Chapter 141: Otsutsuki's Tragic Wish
Space is not as simple as one plus one, or a larger box containing a smaller one.
Strictly speaking, every space is an independent, discontinuous domain. There is no absolute hierarchy between them, only different methods of entry and exit.
From that perspective, the Kamui space and the Divine Tree space were on the same level.
Moving from one independent space into another, then leaping out again, simply meant that circulation between them existed. Kamui clearly had a very high spatial priority. With a single Sharingan, Kakashi could teleport into a completely isolated dimension, slip past the Divine Tree's spacetime barrier, and then summon someone from yet another enclosed space.
He could not teleport directly out of the Kamui space, and its internal seals were tight, but compared to the one way barrier wrapped around the Divine Tree, Kamui's configuration was far simpler.
In less than a second, Aizen had stepped backward out of Kamui's dimension and into the Divine Tree space.
And now, he stood directly between Madara Uchiha and the two Kakashis.
Once a boundary in spacetime could be perceived, it could be crossed. If it could not be perceived, for all practical purposes it did not exist.
That was the true relationship between time and space.
The moment Aizen Sousuke understood the structure and began to investigate, the flow of chakra through the network had leaked. The cognitive net that had cloaked the barrier naturally started to unravel.
From that point on, tearing open a path between spaces was no more difficult for Aizen than breathing.
Everything that had been hidden might as well have been laid bare.
"Let us have a proper conversation, Madara senpai," Aizen said, taking a light step toward him, as if they were discussing research notes over tea. "Your chakra is already contaminated, and your ally seems to hold some resentment toward me. It is better for both of us if we speak plainly."
The instant the barrier shattered, the tides of chakra that had been flowing in opposition inside and outside the Divine Tree space ground to a halt.
Like an inverted Klein bottle, the barrier had stolen natural energy and chakra from every corner of the shinobi world and funneled it into Madara.
Now that it had been breached, there was no longer any need to continue that process.
The conversion technique stopped.
Countless white figures that had been flowing and reforming in the air and on the ground, even those partially merging with the wooden tiles beneath their feet, froze in place.
Aizen glanced at the arrested spellwork and shook his head, almost regretfully, before turning back to Madara, whose expression had gone as dark as still water.
"From my personal perspective," Aizen said, "I would have preferred you continued."
"If this had continued," Madara asked coldly, "what would you have done?"
"If I were the Madara Uchiha imagined by Madara Uchiha," Aizen replied, "then I would have crushed you completely at your peak, when your arrogance was greatest, and used you as food."
His gaze moved slowly over Madara's body. The man had been resurrected in full, but three distinct streams of consciousness flickered inside him.
Aizen shook his head.
"But I am not a bloodthirsty beast," he went on. "On the contrary, I enjoy communication. If possible, I prefer to avoid unnecessary fighting and injury between us. We both understand very well that internal friction is the most meaningless form of conflict. Competition and self destruction are not the same thing."
His tone was gentle, matter of fact.
"We should share our beliefs," he said, "and work toward a better world and a brighter future, something more trustworthy and exciting than what we have now. That requires honesty. You may have many misunderstandings about me, but I have shown you utmost sincerity, have I not?"
"I have never harmed you, not even at a moment like this. I dislike the loss of talent caused by suspicion among capable people. It is wasteful, and meaningless."
"Since you have chosen the path of Gestalt, I will not interfere. I only ask that you release Obito and Rin. At the very least, you should obtain their consent."
"..."
Is this really Aizen Sousuke?
Konoha's Kakashi watched from the side, completely at a loss.
After forcibly pushing his younger self into Kamui's dimension, he felt as if his own part of the mission had ended.
He had no idea what methods this world's Kakashi had used, but the result spoke for itself.
The one person who seemed able to save them all, the man this world's Kakashi had been betting everything on, had indeed appeared.
Aizen.
Through Obito's Sharingan, Kakashi could still feel his younger counterpart curled up in Kamui's space. The boy had clearly chosen to lie there on purpose, wary of any hidden trap Madara might have prepared.
It was strange.
Konoha's Kakashi could feel a subtle bond between himself and the younger Kakashi, as if they naturally shared an unspoken understanding. Whatever the boy decided, it never felt like it would harm him.
He assumed the younger one felt the same.
Madara Uchiha, however, triggered a different reaction.
The Sharingan Obito had given him throbbed every time he looked at Madara, saturating his mind with hatred and the urge for revenge.
Between his own instincts and his counterpart's trust, Kakashi had not hesitated to attack this unfamiliar Madara.
Now, though, he strongly suspected that the truly terrifying existence here was Aizen Sousuke.
Before Aizen's arrival, Madara's arrogance had been absolute, his tone unconcerned, but dogged with a hint of caution.
After Aizen appeared and tore open the barrier, Madara's fighting spirit seemed to vanish. It was as if his plan had failed and he had already abandoned the idea of victory.
But would the legendary Madara Uchiha truly give up that easily?
Konoha's Kakashi felt that something was off.
"...As expected, Aizen," Madara finally muttered, sarcasm curling his lip. "In the end you obtain everything. After all these years, I am almost used to it."
Yet even while he sneered, there was resignation in his voice.
"Then, to show our sincerity," he said, "have Kakashi release his Bankai. I will tell you what I have obtained, and what has become of his two friends. It is simply not appropriate for outsiders to listen to the rest."
"Of course," Aizen said.
He nodded and turned to Konoha's Kakashi with an apologetic smile.
"What a pity, Kakashi kun of Konoha," he said. "If circumstances allowed, I would like to sit down with you and speak at length about our story in that other world. But for now, in order to demonstrate our trust, please follow this black line back to your own world."
"You do not need my help?" Kakashi asked.
"It is merely a disagreement between researchers on chakra and world theory," Aizen replied. "Once we clarify it, the matter will be simple. There is no need for a fight."
"...I see."
Kakashi exhaled slowly.
"Then I will go back."
He still did not know whether every word Aizen spoke was true, but the man certainly seemed reasonable.
Perhaps he really was a good person.
Everything happening here felt like a fever dream anyway.
A black door opened behind Aizen, a line of darkness that promised a return to somewhere familiar.
The mental pressure of this space, of these people, was more exhausting than any battlefield Kakashi had known.
He was tired.
So when Aizen smiled and the black cavity beckoned, he stepped toward it without protest.
The instant Konoha's Kakashi walked past him, as Aizen's smile softened and the doorway began to swallow Kakashi's body, as the younger Kakashi clung to the fraying edge of Bankai and the summoning tunnel twisted around all of them,
Madara suddenly threw his head back and roared at the frozen Infinite Army.
"What are you waiting for, Urashiki Otsutsuki!"
A pure white shadow snapped into existence among the suspended legion.
A man wrapped in machinery and scars, his body in tatters, appeared in the air.
Something in the timeline lurched.
Every mind in the space felt a moment of discontinuity, like their thoughts had skipped a beat.
The instant Madara's shout rang out, they all saw him, as if he had always been there.
A pallid, ragged man, skin covered in lesions, a single golden eye burning with fury, slammed a cracked, turtle shell like object into the ground.
"I know!" he screamed. "You do not need to tell me!"
The remaining eye burst with blinding light.
Time and space ruptured again.
By the time everyone's consciousness caught up, a huge black array of fly script symbols had spread across the floor.
The pale man coughed a mouthful of blood. Countless chakra pills spilled from his mouth like clots, rolling across the array and into the shattered tortoise shell.
The shell flashed, and a hazy yellow light shot up and wrapped around Aizen and Konoha's Kakashi.
From the first shout to the moment the light closed, less than a tenth of a second had passed.
Aizen only had time to blink. His eyes widened slightly with interest.
Within that collapsing instant, Urashiki Otsutsuki threw back his head, vomited more blood, and slammed both hands onto the broken shell.
"Self destruct, Plow!" he roared. "Together with Kakashi Hatake's Bankai, send Aizen Sousuke to another world! For us, for the future of this universe, send him out!"
"Wait," Madara snapped. "This is not what we agreed on, Urashiki Otsutsuki. I am going to defeat him"
"Stop dreaming!" Urashiki shouted. "What are you standing there for, Madara Uchiha? Push your chakra into the shell. What are you still hesitating for at a time like this? Cough, cough..."
Chakra rushed out of him like a broken dam, a crimson torrent flooding the shattered tortoise shell.
The half mechanical figure glared at Madara, voice cracking with fury.
"If you do not move, none of us will live!" he screamed. "Do you understand? This is our only chance. Our last chance. There is nothing else left. The Infinite Army and the Time Reversal Barrier are both ruined. This is the only shot we have!"
The yellow light from the dissolving shell grew brighter and thinner at the same time, flickering as it wrapped around Aizen.
The man inside looked thoughtful, almost contemplative.
Urashiki spat more blood onto the shell, jaw clenched in desperation.
"Listen to me, all of you!" he roared. "I am Urashiki Otsutsuki, a descendant of the Otsutsuki clan thirty years in the future! Thirty years from now, this world will be Aizen's world. Everyone will be driven forward by endless pain and unfulfilled desire. Us, you, all life in this universe, all of it will be pushed into the chaos he creates!"
"We must stop him! We cannot let him remain unstoppable. At the very least we must throw him out of this world! We Otsutsuki only wander the universe to spread chakra and tend our flocks, but with Aizen Sousuke in the future, that will become the end of all intelligent life!"
"Everyone, everything, will exist only to serve his final answer. His thirst for the unknown and his courage have no limit. Throw him out, no matter the cost! Do you hear me?"
"..."
No one moved.
Madara watched his own ally with flat, cold eyes.
The pale yellow light wavered, its surface collapsing and filling in on itself.
Urashiki's shoulders dipped. Despair crept across his face.
Then Aizen moved.
"Ah," he murmured, voice calm. "A cavity. How interesting."
He looked around at the swaying veil of yellow light, then at the cracked summoning array beneath his feet.
"I have been wondering why I appeared in this world," he said. "It seems you have given me an excellent opportunity to investigate."
"...What are you doing?"
Urashiki stared, aghast.
Aizen was not resisting.
He was cooperating.
Instead of fighting the pull, he stepped deeper into the yellow light and touched the barrier gently with one hand. His chakra flared.
Vast power surged out of him and poured directly into the veil.
"Thank you for your help, Urashiki Otsutsuki," he said. "Plow, time, multiple worlds, and Kakashi's Bankai Future World. Your appearance has confirmed many of my hypotheses."
"So that is how it is. In that case, everything is consistent. Spacetime is a single whole, and my existence here is no coincidence. I see."
"..."
What did he figure out?
What is he planning?
What did we just prove for him?
Urashiki's thoughts spun.
He had never shown himself. He had never taken obvious action.
He had simply crawled to Madara's side, whispering promises of power and techniques.
All of the Infinite Army, the Divine Tree space, Madara's transformations, these were nothing Aizen could not have derived on his own with a little effort.
He had taken care not to reveal himself to anyone. There was no way Aizen could have known his identity or his plans.
And yet Aizen now spoke as if everything had been laid bare.
No. According to Aizen's own theories, sometimes the fact that an event happens is proof enough.
In other words, was Urashiki's very appearance the confirmation Aizen had been waiting for?
Under Urashiki's stunned gaze, the halo that had nearly fallen apart flared brighter than ever.
The chakra Madara and Urashiki had saved and hoarded for years, drained in an instant and almost gone, was replaced.
Aizen's chakra roared into the shell, into the array, into the light.
The dying portal, which should have collapsed and taken nothing with it, stabilized. Its glow smoothed, its shape sharpened, and a strange keening filled the air, like metal singing under pressure.
Aizen had completed the loop.
As the supposed victim of this transference, he had not only accepted the pull from another universe, he had become its main power source.
"My appearance here," he said quietly, "was necessary. I understand now. My presence is an indispensable variable in your world."
"Of course," he added, eyes half lidded, "I realized as much the moment I saw this spacetime ninjutsu."
Time and space were a single fabric.
Anyone who grasped true space time ninjutsu could follow that logic to its end.
The membrane torn open by Kakashi's Bankai was being eaten and reshaped by the yellow light. It wrapped around Aizen, compressing his form toward a single, brilliant point.
He did not resist the crushing pull between the two worlds.
He simply lowered his gaze to Urashiki, who was now kneeling on the floor, panting, every scrap of chakra drained.
A hint of relief softened Aizen's features.
"I assume the me who exists in your future also understood all of this," he said. "That must be why these arrangements were made. Fascinating. This world is indeed worthy of study."
"I will personally investigate the differences between that world and this one."
He tilted his head slightly, turning toward the younger Kakashi still maintaining what was left of Bankai.
"Kakashi, go back and ask Tobirama Senju to lead Las Noches with you," he said. "Until I return, the two of you will guide it."
"I will come back as soon as I can. Goodbye, everyone."
His voice was as calm as ever, carrying an odd mix of certainty and anticipation.
Under Urashiki Otsutsuki's despairing stare, Aizen Sousuke's body vanished into the yellow blaze along with the remnants of Kakashi's Bankai.
The Divine Tree space fell quiet.
No one knew how much time passed.
Eventually, beyond the wooden walls, there was the faint rustle of movement.
Somewhere, a man slowly opened his eyes.
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