All of the Otsutsuki wield this bloodline art. In fact, those who bore the Sage of Six Paths' Samsara Eye—Nagato and Madara—served as vessels for the Sage's rebirth through the Wedge.
As the name implies, a wedge is a medium—a foothold.
The Otsutsuki do not truly die. They implant a Wedge into a target body and complete their resurrection from the shadows.
Not everyone can be used as a vessel. There are conditions. The body must share certain similarities with the Otsutsuki who imprints the Wedge.
Those struck by a Wedge manifest a black rhombus mark on the hand. The Otsutsuki then "sleeps," losing agency; so long as the mark remains, the Otsutsuki will revive.
There is another outcome: when a black Wedge turns white. In that case, the chosen human—what the Otsutsuki call a "vessel"—is unfit to host a resurrection.
A white Wedge cannot serve as a rebirth vessel, but it can become a container for Otsutsuki power.
Because the Sage of Six Paths was Kaguya's descendant, perhaps he never intended to revive by this method at all. That is likely why neither Nagato nor Madara bore the Wedge's mark on their hands.
Right now, a black rhombus was blooming on Neji's palm.
Which Otsutsuki had chosen him as a vessel was unknown. Clearly, Haku had become a container for a Wedge—explaining all his odd behavior and those cryptic words to Neji.
Haku's "suicide" had been forced. He'd had no choice.
The "curse of the bloodline" likely meant that clans with powerful limits are selected as vessels—or, as Kaede suspected, that there truly exists a curse woven through this world: every powerful bloodline stands at the edge of extinction.
Haku's people were already all but gone; those that lived would hide their names.
Kaede's intervention had saved his own clan, bending fate away from annihilation. But the other curses remained. One by one, Kaede's grim guesses were being confirmed.
Today was the prologue to the next incident: the Hyuga had been marked—and even Kaede did not yet know by whom.
Even so, today's chaos had given him threads to follow.
Originally, the ones to be marked should have been Hinata or Hanabi—daughters of the main branch. That it was Neji now was largely due to Kaede's interference; he had removed the branch house seal.
Neji had always outshone Hinata in talent, and his age was perfect.
Hanabi was still far too young—gifted, yes, but a child.
Neji's White Eye shimmered with that faint blue—no one could follow how he slipped from point to point.
Only Kaede understood: it wasn't Neji's chakra propelling him.
It was Otsutsuki chakra.
"Back already?" said a calm voice. Kaguya had returned, of all things scattering feed into a koi pond. "You noticed, didn't you?"
Kaede nodded. "You came back to feed fish?"
"Answer the question," Kaguya said lightly, eyes fixed on Neji's palm. "The Wedge. He's been chosen as a vessel."
(End of Chapter)
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