Blood pooled on the uneven floor as the dust in the cavern finally settled.
Hyuga Shinichi stared down at the corpse of Otsutsuki Ryushiki. Only after his Tenseigan confirmed that the man's life force was completely extinguished did he retract his chakra, deactivating the Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
The shimmering emerald shroud vanished. Shinichi stood in the silence for a moment, carefully gauging the toll the battle had taken on his body.
He had expected the massive surge in combat power to leave him drained, perhaps even damaged—similar to the heavy burden of the Eight Inner Gates.
However, as the light faded, he felt no fatigue. Neither his mind nor his body felt the slightest bit of exhaustion. He realized then that the Tenseigan Chakra Mode was fundamentally different from techniques that forced open the body's limits. It wasn't about creating power the body shouldn't have; it was simply the refined application of his supreme ocular power.
"How formidable," he whispered, a smirk playing on his lips. "I can't even feel the ceiling of this strength yet. An opponent like that... was simply too weak to test me."
The Fallback Plan
The brief clash confirmed a vital truth: Shinichi had transcended the boundaries of a "shinobi." He had ascended to the Six Paths level, and even within that exalted tier, he stood among the elite.
His gaze drifted to the Karasuki tucked away in his spatial storage. He already knew how he would use it. If a day ever came when an enemy appeared that he truly could not defeat, he would use the turtle to slip back into the past. He would find his younger self, bestow upon him the "current" Tenseigan, and guide his past self to the moon to absorb the power of Hamura's descendants even earlier.
Such a move would essentially "stack" his power across timelines, creating a future that even the gods could not envision. But for now, he believed in the present. He would move forward one step at a time.
The Mark of the Vessel
Shinichi raised his right hand, intending to incinerate Ryushiki's remains with a blast of chakra. He froze.
In the center of his palm sat a black, diamond-shaped mark.
His eyes widened in shock. "This is... the Karma?"
He knew the lore. The Karma (Kusabi) was the ultimate insurance policy of the Otsutsuki clan. It was a digital backup of their soul and genetic data, implanted into a "vessel." Over time, the mark would "uncompress," overwriting the host's DNA until the Otsutsuki could be fully resurrected.
By killing Ryushiki, Shinichi had inadvertently become his lifeboat. He had been chosen as the vessel for a god's rebirth.
Shinichi's brow furrowed. He had accounted for almost every variable, yet he had underestimated the desperation of a lower-tier Otsutsuki. But he didn't panic. He possessed the Tenseigan and the Time Turtle; he was not a helpless victim.
"You want to hide inside me?" Shinichi's Tenseigan flared with a cold, predatory light. "Then let's see if your soul can survive the heat."
The Mental Sea
Shinichi flooded the Karma mark with his own ocular power.
Voom—
The cavern vanished. He found himself standing in a vast, deep mental plane. It was a world of endless, dark water—a silent, suffocating ocean beneath a starless sky. This was Ryushiki's consciousness.
Shinichi felt himself floating upward. As he broke the surface, he saw a desolate beach of gray sand. Perched on a massive jagged rock was the soul of Otsutsuki Ryushiki. He was staring at the dim sky, looking bored.
When Shinichi landed a few meters away, Ryushiki finally noticed him. His face, previously cold and arrogant, twisted into an expression of pure horror.
"You... how is this possible?!" Ryushiki shrieked. "How did you force your way into my mental world without my permission?!"
"I found you," Shinichi said calmly. "It seems you're not quite dead enough, you lingering ghost."
"Heh!" Ryushiki scrambled to his feet, trying to regain his composure. "So what if you found me? This is my world! I created it! Here, I am the absolute authority! Everything here belongs to me—including you!"
As he roared, the dark ocean began to churn and boil, reflecting his rage.
Shinichi didn't move. He simply intensified the output of his Tenseigan. As his pupils pulsed with light, the surging waves of Ryushiki's consciousness were forced back down into a terrifying, unnatural stillness.
Before Ryushiki could react, Shinichi vanished. A second later, his hand was clamped firmly around the soul's throat.
"Let... let go!" Ryushiki struggled, but to his horror, he found that he couldn't manipulate the reality of his own mind. He was the master of this sea, yet he was being strangled by a guest.
"What are you thinking?" Shinichi asked, his face inches from Ryushiki's. "Trying to control me? To overwrite me?"
Shinichi's smile grew razor-sharp. "Do you know what I'm thinking?"
"What... what are you..."
"I'm thinking of erasing you."
Shinichi's Tenseigan output reached its peak. The mental world began to grow searingly hot. The ocean didn't just churn; it began to evaporate into thick white clouds. Above them, the dark sky shattered, replaced by two gargantuan, glowing Tenseigan eyes that looked down like twin suns.
"No... wait! Spare me!" Ryushiki's soul began to trail white smoke as it was literally cooked by the ocular pressure.
"A Chakra Pill should have the dignity of a pill," Shinichi whispered. "You picked the wrong vessel, Ryushiki."
The twin suns in the sky erupted with blinding radiance. Under the gaze of the Tenseigan, the mental world of the Otsutsuki scout collapsed, dissolved, and turned to nothingness.
The Golden Evolution
Shinichi's eyes snapped open back in the physical cavern.
In front of him, Ryushiki's physical body had crumbled into a pile of gray ash. Shinichi looked down at his right palm.
The black diamond mark was no longer black. It had turned into a brilliant, shimmering gold. As he watched, the mark began to break apart, dissolving into his skin.
He felt a massive, violent surge of energy. It wasn't a foreign invasion; it was as if Ryushiki's entire being—his life force, his genetic data, and his vast stores of chakra—had been digested and refined by the Tenseigan.
His chakra reserves, already vast, began to expand exponentially. His ocular power climbed to a height he hadn't thought possible so soon.
"Chakra Pill..." Shinichi sighed, looking at the ashes. "What a pathetic fate. But I suppose I should thank you. Not just for the time-traveling treasure, but for this final gift of power."
In the darkness of the cavern, Shinichi's Tenseigan glowed with a light so bright it was almost blinding. He was no longer just a contender; he was becoming the very thing the Otsutsuki feared.
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