Time.
Time!
Yuki Kiri and the others wanted to destroy the moon before Obito could complete his wicked plan, eliminating a powerful enemy in advance.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Obito aimed to finish everything before Yuki Yoru emerged from seclusion, raising his own strength to a level that could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Yoru.
Speed was the essence of war — both sides were racing against time!
"I understand your idea, Obito," Uchiha Madara said, arms crossed, voice low. "But with just that sliver of Nine-Tails chakra, even if you force the Ten-Tails' revival, it won't be enough. We need more of the Nine-Tails' chakra."
Kirigakure was powerful. Though their ambush had succeeded, the resistance they faced was immense.
Uchiha Hikari alone had been enough to hold off Madara. Kimimaro had fought Ōtsutsuki Toneri to a stalemate.
Shimura Danzō and Sarutobi Hiruzen's strength was on par with an ordinary Captain — Obito by himself should not have been able to crush the rest of the Captains and the Quincy.
And with only the sliver of Nine-Tails chakra from "Sora," it was nowhere near enough to awaken the Ten-Tails.
"I've already thought of that," Obito replied. He raised his hands in a seal, and a cloud of white mist spread from his side. A massive vessel floated into view.
"This is…"
The sight of the giant jar-like container stunned everyone present.
As descendants of the Sage of Six Paths, they recognized it immediately. This was one of the Sage's five treasured tools — the Kohaku no Jōhei (Amber Purifying Pot), famed for its overwhelming sealing ability.
But to wield it required an enormous amount of chakra. Ordinary shinobi couldn't even activate it. For generations, it had been under the control of the Sage's descendants — the infamous Kinkaku and Ginkaku.
Wait.
Kinkaku and Ginkaku?!
"You mean to use Kinkaku and Ginkaku in place of the Nine-Tails?" Madara frowned, realization dawning. "Through Edo Tensei?"
"Exactly."
Obito lifted the Amber Purifying Pot and slowly released its seal.
With a loud boom, two figures appeared before them — both with twin horns sprouting from their heads and whisker-like markings on their faces.
"On my previous trip to Kumogakure, I seized this Amber Purifying Pot. While sealing away the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails, I also stored the Edo Tensei forms of Kinkaku and Ginkaku inside, just in case."
Long ago, the Gold and Silver Brothers had been swallowed whole by the Nine-Tails for two weeks.
During that time, they devoured its flesh from within, absorbing its chakra. Unable to tolerate them, the Nine-Tails eventually vomited them back out. From then on, the brothers carried a portion of its chakra within their bodies.
Now, by using Kinkaku and Ginkaku as substitutes for the Nine-Tails, and combining that with the sliver of chakra from "Sora," they could forcibly awaken the Ten-Tails…
Neither Ōtsutsuki Toneri nor Madara spoke further. The chances of success weren't high, but if it worked, it would be ideal.
Under their watchful gazes, Obito activated the sealing technique. Instantly, several phantom-like dragons roared out from the mouth of the Demonic Statue, lunging toward the Edo Tensei bodies of Kinkaku and Ginkaku.
The nine chakra dragons tore into them, and in an instant, the Nine-Tails' chakra within the brothers was ripped out, flowing endlessly into the maw of the Demonic Statue.
Edo Tensei was Edo Tensei. Unlike living bodies, they had loopholes in their very existence — a "bug" in the technique itself.
This kind of forced extraction could strip away the Nine-Tails chakra, but the damage it inflicted upon their souls was irreversible.
Supposedly immortal, with limitless chakra — yet as their Nine-Tails chakra was drained, their bodies began to collapse. Fragments of their Edo Tensei forms crumbled away, scattering across the ground.
"The chakra is far more plentiful than I expected."
Madara was genuinely surprised.
He had assumed Kinkaku and Ginkaku only carried scraps of the Nine-Tails' chakra. But judging by this, the two must have swallowed quite a lot of flesh while inside the beast.
The chakra extraction from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path lasted several minutes before finally coming to an end. With a final wail, the brothers who had once slain the Second Raikage and Second Hokage — who had stirred up storms across the shinobi world — completely vanished, their bodies and even souls dispersing as the last of the Nine-Tails' chakra was wrung from them!
ROAR!!!
After draining all the Nine-Tails chakra from the Gold and Silver Brothers, the Demonic Statue finally stirred. Planting both hands against the ground, it let out a thunderous roar, a crushing aura surging out from its body. Its massive armored shell began to tremble violently.
Seeing this, Madara, Obito, and even Black Zetsu all revealed faint smiles.
It worked!
The Nine-Tails chakra within Kinkaku and Ginkaku really could completely awaken the Ten-Tails!
"Toneri!"
Obito suddenly looked up at Ōtsutsuki Toneri, who had been watching the statue with a complicated expression. At Obito's call, Toneri let out a soft sigh, then slowly raised his hands into a seal.
In the next moment, dense Tenseigan chakra spread outward, enveloping the entire space and forming a unique barrier.
And the instant the barrier was set, the massive Demonic Statue threw its head back and howled. The ground within the barrier quaked violently!
Layer after layer of its shell shattered, dust surging skyward, until a monstrous creature with ten tails sprouting from its back suddenly stood revealed before them. From its grotesque head, a single enormous eye snapped open, glowing with an eerie light — within it swirled a blood-red pupil adorned with nine tomoe.
The Rinnegan… blood-red, with nine tomoe!
BZZZZZZ!
The monstrous aura within the barrier only grew more overwhelming. Toneri, watching from afar, wore a conflicted expression, while Madara narrowed his eyes, silent and still.
For Toneri, it was awe at the terror of the once-mythical "One-Eyed God."
For Madara, it was bitterness — in his original plan, the Ten-Tails was supposed to be his key to completing the Moon's Eye Plan. But now, Obito, who had already stepped into the Six Paths level, had seized that place instead.
In this world, the one with the greater strength dictated the truth.
"So this… is the Ten-Tails."
Off to the side, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō exchanged glances, each seeing the same strange glint in the other's eyes.
They had already seen the Ten-Tails once before — in Root's underground base, where one had been caged.
But compared to this creature before them, that Ten-Tails was merely a "living specimen," not a sealed monstrosity. The chakra of this beast was infinitely greater, its aura infinitely more savage, while that one had seemed almost… infantile.
Obito drew in a deep breath, his entire being focused upon the towering colossus before him.
Even as someone who had already stepped into the realm of the Sage of Six Paths, his heart wavered between apprehension and excitement.
If he could seize control of this monster — make it part of himself — then he would become a being equal to the Sage of Six Paths himself: the legendary Ten-Tails' jinchūriki.
At that point, Yuki Yoru would be nothing more than a fleeting shadow!
Resolving himself, Obito hesitated no longer. Without so much as a backward glance at Madara or Toneri, he leapt directly onto the Ten-Tails' head.
Sensing the intrusion, the Ten-Tails let out a furious, sky-shaking roar. But Obito gave it no chance to resist — he formed hand seals at once.
"Haaah!"
With a low shout, a fleshy tube sprouted from the Ten-Tails, latching onto the back of Obito's neck.
As the conduit linked Obito and the Ten-Tails together, the beast's frenzy gradually calmed. At the same time, Obito's eyes blazed with boundless radiance.
"What immense chakra… what overwhelming chakra!"
"If I have this power, I can… I will defeat Yuki Yoru!"
Obito's Rinnegan gleamed with a dark violet glow, and as his inner roar echoed, the Ten-Tails beneath him began to shudder violently, its blood-red Rinnegan with nine tomoe resonating in unison.
The next instant, the Ten-Tails' body began to twist as if caught in Kamui, its colossal form spinning, collapsing, and shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Under Black Zetsu's eager gaze, Madara's solemn stare, and Toneri's conflicted eyes, the enormous Ten-Tails was steadily absorbed, devoured completely by Obito.
"It's happening!"
"Did it succeed?!"
"The legendary Ten-Tails' jinchūriki…"
Under countless stunned, hopeful, and fearful stares, chakra surged violently around Obito. As it stabilized, his figure emerged clearly at last.
His already pale skin, due to the Chimera Technique, became even purer white at this moment. From his forehead sprouted sharp horns, his shoulders jutted with protruding spikes, and his body became covered in scale-like, jagged markings. Across his chest spread a row of six black magatama-shaped marks.
"Yes… this is it! This power!!"
Black Zetsu could barely contain himself, screaming internally at the sight of Obito's transformation.
Even without the Nine-Tails, relying only on fragments of its chakra to awaken the Ten-Tails, Obito's natural foundation was extraordinary. Already at the Six Paths level, now fused with this Ten-Tails, Uchiha Obito's strength truly rivaled that of the Sage of Six Paths himself!
There was still a gap compared to the Goddess of the Rabbit… but this was more than enough.
"With this, all that remains is for Obito to activate the Eye of the Moon. Then Mother will finally be freed from the seal of those two traitors, Hagoromo and Hamura!"
Black Zetsu's heart surged with excitement.
But his joy quickly faltered. Something was wrong.
Obito now wielded power equal to the Sage of Six Paths, yet at his forehead, there was no Eye of the Moon.
Without the Eye of the Moon, Infinite Tsukuyomi could not be cast. Without it, they could not resonate with Mother sealed within the moon, let alone break her seal!
"The Nine-Tails…"
Obito slowly opened his eyes and spoke.
As the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, his strength had soared to new heights. He now possessed near-limitless chakra and inherited vast knowledge stored within the Ten-Tails' soul.
Among that knowledge was information about the Eye of the Moon.
It was not just a higher form of the Rinnegan, but the ultimate manifestation of one's power reaching the very limit of bloodline fusion.
Even the alien Ōtsutsuki — Momoshiki, Urashiki, Kinshiki — did not wield the Eye of the Moon in their base forms; only through transformation could they awaken it.
Even Hagoromo himself, having split the Ten-Tails' chakra into the nine beasts, bore only a red spiral mark upon his brow — a mere prototype of the Eye of the Moon, never its true awakening.
"We need to reclaim the Nine-Tails!"
Obito turned toward Madara and Toneri, his voice firm:
"Only then can I truly cast Infinite Tsukuyomi, and plunge this world into a perfect dream!"
"So in the end, it still comes down to the Nine-Tails, hm."
Madara gave a low, derisive hum, arms crossed as he studied Obito.
"What's this? You're not worried about Yuki Yoru anymore?"
"I am."
To their surprise, Obito did not boast. Instead, he shook his head calmly, his expression steady.
"Only by truly wielding this power can one grasp just how terrifyingly strong Yuki Yoru is right now… With the strength he commands, even as I am now, I can only stand against him—never outright defeat him."
"But this power is enough for us to go to war—against Kirigakure, against Yuki Yoru!"
Obito clenched his fist, his tone filled with confidence.
This time, nothing could stop him. Not even Yuki Yoru!
…
Meanwhile—
Within Konoha's Root base, inside a dimensional space.
Jigen sat expressionlessly upon his throne. Through Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō, he had essentially witnessed the birth of the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki with his own eyes.
The Uchiha Obito he had once regarded merely as a "vessel" now possessed power rivaling his own at his peak—something that even Jigen himself hadn't anticipated.
According to his original plan, he was supposed to devour Obito before he became the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, using him as the vessel to complete his own rebirth. But he hadn't expected Obito's scheme to be carried out so swiftly.
With his current body's strength, Jigen could indeed contend with a Six Paths–level opponent for a time. With a surprise attack, he might even seize the upper hand briefly. But the power Obito now commanded as the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki was far beyond that of an ordinary Six Paths being.
If dragged into a protracted stalemate, he would be the one to suffer.
"I need a new vessel…"
Jigen muttered under his breath. A figure flashed before his mind, and a strange, unsettling expression crept across his face.
"Though its energy is somewhat lacking, with a little refinement by me, it could serve well enough."
"And with those eyes I've cultivated…"
"Sarutobi Hiruzen," Jigen said coldly, "while Obito is occupied carrying out his plan, bring Uchiha Madara to me."
"What?!"
On the moon, Sarutobi Hiruzen—who had just witnessed the birth of a second Six Paths being—froze. He snapped his head around to look at Uchiha Madara.
Gazing at the strange, unreadable expression on Madara's face, at those complicated eyes… Hiruzen felt as though he suddenly understood something.