Hearing Hoshiyomi's voice, a chill ran through Kaguya's heart. The instant she sensed his figure rushing toward her at high speed, she controlled her long hair to sweep toward him.
But that hair couldn't stop Hoshiyomi at all. Around his body, the sword-shaped shadows formed by the Truth-Seeking Orbs flashed repeatedly, easily severing Kaguya's hair cleanly.
Before Kaguya even had time to turn around or make any kind of response, Hoshiyomi was already upon her.
Slash!
Kaguya saw Hoshiyomi's drawing strike clearly, but her lack of combat awareness prevented her from mounting an effective counter in time.
She could only dodge in a panic, but Hoshiyomi's slash was simply too fast. Even though she avoided a vital point, her right arm was still cut through by Mikazuki Munechika, which shimmered with blue-silver light.
The strike, infused with senjutsu energy, effortlessly severed Kaguya's entire right arm. To Kaguya, this was not a particularly serious injury—she could regenerate her arm in just a few seconds—but the moment she saw the severed limb, her expression changed drastically.
Because that right arm was where Black Zetsu had been hiding.
With the arm cut off, Black Zetsu was forcibly separated from Kaguya's main body.
Black Zetsu desperately tried to return to his mother, but Hoshiyomi had no intention of giving him that chance.
While continuously slashing apart the Eighty Gods Vacuum Fist attacks Kaguya sent at him, Hoshiyomi simultaneously controlled the Truth-Seeking Orb sword-shadows, pinning them firmly into Kaguya's sleeve.
The sword-shadows formed from the Truth-Seeking Orbs nailed her severed right arm in place. With no way to escape, Black Zetsu—hidden within the sleeve—was completely restrained.
Seeing that there was no hope of reclaiming Black Zetsu, Kaguya, though frustrated, asked unwillingly:
"How did you disappear without a trace?"
Hoshiyomi's sudden disappearance was actually nothing mysterious. He had simply used Dance of the Startling Swan at the moment Kaguya activated Amenominaka.
When Kaguya switched dimensions using Amenominaka, Hoshiyomi first left behind sword-shadows in the ice world, then used the Dance of the Startling Swan—previously employed against Madara—to return to the original shinobi world.
By sharing vision with the sword-shadows, Hoshiyomi saw Kaguya capture Naruto and Sasuke. Taking advantage of her momentary carelessness, he once again used the sword-shadows in the ice world to return there, launching this surprise attack on Kaguya.
Hoshiyomi had no interest in explaining any of this to Kaguya. Instead, he borrowed Naruto's usual line and replied:
"This is the accumulation of the history of shinobi."
"Damn you!"
Kaguya trembled with rage. Furious, she raised her left hand, and from within her sleeve suddenly shot forth a dark gray bone spike—one of Kaguya's techniques: All-Killing Ash Bones.
If struck by this bone, a person would crumble into white ash and vanish, much like a shattered Edo Tensei shinobi. Even someone like Obito, who had briefly entered the Six Paths level, would die instantly upon being hit by this.
Facing something so deadly, Hoshiyomi was naturally extremely cautious. He didn't even attempt to block it with sword energy—instead, he stepped onto the Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade, dodged the bone spike, and rapidly closed the distance to Kaguya.
Seeing Hoshiyomi evade the All-Killing Ash Bones by stepping on his own weapon, Kaguya stubbornly fired several more bone spikes. Yet every one of them was effortlessly avoided by Hoshiyomi.
Although Kaguya was the progenitor of chakra, her use of chakra was exceedingly simple and crude—put bluntly, she lacked imagination.
Like a primitive human who knew how to wield a stone but only used brute force to lift a boulder and smash an enemy, she could never conceive of shaping the stone into a weapon to increase its lethality.
Kaguya's rule had been far too comfortable. When facing humans without chakra, she only ever needed overwhelming chakra to suppress them.
She had never imagined that chakra could be used to create such varied and sophisticated ninjutsu.
This was also Kaguya's greatest weakness. She had underestimated the development of the shinobi world and overestimated her own strength—one of the key reasons she had been sealed by Hagoromo and Hamura in the first place.
And it would become the foreshadowing of her being sealed once again.
Once Hoshiyomi closed in on Kaguya, her lack of combat proficiency was completely exposed. Faced with Hoshiyomi's sword-saint–level swordsmanship, Kaguya was utterly unable to resist.
It was just like Sasuke during the Chūnin Exams when he faced Rock Lee—although she could clearly see Hoshiyomi's movements, she simply couldn't predict what his next move would be.
She might block Mikazuki Munechika in his hand one moment, only to be struck by Hoshiyomi's fist or kick the very next.
In no time at all, the once immaculate, sacred, and untouchable Kaguya was beaten into a thoroughly miserable state by Hoshiyomi.
Her entire body was covered in fine cuts. Though her regeneration was terrifyingly fast, it was still nowhere near fast enough to outpace the appearance of new wounds. Her once pristine divine robe had been torn to shreds, leaving her looking every bit like a fallen goddess in distress.
Thinking about how she—once the master of this world—was now being beaten and chased around in her own dimension by Hoshiyomi made Kaguya's anger boil over. Yet the angrier she became, the more distorted and sloppy her movements grew.
In her entire life, she had only ever fought once—and that was against her own two sons. With such a background, what combat experience could she possibly have? Kaguya was so furious that tears were nearly spilling from her eyes, yet she still couldn't change the fact that she was being utterly overwhelmed.
Facing Hoshiyomi's close-quarters assault, Kaguya realized in horror that she couldn't even find an opportunity to use Yomotsu Hirasaka to escape—let alone fight back.
While Kaguya felt so aggrieved she was on the verge of crying, what about Hoshiyomi?
Gekko Hoshiyomi was having the time of his life.
In fact, fighting Kaguya was far less interesting than fighting Madara. Against Madara, he had needed careful planning—thinking three steps ahead for every move—and even then, he would still occasionally get caught by Madara's schemes.
But against Kaguya? Hoshiyomi didn't even need to think. Under his hands, Kaguya had absolutely no ability to fight back.
Even Madara would have to retreat when facing Hoshiyomi in close combat. Fighting Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was basically like beating up a child.
Hoshiyomi didn't feel much of that visceral, blow-for-blow thrill—but his heart was completely at ease.
After all, who was Ōtsutsuki Kaguya?
The progenitor of chakra. The legendary Rabbit Goddess.
Watching the Rabbit Goddess he personally bullied to the point where tears were welling up in her eyes—was there anything in this world more satisfying than that?
Seeing the increasingly malicious grin on Hoshiyomi's face, even Kaguya, as naïve as she was, finally realized what was going on.
This bastard was purely using her as entertainment.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Kaguya's nose practically twisted with rage.
Enough was enough. She, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya—the dignified Rabbit Goddess—had never suffered such humiliation before.
Staring at Hoshiyomi's infuriating smile, Kaguya gritted her teeth, stomped her foot, and detonated three Truth-Seeking Orbs at point-blank range.
The explosion of a single Truth-Seeking Orb was enough to flatten half a forest.
The detonation of three at once was something even Hoshiyomi had to seriously consider. He immediately used Dance of the Startling Swan to pull back, while Kaguya herself, dragging her badly injured body, hastily activated Yomotsu Hirasaka and hid within another dimension.