He felt a little wistful.
They had not come here for nothing. The lower world really did have pure-blooded descendants capable of continuing Hamura's bloodline.
What made him emotional was that, after a thousand years, the branch left on Earth could still preserve such purity, while the branch family on the moon had consumed itself through internal conflict.
"Father, I want to take her away."
Toneri spoke directly.
In his understanding, he was the descendant chosen by Ancestor Hamura, the one destined to open a new world.
And as his spouse, possessing the purest Byakugan bloodline would be that girl's honor.
"Now is not the time."
Toneri's father shook his head.
"She is still too young. Pure-blooded descendants require a pure-blooded mother, but the mother herself must also grow to an age where she can bear children. Once she grows up, we can…"
Toneri's father abruptly stopped speaking.
Just as Ōtsutsuki Toneri wondered why his father had gone silent, a voice sounded behind them.
"You two have come a long way. Why not sit for a while?"
Kiyohara said calmly.
Toneri's father turned toward the source of the voice and saw a young man with long black hair.
His brows furrowed.
His sensory ability was considered top-tier even among his clan on the moon. Within a radius of several hundred kilometers, he could clearly capture chakra fluctuations.
But this person before him—when had he started standing there?
He had not sensed him at all.
It was not because the other party had concealed his presence, but because his chakra fluctuation was too natural, as if it were part of the earth itself.
That made Toneri's father think of the Sage Mode practiced in the sacred lands on Earth.
It was just as difficult to sense.
"…Who are you?"
Toneri's father asked in confusion.
"Guests from the moon. Shouldn't you introduce yourselves first?"
Kiyohara said.
Toneri's father's pupils shrank.
This person actually knew there were people on the moon.
And he even knew they had come from the moon.
That startled Toneri's father. Almost in the same instant, he tightened his grip around his son's wrist.
"That's right. We come from the moon."
Since they had already been exposed, Toneri's father no longer wanted to keep hiding it.
"Then who exactly are you?"
Toneri's father pulled his son half a step farther behind him, fully shielding him with his own body.
"I am Konoha's Hokage, Kiyohara."
Kiyohara said.
His gaze swept across Toneri's father's face, then landed on the child behind him.
The two looked extremely similar: the same pale skin, the same long blue hair, the same white robes.
Kiyohara felt like the two had been copy-pasted, only at different ages.
"So this is Kiyohara."
Toneri's father thought.
Before coming down to the lower world, the Great Elder had specifically warned him that Konoha's Fourth Hokage was one of the strongest ninja currently in the lower world and that they must avoid this person's notice at all costs.
He had thought that as long as they hid their presence and infiltrated the Hyūga clan grounds quietly, they would not alert anyone.
But now it seemed he had underestimated this lower-worlder's sensory ability.
Kiyohara was also sizing them up.
The moment this Ōtsutsuki father and son had stepped near Konoha, Kiyohara had already captured their chakra fluctuations.
He deliberately did not act immediately. Instead, he waited until they had walked all the way to the Hyūga main family residence, all the way to Hyūga Hinata, before revealing himself.
The silence of their standoff had not lasted long when a soft cry came from inside the courtyard wall.
"Lord Hokage!"
The woman holding Hinata stood up, her face full of astonishment.
Why had Lord Hokage appeared here?
She instinctively tightened her hold on the swaddled infant in her arms. Hinata was startled by the movement, her little face wrinkling before she let out a weak cry.
Her cry alerted even more Hyūga clan members. Footsteps sounded from afar, sliding paper doors were pushed open, and several pairs of white eyes flashed with uncertainty.
"Lord Hokage, did you come here to see Hinata?"
Hyūga Natsu hurried over, her steps quick.
Her white eyes lingered on Kiyohara for a moment before turning toward the two unfamiliar white figures on the other side of the courtyard.
"Those are…"
Before Hyūga Natsu could finish, Toneri's father moved.
His judgment was extremely quick. They had been exposed, so they had to retreat.
The pressure Kiyohara gave him was stronger than he had anticipated. When those black eyes looked at him, he even had the illusion that he had been seen through from inside to out.
They absolutely could not get entangled here. He could not risk Toneri's life.
"Toneri, we are leaving."
Only Toneri could hear his father's voice.
His palm clamped down on Toneri's shoulder, and with a step, the two figures shot toward the sky like two white arrows.
They were flying.
The remaining Hyūga clan members were all shocked.
Flight techniques were extremely rare. Only a few people, such as Kiyohara, had mastered them.
Kiyohara watched them flee.
Trying to run?
Since they had come, there was no reason to let them leave.
Kiyohara also rose into the air from where he stood.
This was an excellent opportunity to complete the last wish.
"If I defeat Toneri's father, does that count as completing the wish?"
Kiyohara was curious.
Red-Horn Kiyohara's last wish was to go to the moon.
The reason he wanted to go to the moon was because he had lost to Toneri's father and felt unwilling.
But if he directly defeated Toneri's father, would that count as completing the wish?
Thinking this, Kiyohara knocked on Red-Horn Kiyohara's urn inside his mind.
At this point, Red-Horn Kiyohara's color had become extremely faint, as if he might vanish at any moment.
"I don't know either."
Red-Horn Kiyohara shook his head.
"Fine."
Kiyohara nodded.
In any case, taking an early look at Toneri's father's strength was not bad. If it counted as completing the wish, that would be a huge profit.
On the moon, Kiyohara would have to be wary of Ōtsutsuki puppets and the few remaining Ōtsutsuki clan members.
After all, the moon was completely their home turf.
But now, this was Earth.
Kiyohara's figure sped through the surging sea of clouds as he watched the distant flying figures.
Once the distance was right, Kiyohara raised his right hand above his shoulder. Blue arcs of lightning crackled from his palm.
They spread upward along his arm, condensing into a constantly shrieking lightning spear.
Lightning Release: Thunderclap!
This technique could originally only be released from the mouth, but for the current Kiyohara, forcing Lightning Release chakra out through the chakra points in his hand was as natural as breathing.
Boom!
The blue lightning spear left his hand and drew a blinding arc through the air.
The spear of thunder was so fast that the naked eye could barely catch it. Almost the instant it left his hand, it appeared before Toneri and his father.
Toneri's father hurriedly condensed chakra into a semi-transparent barrier before him, while forcefully pushing Toneri behind him.
The lightning spear struck the barrier.
Bang!
Blue arcs of electricity splashed in every direction, and the chakra barrier was torn apart in that instant.
The remaining Lightning Release chakra became countless tiny electric snakes, crawling up Toneri's father's arm and burning the sleeve of his white robe into charred scraps.
The two lost balance in midair and fell toward the ground like two white birds shot down from the sky.
Kiyohara also descended to the ground. He slapped both hands onto the earth, and crimson barrier formulas spread outward from him.
Uchiha Flame Formation!
A fire-red curtain of light rose from the ground, drawing a massive arc through the night sky and enclosing a radius of ten kilometers.
Toneri's father helped Toneri up from the ground. His white robe was covered in dust.
He raised his head and looked at the fire-red barrier that blotted out the sky, feeling the scorching chakra fluctuations coming from the barrier wall.
"This level of chakra…"
A barrier covering a radius of ten kilometers clearly required an enormous amount of chakra.
How could a ninja from the lower world possess power of this level?
He was clearly not a tailed beast jinchūriki.
Toneri's father frowned.
Although he had not recognized Kiyohara at first, he did know some information about him.
"Father…"
Toneri had never seen his father so disheveled before either.
"Don't be afraid, Toneri."
Toneri's father tightened his grip on his son's hand.
His son was the hope of their clan.
Once Toneri grew up smoothly, no one would be able to resist his power.
He took a deep breath and pushed Toneri a few steps behind him.
"I am going to fight."
He said.
"Yes, Father."
Toneri nodded and quickly dodged to the side.
In an instant, Toneri's father stepped forward with his right foot. The ground beneath him cracked in a spiderweb pattern.
His body leaned forward, and his right palm suddenly thrust out. In that instant, the air before his palm was compressed to the extreme.
Boom!
A white column of air erupted from in front of his palm and slammed toward Kiyohara.
The air column was over three meters in diameter. Wherever it passed, the air was torn into a vacuum tunnel.
This was not an ordinary chakra impact.
Kiyohara's eyes narrowed slightly.
"An application of Gentle Fist?"
Kiyohara felt this move was very similar to the Gentle Fist's Eight Trigrams Air Palm.
It compressed chakra into a vacuum projectile and released it, sharing the same root as the Hyūga clan's Gentle Fist.
However, there seemed to be some subtle differences, and with Toneri's father's chakra volume, its power was much greater.
Kiyohara guessed this technique had long since been lost within the Hyūga clan and was preserved only among Hamura's descendants on the moon.
"A new technique. It's mine."
Kiyohara activated his Sharingan and copied the opponent's technique.
He also had the Byakugan. Once he copied it, he could use it directly.
Then Kiyohara moved the chakra he had refined into his right arm.
A layer of golden chakra flame ignited over his fist.
Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!
Kiyohara punched.
In that instant, countless fist shadows formed from flame poured toward Toneri's father like a meteor shower.
Each fist shadow was blazing and dazzling, drawing dense golden trails through the air.
The golden fist shadows collided violently with the air column in midair.
The thunderous explosion was deafening. Shockwaves swept in every direction, uprooting nearby trees and hurling soil and stones into the air.
The crimson barrier wall shook violently under the shockwave before barely suppressing the aftermath inside the barrier.
Toneri's father's pupils reflected that unstoppable sea of golden fists.
He rapidly spun, forming a circular barrier that blocked the attacks outside.
"A technique similar to Rotation."
Kiyohara found that every technique he used was slightly different from the Hyūga clan's.
"How many do they have?"
Kiyohara became interested. He quickly closed in on Toneri's father, and the two began close-quarters combat.
However, Toneri's father used Gentle Fist, while Kiyohara used Strong Fist.
Not far away, the Hyūga clan members finally arrived outside the barrier.
Hyūga Hiashi stood before the barrier wall, using the see-through and telescopic abilities of his white eyes to watch the figures fighting Kiyohara.
There was no expression on his face, but the bulging veins around his eyes revealed the shock in his heart.
A strange yet familiar contradiction surged inside Hyūga Hiashi.
It was like seeing a distant relative he had never met. Clearly unfamiliar, yet from the other person's features, he could see the shape of his own family.
"That person's techniques…"
Hyūga Hizashi stood beside him, also with his Byakugan activated, staring at the battle inside the barrier.
His face was full of disbelief.
"Why are his techniques so similar to our Hyūga clan's Gentle Fist?"
"I don't know."
Hyūga Hiashi shook his head.
He suspected that Gentle Fist had been leaked.
"Hizashi, bring people and follow me in."
Hyūga Hiashi said in a deep voice.
Meanwhile, in the sky, Konan was also still flying.
A pair of white wings had gathered behind her.
Konan's eyes looked toward the distant fire-red barrier that seemed to cover the sky, her brows furrowing slightly.
"An attack?"
She thought.
She had originally been secretly guarding Kiyohara all along. It had been the same during the Hōzuki Castle incident. She had basically not acted, only silently protecting him.
This time was the same.
But Kiyohara was too fast, and Konan simply could not keep up.
At the same time.
Deep underground, a white figure was quickly passing along information.
It was a White Zetsu, hidden beneath the ground outside Konoha and monitoring every movement in the village.
When the scene of Kiyohara and the Ōtsutsuki father and son clashing in the sky entered its eyes, its mouth opened into a circle.
"This is terrible, this is terrible."
White Zetsu muttered, its body merging into the earth as it transmitted the message to Black Zetsu as quickly as possible.
Amegakure.
Black Zetsu was attached to a White Zetsu, standing at the top of Akatsuki's high tower and looking at the rain curtain that never stopped outside.
He already knew that Ōtsutsuki Toneri and his father had descended into the shinobi world, but he had not expected Kiyohara's reaction to be so swift.
"They're fighting?"
Excitement flashed in Black Zetsu's pupils.
The Ōtsutsuki branch on the moon had always been a thorn in his heart.
They were Hamura's descendants, one of the bloodlines closest to Kaguya.
If they discovered his plan, the consequences would be unimaginable.
More importantly, Black Zetsu was not wary of Hamura's descendants themselves.
What he feared were the true enemies from beyond the heavens that they might attract.
When Ōtsutsuki Kaguya created him, she had engraved some information about her extraterrestrial clansmen into his memories.
Those beings, stronger and colder than Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, would turn the entire shinobi world into their nursery if they were alerted.
"No. I must hurry."
Black Zetsu made an immediate decision and slid down along the tower wall.
He had to go to Konoha and personally watch the outcome of that battle.
Not long after Black Zetsu disappeared, Obito's figure emerged from a spatial vortex.
The tiger-striped mask covered most of his face, revealing only that crimson Sharingan.
"Where is Black Zetsu?"
Obito asked the White Zetsu beside him.
The White Zetsu blinked, then answered,
"He left. Seems like he went toward Konoha."
White Zetsu told Obito all the information he knew.
"!"
Obito's brow furrowed beneath the mask.
"So many things happened…"
He pondered for a moment, then activated Kamui.
Space distorted beside him and sucked his body in.
"Does the Infinite Tsukuyomi… include the moon too?"
Obito was very puzzled.
Inside the barrier.
Kiyohara stood at the edge of a deep pit. The ground beneath his feet was already beyond recognition.
The clash between Gentle Fist and Strong Fist had plowed through several kilometers of land. Dirt, broken trees, scorched earth—everything was a mess.
A gust from the battle had torn a slit in the corner of his clothing, but there were no wounds on his body.
Toneri's father stood opposite him, breathing much more heavily than before.
His white robe had been torn open in several places, revealing a lean yet muscular torso beneath.
There was a faint scorch mark on his chest, a wound from the Lightning Release earlier.
Kiyohara had added some Yin Release power into the Lightning Release, so the damage was far greater than ordinary lightning.
"Isn't he an Uchiha?"
Toneri's father looked at Kiyohara's crimson Sharingan, and a powerful sense of incongruity rose in his heart.
The Sharingan was the symbol of the Uchiha clan, the bloodline inheritance of Indra, the eldest son of the Sage of Six Paths.
But Toneri's father could feel that Kiyohara understood Gentle Fist very well.
Every time, he could accurately strike at his weak points.
Someone who had never trained in Gentle Fist could not possibly do that.
Unless… he had both of the two great dōjutsu?
An absurd thought flashed through Toneri's father's mind, but he quickly suppressed it.
No, impossible. Even among Hamura's descendants, no one had ever awakened both Sharingan and Byakugan at the same time.
The bloodlines of these two dōjutsu had long since split apart over a thousand years. There had never been such an example.
"Who exactly are you?"
Toneri's father was truly baffled.
He had finally come down to the lower world and had just found a bride for his son.
Only to run into such a powerful enemy.
And one much stronger than the intelligence had said.
"Didn't I already introduce myself?"
Kiyohara flexed his wrist.
The previous exchange had given him a rough judgment of Toneri's father's strength. Stronger than the Fourth Raikage. Stronger than Obito.
He could be considered the strongest person Kiyohara had encountered so far.
But still not enough. Not enough to pose a true threat to him.
Then Kiyohara's gaze passed over Toneri's father and landed on the child who had remained behind.
Ōtsutsuki Toneri.
This was the real trouble.
His bloodline was the purest of all.
"Why did you come here?"
Kiyohara knowingly asked.
"That is not something Your Excellency should concern yourself with."
Toneri's father intended to finish this quickly.
"Tenseigan!"
Toneri's father roared loudly.
He planned to directly call upon the power of the giant golden Tenseigan on the moon.
Moon, Hamura Shrine.
The Great Elder stood before the enormous golden sphere, his sunken eye sockets facing that violently pulsing golden Tenseigan.
His aged face was full of gravity.
"Someone is calling upon the power of the Tenseigan."
His voice echoed through the empty hall.
The Second Elder, Third Elder, and several other elders hurried over, footsteps echoing through the hall corridor.
The Second Elder's sensory ability immediately caught the abnormality in the golden Tenseigan. Inside that enormous sphere, countless Byakugan were turning in unison toward the same direction.
"It is Toneri's father."
The Second Elder's voice carried anger he could not suppress.
"What trouble has he encountered?"
The Great Elder was silent for a moment.
His senses followed the power released by that eye, penetrating the moon's rock layers and extending toward Earth.
He could see a blurry outline. Two chakra sources were violently colliding.
He recognized one: Toneri's father.
The other was unfamiliar and enormous, like a burning sun.
But just as he tried to see more clearly, a fire-red barrier completely enveloped that region.
He tried several times, but could not see through it.
"I cannot see clearly."
The Great Elder shook his head.
The other elders looked at each other.
The Third Elder stepped forward, his voice rarely carrying urgency.
"Then what do we do?"
The Great Elder did not answer.
He was silent for a while, then said,
"We must protect Toneri."
This was the prophesied child the branch family had awaited for hundreds of years, the crystallization of Ancestor Hamura's bloodline, the future hope he had poured all his effort into cultivating.
No matter what trouble Toneri's father had encountered, Toneri could not be allowed to come to harm.
He decisively made his decision and ordered the other elders to assist in stabilizing the divine power.
The hall was silent for an instant.
Then several elders nodded at the same time.
And on Earth, inside the barrier outside Konoha.
A terrifying energy instantly descended from beyond the sky.
It became a thick white pillar of light that scattered the clouds.
Blinding white light flashed continuously. Before it even fell to the earth, it illuminated the surroundings like daylight.
Inside Konoha village.
Minato Namikaze held Naruto in his arms.
He had just picked his son up from the cradle when he sensed a chakra fluctuation from outside the village.
"What powerful chakra…"
His pupils shrank.
The sealing formula on Kushina's abdomen had already been reinforced. The half of the Nine-Tails inside her was more stable than ever.
But even the complete Nine-Tails could not compare to the intensity of this chakra.
"Should I go, Minato?"
Kushina's voice came from behind him.
She stood while holding the doorframe, her complexion much better than during childbirth.
Minato turned and looked at her.
"No. Take care of Naruto."
Minato handed Naruto to Kushina.
Kushina still wanted to say something, but Minato had already vanished before her.
Konoha Hospital.
Nohara Rin had just finished a surgery.
She removed her blood-stained gloves and threw them into the waste bin, preparing to go to the break room for a sip of water.
Suddenly, she sensed that chakra fluctuation, and her brown eyes widened sharply.
"Kiyohara-kun…"
She instinctively pressed a hand to her chest.
"Did something happen?"
Shizune was much slower to react and did not understand what had happened.
"It seems someone is fighting Kiyohara-kun."
Nohara Rin said.
As the Three-Tails jinchūriki, her senses were much sharper than Shizune's.
Near the Third Training Ground.
Uchiha Shisui stood on a large tree branch. His Mangekyō Sharingan was already active, gazing toward the white pillar of light rising into the sky outside the village.
He could feel that the power contained in that pillar of light was stronger than any ninjutsu he had ever seen.
"What happened…"
His hand rested on the hilt of the ninja blade at his waist.
Inside the barrier.
When the white pillar of light dispersed, Toneri's father's face had visibly turned pale.
The cost of that attack was too great, so great that his entire body trembled.
But a relieved smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
That guy was dead for sure.
In the distance, Kiyohara became serious for the first time.
White light descended from the sky, carrying enough heat to melt the earth.
That was not ordinary chakra, but the power of the golden Tenseigan.
With one strike, it was enough to evaporate several long mountain ranges and even affect the continental plate.
Kiyohara clasped his hands together before his chest. The instant his palms met, eye shadow appeared around his eyes.
The eye shadow surfaced, and Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode activated instantly.
Natural energy surged wildly into his chakra pathways, pushing his already enormous chakra reserves to a new height.
Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands.
The earth began to shake.
Countless thick wooden vines burst from the ground. The vines were astonishingly thick, the largest even thicker than ancient trees that required several people to encircle.
The vines gathered beneath Kiyohara's feet, condensing at visible speed into a gigantic Thousand-Armed Buddha statue as massive as a mountain.
The Buddha's face was solemn, its eyes closed.
One thousand arms extended from the statue's torso, unfolding layer upon layer behind it, blotting out the sky.
Then the Mangekyō pattern in Kiyohara's eyes began rotating.
A layer of golden chakra crawled up along the Buddha statue's torso.
In the blink of an eye, the entire Thousand-Armed Buddha was covered in that layer of golden chakra, as if it had donned indestructible armor.
Susanoo: Armored Thousand Hands!
The white pillar of light slammed into the Susanoo Buddha.
Boom!!!
The thunderous explosion even penetrated the barrier and reached Konoha village.
The entire earth trembled.
But when the white light faded, a circular deep pit could faintly be seen.
The pit was bottomless, with only dust and smoke flying everywhere.
At the very bottom, a massive figure still stood.
The Thousand-Armed Buddha wearing golden Susanoo armor had half its body blasted ragged. Most of its nine-hundred-plus arms had been blown away, leaving uneven stumps.
A huge hole had been blasted open in the Buddha's chest, with shattered wood chips drifting through the air.
Kiyohara stood on the Buddha's head. His robe had been torn in several places by the shockwave, and the exposed skin showed several faint scorch marks.
There was a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, dripping along his chin and spreading a small dark-red patch on his white robe.
"This power… far surpasses a Tailed Beast Ball."
He spoke quietly.
This was the worst injury he had suffered in recent years.
Even the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball had never made him feel this level of pressure.
Opposite him, Toneri's father panted heavily.
Blood and sweat mixed in his eye sockets and flowed down his cheeks.
Calling upon the golden Tenseigan also placed a tremendous burden on him.
So, did he win?
A trace of uncertainty rose in Toneri's father's heart.
He lowered his head and sensed the depths of the pit.
He immediately discovered that Kiyohara was still standing atop the Buddha statue.
"His injuries are recovering…"
Toneri's father also discovered that Kiyohara's injuries healed completely in the span of a single breath.
Kiyohara raised a hand and casually wiped the remaining blood from the corner of his mouth. A faint smile even appeared on his face.
He controlled the Thousand-Armed Buddha and jumped directly back to the surface.
Rumble.
"Be proud. If you can make me open the Yin Seal, you are indeed very strong."
Kiyohara spoke.
He raised his right hand and touched his fingertip to his forehead.
During ordinary training and rest, Kiyohara constantly stored surplus chakra in this mark.
Yin Seal: Release!
The diamond-shaped purple mark suddenly lit up. Deep-purple patterns spread from his forehead, crawling down along his cheeks until they covered Kiyohara's entire body.
All the chakra he had accumulated in daily life now filled Kiyohara's body.
His original chakra reserves already far surpassed ordinary tailed beasts, so the amount he had accumulated was also incomparably vast.
Coupled with Kiyohara's rapid chakra recovery ability, the two together made his chakra seem endless.
The Susanoo Buddha beneath Kiyohara's feet began to tremble.
The arms that had been blasted apart began growing again from their stumps. Wood condensed at a visible rate.
The huge hole in the Buddha statue's chest was filled with newly grown wood, then covered in a fresh layer of golden Susanoo chakra.
In just a few breaths, the battered Thousand-Armed Buddha had fully restored itself.
One thousand arms unfolded once more, blotting out the sky.
Toneri's father's face was covered in blood and filth, full of shock.
"What…"
Such damage had been completely restored in only a few breaths?
But just as Toneri's father gritted his teeth and prepared to call upon the golden Tenseigan again, he was horrified to discover that the connection between himself and the golden Tenseigan was being forcibly cut off by an even more powerful force.
"How is this possible…"
Toneri's father whispered in disbelief.
Kiyohara also sensed something at this moment. He instinctively raised a hand and touched his eyes.
A strange pulsing sensation came from deep within his eyeballs, like a heart slowly beating inside his eye sockets.
The feeling was not unfamiliar. It was precisely the change of the fetal movement stage.
And this time, the pulse was stronger than ever before.
Kiyohara could feel that some qualitative change was happening deep inside his eyes.
Kiyohara felt as if his ocular power was being drawn by something. He involuntarily raised his head, looking through the crimson barrier wall toward the evening sky.
The moon had already risen.
A full moon hung in the night sky, bright enough to be dazzling.
Moonlight fell across the smoke-filled battlefield, across the broken Buddha statue, and across Kiyohara's face.
His pupils changed slightly in the moonlight, from black to luminous white, and then a faint blue seeped out from within that whiteness.
Moon, Hamura Shrine.
The Great Elder's body suddenly shook.
His senses clearly captured the change in the golden Tenseigan.
The countless Byakugan that had been slowly flowing inside the golden sphere suddenly began spinning wildly.
They were no longer turning toward Toneri's father's location, but toward a new direction.
"Someone is seizing control of the Tenseigan…"
The Great Elder frowned.
Could it be the one who had caused the golden Tenseigan to react last time?
"How is that possible? The golden Tenseigan only recognizes Ancestor Hamura's bloodline. Other than us…"
The Second Elder shook his head.
He said this was simply impossible.
"We must take back control!"
The Second Elder poured his chakra into it.
The Third Elder and the others also acted at the same time. Several streams of chakra entered that enormous golden sphere from different directions.
Two forces began struggling inside the Tenseigan.
The two sides remained locked for a moment, then the golden glow finally gradually dimmed.
The golden Tenseigan finally returned to calm.
The Great Elder weakly slid to the ground. The other elders were also drenched in sweat. The chakra consumption was so great that their already aged bodies were almost exhausted.
"Did we succeed?"
The Second Elder asked while panting.
"Temporarily. But Toneri's father can no longer call upon this power either."
Inside the barrier.
Toneri's father's heart sank to the bottom.
He clearly sensed that the resonance was coming from Kiyohara.
This Konoha Hokage could actually resonate with the golden Tenseigan.
This had already exceeded his understanding.
Kiyohara closed his eyes, feeling the unprecedented throbbing sensation deep in his eyeballs.
He already faintly realized something.
The Hyūga bloodline in his body, the Ōtsutsuki chakra, and the cells fused from various kekkei genkai seemed to have formed a certain puzzle.
"It seems you can no longer use that power."
Kiyohara opened his eyes and looked at Toneri's father, speaking calmly.
Toneri's father's expression changed.
He instinctively shielded Toneri behind him.
Kiyohara clasped his hands together before his chest once more.
The Susanoo Buddha's one thousand arms clenched their fists at the same time.
Each fist was covered in golden Susanoo chakra, shining with a cold, hard luster beneath the moonlight.
Sage Art: Top Transformed Buddha!
One thousand arms struck out simultaneously in that instant, like a thousand golden meteors smashing down toward the earth.
Each punch contained enough force to shatter mountains. The greater the speed, the greater the weight, and the more terrifying the destructive power.
Toneri's father gritted his teeth and protected Toneri beneath him, using his remaining chakra to condense a barrier before them.
But before the heavy fists of the Susanoo Buddha, that barrier was as thin as paper.
The overwhelming giant fists smashed the earth apart.
The ground trembled violently, and dust shot into the sky, completely obscuring vision.
The arriving ninja could only stand outside the barrier and watch everything before them in terror.
Minato Namikaze stood atop a large tree bent crooked by the shockwave. His golden hair was blown backward by the violent air current.
He had seen Kiyohara use Wood Release to suppress the Nine-Tails on the night of the Nine-Tails incident, but the scene before him was even more terrifying than that night.
"So this is… Kiyohara's current power?"
Minato thought.
Uchiha Shisui stood on a rock on the other side, the pattern in his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning rapidly.
"Lord Hokage…"
Behind the ninja, two figures silently appeared in the shadow of an ancient tree.
Black Zetsu clung to the tree trunk, half of his body merged into the bark, revealing only one eye.
Obito, who had arrived later, caught up with Black Zetsu and stood beside him, the tiger-striped mask covering most of his face.
The two silently watched the battlefield covered by golden giant fists from afar.
A complicated emotion flashed through Black Zetsu's eye.
Kiyohara's power was even greater than he had expected.
Such an existence was both a threat and a potential chess piece for his plan.
But the most important thing right now was that the two Ōtsutsuki from the moon could not be allowed to return alive, and Kiyohara could not be allowed to obtain any information about Kaguya from them.
"Those people from the moon have some connection to the Sage of Six Paths."
Obito spoke in a low voice, frowning beneath the mask.
"Mm."
Black Zetsu nodded.
Obito turned his head and continued watching the battlefield, waiting for the dust to clear.
He had only one purpose in coming here: to confirm the level Kiyohara's strength had reached.
Last time, Obito could sense that Kiyohara had not used his full strength.
The rumbling continued for a full half-minute before gradually calming.
The smoke slowly dispersed, revealing the devastated ground.
The earth had been smashed into one deep crater after another, each several dozen meters deep.
"Barrier team, reinforce the barrier."
Kakashi, who had arrived, said.
Four Anbu ninja answered and scattered, taking positions at four points along the barrier wall.
They formed hand seals at the same time and pressed their palms against the crimson light curtain.
The technique patterns on the barrier wall suddenly lit up, and the fire-red glow became even richer.
Kakashi's gaze passed through the barrier wall and landed on the swaying white figure at the bottom of the deep pit.
Ōtsutsuki Toneri's father knelt at the bottom of the pit. His left arm had been severed at the elbow.
Charred flesh curled around the stump, with only a layer of dark-red scab covering its end.
He held Toneri with his remaining right arm.
"Toneri… we leave…"
Toneri's father knew they could not win by force.
Without the ability to call upon the golden Tenseigan, he would be extremely passive.
Although he could rely on sensing to fight, losing his own Byakugan was still a weakening.
The next moment, the two rushed out through a weak point in the barrier.
Kiyohara stood in place and did not pursue.
It was not that he could not catch them. With his current speed and the Flying Thunder God Technique, catching this father and son at the end of their strength would take only a thought.
But the people on the moon would not be so simple.
If another attack like that orbital cannon came, Kiyohara himself would be fine, but the ninja around him would all die.
The others could not withstand that level of damage at all.
Kiyohara looked at the severed arm in the deep pit.
This arm was also of great research value.
After all, the ones closest to the Ōtsutsuki clan were actually the pseudo-Ōtsutsuki on the moon.
Kiyohara took out a sealing scroll and sealed the severed arm inside.
The instant he put away the scroll, a semi-transparent phantom slowly emerged from his body.
Red-Horn Kiyohara's spirit floated beside Kiyohara.
Its edges had already begun to blur, as if it might disappear at any time.
"It seems the last wish counts as completed."
Red-Horn Kiyohara spoke.
He lowered his head and looked at his palm, which was uncontrollably turning into motes of light.
If the last wish was judged complete, he had no way to slow this process.
"No need to go to the moon now."
Kiyohara felt he had saved himself some trouble.
"Actually, going there once wouldn't be bad. Their puppet techniques are very powerful."
Red-Horn Kiyohara said.
"I know."
Kiyohara nodded.
The Ōtsutsuki clan's puppets were more advanced than those of the shinobi world. If he could obtain that technology, Kiyohara could imitate Anrokuzan and build a dragon-vein puppet army.
After Kiyohara exchanged a few more words with Red-Horn Kiyohara, Red-Horn Kiyohara turned into countless motes of light and scattered.
Those motes all surged toward Kiyohara.
Kiyohara closed his eyes and felt that power pour from his limbs and bones into his chakra pathway system.
The first change was in his body.
That bloodline that could devour chakra and adapt to it was fully inherited.
Kiyohara felt that the time he needed to adapt to tailed beast chakra had been directly cut in half.
He was one step closer to fully adapting to the chakra of all nine tailed beasts.