Obito grabbed Zetsu by the collar. Zetsu was kneeling on the ground beside him, muttering incoherently to himself.
"How can this be…?" Zetsu gasped. "Who has the power to destroy Mother's seal? Please… Mother, don't be dead. All those years of sacrifice, all those plans in the shadows… and a single pillar of energy destroys everything in one afternoon…"
At that moment, he felt Obito's hand tighten on his shoulder.
"One question," Obito said coldly. "Who is this mother whose name you just screamed so loudly? Aren't you supposedly just Madara's will?"
Zetsu flinched.
"Uh… what? Of course I'm Madara's will," he said hurriedly.
Obito's gaze narrowed.
"Oh really? Then I must be Madara Uchiha and not Obito Uchiha."
His fingers dug deeper into Zetsu's shoulder.
"Tell me the truth," he said quietly. "Or you die here."
Zetsu gave a false laugh. Thin. Nervous.
"I am the third son of the moon goddess Kaguya," he finally said. "My mother was sealed away by my brothers — by the Sage of Six Paths and Hamura Ōtsutsuki."
Slowly, he raised his eyes.
"The moon itself is that seal."
For a moment, Obito said nothing.
Then his voice grew even colder.
"So the Moon Eye Plan was, from the very beginning, only meant to free this woman?"
Zetsu's lips twisted.
"Not only that," he said. "The part you want is just a byproduct. I get my mother back… and you get your dream world with Rin."
Obito's eye remained fixed on him without moving.
"For now, I'll believe you," he finally said. "But first, we need to find out what could possibly be capable of damaging the moon at all."
In the afterlife, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki lay on the ground.
Blood ran from his mouth and eyes.
"Why…?" he pressed out. "Why couldn't I take her essence for myself? That would have been the key to my true immortality."
His breathing was heavy.
"These ninja can't keep me alive forever. The power of their souls grows weaker and weaker."
Slowly, he lifted his head, and in his gaze was something that had long since ceased to be divine.
"I must seal Mother in another way… only then can I gain her life force and become a god myself. But you destroyed the plan."
His fingers clawed into the ground of the afterlife.
"The ninja were never anything more than sacrifices on my path to godhood."
His voice filled with hatred.
"And then that whore went and destroyed the Shinigami too…"
He coughed blood.
"For centuries, thanks to the Uzumaki, he harvested good souls for me. They too were never anything more than sacrifices."
His gaze darkened.
"And now even the souls that were in his stomach are lost."
Around him, even the walls of the afterlife showed fine cracks, as if this place had nearly been pierced by something higher.
Hagoromo's breathing trembled.
"All my plans… are on the verge of failing. All because of a single woman who appeared out of nowhere."
For a moment, silence reigned.
Then his face twisted.
"It seems… I have no other choice."
Slowly, he rose to his feet.
"I will absorb all the souls here… and hope that their power is enough to defeat her — and seal her away until I can slowly process her essence."
A dark smile slid across his face.
"You want war?"
His eyes burned.
"Then war is what you shall have."
Screams rose throughout the afterlife.
Weak souls were torn apart, ground down, and turned into pure energy, while their essence flew to Hagoromo like streams of light and pain.
In the depths of Mount Myōboku, a toad slept upon an ancient stone throne.
Deep within the currents of dreams, he searched for possible futures, for ways to guide his people safely through the stormy times ahead.
Then he suddenly snapped his eyes open.
In that same instant, his mighty voice echoed throughout all of Myōboku and tore nearly all its inhabitants from their sleep.
"Fukasaku! Shima! Bring me Jiraiya — and yesterday!"
For the span of a heartbeat, silence fell across Myōboku.
Then the voice rang out again, darker, heavier.
"Otherwise, we are all dead."
In the eyes that usually seemed old and sleepy, there was now a clarity they had not held in a thousand years.
The Great Toad Sage breathed heavily.
"She has pushed Hagoromo too far…"
His gaze grew distant, as though he were seeing something far beyond all ordinary time.
"In his hunger, he will devour our souls. Only after every weak soul has been consumed will he face her."
His fingers gripped the stone of the throne ever so slightly.
"Why…?"
His voice was now little more than a whisper.
"Why could he not fulfill the prophecy?"
A tremor ran through his body.
"He already had the child in his arms…"
His eyes narrowed.
"And now he has driven it into the arms of that monster."
On a tree above a hot spring sat a man watching with conspicuously great interest the beauties relaxing in the steaming water below.
"Oh yes… just like that… show me more," he murmured enthusiastically. "Why is it always at the best moments that this damn steam gets in the way?"
The next instant, a soft puff sounded.
And then he was gone.
Only his notebook tipped out of place, fell downward — and landed with a wet splash directly in the hot spring.
The three women who had, until then, been enjoying the bath in peace immediately jolted upright.
For a moment, silence reigned.
Then three pairs of eyes turned at once toward the wet book in the water.
When Jiraiya could see somewhat clearly again, he noticed who was standing before him.
The two sages of Myōboku.
And the great elder himself.
For a moment, he only blinked.
Then he ran a hand through his hair.
"Uh… why exactly was I summoned?" he asked into the silence.
Heavy silence hung in the air.
Then the Great Toad Sage spoke.
"You were called here because we all stand at the threshold of our deaths."
Jiraiya's expression changed at once.
The Toad Sage continued, slowly and with a clarity that cut every trace of lightness from the room.
"The Sage of Six Paths has been driven into a corner. Because someone failed to lead the chosen child onto the right path."
Jiraiya's gaze hardened.
"What are you talking about?"
"She was with the child," said the Toad Sage. "And she dealt the Sage a defeat unlike any he has ever suffered."
Fukasaku and Shima remained silent.
Not even they interrupted him.
"A thousand years ago, we were still able to alter his plan," the elder continued. "Back then, he was seeking a way to seal his mother once more so that he could consume her power. But neither he nor his brother still possessed the strength to do so at the time. Only at the very end of their lives did they find the way at all."
Jiraiya said nothing.
The Great Toad Sage slightly lifted his head.
"Now that plan has failed."
His voice grew darker.
"And the one now accompanying the child is too strong. At this very moment, Hagoromo is twisting the souls in the afterlife to gather enough power. But even then, he will not stop."
A cold shiver crept down Jiraiya's spine.
"When he has devoured all the souls there," said the Toad Sage, "he will feed on the souls of the living. Because even that will still not be enough."
Silence settled over the group.
Heavy. Cold. Final.
Jiraiya needed a moment before he could speak again.
"…Who is the child?"
The Toad Sage looked at him.
"Naruto," he said calmly. "The son of Minato."
For the next three days, the whole world descended into a kind of panic not seen in centuries.
On the third day, the moon finally shattered.
Everywhere, people looked up at the night sky — and saw that where the moon had once stood, there now hung only a torn, ominous remnant of light and debris.
And when the news spread through every city and country, everything changed.
An unknown person had fought against the Third Hokage.
In that epic battle, Hiruzen Sarutobi had fallen. And the beam of energy that killed him had pierced the moon itself.
But even that was not the worst of it.
This unknown person had also kidnapped the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails.
And according to the first reports, she did not even need the power of the bijū.
Those words spread faster than fire through dry grass.
Fear turned to mistrust.
Mistrust turned to hatred.
And hatred turned into the conviction that the world stood at the edge of an abyss.
The new Hokage, Danzō Shimura, then called for a meeting of the Kage and all leaders of the smaller shinobi villages.
Because in his own words, the world stood before a catastrophe against which even the old wars would seem like meaningless children's games.