"This is what Hiashi told me to give you."
In Konoha, Uchiha Chizumi placed the giant Tenseigan into Hyuga Neji's hands.
Even though he knew full well that keeping it for himself over time would let his own Tenseigan power grow stronger, Chizumi had never once entertained the idea of taking it for himself.
"He…"
Neji looked at the Tenseigan before him. He could feel the strange sense of familiarity radiating from it. Then he looked past Chizumi at Hiruzen, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and the Anbu behind him.
At this point, Neji had more or less guessed what this thing really was.
"He must've told you some things. And you've probably already guessed what this is."
"The entire Hyuga clan—including Hiashi's eyes—is in here."
Uchiha Chizumi looked at Neji. He felt that something about Neji was different now, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what.
"He's… dead, then?"
Back in Konoha Prison, after hearing everything Hiashi had said, Neji had already realized that Hiashi was planning something.
But even so, hearing that the Hyuga clan had been nearly wiped out still left Neji shaken for a long while.
In the end, he forced that question out as if squeezing it through his throat.
"The Tenseigan is strong. I hope you use it well."
Uchiha Chizumi didn't answer Neji directly. He had already noticed that Neji's sense of justice had shifted somewhat. It was still justice—but it now seemed likely to clash with his own.
"And yet… it still wasn't enough to beat the Sharingan."
Neji murmured softly. In the end, he accepted the Great Tenseigan with a complicated expression.
He had already figured it out. Uchiha Chizumi and Hiashi had definitely fought. And since the Great Tenseigan was now in front of him, Hiashi's fate needed no explanation.
At this point, Neji simply didn't know how he was supposed to face Hinata and Hanabi.
Was he supposed to tell Hinata that everything Hiashi had done had been for her sake?
Neji didn't want her to bear that kind of burden.
"Are you really sure it's okay to hand the Tenseigan over to Neji?"
"At his age, giving him that much power might not be a good thing."
Tsunade had heard the exchange between Neji and Uchiha Chizumi. The Tenseigan did rightfully belong to the Hyuga clan—but handing it over to Neji just like this made her worry he might end up going to some extreme.
"As long as he sticks to justice, Neji should be fine, right?"
At some point, Anko Mitarashi had appeared beside Tsunade.
She had originally been having a perfectly good day off, but her instincts as a ninja—and the fact that she'd spent over a month patrolling nonstop—had made her notice the disturbance at the Hyuga compound.
Later, she had followed Uchiha Chizumi and the others to the Valley of the End and witnessed that battle for herself.
As for Hiruzen and Jiraiya, neither of them said much as they watched Chizumi hand the Tenseigan to Neji.
With Neji accepting it, the tragedy of the Hyuga clan finally came to an end.
Uchiha Chizumi said nothing more. He simply headed back toward his home.
He was already close to no longer being able to suppress the power twisting together inside his eyes.
The mingling of the Tenseigan's and Rinnegan's traces of ocular power was causing changes in both of Chizumi's eyes—changes that ordinary ninja, or even the Uchiha and Hyuga clans themselves, would have no way of understanding.
"The power of all creation…"
"The power that comes from Kaguya Otsutsuki—or rather, from the Ten-Tails."
"Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura Otsutsuki were Kaguya Otsutsuki's children. They inherited the Byakugan and the Sharingan respectively. And when the Sharingan is pushed to its highest level, it becomes the Rinnegan—a Six Paths-level power."
"Once the Byakugan evolves into the Tenseigan, it too becomes a Six Paths-level power."
"The Tenseigan power and Rinnegan power inside me are both still thin and incomplete, but where the two overlap, a faint trace of the Power of All Creation has already begun to form."
Uchiha Chizumi carefully felt the changes in his eyes. That sliver of Power of All Creation was incredibly small, yet the changes it brought him were enormous.
With a thought, a single Truth-Seeking Orb appeared out of thin air behind him.
And at the same time, a divine robe slowly began to form over his body.
"So I can already enter Six Paths Mode for short periods now?"
Uchiha Chizumi felt the power inside himself. That tiny thread of Power of All Creation acted like a special catalyst, allowing him to enter Six Paths Mode in another way, even before fully awakening either the Tenseigan or the Rinnegan.
And not only that—while in Six Paths Mode, he could feel both his Rinnegan and Tenseigan ocular powers being nourished by Six Paths power and continuing to awaken even further.
"Six Paths-level power…"
Uchiha Chizumi turned the Truth-Seeking Orb in his hand. Maybe because he himself had entered Six Paths Mode, but this Truth-Seeking Orb felt like it could extend several miles away if he wanted it to.
Combined with the Truth-Seeking Orb's natural malleability, its near-indestructibility, and its ability to nullify ninjutsu, Chizumi felt that even with this single orb alone, he could easily defeat the Hiashi from before.
"For me, the greatest benefit of Six Paths-level power is probably how much it enriches my body's energy."
"Or rather, under the nourishment of Six Paths power, my body is beginning to evolve toward something like Hashirama Senju's Sage Body."
"And with my own Yang Release already being strong to begin with, that process probably won't take very long."
Chizumi dismissed the Truth-Seeking Orb and simply stood there, quietly feeling his body.
He could feel himself growing stronger.
He could feel his Lava Release continuing to develop.
And more than that, he now had the vague sense that if he wanted to, he could eventually master every bloodline limit in the shinobi world—even bloodline limits that had never existed before.
"This is the result of the Power of All Creation. Six Paths power alone probably wouldn't let me master every bloodline limit in the shinobi world. But the Power of All Creation can be called the origin power of the shinobi world itself."
When Uchiha Chizumi opened his eyes again, a pinpoint-sized white spark flickered in his hand.
That tiny white glimmer landed on the wall—
and part of the wall in Chizumi's house vanished into nothing.
This was… Dust Release.