Chapter 200 – Entertain Me, Lowborn
"What… is this?"
Inside the moon, the Second Elder hurriedly pulled Toneri along, fleeing through the inner passageways.
But the earth-shaking chakra roar made him falter mid-step. He couldn't understand what had just happened.
Yet, with the ground trembling and the very skies shifting color, he knew immediately—
the situation was critical.
"Grandfather… I think it's the Tenseigan."
Toneri could not see, but his senses were sharp. He spoke softly, almost in awe.
"Yes… the Tenseigan. But now is not the time to dwell on it."
The Second Elder sighed, shaking his head as he quickened his pace.
"An intruder has come. We must hide. Don't worry—it will be fine."
"But…"
Toneri wanted to argue further, but his grandfather was already pulling him away, leaving him frustrated. For what he had sensed was not the same Tenseigan.
---
Meanwhile, inside Hamura's shrine, the First Elder rushed in, face pale, voice trembling.
"What's happening with the Tenseigan? What was that overwhelming chakra just now?!"
The Third Elder whispered, voice hollow.
"It's over…"
His complexion was ashen as he turned to the First Elder.
"That man… he came for the Sealed One. And what's worse—"
"The Sealed One?!"
The First Elder's face instantly shifted. He understood the weight of those words.
"Yes. But the true calamity is…"
The Third Elder's voice cracked, but he forced himself to speak.
"He too… possesses the Tenseigan!"
The First Elder fell silent, struck speechless. Another bearer of the Tenseigan? Impossible. And yet there was no time to question it further.
With a single stride, he rushed before the giant Tenseigan, forming rapid seals.
"No matter what else—we must focus on the threat before us!"
As his chakra surged, the once-restless Tenseigan slowly began to calm under his control.
Breathing heavily, he closed his eyes in concentration. The Third Elder, though pale, followed suit, linking himself as well.
In that moment, their spirits connected with the Tenseigan.
Far away, mid-flight, Kitagawa Gen paused. His azure gaze flickered slightly—he seemed to catch sight of the two elders.
"Another one?"
He raised a brow, his voice amused.
"Yet another half-blood insect. Truly, you lowborn creatures are entertaining."
---
"Celestial one…"
The First Elder finally spoke, his tone grave. He hesitated, then continued:
"Why have you come here? What is your purpose?"
Gen only chuckled, shaking his head.
"Why waste words? You already know. Or do you think I need your permission to take what I want, lowborn?"
The word struck like a whip.
"Lowborn."
For a moment, the First Elder was stunned. Once, he had used that same word to scorn the people of the shinobi world. But now, standing here, he was the one dismissed as inferior.
Silence weighed heavy. Then, with a sigh, the elder spoke again:
"Perhaps, to you, we truly are lowborn. But—"
Suddenly his hands flashed into new seals.
The massive Tenseigan before him exploded with power, releasing a tidal wave of chakra.
"—no matter the cost, we will stop you!"
---
The shrine trembled.
Outside, Gen tilted his head as if intrigued. The floating isles around him cracked and shattered.
Stone gathered, merging together—until a colossal figure emerged, towering like a mountain.
The "Ancestor Statue."
Its face was aged and solemn, with magatama engraved across its chest.
The moment it saw Gen, its massive hand swung down.
Boom!
The moon itself shook. The impact sent shockwaves tearing through its interior, dust and rubble erupting in a maelstrom. Even within the shrine, the two elders staggered under the backlash.
"It worked?"
The Third Elder's voice was trembling with hope. But the First Elder's face turned pale.
Through the Tenseigan, they saw it clearly—
Kitagawa Gen had caught the strike head-on.
And worse—
the Ancestor Statue's massive arm had shattered.
Gen himself stood untouched, as though nothing had happened.
---
"Not bad."
Gen looked up at the statue and nodded in faint approval.
Its strength was comparable to, perhaps greater than, a tailed beast.
More importantly—
under the Tenseigan's control, it could repair itself.
That piqued his interest.
If it's a Tenseigan construct… can I seize control of it myself?
Boom!
As the thought crossed his mind, he moved. Forced, the elders made the statue lunge as well.
Two forces of crushing repulsion slammed together, echoing like thunder.
Power rippled outward, plunging the moon's interior into chaos.
Even the artificial sun hanging in the skies flickered unsteadily, light sputtering under the strain.
The titanic clash shook every floating island, collapsing entire chains of landmass—including the one holding Hamura's shrine.
And then, the moon itself began to tremble.
---
"Ahh, the moonlight sure is beautiful tonight."
Back on Earth, Naruto lay with his hands behind his head, staring at the sky, his mood unreasonably bright.
Sure, he had been nagged by his parents all day, even beaten inside his own mindscape by his fiery mother.
But still, his smile refused to fade.
The joy was real, overflowing.
"And even Gen was decent today. Didn't trick me once. But… I'll definitely pay him back next time."
Naruto muttered to himself. Kushina had told him this, and he fully agreed—it was necessary.
After all, thanks to Gen, he had met his parents for real.
"Naruto! Time for bed!"
Kushina's voice rang in his head again.
"If you don't want to sleep, then train like Gen instead! Look at you—then look at him! Do you even realize how far behind you are?!"
"..."
Naruto pouted. Even in her happiness, why did Mom always compare him to Kitagawa Gen?
"Fine, I get it. I'll sleep now."
But as he said so, he frowned suddenly.
"Huh? That's weird…"
"What is it?" Minato's voice sounded, alert as ever, worried about Obito's shadow.
Naruto didn't answer right away. He stared at the moon for a long moment before whispering:
"Why… does it feel like the moon is moving?"
And indeed, he wasn't the only one.
On Hokage Rock, Sarutobi Hiruzen and the Senju brothers watched the night sky intently.
"There's chakra disturbance… faint but undeniable. What's happening to the moon?"
Senju Hashirama's brows furrowed tightly; something felt terribly wrong. Hiruzen Sarutobi gave a grave nod.
"Indeed… the moon itself seems to be moving."
"No matter what's going on, we can't ignore this," Tobirama said after a brief moment of thought. His voice was low, but decisive.
"Have the shinobi of the village prepare at once. Something major is about to happen."
Meanwhile, deep inside Konoha, another figure stood frozen, staring up at the heavens with a troubled expression. His voice came out in a hushed whisper.
"Not good… there's something happening with the moon. Could it be him?!"
Across the Shinobi World, countless others began to sense the anomaly as well—the moon's tremors were simply too obvious to ignore.
And on the moon itself, Kitagawa Gen's battle continued.
Facing the colossal Ancestor Statue, even he found the struggle troublesome—not because of its strength, but because seizing full control over it was far more difficult than he anticipated.
"As I thought… this level of Tenseigan is still too inferior. Against that behemoth, I'm still just a step short of wresting control."
He weighed his options silently as the Ancestor Statue let out another furious roar, charging to attack again.
"Well… if I can't take it, there's no point wasting time. Besides, I've finished warming up. In that case—"
His lips curved slightly as he tilted his head. The chakra prayer beads in his hand suddenly burst into radiant light.
"Elder," the Third Elder said solemnly inside the Hamura Shrine, his voice heavy with resolve,
"lend me the full power of the Tenseigan. We must invoke its ultimate strength. Only then do we stand a chance—"
"You're certain?" the Great Elder interrupted sharply, staring at him with visible hesitation.
"If you do this, you'll die!"
"We're already at the end of our years," the Third Elder replied calmly, though his body trembled—whether from fear or exhilaration, even he didn't know.
"To die fighting is far better than withering away. That arrogant intruder must be made to pay. I'll pin him down, and you'll support me. Only then… can we hope to win!"
"Win?"
But before the words could fully settle, Kitagawa Gen's voice rang inside their minds, cold and mocking.
"I'm curious… how will you lowly creatures struggle? Very well then—"
BOOM!
A deafening roar tore through the moon.
An overwhelming force ignited the very air, rending space itself apart. In an instant, a blinding light flared across the entire lunar interior, flooding everything in its path.
The explosion smothered the artificial sun of the moon, plunging the vast space into suffocating darkness. Only a searing ember of fire remained—compressed, restrained, yet brimming with apocalyptic destruction.
In the blink of an eye, that ember erupted outward in a silent tidal wave of fire and light, consuming everything nearby.
The Ancestor Statue was caught within the blast. Its towering form shattered instantly, crumbling into fragments. Even the chakra of the Tenseigan could not reconstitute it.
The moon itself quaked violently, as if on the brink of collapse.
And in the midst of that chaos—where darkness and fire intertwined—an awe-inspiring radiance began to gather. A blazing chakra light, divine and terrible, rose high above the devastation.
In that moment, Kitagawa Gen hovered there like a god descending into a dying world. His voice echoed, calm yet merciless:
"Now… amuse me, you lowly creatures."