"What the hell do you mean by 'pretend to agree'?" Makoto asked, his face filled with deep suspicion as he stared at Uchiha Hikari.
How could she possibly remain so calm and composed in the face of such a bizarre, terrifyingly thirsty situation?
"We just nod and agree now, but they obviously can't claim their... 'reward'... immediately," Hikari explained earnestly.
"They'll have to wait until we've successfully 'executed' all the Tailed Beasts first. Once we've completely transferred the beasts, this cursed illusion will literally end, and we won't need to honor our promise. So, by just agreeing, they'll simply become our free bodyguards for nothing. Yes, that's exactly how it works."
It was essentially like Captain America's famous "Hail Hydra" elevator moment—tell the insane cultists exactly what they want to hear, and then slip away without taking any actual responsibility.
The logic was fundamentally sound.
But logic didn't mean there weren't massive red flags.
Something seemed to be missing.
It honestly didn't sound like something the aggressively proud Uchiha Hikari would normally suggest.
"We can agree to that, but did Orochimaru mention anything else to you?" Makoto pressed.
"Hmm..." Hikari pursed her lips and nodded slowly. "He said that after extensively studying this world, he discovered the root of all evil here lies with the Ōtsutsuki Clan—or rather, with the fundamental physics of Chakra itself."
In this timeline's lore, the Ōtsutsuki Clan had experienced violent betrayal long before Kaguya.
To prevent any future betrayals, they genetically modified their own DNA and that of the Ten-Tails, drastically amplifying the gravitational pull of their split-off "descendant" bodies, specifically pulling them toward the original "main body."
The Sage of the Six Paths barely managed to break free from Kaguya's insane gravitational pull by borrowing the Earth's natural gravity through the toads of Mount Myōboku, allowing him to finally seal her away.
His brother, Hamura, wasn't so fortunate.
Still deeply bound by Kaguya's massive gravitational force, he essentially had no choice but to "flee" to the moon to orbit her, biding his time to resurrect her.
The Chakra transmitted by the Sage of the Six Paths continued to actively influence the entire Shinobi World, heavily amplified by this enhanced, genetic gravitational pull.
The furry degeneracy?
That was merely a pathetic derivative phenomenon.
At their core, the people of the Shinobi World were gravitationally obsessed with the massive chakra density of the nine Tailed Beasts, with other Summoning Beasts serving only as weak substitutes.
The fundamental reason for all of this madness was that the entire Shinobi World was constantly being "attracted" to the Tailed Beasts.
The very existence of Chakra made this attraction nearly irresistible.
"Oh great. So the Orochimaru in this Limited Tsukuyomi World casually discovered the theory of universal gravitation, huh?" Makoto rolled his eyes, his soul leaving his body.
Up in the audience stands, the real Orochimaru was simultaneously transmitting this information to Hikari while eagerly sharing his scientific findings with the other spectators.
"I'm mainly explaining this advanced physics to Tobirama, but I'm sharing it aloud with the rest of you idiots to avoid having to repeat myself later. Explaining quantum mechanics multiple times to meatheads is such a hassle," Orochimaru sneered.
"In the Limited Tsukuyomi World, Makoto-kun doesn't exist. Therefore, in that world, my alternate self only ever observed 'gravity' as a basic, surface-level phenomenon. He never pierced through the illusion to understand the absolute truth: that gravity is merely a physical manifestation of spacetime curvature."
Orochimaru casually picked up an uncut watermelon from the snack table.
"Imagine two tiny, brainless bugs on opposite sides of this watermelon. They start crawling toward each other simultaneously, each firmly believing they're moving in a perfectly straight line. Logically, in a flat plane, they should never meet. But in reality..."
"The bugs inevitably collide. Because the watermelon's surface is fundamentally curved."
"Similarly..." Orochimaru tossed the heavy watermelon high into the air and caught it effortlessly as it fell back into his pale hand.
"From the watermelon's perspective, it's also moving in a perfectly straight line. It's just that the fabric of spacetime itself is being aggressively warped by the Earth's gravity."
"Nagato's Rinnegan, when used to unleash Almighty Push, Universal Pull, and Planetary Devastation, famously consumes vast amounts of Chakra. Combined with the genetic evidence from the Limited Tsukuyomi World, it conclusively proves that the greater an object's Chakra mass, the stronger its 'gravity'—or, more accurately, the greater its literal distortion of the surrounding spacetime..."
"Orochimaru, what the actual fuck are you even trying to say?!" Tsunade, who had been furiously taking notes for her book, couldn't help but violently snap her pen, her brow furrowed in sheer irritation.
"Who the hell would understand theoretical astrophysics if I wrote it in my smut novel?! You're going to ruin my bestseller with your nerd shit!"
"I am simply stating," Orochimaru sighed, ignoring her, "that the Ōtsutsuki Clan in the Limited Tsukuyomi World actively amplified this 'gravitational pull.' That's exactly why people there are biologically obsessed with the Tailed Beasts."
"But think about it... if this property exists in our reality, but simply isn't amplified to degenerate levels... could it explain what we romantically call 'fate' and 'destiny' in the ninja world? A sufficiently powerful person with massive chakra would naturally, physically attract a crowd..."
"What about Madara?" Tobirama coldly interrupted Orochimaru's theoretical musings.
"Because another being with an even greater gravitational pull drew others away from him." Orochimaru smirked, slowly turning his gaze to Hashirama sitting right beside him.
'Alright, that explanation actually makes terrifying sense.'
Tobirama fell dead silent.
He, too, had frequently wondered how his elder brother—with his incredibly limited, room-temperature IQ—somehow possessed such god-like, magnetic charisma.
Orochimaru's Chakra-Gravity theory indeed made things much more logical.
It wasn't just the other clans who were inexplicably drawn to his idiot brother; even the notoriously cynical Madara was hopelessly captivated by his orbit.
"However, this attraction isn't like the amplified, perverted effects of the Limited Tsukuyomi World," Orochimaru clarified.
"Under normal circumstances in our reality, it doesn't lead to particularly bizarre sexual situations, though occasional, highly emotional exceptions may occur."
Orochimaru didn't provide any specific examples, as the true instances of this absolute "gravitational Talk-no-Jutsu" had yet to unfold with Naruto.
"Father once told me that strong individuals are naturally drawn to one another. Could this physics principle be exactly what he was referring to?" Hashirama mused, cheerfully recalling his father's words from long ago.
"Don't misunderstand my theory, everyone," Orochimaru raised a finger. "Makoto-kun undoubtedly possesses a massive, powerful 'attraction,' but our interactions with him have all been deliberate, conscious, human-driven choices."
"Ah, as Makoto-kun once profoundly said: 'Man proposes, Heaven disposes.'"
"Our bond with Makoto-kun isn't merely the result of brainless 'attraction' or 'fate,' but rather our own conscious decisions and free will."
With a dramatic, sweeping gesture toward the desert battlefield below, Orochimaru continued.
"If we were truly under the base influence of this 'attraction' without free will, we would be acting exactly like those thousands of women down there. After losing the massive gravity wells of their Tailed Beasts, they suddenly turned their attention to the next largest mass of chakra: Makoto. Now they're absolutely itching to tear him apart and ra..."
"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH, OROCHIMARU! THERE ARE LITERAL CHILDREN PRESENT! WATCH YOUR FILTHY LANGUAGE!" Tsunade violently slammed her fist on the table, shattering the wood and cutting him off sharply.
"Alright, fine. I'll put it much more delicately," Orochimaru sneered, utterly composed as he smoothly rephrased his statement.
"Those thousands of women down there are simply itching to see who comes out on top of him."
"...Sigh," Tsunade aggressively rubbed her temples, completely speechless.
She glanced nervously at the "children" (Hanabi and Fuu), who had all grasped his filthy wording instantly anyway.
Tsunade felt her maternal worries had been for absolutely nothing.
However, Orochimaru's final philosophical words did offer the group some genuine reassurance.
The concept of absolute, inescapable gravitational destiny had been truly despair-inducing.
To resist literal gravity, one would first need to fly, then reverse time, and only then could they theoretically break free from fate itself.
...
Down in the desert, Uchiha Hikari felt the exact same relief.
When Orochimaru had only revealed the first half of his explanation, Hikari had been violently torn.
Her inner dilemma wasn't whether her beautiful encounter with Makoto was due to fake "gravitational destiny"—it was whether she should brutally chop up Orochimaru with her Susanoo the second she returned to the real world.
Makoto seemed to need Orochimaru's brilliant scientific research.
But the snake was just so utterly, incredibly detestable!
This internal conflict had made her earlier, calm remarks to Makoto sound somewhat strange and out of character!
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