Whoosh!
A fierce wind howled, tossing strands of hair wildly.
The black Root cloak and the Third Hokage's ceremonial robe fluttered in the gusts, windows and doors rattling as if electrified. Piles of documents on the desk, stacked like small hills, scattered like snowflakes.
Crack, crack…
The reinforced concrete table split with fissures, its steel rebar—capable of supporting tons—twisting and groaning under strain.
Facing Hikari, who showed no reaction, Sarutobi Hiruzen's neck veins bulged, his face flushed a deep maroon. His thick fingers, strong enough to crush raw carbon into diamond, gripped her wrist tightly, yet he couldn't budge her an inch.
Impossible!
Hiruzen, usually all smiles like a friendly neighbor, now had wide eyes, the wrinkles at their corners smoothed by shock, his fierce gaze tinged with fear.
Known for mastering all of Konoha's Five Elemental Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu styles, he'd earned refined titles like "Professor of Ninjutsu" from the outside world.
But his greatest strength was his unparalleled Taijutsu.
Especially his physical power.
Bound by a summoning contract with Enma, he'd trained in Fire Release at Mount Huaguo and received a treasure called the Immortal Peach. After consuming it, he practiced the Diamond Indestructible Body with the monkey clan. Though he ultimately failed to master it due to his body's limits, his physical strength became extraordinary.
Without any ninjutsu enhancement, he could once fight tailed beasts with pure Taijutsu in his youth. This was his trump card during the Second Ninja World War, his proudest asset. Even the First Hokage couldn't have overpowered him with raw strength alone.
Yet Hikari showed no effort, her hand merely resting on the table as he struggled, like she was playfully teasing Konohamaru at home.
His teeth ached from clenching, and Hiruzen stomped the floor, leaving small craters.
A tidal wave of immense force poured out, enough to topple even the Nine-Tails, but her hand remained fixed, as if embedded in the stone.
How could the gap be this vast?
He'd considered that Hikari might narrowly defeat him or use some unexpected trick to win. But being utterly dominated like this? Eight Gates, Lightning Chakra Mode, Tailed Beast Cloak—he thought of countless ways to enhance himself, yet Hikari used none. She overpowered him with pure physical strength, fair and square.
Am I really that old?
Doubt crept in, a rare sense of powerlessness rising within him.
Crunch!
The stone table now bore deep pits and grooves from their elbows, some rubble ground to fine powder.
Hikari carefully tested Hiruzen's limits, absorbing his surging strength into her Takamagahara. If they were to decide Konoha's future leader through a wrist-wrestling match, she needed him to see the undeniable gap between them.
That way, her authority would be unquestionable.
As for the mental toll on Hiruzen—humans can't speak when exerting full effort, but she could see the chaotic emotional sparks bursting from his head. Confusion and frustration danced like embers from burning paper.
As an ordinary ninja without a kekkei genkai, excluding Gai's life-burning Eight Gates, Hiruzen stood at the pinnacle of humanity. But after her complete evolution, Hikari had transcended the human form, entering a new realm beyond the ninja system.
Her ashen eyes reflected Konoha's silhouette. She was wielding her ultimate dojutsu, nurtured over five years of transformation, fueled by chakra surpassing tailed-beast levels, and sparked by her Sage Body and Ash Bone under the reversed Eight Gates—
Takamagahara!
Named after the mythical birthplace of primordial gods, the abode of deities.
Her left eye's ability allowed precise control over her body—not crude manipulation of muscles, bones, or hormones, but the editing of cells, genes, and neural signals at the biological core. Combined with her partial immortality inherited from Kaguya, her body could transform endlessly.
Only after awakening Takamagahara did she understand why she had the "Body Domination" ability—it was the initial manifestation of her dojutsu. She wasn't surprised by this power; she'd anticipated it. The right eye's ability, however, was Takamagahara's true might.
Right Eye Takamagahara:
It consumed 90% of her chakra in one burst, converting it into infinite dojutsu light—the gray radiance born when her dojutsu first awakened.
This light existed between the virtual and real, a superposition state, unstoppable by anything in the physical world, akin to the red moonlight of Kaguya's Infinite Tsukuyomi. Unlike Infinite Tsukuyomi, which targeted living beings and minds, Takamagahara affected lifeless objects.
Wherever the endless gray light fell, all inanimate matter fused completely with Hikari, inseparable.
Just moments ago, when Takamagahara activated, the gray light had engulfed all of Konoha and spread dozens of kilometers beyond. From that moment, rivers became her veins, the earth her muscles, and the natural energy in the environment hers to command. Konoha had become an extension of her body, and nothing within it could escape her gaze.
Jiraiya couldn't sense natural energy because it now belonged to her within Takamagahara. Even entering a state of unity with nature required her permission. No one could borrow environmental power here—Five Elemental Ninjutsu relied solely on personal chakra, and any chakra that dissipated into the environment became hers.
Her chakra would grow infinitely through others' battles.
And that wasn't all.
Her left eye's Takamagahara controlled her entire being, including the fused "Konoha" as part of her "body." Combining both eyes' powers, she was the god of this domain!
The heavens and earth are born with me; all things are one with me.
The philosophy of Zhuangzi's Carefree Wandering had become reality.
Hiruzen wasn't wrestling a human but Takamagahara itself, measured in square kilometers. In physical strength, no one could defeat Hikari now.
Unlike Jiraiya's meditative unity with nature, she was the true embodiment of heaven and earth.
Seeing Hiruzen's flushed face, still stubbornly pushing despite the clear gap, Hikari decided he'd learned his lesson. No need to bully the elderly further.
In her dojutsu's virtual vision, a flat terrain twenty miles from Konoha rumbled like an earthquake. The yellowish-green mountain, buried under decayed leaves, bulged like a biceps, its surface splitting into exaggerated ravines, resembling taut muscle fibers.
Creak!
Countless steel bars screeched, snapping inch by inch.
The earth's transformative power gathered in Hikari's hand. Hiruzen's eyes widened, feeling his hand nearly crushed into a pulp.
Boom!
The stone table shattered into dust, steel bars breaking into pieces across the office floor. Hikari's jade-like arm, heavier than a mountain, pinned Hiruzen's twisted hand in the air, like the Five-Finger Mountain trapping the Monkey King.
The match was over.
Huff!
The chakra-fueled wind died down, scattered papers and broken steel littering the floor.
Jiraiya stared, dumbfounded, unable to believe his eyes as the mysterious woman pinned Hiruzen.
"The wrist-wrestling match is over! The winner is—" Jiraiya, despite his shock, remembered his role as referee but realized he didn't know the woman's name.
No one paid him any mind. Hikari used medical ninjutsu to heal the cracks in Hiruzen's hand bones before withdrawing her hand.
"Sensei, thank you for the match."
Hiruzen snapped out of his daze, his trembling arm hanging in the air, his overexerted, blood-flushed body slumping. He studied Hikari as if seeing a monster.
"You've taken that step?"
During the Warring States, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha dominated their era. Today's Kage, in that time, would've been mere playthings. Even tailed beasts, catastrophic to villages, were just oversized pets to them. Hiruzen and Danzo's research into Hashirama's cells and the Sharingan wasn't for kekkei genkai like Orochimaru's but to pursue the supreme power of the God of Shinobi and the Demon of the Ninja World.
Realizing Hikari had reached that level, Hiruzen knew she'd likely attained that legendary realm.
"It's hard to describe, but yes," Hikari said calmly, her eyes shifting Konoha's silhouette. The terrain twenty miles away, which she'd borrowed power from, quietly smoothed out.
With her left eye's precise control, the deep ravines filled, and the decayed leaves returned to normal. The earth was like soft clay in her hands, moldable at will.
Within Takamagahara's light, everything was her body. She could manipulate this domain's matter with minimal chakra. Why such massive natural movements cost so little chakra, she hadn't figured out, suspecting it tied to natural energy.
Having just awakened her dojutsu and noticed the commotion outside, she'd only explored a fraction of Takamagahara's potential. Used to creating ninjutsu she instantly mastered, this was her first time grappling with a "black box" dojutsu.
"Truly… remarkable," Hiruzen said, shaking his head in awe, his eyes gleaming with a peculiar light as he gazed at the new God of Shinobi.
Hikari recognized that look—she'd seen it at the zoo, staring at pandas.
It made sense. In a thousand years, only three ninja had reached super-Kage level, two relying on Asura and Indra's power. She was likely the only one to climb there via Byakugan and Shikotsumyaku.
The Byakugan offered no significant chakra boost, its dojutsu abilities basic. The Shikotsumyaku was hard to awaken and brought chronic pain. Overcoming these hurdles with her reversed Eight Gates, she surpassed physical, bloodline, and age limits to reach the peak. In some ways, she was rarer than a panda.
Looking at Hikari's mask, Hiruzen realized neither he nor the entire ninja world could stop her. After a moment's thought, he said with complex emotions, "Do what you must. I won't stand in your way. Just protect Konoha and keep it from war's suffering."
"Thank you for your support, Sensei. I'll keep that in mind."
To secure the outside, first stabilize the inside.
With Hiruzen's backing, plus her control of the Root and years of built connections, only the Hokage title remained to unify Konoha's power structure peacefully.
Next, she'd handle the genius ninja outside.
Scribble, scribble…
Hiruzen leaned over the desk, quickly writing an appointment scroll, stamping it with the Hokage seal, and handing it to Hikari. "You're in charge of all exam matters. If anyone objects, show them this."
Tucking the scroll away, Hikari nodded to Hiruzen and turned to leave.
Whoosh!
An invisible breeze swept through. The pitted floor smoothed out, twisted steel bars wriggled like worms to reconnect, and shattered concrete reformed, encasing the steel as if time reversed. Even the torn documents pieced themselves back together, neatly returning to Hiruzen's desk.
The room restored to its original state, leaving Hiruzen and Jiraiya staring at the miraculous scene, at a loss.
"This feels like Sage Art!" Jiraiya said. Though he couldn't enter unity with nature, he sensed natural energy fluctuations in the neatly arranged papers. Smoothing fragile paper with volatile natural energy was a precision even Mount Myoboku's sages couldn't achieve.
"Sensei, who is she?"
He couldn't hold back the question that had nagged him.
Watching Hikari's tall silhouette vanish through the door, Hiruzen massaged his stiff right hand, his expression a mix of resignation at being surpassed and unspoken pride.
"She's my final disciple, Konoha's greatest genius ever, and the new God of Shinobi—Hikari Tsuki!"