Naruto and the others, who had just returned, stared at the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, in astonishment.
Knowing what would happen in the future, they understood all too well just how tempting the God Tree and the Chakra Fruit could be.
They had guarded against every possibility, only to discover that the threat had been right under their noses all along. Their First Hokage was actually a God Tree?!
Now that was ridiculous!
Hashirama desperately defended himself. "I'm human! How could I possibly be a God Tree? Besides, have you ever seen a tree that can walk around by itself?"
Madara Uchiha replied, "Aren't your Wood Release Wooden Man and Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands exactly that?"
"Those are ninjutsu." Hashirama pouted. "Madara can use Susanoo, but that doesn't mean Madara is some Great Tengu guarding a mountain, does it?"
"Hmph! There's no arguing with you!"
Kaguya: "..."
This Rabbit Goddess was so ethereal that everything she did seemed three beats slower than everyone else.
She slowly said, "According to what you've told me, the chakra possessed by later generations came from the power Hagoromo shared with them. One cannot share a power one does not possess."
In other words, if even Rikudō Sennin couldn't use Wood Release, how could his descendants have inherited the power of Wood Release from him?
Ashura nodded. "That's true. I've never seen Father use Wood Release, and neither my brother nor I have any aptitude for it."
"Father possessed Yin-Yang Release, as well as the powers of the Six Paths and the Rinnegan," Indra added, more or less confirming Ashura's statement.
Even Madara Uchiha brought up the fact that he had once bitten a chunk of flesh from Hashirama Senju's shoulder and later cultivated an entire pseudo-God Tree from it.
Hashirama Senju, who had somehow been classified as a human-shaped, self-propelled miniature God Tree, looked utterly bewildered.
So he wasn't even human anymore?
What Tobirama Senju cared about was something else. "What effects could this have? Has anything similar ever happened before?"
Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha also turned toward Kaguya.
Kaguya shook her head.
"Nothing like this has ever occurred within the Ōtsutsuki Clan either."
"There seems to be a parallel world where the First Hokage turned evil. I heard about it from that version of myself who reverted to the Ōtsutsuki lineage," Adult Obito recalled. "Even that other version of me didn't know the details. He only knew that something must have happened to push Hashirama over the edge. He turned every human and animal in the entire Ninja World into White Zetsu. I think he also mentioned that he himself was the God Tree."
He turned the entire Ninja World into White Zetsu?
"Wouldn't that mean Big Brother would be the only person left in the world?"
"Wouldn't that mean I'd be the only person left in the world?"
Tobirama Senju and Hashirama Senju spoke almost simultaneously, both looking astonished.
Madara Uchiha and Izuna Uchiha also found it difficult to imagine what kind of enormous shock could drive an optimist like Hashirama Senju to the point of rejecting the entire world, turning everyone into White Zetsu, and trapping them in the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Adult Obito thought back for a moment. "That version of me who reverted to the Ōtsutsuki lineage didn't explain much. But he seemed extremely afraid of Six Paths Hashirama. I can't even imagine how terrifying someone would have to be to scare Ōtsutsuki Obito, the guy who treats parallel worlds like his own backyard."
Everyone who had met Ōtsutsuki Obito inwardly sucked in a sharp breath and immediately began treating Hashirama Senju as someone who needed close observation.
Adult Obito added, "According to that version of me, even a hundred Six Paths Madara might not be as frightening as one Six Paths Hashirama."
Madara Uchiha: "..."
Was that really a fair comparison?!
No matter which world it was, Obito was still an infuriating brat who could drive him to an early grave!
Hashirama Senju stared at him. "Wait, just how terrifying am I supposed to become?"
"The important part is that Six Paths Hashirama apparently dug out that version of my Rinnegan and ate it, gaining his abilities. That's why he warned us to be careful. Our parallel world has generated a huge amount of space-time energy, so there's no telling whether Six Paths Hashirama might suddenly cross over here one day."
Adult Obito waved his arms and bared his teeth dramatically, deliberately trying to scare his younger self, Naruto, Sasuke, and the others.
Sasuke mercilessly pointed out, "If he likes eating your eyeballs that much, shouldn't you be the one who's worried?"
"Uh..."
Adult Obito's expression turned awkward.
"You really aren't cute at all, kid."
"I don't need you to think I'm cute."
Sasuke had never had much patience for Obito Uchiha.
Madara Uchiha suddenly said, "Now that you mention it, Hashirama, the flowers produced by your Advent of a World of Flowering Trees really do resemble the flowers on the God Tree."
Izuna Uchiha quietly whispered to Tobirama Senju, "You don't think your brother might grow a fruit someday too, do you?"
Tobirama imagined his big brother standing there with a fruit growing out of his head and immediately rejected the image.
He'd rather have mushrooms growing on him!!
Adult Obito said, "But wasn't the God Tree sealed by Rikudō Sennin and divided into the Nine Tailed Beasts and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path?"
Because he had once tried to gather those things together and recreate the Ten-Tails, he had learned some of the details from Black Zetsu and Madara Uchiha's memories.
"If that's the case, then which tree is the First Hokage supposed to be?"
After hearing Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's explanation, everyone was already looking at Hashirama Senju as though there were barely any difference between him and an actual tree.
Even Kaguya didn't know the answer to that question.
Kaguya said, "The duty of the Ōtsutsuki Clan is to protect and nourish God Trees. Every Ōtsutsuki has a God Tree they are responsible for tending."
And that special species of tree was the Ten-Tails.
She looked through the window of the wooden house at the enormous tree outside.
That was her God Tree.
The Chakra Fruit had not yet fully ripened. Had she not encountered these people, she probably would have had no choice but to eat the unripe, defective fruit.
Realizing what she was thinking, Hamura Ōtsutsuki became deeply worried.
"Mother, do you truly have to eat the fruit produced by that tree? Possessing too much power is not necessarily a good thing."
He didn't want to join forces with his older brother and seal their mother away again. Nor did he want his mother to sacrifice so many lives just to cultivate this God Tree.
Although he never said it aloud, Hamura believed that his mother must truly be gentle at heart.
"Does eating that thing make people's personalities weird, dattebayo?"
Naruto tilted his head. When he had experienced the life of Naruto Uzumaki from the main storyline, Madara-sama in that world had become even stranger and crazier after obtaining that power.
"I don't know." Hamura Ōtsutsuki shook his head. "But after Mother ate it, she became very difficult to approach. It was as though most of her human emotions had been stripped away."
Minato Namikaze speculated, "Perhaps the sudden increase in power infinitely magnifies certain extreme or negative emotions. It might be similar to how people who suddenly become enormously wealthy often find it difficult to hold on to that wealth."
"I was never human in the first place."
Kaguya said, "Like the fruits that grow on this planet, Chakra Fruits can also be good or bad."
She looked toward the distant God Tree.
"The current fruit has not yet fully matured."
"So the fruit right now is still a 'bad fruit'?"
"Yes. Unless I had no other choice, I would not eat it at this stage."
The Emperor standing nearby had long since lost track of what Kaguya and the others were talking about.
He couldn't even understand how Kaguya had so naturally accepted that white-haired young man, who looked roughly the same age as her, as their son.
"If you want fruit, I can have someone pick some for you. There are rumors that this tree is an ill omen that drains people's vitality. Wouldn't eating its fruit be the same as consuming human lives?"
Madara Uchiha really didn't want to hear this man speak anymore, so he simply ordered Obito to throw him and his attendants as far away as possible.
Young Obito was sick of the man too. Without hesitation, he used Kamui to dump them back near the place where they had previously driven off the generals of the Land of That.
Hamura Ōtsutsuki asked, "Mother, you no longer intend to return to the Land of Ancestors, do you?"
Kaguya nodded, her gaze fixed on the God Tree.
"All I wish to do now is remain here and wait for the fruit to ripen."
Madara Uchiha asked, "What do you intend to do after eating the Chakra Fruit? Cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"
He still couldn't understand it.
If Black Zetsu had manipulated them into casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi in order to revive Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, then what had this woman originally intended to accomplish with it?
"I will rule this land myself. Only by obtaining the power of the fruit can I accomplish that."
Clearly, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had completely given up on that scumbag Tenji and decided to unify the world herself.
Adult Obito asked, "Then what about the Infinite Tsukuyomi? If your only goal is to let the fruit mature, there's no need to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi over the entire world, is there?"
The God Tree itself was already capable of draining the life force of every living thing in the world.
Could casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi have been Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's final act of mercy toward humanity, allowing everyone to die peacefully inside a dream?
Kaguya placed a hand over her abdomen.
"I will create a powerful, immortal army for Hagoromo and Hamura."
The White Zetsu Army!!
Obito, Naruto, and the others immediately realized what Kaguya meant by a "powerful, immortal army."
Adult Obito and Young Obito understood it especially well. Their own bodies contained that strange substance.
Kaguya's ethereal features were so beautiful that she hardly seemed real.
She gazed toward the far side of the Milky Way and spoke softly.
"Before those people arrive, I must protect them. I must protect my children."
Those casually spoken words nearly shattered Hamura Ōtsutsuki's composure.
At this moment, his mother Kaguya still had no idea that he and his older brother would one day seal her away on the moon with their own hands.
Although Hamura later chose to go to the moon and remain by his mother's side, it could not change the fact that he and his older brother had betrayed her.
But after hearing his mother's words, he finally understood...
Even though she had made many wrong decisions, their mother had only ever been trying to protect them in her own way.