Inside the sealed space.
Evan stared at the completely serious Otsutsuki Kaguya, opened his mouth, and found that all the words he’d prepared had nowhere to go.
Lady, why did you agree so fast?
Think about it for a little longer!
At least let me finish talking!!
Once again, Evan hadn’t managed to finish his pitch.
“Great. Starting today, you’re the Dimensional Restaurant’s second employee.”
His frustration came quickly and vanished just as fast.
Evan soon regained his composure and made the announcement.
Bzzzz—
Immediately afterward, he cast a spell and began pulling Kaguya out of the sealed space inside the moon.
As for how Evan had become this absurdly proficient with magic after studying it for only a few days?
Naturally, the System deserved the credit.
His System interface came with an innate ability,
Thousandfold Progress.
No matter what Evan studied, his learning efficiency was multiplied by a thousand, allowing him to master skills to an expert level in an incredibly short amount of time.
That was also why his cooking ability had improved as though someone had strapped it to a rocket.
Otherwise, what kind of culinary skill did you expect from a shut in who’d barely exercised in his old life?
Kaguya watched herself being drawn bit by bit out of the sealed space, and the astonishment on her face only deepened.
Whatever little schemes she’d still been entertaining promptly vanished into smoke.
“Greetings, Boss.”
Once she was completely free of the seal, Kaguya’s expression struggled for a moment before she bowed slightly toward Evan.
She had realized that joining the Dimensional Restaurant brought her nothing but benefits.
Not only would she no longer have to fear the enemies who had once left her constantly anxious, she wouldn’t even need to worry about her two unfilial sons sealing her away again.
“Black Zetsu, you did very well this time.”
After greeting Evan, Kaguya naturally turned her attention toward Black Zetsu on his shoulder.
Her emotions became complicated as she looked at him.
“Boss Whitaker, may I go over to Mother?” Black Zetsu asked expectantly.
His entire face was pitch black, so there was no way to actually see the anticipation in his expression, but Evan could hear it perfectly well in his voice.
“Go ahead.” Evan grabbed Black Zetsu with one hand and passed him over to Kaguya.
“We’re leaving now. There’s still a lot to do.”
He’d come to the Naruto world to search for ingredients.
Half a day had already passed, and he’d done a whole pile of completely unrelated things without making any progress on his actual objective.
“Where do you think you’re going?” A voice suddenly interrupted them.
The spirit of the Sage of Six Paths appeared before Evan, Kaguya, and Black Zetsu.
Hagoromo stared at his mother in shock before turning toward Evan.
“Who are you, and where are you taking her?”
He had sensed Evan the instant he’d entered the sealed space.
But he hadn’t revealed himself immediately.
He’d been watching.
Now, however, Hagoromo couldn’t remain hidden any longer.
If he waited any more, his mother was going to get spirited away to become the head of some kind of farming division!
“Where I go is my business. You don’t get a say.” Evan was anything but polite.
He turned away.
“Let’s go.”
Kaguya gave her unfilial son Hagoromo one complicated look before turning and following Evan.
The Sage of Six Paths silently watched them leave.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to stop them.
The problem was that he couldn’t win.
From the moment Evan had entered the sealed space, Hagoromo had known he wasn’t a match for him.
After all, right now he was merely a weak spirit.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Crackle—
A ring of sparks opened in front of Nagato and Konan.
Evan and Kaguya stepped through.
“This is Black Zetsu’s mother. These are Nagato and Konan.”
Evan handled the introductions with impressive efficiency.
Kaguya gave them an indifferent nod.
If not for Evan’s presence, she wouldn’t even have bothered looking directly at these two ants.
“Huh?”
“Oh…”
Compared to Kaguya’s coldness, Nagato and Konan’s reactions were far more entertaining.
Their gazes bounced repeatedly between Black Zetsu and Kaguya.
The expressions on their faces vividly conveyed the exact same thought.
Can a mother and son really look this different?
They’re practically different species!
“Ahem. Enough staring. We’ve got work to do.”
Evan coughed twice, interrupting their rather impolite gawking.
Fortunately, Nagato and Konan realized they’d been rude.
They gave awkward smiles and obediently straightened up, waiting for Evan’s instructions.
“Black Zetsu, send every White Zetsu out. I want them to search the entire world and bring back anything that can be used as an ingredient.”
Evan paused.
Then he remembered the White Zetsu army’s combat ability.
“Nagato, get the Akatsuki ready too. If any White Zetsu requests assistance, immediately send someone to help.”
“No problem.” Nagato agreed readily.
He considered his control over the organization quite solid.
Getting its members to go out and catch a few animals shouldn’t be difficult.
“As for you and me…” Evan turned toward Kaguya.
“We’re going after the Tailed Beasts.”
“Very well.” Kaguya had no objections.
Nagato, Konan, and Black Zetsu, however, all developed the same question.
You can eat Tailed Beasts?
“Let’s get started.”
The moment Evan gave the order, Black Zetsu went into action.
The White Zetsu activated their shared consciousness, and tens of thousands of them scattered throughout the shinobi world began moving at once.
For a time, an incalculable number of plants and animals found themselves in serious trouble.
Nagato, meanwhile, summoned Yahiko’s corpse.
He and Konan stared at Evan expectantly.
“Bring him back.” Evan gestured toward the body, signaling for Kaguya to handle it.
This was her world, after all.
Using her abilities here was much easier.
And, in fact, resurrecting Yahiko really was incredibly simple for Kaguya.
The entire process took three steps.
First, she reached into the Pure Land and forcibly retrieved Yahiko’s soul.
Her unfilial son Hagoromo’s response could essentially be summed up as,
Mother, by all means.
Please.
Second, she stuffed the soul back into Yahiko’s body, which had been dead for years.
Third, she had the black receivers created through Yin–Yang Release removed, then used Yang Release to restore his life.
Three minutes later, a perfectly healthy Yahiko stood alive before them.
“I thought I was…?” Yahiko looked completely bewildered.
Hadn’t he died?
He’d been hanging around the Pure Land for years.
How had he suddenly come back to life?!
“Yahiko!” Nagato and Konan threw themselves at him.
Tears streamed down their faces as they clung to their long lost friend, leaving the newly resurrected Yahiko completely at a loss for what to do.
A touching reunion between old friends unfolded before them.
“We should go.” Evan had no interest in watching the three of them catch up.
He motioned for Kaguya to leave with him.
Kaguya nodded.
She had equally little interest in remaining here.
After spending hundreds, perhaps even a thousand years sealed away in one place, the last thing she wanted was to stand around without moving.
She wanted to travel.
To see different places.
To look at scenery she’d never seen before.
So the instant Evan suggested leaving, she followed him through the Portal without hesitation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The next moment, Evan, Kaguya, and Black Zetsu emerged from the Portal high above a lush forest.
Their sudden appearance startled several passing birds so badly that they forgot how to fly and promptly dropped out of the sky.
Not far ahead stood a large settlement built against the mountains and surrounded by forest.
Walls more than ten meters high enclosed it, protecting the town from outside enemies.
Two shinobi stood guard beside the open main gate, while many more patrolled from concealed positions around the perimeter.
Inside, buildings stood packed together in orderly rows.
Pedestrians flowed endlessly through the streets, colorful shop signs filling the commercial districts, while shinobi leapt constantly from rooftop to rooftop.
The whole village seemed lively and prosperous.
But the most eye catching feature was undoubtedly the enormous cliff overlooking the settlement.
Four gigantic faces had been carved into the stone, clearly visible even from a great distance.
Evan looked toward the village.
“This is our first stop.”
“Konohagakure.”
He smiled.
“And the Tailed Beast we’re here to capture is the Nine-Tails.”