Mount Myōboku.
The Toad Sage and White Snake Sage revealed themselves.
Both were heavy-hearted.
Today's defeat had been beyond expectations.
"We underestimated the Emperor of Ancestor," the Toad Sage's amphibian face was stiff. "His strength is on par with ours."
The White Snake Sage shot him a glance.
Judging from what they'd seen, Natsume in Sage Mode actually surpassed them.
After all, they were still young, not yet at their peaks.
Regardless, with a retainer at Kaguya's side who rivaled the Three Great Sages, her threat level had climbed again.
"After the deaths of those seven gods, our allies are even fewer," the Toad Sage sighed, despairing.
Gods were never numerous; losing seven at once left them with nothing to spare.
The Three Great Sage Lands had prestige and renown.
But in the face of death, would the remaining gods still heed their command?
And if any among them thought like the Slug Sage—believing Kaguya had a good side—what then?
"What do we do now?" The White Snake Sage was even more stricken, having lost an elite clansman.
"Kaguya has become hard to stop," the Toad Sage said after a moment's thought. "First, minimize the size of her Goddess Army. Second, use the Emperor as a template to research a new model. Third, wait for her two sons to grow up. Fourth, seek another member of the Ōtsutsuki clan."
"That's all we can do," the White Snake Sage nodded.
…
The Land of Ancestor.
Natsume returned to the palace.
With the Toad and White Snake Sages routed and the seven tree gods dead, nothing could stop the Goddess Army.
But considering Kentaro and the others were wounded, he ordered them to rest and recruit new players.
[Because of your actions, the fates of the Toad Sage, White Snake Sage, and Slug Sage have changed. You have gained 40 Fate Points in total.]
Huh, why did the Slug Sage get involved?
Natsume rubbed his chin. He'd only seen the Toad and White Snake Sages.
Was it because of Sage Mode?
Thinking it through, that definitely only appeared after chakra emerged.
Since it required mixing with chakra—and there had been no chakra before.
In other words, he may have inspired the Three Sages.
Fate was uncanny indeed.
Natsume glanced at Kaguya and thought of a question. Could she learn Sage Mode?
Hmm, probably not.
Sage chakra was the balance of equal portions of natural energy, physical energy, and spiritual energy.
Kaguya had too much chakra; it would be impossible to find an equal amount of natural energy to balance it.
And Natsume suspected the God Tree itself was a fusion of chakra and natural energy.
Without Sage Mode, she had already reached the pinnacle of power.
Hagoromo and Hamura were different.
Compared to Kaguya, their chakra had limits.
"Mother! Teacher!"
Hamura waved to them enthusiastically.
"How are things?" Hagoromo looked them over and asked.
"No problems at all." Natsume patted each of their shoulders with a different hand.
Yeah—don't ruffle boys' hair.
Also, they had horns.
If it were Kaguya… he'd be tempted to try.
"Have you read today?" Natsume glanced at the sky and asked.
"Um…"
Hamura immediately began to stammer.
"We'll go now." Hagoromo tugged his brother and turned away.
Natsume smiled contentedly.
Sage of Six Paths? So what?
He'd still be a good student.
…
Half a month later, the Goddess Army set out again, conquering several nearby nations.
The population nearly doubled to thirty thousand.
The number of ninjas also increased to five thousand.
A pretty good ratio.
Palace of the Land of Ancestor.
"Emperor."
Kentaro knelt on one knee, face grave. "We've suffered repeated beast attacks lately, especially from snakes, costing us many men."
Clearly retaliation from the Three Sage Lands.
Or rather, from the Toad and White Snake Sages.
Kentaro and the others were growing too slowly, no match for them.
Not because Natsume was limiting them, but because they were natives with weak talent.
A few generations later, their talent would improve.
But there was a workaround.
Combat could rapidly raise their strength.
"Head back and await the Skynet Login Device's version update," Natsume waved.
"Yes!"
At the mention of Skynet, Kentaro perked up.
Natsume returned to his room.
This plan required Kaguya's cooperation.
"Lady Goddess," Natsume knocked and entered.
"What is it?" Kaguya, already quite familiar with him, asked directly.
She herself hadn't noticed how far she'd gone in indulging this retainer.
To the point they no longer seemed like master and servant.
"I plan to roll out a new Skynet function," Natsume explained. "Mainly to deal with the Three Sage Lands."
The Three Sage Lands existed in unknown pocket spaces.
Even Kaguya would burn considerable energy to locate them.
If so, better to use them for training troops.
"First feature: Parties."
Watching her expression and seeing no reaction, he continued, "Ninjas don't suit large army formations. Small squads are more flexible. Split into two roles—offense and support—and that'll do."
"What do you need me to do?" Kaguya asked.
"Add a squad channel to the device so only team members can see their communications," Natsume answered at once.
"Anything else?" Kaguya nodded, then asked.
Natsume's heart skipped.
So obedient… it made him want to pat her head.
"Second feature: Red Names," he said, smiling at her impassive look. "I want the device to gain detection and logging. Once an enemy appears, the next time they show up, flag them in red and alert players."
"Approved."
Kaguya thought a moment.
This essentially used the God Tree as a server for data storage.
It was a living thing, so it was possible.
"Third feature: Recovery," Natsume mused. "Can the God Tree, via the device, reclaim chakra and natural energy from corpses?"
"No problem," Kaguya added a bit more this time. "The God Tree has always absorbed this planet's energy—that includes what you call corpses."
Natsume blinked.
He had suspected as much.
But Kaguya telling him outright meant his standing had risen again.
Cause for celebration.
"Recovery isn't the goal," Natsume said after a pause. "I want the God Tree to return a portion of the reclaimed chakra to players as rewards."
Kaguya's eyes narrowed; she stared at him.
Like a squirrel afraid someone would steal its pinecone.
Very displeased, with a hint of grievance.
Add a little pout and it would be lethal.
Even with her cool expression, it wasn't bad—another kind of charm.
Natsume's impulse surged again.
"What's given to players will ultimately return to us," he licked his lips and explained. "Don't fret over short-term losses—focus on the whole. By my reckoning, your income to date far exceeds expenditure."
Kaguya's expression eased slightly.
Indeed, as Natsume said, she was profiting.
And not by a little, but several times over.
Mainly because she only had to invest a tiny seed of chakra.
In under half a year, it paid for itself; the rest was pure gain.
Kaguya looked at Natsume, white eyes flickering with rare complexity.
She understood the logic, but she couldn't bear to part with it.
"Lady Goddess?" Natsume cleared his throat and coaxed her like a child. "I promise it won't be long before it pays off. If not, take my chakra to make up the difference."
After two-plus years, his Sage Body had recovered well.
"What's yours is mine," Kaguya tilted her head and said softly.
What a CEO line…
Natsume chuckled. "Right, all yours. Still, you have to spend to earn."
Kaguya studied him a moment, then nodded.
Though a bit heartsick, she didn't want to see Natsume disappointed—for some reason.
"Truly wise, Lady Goddess!" Natsume gave a thumbs-up in praise.
Wise?
Kaguya nodded nonchalantly. "Anything else?"
"That's all for now," Natsume waved. "These features will be enough to fire them up—and handle those snakes and toads."
…
A new day.
The plaza before the palace bustled.
"Assault squad recruiting one apothecary!"
"Veteran Uesugi Yudai leading—your safety guaranteed!"
"Need one more—hurry! Once we're full, we queue the dungeon!"
"Equal split of rewards—looking for a strong offensive ninja!"
With the update live, they began forming parties freely.
Natsume didn't strictly impose the usual three-man formation; he let them choose.
But he did offer guidance—keep a sensible ratio of offense to support.
Apothecary was a special role.
Since medical ninjutsu was tough to learn, Natsume settled for apothecaries instead.
Like doctors in his previous life.
They could still save lives at critical moments—just slower than medical-nin.
After a week of forming teams, the Goddess Army headed for the next nation, the Land of Maple.
This time, they broke into small units, infiltrating behind enemy lines.
The Toad and White Snake Sages were a little stunned.
Their numbers weren't as great as imagined.
When the Goddess Army clumped together, they were easy to ambush.
Now it was more troublesome—they had to split up.
…
A certain forest.
Kentaro's squad was on the move.
Seven people in all.
Thanks to his reputation, he'd gathered many elites.
They even had a rare medical ninja.
"Captain, red name," someone said on the squad channel.
"Sensory ninja," Kentaro typed back with mental text.
"It's the same giant snake that killed so many of us last time," came the reply moments later.
"Set the trap. We'll take it! With prey that big, Lady Goddess will surely kick back a lot of chakra to us!"
Kentaro grinned with excitement.
The others too.
Before, they had feared; now they were eager.
All because of Natsume's new version.
The giant snake had become a hot commodity.
In their eyes, it was walking rewards.
Time passed.
The snake soon caught up. With a sudden burst, it lunged with jaws wide.
Bang, bang, bang.
All seven turned into puffs of smoke.
Substitution Technique.
The snake didn't know ninjutsu, and it had no Byakugan. Even basic jutsu were hard for it to see through.
Most importantly, it didn't take Kentaro's group seriously.
Missing with its first strike, it was momentarily confused.
At that moment, a paper bomb drifted down from the tree.
Boom.
Flames sprayed.
The snake screamed.
But it wasn't dead.
Then the ground suddenly dropped.
Wracked with pain, it couldn't dodge and fell right into the pit.
Where countless upright blades skewered it, blood gushing.
Only then did Kentaro and the others emerge.
But the red name on Skynet hadn't vanished—meaning it was still alive.
They didn't approach; they pelted it with tools and ninjutsu.
The dying snake thrashed its tail wildly, but couldn't hit them.
Finally, it lost its life.
"Nice!"
Kentaro pumped a fist.
It was almost too easy!
The key was the Red Name feature.
They detected the snake early and struck with preparedness against an unprepared foe—of course they'd win.
"Recover it," Kentaro held out his arm; the others did the same.
Light enveloped the snake's body, which broke down into pure energy and flowed into their bracelets.
"I got 100 ryou of Chakra Coin," Kentaro said, elated.
"I got 70."
"…"
"I got the least—40."
"It must be distributing based on contribution this time," Kentaro said solemnly. "Work harder next time."
"Let's go, Captain—on to the next!"
Similar scenes played out repeatedly.
…
Three months later, Mount Myōboku.
"Something's wrong," the Toad Sage said through gritted teeth. "We've lost too many."
"They seem to have some way to sense us in advance," the White Snake Sage said darkly. "At this rate, half our clans will die—totally not worth it."
"We suspend for now," the Toad Sage sighed. "Focus on the other two plans."
As for Natsume, he wished he could flay him alive.
But Kaguya guarded him too well.
They had no opportunity to approach, let alone eliminate him.
…
The Land of Ancestor.
The happiest in recent days was Kaguya.
Those snakes and toads had contributed a great deal of energy.
She was quite satisfied.
Everything Natsume predicted had come to pass.
It had indeed paid off—and handsomely.
"Mom!"
Hamura ran into the room. "Look, the book says if there's no birth father, there can be a stepfather—as long as the two people love each other."
"What are you trying to say?" Kaguya looked at him.
"Do you like Teacher?" Hamura asked, eyes shining. "If you do, then Teacher can be my dad!"
"…"
Kaguya fell silent.
She didn't know what "like" meant—but perhaps she could learn.