The moment that thought crossed his mind, Uchiha Ren's mood lifted at once.
A second ago, he had still been considering how to strip the Karma from the Chakra Fruit that Kinshiki had turned into.
Now the problem had solved itself cleanly.
Simple. Efficient. Satisfying.
"What are you trying to do?"
Seeing the look on Ren's face, Urashiki's eyelid twitched. A bad feeling rose in his chest without warning.
"Heh…"
Ren glanced at him the way one might look at a fool.
"You're about to witness a miracle."
A faint pulse of chakra passed through the air.
Then, right in front of Urashiki's stunned eyes, the Karma mark on the Chakra Fruit vanished.
Just like that.
"What?"
"The Karma mark… disappeared?"
"How is that possible?"
"Without a clan elder from the Ōtsutsuki main family, Karma can't just be removed!"
Urashiki froze where he stood.
For a moment, his mind went completely blank.
He had considered countless possibilities, but not this one. Never this one.
Ren had erased the Karma on Kinshiki's Chakra Fruit so casually that it overturned everything Urashiki thought he understood.
Karma was one of the Ōtsutsuki clan's most secret and absolute abilities.
How could it be broken so easily?
That single sight hit him harder than any blow.
"Roar!!"
The Ten-Tails, which had been standing still until now, suddenly let out a low, impatient cry toward Ren, almost like a beast demanding to be fed.
"Here."
Ren flicked the Chakra Fruit away.
Just before that, he had already used the Dragon Vein Converter in secret to purge the Karma from it.
Partly to solve the problem.
Partly to make sure Urashiki understood something clearly—
that whatever he considered absolute, Ren could still reach in and dismantle.
Whoosh!
One of the Ten-Tails' tails snapped forward and caught the Chakra Fruit in an instant.
Then it swallowed it.
The change began immediately.
A vast wave of pressure erupted from the Ten-Tails and rolled outward so violently that the entire shinobi world seemed to shudder in response.
It wasn't just heavy.
It felt ancient.
Like something that had no right to exist under the sky.
Far in the distance, Queen Loran, Princess Sara, and the ministers stared through their telescopes, faces gone stiff.
No one spoke.
The thing before them was too monstrous for words.
The previous form of the Ten-Tails had still carried traces of incompleteness.
It had crawled.
It had looked half-formed.
But now its body was changing again.
It rose from that unstable shape into a standing, gaunt form. Its tail structure shifted, claw-like and grotesque, while its single eye, single ear, and single mouth gave it an even more unnatural presence.
And that was only the beginning.
A few seconds later, the transformation continued.
The Ten-Tails' body thickened.
Its frame broadened.
The skeletal thinness vanished, replaced by dense, terrifying substance. The aura pouring off it deepened until it felt as if heaven and earth themselves were bowing beneath its existence.
This time, there was no mistaking it.
The Ten-Tails had finally reached its complete form.
Urashiki's face went pale.
He knew exactly what a fully restored Ten-Tails meant.
This wasn't some simple increase in strength.
Once a complete Ten-Tails entered the field, every calculation changed. The scale of the battle changed. The meaning of victory changed.
And now—
Uchiha Ren controlled it.
That was what truly broke him.
A Fifth Hokage who was already absurdly strong was one thing.
A Fifth Hokage with a complete Ten-Tails behind him was something else entirely.
At that point, the difference was no longer one plus one.
It was a leap.
A violent, unreasonable leap.
And it pushed Ren into a territory Urashiki no longer wanted to imagine.
"Damn it…"
His lips moved, but the words came out dry and weak.
For the first time since descending to Earth, genuine fear had entered his eyes.
Inside the hidden dimension, Hamura and Hagoromo had already lost whatever composure they still possessed.
"A complete Ten-Tails…"
"A completely new Ten-Tails actually appeared…"
"What kind of monster is this Uchiha Ren?"
"If he becomes the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki next, then none of us will be able to touch him lightly."
"The shinobi world is completely out of control."
Their expressions twisted.
Back then, when they sealed their mother, they had only succeeded because of timing, trust, and betrayal. Kaguya had not expected her own sons to move against her.
They had never truly defeated her through overwhelming strength alone.
But now?
Against Uchiha Ren, they wouldn't even get that kind of opportunity.
No opening.
No hesitation.
No trust to exploit.
That was what made it worse.
Hamura gritted his teeth first.
"The people from the Ōtsutsuki main family are trash. They can't even handle a single Uchiha Ren, and they still call themselves the main family?"
"Forget trash," Hagoromo said quietly, though the strain in his face had become hard to hide. "The real problem is Ren himself."
"He keeps showing one hidden card after another."
"That is what makes him frightening."
Hamura opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Because he knew Hagoromo was right.
Ren's power alone was already dangerous.
But what truly made him unbearable was the unknown.
Every time they thought they had reached the edge of his strength, something new appeared.
Something stranger.
Something even more terrifying.
And by now—
whether they wanted to admit it or not—
Uchiha Ren had already grown into something dangerously close to untouchable.
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