Chapter 515: The Power of the Bloodline

Chapter 515: Chapter 515: The Power of the Bloodline

On the moon.

Thud...

After completing the meteor attack, Otsutsuki Toneri dropped onto the ground, panting heavily.

Despite possessing the purest Otsutsuki bloodline in the current shinobi world, and despite holding the highest level of authority over the Giant Tenseigan, at only eleven or twelve years old, he was still far too inexperienced. Controlling the Giant Tenseigan was simply beyond him at his current level.

Merely controlling and correcting the meteor’s descent speed and trajectory had nearly drained every last bit of chakra from his body.

And that was with the Giant Tenseigan bearing the vast majority of the burden. If Toneri had relied solely on his own power, forget controlling the meteor’s descent—he wouldn’t even have been able to budge it slightly.

"As expected, that was still too much for me!"

After reflecting on this, Toneri forced himself back to his feet and once again pressed his palm against the Giant Tenseigan.

Although his body was struggling to endure the strain, he had to confirm the results of his attack.

At the very least, he needed to determine whether the person who had stolen the Gedo Statue was still alive.

Of course, as far as Toneri was concerned, there shouldn’t have been anyone capable of surviving an attack like that.

After all, the meteor that had just fallen was a genuine meteorite that had been drifting through the boundless reaches of space. The hardness of its material far surpassed that of ordinary rock.

Moreover, throughout its entire descent, the Giant Tenseigan had continuously pulled and accelerated it downward. Its destructive power was simply incomparable to that of an ordinary falling meteor.

Before long, Toneri’s consciousness passed through the Giant Tenseigan and reached the shinobi world.

The first thing that entered his mind was an enormous mushroom-shaped cloud surging continuously upward.

The mushroom cloud contained not only vast quantities of ash and dust, but also extremely dense and chaotic chakra fluctuations.

Among them were both Tenseigan chakra and Rinnegan chakra. High-quality chakra had scattered everywhere, making the entire mushroom cloud resemble an exploding mass of chakra, chaotic beyond measure. Even with the aid of the Giant Tenseigan, Toneri was unable to clearly perceive what was happening inside it.

Upon realizing this, Toneri’s furrowed brows gradually relaxed.

Although he had little actual combat experience, that didn’t prevent him from making basic judgments about the situation.

Given the scene before him, he simply couldn’t imagine anyone on that battlefield still being alive.

Therefore, regardless of who had stolen the Gedo Statue, and regardless of who had caused the abnormal reaction within the Giant Tenseigan, with the meteor’s impact—

Everything was over!

He even suspected that the ominous Gedo Statue itself might have been completely obliterated by the meteor’s impact.

ROAR—!

Just as Toneri was about to withdraw his consciousness from the Giant Tenseigan, a soul-shaking roar suddenly erupted from within the mushroom cloud over the battlefield!

"What!?"

Toneri’s youthful face was instantly filled with shock and confusion.

Immediately afterward, an enormous black shadow slowly emerged from within the mushroom cloud.

As it revealed itself, a hideous and terrifying head bearing nine empty eye sockets came into view!

"It’s the Gedo Statue!"

Toneri recognized it immediately.

At the same time, he keenly sensed that there was a power on the battlefield attempting to perceive him.

This time, Toneri didn’t hesitate in the slightest. He immediately withdrew his consciousness from the Giant Tenseigan, severed all connections between the moon and the shinobi world, and activated the moon’s defensive barrier.

Only after completing all of this did Toneri finally let out a long sigh of relief.

What had just happened was simply too terrifying for him.

There was actually someone in the shinobi world capable of directly enduring the meteor attack he had launched using the Giant Tenseigan—and afterward, that person still had enough strength left to reverse-sense his presence.

It was simply inconceivable!

"The Great Elder was right after all. The time hasn’t come yet. I can’t be too hasty when dealing with the shinobi world..."

Only after learning this lesson did Toneri remember the words the deceased Great Elder had once told him.

In truth, even before the Gedo Statue was stolen, the Otsutsuki descendants on the moon had been secretly observing the shinobi world all along.

After the Gedo Statue was stolen, it wasn’t that the Otsutsuki descendants had been completely unable to find any traces of the person who had taken it.

Rather—

They simply weren’t confident that they could take the Gedo Statue back!

Proud and arrogant as he was, Toneri had never understood the caution shown by his elders.

But now, he finally understood why, despite possessing the Giant Tenseigan, his elders had still acted with such extreme caution.

"Only by possessing the Tenseigan myself can I unleash the Giant Tenseigan’s true power..."

Lost in thought, Toneri murmured those words to himself.

Those words had once been spoken by the Third Elder as he lay on his sickbed, nearing the end of his life.

The reason the Otsutsuki descendants on the moon were able to control the Giant Tenseigan was because all of the Byakugan that composed it had belonged to members of their clan who shared their bloodline.

Therefore, their ability to control the Giant Tenseigan was—

a power derived from their bloodline.

However, the difference in power between a single Otsutsuki descendant and the Giant Tenseigan was simply far too vast.

Therefore, even though their bloodline granted them an innate ability to control the Giant Tenseigan, in reality, they were unable to draw out much of its true power.

The meteor attack Toneri had just unleashed was already essentially the limit of what the Otsutsuki descendants on the moon were capable of.

As a result, if they ever provoked an enemy who was simply too powerful, then even with the Giant Tenseigan in their possession, the Otsutsuki descendants couldn’t be completely confident that they would emerge victorious.

And that was precisely why they had placed all their hopes on Otsutsuki Toneri—the most talented among them, who, despite his young age, could already manipulate the Giant Tenseigan to accomplish things that even they themselves couldn’t.

In their eyes, perhaps only Otsutsuki Toneri had any hope of fulfilling their ancestors’ final wish—

to ’purify the shinobi world’...

...

On the battlefield.

Crack...

The sound of the black shell formed from the Truth-Seeking Balls cracking continuously reached Kagami’s ears.

His earlier prediction had come true.

Sure enough, just before the meteor struck, the Otsutsuki descendant on the moon had severed Kagami’s resonance with the Giant Tenseigan.

And the instant he lost the Giant Tenseigan’s supply of chakra, Kagami was immediately knocked back down to his original level.

Fortunately, Nagato had lived up to expectations and, through his own power alone, neutralized the vast majority of the meteor’s destructive force.

Only because of that had Kagami managed to barely withstand this catastrophic blow with his two remaining Truth-Seeking Balls!

Crack...

The cracking of the Truth-Seeking Ball shell continued.

The black sphere protecting Kagami, which had been transformed from two Truth-Seeking Balls, was already more than half destroyed.

Tiny black fragments continuously peeled away from its shell, but before they could even reach the ground, they disintegrated into ash and vanished into the air.

The Truth-Seeking Balls hadn’t been damaged by the meteor’s impact.

Rather, the Tenseigan chakra remaining in Kagami’s body was no longer sufficient to sustain the enormous burden of maintaining two Truth-Seeking Balls.

And through the shattered shell formed by the Truth-Seeking Balls, Kagami saw Nagato not far away—

his entire body covered in blood, his figure reduced to skin and bones...