Kaguya Awakens

"So that's how it is."

Chiya lowered his head, his voice very soft.

The room fell silent for a while.

Shizune stood nearby, seemingly wanting to offer some comfort, but she did not know how to begin once the words reached her lips. After all, anything said about something like this would seem too shallow.

Tsunade, meanwhile, had no intention of comforting him.

She picked up her wine glass and gave it a shake, only to find it empty. Her expression immediately darkened further.

"You'd better not move around recklessly right now."

Chiya raised his head.

In his vision, Tsunade was still nothing more than a blurry golden silhouette.

"Mm."

Tsunade frowned when she saw him like this.

"And don't even think about sneaking off."

Chiya froze for a moment.

Tsunade snorted coldly.

"I've seen plenty of brats like you. Before their injuries are even healed, they're already thinking about going out to show off. If you crawl out of this bed now and fall to your death outside, no one will even collect your corpse."

Chiya's lips twitched.

"I'm not that stupid."

"You'd better not be."

Tsunade stood up.

"Get some rest first."

Chiya nodded.

He really could not hold on any longer.

From escaping the Konoha Council Hall all the way here, the Mangekyo Sharingan, Susanoo, Heavenly Dominion, Void Crossing, and everything else had consumed enormous amounts of chakra. He had practically been drained dry. Now that he relaxed even slightly, the exhaustion in his body surged over him all at once. His thirteen-year-old body simply did not have enough chakra yet.

He closed his eyes.

Rain still pattered outside.

At first, he could still hear Tsunade and Shizune talking quietly. Shizune seemed to be urging Tsunade to drink less, while Tsunade replied with several impatient remarks. Later, the voices grew farther and farther away, and even the sound of rain seemed to fade.

Chiya's consciousness gradually sank away.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already standing on that familiar expanse of water.

Pale blue light.

Towering stone pillars.

A circle of ripples gently spread across the water beneath his feet.

Chiya froze for a moment, then abruptly looked up.

"Kaguya?"

The surroundings were silent.

Chiya's heart suddenly clenched, and he hurried several steps forward.

"Kaguya!"

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

"You're still as noisy as ever."

Chiya froze completely. The next moment, an uncontrollable smile spread across his face.

"You're awake?"

As he spoke, he ran toward the source of the voice.

The mist in the mental space was much denser than before, and the pale blue light had dimmed considerably as well. Chiya passed several stone pillars before he finally saw Kaguya.

She sat at the end of the water, her long hair scattered at her side, her white robes trailing into the water. She looked far fainter than before—not merely weak, but like moonlight on the verge of being scattered by the wind.

Chiya's steps abruptly slowed.

The joy on his face had yet to fade, but when he saw Kaguya like this, his heart suddenly sank.

"What happened to you?"

Kaguya looked up at him. Her voice was much softer than before.

"It's nothing."

Chiya frowned.

"You call this nothing?"

Kaguya did not answer.

Chiya walked up to her and carefully examined her face.

Kaguya turned her head slightly away.

"Stay back."

Chiya only grew more anxious.

"What exactly is going on with you? Something was already wrong when you saved Ino before, and after that, you never responded. Just now, I thought you..."

He stopped halfway through.

Kaguya glanced at him.

"You thought what?"

Chiya fell silent for several seconds.

"I thought you were gone."

Something shifted in Kaguya's eyes.

After a while, she said flatly, "I was only asleep."

Chiya sighed in relief, but he could not help frowning again.

"Then why are you awake now?"

Kaguya lowered her gaze to the water.

"Someone transferred chakra into you."

Chiya froze for a moment, then quickly realized.

Tsunade had used medical chakra when she examined his eyes earlier.

"So Tsunade's chakra woke you up?"

Kaguya nodded lightly.

"Mm."

Chiya looked at her increasingly transparent figure, feeling rather unpleasant inside.

"So what exactly is your condition now?"

Kaguya was silent for a while.

"I am only a remnant energy form now."

Her voice was very soft.

"There was not much chakra left to begin with. Saving you several times during this period consumed even more."

Chiya said nothing at once.

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 emerged from within him every time he was on the verge of death.

Those things had not come from nowhere.

Kaguya had given them all to him.

Chiya raised a hand, slowly condensing a small amount of chakra in his palm.

"Then I'll transfer some to you."

Kaguya looked at his hand.

The next moment, she directly waved her hand.

With a smack.

The small amount of chakra in Chiya's palm was scattered.

Chiya froze.

"What are you doing?"

Kaguya looked at him.

"It's useless."

"How is it useless?"

"You're too weak."

Chiya's mouth twitched.

That hit straight where it hurt.

Kaguya continued, "You have too little chakra, and its quality is too low. Giving it to me will only make you weaker."

Chiya choked.

He wanted to retort, but after thinking for a long time, he could not find anything to say.

He really was weak right now.

He had nearly blinded himself just by awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan, and he had almost died face-down in the mud while escaping a village. If Shizune had not passed by, he might already have been soaked stiff in 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 will you recover?"

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

Kaguya did not finish, but Chiya understood.

In an instant, turbulent waves surged through his heart!

He had never considered it from this angle before. If Kaguya were to recover, she would likely need tailed beasts.

But Chiya showed no unusual reaction. He merely nodded firmly.

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

No matter what, becoming stronger was the most important thing now. The stronger he became, the more chakra his body could contain.

Capturing tailed beasts in the future would also go more smoothly.

In the end, he still had to become stronger.

Kaguya suddenly looked at his eyes, then reached out and tapped his eye sockets.

Her hand was cool, and Chiya froze at once.

"This, I can heal."

"Really?"

Chiya looked at Kaguya excitedly. He had nearly forgotten—the person before him was Kaguya, the ancestor of chakra!

Kaguya looked at him, her tone calm.

"But I can't do it right now."

The joy on Chiya's face stiffened.

"Why?"

"I don't have enough chakra."

Chiya opened his mouth, then closed it again.

There was nothing wrong with that.

Kaguya could barely maintain even her own figure now. Asking her to heal his Mangekyo Sharingan was indeed unrealistic.

But at least there was hope.

Hope was enough.

Chiya suddenly thought of something and abruptly slapped his hands together.

"Right!"

Kaguya was startled by him, her brows furrowing slightly.

Chiya's eyes immediately lit up.

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

Kaguya looked at him.

"What?"

With a thought from Chiya, a circle of ripples spread across the water.

A scroll slowly rose from the surface.

The Flying Thunder God Scroll!

Ever since he had been hunted, he had constantly felt that something might happen, so he had kept his valuable items on him at all times.

The scroll slowly unfurled before them.

Densely packed formulas spread across the water, making Chiya's scalp tingle just looking at them.

He pointed at those formulas.

"This."

"The Flying Thunder God Technique."

Kaguya lowered her head and glanced at it.

Chiya watched her nervously.

"What do you think? Can you understand it?"

Kaguya looked at it for several seconds.

"A space-time technique."

Chiya nodded rapidly.

"Yes, yes, yes, it's a space-time ninjutsu."

Kaguya continued reading.

Chiya did not dare disturb her and could only squat obediently beside her.

After a while, Kaguya raised her head.

"It's not difficult."

Chiya froze.

"Not difficult?"

Kaguya's tone was calm.

"Mm."

Chiya's mouth twitched violently.

He had studied it for so long and had not even found the doorway.

Yet Kaguya took one look and said it was not difficult.

Was this the gap between humans and the Ōtsutsuki Clan?

Chiya hurriedly leaned closer.

"Then can you teach me?"

Kaguya glanced at him.

"Not now."

The smile on Chiya's face froze again.

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

The techniques were gradually enveloped in pale blue light, then slowly sank beneath the water's surface.

"I'll study how to teach them to you."

Chiya immediately perked up.

"Good, good, good."

At last, there was some good news. With the Flying Thunder God, even if he could not win, he could still run.

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

"However, space-time ninjutsu like this is not so easy to master. To use it in battle, you need extremely fast reflexes."

At that moment, Kaguya suddenly raised her hand.

Chiya blinked.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

Kaguya said blandly, "You're too noisy. I want to rest."

"Then I—"

Before he could finish, the water beneath his feet suddenly shook.

Chiya's entire body was pushed backward by a force.

"Hey! Kaguya! Don't throw people out every time!"

Kaguya closed her eyes.

"Leave."

Chiya's vision went black.

The next moment, he abruptly opened his eyes.

The room was still the same room.

Rain still pattered outside the window, and the bitter medicinal smell by the bed was choking.

There was no one left in the room.

The corners of Chiya's mouth could not help but curl upward little by little.

Kaguya had awakened, and her eyes could be saved too.

He would soon be able to learn the Flying Thunder God as well.

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

"I'm alive again."