Did that make sense?
Not even a little. But if it existed, then there had to be a reason for it.
No matter how unbelievable it was, once every impossibility had been eliminated, all that remained was the truth.
And that truth was that the Tenseigan really did require the Byakugan of distant relatives to form. That was why the ancestors of the Hyuga Clan had developed such a vicious seal as the Caged Bird Seal, hoping to scare off the Otsutsuki Branch Family.
But in the end, there was still a loophole.
The members of the Hyuga Main House.
Only, if that was the case, it still could not explain what happened afterward, namely Kaede Kitahara mentioning that Toneri's strength plummeted after he lost the Tenseigan.
A steep drop in power after losing the Tenseigan was understandable. But what about his original eyes?
That was the biggest problem.
Even if they were going to perform surgery to remove them, they should have waited until the person arrived first. Why remove them ahead of time?
There were too many things that made no sense. But soon afterward, in the video, the Five Kage gathered for a meeting and began discussing the moon's gradual approach toward Earth. As it turned out, the meteor they had just seen was only the beginning.
Because as the moon gradually drew closer to the Shinobi World, the Shinobi World's immense gravitational pull was breaking it apart piece by piece. That meteor had only been one fragment from the moon's rupture.
And this situation was not limited to the Land of Fire and Konoha. The same thing was happening in every nation.
According to their estimates, if the moon moved even closer to the Shinobi World, the entire moon would eventually collapse. Its remains would crash directly into Earth, and the final result would be the extinction of all life on the planet.
Given the size of the Shinobi World, a disintegrating moon crashing into it would not necessarily destroy the planet itself. But ordinary life would be completely wiped out. Not a single living creature would survive.
Hearing that, everyone could not help sucking in a cold breath.
If that really happened, the entire Shinobi World would be finished.
Compared to every major event they had learned about before, this was far more terrifying. This was not merely a matter concerning a few ninja villages, or even a few individuals. This concerned the safety of the entire Shinobi World.
The moon really was coming straight for them.
At that thought, only one sentence surfaced in their minds.
Those Otsutsuki on the moon were insane. Were they out of their minds?
If the moon came crashing down like that, the lifeforms in the Shinobi World would not survive. Did they think they would?
"These Otsutsuki really are a pack of lunatics," Tsunade could not help grumbling.
"Judging by the timing, had Kakashi already taken over as the Sixth Hokage by then?" Namikaze Minato thought about it. Tsunade should have succeeded the position when Naruto was around thirteen years old.
That meant Naruto looked only about eighteen or nineteen in this scene. He had not been an adult for long.
By that calculation, Tsunade should have only served as Hokage for five years.
But after thinking about it, Namikaze Minato realized that, given her age at the time, Tsunade would already have been in her fifties, close to sixty. She was old enough to retire.
For an active ninja, she really was quite old.
Then again, that made sense. There were very few Kage who only took office in their fifties or sixties. Most people would already be preparing to retire by then. But her? She had only just reached the age where she had to start working hard.
"So that stage was to wait for Kakashi to mature?"
Namikaze Minato thought about Kakashi's age at the time. He would already have been in his thirties.
For a ninja, that was the prime of life, an age suited for almost anything.
Only, he should have matured much earlier. With his talent, he should have been close to breaking through to Kage Level by the time he was twenty. Yet he had been delayed all the way until his thirties.
It was because he, Kakashi's teacher, had died too early.
He sighed. In the Shinobi World, the difference between having proper inheritance and not having it was truly enormous.
As Hatake Kakashi watched himself, as Hokage, discussing matters with the Kage of other villages, he could not help feeling a little strange. Although he had long known he would become the Sixth Hokage, actually seeing it was very different from merely hearing about it.
The feeling was completely different.
Still, he silently recorded the people attending the meeting. Information about the future Kage of each village was important in itself.
But when he saw that Sunagakure's Kazekage was still Gaara, he felt a little odd. During Fifth Hokage Tsunade's era, it was him. When Kakashi himself became the Sixth Hokage, it was still him. In the future, when Naruto became the Seventh Hokage, it was him yet again. And by the time Shikamaru succeeded as the Eighth Hokage, Sunagakure's Kazekage would most likely still be him.
Because Naruto had not retired normally. He had either suddenly disappeared, or more likely, suddenly died in battle. That was why Shikamaru had become the Eighth Hokage.
This was something they had analyzed from Kaede Kitahara's diary.
That brat Gaara had way too much uptime.
He was practically like Sunagakure's Third Hokage.
The instant that thought surfaced, Kakashi immediately strangled it to death.
Forgive me, forgive me. He had not meant it. He still respected the Third Hokage very much.
At that moment, the scene shifted. The moon had suffered some unknown, enormous damage, and a portion of it directly collapsed. As a result, even more meteors fell from the sky, crashing toward the entire Shinobi World continent.
Every village was doing everything they could to defend themselves, even organizing all their citizens to move toward shelters.
Kirigakure's Mizukage, unable to fly, used Water Release from the ground in an attempt to stop the meteors. But clearly, it was useless. Against meteors carrying terrifying kinetic energy comparable to Tailed Beast Balls, her strength was insignificant.
"Mizukage? I didn't expect the next Mizukage to be a woman. What happened to the previous Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi? Did they quietly change generations?" Jiraiya was somewhat surprised when he saw that the Mizukage in the diary's video had changed.
Kirigakure was very different from the other ninja villages in one major way. The Land of Water was, by nature, an island nation. As long as they wanted to, they could easily seal off information.
Even the Blood Mist policy had only become known to the outside world after it had been carried out for many years. Many people had no understanding of Kirigakure's intelligence at all. Even Jiraiya himself did not actually know much.
He did not even know when they had replaced their Kage.
Kirigakure had always been mysterious and strange over the years. Even during the Shinobi World Wars, they had not participated every single time.
As for Iwagakure in the Land of Earth, its Tsuchikage was still the Third Tsuchikage he knew, Onoki. He had to admit, now that was truly some incredible uptime.
Even longer than his own Old Man's.
Although his own Old Man, the Third Hokage, had stumbled his way along and continued serving until now, that was built on the foundation of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, dying in battle. He had merely returned to power afterward. Whether one said he was clinging to authority, or that he was burning himself out for Konoha, it was undeniable that Konoha had already gone through a generational transition.
Yet this Third Tsuchikage had actually kept fighting all the way until five years later. He was someone who had once witnessed the God of Shinobi, First Hokage Senju Hashirama, and the Ninja World Asura, Uchiha Madara, dominate the Shinobi World.
"Even five years later, they still couldn't find a suitable successor? When you think about it that way, isn't that a kind of tragedy too?"
Jiraiya thought of another possibility. Wasn't this the real reason his own Old Man still had not stepped down? There was no qualified successor, so he had no choice but to keep holding on.
Otherwise, if an unqualified person became Kage, they would only become a laughingstock. They might even be seen as proof that the nation had grown weak.
Still, Onoki's Particle Style remained powerful, with astonishing destructive force.
But being too old, he simply did not have the stamina for a prolonged battle.
"That's the saddest part."
Jiraiya sighed. He thought of his Old Man's battle against Orochimaru. His teacher, once famous for his abundant Chakra reserves, had been forced to use his Chakra carefully. Had that been his teacher's old fighting style?
Probably not. In the past, he would have started by clearing the battlefield with Five Release Great Ninjutsu.
In the video, the one with relatively good defense was Gaara, who possessed Sand Jutsu. He directly used Shield of Sand to form a massive shield and blocked the meteor.
Everyone could not help clicking their tongues in amazement. This was already the second time they had seen how useful Sand Shield was for defense.
That Ninjutsu could attack, defend, and even fly?
It really was such a convenient Ninjutsu. They were honestly a little jealous.
At that moment, compared with the other villages, Konoha also had its own method. They directly had Rock Lee and a group of other ninja who had learned the Eight Gates fly into midair, form the Crane Wing Formation, and use the power of the Eight Gates to smash the meteor apart.
However, in the end, they could only destroy half of the meteor. The other half continued falling toward Konoha.
Just as it was about to strike Konoha, the sound of Chidori Current suddenly rang out. The meteor that even that entire group had failed to completely shatter was reduced to ashes across the sky by Chidori Current.
As Sixth Hokage Kakashi looked at the figure's back amid the light and shadow of the explosion, a hint of shock appeared on his face.
"You are?"
"If that guy isn't around, then I'm the only one who can protect the village."
That figure turned his head. Only then did everyone see that it was Uchiha Sasuke in the prime of his looks. He wore a head covering and a cloak, looking unbelievably handsome.
The destructive power of that huge meteor went without saying. If it had fallen directly into Konoha, the impact would likely have been enough to destroy the entire village. Its power would not have been the slightest bit weaker than Nagato's previous Massive Shinra Tensei.
This was the power of nature.
Human strength had its limits, while the might of nature was beyond imagination.
"Is that the future me?"
Uchiha Sasuke looked at the video. It had only been a fleeting glimpse, yet with a single Chidori Current, that future Sasuke had destroyed half a meteor, saved Konoha, and then vanished. The whole thing had the air of someone brushing off his sleeves after the deed was done, hiding his achievements and name.
But that single instant had been enough for Sasuke to see clearly, because those eyes were the Sharingan and the Rinnegan. There was no mistaking them.
And Uchiha Sasuke felt as if some scale in his heart had finally balanced.
Uzumaki Naruto had saved Konoha once. He had saved Konoha once too.
He was not inferior to Uzumaki Naruto.
If Uzumaki Naruto could save Konoha, then so could he. If Uzumaki Naruto could become Hokage, why couldn't he become Hokage?