Ryosuke crushed Toneri's Tenseigan, cutting off any possibility of him continuing to control the stone giant.
"What was that sound?" Hyuga Hiashi asked.
For no reason at all, his heart skipped a beat.
Young Hinata hesitated, not knowing how to speak.
Seeing no one respond, Hiashi laughed freely. "Looks like things are a bit complicated. It's fine, once Ryosuke defeats Toneri and takes back my eyes, everything will return to normal."
The looks everyone gave Hyuga Hiashi were filled with pity.
The Tenseigan was a good thing. Even if Ryosuke didn't use it, he could still return it to Hiashi later.
The real problem was that, judging from the last time Toneri controlled puppets to attack the ninja world, it could be inferred that Toneri possessed the ability to remotely control the Tenseigan.
Whether he did it through puppets or some kind of connection between Tenseigan, Ryosuke was unwilling to gamble on any possibility just for a pair of eyes, giving Toneri a chance to turn the tables.
One thing Toneri said was right. Whether it was the power of the three sages, or the tens of thousands of golden meteors coming from the ninja world, none of these were forces that could last very long. Over time, they would gradually dissipate.
Ryosuke could not betray the will of the three sages, nor the faith of the billions of humans in the ninja world.
So…
"Accept the ending you deserve."
Golden meteors smashed down, crushing the last stone giant into powder.
Toneri's limbs and abdomen were beaten into minced flesh. His eyes were blinded, his ears sliced off by golden meteors, his nose bridge shattered, and his mouth split open in a gash that ran all the way to the base of his ears.
The fear of death swallowed Toneri whole.
He roared in Ryosuke's direction.
"Enough! Stop! I'm not fighting anymore!"
Along with the roar, the last remaining trace of Tenseigan chakra in Toneri's abdomen detonated, kicking up a massive cloud of rubble and dust and blasting him away.
More than a hundred black-robed puppets rushed into the battlefield. Their task was not to attack Ryosuke, but to confuse him. If one looked closely, they would notice that every puppet had the same face,
Toneri's face.
He planned to escape in the chaos.
These puppets definitely couldn't beat Ryosuke head-on, but with such overwhelming numbers, Ryosuke would need time to tell them apart, giving him a chance to slip away.
As for Hinata… he could only wrong her for now. Once he was safe, he would find a chance to come back for her.
Thinking this, Toneri cautiously waited for Ryosuke's attack, but found that the entire escape process was unusually smooth.
Aside from a few unlucky ones that happened to fly toward Ryosuke and were smashed apart and fell, the rest of the puppets vanished without a trace.
Toneri hid inside one of the puppets, flying continuously in one direction until his last bit of chakra was exhausted. Only then did he stop, gasping for breath.
Extreme exhaustion and severe injuries caused a brief ringing in his ears, yet a smile appeared on his face.
He escaped.
He finally escaped from that demon's grasp.
"What's he doing?"
Naruto's muttering came from afar, clearly reaching Toneri's ears. "He's been spinning around in the same place since just now."
'Spinning… in place?!'
Toneri's hair stood on end. His whole body plunged into icy terror. He was blind and couldn't see anything, and could only rely on the Otsutsuki clan's unique chakra-sensing technique to perceive the outside world.
'Ryosuke!'
'Ryosuke… where is he?'
Toneri sensed carefully.
Not in front.
Not behind either.
Could it be…
Toneri slowly raised his head toward above...
Crack!
A hand brutally pierced into the puppet, grabbing Toneri by the neck like a dead dog and yanking him out of the warm, cramped, reassuring puppet shell.
Confusing the enemy?
Splitting up and escaping?
Had Toneri never heard of the name "Hermit Purple"?
Let alone Toneri, even Otsutsuki Isshiki had spoken of it with fear, daring not to touch even a sliver of its karmic ties. It was a terrifying Stand.
All the puppets lunged about, weaving left and right, drifting and diving, while Ryosuke simply stood quietly in midair. Hermit Purple locked onto Toneri's true body hiding below.
When all the puppets scattered, Ryosuke used New Moon to lock onto Toneri's true body and set up a gravitational field.
Toneri thought he was flying forward, but in reality, he was trapped like in a ghostly maze, circling around in place again and again, until he was completely exhausted and Ryosuke grabbed him.
"Ryosuke! I already said it, I surrender! You're strong, I admit it, I know I was wrong!"
"I don't want to wipe out humanity anymore!"
"From now on, Hinata and I will just live our lives properly, stay on the moon, and go nowhere else. For the sake of me being the last member of the Otsutsuki clan, you… you let me go!"
Ryosuke slowly lifted Toneri in front of him, staring into those empty eye sockets.
Behind them, Naruto heard Toneri's words and was so angry that he crawled out from cover, about to rush over and punch him.
At a time like this, he still wouldn't forget about Hinata. Wasn't this pure perversion?
Naruto had only run halfway when he suddenly heard Ryosuke speak calmly, "I've thought about it, and you're right."
"I defeated you using the power of the three sages and all the people of the ninja world. So it shouldn't be up to me to decide whether you live or die. Your fate should be handed over to them."
Them?
Toneri sensed a terrifying pressure coming from the sky.
The golden meteors.
Toneri remembered how the seemingly invincible stone giant had been shattered by those countless stars. Handing judgment over to them was basically sentencing him to death.
"Wait, Ryosuke, I..."
Before Toneri could finish, Ryosuke gave a light toss and threw him away.
The golden meteors hovering in midair howled down, smashing heavily into Toneri. He clenched his teeth, waiting for pain and death to descend, but…
Warmth.
There was no imagined agony. The golden meteors were healing his body.
"Hah!"
Toneri understood.
The golden meteors, when it came down to it, were nothing more than lifeless things. They mechanically carried out the wishes of billions in the ninja world,
bringing warmth, healing wounds, radiating light, resisting enemies, and so on.
Because he had lost the Tenseigan and exhausted all his chakra, the golden meteors mistook him for an ordinary human and chose to heal his body.
"This is humanity's choice! Ryosuke, you have to let me go, this is what you said yourself!"
Ryosuke stood with his hands behind his back and nodded slightly.
"I did say that."
Wild joy erupted in Toneri's heart.
He survived.
As long as he was alive, there was hope.
Whether it was seeking revenge against Ryosuke, or, as Toneri had said, marrying Hinata, having children, and continuing the Otsutsuki bloodline.
A smile crept onto his face as he said, "Ryosuke, that's enough. My injuries are healed. Call back these golden meteors."
Ryosuke looked down at Toneri, who was now covered layer by layer in golden crystals, and let out a soft laugh, speaking without any extra emotion,
"You seem to have misunderstood something."
"From just now on, as far as I'm concerned, this battle has already ended. What's happening now is humanity's judgment of you."
"You might not understand, but in today's ninja world, even the most heinous criminal will have their life protected before the real judgment begins."
Ryosuke stepped back, allowing more golden meteors to fall. Their outer glow faded, returning to golden crystals formed of Ripple and senjutsu, layering over Toneri until he was completely sealed inside.
"Since you say you're fully healed…"
"Then please proceed to the execution ground."
Wrapped in golden crystals, Toneri slowly floated upward.
Toneri had guessed correctly.
The golden meteors resonated with the minds of billions in the ninja world, forming a pure collective consciousness. That was why they foolishly healed Toneri and radiated light outward.
But if one were to ask what humanity's true wish was under the shroud of eternal night, it was to once again embrace the sunlight.
Encased in golden crystal, Toneri flew into the vast universe, toward something one hundred and fifty million kilometers away... the blazing sun.
Toneri, who had called humans inferior creatures, was trapped within the golden crystal like an insect frozen in amber.
Toneri, who had created absolute darkness and tried to imprison humanity in eternal night and winter, now headed for the sun, waiting to one day be burned to charcoal.
"Farewell."
Ryosuke waved at Toneri, turned around, and left without another glance…
Not even sparing a look at Toneri's despairing face pressed against the golden crystal.
A system notification chimed in Ryosuke's ear.
[Acquired ownership of the Moon. Obtained one Ascension Star Core.]
[Defeated Otsutsuki Toneri (Tenseigan Mode). Obtained 3300 Soul Fragments…]
[Obtained one Resonance Speaker.]