Kenya's voice was a cool blade in the moonlight. "In this state I have no hesitation. All of you together cannot oppose me."
He stroked the Hōgyoku embedded at his chest; the gem sank, swallowing light, and the moonlight dimmed as the sphere retreated. He smiled, very gently. "Frankly, you have no value anymore. Your lives are dispensable. Leave now — I'll grant you a way out."
The patriarch of the branch house exploded in fury. "How dare you mock us!" He lunged forward, wrath replacing the brief fear that had touched him moments before.
— — —
Far below, in Orochimaru's underground stronghold, the blasted landscape lay under a crust of frost that made the ruin look like a frozen wasteland. Sasuke stood with Kusanagi, Suigetsu at his side like a loose wire; ice hissed from the ground around them. Even Suigetsu's grin had gone slack.
A cold, real sweat slid down Suigetsu's temple. He hadn't expected the thing that had risen in power from Hōgyoku's imperfect evolution to be this strong. Sasuke had accepted Hōgyoku's stimulus years ago — but this… this presence felt different. The boy carried something old in his blood now, and it frightened the ex-Mist mercenary.
Sakura's voice cracked through the wind. "It's… too much. He's beyond our reach."
Naruto clutched his arms, the bandaged pain fresh as salt. "We have to get stronger," he said, voice raw. "Only by getting stronger can we bring him back."
Kakashi watched Sasuke vanish with Orochimaru and Kabuto, expression unreadable. No words could make the quiet hurt any less.
On the return road, Suigetsu tried to soften the blow. "They escaped. We'll explain it to Lord Kenya later."
But at a campfire that night, Suigetsu's attempt at levity died in the faces of the others when Shīyu approached them with a warning: "Sasuke is already a rebel of Konoha. If the village is angered… Lord Kenya will deal with him personally."
Naruto and Sakura froze. The fate of a runaway shinobi in this era was well known: destiny could be cruel, and not always merciful.
Under the wide moon, Shīyu asked softly, "Doesn't the moon look especially full tonight?"
They looked up. The moon hung perfect and round — unnaturally bright, as if something inside it watched them.
— — —
Inside the lunar ruins, Kenya pulled his death-throated coat tighter over the exposed moon-chamber. The scattered ash of Ōtsutsuki lay like relics around him.
A status prompt blinked in his mind: [Current template character: Lord of Hōgyoku · Aizen Sōsuke — unlock rate: 71.93%]
He frowned. Progress was slowing; the nearer he crept to completion, the less each kill or soul offered. Even so, his present state — the first stage of fusion — had made him laugh at many former limits. Pseudo-Six-Path Obito-level opponents were no longer threats; only true Six-Path Madara or a Kaguya-class entity could force him to think twice.
"Thank you," he murmured to the Ōtsutsuki remains. "You all contributed toward an important step."
He swept his hand. Soil and dust rose, forming a soft curtain that covered the bones and relics. The Hōgyoku pulsed faintly beneath his ribs, eager; the gem had taken Toneri's soul on its own, an event Kenya hadn't expected. He had been testing the Hōgyoku's appetite — and it had answered.
"Next," Kenya whispered to himself with a small smile, "you'll put on the last good show for me."
The ruins listened mute and cold as a new power began to stir inside the moon.