"That guy…"
Urashiki stared at Momoshiki, whom Ren had just kicked out of the sky and smashed into the ground, and his heart was in complete turmoil.
From the moment he sensed that Ren possessed a Kekkei Mōra, he had already taken this strange being—whether descendant or personified Divine Tree—far more seriously than before.
But now he realized that his caution had been nowhere near enough.
This was no longer underestimation.
This was a complete misjudgment.
Ren's Kekkei Mōra seemed even stronger than he had imagined. Without devouring the life of dozens, if not hundreds, of planets, this level of power should have been impossible.
But the real question was—
"How did he do it? His life-flame shows that his existence only just began. So how did he reach this level? Is he hiding some secret, or is there something special about this planet?"
Urashiki could not make sense of it.
Ren was simply too abnormal.
And from what he had seen, Ren did not seem to possess a Rinnegan or any of the usual eye-based powers born from a Divine Tree mutation.
But before Urashiki could sort through those thoughts, Ren was already in front of him.
"What a pain."
Urashiki did not dare think too much further. His Byakugan instantly shifted into a blue Rinnegan.
The moment Ren's golden blade came down, Urashiki's body had already exploded into a flock of crimson paper cranes.
"Paper Crane Teleportation!"
This was one of the unique dōjutsu abilities granted by his Rinnegan. With the power of space, he could vanish instantly and reappear wherever he wished.
A moment later, his chakra had already condensed behind Ren, and the fishing hook radiating red chakra lashed viciously downward.
"You want to absorb my chakra?"
Ren raised a brow. In an instant, the space around him shifted, and Urashiki—his red Rinnegan active—immediately sensed that something was wrong.
His fishing rod plunged into refracted space and slipped off course.
"Tch, that space ability…"
The red Rinnegan allowed Urashiki to perceive the distortions of space. He naturally understood what Ren had done.
He immediately tried to influence space himself and correct the altered trajectory.
But in the next moment, he realized something was off about the Ren in front of him.
"Your eye power is spatial. I've already figured that out."
Ren's voice rang out from behind him at some point, and faintly, a dragon's roar seemed to echo with it.
"But how many things can you focus on at once?"
Divine Wood Dragon Technique!
Roar!
Several massive Wood Dragons, so enormous they seemed able to blot out the sky, burst forth under Ren's chakra and lunged straight for Urashiki as though they could swim through space itself.
The moment he saw them, Urashiki had no choice but to activate his Rinnegan again. Paper Crane Teleportation triggered once more, and he scattered into countless crimson paper cranes, disappearing from the spot.
But this time, Ren simply closed his eyes, and his perception spread over everything around him.
"Found you!"
A moment later, his eyes snapped open, and the Wood Dragons roared toward an apparently empty patch of sky.
"Amenosubaruboshinomikoto!"
As soon as Urashiki realized he had been locked onto, he had no choice but to reveal himself.
The fact that this man could use perception alone to catch spatial displacement made him feel utterly absurd.
There was only one eye in his memory capable of something like that—the Jōgan.
Yet Ren clearly did not possess any such special eye, and still he could do it.
It was maddening.
It made him even more wary of the enemy before him.
Countless waves of red chakra shot from his fishing rod and slammed into the thick Wood Dragons.
The attacks were incomparably sharp. In an instant, one of the dragons was sliced clean in half.
But Urashiki felt no joy at all, because the remaining dragons were still coming for him.
"These damned things… they contain the power of the Divine Tree…"
Looking at those Wood Dragons, Urashiki's scalp went numb. He was not at all sure what would happen if they wrapped around him.
And what irritated him even more was that Ren still refused to fight him using purely chakra-construct techniques.
"What the hell is wrong with this guy?"
Up until now, Ren's combat style had been dominated by taijutsu, using his absurd speed to deny Urashiki any chance to absorb chakra.
Urashiki's Rinnegan, combined with his gourd, was perfectly capable of absorbing chakra from techniques and then returning it to the opponent multiplied many times over.
Momoshiki could do the same—and in fact relied on it even more heavily.
But the problem was that, whether intentionally or not, Ren simply refused to use those kinds of techniques.
At first, Urashiki had wondered if Ren simply preferred direct combat.
But now, looking at those Wood Dragons, he suddenly felt this was deliberate.
"He knows our abilities?"
With that thought flashing through his mind, the dragons were already closing in, forcing him to rely on space again to evade.
The pressure Ren put on him was simply too great.
And Ren's attacks were overwhelmingly powerful.
"You're still trying to run?"
At that instant, Ren's voice rang out once again, and Urashiki suddenly sensed that the space around him had changed.
The surrounding space instantly folded into flat, layered black voids, completely sealing off every route of escape.
In that moment, he knew he had been locked in place.
Roar!
Those monstrous Wood Dragons burst out from the black voids around him, while Ren himself came straight at him with the golden sword in hand.
"This is bad…"
Urashiki's expression changed drastically.
But in the next moment, he forced himself calm.
The red Rinnegan instantly shifted, becoming blue.
The power of time surged wildly.
Urashiki's figure became strange and slippery.
Under Ren's pressure, it was as though the Ōtsutsuki suddenly possessed limitless predictive insight. Faced with such ferocious attacks, he moved like a swimming dragon, weaving effortlessly through everything Ren threw at him.
His body flickered, and he finally broke free from Ren's spatial lock, dropping heavily to the ground.
"Gh—"
The instant he landed, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and dropped to one knee.
And at that exact moment, Momoshiki appeared beside him in a similarly miserable state.
The two glanced at each other, and each saw the same wariness in the other's eyes.
They both understood that things had become dangerous.
"A very interesting ability."
Ren's voice sounded again. This time he looked down at them from above, though his gaze was mainly fixed on Urashiki.
"You have two sets of Rinnegan. The red one controls space, while the blue one is the one you just used.
That eye controls time. Though to be precise, your temporal ability doesn't seem all that great. It looks more like rewinding time.
But the way you rewind time is through repeated trial and error, and when you do it, your own state doesn't fully return along with it.
Your body's not feeling too good right now, is it?"
"…."
Urashiki said nothing, but a storm had already erupted inside his heart.
This guy figured out his powers after seeing them once?
Just what was this monster? How could he see through everything so quickly?
Momoshiki remained silent as well.
The man before them was clearly more troublesome—and more terrifying—than either of them had expected.
"To be honest, I'm a little disappointed."
Seeing neither of them speak, Ren simply shook his head and repeated the same kind of words he had used on Obito earlier.
"You people are said to be supreme beings, invincible and beyond all comparison, but looking at it now, that doesn't seem to be the case.
The two of you don't look much better than the idiot who became the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki earlier, only to end up as Kaguya's sacrifice.
So this… is what the Ōtsutsuki amount to?"
Ren was not speaking out of arrogance.
He had simply realized that these two seemed noticeably weaker than the kind of Ōtsutsuki the Sage of Six Paths had once feared.
Strictly speaking, they were not all that much better than Obito had been earlier.
Of course, in truth, they were still stronger.
They both possessed Kekkei Mōra, and their mastery over their Rinnegan far surpassed his.
Against almost anyone else, their current level would have left the opponent with no options at all.
The difference in raw fundamentals, combined with Kekkei Mōra and the efficient use of their Rinnegan, was enough to crush all living beings.
But unfortunately for them, they had run into an absolute cheat.
Not only did Ren also possess Kekkei Mōra, but more importantly, he knew all their information.
He knew what their Rinnegan abilities were. He knew the flaws in their mentality.
And on top of that, their cooperation was complete garbage.
That gave Ren the perfect opportunity to isolate and break them one by one.
And reality had already proven exactly that.
With proper use of the information he had, Ren had made them suffer badly.
"Brat, you truly are different from those lower lifeforms. You've crossed the boundary of life itself and reached this point. That is worthy of admiration."
Momoshiki said darkly, while Urashiki suddenly shouted,
"But if you think this is all we are, then you are arrogant and ignorant!"
Without any hesitation, Urashiki gouged out the special Rinnegan that could switch between the two modes, then directly tossed it into his mouth and swallowed it.
In only an instant, an indescribably terrifying surge of chakra burst from within him.
"AAAAH!"
Under that extreme chakra, Urashiki let out a furious roar.
The chakra around him became heavier, more terrifying, more violent.
At the same time, his face distorted completely until it was practically unrecognizable.
The horns on his forehead warped into a wing-like shape.
Black markings spread across his face, somewhat resembling the lines of a Yin Seal.
And those empty eye sockets, now lacking eyes entirely, suddenly produced a pair of golden pupils.
Most importantly of all, a crack appeared on his forehead.
"The Moon's Eye?"
When he saw that crack, Ren instinctively thought of something—but quickly shook his head.
"The 'Moon's Eye' is probably just the name Black Zetsu came up with. A third eye on the forehead is more likely just a manifestation of the Divine Tree fruit's power."
From Ren's memories, quite a few Ōtsutsuki possessed a third eye.
Even the so-called Ōtsutsuki God, Shibai, had one.
The only oddity, perhaps, was Isshiki.
Either Isshiki truly lacked a third eye, or that eye had somehow fused into his Byakugan.
After all, he had no Rinnegan, only that peculiar wheel-shaped eye.
And that eye seemed awfully close to Shibai's own black eye.
Sukunahikona and Daikokuten were both black-eye abilities, and both belonged to Isshiki.
"Brat! It's been a very long time since anyone pushed me this far!"
Urashiki's personality seemed to have changed as well. He now appeared far more irritable and savage.
With a furious shout that shook heaven and earth, the crack in his forehead snapped open, revealing a golden Rinnegan within!
"Now, this is your end!"
"Not bad."
Ren, however, remained utterly calm.
Urashiki's transformation looked flashy enough, but Ren's attention was no longer on superficial things like that.
At the level of Kekkei Mōra, the true key was always chakra.
The changes in chakra were the most essential and most important thing.
This transformation had raised Urashiki's chakra intensity tremendously, and that was what truly mattered.
At this stage of Kekkei Mōra, even the smallest increase was incredibly difficult to achieve.
A leap this large was genuinely astonishing.
"It feels like he jumped from beginner all the way to peak stage…"
Ren muttered to himself, but his eyes turned to Momoshiki, who still stood there in silence.
"He transformed. What about you? Surely that's not all?"
"Hmph. You're not yet worth the trouble of making too many moves…"
Momoshiki's Byakugan flicked toward the distance, toward the place where Kinshiki was fighting. He seemed hesitant.
"Is that so?"
Ren did not care about Momoshiki's hesitation in the slightest.
He took a deep breath. In the next instant, the horn-like crest on his forehead shifted aside.
His entire forehead was revealed.
And beneath that crest, a visible crack appeared in the eyes of Momoshiki and Urashiki.
"That…"
The two of them instantly realized what it was.
The crack split open.
Within it appeared a scarlet eye with nine tomoe—a Rinne Sharingan.
At the same time, Ren pulled up his panel and looked at the information displayed there.
[Mission Complete]
[Destroy the Infinite Tsukuyomi Plan]
[Mission Rating: SSS]
[Reward Obtained: 20 Free Points]
[Mission Complete]
[Defeat Ten-Tails Jinchūriki Obito Uchiha]
[Mission Rating: SSS]
[Reward Obtained: 20 Free Points]
[Current Free Points: 130]
[Because the opponent was a Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, because the Infinite Tsukuyomi was destroyed, because the Allied Shinobi Forces were defeated head-on, and because mission completion reached SSS, special rewards have been granted]
[Special Reward 1: Divine Tree Power]
[Special Reward 2: Free Points Doubled]
Looking at the information on his panel, the smile on Ren's face grew even brighter.
His gaze instinctively shifted toward his overall physical stats, chakra, and Kekkei Mōra.
"Oh right. I forgot to tell you one thing."
"This… still isn't my limit."
"Immortal Art: Deep Forest Emergence!"
"Limbo: Border Jail!"
On another battlefield, Madara and Hashirama were fighting in close coordination, pressing Kinshiki with everything they had.
Through battle, they had already learned just how terrifying this enemy truly was.
That monstrous body, that horrifying strength, that extreme mastery over Yin-Yang Release—every bit of it made them fight in a far uglier manner than they liked.
They were both in Edo Tensei bodies.
Against techniques infused with Yin-Yang Release, they were naturally at a disadvantage.
One wrong move and part of their bodies would simply vanish.
That was no minor inconvenience.
Fortunately, however, while this Ōtsutsuki was incredibly powerful, he still seemed to fall noticeably short of Ren.
Even when Ren had been far weaker than he was now—even before he had matched this monster in raw power—he had still been much harder to deal with than Kinshiki was now.
"This guy… his combat technique seems flawed."
Hashirama and Madara came to the same conclusion without even speaking.
And there was something else they realized as well.
"This Ōtsutsuki, even if he is one of them, doesn't seem nearly as outrageous as the one over there!"
Ren's battle with Obito, and now the battle above, had filled them with deep apprehension.
But the monster before them, while strong, still did not seem to have reached that level.
"Is it a difference in Kekkei Mōra? Or something else?"
They did not fully understand.
But what they did understand was that it gave them an opportunity.
If they played this correctly—if they were careful enough—then maybe they could actually do something here.
"Hmph!"
Looking at the overwhelming sea of Wood Release, Kinshiki snorted coldly. He casually swung his giant axe, and countless trees were severed at the base in an instant.
Red chakra raged around him.
He raised one arm and effortlessly blocked Madara's Limbo clone, even sending the invisible attacker flying.
"Immortal Art: Cutting Sprigs Jutsu!"
Hashirama seized the opening at once. With another hand seal, countless thick vines poured out and wrapped toward Kinshiki.
"Heh!"
At the same time, Madara's true body shot skyward cloaked in Susanoo, and the giant chakra blade came crashing down on Kinshiki.
"You two strange things really are quite capable to have made it this far."
Kinshiki's voice remained as flat and indifferent as ever, his Byakugan full of apathy.
"But if you think that's enough to beat me, you're still lacking."
Ikazuchi!
In an instant, his fingers ignited with flame-like red chakra.
His aura reached an indescribable peak.
And with that arm, he struck directly at the Susanoo blade.
Boom!
Under that impact, Susanoo's massive sword was actually snapped in half!
Such absurd physical strength was enough to shock anyone.
Even Madara and Hashirama were blasted backward.
But the two of them focused their eyes at once.
Because they had noticed something.
"That…"
Both of them could clearly tell that Kinshiki was not nearly as unharmed as he looked.
There were injuries on his body.
"So it's senjutsu?"
Madara suddenly asked in a low voice. Hashirama thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Unless I'm mistaken, yes. Ren did say that senjutsu was an extremely powerful force. I just didn't think it would actually work on an Ōtsutsuki."
Senjutsu had always been an absurdly powerful thing.
Although on the surface its learning requirements seemed lower than Yin-Yang Release, Kekkei Genkai, or even Kekkei Mōra—
the truth was that there were fewer true senjutsu users in the world than there were bloodline limits.
Natural energy was never a joke.
Its power far exceeded what most people could imagine.
And aside from Madara, there were likely no others who could forcibly seize senjutsu chakra, then suppress it through sheer power.
Everyone else who learned senjutsu had to pay a terrible price.
Being devoured by natural energy and turned into monsters… or turned into stone… such fates were everywhere.
Before receiving his Six Paths boost, Naruto had used senjutsu to batter Six Paths Obito into confusion.
"So we do have a way of dealing with him."
Madara landed steadily and suddenly spoke.
"Give me your senjutsu chakra. I think I can control it."
"Hey, don't joke around. You'll turn to stone!"
Hashirama was startled, staring at him in disbelief.
"Senjutsu power isn't something you can just use casually. One mistake and the backlash will be severe. You—"
"Stop wasting time. This is not the moment for hesitation!"
Madara cut him off completely, his eyes fixed on the distance as he spoke in a low, firm tone.
"Even if this Edo Tensei body is still far from my peak, I believe I can control it!"
Madara really did have confidence in himself.
And more importantly, if they wanted to deal with enemies like this, how could they hope to succeed without taking some risks?
"All right…"
Seeing how insistent Madara was, Hashirama let out a sigh and finally nodded.
"I'll give it to you now. But I think you'll need a bit of time to adapt. I'll hold him off as much as I can."
Once those words left his mouth, he wasted no more time.
He placed a hand on Madara's body.
Edo Tensei granted endless chakra, and that included natural energy.
For Hashirama, condensing senjutsu power was now easier than ever.
As he watched his power flow rapidly into Madara's body, he could not help worrying about what might happen to his old friend.
Buzz!
But he did not even have time to think more, because Kinshiki was already charging again.
"Hurry and adapt. I'll hold him."
In the next instant, Hashirama leapt forward and placed himself in front of Madara.
One hand extended, senjutsu power surging wildly within it.
"Immortal Art: Wooden Needle Barrage!"
Countless razor-sharp wooden spikes infused with Yin-Yang chakra shot from his hand and pierced toward Kinshiki.
"Natural energy…"
Kinshiki snorted coldly.
His Byakugan had naturally seen the exchange between Hashirama and Madara.
He knew they had already discovered the kind of power that could actually injure him.
That meant the next stage of battle would only become more troublesome.
But he did not think for even a second that he would fear them.
"Shinra!"
With a surge of chakra, his body became like lightning itself.
His speed became even faster than before.
Surrounded by endless thunder, his giant axe slashed down and obliterated Hashirama's wooden spikes in one motion.
But Hashirama's speed in casting techniques was even faster than expected.
"Immortal Art: Wood Dragon Jutsu!"
Another furious Wood Dragon was summoned in an instant.
And not only that—Hashirama's offensive had not stopped at all.
"Immortal Art: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Countless vines tore from the earth, wildly intertwining and twisting together until a vast forest was born in the blink of an eye.
Roar!
The Wood Dragon howled as it charged straight for Kinshiki, while the vast forest itself spread to trap him completely.
Even Kinshiki's expression changed slightly under such relentless suppression.
He could not understand it.
This man was not fully alive, not fully dead. His chakra quality was not that high either.
Aside from natural energy, there did not seem to be anything especially extraordinary about him.
So why was he so hard to deal with?
And Kinshiki had not forgotten the previous exchanges either.
These two had been avoiding his Yin-Yang Release like mad the whole time.
But even while evading him, they still managed to counterattack and force him into awkward situations.
"These two are no longer ordinary lower lifeforms…"
With that realization, Kinshiki knew he had to go all out.
"Tenyuha no Hane!"
With a furious roar, scarlet chakra erupted around him, and countless weapons materialized at his side.
Boom!
Those weapons moved in concert and blasted outward in every direction, while Kinshiki himself swung his giant axe with crushing force.
In an instant, a massive wave of destruction swept through everything around him!
The Wood Dragon was severed in an instant.
And the endless forest was practically annihilated all at once.
"How frightening…"
Hashirama could not help but sigh in admiration.
But at that moment, he suddenly turned his head.
Because behind him, a power had begun to gather.
"Immortal Art: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
At some point, Madara had already leapt high into the air.
His hands flashed through seals, vast chakra trembling wildly.
The next instant, a sea of fire infused with Yin Release, Yang Release, and senjutsu poured from his mouth all at once.
The immense torrent instantly washed over Hashirama's forest and swallowed Kinshiki completely.
"Impressive…"
Seeing that, even Hashirama was stunned for a moment.
Then he broke into a grin.
"In that case, I can't afford to lag behind either!"
Immortal Art: Flowering Tree World!
Under the surging guidance of Hashirama's chakra, the forest that Kinshiki had just shredded erupted once more.
This time, an even vaster forest took shape.
Flames and trees intertwined.
In an instant, the trees became fuel for the inferno.
And on the branches, bud after bud burst into bloom.
Visible clouds of pollen drifted out, turning under the burning heat into deadly poisonous mist.
Boom!
The thunderous roar of destruction shook the entire region.
The towering flames and toxic mist seemed intent on reducing everything around them to ash!
"You mastered it that quickly?"
Looking at the sea of fire before them, Hashirama could not help but glance at Madara beside him.
"Don't joke around. This kind of power isn't as difficult to control as you think."
Madara stood beside him, staring into the blazing sea with open disdain.
"Though that guy is obviously far from dead yet. Good. Then I can test what I'm capable of now."
"Yeah…"
Hashirama nodded.
If it had been anyone else, they probably would have assumed the battle was already over.
But the enemy they were facing was an Ōtsutsuki whose strength had reached the Six Paths realm.
Any carelessness, any complacency, would be fatal.
And sure enough, a vortex erupted in the middle of the inferno. In the next moment, Kinshiki burst out of the flames.
He looked somewhat battered now, as though his body had been scorched all over, but the murderous intent in his pale eyes had not weakened in the slightest.
Terrifying chakra swirled around his body.
Crimson energy gathered around his arm, which had already lost a layer of skin and exposed bright red muscle underneath.
With a single swing of that arm, before the punch even landed, the sheer force of the air pressure shattered the ground.
Buzz!
Hashirama and Madara immediately withdrew.
But at this point, the two of them seemed to have found their confidence.
It was just like in a game—once the monster showed its health bar, the players knew it could be killed.
And when even a "god" could be wounded, Hashirama and Madara no longer had any reason to hesitate.
"Hashirama, I think we can coordinate a little better."
Madara suddenly spoke.
"I remember this body of yours can still use the True Several Thousand Hands, right?"
"You want me to use that?"
Hashirama blinked in surprise.
He was not opposed to it, but his expression turned a little strange.
"I can do it, no problem. But don't forget how Ren dealt with the two of us last time.
This guy's chakra is stronger than Ren's was back then. Of course, his combat skills clearly aren't on Ren's level.
But raw power is still raw power. If we use bodies that enormous, I'm worried…"
Hashirama had already vaguely glimpsed the entrance to the "new version."
Even though he could not do it himself, he understood how strong that "new version" was.
True Several Thousand Hands was certainly powerful.
But using such a huge cannon to swat such a comparatively small and fast target still struck him as awkward.
"Idiot. Learn to adapt to the situation!"
Madara snorted, blue chakra already flaring around him once more as Susanoo began to form—and this time senjutsu was mixed into it.
"We're both in Edo Tensei bodies. We cannot keep engaging him endlessly in direct hand-to-hand exchanges. Putting distance between us and protecting ourselves is the priority.
Susanoo and True Several Thousand Hands can shield us far better. Even if they're not perfect against this kind of enemy, they're still the best option we have right now."
At that, Madara paused slightly before continuing.
"And besides, I once saw Ren and that Uchiha girl fight together. They used True Several Thousand Hands layered with Susanoo.
If they can do it, then are you telling me the two of us working together can't?"
"…"
Hashirama's mouth twitched.
He very much wanted to say that the two of them honestly might not compare to those two anymore.
But after thinking about it, he swallowed the words.
Still, he had to admit Madara's suggestion had moved him.
And not just that—he was actually starting to feel excited.
"Then let's try it!"
With that thought, Hashirama took a deep breath.
"We can't let the younger generation look down on us."
"Immortal Art: True Several Thousand Hands!"
"Susanoo!"
Madara's face also lit up with fierce excitement.
His chakra surged.
With a howling explosion of power, two colossal beasts rose from the ground, blotting out heaven and earth.
Then, like primordial monsters, the two vast constructs twisted together, fused together, and began to overlap.
In an instant, the very earth seemed to boil.
The two heroes of the Warring States era had, at last, truly joined forces.
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