Does every member of the great Senju Clan possess a Kekkei Genkai?
Kaede Kitahara's words had given Tsunade an entirely new line of thought.
Could the Senju Clan possess another Kekkei Genkai they had never recognized?
"Yang Release at its absolute peak?"
Tsunade stared at the diary entry.
Of course she knew about Yang Release. It was an extremely rare power even within the Shinobi World.
Generally speaking, ninja possessed Chakra aligned with one or more of the five basic natures: lightning, fire, wind, water, and earth.
Above those five, however, were the two special Chakra natures of Yin and Yang.
The Senju Clan represented Yang Release Chakra, while their counterparts, the Uchiha Clan, represented Yin Release Chakra.
The Sharingan itself was a manifestation of Yin Release Chakra.
As the Uchiha Clan's enemy for nearly a thousand years, the Senju Clan understood that much very well.
The Uchiha weren't the only ones who used Yin Release.
The Nara Clan's Shadow Imitation Technique was another application of Yin Release Chakra.
If Kaede described Naruto's Yang Release as being at its peak, then it had to be unimaginably powerful.
What shocked Tsunade even more was the comparison he made.
She had already witnessed Uzumaki Naruto's strength.
At his peak, he had reached a level she could only look up to, an existence almost beyond belief.
Nagato was already terrifyingly powerful. Saying the Six Paths of Pain had single-handedly wiped out Konoha wouldn't even be an exaggeration.
Yet Uzumaki Naruto at his peak was stronger than Nagato.
And still, when Kaede compared Naruto to her Great Grandfather, he had said he didn't know which of them was stronger.
Had her Great Grandfather truly been that powerful?
The idea completely overturned Tsunade's understanding of him.
Great Grandfather had died when she was still very young.
She knew he had been called the God of Shinobi, but the title had never meant much to her.
Hanzo had been called the Demigod, after all.
Her teacher, that Old Man, was also referred to as the God of Shinobi in certain books.
They were stronger than she was, certainly, but not to some absurd, unreachable degree.
A so-called god was still merely an unusually powerful mortal.
That impression had only grown stronger after she watched the video of the Konoha Crush Plan.
When that bastard Orochimaru murdered his teacher, he had summoned her Great Grandfather and Second Great Grandfather.
The two of them displayed impressive strength and gave the Old Man a terrible fight.
But overall, the Old Man still suppressed them.
The battle had almost made it seem as though the First Hokage and Second Hokage weren't anything special.
Even together, they had failed to defeat the elderly Third Hokage.
In the end, he had taken down two and a half opponents in one move.
He sealed both the First Hokage and Second Hokage, then sealed Orochimaru's arms as well.
Looking at that battle objectively, it hadn't made Great Grandfather or Second Great Grandfather seem especially powerful.
It had only shown how formidable the Old Man himself was.
But Kaede's words seemed to imply that Great Grandfather's true strength had been far beyond what they had seen.
"The God of Shinobi who brought an age of chaos to an end…"
Namikaze Minato sighed.
Perhaps those who came after Senju Hashirama had underestimated just how much weight the title God of Shinobi truly carried.
"The God of Shinobi…"
Uchiha Itachi murmured.
Senju Hashirama had been the terrifying man who defeated Uchiha Madara, the ancestor of the Uchiha Clan.
If Senju Hashirama's true strength had been far greater than what they had seen, then Uchiha Madara's power must also have been far greater.
That only made Itachi more certain that the man currently calling himself Uchiha Madara wasn't Madara at all.
He had to be Uchiha Kenji.
[But when you really think about it, even though Uzumaki Naruto's Sage Body and Yang Release are incredibly powerful, the true peak might actually be Uzumaki Boruto.
[He possesses both the Sage's Eyes and the Sage's Body.
[Granted, the combination went a little off course. His Sage Body comes from Otsutsuki Hagoromo's Lineage, while his Sage's Eyes come from Otsutsuki Hamura's Lineage.
[Still, that mixed inheritance might be the real reason Uzumaki Boruto can awaken the Jogan.
[Atavism appearing in a mixed bloodline seems perfectly reasonable, right?
[But if that's true, why does Uzumaki Himawari, who carries the same bloodline, possess only an ordinary Byakugan?
[Maybe it'll mutate somehow in the future.
[After all, the Byakugan is the origin of everything in this world's Legend of Eyes. Every dojutsu is built upon the Byakugan, including the Sharingan, Rinnegan, Black Eye, and Jogan.
[As long as the bloodline is pure enough and the person is powerful enough, it can evolve into countless forms.
[Otsutsuki Hagoromo's Byakugan evolved into the Sharingan in an instant, and advancing from the Sharingan to the Rinnegan wasn't especially difficult either.
[Still, compared to her older brother Uzumaki Boruto... No, Otsutsuki Boruto, Uzumaki Himawari might actually resemble Naruto more.
[After all, she becomes the new Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.
[Thank goodness she became the Nine-Tails' next Jinchuriki. I was pretty upset when Kurama vanished after using Baryon Mode, but I never expected him to be reborn inside Uzumaki Himawari so soon.
[Apparently, Uzumaki Himawari's affinity with the Nine-Tails is even greater than Naruto's.
[This is hilarious. The older brother resembles Sasuke, while the younger sister resembles Naruto. Their family managed to produce the next generation's Naruto and Sasuke combination!]
Everyone was still reeling from the revelation about Senju Hashirama's strength when another flood of explosive information crashed over them.
This time, it concerned none other than Uzumaki Naruto's children, especially Uzumaki Boruto.
He possessed both the Sage's Eyes and the Sage's Body.
He had even awakened a previously unknown dojutsu Kekkei Genkai known as the Jogan.
"The Sage's Eyes and the Sage's Body? The Byakugan is the Sage's Eyes? Wasn't the Rinnegan supposed to be the Sage's Eyes?"
Jiraiya stared at the diary in utter disbelief.
The legend of the Sage's Eyes had always existed throughout the Shinobi World.
It referred to the Rinnegan.
The Shinobi World had long spoken of the Three Great Dojutsu, with the Rinnegan ranked above the others.
It was said to be the eye of the Sage of Six Paths, the founder of Ninshu.
In other words, the Sage's Eyes.
The Sage's Body, on the other hand, was a concept Kaede had only just introduced in his diary.
No one had ever heard of it before.
But judging from Kaede's wording, the Sage's Eyes and the Sage's Body belonged to the same system and corresponded with one another.
The Uzumaki Clan and Senju Clan belonged to Hagoromo's Lineage and possessed the Sage's Body.
The inheritors of the Byakugan were undoubtedly the Hyuga Clan, who belonged to Hamura's Lineage and possessed the Sage's Eyes.
That meant they were still missing the Sage's Eyes of Hagoromo's Lineage and the Sage's Body of Hamura's Lineage.
Jiraiya quickly found part of the answer.
The Byakugan was actually the origin of all dojutsu.
Every eye-based Kekkei Genkai originated from the Byakugan?
He could set aside the unheard-of Black Eye and Jogan.
Even the Rinnegan was so rare that almost nothing was known about it.
But the Sharingan was famous throughout the entire Shinobi World. Until recently, an entire clan in Konoha had possessed it.
So the Sharingan had evolved from the Byakugan?
And the Rinnegan evolved from the Sharingan?
Everything suddenly fit together.
The Sage's Eyes of Hagoromo's Lineage were the Rinnegan, while its Sage's Body was inherited by the Uzumaki Clan and Senju Clan.
The Sage's Eyes of Hamura's Lineage were the Byakugan, while its Sage's Body remained unknown.
Even the names Hagoromo and Hamura sounded directly connected.
Were they brothers?
Combined with the revelation that the Byakugan was the origin of all dojutsu, the conclusion seemed obvious.
Hagoromo and Hamura were either brothers or father and son.
There had to be a direct blood relationship between them.
"Now it makes sense!"
Jiraiya slapped his hands together as though he had solved an incredibly important mystery.
"If the Uzumaki Clan and Uchiha Clan are both descendants of a Sage named Hagoromo, then Nagato awakening the Rinnegan is completely reasonable!"
He had always wondered why Nagato had suddenly awakened the Rinnegan.
Now he finally had an answer.
The Rinnegan evolved from the Sharingan, and the origin of both bloodlines lay with Hagoromo.
By that logic, it made perfect sense for a member of the Uzumaki Clan to awaken the Rinnegan.
It was simply atavism.
There was nothing strange about an ancient bloodline resurfacing in a descendant.
Hadn't Kaede Kitahara awakened the Sharingan through the same process?
His case was a classic example of a dormant bloodline reawakening and producing a Kekkei Genkai.
It all matched.
Everything matched perfectly.
"So that's how it is. The Rinnegan truly evolves from the Sharingan?"
Uchiha Itachi fell into thought.
This secret was far too significant.
He had never imagined that the Rinnegan and Sharingan could be connected in such a way.
He certainly hadn't imagined that the Sharingan itself had evolved from the Byakugan.
So the Byakugan and Sharingan shared such deep origins?
No wonder the two dojutsu had competed for over a thousand years, with the Sharingan usually holding a slight advantage.
It made sense.
The Sharingan was essentially an evolved version of the Byakugan.
Naturally, it would be more powerful.
Even Uchiha Itachi had compared the Uchiha Clan with the Hyuga Clan before.
Which was superior, the Sharingan or the Byakugan?
After Kaede's explanation, the answer seemed settled.
Of course, by that same logic, the Rinnegan was even more powerful than the Sharingan.
But another question immediately appeared.
If the Senju Clan, Uzumaki Clan, and Uchiha Clan all descended from the Sage named Hagoromo, then they could be considered sibling clans.
Why had sibling clans slaughtered one another for a thousand years?
Itachi didn't know.
He couldn't understand it.
"Hagoromo? Is that the Sage of Six Paths' real name?"
A theory slowly formed in Uchiha Itachi's mind.
Everyone knew that the Rinnegan was the Sage's Eye possessed by the Sage of Six Paths.
Following that logic, Hagoromo was very likely the Sage of Six Paths' name.
At the very least, it had to be the name of an ancient Uchiha ancestor who inherited the Sage's Eyes.
Perhaps that ancestor's eyes had undergone some kind of mutation, evolving from the Sharingan into the Rinnegan.
"It all fits now."
Uchiha Itachi's eyes sharpened as he reached another realization.
"No wonder one of Sasuke's eyes becomes a Tomoe Rinnegan. It must be atavism."
He had always wondered why future Uchiha Sasuke possessed a strange Tomoe Rinnegan in one eye while the other remained an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
It made no sense.
Itachi refused to believe that future Sasuke would steal someone else's Rinnegan.
But after reading this, everything became clear, and his concerns finally eased.
Sasuke hadn't taken the Rinnegan from someone else.
For some reason, his own Sharingan had evolved into the superior Rinnegan.