HSU: Ch. 305

Seeing another barrage of overwhelming chakra fists incoming, Masashi stopped wasting time talking. With his chakra fully in place, he directly dismantled the attacks.

At this moment, he had reached the pinnacle of ninja power in this era. With the full support of four tailed beasts and the Rinnegan, he stood on par with legends like Hashirama, and Madara before he became the Ten-Tails jinchūriki.

Though he couldn't match the version of Naruto and Sasuke who encountered Hagoromo in the original timeline, and reached full Six Paths level directly, he had something they lacked, completeness.

Naruto possessed a Six Paths-level Sage Body, but lacked an equally powerful dōjutsu. Thus, when facing Kaguya and her ultimate chakra + visual technique combination, the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, he could resist, but the disparity in insight meant he couldn't sustain it for long.

Sasuke, conversely, had Six Paths-level eye powers but no matching Sage Body. As a result, he fared even worse, getting knocked down like a child with just a few hits. Only after he forcibly controlled eight and a half tailed beasts did he finally patch that weakness.

In theory, Naruto at that stage definitely couldn't beat Masashi. But the Nine-Tails was an outlier among the tailed beasts, it could use senjutsu techniques, which evened the playing field.

Aware that side characters couldn't afford to be one-dimensional, Masashi chose from the beginning to "have it all." Against Kaguya, who couldn't unleash her true power, he was at least able to fight her evenly.

But an even fight could take many forms.

From Tobirama's perspective, what he saw was very different from Masashi's. Each time a differently-colored chakra fist flew by, it stripped away a layer of earth from the surrounding ground.

When two chakra forces collided, it was like an explosion of Yasaka Magatama. Blinding light repeatedly flashed across the land, stirring up hurricanes and shaking the earth, with booming sounds echoing nonstop.

This battle was no less intense than the legendary fight between Hashirama and Madara. Back then, he too had only been able to watch from afar, unable to get close.

As Tobirama once again widened the distance between himself and the battlefield, he sighed internally. He wanted to help, but couldn't get involved.

Forget the fact that he was in an Edo Tensei state, even if he were alive, there was nothing he could do.

He was a technical-type ninja, not a brute-force fighter. Otherwise, back in the day, it wouldn't have been only Hashirama who could fight Madara.

It felt terrible to be the burden. The sense of loss was even sharper.

But so be it. He was already a dead man.

With one last look at the Susanoo, standing firm and immovable in the middle of the raging chakra storm, he teleported away using Flying Thunder God.

He had to find his brother to prevent the battle from spilling into the village. As for Madara, there was no need to look for him. That battle maniac would definitely be drawn to this clash.

Tobirama's departure didn't distract the two combatants.

It couldn't. And honestly, it was a bit painful to admit, but at this level, tactical masters like Tobirama and his technical contemporaries simply had no influence. The gap in raw power was too great. No amount of strategy could make up for it.

With the Rinnegan's chakra perception, Masashi could clearly track the flow of Kaguya's chakra. And with the malicious intent sensing from Kurama, he could pinpoint each and every strike of her Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack.

Among the nine tailed beasts, each had unique powers, some borderline useless, but the Nine-Tails was definitely not among the weak. Its malice detection was arguably one of the greatest sensory abilities in the shinobi world.

The Nine-Tails, who loved to call itself a "mass of hatred" in front of jinchūriki, was, in truth, an entity that contained the malice of the world. If someone with a more sentimental personality heard that, they might actually be moved to tears.

Kaguya, controlling Hanabi's body, was extremely agile. She closed in on Susanoo, unleashing dozens of punches in a single breath.

Masashi's chakra fists, created from tailed beast chakra, glowed golden, but Susanoo's form at this moment had turned brown.

Suddenly, octopus-like tentacles rose from Susanoo's body. Some wrapped around its structure like armor; others reached out to intercept the incoming chakra fists. But the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack was a supernatural taijutsu technique developed by Kaguya herself, who wasn't naturally skilled in close combat, to compensate for her vulnerability and deliver devastating offense.

It was a technique unique to her, and under modern chakra classifications, it would be considered part of bloodline encompassing.

Even in a weakened state, it was still Six Paths level.

Though the tentacles moved quickly, against the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, they disintegrated upon contact, swept away like dust.

All dozens of chakra fists landed on the tentacle-armored Susanoo. And just like that, a scene straight from a playground brawl was recreated. The massive Susanoo was shattered on the spot, blown into pieces that scattered in every direction.

Yet in Kaguya's eyes, Masashi had disappeared. His form dissolved like a bubble before her eyes.

Then, the Totsuka Sword came slashing down from the sky, nearly cutting through the chakra defense formed by the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack.

Susanoo reappeared, on Kaguya's left side.

As for the fragments from the Susanoo she just destroyed? They transformed into shredded octopus tentacles, dissipating into the air.

Whether a technique was useless or not depended entirely on the situation and the opponent.

She looked at this chakra that once belonged to her, now being used against her, and her heart surged with rage and resentment. To the people of this planet, she was undoubtedly a fearsome figure. But to her children, she had always believed she fulfilled her role as a mother, loving them sincerely and taking full responsibility.

Yet, her children had turned against her for the sake of outsiders. They even went so far as to create the nine tailed beasts just to prevent her from reclaiming her chakra.

She never wanted to harm them, she only wanted to subdue them.

Did they hate her this much? Why could they harm their own mother without hesitation?

In that moment, the Susanoo in front of her seemed to overlap with the figures of her children from a thousand years ago. The multi-colored chakra radiating from it told her one thing: she was a failed mother.

"I... will not repeat the same mistake again," Kaguya whispered to herself.

Under her chakra's enhancement, Hanabi's Byakugan was forcibly amplified to a level it should never have reached.

If you had to say what the main difference between Byakugan and Sharingan was, perhaps it was that the Sharingan had a much more "show-offy" vibe. After all, whether it was high-end or low-end, it all looked the same. But now, under the influence of Kaguya's chakra, Hanabi's Byakugan seemed to begin undergoing some unusual transformation.

How far the potential of the Byakugan could go was hard to say, it varied from person to person. Generally speaking, the more singular a dōjutsu's function was, the harder it was to have a high upper limit.

Kaguya was someone positioned at the very top from the beginning in the shinobi world. After consuming the chakra fruit, she incorporated the power of the God Tree's ocular abilities by opening a third eye.

Whether her Byakugan changed in that process was unknown. But it was certain that her Byakugan was at least several folds stronger than the current Hyūga clan's.

From Madara's perspective, he could sense that her insight was still steadily increasing.

Konoha's enemies were no strangers to ocular dōjutsu. In every war Konoha fought, the Hyūga clan was a standard force. And the Hyūga would always used their Byakugan to make a statement, "Don't bother hiding. I can see everything at a glance."

The Sharingan was well known, but if you let the other ninja villages outside Konoha choose between the two, they would pick the Byakugan. And they'd acted on that preference too. After all, the Byakugan only enhanced a village's strength without destabilizing its internal power structure.

The Sharingan was a different story. Yes, it was incredibly powerful and could disrupt external balance, but it also disturbed internal organizational harmony.

Take Fugaku's visit to the Hyūga as an example. Treating Hanabi was one reason, but the real priority was negotiating how the two clans would collaborate going forward.

Although he didn't say it outright, Masashi could easily guess the Uchiha clan's next major move, they planed to reclaim Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan.

This time, their opponents were quite intimidating. It was even possible that Madara himself might step out for some action.

Now, the resurrected Hokage via Edo Tensei have essentially replaced the role that elders like Hiruzen used to play. When the Hokage convened in the office these days, it was a real Kage Summit.

For an organization, it was truly problematic when its internal power fluctuated wildly just because of bloodline inheritance. And from the beginning, Madara's idea directly targeted this issue, he planned for the Senju and Uchiha to alternate ruling power.

But this concept had no soil to take root in Konoha. The Land of Fire was too fertile, attracting many of the most elite ninja clans in the shinobi world. Once they all gathered in one village, "taking turns ruling" became a path to collapse. After all, there wouldn't always be a Hashirama among the Senju, and there wouldn't always be a Madara among the Uchiha. Even the chakra reincarnations of Asura and Indra weren't always dazzling.

By contrast, the Byakugan was very stable.

At worst, it wouldn't fall too far. Without Ōtsutsuki chakra, no matter how powerful the Hyūga became through effort, they would only go so far. But once Hanabi was controlled by Kaguya, her Byakugan broke that ceiling.

She started making the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack increasingly powerful.

At first, Kaguya, using limited hardware, could only imitate the shape of the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack. But as time went on, she produced power surpassing that Top Transformed Buddha. And it was even more flexible.

Unlike in the anime, Kaguya in her lifetime clearly wasn't just a dumb powerhouse. On the contrary, she had abundant real combat experience. Freed from the constraints of a physical body, and unlike the True Several Thousand Hands, which was limited by its host, the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack could adapt perfectly to the user's reaction time and imagination, allowing for any form of attack or defense.

Masashi never stopped using his Rinnegan to observe the technique, but he had to admit: bloodline encompassing simply couldn't be copied.

On the surface, it looked like just a chakra shape transformation, but it was far more than that.

To achieve it, one must not only have the appropriate chakra nature and transformation abilities, but also an extremely advanced ocular dōjutsu to control and wield the technique.

Fortunately, he also possessed bloodline encompassing.

Only bloodline encompassing… could stand against bloodline encompassing.

Now, the battlefield they were fighting on had already become fragmented.

The space had been shredded into chaotic pieces, but the chakra connecting those fragments, under Kaguya's control, could still launch attacks from any direction.

Although she was currently unable to use other bloodline encompassing abilities like the Truth-Seeking Ball, just this one technique alone still made her a terrifying force capable of crushing the entire world.

Suddenly, a chakra hand extended from behind Susanoo, faster than lightning.

With no other option, Masashi once again activated Amenotejikara. The chakra hand, which had stretched hundreds of meters, was instantly frozen in place.

He looked around. The overwhelming chakra from Kaguya had effectively suppressed the movement space of his Susanoo.

A normal-sized Susanoo could no longer meet his combat needs.

This was the first time that had ever happened.

Good thing I had anticipated today might turn out like this, he thought.

On the ground, Susanoo began to change. It was collapsing inward.

Its massive size had provided powerful offensive strength, but it also made it an easy target, something he fully understood.

In the era of Hashirama and Madara, it was simply a contest of who could get bigger, to achieve stronger attacks. Defense was never a concern. But Masashi did have to worry about that. He might be stronger in this life, but the environment was far more dangerous.

Kaguya noticed Masashi's change.

As a fellow wielder of bloodline encompassing, her Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack could neutralize Masashi's spatial abilities through overwhelming chakra concentration. However, the extended "tentacle" attacks weren't strong enough to fully do that.

So, she changed tactics, forming a web.

It looked like she was about to catch him. But clearly, the other party still had more tricks up his sleeve.

She had already regained her rationality, and was no longer in a frenzied state.

She both loved and hated her children.

At this point, she no longer let the betrayal of her sons influence her actions. Reclaiming the chakra was the only correct course. That was the reason they had opposed her in the first place. But ironically, they had started the problem by dispersing chakra throughout the world.

She could share chakra with her own flesh and blood, but that didn't mean she should share it with the rest of the world.

She and the God Tree were beings from beyond this world. From the very beginning, this place was never her home, it was merely a nursery where she cultivated power.

Pacifying the chaotic world and consuming the chakra fruit was never about the kind of peace and justice that humans in this world talk about. It was only about keeping her nursery stable. Whether the ants of this world called her a goddess or a devil, she didn't care in the slightest.

Hamura and Hagoromo, from the start, chose to live among the people of this world. They inexplicably began to see themselves as part of it. Maybe they were just idiots. She accepted that. It was like they were never born.

And through this matter, she had come to realize something: She needed an assistant. She needed another Ōtsutsuki.

Masashi had every reason not to stand on the opposite side. Once she turned him into an Ōtsutsuki, he would understand.