Chapter 436: Kaguya
This wasn't the first time Eriri had seen the Dimensional Chat Group's Admin — between mooching off quest Points and taking part in group events, she'd run into Ryū more times than she could count, and the two chatted privately now and then as well.
But honestly, this was her first time actually visiting Ryū's own home world — the world where the group's Admin himself lived.
The feeling was oddly novel. Exactly how novel, Eriri couldn't quite put into words.
If she could've put it into words, she supposed, it wouldn't really count as "novel" anymore.
Sure enough, Admin-sama looked exactly as he always did — unchanged as ever, and just as handsome as ever.
Honestly, the Dimensional Chat Group had no shortage of male members — arguably even slightly more of them than female members.
But in terms of looks? Not that they were ugly, exactly... just not really Eriri's type. The only one who actually matched her taste was Ryū, the Admin himself.
"Hello, Admin-sama!" Eriri greeted him with practiced ease. Beside her, Umaru chimed in with her own "Hello, Admin-sama!"
In both their minds, after all, Ryū stood at the very peak of the Dimensional Chat Group — an overwhelmingly powerful presence capable of dominating countless worlds.
He was also, functionally, their direct superior. Showing respect and a healthy dose of awe toward someone this formidable only made sense.
Ryū returned both girls' greetings with a smile and a nod.
He then led the two of them down one of Konoha's long streets, looking toward the direction where the fire still blazed. "The quest's derivative-world Uchiha Obito is over there. This is a Tier 5 quest, which means the two of you, as Tier 5 members, should be more than capable of handling it."
He paused, then continued. "If you run into anything you genuinely can't handle, I'll step in and help. Think of this as a free training opportunity for the both of you."
Not that he planned on slacking off entirely — that would hardly look good on him — but Ryū genuinely believed Eriri and Umaru's combined strength was more than enough to deal with this Reincarnation Space version of Obito.
It was only a Tier 5 quest, after all, and both of them sat comfortably at Tier 5 themselves.
Even Umaru — the group's most dedicated salted fish, demoted down from Tier 4, no less — still counted.
Surely the two of them together could handle a single Obito from the Reincarnation Space. And with Ryū himself watching from the sidelines, he wasn't the slightest bit worried about any of the foreboding statements he'd just made coming back to bite him.
With his own strength, he could be riddled with every ominous flag in the book, standing there like some grizzled old general on a theater stage, and none of it would touch him.
The Dimensional Chat Group's Tier 5 members, roughly speaking, matched Whitebeard at his canon peak in the One Piece world.
Not the current, chat-group-boosted Whitebeard, mind you — the original, pre-membership version.
And Umaru's own strength, as it happened, actually edged out even that benchmark by a decent margin.
Combat power on that scale, dropped into the Naruto world, might not quite match Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, but steamrolling the entire shinobi world wouldn't pose much of a problem either.
Speaking of which — Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was herself a chat-group member now, and had been for a fair while already, hadn't she?
She'd joined alongside Chika, brought in through Ryū's own one-time newcomer invitation. Both of them lived in the Naruto world, technically, though the two had never once crossed paths in person.
And presumably, by this point, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya had already broken free of her own seal?
Watching Umaru and Eriri head off, Ryū glanced thoughtfully up at the sky.
The blue overhead was now half-obscured by billowing smoke.
Just then, a soft ding sounded in his head.
His consciousness slipped into the chat, and he blinked, then let out a dry, surprised laugh. "Speak of the devil..."
A private message had come in — and it was from none other than Ōtsutsuki Kaguya herself.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya: Lord Admin, has an intruder appeared in this world? Would you like my help?
RawrSoFierce: Huh... you've already broken your seal, then?
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya: Yes. Thanks to Lady Yukari's assistance, along with the Ancient One's help — the two of them found another way to free me from it.
RawrSoFierce: I see... though it's not much of a threat, honestly. Just a small fry from the Reincarnation Space. Umaru and Eriri should be able to handle it just fine.
RawrSoFierce: That said, since you're free now, feel free to come join in on the fun. Mooching some Points off this one wouldn't hurt either.
RawrSoFierce: There's a solid 20,000 up for grabs, after all!
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya: Is that so... very well, then. I've got a rough fix on your location, Lord Admin. Give me a few seconds.
"..."
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's personality had drifted noticeably from her canon self — presumably another consequence of the Dimensional Chat Group's own particular brand of "enlightenment."
In canon, she'd treated the entire Earth as little more than nutrient stock, all in service of fending off pursuers from her own Ōtsutsuki clan out in the wider cosmos.
These days, though, she'd long since abandoned that old scheme entirely. She'd discovered that growing stronger inside the Dimensional Chat Group simply moved at an absurd pace.
Fast enough that it felt almost like running some kind of speed-cultivation cheat — her own power climbing like it was strapped to a rocket.
Given that, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya understood perfectly well where her priorities should lie now.
And besides — there were simply too many people in the Dimensional Chat Group stronger than her for any lingering arrogance to survive long.
Sure, her own strength was nothing to scoff at, but within the group as a whole, she only barely scraped into the upper tier — somewhere around Kaguya Shinomiya's own level, give or take.
A few seconds later, a figure both unfamiliar and faintly familiar appeared beside Ryū.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya stood dressed in a white robe befitting a seeker of the Path, standing quietly on the ground. Roughly five-foot-seven, a long sweep of silver hair spilling down her back.
Her pure white eyes carried a flicker of curiosity as she tilted her head, studying Ryū. A pair of small, delicate horns adorned her forehead.
Her cool, finely sculpted features gave her, at a glance, the look of a mature, alluring older-sister type.
Though she looked to be somewhere in her twenties or thirties, the truth was she was probably only a little younger than the old hag herself.