What was happening?!
At this moment, both Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and Ōtsutsuki Hamura—beings who had long transcended the mortal realm—felt a sudden and intense stirring arise in their hearts.
This abrupt sensation was anything but ordinary, especially for Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths, who possessed profound mastery over prophecy and the perception of causality.
In an instant, both brothers understood that something of immense importance—something deeply connected to themselves—must be unfolding at that very moment.
Following the invisible pull guiding them, their gazes pierced through countless barriers and focused on the source of that inexplicable feeling.
"Is it... him?"
The moment Hagoromo and Hamura saw that youthful, vaguely familiar face, both were briefly stunned before their memories resurfaced.
Five years earlier, on a summer day, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo had suddenly sensed a minute deviation in the destiny of the shinobi world—a ripple unlike anything he had ever perceived before.
Out of instinctive caution regarding his two sons and the future course of the world, he had swept his awareness across the entire shinobi world. He paid particular attention to Konohagakure, one of fate's most critical crossroads.
There, on the Ninja Academy training grounds, he had caught sight of a child struggling through training while carrying a massive boulder on his back.
That same day, Hamura, who resided on the moon and likewise monitored changes in the shinobi world, conducted his own survey somewhat later. In the very same location, he saw the very same child, drenched in sweat and practicing basic swordsmanship with meticulous focus.
At the time, however, both brothers had more urgent anomalies to investigate. After only a glance, they hurried on without giving the boy another thought.
Unfortunately, Shinichi knew nothing of this. Otherwise, he would probably have complained inwardly about why those two respected elders hadn't looked a little longer or paid just a bit more attention.
Now, seeing that face once again, Hagoromo and Hamura finally remembered.
The young man who had triggered this powerful reaction within them was someone they had already seen once before.
...
Deep within the moon lay a space suspended between reality and illusion.
A beautiful woman with snow-white skin, cascading white hair, twin horns protruding from her forehead, and an incomparably exquisite yet expressionless face slowly opened her eyes.
As her flawless Byakugan opened, the ferocious crimson Rinne Sharingan at the center of her forehead appeared as well.
Perhaps it was the natural bond between mother and children.
Perhaps it was some higher-level thread of fate.
Or perhaps it was a force even she herself could not fully comprehend.
Whatever the reason, her gaze followed that same mysterious pull, piercing countless seals and spatial barriers.
It fell upon the shinobi world.
Upon Konohagakure.
Upon...
The young man speaking eloquently before the crowd.
At this moment, the three most powerful members of a single family in the entire shinobi world—arguably in the entire universe—had all, without prior agreement, fixed their attention on the same place.
On the same ordinary mortal youth.
...
At the same time, on the lunar surface, within Hamura's Temple.
This sacred sanctuary honored the ancestor Ōtsutsuki Hamura. It was also where generations of Ōtsutsuki descendants, whether from the Main Family or Branch Family, offered their Byakugan after death, forming the core of the Great Tenseigan.
Yet the atmosphere inside the temple was exceptionally tense.
Main Family Patriarch Ōtsutsuki Nobunaga and Branch Family Patriarch Ōtsutsuki Shingen—brothers who had argued for years over irreconcilable ideological differences and had nearly come to blows several times over the past year—had once again erupted into a fierce dispute.
As the argument intensified, members of both the Main and Branch Families behind them gradually formed opposing lines. Chakra stirred through the hall as the confrontation teetered on the edge of becoming a physical clash.
Then, at that critical moment—
BZZZZZZT!!!
Deep within the temple, the enormous Tenseigan floating above a massive sealing array suddenly began to tremble violently without warning.
Brilliant golden light surged from it in wave after wave.
"!?"
Both Nobunaga and Shingen's expressions changed instantly.
Their argument stopped cold as they turned toward the source of the disturbance.
"What is happening? Why is the Great Tenseigan suddenly shaking?!"
Ōtsutsuki Nobunaga demanded sharply, uncertainty flashing across his face.
Shingen also frowned deeply, his eyes locked onto the Great Tenseigan as he temporarily set aside his dispute with his elder brother.
Stepping forward, Nobunaga rapidly formed a series of hand seals.
Golden light rippled across the surface of the Tenseigan like flowing water.
Moments later, a clear image was projected into the air within the temple.
"It's him?"
Nobunaga raised an eyebrow, surprise evident on his face.
"It's that Higashino Shinichi again!"
Unlike him, Shingen made no effort to hide the disgust on his face.
Nobunaga said nothing.
Shingen also restrained his emotions for the moment.
In an instant, the tension between both sides eased considerably.
Whether they belonged to the Main Family or the Branch Family, everyone present desperately wanted to know why Higashino Shinichi had triggered such a reaction from the Great Tenseigan.
In truth, the Ōtsutsuki Clan on the moon—especially its upper echelon—was not entirely unfamiliar with Higashino Shinichi.
The reason traced back more than a decade.
At that time, an event occurred that shocked the entire lunar Ōtsutsuki Clan.
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, which their clan had guarded and sealed deep within the moon for generations, had vanished without warning.
Someone had somehow summoned it away, and it disappeared from the moon completely.
The incident caused unprecedented upheaval within the clan.
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was no ordinary object—it was a sacred responsibility their people had protected for countless generations.
As a result, over the past decade and more, they had repeatedly harnessed the power of the Great Tenseigan to scan the entire shinobi world.
Their focus had been especially heavy on Konohagakure, home to both the Senju and Uchiha bloodlines—the two major descendants of the Sage of Six Paths.
They hoped to find the audacious thief responsible and uncover the whereabouts of the Demonic Statue.
Although more than ten years of searching yielded no trace of either the statue or a new Rinnegan, those repeated scans left many of the clan's leaders and elite members with impressions of certain individuals in Konoha.
Among them was a boy named Higashino Shinichi.
A boy who carried massive stones on his back in the morning and spent the afternoon tirelessly practicing swordsmanship.
And now, the source of the Great Tenseigan's disturbance...
Was that very same Higashino Shinichi?
What followed completely exceeded the understanding of Nobunaga, Shingen, and indeed every Ōtsutsuki present.
For a moment, from Kaguya and her two sons to the lunar Ōtsutsuki Clan, all of their attention converged on Shinichi.
...
Inside Aji no Takumi.
Shinichi had no idea that so many figures of such overwhelming importance had fixed their eyes on him at this very moment.
But deep down, he already had a vague suspicion.
An unprecedented surge of emotion was washing over him in wave after wave.
The sensation was so overwhelming, so vivid and undeniable, that it surpassed every previous intuition he had ever experienced.
It was even more than a hundred times stronger than the feeling he had experienced years ago in Konoha Cemetery, when he had spoken to Kakashi under the Third Hokage's hidden gaze and uttered words strikingly similar in spirit to the Second Hokage's final testament.
The effect of the Seeking Fortune Entry was activating!
Could it be...?!
Ecstasy surged through Shinichi's heart, but his expression remained perfectly calm.
His gaze slowly swept across the crowd before finally settling on Jiraiya.
"So, Jiraiya-sama, regarding your question about how to stop war and achieve peace..."
"My answer is this: before true peace can ever be realized, the first and most important step is for the identity of the shinobi to return completely to the original nature and mission bestowed upon it by the Sage of Six Paths, the ancestor of all shinobi. We must stop being mere tools of war and slaughter. We must reclaim the original spirit of the shinobi—a spirit that drew strength from connection, built bridges through understanding, and carried the ideal of saving the world."
"Only when shinobi are no longer bound by the destiny of violence and hatred—only when they free themselves from that cycle and once again turn toward communication and creation—can there truly exist a solid foundation for mutual understanding between people, between nations... a foundation upon which differences may be resolved and peace genuinely pursued."
"This is the most fundamental path toward peace. It is true change, beginning with ourselves and with the very roots of what it means to be a shinobi."
As his words fell silent, an even longer and deeper stillness settled over the hall.
The expressions around him varied.
Some were stirred.
Some were thoughtful.
Some were confused.
Shinichi's eyes slowly passed over every face present.
But he knew the true audience extended far beyond the nearly one thousand people before him.
Sage of Six Paths... you're watching this right now, aren't you?
Shinichi was eighty percent sure—no, ninety percent sure—that the ancestor of all shinobi was observing this very scene.
That was why the feeling within his heart had become so overwhelming.
Under normal circumstances, if given such an opportunity to perform, he might have been tempted to show off a little—demonstrating his astonishing strength, speed, or his exquisite mastery of Fire Release in order to gain the Sage's recognition.
But he immediately suppressed that childish impulse.
That would be sacrificing the greater goal for a trivial gain.
Absolutely unacceptable.
What he wanted was not for the Sage to be entertained.
Not for him to watch a performance.
What he wanted was for the Sage of Six Paths to truly recognize, from this moment onward, how different Higashino Shinichi was.
He wanted the Sage to realize that amid a thousand years of endless bloodshed, vengeance, and cyclical slaughter, someone had finally appeared who genuinely understood his original ideals—and who possessed both the courage and the ability to walk that path.
He wanted the Sage of Six Paths to continue directing his attention, his focus, and perhaps even his unfulfilled hopes toward him in the years to come.
And in doing so, provide him with an endless stream of the highest-quality, highest-level source of recognition imaginable.
He also wanted the Sage to clearly realize something else.
For nearly a thousand years, those two worthless sons of his had done little besides reincarnating generation after generation, continuing their conflicts, and sowing the seeds of power and hatred throughout their descendants' bloodlines.
But what had they actually contributed toward guiding the shinobi world down a path of connection and peace?
Had they brought anything besides endless warfare?
Anything besides increasingly sophisticated methods of killing?
His sons?
Shinichi had no need to become the Sage of Six Paths' son.
After all, he wasn't the Third Hokage's son either.
Yet that hadn't stopped him from becoming the person Hiruzen valued most and placed his greatest hopes upon.
What he needed was to become, in the Sage's eyes, the one individual who had truly inherited the world-saving ideal that inspired the founding of Ninshū.
The one person capable of breaking through the deadlock that had persisted for a thousand years.
The one person capable of carrying that vision into a new era and accomplishing what the Sage himself had failed to complete.
And beyond that, Shinichi harbored an even deeper ambition.
He had long suspected that Kage might not actually be the highest stage within the shinobi profession.
Or rather, Kage was merely the highest rank achievable under the current era's system.
There might exist a title beyond Kage.
A higher level within the shinobi profession itself.
And if such a title truly existed...
Then it could only have one name—
Ninshū.
The title representing the origin and legitimate inheritance of the shinobi profession.
The title carrying the Sage of Six Paths' original ideals and supreme authority.
Which meant that every word he spoke from this point onward was crucial.
Every sentence had to strike directly at the core.
Every sentence had to reach the deepest regrets and aspirations hidden within the heart of the ancestor of all shinobi.