Kaede floated quietly in the sky.
He could feel the power of the Rinnegan slowly merging with that of the Tenseigan, just like how Yin Release and Yang Release fused to give rise to the power of All Creation.
The fusion of ocular power wasn't a simple matter of transplanting eyes. Even the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan didn't come from just swapping Mangekyo with a sibling. If it were that simple, Uchiha Izuna wouldn't have died at the hands of Tobirama Senju after losing his eyes.
True evolution required the complete fusion of the chakra and spiritual essence within both eyes.
"Ghh…"
Kaede suddenly clutched his eyes, his eyelids twitching violently.
As the Tenseigan and Rinnegan powers began to fuse, an intense stimulation burst forth inside his eyeballs, akin to a thousand invisible needles. The pain was so extreme that even someone like Kaede, who had long since become numb to pain, found it difficult to endure.
ROOOOOAAARRR!!
At that moment, the Ten Tails, cast out from Madara's body and lying on the ground below, began to stir.
Its blank eyes regained a glint of awareness as it looked up at the sky and let out a primal, thunderous roar.
Kaguya's will had not yet awakened within the Ten Tails. At this moment, it was merely following instinct, yearning to reclaim the chakra that once belonged to it. It was drawn to Kaede, who still carried the Nine Tails within him. If it could consume that chakra, it would finally become whole again.
The Ten Tails' roar drew the attention of Minato and the others.
Sensing its massive chakra, their expressions shifted dramatically. While the chakra of Six Paths Madara and Kaede was far more refined, the Ten Tails' sheer volume of chakra was overwhelming, and thus felt even more oppressive.
Kaede and Madara's chakra was like a one-meter-wide block of solid steel, dense, compact, and difficult to measure in scale.
The Ten Tails, on the other hand, was like a mountain made of millions of tons of sand. Even a rough glance left one feeling awe-struck and overwhelmed.
"Is… is that also a tailed beast?!"
"One, two… ten tails?!"
Minato and the others stared at the Ten Tails in alarm. But the creature paid them no mind. It simply kept roaring up at Kaede.
Then suddenly,
After another roar, the Ten Tails opened its mouth.
A surge of chakra gathered in an instant, forming into a massive, pitch-black Tailed Beast Bomb.
But instead of firing it, the Ten Tails compressed it further, until it turned into a deep, shadowy sphere that radiated an ominous pressure. Then it swallowed the sphere whole.
BOOM!!
The compressed Tailed Beast Bomb exploded inside its own mouth, transforming into a blazing beam of light that fired straight toward Kaede in the sky.
But Kaede didn't move a muscle.
He kept his eyes closed, standing still in midair as the Truth-Seeking Orbs beneath him formed a radiant ring of light. The entire blast from the Ten Tails was blocked, completely absorbed, not even a spark got through.
The Ten Tails was powerful.
If you ignored recovery ability and just looked at raw chakra volume, it even surpassed Kaede.
But its power was loose and unrefined, like an unshaped heap of sand. Against true Six Paths-level might, its attacks were as fragile as paper.
Kaede didn't bother responding to it.
The Ten Tails kept roaring, its eyes locked on him high above.
The surviving Cloud ninja couldn't help but swallow hard.
They hadn't fully understood what happened in Kaede's clash with Madara, it had happened too fast, too far beyond them. But the sheer force radiating from the Ten Tails was something they could all feel.
And even that was completely ineffective against Kaede.
As Minato, the Fourth Raikage, and the others had their full attention locked on the Ten Tails…
Far below, near the edge of the battlefield, a dark liquid-like substance began to slither across the ground, gathering into a mass.
It was Black Zetsu.
He had been obliterated by the shockwave during Kaede and Madara's final clash, but now his form was slowly reassembling.
Black Zetsu was, in essence, a fragment of Kaguya's will.
And like Kaguya herself, his existence was eternal, he could not die, not even from a Truth-Seeking Orb. He could only be sealed.
"…Even Madara lost…"
Black Zetsu slithered across the ground like a shadowy slime, his yellow eyes watching Kaede in the sky with a mix of shock and fear.
Then he turned to look at the roaring Ten Tails not far away. A flash of resolve crossed his golden eyes, and he quickly darted toward it.
The Ten Tails was still here!
Kaede had taken Madara's Rinnegan, but he hadn't destroyed the Ten Tails. This was the chance for Kaguya's revival! All he needed to do was make contact!
Thanks to Kaede's earlier destruction of the moon, Infinite Tsukuyomi was no longer necessary for the revival ritual. Simply fusing with the Ten Tails would instantly awaken Kaguya's consciousness!
And once revived, Kaguya would instantly wield the full power of the Ten Tails. All she would need to do was cast Infinite Tsukuyomi and the World of the Divine Tree again to absorb chakra from all remaining shinobi, restoring herself to full strength!
Madara may have fallen…
But Kaguya was different!
Gurgle... Gurgle…
Black Zetsu crawled along the ground, steadily closing in.
But the Ten Tails' rampage was causing massive shockwaves. Debris and chakra surges battered the land. Time and again, Black Zetsu's form was shattered by stray blasts or crushed by falling rubble.
Still, he persisted.
Like a character in a desperate survival tale.
Determined, unwavering, inching closer step by step.
Thirty meters...
Ten meters...
Thirty meters again...
Twenty... Fifty...
Over and over, he was blown apart, yet the black liquid always reformed, dragging itself back toward the Ten Tails.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally got close.
Black Zetsu melted into a black pool of liquid, squirming forward until one edge finally touched the Ten Tails' claw.
Then, he surged upward!
"I did it!!"
A surge of euphoria filled Black Zetsu's mind.
His body wriggled upward like a wave of black fluid, covering the Ten Tails' claw. In an instant, he had engulfed its entire paw, and in that moment, Kaguya's will, using him as a conduit, began to awaken within the Ten Tails' body.
But,
At that very instant…
He felt a strange, alien force invade his body.
Not just his form, it ripped Kaguya's consciousness right back out of the Ten Tails, scattering it into nothing.
"You crawled all this way. That must've been exhausting."
A voice echoed calmly above.
Black Zetsu looked up to see Kaede, still seated on the Ten Tails' head, eyes closed, tilting his head slightly toward him with a faint, knowing smile.
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria