I, Konoha’s Sage of Life-Chapter 413: The Survivors on the Moon

Chapter 413: Chapter 413: The Survivors on the Moon
Without the Rinnegan, Kyoichi would have needed to combine at least two techniques just to achieve flight. But after obtaining the Rinnegan, and pairing it with the Paper Transformation Technique, he realized he could take to the air with remarkable ease.
Little by little, he ascended, rising ever higher into the sky.
Jiraiya looked up at the gradually shrinking figure, his heart filled with complicated emotions.
This scene...
It mirrored his own encounter with Kyoichi, and everything that had followed since.
From being close, to slowly drifting apart—until, in the end, they could no longer see each other at all.
"Just a few years, and the gap is already this big... honestly, sigh."
Jiraiya couldn’t help but lament.
"Actually, I think that if I’d given him my eyes back then, he probably could’ve dealt with that pitch-black guy on his own. But for some reason, it feels like he deliberately wanted to train me up as well."
Nagato had woken up and was looking at the sky, still a bit unaccustomed. Thankfully, it was nighttime—moonlight was bright but not harsh.
There were subtle differences between the Sharingan and the Rinnegan.
At the very least, he felt far more energetic than before, no longer as frail as he had once been. As for the Rinnegan, Nagato didn’t feel particularly attached to it anymore—at least not right now.
Whether he had it or not...
The difference might be enormous, but personally, he didn’t mind. He just felt a slight sense of unfamiliarity.
Nagato thought about it.
Living without the Rinnegan didn’t seem so bad. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to worry about others coveting his eyes, or fear for Konan’s and Yahiko’s safety.
Nagato’s ambitions weren’t grand.
He only wanted the people he cared about to live well. If, on top of that, they could realize their ideals together, then all the better.
With three effects stacked together, Kyoichi’s flight speed was astonishingly fast. He soon passed from the land into the high sky.
And the higher he went...
The faster he felt himself moving. Resistance grew weaker, chakra consumption dropped lower and lower.
It worked!
At great altitude, he even saw the distant Heavenly Body.
That was the one he and Nagato had created together using Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei, silently floating in the void. Kyoichi veered toward it, and after a short while, arrived upon its surface.
He observed it for a moment, preparing to continue upward—
When the ground beneath him trembled slightly.
Black Zetsu was resisting.
But...
That was the limit of its ability. Escaping was virtually impossible. Still, Kyoichi thought it over and carved an enormous sealing formula onto the surface as an extra layer of insurance.
At the same time, he left behind a Flying Thunder God marker.
If a fight broke out and he couldn’t win, he’d retreat instantly back to the shinobi world and drown his enemy in the sea of humanity!
Two contingencies—steady profits, no losses.
...
The barrier between the sky and outer space wasn’t particularly strong. With the Rinnegan, Kyoichi easily tore open a gap and hurled a kunai through it.
Empowered by Sage chakra, the kunai shot forward, streaking toward the Moon.
Moments later—
It had already traveled an enormous distance, continuing forward without the slightest sign of slowing. Kyoichi donned the chakra armor at once.
This armor didn’t merely enhance chakra—it also contained a sealing scroll packed with air. If the environment proved unsuitable for combat, he could release the air and drag the enemy back into the shinobi world to fight.
In short, better safe than sorry.
Who knew what space was really like?
Even though his body was that of a Sage, he had no idea how it compared to the Ōtsutsuki—whether he could freely survive in outer space was still an open question.
Kyoichi tracked the kunai’s position.
The next instant, at a precise location, he teleported.
A crushing sense of suffocation hit him.
Fortunately...
He was already very close to the Moon.
In a flash—
Several dark shadow markers appeared in space.
Kyoichi rapidly chained Flying Thunder God jumps, closing in on the Moon. In the blink of an eye, he was right next to it, already sensing the barrier surrounding it.
The Moon—reached.
This barrier had an extremely powerful blocking effect. At its peak, Kyoichi had no doubt he wouldn’t have been able to enter at all.
But now, by combining Sage chakra with the Rinnegan’s repulsive force, he temporarily forced open a breach.
Then—
Flying Thunder God, entry!
The Moon was desolate, devastated beyond measure.
Thanks to the barrier’s effect, he could move freely and normally within it.
Everywhere bore the scars of a massive battle. Extending his senses, he detected almost no signs of life. Only after a long while did he locate a palace.
The palace of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
He descended toward it.
A few seconds later—
Kyoichi landed carefully.
There was a human presence!
Ōtsutsuki Toneri?
If so, then the Ōtsutsuki clan really had wiped itself out.
Kyoichi pondered this but didn’t relax his guard.
He advanced cautiously into the palace. The deeper he went, the stronger the human presence became. Lifting his gaze, the first thing he saw was a golden Tenseigan, radiant and dazzling beyond compare.
And beneath it—
A massive purple sphere of light.
As expected...
Internal strife within the Ōtsutsuki clan had already occurred.
The discomfort Hiashi had felt earlier was because the Moon’s branch and main families were locked in a life-and-death struggle, fighting until the entire clan was nearly annihilated.
But...
At least one person was still alive.
The faint presence he could sense had to be Ōtsutsuki Toneri.
Still...
It was possible that others had survived as well.
Kyoichi remained alert.
He quietly approached the golden sphere.
One step. Two steps...
Once he was fully close, he raised his hand as if to touch the golden Tenseigan—yet his senses remained fully extended, probing for any hidden enemies.
Just as his fingers were about to make contact, an extremely faint aura leaked out.
Someone else was alive!
In an instant—
Kyoichi vanished.
The next moment, he appeared inside a narrow cavern. A withered old man, eyes completely clouded gray, raised his hand and struck at him.
The exact same Gentle Fist style.
Kyoichi remained calm, sidestepped the blow, and seized the man’s arm. His fingers came together and tapped lightly.
Chakra—sealed!
But then, countless blades erupted around him. Several puppets surrounded him, all their weapons slashing down at once—almost impossible to evade.
Unfortunately, Kyoichi didn’t just have Flying Thunder God.
He also had—
Rinnegan: Shinra Tensei!
It was his first time using it, and the effect was outstanding. The repulsive force blasted outward, sending the old man and the surrounding puppets flying apart.
The old man was already at death’s door, his life nearly spent.
In his final moments, he adjusted his position—Kyoichi realized he had been thrown deliberately toward the purple Tenseigan.
He wanted to use it to kill Kyoichi.
But—
In the next second, Kyoichi appeared right beside him.
"Elder, could you tell me... what exactly happened here?"
"Y-you... who are you?! Why do you have the Rinnegan?!"
The old man was utterly shocked.
He was blind, his condition dire, almost dead.
And yet...
Some things could still be sensed.
For example—
Shinra Tensei.
As for that instantaneous movement earlier, he couldn’t identify it—perhaps a creation of the shinobi world’s humans.
But the key...
Was the Rinnegan.