After hearing Xuandou out, Kaguya fell silent.
She stood on the deathly still shore of Hozuki Island, looking at the towering God Tree before her.
Its gnarled branches pierced the clouds, and dark energy glimmered among its leaves.
Her gaze shifted back to Xuandou.
That young, handsome face, those calm, fathomless eyes.
A complex feeling she had never experienced before welled up within her.
This man was more frightening than she had imagined.
Not because of how powerful he was, but because of how far he could see.
He was laying plans, not for a momentary victory or defeat, but for the bigger picture decades, even centuries into the future.
She lowered her eyes, her voice soft and tinged with rare candor:
"Perhaps you're right. I was shortsighted."
"If I'd thought things through the way you do back then, I wouldn't have ended up sealed away."
Xuandou smiled and dropped the subject, turning instead toward the deathly still waters around them:
"Since we can't drain this planet's life energy all at once, do you have any thoughts on where to plant the God Tree?"
He raised a hand to gesture around them:
"Look at this place. Just letting the God Tree grow here all these years has turned this entire stretch of ocean into a dead sea."
"If we leave it rooted here, sooner or later even the land will be affected."
Kaguya was used to this, and her tone was flat:
"With the proper cultivation methods, the God Tree can even absorb all the energy of an entire planet."
"That isn't greed on the God Tree's part. It's instinct."
"That is precisely how the Ōtsutsuki Clan continues to evolve and expand throughout the universe."
Xuandou nodded:
"But we can't do that to the Shinobi World as it is now."