Chapter 582: Unleash Kaguya to Deal with Isshiki?
After chatting with Hikari for a while, Kenichi left.
He planned to check on Naruto and Sasuke's recent progress, as well as Hinata's.
Hinata was currently training under Hashirama, after all.
As the First Hokage, Hashirama had mastered Sage Mode and possessed extensive experience using it.
However, Kenichi believed that Hinata's future path with Sage Mode would inevitably become something unique to her.
After all, she was a member of the Hyuga Clan.
The Hyuga specialized in taijutsu built around the Byakugan.
To some extent, Hinata could already be considered a taijutsu specialist.
That meant even after mastering Sage Mode, her overall fighting style would probably remain centered around close combat.
Perhaps in the future, she would develop into a Sage Mode taijutsu specialist.
As Kenichi walked through the streets of Konoha, he stretched lazily.
The village still looked exactly the same.
His presence had not visibly changed daily life.
Even though the entire Shinobi World was secretly preparing for a confrontation with Isshiki Otsutsuki, most ordinary people continued living as usual.
Isshiki was certainly a terrifying problem.
But as the saying went, when the sky fell, the tallest people would hold it up first.
Only if the Shinobi World's strongest fighters failed would the consequences spread down to ordinary shinobi and civilians.
The leaders of the various hidden villages had therefore reached an unspoken agreement.
They would not publicly discuss Isshiki.
Partly, this was to prevent intelligence from leaking.
More importantly, they wanted to avoid widespread panic.
Otherwise, before they even confronted Isshiki, they might first have to waste time calming terrified civilians.
"The scenery really is nice."
Kenichi continued walking.
Then he spotted someone familiar.
Jiraiya.
The man was standing nearby, shamelessly ogling several passing women. His eyes moved up and down in a way that made his identity as an old pervert painfully obvious.
Kenichi frowned slightly.
Seeing Jiraiya reminded him of the battle they had fought in his original timeline.
That old man had been surprisingly troublesome.
Jiraiya possessed considerable strength and an enormous amount of combat experience.
If Kenichi had not already been familiar with much of Jiraiya's intelligence and fighting style, he might genuinely have suffered a loss.
After Jiraiya eventually died, Kenichi had buried his body in the Land of Water.
Tsunade's body had been buried beside his.
Those two had never officially confirmed a romantic relationship before their deaths.
Still, Kenichi had always thought their bond was unusual.
But the current Shinobi World was different from his original one.
He wondered whether Tsunade had already noticed that something strange was happening.
Given her status as a member of the Senju Clan, Kenichi suspected someone had probably already contacted her and revealed at least part of the situation.
That would make sense.
Tsunade's strength was respectable.
And when dealing with Isshiki, every powerful shinobi mattered.
Previously, Kenichi had known very little about Isshiki's abilities.
That lack of information had contributed to several Kage dying in earlier battles.
Now that Kenichi understood much more about Isshiki, he could arrange tactics more effectively.
In Kenichi's mind, those Kage-level fighters were excellent cannon fodder.
The longer they survived, the better.
At minimum, they could force Isshiki to reveal more of his hidden abilities.
And every additional piece of intelligence would benefit Kenichi.
Jiraiya eventually noticed him.
But he merely glanced over before looking away.
That was unsurprising.
Not many people currently knew Kenichi's true identity.
Even fewer had actually met him.
Kenichi also had no intention of walking over to greet Jiraiya.
This world's Jiraiya had never written the story of Orochi Hime.
And Kenichi had no desire to reminisce with someone who was technically a stranger.
He simply continued walking.
Eventually, he reached the Hokage Rock.
Kenichi sat down atop it and looked over Konoha below.
Once Isshiki was dealt with, what would the future of this Konoha become?
His thoughts drifted toward his own world.
Ever since transmigrating, Kenichi felt as though he had barely experienced any genuine leisure.
Most of his life had been spent rushing from one problem to another.
He had finally resolved the Black Zetsu issue.
Then Isshiki appeared.
And even after Isshiki was dealt with, true peace still would not arrive.
Kenichi would still have to prepare for the possibility that other members of the Otsutsuki Clan might descend in the future.
"What are you thinking about?"
A familiar voice appeared beside him.
Hagoromo materialized nearby.
Kenichi glanced at him.
The old man was becoming increasingly casual about showing himself.
Previously, Hagoromo had always acted mysterious and claimed that he could not remain in the living world for too long.
Now he seemed to appear whenever he felt like it.
Still, considering Hagoromo's enormous knowledge and experience, Kenichi suspected he could probably create some kind of ninjutsu that allowed him to remain in the living world if he truly wanted.
The real question was simply whether he cared enough to do it.
"I was thinking about what the future will look like if we successfully deal with Isshiki."
Kenichi spoke calmly.
At his current level of strength, there were very few people in this world who could genuinely converse with him as equals.
Once he awakened the Tenseigan, that number would shrink even further.
Kenichi narrowed his eyes as he looked over the village.
Dealing with the Otsutsuki Clan was no simple matter.
Even now, he did not possess absolute confidence.
If this world had only contained the enemies from the original Naruto manga, Kenichi could confidently declare himself invincible.
At his present level, almost no one from that era could defeat him.
Unless Naruto and Sasuke instantly grew to their Fourth Shinobi World War levels and teamed up against him, Kenichi truly had little to fear.
Even Madara, without becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, could no longer be considered a serious opponent.
Unfortunately...
This absurd world contained an even more absurd clan.
The Otsutsuki Clan.
Their foundation was terrifying.
And judging by Boruto, stronger and increasingly ridiculous enemies would continue appearing.
Those monsters would become more troublesome.
More difficult to kill.
And more frustrating to deal with.
Unfortunately, Kenichi had already transmigrated.
He no longer had access to later information about the story.
That meant he could only continue developing himself and raise his strength as much as possible.
"The future is created by people."
Hagoromo calmly sat cross-legged beside Kenichi.
His gaze also fell upon Konoha below.
"Hagoromo."
Kenichi suddenly turned toward him.
"Did Kaguya ever tell you anything about the Otsutsuki Clan?"
Hagoromo glanced at him.
"How powerful is the strongest member of their clan?"
Kenichi genuinely cared about that question.
Before this, he had possessed very little concrete intelligence about the Otsutsuki Clan.
He had no idea how powerful their strongest members truly were.
Those beings could eventually become his greatest enemies.
And perhaps even they were not the highest level of existence waiting beyond them.
That possibility bothered Kenichi.
What if the Otsutsuki Clan was merely the equivalent of one powerful family inside some larger hidden village?
And what if that hypothetical "village" contained even stronger beings?
If that were true, the story would never end.
Eventually, the escalation might continue all the way to some Creator God.
Domestic web novels often worked exactly like that.
The protagonist fought until becoming invincible.
Then a stronger enemy appeared.
The protagonist surpassed that enemy.
Then an even greater realm was revealed.
Although Kishimoto was no longer heavily involved with Boruto, the series already seemed to be showing traces of that kind of endless escalation.
"Mother..."
Hagoromo's gaze became distant.
Kaguya had once been relatively normal.
Later, however, she gradually became increasingly unstable.
At some point, Hagoromo and Hamura had grown curious about her origins.
That was when Kaguya had revealed fragments of information about the Otsutsuki Clan.
"The Otsutsuki Clan has always followed an extremely cruel system of competition."
Hagoromo's expression became serious.
"Those who are not powerful enough, or who lack sufficient talent, can be designated as sacrifices for the Divine Tree."
"They are fed to it so that the tree can produce chakra fruit."
Kenichi listened carefully.
"And according to Mother..."
Hagoromo paused.
"She once encountered an existence so powerful that other members of the clan called her a god."
Kenichi's expression immediately became serious.
Anyone capable of being worshiped as a god among the Otsutsuki Clan was obviously not ordinary.
The only problem was determining just how powerful such a being actually was.
At present, Kenichi could only speculate about the Otsutsuki Clan's highest combat power.
He had no solid frame of reference.
Still, considering their ability to create time machines, travel through space, live for extraordinarily long periods, and possess overwhelming individual strength...
Kenichi roughly classified the Otsutsuki Clan as something comparable to a galactic civilization.
Perhaps even higher.
The existence of a time machine alone pushed their technological capability into absurd territory.
That was not something an ordinary civilization could casually create.
Any civilization capable of mastering time travel would immediately become something extraordinary.
"That person..."
Hagoromo's voice became heavier.
"Was called Izanami."
"She was female."
"And she was extraordinarily powerful."
Kenichi remained silent.
"With a wave of her hand, she destroyed an entire planet."
Hagoromo continued.
"Then she reshaped that planet according to her own will and transformed it into a place suitable for life."
For the first time, a trace of fear appeared in Hagoromo's voice.
Kenichi's mouth twitched.
Was the Otsutsuki Clan really capable of something that ridiculous?
Destroying a planet was already terrifying.
But reconstructing one afterward into a habitable world?
The technical complexity involved was on an entirely different level.
Kenichi pursed his lips.
Now he could understand why Kaguya had been so afraid.
Kaguya had successfully rebelled and eaten the chakra fruit herself.
But against Otsutsuki who called themselves gods...
She probably would not have held much of an advantage.
Destruction was easy.
Creation was far harder.
Kenichi silently raised the Otsutsuki Clan's threat level yet again.
He scratched his head, feeling a headache coming on.
How was he supposed to deal with enemies like that?
Traditional science alone might not be enough to carry him beyond the necessary level.
Unless he eventually created something like a Two-Dimensional Foil or another kind of planet-destroying weapon.
Only weapons on that scale might truly threaten beings of that level.
Kenichi pinched the bridge of his nose.
The difficulty had just risen dramatically.
"After all these years..."
Kenichi looked at Hagoromo.
"What do you think of your mother now?"
If enemies at Izanami's level truly existed, then even Kenichi and Hagoromo working together might not be enough.
Even if they both reached Kaguya's level, victory would still be uncertain.
Kaguya herself was extremely powerful.
But Kenichi doubted she could casually destroy and then reshape a planet with a wave of her hand.
"She was too radical."
Hagoromo shook his head.
"And transforming humans into White Zetsu was not an acceptable method of preparing for an enemy."
His opinion of Kaguya had not fundamentally changed.
Then Hagoromo glanced toward Kenichi.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
Kenichi had come from another timeline.
Had Kaguya been released there?
If so...
What had she done?
"What happened to Mother in your world?"
Hagoromo asked.
"Pretty much the same thing."
Kenichi shrugged.
"She still wanted to turn everyone into White Zetsu."
"Though at first, she did seem to care about you and Hamura quite a bit."
Hagoromo sighed.
For a brief moment, he had wondered whether centuries of imprisonment might have changed his mother.
Apparently not.
She remained the same.
Kenichi looked at him thoughtfully.
"Actually, the easiest way to deal with Isshiki would be to release Kaguya."
Hagoromo's expression changed slightly.
"With Kaguya fighting alongside us, the success rate against Isshiki would rise considerably."
Kaguya's strength was still excellent.
Her mental state was questionable, certainly.
But once she learned that Isshiki was still alive, Kenichi doubted she would continue obsessing over the White Zetsu plan.
At that moment, Isshiki would become the immediate problem.
The White Zetsu army had always been preparation for some future threat.
Isshiki, meanwhile, was a direct and potentially fatal enemy standing right in front of her.
Kaguya should possess enough judgment to recognize which problem mattered more.
Hagoromo slowly narrowed his eyes.
"Why do I keep feeling like you're using my world as an experimental field?"
Kenichi coughed.
That accusation was not entirely wrong.
He really was considering it that way.
Releasing Kaguya would dramatically increase their odds against Isshiki.
And more importantly...
Kenichi wanted information.
The entire confrontation with Isshiki was partly meant to expose as many of Isshiki's abilities as possible.
Kaguya, meanwhile, was much easier to handle afterward.
If she became troublesome, they could simply seal her again.
Problem solved.
Kenichi even remembered her reaction to Naruto's Reverse Harem Jutsu.
That alone suggested there were still psychological openings they could exploit.
Kaguya had clearly never expected anyone to use such an absurd technique against her.
If Kenichi could create a similar moment of surprise and seize the opening...
Sealing her again would become much easier.
"I'm only making a suggestion."
Kenichi shrugged.
Kaguya's performance in the original story might have made her seem somewhat underwhelming.
But as the Progenitor of Chakra, she still possessed enormous power.
And against Isshiki specifically...
She might be particularly useful.
....
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