"The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki…"
Otsutsuki Toneri stood above, looking down at Kaede with a cold snort. "I thought you'd be more cautious. So you still chased me all the way here."
As his voice fell, his figure flickered and appeared directly in front of Kaede. In his right hand, he gripped a Six Paths staff, while his left hand formed a fist and struck out.
As a direct descendant of Otsutsuki Hamura, one who had inherited Hamura's chakra, his most powerful skill was taijutsu, far surpassing even the Hyuga Clan by countless magnitudes!
Kaede tilted his head slightly.
Boom!!
Toneri's punch missed, grazing past Kaede's head and continuing onward. The raw force behind it erupted in a visible shockwave, utterly obliterating a distant crater.
Kaede, having dodged the strike, slashed down with the Kusanagi Sword in his right hand.
Clang!
Toneri raised his Six Paths staff just in time to block the blow. Sage Chakra clashed with Six Paths Chakra. The difference was obvious, Kaede's Sage Chakra was slightly inferior, showing signs of dispersal upon impact.
But Kaede's expression remained unchanged. With a flicker of his time-reversal power, the weakened chakra stabilized instantly. He then clenched his left fist and swung it toward Toneri's face.
Toneri met it head-on with a punch of his own.
The two fists stopped just short of contact, halting about a foot apart. The air between them exploded from the sheer pressure of their chakra and force.
BOOM!!!
The explosion echoed like thunder through the land.
Both were blasted back in opposite directions, landing tens of meters apart. The ground between them cracked and split, forming a spiderweb of fissures like a shattered tortoise shell.
"Power at the level of the Six Paths… it really is on a different scale."
Kaede stared at Toneri from across the battlefield.
Compared to Uchiha Obito, who had yet to fully wield the power of the Six Paths, this inheritor of Otsutsuki Hamura's strength was on a completely different level in both speed and raw force.
Toneri's evolved Byakugan could fully track Kaede's movements, and his body, enhanced by Six Paths power, could keep up with Kaede's speed.
As for chakra reserves, they were roughly equal, if not slightly in Kaede's favor due to his perfect Sage Body and full Nine-Tails power. However, Toneri's chakra was far more condensed, like the difference between a kilogram of sand and a kilogram of solid iron.
This man,
Was the first being Kaede had ever faced who could truly match him in direct combat!
"Your scattered chakra regathered again... Your control is impressive," Toneri said coldly, his Byakugan analyzing every movement of Kaede's chakra. He had clearly seen it begin to collapse, only for it to immediately stabilize.
Kaede's chakra wasn't nearly as condensed as his, and it should've been crushed by now. But somehow, through sheer will and control, Kaede had managed to hold it together.
However,
This clash made something else abundantly clear to him: the power he inherited from his ancestor utterly outclassed Kaede's chakra in quality, even if not quantity.
"The difference in chakra essence alone decides the outcome."
"Heaven Flash!"
Toneri released the Six Paths staff, allowing it to dissolve into Truth-Seeking Orbs behind him. With both fists clenched, he lunged forward and threw a devastating punch at Kaede.
The air compressed visibly around the blow, forming a massive fist-shaped shockwave wreathed in tremendous chakra, roaring toward Kaede.
Kaede's expression didn't change.
He raised his own fist and struck back in kind.
"Heaven Flash!"
The techniques were almost identical, pure, overwhelming taijutsu blows that distorted the air and launched enormous chakra-laced shockwaves.
This was a battle of attrition, raw stamina and chakra output. And Kaede had no fear of such a contest, for his chakra and physical energy were limitless.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Countless fist-shaped shockwaves collided in mid-air, each explosion shaking the moon itself.
Far away, members of the Otsutsuki clan, descendants of Hamura who had long lived on the moon, rushed out of their buildings to witness the commotion.
"That ninja… is he the one Toneri said our ancestor ordered us to eliminate?"
"He's actually able to fight evenly with Toneri, who inherited the Sage's power… Unbelievable."
None of the Otsutsuki clan had pupils in their eyes, Byakugan users all, but even though they couldn't see the battle directly, they could sense the overwhelming chakra radiating from two sources. The ground trembled beneath its weight.
Despite their lineage from Hamura, their own power was nothing special, barely stronger than the Hyuga Clan.
In contrast, the chakra from Kaede and Toneri was vast and bottomless, like oceans without end.
"There is a difference between their powers," said the clan patriarch solemnly, the most powerful among them. "Toneri's chakra is more refined. That ninja's chakra is far more scattered. Though they both wield Sage chakra, they are not on the same level."
With the power Toneri now wielded, defeating this opponent,
Would not be difficult.
Especially since they had sacrificed all their Byakugan to create the Tenseigan, focusing the entire clan's power into one singular force. But now, it seemed they wouldn't even need it, Toneri alone would be enough to crush the intruder.
After exchanging hundreds of attacks with Toneri, Kaede suddenly raised his right hand, gripping the hilt of the Kusanagi Sword with a sharp snap, and swung it toward his opponent.
Sssshhk!
A golden arc of light sliced through the air.
Without pause, Kaede followed up with a flurry of slashes, his sword moving so fast it seemed to blur into afterimages, each swing unleashing a golden wave of chakra.
Every arc of light was infused with the power of Perfect Sage Mode and the Nine-Tails Chakra Cloak, each strike a fusion of sage energy and raw physical force.
This was,
Sage Art: Yasaka Magatama!
The golden slashes burst through the sea of fist-shaped shockwaves.
Though his Sage Chakra was inferior in grade to Toneri's Six Paths power, the focused nature of his sword techniques condensed his chakra more effectively in close combat.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Each golden strike exploded through the shockwaves, steadily advancing toward Toneri until they closed in right before him.
==========
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