Above a forest not far from the Hidden Mist Village, two tall, slender figures slowly emerged in the air.
Carl looked down at the forest shrouded in thick mist below and said,
"So it really is the Hidden Mist Village. Living in a place like this year-round must be suffocating. No wonder it produces so many weirdos."
Lily, standing beside him, replied coldly,
"A place like this has no value in existing. It'd be better to erase it outright."
Carl rubbed his temples helplessly and said,
"Don't dismiss the value of others' existence so casually. At least it's one of the Five Great Ninja Villages."
"Village… tch."
Disdain filled Lily's face. To someone like her, who could wipe out a nation with a wave of her hand, the very concept of a 'village' was laughably small.
"Alright," Carl said. "The Hidden Mist Village isn't our objective anyway. Let's find Isshiki first."
As he spoke, brilliant golden light burst from Carl's Tenseigan. The light poured down from above, illuminating the entire forest below.
After a moment, the corners of Carl's lips curled into a faint smile.
"Found him."
Carl slowly raised one hand, thick black energy swirling around it. A powerful dark gravitational force erupted, twisting space itself and forcibly tearing open a circular black hole.
Through the black hole, several figures could be seen inside. The people within stared blankly at the forest outside, utterly confused—until Carl descended from the sky with Lily, hovering opposite the opening.
The moment they saw Carl and Lily, shock spread across the faces inside the black hole. They were members of Kara. Previously, they had been operating in secret within various villages, but not long ago, Konoha had somehow obtained information about their organization and begun hunting them worldwide. Sensing something amiss, Jigen had recalled all core members and hidden them within this space he himself had created.
Logically speaking, in a world where space–time ninjutsu was extremely rare, it should have been impossible for anyone to discover this dimension. Yet Carl's appearance shattered everything they believed.
Victor, whose public identity was the CEO of a medical equipment company, stared at Carl and demanded coldly,
"Who are you?"
Carl said nothing. He merely flicked his finger.
An invisible gravity field spread outward. Victor—and all the Kara members standing beside him—were instantly crushed into pools of flesh and blood.
Lily was long used to such scenes. She glanced at the black hole and said,
"You're not leaving one alive to ask where Ōtsutsuki Isshiki is?"
Carl replied calmly,
"Isshiki Ōtsutsuki is inside. As for these small fry, they don't deserve to speak."
The moment his words fell, slow footsteps echoed from within the black hole. A gaunt figure approached from the depths—a man dressed in a white monk's robe.
He was Jigen, the person Carl had come for this time, the host of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
Jigen stepped out of the black hole, treading on the remains of his subordinates, and came to a halt in midair.
With a cold expression, he examined Carl and Lily and asked the same question Victor had moments earlier,
"Who are you?"
Lily couldn't be bothered to acknowledge him at all. Carl smiled faintly and said,
"My name is Figarland Carl. I came to take something from you."
Figarland Carl?
Since when had such a figure appeared on this planet? Why had he heard nothing about him?
Jigen frowned deeply and asked in a low voice,
"Something? What are you talking about?"
Carl tilted his head slightly, as if looking at something behind Jigen.
"Of course—the Ten-Tails. A fresh Ten-Tails."
Jigen's pupils shrank instantly, his body tensing up.
"How do you know about the Ten-Tails?! Could it be that you—"
Mid-sentence, Jigen locked his gaze onto Carl's golden Tenseigan.
"That familiar aura… Are you a new-generation Ōtsutsuki?"
"I already told you," Carl replied calmly, "my name is Figarland Carl. I'm not some Ōtsutsuki Carl."
Bang!
Jigen's body was sent crashing downward like a meteor, slamming into the forest below and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
Lily looked at Carl, who was casually rolling his wrist, and asked,
"You didn't just kill him with that punch, did you?"
In Lily's current worldview, the so-called strong people of this world were all weak—touch them and they shattered.
And to be fair, that idea wasn't wrong. Without Six Paths–level power or certain special secret techniques, a ninja's body was as fragile as glass to Lily. But Jigen was no ordinary ninja.
Before Carl could respond, the smoke below was blown apart by an overwhelming aura. Jigen reappeared in their sight, holding a black staff, his face covered in vertical black markings.
Seeing the markings on his face, Lily raised an eyebrow.
"A transformation? Those black patterns… don't tell me that's haki?"
Carl laughed softly and shook his head.
"That's a secret technique of the Ōtsutsuki clan called Kāma. Simply put, it injects one's soul into another lifeform in the form of that black substance to achieve a kind of reincarnation. However, to achieve a perfect rebirth, you need a suitable host body—and this one called Jigen clearly doesn't meet those conditions."
Hearing this, Jigen's expression darkened. He said coldly,
"So you really are one of my kind. Are you here to capture me? Why hide your identity?"
Then, as if struck by realization, Jigen's eyes widened.
"I get it now. You want to monopolize the God Tree's fruit! What audacity!! Ōtsutsuki Carl!!"
Carl slowly descended to the ground, facing Jigen, his hands spread.
"Think whatever you like. In the end, you're just going to become fertilizer for the fruit."
"Hmph. You plan to feed me to the Ten-Tails? Not a bad idea. That way, you can even save the trouble of sacrificing the guardian next to you."
At this point, Jigen was fully convinced that Carl was an Ōtsutsuki, and Lily was naturally assumed to be the guardian Carl had brought along—the standard Ōtsutsuki duo.
Having confirmed this, Jigen knew that his first-stage Kāma was nowhere near enough to deal with another Ōtsutsuki like Carl. Without hesitation, he activated the second stage of Kāma. A coiled horn grew from his head—the unmistakable symbol of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Under the second stage of Kāma, Jigen's aura surged to more than twice its previous level. At the very instant Kāma Stage Two activated, Jigen snapped his eyes open.
Above Carl, a black cube materialized out of thin air and came crashing down toward him.
Daikokuten!
Boom!!
The black cube didn't look large, but its weight was utterly terrifying. The ground was smashed into a massive crater, and Carl's figure vanished within it.
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+85 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg