[Chapter Size: 1300 Words.]
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Year 101 of Konoha, on a Distant Planet from the Ninja World.
The man's golden-purple eyes gazed at the thin face before him, dimly illuminated by candlelight. He could vaguely see the young man who had once been full of vigor and vitality.
The candle flickered, and the man's low, hoarse voice broke the silence:
"Sasuke-kun, you don't have much time left..."
Lying in the hospital bed, Sasuke was so emaciated that he resembled a specter. His frail body was entangled in tubes connected to various medical devices, barely keeping him alive. His eyes, which would never open again, remained closed as he let out a faint sigh and smiled.
"I never thought I'd spend my final moments with you, Orochimaru..."
Orochimaru's voice, usually calm and composed, carried an indescribable weight.
"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, aside from you and me, everyone else perished in that battle..."
The candle flickered violently, and Sasuke's thoughts drifted back to the past, flashing through his mind like a kaleidoscope.
During the Fourth Great Ninja War, he and Naruto fought together to seal Kaguya. However, after their final battle in the Valley of the End, Sasuke was ultimately defeated. It was then that he opened his heart and vowed to become the guardian of Naruto's path.
But the threat of the Ōtsutsuki Clan did not end with Kaguya's seal. Fifteen years after the war, he and Naruto joined forces once again to defeat Momoshiki and Kinshiki, while Boruto, the reincarnation of Jiraiya, and Naruto worked together to take down Urashiki.
However, in the battle against Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, both he and Naruto paid an unbearable price.
After that fight, Sasuke lost his Rinnegan, and Naruto lost Kurama, officially forcing them into the background.
Fortunately, the next generation, represented by Boruto and Kawaki, rose to the challenge. A scientist named Amado, a former member of Kara, revealed the terrifying secrets of the Ōtsutsuki Clan.
Among them, Ōtsutsuki Setsuna, who had consumed dozens of Chakra Fruits, had mastered divine techniques beyond the realms of ninjutsu and senjutsu, becoming the closest being to a true "god."
Using only the extracted genes from the remains of an ancient Ōtsutsuki, Amado created terrifying artificial humans, most notably Eida and Daemon (as revealed in Chapter 75 of the Boruto manga).
At the time, Sasuke and Naruto were shaken by the revelation of Setsuna's existence, but they found relief in the belief that he was either dead or had ascended to a higher dimension, no longer posing a threat to their world.
But the truth was far more terrifying.
Setsuna was still alive.
He had merely discarded his physical form, entering a deep slumber to prepare for his final evolution into a god.
And when Setsuna awakened, he used an ability called "Clairvoyance" to perceive the existence of the Ninja World, and launched an all-out assault on the planet where it resided.
Thus began the war to protect the Ninja World.
Or rather, it wasn't a war.
It was a massacre.
Sasuke's closest friends, his beloved, his daughter, his most cherished disciple, and the very world he had devoted his life to protecting, all were annihilated by Setsuna's overwhelming power.
Sasuke should have died with them. But clinging to the last shred of hope, he used his right eye, inherited from his late brother, to activate Izanami.
Though he escaped, he suffered near-irreparable injuries. In his most critical moment, another survivor, Orochimaru, found him and carried his broken body aboard a spaceship left behind by Kara, fleeing the devastated planet.
Setsuna knew of this but did not pursue them.
Or perhaps, he simply didn't care.
Instead, he planted the Divine Tree on the remains of the Ninja World, absorbing all its life energy to cultivate yet another Chakra Fruit.
With this fruit, Setsuna completed his final evolution, ascending as the supreme Ōtsutsuki God.
Then, he departed for a higher dimension, leaving behind nothing but a dead planet and two tormented survivors.
Sasuke's mind returned to the present. With a trembling arm, he ripped the tubes from his body and struggled to sit up.
On his deathbed, he made his final request.
"Orochimaru, I want to see my homeland... one last time."
Orochimaru nodded and smiled.
He possessed numerous cloned Sharingan from Shin Uchiha. With his advanced medical techniques, he could restore Sasuke's sight at any time.
But Sasuke had spent years avoiding it, avoiding his enemies' power and even his own heart.
The transplant was completed swiftly. With Orochimaru's help, Sasuke stepped outside.
As he gazed at the starry sky, his eyes instinctively searched for his homeland, only to find it had become nothing more than a dead, crater-ridden husk.
The once brilliant azure planet was now a lifeless, hollowed-out ruin.
A painful thought crossed his mind:
"If not for that catastrophe, Naruto and I would have already retired, wouldn't we?"
"Sarada would have taken up the mantle of Hokage, Boruto would have inherited his ninja way, and the two families would have finally become one, living in peace, surrounded by their children and grandchildren."
But in the end, there are no "what ifs."
Reality was cruel.
All he could do now was stand in the vastness of space, gazing at his lost homeland, tormented by the regret of failing to stop a godlike enemy.
Two silent tears slid down his cheeks.
Orochimaru, watching him, spoke gently.
"You still refuse to give up, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke clenched his withered right fist.
"Of course, I refuse. How could I accept this? But what can I do, even if I don't accept it? The mere thought of defeating someone like Setsuna is pure arrogance. How could the will of a few decades stand against the accumulation of thousands of years of evolution?"
A bitter smile crossed his lips.
"I've thought about it countless times... and in the end, I came to a conclusion I absolutely despise, only an Ōtsutsuki can defeat an Ōtsutsuki."
Orochimaru lowered his gaze in thought.
"Perhaps this isn't the best time to say this... but excluding the Ōtsutsuki factor, your growth since the Fourth Great War has been somewhat premature. If you hadn't received the Sage of Six Paths' gift at sixteen, you might have grown even stronger."
Sasuke turned to face him.
Orochimaru continued, his voice measured.
"Through my repeated studies on the evolution of the Uchiha's ocular powers, I've come to a realization. Every Dojutsu requires a transition. During your Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan phase, you should have nurtured an entirely new ocular technique. But before it could awaken, you were granted the Rinnegan too soon. The sudden surge in power was remarkable, but in the long run, it placed a ceiling on your potential."
"Furthermore, Madara, who was also Indra's reincarnation, unlocked the Rinnegan in both eyes by transplanting Hashirama's cells. You should have been able to do the same... yet you only received a fraction of Hashirama-sama's chakra."
"The fusion of Senju and Uchiha gives rise to the Six Paths' power, and the Six Paths' lineage traces back to the Ōtsutsuki. We've recovered the remains of the Sage of Six Paths and compared his genes to the pure-blooded Ōtsutsuki... but even he lacked a certain genetic fragment, one connected to the Ten-Tails and Hamura…"
"And with my current technology, I can complete the missing genetic fragment based on the Six Paths and recreate the power of the Ōtsutsuki. In other words, as long as Sasuke-kun attains the Six Paths, I can transform him into a true Ōtsutsuki..."
Hearing Orochimaru's words, Sasuke lowered his head with a heavy heart and let out a long sigh.
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