Uchiha Sasuke made a stunning rescue. With a single move, he dealt with the falling meteor that had driven everyone into despair.
And it had only taken one strike.
"So this is Uchiha Sasuke at his peak?"
Hyuga Neji stared at the scene of Uchiha Sasuke's spectacular save, completely stunned.
He truly felt the helplessness of the Byakugan in this regard. Or rather, the helplessness of the Gentle Fist system.
A meteor that huge… no, actually, it could only be considered half a meteor, since Rock Lee and the others had already kicked apart the other half. But if it had been him? Would he have had any way to deal with it?
None at all.
Although Rock Lee had not shattered half a meteor by himself, would it be useful to gather a group of Hyuga Clan members and have them use Rotation?
They would probably be smashed into bloody mist on the spot. Rotation's strength simply could not withstand a meteor strike on that level.
And in the future, Rock Lee could actually open the Sixth Gate?
That surprised Hyuga Neji greatly as well. As for Rock Lee, Neji knew that among the three members of their team, based on academy grades, Rock Lee should have been a textbook Dead Last.
But in an actual fight, the only one who could truly be called Neji's powerful rival was Rock Lee. Tenten was far behind.
Tenten was almost completely countered by him. Her wealthy-woman fighting style of summoning ninja tools was not very useful against him once he activated the Byakugan. Even amid her storm-like attacks, he could calmly deflect or dodge them.
And even if he could not dodge, when necessary, a small-scale, short-duration Rotation could completely block them.
In other words, Tenten's attacks could not break through his defense, while he could knock her down in just a few moves.
Only Rock Lee was his true formidable opponent.
He had once caught a glimpse of Rock Lee at his peak. That was a powerful enemy even Neji, going all out, would have to take seriously.
Although Rock Lee's Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were almost completely useless, was Neji himself really much better? The Gentle Fist system lacked long-range and wide-area attacks, and its Genjutsu was also average. At most, because he possessed a dojutsu Kekkei Genkai, he was naturally immune to many Genjutsu. Even Genjutsu cast by experts would find it difficult to affect him for long.
Both of them were the type to develop their Taijutsu to the fullest. Rock Lee had simply gone even further than Neji, completely abandoning Ninjutsu and Genjutsu.
He had also watched the earlier video of Rock Lee clashing with Kimimaro. All he could say was that Lee had been nowhere near the level he should have had. On the contrary, during Uchiha Sasuke's battle against Gaara, while the person fighting had not been Rock Lee, whether it was speed, strength, or movement, Uchiha Sasuke back then had practically been a copy of Rock Lee.
Only, Rock Lee had spent several years of bitter training to reach that stage, while Uchiha Sasuke had reached it after one month of special training.
That was the boundary between geniuses and ordinary people. Everyone had their own fate. This was also in line with what Neji understood. He just never would have imagined that future Rock Lee could actually reach this level.
That was enough to prove that the Eight Gates taught by Might Guy could raise a person's strength to an astonishing degree.
He also began to think about learning the Eight Gates from his teacher. From what he knew, his teacher was not the kind of person who hoarded secret techniques and refused to let others learn them. It was just that Tenten's physique could not handle it before. This Ninjutsu was far too fierce. Women simply could not learn it.
As for Neji himself, he had only focused on training the Gentle Fist and had not been interested in the Eight Gates.
In reality, the enemies he had once imagined encountering in the future were only ordinary ninja. The Gentle Fist system was more than enough against normal ninja. Even up to Elite Jonin, it would still be completely sufficient.
But among the enemies who appeared in Kaede Kitahara's diary, how many were normal people?
Even the weakest had Elite Jonin-level strength. Most were Kage Level, or even Super Kage Level.
Those were monsters. When facing monsters, his pride and glory as a member of the Hyuga Clan were instantly shattered. He was told, plainly and brutally, that they meant nothing.
His Gentle Fist would be completely useless whether it was against Orochimaru, the monster-level experts of the Akatsuki Organization, or the future Otsutsuki.
That was why he longed to become stronger. He also longed for even the slightest hope of breaking the Caged Bird Seal.
He yearned for the second stage of the Byakugan, the third stage, and even the legendary Tenseigan. Now he discovered that the Eight Gates seemed to possess a similar ability to break past one's limits, and he wanted that too.
Only, the pride in his heart as a member of the Hyuga Clan, along with his attachment to the Byakugan, had not fully disappeared yet.
Of course, there was also the most important point. If he had to wear Guy-sensei's hideous green skintight training suit, he might as well die.
He briefly imagined himself fighting in that green bodysuit, and the sheer social death made him want to disappear.
His face immediately flushed red. Whether from anger or embarrassment, even he did not know.
"What happened to the future?"
Hatake Kakashi frowned as he watched the video of himself commanding the battle as Hokage. The information revealed in the scene made his brows suddenly knit together.
First and most importantly, he noticed that Guy seemed to have one injured leg and could only sit in a wheelchair.
"Was he recently injured? Or was he injured in that earth-shaking battle?"
Hatake Kakashi still cared deeply about his best friend's health.
With Guy's strength, very few missions could injure him to that degree anymore.
Then there were the ninja led by Rock Lee who used the Eight Gates. They were probably something like a specialized Taijutsu unit.
But what disappointed Kakashi a little was that, with Guy clearly injured and unable to act, Rock Lee could only open up to the Sixth Gate?
Compared to ordinary people, that was already an impressive talent. But to Hatake Kakashi, Rock Lee at that level was far from enough.
Because he knew that under normal circumstances, Guy could open the Seventh Gate. If he was willing to stake his life, he could even open the Eighth Gate.
As for Rock Lee, whose limit was only the Sixth Gate, considering his age, Kakashi was somewhat disappointed.
Even if Rock Lee at that age was only around twenty, and still had room to improve in the future, his limit would probably be the Seventh Gate. And the Seventh Gate was absolutely not Guy's limit.
In other words, Rock Lee's upper limit in talent could not compare to Guy's.
And Hatake Kakashi knew even better that Rock Lee was already the successor Guy had chosen from countless candidates in the village. Training in the Eight Gates was not simply a matter of whether someone was willing to teach it. It placed extremely high demands on both physical strength and willpower.
Even if Hatake Kakashi himself really learned it, how many gates could he open?
Two? Three?
At most, he would probably stop at around the Fourth Gate.
Of course, he was not a specialized Taijutsu ninja. Even opening the Fourth Gate would greatly improve his strength and could count as a trump card. But for Rock Lee, only being able to open the Sixth Gate at that age already counted as a failure.
Could this be related to the injury mentioned in the last video?
Hatake Kakashi remembered that in the previous video, during Rock Lee's battle with Kimimaro, it had been mentioned that Lee was injured. His strength was clearly not at its peak. Could that have affected his later development?
That was not impossible. Taijutsu ninja were far too limited in this regard.
Of course, what shocked him most was his future self.
Because when facing half a meteor, he had actually made no move at all. He had not tried to use the Mangekyo Sharingan to warp away that half of the meteor.
Based on his understanding of his own personality, if he had any way to act at the time, he probably would not have given up on using the Mangekyo Sharingan, even if it exhausted his ocular power and killed him.
But he had lost the Mangekyo Sharingan. It was not as simple as finding a way to turn off the Sharingan. He had truly lost the Mangekyo Sharingan.
What exactly happened in the future to make him lose the treasure his best friend had left him?
Sure enough, many things had happened in the future that he knew nothing about. They might even be extremely, extremely serious.
At that moment, the scene shifted again, and Otsutsuki Toneri appeared before everyone once more.
"I will use these eyes, Naruto. I will completely destroy your world!"
As he spoke, he opened his eyes again. But unlike before, there were eyes in his sockets now. To be precise, they were a pair of eyes that shone with a strange light like blue sapphires.
"Is that… the Tenseigan?"
This thought surfaced in everyone's minds. They had seen the Rinnegan before. Its pupils were formed of ring after ring.
But these eyes were something they had never seen before, a type they had never encountered.
They carried a faint, terrifying pressure that displayed how extraordinary they were, eyes as brilliant as gemstones.
Before they could react, the scene changed again. In a courtyard, a group had gathered.
Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru, Sai, Sakura Haruno, and Hyuga Hanabi, unconscious in Sai's arms with her eyes removed.
A massive ancestral stone statue appeared out of thin air. Then one huge hand grabbed fiercely toward them, and everyone hurriedly leaped away.
"Kurama!"
In an instant, the Nine-Tails was released from Uzumaki Naruto's body and directly began fighting the enormous ancestral stone statue.
The two gigantic monsters, each as large as a mountain, grappled together and rolled straight downward.
Only then did everyone finally see clearly that they were actually inside the moon. At some unknown point, a hollow space had appeared inside the moon, because through that hollow, they could see Earth far in the distance.
At that moment, everyone suddenly remembered that in the previous video, the moon's surface had suddenly exploded, causing countless fragments to turn into meteors and crash violently toward Earth. Was this what that had been referring to?
There was actually space inside the moon?
And it was this enormous?