"Mm."
Satsuki gave no further promises. For the first time in this world, she lowered her head to another being.
"Thank you."
Her tone was as cool as ever. Turning away without further pause, she left. Though her initial purpose had been achieved, Hamura's words had stirred heavier thoughts in her mind.
By the time she emerged from the underground tomb, the sky was already dark. She wandered aimlessly, thoughts churning with questions about Hamura's clan—the cause of their downfall, the origin of the Tenseigan, and why so many among Hamura's main family had lost their eyes.
These threads tangled in her mind, leading to new theories when she recalled the prophecy she had read for the second time.
But this was not the moment for deep contemplation—because the master of this place, Toneri Ōtsutsuki, had just descended before her aboard a hovering disk.
Golden dusk moths fluttered around him. His closed eyes and pale hair lent him the look of a fragile, beautiful youth.
The moment he spoke, however, a wave of sheer foolishness enveloped Satsuki.
"It has been a while, my last remaining clanswoman. I have given you enough time. Now, may I ask you to gift me those eyes of yours?"
His tone was devoid of emotion, radiating absolute control and confidence. Surrounded by thousands of puppets and empowered by the giant Tenseigan, he believed none in this world could match him.
Satsuki regarded the young man coldly—her only living blood relative in this world. Then she bared her golden-white eyes, already nearing the Tenseigan's threshold.
If Toneri possessed even a shred of intelligence, he would have known to retreat. Unfortunately, as the last remnant of Hamura's militant faction, he had inherited their insufferable arrogance and elevated it to an art form.
"Ah~ Even without sight, I can feel it... such overwhelming ocular power." Toneri's pale features lit with excitement. Reaching toward her, he declared: "Give me those eyes, and I will make you my bride—the mistress of all this land."
From the trees, the ground, the lake itself, countless puppets emerged. Their numbers were beyond counting.
To use puppets against her? Satsuki could not even summon the effort to sneer.
For all his ability to watch the Earth, Toneri's intelligence-gathering was abysmal. Expecting someone like him to accomplish anything requiring actual thought was a fantasy.
And Satsuki loathed incompetence above all. The sheer stupidity before her stoked a quiet fury.
"The incompetent should be silent."
"Hm? What did you say?" Still lost in his daydream, Toneri did not at first comprehend. But as he spoke, his sightless body felt the surge of Satsuki's chakra and the lethal intent of her gaze.
In that instant, a crushing sense of danger engulfed him from all directions.
Before he could react, several of the nearest puppets turned on Toneri, arms outstretched. As standard weapons of Hamura's clan, their greatest strengths were simplicity of control and brute force.
They knew no elaborate ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu. But they could output raw energy—projectiles of condensed chakra.
Countless golden chakra spheres formed on their frames before raining toward Toneri like a storm.
"What—?!"
Caught off guard, Toneri forgot for a moment to connect with the giant Tenseigan to reclaim command. Instead, he frantically piloted his hovering craft, dodging the near-saturation bombardment.
Toneri had barely evaded the first wave of chakra bombardment when a second, far denser volley followed. This time, the number of projectiles was more than tenfold the previous barrage—impossible for even him to dodge.
Still, as the last scion of the Ōtsutsuki, Toneri had some skill. His hands began forming green orbs of mental energy, hurling them toward the surrounding puppets in an attempt to reclaim control. The yellow orbs that drew close were blocked by a green chakra barrier expelled from his tenketsu, rebounding toward the attacking puppets.
In an instant, the tide seemed to turn.
"Fools! With the Tenseigan's support, I am invincible!" Enshrouded in green chakra, Toneri looked down at his kinswoman with a twisted expression. "I've changed my mind. I will take your eyes—and you will die here."
He gestured sharply, sending the puppets under his regained control hurtling toward Satsuki, yellow orbs forming in their hands. At the same time, he reached out to the giant Tenseigan, trying to draw all nearby puppets back under his command.
But instead, more puppets emerged—only to align themselves with Satsuki.
Thousands raised their hands. A storm of yellow chakra spheres, multiplied a hundredfold, roared toward Toneri and his forces.
Toneri was unfazed by the sheer scale of the attack. What truly shocked him was that he had lost control over the giant Tenseigan entirely. That was the fatal blow.
There was no time to dwell on it. He tried to dodge the incoming barrage, but Satsuki had already moved. Her chakra infinite-transmission system had imprinted her chakra onto him through the very yellow orbs launched by the puppets he thought he controlled.
His seemingly flawless chakra defense was strong, but without the Tenseigan's ability to absorb ninjutsu and drain chakra at range, it was in truth a wide-open weakness. Through contact, the control seals slipped quietly into his body.
By the time Toneri realized his chakra no longer obeyed him—even losing the ability to pilot his hovering craft—it was far too late.
Desperate, he forced nearby puppets to shield him, trying to endure the strike.
Boom—!
The deafening blasts rained down. Puppets fell like insects, and within less than a second, Toneri, along with his ruined craft, plummeted toward the ground.
"It's over."
Satsuki flicked her fingers, signaling a nearby puppet to catch him—if only to spare this so-called movie-villain from dying by an ignoble fall.
"How could this be? With the giant Tenseigan's aid, how could I lose control of the puppets to you?!"
Even as the puppet carried him before her, Toneri's face was a mask of disbelief.
"What did you do? Why did I suddenly lose control?"
His empty eyes fixed on her—not defiant now, but filled with the despair of one utterly defeated. Without his puppet army and without control over the giant Tenseigan, Toneri Ōtsutsuki was no more than an insect before Satsuki.
In truth, in such a state, he could not have withstood even a single blow from Urashiki Ōtsutsuki; he would have been sealed for millennia. Circumstances aside, his own weakness was undeniable.
Satsuki had no interest in explaining her plans to anyone—least of all to a fool. But for the sake of his being Hamura's last descendant, she chose to let him live.
"You live only because you are Hamura's kin," she said, stepping onto a flying puppet and glancing back. "That life is not yours alone. Remember that."
Her golden eyes flashed. Toneri collapsed into unconsciousness.
It was the single-target, weakened form of her Judgment of the Ten Kings: Veil of Light and Shadow, this time used only for its memory-erasing effect. The cost to her was trivial.
She ordered another puppet to carry Toneri as they ascended toward the sky's lone light source—the artificial sun. Its surface was now dim, making this the perfect moment to enter its interior.