The Tenseigan couldn't control the Ten Tails.
Though the Rinnegan's ocular power was currently merging with the Tenseigan's, Kaede still couldn't access the Rinnegan's abilities. Even so, this didn't prevent him from stopping the resurrection of Otsutsuki Kaguya.
Kaguya's spirit could only fully awaken by merging with Black Zetsu's will inside the Ten Tails. But Kaede could forcibly rewind time on the Ten Tails.
Zzzt!!
The part of Black Zetsu that had infiltrated the Ten Tails, along with Kaguya's spiritual energy that had begun to revive inside, was forcefully scattered and reverted to a moment earlier.
"Kaede…"
Black Zetsu stared at him, eyes locked, refusing to give up. It struggled to control its Kaguya-infused body and forced itself back into the Ten Tails.
The Ten Tails let out a roar, its single eye glaring up at Kaede, then lashed out with its ten massive tails, striking at him with brute force.
"Until I'm done gathering my strength…"
"Why don't you behave for a bit?"
Kaede calmly raised his foot, and brought it down.
Boom!
A crushing force exploded downward. The Ten Tails howled, its massive body caving in under the pressure before being slammed into the ground.
The entire earth quaked violently, shockwaves rippling out like crashing waves. Minato and the others had no choice but to brace and shield themselves.
Zzzzt!
Most of Black Zetsu's body was blasted into the air. Only a tiny part remained stuck to the Ten Tails' claw, like a drowning man clinging to his last straw, utterly refusing to let go.
Kaede, still unable to open his eyes and robbed of his sight, could still sense this clearly. He stepped again.
Grrkkk!
Black Zetsu was finally shaken loose, its slimy black body blasted away from the Ten Tails and shattered midair.
To be honest, Kaede wasn't particularly concerned about Kaguya's resurrection. With his ability, even if she did return, he could completely suppress her through his time-based powers. After all, she hadn't truly lived for over a thousand years, she had simply remained in a sealed, near-death state.
As long as Kaede could touch any part of her body, he could rewind her back to that weakened, half-dead form.
Of course,
This ability only worked within his Chrono Domain, and it required either physical contact or shooting a time-infused projectile into her body. So while his powers were a perfect counter, they weren't without limitations.
For example, if Madara had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique, Kaede might not have been able to touch him, let alone take him down in a single strike.
That's why,
With both the Tenseigan and Rinnegan temporarily unavailable, Kaede didn't want Kaguya to revive. In his current state, dealing with her would be extremely troublesome.
But just as he shattered Black Zetsu and expelled him from the Ten Tails…
Kaede suddenly paused, frowning slightly.
He could sense it,
Kaguya's will was still awakening within the Ten Tails!
"So it is a consequence of me destroying the moon... That last move from Black Zetsu managed to gather most of Kaguya's will into the Ten Tails. My Chrono Domain can't cover the entire beast, so I can't force her out by rewinding time."
Kaede murmured inwardly, but his expression remained calm.
He stood firm atop the Ten Tails' head, time-reversal energy still pouring into its body, constantly pushing its state backwards.
At this moment,
From Kaede's perspective, one would see an invisible sphere of energy roughly thirty meters in radius enveloping a large portion of the Ten Tails' body. Kaede stood at the edge of this field, applying time-reversal to the parts of the Ten Tails within his reach.
Kaguya's consciousness, however, was awakening from other areas, like its tails, forcing its way inward, trying to seize control of the entire beast. But as soon as her will entered the Chrono Domain, it would collapse and dissolve instantly.
She squeezed in,
And was pushed back out.
Again and again, her spiritual energy surged in and was expelled. This repeated hundreds of times, yet she still failed to take control of the whole Ten Tails.
Without full control, she couldn't manifest, nor could her body be reconstructed.
Eventually,
Her spirit gave up invading the area under Kaede's control and instead fully materialized in a different part of the Ten Tails' body, outside the Chrono Domain's range.
Then,
To the astonished eyes of Minato, the First Raikage, and others, one of the Ten Tails' tails rose into the air. But instead of attacking Kaede, a shadow began to squirm on it, slowly taking form.
It was ghostly, almost like the Shinigami summoned by the Reaper Death Seal.
White hair floated weightlessly in the air.
On her forehead appeared a spectral Rinne Sharingan, adorned with nine tomoe. As her eyes opened, an overwhelming aura exploded across the battlefield.
She was the progenitor of chakra,
Otsutsuki Kaguya!
After a thousand years of imprisonment, with the moon destroyed by Kaede, the revival of the Ten Tails, and Black Zetsu's tireless efforts, her will had finally descended upon the world once more.
"So in the end, she reconstructed her spirit using only part of the Ten Tails' body…"
Kaede remained still, his eyes still closed, turning calmly toward the direction of her appearance, his expression as serene as ever.
Kaguya looked at Kaede, raising her hand slowly.
A mass of chakra swirled in her palm, and from it extended a bleak, deathly bone glowing with ominous power,
All-Killing Ash Bones!
Though she could only control part of the Ten Tails and her power was limited, she had still regained some of her original strength.
"Get out…"
"Of my body!!"
Her voice was cold as she hurled the Ash Bone at Kaede, cutting through space and piercing directly into the Chrono Domain.
Kaede tilted his head calmly, dodging the attack with ease. As the bone flew past, he even lifted his hand and lightly touched it with his fingertip.
Zzzzt…
Where it touched, corrosion spread in an instant. Even his hand, infused with Six Paths chakra and capable of conjuring Truth-Seeking Orbs, could not resist its devastating effect.
"So that's it…"
"This is the power behind it."
Kaede's face remained calm.
Pshht!
His left arm was neatly severed at the middle, falling to the ground before crumbling into dust.
He had long suspected that the All-Killing Ash Bones were unlike other Six Paths techniques, strangely powerful, even capable of destroying Truth-Seeking Orbs and the chakra behind them.
This one touch confirmed it.
Otsutsuki Momoshiki and Urashiki, other members of the Otsutsuki clan, each possessed their own time-based abilities. Kaguya, hailing from the same celestial lineage, naturally had one as well.
Her Ash Bones were the key.
They were built upon Six Paths chakra, but within them flowed time itself, a power that could force anything it struck to experience hundreds or even thousands of years in an instant!
That was why the Ash Bones could erase even Six Paths chakra, yet still couldn't affect souls. Time meant nothing to the already dead.
"So even I… would be in trouble if that hits me head-on."
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria