Isshiki's Memories

Kakashi had never had much chakra to begin with. The official databook gave Kakashi a stamina score of 6; even as an Elite Jonin, his chakra had only just reached the passing line for an ordinary Jonin. So my setting was that, in Konoha Year 60, Kakashi had a standard 1 card of chakra after deducting the Sharingan's consumption—not all of Kakashi's chakra. And even without the Sharingan, his chakra reserves would still have been on the lower end among Jonin. He was the kind of ninja who was severely short on mana.

Of course, his chakra increased later on, but that was purely Kishimoto messing up the art.

I wasn't taking the blame for that.

After an unknown amount of time, Qing Si awakened from his meditative state. The amount of chakra in his body had increased again, and the quality of his chakra had risen to another level as well.

To quantify it, the units used to measure chakra were cards and pillars. A pillar was also called a chakra-ton; 1 pillar = 1,000 cards.

In the original story, Hatake Kakashi, who had to constantly devote chakra to sustaining the Sharingan when he first appeared, was the standard 1 card. The First Hokage, the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, was the standard 1 pillar.

(Chakra reserves did not absolutely equal strength, nor did they equal ninja rank. But in the vast majority of cases in the Shinobi World, chakra reserves were tied to a ninja's strength and rank.)

Qing Si currently had roughly 11 cards' worth of chakra, and the quality of his chakra far exceeded that of an ordinary ninja. In other words, when Qing Si used the same ninjutsu, it would be more powerful.

"It's time to sort things out properly." Qing Si let out a long breath and began continuously reviewing all the information Isshiki had left behind in his mind. That review alone took a full five days.

These hidden events, most of which had long been buried in the river of history, utterly fascinated Qing Si.

The final memory lingered on Isshiki's endless regret and unwillingness after he had been forced to reincarnate and revive, only to be killed alongside his father, Genji, because of his own arrogance.

At the same time, combined with the various video clips he had seen in his previous life, Qing Si—though unfamiliar with Naruto's plot—came to know nearly all the Shinobi World's secrets with Isshiki's "assistance." This made him let out a long breath, easing some of the pressure he felt toward the vast, unknowable future.

Moreover, through Isshiki's memories, Qing Si gained a clearer understanding of his own race than he had in his previous life.

The pair of horns on his forehead were not merely a symbol of the Otsutsuki Clan; they also represented his status as a legitimate member of the main branch.

The Otsutsuki Clan, capable of crossing the stars and surviving in the void of space, possessed unparalleled talents and power. Horns were the outward manifestation of the Ōtsutsuki bloodline.

Those of the main branch grew two horns, while those of the side branches grew one. Kaguya, Momoshiki, Urashiki, and the legendary Shibai from his previous-life memories were all members of the main branch, while Kinshiki and Isshiki belonged to side branches.

There was no absolute hierarchy between the main and side branches. In the end, strength spoke for itself. Under normal circumstances, however, members of the main branch possessed talents and power far superior to those of the side branches.

Ōtsutsuki Isshiki alone was an exception. Unlike most other Otsutsuki, whose eyes were both Byakugan, his right Byakugan had mutated into a golden, rice-shaped eye marked with black patterns—the Black Eye.

What was more, thanks to Sukunahikona, the dojutsu produced by his mutated Black Eye that allowed him to shrink himself and any nonliving object he saw, as well as Daikokuten, the dojutsu that stored shrunken objects or people in a time-frozen dimensional space for retrieval at any time, Isshiki's combat ability ranked among the Otsutsuki Clan's finest.

Thus, in the two-person teams sent out to plant Divine Trees, Kaguya and Isshiki's group did not have the so-called relationship of protector and protected. Isshiki, born of a side branch, and Kaguya, born of the main branch, held nearly equal status.

Equal status meant that strength would ultimately decide everything. The weak would be sacrificed to the Ten-Tails so that the Divine Tree could bloom and bear fruit. At the time, Isshiki's overall strength had clearly surpassed Kaguya's, so it was no wonder that she had launched a sneak attack.

Over the long ages, the Otsutsuki Clan had never experienced internal slaughter. Isshiki had therefore harbored no guard whatsoever against Kaguya.

Kaguya's actions undoubtedly constituted betrayal in the eyes of the Otsutsuki Clan. That was also why she feared the other Otsutsuki so deeply, planted the Divine Tree a second time, and frantically created White Zetsu in preparation for war.

After completely digesting those memories, Qing Si's path forward gradually became clear: he would continuously elevate his bloodline until he ultimately evolved into a complete Otsutsuki.

With the information Isshiki had left behind, Qing Si clearly knew that Isshiki had secretly hidden a miniature Ten-Tails within his dimensional space. This ownerless Ten-Tails was currently asleep, waiting for a fated person to claim it.

As standard equipment for an Otsutsuki, the Ten-Tails could rapidly accelerate an Otsutsuki's growth. That alone made it worth Qing Si's careful planning. Although this Ten-Tails was still imperfect and required a sacrifice of Ōtsutsuki bloodline, the Shinobi World had tailed beasts split from another, larger Ten-Tails that could serve as substitutes.

According to the information Isshiki had left behind, the planet where the Shinobi World was located was exceptionally special even throughout the Otsutsuki Clan's long history of planting Divine Trees. Ordinary planets found it somewhat difficult even to sustain a single Divine Tree. But when Ōtsutsuki Isshiki and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki first arrived in this world a thousand years ago, they discovered that the energy here was extraordinarily abundant—enough to complete at least two or three plantings.

Furthermore, after Kaguya was sealed, Hagoromo Otsutsuki founded Ninshū and spread chakra. After a thousand years of development, chakra had long replaced difficult-to-cultivate natural energy as the Shinobi World's mainstream power.

That flourishing vitality, that state in which all things thrived and competed, meant that the Otsutsuki no longer had to act as they did on other planets.

The Shinobi World could develop sustainably without causing devastating destruction, becoming a perfect nursery that cyclically produced Chakra Fruit.