264 Naruto: Snatching the Mangekyō

At this moment, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya had already reacted.

The Rinne Sharingan at her forehead trembled slightly, and a pitch-black rift in space-time appeared, swallowing her whole.

Just as she was about to vanish, several thick black lines streaked across the air, colliding with the spatial fissure.

A sharp sizzling sound echoed as the dark and deep crack twisted violently.

A muffled grunt escaped from within the rift, followed by bright splashes of blood.

Then, the space-time rift disappeared as if it had never existed.

On the other side, Kaguya's severed lower half lay motionless, pinned to the ground. Black rods, formed from Truth-Seeking Orbs, had pierced through Black Zetsu, preventing its escape and holding it in place.

Although Kaguya had vanished, Uchiha Akira did not lower his guard.

She was immortal. What would be a fatal injury to any other was nothing more than a setback for her.

Akira remained cautious, wary of a potential counterattack.

Time passed—several minutes went by—but Kaguya did not reappear.

Without hesitation, Akira wrapped Kaguya's severed body and Black Zetsu within a sphere formed from Truth-Seeking Orbs and then sped toward Uchiha Hikari and the others.

Seeing him approach, Hikari frowned in confusion.

"Where's Ōtsutsuki Kaguya? Did she just leave?"

"No matter where she is, we need to leave this place first," Akira said in a low voice.

"Fifth Hokage, can your dōjutsu still take us back to the ninja world? I can't sense any Flying Thunder God marks in the ninja world," Senju Tobirama asked grimly.

Akira nodded. "My dōjutsu can manage it. There's no issue."

If he had only been relying on Kamui without the power of the Six Paths, even an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan wouldn't be able to cross the vast space between Kaguya's dimension and the ninja world.

After all, this place was far too distant. Normal space-time abilities couldn't traverse such a gap.

By now, his future self had already dissipated, and even now, his ocular power could not sustain the existence of his ten-years-older self for long.

Fortunately, with the power of the Six Paths, his eyes recovered quickly, so there was no immediate concern about Kaguya launching a sudden return attack.

The scarlet Sharingan flickered, and a circular space-time portal, large enough for a person to pass through, materialized before them.

Through the portal, they could clearly see the ninja world on the other side—the exact location from which they had originally departed.

Without hesitation, everyone stepped through the portal in an instant, returning to the ninja world.

Back in the ninja world, Senju Tobirama's expression remained heavy as he turned to Akira.

"Fifth Hokage, what now? That Ōtsutsuki Kaguya seems even more troublesome than Madara. Madara never had the ability to reshape reality in an instant like she does."

Tobirama's concerns were valid. Kaguya was indeed far more difficult to handle than Uchiha Madara.

Her mastery of space-time techniques made her nearly impossible to pin down.

"I don't know. We'll have to take things one step at a time. Not much I can do about it now, especially since Madara ignored my warnings," Akira said helplessly.

At this stage, there was no clear solution.

Unless Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and Ōtsutsuki Hamura somehow came back to life, there wasn't much they could do.

If Kaguya truly wanted to hide, there wasn't a single person who could track her down.

The Ōtsutsuki Clan had ways to conceal their presence. Once they went into hiding, who could possibly find them?

"Madara would never believe you. He's too arrogant, far too confident in himself," Tobirama scoffed.

As long as Madara remained unaware of Black Zetsu's schemes, he would inevitably become the vessel for Kaguya's resurrection.

"Forget it. What's done is done. Let's return to Konoha first," Akira said.

This time, their journey back to the village was uneventful.

...

Meanwhile, within Kaguya's dimension—

Having fully regenerated her body, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya stepped out of a spatial rift. She stood in the vast, desolate, snow-covered world, her expression dark and foreboding.

"That man… he really managed to escape from here," Kaguya muttered to herself.

But that wasn't what infuriated her the most.

What truly enraged her was the fact that she, the progenitor of chakra, had once again been defeated by fragmented chakra.

To her, this was utterly unacceptable.

She remembered all too clearly the despair she felt the last time she was sealed away by Hagoromo and Hamura.

If Uchiha Akira had mastered the Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei, she might have been sealed away again just now.

"His dōjutsu is too dangerous… I need to regain my full strength first."

Her Byakugan shifted slightly as she reached a decision.

Though she had successfully revived, she had yet to return to her peak.

Her true peak had been after ambushing Isshiki and consuming the chakra fruit of Earth.

Back then, without having Hagoromo and Hamura siphon away her chakra, she had been at her absolute strongest.

"There's only one way to restore my power completely!" A cold glint flashed in Kaguya's eyes.

"Ōtsutsuki Isshiki… since you're still alive, you shall serve as nourishment for the Divine Tree. A chakra fruit cultivated from you will no doubt be of excellent quality."

A chilling smirk curled at her lips.

"If he's alive, that means he has a hidden Ten Tails somewhere. If the chakra fruit isn't ready yet, devouring the Ten Tails should be a good alternative."

Greed gleamed in her gaze.

At this point, Kaguya was no longer just an Ōtsutsuki—she had already fused with the Divine Tree that bore the chakra fruit.

Devouring her own kind would still significantly enhance her power.

It wouldn't be as effective as consuming a chakra fruit, but it was still a potent source of strength.

And right now, an incomplete Isshiki was a far easier target.

With that thought, a pitch-black rift appeared in space, and Kaguya floated into it, vanishing once more.

While it might be difficult for others to locate Isshiki, she was different.

As his former subordinate, she knew many of his secret hideouts.

There were only so many hidden dimensions within the ninja world. With her space-time abilities, as long as she was willing to invest the time, she would find something.

...

Back in Konoha, inside the Hokage's office conference room—

The atmosphere was heavy. All of the village's top officials were present.

Uchiha Akira had just finished explaining the current situation.

After hearing everything, everyone grasped the severity of the matter.

They still clearly remembered being suspended in midair, trapped in an illusionary world, only to suddenly awaken without understanding how it had all happened.