Epilogue

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 star7 units - Ensure Summoning Foxes developed7 units - Despite other changes, keep timeline from diverging until after second use of Kurama to attack Konohagakure1 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...