In the Hidden Rain Village, Makoto laid out their objectives for the coming period: First, focus on steady development and enhancing combat capabilities across all fronts.
With the Tailed Beast Chakra collection now complete, the optimal strategy was not to directly resonate and summon Kaguya Ōtsutsuki right away.
Instead, they would physically release Kaguya's true form from her seal on the moon and then manually transfer the collected chakra to her, allowing her to fully recover in a controlled environment.
However, both methods would inevitably create a massive cosmic disturbance, likely alerting Isshiki Ōtsutsuki.
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki was essentially a Black Zetsu with a self-destruct button.
Black Zetsu had relied on millennia of strategic trial and error, manipulating history from the shadows to orchestrate his mother's revival.
Isshiki, on the other hand, had taken a far more pathetic approach.
Near death after Kaguya's betrayal, he had taken refuge inside a monk named Jigen, shrinking himself to survive.
This gave him even longer than Black Zetsu to "develop" his plans.
Yet after over a thousand years, he had failed to establish any significant power base or even find a suitable permanent vessel.
What he arrogantly called "secret development and maintaining a low profile" was actually just extreme stagnation.
He was essentially AFK the entire millennium.
His organization, Kara, was a relatively recent development.
Their experimental base was currently located right here in the Hidden Rain Village—an underground facility that had been abandoned after the Akatsuki's recent takeover.
Core researchers like Amado and the perfect vessel, Kawaki, had only joined Kara after the Fourth Great Ninja War in the original timeline.
To put it bluntly, Kaguya was historically naive and gullible.
For someone so naive to successfully ambush and nearly kill Isshiki, his situational awareness and intelligence must have been significantly below average.
That is why it made perfect sense that Isshiki had been AFK for over a thousand years.
He simply lacked the initiative.
Unlike Momoshiki and Urashiki, who had only recently arrived here from the future, Isshiki had actively observed the Shinobi World for millennia.
He should have possessed a thorough encyclopedic understanding of human tactics and Ninjutsu.
Yet, in the end, he was still easily tricked by a basic Shadow Clone from Kawaki and died instantly.
Even the arrogant Momoshiki, upon first encountering Boruto's Vanishing Rasengan, initially scorned it.
But by their second meeting, he understood its mechanics and after resurrecting through Karma, he gleefully mastered the jutsu himself.
Isshiki had spent over a thousand years longer in the Shinobi World than Momoshiki, yet he learned absolutely nothing from the humans.
In short, Makoto needed to prepare for the very real possibility that Isshiki might suddenly emerge from hiding due to the massive commotion caused by Kaguya's resurrection, and devise a plan to eliminate him in advance.
During and after the Fourth Great Ninja War, even during the casting of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Isshiki had shown no activity whatsoever.
He might even have been caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi alongside his host Jigen, completely helpless.
But that did not rule out his potential reappearance now.
The timeline was already irrevocably altered.
After all, one could logically predict the actions of a clever person, but the behavior of an idiot defies logic and is impossible to anticipate.
What if Isshiki suddenly decided that after a thousand years of waiting, he still had not found a suitable vessel (and let's be honest, he was barely looking), and concluded that waiting any longer was pointless?
If Kaguya suddenly reappeared in her prime, he might panic and strike.
It was better to prepare the battlefield thoroughly first.
After all, Makoto still had plenty of time.
The intended vessel, Kawaki, was about the same age as Boruto, meaning his birth was still years away.
The core scientist Amado had not joined Kara yet either.
His daughter had not died (or perhaps had not even been born yet), so he had not yet spiraled into researching the artificial human technology that birthed Kara's Inners.
Makoto's main concern was that some fool might have a sudden burst of inspiration and ruin the timeline further.
Though sometimes, a fool's sudden inspiration could lead to unexpected gains.
For example, several small buffer countries had recently collapsed due to economic mismanagement.
Their common citizens had actually sent formal invitations to the Akatsuki, offering food and drink to welcome a hostile takeover by the mercenary group.
The daimyo of these small countries deeply envied the massive economic benefits generated by Makoto's Economic Mutual Assistance Alliance, but they fiercely feared the anti-corruption reforms being implemented by the Five Great Nations and the Land of Rain.
While the official diplomatic explanation was that "rogue ninja" had suddenly appeared to destabilize the region, every single daimyo who refused to join the alliance—except the one from the Land of Lightning—had their entire clans wiped out overnight by these "rogue ninja."
How could anyone possibly believe that was a coincidence?
So, instead of officially joining the alliance and submitting to oversight, these surviving small countries secretly began imitating its practices, initiating small-scale economic reforms and state-sponsored entrepreneurial ventures to boost their wealth.
But upon closer reflection, did these pampered daimyo, who were merely occupying positions of power by birthright without ever contributing to society, truly possess the administrative ability to govern their nations through a complex economic transition?
An incompetent ruler who simply sat idle and collected taxes might survive longer.
But once they attempted to take active, unguided action in a changing economy, they only hastened their own demise.
It was not the prodigal sons who squandered their fortunes on gambling that were to be feared, but rather the ambitious, talentless heirs who tried to start massive businesses and bankrupted the state.
Tragically, these minor daimyo never had a chance to turn things around.
After their fragile national economies collapsed under their mismanagement, they could only await the inevitable civilian uprisings.
"Send Kisame," Makoto said, glancing at the intelligence reports detailing the collapse of these small countries.
Kisame had been stationed as the acting governor in the Land of Waves for some time and had gained considerable administrative and political experience.
Moreover, the Land of Snow's newly established film studio had been continuously producing propaganda movies about the Akatsuki to win over public opinion.
Makoto had personally revised the script of the latest blockbuster, shifting the narrative perspective to portray his own "untimely, tragic death," leaving behind only the Akatsuki to carry on his noble vision for a unified peaceful world.
The latest installment focused heavily on Kisame's heroic struggles!
...
Hidden Rain Village Cinema.
Hanabi and her friends sat in the front row with a massive bucket of popcorn, eyes glued to the screen.
...
'Turtle Island is heavily guarded.'
'How could our intelligence possibly be smuggled out?'
'Resisting would only lead to pointless suffering for the civilians.'
'Perhaps it would be better to follow Nagato-sama peaceful example...'
'With only four members remaining in the Akatsuki, who would dare lead the desperate charge in the Fourth Great Ninja War?'
Having inherited the Military Advisor's grand ambition, how could we ever surrender without a fight?!
"Ugh—! Hah!"
On the massive screen, Kisame dramatically broke free from his Wood Release restraints, his mouth filled with fake blood as he made his final, desperate heroic struggle to transmit the vital intelligence back to headquarters before dying.
...
"Wow, even though Uncle Kisame is kind of ugly in real life, he is so cool on screen!" Fuu exclaimed, her blood boiling with cinematic excitement.
"Mm," Hanabi agreed, nodding as she stuffed her face with popcorn, finding Fuu's assessment highly accurate.
"Ugh..." Ringo Ameyuri, chewing on a lollipop in the seat next to them, twitched her lips in disbelief.
Fuu's reaction is one thing, but Hanabi?
Is she not a Konoha ninja?
She is literally watching her own village get portrayed as the evil, oppressive villains in this movie, and she is actively cheering for her own people to be slaughtered by a giant shark-man?
...
Konoha.
"Why does it feel like even though Makoto died in this movie, his political goals and ambitions are portrayed as even grander and more righteous?" Tsunade remarked, having dumped her massive stack of paperwork onto Kakashi's desk and thoughtfully brought Shizune along to the local theater to watch the highly anticipated film.
She paid little attention to the fact that Konoha and the Five Great Nations were explicitly portrayed as the greedy villains of the story.
After all, after reading Kakashi Vigorous Paradise and witnessing the absolute depravity of the Limited Tsukuyomi, she honestly considered this fictional portrayal of Konoha to be relatively tame and normal.
Tsunade was more surprised to find that the film seemed to be overtly promoting the radical idea of completely unifying the Shinobi World under one banner.
'Could it be...?'
Makoto certainly had the political acumen for that idea.
However, his primary goal remained confronting the Ōtsutsuki Clan.
Unifying the Shinobi World would honestly be far too simple for him at this point.
The entire Shinobi World already shared a common language, a largely unified culture, a common writing system, and even a shared currency!
If an ancient conqueror were to witness this geopolitical setup, he would burst out laughing.
Apart from the physical borders and the military grudges, everything else was already perfectly primed for unification.
"No."
Tsunade suddenly stood up in the dark theater, her expression grave.
Shizune startled, dropping her popcorn, terrified that the Hokage was about to march to the Rain Village and confront Makoto about his blatant propaganda.
But instead...
"This film is an absolute, massive box-office hit! It is bound to make a fortune in merchandise alone! I'm going to beg him to cast me in the sequel to pay off my debts!"
With that, Tsunade strode out of the cinema with renewed purpose.
Shizune: "???"