Third Tsuchikage Onoki hovered in mid-air, brow furrowed as he repeated Minato's words. "Hokage, are you suggesting that Pain—the man with the Rinnegan who easily decimated the Cloud and Stone—didn't strike Konoha because he 'feared' you?"
Onoki scoffed, his tone dripping with skepticism. "I admit you're fast, Yellow Flash, but claiming a madman who calls himself a god would back down solely because of you... isn't that a bit arrogant?"
"It wasn't fear of me personally."
Minato Namikaze shook his head. His sapphire-blue eyes swept across every Kage in the room, his calm demeanor unsettlingly steady. "Nagato, the leader of the Akatsuki, does indeed possess the Rinnegan. But in the face of the true threat, even the Rinnegan is nothing to fear."
"The true threat?" The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, frowned as the gold dust in his hands flowed slowly. "Are you referring to... the Otsutsuki?"
This name had been mentioned in the previous invitation, but at the time, everyone had dismissed it as a pretext fabricated by Konoha.
"Precisely."
Minato crossed his hands and leaned forward slightly, an invisible pressure beginning to permeate the room. "Why do you think the Akatsuki is collecting the Tailed Beasts? To rule the world? No, that's just the surface. Behind Nagato, there is a deeper terror. Konoha has remained untouched because we hold a trump card—one capable of opposing those 'Celestial Beings' and keeping the Akatsuki at bay."
"A trump card?"
The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
His youthful, doll-like face remained expressionless, but a close observer would have seen his hands trembling slightly on his knees.
As a puppet controlled by Obito, the masked man watching through Yagura's eyes felt a surge of intense unease.
'What exactly was Konoha hiding?'
"Stop beating around the bush, Minato Namikaze!" Raikage A bellowed impatiently. "Show us this trump card! If this is just a bluff, I'm leaving right now!"
"As you wish."
Minato smiled thinly and turned his head toward the empty air behind him. "Please, Lady Kaguya."
Kaguya?
The unfamiliar name left the Kage looking at one another in confusion.
However, in the next second, everyone's expression shifted.
Without warning, the gravity in the meeting room seemed to multiply severalfold in an instant.
Onoki, who had been floating, felt an irresistible force crush his back. A sickening 'crack' echoed—the protest of his aging spine—as he was slammed down into his chair, looking utterly pathetic.
"Wh... What is this chakra?!"
Onoki's eyes bulged in terror.
As a veteran powerhouse who had witnessed the might of Madara Uchiha, he now felt a shudder that originated from the depths of his very soul.
This pressure was far beyond anything Madara or Hashirama Senju had ever projected!
It wasn't just Onoki.
The Lightning Style Armor on Raikage A flickered out instantly, his chakra flow becoming sluggish.
Rasa's gold dust lost its cohesion and scattered across the floor.
The most violent reaction came from Yagura.
As the Jinchuriki of the Three-Tails, Yagura turned deathly pale. Inside him, Isobu curled into a ball, trembling violently as it completely severed its connection with its host.
"Tap. Tap. Tap."
Crisp footsteps echoed from the shadows of the room.
Under the horrified gazes of the Five Kage, a white figure slowly emerged.
It was a woman.
She wore an elegant, pure white robe embroidered with ancient tomoe patterns—designs that belonged to no nation in the shinobi world.
Her long white hair cascaded like a waterfall, swaying gently as she moved.
Her skin was so pale it was almost translucent, her features exquisite beyond human measure. A red vertical slit sat upon her forehead, while her eyes were a pure, flawless white.
Most striking of all was the... somewhat strange accessory on her head.
It was a golden crown shaped like rabbit ears, yet it carried a sense of divinity. Etched upon it in small, strangely jarring characters were the words: 'For the Love and Peace of the Ninja World.'
Yet, this absurd decoration did nothing to diminish the terrifying aura she radiated.
She stood there silently, her indifferent gaze sweeping over the Five Kage as if she were observing ants beneath her feet.
It wasn't contempt; it was total disregard.
"This is... Konoha's ally?"
Rasa felt his throat go dry and swallowed hard. He could sense that if this woman wished it, she could level the entire room in an instant.
"Otsutsuki... Kaguya."
Gamakon, perched on Minato's shoulder, acted as the narrator at just the right moment.
He hopped onto the table and cleared his throat, his toad eyes gleaming.
"She is a... renegade of the 'Otsutsuki Clan' from beyond the stars."
Gamakon began his carefully woven script. "Thousands of years ago, to protect this planet, she betrayed her family and stood alone against the voyagers of the void. She was the original protector of the shinobi world and our only hope against the impending arrival of the 'Otsutsuki Main Family.'"
"Thousands of years ago?"
Onoki caught the keyword, his pupils shrinking. "Are you joking? How could a human live for thousands of years?! Not even the First Hokage could..."
"Who told you she was human?"
Gamakon grinned, a look the Kage found deeply mocking. "She is an Otsutsuki."
Obito, watching through Yagura, felt his heart race.
Kaguya... he had never seen that name on the Uchiha stone tablet, but Madara's notes had vaguely mentioned the legend of the 'Rabbit Goddess.'
'Could it be...?'
"Trickery and shadows!"
Raikage A slammed his hand on the table and stood up. Though his body was stiff from the pressure, his temper couldn't endure being looked down upon. "I don't care what she is! Since Konoha brought her here, she's clearly up to no good! Otsutsuki, protector—I don't believe any of it!"
Lightning crackled as he forced his chakra to explode, attempting to break through the invisible weight. "Let me see what this 'god' is made of!"
"Foolish."
Kaguya finally spoke.
Her voice was cold and ethereal, like mountain snow, devoid of any worldly emotion.
She didn't even look the Raikage in the eye. She simply raised her wide sleeve and gave a light flick in his direction.
"Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack."
Boom!
The air was compressed to its limit in an instant. Raikage A felt an indescribable force manifest out of thin air, as if an entire mountain had collided with his chest.
"Pfft!"
Total silence fell over the room.
One could have heard a needle drop.
Onoki's jaw nearly hit the floor, Rasa's hands were shaking, and Yagura's eyes were vacant.
One hit.
A casual wave of the hand.
The Raikage—the strongest and fastest of the Five Kage—had been swatted away like a common fly.
Was this even Ninjutsu anymore?
"How crude."
Gamakon sighed and hopped onto Kaguya's shoulder—the collective gasp from the room was audible; this toad actually dared to step on the shoulder of a 'god'?
"Lady Kaguya, we're here for a partnership, not a massacre. Take it easy. If you break them, we have to pay the medical bills."
Kaguya frowned slightly, clearly disgusted by the toad's touch. But remembering their agreement and the 'Isshiki' inside the toad's belly, she suppressed the urge to crush Gamakon.
This toad's power was mysterious; she wasn't certain she could defeat him.
"He struck first," Kaguya said coldly. "I was merely acting in self-defense."
'Archaic self-address?'
The choice of words deepened Onoki's suspicion and dread.
"Hokage..." Onoki turned his head with great difficulty toward Minato, his voice dry. "This... this Otsutsuki Kaguya... what is her true identity?"
Minato remained in his seat, his expression calm as if the Raikage being launched was a minor interlude.
"Mr. Gamakon, I'll let you explain," Minato said with a smile.
Gamakon stood on Kaguya's shoulder, looking down at the terrified Kage.
"You've all heard the legend of the 'Sage of Six Paths,' haven't you?"
Gamakon dropped the first bombshell.
The others nodded.
The Sage of Six Paths was the ancestor of all shinobi, the mythical figure who created Ninshu.
"Legend says the Sage of Six Paths was named Hagoromo Otsutsuki. He sealed the Ten-Tails and brought chakra to the world."
Gamakon paused, his gaze sweeping over them before settling on Onoki's wrinkled face.
"So, have you ever wondered where the Sage's chakra came from? Or where the name 'Otsutsuki' originated?"
Onoki's breathing grew rapid as an absurd, terrifying theory formed in his mind.
"Could it be..."
"Exactly."
Gamakon reached out a claw and patted Kaguya's beautiful cheek—an act that made her eye twitch violently.
"This lady, Kaguya Otsutsuki, is the biological mother of the Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsutsuki."
Boom!
It was as if a bolt of thunder had exploded in everyone's mind.
Onoki was utterly dumbfounded.
The gold dust in Rasa's hands spilled completely to the floor.
Yagura—or rather, Obito—was struck as if by lightning, frozen in place.
'The mother... of the Sage of Six Paths?!'
The mythical founder of Ninshu had a mother?
And that mother was standing right in front of them?
"That... that's impossible!"
Onoki pointed a trembling finger at Kaguya, his voice shrill. "The Sage of Six Paths lived thousands of years ago! His mother... wouldn't she be the Progenitor of Chakra? How could such a being still be alive?!"
"Time is meaningless to the Otsutsuki."
Kaguya gazed coldly at Onoki. The sheer weight of ages and majesty in her white eyes was no facade. "Hagoromo... that rebellious son is indeed dead. But I am immortal."
When she mentioned 'Hagoromo,' the flicker of complex emotions—anger, sorrow, and a faint trace of nostalgia—convinced everyone.
That tone when speaking of her son could not be faked.
"Therefore..."
Minato took over at the perfect moment, his voice steady and powerful. "This is Konoha's trump card. We are not colluding with the Akatsuki. We are cooperating with the Progenitor of Chakra to prepare for those who are crossing the sea of stars to harvest this planet—the Otsutsuki Main Family."
"Compared to the destruction of the world, the Akatsuki and a few Tailed Beasts..."
Minato looked at the pale faces of the Kage and asked calmly, "Do they still seem important?"
Silence.
A deathly silence.
If they had suspected a Konoha conspiracy before, all such theories were now hollow in the face of absolute power and a reality-shattering truth.
If Konoha wielded this level of power...
They didn't need schemes.
If this 'Ancestor' wished it, she could flatten the Five Great Nations as easily as she swatted the Raikage.
Someone swallowed audibly.
Yagura slowly raised his head, and his once-hollow eyes now shimmered with a complex light.
Obito was trembling.
"Lord Hokage."
Onoki took a deep breath, forcing down his shock.
He slid out of his chair and stood respectfully on the ground—an act of absolute submission to the strong.
"If... if what that toad—excuse me, what Lord Gamakon said is true..."
Onoki looked at Kaguya, his voice quivering. "Then the enemies we face... are they all as powerful as this... Ancestor?"
Kaguya turned her head and stared coldly at Onoki.
"No."
She parted her lips and uttered a sentence that made everyone feel as though they had fallen into a frozen lake.
"They are far stronger than I am now."
Kaguya slowly raised her hand and pointed toward the ceiling, as if looking through the layers of the building to the vast starry sky beyond.
"I am merely the precursor. They... are the harvesters."
"Once they descend, every drop of chakra on this planet—including the life of every single one of you—will be drained to become nourishment for the God Tree."
"There will be no exceptions."
As the final word fell, an atmosphere of despair enveloped the room.
The Five Kage, who had just been at each other's throats, finally felt their own insignificance in the face of an impending apocalypse.
"So..."
Rasa spoke, his voice dry. "What must we do?"
Minato stood up, his Hokage cloak fluttering despite the lack of wind.
He stepped beside the Progenitor of Chakra, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her as he looked firmly at the group.
"It's simple."
"Put aside your prejudices and form an alliance."
"Consolidate the strength of the entire shinobi world—ninjutsu, technology, and Tailed Beasts alike."
Minato held out a hand, palm up.
"For the sake of survival."