Thump.
"Ouch!"
Tsunade flicked Hanabi's forehead. "What is that little head of yours always thinking about? No wonder Fuu calls you the 'Silver Horned King'."
Tsunade sighed, rubbing her temples. "If I had known the Limited Tsukuyomi World was going to be this cursed, I would not have let you kids watch the broadcast."
"What is that supposed to mean?!" Hanabi protested, clutching her red forehead. "I kept quiet the whole time so I would not disturb everyone's viewing experience! The Limited Tsukuyomi World is unfair! Why did I not appear? Nee-san and all her classmates showed up!"
"Uh, isn't not appearing in that hellscape a good thing?" Fuu poked Hanabi's cheek. "Think about how ridiculous everyone was in there. If I had not gotten insanely lucky with the waterfall, my reputation would have been permanently ruined!"
"So what if it was ridiculous? The Limited Tsukuyomi is fake anyway. We can just treat it like a gross movie. But everyone else got screen time except me... Why?" Hanabi pouted, crossing her arms.
"Think about your sister Hinata's personality in that world," Makoto said, walking over and patting Hanabi's head.
"Nee-san?" Hanabi tilted her head, recalling the early scenes of the illusion. "In that world, Nee-san was so cool, strong, and heroic..."
"Exactly. Your sister's personality was completely reversed. Knowing how that universe operated, she probably would have looked you dead in the eye and told you, 'The struggle for succession has always been this ruthless,' before snapping your neck."
"..."
Hanabi's small face froze in sheer horror, her mouth hanging agape.
Makoto's words instantly reminded her of the brutal scene between Temari, Kankuro, and their mother.
He is right!
Hanabi could confidently say that in the real world, she was so adorable that her Nee-san adored her.
But if the Limited Tsukuyomi World was the exact opposite, wouldn't it be exactly as Makoto described...?
And there was precedent!
In the illusion, her sister had shown utter indifference to Neji's brutal death, treating his corpse like a stray dog on the street!
Even though that world's Neji was a perverted stalker, it later turned out that in a world teeming with bizarre furry fetishists, his crimes were practically saintly by comparison.
If even Neji was treated like disposable trash, what would happen to her as a rival heir...?
"You know what, I would rather not appear at all," Hanabi squeaked, her voice trembling slightly.
Horrifying images flashed through her mind: her Limited Tsukuyomi self, eyes gouged out, limbs severed, and body preserved in a jar, all for the sake of providing the main family with more biological material.
The thought made Hanabi shudder violently!
It was vastly better not to appear at all than to shatter her beautiful fantasies and ruin the genuine affection between her and her sister.
"Oh, right!"
Tsunade, having watched Makoto casually traumatize the child, suddenly remembered something important.
She pulled out her thick, leather-bound notebook. "I have been recording all the lore from that world. Would it be okay if I published it as a novel series to earn some royalties? I have gambling debts."
Tsunade felt it was best to get permission from the source.
After all, Uchiha Hikari had coded the illusion and Makoto had essentially directed the playthrough.
"Whatever. As for whether it actually gets past the censors and published, that is up to you," Makoto said indifferently, checking his gear.
"The censors? Oh, right."
Tsunade instinctively hesitated, then realized she was no longer just a wandering gambler.
She was the Fifth Hokage and the de facto ruler of the Land of Fire.
Even if there were strict censorship boards in Konoha, they reported directly to her.
She was both the author and the supreme judge.
In reality, even if there were independent censors, the stories Tsunade had recorded would likely pass without a single issue.
It was like how on certain modern online forums, people might stumble upon bizarre, abstract images—like a drawing of Megatron leaking gasoline.
When that happened, someone would inevitably reply, "If the forum's auto-mod has not taken down your picture for being NSFW, you should seriously reflect on what you have drawn."
The content of the Limited Tsukuyomi World operated on similar logic.
The stories could easily bypass government censorship not because they were normal, but because human anatomy and logic no longer existed within them.
A normal person would not consider Megatron leaking gasoline to be pornographic, just as the censors would not mistake the abstract horrifying lore of the Limited Tsukuyomi for one of Jiraiya's straightforward smut novels.
Meanwhile, Kushina was currently sitting in the mud, being mentally tormented by the Nine-Tails' aggressive tsundere attitude.
The giant fox had apparently fully reconciled with Namikaze Minato in the afterlife, so why was it suddenly refusing to reconcile with her now that she needed its help with Baryon Mode?
'What the hell is going on?'
'Could it be that the fox and I have become actual romantic rivals for Minato's affection?!'
Kushina could not help but imagine the worst-case scenario.
Is that not exactly what happened in the Limited Tsukuyomi World?!
She had originally planned to be a good mother and transfer half of the Nine-Tails back to Naruto after he came of age... Now it seemed she desperately needed to win over the giant fox's loyalty herself first, just to secure her marriage.
"Are you done talking?"
Senju Tobirama walked up behind Tsunade, his arms crossed.
"Huh?" Tsunade blinked, turning to look at her granduncle. "Second Grandfather, is there something you need?"
"It is you who has something to do. Do not forget you are the Hokage now. Once you have finished your little book club here, should you not return to Konoha to handle your massive backlog of official duties?"
As Tobirama finished speaking, he firmly placed his hand on Tsunade's shoulder.
With a sharp whoosh, she vanished via the Flying Thunder God.
"Ah?"
Clutching her smut notebook, Tsunade stared blankly at the familiar Konoha skyline that had instantly reappeared around her.
She groaned, realizing she was back at the office.
...
Back in the rain, Kushina raised her hand. "Um, Second Hokage, could you teleport me there too? I want to check on Naruto."
"You have only been here for a few hours, and you already want to go back and hover over the boy? What you need to focus on right now is taming that overgrown fox and mastering the physics of Baryon Mode. Only then can you truly protect him and the village from the Otsutsuki," Tobirama lectured coldly, his brow furrowed in disapproval.
"That is not it! I'm not just missing Naruto!" Kushina argued, her face twisted with deep, maternal worry.
"I want to make sure he is not acting like his counterpart in the Limited Tsukuyomi World! He still likes girls, right?! Honestly, if not, I would even accept him liking Sasuke! Just... anything but a fox!"
'As expected, seeing absolute depravity makes people everywhere prefer reasonable compromises,' Tobirama thought dryly.
Ever since witnessing the twisted Shinobi World of the illusion, everyone's baseline tolerance for weirdness had increased significantly.
"You get five minutes," Tobirama sighed.
He placed his hand on Kushina's shoulder and teleported her to Konoha.
Being highly tactical, Tobirama thoughtfully positioned her on a high rooftop with a perfect, unobstructed view of Uzumaki Naruto's current location.
"Huh? Is Naruto going to see a girl? Oh, wonderful!" Kushina exclaimed, her face lighting up with immense relief as she observed the scene below.
The situation was even better than she could have hoped for!
Below, in a residential district, Naruto was enthusiastically knocking on Sakura's front door.
Inside, Sakura's parents had already left for work, allowing her to sleep in for once on her day off.
She had just woken up and was sitting in the bathroom when she heard Naruto's loud, obnoxious shouts echoing from the front porch.
"Stop knocking! I'm busy!" Sakura yelled back through the window.
"No problem, Sakura-chan! Whatever you need, I will help you!" Naruto shouted back excitedly, eager to please his crush.
'Help?' Sakura thought, her eye twitching.
'Help with what? Help me poop?'
Sakura was speechless.
"Stop bothering me, Naruto! I am taking a dump! If you keep bothering me, I will come out there and beat you up!" Sakura retorted bluntly, her inner tomboy surfacing out of sheer annoyance.
The main reason she was so irritated was that Naruto's constant loud pestering had broken her concentration, causing her to lose the battle with constipation!
Down on the porch, Naruto paused, scratching his spiky blonde head.
"What does 'taking a dump' mean, Sakura-chan?"
"It means pooping! Now get lost and shut up!"
Naruto blushed bright red, shifting his weight nervously.
"T-then, Sakura-chan... can I poop in your hand later?"
"..."
Up on the roof, Kushina's soul violently left her body.