Chapter 268 – Genshiki and Urashiki
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki frowned in puzzlement. The one before him… he couldn't recall ever seeing this man.
But he didn't dwell on it. After all, he had been wandering for nearly a thousand years searching for Isshiki. In that span of time, it wasn't impossible for the clan to have produced some "new blood."
Besides, another clansman would be useful. Hunting for Isshiki alone was tedious, even for him.
"At least this spares me some wasted effort."
The truth was that ties between the Ōtsutsuki were never as harmonious as outsiders imagined. They were born exalted, and the passage of time left little mark on them. Only those who could keep pace with their evolution were worth their company. To them, every other lifeform in the universe was nothing more than ants.
What they sought in their endless lives was power—only overwhelming strength gave meaning to eternity. That was why they treated the worlds of mortals as mere grazing fields, harvesting chakra fruits without hesitation, even if it meant planetary ruin.
Urashiki had already wasted far too much time in his pursuit of Isshiki and Kaguya. His patience was thin.
"Call me… Genshiki."
Kitagawa Gen spoke casually, noting that this one, like Isshiki before him, seemed to lower his guard around supposed "clan kin."
"Genshiki?"
Urashiki's eyes narrowed. He quickly pressed forward.
"How long have you been on this planet? Have you seen Isshiki? His Kāma has manifested here—did his rebirth fail?"
Gen smiled faintly.
"No need to rush. I can answer everything one question at a time."
So gullible. Lack of caution was a gift.
"It hasn't even been twenty years since I arrived, but I've uncovered plenty. Especially… about Isshiki."
Urashiki clicked his tongue in surprise.
"Less than twenty years, and you've already gathered that much? Then this planet must be unusually interesting."
He leaned in, his curiosity piqued.
"Tell me—what of Isshiki?"
Gen's tone shifted, deliberately steeped in reverence.
"Ah, Isshiki-senpai… truly a pioneer."
There was admiration in his voice—yet beneath it, endless layers of irony.
"Tell me, have you not noticed how peculiar this world is? Its energy feels… unnatural, does it not?"
Urashiki blinked. The abrupt shift in topic caught him off guard, but it touched on something he himself had wondered.
"Indeed… it bears the scars of a Shinju's harvest, yet remains brimming with life. The planetary energy itself regenerates. How can that be?"
Gen clasped his hands behind his back. From the darkness, an orb of Truth-Seeking chakra drifted to his side.
"Because this planet has already hosted a God Tree."
Urashiki's brows furrowed.
"Already… planted?"
The thought disturbed him.
"Then Isshiki must be attempting another harvest… waiting for Kaguya's resurrection? No… something doesn't add up."
If that were the case, why had the Ten-Tails' power been split apart? Why was a failed Kāma host running rampant? And where was Kaguya?
Even more troubling—why did this supposed clansman's reverence feel so strangely mocking?
Hum—
Urashiki's thoughts shattered as a killing intent tore across the sky. He spun—
Gen's hand gripped a blackened ninjatō, blade arcing toward him with impossible speed.
"What—?!"
Urashiki's pupils shrank. He hadn't expected betrayal from one of his own blood—much less such ruthless decisiveness.
"Damn it!"
With no time to react, he flared his chakra outward, a crimson barrier erupting across his skin as his fishing rod swept up to parry.
But Gen's strike was too swift, too brutal. The impact thundered against Urashiki, hurling him like a cannonball across the land.
Boom—!
He crashed through one mountain after another, stone shattering like sand. Entire peaks collapsed in his wake until, at last, his body slammed into the earth, gouging a crater hundreds of meters wide.
"Cursed… brat…"
Meanwhile, chaos engulfed the town below.
The clash between Kirigakure's defenders and the Akatsuki had already descended into a mess. Kisame, Jūzō, and Raiga aimed to seize the Six-Tails' jinchūriki, Utakata. Mei Terumi's forces fought desperately to protect him.
But now another figure had entered the fray—a wild-eyed lunatic with no headband, fighting like a beast. His techniques were crude, relying solely on monstrous strength and space-warping bursts to appear and vanish across the battlefield.
Neither Akatsuki nor Kirigakure could afford to ignore him. The fighting grew even more frenzied.
"What in the world is he?"
Mei gritted her teeth, cutting through Akatsuki's onslaught as she cast a wary glance toward the deranged figure. Half her ANBU had already fallen. Even Ao and Chōjūrō were barely holding their own.
"If this keeps up… we'll be crushed."
She had no time to dwell further. A barrage of bone spears erupted from Kimimaro, forcing her back.
And in the midst of it all, a masked figure appeared silently above the chaos.
Obito Uchiha.
His crimson Sharingan swept across the battlefield, narrowing.
"Tch… why are they all here?"
The unstable "evolutionary" was lashing out at friend and foe alike. The Six-Tails was cornered. Akatsuki, Kirigakure, even Orochimaru's remnants—all colliding in one place.
What was meant to be a simple lure for Genshiki had devolved into pure bedlam.
"This is… problematic."
Obito's frown deepened as he debated whether to intervene before Gen arrived to seize control.
And then—
BOOM!
The heavens split. A cataclysmic detonation tore apart the mist, moonlight flooding the land. Shockwaves slammed into the battlefield, flattening friend and foe alike, throwing every shinobi to the ground as the earth itself roared.
Almost at the same moment, a thunderous roar shook the land.
From the distance, the upper half of an enormous mountain suddenly split apart as though struck by some cataclysmic force. One peak after another collapsed in sequence, crashing down with earth-shattering violence.
"Wh–what is happening?!"
"That kind of power… what on earth is going on?!"
The shinobi on the battlefield stared in shock as the once-towering ridges crumbled like sandcastles, avalanches of stone slamming into the ground. Their minds buzzed in disbelief; the sheer scale left them numb.
Whoosh—!
From amidst the chaos, a figure erupted from beneath the shattered earth, rising into the air. His aura pressed down like a storm, and his furious roar echoed across the night.
"Ōtsutsuki Genshiki! How dare a junior like you insult me in such a way?!"
The name alone froze every heart on the battlefield.
Ōtsutsuki.
That clan of gods. That being of myth. For shinobi to even hear it spoken aloud was enough to fill them with dread.
If this was him… then who in the world was this so-called "Genshiki" fighting him?
Before they could think further, a blinding golden radiance split the night. The oppressive gloom was cast aside, the darkness swallowed by a brilliance like midsummer noon.
The raw pressure of the chakra alone made every soul tremble.
And then, a cold voice rang out from above.
"I have already met Isshiki-senpai. I respect him deeply—everything he did paved the way forward."
With a flash, a golden blade cleaved down from the heavens. Urashiki raised his crimson fishing-rod weapon to block, but the impact sent him tumbling through the air, tearing the very atmosphere apart.
"He slaughtered his kin. He devoured the fruit. Then he disappeared into the shadows. If not for sheer luck, I would never have found him."
Another flare of golden light—Gen's form blurred forward, his sword carving down once more. The stroke carried a divine weight, a power so vast Urashiki found himself cornered, unable to evade.
Squelch—!
The blade tore across his chest. Urashiki staggered back, eyes wide, staring down at the wound carved open across his torso.
Impossible.
For a moment his mind went blank. He couldn't even parse the words Gen had spoken—nor accept that he, a true Ōtsutsuki, had actually been injured.
"What… are you even saying?"
Gen's expression curved into a razor smile. Behind him, Truth-Seeking Orbs converged and fused seamlessly into the golden blade, its radiance surging brighter.
"You still don't understand your situation? Isshiki broke the rules—and in doing so, he showed me the path forward."
His voice rolled across the battlefield like thunder.
"The fruit is born only through consuming one of our own. So tell me—why should I not skip straight to that step?"
Urashiki froze.
"Skip… the fruit's rite…? What nonsense are you—"
"Exactly!"
Gen's laughter rang out, his smile dazzling with almost manic brilliance.
"Our kin are the stepping stones to godhood. Isshiki-senpai proved it. So why shouldn't I?!"
Urashiki's blood ran cold. Isshiki… did the same?!
Gen's expression hardened. His blade pointed directly at Urashiki, eyes like burning suns.
"And so, elder… I must thank you. Traveling all this way just to confirm my truth. For the sake of Isshiki-senpai's dream, and my own… offer yourself to me."
Urashiki clenched his teeth, horror mixing with fury.
"You think you've already won? That you can consume me? How dare you betray your own bloodline like this?!"
Gen tilted his head, almost mockingly, before vanishing in a blur. When he reappeared, he was directly before Urashiki, golden sword poised to strike again.
"What a strange question," he whispered.
Then, with a cold smirk—
"When you eat a sweet pastry… do you stop to wonder how to treat the other ants at the table?"