After mastering the power of the Tenseigan, Momoshiki quickly came to understand the operating principles behind the puppets. Using materials left behind on the moon, combined with the items he had acquired after subduing Isshiki, he forged Toneri into his personal puppet.
His puppet body's durability soared, and it was even equipped with an instant-firing energy weapon. At the same time, Momoshiki branded Ōtsutsuki Toneri with a humiliating slave seal.
This mark resembled the Caged Bird Seal used by the Hyūga clan's Branch Family—it represented the Main Family's absolute power of life and death over the Branch Family.
But this seal was even more terrifying than the Caged Bird. It allowed the user to manipulate the Branch Family members like toys—freely and without restraint.
However, such seals had been explicitly banned within the clan tens of thousands of years ago, due to the harsh lessons paid in blood. Some members of the Branch Family had chosen to betray the Ōtsutsuki clan, leaking knowledge to primitive indigenous races, hiding in the shadows and striking at the Main Family, causing tremendous losses.
Some had even ascended to godhood and broken free of their shackles.
At the time, the Ōtsutsuki God had either fallen or transcended dimensions—accounts varied—but either way, with the loss of their god, the Ōtsutsuki clan's status plummeted.
To stabilize their power and reunite the god-tier Ōtsutsuki who had gone independent, the use of such seals was strictly forbidden…
Since then, the only distinctions between Main and Branch families lay in the types of divine arts they could cultivate, and the level of divine fruits and pills they were permitted to consume.
However, given Momoshiki's status, claiming a "wild" Ōtsutsuki with no official record in the clan—a mere bloodline match—would not invite reprimand from others.
Of course, to prevent Toneri from rebelling, Momoshiki did not lift the time-freeze effect on him while imprinting the slave seal.
Only once the mark was complete and Toneri was about to undergo puppet modification did he awaken—only to discover a six-pointed star-like seal imprinted on his forehead.
It symbolized that he had become Momoshiki's personal property.
Toneri tried to resist, but as soon as the seal activated, both his mind and will were instantly seized by Momoshiki.
When he regained awareness again, one of his arms had already been severed, refined into medicine for Momoshiki's consumption, and replaced with a puppet arm.
"Try out your new arm."
At this point, Momoshiki, preparing to battle the native gods of the Shinobi World, had already elevated himself—in mindset—to the level of the Ōtsutsuki gods.
Ordinary clansmen were nothing more than food and tools in his eyes...
Under Momoshiki's continuous training and torture, Toneri, to preserve what little consciousness remained, was forced to shamefully slice away his own body using materials provided by Momoshiki—offering up his flesh piece by piece as sacrifice.
Using puppet techniques, he mechanized every part of his body except his brain and heart.
In doing so, Toneri completely abandoned his potential for further advancement, but gained immense power in return. With his fully puppetized body, he became immune to damage, and his strength, speed, and defense all vastly surpassed his former limits.
He could even be controlled at will by Momoshiki's Rinnegan through the Asura Path, enabling real-time transformations and upgrades, and giving him the potential to face a Perfected Susanoo head-on!
One could say, post-modification, Toneri had lost his humanity—but all his other capabilities had surged dramatically.
"Let's test your power!"
At Momoshiki's command, the now non-human Toneri lifelessly transformed his form and released five puppet clones from within his body.
Controlling them, he broke through the planet's atmosphere, launching straight toward the Shinobi World.
Though these units couldn't match Sasuke, Naruto, Neji, and the other top-tier shinobi—let alone the native gods of the Shinobi World—they were more than enough to overwhelm multiple Jonin simultaneously.
Each was embedded with a standardized divine technique called "Scar Mark," granting them powerful spatial movement abilities capable of stalling even Kage-level opponents!
Momoshiki intended to use them to wreak havoc across the Shinobi World, serving both as a preliminary probe and a provocation toward the hidden native deities.
As for the transformed Toneri, he was Momoshiki's true trump card—meant for clashing with Perfected Susanoo and hunting down the gods of the Shinobi World.
...
While Momoshiki pushed forward with overwhelming momentum, fully focused on hunting down the Shinobi World's gods and aiming to earn great merit for the Ōtsutsuki clan...
A devastating piece of news arrived early at Takamagahara—the life planet where the Ōtsutsuki clan resided.
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki—
Was dead!
A ceremonial light shattered completely, symbolizing the death of a Main Family member.
Not merely the destruction of his body, but the eternal loss of his soul—true, irreversible death. Even if a Kama still existed in the world, revival would yield nothing but an empty, soulless shell...
While Urashiki's status wasn't as prominent as Momoshiki's, anyone who could be counted among the Main Family was no ordinary figure—they were all seed candidates for the Ōtsutsuki clan's future.
And now, he had fallen on a remote backwater planet!
Almost simultaneously, another item had gone missing: Karasuki—one of the rare sacred tools of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Because the clan's upper echelon had placed tremendous importance on this mission, they had requested Karasuki from the hands of a celestial being and entrusted it to the three-man operation team.
But when Uchiha Kirin destroyed Urashiki's soul, he also used the sophisticated Mystic Magnetic Seal to erase the internal locator from Karasuki!
The loss of a clan member, coupled with one of the clan's few sacred tools—
This intelligence drove the Main Family into a fury.
Yet their rage did not cloud their judgment. As a clan that had existed since the very dawn of the universe, the Ōtsutsuki had encountered such crises before.
After deliberation, the elders of the Main Family unanimously concluded that they had gravely underestimated the resistance of the Shinobi World.
To be able to kill a Main Family member so swiftly—one equipped with a divine tool—meant that this star, which had once caused even the Ōtsutsuki God to fall, still housed ancient gods struggling to survive.
Alternatively, perhaps during the millennia of severed contact, the planet had slipped from the Ōtsutsuki's watchful eye.
Kaguya and Isshiki—those two traitors—had flourished there, giving rise to descendants carrying the blood of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
And now, one of those descendants had completely annihilated Urashiki, a direct heir of the Main Family...
For the Ōtsutsuki clan—rulers of this starry sky—either outcome was intolerable!
If word of this spread, their prestige would suffer irreparable damage.
"The clan head will need a few more years to emerge from the supermassive black hole."
A high-ranking Ōtsutsuki elder spoke.
"In that case, summon the gods of the High Heavens!"
...
"Ryūshiki-sama's Asura Fleet is closest to the target."
"Good. Prepare the sacrificial offerings. Send word to Momoshiki—order him to prepare for early reception, and investigate the cause of Urashiki's death. He must recover the lost sacred tool before Ryūshiki-sama descends..."
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