Ōtsutsuki

[Second trial: A chance of survival against all odds]

[The world's collapse is imminent. You must secure a chance of survival for the world]

In the second trial, to his surprise,

he became the genius Onmyōji who had once ventured alone into the Ōtsutsuki Clan's domain.

It turned out that the man had not died there, but had barely escaped back to his home planet.

By then, the God Tree had already been planted.

The world's vitality was being devoured at an incredible rate.

Natural energy was constantly being drained away to nourish the tree.

Its growth accelerated exponentially,

and the world was almost visibly collapsing toward its demise.

Then he witnessed

the people of an entire era,

under this Onmyōji's leadership,

sacrifice their lives to seal the God Tree and suppress its growth,

securing a chance of survival for those who would come a thousand years later.

Once the God Tree was sealed, the second trial ended.

Throughout it all, he had merely been an observer, a passing witness to history's rise and fall.

The next instant, Yuya arrived in a peculiar space.

"Do you understand now?"

A voice steeped in the weariness of ages echoed throughout the space.

Yuya trembled.

He would never forget that voice, not even in his dreams.

It belonged to the man he had fought a great battle against in the first trial,

the genius Onmyōji who had almost single-handedly held back the Ōtsutsuki invasion.

He was also the man Yuya had become in the second trial.

"I understand..."

Yuya's voice was hoarse.

His heart had never felt as heavy as it did at that moment.

Those so-called trials had always been real fragments of history,

tracing the entire planet's struggle.

Under the system's influence, the first trial

had been presented to him like a game.

The souls of those who had died in battle lingered on, their obsessions undying,

recreating that ancient battlefield.

The second trial was the history of this planet's decline. Its supernatural beings had sacrificed themselves, one after another,

until they finally sealed the God Tree and suppressed its growth.

"The world should never have been so impoverished."

"That clan invaded three times."

"The first invasion nearly wiped out all civilization in this world."

"But in the end, we pooled every bit of strength the world possessed and managed to stop them."

"The second time, I held them at bay."

"I also ventured alone to their ancestral planet to investigate."

"I nearly died there."

"Later, we were defeated, and they planted the God Tree."

"The moment the God Tree was planted, this planet's countdown began."

A figure materialized, his presence ethereal and vast.

His features were indistinct, forever shrouded in a veil of mist.

His voice was calm and detached, yet carried an endless desolation.

"Can the God Tree truly not be destroyed? Will it keep plundering forever, without stopping?"

Yuya asked. This contradicted what he knew.

If that were true, the later events of Naruto could never have happened.

"You underestimate that clan."

The figure gave him an impassive glance and waved a hand.

Energy spilled outward, and an image appeared in the air.

It showed countless planets reduced to barren wastelands, each with an enormous God Tree rooted in it.

"A race that has long since become an interstellar civilization possesses well-developed colonization techniques."

"The stars are brilliant and boundless. Life-bearing planets are as numerous as grains of sand."

"They can travel among those stars. Naturally, they have their strengths."

"The Ōtsutsuki are themselves a kind of celestial tree rooted deep in the cosmos, and the God Tree is a manifestation of their source."

Yuya fell silent.

His knowledge of the Ōtsutsuki Clan did indeed come solely from his previous life,

from an anime full of unresolved plot threads.

Now, it seemed he knew far, far too little.

And judging by what the first trial had shown him,

Isshiki, Urashiki, Momoshiki... were little more than foot soldiers of the Ōtsutsuki Clan.

For a clan capable of traveling among the stars, its power truly felt oppressive and suffocating.

Only after a long while did he ask,

"Is there a way to stop it?"

"That is the chance of survival we found."

The figure turned, gazing at him with eyes weathered by the ages.

"We sacrificed everything to accelerate the God Tree's growth, making it bear fruit sooner."

"The fruit will ripen today, a thousand years later.

"By consuming the Chakra Fruit, one can merge with the God Tree and stop its growth. This is the only way."

"But the price is that the God Tree may continue to influence you until you lose yourself."

A tremendous storm surged through Yuya's heart.

At that moment, he thought of someone.

Princess Kaguya...

In the original story... she had merged with the God Tree...

So it had not merely been to gain power... or preserve herself...

It had also been to stop the God Tree's endless plundering...

And the God Tree itself and the Chakra Fruit had always been two different things.

The Sage of Six Paths had extracted the Ten-Tails' chakra from Princess Kaguya and absorbed it into himself.

Yet he had still died in the end. Some said he had died because he separated out the Tailed Beasts' chakra,

but the original story explicitly stated that he had separated the Tailed Beasts because he sensed his lifespan nearing its end.

And even after absorbing the Ten-Tails' chakra, Madara had still been betrayed by Black Zetsu and died.

The Ōtsutsuki Clan were not immortal either.

In Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Momoshiki and Urashiki had died one after the other.

So why had Princess Kaguya survived even after her chakra was extracted?

In all of Naruto, Princess Kaguya alone was truly undying.

Because she had not only obtained the Chakra Fruit, but had also become the God Tree itself.

The Ten-Tails' chakra could be transferred,

but the God Tree itself could not. Once merged... they remained merged...

The Chakra Fruit and the God Tree itself had always been two different things.

The former created a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki; the latter created Princess Kaguya.

The original anime had mentioned that her personality changed drastically after she gained power,

and she became greedy and full of desire. (This chapter's setting expands the worldbuilding and redeems Princess Kaguya again. Please don't scrutinize it too closely; fanfiction needs something of its own.)

But the truth was...

She had almost single-handedly prevented the planet's impending destruction.

It was simply that the God Tree's assimilation had clouded her mind.

And yet... her two children had actually sealed her away?

No wonder she had shown no combat instincts, and even in the final battle,

had kept listening to Black Zetsu...

It was because her consciousness had long since become clouded...

"Do you still wish to proceed?"

"The third trial was originally meant to bestow blessings upon our people, but you are steeped in that clan's aura."

"If you enter now, all the forces of an entire era, myself included, may attack you together."

"The power you possess that comes from that clan will also be suppressed."

The figure's tone remained detached, but he still offered a warning.

Yuya knew that the power he meant would be suppressed was probably chakra.

By now, Yuya also understood why, before coming here, he had calculated

that his chances of survival were less than thirty percent.

It was probably... because of this final, third trial.

"I'll proceed. We can finish the battle we left unfinished."

Yuya spoke calmly. Having come this far, how could he possibly retreat?

Princess Kaguya was behind him. He had nowhere to retreat.

And the identity of the man before him was now all but certain.

He had personally witnessed this man rise from the ruins,

fight several Ōtsutsuki single-handedly,

and tread a path no one had taken before, fighting his way alone onto the Ōtsutsuki's home planet.

This man had also led an entire era, extending this planet's life by a thousand years and finding that one chance of survival.

He was the strongest Onmyōji in history-Abe Seimei!

At the thought, Yuya began to tremble.

It was a tremor of excitement.

He had fought Isshiki through Princess Kaguya's body,

but had been constrained at every turn.

Now, he desperately needed a battle he could fight to his heart's content, to test himself.