Chapter 92: Victory

 

Kaguya had white pale skin and soft facial features. She had extremely long, sweeping white hair. The most noticeable about her was her two horns which had the same color of her skin that stuck out from her head, and a third eye formed in the centre of her forehead. She possessed white clear eyes, clearly Byakugans and her eyebrows were cut very short and round. A symbol of nobility. A red shade of lipstick was on her lips. She wore a high-collared hime-kimono which has tomoe running down the centre and edges of the sleeves, and black stripes on the edges of the gown. To Riku, she looked absolutely gorgeous and reminded him a bit of Hinata.

 

If his wife was a moon princess then Kaguya was the queen. Pure and simple.

 

Her liberation had put an end to the chakra drain and Riku flashed away. Sasuke used his Rinnegan for it and did the same for Naruto. They all landed side by side, dozens of feet away from the Goddess. Taking a fighting stance, Naruto noticed his brother being rather slow and exhausted.

 

“Are you going to be alright?”

 

Sasuke, being undead, had an infinite supply of chakra so he wasn’t tired one bit and ready to go. Naruto was also ready to battle again. His original large chakra reserve from his Uzumaki heritage and the Kyubi’s chakra dripping into them from birth which increased them, made him barely feel the drain. Especially since he had been the farthest from Black Zetsu.

 

Riku on the other hand had been quite close. Too close. His chakra was almost all spent. There was no way he could fight in his condition when he was so close to chakra exhaustion. His breath was heavy and ragged and his body was too tired to properly answer his command in time.

 

“I’ll manage or die trying.” Riku answered his brother, his eyes fixed on his ancestor.

 

Kaguya stayed silent. Riku noticed movement inside her sleeve and thought he saw a shadow. Probably Black Zetsu. He never got the time to verify this as the mother of all chakra finally spoke.

 

“You,” She looked at Naruto. “Remind me of Asura.”

 

“Who?”

 

“The sage’s second son.” Sasuke replied to his teammate.

 

This time Kaguya turned to him. “And you, remind me of Indra. Yes. I can feel the power of light and darkness inside the both of you.”

 

She suddenly disappeared out of existence to reappear right in front of Riku. Naruto and Sasuke got clear of her by jumping to the side, never breaking their stance. Riku, on the other hand, stayed where he was. He didn’t have the strength to fight anymore so he saved the bit of chakra he had left for the right moment. So far, Kaguya had not been hostile and he hoped she wouldn’t turn that way.

 

Levitating in the air, presenting herself as taller than he was, she gently grabbed his chin with one hand and raised his head to have a better look at his face.

 

“You… Are the one Hagoromo spoke about. The balanced one. The one with compassion in his right hand and strength in his left. The one who thought like I did once.”

 

Riku blinked. He began to hope that Hagoromo got through his mother and that she wasn’t still bat shit insane.

 

“Mother?” The dark, raspy and confused voice was confirmation that Black Zetsu was inside Kaguya’s sleeve. Had Riku been able to, he would have witnessed the being peaking out.

 

Kaguya let go of Riku’s chin and with her now free hand, extracted black Zetsu from her sleeve. Held high up in the air, the shadow worm gesticulated in both confusion and panic in her grip.

 

“Mother?!”

 

The mother of all chakra spoke with a cold voice and a scowl on her face. “You will corrupt me no more.”

 

Chakra gathered in her hand. Squeezing it, Black Zetsu was crushed as if he was made of playdough. A wave of her hand later and no trace of him was left in the world. Riku hoped that he was gone for good.

 

“Kaguya-oba-sama?” He put his faith in Hagoromo for having fixed his relationship with his mother and fixed her. It was the only thing he could do at this point.

 

A small but beautiful smile graced her lips. “Thank you.”

 

Not only Riku’s but Naruto’s and Sasuke’s eyes widened in surprise. Not expecting the woman to be anything but emotionless and chakra hungry.

 

“It took a long time. Perhaps longer than I’ve been sealed in the moon but I found myself again thanks to Hagoromo’s numerous visits. All thanks to you.” Her smile widened.

 

“I…” Riku didn’t know what to say. “That you were sealed was one thing, that he gave up on you was another. It wasn’t right.”

 

“My son calls himself a sage but he’s not as wise as he thinks he is. This lesson you gave him had perhaps been the hardest to learn in his existence.”

 

Naruto interrupted the conversation. He hoped to get answers to dispel his confusion. “Eeeeeeh… You’re not evil anymore?”

 

“I am not, no.” Kaguya was amused by the the way the question was formulated. “Black Zetsu was the manifestation of the tainted nature energy contained in the chakra fruit I ate. Without him and with Hagoromo’s help I was able to get back my sanity.”

 

“So we’re not fighting?”

 

Kaguya let out a cute chuckle. “No, descendant. We’re not.”

 

“Thank Kami!”

 

Naruto immediately relaxed. His fighting stance switched to a casual one. Sasuke took longer but he did the same.

 

“What now?” The Uchiha asked. “The plan is impossible to realize anymore.”

 

“Yeah, what do we do?”

 

“What was your plan?” Kaguya asked in curiosity.

 

Riky’s body slumped a bit, the tension leaving his body. “The original plan was to seal the bijus inside my wife temporarily. Until we found a way for them to be protected from Humanity’s greed and lust for power. Next we were going to use the Rinnegan’s Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique to bring back everyone who died unjustly for this war. I’m glad you’re free, Kaguya-oba-sama but now…” He looked down in resignation.

 

“Is that all?” She asked. “A trivial thing for me to do.”

 

Riku raised his head and looked at her in disbelief. It was Naruto who was verbal about it.

 

“You really can do that? Neat!”

 

“Wait! Wait, a moment.” Riku raised his hand in panic. “I promise the undead they would have a choice of returning to the Pure Lands or being resurrected. We can’t force this upon them.”

 

Kaguya nodded in agreement, pleased by the respect Riku showed to people’s free will to decide for themselves. After decades of being kind of brainwashed, she cherished free will a lot. “I can wait.”

 

“Naruto…”

 

“Go around and warn everyone. I’m on it.” And with that said, he disappeared in a flash. Not an actual one but his speed in Six Paths sage mode was unparalleled save from the hiraishin and Sasuke’s Amenotejikara.

 

Sasuke sighed, tired of Naruto’s excited nature. “That idiot doesn’t even know where he needs to go.” Using his Rinnegan he went after Naruto, leaving Riku and Kaguya alone.

 

He picked up his book of seals and summoned a whole tatami with a tea table on top and some cushions to sit down on. Much like Hiruzen had done, he summoned some tea but added some biscuits and snacks.

 

“Sorry for the wait. I’ll be back in a moment. In the meantime, please enjoy yourself.”

 

Giving him a nod, Kaguya sat down and Riku served her hot tea before flashing away up to the plateau. There he was glomped by Tsunade who took him in a cruising bones embrace. 

 

They didn’t speak a single word. They simply hugged each other with their eyes closed. Feeling how cold her body was, it felt like someone had stabbed him in the heart with a kunai. Breaking away from her, he looked at her with sadness and love. Opening his mind he was about to say something when he noticed Dan a few feet behind her.

 

He swallowed the words he wanted to say and brought forth different ones.

 

“I guess I was right about being Hokage.” He smiled sadly at her. “At least you got what you wanted.”

 

Tsunade was utterly confused by what he was saying. “Riku, what are you…”

 

He shut her up with a kiss on her forehead.  “I’ll miss you, mom.”

 

Finally realizing what he was talking about she called out his name but he had disappeared in his trademark green flash. Completely bewildered, she turned around to look at Dan. She had waited for this moment for nearly thirty years and now she didn’t know if it was still what she wanted the most or not.

Riku reappeared at Mei’s side and took her with him back to Kaguya.

 

“You brought a friend.” The mother of all chakra voiced.

 

Riku turned to Mei and exchanged a look. “I suppose we are. This is Mei. I brought her here because she’s the leader of another village. I would have brought Temari too but she’s too far away.”

 

“Riku, who is-”

 

“Take my hand.” He cut the Mizukage off and put his own hand forward.

 

Mei looked at it in confusion for a moment but took it. Using Ninshu, Riku filled her in about who Kaguya was and the history of chakra and shinobi. Blinking the Mizukage took more than a moment to process everything she had just learned. To do so, she sat down on one of the free cushions, facing Kaguya.

 

“This is…” Mei paused in the middle of what she wanted to say, not done processing everything. 

 

Riku sat down beside her and served her then himself some tea. He also refilled Kaguya’s empty cup.

 

“What are your intentions now that you’re free?” Mei was finally asked the important question. She wanted to know if Kaguya would resume her rule on the Elemental Nations.

 

“Nothing.” The Otsutsuki answered simply.

 

Mei found that hard to believe. “Nothing?”

 

“Yes. Even before I ate the chakra fruit, my rule had not been perfect. Had it been, I would never have eaten the fruit in the first place. My time has passed. It’s your generation’s time now. Your era. I’ll still be there. Wandering the world under disguise to see how it changed. Both for the worst and the better. There are also the other members of my clan that will visit one day but that is my business to deal with, not yours.” Kaguya paused there, taking a sip of her tea. Smiling, she spoke again. “I’m curious about the kind of change you will bring forth.”

 

“More peace and cooperation. Less war and warmongers.”

 

“Hopefully.” Mei punctuated Riku’s words. “What we’re trying to do has never been done before. We will probably fail a lot.”

 

“But it’s only a failure if we and the next generations do not learn from it to do better.”

 

“That is true.” Kaguya admitted. “As for the tailed beasts…” She sighed. “Their chakra was originally mine. I am not very inclined to be separated from it again. Especially with the amount of it they have. On the other hand… They exist now and it would be wrong to keep them in the state they currently are.”

 

“We had a few ideas about that.” Mei shared.

 

Riku nodded and took the floor. “Releasing them in a land far away from humanity where they could leave peacefully without being bothered. Apply a tag on them so they couldn’t be sealed again or more complicated: create a new land through a subspace for them to live. In the meantime, we hoped they could live as a smaller version of themselves outside the seal we intended to shelter them in.”

 

“Hm…”

 

Kaguya was clearly reflecting on the subject. Her tea cup was in both hands and raised to her face so she could smell the aroma of the leaves. One hand went to her chest and pulled out a thick string of chakra. Pulling a few times then severing it, she started forming a shape. Soon enough, Riku was able to recognize the form of a fox with nine tails.

 

“Satisfied, Kurama?” She inquired, revealing the name of the fox to Riku and Mei. The latter was surprised that the biju had names to begin with.

 

“I certainly am not! I’m weak in this form!”

 

“You were always weak, child. It was half my chakra that made you. You had no right to it. Be grateful that I chose to not assimilate you and your siblings out of love for my son.”

 

Kyubi growled but knew when he was beaten. Kaguya ignored him and pulled out string after string. Each forming one of the biju. From what Riku could tell they all had the exact same amount of chakra.

 

“Hahahahaha! Not so prideful anymore, now, fuzzball!” Shukaku laughed right into Kyubi’s face. Before a fight could start however, Kaguya smacked the top of his head with the side of her hand.

 

“Be nice or you’re assimilated.”

 

Shukaku froze on the spot and didn’t dare to make a single move. Not even when Kyubi began to laugh at his expense.

 

“I like this form.” The Nibi said. “It’s small and inconspicuous. No human would pay attention to me twice.”

 

Most of her siblings agreed with her. In this form, there was little for the humans to get from them. They were small and weak, yes but they knew they’d know peace and won’t be persecuted again.

 

“What about my Yin half?” Kyubi wondered.

 

“It’s sealed inside my wife.” Riku explained to Kaguya.

 

“I can retrieve it without taking her life. It is a slow and painful process however.”

 

“One of the ideas we have was to bring her back to life afterward.”

 

“It might be better.” She looked down at Kyubi. “Your Yin part will return to me and I’ll give you a bit of its chakra so you will be complete. Of course I’ll take as much as I give to you so you would be as strong as your sibling and not stronger.”

 

Kyubi said nothing but the grunt he let out was obviously one of discontentment.

 

With that topic done and over, Riku and Mei, exposed the idea they had to maintain the peace. Kaguya was especially receptive to the way they use both compassion and strength in their plans to achieve their goals.

 

Soon enough Naruto and Sasuke came back with the news that everyone had been warned. The people who wanted to go back to the Pure Lands did so. For the one who didn’t want to but that no one wanted back, a few Nara used their shadow manipulation to make them do the hand seals.

 

Wounded and dead, were all brought out of their storage seals at a specific time and Kaguya used the Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.

 

Feeling completely knackered, Riku flashed back to his Botib to rest. Leaving Kaguya with Mei, as the former accepted the invitation of the latter to come and live in her village for a bit. Kaguya intended to also visit Konoha and Suna once it was rebuilt. In Konoha’s case, it was to meet her descendants properly and see what they were doing.

 

As Riku landed on his bed and let sleep take him over, he felt familiar breasts pressing mightily on his back while his whole body was embraced.

 

“Mom?” He asked groggily, not totally sure if he was dreaming or not because Tsunade felt warm and very much alive.

 

“Yes?” Tsunade whispered.

 

“You didn’t… Why? You got…”

 

“Dan can wait. I have reasons to live now. Reasons to enjoy life. Three granddaughters to spoil and hopefully more grandchildren soon. But above all… I have my son and I will not leave him for anything in the world nor the next.”

 

Riku rolled around to look at her in hope that everything was real. When he felt her lips on his, he knew it was. Burying his head in her cleavage, he let the rhythm of her beating heart lull him to sleep. For the first time since Suna’s destruction, his dreams were peaceful.