A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Throughout that month, Konoha operated like a precise, efficient machine, running at full speed with Shikaku Nara back, Shikamaru Nara providing his full support, and the Hokage of past generations overseeing everything.
Personnel assignments, supply stockpiles, intelligence analysis, tactical simulations... everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.
Naruto Uzumaki secluded himself to train, bringing himself into peak condition while continuing to familiarize himself with and integrate his vast, complex array of powers, making his final preparations for the coming "game."
Yet beneath the calm surface, the undercurrents never ceased.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, the thousand-year-old ghost who had narrowly escaped the death trap in the Pure Land and spent a month lurking like a sewer rat, had never abandoned his desire for the body of his "perfect vessel," Naruto Uzumaki.
Like the most patient of hunters, he dragged his broken body through the shadows of the Shinobi World, searching for any possible opening.
At last, his chance came!
Through covert observation, Isshiki keenly noticed that Otohime Otsutsuki and Kaguya Otsutsuki, who had always maintained an ambiguous distance from Naruto and loomed like two ticking time bombs, seemed to have temporarily left Konoha for some reason. At the very least, they could not immediately come to Naruto's aid!
"An opening!"
Fanatical greed blazed in Isshiki's eyes.
Although Jigen's body was on the verge of collapse and his own power was far from restored, Naruto's two strongest bodyguards were absent. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a surprise attack.
If he could just get close to Naruto and trigger a forced reincarnation through Kāma, or bring him under control by some other means...
"My perfect vessel... at last, you'll be mine!"
Isshiki's hoarse voice brimmed with sick obsession.
Without further hesitation, he wrung the last ounce