"Sensei, I'll need to borrow your strength for a bit." Naruto's voice echoed inside the sealed space. "This opponent isn't someone I can handle on my own."
"Huh?" Kakarot blinked in surprise. "Naruto, you've got a power like that? Sure, take it, take it!"
"Hey, hey, hey, Naruto!" Right as Naruto finished speaking, Kurama's voice rumbled in protest. He sounded thoroughly displeased:
"Why aren't you using my power instead? I'm plenty strong too, you know!"
The Nine-Tails flexed and struck a few bodybuilder poses, as if to prove his overwhelming strength.
"Kurama, didn't you say you wanted to properly 'train' your new little brother?" Naruto asked with a sly smile.
"Roooar!"
As if on cue, the slug-like Ten-Tails threw itself against the iron bars of the seal, bellowing furiously.
Indeed, after a "friendly talk" with Naruto, the Ten-Tails had submitted. He then casually sealed it away inside his inner space—after all, the seal was spacious enough to fit it.
"Shut up." Kurama raised a mighty claw and smacked the Ten-Tails hard across the face. Having trained alongside Kakarot and the others, his muscles and strength had grown absurdly powerful. The slap spun the Ten-Tails around several times on the spot, leaving it completely dazed.
Kurama loomed over it, fist raised in warning. "Talk like a person. Next time you don't, you'll get worse."
"Uuuhh…" The Ten-Tails lay slumped against the bars, looking pitiful and wronged.
Kurama—do you even realize how traumatizing that slap is to a newborn Ten-Tails?
"Sensei, here I go."
From Naruto's back stretched several black chains that bound Kakarot's limbs. A torrent of overwhelming energy surged down the chains and into Naruto's body. As the power filled him, Naruto couldn't help but let out a low groan.
"I can feel a terrible, evil ki radiating from that horned freak."
A race that survives by devouring the life of entire worlds—how could its presence not reek of evil?
"If you're going to fight, you'd better go all out."
"No problem." Naruto's eyes snapped open—the clear blue instantly turning into a brilliant green.
Once again, his body swelled, muscle density surpassing that of any seasoned bodybuilder. But the most shocking change wasn't his physique—it was his hair. It shot upward like a golden torrent, growing endlessly toward the heavens, standing upright in blatant defiance of gravity itself.
Even the slightest movement of his body made that towering mane sway.
Otsutsuki Isshiki's heart skipped a beat. An ominous premonition weighed heavily on him.
Then Naruto spoke:
"The Otsutsuki clan digitizes themselves, implants that data into another's body, and uses the Kāma to resurrect through their vessel."
He knows?! Isshiki's unease only deepened at Naruto's words.
"But… what if I were to delete every trace of Otsutsuki data from the Kāma?"
Humans of this world couldn't dream of it. But ki could. Ki was a force that surpassed ordinary imagination, capable of endless variation.
It could transmit memory. It could conjure things from nothing—Piccolo had once created clothing and a sword for Gohan. It could merge two fighters into one ultimate warrior through fusion. It enabled instant teleportation. It could heal wounds. Some could even freely shape it into homing projectiles.
Compared to that, deleting a few fragments of data was nothing.
If all Otsutsuki information inside the Kāma were erased—and the Otsutsuki happened to die at that moment—then the Kāma would no longer be a vessel for resurrection, but instead become a pure tool of empowerment.
That was the fatal flaw of the Kāma.
Handled poorly, it became nothing more than a gift to another.
"The next thing you're going to say is—'How could you possibly know the weakness of the Kāma?'" Naruto said firmly, eyes locked on Isshiki.
And right on cue, Isshiki blurted out:
"How could you possibly know the weakness of the Kāma?!"
The moment the words left his mouth, he froze in shock. Then his eyes widened in panic.
"Y-you… can you read minds?!"
Naruto shook his head, the massive muscles of his chest rippling with the motion.
"Read minds? Hardly. I can see the future. And what I saw—was yours."
"Your future has only one path: death."
Before Isshiki could even respond, Naruto appeared in front of him. His fist slammed brutally into Isshiki's abdomen.
Isshiki's eyes bulged as pain tore through him—his very body of pure energy felt like it was unraveling.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! A human cannot have this kind of power!"
He gritted his teeth, barely holding his body together.
"That's only because you're a frog at the bottom of a well," Naruto replied calmly, as though stating a simple truth. "Where I come from, there are several people with this kind of power."
On Earth alone, there were Krillin, Yamcha, Tien—and maybe even Chiaotzu, Yajirobe, and Master Roshi.
And this—this was Naruto borrowing just a fraction of Kakarot's base power. What kind of unimaginable strength would a Super Saiyan wield?
Still, the priority was finishing off Isshiki quickly—his body felt like it might burst.
"Nagato." Naruto turned toward him, voice heavy with resolve. "The duty of clan head of the Uzumaki will fall on you from here on."
Nagato fought through the searing pain in his body. "Ancestor, the position of clan head—"
Naruto shook his head, cutting him off. "What I am now is nothing more than a ruined vessel, clinging to life. Even if I survive today, my remaining days are few."
Nagato's heart clenched at those words. It felt as though his ancestor were giving him final instructions.
Could it be…
"From the moment we met, as your elder I've never given you anything." Naruto's voice softened, filled with warmth. "So let this decrepit old Uzumaki leave you one last gift at the end of his life."
He reached out and gently touched Nagato's forehead. At his touch, Nagato's pain melted away. Instead of agony, a soothing warmth spread through his body—like being bathed in sunlight on a winter's day.
A sage brushes my brow…
The ki flowing from Naruto poured into Nagato's body. It swiftly located the digitized Otsutsuki data hidden within. No matter how deep the malice lay buried, it was easily exposed. And even if Naruto had missed it—Kakarot certainly wouldn't have.
Inside Nagato, it was as though countless miniature Narutos (made of ki) battled Isshiki's data. The disparity in power was so overwhelming that the data collapsed instantly upon contact, erased without resistance.
With Isshiki's will destroyed, a flood of chakra erupted from the Kāma mark, rushing into Nagato's body and rejuvenating him.
Isshiki's face twisted in horror. He could feel it—his data inside the Rinnegan wielder had truly been wiped away. His power had been stolen, turned into nourishment for the boy.
Then a dreadful thought struck him. This human… he had appeared right after Isshiki implanted the Kāma. He knew the weakness from the start. Could it be…
"Despicable human… So everything was your design? Every step… within your calculations?!"