Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter, coming in right on time. Next three chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
It was a month and a half after that confrontation in Ame before I saw Ishiguri Otsutsuki again. I was not the first to see him because he did not do things in the normal way. No, instead of appearing at the gates, or even at the door to the Tower like a reasonable person, he opened a tear in space above Konoha and stepped out from it with Black Zetsu by his side. And he was not content to just wait there. I'd been in my personal lab when he appeared, so I did not find out until Minato appeared before me in a flicker of space.
I found him in the middle of the market district. He was floating some objects around—toys and just random items that the children seemed to find to give to him around them. They were all amused by the display of telekinesis while I catalogued everything—the number of objects, the speed, the direction, the paths they followed, and all that as they wove around the children at varying speeds. And every time a child dropped a new item into the field, it joined the group.
I watched the play, standing next to a stall that sold ramen, as he entertained them all for another fifteen minutes before he bothered to recognise my presence. The children were disappointed with the game coming to an end, but their parents (with some encouragement from Anbu) were herding them away in no time.
"You did not need to do this," he said, waving around us. The district, previously bustling and full of life, was empty now. Anbu could be efficient when they needed to be. I'd barely have noticed the evacuation if I hadn't ordered it myself.
"Better to do it and not need to have done so than to not do so and regret it later on," I said, meeting those startling blue eyes. It made no sense that the Tenseigan were such a startling blue when they were an evolution of the Byakugan. Where did all that pigment come from? But then the Sharingan turning into the Rinnegan didn't make much sense either, so par for the course, I guess.
"I am no threat to you and yours," he pressed.
"I hope so. I would hate to have to kill you," I said with a casual shrug.
"Bold of you to say, child. I recall that he had you on your knees the last time you met," Black Zetsu said now, appearing from out of the ground. I wondered where he had gone. Nowhere good, I knew. We'd scrub the village from top to bottom after they left. I doubted we'd find any sign of it if Zetsu had even done anything, but we'd try at least.
"No need to be so antagonistic, Zetsu. And for the record, I do believe Shorirama here. If I was a threat to him, he would try his hardest to kill me." I buried my chuckle at the phrasing. 'Try to'. Well, I guess everyone would learn their lessons when the time came.
"What brings you here?" I asked, moving on from the subject of whether I could murder him or not. If the time ever came, we would find out. No need worrying about it now.
"I did say that a meeting would be held, no? We estimate that the Otsutsuki have, perhaps, half a year remaining before they are fully upon us. Two scouts were able to break obfuscation and arrive on this planet in the last month. I dispatched the both of them, but more will come. And some will take that information back inevitably. An army is already being assembled," he said.
"I have a question, first of all. You said they can see us just as you can see them. If that is the case, then why do they need scouts to find the way?" I asked.
He was silent for a few seconds before he pointed at the Hokage Tower in the distance.
"You can see that, yes?" I nodded.
"If I asked you to get to it, would you be able to?" I nodded again.
"Now what if you cannot jump on the roofs like you ninja are fond of? Would you be able to make the journey?" I nodded still. It would take a bit longer, but I knew the route.
"Now imagine the whole village was clad in darkness and you had never made the journey before. And then imagine that this village was several billion times larger. Do you see how they struggle now?" he asked.
"But why can they not just jump?" I asked, continuing the metaphor.
"Yomotsu Hirasaka, the jutsu used to make the portals that the Otsutsuki rely on for transport, is powerful, but not so powerful that it can make a journey of this sort of distance, particularly when one does not have the precise coordinates of one's destination. That is what the scouts are for. When the Earth is found again, the power of the Royals will be used to create a large portal to two or three spots away from the Earth where they will assemble their war force. From there, they will make several portals to the Earth and face its defenders on chosen battlefields," he said.
"Hold on there. Why several? Why don't they just come in at one point and get things done that way?"
"A planet is a large thing, Cousin. One does not just conquer one from one point. And even if the size constraints did not exist, the higher-ranking Otsutsuki tend to keep their armies separate from each other. Remember they just fought a civil war. The new hierarchy has not been fully established and cemented yet. Taking the chance to reduce the numbers of a rival's army is just the sort of thing the Otsutsuki would do. So they avoid that problem, create the opportunity for individual glory, and make things easier for themselves in one fell swoop," he said. I nodded. That at least did make some sense.
"Alright then. I assume you are here to make the invitation for the meeting," I said. He smiled.
"There is no need to rush, Cousin. I wanted to see the village that matters so much to you and our other cousin," he said. It took me a second to realise he was referring to Madara. I scowled at the thought.
"I don't know how developed things are on the moon, but I can assure you that while we all share ancestors, we are far from genetically similar enough to be considered cousins," I said.
"And yet we share ancestors. You and I even more so than I and Madara," he said. I shrugged and let it be. If he was going to insist on a relationship that did not exist, then it was his right to do so and who was I to stop it? If he wanted, then he could even call us brothers. I just had to bury the displeasure I felt at the insinuation of a tie between Madara and me.
"I can show you about the village now, or we can save that for after we deal with the coming threat. After that, there'd be all the time in the world for things like that," I said. He gave me a long look, and it was only there for a second, but I swore I could see a glimmer of sadness in his gaze.
"I insist on the here and now, if you would, cousin. I want to see what you fight for so passionately," he said, and so we began a tour of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
I showed him around both civilian and shinobi areas, starting with the market we were already in. Deserted as it was, I had no problems showing him about the marketplace. From there, it was on to the shinobi stores. The supply stores, weapon stores, clothing and armour stores were of little interest to him. Not even the concept of training weights caught his interest. And then we toured the clan compounds. Rather, I showed him their gates. The risks of what could happen if we went in and some children decided to be funny or whatever were far too catastrophic for me to be comfortable with.
Ishiguri did not complain about being shown only the gates, so we rounded the tour up at the Hokage Tower. There were several parts of the village that we did not even go towards, but he seemed satisfied at least. Every gaze in my tower followed us as we walked in, Ishiguri and I shoulder to shoulder with Black Zetsu behind the group, bringing up the rear and guarding Ishiguri's back. When we reached the office, he spoke.
"In a month, the Kage of the various ninja villages will meet and discuss what is to be done about the Otsutsuki threat at the village known to your people as Amegakure. You, as Hokage, are expected in attendance. You are allowed three guards into the summit hall and a total entourage size of ten," he said. I accepted the terms, and then he turned to leave, but before he did so he stepped forward and I thought he was about to attack for a second before he just hugged me. Like full on. He put his hands around me and pulled his body against mine. I stood there, sure that this was some sort of prank. But no. He stepped back and then through the portal that Zetsu had made in my office.
XXXX- THREE WEEKS LATER
I was standing in Kagame's lab, staring at a glowing blue liquid in a pressurised canister as Orochimaru shook it this way and then that.
"And what exactly is this that I am looking at?" I asked, finally, unable to just sit here with the two of them in this staring contest to nowhere for much longer. I had things I still needed to be doing. The Kage summit was coming soon, and I had finally managed to get a lead on one of my targets so far.
"Godhood. In a bottle," Orochimaru said. I scoffed and turned to Kagame. I did not have the time for this drama.
"An enhancement serum for shinobi. Made with the cells from our friend downstairs and some other things here and there. It should provide a permanent 10% boost to everyone who takes it," she said.
"Permanent? Everyone? Surely you don't mean everyone," I pointed out.
"Well, maybe not everyone. You'd gain little from it, for example. But almost everyone who takes it will see improvement around the 10% mark. Some more, some less. But the important bit is that it is improvement all across the board: strength, speed, reactions, durability, chakra capacity, chakra control, everything," she said. I took a deep breath at that and then a step forward. I knew what this feeling in my stomach was. It was a drowning man offered a life raft.
"And if we got a more powerful Otsutsuki?" I asked.
"The improvements will be even more potent," Orochimaru hissed the words, and where I would have found it creepy before, it was only exciting now. Fuck.
"And the testing? How much have you tested it? What are the side effects?" I asked, preparing for a blow.
"So far? Nothing substantial. It's a one and done dose, so there's no risk of addiction. The initial test subjects have shown somewhat higher levels of bloodthirst, but that could just be a result of being stronger than before. We have modelled it in simulations a hundred times and less than 4% of the time do we get any untoward effects," Kagame said.
"What are the effects?"
"Death. Of the rather explosive variety," Orochimaru answered now.
"That has, of course, not shown in any of our real world tests," Kagame said, qualifying the answer.
"But the risk is there? That doing this kills our shinobi?"
"4 out of every 100. A rounding error when you take our numbers into account," she said.
"Depends on who those four happen to be, no?" I shot back. Neither answered. I took a deep breath. They were right. Four percent. Four fucking percent or nobody left. It was not even a choice. I was doing this for the whole fucking planet. I ignored the part of my brain that began to calculate what I could do with 10% stronger shinobi when the Otsutsuki were done.
"One more round of tests. Roll out by month's end if the side effects do not bear results."
"Do be aware, Hokage-sama, that this is all the work of weeks. Not the kind of thing that is, how do you say, exceptionally well researched," Orochimaru said.
"I did not stutter," I said, and then I was gone.
When I returned to the office, it was only to change into my armour. I did not anticipate a fight, but there was every chance that my target would choose to do something foolish and pick one.
"I don't like this," Kurama said in my head. I nodded. His objections had been noted from the very beginning.
"This is the best deal he could possibly get. You've seen the spy reports through my eyes. You know what he has been doing. You know what makes him happy. This is one way to ensure he gets it and it lets him be useful to us as well," I said.
"Do not pretend like what you do is for his sake. It is for your cursed humans," he said.
"It is for the good of everyone. Because if you think the people who sent Kaguya here for a God tree and who have not gotten to harvest one in millennia will not find all the pieces of Earth's to put it back together again, then you have another thing coming. Kokuo will not take a host. This way ensures that he has the freedom necessary to live his life the way he wants, keeps him safe, and keeps my people safe. It is a win-win. And I know you don't trust deals that sound too good to be true, Kurama, but you have been in my head for years now. You've seen every thought, memory, felt every feeling. You know me just as well as I know myself. You know the plan inside and out. You've seen the seal. Tell me, Kurama, why do you still suspect a trap when you know for sure that there is none?" I asked.
He growled and retreated, slamming the gates of his seal shut in my face. I smirked. It was not often that one got Kurama to admit defeat.
"I admitted nothing," he roared from within his seal.
"Sure, sure, buddy," I said, and then I disappeared in a flash.
The Land of Rice Fields was beautiful. I leaned down and picked up my kunai before stowing it away. There were plains as far as the eye could see. Just fields of grass with nothing else for miles and miles.
Well, nothing else except the flash of white I could see cantering through at a distance.
"Let's go say hi," I said to Kurama, only to receive nothing in turn. Cold shoulder, eh?
I let senjutsu chakra flow into my body, and then pushed off against the ground after reducing my mass to the reasonable maximum. I rode the winds themselves till, in a matter of seconds, I was flying next to a Five-Tailed Dolphin-Horse. His eyes turned to me, but he did not slow down. If anything, he sped off, zooming away from me. I wondered if he was running for a second before I saw his head turn back at me as if he was asking me what was taking so long.
And so I zoomed after him, pushing against the air with flexes of my chakra and forcing my body forwards and forwards, but despite how much I pushed, Kokuo was still gaining ground. It made no sense how his feet just found the ground and then were gone in a flicker, carrying him farther and faster than they had any business to.
I pulled at my seal and released even more senjutsu chakra into my system. My mass reduced further and my control over the wind sharpened to the point where I was as much the wind as I was myself, and then when that proved to not be enough, I generated my own wind.
My hands created powerful gusts that pushed me even faster. I was moving fast enough now that my eyes were struggling to keep up. I didn't have the Sharingan. The Byakugan was powerful and more useful in a lot of ways, but it did not grant the same perception benefits that the Sharingan did when it came to high-speed movements.
Any other Hyuga, and the race would have become unwinnable. But I was more than my eyes. I was a Sage, and no Sage needed something as ordinary as eyes to see. I felt the world through my skin and my life force, and the world showed me everything I needed. I gained on Kokuo slowly at first.
The space between us began to reduce further and further. Kokuo's head turned in my direction and he roared his defiance, but despite that I chased and I chased, and I chased.
In an hour, I was by his side, and there was no chance for him to lose me. And then to drive my point home, I pushed forward even farther to show him just what the gap between us was, and when I was in front of him and he had well and truly lost, Kokuo stopped running.
"You've grown," he said to me when we were now stationary.
"Your tail returned," I said back.
"When you used up the power, it returned home. Is that why you are here? I can grant a tail again if you need it," he asked.
"Sadly, that wouldn't be enough this time. Let us talk, my friend," I said, offering my fist for a bump. One of his hooves came up and met my outstretched fist, and then he understood.
A/N: We get some more preparation for the Otsutsuki. Shori's goals are very obvious. He wants to win the war against the Otsutsuki, and then win the peace that follows by conquering the other villages shortly after. Next chapter comes on here by Sunday night. Next three chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.