Sixteen years old, the Fourth Mizukage

After bidding farewell to Shion and Miroku, mother and daughter, and leaving the Land of Demons on their way to the Land of Wind, Naruto Uzumaki continued wearing a frowning, thoughtful expression. Only when the scorching gale of the Land of Wind, carrying sand grains with it, struck them head-on did he suddenly awaken from his contemplation.

“I thought you intended to keep that gloomy, thinking face all the way until we met the Sunagakure shinobi…”

As Rei Kaguya determined their current location according to the nearby oases, he asked Naruto Uzumaki in a leisurely tone,

“The fact that Moryo’s power can be used by people really has that much impact on you, the person who reconciled with the Nine-Tails, the embodiment of hatred, and obtained the recognition of all the Tailed Beasts?”

“It still feels different.”

Naruto Uzumaki let out a breath and subconsciously touched the seal on his abdomen, as well as Kurama, the Nine-Tails sleeping within it, who would awaken again at some unknown time.

“In Kurama’s case, he was an existence that had lived inside my body since before I could remember. To me, from the very beginning, he was part of my body. Even though there was a time when I hated Kurama because everyone rejected and despised me because of him, and even though he nearly took over my body… I still did not feel so distinctly that he was something external, independent from me.”

“But Moryo is different. That impression of hostility, evil, and uncontrollability is just too vivid. Even now, I still subconsciously feel that its power is far more dangerous than the Tailed Beasts…”

“So that is what you think…”

Rei Kaguya turned his head and thoughtfully glanced at Naruto Uzumaki’s bandaged right hand.

“Then to you and Sasuke Uchiha, the power of the Otsutsuki clan should be more or less the same—an unreliable external object?”

“Why do you say that?”

Naruto Uzumaki looked at Rei Kaguya’s white hair, Byakugan, and twin horns on his head, which clearly did not belong to the Kaguya clan. The doubts he had been hiding in his heart without asking gradually showed themselves, and his expression also became increasingly serious.

“Because from my personal feeling, at your and Sasuke Uchiha’s current level, there is a considerable possibility that you would be instantly killed on the spot by Ancestor Kaguya if she were revived through the Infinite Tsukuyomi.”

Rei Kaguya spread his hands, his tone calm.

“If one says that in the peaceful era after Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed away, you and Sasuke Uchiha had already stood at the peak and therefore no longer had a reason or need to pursue greater power, that argument can more or less stand…

“Then after Momoshiki and Kinshiki Otsutsuki descended upon the shinobi world, I truly cannot think of any other reason to explain why the two of you still did not try every possible method to improve your hard strength.”

A dazzling blue radiance bloomed inside Rei Kaguya’s eyes. The vast ocular power of the Tenseigan, capable of moving stars and shifting moons, awakened according to his will. Merely sweeping his gaze across was enough to create a pressure as if even space itself could be frozen. Naruto Uzumaki’s body instinctively tensed and went on guard under that pressure capable of dissolving any human-wave tactics.

At his own somewhat unsightly reaction, Naruto Uzumaki could not help smiling bitterly. He lifted his right hand, made from Hashirama cells, and clenched it firmly before asking back in a somewhat heavy tone,

“Momoshiki, Kinshiki, Isshiki, and if we also count Kaguya, whom you have already found a way to turn from enemy to friend, the intelligence you know about the Otsutsuki clan should already be quite abundant and substantial, Fourth Mizukage.”

“But have you ever thought about how the Otsutsuki clan obtained that incomparable power?”

“They did it by constantly harvesting the life of planets throughout the universe, using the Ten-Tails to continuously devour the information and chakra of planet after planet, before ultimately becoming monsters that powerful and that difficult to kill.”

“Using the power of the Ten-Tails, the Otsutsuki built a chakra system shaped roughly like a giant pyramid. The more one wishes to climb upward within that chakra system, obtaining a higher position and greater power, the more one must gather as much chakra as possible onto oneself…

“And if Sasuke and I want to obtain power greater than what we have now, we will inevitably have to use the power of the Ten-Tails.”

“But if we use the Ten-Tails to collect chakra… then what difference is there between us and Kaguya, or those Otsutsuki who treat life like weeds and do not know what love is?”

Naruto Uzumaki’s answer was direct and frank. At the same time, it nearly explicitly pointed out the hidden danger that might one day erupt after Rei Kaguya had step by step raised his body’s configuration to its current degree. However, Rei Kaguya ignored that implication and merely asked back calmly,

“But power is ultimately only power. Whether it is sealed away or kept at a respectful distance, its essence as power, as a tool in human hands, will not change.”

“If you set aside a power determined to be a threat and leave it ignored simply because you feel it is dangerous, then even after several decades or centuries pass, people will still know nothing about that power, gain nothing from it, and continue circling back and forth within the ancient framework left behind by their predecessors, unable to open a new path.”

“Do you truly think sealing away dangerous power and stopping anyone from researching and developing it is a good thing, Naruto Uzumaki?”

Naruto Uzumaki remained silent for a while before nodding with a firm expression.

“Even if that power must be sealed forever and turned into a mystery that can never be solved, it is still better than letting people directly face an abyss that lures them into corruption and then fall into it one after another.”

“Power itself is indeed just a tool in the hands of those who wield it, as you said. But some powers are, by nature, existences that easily drive those who approach them toward extremism, obsession, and corruption, ultimately causing them to commit irreparable sins… For that kind of power, sealing it forever in a place where it will never see daylight is the correct choice.”

“Tch.”

Rei Kaguya shook his head and looked up at the sky speechlessly.

“A miscalculation. I thought bringing you to the Land of Demons and letting you see their current situation after they attempted to control Moryo’s power would make you understand the shinobi world’s current position more clearly… As expected, should I have gone to Sasuke Uchiha to discuss this problem instead?”

“I understand what you mean, Fourth Mizukage…”

Naruto Uzumaki pursed his lips. A helpless light flickered in his eyes.

“But the most fundamental reason the shrine maidens of the Land of Demons dare to undo Moryo’s seal and attempt to control Moryo’s power is because the shinobi world has an absolute powerhouse like you, someone who can suppress everything at any time, right?”

“No. The most fundamental reason is that before the era’s transformation that has already arrived, they have no other choice.”

Rei denied Naruto Uzumaki’s statement. With eyes flowing with radiance like blue stars, he gazed into Naruto’s eyes and spoke in a calm yet powerful tone,

“The Land of Demons is weak and barren. The shrine maiden who leads the Land of Demons can neither influence the will of the leaders of great foreign powers, nor change the great trend of the era in which the wind of transformation blowing from Kirigakure will inevitably sweep across the entire shinobi world…

“Just like you and the shinobi world you wish to protect, you can neither change the Otsutsuki clan’s way of doing things, nor change the great trend that you have already fallen into their sight, and that in the future, more Otsutsuki will inevitably arrive for various reasons.”

“No one is willing to become an abandoned child left behind by the tides of the era, because everyone knows that those abandoned outside the mainstream of the era can very easily fall into a quagmire where even survival becomes difficult, unable to free themselves.”

“Fortunately, the Land of Demons still has Moryo as the capital that allows them to make a desperate gamble and ride the wind of transformation. And you likewise possess things that the other planets harvested by the Otsutsuki never had—

“The Tailed Beasts separated from the Ten-Tails and the ownerless Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Senjutsu that can touch the Otsutsuki with mortal bodies. And the Six Paths bloodline that split off from the Otsutsuki clan. These are your most precious capital for resisting the Otsutsuki clan.”

As his words fell, Rei Kaguya’s figure disappeared from Naruto Uzumaki’s eyes. His battle instincts, which had lain dormant for many years but had been reactivated through battles against powerful enemies like Momoshiki, Kinshiki, and even Isshiki, urged Naruto to turn around and block at once. But before Naruto Uzumaki’s body could move, Rei Kaguya’s finger was already pressed against the back of his neck, the fingertip gray and dim.

“Resisting the Otsutsuki clan’s invasion is not a children’s quarrel where even if you lose, there is still room to return to friendship. If you lose to the Otsutsuki clan, everything you have will be devoured completely and turned into nothingness… In this zero-sum game where the loser is destined to possess nothing, we, as the weaker side, have no right to act coy or hold anything back.”

Listening to Rei Kaguya’s cold and unquestionable statement behind him, Naruto Uzumaki closed his eyes and asked with a bit of confusion and melancholy,

“But aren’t you afraid that one day, you might also fall and become like the pure-blooded Otsutsuki clan—a cold, heartless monster who views people whose life level is far below yours as livestock and weeds?”

“What a boring question. Even if one day I truly become an Otsutsuki successor who loses human emotion and sees himself as a supreme god, I will still climb step by step to the very peak of the chakra system and become a monster among monsters who can sustainably overfish other members of the Otsutsuki clan and all other living beings in the universe with complete equality…”

“A world where everyone receives evil retribution and everyone gets harvested naturally has no distinction between Otsutsuki and ordinary people.”

Rei Kaguya sneered and gave a mad answer, followed by a mocking question,

“Rather, from my perspective, the fact that you reject accepting the Ten-Tails’ power because you are worried about becoming a cold and heartless monster is the truly incomprehensible part…

“You are clearly a hero who grew up firmly into a warm savior amid the endless discrimination, alienation, and attacks that the people around you directed toward Jinchuriki. Why, this time, do you not even have the confidence to once again defeat the darkness and desire inside your own heart? Have long peace and family life already made you lose a hero’s confidence and judgment, Naruto Uzumaki?”