The moon, inside the hidden palace where the Otsutsuki clan resided.
The young Toneri Otsutsuki, whose eye sockets were empty, held his father's slightly trembling hand and walked unhurriedly along the path leading to Hamura's temple, preparing to follow his father in carrying out his first worship of his ancestor, Otsutsuki Hamura.
Accompanying them as they moved forward were puppets left behind by the ancestors of the Otsutsuki branch family. Their sizes, appearances, and purposes were all different. Under the chakra of the Otsutsuki clan and the giant Tenseigan, they each performed their own tasks and duties in an orderly manner. At first glance, it was even difficult to tell that they were actually puppets.
"Father, why is it that this time, when you came to worship Ancestor Hamura, your emotions showed such obvious fluctuation?"
Facing Toneri Otsutsuki's curious question, the visibly sickly Otsutsuki Shinya coughed several times in a row before finally speaking in a heavy tone.
"Because the people on the ground have shown abnormal movement again."
"The people on the ground…"
Toneri Otsutsuki listened to this group that existed only in the clan's ancient texts and his father's words, then continued asking with strong curiosity,
"Have they done something foolish again?"
"No. Not for the time being. However, among the people on the ground, a ninja has once again appeared whose power can be compared to the thief who secretly stole the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path last time…"
Hearing Otsutsuki Shinya mention the incident in which the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was stolen—an incident that was the greatest humiliation to the Otsutsuki clan on the moon, even denying the value of their existence to a certain degree—Toneri Otsutsuki's expression immediately became serious as well.
"Father, are you saying… the people on the ground may become an opportunity for the Ten-Tails to break free!?"
"The opportunity for the Ten-Tails to break free already appeared the moment the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was stolen by the people on the ground, Toneri. In the future, you will still need to defeat the person who stole the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and seal it back inside the moon… But that is not the core of what we are discussing today."
Otsutsuki Shinya shook his head. Looking at the stone statue of the Tenseigan carved inside the temple for the convenience of clan members with insufficient aptitude to worship the Tenseigan, he let out a long breath and said with an exceptionally solemn tone,
"The reason I care so much is that the person who gained power comparable to that thief this time is the inheritor of a bloodline that should not exist."
"A bloodline that should not exist… Are you referring to the Kaguya clan, whose bloodline comes from Ancestor Hamura just like ours, but whose inherited power is not the Byakugan?"
"Yes. Their descendant…"
Otsutsuki Shinya nodded and began opening the path toward the giant Tenseigan according to the method he had inherited from his predecessors.
"But did that clan's Kekkei Genkai not begin harming itself after growing to a certain degree?"
Toneri Otsutsuki's face showed confusion.
"Can that cursed bloodline truly give birth to a ninja whose strength is enough to match that thief who inherited the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths?"
"The Kaguya clan's Kekkei Genkai alone is not enough… But that person on the ground also seized a pair of Byakugan of acceptable purity from the incompetent Hyuga family. A pair that had not been affected or damaged by the Caged Bird Curse Mark."
Warm yellow light began shining from every direction toward Otsutsuki Shinya and Toneri Otsutsuki.
The giant Tenseigan—the treasure finally formed by gathering all the Byakugan of the Otsutsuki branch family, which had helped them defeat the Otsutsuki main family on the moon—appeared before the two of them. Yet as he looked at that giant Tenseigan, Toneri Otsutsuki did not feel any reassurance or reliability. Instead, a deeply ominous chill rose from the bottom of his heart.
"He seized Byakugan from the Hyuga clan that were not affected by the Caged Bird Curse Mark!? Does that not mean… he may detect and track down our existence? Father, is that why you are so nervous!?"
"You truly are very clever, Toneri."
Feeling the surging chakra of the giant Tenseigan so close at hand, Otsutsuki Shinya sighed and said with great worry,
"I do not know how that person on the ground broke through the self-harming threshold of the Kaguya clan's Dead Bone Pulse. But in the records left behind by Ancestor Hamura, it is very clearly stated what the Dead Bone Pulse becomes after breaking through its limit… It is a power of deathly silence that destroys all things, a force no defense can withstand, a power even the chakra of our Otsutsuki clan cannot resist."
"If he truly finds the spatial barrier Ancestor Hamura left on Earth, and through that barrier finds us, then with my current physical condition, I have no confidence that I can defeat him. Nor do I have confidence that I can protect the giant Tenseigan, this treasure used to fulfill the destiny left behind by Ancestor Hamura."
"Those damned Hyuga. After counter-killing the emissaries our branch family sent to Earth, they even created a vicious Curse Mark like the Caged Bird to destroy the Byakugan of their own clansmen, refusing to provide our clan with strength. Yet this time, they allowed that brat from the Kaguya clan to seize Byakugan untouched by the Caged Bird so easily… Are they trying to borrow his power to eliminate us?"
After Otsutsuki Shinya gritted his teeth and cursed a former clan head of the Hyuga clan for a while, he slowly restrained his emotions. Then he turned his gaze toward Toneri Otsutsuki, whose talent could be counted among the very best even across the thousands of years of history of the moon's Otsutsuki branch family. His tone shifted into careful instruction as he spoke slowly.
"So Toneri, I must… I must confirm something in advance."
"What do you want… to confirm?"
Toneri Otsutsuki raised his face. As if realizing something, he slowly opened his empty eye sockets.
"I want to confirm whether you have the qualifications to control the giant Tenseigan alone."
Otsutsuki Shinya stared at his son's frighteningly hollow eye sockets with a solemn expression.
"If you do, then before my body reaches its limit, I will go to the Hyuga clan on the ground and retrieve a pair of sufficiently pure Byakugan for you, making the necessary preparations for you to nurture the true Tenseigan in the future!"
"Do we not need to worry about being discovered, Father?"
Toneri Otsutsuki was not worried that he would be unable to control the giant Tenseigan's power. But he was very worried that his father's actions would expose the Otsutsuki clan on the moon, which had remained hidden from the world for so many years, to the eyes of the people on the ground once more.
Among the current people on the ground, there was a thief who had stolen the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from the moon's seal, a thief whose strength and ambition were both terrifying beyond measure. There was also another ninja who had broken through the self-harming threshold of the Kaguya clan's Dead Bone Pulse and successfully seized a pair of pure Byakugan from the Hyuga main family, likewise possessing bloodline power that would be recognized by Ancestor Hamura…
With his father's current physical condition, it was truly difficult to say whether he could seize a pair of sufficiently pure Byakugan for him from the Hyuga clan without leaving any trace at all. If either of those two discovered his father's movements, then for the moon's Otsutsuki branch family, whose bloodline had withered and whose younger generation had yet to mature, it would absolutely be a terrifying crisis that could lead to their complete destruction.
"If we do nothing, we still risk being discovered."
Otsutsuki Shinya sighed, his voice heavy.
"Since no matter what we do, there is a possibility of being found, then I would rather choose a more proactive method and create better growth conditions for you, Toneri."
"Now, inside the temple built to worship Ancestor Otsutsuki Hamura, show me—your father, Otsutsuki Shinya—and the many branch family ancestors who voluntarily sacrificed their eyes to create this giant Tenseigan and carry Ancestor Hamura's destiny through to the end—your talent, your power, and your qualifications, my son, Toneri Otsutsuki!"
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