When Aoba walked out of the village, he had completely absorbed the last trace of divine power that the God of Death had left in the human world.
From the perspective of the native deities of the Shinobi World, aside from the Pure Land still occupied by the Sage of Six Paths, Aoba had now gathered the powers of all the world's gods.
With that, the final piece of the puzzle had been completed. Now, it was time to end this war once and for all.
Meanwhile, hidden in the Pure Land, the Sage of Six Paths also sensed the loss of the authority over death. He knew he couldn't wait any longer. Aoba had obtained the final authority over death, which meant that the Pure Land was no longer safe.
Even though the Sage hadn't yet completed his final step, it was clear that Aoba would not allow him any more time.
At this point, the Sage of Six Paths finally understood the core problem:He had spent a thousand years slowly accumulating authority over chakra, attempting to achieve the final transformation through gradual accumulation and become the true progenitor of chakra.
But no matter how hard he tried, he was always missing that last, crucial step.
Now, he understood why.
It was because his mother, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, was still alive. She still held the highest portion of the chakra authority within her.
Without claiming that final piece, the Sage would never be able to complete his transformation.
On the other side, just as Aoba finished absorbing the God of Death's power and was sensing his changes, a wave of energy from the sky caught his attention.
It was coming from the moon.
Even though it was daytime, the moon had suddenly begun to shine with an unnatural, blinding brilliance.
Aoba merely glanced up, and instantly understood what the Sage of Six Paths intended.He was trying to release Kaguya.
The reason was simple, to absorb the last bit of chakra authority sealed within her and become the fully realized master of chakra.
At that moment, the entire Shinobi World noticed the change in the sky.
To the people of the world, the first strange event was seeing the moon appear during broad daylight. Then, the moon grew brighter and brighter, clearly something was very wrong.
And then something even more unbelievable happened...
The moon shattered.
That's right, the moon, under the watchful gaze of everyone in the Shinobi World, cracked apart.
Not only that, the fragments began falling toward the world.
The Shinobi World saw this, but most of the villages were powerless to act.
In the original storyline, when Madara Uchiha used Tengai Shinsei twice in a row, even the entire Allied Shinobi Forces could do nothing but watch. Ōnoki and Gaara barely managed to stop one meteor together, but the second one obliterated an entire division.
This time, it wasn't a simple meteor. It was the shattered remains of the moon.
Aoba, however, wasn't worried. If it had been before, he might have needed to personally intervene and exhaust himself to stop this attack.
But now, he didn't even need to lift a finger. Konoha's current strength alone was enough.
Four pairs of Rinnegan, plus Toneri Ōtsutsuki who had just awakened his Tenseigan.
No exaggeration, those five could easily destroy the moon if they wanted to. Deflecting falling debris was nothing.
As the fragments rained down from the sky:
Madara Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, and Toneri Ōtsutsuki moved at once. They simply used the basic Shinra Tensei. Four top-tier Rinnegan, combined with one Tenseigan, simultaneously unleashed Shinra Tensei, covering the entire sky above Konoha.
All the falling debris was blasted away.
It was clear the debris had been guided by some external force, most of it was aimed directly at Konoha.
However, Shinra Tensei wasn't exactly a "defensive" move in the traditional sense, it was fundamentally an attack. The shattered fragments were blasted apart, creating a massive ring-shaped mountain range around Konoha.
Meanwhile, Kakashi used Kamui to warp away large amounts of debris, and Sasuke used Chibaku Tensei (Planetary Devastation) to reassemble fragments into meteors floating back up in the sky, preventing Konoha from being buried under an endless rain of lunar shards.
Aoba merely glanced at Konoha and then stopped paying attention. Instead, he focused on the figure emerging from the sky.
Kaguya had been resurrected.
However, she seemed dazed.
How did I resurrect? Wasn't it supposed to be my beloved son Black Zetsu who would revive me? Why don't I see Black Zetsu anywhere?
Moreover, the method of her resurrection seemed off.
According to the plan she had given Black Zetsu, he was supposed to cultivate a ninja with Rinnegan, use Infinite Tsukuyomi to link the minds of everyone in the world, gather enough chakra through that link, and then during the approach to the moon, her spirit would attach and she would be freed.
But now, something was obviously wrong.
This was her real body, and looking around, she saw the moon had been completely destroyed, as if the seal had been forcibly broken.
Although Black Zetsu was an extreme Yin-Yang Release creation, even he couldn't break the seal placed by the Sage of Six Paths. If he could, she wouldn't have needed such a complicated plan in the first place.
As Kaguya tried to make sense of the situation...
Suddenly, from the void, a hand reached out from behind her and stabbed straight through her body.
"Long time no see, Mother."
The Sage of Six Paths had finally made his true appearance.Not just showing up, he even appeared in the form of Hashirama Senju.
"Hamura?! Was it you? Did you break the seal?!"
"Of course, Mother."
"You want to replace me?"
"Who wouldn't?" the Sage of Six Paths answered coldly."Unfortunately, we underestimated you back then. I've spent over a thousand years, yet I still couldn't take the final step. Only recently did I realize, the last piece of the puzzle was with you."
Without any hesitation, the Sage of Six Paths ripped out Kaguya's heart.
It wasn't strange at all. After all, they had once sealed her away without warning. Now, killing her outright was perfectly in character...