Snap—
Uchiha Fugaku released his grip. Ōtsutsuki Shuron's corpse slumped to the ground.
As the body fell, the countless Ōtsutsuki puppets inside the Moon Palace went limp like robots with their power cut off, losing all ability to move.
All those puppets had been under Ōtsutsuki Shuron's control. With him dead, that control dissolved — and the puppets naturally became inert.
"The second condition for evolving the Rebirth Eye is complete!"
Fugaku peeled off the White Bone Armor and couldn't help smiling.
With the second condition met, he could begin the Rebirth Eye's evolution at any moment. He had risked everything to fly from the shinobi world to the moon — now it was time to reap the reward.
If he refined Shuron's corpse, his Byakugan would finally evolve into the Rebirth Eye.
"Corpse Refinement!"
Fugaku's Byakugan vanished; the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan flared into being.
He initiated corpse refinement, and a pitch-black vortex appeared. He hoisted Ōtsutsuki Shuron's corpse and tossed it into the whirlpool. A strange, cell-like substance formed and flowed toward Fugaku's eyes.
A chill spread through him — it felt like cold compresses were being held against his eyes.
Inside Fugaku's eyes something wondrous was happening: the Byakugan's genetic structure was being completed. As those genes were filled in, the Byakugan began to metamorphose — or, more accurately, to evolve.
A new pair of eyes was gestating; a new power was being born.
After a long time the cellular substance stopped flowing and the chill faded.
Fugaku deactivated the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. A pair of clear, azure eyes remained — blue as the sky, clear as a lake: the Rebirth Eye.
Fugaku couldn't see the change himself, but he could feel the terrible power these eyes contained. It towered over the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan — far stronger. The difference between the two was like a child compared to an adult.
Leaving the chamber that housed the giant Rebirth Eye, Fugaku returned outside.
"Rebirth Eye chakra mode!"
A green chakra cloaked him, forming a luminous garment similar to the chakra cloak Shuron had used — yet fundamentally different. Shuron's chakra-cloak had been a degraded imitation; this Rebirth Eye chakra mode was the true form.
Fugaku now wore a green, glowing chakra coat. Floating behind him were nine fist-sized black spheres.
Those nine black spheres were Questing Orbs — high-density chakra constructs created from Yin–Yang escape techniques combined with the five elements and seven attribute formulas. They changed form at will: weapons, massive hollow spheres for defense — their destructive power immense. A single orb could effortlessly annihilate a forest.
Anyone without Six Paths-level strength who even touched a Questing Orb would be harmed as if hit by Dust Release. Even an Edo Tensei body that could reconstruct from atoms would not be immune: if the orb contacted the corresponding spot on the body, that part would vanish and could not be restored.
After acquiring the Rebirth Eye, Fugaku had automatically gained the ability to create these Questing Orbs.
Whoosh—
Without using any Lightweight Rock technique, a mere thought lifted Fugaku into the air. He soared across most of the Moon Fortress, exited through an entrance, and emerged outside.
One Questing Orb glowed green and shot toward a distant forest.
Boom!
Like a rain of countless explosive seals, the entire forest was incinerated into ash, emitting an appalling flash of light and heat.
The orb returned on its own and rejoined the other eight, drifting back to hover behind Fugaku.
"So much power."
Watching the devastation he'd unleashed, Fugaku — though he had expected great force — was still taken aback. The impact of just that single orb already surpassed his current complete-form Susanoo.
And that was only one of nine. If all nine struck together, the destruction would be unimaginable.
He didn't dare test them recklessly; the moon was far more fragile than the shinobi world, and he feared causing permanent damage. He halted further testing and returned to the Moon Palace.
His gaze settled on the hall where the giant Rebirth Eye was kept.
"Besides raw power, it can resonate with the giant Rebirth Eye and manipulate it."
As he used and refined his control of the Rebirth Eye, he felt a resonance — a link reaching toward the giant Rebirth Eye. Sharing the same eye-type, their powers originated from the same source; resonance and connection were inevitable.
That was Shuron's goal in abducting Hyūga Hanabi and evolving the Byakugan into the Rebirth Eye: to resonate with and seize control of the giant Rebirth Eye's titanic power.
"You can't manipulate it rashly!"
Even his own pair of Rebirth Eyes carried enough power to risk permanent damage to the moon — let alone the giant Rebirth Eye.
Fugaku chose not to attempt control of the giant eye. He cancelled Rebirth Eye chakra mode; the green light and the Questing Orbs faded.
Then he walked through a Moon Palace that held no other living person but him.
Now came the time to gather spoils.
As descendants of the Ōtsutsuki's Hyūga clan, the Moon Byakugan people kept many precious secret techniques and tomes — treasures Fugaku would not pass up.
Two days later he stepped out of an attic of the Moon Palace.
That attic was the Moon Byakugan clan's repository of secret arts and valuable scrolls. Relying on the giant Rebirth Eye, the moon's Byakugan developed many secret techniques — some resembling ordinary Sharingan jutsu. They weren't overwhelmingly powerful, but they were highly practical.
During those two days Fugaku had been studying the secret arts the moon clan had developed through the giant Rebirth Eye.
Outside, he saw the Moon Palace wrecked from the battle and Ōtsutsuki puppets strewn across the ground. With a faint raise of his brow he took in the scene.
With Shuron dead, the place had become unowned territory.
He had decided the Moon Palace — indeed the whole moon — would be his hidden sanctuary. The damaged buildings would, of course, be repaired.
"Puppet-control technique!"
He formed the seals for a technique he'd learned over the last two days that used the giant Rebirth Eye's power to control puppets.
As he performed the seals, power from the giant Rebirth Eye unfurled as countless invisible, illusory lines. Those lines entered the toppled Ōtsutsuki puppets that hadn't been destroyed; the intact puppets snapped to life.
They turned as one and faced Fugaku — now clearly under his command.
"Repair the damaged areas!"
Fugaku ordered, and the puppets moved in orderly fashion.
Some acted like construction workers, repairing the Moon Palace's ruined structures. Others boarded flying puppets and flew out to fell trees and cut stone, then carried the materials back.
These puppets were the product of generations of puppet engineering by the Moon Byakugan clan and had many functions: building, fighting, cleaning, cooking…
Because of them, Shuron had been able to manage such a vast Moon Palace alone.
"It's been nearly ten days — time to return to Konoha!"
Fugaku activated Rebirth Eye chakra mode and flew out of the Moon Palace.
He had reached Six Paths-level power; his life form had changed. He could survive in the airless void of space. Returning from the moon to the shinobi world would no longer be as difficult as the trip there had been.
Still, it wasn't necessary to struggle so much.
He produced a map, found a cave on the moon, and traveled to it.
This cave housed the spatial channel connecting to the shinobi world, but Shuron had sealed it shut.
"Open, spatial channel!"
He formed the hand seals to open the passage; the cave changed. Where there had been pitch-black rock, a pool of glowing water appeared — the spatial channel.
Fugaku jumped into the pool and began his return to the shinobi world.
After passing through several spaces, he emerged in the cave in the shinobi world where he had once been.
A figure slipped from the rocks at his arrival — the second spore-clone disguised as a member of the Snow clan. It had been stationed here under Fugaku's orders.
"This place no longer needs guarding. Return to Konoha with me."
"Yes."
The spore-clone replied, and Fugaku looked back at the spatial channel.
"The moon is my hidden base now. I can't let others pass through the channel to the moon."
He formed seals to seal the channel; the glowing pool vanished and the passage closed.
Leaving the cave, Fugaku and the spore-clone quickly returned to Konoha.
Traveling from the shinobi world to the moon had been madness and full of danger — but he had succeeded, and had gained enormous benefits. Before the voyage his power had been beyond Shadowscale level; now he had reached Six Paths-level strength.
"Next is finding Nagato and killing him!"
With his current Six Paths-level might, Nagato would stand no chance. If he could locate Nagato, Fugaku believed he could eliminate that threat once and for all.