chakra Fruit

"Kaguya, come to think of it, did you ever see what it looked like when Isshiki planted the Divine Tree? What does the Divine Tree look like after it’s planted? Does it cause any unusual changes to the world? Tell me more about it. I’m actually quite curious."

Kenichi found Kaguya and asked her directly.

Kaguya rolled her eyes helplessly after hearing his question, though her expression was somewhat complicated.

She had to admit that her feelings were still rather conflicted.

She did not particularly care about the memories Kenichi had implanted into her. After all, during her extraordinarily long life and the countless years she had spent sealed away, if she truly wanted to, she could simply fabricate other memories for herself.

But Kaguya felt there was no need.

After consuming the chakra fruit, she had noticed that the emotions within her heart gradually became weaker.

Joy.

Anger.

Sorrow.

Happiness.

All of them had faded considerably.

They had not disappeared completely, but Kaguya had developed a strange feeling.

If she had not separated Black Zetsu so hastily and prematurely, and if the process had not been so painful, perhaps she could have stripped away even more of herself and obtained even greater power.

It was an extremely peculiar sensation.

Kaguya did not know exactly why she felt this way, but somewhere deep within herself, she seemed to understand what she needed to do and how she needed to do it.

Even so, she still hesitated.

Because if she truly followed that path to its conclusion, she might eventually become something without emotions.

A machine.

Or perhaps something even less human than that.

The thought reminded Kaguya of the strongest figures she had once seen within the Otsutsuki Clan.

Those beings possessed very few emotions.

They carried out every order and made every decision according to maximum benefit.

Cold.

Ruthless.

Unwavering.

It was precisely under the influence of those supreme beings that the Otsutsuki Clan had established its rigid division between the Main Family and the Branch Family.

That system itself had been created according to the will of those higher existences.

Because of this, part of Kaguya instinctively resisted becoming like them.

Yet if she wanted even greater power, stripping away her remaining emotions seemed to be one possible path.

The thought was almost ironic.

Kaguya had once despised the hierarchy between the Main Family and Branch Family.

But after consuming the chakra fruit and experiencing overwhelming power firsthand, she had finally begun to understand why beings with such strength could think the way they did.

Back then, she had even found herself thinking that if sacrificing a single person could grant that level of power, perhaps sacrificing someone was not such an unreasonable thing after all.

That realization had allowed her to understand those people more clearly.

But whenever Kaguya thought about how much she herself had changed, conflicting emotions rose within her.

Her gaze drifted into the distance.

She was no longer certain whether her current state was normal.

Once, she had been one of those who looked at the clan’s strongest figures with fear.

Now...

Had she changed from someone who suffered beneath that system into someone capable of inflicting the same suffering on others?

The thought made her uncomfortable.

"You’re asking about the chakra fruit?"

Kaguya eventually answered.

"Of course I’ve seen the process."

"When Isshiki and I first arrived in this world, he planted the Divine Tree."

"After it was planted, its growth was relatively slow, although not so slow that it required an absurd amount of time."

"So we remained in this world and waited for it to mature."

A faint trace of nostalgia appeared in Kaguya’s eyes.

"Once the Divine Tree grew, it became far larger and more massive than the ordinary trees of this world."

"But during the growth process, it did not cause many obvious changes to the world itself."

"If I had to point to something unusual, then the real changes only began after the chakra fruit matured."

Kenichi immediately recorded the information.

Then he looked toward Kaguya again.

"What kind of changes?"

He was genuinely curious.

After all, Kaguya was probably the only living person who clearly remembered what this world had been like during that ancient era.

Although the relationship between Kaguya and Isshiki had been terrible, there was no denying that both of them were far older than Kenichi or Hagoromo.

When Kaguya first arrived in this world, Hagoromo had not even been born.

Naturally, Hagoromo could not possibly know what the world had been like before that.

What had the ancient world truly looked like?

Aside from Kaguya and Isshiki, perhaps nobody knew anymore.

Kenichi’s own memories of this portion of the original story were vague.

Some later information had been presented through flashbacks.

Unfortunately, when he had watched the anime in his previous life, he had skipped many of those flashback scenes.

So he genuinely did not remember the details very well.

Otherwise, he might have been able to dig through his memories and find the answer himself.

"You already know most of what happened afterward."

Kaguya continued.

"For the Divine Tree to fully mature, an Otsutsuki must be sacrificed."

"I assume you already know that."

"Originally, Isshiki intended to sacrifice me."

A trace of cold mockery appeared in her eyes.

"But he was too arrogant."

"When he tried to sacrifice me, I struck first and forced him into the Divine Tree instead."

"Afterward, Isshiki became the sacrifice."

"And after I consumed the chakra fruit..."

Kaguya looked around.

"The entire world became more vibrant."

Kenichi raised an eyebrow.

Kaguya continued calmly.

"In other words, the reason shinobi today can fight on such a massive scale without completely destroying the ecology of this world is connected to what happened back then."

Kenichi looked at the faint mockery still lingering in Kaguya’s eyes and felt somewhat helpless.

Isshiki was already dead.

His corpse had even been divided into research material.

Yet Kaguya was clearly still holding a grudge over what he had once tried to do to her.

Then again...

Kenichi could understand.

Kaguya had nearly died here.

She had almost become nothing more than nourishment for the Divine Tree.

If she had actually been sacrificed, and Isshiki had consumed the chakra fruit before leaving this world, then practically everything that followed would never have happened.

Hagoromo and Hamura would never have been born.

The history of chakra would have been completely different.

And naturally...

Naruto would never have existed.

Still, Kenichi found Kaguya’s explanation extremely interesting.

He had not expected the chakra fruit to have such a significant impact on the world itself.

He looked toward the dense forest around them.

The vegetation truly was extraordinarily abundant.

Shinobi battles were destructive.

Extremely destructive.

A single powerful ninjutsu could devastate a large section of the surrounding environment.

With battles of that scale occurring again and again throughout history, restoring such widespread forests should not have been easy.

Even with shinobi helping, ecological recovery on this scale would ordinarily require enormous effort.

"After the chakra fruit was consumed, the Divine Tree lost most of its miraculous power."

Kaguya continued.

"It gradually became something closer to an ordinary tree."

"Later, what remained of the Divine Tree became what you now call the Gedo Statue."

She spoke with a trace of confidence.

"But to me, the Divine Tree itself never carried much significance."

"It was only a container used to gather and carry power."

Kenichi shrugged.

He was not particularly interested in the Divine Tree itself either.

The true essence of the Divine Tree was its chakra fruit.

Once Kaguya consumed that fruit, the remaining tree naturally became far less attractive as a research subject.

At this point, the far more interesting subject was Kaguya herself.

After all...

She was the one who had consumed the chakra fruit.

Unfortunately, researching Kaguya was much more troublesome than researching a tree.

For the time being, Kenichi did not have any particularly good method of doing so.

Kaguya noticed the strange way he was looking at her.

Her expression immediately darkened.

That gaze reminded her of some of the strange expressions and actions Kenichi had displayed within those implanted memories.

The association irritated her.

Still, Kaguya said nothing.

"Hmph."

She merely snorted coldly.

Then her entire body disappeared.

Kenichi knew she had left using space-time ninjutsu.

He had to admit that Kaguya’s mastery of space-time techniques was extremely impressive.

"The chakra fruit..."

Kenichi looked toward the sky.

He really was interested in it.

His current research had already begun separating and identifying the genetic changes related to the chakra fruit.

But isolating those genetic influences was not easy.

After thinking for a while, Kenichi turned and walked deeper into the forest.

He intended to inspect something located farther away.

Isshiki’s former base.

After crossing the dense forest, Kenichi quickly reached his destination.

The town that had once stood there was gone.

Yellow sand covered the area.

Everything looked desolate and barren.

Whatever prosperity had existed in the past had completely disappeared, leaving only shattered walls half-buried beneath dust and sand, groaning beneath the wind.

This place had once concealed one of Kara’s secret bases.

Now...

Only the dust of history and the ruins left behind by destruction remained.

Beneath the sand and soil, traces of the past could still be seen on broken walls.

Symbols that had once represented authority, secrecy, and power had been reduced to objects slowly being eroded by wind and sand.

Among the ruins stood an old stone tablet, half-buried beneath the earth.

Once, it had apparently recorded the glory of the base.

But after enduring nuclear explosions and countless other bombardments, the writing on its surface had become almost completely illegible.

Most of the facilities beneath the settlement had been destroyed.

Only a few twisted metal frames remained.

They almost resembled the final remains of something that had died screaming.

A place once filled with secrets and hidden power now contained only silence and desolation.

Occasionally, a strong gust of wind swept through the ruins and lifted sand into the air.

For a moment, the storm would conceal what little remained.

Almost as though the world itself were trying to erase the last evidence that this place had ever existed.

Yet even here...

Life persisted.

A few drought-resistant plants stubbornly pushed through cracks between the stones.

Their scattered green leaves brought a faint trace of vitality to the dead landscape.

The settlement had become ruins.

But sometimes, when the wind moved through the debris, it almost sounded as though echoes from the past were still lingering there.

One could almost imagine the countless stories that had once taken place in this location.

Still...

No matter how prosperous the town had once been, all that remained now were weathered memories and ruins buried beneath the sand.

Kenichi stepped into the wasteland.

He was the only visitor there.

After all, residual nuclear radiation still remained throughout the area.

To avoid unnecessary casualties, Kenichi had prohibited ordinary shinobi from entering.

Ordinary civilians were forbidden as well.

He had not bothered explaining the reason in great detail.

There was no need.

He had simply issued the order.

If some idiot ignored a direct prohibition and came anyway...

Then whatever happened afterward was their own responsibility.

But after walking farther inside, Kenichi’s expression became strange.

He looked down.

Footprints.

Kenichi stared at them helplessly.

"Seriously?"

"There are actually idiots coming in here?"

He shook his head.

Still, he could not be bothered dealing with it.

The antimatter explosion had pushed away part of the contaminated material, but plenty of nuclear radiation remained.

A shinobi who stayed too long would gradually begin feeling physically unwell.

An ordinary person would suffer even more.

They might return home, begin losing their hair afterward, and eventually die some time later.

Even Kenichi did not casually expose himself to the environment.

A special protective barrier surrounded his body.

This was one of the techniques Isshiki had taught him before dying.

Originally, the Otsutsuki Clan had developed the technique for traveling through space.

The universe was filled with various forms of radiation capable of damaging living organisms.

This technique had been created specifically to protect against those harmful effects.

Kenichi had tested it afterward and found it rather interesting.

It could shield him from nuclear radiation as well.

Of course...

It could not protect someone from the direct force of a nuclear explosion.

And even against radiation, the protection had a limit.

It could not be maintained indefinitely.

"Kara’s No. 4 base..."

Kenichi scratched his head.

"According to Number Four, there should still be some things here."

"The question is whether any of them survived the explosion."

That was difficult to say.

After all, the central area Kenichi had targeted had been blasted almost fifteen meters lower than the surrounding terrain.

....

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