"Then what about adding me?"
A deep, steady voice echoed through Hamura's Shrine.
An elderly figure clad in robes adorned with magatama patterns appeared beside Ōtsutsuki Hamura, a sage staff resting in his hand.
The Sage of Six Paths — Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.
The ring-patterned Rinnegan reflected the image of the defiant young man standing before him—someone whose strength had grown to the point that even he could no longer see through it clearly.
The rapid changes of the ninja world, and its collision with other continents, left Hagoromo momentarily overwhelmed.
For the first time, he felt the tide of the era itself—
as though the new wave was about to smash the old one to death upon the shore.
"If Lord Hagoromo is included,"
Uchiha Soren replied calmly, arms crossed,
"then yes—that would be enough."
In the instant between closing and opening his eyes, scarlet Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan bloomed within Soren's sockets.
Facing the two Ōtsutsuki brothers standing shoulder to shoulder, a pure desire to fight quietly spread through his heart.
Truth be told, ever since attaining Six Paths–level combat power, he had never gone all out.
If he could defeat the Six Paths brothers here…
then the True Dragon Emperor of the other world, and those unfathomable world-class artifacts, would likely pose no threat to him either.
Watching Soren's restless aura, the two brothers felt a faint headache.
It wasn't that they couldn't fight—
they simply had no intention of engaging in a meaningless battle.
Whether it was Hagoromo's transcendence of the Pure Land, turning Yin into Yang,
or Hamura's over-limit evolution of the Tenseigan,
both required oceans of energy.
Their plans had been in motion for a thousand years and were now at a critical juncture.
Neither wanted unforeseen complications.
(Indra's descendants… always letting emotion rule their thoughts.)
(But we are not ones to be trampled upon.)
Facing the provocation of a junior, Hagoromo's gaze deepened, yet his expression remained calm.
His sage staff tapped the ground lightly, producing a crisp echo.
"Soren-san," he said evenly,
"if you do not mind the earth shattering and all life being extinguished,
then we will accompany you to the end."
One step back would mean yielding forever.
If they were to fight, then it would be to the death—
either the two brothers perished and turned to dust,
or Uchiha Soren died here, his Dao extinguished.
"My brother's will is my will."
With Hagoromo stepping in, Hamura had no intention of retreating.
For the first time, the pressure shifted—
and it was Soren who felt it descend upon him.
(These two old bastards…)
Soren's index finger twitched slightly as he stared at the brothers.
He fully expanded the spatial domain of Tenchang-Ritsuzun, considering whether he could forcibly relocate them into deep space for an unrestricted life-and-death battle.
The Six Paths brothers were clearly at a low ebb in their strength.
Even so, while Soren was confident he wouldn't lose, the odds of victory were not high.
All things considered—
a fifty-fifty outcome.
Suddenly, all three figures vanished—
Reappearing outside the moon.
"You two really have a lot of little tricks," Soren said coldly.
"Likewise," Hagoromo replied.
As Soren attempted to relocate them, he felt their own spatial traction in return.
To avoid being dragged into a positional disadvantage, he chose to disengage first.
Separated by eighty thousand meters, the three stood facing one another in silence.
Soren glanced at the ninja world behind them, snorted dismissively, and withdrew his killing intent.
"So this is all you can do?"
"As long as it increases the odds of victory by even a fraction,"
Hagoromo answered calmly,
"the method is irrelevant."
He felt no shame in placing the ninja world behind him as leverage.
After a thousand years of shepherding the world, he had long grown indifferent to life and death.
Mortals lived mere decades—early death or late death made little difference.
Hamura thought the same.
Death was simply a path all beings must walk.
Even they were no exception.
"Boring."
Since Tenchang-Ritsuzun could not push them deeper into space, continuing the standoff was meaningless.
"I'm taking the lunar surface space," Soren said coldly.
With that, he turned and returned to the ninja world.
The two brothers exchanged a glance and returned to Hamura's Shrine within the moon.
Beneath the Golden Tenseigan, Hamura frowned slightly.
"Brother… what do you plan to do next?"
Understanding his meaning immediately, Hagoromo looked toward the Konoha research base forming on the moon's surface, sensing the massive barrier taking shape.
Unhurried, he said:
"Sometimes… what belongs to him
can just as easily become ours."
"Let the young ones toss and turn," he continued calmly.
"In the end, strength decides everything."
Then his tone shifted.
"How long for you?"
Hamura thought for a moment.
"Using Soren's actions, I obtained another batch of Byakugan. Two… maybe three years."
"I'm about the same," Hagoromo sighed softly.
"A thousand years of accumulation—
the dawn of success is finally within reach."
"When we step onto the path of transcendence,
the world itself will be transformed."
"I understand."
Hamura's furrowed brow relaxed. The dissatisfaction in his heart faded under his brother's guidance.
He cast one last glance at the bustling Konoha shinobi on the moon's surface, said nothing, and returned to the interior of the Tenseigan.
Hagoromo's figure vanished as well.
Konoha — Supreme Leader's Office
(This test of Ōtsutsuki Hamura went even better than expected.)
(The Six Paths brothers are still formidable.)
(Overturning these two undead relics won't be possible alone in the short term.)
(If time drags on, who knows what new variables might emerge.)
What Hagoromo and Hamura had been planning for a millennium was precisely what Soren feared most.
Building the research base on the moon—rather than forging a planet outright—had been a deliberate probe.
The result was clear.
They weren't concerned about the lives of the ninja world's masses.
Which meant they were concerned about only one thing—
His strength.
(I need to deal with those two old monsters as soon as possible.)
(Otherwise, I'll be the one in trouble later.)
There could be no two suns in the sky.
No two masters upon the earth.
Soren had no intention of letting two extra overlords loom above him.
Seated in his office, his gaze lingered briefly on Kaori Minamoto.
"Darling… what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Soren said softly.
"I was just thinking—you look even more beautiful today."
He wanted his women to grow stronger.
Yet as time passed, he increasingly wished to keep the storms of the outside world away from his home—
to keep them from ever stepping onto the battlefield.
Otherwise, it felt like a reflection of his own inadequacy.
Kaori set down her pen and looked at him quietly.
After all these years, how could she not sense the hesitation in his heart?
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