"Still not coming out, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya?!"
Tōma’s voice echoed across the frozen world. As it rang out, the endless ice spears suspended in midair gradually dissolved, lting back into the landscape.
Far away, the sky fractured.
A black, puzzle-like void spread open piece by piece until it ford a passage large enough for a person to step through. From it, a graceful figure descended slowly into the icy realm.
Kaguya.
She looked at Tōma, her pale eyes filled not with anger, but confusion.
"Why?" she asked quietly.
"Why can a re human reach this level?"
Tōma smiled.
"Because I’ve heard sothing interesting," he said lightly.
"Human potential doesn’t have a ceiling."
"Foolish," Kaguya replied flatly.
The crimson eye on her forehead widened.
The world shifted again.
This ti, there was no magma. No ice. Just a vast, barren land tinted purple-red beneath an empty sky.
Her origin space.
Kaguya had already realized it. None of her sub-dinsions truly restrained him.
The magma world fed his flas.
The ice world forced him to adapt.
As for the others...
The desert was nothing more than heat.
The gravity and acid worlds were dangerous even to her and not worth the risk.
So this was where she would end it.
Kaguya hovered in the air, her impossibly long hair spreading like a living curtain.
"Kekkei Mōra—Rabbit Hair Needles."
The sky rained white light.
At last, Tōma moved decisively.
He produced a specially forged tal sphere as lightning erupted around his body. The magnetic field surged violently, warping the air itself.
With a flick of his finger—
"Sage Art—Lightning Release: Railgun."
The sphere vanished in a streak of light.
Before the chakra had even faded, Tōma ford another seal.
"Ninja Art—Shuriken Shadow Clone."
Instantly, countless lightning-charged projectiles followed, turning the sky into a collision of descending needles and ascending beams.
They t.
The explosion tore the heavens apart.
The tal spheres shattered one after another, barely stalling the Rabbit Hair Needles before breaking completely.
Tōma already knew they wouldn’t hold.
He never expected them to.
A grin tugged at his lips as he ford a seal against his chest.
"Detonate."
The air between them erupted.
Chain explosions blood violently, tearing apart the battlefield. Tōma’s cloak whipped wildly in the shockwaves, nine Truth-Seeking Orbs floating calmly behind him.
A few needles still broke through.
Tōma raised an orb to block—
And watched it get pierced straight through.
His pupils shrank.
So this is real power.
In the sa instant, he vanished.
Flying Thunder God.
He reappeared beside a marked kunai just as a black spatial tear opened behind his forr position, a pale hand reaching out to grab him.
"Yomotsu Hirasaka," Tōma muttered.
"Annoying technique."
From Kaguya’s sleeve, Black Zetsu scoffed.
"Tch. Flying Thunder God... what a headache of a space-ti jutsu."
Then his eyes widened.
"Wait—how do you know that technique’s na?!"
Tōma smiled.
"I just do. Problem?"
If Black Zetsu had a face capable of showing color, it would have twisted badly.
"...The Sage told you," he said stiffly.
"Maybe," Tōma shrugged.
Black Zetsu snorted darkly.
"You know, Fujimoto Tōma... I genuinely pity this world’s shinobi."
Tōma glanced at him without interest.
"In their eyes, you’re the savior. The hero who will save everything. And yet—if they knew the truth..."
"Oh?" Tōma said.
"And what truth is that?"
"You could’ve stopped all of this," Black Zetsu said sharply.
"Long before the disaster. Before the war. Before Madara. With your strength, you could’ve erased everything early."
He leaned forward, voice dripping venom.
"You didn’t stop it. You let it happen. You even pushed it forward."
Tōma nodded.
"I did."
Black Zetsu froze.
"You gave Obito that Nine-Tails chakra on purpose," he continued, realization dawning.
"It wasn’t chance. It was you."
"And?" Tōma replied calmly.
"Don’t you feel sha?" Black Zetsu demanded.
Tōma laughed softly.
"Sha?"
He tilted his head.
"Who’s watching?"
Black Zetsu stiffened.
Everyone else was gone. All witnesses had beco fuel for the Divine Tree. Even the Sage couldn’t enter this space.
"So tell ," Tōma continued gently.
"Who exactly are you exposing to?"
Black Zetsu went silent.
Tōma smiled wider.
"Honestly, I should thank you."
"...What?"
"You handed everything," Tōma said, eyes gleaming.
"My position. My timing. My reputation."
Black Zetsu’s thoughts spiraled violently.
"...No. Don’t tell ..."
Tōma laughed.
"Even without you, I would’ve reached this point eventually," he said lightly.
"You just saved the trouble."
"That’s impossible!"
"Is it?" Tōma asked.
"You followed Madara for decades. You know how boring it is to have no rival."
"So you created one?" Black Zetsu whispered.
"Not exactly," Tōma replied.
"I wanted to go further. Chakra has a ceiling. Madara. Hashirama. That’s where it stops."
"And breaking that ceiling requires the Ten-Tails."
"You already broke it!" Black Zetsu snapped.
"And I still wasn’t satisfied."
Tōma’s voice was soft. Obsessive.
"Desire doesn’t end."
He laughed openly now.
"As a child, I just wanted my family to survive. As Hokage, I wanted to build sothing greater. But once I stood at the top..."
His grin widened.
"I wanted to surpass everything. Madara. Hashirama. The Sage of Six Paths."
"And you," he said, looking up at Kaguya.
"And you too."
He trembled—not from fear, but exhilaration.
"And the best part?" he continued, laughing.
"You did all the dirty work for . Took all the bla. And left standing as the world’s savior."
Tōma doubled over, laughing freely.
"What a perfect ending."
He straightened, eyes sharp and shining.
"So tell , Black Zetsu—did you really think you were the mastermind?"
He smiled.
"From the mont I decided to walk this path... I was the one behind the curtain."
"And I will be the final winner."
...
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