The void of space was no longer truly empty.
Slowly, the shattered remains of the moon encircled the planet like a broken ring.
In the midst of those fragments drifted a woman, suspended between life and death.
Her last clear memory was the moment she had been sealed into the moon by brutal force. Only rarely had her mind truly awakened during those long centuries. But a few days ago, her prison had been destroyed.
It should have been a moment of joy.
For almost a thousand years, she had waited for her freedom.
And yet that freedom was nothing like she had ever imagined.
Her bones were broken.
Her chakra was almost completely extinguished.
Her body was gravely injured.
I was sealed… What was that?
A violent fit of coughing shook her as she continued to drift through the cold of space.
Why am I not healing?
What kind of power was that, that even my chakra cannot restore my body?
Another coughing spell overtook her.
Blood slipped from her lips and vanished soundlessly into the endless blackness, while her body slowly fell more and more under the pull of the planet's gravity.
Soon, she would plunge back down to the world like a falling star.
"Where did that beam of energy come from…?" she whispered hoarsely. "What destroyed my prison?"
Her beautiful white eyes looked into the depths of space.
Searching.
Waiting.
Have they still not come… to harvest this world?
For a moment, her gaze grew even more distant.
Could I have chosen a gentler path…?
Built an army… defeated them…
A bitter smile flickered across her face, only to vanish at once.
Why was I in such a hurry?
I sacrificed my son's first love… created Zetsu… and believed I could control everything.
Her thoughts darkened.
Became more tangled.
Was it I… who left behind the poisoned stone?
Was it I who drove my sons against one another?
Or was it those meddlesome toads… who clouded their minds?
The pull of the planet grew stronger.
Stronger and stronger.
Kaguya felt her shattered body begin to sink.
In the sky above the world, she would soon be nothing more than another falling star.
Not again, was her last clear thought.
The starry sky above the ninja world had been unusually rich with shooting stars in recent days.
No wonder.
When a moon is destroyed, not even the heavens remain unchanged.
But this falling star was different.
For at its core was a woman who had once ruled over this world.
When a section of forest in the Land of Fire was shaken by the impact of the glowing celestial body, three women were still sitting together, deep in conversation — accompanied by ample amounts of sake.
In one corner of the hotel lay a bound man who had once been known as Jiraiya.
Now he was only a pitiful wreck.
Tsunade and Artoria had made it very clear to him what happened to men who believed they were allowed to peep into a women's bath.
"So," Tsunade said, lightly swirling her sake cup, "your plan is to travel through all the nations. But first you want to go to the island of the Uzumaki, because you have something to do there."
Artoria nodded calmly.
Both women raised their cups.
"Kampai."
Shizune's eyes were already visibly struggling against the darkness.
"I never thought," she mumbled with a hiccup, "that I would ever meet another woman who could drink this much… hic."
Then she finally lost the battle against the alcohol.
With a dull sound, she slumped over to the side.
Tsunade only cast her a brief glance before turning back to Artoria.
"What do you think about what Jiraiya said?" she finally asked. "That the Sage of Six Paths wants to devour all souls."
Her voice grew more serious.
"With your attack on him, you may have set something in motion that will end up costing all of us our lives."
Artoria laughed softly.
Almost lazily.
"Haha… he is merely someone who believes he is a god," she said, taking another sip of sake. "But through his actions, he is gifting me an entire army."
A faint smile settled on her lips.
"And he does not even know it."
At that moment, a deep tremor ran through the hotel.
The walls shook.
Sake sloshed over the rims of the cups.
Tsunade's gaze sharpened.
Artoria, on the other hand, merely lifted her head slightly.
"Oh," she said calmly. "It seems the guest I have been waiting for these past few days has arrived."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"My jade rabbit."
Tsunade's face twisted.
"What exactly is a jade rabbit?"
Artoria set down her cup and slowly rose from the water.
"My new pet."
Then she looked directly at Tsunade.
"I need to leave for a moment. Can you watch Naruto and Kurumi until I return?"
As Artoria walked through the forest at night, her thoughts were already circling around Kaguya.
What should be done with her?
Kill her?
Seal her?
Humiliate her?
Or something else entirely?
Then suddenly a voice sounded in her head.
"Hey. Why don't we cleanse her soul, turn her into a child, and take her under our wing?"
Artoria stopped in the middle of her stride.
Her eyes narrowed.
That voice…
It sounded far too similar to her own.
Slowly, she closed her eyes.
"System," she said in her thoughts. "What was that just now?"
Host, what do you mean? I noticed nothing.
Artoria's brow furrowed.
Then the voice spoke again, this time more clearly.
"Hey. Who are you?"
For a moment, silence reigned.
Then came the answer.
"I am me. Or rather… another form of you."
The voice sounded calm. Clear. And in an unpleasant way, familiar.
"I am Artoria Avalon."
Artoria's gaze remained cold.
"How did you get here?"
A soft, almost dry laugh echoed through her mind.
"I suppose I came as an extra among the abilities you received from me."
Then the voice sharpened.
"But before we continue, I have a few questions of my own."
A short pause followed.
"Who was Jenni? The one we fused with. How did it happen that we were turned into nothing more than a gacha character?"
The words grew colder.
Almost disgusted.
"And those skins… how revolting. You even had to wear them. Pictures were taken of you."
A distinctly palpable trace of outrage now lay in every syllable.
"We are a king. How could you allow our dignity to be so defiled?"
For a moment, Artoria's gaze went blank.
Then she answered dryly:
"As if I wanted that."
A brief silence followed.
Then Avalon sighed audibly.
"Fair."
Artoria began walking again.
"We can sort that out later," she said calmly. "Right now, I need to deal with Kaguya."
"Ah," Avalon murmured. "So it is the jade rabbit after all."
"Perhaps not."
"Then the child?"
Artoria was silent for a moment.
The wind moved through the trees.
"Perhaps," she said at last.
Avalon's voice grew softer.
More thoughtful.
"Then my suggestion was not the worst one."
Artoria did not answer immediately.
Her gaze lifted slightly toward the sky, where fragments of the moon still hovered like wounds between the stars.
"No," she said quietly at last. "Perhaps not this time."
Then she continued on through the darkness.
And within herself, for the first time in a long while, she was no longer alone.
When Artoria reached the crater, there lay a woman who had once been considered the most beautiful in this world.
The ruler.
The primal mother.
And now her body was nothing more than a broken wreck.
Artoria stepped closer and knelt beside her.
For a moment, she said nothing.
Then her gaze slid to Kaguya's eyes.
"Your eyes are beautiful," she said quietly. "Do you want to live?"
Kaguya's lips trembled.
With the last of her strength, she tried to force out an answer.
"I… regret it…"
Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
"I destroyed my family… I thought I still had so much more time…"
A violent fit of coughing overtook her.
Her body twitched weakly in the dust of the crater.
Artoria's gaze remained calm.
Not cold.
Not soft.
Simply still.
"Do you want to start over?" she asked quietly. "Without all the sins you carry within you."
The wind passed through the ruined crater.
Kaguya lifted her eyes one last time.
"Yes…"
Her eyes were already beginning to close.
Artoria regarded her in silence for a moment.
"Then let us see whether it can be done."
Golden, shimmering light gathered in her hand.
Gentle.
Warm.
And yet filled with an authority that allowed no contradiction.
When her fingers touched Kaguya, the light entered her shattered body.
It washed through her soul like a silent tide.
Layer by layer, it dissolved the burden of guilt, madness, and ancient pain from her. Memories faded. The wounds within her were not erased — but returned to a state where they might one day heal.
At the same time, her body began to change.
The broken, ancient woman slowly shrank, until at last there lay nothing more than a small girl of perhaps four years, still and fragile as freshly fallen snow.
When the process was complete, the crater remained utterly silent for a moment.
Then Artoria carefully lifted the child into her arms.
Without another word, she turned and made her way back to the hotel.
In her mind, the bright voice of the system rang out:
Congratulations, Host, on your second student.
Artoria did not answer.
But her gaze lowered briefly to the sleeping child in her arms.
And for a moment, something unusually gentle lay in her eyes.