The Moon.
A bolt of thunder crashed down from the sky, the crackling of lightning shattering the silence of this place.
Kaito stepped out of the streak of lightning, exhaling softly and muttering to himself,
"Whew… my first time flying off the planet. But seriously, the moon is so small."
He finished speaking and turned his head in one direction. After absorbing Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, he had awakened the Byakugan.
And this Byakugan of his was far beyond what the Hyūga clan could ever compare to. In terms of vision alone, he could clearly see things a hundred kilometers away — exactly a hundred times the range of an ordinary Byakugan.
Through the Byakugan, he saw Ōtsutsuki Toneri inside a castle in the distance.
Toneri seemed to sense something. He looked up and murmured,
"Someone's intruded… who is it?"
The moment he spoke, a crash of thunder echoed — and Kaito appeared in front of Toneri.
At this time, Toneri was still very young. Kaito took one glance at him and immediately lost interest.
Toneri, however, was visibly nervous. He rose from the ground and asked,
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Kaito only gave him a sidelong glance and said nothing, walking straight ahead.
Sensing Kaito's movement, Toneri quickly blocked his path, his tone sharp,
"You can't go there! That's…"
Bang!
Toneri's body was sent flying backward, slamming into the wall and passing out cold.
A faint, transparent halo shimmered around Kaito. He looked once at the unconscious Toneri, then vanished from the spot.
...
Hamura's Shrine.
Kaito appeared inside the shrine and looked up. A golden eye like a miniature sun was enshrined on a high platform, its center marked by a snowflake-like pattern — exquisitely beautiful.
This was the very reason Kaito had come all the way to the moon: the Golden Tenseigan.
He walked up to the Tenseigan and reached out to touch it.
Suddenly, a pale hand grabbed his arm.
"Outsider, you'd better not touch that. It will… hm? Such a pure Byakugan!"
Kaito turned his head and said flatly,
"Ōtsutsuki Hamura?"
The newcomer was none other than the younger brother of the Sage of Six Paths — Ōtsutsuki Hamura.
Hamura stiffly nodded and said,
"Judging from your appearance… don't tell me, you're from the same Ōtsutsuki clan as my mother?"
"No. I'm from the Uchiha clan on Earth. Technically, you could say I'm descended from your brother's line."
"What!? That's actually possible!?"
Hamura's eyes went wide, staring at Kaito in disbelief.
He knew his brother's lineage had split into the Senju and Uchiha clans. But even Asura and Indra's bloodlines had grown so diluted that their power couldn't compare to him or the Sage of Six Paths at all.
And yet this Uchiha, countless generations removed, had reached such a level? Even a bloodline "throwback" couldn't be this outrageous.
Besides, didn't the Uchiha awaken the Sharingan? How had it turned into his kind of Byakugan?
Kaito gazed at Hamura. He could already tell this "Hamura" was nothing but a humanoid mass of chakra.
He looked down at Hamura's hand gripping his arm and said,
"Let go."
Hamura paused for a moment, then released him.
Kaito ignored him, activating his Rinnegan as he focused on the Golden Tenseigan before him.
Hamura froze again, staring at the twelve-tomoe Rinnegan in Kaito's eyes and blurting out in shock,
"That's my brother's Rinnegan!"
Under Hamura's astonished gaze, Kaito reached his hand into the Golden Tenseigan. Before he could activate the Preta Path, the Tenseigan suddenly unleashed a powerful suction force, trying to drain Kaito's chakra.
Kaito raised an eyebrow. He was always the one doing the absorbing — being absorbed like this was a first.
And even though he technically had the Byakugan now, the Tenseigan still judged him as "not of the Hyūga clan." Who knew what standard it was using?
Still, if this Tenseigan thought it could absorb his chakra, it was far too naïve.
With a thought, a streak of violet light flashed across Kaito's Rinnegan. Then the Preta Path activated.
An even stronger suction force radiated from Kaito's palm. The golden glow surrounding the Tenseigan trembled violently, its energy unraveling into countless golden threads that flowed up Kaito's arm into his body.
Countless golden filaments appeared around Kaito's eyes, his Rinnegan gradually turning golden.
As time passed, his eyes became two blazing golden lights, a terrifying aura filling the entire shrine.
Under this pressure, Hamura's body began to grow insubstantial, as if he would dissipate at any moment.
He stared blankly at Kaito, powerless as the Tenseigan shrank and dimmed until finally its light went out completely. It became an ordinary gray stone and fell to the floor.
At that moment Kaito closed his eyes, frowning as an intense burning sensation radiated from them, making him deeply uncomfortable.
Hamura asked hesitantly,
"Are you all right?"
Before the words had even left his mouth, Kaito's eyes snapped open — two beams of dazzling golden light shooting out, striking Hamura.
Crack… crack…
Golden cracks spread densely across Hamura's body. Looking down at his disintegrating form, he said in disbelief,
"Even an energy body can be…"
Kaito quickly shut his eyes again. Although releasing those two beams had eased the burning in his eyes somewhat, the sensation still lingered. One hand covered his eyes while the other pressed against Hamura.
A surge of golden chakra flowed from Kaito's palm into Hamura's body, stabilizing him before he could collapse completely.
Hamura instinctively murmured a "thank you," then immediately thought better of it — he was only in this mess because of Kaito.
Kaito waved his hand and said,
"You should know what your mother Kaguya was always wary of, right?"
"You mean… the Ōtsutsuki clan?"
"That's right. I just killed an Ōtsutsuki named Isshiki on Earth not long ago…"
"What!? There was still an Ōtsutsuki on Earth!?"
Judging from Hamura's reaction, he knew about the Ōtsutsuki but not about Isshiki. Kaguya must not have told him.
And really, who would admit to their own child that they were once someone's servant? It was humiliating.
Kaito went on,
"Yeah. And not just him — other Ōtsutsuki may come soon. My eyes are in bad shape right now, so I need to stay here to recover for a while. During that time, I'll need you to…"
As he spoke, a wave of dizziness swept over him. His vision went black and he collapsed to the floor.
His last thought before losing consciousness was,
"Damn, that hit harder than I expected…"