The tailed beasts, Shukaku, Matatabi, and the others, had just been separated from the Ten Tails, yet instead of scattering, they clustered together and remained close to Kaede.
They had already communicated with one another in their inner world and were fully aware of what had just happened.
Kaguya had absorbed more than half of each of their chakra, causing their bodies to shrink to nearly half their original size. With her whereabouts unknown, none of them dared to run off, no one wanted to be caught off guard and devoured by her again.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In the distance, Namikaze Minato and the others, seeing that the chaos had subsided and that the Ten Tails had split into the individual tailed beasts, snapped out of their daze and rushed over.
Kaede descended from the sky and landed on Shukaku's head.
Shukaku let out a low grumble but didn't say a word.
Minato landed nearby. He had a hundred questions he wanted to ask Kaede, but the moment he saw Kaede release his Six Paths Mode, the wind fluttering through the Fifth Hokage's ceremonial cloak on his back, most of those questions melted away.
With a somewhat nervous look, Minato asked, "Kaede… that person just now, who was she?"
Kaguya's appearance emerging from the Ten Tails hadn't seemed stronger than Uchiha Madara from what Minato could sense, but her form, and especially the things she had said, had struck him to his core.
Standing atop Shukaku's head, Kaede replied calmly, "Otsutsuki Kaguya."
"Otsutsuki… Kaguya?"
Minato frowned slightly. He had never heard that name before and looked puzzled.
At that moment, Shukaku's shrill voice rang out, "Kaguya is the Progenitor of Chakra! All of us tailed beasts were created from her. She's also the mother of the Sage of Six Paths."
The Progenitor of Chakra!
The mother of the Sage of Six Paths?!
Shukaku's words sent shockwaves through Minato's heart. Even the First Raikage and the others who had just arrived wore looks of disbelief.
"I thought the Sage of Six Paths was the founder of all ninjutsu?" the First Raikage said, unable to hold back.
Matatabi, the Two-Tails, glanced at him and explained in a deep voice, "Otsutsuki Hagoromo, what you call the Sage of Six Paths, gained his power from Kaguya. Long ago, he fought her in order to protect humanity. In the end, he sealed her away on the moon…"
Gyuki, the Eight-Tails, added, "But the moon was destroyed. Uchiha Madara obtained the Rinnegan and captured us, reviving the Ten Tails… and with it, Kaguya's will."
The First Raikage and the others were left speechless. To them, this all sounded like some mythical tale passed down through legends.
If it weren't for the undeniable might of the Ten Tails they had just witnessed with their own eyes, they wouldn't have believed a word of it.
Even now…
They still struggled to accept it.
But most shocking of all was that this mythical, godlike progenitor of chakra had fled from Kaede!
And after recalling Kaede's battle with Uchiha Madara, along with the things Madara had said, it was impossible not to arrive at a single, awe-inspiring conclusion:
Kaede had already become an existence on the same level as the Sage of Six Paths!
"The moon… was destroyed?" the First Raikage murmured. "Can humans even do something like that?"
Kurama, the Nine-Tails, poked his head halfway out of Kaede's body and said proudly, "Of course not. But Kaede is now on par with the Sage of Six Paths himself. That's a divine power far beyond any ordinary human!"
"You say that like it's your power," Shukaku muttered with a snort, clearly annoyed.
Kurama looked down at him and bared his teeth. "What, you jealous, you fat tanuki? Kaede is my Jinchuriki. Our powers are one and the same!"
"Don't get cocky, damn fox!" Shukaku snapped.
Kurama sneered. "You've already lost half your chakra and you still want to act tough in front of me? You were always the weakest."
That nearly made Shukaku explode on the spot. He roared, "Come out of Kaede's body, you damn fox! I'll show you what I'm made of!!"
"Enough."
Kaede sighed and reached out to push Kurama's head back into his body, seeing the two about to brawl.
Just then, he felt the sting in his eyes begin to fade.
The powers of the Tenseigan and the Rinnegan had finally started to fully merge.
A few seconds later,
Kaede opened his eyes.
Minato and the others, who had been watching him, locked eyes with Kaede, and in that moment, they felt a chill spread through their very souls.
His eyes were still white in outline, with deep azure pupils, but now, around the pupils, a new pattern had emerged.
It resembled the Kamui Mangekyo, but wasn't quite the same, an intricate triangular pattern shimmered in his irises, glowing with a brilliant sapphire light.
Buzz…!!
As the evolution to the Rinne-Tenseigan completed, Kaede's body was once again cloaked in a soft golden Six Paths mantle. But this time, the markings on his robes had changed even further.
"So this is… the Rinne-Tenseigan…"
Kaede muttered quietly.
He could feel that his field of vision had more than doubled. Every breeze and shift of grass within dozens of kilometers was clearly visible.
The ocular power in his eyes was now more refined and potent than ever.
This was a dojutsu that transcended the Rinnegan, on par with the third eye on Kaguya's forehead, the legendary Rinne Sharingan with nine tomoe.
Buzz!!
With a mere thought, a pitch-black spatial rift opened in front of him.
Yomotsu Hirasaka.
This was a spatial ability beyond the Tenseigan's capabilities, a higher-level technique that allowed instant spatial traversal. The distance and speed far surpassed anything the Tenseigan could achieve.
"With this kind of chakra and ocular power, I've already surpassed even the Six Paths-level Madara…"
Kaede whispered to himself.
At this point, he had stepped into the third stage of the Six Paths level, one tier below the full-power peak of Kaguya herself.
The union of the Rinnegan and the Tenseigan, along with the yin and yang energies of the Six Paths, meant that he now wielded the power of both Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Hamura!
With a single thought,
Kaede connected to the lingering chakra of the tailed beasts and instantly located Kaguya's position.
Then, his body flickered,
, and he stepped directly into the spatial rift of Yomotsu Hirasaka, vanishing from above Minato and the others as he pursued Kaguya without hesitation.
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria