"The easiest target? Why?" Makoto asked, though he actually already had a pretty solid guess in his heart.
If the Limited Tsukuyomi World operated on completely reversed principles, comparing how the other villages treated their Jinchuriki in the real world to how the Hidden Cloud treated theirs...
"The Hidden Cloud Village treats Tailed Beasts very differently from the other villages," [Konan] explained, perfectly aligning with Makoto's guess.
"They deeply despise the Tailed Beasts, yet they feel they have no choice but to use their power to win wars. So, if the Hidden Cloud learns that we want to mass-execute the Tailed Beasts, aside from a few warmongers who desperately want that power, the rest of the village won't even try to stop us."
"Eh? If that's the case, then shouldn't we go collect... I mean, kill the other Tailed Beasts first?" Uchiha Hikari raised a finger, tentatively offering her opinion.
"If all the other Tailed Beasts are wiped out, and then we go to the Hidden Cloud, they won't need the Tailed Beasts' power to compete with the other villages anymore. So that last tiny bit of resistance will just give up entirely, right?"
"That entirely depends on the Raikage's personality," Makoto replied, neither fully affirming nor denying her logic.
"Personality?"
"Yeah." Makoto nodded slightly. "If the Raikage only uses the Tailed Beasts' power as a deterrent, then your idea is perfectly correct. But conversely, if he suddenly sees that the other ninja villages have zero Tailed Beasts left, this world's Raikage might just think his Tailed Beast is even more crucial. He'd see it as the ultimate opportunity to gain an absolute, god-tier advantage in war."
"That actually makes a lot of sense. Never mind then, let's just go there directly." Uchiha Hikari suddenly understood.
She activated her Susanoo, let [Konan] and Makoto hop aboard the chakra construct, and shot straight into the night sky.
After confirming their northeast trajectory, Hikari was just about to hit full speed when she suddenly received a frantic telepathic message.
It turned out that Tsunade had been incredibly curious about whether the Pure Land (the afterlife) actually existed in this Limited Tsukuyomi World.
And if it did, from what perspective did the dead observe things?
So, Tsunade had bravely shifted her perspective into the body of the alternate [Tsunade] down below.
Upon making the shift, she discovered that the [Tsunade] in this cursed world hadn't actually died in the explosion.
Although this universe's [Tsunade] had absolutely no tits to speak of, she still possessed the Yin Seal and the Creation Rebirth technique.
However, unlike Pain's classic invasion in the real world, this time [Konan] had launched her apocalyptic attack almost instantaneously.
[Tsunade]'s summoned slugs only managed to desperately protect the few Jonin who had accompanied her.
According to the message Tsunade was currently relaying, this flat-chested version of herself had immediately dispatched those surviving Jonin to the other ninja villages to frantically warn them about the [Akatsuki]'s sudden invasion and their deranged goal of executing all the Tailed Beasts.
They had to unite quickly, or the entire ninja world would be completely destroyed!
Uchiha Hikari quickly relayed this breaking news to Makoto, who honestly couldn't have cared less.
"Without the Flying Thunder God, it'll take those messengers literal ages to reach the other ninja villages on foot. Don't even bother worrying about it."
"Alright then." Receiving Makoto's casual response, Uchiha Hikari controlled the Susanoo to transform into a blinding streak of red light, carrying them away as they vanished from the skies above the shattered Fire Temple.
...
Meanwhile, up in the hidden spectator stands in the real-world sky, everyone finally relaxed a bit and went back to heavily snacking and drinking to cope with the trauma.
"After watching that absolute trainwreck of a scene down there, I feel like I'm going to have nightmares tonight," Kushina grumbled, watching enviously as the others ate.
Since she was still technically a reanimated corpse, she resignedly sucked on a lollipop just as a token gesture of normalcy.
"Trust me, I'm the one who's going to need intense therapy for my nightmares," Tsunade shuddered, rolling her eyes helplessly.
"Lady Tsunade, what's wrong? Did you see some other messed-up shit from that alternate perspective that you haven't mentioned yet?" Kushina asked, morbidly curious.
"Do you have any goddamn idea how the slugs in this world actually heal people?" Tsunade took a deep, trembling breath.
She felt that this deeply cursed knowledge shouldn't be a burden she had to bear all alone—it absolutely needed to be shared!
Share a happiness, and you get two happinesses.
Similarly, share a severe psychological torment, and you get two torments.
But honestly, seeing other people suffer from the same cursed knowledge makes you feel a hell of a lot better about yourself.
"Slugs only have basic healing abilities on their own, right? For serious injuries or large-scale battlefield treatment, don't they strictly require consuming your chakra, Lady Tsunade? And ideally synchronized hand seals to actually pull it off?" Kushina questioned in total confusion.
"That's how the slugs work in the real world," Tsunade said grimly.
"In this world, the slugs' healing abilities have been completely 'enhanced.' They can achieve intermediate to advanced healing effects entirely without my direct assistance. Because the slugs in this universe can actively secrete a highly potent medicinal fluid that drastically speeds up injury recovery."
"Medicinal fluid? Okay... and then what?"
"Kushina, you're not a medical ninja, so you wouldn't know the exact anatomy... but there is an optimal bodily position for rapidly absorbing large amounts of medicinal fluid," Tsunade said, her face completely pale.
"So earlier... the 'me' in that Limited Tsukuyomi World, to ensure the immediate survival of those Jonin during the massive explosion... she had the giant slugs forcibly enter their... optimal absorption positions."
Tsunade stopped speaking in vague riddles and directly described the horrific medical procedure she had just witnessed through her counterpart's eyes.
"Optimal position...?" Kushina blinked, completely lost.
"Mhm." Tsunade reached out and patted Kushina firmly right on the ass.
"AH?!" Kushina violently jumped, utterly stunned.
'THAT was the optimal position?!'
'What kind of absolute, non-consensual nightmare scene had Tsunade just been forced to spectate in first-person?!'
...
Meanwhile, over in the Hidden Cloud Village section of the spectator stands.
Yugito and Samui both breathed massive sighs of relief.
Though their relief wasn't because the psychological torment of the broadcast had finally ended, but because after hearing [Konan]'s earlier lore-drop, they discovered their village was actually the most normal one in this entire insane universe!
How could this realization not bring them immense joy?
"Thank goodness. At least we don't have to worry about some alternate version of ourselves completely humiliating us while wearing our faces," Yugito relaxed and sat heavily on the ground.
"Mhm." Samui firmly nodded in agreement.
Shrinking a few cup sizes wasn't a big deal at all—hadn't the legendary Tsunade shrunk all the way to a cutting board, too?
As long as their alternate selves weren't doing anything insanely embarrassing or perverted, it was totally fine.
Honestly, at this point, both of them were finding it incredibly difficult to even look the Fourth Hokage's traumatized family in the eye.
...
Back down in the illusion, during their high-speed journey through the air, with absolutely nothing else to do, [Konan] continued casually chatting with the two 'Akatsuki recruits.'
"I honestly never imagined you two possessed such a terrifyingly convenient method to completely and permanently eliminate the Tailed Beasts," [Konan] remarked with a satisfied sigh.
It was precisely because of this exact brutal ability that [Konan] trusted them even more now.
Normally, whether a Tailed Beast was directly physically killed or died from total chakra depletion, it would always eventually revive somewhere else in the world—unless someone gathered all nine Tailed Beasts and became the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, the absolute source of all evil.
But by that point, the Jinchuriki's will would likely already be completely corrupted by the beast's evil aura, uncontrollably turning them into a rabid furry enthusiast!
Thus, the original master plan of the Akatsuki was to concentrate their forces and slaughter the nine Tailed Beasts, while aggressively ensuring no other trace of Tailed Beast Chakra remained anywhere else in the ninja world.
They would deliberately leave a tiny amount of chakra nearby just so the Tailed Beasts would be forced to revive close by.
Immediately after their revival, they would be brutally slaughtered all over again, actively repeating the gory cycle endlessly for all eternity.
However, Makoto and Uchiha Hikari had just made the Nine-Tails' chakra completely and permanently vanish into thin air.
Though the absorption process took a tiny bit of time, it was infinitely more effective than the Akatsuki's original, exhausting plan of endless spawn-camping and slaughter.
"Since we have nothing else to do right now, let me tell you the tragic story of the next Tailed Beast we're going to capture in the Hidden Cloud—the Six-Tails, Saiken," [Konan] suddenly offered.
"HUH?!" Uchiha Hikari, who had been peacefully piloting the Susanoo in flight, whipped her head around with a look of absolute terror.
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