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Chapter 298: The Moon Princess (4)
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In the meantime Neji and Rumi were hugging each other, the girls in Neji's heaven were worried to death.
As they were in a different dimension entirely, they weren't affected by Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi. However, the same couldn't be said for Tsunade who was in Konoha at the moment, so they were worried for her.
To make it worse, Neji had turned off the 'live broadcast' to Heaven at one point during his fight with the legendary Kaguya Ōtsutsuki who these girls only knew from folklore.
Neji had turned it off because he didn't wish for these girls to see anything unsightly. Unfortunately, he picked a very bad time—when Rumi shot her hair through his mana pathways—so the girls were more worried about his health than anything else.
After exchanging opinions amongst each other, they gathered in one spot as they were looking up at the ceiling of the castle they were in—with Temari soon starting to speak for everyone.
"Uh, miss heaven's voice? Can you hear me? Perhaps do you know what condition Neji is in at this moment?"
Temari spoke carefully, not sure if she should be disrespectful to the will of heaven. The will of heaven, that was none other than Neji's 'System AI'.
["Ahem."]
An ethereal voice—Sisty—cleared her throat.
["Yes, indeed, master Neji is alright. I can't disclose the current situation or broadcast the live footage, that wouldn't be right on my part, but trust me when I say that he is fine. I think he's never been better in a long while."]
At her last line, the girls paused for a moment. They exchanged glances and then tilted their heads.
"...I see."
A few of them soon muttered.
"...Good for him, then."
* * *
Neji and Rumi hugged for almost an hour—as if they were stuck to each other. Most of the hour was spent in silence, though from time to time they started asking random questions about each other's time spent.
"...That's why I hate that guy. Sure, what he did was the right thing to do for himself and his people, but I just hate him so much." Rumi complained, groaning softly.
Rumi was sitting on top of a small hill on top of the moon, and Neji was on her lap as she hugged him from behind.
"Y'er current look kinda reminds me of him. Long hair, kimono robes, and even those blue eyes. Honestly, I am starting to–"
Rumi's voice paused in time as Neji's long hair fell off from his head. He used Magnet Release to manipulate the silver in his hair to cut his hair and give him a shorter hair-cut. It was a perfect hair-cut, quite similar to his old life—though this time it was much less spiky.
"...You don't have to try so hard, y'know." Rumi smiled and hugged him tighter. "But since you are doing so anyway, maybe lose that Kimono too?"
By the time she finished speaking, Neji's kimono clothes had already been exchanged with modernistic attire that were– dark yellow pants and a red long-sleeved shirt.
"....Neji, I wasn't talking about changing when I said 'lose your kimono'." Rumi whispered in his ears. "Did you perhaps grow denser in the last two months?"
"Perhaps." Neji finally spoke. "By the way, do I grab a new pair of eyes too? Since you don't like blue?"
"What? No." Rumi scoffed with an incredulous expression. "Boy, when I said y'er current look reminds me of him, I wasn't implying I was seeing his image on you. It's the opposite—my love for you was rather making me hate that guy more."
"Girl, did you just call me 'boy'?"
"Yah? You got any complaints?" Rumi bit his ears, making his neck twist a bit. "I am a millenia older than you, y'remember? I am sure I can call you that."
"Heh… Is that so?"
"Yah."
Rumi chuckled.
"Unless ya wanna change how I call you?" she implied with an hesitant voice. "...Y'know, for the first few centuries I just wanted to jump on you on our first meeting. But now I almost forgot about it—it's a distant memory to me, even with all the times I read those memories. There is a distinct difference between the real thing and reading from memory, after all, as I am mostly observing in the latter process."
"…"
Neji hesitated for a moment before he turned around on her lap and reached out his face to kiss her under her chin—and slowly reach up to her lips.
Rumi's hand slowly reached out behind his back and clutched the fabric of his clothes hard—as Neji's lips pressed on her lips that were applied with red-lipstick.
"Mhm~"
Rumi moaned softly as he kissed her lips slowly, but shortly. Neji's left hand went down to grab her by the waist while his right hand was under her ear, gently caressing her cheek.
Neji's kissed were turning more vigorous, and his tongue was starting to go deeper—but right then, Rumi gently pushed him back.
"L-let's stop here for now, please." Rumi gulped as she wiped her lips with her thumb. "Not that I mind, but I don't think I will stop for days if I start."
"Ah…"
Rumi cleared her throat, blushing slightly at this feeling that now felt new and unnatural—just like her first time.
When she saw Neji nod in understandment, she continued speaking.
"I should release the Infinite Tsukuyomi first, even the Ōtsutsuki people of this moon were caught into it—and at this rate they'll die with the lack of chakra since they don't have the God Tree connecting with them."
Neji nodded in agreement, she had a point. Suddenly, Rumi's expression turned serious.
"But before that, we need to visit someone dangerous." Rumi said. "Isshiki Ōtsutsuki. He is on earth, and I am sure he isn't affected by the Genjutsu. A millennia ago, he came to earth with Kaguya. Kaguya thought she killed him, but when I observed her memories of that time—I am fairly certain he is alive down there, somewhere."
"Ah, right, I do recall someone with that name from the anime. Had you ever reached that part?"
"No, I didn't go as far as Boruto." Rumi shook her head.
Earlier, Neji complained how he could have warned his girls about where they might end up and that he regretted not doing so—but that statement wasn't entirely right. He had indeed taken some precaution on that subject as he had made them read and watch many fictional works without telling them why.
None of them, excluding Kimi, went hardcore on the job but Neji didn't mind that since knowing just the basics should be enough for the girls who were that strong.
That's how Rumi knew that this world indeed was Naruto, and how things went around here, even though she never reached the ending and thus didn't know many of the important characters.
At one point, it did bother her that—if a world that was supposed to be fictional was real, what were the odds that her life's story was sold as fictional in some other world?
However, she had long since stopped that thought process as it only presented uneventful, unimportant answers.
"In any case, I don't know him from the show— however, from my memories alone I know he is very dangerous. At his prime, he may even have beaten the current me. So I suggest we take him down first before releasing the Genjutsu. Is that alright with you?"
Neji's eyes flashed with lights of contemplation.
'Isshiki Ōtsutsuki… Jigen. He could deal with adult Naruto and Sasuke on his own. Let's finish this quickly, I am not willing to let him transform and waste time on him.'
Neji would rather spend time with Rumi than do that.
"Alright, but wait a second." Neji said.
Immediately, a Shadow-Clone popped up into existence beside him. The clone teleported back to earth using Flying Thunder God, and then opened multiple rifts in space through which it sent countless clones to parts of the world.
In half a minute, the clones spread across the planet like a wave of tsunami who all had a 105-kilometres of view from their spot. With a total of 1,500 clones around the globe, it took Neji ten seconds to locate the lone being who wasn't affected by the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
The bald monk with emotionless eyes sat down underneath a tree that was basking in the moonlight, while a tiny tree branch on his hand that he carelessly rolled between his fingers.
With his eyes on the moon that had the Rinne-Sharingan reflected on them, the monk showed only a brief sense of nostalgia.
"Found him."
Neji said to Rumi as his clones had located the parasitic Ōtsutsuki.
"Let's finish this."
That said, Neji gently took Rumi by her arms and then opened a rift in space that he and she jumped through.
* * *
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, now going by the name Jigen, has been a hidden menace to humankind since the last millennium.
When he came to this planet 1002 years ago, he had never expected to get backstabbed– let alone by a lesser clan member. But alas, such was life and he had to accept the fact to rather focus on regaining his lost powers.
After being backstabbed, Isshiki found a monk who went by the name Jigen just before he was about to die. He used his dying breath to place a Kama seal on Jigen, but failed to do so—and therefore he was forced to shrink his body's size with his special Dojutsu to enter Jigen's brain to control him directly.
That was why by the time Isshiki managed to place a Kama on Jigen in the near future, Jigen's body was too messed up from the inside to act as a perfect vessel—therefore not allowing Isshiki to harness anything close to his true powers.
Since then, for the last millennium, it has been his mission to find a suitable host for his Kama, and in the meantime rather transform Jigen's body into that of an Ōtsutsuki as much as possible—so that Isshiki can change hosts and then feed Jigen to the backup Ten-Tailed Beast he had on another dimension, therefore creating a God Tree of his own.
Isshiki's plan was to eat the Chakra Fruit that the God Tree will make, and then eat it using his new host's body. In that simulation, he would regain his true powers and more even on the host body.
Until now, everything had been going well.
But now, Kaguya suddenly reappeared.
However… Isshiki wasn't worried.
Even in this weakened state, and even though Kaguya was much more powerful that he last saw her, Isshiki was not worried in the least.
Rather, this made everything easier.
He could get his revenge by killing Kaguya and sacrificing her to form the God Tree, just as it was supposed to happen from the start. Then he could easily regain his true power and identity even in this Jigen vessel as long as he ate the Chakra Fruit.
Isshiki smiled a little to himself as the soon to be future danced in his eyes. Kaguya wasn't on earth at this moment, she was in outer space, on the moon, so he hadn't attacked her yet. If she was here, he would have jumped on her by no—
– Sheat!
Something—a black rod—went through Isshiki's chest, penetrating his heart and coming out from the other side.
"...A-?"
– Boom!
Just as he made a sound, his head twisted into itself— as space spinned into a vortex– and his skull burst out into brain matter.
With just that, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki died, for sure this time, without even knowing who or what killed him.
Such was the end of one of the countless ambitious Ōtsutsukis that roamed the cosmos.
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