Satsuki shifted her stance, pushing both hands forward. A massive storm, driven by six Truth-Seeking Orbs, instantly swept across the mountaintop of the sage land.
"This… this is insane!"
"Is this the power of the Tenseigan?"
The devastating force of the Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, formed from six golden Truth-Seeking Orbs, was enough to draw wary glances even from those who had cultivated sage arts for centuries.
But the White Snake Sage, coiled on a distant peak, merely glanced at it and said, "This level of ninjutsu won't harm it."
Sure enough—
The Dragon-Headed Sage's massive head took the brunt of the storm. Gales tore at its mane and scales, yet through the insight of the Tenseigan, Satsuki could see that her fierce strike hadn't injured it in the slightest.
Its body was already unimaginably powerful, strengthened over countless years by sage chakra. As a dragon, it possessed natural scale armor of peerless toughness.
Even the extreme repulsive force of the Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion couldn't shake it.
"Ha! That's all you've got, little girl?"
Stabilizing itself in the storm, the Dragon-Headed Sage's colossal eyes glowed gold. Without hands, it had no need for hand seals to unleash sage arts.
Not that such a being would bother with them anyway.
"Sage Art: White Dragon Roar."
Its gigantic maw gaped wide, spewing a sky-filling torrent of white fire—an expression of ultimate sage chakra, beyond even Yin–Yang Release.
It was but a casual attack, yet even the overwhelming repulsive force of Satsuki's Silver Wheel was forced back before such a pinnacle technique.
Watching her storm driven away by the blaze, Satsuki's usually impassive face showed an unfamiliar emotion: pleasure.
She liked this feeling—proof that she was truly alive.
"And what about this?"
In a rare show of aggression, she called out, her right hand grasping at the void. Three remaining Truth-Seeking Orbs, along with six newly-forged ones, fused in her grasp into an enormous golden blade.
Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!
The moment it appeared, even the Dragon-Headed Sage's eyes grew grave. The watching sages gasped.
Vmmm… vmmm… vmmm…
The very air quivered around the sword. Space itself groaned beneath the weight of its power—a blade capable of cleaving chaos.
Shhh—
Satsuki swept the blade in a wide arc, striking not only the dragon and its sage art, but enveloping nearby sages who hadn't escaped in time.
"Danger! Get back!"
Sages scattered, unleashing their own arts in desperation. The Golden Wheel's power could shake heaven and earth; even a brush with its aftershock was lethal.
"I never thought I'd face this technique again."
The colossal Great Slug Sage was bisected in a single stroke, but instantly abandoned the collapsing flesh around the cut, splitting into two avatars to continue observing.
The White Snake Sage's eyes narrowed; she shed her skin to evade the golden light.
The Great Toad Sage slipped into another dimension entirely, avoiding the slash.
Others fled by reverse-summoning themselves back to their sage lands, or relied on desperate techniques to survive the residual force.
The once lively Tenryū Heart Cave was cleared in two blows.
The golden sword traced a blazing path across the sky, a black rift following in its wake—its edge bearing down on the Dragon-Headed Sage.
"Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, is it?" The dragon's eyes locked on the very attack that had once severed its head, showing not the slightest hint of retreat.
Around the Dragon-Headed Sage's skull, vast torrents of natural energy began to rise, shaking the entire sage land. The overwhelming energy surged toward the dragon like birds returning to their nest, coalescing into a massive vortex that linked heaven and earth.
"Sage Art: Storm Release – Deathlight Dragon Fang!"
While still maintaining the White Dragon Roar, violet lightning burst from the dragon's eyes, lancing directly toward Satsuki's Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.
The moment they clashed, two forces representing the very extremes of this world's power erupted with enough might to shatter space with ease.
The void tore, the earth quaked, and the Tenryū Heart Cave—stable for millennia—reeled as though facing an unprecedented cataclysm.
The ground split open, mountains shifted, and an endless tide of shockwaves and subsonic booms filled the sage land. Even the sky fractured like glass, riddled with rifts in time and space.
Lesser sages immediately reverse-summoned themselves away to avoid being torn apart by the collapsing void. Only the Great Toad Sage managed to endure this storm.
Even the White Snake Sage and the Great Slug Sage were forced to retreat to their own lands.
"Interesting… far too interesting!"
Seeing her opponent resist not only her Silver Wheel but also the Golden Wheel forged from nine Truth-Seeking Orbs, Satsuki's excitement grew. Since awakening her Tenseigan, she had felt a gnawing emptiness—few could truly challenge her.
"For bringing me such excitement, consider this a gift."
She slowly withdrew her Tenseigan's supreme techniques, recalling all fifteen Truth-Seeking Orbs. Yet both the Great Toad Sage and the Dragon-Headed Sage felt an even older, more primal pressure emanating from her.
"What terrifying power… the Ōtsutsuki truly are this world's greatest threat."
The Dragon-Headed Sage ceased its attack. The Storm Release Deathlight Dragon Fang had taken ages to perfect, fusing sage art with the lingering Six Paths power in its body—a technique meant to counter the Golden Wheel. Yet even so, it had gained no advantage.
Satsuki's Tenseigan chakra condensed inward, replaced by the fully manifest shadow of the Candle Dragon coiling about her. Its emergence unleashed a blood-deep pressure that swept the field.
The Great Toad Sage, said to rival the Sage of Six Paths, was driven to one knee in midair, sage chakra flaring violently yet unable to break free.
"This… impossible…"
Even his voice was crushed into silence.
The collapsing Heart Cave began to mend under that pressure—rifts sealed, space repaired as though time had reversed. But no one relaxed, for black storm clouds gathered above Satsuki, heralding the awakening of something dreadful.
"A gap wider than heaven and earth," she said coldly. "Do you feel it?"
From within the clouds, colossal golden Tenseigan eyes emerged.
Swept by their gaze, the Great Toad Sage's five senses were instantly stripped away. He murmured something faint before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Only the Dragon-Headed Sage endured. Even so, its hearing and smell were ripped from it, and its lofty head was forced down, smashing the earth beneath.
"What is this power? And why… does it feel familiar?"
This was the technique Satsuki had once used with her sage puppet array—the legendary jutsu before which even the mightiest Uchiha would kneel:
Judgment of the Ten Kings · Veil of Light and Shadow.
Stripping the senses was only the prelude. Under the golden light, ultimate attraction and repulsion acted upon the dragon, nullifying every transfer of force within its body. Natural energy and refined sage chakra alike were rendered useless, its body pinned immovably.
The golden eyes slowly closed—but it was not over.
Satsuki entered Aragami Form, standing in the void between the closing eyes, arms spread. The golden irises merged into her, while eighteen Truth-Seeking Orbs aligned vertically, forming an indescribable pillar of light.
Even the Dragon-Headed Sage felt fear. The sight drew memories of the day it was beheaded.
With a defiant roar, the dragon forced cracks into its suppression, blood streaming from its eyes and nose as it summoned natural energy beyond its limits. Mountains rose and valleys sank as it clawed its way up to Satsuki's height.
But that was its limit.
The merged golden eyes opened once more, and behind Satsuki loomed a massive statue—the summoned stone image of Hamura Ōtsutsuki himself.
Before its majesty, even the Dragon-Headed Sage's vast body seemed small.
Satsuki's black hair streamed in the raging energy field as she raised both hands high. The statue mirrored her, seizing the golden light from her form. The fused powers surged skyward, piercing the heavens, then plunged down through the stars, linking heaven and earth.
"Earth Wheel Reincarnation Destruction!"
As her hands fell, so did the statue's.
The golden annihilation descended—not with chaos or thunder, but with absolute, silent finality.
All within its path was simply… gone.