Neither Tsunade nor Hiruzen picked up Jiraiya's question.
Anyone could tell there was something very strange about Uchiha Chizumi possessing Wood Release, but there were already so many strange things about him that one more abnormality hardly seemed worth making a fuss over.
What no one knew was that, at that very moment, a figure was rapidly slipping through the ground beneath the Valley of the End.
That figure was none other than the shinobi world's greatest "filial son," Black Zetsu.
"The Tenseigan!"
"A Tenseigan has appeared in the shinobi world!"
"How could the shinobi world possibly produce a Tenseigan?!"
Black Zetsu's mood was absolutely horrible.
Just a short while ago, he had successfully recruited Yakushi Kabuto and even taken over Orochimaru's research on Impure World Reincarnation.
Everything had been moving in an excellent direction.
So why had a Tenseigan suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the shinobi world?
"So what exactly is a Tenseigan? Why do you look this nervous, Black Zetsu?"
White Zetsu, attached at his side, was completely confused. He felt like after following Black Zetsu and Obito all these years, he had seen plenty of things. So how had he never once heard that the shinobi world also had something called a Tenseigan?
But Black Zetsu ignored White Zetsu's question.
His face, already black to begin with, somehow seemed even darker now.
At the same time, he was thinking hard about whether the birth of the Tenseigan could help, even a little, with his plan to revive his mother.
"If I can persuade the one who awakened the Tenseigan to join my plan, then maybe I won't need any backup plan at all. Maybe helping him master the Tenseigan's power would be enough."
"The Eye of the Moon Plan would let Mother revive through Uchiha Madara's body. But if I shift to a Tenseigan-based plan, maybe I could guide him into directly shattering the moon…"
Black Zetsu's eyes flickered. Even though the Flames of Judgment were still burning on him, it seemed he had completely gotten used to them.
"No… that's not right. First I need to figure out why Hamura's eyes suddenly awakened in the shinobi world!"
Black Zetsu forcefully put aside that tempting idea.
He knew the Hyuga clan existed in Konoha. In fact, over the past thousand years, he had examined the Hyuga clan more than once.
But compared to the Uchiha clan, the Hyuga clan had always struck him as strangely lacking in ambition.
Or rather, it wasn't that they lacked ambition—their bloodline had simply thinned to the point where they could no longer awaken any higher form of the Byakugan. And once the Caged Bird Seal came into existence, the Hyuga clan only declined further.
While Black Zetsu's mind raced beneath the earth, the battle on the other side between Uchiha Chizumi and Hyuga Hiashi was becoming increasingly dangerous.
The deep-blue sphere seemed to possess the power to erase everything.
Wooden giants rose one after another. Wood dragons coiled and roared.
The colossal Susanoo stood in the middle of the battlefield, with endless magma erupting at its feet. The wood dragons were trying to crush Rotation with their bodies, while the wooden giants tried to pin down the deep-blue sphere.
Even the Susanoo under Uchiha Chizumi's control had joined the assault. Lava Release wrapped itself around Susanoo, making Chizumi look even more like a god who ruled over fire and magma.
"Still… not enough?"
When Chizumi saw cracks begin spreading along Susanoo's magma-wreathed blade the moment it collided with Tenseigan Rotation, his expression finally grew serious.
"So even without condensing Truth-Seeking Orbs, Tenseigan Rotation already possesses some of their properties?"
Uchiha Chizumi understood Truth-Seeking Orbs well enough. And in his eyes, Hiashi's Tenseigan Rotation really did carry something of that same "destroy everything" nature.
"Or to put it another way… is Hyuga Hiashi himself basically just a giant Truth-Seeking Orb right now?"
Chizumi frowned. Without mastering senjutsu, it seemed that the only way he could oppose it was with Yin–Yang Release of his own.
"No. Truth-Seeking Orbs aren't truly indestructible."
"Even a genuine Truth-Seeking Orb can be shattered by overwhelming force—let alone a Tenseigan Rotation that only possesses part of those characteristics."
Uchiha Chizumi's gaze deepened.
If he couldn't even deal with this crude imitation of a Truth-Seeking Orb created by Hiashi, then how was he supposed to face Uchiha Madara in the future?
Though Chizumi himself had no idea whether Madara would even return at this point…
RUMBLE—!!!
Trees began wrapping together. The wood dragons stopped trying to fruitlessly constrict Hiashi. The wooden giants also gathered, and as Chizumi clapped his hands together, he finally pushed Wood Release to its utmost limit.
One tree after another twisted together. The huge wooden giants seemed to ignore all separation between themselves and began merging.
In only a short time, a single massive wooden giant emerged—one almost equal in size to Chizumi's Susanoo.
"So I still haven't mastered senjutsu. Otherwise, Wood Release alone might have been enough…"
Chizumi's eyes turned serious.
The two giant beings stood together, and without doing anything at all, their mere existence alone was enough to crush ordinary people under overwhelming pressure.
And the most shocking thing of all was that these two giants now began to merge.
Or rather, Uchiha Chizumi was controlling Susanoo and completely covering the giant wooden figure with it.
The enormous wooden giant, already entwined with wood dragons, was now wrapped in a full layer of Susanoo armor.
At this moment, the powers with which Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama had once dominated the shinobi world had fused into one.
"Armored Wood Golem…"
Hiruzen's eyes briefly unfocused.
He had once heard his teacher speak of the battle at the Valley of the End, when Uchiha Madara had clad the Nine-Tails in Susanoo and created an Armored Nine-Tails.
Not long after that battle, his teacher's older brother—the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama—had died.
And now, seeing the wooden giant and Susanoo become one, forming an armored wooden titan, Hiruzen suddenly felt as if he were witnessing Hashirama and Madara's battle with his own eyes.
But Hiashi's condition was actually far worse than outsiders imagined.
He too had realized that the Tenseigan Rotation he had created by accident possessed unbelievable power.
But at the same time, he had also discovered its enormous flaw.
Even if Tenseigan chakra had raised the upper limit of his chakra reserves, his body was still just a human body.
Sustaining Rotation for this long had already made him dizzy and disoriented. If the fight went on much longer, he feared he might not even be able to tell where Uchiha Chizumi was standing anymore.
But Hiashi couldn't stop.
And he didn't dare stop.
~~~
Thank you!