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"Gentleness, huh?"
Kaito was momentarily stunned.
He thought about it, then shook his head.
"It was just a bit of consideration within my power. But…"
But it was true that the old him would never have thought this way.
Gentleness? Consideration?
Those words had never existed in his dictionary.
From the moment he was young, he had shouldered the heavy yoke of saving the world all by himself.
Back then, he had been taken to Mount Ōeyama. He gained power he had never dreamed of, but at the same time automatically accepted the duty of protecting the world.
The young him had been absurdly confident in himself; he had never once wavered or hesitated.
Yet those responsibilities had still left their mark on him.
In the past, his eyes saw only his own goals. To achieve them, he would charge forward without ever caring about anyone else's feelings.
Even when he took on the task of raising Sasuke—his only remaining family—his methods had been crude and brutal.
He had bluntly revealed the truth to Sasuke, then basically let him raise himself. Later, he even dumped the job of educating Sasuke entirely onto Onikiri, Chiri, Izuna, and Madara.
As for what Sasuke truly felt inside? Honestly, he hadn't cared all that much.
On the surface it looked like he had given Sasuke a lot of freedom, but in reality, he simply hadn't bothered to worry about it.
Thinking about this now, Kaito suddenly turned to Izuna and Chiri.
"Izuna, Lay Chiri… I'm really glad you were there. Thanks to you, Sasuke grew up well."
"Oh? You're finally admitting it?" Izuna replied without pulling any punches.
"If it weren't for us old folks, I honestly can't imagine what kind of person Sasuke would have turned into following you."
"Little Kaito can't even take care of himself, after all." Chiri smiled gently.
"Asking you to raise a child really was too much to ask."
"Ah… Gurē put up with a lot from me too."
Kaito sighed.
"Maybe because the long-term goal was finally achieved and I could finally relax, or maybe the completely different atmosphere between people in that other world suddenly made me aware of things I used to overlook."
"You don't need to overthink it," Chiri said softly. "Precisely because everyone knows the responsibility you carry and what you mean to this world, they forgave you and helped you. And you never let any of us down. Now you're even changing in new ways—this is growth."
"Yeah, speaking of which, I should head back to the living world soon."
Kaito stood up.
"Izuna, do you want to go see Madara?"
"No need. Hell is going to be very busy for a while. I decided to stay and help His Majesty finish building the new rules."
Izuna unexpectedly refused.
"As for my brother—tell him to come help out in Hell too. Once you're back, there's no need for him to keep guarding the moon."
"Guarding? Isn't His Majesty the one using my body to 'guard' it?"
Kaito narrowed his eyes at King Enma.
"This king's energy is limited. I didn't pay much attention to that side."
King Enma declared shamelessly.
"So I left most of it to Madara."
Bullshit!
Kaito looked at him with contempt.
That kind of thing was the same as casually splitting off a clone—way too easy for a god!
"What are you dissatisfied about? This king had nothing but good intentions."
King Enma was completely unfazed by the glare.
"You know full well that although my soul originated from you, it has long since become fundamentally different from yours."
He leisurely took a sip of tea.
"Over-interfering with your body would cause problems. A god's soul is fundamentally higher level than yours. Since we share the same origin, if your body grew too accustomed to my soul's aura, once you returned it would create a barrier between your own soul and your flesh."
"…I see. Got it."
Kaito nodded.
"Open the door. I'm going back."
Of course, he didn't buy King Enma's excuse for a second.
Same origin, my ass—he knew exactly what the guy was really thinking.
He was just being lazy.
All he had to do was hide the body properly and split off a bit of power to impersonate him!
Don't think he hadn't noticed: when King Enma used his identity to set up those illusion arrays, that's exactly what he had done.
After all, a human body might be possessable, but it wasn't the most convenient vessel for a god unless absolutely necessary.
He just couldn't be bothered to argue.
"Fine, fine, I get it."
King Enma pointed a finger, and an irregularly shaped black space gate opened.
"I'm off then."
Kaito didn't say anything more. He waved to Izuna and Chiri, then stepped through the gate.
…
Moon Palace.
The castle that had once been deathly quiet remained just as silent as ever.
Aside from the shinobi occasionally moving around the Reincarnation Chamber outside where the teleportation array was installed, the interior of the castle was completely still.
Even the shinobi walking outside—no matter which village they came from—instinctively lightened their steps when passing near the castle.
Inside the castle.
A black space gate suddenly opened. Uchiha Madara, who had been sitting cross-legged in utter boredom, immediately turned his head.
"You're back."
He looked at the empty black gate.
"Your body is in the inner room."
With that, he turned back to stare out the window.
A few seconds later, the inner door opened and Kaito stepped out.
"Madara, thank you for looking after my body."
"Mm. Did Izuna come back too?"
Madara stood up and stretched.
Kaito nodded.
"He did. Izuna says he'd like you to come help in Hell for a while."
"I see."
Madara glanced at the still-open space gate.
"Then I'll head over."
His soul detached from the wooden puppet he had been possessing and walked toward the gate.
"All the documents about the construction of the lunar space defense line are on the desk. Read them yourself."
With that, his soul stepped through the gate, and both he and the gate vanished without a trace.
"Seriously…"
Kaito bent down, picked up the now-lifeless puppet, placed it on the desk, glanced at the mountain of files, shook his head, and closed his eyes to receive the memories from the paper-shikigami clones that had been guarding the teleportation array.
He soon opened his eyes again, now having a rough grasp of the moon's current situation.
Before he left, he had sent word to the five great shinobi villages. At the appointed time, each village had teleported a batch of personnel to the moon.
King Enma had appeared in his place, given a brief explanation, then promptly dumped them all onto the floating castle.
After a period of negotiation, the shinobi quickly divided up the vast lunar surface, confirmed their respective defense sectors, and even arrogantly drew borders for the territories of other factions.
Then came the construction of the overall defense line.
King Enma hadn't bothered with that either—he simply tossed the entire construction task to the shinobi.
The five villages divvied things up among themselves and proactively began planning and building.
Madara had only overseen the process.
"Tch."
Kaito clicked his tongue in annoyance.
The overall defense line still needed proper planning. After all, the so-called defense line ultimately relied on him to set up the actual barriers.
Frowning, he rubbed his temples, sat down at the desk, and began flipping through the documents.