Toneri's father was somewhat emotional.
Their trip had not been in vain. There really were pure-blooded descendants in the lower world who could continue Hamura's bloodline.
What he found astonishing was that, after a thousand years, the branch that had remained on Earth could still maintain such a high degree of purity, while the branch on the Moon had nearly exhausted itself through internal strife.
"Father, I want to take her with us."
Toneri spoke directly.
In his understanding, he was the descendant chosen by their ancestor Hamura, the person destined to create a new world.
And as his future spouse, possessing the purest possible Byakugan bloodline was the girl's honor.
"Now is not the time."
Toneri's father shook his head.
"She is still too young. Pure-blooded descendants need a pure-blooded mother, but the mother herself must also grow to an age where she can bear children. Once she has grown up, we can then..."
Toneri's father's words suddenly stopped.
Just as Toneri was wondering why his father had suddenly fallen silent, a voice came from behind them.
"You two have come all this way. Why don't you sit down for a while?"
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
Toneri's father followed the direction of the voice and looked over, only to discover a young man with long black hair standing there.
His brows furrowed.
His sensory abilities were among the very best within the Otsutsuki clan on the Moon. He could clearly detect chakra fluctuations within a radius of several hundred kilometers.
But this person in front of him...
When had he started standing there?
He had not sensed him at all.
It was not that the other party had hidden his presence.
Rather, the fluctuations of the man's chakra were too natural, as though he were simply a part of the land itself.
This reminded Toneri's father of the "Sage Mode" practiced in the sacred lands of Earth.
It was similarly difficult to sense.
"Who are you?"
Toneri's father asked suspiciously.
"Guests who have come all the way from the Moon should introduce themselves first, shouldn't they?"
Kiyohara replied.
Toneri's father's pupils contracted.
This person actually knew that there were people on the Moon.
Moreover, he even knew that they had come from the Moon!
The realization sent a chill through Toneri's father. Almost at the same instant, he tightened his grip around his son's wrist.
"That is correct. We are from the Moon."
Now that his origin had already been exposed, Toneri's father no longer wanted to continue hiding it.
"Then who exactly are you?"
Toneri's father pulled his son another half step backward, completely blocking him with his own body.
"I am Kiyohara, the Hokage of Konoha."
Kiyohara answered.
His gaze swept across Toneri's father's face before falling onto the child standing behind him.
The appearances of the two were extremely similar.
Both had pale skin, long blue hair, and white robes.
Kiyohara felt as though the two of them had simply been copied and pasted, with age being the only obvious difference.
'So this is Kiyohara.'
Toneri's father thought to himself.
Before coming to the lower world, the clan's Grand Elder had specifically warned him that Konoha's Fourth Hokage, Kiyohara, was one of the most powerful shinobi in the lower world at present, and that they absolutely had to avoid coming under his attention.
He had originally thought that as long as he concealed his presence and secretly entered the Hyuga clan's compound, he would not alarm anyone.
But now, it seemed that he had underestimated the sensory abilities of this person from the lower world.
Kiyohara was also observing them.
In fact, from the moment this Otsutsuki father and son entered the vicinity of Konoha, Kiyohara had already detected their chakra fluctuations.
He had deliberately chosen not to attack immediately.
Instead, he waited until they had traveled all the way to the Hyuga main family and stood in front of Hinata before finally revealing himself.
The silence between the people did not last long.
From inside the courtyard came a startled exclamation.
"Hokage-sama!"
The woman holding Hinata stood up, her face filled with astonishment.
Why would the Hokage-sama appear here?
She instinctively tightened her arms around the bundle in her embrace.
The movement startled Hinata. Her little face scrunched up, and she let out a faint cry.
Her crying alarmed even more members of the Hyuga clan.
Footsteps came from the distance. The paper sliding doors were pushed open, and several pairs of pale eyes appeared, flickering with uncertainty and surprise.
"Hokage-sama, did you come here to see Hinata?"
Hyuga Natsu hurried over, her footsteps quick and urgent.
Her pale eyes remained on Kiyohara for a moment before turning toward the two unfamiliar white figures on the other side of the courtyard.
"Those are..."
Before Natsu could finish speaking, Toneri's father moved.
His judgment was extremely swift.
They had been exposed.
They had to retreat.
The pressure Kiyohara gave him was far stronger than he had anticipated. When those pitch-black eyes looked at him, he even had the illusion that he was being seen through from the inside out.
They absolutely could not get entangled here.
He could not risk Toneri's life.
"Toneri, we are leaving."
Toneri's father's voice was so low that only Toneri could hear it.
His palm gripped Toneri's shoulder.
With a forceful step, the two figures shot straight into the sky like two white arrows.
They flew!
The remaining members of the Hyuga clan were stunned.
Flying techniques was extremely rare. Only a small number of people, such as Kiyohara, possessed the ability.
Kiyohara watched the figures fleeing into the distance.
Trying to run?
They had already come here.
How could he possibly let them leave?
Kiyohara also rose from the ground and shot into the sky.
This was an excellent opportunity to fulfill his predecessor's second last will.
'If I defeat Toneri's father, wouldn't that count as fulfilling the will?'
Kiyohara was very curious.
One of Akakaku Kiyohara's last will had been to go to the Moon.
The reason Kiyohara wanted to go to the Moon in the first place was because Akakaku Kiyohara had lost to Toneri's father and could not accept the defeat.
But if Kiyohara directly defeated Toneri's father here, would that count as fulfilling the will?
Thinking of this, Kiyohara mentally tapped on Akakaku Kiyohara's bone-ash tinted urn.
At this moment, the color of Akakaku Kiyohara's form had already become extremely faint, as though he might disappear at any moment.
"I don't know either."
Akakaku Kiyohara shook his head.
"All right."
Kiyohara nodded.
In any case, getting an early look at Toneri's father's strength was not a bad thing.
If it happened to count as fulfilling the last will, then he would be making an even greater profit.
If he were on the Moon, Kiyohara would still have to be careful of the Otsutsuki puppets and the remaining Otsutsuki clan members.
After all, the Moon was completely their home territory.
But right now, this was Earth!
Kiyohara's figure raced through the rolling sea of clouds as he watched the figures flying rapidly in the distance.
Once the distance was close enough, Kiyohara raised his right hand above his shoulder.
Azure arcs of electricity flickered from his palm.
They spread upward along his arm before gathering into a long spear of thunder that continuously crackled and roared.
Lightning Release: Thunderclap!
This technique originally could only be released from the mouth, but for Kiyohara now, forcing Lightning Release chakra out through the chakra points in his hand was as natural as breathing.
BOOM!
The azure lightning spear left his hand and drew a dazzling arc through the sky.
Its speed was so fast that it was almost impossible to see with the naked eye.
Almost the instant it left Kiyohara's hand, it appeared in front of Toneri and his father.
Toneri's father hurriedly condensed his chakra in front of himself, forming a semitransparent barrier, while simultaneously pushing Toneri violently behind him.
The lightning spear struck the barrier.
Bang!
Azure electrical arcs scattered in every direction, and the chakra barrier was torn apart in an instant.
The remaining Lightning Release chakra transformed into countless tiny electric snakes that crawled along Toneri's father's arm, burning the sleeves of his white robe into charred fragments.
The two figures lost their balance in midair.
Like two white birds that had been shot down, they fell toward the ground.
Kiyohara also descended to the ground.
He slapped both hands against the earth.
A crimson barrier formation spread outward from beneath him.
Uchiha Flame Formation!
A fiery-red curtain of light rose from the ground, drawing a massive arc across the night sky and completely enveloping an area with a radius of ten kilometers.
Toneri's father helped Toneri stand up from the ground.
Their white robes were covered in dust.
He raised his head and looked at the enormous fiery-red barrier that seemed to block out the heavens and the earth.
He could feel the scorching chakra fluctuations radiating from the barrier wall.
"Such a large amount of chakra..."
A barrier covering a radius of ten kilometers clearly required an enormous amount of chakra.
How could a shinobi from the lower world possibly possess this level of power?
He was clearly not a jinchuriki!
Toneri's father frowned.
Although he had not recognized Kiyohara at first, he knew at least some information about him.
"Father..."
Toneri had never seen his father look this disheveled before.
"Do not be afraid, Toneri."
Toneri's father tightened his grip around his son's hand.
His son was the hope of their clan.
Once Toneri successfully grew up, there would be no one capable of resisting his power!
He took a deep breath and pushed Toneri several steps behind him.
"I am going to fight."
He spoke calmly.
"Yes, Father."
Toneri nodded and quickly moved to the side.
In the next instant, Toneri's father's right foot stepped forward.
The ground beneath his foot cracked, forming a circle of spiderweb-like fractures.
His body leaned forward.
His right palm suddenly thrust outward.
At that moment, the air directly in front of his palm was compressed to its absolute limit.
BOOM!
A white column of air erupted from his palm and violently crashed toward Kiyohara.
The column of air was more than three meters in diameter.
Everywhere it passed, the air was torn apart, creating a vacuum passage.
This was not an ordinary chakra impact.
Kiyohara narrowed his eyes slightly.
"An application of Gentle Fist?"
Kiyohara felt that this technique was very similar to the Hyuga clan's Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm.
It compressed chakra into a vacuum projectile and released it outward.
It was clearly derived from the same source as the Gentle Fist of the Hyuga clan.
However, there seemed to be some subtle differences.
Combined with the enormous amount of chakra possessed by Toneri's father, its power became much greater.
Kiyohara estimated that this technique had already been lost among the Hyuga clan and had only been completely preserved among Hamura's descendants on the Moon.
"A new technique. It's mine now."
Kiyohara activated his Sharingan and began copying the opponent's technique.
He also possessed the Byakugan.
As long as he successfully copied the technique, he would be able to use it directly.
Kiyohara then moved the chakra he had refined into his right arm.
A layer of golden chakra flames ignited around his fist.
Eight Gods: Sky Strike!
Kiyohara swung his fist.
In that instant, countless fist-shaped shadows condensed from flames poured toward Toneri's father like a meteor shower.
Every fist shadow was blazing and dazzling, leaving dense golden trails through the air.
The golden fist shadows collided violently with the column of air in midair.
The deafening explosion shook the entire area.
Shockwaves swept outward in every direction, uprooting the surrounding trees and sending dirt and broken stones flying into the sky.
The fiery-red barrier wall was violently shaken by the impact.
Only with difficulty did it manage to suppress the aftermath of the explosion within the barrier.
Toneri's father's pupils reflected the overwhelming sea of golden fist shadows.
He quickly spun his body, forming a circular barrier that blocked all the attacks from the outside.
"A technique similar to Revolving Heaven."
Kiyohara noticed that every technique Toneri's father used had some differences from those of the Hyuga clan.
"Just how many techniques are there?"
Kiyohara became interested.
He quickly closed the distance between them, and the two began fighting at close range.
However, Toneri's father used style similar to the Gentle Fist, while Kiyohara used the Strong Fist style.
Not far away, the members of the Hyuga clan finally arrived at the edge of the barrier.
Hiashi stood before the barrier wall.
His pale eyes were activated, allowing him to use both the penetrating and long-distance vision of the Byakugan as he watched the figure fighting Kiyohara inside the barrier.
There was no expression on his face.
However, the veins bulging around his eyes revealed the shock surging through his heart.
A strange yet familiar sense of contradiction churned within Hiashi.
It was as though he had suddenly encountered a distant relative whom he had never met before.
Although they had never known each other, he could still find traces of his own family's appearance in the man's facial features.
"This person's techniques..."
Hizashi stood beside him, also activating his Byakugan as he stared at the battle inside the barrier.
His face was filled with disbelief.
"Why do his techniques resemble the Gentle Fist of our Hyuga clan so much?"
"I don't know."
Hiashi shook his head.
He suspected that the Gentle Fist had somehow been leaked outside the clan.
"Hizashi, take some people and come in with me."
Hiashi's voice was solemn.
Meanwhile, high in the sky, Konan was still flying.
A pair of white wings had formed behind her.
Konan's eyes looked toward the enormous fiery-red barrier in the distance that seemed to block out the sky.
Her brows furrowed slightly.
"Did he encounter an attack?"
She said to herself.
Her original plan had been to remain in the shadows and watch over Kiyohara.
The same had happened during the previous incident at the Hozuki Castle. She had basically not taken action at all and had simply remained there silently, protecting him.
This time was the same.
However, Kiyohara was simply too fast.
Konan could not keep up with him at all.
....
Meanwhile.
Deep beneath the earth, a white figure was rapidly relaying information.
It was a White Zetsu, lurking underground on the outskirts of Konoha and monitoring every movement within the village.
When the scene of Kiyohara and the Otsutsuki father and son exchanging attacks in the sky entered its field of vision, its mouth opened into a perfect circle.
"This is bad. This is really bad."
The White Zetsu muttered to itself as its body merged into the earth, transmitting the information back to Black Zetsu at the fastest speed possible.
Amegakure.
Black Zetsu was attached to a White Zetsu, standing at the top of the Akatsuki's tower and looking out at the curtain of rain that had continued falling year-round.
He already knew that Toneri and his father had descended into the shinobi world, but he had not expected Kiyohara's reaction to be so quick.
"They've started fighting?"
A trace of excitement flashed through Black Zetsu's pupils.
The Otsutsuki branch on the Moon had always been a thorn in his side.
They were descendants of Hamura, possessing one of the bloodlines closest to Kaguya's.
If they discovered his plans, the consequences would be unimaginable.
More importantly, what Black Zetsu feared was not Hamura's descendants themselves.
What he feared were the true enemies from beyond the heavens who might be drawn here.
When Kaguya created him, she had embedded some information concerning her extraterrestrial clan members into his memories.
Those beings were stronger and more ruthless than Kaguya herself.
If they were alerted, the entire shinobi world would become nothing more than a breeding ground for them.
"No. I have to hurry."
Black Zetsu made his decision immediately and slid down along the wall of the tower.
He had to go to Konoha.
He wanted to personally witness the outcome of that battle.
Not long after Black Zetsu disappeared, Obito's figure emerged from a spatial vortex.
A tiger-striped mask covered most of his face, revealing only his single crimson Sharingan.
"Where is Black Zetsu?"
Obito asked the White Zetsu beside him.
The White Zetsu blinked before answering.
"He left. It seems he went in the direction of Konoha."
The White Zetsu told Obito everything he knew.
"!"
Obito's brows furrowed slightly beneath the mask.
"So many things have happened..."
He pondered for a moment before activating Kamui.
Space twisted beside him, sucking his body inside.
"Does Infinite Tsukuyomi... include the Moon as well?"
Obito was quite puzzled.
Inside the barrier.
Kiyohara stood at the edge of a deep crater.
The ground beneath his feet had already been completely transformed.
The collision between the variant Gentle Fist and Strong Fist had plowed through several kilometers of land, leaving broken stones, snapped trees, scorched earth, and utter devastation everywhere.
A tear had been ripped into the corner of his robe by the shockwaves, but there was not a single wound on his body.
Toneri's father stood opposite him, his breathing much more hurried than before.
His white robe had already been torn in several places, revealing a lean but heavily muscled torso underneath.
There was a shallow scorch mark across his chest, a trace of the injury caused by Kiyohara's Lightning Release moments ago.
Kiyohara had incorporated a portion of Yin Release power into his Lightning Release, making its damage far greater than ordinary Lightning Release.
'Isn't he supposed to be an Uchiha?'
Toneri's father stared at Kiyohara's crimson Sharingan, an intense sense of incongruity surging through his heart.
The Sharingan was the symbol of the Uchiha clan, inherited through the bloodline of Indra, the eldest son of the Sage of Six Paths.
Yet Toneri's father could clearly sense that Kiyohara understood the Gentle Fist extremely well.
Every time they exchanged blows, Kiyohara was able to accurately strike his weak points.
Someone who had never practiced Gentle Fist could not possibly accomplish this.
Unless...
He possessed both of these two great dojutsu?
An absurd thought flashed through Toneri's father's mind, but he quickly suppressed it himself.
No.
Impossible.
Even among the descendants of their ancestor Hamura, there had never been anyone who awakened both the Sharingan and the Byakugan.
The bloodlines of these two dojutsu had already diverged after a thousand years of reproduction.
There was simply no such precedent.
"Who exactly are you?"
Toneri's father was genuinely bewildered.
They had finally come all the way to the lower world.
They had only just found a suitable bride for his son.
And then they had encountered an enemy of this level.
An enemy who was far stronger than the information they had received!
"Didn't I already introduce myself?"
Kiyohara casually rotated his wrist.
The exchange just now had given him a rough understanding of Toneri's father's strength.
He was stronger than the Fourth Raikage.
He was stronger than Obito.
He could be considered the strongest opponent Kiyohara had encountered so far.
But it was still not enough.
He was not strong enough to pose a genuine threat to him.
Kiyohara's gaze then passed over Toneri's father and landed on the child who had been standing behind him the entire time.
Toneri.
Now this was the real problem.
His bloodline was the purest of all.
"What did you come here for?"
Kiyohara asked despite already knowing the answer.
"That is not something you need to concern yourself with."
Toneri's father intended to finish the battle as quickly as possible.
"Tenseigan!"
Toneri's father shouted loudly.
He intended to directly draw upon the power of the giant golden Tenseigan on the Moon.
…
On the Moon.
Hamura's Temple.
The Grand Elder stood before the enormous golden sphere.
His sunken eye sockets faced the gigantic golden Tenseigan that was beating violently.
His aged face was filled with solemnity.
"Someone is drawing upon the power of the Tenseigan."
His voice echoed through the empty hall.
The Second Elder, Third Elder, and several other elders hurried over.
Their footsteps echoed along the corridors of the great hall.
The Second Elder's sensory abilities immediately detected something abnormal about the golden Tenseigan.
Inside that enormous sphere, countless Byakugan were simultaneously turning toward the exact same direction.
"It is Toneri's father."
The Second Elder's voice carried an uncontrollable trace of anger.
"What kind of trouble has he encountered?"
The Grand Elder remained silent for a moment.
Following the power released by that eye, his perception pierced through the layers of rock covering the Moon and extended in the direction of Earth.
He could see a vague outline.
Two chakra sources were violently colliding.
One of them was familiar.
Toneri's father.
The other was strange and enormous, resembling a burning sun.
But just as he tried to see more clearly, a fiery-red barrier completely enveloped the area.
He tried several times, but he could not see through it.
"I cannot see clearly."
The Grand Elder shook his head.
The other elders exchanged glances.
The Third Elder stepped forward, and for once, his voice carried several traces of anxiety.
"Then what should we do?"
The Grand Elder did not answer.
He remained silent for a while before finally speaking.
"We must protect Toneri."
He was the prophesied child that the branch family had waited hundreds of years for.
He was the culmination of their ancestor Hamura's bloodline and the future hope into whom the Grand Elder had poured all his efforts.
Regardless of what Toneri's father had encountered, Toneri absolutely could not be allowed to come to harm.
He decisively made his decision and instructed the other elders to help stabilize the divine power.
The hall fell silent for a moment.
Then, several elders nodded simultaneously.
Meanwhile, on Earth, inside the barrier on the outskirts of Konoha.
A terrifying energy suddenly descended from beyond the heavens.
It transformed into a thick white beam of light that scattered the clouds.
The blinding white light continuously flashed.
Before it had even reached the earth, it had already illuminated the surrounding area as brightly as day.
…
Inside Konoha.
Minato was holding Naruto in his arms.
He had just lifted his son from the cradle when he suddenly sensed the chakra fluctuation coming from the outskirts of the village.
"What incredible chakra..."
His pupils contracted.
The seal on Kushina's abdomen had already been reinforced.
The half of the Nine-Tails within her was now more stable than it had ever been.
But even the complete Nine-Tails could not compare with the intensity of this chakra.
"Should I go too, Minato?"
Kushina's voice came from behind him.
She stood while supporting herself against the doorframe, her complexion much better than it had been during childbirth.
Minato turned around and looked at her.
"No need. Take good care of Naruto."
Minato handed Naruto to Kushina.
Kushina still wanted to say something, but Minato had already disappeared from in front of her.
…
Konoha Hospital.
Rin had just finished an operation.
She removed her bloodstained gloves and threw them into the waste bin.
She was just about to go to the break room for a drink of water when she suddenly sensed that chakra fluctuation.
Her brown eyes widened.
"Kiyohara-kun..."
She instinctively placed a hand over her chest.
"Did something happen?"
Shizune was much slower to react and did not understand what had happened.
"It seems someone is fighting Kiyohara-kun."
Rin spoke.
As the jinchuriki of the Three-Tails, her senses were far more acute than Shizune's.
…
Near Training Ground Three.
Shisui stood on the branch of a large tree.
His Mangekyo Sharingan had already been activated as he stared toward the enormous white pillar of light rising into the sky on the outskirts of the village.
He could feel that the power contained within that pillar of light was far greater than any ninjutsu he had ever witnessed.
"What happened...?"
His hand rested on the hilt of the shinobi sword at his waist.
…
Inside the barrier.
When the white pillar of light finally dissipated, Toneri's father's face visibly turned pale.
The consumption from that single attack had been enormous.
It was so great that his entire body was trembling.
But there was a relieved smile on his lips.
That guy was definitely dead!
Far away, Kiyohara became serious for the first time.
The white light had descended from the heavens, carrying a temperature powerful enough to melt the earth.
This was not ordinary chakra.
It was the power of that Golden Tenseigan.
With a single strike, it was powerful enough to evaporate several long mountain ranges and even affect the tectonic plates beneath the land.
Kiyohara brought his hands together in front of his chest.
The instant his palms collided, markings resembling eye shadow appeared around his eyes.
Snake Sage Mode was instantly activated.
Natural energy surged madly into his meridians, pushing his already enormous chakra reserves to an even higher level.
"Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands."
The earth began to tremble.
Countless thick wooden vines burst out of the ground.
The vines were astonishingly thick.
The largest ones were even thicker than ancient trees that would require several people standing together to encircle them.
The vines gathered beneath Kiyohara's feet.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, they condensed into an enormous Thousand-Armed Buddha statue that towered like a mountain.
The Buddha's expression was solemn, and its eyes were tightly closed.
A thousand arms extended from its massive torso, unfolding layer upon layer behind it and blocking out the sky.
Then, the Mangekyo pattern in Kiyohara's eyes began to rotate.
A layer of golden chakra climbed upward along the Buddha's enormous body.
In the blink of an eye, the entire Thousand-Armed Buddha was covered by that golden chakra, as though it had been clad in an indestructible suit of armor.
Susanoo: Armored Thousand-Armed Buddha!
The white pillar of light crashed into the Susanoo Buddha.
BOOOM!!!
The deafening explosion was so powerful that it even penetrated the barrier and reached Konoha.
The entire earth trembled.
But when the white light finally dispersed, a huge circular crater could vaguely be seen.
The crater was so deep that its bottom could not be seen.
Only clouds of dust filled the air.
At the very bottom, an enormous figure still stood upright.
The Thousand-Armed Buddha, covered in golden Susanoo armor, had half of its body blasted into a ruined state.
Most of its more than nine hundred arms had been blown away, leaving behind only jagged stumps.
A huge hole had been blasted through the Buddha's chest, while shattered pieces of wood drifted through the air.
Kiyohara stood atop the Buddha's head.
Several parts of his robe had been torn apart by the shockwave, revealing skin marked with several shallow scorch wounds.
There was a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.
It trickled down his chin and dripped onto his white robe, spreading into a small dark-red stain.
"This power... is far beyond a Tailed Beast Bomb."
He spoke in a low voice.
This was the most severe injury he had suffered in the past few years.
Even the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb had never made him feel this much pressure.
Opposite him, Toneri's father was gasping heavily.
The blood and sweat around his eyes mixed together and trickled down his cheeks.
Calling upon the power of the Golden Tenseigan placed an enormous burden on him as well.
So, had he won?
A trace of uncertainty rose in Toneri's father's heart.
He lowered his head and sensed what was happening beneath the crater.
He immediately discovered that Kiyohara was still standing on top of the Buddha statue.
"His injuries are recovering..."
Toneri's father also discovered that Kiyohara's injuries had completely healed within the span of a single breath.
Kiyohara raised his hand and casually wiped away the remaining trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.
A faint smile actually appeared on his face.
He controlled the Thousand-Armed Buddha and jumped directly onto the ground.
Rumble, rumble.
"Be proud. The fact that you managed to make me activate the Yin Seal means that you are indeed very strong."
Kiyohara spoke.
He raised his right hand and touched his forehead with his fingertip.
During his normal training and periods of rest, Kiyohara continuously stored his excess chakra inside this seal.
Yin Seal: Release!
The diamond-shaped purple mark suddenly lit up.
Dark-purple patterns spread outward from his forehead, crawling down along his cheeks before eventually covering Kiyohara's entire body.
All the chakra that he had accumulated during his daily cultivation was now completely released into his body.
Kiyohara's original chakra reserves were already far greater than those of ordinary Tailed Beasts, so the amount of chakra he had accumulated during his normal periods of rest was likewise enormous.
Furthermore, Kiyohara's chakra recovery ability was extremely fast.
With these two factors combined, his chakra seemed almost inexhaustible.
The Susanoo Buddha beneath Kiyohara's feet began to tremble.
The arms that had been blasted apart began growing again from their broken ends, with wood rapidly condensing into new forms at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The enormous hole in the Buddha's chest was filled by newly grown wood, after which a fresh layer of golden Susanoo chakra covered the entire area.
Within just a few breaths, the battered and ruined Thousand-Armed Buddha had completely recovered.
A thousand arms unfolded once more, blocking out the sky and the sun.
Toneri's father's face was covered in blood and filth, and his expression was filled with shock.
"What..."
An injury of that magnitude had actually recovered completely within only a few breaths?
But just as Toneri's father gritted his teeth and prepared to activate the Golden Tenseigan once again, he suddenly discovered something horrifying.
The connection between himself and the Golden Tenseigan was being forcibly severed by some kind of even more powerful force.
"How is this possible..."
Toneri's father whispered in disbelief.
Kiyohara also sensed something at this moment.
He instinctively raised his hand and touched the area around his eye.
A strange pulsation came from deep within his eyeball.
It felt like a heart slowly beating inside his eye socket.
The sensation was not unfamiliar.
It was precisely the change he had experienced during the fetal development stage.
Moreover, this time, the pulsation was stronger than any previous occurrence.
Kiyohara could clearly feel that some kind of qualitative transformation was taking place deep within his eyeballs.
He felt as though his ocular power was being attracted by something.
Unable to control himself, he raised his head and looked through the crimson barrier wall toward the sky, which had already reached dusk.
The moon had appeared.
A full moon hung in the night sky, so bright that it was almost dazzling.
Moonlight spilled across the battlefield filled with smoke and gunpowder.
It illuminated the ruined wooden Buddha.
It illuminated Kiyohara's face.
Under the moonlight, his pupils began to change slightly.
They changed from pitch black to a lustrous white.
Then, from within that white, a faint trace of blue slowly emerged.
Moon.
Hamura's Temple.
The Grand Elder's body suddenly trembled.
His senses clearly captured the changes occurring within the Golden Tenseigan.
The Byakugan that had originally been slowly circulating inside the golden sphere suddenly began spinning wildly.
They were not turning toward the direction where Toneri's father was located.
Instead, they were turning toward a completely new direction.
"Someone is trying to seize control of the Tenseigan..."
The Grand Elder frowned.
Could it be the person who had drawn upon the Golden Tenseigan the previous time?
"How is that possible? The Golden Tenseigan only recognizes the bloodline of our ancestor. Aside from us..."
The Second Elder shook his head.
He believed that this was simply impossible.
"We must take back control!"
The Second Elder injected his chakra into it.
The Third Elder and several other elders also acted at the same time.
Several streams of chakra flowed into the enormous golden sphere from different directions.
Two forces began fighting for control within the Golden Tenseigan.
The two sides remained locked in a stalemate for a moment.
Then, that golden radiance finally began to gradually dim.
The Golden Tenseigan finally returned to a state of calm.
The Grand Elder's body went limp, and he slid down to the floor.
The other elders were also drenched in sweat.
The amount of chakra they had consumed was so enormous that their already aged bodies were almost completely exhausted.
"Did we succeed?"
The Second Elder asked while gasping heavily.
"We succeeded for the moment. However, Toneri's father can no longer draw upon this power either."
Inside the barrier.
Toneri's father's heart sank to the bottom.
He could clearly sense that the resonance was coming from Kiyohara.
This Hokage of Konoha could actually draw upon the Golden Tenseigan.
This had already exceeded the boundaries of his understanding.
Meanwhile, Kiyohara closed his eyes, feeling the unprecedented pulsation deep within his eyeballs.
He had already vaguely realized something.
The Hyuga bloodline within his body, the Otsutsuki chakra, and those cells that had fused multiple Kekkei Genkai seemed to have formed some kind of puzzle.
"Looks like you can no longer use that power."
Kiyohara opened his eyes and calmly looked at Toneri's father.
Toneri's father's expression changed.
He instinctively moved Toneri behind himself, protecting him.
Kiyohara brought his hands together in front of his chest once again.
The Thousand-Armed Buddha's thousand arms simultaneously clenched their fists.
Every fist was covered in golden Susanoo chakra, reflecting a cold, hard radiance beneath the moonlight.
"Sage Art: Summit Enlightenment!"
In that instant, all one thousand arms swung forward simultaneously.
They were like a thousand golden meteors crashing violently toward the ground.
Every punch contained enough power to shatter mountains.
The faster the punches became, the greater their weight and the more terrifying their destructive power.
Toneri's father gritted his teeth.
He positioned himself over Toneri, shielding him with his own body, while using the chakra he had left to condense a barrier in front of them.
But in front of the heavy fists of the Susanoo Buddha, that barrier was as thin as paper.
The overwhelming giant fists smashed the earth into complete ruin.
The ground shook violently.
Dust surged into the sky, completely obscuring everyone's vision.
The shinobi who had rushed over could only stand around the edge of the barrier, watching the scene before them with fear and trepidation.
Minato stood on top of a large tree that had been blown crooked by the shockwaves.
His golden hair was swept backward by the violent waves of air.
He had seen Kiyohara use Wood Release to suppress the Nine-Tails on the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage, but the scene before him was even more terrifying than that night.
'Is this... Kiyohara's true strength?'
Minato thought to himself.
Shisui stood on a rock on the other side.
The pattern of his Mangekyo was spinning rapidly.
"Kiyohara..."
...
Meanwhile, behind the shinobi, two figures silently appeared within the shadow of an ancient tree.
Black Zetsu was attached to the tree trunk, half of his body merged into the bark, with only one eye exposed.
Obito had later caught up with Black Zetsu and was now standing beside him, his tiger-striped mask covering most of his face.
The two of them stared from a distance at the battlefield covered by the golden giant fists.
They remained silent for a moment.
A complicated emotion flashed through Black Zetsu's eyes.
Kiyohara's strength was even greater than he had anticipated.
An existence like this was both a threat and a potential piece on the chessboard for his plans.
But right now, the most important thing was that those two Otsutsuki from the Moon absolutely could not be allowed to return alive.
Even more importantly, Kiyohara could not be allowed to obtain any information concerning Kaguya from them.
"Those people on the Moon seem to have some connection with the Sage of Six Paths."
Obito spoke in a low voice, his brows slightly furrowed beneath his mask.
"Yes."
Black Zetsu nodded.
Obito turned his head back toward the battlefield and waited for the dust to settle.
He had only one objective in coming here.
He wanted to confirm exactly how powerful Kiyohara had become.
The last time, Obito had been able to tell that Kiyohara had not used his full strength.
The enormous rumbling continued for a full half-minute before gradually subsiding.
The dust slowly dispersed, revealing the devastated earth.
One enormous crater after another had been smashed into the ground, each one several dozen meters deep.
"Barrier Team, reinforce the barrier."
Kakashi, who had arrived at the scene, gave the order.
Four ANBU immediately spread out, taking positions at four different points around the barrier wall.
They formed hand seals simultaneously and pressed their palms against the crimson curtain of light.
The patterns engraved across the barrier wall suddenly lit up.
The fiery-red radiance became even more intense.
Kakashi's gaze passed through the barrier wall and landed on the white figure at the bottom of the deep crater.
The father of Toneri was kneeling at the bottom of the crater.
His left arm had been severed completely from the elbow.
The burned flesh around the stump was curled and charred, with only a layer of dark-red scabbing covering the end of the remaining limb.
He used his only remaining right arm to hold Toneri close.
"Toneri... we are leaving..."
Toneri's father knew that they could not defeat Kiyohara through brute force.
Without being able to call upon the Golden Tenseigan, he would be at a considerable disadvantage.
Although he could still rely on his sensory abilities to fight, losing the use of his Byakugan was ultimately a significant weakening of his combat ability.
In the next moment, the two of them rushed out through a weak point in the barrier.
Kiyohara remained standing where he was.
He did not pursue them.
It was not because he could not catch them.
With his current speed and the Flying Thunder God Technique, catching up to this father and son, who were already at the end of their strength, would be nothing more than a thought.
However, the people on the Moon would not simply sit back and do nothing.
If they launched another attack like that one, an attack resembling an orbital cannon, Kiyohara himself would be fine.
But the people around him would all die.
The others simply could not withstand an attack of that magnitude.
Kiyohara looked at the severed arm lying inside the crater.
This severed arm was also extremely valuable for research.
After all, the people who were actually closest to the Otsutsuki clan were the pseudo-Otsutsuki clan members living on the Moon.
Kiyohara took out a sealing scroll and sealed the severed arm inside it.
The moment he put away the scroll, a translucent phantom slowly emerged from within his body.
Akakaku Kiyohara's spirit floated beside Kiyohara.
Its edges had already begun to blur, as though it could disappear at any moment.
"Looks like the last will can be considered fulfilled."
Akakaku Kiyohara spoke.
He lowered his head and looked at his own palm.
It was slowly transforming into countless points of light against his will.
Once all of the last wills was judged to have been fulfilled, there was no way for him to slow down this process.
"I don't have to go to the Moon anymore."
Kiyohara felt that he had saved himself quite a bit of trouble.
"Actually, going there would not have been bad either. Their puppet techniques are very powerful."
Akakaku Kiyohara said.
"I know."
Kiyohara nodded.
The puppets of the Otsutsuki clan were more advanced than those used in the shinobi world.
If he could obtain that technology, Kiyohara could even imitate Mukade and create an entire army of dragon-vein powered puppets.
Kiyohara and Akakaku Kiyohara exchanged a few more words.
Then Akakaku Kiyohara transformed into countless points of light and scattered.
The points of light all surged toward Kiyohara.
Kiyohara closed his eyes and felt that power flow from every part of his body into his network of meridians.
The first thing to undergo a change was his physical body.
That bloodline, which could consume chakra and adapt to it, had been inherited completely.
Kiyohara felt that the time required for his body to adapt to Tailed Beast chakra had been directly reduced by half.
He had taken another step closer to completely adapting to the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts.
(End of Chapter)