Kaguya Awakens

"I see."

Chiya lowered his head, his voice quiet.

The room fell silent for a while.

Shizune stood nearby, looking as though she wanted to offer some comfort, but she could not find the words. Anything she said about something like this would sound hollow.

Tsunade, on the other hand, had no intention of comforting him.

She picked up her cup and gave it a swirl. Finding it empty, her expression darkened further.

"You'd better not move around."

Chiya looked up.

To his eyes, Tsunade was still a blurry shape of gold.

"Okay."

Tsunade frowned at the sight of him.

"And don't think about sneaking off."

Chiya paused.

Tsunade gave a cold snort.

"I've seen plenty of brats like you. Your injuries haven't healed, and you're already thinking of playing the hero. Crawl out of this bed now, and if you fall down dead outside, no one will even collect your body."

Chiya's mouth twitched.

"I'm not that stupid."

"You'd better not be."

Tsunade stood.

"Get some rest."

Chiya nodded.

He really could not hold out any longer.

He had fled all the way from the Konoha Council Hall, using the Mangekyo Sharingan, Susanoo, Heavenly Dominion, Void Crossing, and more. Every one of them had drained a tremendous amount of Chakra, leaving him nearly spent. The moment he relaxed, exhaustion flooded through him. At thirteen, his body still held too little Chakra.

He closed his eyes.

Rain continued to patter outside.

At first, he could still hear Tsunade and Shizune talking quietly. Shizune seemed to be urging Tsunade to drink less, and Tsunade answered with a few impatient words. Then their voices grew distant, and so did the rain.

Chiya's consciousness slowly sank away.

When he opened his eyes again, he stood on that familiar stretch of water.

Pale blue light.

Towering stone pillars.

A ripple spread gently across the water beneath his feet.

Chiya froze, then jerked his head up.

"Kaguya?"

Silence surrounded him.

His heart leaped into his throat. He hurried forward a few steps.

"Kaguya!"

This time, a faint voice finally came from the distance.

"You're as noisy as ever."

Chiya went still. Then a smile broke across his face before he could stop it.

"You're awake?"

He ran toward her voice.

The mist in his mindscape was thicker than before, and the pale blue light had grown much dimmer. Chiya ran past several stone pillars before he finally saw Kaguya.

She sat at the far end of the water, her long hair spread beside her and her white robes trailing into the water. She looked much fainter than before. It was more than simple weakness; she looked like a patch of moonlight on the verge of being scattered by the wind.

Chiya slowed abruptly.

The joy was still on his face, but his heart sank when he saw her like that.

"What happened to you?"

Kaguya raised her eyes to him. Her voice was much softer than before.

"Nothing."

Chiya frowned.

"You call this nothing?"

Kaguya did not answer.

Chiya walked up to her and studied her face.

Kaguya turned her head slightly.

"Stay back."

That only made Chiya more anxious.

"What's going on with you? Something was wrong when you saved Ino, and then you didn't respond for so long. Just now, I thought you..."

He broke off halfway through.

Kaguya glanced at him.

"Thought what?"

Chiya was silent for a few seconds.

"That you were gone."

Something shifted in Kaguya's eyes.

After a moment, she said calmly, "I was only asleep."

Chiya breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned again.

"Then why did you wake up now?"

Kaguya looked down at the water.

"Someone transferred Chakra into you."

Chiya paused, then quickly understood.

Tsunade had used medical Chakra while examining his eyes.

"So Tsunade's Chakra woke you?"

Kaguya nodded faintly.

"Yes."

Chiya looked at her increasingly transparent figure, his chest tightening.

"Then what state are you in now?"

Kaguya was silent for a while.

"I'm only a remnant of energy now."

Her voice was quiet.

"I had little Chakra left to begin with. Saving you several times recently used up much of it."

Chiya fell silent.

He thought of the Land of Waves, of Kakashi's Lightning Cutter, of the wound in Ino's chest, and of the cold white Chakra that had surged from within him each time he had been close to death.

None of it had come from nowhere.

Kaguya had given it all to him.

Chiya raised a hand, slowly gathering a little Chakra in his palm.

"Then I'll give you some."

Kaguya looked at his hand.

The next moment, she swept her hand out.

Smack.

The bit of Chakra in Chiya's palm scattered.

Chiya stared at her.

"What was that for?"

Kaguya looked at him.

"It's useless."

"How is it useless?"

"You're too weak."

Chiya's mouth twitched.

She had gone straight for the sore spot.

Kaguya continued, "You have too little Chakra, and its quality is too low. Giving it to me would only weaken you further."

Chiya choked on his reply.

He wanted to argue, but no matter how long he thought, he could not find the words.

Right now, he really was weak.

He had nearly blinded himself as soon as he awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, and he had almost died in the mud just trying to escape the village. If Shizune had not passed by, he might already have been lying out there, soaked stiff by the rain.

Chiya sat down on the water and sighed.

"Fine. I'm weak."

Kaguya glanced at him.

Chiya looked up at her.

"Then how do you recover?"

Kaguya looked toward the distant stone pillars and said evenly, "I need stronger Chakra. Or..."

Kaguya did not finish, but Chiya understood.

A storm surged through him.

It had never occurred to him before, but restoring Kaguya would probably require the Tailed Beasts.

Chiya showed none of what he was thinking. He simply nodded with determination.

"Don't worry. I'll definitely get stronger!"

No matter what, getting stronger was what mattered most now. The stronger he became, the more Chakra his body could hold.

Capturing the Tailed Beasts would go more smoothly in the future, too.

In the end, it all came down to getting stronger.

Kaguya suddenly looked at his eyes, then reached out and touched the rim of his eye socket.

Her hand was cool, and Chiya froze.

"This, I can heal."

"Really?"

Chiya looked at Kaguya in excitement. He had almost forgotten who stood before him: Kaguya, the progenitor of Chakra!

Kaguya looked at him, her tone calm.

"But I can't do it now."

The delight on Chiya's face froze.

"Why not?"

"I don't have enough Chakra."

Chiya opened his mouth, then closed it again.

He could not argue with that.

Kaguya could barely maintain her own form. Asking her to heal his Mangekyo Sharingan was not realistic.

But at least there was hope.

Hope was enough.

Something suddenly occurred to Chiya, and he clapped his hands.

"That's right!"

Kaguya flinched at the sudden sound, her brows drawing together slightly.

Chiya's eyes lit up.

"There's something I haven't been able to understand. You should be able to make sense of it, right?"

Kaguya looked at him.

"What is it?"

At a thought from Chiya, a ripple spread across the water.

A scroll slowly rose from beneath the surface.

The Flying Thunder God Scroll!

Ever since he had been hunted, he had felt that something might go wrong, so he had kept his valuables with him.

The scroll slowly unfurled before them.

Dense technique formulas spread across the water, making Chiya's scalp prickle just to look at them.

He pointed at the formulas.

"This."

"The Flying Thunder God Technique."

Kaguya glanced down at it.

Chiya watched her nervously.

"Well? Can you understand it?"

Kaguya studied it for a few seconds.

"A space-time technique."

Chiya nodded vigorously.

"Right, right. A space-time ninjutsu."

Kaguya kept looking.

Chiya did not dare disturb her, so he crouched quietly beside her.

After a while, Kaguya raised her head.

"It's not difficult."

Chiya froze.

"Not difficult?"

Kaguya's tone was flat.

"No."

Chiya's mouth twitched.

He had stared at it for ages without the faintest clue how it worked.

Kaguya had taken one look and said it was not difficult.

Was this the difference between humans and the Ōtsutsuki Clan?

Chiya hurried over.

"Then can you teach me?"

Kaguya glanced at him.

"Not yet."

Chiya's smile froze again.

Kaguya raised a hand and lightly touched the scroll with her fingertip.

Pale blue light enveloped the formulas one by one, and they slowly sank beneath the water.

"I'll work out how to teach you."

Chiya perked up at once.

"Great, great."

At last, some good news. Once he had Flying Thunder God, he could always run if he could not win.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.

"But space-time ninjutsu like this isn't easy to master. To use it in battle, you need extremely fast reflexes."

Just then, Kaguya suddenly raised her hand.

Chiya blinked.

"Wait. What are you doing?"

"You're too noisy," Kaguya said calmly. "I need to rest."

"Then I—"

Before he could finish, the water beneath his feet shuddered.

A force shoved Chiya backward.

"Hey! Kaguya! Stop throwing me out every time!"

Kaguya closed her eyes.

"Out."

Everything went black.

A moment later, his eyes flew open.

He was back in the same room.

Rain still pattered outside the window, and the bitter smell of medicine by the bed made him choke.

No one else was in the room.

The corners of Chiya's mouth slowly rose.

Kaguya was awake. There was hope for his eyes, too.

Soon, he would learn Flying Thunder God as well.

Chiya leaned back against the pillow and let out a quiet breath.

"I'm going to make it."