Chapter 449: Kinshiki and Momoshiki
The other Dimension.
Tobitake Tonbo stood inside the spatial realm, gazing up at the sealing sphere suspended above.
"The Divine Tree fruit... is it truly only capable of receiving information from the Shinobi World up to the point of its growth, or can it genuinely not process Boruto's biological data?" Tonbo murmured to himself.
According to the laws of divine summoning, the moment a Divine Tree fruit matures, it signifies that it has absorbed all information and intelligence from the planet.
Yet, within Kaguya's physical vessel, he had been unable to find that specific, mysterious biological code that activated when Boruto awakened his Jougan.
Or perhaps the transformation the Divine Tree fruit wrought upon Kaguya's body naturally eradicated certain hereditary genetic traits during the process.
He clenched his fist slowly.
"Whatever. For now, I'll focus on analyzing the new data retrieved from Boruto to see if it offers any breakthroughs for my own progression."
After giving it some thought, Tonbo decided not to overcomplicate things.
By now, he had analyzed Kaguya's anatomy to an extraordinary depth, driving his own physical evolution to ever-greater heights.
His chakra had essentially become a repository of vast information.
The difference was that unlike the Otsutsuki—who relied on Karma to process and transfer data—he had taken the ninjutsu derived from Heartsteel, overhauled it, and upgraded it into a central core.
All incoming biological and energetic data was filtered through this Heartsteel Core.
This made the process infinitely safer for his physical body.
"Speaking of which, it's about time I dedicated more effort to developing space-time ninjutsu. With my body evolved to this stage, the vast majority of standard ninjutsu no longer pose any challenge to me—they just require a bit of time to practice and familiarize myself with."
He reflected on his long-term itinerary.
While his abilities were constantly advancing, certain domains definitely called for deeper refinement.
Space-time ninjutsu was chief among them.
After all, virtually every member of the Otsutsuki Clan possessed spatial manipulation abilities. If that became his sole Achilles' heel, it would hand enemies like the Otsutsuki an easy window to escape.
Therefore, alongside his ongoing research into neutralizing future-sight abilities, he planned to step up his space-time ninjutsu training.
He still wasn't fast enough.
He needed to be faster.
Only then could space-time techniques be seamlessly integrated into high-speed combat.
For instance, Otsutsuki Urashiki deployed his space-time techniques with exceptional speed.
When the time was right, he could extract a bit more inspiration from him.
He might even release Urashiki temporarily just to test how everyone's space-time capabilities held up in real combat.
As long as he planted enough failsafes inside Urashiki's body, there was zero risk of him escaping.
After all, once you were captured and turned into a lab specimen, trying to break free was nothing short of a pipe dream.
Whether it was himself or Orochimaru's team, they possessed more than enough countermeasures to keep Urashiki firmly locked down.
The capability was undeniably there.
"Still... should I hand Kaguya over to Orochimaru for research too? My only worry is that he might somehow end up setting her free. I'd definitely need to keep a leash on him... I wonder how Orochimaru would react to that idea."
Tonbo had initially entertained the idea of letting Orochimaru study Kaguya as well.
However, Orochimaru was Orochimaru—a mad scientist through and through. One wrong move, and he might inadvertently plunge the Shinobi World back into a cataclysmic war.
That was the last thing Tonbo wanted.
What he truly desired was a world similar to his previous life.
Or even a world technologically superior to his previous life.
Only by living in a society like that did he feel his life was continuously progressing forward.
And progressing for the better.
Thinking back to his past life, Tonbo's eyes flickered slightly.
Since I had a past life, then if my space-time ninjutsu grows powerful enough, maybe I could even travel back there just to put on a grand flex.
Or if Scientific Ninja Tools are developed to a high enough standard, it might not be entirely impossible either.
After all, the nature of chakra was remarkably versatile—it almost felt like a universal solution capable of achieving virtually anything.
Tonbo didn't harbor an unhealthy obsession with his past life, but if the opportunity ever arose to take a look back, he certainly wouldn't mind.
Though realistically, it was bound to be extraordinarily difficult.
If not downright impossible.
His arrival in this world had been a soul transmigration.
As various web novels often described, he had likely crossed through layers of cosmic dimensional barriers just to reach this Shinobi World.
"Whatever, I'll take things one step at a time and deal with the Otsutsuki threat first."
By now, the Kara organization had surfaced.
His Shadow Clones had been continuously investigating intelligence regarding Kara across various nations.
Although Kara kept a remarkably low profile, Tonbo had already uncovered a vast number of their peripheral bases across various regions.
He had no intention of relying solely on Konoha's official channels for intelligence gathering.
Over two hundred of his Shadow Clones were currently stationed in nations across the globe.
In fact, several clones had already seized control of local factions—much like how he had quietly brought the Star Village in the Land of Bears under his thumb.
However, Kara's Inner members were genuinely adept at concealing themselves.
The only Inner member wandering out in the open appeared to be that guy named Boro from the Otsutsuki Cult.
Yet Boro seemed to have picked up on the fact that someone was tracking him. He stayed on the move constantly like a game of whack-a-mole. Tonbo had no idea how Kara managed it, but Boro kept narrowly slipping through his fingers every single time.
He hadn't even found an opening to plant neural strands on the guy.
Perhaps that was the handiwork of their genius scientist, Amado.
Or perhaps it involved some lingering countermeasure left in the future by that so-called Otsutsuki Shibai.
Tonbo felt that possibility was highly plausible.
Right now, his ability to lock down future-sight had not been fully realized yet.
He was currently incapable of completely blocking spatial or temporal prescience.
It wasn't something he could rule out.
...
In the vast, distant reaches of deep space...
Two figures traversed the void side by side.
One was dressed in noble attire, wearing a white, veil-like ornament atop his head with a prominent horn protruding from his brow.
The other was somewhat stockier and more muscular, also bearing a horn, though his attire resembled that of an attendant or servant.
Both belonged to the Otsutsuki Clan.
"Lord Momoshiki, there seems to be something strange about the world we are headed toward this time. Legend has it that the God of our Otsutsuki Clan also vanished after heading in this exact direction... Could that be the real reason why Isshiki never returned?"
Otsutsuki Kinshiki swung a massive axe, shattering a passing meteorite to clear a path for Otsutsuki Momoshiki.
According to Otsutsuki lore, tens of thousands of years ago, numerous members of the Otsutsuki Clan had vanished in this region of space—including the legendary Otsutsuki God himself.
Then, over a thousand years ago, Otsutsuki Isshiki had led Otsutsuki Kaguya toward a world in this very same sector to harvest its Divine Tree fruit.
They too had vanished without a trace.
A thousand years had passed.
Sensing that something was amiss, the clan had finally dispatched their team to head over and gather intelligence once more.
Hearing Kinshiki's concern, Otsutsuki Momoshiki responded calmly, "Mm. That sector of space is indeed peculiar, but the God of the Otsutsuki could not possibly be dead. He is an omniscient and omnipotent being—no one could ever defeat him.
However, as for the world Isshiki and Kaguya traveled to, it is entirely possible that inferior creatures capable of thwarting them exist there."
They had traveled to countless worlds and harvested fruit from dozens of planets.
In certain worlds, powerful entities would occasionally emerge that could temporarily delay the Otsutsuki.
It wasn't entirely unheard of for an Otsutsuki to perish during such conflicts.
In some worlds, even after deploying Karma, an Otsutsuki could still be gradually ground down to death by the native inhabitants.
"However, those creatures are ultimately not Otsutsuki. They have no concept of our true supremacy. We will eliminate every single one of them and harvest the Divine Tree fruit," Momoshiki declared coldly.
"Still, there is still quite a distance between us and that world. It will likely take a considerable amount of time to arrive."
The home planet of their clan was located a significant distance from that world.
SWISH!
A massive time-space rift suddenly tore open ahead of them, and the two stepped directly into it.
When they emerged, they had already traversed a vast expanse of space.
"It will take approximately six and a half cycles of that habitable planet revolving around its host star before we arrive," Kinshiki analyzed.
Across the cosmos, every planet hosting intelligent life revolved around its local star. The Otsutsuki Clan had long developed their own standardized metric for tracking orbital periods, using it to calculate travel duration across the starry expanse.
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