"A hidden gem?"
Hinata blinked, her small face blank with confusion.
Question marks practically floated over her head. At her age, she had no idea what Ren meant by that.
Ren glanced at her, then shifted his attention elsewhere.
"All right. Wait here."
A moment later, his Rinne-Tenseigan turned toward the still-unconscious Toneri.
"From now on," he said calmly, "you're the Hyūga clan's personal treasury."
His tone was casual, but the meaning was anything but.
"How many Tenseigan the Hyūga can awaken in the future… that depends on you."
As the words left his mouth, Ren's thoughts drifted back to himself.
Even now, he found it hard to believe.
After absorbing and merging with the Giant Tenseigan, his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan had evolved into the Rinne-Tenseigan.
As the name implied, it carried both the complete abilities of the Rinnegan and the Tenseigan.
And on top of that, his Six Paths power had fused with his awakened tremor force and his peak Armament Haki.
How strong was he now?
To be honest, even Ren himself wasn't completely sure anymore.
He slowly lifted his head.
"The Moon's Ōtsutsuki have been wiped out…"
His voice was low, almost thoughtful.
"And yet the one hiding in the shadows still hasn't shown himself."
That was what bothered him.
This trip to the Moon had never just been about rescuing Hinata.
It had never even been just about absorbing the Giant Tenseigan.
He had also come to verify something.
Whether Ōtsutsuki Hamura—the ancestor of the Moon branch—was truly dead.
As for Seitian?
A mere high Kage-level fighter.
From beginning to end, Ren had never taken him seriously.
A clean kill had always been the right choice.
But after absorbing the Giant Tenseigan and stepping into the Six Paths level, neither Hamura nor Hagoromo had appeared.
Not a trace.
No intervention.
No warning.
Nothing.
As if they were truly gone.
But Ren no longer believed that.
Now that he had reached the Six Paths tier himself, he could feel it clearly:
At this level, as long as one didn't court death outright, one was almost impossible to erase completely.
So Ren's conclusion was simple.
Hamura was alive.
Hagoromo was alive.
And both of them were most likely hiding in some other dimension, watching everything from the dark.
In other words—
there was a good chance they had already set their eyes on him.
Ren's expression cooled.
"Still not enough."
For Hamura, he wasn't especially concerned.
But Hagoromo—
the so-called Sage of Six Paths—
was different.
Ren had no intention of underestimating him.
In Ren's eyes, Hagoromo was the same kind of person as the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi:
timid when facing real outside threats, ruthless when it came to controlling his own side.
Afraid of the true Ōtsutsuki main family…
yet perfectly willing to suppress the shinobi world, play savior, and keep everyone beneath a ceiling of his own making.
He had turned the entire world into a board.
Even monsters like Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju had been held at the peak of the "super Kage" realm, unable to cross over.
And Madara?
If Black Zetsu hadn't secretly interfered, he would never have awakened the Rinnegan at all.
Ren narrowed his eyes.
"Hagoromo is dangerous."
"Very dangerous."
That much was certain.
In the original course of events, even after separating the tailed beasts, Hagoromo had still been able to grant Six Paths power to Naruto and Sasuke, pushing two carefully chosen pieces into that realm so they could seal Kaguya.
That kind of being was not someone Ren could afford to look down on.
He had to keep signing in.
Keep growing stronger.
There was no other answer.
Ren fell silent for a moment.
Then his gaze sharpened.
"If you still won't come out…"
A faint, cold smile appeared on his face.
"…then I'll make the entire world shake."
Whoosh!
His body vanished from the ground and reappeared high above the Moon.
Floating there in silence, he lowered his eyes and looked toward the Earth below.
Then—
without any warning—
a vast surge of azure energy burst from his body.
Boom!
The blue radiance swept out at terrifying speed.
Under the support of Six Paths power, it spread across the entire Moon and flooded toward Earth, covering the dark half of the planet in an eerie blue glow.
Night vanished.
The whole world lit up.
In that instant, every nation, every village, every shinobi under the night sky looked up.
"What is that?!"
"The Moon… it's glowing blue!"
"What happened up there?"
"Is someone on the Moon?!"
Across Konoha, Iwagakure, Sunagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and countless smaller villages, waves of alarm broke out all at once.
No one had expected this.
The Moon had always been nothing more than the Moon.
Silent. Distant. Unchanging.
And now it was shining with an unnatural blue light that bathed the whole world.
It was enough to make anyone uneasy.
Even figures like the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki, the Fourth Raikage A, Elder Chiyo, and the Fifth Mizukage Mei Terumi couldn't hide their shock when they sensed the disturbance.
Far away, in a hidden corner of the world—
Madara Uchiha stood with his arms folded, staring at the Moon.
His face had gone grim.
"That…"
His voice was low.
"That's the aura of Six Paths power."
After a brief pause, his eyes narrowed further.
"So Uchiha Ren broke through too."
"What?!"
Beside him, Obito—still behind his mask—jerked in disbelief.
"He actually reached the Six Paths level?"
His voice rose despite himself.
How the hell does that guy even get stronger so fast? That's insane…"
The blow landed hard.
Obito had spent all this time training desperately under Madara's guidance. His strength had risen at an absurd rate.
And yet—
Ren had already stepped beyond him again.
The difference was so brutal it felt almost mocking.
Meanwhile, Black Zetsu stood there in silence, sensing the power pouring down from the Moon.
His mood had sunk to rock bottom.
He was furious.
Frustrated.
Humiliated.
He had never expected Ren to reach the Six Paths tier on the Moon—on Hamura's territory, no less.
That was more than a setback.
It was a slap across the face.
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