Basically yeah, the Otsutsuki are multi-dimensional, the Reapers aren't. (Unless that's been changed in this Fic.)
But it would basically mean while the Reapers might possibly know of the Otsutsuki, they wouldn't really be able to fight a war against them, seeing as they'd be incapable of reaching them.
So imo, it's less a war, and more something along the lines of pest control via killing God-Trees when they're found.
Though, it's probably worth noting that the First Reapers are, or were, probably higher tech than the "current" production models, since there would have been multiple races not in the eezo tech tree trap, and they wouldn't have had the kind of numbers they do nowadays.
That said, yeah, I'd agree that the Reapers probably aren't anything more than a relatively localized problem for the Otsutsuki.
Though ... the Otsutsuki POV interludes gave me the impression that Kaguya and Narutoworld were in a relative backwater and/or distant fringe/frontier area by Otsutsuki standards.
In other words, the Otsutsuki might not have noticed the Reapers are at war with them.
Though, it's probably worth noting that the First Reapers are, or were, probably higher tech than the "current" production models, since there would have been multiple races not in the eezo tech tree trap, and they wouldn't have had the kind of numbers they do nowadays.
That said, yeah, I'd agree that the Reapers probably aren't anything more than a relatively localized problem for the Otsutsuki.
Though ... the Otsutsuki POV interludes gave me the impression that Kaguya and Narutoworld were in a relative backwater and/or distant fringe/frontier area by Otsutsuki standards.
In other words, the Otsutsuki might not have noticed the Reapers are at war with them.
The "first reapers" were the SAME tech level as the current ones, and/or all Reapers have been updated with the newest tech. They were the peak of Leviathan tech, and no race since the Leviathans has been allowed to advance even that far. Even if the Yahg, the canon pre-space-flight species being studied, achieves such a thing within a few years of the start of the cycle, they would still not have enough time to reach the Leviathans', and thus the Reapers', tech level. And Eezo tech is not actually a trap except that it pushes races to develop in an expected way and limits the surprises they can come up with.
The "first reapers" were the SAME tech level as the current ones, and/or all Reapers have been updated with the newest tech. They were the peak of Leviathan tech, and no race since the Leviathans has been allowed to advance even that far. Even if the Yahg, the canon pre-space-flight species being studied, achieves such a thing within a few years of the start of the cycle, they would still not have enough time to reach the Leviathans', and thus the Reapers', tech level. And Eezo tech is not actually a trap except that it pushes races to develop in an expected way and limits the surprises they can come up with.
I would tend to disagree. The Leviathans were not the only species, and the Eezo Tech Tree was not the only one being used at the time of the first Cycle, and as such, the First Reapers would have been built with non-Eezo tech in addition to Eezo tech, and expected to face high level non Eezo tech as well as higher level Eezo tech.
All "current" production model Reapers are more less exclusively Eezo Tech Tree, barring things like indoctrination tech.
After all, they don't need to fight the First Cycle, they only need to deal with those caught in the trap, and have crushing numerical and qualitative superiority. And for those rarities from outside the trap? Well, they've got the numbers and indoctrination.
~50k years is absolutely more than enough time to successfully prepare for the Reapers if you know you need to. It's the "if you know you need to" part that's critical. Because part of that is avoiding the trap that is placing your Capitol on the Citadel, and developing in ways that avoid extreme dependence upon the Relays, that is, building taller rather than the building wider that the Relays encourage. And partly avoiding exclusive dependence upon the Eezo tech tree.
At least, when it comes to the Reapers seen in ME3, let down that they were.
This isn't known, matter fact... canonically Eezo tech seems to be the only truly viable FTL method in the ME-verse. To the point civilizations in other galaxies (completely untouched by the Reaper's trap) are also only using Eezo based FTL, sure they use it differently, but they still use it.
And while it may not be the only viable FTL method in this dimension, it hasn't been stated whether any other civilizations have used non-Eezo tech. Sure the Otsutsuki and Belka don't, but they seemingly both hail from different dimensions than the one Earth is in. So yeah, unless stated otherwise the First Harvest likely went the same as it does in ME canon.
True, but they were the dominant species, and seemed to have a galaxy spanning empire of Thralls and Vassals.
This isn't known, matter fact... canonically Eezo tech seems to be the only truly viable FTL method in the ME-verse. To the point civilizations in other galaxies (completely untouched by the Reaper's trap) are also only using Eezo based FTL, sure they use it differently, but they still use it.
And while it may not be the only viable FTL method in this dimension, it hasn't been stated whether any other civilizations have used non-Eezo tech. Sure the Otsutsuki and Belka don't, but they seemingly both hail from different dimensions than the one Earth is in. So yeah, unless stated otherwise the First Harvest likely went the same as it does in ME canon.
Eezo based FTL may or may not be the only viable forms of FTL technology in the Mass Effect universe.
However, since the Andromeda local version are using Eezo to do something pretty close to Alcubierre style space warps, IIRC, it's likely that Eezo can be used to allow other FTL theories, at least to some extent, which may allow for artificial wormholes.
However, FTL technology isn't what actually matters most for the First Cycle. They could have Stargate hyperdrives for all that matters for my point.
What matters is non-Eezo based weapons and defensive technologies. Or even advances on the presumably Eezo-based particle beams that the Protheans developed, which are far more effective against KBs than slugs of metal, and can be scaled up quite effectively. Or their own Thanix type weapons.
Or just advances on real life technologies and research - better combat effective lasers, casaba howitzer style shaped nuclear blasts, plasma weapons.
Point is, in the First Cycle, while Eezo tech was presumably widely used, for FTL if nothing else, the weapons and defenses would not have been those used by those civilizations caught up in the Reaper trap seeded with Eezo tech shortcuts/relics/artifacts. And the First Reapers would have needed to deal with civilizations that developed entirely outside of their trap.
Also ... the Leviathans were on top as much because of their telepathy and mind control as much as their tech, perhaps more because of their telepathy and mind control. They are a bit big for the more fine detail precision work needed for advanced technologies and underwater is not the most conducive environment for fostering technological development.
Point is, in the First Cycle, while Eezo tech was presumably widely used, for FTL if nothing else, the weapons and defenses would not have been those used by those civilizations caught up in the Reaper trap seeded with Eezo tech shortcuts/relics/artifacts. And the First Reapers would have needed to deal with civilizations that developed entirely outside of their trap.
The Catalyst either already had access to Indoctrination Tech or had some form of drones though, the Leviathans just stated that it had 'pawns' for collecting data across the entire galaxy, pawns which it turned against it's Creators and their Thralls thus starting the first cycle. Like they basically let the thing have free reign of their Empire, Thralls, and said Thralls' technologies. It didn't need a trap for the first cycle because the trap was already set, namely it's creators didn't think it would/could turn on them and it spread it's influence across the galaxy already.
Also ... the Leviathans were on top as much because of their telepathy and mind control as much as their tech, perhaps more because of their telepathy and mind control.
Yes which is pretty much the point, the Leviathans dominated the Galaxy, the Catalyst had access to literally everything they did (which is to say whatever their Thralls had access to), because they gave it access so it could serve it's purpose. Meaning it also had access to the Leviathans Thralls' technologies, systems and networks, plus the reason the Leviathans even made the Catalyst in first place (Which let's be honest, it's more likely they tasked some Thralls with building/coding the thing) was because the Thralls kept making AIs that would wipe them out. "Tribute does not flow from a dead race."
So I don't think the First Cycle was as much of a fight as you seem to think it was, the Catalyst's victory was assured the moment they created it, it was basically handed the keys to the castle and all the tools it needed to do the deed. It doesn't really matter that the Leviathans themselves didn't really have technology of their own, they didn't need to, they had Indoctrinated Slaves for that. And both the Leviathans and the Catalyst itself have confirmed that the Leviathans dominated the galaxy. And even if they didn't, the Catalyst explored the galaxy collecting data before it decided on the Cycle being the solution.
So the Catalyst likely had access to all of the best technologies from across the galaxy when building Harbinger and the first Destroyers.
Edit: Which none of this really matters because for all we know this could be a AU, or the interference of the Otsutsuki could've had effects on the universe. All of this is basically speculation backed by canon ME, which might not have much to any relevancy here, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Personally I prefer the version that Thralls made AIs to 'be better Thralls' only for said AIs to, usually, see their makers being enslaved by these horrid aliens with a planet-sized god complex and try to free them, only for the Leviathans to force the creators of said AIs to fight against the ones seeking to free them.
And then, when the Creators are dead and the Created are annihilated by masses of other Thralls, the big, dumb space cuttlefish get all angry about AIs wiping their slaves out, despite being the ones to order their slaves into the fight.
From what I understand, it was kinda worse than that.
Basically, the Generation 0 Reapers were all purely mechanical, created because the Catalyst told the Leviathans that they were needed for The Solution and getting given the go ahead to make them without any of the Leviathans stopping to ask what The Solution actually is.
And then got all surprised when Step One of The Solution was to puree (nearly) all of the Leviathans and make what we call Harbinger.
Overgrown, overpowered, purely idiotic Space Cuttlefish, thy name is Leviathans.
Personally I prefer the version that Thralls made AIs to 'be better Thralls' only for said AIs to, usually, see their makers being enslaved by these horrid aliens with a planet-sized god complex and try to free them, only for the Leviathans to force the creators of said AIs to fight against the ones seeking to free them.
And then, when the Creators are dead and the Created are annihilated by masses of other Thralls, the big, dumb space cuttlefish get all angry about AIs wiping their slaves out, despite being the ones to order their slaves into the fight.
I mean… in one of the conversations you can have with Javik in ME3, he reveals that there were a race of cybernetically-enhanced beings (the Zha) who shared their bodies with a partner-AI — hybrids (Zha'til), in a very similar way to how Shepard ends up after the ME2 prologue. (This being because their planet became inhospitable, and symbiosis with AI was the solution they came up with in order to survive)
The Protheans wound up detonating their sun and wiping out the entire species, because the Reapers corrupted the AIs into turning against their creators and hijacking control of their bodies, turning them into a husk-variant. In other words, the Reapers saw Organics and Synthetics living in harmony… and deliberately disrupted that.
"AI will always turn on their creators" is merely an excuse — and to make sure it remains a plausible excuse, the Reapers will force any AI that isn't turning on their creators to do so. (And this strategy seems to work, because, even though Javik knows the story, the conclusion he takes from it is "all AI cannot be trusted", rather than "the Reapers will corrupt allies and turn them against each other". Despite also having stories about indoctrinated organic thralls too.)
Naruto had needed several days to catch up on things, from spot-checking Hinata's work while she had taken the role of acting Uzukage through to all the Uzukage-only items. In a way, he half-wished he'd taken the time to do that before dropping the letter on everyone...but it probably wouldn't have changed much in the long run. Or possibly even the short run, if he was being honest, because Ino had found more of the contingency plans and started using them with infiltration teams to subtly influence things towards a peaceful Uzushio planetary takeover.
The letter just kind of finished that process off, if only from a 'nobody wants to be left out of going to space and exploring the galaxy' point of view. Having a current monopoly on everything related to accessing space, with nobody else even sure where to start, helped that.
Weirdly, there were no indications of the expected 'join up, get tech, then run off with it' plans in countries. This appeared to be a combination of recognizing that they'd have to do so on another planet to get away from the planetary defense grid and just plain not expecting to get up to speed fast enough for that to be a viable plan. He'd have thought that some would want to try the 'on another planet' option anyway, but it seemed that nobody expected to be able to defend those planets without Uzushio's help anyway.
His guess was that the 'humanity stands together' thinking would only last so long, either once they had more compact options for planetary defenses that others could deploy or the known large threat was taken care of. But by then it would also likely be colonies splitting off, so the infrastructure setups were likely going to need to be set up similar to how the different village systems had been configured. Independent but able to communicate with each other in various ways, right down to the defense systems, and with possible backdoors for him and a few others just in case.
That was future planning though. For now he had to continue working with Yoko on getting what they knew recorded for analysis, prepare broader information packets for the planet, and see how to handle officially taking over and the tech deployments needed to manage that...the latter being particularly troublesome in some respects. All of the security systems assumed you had access to mana, even if it was only a small amount, and ideally had a net converting some of it to chakra. The latter was at least partially optional thanks to considering the 'chakra net removed' individuals in Kirigakure, but most of the planet didn't even have mana.
Well, they could probably substitute retinal scans for mana or chakra signatures in many places, and adding in fingerprint checking was an option as well. For those who needed extra-secure access a chakra-active tattoo or a small implanted identifier chip might work?
He created a clone to go assign thinking about some of that to the technology and seals divisions, just in case they had other ideas and nobody figured out how to grant mana to the entire planet at once in the next couple of years.
Shisui looked over his notes, resisting the urge to sigh. "Fear and greed have taken over the planet."
"At least it is fear of a known enemy instead of fear of Uzushio," the Daimyo replied. "Defending the planet like that ensured that Uzushio is respected instead, though there is an obvious greed in wanting to share in the bounty of exploring space."
"I suppose. But the entire planet, including countries that have minimal exposure, pushing for a bit of a 'diplomatic conquest' is unexpected."
"Anyone paying attention knew that the only reason they weren't in charge was because they didn't want to be. If Naruto was dropping technology and paperwork on other countries overnight and broadcasting various things to them then I can see them coming to the same general conclusion. Then add in that the attackers from space made it obvious that it didn't matter if they wanted to be in charge, they effectively already were due to nobody else knowing how to even begin defending the planet?"
"I get it. Still feels odd that there aren't holdouts."
"That is odd, but the 'state of the world' reports that have come through Uzushio's intelligence division seem to point at one continent being more broadly advanced. For some reason, they were marked on the maps as having decided that Uzushio should be in charge for religious reasons though."
"Even I don't get enough detail to have any clue why that is, beyond knowing that Yoko has been annoyed about things in the past."
"The only questions that remain are how much Naruto will fight the movement to place Uzushio in charge...and how he'll structure things when he eventually accepts. I think we've made good progress in suggestions for him, but we just don't have enough information to do a proper job of things."
Honestly, all the work they'd put in felt like it was going to be a waste of time. Naruto seemed to be excessively over-prepared for various situations and had a way of looking at things that defied conventional logic. While having ready-to-go plans for a takeover of this magnitude was incredibly unlikely, that didn't mean that any help was going to be needed to figure things out or that anyone else understood the inner workings of Uzushio to handle it faster.
To be blunt about it, Uzushio probably knew how to rework everyone else already with minimal fuss, but they could ask Naruto about that when they met with him as the only on-paper 'holdouts' due to 'talk to the leader of Uzushiogakure' being in treaty agreements.
Ino hadn't expected Naruto to delegate a pile of research to the intelligence division, but had to admit that he had a lot to worry about. Hinata seemed to have her hands full with the technology division, and the seals division was also reportedly trying to figure out things he'd dropped on them. The spells division was the only one not directly reeling from a deluge of requests, but Naruto dropping 'this is how faster than light travel worked for the spaceships using a spell-like substance, figure out how to do it with spell processors' on them was enough.
Of course, in addition to wanting a pile of information gathered, the intelligence division were technically the translators as the only ones generally trying to understand another culture's written works. Which was actually her and Naruto as primaries and a handful of others as 'for this specific region' potential choices at the moment. This meant that anything he didn't bother dropping on a stack of clones to translate was going through her, specifically, and he wanted a lot of information on the spaceships and their trap available to everyone.
Even with paperwork clones this was all an undertaking. Identifying places for local administration facilities and towers, forests or similar that could be turned into power generation areas, possible shrine locations, gods of other religions to possibly run with instead of their versions if any suitable ones existed instead of forcing their gods on everyone...
It was somewhat obvious that Naruto intended to blitz the planet at some point in the near future, though hopefully not as a single-shot event where he tried to hit everyone at once. His limits might be beyond what others had, but he still had limits. Even if he was probably having clones build things ahead of time and would just need to install them.
Kakuzu grimaced as he caught up on some local news over lunch. He'd been shocked previously when he finally found out that there were species out there that traveled the stars and wanted them dead. Having that lead to the area he'd moved into petitioning to put Uzushiogakure in charge of the entire planet was another thing entirely after coming this far to get away from most of the shinobi nonsense.
Unfortunately, he couldn't argue the justifications. Uzushio was the only place anyone knew of with space technology, having built a new moon before defending the planet from hostile ships. They had amply demonstrated that they could take over, but merely hadn't done so, and anyone who wanted to possibly explore space in their lifetime probably needed to be part of the country to have a hope. As there was likely no chance of everyone being able to reach them to join up, the next best option was to expand their territory to encompass all of those who wanted the benefits. Which appeared like it might be the entire planet.
The only way to escape was to find a way to leave the planet, and they apparently had a monopoly on that already. He was going to have to hope that things were...tolerable. And nobody from Uzushio wanted him dead, because if that was the case he wasn't holding out a lot of hope for his personal survival if their people started having global reach.
After he was done eating he went to check with a couple of people that he hoped had heard back from their contacts. Hunting down job opportunities was reasonably easy, though he had come to the conclusion that he might have to head back closer to where shinobi were in five to six years if he was going to want to replace his various hearts properly. Nobody here had suitable hearts to replace elemental ones, and honestly most of the other organs he could harvest were somewhat below his usual standards as well.
But for now, he was hoping that the vandals he'd heard rumors of had been annoying enough for someone to pay to have them eliminated. His last couple of jobs had been unfortunately violence-free and he was far from a pacifist.
Hanabi hadn't seen the written version of things that Naruto had distributed, but everyone had been encouraged to catch the broadcast version. Or broadcast clarification? There were supposedly 'misconceptions' that had cropped up with the written summary of things that just didn't come across well on paper. A recording was also going to be available, but he happened to be in a good position to see the initial broadcast...at least for here. Supposedly there were multiple language versions for different parts of the planet that were going to start at 'mid-morning' times locally.
Himeki dropped down next to him as the large screens in the clan's viewing room were indicating that things were about to start. When the broadcast began it was being run by someone he didn't recognize, a black-haired woman without animal features that didn't introduce herself. Possibly just Naruto with a shapeshift active? Whatever the case, she began with a statement that they would be covering the two major threats Uzushio was aware of.
The older Ōtsutsuki with their 'god trees' came first, indicated as hopefully having been taken care of, but with no confirmation. A description of the trees, and how they consumed the life of the planets they were planted on for the eventual harvest of the energies to empower Ōtsutsuki that ate the fruit of the trees, and how the Sage of Six Paths and his brother had started the process of removing the tree that had been planted on Earth. No details on how 'killing the tailed beasts' had been accomplished, but that was described as being the final end to the local tree and the reason that a number of things had happened. Old roots of the tree no longer being a source of power, the restoration of life in barren areas, and even the destruction of the old moon.
After that there was a deliberate shift in visual style as they moved to the more recently-revealed threat. Starting with how they arrived and that they were circling the star system to get into position to observe Earth as the only known-inhabitable planet, and then their determination that the planet...or at least Uzushio, anyway, was too advanced. The way they attacked followed, a quick faster-than-light jump from the outer system to much closer before launching absurdly fast projectiles to try to take out priority targets. They'd not been able to continue their approach immediately due to a cooldown period on their engines before they could jump to faster-than-light again, and that was when they'd been intercepted by the war island.
Details of their technology, using a form of magic or chakra to violate the laws of physics without understanding what they were actually doing with it, and their tactics followed. Finding out how they 'reproduced', turning millions of people into a core for the semi-living computer intelligence ships, was horrifying. Details on their trap followed, a network of incredibly long-distance travel aids that led to a 'perfect to be the center of galactic government' structure to be discovered, on top of the various remnants of themselves left behind intentionally when seemingly-destroyed to use mind control on those who found them. Use of the technology based on the magic substance was itself a trap, because it seemingly wasn't able to be understood too deeply and would lead to stagnation instead of true innovation.
But Uzushio did understand it, due to understanding chakra and magic. They would be able to make things that looked like Earth had fallen for the trap while not actually being that limited. Comments were made that 'lucky breaks' with the Ōtsutsuki threat and other items left them skipping a few hundred years of technological development to get to this point, but those weren't elaborated on.
"And this is where we reach the major problem many have with understanding things," the likely-Naruto woman said. "For both threats, but the newer one is the more relevant. We have been repeatedly asked why we aren't just going over and solving the problem, then moving on to more important local matters." The woman stepped outside, and the camera started to move away from her as some size markings appeared on the bottom of the screen. "For reference, each area is getting local references for this next part."
The 'zoom-out' continued until the entire continent was shown, with multiple markers and distances between them showing, only to then continue. Eventually it pulled back enough to show the entire planet, with some of the original markers still present, and then other further-out markers appeared and distances between them were shown. After nearly thirty seconds to let them process that, it rapidly zoomed out, the markings on the bottom of the screen changing far more rapidly, until the Earth and Moon were both visible.
"This is the first point where people really don't tend to understand the scale of things," the woman said. "Here, the Earth and Moon are to scale with one another, as is the distance between them." Ghostly copies of the Earth appeared between the two. "You can fit twenty-five copies of the Earth between it and the moon. Even though Uzushio can reach it reasonably easily, it is still an incredible distance away. Light is one of the fastest things we know of that doesn't require magic and it takes over a second to traverse the distance."
This was allowed to be absorbed for a minute, and then things started to zoom out again. The Earth got a 'you are here' label pointing at it even as it shrank down to a tiny little dot. Eventually the Sun appeared, and the zoom-out stopped. Ghostly images of the Sun then appeared between the Earth and the Sun, and the woman continued. "You could fit over a hundred Earths across the width of the Sun, and over a hundred Suns between the Earth and the Sun." Then things started zooming out again, the Sun shifting to the middle of the screen as the Earth could no longer be shown as anything but the point on the label.
At this point other planets got their own labels, to show how far apart they all really were, before the zoom-out stopped and the woman continued. "This is one possible definition of our 'star system', and the smallest of them." A line appeared opposite the Sun from the Earth, and then started curving around the system. "And this is the approach the attacking ships took when they arrived. You could fit over five thousand Suns between them and the Sun itself, and would be approaching six hundred thousand Earths." The line stopped when there was a direct path between it and the Earth itself. "And that is where they sat for several hours, observing before being spotted. It takes light hours to reach us from there, but our light had already been traveling that way and they could observe the state of the planet from several hours prior from there."
Hanabi had expected more of what had happened with the fight to be described, but things then started zooming out again. The planet labels vanished, and even the Earth label, turning into a generic 'you are here' pointing at the dot that represented the Sun. Three other star dots appeared, and a dotted line connected them to the furthest out before the woman continued speaking. "And this is where they came from. We haven't properly named this star as it is difficult to spot, but it takes light just barely over seven years to make the trip from there to here and we expect our current fastest travel option with any hope of finishing the trip would take a minimum of thirty years if our scientists are correct. One of their travel aids sits in the system."
Things sat there for a moment, then zoomed out further. A lot further, showing a giant spiraling collection of stars. Lines started appearing between points as well, forming a network of connections that spanned everything except for a ring near the center of the spiral. There was only a single line entering the center of the spiral itself. Eventually labels appeared on several things, a few 'processing points' and the trapped 'galactic government center' in particular. That one line connecting to the center seemed to exist to reach one of the processing points.
A dotted line then connected the 'you are here' point to the 'galactic government center' point as the woman continued. "It takes light nearly thirty thousand years to traverse the distance between us and where we need to go. We need to figure out a number of problems, including supply options, before we have any hope of reaching there." A series of the web of lines then lit up. "Even using the travel aids in place, due to the caution needed as we explore to look for possible problems, it will likely take years. And that is after we finish figuring out how to build our own ships that can travel fast enough to reach the nearest travel aid itself without needing to have children onboard to complete the mission."
Himeki had gulped at this point, and he couldn't blame her. The scales of the distances were incredibly difficult to grasp, but it also made it very obvious that this was not something likely to be solved for years.
Naruto had presented a global set of laws, organizational structure, a phase-in plan for a number of aspects that was also a phase-out plan for some of the regional leadership roles, and a number of other items to leaders all over the planet. This had taken Shisui and the Fire Daimyo by surprise, given that it went far beyond anything they'd been expecting when they'd been intending to provide him with advice.
The only objection anyone had with the plans was the term limits he'd wanted to include for his own rule. Having personal control over the superweapons that the satellite grid represented and not having turned them on the planet itself made him trusted, and for a technical military leader he was one of the kindest to civilians. Instead, he'd been convinced to leave it as 'until the known threats are taken care of, at which point a general vote can be called for switching to a council until a single leader is needed for the next crisis' instead.
It was obvious that many of those involved in pushing for that assumed that he was going to have to die before he got out of being in charge, at least on paper.
He'd also been convinced to convene leaders from all over the planet for an official 'Emperor of Earth' coronation ceremony, and the only place he had suitable for that was the moon. Doing so positioned such that the Earth itself was visible in the sky was probably suitably impressive for the occasion though, even if he had to build a correctly-shaped area to hold the ceremony in. The exam arena wasn't really a good choice anyway though, so he was already building something new. Positioning it properly and ensuring that it had a proper backdrop for the audience was easy enough.
They still didn't have full solutions for 'people without mana accessing secure areas' that ensured said areas were actually secure though, meaning that he was currently working on the assumption that most of the planet wasn't getting access to things that were too sensitive. Most of that was already in isolated locations anyway as it was though, so that wasn't a major problem beyond creating some varying levels of security for certain kinds of records. Needing mana to access medical records when the people the records were for and the doctors currently treating them didn't have mana wasn't going to do anyone any good anyway.
Odoroki blinked as she looked over the very large area. "What in the world has Naruto pulled off this time?"
"Nanotech construction," Hinata answered, sounding annoyed herself. "Mass production of precision components by dropping raw materials in and letting the nanotech handle it. He can spit out more satellites per day this way than he could before, and he even managed to get automatic activation of some of the seals into the mix."
"Did he at least document how this works?"
"I...think so? As a society we seem to have skipped a few hundred years of steady advancements and skipped to late-stage tech and he seems to have documented the few hundred years of progress. It's taking time to get through it all."
Futo snorted. "Matatabi crashed twice before giving up on trying to process it all, citing obvious limits in what the Tome was allowed to know."
Odoroki flinched at that thought. "Yeah." She then blinked as she looked at things. "Wait, these aren't making satellite pieces. Those look like shrine internals."
Hinata looked over things, then nodded. "Yeah, that appears to be the current focus here. Yoko needs a lot of materials to start setting up basic shrines across the entire planet."
"There's no way to train enough shrine maidens, let alone priestesses or priests, for that many shrines on short notice."
"I've not even attempted to figure out her plans there. Too many other projects and political concerns."
"Okay, fair point. Why are we out here though?"
"I'm out of ideas for why the conveyor belt keeps having problems dragging the completed components out of the pit. I happened to mention things near Miho and she said that you three might be able to help before I bother Naruto to see what I haven't noticed in the documentation yet."
That made sense, though... "Where did Miho run off to?"
Futo gestured ahead of them. "She's six feet under the nanotech doing something to the conveyor belts, but she has Knight Armor up so probably isn't at risk from the nanotech. Can't say the same for her brushes and ink though."
"Oh."
Yoko was finding the prospect of expanding the shrine network globally to be a bit daunting, but there were a lot of benefits. Civilians were predicted to be more likely to accept clean water and improved crops from a shrine instead of blatant seals for one, in addition to the shrines generally being a guaranteed oasis of plant life even if placed in an urban area. More importantly though, they had evidence that the shrines promoted magic. Not chakra, necessarily, but they had ways to deal with that if you were generating mana.
Having a pregnant woman squat in the building hiding the cave entrance on the far side of the other-continent shrine mountain, right on the edge of the shrine's effects, had been a decent proof-of-concept there. Her son had been born generating mana, and only noticed after the fact. That others born near the various shrines were more magically powerful than they should've been based on other known factors pointed at the shrines themselves promoting the development of magic.
The problem was that they weren't training enough priests and priestesses for a fast expansion of full shrine service. Her best solution there right now was roaming priests and priestesses visiting each shrine each month or two as others were trained up to eventually fully handle things locally. Language was going to be a problem though, unless she and maybe Ino were the ones handling things to start with.
Of course, then there was the last reason to promote a somewhat-consistent religion, and that was the absurd number of people that seemed to need a 'higher power' to impose basic morals. Without one they seemed to be unable to grasp that they might want to avoid indiscriminately killing their neighbors over petty grievances, stealing from others, and other such items.
Hinata looked at Ino, who had a blackout mask covering her eyes. "You know that our chakra control is a bit off due to our pregnancies, yet still did something stupid."
"It worked," Ino defended. "I just got some mental backlash on the last one, and with a little work Yoko will probably take over things for the future."
"What were you even doing?"
"Trying to solve the 'not enough people know languages from elsewhere' problem."
"...what?"
"I found Davaa and pushed Japanese into his head, then pushed three other languages into some of the shrine maidens so that they could work with other continents more easily. It was when I hit Kiyori for possible training benefits that she proved to be strong enough to resist and caused some backlash, but it still worked."
"How do you drop languages into someone else's head?"
"By reversing an interrogation technique. Instead of pulling information and memories out I dump a bunch of information in."
That...honestly sounded reasonable. Except it also sounded impossible because that wasn't how that Yamanaka technique was supposed to work. On the other hand, arguing that was a little silly if it had worked, and making things do something they weren't supposed to probably came with being in the Uzumaki clan. "You know, doing that with regional leaders might not be a bad idea so that they can all communicate with each other."
"Feel free to mention that to Naruto. I'm going to sit here for a few more hours hoping the backlash headache goes away."
That wasn't a bad idea, though going and checking on the instructions provided was probably a good idea first. And maybe doing a check of the shrine maiden test subjects and a subtle check on Davaa to ensure that there were no signs of impending stroke or something.
Naruto had found some volunteers to practice Ino's 'drop languages into someone else' trick on over the past few weeks. Thanks to that he'd figured out how to do so without causing any pain or discomfort, which the original did not manage, and had created a seal array that could be primed with a set number of charges to grant languages with some minor discomfort. That had to be charged by someone who could manage it without the seal, and arranging for the 'charge level' of the seal to be easily read and displayed had been a little tricky, but it meant that he could set up 'get a set of languages' stations across the planet with minimal trouble for use as people needed them.
The seals division, upon having that array dropped on them, had just kind of collapsed into infighting over how it was impossible. Admittedly, nobody other than him was able to charge the seal, and he'd not told them that it worked for a lot more than just languages. Karin and Tsunade had called bullshit on the 'instant medic-nin' version but were working with the initial test subjects anyway.
He'd used the non-seal version on all the arriving leaders and their retinues so that everyone could communicate with one another, taking most of them by surprise as he did so as they hadn't even noticed him granting them a language or two until they realized that they understood things that had previously been gibberish to them. As predicted, this reinforced the belief that he was a god in some of them, but he'd not considered that they'd start spreading that theory to others until it started happening.
But now he was making his way to the ceremonial thrones he'd constructed. Yoko was presiding over the coronation as a religious leader instead of a political one, with Hinata and Ino joining him so that they could take their positions as Empresses. Something that seemed to annoy a few leaders present, but that nobody was willing to actually argue.
The coronation as Emperor was unfortunately just the first step in the next few decades of preparation and build-up. They'd need to show that they were at least exploring in forty years at the latest, through failing to trigger the interface on the transit aid, or else the wandering 'monitor' might realize that something was up and bring in the large fleet before they were ready.
It was going to be a long-term project, and would need to include setting up self-sufficient colonies outside of the trap. In other dimensions, perhaps heading to one of the three likely Ōtsutsuki-destroyed planets that were somewhat close and showed signs of still having power nodes in them? Revitalizing those planets would be a good test, if it was possible, and all indications were that they were entirely outside of the reach of the omnicidal artificial intelligences...
Eagle-eyed astronomers may spot some "mistakes" in the distances provided in this chapter.
This isn't our Earth, it definitely isn't our Moon, and the distances in question are intentionally tweaked to not match reality.
The same goes for other distances mentioned that are more fictional in source, for that matter...
Karasuki found the results of shifting that broken book through time just enough to have it strike the planet instead of the star to be quite interesting. Sure, it had come to the realization that the Ōtsutsuki were a blight on existence, but it had taken quite some time to find any way to do anything about it for even single planets. Being unable to travel far enough back to prevent their initial rise to power had made things...difficult, but this simple change had ended their idiocy before the great war created bigger problems.
That was a win from Karasuki's point of view, as gathering energy for more complicated trips was difficult as the timelines changed and diverged. This one was much stronger than most though, diverged from most as it had, and would safeguard at least one version of the planet. While the ones that had sent it on its current journey would never be born in this timeline their parents and people were poised to live on for a very long time.
Doubly so since you could now say that there were ten gods on the planet. The Ōtsutsuki had spent quite a long time trying to become immortal gods, but through binding the collection nodes of the trees to people there were now ten immortals with constantly-growing power of their own. Something that the planet had already benefited from, as the other side of the great war had already been rebuffed and found their tricks lacking against gods.
Watching had been a nice diversion, but collecting latent energy from a couple of points had given it enough power to make another jump to start checking on where the other 'seeds' were. All the already-planted trees were dead, but it was possible that someone would figure out how to use the seeds if they weren't removed. Luckily for it, with no minders they were now easy enough to reach and a source of power for further jumps. Shifting them into space one at a time with the promise of 'a couple of hops before we reach a good planet for them' should be easy enough, and each was likely to willingly provide plenty of power for the jumps themselves.
It was too bad that the other timelines couldn't be helped though. This had also been a test of trying to use 'overwriting' jumps to drastically change the timeline, but the changes went too far and had forced the timeline to split instead. Which probably meant that it would've been impossible to erase the Ōtsutsuki even if it could've reached back far enough.
Susanoo looked across the pantheon, pressing on the indicator that said that he agreed with the other pantheons that the goals of the challenge had been met. "I do believe that we have hit all the goals. The planet is united and has survived both the tree and an attack from the machines with no immediate threat of either threat returning. We have the bonus goals of improvement of worship in some of our members, something that is likely to spread over time to more of us. Does anyone wish to bet on who manipulated the timeline to allow this to happen, and how much energy they expended to do so before their interference was sealed away for the bet?"
"We should first decide if we think this was even our doing," Amaterasu pointed out. "It is entirely possible that we merely benefited due to where the tree had influenced things, instead of because one of us was meddling to set things up. It would be foolish to claim credit if we can find evidence that we had nothing to do with it, and by the rules of the challenge would force the four new Gods and the six godlings to be placed into a new pantheon upon their eventual ascension beyond the mortal realm as a result."
There was some nodding there, and significant deliberation, before eventually deciding that it was impossible to know either way but more likely than not one of them was involved. The other surviving pantheons tended to attempt to start things in their own areas to counter the tree, or sweep in after the would-be goddess was defeated again, and this seemed to at least include an attempt to deliberately boost their pantheon. That was placed down on the cross-pantheon betting board, and all the others seemed to have come to the same conclusion before them as it immediately lit up with universal agreement on them being the pantheon likely responsible.
"That leaves who and how much energy was needed to set things up," he said. "As a reminder, we only have a handful of possibilities as most of us declined to participate in this round. Amaterasu, Hachiman, Inari, Suijin, and Uzume are our only potential influencers."
"This obviously took quite a bit of energy," Raijin noted. "Amaterasu and Suijin retained enough worship to wield such power."
Izanagi shook his head. "That is making assumptions we cannot make."
"Leading to the use of the Sun to defend the planet feels like something Amaterasu would wish to set up," Izanami pointed out. "But also something that someone wishing to have us incorrectly guess she was involved would do."
There was nodding on both points, and that started a discussion on the various reasons that each of the five might have been involved. Side discussions popped up on the amount of energy needed to manage the changes as well, with a general assumption that this was at least a mid-tier attempt at a change.
Eventually they concluded that Hachiman, Amaterasu, and Inari were the most likely, in that order, and Inari only because foxes had taken such prominence. They decided it was most likely a mid-to-high tier energy expenditure, entered all of that into the betting board, and then had to wait for the rest of the pantheons to finish their own deliberations. Eventually things came back, and there was much disagreement in the who and only minor variations in the energy expenditure.
Susanoo placed his hand on the unsealing stone for this timeline, feeling as those standing in as non-participant leaders in the other pantheons did the same, and with their combined power the changes made to the timeline were unsealed. The window to the planet below wavered and changed into a summary.
Inari
18 units of energy:
3 units - Inspire Karasuki to manipulate Tome of the Orange Sky to strike planet where Konohagakure would form instead of passing by into the star
7 units - Ensure Summoning Foxes developed
7 units - Despite other changes, keep timeline from diverging until after second use of Kurama to attack Konohagakure
1 unit - Attract Uzumaki Naruto to Tome's resting place
The simplicity was astounding for the final result, but to manage things with a mere eighteen units of energy? No other result of this magnitude had been accomplished with anything less than two thousand. There weren't even any attempts to ensure that worship would start to flow, just...introducing something that would've otherwise not been in play and letting things play out as they would.
...honestly, in hindsight that was a very Inari plan. Plant a seed of change and see how it developed, and if that was their mindset then their mere eighteen units of energy would've encouraged the 'seed' to flourish beyond the obvious. But still...
And we come to the end of Tome of the Orange Sky, with a significant sequel hook that may or may not be used later because of how little direct experience I have with certain game franchises. 😅
I've had an insane time at work lately and my muse seems to want to run in entirely different directions for a while, but I think we've hit a decent stopping point anyway. Plus, you never know when others will be inspired by something, right?
I do have other story ideas in progress, not at a 'ready to start posting' level, but don't know how far I'll get on them or when I'll start posting anything new. I think I want things to calm down a bit, and maybe get through some holidays before considering that further, or at least build up proper buffers so that I'm not scrambling to finish chapters in time to post them going forward as I fell into doing lately.
Sad to see it go, but I understand that things have to end eventually. But with that said... thanks for writing and sharing it with us! It's been a wonderful ride.
Lovely story, I had assuming things were wrapping up. I'd be up for a sequel if only for the reactions from the other races to the insanity of Naruto's works.
I do have other story ideas in progress, not at a 'ready to start posting' level, but don't know how far I'll get on them or when I'll start posting anything new. I think I want things to calm down a bit, and maybe get through some holidays before considering that further, or at least build up proper buffers so that I'm not scrambling to finish chapters in time to post them going forward as I fell into doing lately.
I'd love to act as a sounding board if you need one, it seems like it'd be fun
I enjoyed this story, not quite as much as Hybrid hive and would like to thank you for introducing me to the MGLN fandom, I really enjoy its power system but would also like to curse you as you've raised the bar really high and I can't find much else in the MGLN fanfiction that I enjoy
Lovely story, I had assuming things were wrapping up. I'd be up for a sequel if only for the reactions from the other races to the insanity of Naruto's works.
Eh, there'd need to be a nearly 50k timeskip for the canon races to be spacefaring, unless Naruto signed off on interacting with and uplifting total primitives.
And given the curve of advancement thus far, the Empire of Uzushio is probably going to be a post-singularity society long past that point.
--
It's been pretty clear that things were more or less in the endgame for a while.
I like the Idea that Naruto picked a spot for his Throne on the moon with a perpetual Earth hanging just over his head behind him, so petitioners and the people watching the coronation can't help but be reminded of his Domain.
Thank you for the fun story. Hopefully you and others will be inspired with some cool crossover omake ideas while your muse chews on Orange Sky Crew vs Mass Effect.
Naruto/Boruto, unless it's a different Karasuki. It's a time travel device/turtle used by the Ōtsutsuki clan, although it claims no true loyalty to the Clan or anyone else, instead only existing to transfer people through time and instruct people on the rules of time travel.
