If you asked how powerful Susanoo really was, there had probably never been anyone in the shinobi world who could answer that.
After all, anyone who had ever directly suffered the force of Susanoo was already long reunited in the Pure Land—if their bodies had even remained intact enough to be recognized, rather than having been reduced to a heap of mangled flesh.
But from this day forward, the shinobi world probably had one more person who could tell others exactly how powerful Susanoo really was.
Yes—Hyuga Hiashi did not die after taking a direct blow from Uchiha Chizumi's armored Wood Golem. Or rather, the Tenseigan Chakra Mode barely kept him alive.
Even though Hiashi's Tenseigan chakra wasn't true Six Paths-level power, it was still Tenseigan chakra.
"So… I lost?"
On the lava lake in the Valley of the End, black smoke rose from Hiashi's body as it was scorched by the heat. Yet he seemed completely numb to the pain, merely gazing up at the sky through the Tenseigan.
"Just like Uchiha Madara back then… he wanted to leave Konoha, and I wanted to leave Konoha too."
"He died in the Valley of the End… and I will die in the Valley of the End as well…"
At this point, Hiashi realized he didn't actually feel much regret. Or rather, ever since he had chosen to slaughter the Hyuga clan in order to fulfill Hinata's future, he had stopped caring very much about his own life.
The only reason he had wanted to leave Konoha was because he hadn't wanted the Tenseigan to fall into Konoha's hands.
"Can you… give this Tenseigan to Neji?"
"He's your student too. He inherited your justice as well. Let Neji inherit the Tenseigan…"
Hiashi looked at Uchiha Chizumi, who was slowly dismissing Susanoo and even allowing the Wood Golem to collapse as he walked over, and made one final request.
It was a little tragic, really. Hiashi had always believed Uchiha Chizumi was simply using justice as an excuse to eliminate his enemies.
And yet, when he was facing death, he found himself thinking that Uchiha Chizumi was somehow more trustworthy than the rest of Konoha.
Chizumi gave no answer.
Expressionless, he ignited the lava beneath Hiashi, letting it rise and swallow his body whole.
And as Hiashi died, the Hyuga main-family elders who had been restrained and watched by the Anbu and by Hiruzen seemed to feel something too.
None of them said a word.
They simply let out long sighs, then struck their own pressure points and severed their own heart meridians.
In a sense, the Hyuga clan's division between main family and branch family came to an end in this era. Hiashi and the main family were now dead, and not long before, even the branch members had given themselves up to complete the Tenseigan.
With the deaths of Hiashi and the other main-family elders, familiar text once again appeared before Uchiha Chizumi's eyes.
—Tenseigan Ocular Power Feedback!
Uchiha Chizumi had already possessed the Byakugan before this, having obtained it during one of his earlier executions of justice involving the Hyuga clan.
And now, with this act of justice completed—with the deaths of Hiashi and the main-family elders—his Byakugan itself had started evolving toward the Tenseigan.
But this feedback from the Tenseigan wasn't complete. After all, even the power Hiashi himself had been able to draw from the Tenseigan was only around the level of the Uchiha clan's Eternal Mangekyo.
"My Byakugan now carries Tenseigan ocular power comparable to the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan…"
"And unlike Hiashi, both of my eyes possess this Tenseigan ocular power. More importantly, this power belongs to me."
Chizumi could vaguely feel his eyes undergoing yet another subtle transformation, but he knew this wasn't the time to study it in depth.
Then, as he reached out and pressed a hand against the Tenseigan still floating in the air, his expression shifted again.
He hadn't expected that after Hiashi's death, the Tenseigan—created by the sacrifice of the entire Hyuga clan—would actually begin transferring its pure Tenseigan ocular power directly into him.
It was almost as if the Tenseigan itself recognized Uchiha Chizumi as another rightful main-family heir of the Hyuga clan.
"If I keep absorbing the ocular power of this giant Tenseigan, then my own Tenseigan might really complete its evolution one day…"
Chizumi stood there in a daze for a moment.
At present, his eyes housed two different kinds of ocular power. One was the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan's power, already evolving toward the Rinnegan. The other was the power that, if he chose, could eventually grow into a true Tenseigan.
And in his perception, those two powers were beginning to merge—and slowly evolve together.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"Hiashi, how could you die just like that—and so cleanly at that?"
"Why would you entrust the Tenseigan to Uchiha Chizumi?"
"Shouldn't you have released it somehow? Or hidden it away?"
Farther away, Black Zetsu nearly lost control when he saw Uchiha Chizumi lay his hand on the Tenseigan. He was on the verge of rushing out and trying to snatch the Great Tenseigan by force.
But the Flames of Judgment still burning on him were a constant reminder that if he moved recklessly, the outcome would not be pleasant.
"Black Zetsu, we need to go!"
"If we stay any longer, I'm worried that guy Uchiha Chizumi will notice us…"
White Zetsu couldn't help warning him. He had ambitions of his own and absolutely didn't want to end up like Black Zetsu, covered in that bizarre fire that burned you so badly you wished you could die.
"Go!"
In the end, Black Zetsu gave the Great Tenseigan one last reluctant look. He was already calculating whether he had any chance at stealing it—and if not, whether dragging Obito into it would help.
As the battle ended, Hiruzen, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and the others began making their way toward Uchiha Chizumi.
They were all curious about what exactly the Hyuga clan had created, and why it had let Hiashi wield such terrifying power.
"It's beautiful…"
As Tsunade and the others drew closer, they finally got a clear look at the Tenseigan.
Looking at the sapphire-blue light radiating from it, Tsunade's first thought wasn't how strong it was.
It was simply awe at the beauty of its glow.
"But it's also dangerous."
"And even that beauty is deeply twisted."
"If I'm not mistaken, that eye is the aggregate of who knows how many Hyuga clan members' eyes."
Fukasaku, perched on Jiraiya's shoulder, studied the Tenseigan carefully. Compared to its beautiful sapphire light, what he cared about far more was the terrifying power contained within it.
And truth be told, if he hadn't just witnessed Uchiha Chizumi's strength firsthand, he would have genuinely wanted to advise Jiraiya to persuade Konoha to hand the Tenseigan over to Mount Myoboku for safekeeping.
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No Advanced Chapters! This is the Latest! Thank you for reading!