"Let's go."
Kiyohara took Tsunade's hand, and the two of them stepped into the pool together.
The water flowed from their ankles to their knees, then gradually rose to their waists. Tsunade's fingers instinctively tightened around his hand, and her fingernails lightly pressed into the back of Kiyohara's hand.
Kiyohara did not let go. He simply held her hand and continued walking toward the center of the pool.
When the water reached their chests, Kiyohara turned his head and looked at Tsunade.
Although they were both submerged in the water, neither of them felt any difficulty breathing.
Soon, the two of them continued descending.
The underwater world was so quiet that it felt like another dimension entirely.
Glowing crystals reflected the light, forming slanted beams within the dark green water. Tiny particles slowly drifted through those beams of light.
Several small silver-white fish swam past them. Their scales glittered with scattered reflections as they passed through the illuminated water.
The rocks at the bottom of the pool were covered with dark green aquatic plants. The plants swayed slowly in rhythm with the gentle current.
Kiyohara held Tsunade's hand and swam toward an inconspicuous crack between the rocks at the bottom of the pool.
The crack was very narrow, barely wide enough for a single person to pass through sideways.
Kiyohara squeezed through first, then reached back and pulled Tsunade inside as well.
The passage beyond the entrance was much wider.
After swimming for a while longer, Kiyohara noticed a bright light appearing above them.
With a splash, the two of them simultaneously broke through the surface of the water.
"Where are we?"
Tsunade could only feel that everything before her was incredibly mysterious.
A gigantic underground cavern stretched out before them. The ceiling was at least forty or fifty meters above the surface of the water, and countless stalactites hung down from above. Every stalactite was covered in glowing moss, bathing the entire cavern in a dreamlike blue-green light.
Huge clusters of stalagmites covered both sides of the cavern walls. Their shapes were bizarre and varied. Some resembled people, some resembled animals, while others looked like enormous palms reaching up from beneath the earth.
The underground river gathered here and formed a vast subterranean lake. The water was so clear that the bottom could be seen easily. A layer of fine white sand covered the lakebed, and countless tiny glowing minerals were scattered throughout it, sparkling like stars in the night sky.
Tsunade stepped onto a stone platform protruding from the water and raised her head to look at the glowing stalactites above.
"So we can get to the Moon from here?"
"Yes. The gravity in this space is somewhat different from the outside. Watch your footing."
Kiyohara grabbed Tsunade's wrist and pushed off from the ground.
The two bodies slowly rose from the stone platform and began drifting toward the top of the cavern.
They were not taking the same route that Naruto and the others had used to reach the Moon. Their route was much closer to outer space.
As Kiyohara pulled her upward, Tsunade's soaked ponytail swung behind her, creating an arc of water. Droplets shook loose from her clothes and floated around her like scattered pearls.
Among the clusters of stalactites at the top of the cavern was an inconspicuous opening. An even brighter light shone from the other side.
Kiyohara pulled Tsunade through the opening.
The scene before them suddenly opened up.
It was a gigantic vertical cavern extending straight upward, with a diameter of at least a hundred meters. The walls were covered with glowing tomoe patterns that stretched layer after layer from the bottom of the cavern all the way to its opening, resembling a staircase of light leading toward the heavens.
The air inside the cavern was dry and cold. White mist could be seen whenever they breathed.
Kiyohara held Tsunade's hand as they slowly ascended through the weightless environment. The glow of the tomoe patterns swept across their bodies, dyeing their faces and clothing a faint, eerie blue.
Tsunade's eyes widened, and her fingers remained tightly wrapped around Kiyohara's wrist.
When the two of them finally flew out from the top of the gigantic cavern, an endless black expanse of outer space appeared before them.
The surface of the Moon stretched out beneath their feet. The silver-gray wasteland was covered with craters of various sizes, and the edges of each crater were outlined by a golden glow from the sunlight.
Farther away, a gigantic blue planet floated silently against the darkness of space.
Tsunade held her breath.
Her golden hair slowly floated in the weightless environment. Several loose strands escaped from her ponytail and gently drifted beside her cheeks.
Kiyohara raised his right hand.
Green Tenseigan chakra surged from his palm and formed a translucent, pale green protective barrier around Tsunade.
The temperature inside the barrier rapidly increased. The frost that had formed on her clothes melted into tiny droplets of water, which floated inside the barrier in the weightless environment like miniature transparent pearls.
Tsunade took several breaths and finally recovered.
"The Moon is actually like this."
Tsunade stretched out her hand and touched the inner surface of the pale green barrier with her fingertips, leaving behind a faint fingerprint.
"We have completely left the shinobi world now."
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
He watched as Tsunade curiously looked around in every direction.
Tsunade carefully observed her surroundings for a while before finally pulling her gaze away with some reluctance.
"All right, I've seen enough. Where are we going next?"
"We're going to find the people living on the Moon."
Kiyohara answered.
He then held Tsunade's hand and flew around the surface of the Moon with her, searching for the castle on the lunar surface.
After searching for some time, Kiyohara finally discovered traces of it.
At the same time, the Ōtsutsuki on the Moon also discovered the two unexpected visitors, Kiyohara and Tsunade.
More than a dozen white figures flew out from the towers scattered throughout the castle. Every one of them wore white Ōtsutsuki robes. They had white hair, white eyes, and cold, stern expressions.
At the front was an old man with completely white hair and a white beard. His body was thin and frail, and his eye sockets were sunken deeply. There was nothing but darkness within them.
His robe was embroidered with more tomoe patterns than those worn by ordinary members of the clan, and he held a stone staff that was even taller than himself.
He was none other than the Great Elder of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
"You really came back again."
The Great Elder's voice was cold.
"Allowing you to leave unharmed the last time was a thousand-year disgrace to our clan. Today, you will remain on the Moon."
The Great Elder formed hand seals with both hands.
At the same time, the tomoe-covered stone pillars surrounding the plaza lit up with blinding radiance.
A chakra beam more than several hundred meters in diameter suddenly shot from the top of the central tower where the gigantic Tenseigan was located.
The terrifying chakra contained within the beam distorted the surrounding space as it tore through the air and blasted directly toward Kiyohara.
Wherever the beam passed, the stone slabs of the plaza were blown into the air by the pressure wave. Before they could even fall back down, the intense heat melted them into masses of orange-red magma.
Tsunade instinctively assumed a defensive stance.
Chakra surged from her body and formed a layer of pale blue flames across her skin.
But Kiyohara merely raised his right hand.
A layer of green chakra appeared across his body.
The green chakra condensed in front of his palm and formed a translucent energy shield.
The golden beam slammed into the shield.
BOOM!!
The entire surface of the Moon shook violently.
The shockwave spread outward in every direction, slicing away half of the towers on both sides of the plaza. Broken stones rained downward into the bottomless darkness below.
Yet the green shield remained completely motionless.
Before the Great Elder could even withdraw his stone staff, Kiyohara's figure had already disappeared from his original position.
The next moment, he appeared directly in front of the Great Elder.
Kiyohara raised his right leg high into the air and brought it down with tremendous force.
The Great Elder's body was driven from the air and slammed directly into the surface of the Moon.
BOOM!
A crater more than ten meters in diameter was smashed into the lunar surface.
Cracks spread outward from it like a spiderweb. Broken stones rolled from the edges and disappeared into the bottomless void beneath.
The Great Elder lay at the bottom of the crater, while his stone staff had broken into several pieces scattered around him.
The dozen or so Ōtsutsuki clan members nearby did not dare to approach.
Several of the younger clan members had already begun forming chakra spheres in their hands, but the techniques dissipated on their own before they could even finish.
Tsunade stood on the stone bridge, her eyes wide from beginning to end.
At that moment, Kiyohara sensed something.
He turned around and looked toward the gigantic golden sphere of light at the top of the central tower.
The golden radiance of the Giant Tenseigan was fluctuating slightly.
That fluctuation was producing a strange resonance with the Tenseigan chakra within Kiyohara's body, which had already fused with the chakra of the Dragon Veins.
Back on Earth, although the power of the Tenseigan within Kiyohara was extremely powerful, there had always been a faint, almost imperceptible barrier separating his power from the Giant Tenseigan.
But now, standing at the core of the Moon directly opposite the Giant Tenseigan, that barrier was dissolving at an unprecedented speed.
The Giant Tenseigan was calling out to him.
It was like an artifact that had waited for a thousand years and had finally found its true master.
Kiyohara slowly raised his right hand and aimed it toward the Giant Tenseigan.
The green Tenseigan chakra within his body surged out through his palm and resonated with the golden radiance of the Giant Tenseigan.
The entire Moon began to tremble slightly.
The Ōtsutsuki clan members felt as if the heavens and earth were shaking beneath them.
"What is happening?"
"That man actually caused a reaction from the Tenseigan?"
"How is that possible? How could a mere creature from the lower world cause such a change?"
Many of the Ōtsutsuki clan members were filled with shock and fear.
They were all survivors of the war between the Main Family and the Branch Family.
Through their senses, they could feel an incomparably vast and powerful chakra filling the entire Moon.
The golden radiance of the Giant Tenseigan poured down from the top of the tower like a golden waterfall, converging toward Kiyohara's palm.
The enormous golden sphere of light slowly began to contract.
Its diameter shrank from one hundred meters to fifty meters, then from fifty meters to twenty meters.
However, its power did not weaken.
Instead, it became even denser and more dazzling.
"The Tenseigan. The Tenseigan is recognizing him as its master? Impossible! Only pure-blooded members of the Branch Family can control it. Ancestor Hamura left it behind to protect the Moon. How could it recognize a shinobi from the lower world as its master? This is impossible!"
The Great Elder could no longer continue speaking.
Because the Giant Tenseigan at the top of the tower suddenly stopped fluctuating.
Then it slowly began to rotate.
Its direction of rotation was completely opposite to the direction it had followed for the past thousand years.
The new direction of rotation released circles of pale golden halos.
The halos spread outward from the tower in every direction.
"Control rights."
The Second Elder suddenly realized something.
Their control over the Tenseigan was actually weakening!
Tsunade watched the scene unfold before her.
She had never imagined that there would be so many people and structures on the Moon. More importantly, Kiyohara seemed to understand that gigantic eye extremely well.
Her lips parted slightly as she wanted to say something, but she discovered that her voice was being forced back down her throat by the tremendous and majestic fluctuations of chakra.
Kiyohara turned around, his gaze falling back onto the Great Elder at the bottom of the crater.
The Great Elder struggled to raise his head from among the rubble.
His face was covered in blood, and his mouth opened slightly.
"You!"
Kiyohara gave him no opportunity to continue.
A slender golden beam suddenly split away from the Giant Tenseigan.
The beam descended from the top of the tower and pierced directly through the Great Elder's chest.
The Great Elder's body suddenly stiffened.
His pupils rapidly lost their focus.
Then his entire body slowly collapsed at the bottom of the crater, his white robe becoming soaked in blood.
Then, as if someone had suddenly sounded the alarm, more than a dozen Ōtsutsuki clan members scattered in every direction like frightened birds.
Their white figures rapidly disappeared into the blue-lit ancient city. After only a few leaps, several of them vanished between the towers and stone pillars.
Kiyohara did not pursue them.
These Branch Family members were no longer capable of posing any threat to him, and he had no intention of wiping them all out.
He raised his left hand.
Repulsive force lifted the Great Elder's corpse from the bottom of the crater and suspended it in midair.
The Great Elder's white robe had become heavy after being soaked with blood. In the weightless environment, droplets of blood slowly separated from the body and floated nearby like tiny red pearls.
Kiyohara took out a blank sealing scroll.
The scroll unfurled in the weightless environment.
He formed hand seals, and the Great Elder's corpse transformed into a streak of white light before being sealed inside the scroll.
A line of black sealing characters appeared across the surface of the scroll before it slowly rolled itself shut.
"This sacrifice should be enough."
Kiyohara placed the sealed scroll inside his clothing, his tone completely calm.
After cultivating beside the Giant Tenseigan for many years, the Great Elder's bloodline had already been tempered by the Tenseigan's chakra to a state extremely close to that of a pure-blooded Ōtsutsuki.
His body would be far more useful for cultivating the God Tree than the flesh and blood of an ordinary Branch Family member.
Tsunade had no idea what Kiyohara intended to do.
She was extremely curious.
Her brows were slightly furrowed, and her brown-gold eyes were filled with confusion. More than that, however, there was a faint sense of bewilderment in her expression after witnessing power that had completely surpassed common sense.
"Kiyohara, just how many things are you still hiding from me?"
"I'll explain everything to you later."
Kiyohara turned his hand and placed the sealed scroll inside his clothing again.
Then he turned around and took Tsunade's hand once more.
His fingers slipped between hers.
"There's another place on the Moon worth seeing. Since we came all the way here, it would be a waste not to take a look."
Tsunade glared at him.
Still holding her hand, Kiyohara led her through the castle and toward the core of the Moon.
When the two of them passed through a passageway and reached the other end, Tsunade was stunned once again.
This was a hidden space within the core of the Moon.
Soft green grass stretched beneath their feet, with colorful little flowers blooming among the blades.
Not far away was a clear blue lake. Its water was the color of melted sapphire, and a thin layer of white mist floated gently across its surface.
All kinds of unfamiliar flowers and plants grew around the lake.
Clusters of pale pink cherry blossom trees bloomed along the lakeshore. Their petals were carried away by the wind and gently fell onto the surface of the lake, where the breeze slowly pushed them toward the center.
There was no rock ceiling above them.
Instead, there was a vast azure sky.
A bright sun hung directly in the center of that sky, casting warm golden sunlight across the entire space.
Far in the distance, rolling hills and winding streams could even be seen.
Weeping willows grew along both banks of the streams, their long branches swaying gently in the breeze.
Tsunade stood at the entrance.
The soft grass beneath her feet felt so real that it was almost unbelievable.
She crouched down and touched the petals of a pale purple flower with her fingertip.
The petals were soft and slightly cool to the touch, completely indistinguishable from those of a real flower.
She then stood up again and raised her head toward the azure sky and the brilliant sun above.
Her brown-gold eyes were filled with disbelief.
"This is inside the Moon? There's actually another space hidden inside it? There are flowers, water, soil, grass, and even a sun. It's practically another Earth."
"It isn't an illusion, but that sun is fake."
Kiyohara explained.
The sun inside the Moon was merely an artificial sun. It only imitated the functions of the real sun.
At the same time, Kiyohara realized that he had not seen Ōtsutsuki Toneri and his father.
Moreover, according to reason, Ōtsutsuki Hamura should have appeared as well.
In the original story, even when Hinata came here, she received a dream from Hamura.
Then, where were the others?
Kiyohara stroked his chin thoughtfully.
(End of Chapter)