When Kitagawa Gen’s voice fell from the sky above, in that instant, the entire world seed to sink into deathly silence.
On the faces of those beside Kitagawa Gen’s Divine Tree clone, expressions of terror appeared, as if they were utterly unable to believe everything they had just heard.
“What exactly is this… what is going on?”
Those who had just rushed over also wore looks of shock, as an extre sense of unease and fear began to echo within their hearts.
“This can’t be possible… Gen, don’t joke around…”
Deidara could not help swallowing hard. He wanted to force a smile to ease the atmosphere, but for so reason, he simply could not manage it.
“Senpai… you’re…”
Sasuke swallowed as well. His eyes were sowhat unfocused, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
“Gen, what exactly is going on here?”
Kakashi and Guy looked back in utter disbelief, yet could not help lifting their heads to look toward the sky.
That sense of confusion, fear, and sorrow continued to intertwine within them. They simply could not imagine what it was they were seeing.
Even the souls that had just been snatched back from beneath the coverage of the three Ōtsutsuki souls—Nagato, Obito, and Kimimaro—also wore expressions of confusion.
Only Obito’s gaze flickered slightly. He could not help casting a glance at Kakashi, as if he did not find it strange at all that Kakashi would encounter sothing like this.
The Hokage, however, collectively fell into silence and bewildernt at this mont, as if they had not recovered at all.
“What exactly happened over there?”
In the distance, within the Allied Shinobi Forces, no one knew how many shinobi felt lost.
They did not really understand what was happening ahead, but all of them felt as if sothing terrifying was about to happen.
“Ino, are you okay?”
Shikamaru looked at Ino with a strange expression. Ever since just now, he had felt that Ino seed a little off, and Chōji was also very concerned.
“Are you worried about that guy? Relax, it’s fine—everyone’s here, nothing will go wrong…”
“With Gen-senpai here, there definitely won’t be a problem.”
Rock Lee and Neji spoke at the sa ti, and Hinata nodded along as well.
“I think everyone should still be a bit more careful…”
Ino actually did not want to dampen everyone’s enthusiasm at all, but she always felt that the situation seed a little off. The unease in her heart was growing stronger and stronger.
'How does that guy know about Naruto, and his words… why are they starting to sound more and more like Gen…'
Ino did not dare to say it out loud, and likewise did not dare to acknowledge these things, because all of it was truly far too terrifying!
And far too much for her to accept…
But unfortunately, many tis things simply do not go as one wishes!
...
“Gen, you…”
Tobirama swallowed hard, and spoke with a face full of disbelief.
“What exactly is going on with you…”
“Nothing much—just saying a few ordinary words, that’s all.”
However, the one who answered him was not the Kitagawa Gen standing before them, but the Ōtsutsuki Genshiki in the sky!
The Kitagawa Gen in front of them also withdrew his hand. He looked at Naruto and smiled, then shrugged indifferently.
“However, there’s one thing I’m also very curious about. When exactly did you discover the problem? After all…”
As he spoke, the Kitagawa Gen before them slowly raised his head to look toward the sky, while the ‘Ōtsutsuki Genshiki’ above continued speaking with a smile.
At this mont, his voice changed, completely becoming Kitagawa Gen’s voice!
“I noticed long ago that your emotions weren’t quite right. I just didn’t expect that you would actually discover all of this. That really is unbelievable…”
“You… what exactly are you talking about?!”
Sasuke truly could not hold back any longer, and the others also had hollow looks in their eyes. That sense of shock and bewildernt, accompanied by fear, left them utterly unable to speak.
“What are we talking about?”
The one who answered him was not the Kitagawa Gen before him, but the ‘Ōtsutsuki Genshiki’ in the sky. The Kitagawa Gen in front rely shook his head lightly.
In the next mont, specks of light began to spread unceasingly, and his entire body seed about to be completely engulfed by a golden radiance!
anwhile, the ‘Ōtsutsuki Genshiki’ in the sky placed a hand on his own mask, then slowly lifted it away.
“In truth, you already knew, didn’t you, Sasuke? You just were unwilling, from the depths of your heart, to admit it—to accept all of this.”
“Shut up… shut up!”
Sasuke roared sowhat hysterically. He felt as though a chunk of his heart had been brutally gouged out—bloody and mangled, yet with no visible wound.
Yet his eyes involuntarily turned toward the figure in the sky, while beside him, the Kitagawa Gen enveloped in a halo of light gently shook his head and continued speaking.
“You can’t really be blad for this. I understand you. But unfortunately, from the very beginning, this world has never had truth and lies—what it has is only…”
Before the words could finish, the ‘Kitagawa Gen’ covered in golden radiance had already vanished, and the ‘Ōtsutsuki Genshiki’ in the sky completely removed his mask!
In that instant, his true face was revealed without concealnt. It was Kitagawa Gen—and at the sa mont, his voice rang out.
“…nothing more than unshakable facts.”
Buzz—
Sasuke imdiately felt as if his head had been struck heavily. He stood there in a daze, his ears filled with a loud ringing.
Not only him—everyone else, as well as the Allied Shinobi Forces in the distance, were the sa!
“J-just… joking… right…”
Deidara finally could not hold it together at this mont. His eyes beca especially unfocused, and Ino in the distance fell completely silent.
The scene she most dreaded seeing had still appeared!
“N-no… that can’t be possible… how could this happen…”
Neji and Rock Lee were also at a loss, Shikamaru and Chōji were already unable to speak, and the rest were left in a stunned state beyond description.
They suddenly felt that this world—clearly bathed in the golden light emitted by the ‘Golden Tree’—had abruptly beco unreal.
In that instant, it was as if all sound, color, and even temperature had been stripped away!
All that remained was the dull, oppressive pain pressing on the chest, and the crushing agony so heavy it made breathing difficult.
“Even so, all living beings in this world still live by mistaking facts that benefit themselves for truth—because only by doing so can they survive.”
Kitagawa Gen looked at the mask in his hand with what seed like a trace of mockery. With just a slight exertion of force, the mask instantly shattered into fragnts scattered across the ground.
He raised his head and looked toward everyone, that faint, indistinct smile still lingering on his face.
“However, for the powerless weak who make up the majority of this world, facts that are unfavorable to themselves are often the real truth—just like right now.”
These words left everyone utterly despondent.
They had never imagined that the end of this world would turn out like this.
Moreover, it was brought about by the very person who had given them boundless hope—the one who could lead them out of history’s dead end.
Yet no one had expected that this ‘savior,’ Kitagawa Gen, was at the sa ti the ‘Ōtsutsuki Genshiki’ who would destroy this world!
Such despair was truly impossible to describe.
For the people of Konoha, it was even more so. None of them had imagined that the Fifth Hokage—the one they trusted enough to give everything for—would possess such an identity.
Especially for Kitagawa Gen’s friends: all the mories of their past together now pierced their hearts like shattered glass, every breath carrying a sharp pain.
“Why… why does it have to be like this…”
However, just as everyone had fallen into utter silence, Naruto’s furious roar suddenly rang out.
Boom—
An even more formidable chakra erupted from Naruto’s body. As if responding to the anger and despair in his heart, this chakra grew stronger and more surging by the mont.
“Naruto…”
Sasuke looked at Naruto in a daze, but Naruto did not pay him any attention. Instead, he fixed his gaze on Kitagawa Gen in the sky and shouted loudly.
“Why did you do this? Why?!”
“Why?”
For so reason, Kitagawa Gen felt that this scene seed sowhat familiar, as if he had seen it sowhere before.
Suddenly, he rembered!
It seed to be when he seized the Totsuka Blade—affected by the environnt of the Totsuka Blade, he had seen sothing like this.
Only, the Totsuka Blade had apparently underestimated his achievents. In the illusion of the Totsuka Blade, he had rely been besieged by Konoha’s shinobi.
And now, it seed he had already beco the enemy of the entire world…
However, he did not care much about it, and instead looked at Naruto with a playful expression.
“Before I answer that question, it seems you still haven’t told how exactly you recognized .”
“Eight years ago, at Ichiraku Ran…”
Naruto clenched his fists, shut his eyes tightly, and spoke loudly.
“You once looked up at the sky and said, ‘Even the vacancy of the throne of heaven must co to an end.’ Back then, I always thought you were joking, or that you wanted to compete to beco Hokage…”
“But I never once imagined that a scene like this would happen now! Tell why! Why did it turn out like this! Why?!”
“Ichiraku…”
Kitagawa Gen’s expression turned sowhat strange. All of a sudden, he recalled that he really did seem to have made a similar joke to Naruto before.
Who would have thought that this guy Naruto would actually rember even a single joke of his for so long? That made him find it a bit amusing.
“So that’s how it is, Naruto. It seems my influence on you really was quite significant.”
“Now it’s your turn…”
Naruto opened his eyes. At this mont, the pain and confusion— even the despair—had all vanished.
What remained was only an indescribable, unprecedented firmness!
“Tell , you bastard, why are you doing this! You’re not the Kitagawa Gen I know at all now!”
“Already not the Kitagawa Gen you know?”
Kitagawa Gen raised an eyebrow, the smile on his face seeming to grow even more brilliant.
“What a pity. That’s just your—or all of your—misconception, because…”
“The Kitagawa Gen you originally knew never existed from the very beginning.”
Boom—
However, sothing he had not anticipated happened: just as his words fell, Naruto had already shot up into the sky.
The chakra around his body roared incessantly, his power bellowing wildly.
He glared furiously at Kitagawa Gen and, at that mont, roared aloud: “I won’t acknowledge any of this! Even if it ans death, I’ll beat you awake!”
Roars and bellows intertwined as, in that instant, the chakra throughout his entire body erupted into a dazzling radiance.
The chakra belonging to Asura continuously reverberated within his body. His gaze was unwaveringly resolute, while the Nine-Tails’ chakra completely enveloped him.
“I will absolutely never forget that guy Gen—and I will never acknowledge the existence of soone like you!”
“Naruto!”
Watching Naruto leap forward, the others clenched their teeth. In the very next mont, they all rushed out as well!
“Hurry up…”
Naruto had already charged in front of Kitagawa Gen. His fist—wrapped in the Nine-Tails’ chakra as well as Asura’s chakra—swung out abruptly.
“Wake up already!”
Yet in the face of such a mighty, heavy blow—one that even compressed the surrounding air and distorted space—Kitagawa Gen rely shifted his figure slightly.
In an instant, he had already passed by Naruto, appearing calmly behind him!
Naruto reacted imdiately. He turned around at once, while simultaneously condensing an enormous Rasengan in his hand.
“Yang Release: Rasenshuriken!”
“A bit childish.”
Kitagawa Gen’s expression remained unchanged. Looking at the Rasengan flying toward him, he simply swung the long blade in his hand.
In that instant, a force seemingly capable of splitting heaven and earth burst forth!
The Rasenshuriken was cleaved in two in the blink of an eye, and Naruto himself was directly struck by the follow-up blade.
His entire body turned into a teor, crashing heavily toward the ground.
“Any technique, to , has no aning at all.”
Just as his words fell, a kunai suddenly shot toward him at high speed. His gaze swept over it slightly, and at once an invisible force knocked the kunai away.
But in the very next instant, the kunai vanished without a trace—replaced instead by Sasuke!
“The power of the Rinnegan—Anotejikara?”
Kitagawa Gen raised an eyebrow, while Sasuke had already unleashed fierce chakra. Gripping his blade with both hands, he slashed heavily toward Kitagawa Gen!
“Why…!”
Sasuke roared in fury, the short blade in his hand gleaming with cold light.
“Why did you lie to —why?!”
Clang—
Yet Kitagawa Gen rely held his blade in one hand and raised it lightly with graceful ease, blocking Sasuke’s strike in a flash of sparks.
“I trusted you that much! I believed in everything about you! I admired you so much, chasing after your back—why did you do this?!”
Sasuke howled hysterically. At this mont, the power of his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan seed endless, surging without pause.
His strength grew greater and greater, his chakra stronger and stronger—but his emotions also beca increasingly agitated.
Yet no matter how much his power increased, it was as if he were always being firmly suppressed by Kitagawa Gen.
He felt as though he were facing an insurmountable mountain—no matter how he climbed, he could never reach the top.
“Gen!”
At that very mont, Kakashi and Guy charged in, kicking up flying sand as they advanced. Crackling lightning flared brilliantly in Kakashi’s hand.
His figure lunged fiercely forward, and he could not help shouting loudly as he moved.
“Don’t keep going—are you really going to do exactly as Naruto said, to disregard everyone who cares about you, to disregard everyone else entirely?!”
“Trust…?”
Kitagawa Gen looked at the lightning flashing toward him and unconsciously shook his head lightly.
At the very mont that lightning was about to touch him, he shifted his body slightly once more, and Kakashi’s hand swept past his side.
And in that fleeting instant of passing chakra, the blade in his hand had already slashed toward Kakashi’s back!
“Watch out!”
Guy shouted loudly, but just as he was at his most stunned, space suddenly twisted violently, and a figure flashed out from it, blocking that fatal strike!
“That guy—he is…!”
“Obito?”
Kakashi was also filled with shock, yet Obito seed not to care in the slightest. There was even a mocking expression spread across his face.
“Kakashi, there’s one thing I didn’t say wrong— even if you die, your disciple won’t mourn you!”
“Obito…”
Kakashi’s gaze turned complex, as that extre pain once again spread within his heart.
It was as if the people he knew were once more beginning to walk down a path he deeply feared.
What was most terrifying was that he had once seen light—and that light had kept expanding, even filling his heart.
But in the very next mont, that light was completely extinguished, and what it illuminated instead was a scene of hell!
“Don’t make that expression, and don’t let your mind wander at a ti like this!”
Obito suddenly shouted loudly, his gaze fixed firmly on Kitagawa Gen in the sky.
“I don’t need you to forgive either. All of this is what I deserve—but Rin is different. She’s still in Konoha, so…”
“Kill this guy, and while you’re at it…”
“Try to give this hell-like world so new light!”
Perhaps because he had already died once—had even been covered by an Ōtsutsuki soul, nearly having his own soul erased—Obito, though he still regarded this world as hell, no longer had the desire to continue down his forr path.
Leaving aside the fact that everything about him was now firmly held in the hands of that ‘cold-blooded, rciless Sage of Six Paths,’ his hatred for the Ōtsutsuki had already sealed his decision to help.
What was more, the real Rin was still in Konoha…
No matter the reason, he had to fight these Ōtsutsuki to the end!
“So that’s how it is…”
Kakashi murmured, while at this very mont Guy had already leapt into the air!
Azure chakra erupted across his entire body—clearly, he had opened the Eight Gates.
“Gen, I don’t know what happened, but this is absolutely not the real you!”
He roared, and his whole body was enveloped in azure chakra as he ferociously kicked toward Kitagawa Gen.
“The real Gen is kind, worthy of trust—not soone like you, standing so high above everyone else and making people sick!”
“Blue chakra?”
Kitagawa Gen recognized the level of the Eight Gates at a glance. Facing the kick that tore through the air toward him, he reached out and caught it with a single hand.
This blow left Guy’s face filled with shock. With such speed—such power—was it still completely useless?
“Guy-sensei, you seem to have no understanding at all of what I am pursuing,”
Kitagawa Gen said, still wearing a smile. He looked just like the boy he once was, yet at this very mont his aura had undergone an incomprehensible transformation.
“Let him go!”
At this instant, Hashirama and Madara charged in fiercely, the roaring power surging continuously around their bodies.
“Sage Art - Yang Release - Wood Dragon Technique!”
The roaring wood dragon burst forth, leaping violently up from the ground, while Madara no longer used Susanoo. The chakra within his body surged without restraint.
“Sage Art - Yin Release - Thunder Wave!”
Wood dragon and lightning interwove, Yin Release and Yang Release rging together as if unleashing their greatest fury, charging straight toward Kitagawa Gen.
“Trust is synonymous with reliance. That is the behavior of the weak.”
With a light push from Kitagawa Gen, Guy’s body was instantly sent crashing toward the distance. At the sa ti, he had already turned his head back, his cold gaze fixed on the wood dragon surging toward him.
“Unfortunately, I have no need for it.”
Boom—
At that mont, a colossal golden tree swayed into being. Amid the spreading golden radiance, an even more massive giant dragon let out a deafening roar.
The giant dragon opened its blood-filled maw and bit down hard on the wood dragon ford by Hashirama and Madara. As the wood dragon struggled, it suddenly exerted force—
In an instant, the wood dragon shattered into fragnts scattered across the ground!
“You bastard…”
anwhile, Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama had already reached behind Kitagawa Gen, Yin Release and Yang Release power erupting from their bodies.
“The way all living beings survive is to believe in and blindly follow the outstanding. The burden is too heavy for the ninjas at the bottom to bear, and so they pursue those who stand above them.”
Kitagawa Gen did not even turn around. He rely spoke calmly, while the long blade in his hand twisted slightly.
“Those who stand above must in turn seek even higher beings worthy of trust. And thus, the Kage ca into being.”
Whoosh—
Everyone only felt their vision blur; a single streak of silver light flashed past, and nothing more.
But in the next instant, they realized that Kitagawa Gen had already changed positions—yet he was still standing with his back to Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama.
The two of them, however, clutched their chests, as sprays of blood burst forth in the sky!
“But this is still far from enough. After all, if one goes even higher…”
Kitagawa Gen flashed again, evading the joint attack of Senju Tobirama and Namikaze Minato, while the long blade in his hand once more released a cold gleam.
In the blink of an eye, Kitagawa Gen had already struck again. The two bodies seed to freeze for an instant, then smashed violently toward the ground.
Yet at this mont, Sasuke and Naruto, wrapped in roaring chakra, had already followed Guy up into the air and caught them.
And at that very mont, Kitagawa Gen’s voice rang out once more.
“Gods, too, are born—and that is the goal I have always been pursuing!”
As he spoke, the golden radiance in the sky grew even more brilliant and dazzling.
That enormous fruit had fully ripened at this mont, boundless chakra surging ceaselessly within it.
Inside, it was as though energy capable of shaking heaven and earth was being brewed—inside, it seed to contain power sufficient to destroy everything!
“When did you beco like this…?”
Kakashi stood up, his eyes utterly ashen. He stared at Kitagawa Gen in disbelief, his voice unbearably heavy.
“Why does it have to be like this? Why must it be this way? Is everything Naruto said really true—do you truly not care at all?!”
“Didn’t I say it long ago? From the very beginning, I was never the Kitagawa Gen you imagined to be…”
Kitagawa Gen raised his head and looked at the fruit being nurtured by his Divine Tree. He felt that it was about ti for him to eat that fruit.
Besides, he had enjoyed himself thoroughly. At most, one more heavy blow against everyone would be enough to bring things to an end.
As for Kakashi’s question, he rely let out a light chuckle.
“Do you rember what I once said? Betrayal that can be seen with the naked eye is sothing that can be understood. What is truly terrifying is betrayal that cannot be seen, Kakashi-sensei.”
“Why did you deceive everyone? Why—why?!”
Naruto roared loudly, and Sasuke was the sa. Yet Kitagawa Gen did not spare them even a single glance.
Buzz—
A pillar of golden light descended upon Kitagawa Gen, and at that very mont the boundless tree vines spread wildly, instantly enveloping everyone!
Such a horrifying scene did not throw the crowd into chaos, because by now they had long since grown numb.
Bathed in the golden radiance, Kitagawa Gen’s body began to move steadily toward the fruit. Only then did he shake his head, smile, and speak.
“My apologies—I never intended to deceive you. It’s just that not a single one of you ever understood my true face.”
“My true face…”
Hearing these words, everyone’s hearts fell into utter dead silence. Sasuke and Naruto clenched their fists tightly.
“Don’t blindly trust others, and don’t casually idolize certain people, because…”
Kitagawa Gen still wore a smile. His gaze swept across everyone present, before he finally spoke slowly, smiling.
“Admiration is the emotion farthest from understanding…”
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