The Break

[The Wind-Snow Realm will close permanently. Time remaining: 9 minutes 37 seconds]

[The Wind-Snow Realm will close permanently. Time remaining: 9 minutes 36 seconds]

Only ten minutes remained...

Should I try to explain...

Or keep walking?

Explain what? How?

Tell her I was just bored and going away for a little vacation? That I would be back soon, so she shouldn't worry?

Would she believe that in her current state? Would she even want to hear it?

Or tell her I had something important to do? That I would be back soon?

But what could possibly be more important than Princess Kaguya right now?

Yuya wanted to give a bitter laugh, but no sound came out.

Even his expression seemed to go numb in that moment.

Princess Kaguya was like an exquisite porcelain doll, ready to shatter at a touch.

He desperately wanted to rush over and tell her everything.

But he couldn't...

Or should I tell her the truth?

Tell her I'm doing this to save her...

But how would I save her? By what means?

Would her first reaction be to scoff?

No one understood Princess Kaguya's condition better than she did.

Every moment, she faced the twin threats of the God Tree's corrosion and Isshiki.

With Princess Kaguya's pride,

how could she believe that anyone in this world could contend with both forces at once?

She had already resigned herself to death. Unless he convinced her completely and rekindled her will to live,

how could she let Yuya leave?

[The Wind-Snow Realm will close permanently. Time remaining: 8 minutes 51 seconds]

Time ticked away, second by second.

Yuya stood where he was. Never in his life had he faced such a difficult choice.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Princess Kaguya approached him, step by step.

Her expression was sorrowful and helpless, pleading with him.

She trudged forward, already unbearably weak.

How Yuya longed to rush over and hold her, but he couldn't...

Convincing Princess Kaguya that he could save her would be no easy task in itself.

And even if he succeeded, what then?

Given her temperament, she would most likely choose to go with him.

But taking her along would also mean taking Ōtsutsuki Isshiki with them,

a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

Yuya had even calculated it.

If he brought Princess Kaguya along,

their chances of surviving would be less than thirty percent.

How could he bear to put Princess Kaguya in danger?

[Time until the Wind-Snow Realm closes: 8 minutes 36 seconds]

What left Yuya feeling even more suffocated was the mysterious guest mentioned in the second option.

If his guess was right, that guest was Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.

Even this sudden change in Princess Kaguya, her discovery that something was wrong with the clone,

could very well have been encouraged by Isshiki from the shadows.

He would watch and listen from beginning to end.

Explaining everything would also mean exposing himself to Isshiki.

Isshiki would learn that he had found a way to fight him...

If he still left Princess Kaguya at home after that,

would Isshiki strike early?

When he finally returned with a way to save Princess Kaguya,

would she still be Princess Kaguya?

Yuya dared not think about any of it.

Trying to explain... would only make the outcome worse...

[Time until the Wind-Snow Realm closes: 8 minutes 03 seconds]

Yuya stood there, his body trembling slightly,

and fell into a long silence.

Princess Kaguya had reached his side.

She reached out to take Yuya's arm.

"Come... back with me..."

She murmured, her hand trembling, her voice almost choked with sobs.

Just as she was about to touch Yuya,

he roughly brushed her away.

"Go back? Are you kidding?"

At some point, Yuya had lifted his lowered head.

In that moment, he seemed like a different person, his entire bearing transformed.

A cold sneer curled his lips.

He raised his eyes, scarlet flooding them as the black three-tomoe markings slowly spun within,

and looked at Princess Kaguya with a cold, sinister gaze.

"The world shouldn't be this small. I've long since had enough of that tiny country."

His presence was chilling and icy now, so unfamiliar it was almost unrecognizable.

With that, he walked forward without looking back.

This was Yuya's choice...

He did not try to explain himself to Princess Kaguya.

Instead, he chose to break with her before leaving...

Whether he would live or die on this journey was uncertain. If he truly never returned,

then breaking with her beforehand would at least keep Princess Kaguya from grieving too deeply...

He needed the Rinnegan. Desperately...

It would be his final contingency. If everything truly took a turn for the worst,

he would develop Impure World Reincarnation and use Rinne Rebirth to bring Princess Kaguya back to life...

"You... come back..."

As she watched Yuya's retreating back,

Princess Kaguya stared in a daze.

She lifted a hand and reached toward him.

But he did not obediently turn back as he once had.

"Come... back with me..."

A moment later, Princess Kaguya used Space-Time Ninjutsu and appeared in front of Yuya again.

Dusk approached, and the murky sky pressed down gloomily.

The atmosphere was unbearably oppressive.

Princess Kaguya's presence grew weaker still,

like a candle guttering in the wind, ready to fade at any moment.

Yet Yuya acted as though he did not see her, passing her and walking straight ahead.

But who noticed whether his steps were truly as resolute as he claimed?

"You... come back..."

Space rippled again, and Princess Kaguya appeared beside Yuya once more.

"Will you stop being so annoying? Can you quit following me?"

Yuya spoke with an impatient expression.

The instant he said it, he regretted it... He wanted to stab himself twice...

He did not spare Princess Kaguya another glance and continued forward.

He was afraid... that one more look... would leave him unable to move again...

His feet were already shackled, as heavy as mountains...

Yuya did not turn back. He walked farther and farther away.

"Ahhh... come back... come back..."

Watching Yuya recede into the distance,

Princess Kaguya finally lost control.

Like a little girl breaking down, she shouted after him,

tears streaming down her face.

Yuya shuddered, but in the end... he took another step forward...

"Please come back... You said I didn't annoy you... I'll do anything... you want... Come back..."

Princess Kaguya collapsed to the ground, utterly lost.

It was as though every support holding her up had vanished.

She stared blankly at the figure growing ever more distant.

Her body rapidly withered,

and wood-grain markings spread across her face once more.

"Ah! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Shut up!"

She suddenly clutched her head frantically.

Some voice seemed to sound inside her mind at that moment.

She shook her head desperately, as though trying to fling something out.

Her aura began to change strangely.

Before long, an entirely unfamiliar presence filled her whole body.

A moment later, space rippled once again.

Princess Kaguya blocked Yuya's path.

"If you... keep going... I'll... kill you..."

Bloodshot streaks appeared in her eyes.

Her carefully tied silver hair came loose again.

Her hair hung disheveled, and wood-grain markings once more spread across her face.

She withered again, wrinkles covering her entire body.

Her aura was both impossibly weak and impossibly strange.

Her expression, too, descended into a kind of madness.

Yet Yuya ignored her threat and kept walking.

Her eyes alternated between clouded confusion and lucidity.

She clutched her head again and shook it.

Then she looked at Yuya, still walking forward.

A red gleam flashed through her eyes.

She slowly raised one hand.

An immense mass of pitch-black chakra, seemingly capable of annihilating everything, surged endlessly into her palm.

Before long, it formed a gigantic Truth-Seeking Orb,

aimed at Yuya.

The sky darkened, black clouds churning like a vision of the apocalypse.

The enormous Truth-Seeking Orb seemed to warp both space and light.

Radiating a terrifying, sinister presence, it hurtled toward Yuya without hesitation.

"Princess Kaguya, after everything, do you still think you're a match for me?"

Yuya threw back his head and laughed.

An immense torrent of chakra surged from his body,

instantly forming a gigantic chakra skeleton.

A moment later, the chakra skeleton rapidly filled out!

Flesh appeared, and jet-black armor began to cover its entire body.

From afar, a golden giant clad in armor seemed to have appeared.

This was Yuya's first time using Susanoo with the three-tomoe,

and it was already Susanoo's third form!

At the same time, Yuya's aura became ethereal and otherworldly,

as though he had returned from primordial times, bearing the endless weight of the ages.

He had also entered Sage Mode in an instant.

Vast amounts of senjutsu chakra surged into Susanoo's armor at that moment,

and mysterious white runes began appearing across the golden Susanoo.

That was senjutsu chakra spreading over it.

Boom!

The pitch-black Truth-Seeking Orb flew toward Yuya,

carrying the power to incinerate everything.

But Yuya deflected it with the Susanoo Sword, which was enveloped in senjutsu chakra.

A conflicted, contorted expression crossed Princess Kaguya's wrinkled, wood-grained face.

She shook her head, a flicker of struggle passing through her eyes.

"Ye'er..."

She murmured...

But before long, her eyes clouded over once more.