"So they've emerged from Amenominaka."
As he watched Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and Yuki Yoru reappear on the battlefield, the Sage of Six Paths narrowed his Rinnegan, his gaze shifting between the two. After just one look, his brows furrowed, and the longer he observed, the deeper the frown became.
"Mother is not Yoru's match," whispered Ōtsutsuki Hamura. "Yuki Yoru wields power equal to hers—and in terms of ocular techniques, he may even surpass her."
Kaguya's strength was overwhelming to all who lived in the shinobi world. Not only because she was an Ōtsutsuki—a "higher lifeform"—but also because she was the progenitor of chakra itself, the root of all shinobi power.
But compared to the rest of the Ōtsutsuki clan, Kaguya's power was paltry.
Thus, now that Yoru's energy rivaled hers—and he wielded both Ōtsutsuki ocular powers and the dominion of the soul—his advantage in battle was only natural!
"Hey, you two," said Gamamaru, unable to hold back, "are you really just going to sit there and watch your own mother be defeated by Yoru? If he triumphs over the Rabbit Goddess, he surely won't let such power slip away. That doesn't align with your plan to 'take your mother's power for yourselves,' does it?"
"You talk too much, Gamamaru," Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo said with a sidelong glance.
Of course he knew what would happen if his mother lost. The Ōtsutsuki were immortal, but from what he had learned from the remnants left behind by Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, he already knew the clan's secret.
He didn't know whether his mother had left behind a Karma. But even if she had, during the period of her revival, Yoru would inevitably seize much of the shinobi world's power. Whether there was a Kārma or not hardly mattered.
Logically, the correct move would be to reveal himself now, join forces with his mother, and fight Yoru together. But for maximizing benefit, it was the wrong choice.
Better to wait. Let his mother and Yoru wear each other down. If both could be badly wounded, all the better. Even if not, he could use Yoru to sap as much of his mother's power as possible—so that he himself could seize it more easily.
What's that? You think this behavior is outrageously unfilial?
Don't be ridiculous. You're talking about "family bonds" to the greatest sons of filial piety in the shinobi world—the Six Paths brothers?
The brothers fell silent, simply watching quietly.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Yoru and Kaguya had already clashed once again.
"You're like a child holding a deadly weapon—you have all that power, yet you can't truly wield it."
Yoru's black blade fell. A pale, jade-like arm, flawless and delicate, was severed, dispersing into raw chakra as it vanished into the air.
Only after the wound appeared did Kaguya lash out, a blade of chakra bursting from her palm toward Yoru.
But how could such an attack ever touch him?
"On the surface, you and I look equal. But there is a gap between us that can never be erased."
Yoru reappeared in the distance, walking slowly toward her. Kaguya's face remained expressionless, but hidden in her sleeve, Black Zetsu felt an inexplicable terror crawl through him.
Damn it, I've developed a phobia of Yoru!
"Mother, don't face him head-on!" Black Zetsu's thoughts wavered, but he quickly steadied himself and spoke urgently: "Let me help you, Mother."
As Yoru had said, though Kaguya possessed unfathomable chakra, her combat experience was practically nonexistent.
If this power had been bestowed upon Uchiha Madara or another true powerhouse, they could have unleashed one hundred and twenty percent of their terrifying might—battling Yuki Yoru for three days and nights straight—instead of falling behind after just a brief clash and already showing signs of defeat.
Faced with the "third child's" suggestion, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya said nothing, but a streak of black appeared across her pure white body.
Black Zetsu: Possession!
"Don't think you can just win this war so easily, Yuki Yoru!" Black Zetsu's grating voice rang out as Kaguya's long hair flared wildly. No longer conserving chakra, she erupted with immense power:
"Bow before Mother's power! All-Killing Ash Bones: Hail!"
With a flick of her delicate hand, countless bone arrows appeared all around Yoru, each infused with eerie chakra. Even he would suffer severe damage if struck.
"How interesting… so you've finally logged in properly."
A vast Holy Wall of spirit particles appeared around Yuki Yoru's body. From the barriers of Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger, countless tiny, dense Heilig Pfeil shot forth, intercepting all of the All-Killing Ash Bones.
"You've schemed across the shinobi world for a thousand years, even priding yourself on carrying Uchiha Madara's will—the so-called Shura of the shinobi world. But how much of his essence do you truly possess?"
"Enough to deal with you!"
The hair behind Kaguya Ōtsutsuki erupted into countless dense, needle-like spikes, sweeping toward Yuki Yoru like a tidal wave.
The instant the white hair, like a torrential downpour, surged forward, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's palm also gave a slight push, mixing several All-Killing Ash Bones into the multitude of Rabbit Hair Needles!
Yuki Yoru smoothly dodged, avoiding all the incoming attacks, while simultaneously swinging the black blade in his hand to cut through those few All-Killing Ash Bones.
After doing all that, his figure instantly appeared in front of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. But this time, what awaited him was not the dull Kaguya Ōtsutsuki standing still and waiting to be cut, but a Truth-Seeking Orb glowing with seven colors!
"Expansive Truth-Seeking Orb!"
The sphere that sealed the power of all creation—summoning a black mass of chaos that could erase all existence, return the world to nothing, and serve as the origin of a new space!
Before Yoru, the orb swelled rapidly, radiating an overwhelming aura of annihilation.
"Die, Yuki Yoru!"
"You're far too naïve, Black Zetsu."
The Expansive Truth-Seeking Orb shone brilliantly, containing unimaginable chakra meant to destroy Yoru once and for all.
But just as it was about to erupt, Yoru suddenly raised his left hand. The expanding sphere seemed to malfunction, its chakra draining away in torrents until, moments later, it was completely exhausted.
"Take it back."
In Yoru's palm, a pitch-black chakra sphere of blinding radiance condensed, slamming directly into Kaguya's body.
"Dammit, an energy explosion of this level... We must move to another dimension first, otherwise..." Black Zetsu's mind raced. A dark spatial rift appeared behind her.
But at that very moment, a vast beam of chakra light descended, striking the rift and sealing it shut, even closing off Kaguya's unique dimensional passage.
Black Zetsu's face twisted in shock, and at the same time Kaguya herself regained control of her body. She raised her head, her Byakugan's all-seeing gaze already locking onto the two sage-like figures descending from the sky.
"Hagoromo… Hamura…"
A murmur escaped Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's lips, and tears streamed from her eyes.
No one could understand the mixture of feelings she had at this moment.
This was the second time—yet compared to the first, her heart was even colder, even more pained.
If she had never given birth to Hagoromo and Hamura, none of this would have happened. She would not have been sealed for a thousand years, nor would she have suffered betrayal after betrayal at the hands of her own flesh and blood!
But the world has no "ifs."
In the next instant, the terrifying energy of the Expansive Truth-Seeking Orb erupted violently upon her body, engulfing her completely.
A dreadful scene unfolded: a flicker of black light burst forth, and space itself began to collapse. Chaotic energy poured out from the rift, and the world could no longer withstand the explosion of such magnitude!
Even Kaguya was gravely wounded under this power. Though her body was rapidly repairing under the blessing of chakra, a figure above raised his staff and tapped the void.
The forces of Yin Release and Yang Release descended from the heavens, covering Kaguya's body—yet also enveloping Yuki Yoru.
The interplay of Yin and Yang Release formed a subtle magnetic barrier.
Under its influence, the chakra within Kaguya began to stiffen and freeze, even the "Eye of the Moon" at her brow slowly closing. And within the barrier, even Yoru's spiritual power was being gradually suppressed.
"Interesting… You're trying to swallow the whole feast in one bite, aren't you, you old Six Paths dog."
Yoru looked up at the two brothers in the sky, grinning.
"But aren't you underestimating me just a little too much?"
He didn't bother resisting the barrier Hagoromo had created, nor did he rush up to fight the Six Paths brothers. Instead, he simply raised his hand and drove it into Kaguya's immobilized back, devouring her chakra in a frenzy.
"How dare you!" The Sage of Six Paths snorted angrily, slamming his staff down onto the void. The power of Yin and Yang, like divine punishment, tore through space as it fell.
The intensity of this power wasn't overwhelmingly strong, roughly on par with Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's previous attacks. However, an attack released from the hands of the Sage of Six Paths was an entirely different concept compared to one from Kaguya.
Yoru, however, showed no fear. He had long known the old dog was lurking, coveting in the shadows. Now with Kaguya restrained by both himself and the Six Paths' power, she was nothing but a feast laid out before him.
If he could consume this feast, his realm would break through once more, reaching a level far beyond the Sage of Six Paths!
The black blade coalesced in his palm. With a single swing, heaven and earth trembled, space shattered in layers beneath his immense spiritual power, colliding violently with Hagoromo's Yin-Yang power.
The two forces clashed fiercely in midair, only to cancel each other out and scatter.
The Sage of Six Paths, staff in hand, prepared to strike again. Yoru gripped his black blade, spiritual power surging.
But suddenly, his expression twisted into something strange.
Then, before the Sage of Six Paths' eyes, Yoru seized Kaguya's shoulder, and with a ripple of space—vanished.
"This—!"
Gamamaru's expression turned urgent, and even Ōtsutsuki Hamura looked at the Sage of Six Paths in shock.
"Brother, you…"
"First, return to the Pure Land!"
The Sage of Six Paths' face darkened, his tone nearly grinding with fury. His staff struck the space before him in rapid succession. In the next moment, the surrounding world shifted, and the three of them were wrenched from the living realm back into the gray, misty Pure Land.
But the sight that greeted them made their expressions sink into something far worse.
The once-dim Pure Land was now flooded with dazzling, chaotic radiance. Energies of all kinds—natural energy, soul energy, mental energy, and chakra—wove together in a wild, tangled storm.
These powers, disordered and uncontrolled, filled the entire realm, painting what was once a gray world into something fractured and distorted.
The blood-colored river that once brimmed with souls now bore not a single spirit. Instead, only scattered remnants of soul fragments floated there—the debris left behind when souls were shattered!
Following the river upward, their eyes fell on what should have been the mountain temple where the Six Paths brothers had long cultivated. It was gone—erased. The warped space there bore silent testimony to the devastation of whatever had struck.
Everything before them told the brothers one undeniable truth: the Pure Land had been destroyed.
"This is impossible!" Gamamaru exclaimed, stunned. "Even Yuki Yoru couldn't have done something like this without us noticing! Who could've done this?!"
This Pure Land was the Six Paths brothers' thousand-year-old sanctuary. Even if Gamamaru himself entered, he would be detected immediately.
And yet, someone had slipped beneath the Six Paths' very noses, invaded this Pure Land, and reduced it to such a state. How could that be possible?!
"Was it Yuki Yoru?" Gamamaru asked instinctively, but quickly dismissed the thought. Yoru had been locked in battle in the living world the entire time.
"It was Ōtsutsuki Isshiki."
The Sage of Six Paths lifted his staff. A faint trace of chakra drifted into his hand—familiar, unmistakable.
It was the unique chakra of the Ten-Tails. The same as the residual traces he had once felt in Isshiki's own personal space.
The ruined Pure Land swirled with broken, chaotic energies, its fractured glow casting shifting colors across the Sage's grim face—red one moment, green the next.
The destruction of the Pure Land meant that the soul-chakra he had safeguarded here for a thousand years was now utterly gone.
It also meant that his absolute control over the situation had suffered a devastating breach.
A lifetime spent as the hawk… only to have his eyes pecked out by sparrows in the end.