Toneri never expected that the two women who looked rather unimposing would possess such terrifying combat power.
One of them even carried the Uchiha bloodline—and had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Judging from that alone, it seemed likely these two were actually the main force of the entire team.
And thinking about it, that made sense. After all, in this grave-digging squad, there was a kindly old man, a short and androgynous midget, a blind guy in a trench coat and sunglasses, and an electrician still fiddling with the lighting system on the spot...
Hmm. If anyone here looked like they could actually fight, it would be that big fat guy who kept his head down working.
With that thought, Toneri immediately ordered the puppets besieging Kushina and Hikari to keep them restrained, while the rest went after the grave-digging team.
At this moment, under Choza and the others' relentless digging, Takeshi's group had already excavated most of the tomb.
Feeling that they had collected enough samples, Takeshi signaled everyone to stop, intending to continue exploring the ruins and see if they could find a path leading to Toneri's palace.
Just then, Sarutobi Hiruzen—who had looked so kind moments ago—suddenly grew serious.
He reached into his ninja pouch, pulled out several shuriken, and hurled them toward the tunnel they had entered from.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
Countless shuriken filled the air, embedding themselves into one of the puppets that was just about to strike.
As soon as Hiruzen acted, everyone immediately caught on and rushed toward the entrance together.
They had to get away from this position fast—if the enemy seized the high ground, they'd be the ones lying in the very graves they'd just dug.
"Partial Expansion Technique!"
Choza took the lead, slamming his enlarged fist into the entrance, forcefully widening what had only been a narrow passage for one person.
As Yamato dashed out last, the group finally made it back to the surface.
The moment they emerged, they saw countless puppets already occupying the higher ground, lunging toward them in a flood.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Hiruzen formed seals, raising a wall of earth before deftly dodging the puppet's strike and counterkicking it away.
"They're puppets!"
The distinct impact underfoot made Hiruzen instantly recognize what they were facing.
"Got it!"
Hearing that the enemies were indeed puppets, as he had suspected, Takeshi immediately unleashed his most devastating mass-scale jutsu for clearing fodder.
Skeletal soldiers burst forth from the icy mist, brandishing weapons as they clashed fiercely with the puppets.
Several puppets attempting long-range attacks were pierced through by archers' arrows and tumbled to the ground.
"You are... Hyūga Hizashi."
Just as the battle between puppets and skeletons reached its peak, Hyūga Hizashi suddenly sensed someone behind him.
He spun around quickly—only to see a young man with tightly closed eyes standing silently behind him.
"Who are you?"
Instinctively, Hizashi threw a punch, but Toneri narrowly avoided it.
"You can see him?"
Hearing Hizashi's voice, Takeshi turned and caught sight of Toneri—the man with no eyes.
"Hmph."
Toneri snorted, showing no intention of explaining anything to this androgynous-looking weirdo.
Although he lacked eyeballs, he could project chakra onto his forehead to perceive the world around him.
Moreover, when he was a child, under his father's guidance, he had repeatedly visited Konoha to secretly observe Hyūga Hinata's every move.
Even more notably, his father had long been pushing him to marry Hinata.
"What a cold bastard. Take this!"
Seeing Toneri's silence, Takeshi decided not to bother with more words. He flicked a Flying Raijin kunai and rushed in to exchange blows.
Members of the Ōtsutsuki clan were gifted in taijutsu. Despite Takeshi's swift assault, Toneri remained composed, standing his ground as he engaged in close combat.
"Rasengan!"
Using the Flying Raijin to teleport to Toneri's side, Takeshi aimed a Rasengan straight for his kidney.
Toneri suddenly raised his leg and kicked Takeshi's arm, trying to redirect the Rasengan's trajectory.
But Takeshi vanished again, reappearing behind Toneri.
This guy shouldn't have chakra absorption abilities—a direct Rasengan hit should cause significant damage.
The Rasengan howled as it struck—but hit nothing.
Toneri had taken to the air just before impact, easily avoiding the blow.
Tough opponent.
Takeshi had no flight ability.
And the scientific ninja tools they had used for flight earlier had been dismantled and stored away in a scroll.
"Go, Enma!"
Just as Takeshi was about to find an opening to reattach his flying equipment, Hiruzen's furious roar drew his attention.
At some point, Hiruzen had already summoned Enma and transformed him into the Adamantine Staff, extending it toward Toneri with great force.
Toneri hadn't expected the seemingly amiable old man to strike so fiercely—caught off guard, he was impaled on the spot.
However, instead of blood and flesh, the "wound" revealed something else entirely.
As Toneri's body hit the ground, everyone realized—it was merely a puppet disguised as him.
With the puppet destroyed, the remaining puppets immediately disengaged and withdrew from the battlefield.
"This guy knew you," Hiruzen said, canceling his summoning and smiling cheerfully at Hizashi.
Of course, Hizashi didn't believe for a second that the Third Hokage's smile was sincere.
He quickly waved his hands in denial, stammering,
"Third-sama, I really don't know him! You know, I'm just from the branch family. All those ancient legends and such—that's all stuff handled by the main house."
Although the branch system had been abolished, the branch members had never been allowed to study the old family records. And once the division ended, none of them had any interest in doing so.
"So you're saying... Hiashi's been keeping secrets from us, huh?"
Takeshi added with a cheerful grin.
"Uh... probably... yeah?"
Facing the matching smiles of two Hokage, Hizashi decided to follow the golden rule—better the elder brother die than the younger one.
He pushed all the blame onto Hiashi without hesitation.
"I didn't wrong my brother anyway! I really had no idea about any of this!"
Hizashi comforted himself inwardly.