"The shinobi world… actually has a Tenseigan now…"
Using the giant Tenseigan beside him, Ōtsutsuki Toneri could clearly see that streak of sapphire-blue light rising from the shinobi world.
"The Hyūga clan?"
"They actually removed their own clansmen's eyes and created a Tenseigan themselves?"
Toneri kept his eyes closed. He had been born eyeless, and what he had originally set his sights on was Hyūga Hinata's eyes. That was also why Hyūga Hiashi had been so certain that Hinata would one day awaken the Tenseigan.
"If the Hyūga clan has really created a Tenseigan, and that Hyūga princess awakens her own Tenseigan as well…"
Toneri's feelings were complicated. If the Hyūga truly had their own Tenseigan now, and Hinata awakened one too, that would be very bad news for him.
But no matter how complicated Toneri's feelings were, he had no way to affect the shinobi world from here.
Back at the Hyūga estate, as more and more ninja arrived, Hiashi finally began to move.
The Tenseigan, which had absorbed nearly the entire Hyūga clan, seemed to have formed some special connection with Hiashi. Without him doing anything obvious, it simply floated up behind him.
Before it fully came into being, it had been somewhat irregular in shape, since it was a fused construct.
But now, it had transformed into what looked like a giant blue sapphire. The sapphire light within it gradually spread over Hiashi's body, cloaking him in a pale-blue aura.
"Clan Head, did it work?"
"I feel like there's a powerful force near me… something familiar…"
One of the main-family elders asked in a trembling voice. Though he could no longer see, the Tenseigan contained part of his own contribution, so he could still vaguely sense it.
"This vision…"
Hiashi didn't answer. His field of view was now strangely altered. It was as though the Tenseigan had replaced his eyes, allowing him to look at himself from a third-person perspective.
"And this power!"
The moment Hiashi instinctively drew on the Tenseigan's power, a silver hurricane exploded outward.
"This is bad! Fall back!"
Outside the Hyūga estate, the Anbu and Uchiha Police Force members who had been advancing cautiously suddenly shouted warnings.
But before they could do anything else, the silver tempest had already blown the entire Hyūga estate apart, fully exposing Hiashi and the others, who had been hidden beneath it.
"What… is that?"
When the Anbu and Uchiha saw the blood still flowing from Hiashi's empty eye sockets, and the giant Tenseigan floating behind him, all of them froze in shock.
"What a terrifying power…"
Some of the Anbu instinctively turned to look at the Uchiha clan members.
They were clearly thinking of the Uchiha clan's Mangekyō Sharingan. After all, Uchiha Chizumi and Uchiha Fugaku had already shown them what that power looked like.
"So the Hyūga clan's Byakugan can evolve too?"
"It's just that unlike our Uchiha clan's Mangekyō Sharingan, when the Byakugan evolves, it manifests as a layer of chakra armor?"
Some of the Uchiha instinctively treated the pale-blue chakra cloak covering Hiashi as something similar to Susanoo. By now, they all realized that something had happened within the Hyūga clan that they knew nothing about.
"Go inform Lord Chizumi! Inform Lady Tsunade and the Third as well!"
One of the Uchiha shouted. No matter what had happened to the Hyūga clan, the fact that the entire estate had collapsed and hardly any Hyūga were appearing already told him that something was deeply wrong.
"That won't be necessary. I'm already here."
The first to arrive was the Third Hokage. Hiruzen's expression was so grim it looked as though water might drip from it.
He had always believed only the Uchiha's eyes carried unbelievable power, but judging from what Hiashi had just unleashed, the Hyūga had clearly been hiding enormous secrets from Konoha as well.
"With a single blow, he destroyed the entire Hyūga estate…"
"That kind of power is already on par with a tailed beast—or the Uchiha clan's Mangekyō Sharingan."
"And I can smell blood. A lot of blood."
Hiruzen had fought on battlefields his whole life. Old as he was, his nose for blood was sharper than most ninja's. Even from hundreds of meters away, he could smell it clearly.
"Old man, what happened?"
Not long after Hiruzen arrived, Tsunade appeared in front of the ruined Hyūga estate as well.
Like Hiruzen, after seeing the Tenseigan's power, her expression turned extremely grave.
"It really is the Tenseigan."
After Tsunade spoke, Jiraiya arrived too.
Fukasaku, perched on his shoulder, stared at that sapphire-blue eye, his toad eyes full of tension.
He had already contacted the Great Toad Sage and learned much more about the Tenseigan. Now that he was seeing it in person, he could fully confirm that the eye behind Hiashi was indeed the Tenseigan.
"So there are people in the shinobi world who know of the Tenseigan after all?"
On the other side, Hiashi slowly stepped forward with the main-family elders behind him. For ninja, losing their eyes meant losing their sight, but not necessarily losing the ability to move. And since they had all contributed to the creation of the giant Tenseigan, they could still vaguely perceive things through it.
"You… are guilty."
The last to arrive was Uchiha Chizumi.
He had only just returned to Konoha, and already this had happened.
To everyone else, Hiashi looked almost ethereal, draped in a pale-blue chakra cloak. But in Chizumi's eyes, the red-name box above Hiashi's head had darkened so much it was nearly purple.
Combined with what Chizumi knew about the Great Tenseigan, he had already guessed the truth:
to create this Tenseigan, Hiashi had most likely sacrificed the entire Hyūga clan.
"Uchiha Chizumi?"
When he heard Chizumi declare him guilty, Hiashi only pulled the corner of his mouth into a mocking smile.
"In your eyes, who in this shinobi world isn't guilty?"
"Absolute Justice?"
"It sounds nice, sure. Justice."
"I may be guilty, but you—gathering power and benefits everywhere under the banner of justice—are you really without sin?"
~~~
There's no Advanced Chapters for this because this is already the latest! Thank you for reading!