I was stumped on Kaguya, I did not want to kill her, but she was clearly not interested in compromise, and she was tough, very tough, anything I could throw at her that was conventional, like my favorite space rocks, would be shrugged off by her regeneration and insane durability.
I didn't miss the fact that a spear through her chest was a mild annoyance if it wasn't for me forcibly destabilizing the Bijū Chakra, and even that was not as effective as I had hoped since there was only one Soul inside of her fighting, Obito had truly been restrained in his plan.
So that left me with one advantage, Divine Power.
But even that was iffy, it seems that the God Tree was well named, since Kaguya possessed Divinity, it was dormant and not active, but it was there, so she had some measure of resistance against mind manipulation from me.
In the time I was deliberating, Kaguya was not idle, from my remote viewing, she was making fast progress in stabilizing her form.
Maybe 10 more minutes?
Man...
This is a pain.
Is this what gamblers feel like when they bet big and realize that their chances of winning are going down?
Fuck it, I had one last idea before I seriously considered giving up on trying to avoid killing Kaguya.
***
Hagoromo watched Kaguya with an intense stare, he had kept to his word and did not interfere, but he wanted to.
Thankfully, he had his tricks to keep watch over the situation without being there, using his connection to Kaguya's Chakra, and a long-range sensory technique, he could watch the battle from his location near Rōran.
The conversation between Kaguya and The Watcher had left feeling sad because while his Mother's coherence gave him hope, her words had crushed it.
His Mother didn't suffer from some malady of the mind, or something akin to it.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
And that was the most painful realization he had since his children died, more painful than fighting her the first time.
Because at least back then he thought that there was some madness tainting her thoughts, making her lash out against all those that she perceived as stealing from her.
But no, Kaguya had simply changed, her detached relation to Humanity becoming a disdain for them.
"Help me, Hagoromo! You're my only hope!" He blinked out of his thoughts as a familiar voice reached him.
And as if spawned by the very air itself, The Watcher was next to him, or as he was called in his human form, Ayumu.
"Watcher." He inclined his head. "I hope this is not you admitting that you can not stop my mother."
That would be truly disastrous, while he could grant The Sun and Moon marks to another, he was not aware of anyone that truly had the strength and compatibility to seal Kaguya again.
"Nah, I could kill her, it would be really annoying and hard, but she doesn't have that cunning edge that makes her truly difficult to deal with." He admitted. "But I want to try one last thing before I resort to that."
"You are sure?" He asked, wanting to confirm that fact.
"Very." Ayumu nodded in response. "A little bit of prep and a big boom, and she's probably not going to survive, she even graciously is in an empty dimension, so I don't even have to worry about collateral damage."
He sighed in relief, 'probably' was not that comforting, but from his vast experience in dealing with all manner of people, he had the feeling The Watcher would not be making such a claim if he was unsure.
"So, why are you here?" He prodded.
"Here's my thought process, she clearly doesn't consider humans as equals." Ayumu began. "She sees them like we see smart animals, she tried to rule over them, and maybe even loved some, but once they caused her pain she did a complete 180 and decided to exterminate them."
Hagoromo grimaced slightly at the comparison, it was quite accurate in his opinion.
"My solution would be to force her into a position where she is an equal to those around her, hoping that an extended stay around humans without the distance having such massive amounts of power creates will make her change her mind." He continued. "Of course, there is no guarantee that this will work, but she seems very sheltered, so maybe it will."
That... wasn't a bad plan.
It did sting slightly how accurate The Watcher's analysis of Kaguya was, oh how he wished that he had his older self's wisdom back when he was but a child.
"What do you need from me?" He asked seriously.
"You see, I have no way of de-powering her easily due to some..." Ayumu gestured vaguely. "You know, divine bullshit."
No, he did not know.
"So I wanted to ask if your bullshit seal could do the job." Ayumu finished. "If we could seal away only her Chakra, leaving her with just enough to function normally, then I can dump her in a place where she can socialize."
"There are several problems with that." Hagoromo said immediately. "First, and most obvious one, casting the complete version of the Chibaku Tensei requires someone with a Rinnegan and capable of using my version of Senjutsu, while I could grant someone this ability, I am not aware of anyone alive that is compatible enough."
"Go on." Ayumu nodded patiently.
"The second is that Chibaku Tensei is all encompassing, it does not allow for us to choose what we seal." He continued. "It will seal Chakra, Souls, Anything Physical, anything at the center of it."
Ayumu hummed in thought.
"And third, even if we seal her Chakra, if we do not seal her body, she could just regenerate it, it would take her years to get back to full power, but she does not need to be at full power to stand high above mortals, as you have seen." He finished.
"It... might still work." Ayumu said slowly. "Show me the marks, I need to see what I'm working with."
Hagoromo obliged, holding out his open palms, in one, a black crescent moon appeared, in the other, a white sun.
"Interesting..." Ayumu mused. "Good thing all my fucking about with bloodlines and genetics gave me some experience with this kind of stuff."
He snapped his fingers, and two more copies of Ayumu appeared from thin air, these ones lacking the scars of the original.
"These should work, they will crumble in days after receiving the marks, but we don't need days."
Hagoromo blinked in surprise.
Was this the difference between a true Divinity and what he had reached?
His eyes could clearly see the clones' Chakra, it was nostalgic, looking at something so similar to his sons.
"That is one problem dealt with, as for the other two... I have an idea." Ayumu admitted. "I don't need to weaken Kaguya myself, all I need to do is force her to weaken herself."
"Explain, pelase."
"She does not want to be sealed, so we give her a choice, get sealed, or make her transfer into a body, if she does it willingly then it would be much easier on me."
That could work, in Hagoromo's opinion.
"Very well, I will help you."
***
With a flex of her Chakra, Kaguya created her robes again, covering her reformed body once more.
In the process, she discovered what had happened to her Chakra.
It had been divided into nine distinct parts, each resembling something different, and by resonating with said parts, the corresponding Chakra would rampage, it was tainted by foreign emotions, anger, pain, hate...
But the Chakra lacked a will, so she had managed to strip it of that influence.
So the trick would be not work again.
Kaguya's thoughts returned to her attacker, a true Divinity, but of what origin? She had no knowledge of such a being existing before her sealing.
While he was a self-proclaimed protector of this world, he had retreated in her moment of weakness, letting her recover in peace...
Something was not adding up.
But before she could think about it more, a hand came out of a rift behind her, closed and aimed at her back, she did not have time to react before it hit.
A hand twice as big as her smashed into her body, there was a dull boom as she was launched forward at high speeds, crashing onto the ground multiple times.
She took control of her flight and shot back up into the air, the injuries from his attack already healing.
And when she looked back, the colossal form of The Watcher was standing there, hands already glowing with lightning.
He reared back, a spear of crackling electricity forming between his fingers, and threw it at her.
The air screamed as it passed through it, Kaguya learned from her previous mistake and didn't attempt to dodge by opening a rift.
She used her Yin-Yang release to create a Truth-Seeking Orb, shaping it into a staff and slamming it against the spear.
It was knocked away from her, hitting the ground below, carving a deep canyon through the landscape.
Kaguya acted first this time, she already knew physical attacks were indefective from her Rabbit Hair Needle earlier, so she attempted something else.
She flew forward, using Eighty Gods Vacuum Fists to deflect The Watcher's strikes, every clash shaking the air.
When she was close enough, Kaguya's hand moved, palm aiming at The Watcher's chest.
'Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball'
A massive black sphere appeared in front of her, The Watcher jerked backwards slightly, but wasn't fast enough to dodge it.
It expanded quickly, consuming his chest and head, and after a split second, it disappeared, the Watchers remaining body falling down to the ground, motionless.
Kaguya stared at him for a few seconds, not quite believing that he had been defeated so easily, she knew that her ultimate technique was powerful, but that easy?
She floated downwards cautiously, stopping about 5 meters away from The Watcher.
There was no movement, just a giant corpse on the ground.
...
Could she somehow drain the Divinity inherent to his body?
She didn't know if it was possible, but maybe...
But then two of those strange rifts opened up, and 2 hands reached out of them, this time human.
And Kaguya felt fear, because she recognized what these were.
The Sun and Moon Marks.
'Chibaku Tensei.'
With a panicked gesture, bones burst out of her body, stabbing into the two people, copies of the puppet used before.
But while they did not dodge, they did not stop either, the All-Killing Ash Bones stabbed through them, blood spraying everywhere, but their flesh was not consumed as fast as it should.
The palms hit her body, one on each shoulder.
"Rikudō - Chibaku Tensei!"
The divine words echoed, and immediately a sphere of pure black formed around her chest.
Kaguya felt panic take over as she desperately tried to escape, but it was already too late.
Her Chakra was forcefully sucked into the orb, she felt herself getting weaker with each passing second.
And with a last burst of power, she shot forwards, right arm outstretched, a black diamond forming in her palm.
She slammed it against one of the humans, causing him to fly backwards, disappearing back into the rift he had come from.
The rift closed, the second clone perished from his wounds, but the Chibaku Tensei kept going, uncaring of the death of its users.
She refused to be sealed again.
"No!" She screamed. "I Refuse!"
With a roar, she gathered all her Chakra that was still left inside of her, every single drop, and unleashed it.
"Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball!"
Kaguya closed her eyes tightly as it expanded, the Chibaku Tensei covered her, and at the same time, she released her attack.
The explosion was massive, it rent through the fabric of reality, the interaction of an unstoppable force and the strongest seal ever created destroying everything in their vicinity.
And in that explosion, Kaguya died.
***
The body of Ayumu hit the ground, and within it, Kaguya's Kāma activated, her soul and mind transferred into it.
And immediately panicked, the All-Killing Ash Bones were still embedded in his chest, and the flesh around it was slowly dissolving.
She prepared herself for a battle of wills, a contest of minds to determine if she would get control over this new body...
But she slipped into control like nothing.
She blinked slowly, this... human had no consciousness?
But she shook off her momentary surprise, she already knew that these were mere puppets, she had no time to dwell on it.
This body was already dying, and judging by the state of it, it would not last more than a minute.
Her hands quickly but unsteadily reached for the bones in her chest, trying to remove them from her body before they could dissolve any more of it.
She barely managed to do so before she collapsed to the ground, too weak to even move anymore.
Desperately, Kaguya thought about her options.
Her Kāma was not fast enough, if she let the transformation occur naturally, she would die before it could stabilize her body.
And she did not have enough Chakra in this body to force the transformation, even if it was weirdly compatible.
But she had no other choice, she did not know what would happen to her if the transformation was left incomplete, if it would weaken her or if it would be too slow.
So she drew in deep breaths, as much air as her lungs would allow, and used her new body's reserves.
Markings spread across this new body, and every drop of Chakra not necessary for life was fed into the Kāma, accelerating its growth until it fully covered her skin.
As her mind faded, she hoped she would live to see another sunrise.