The broken fragments of the moon gradually formed one giant ring around Earth. Eventually the fragments would be drawn in by Earth’s gravity and rain down to the surface. The thousands of broken pieces would become ultra-high-speed meteorites and plunge into the atmosphere.
Booooom!
They struck down and burned through everything in their path.
The shinobi of each village destroyed the falling meteorites in mid-air, and endeavored to minimize damage to the surface. Water release, wind release, wood release, particle release—each shinobi used their own specialty jutsu, and protected their home towns and comrades. However, the fall of the meteorites continued non-stop, day and night. The shinobi who were part of the air defense mission were nearing their physical limits.
*****
—Onee-chan.
She could hear Hanabi’s voice. When Hinata opened her eyes, she could see a high ceiling and a chandelier. She had been put in a bed by herself. It was an old-fashioned yet extravagant guest room. The bed was also not uncomfortable. However, she had a slight headache.
The last things she had seen were the burning red scarf, and Naruto falling. After that, Toneri had cast a jutsu on her, and she lost consciousness.
“This is… Toneri’s castle…?”
She jumped from the bed as if repelled from it, and examined the inside of room with her back to the wall. She ran to the window and observed the outside. There were bristling spires.
Confirming first off that there was no danger within the room, she then investigated outside the room with her byakugan. On the other side of the door was a long hallway, and there was no sign of a look-out or guard. She crept up to the door and tried turning the doorknob. The door opened easily. Hinata proceeded while using her byakugan to stay on guard in the hallway, which had lamps hanging on the walls on both sides.
Hinata’s feet stopped in front of a particular room.
“Hanabi!”
Hinata raised her voice without thinking. Her younger sister had been put in that room’s bed. Hinata burst into the room and rushed over to the bed. Hanabi seemed to be unconscious. Her eyes were heavily wrapped in bandages. Hinata used her byakugan to check beneath the bandages, and gasped.
…Her eyes have been taken out!
The one who had stolen Hanabi’s byakugan was Toneri. Hinata remembered. When they had escaped from the genjutsu space and Naruto and the others had jumped into the spring, the words that she and Toneri had exchanged:
*****
“Married!”
“You and I are destined to be together according to a celestial decree from ancient times.”
“What are you saying? Hanabi…”
At that time, a dome-shaped device rose up from the sand, and another Toneri was projected there. Perhaps the Toneri in this image was the real one.
“Your sister is in my castle,” the image of Toneri said. The form of Hanabi sleeping in a bed was projected on the dome.
“Hanabi!”
“I have taken her byakugan.”
“Te-terrible…”
“I’m sorry… It was for Hamura’s celestial decree.”
“Hamura?”
“The ancestor of the shinobi of the moon, Ootsutsuki Hamura… Would it be easier to understand if I said he was the younger brother of the ancestor of Earth’s shinobi, the Rikudou Sennin? You of the Hyuuga clan inherited Hamura’s blood…”
“!”
“It’s a story from the distant past, thousands of years ago…”
The on-screen Toneri began to quietly tell the tale.
Chakra originated from a giant tree called the “Shinju.” The Shinju bore fruit only once every one thousand years—a “chakra fruit” so to speak. Queen Ootsutsuki Kaguya ate this fruit, and gained an enormous amount of chakra within her body. Using that power, Kaguya subdued the conflicts of the human world. After that, Kaguya gave birth to two sons. They were the brothers Ootsutsuki Hagoromo and Hamura.
The Shinju however, took on the form of a powerful beast in order to take back its stolen fruit, and began to attack human villages. This was the origin of the Juubi. The two brothers, who had inherited their mother’s chakra, worked together, and at the end of a life or death struggle, they succeeded in sealing the Juubi inside the older brother’s abdomen. Hagoromo became the first jinchuuriki.
Creating “ninshuu” after that, Hagoromo, who had become the Rikudou Sennin, became the ancestor of Earth’s shinobi. Hagoromo regarded the Juubi sealed in his abdomen as dangerous. That immeasurable power might bring catastrophe to the world. Creating the nine bijuu, he divided the Juubi’s chakra into nine and bestowed it upon the bijuu, attempting to disperse its power.
The empty shell of the Juubi’s body from which the chakra had been extracted was referred to as the Gedo Statue. The Gedo Statue was a chakra container—if the chakra that had been divided into nine parts was once again gathered and returned to the statue, the Juubi would be revived. To prevent the Juubi from ever being resurrected, Hagoromo created a new celestial body, naming it the moon, and confined the Gedo Statue there.
The younger brother Hamura and his clan immigrated to the moon, and chose to live as guards of the Gedo Statue. Hamura, who became the ancestor of the moon’s shinobi, was skeptical of the world that his older brother Hagoromo had created. Hamura continued watching over Earth from the moon for the rest of his life. He then entrusted his descendants with the command to destroy the world that his older brother created if they ever erred in their use of chakra. For the thousands of years to follow, Hamura’s descendants lived on the moon for generations, protecting the Gedo Statue and observing Earth.
When he got to this point in the story, the on-screen Toneri’s manner of speech grew rough.
“For those thousands of years, shinobi have continued to use chakra as a weapon with no end to their conflict. Eventually, the even stole the Gedo Statue and resurrected the Juubi!”
“……”
“So we have concluded that it is Earth’s shinobi that are the catastrophe that destroys the world’s peace and order. The world that the Rikudou Sennin created has failed! I shall follow Hamura’s celestial decree and destroy the Rikudou Sennin’s world by my own hand!”
“!”
According to Toneri, Ootsutsuki Hamura was also the originator of the tenseigan. Using the great power of the tenseigan, he brought order and stability to the world of the moon. Even after his death, the people of the moon treated “Hamura’s tenseigan” as a treasure. They enshrined it as a religious object, and devoted a plan to eternally preserving it.
The tenseigan however, was not limited to Hamura’s tenseigan only. By implanting the Hyuuga clan’s byakugan, those who inherited the Ootsutsuki’s blood could manifest and acquire a new tenseigan. By combining the chakra of both clans, the byakugan would transform into the tenseigan.
“That is why I had to obtain the byakugan.”
Using the powerful ocular ability of the tenseigan, even a destroyed planet Earth could be revived. To create a world with peace where chakra is not used as a weapon—Toneri said that Hanabi giving up her byakugan would be a sacrifice for this noble goal.
Toneri ranted to Hinata for ten minutes.
She too had fought in the Fourth Shinobi World War. She knew very well of the excessive bloodshed. The ones continuing this foolishness were none other than Hinata and the other shinobi of Earth.
Yet at the same time, she felt that there were problems with this way of thinking. To destroy the world that Hagoromo created because it was evil and rebuild a world that is right—could she be so simply convinced of that? There must actually be countless phases and categories between good and evil. At times, right and wrong are debatable, and she didn’t even know which way was right and which way was wrong.
But it was difficult when it came to the world of humans. Toneri’s simple dualism was easy to understand, but it was too extreme.
“I don’t believe your story! I’ll save Hanabi for sure!” Hinata yelled without thinking.
“Save her? When you don’t even know where my castle is?”
Leaving a sneer, Toneri’s image disappeared. The dome also vanished. Hinata found herself standing on the ball of sand face to face with the puppet Toneri.
“I will come back again to hear your answer but… this is fate!”
—Hinata!
It was then that Naruto returned. He jumped in between the puppet Toneri and Hinata.
*****
Hinata was by Hanabi’s side thinking. At that time, Hinata had been the only one who had heard the circumstances from Toneri. In other words, Hinata had acted along with Naruto and the others even after finding out the reason for Hanabi’s kidnapping and the reason why Toneri had launched an attack against Earth.
She understood the words and the images that the old man had shown her in the underground cemetery in the ruined temple.
Hinata was troubled. There had to have been another way if she had told Naruto and Shikamaru and cooperated with them. But Hinata had kept quiet from her comrades and chose to take action on her own. To protect the village, and Naruto.
This mission might be far beyond her own ability, but she had no choice but to carry it out. Otherwise, rejecting Naruto’s confession, hurting him, and infiltrating Toneri’s castle would be meaningless.
I won’t run away. I never go back on my word. That’s mine and Naruto-kun’s nindou.
Hanabi was sleeping before her eyes.
Hold on just a little longer. Hinata swore to her sister.
“Good morning.”
Toneri was standing behind her.
“I’m glad that you have accepted my feelings, Hinata. Come. I’ll show you around the castle.”
Toneri’s castle was huge. There were all kinds of puppets working, including women, men, children, etc.
“They’re all just marionettes that my ancestors left behind,” Toneri answered without interest.
Toneri never doubted his own sense of justice. The world that the Rikudou Sennin created was wrong, and if it was wrong, then he was convinced he should destroy it. Because it was fate, he pressed Hinata to marry him, but he hadn’t thought about Hinata’s feelings at all. He was selfish.
Toneri said that he had lost his father when he was young, and had always lived by himself with his puppets. Perhaps circumstances like these in his childhood had influenced his self-righteous disposition. Puppets would only agree. They didn’t object or oppose him. Anyone might have become this kind of lonely person if they had grown up in a world where they could get away with anything they wished.
Toneri might not have even had the slightest bit of ugly greedy or desire for power. Hinata supposed that he was only trying to carry out what he believed to be justice. But no matter how much she knew about Toneri’s circumstances, she could not forget that he was an enemy who was trying to destroy humanity.
Toneri lead Hinata to a large shrine.
“This is where the wedding ceremony will be held.”
Toneri said that after the ceremony, he and Hinata would enter a room called the “rebirth chamber” and fall into a long sleep until the environment of the destroyed Earth stabilizes.
But if the moon was dropped onto Earth, there was no way that the moon should be safe. This castle, the tensei chamber, and the moon, should all be caught up in the destruction.
“No need to worry. This castle is protected by chakra… a chakra powerful enough to move the moon, the power of the Ootsutsuki’s treasure… Even if the moon is destroyed, this castle and the rebirth chamber will be safe.”
Hinata realized that the source of that powerful chakra was the tenseigan.
“Where is it?”
“That, I cannot tell you…”
Hinata couldn’t let her true intentions be revealed yet. To destroy that—
Hinata tried to go back to her room to come up with a plan.
“Oh, right… will you knit me a scarf?”
“Eh…?”
“You don’t want to?”
At this love-testing type of request, Hinata closed her eyes and thought, then finally nodded.
“I understand.”
“I see… thank you… I’m happy, Hinata.”
A moment after smiling, Toneri grasped at his eyes and began to show anguish.
“Don’t worry… It’s a sign that the byakugan is maturing into the tenseigan… It should stop if I rest for a bit.”
Toneri walked out, leaving Hinata in the shrine.
Left alone with Toneri no longer present, Hinata searched the shrine with her byakugan. However, no matter how much she focused, it seemed that Hamura’s tenseigan wasn’t hidden there.
—Byakugan Princess…
Hinata recalled the images that the old man had shown her in the underground cemetery at the temple. If she believed what she had been shown, she would have to destroy Hamura’s tenseigan, which was sleeping somewhere in this castle, before being noticed by Toneri.
*****
“Byakugan Princess…”
In the underground cemetery at the temple, the old man without eyeballs stepped out of the darkness and released a glowing sphere from his mouth.
Hinata’s byakugan reacted to that light. Various images revolved around and jumped into her head. An army, the design of two crossing shuriken, a giant eyeball, an explosion, a mountain of corpses—
Hinata found herself alone in the temple’s underground cemetery surrounded by thousands of stone coffins. The figures of people rose above the coffins. The number of figures gradually increased until there was one standing on every one of the coffins. They were all armor-clad soldiers. Hinata took a breath.
“We are the descendants of Hamura, the main family of the Ootsutsuki clan. We were annihilated by the branch family, who misinterpreted Hamura’s celestial decree.”
The man who began to speak was in his prime, but looking closely at his face revealed that he was the old man that had released the glowing sphere earlier.
“Toneri, a descendant of the branch family, is misusing Hamura’s tenseigan to try to drop the moon onto Earth. Hamura’s tenseigan must be destroyed. Byakugan Princess, the only one who can do this… is you.”
All at once, the soldiers bent down and knelt. A tall old man walked in. Horns extended from his long blond hair. Hinata thought he was the Rikudou Sennin, Ootsutsuki Hagoromo, but that was not the case.
“My name is Ootsutsuki Hamura… Byakugan Princess… You must not allow the world that my elder brother created to come to an end!”
*****
Having returned to Hanabi’s room from the shrine, Hinata was knitting Toneri’s scarf. Sleeping in the bed, Hanabi was making sounds as if she was having a nightmare. Hinata stopped her knitting needles and grabbed her little sister’s hand.
“You poor thing… I swear I’ll bring you back home.”
As she said this, she felt as if a little bit of strength had come into the unconscious Hanabi’s hand.
The old man she had met in the underground cemetery and the soldiers were probably apparitions. Carrying their regrets of having been annihilated, they might have wandered about wishing to protect humanity and Earth.
Also, the words of Ootsutsuki Hamura—he had said that Hinata was the only one who could destroy the tenseigan.
No matter what, she had to do it. The future of Earth and humanity were at stake.
“I swear I’ll find it and destroy it… Hamura’s tenseigan!”
Hinata tightly grasped Hanabi’s hand.
Shikamaru’s team, whom Hinata had abandoned, concealed themselves in a hiding place made inside a cave. Naruto’s consciousness had not returned after losing a great mass of chakra from the effects of Toneri’s glowing sphere. Sakura was putting all of her medical ninjutsu into saving Naruto. She kept up the flow of chakra into Naruto’s body, but his consciousness still wouldn’t return. Sakura put her ear to the left side of Naruto’s chest, and listened to his heartbeat. She heard a weak echo that hardly seemed like the sound of Naruto’s lively heart.
Naruto was in a critical state.
“Hi-Hinata… Hinata –ttebayo…”
The incoherent mutterings that Naruto occasionally blurted out were of Hinata and nothing else.
Sakura had come to support Hinata’s love. This was because she felt that what Hinata had was the same as her own unrequited feelings towards Sasuke. Yet on the other hand, Naruto had held favor for Sakura since he was a child.
For a mere moment, just one moment, Sakura’s medical ninjutsu-casting hands stopped.
“……”
In Sakura’s mind, thoughts floated around of the clueless boy who smiled while scratching his head, and the face of the awkward girl who in sharp contrast, would cast her eyes downward. The two were Sakura’s childhood companions, her comrades on the battlefield, and most importantly, her precious friends. She wanted to make the two of them happy.
“Hi-Hinata…” A small voice came from Naruto’s mouth.
So you finally get it, you dummy.
Sakura opened her mouth.
“I’ll definitely heal him! I will save Naruto!”
Sakura gathered maximum chakra in her hands.
-
Entrusting the near-death Naruto to Sakura, Shikamaru and Sai had gone out on reconnaissance on the ink birds. They could see the huge hole that Naruto’s chakra had blown open in the ground below their eyes. Beyond the hole was a jet black space. A blue celestial body was floating there.
“That’s Earth, no matter how you look at it, isn’t it?” Sai asked, pointing to the blue, shining planet.
“There’s no mistake. Judging by where we are in relation to it, we’re on the moon.”
“It’s actually the moon… and I thought we had just gone underground.”
The cave that descended underground had somehow connected to the moon. Furthermore, this moon—it was filled with a giant open space, and had an artificial sun floating in the center of it. It was an abnormal celestial body.
“There was a strange darkness where the bubbles were floating. That may have been the passage linking Earth to the moon.”
Judging by the ruins in the abandoned buildings and shrine, there was no mistaking that an advanced civilization and a shinobi clan possessing vast chakra had lived on the moon in the past. Perhaps they may have been the ones who created the passageway connecting Earth and the moon. Also, it might have been the descendants of that clan from the moon who kidnapped Hanabi. There was no way that this was unrelated to the moon falling to Earth.
“The guys who kidnapped Hanabi, and the guys who are trying to drop the moon onto Earth… In other words, our enemies, are one in the same!”
Kakashi’s reading was amazingly on-target.
Shikamaru checked the remaining time on the clock on the palm of his hand. The time limit was approaching. The birds gradually increased their altitude. They got closer to the artificial sun. That was the destination of this reconnaissance.
Having seen Toneri’s circular stand return the previous night, they knew that his hideout was inside the artificial sun. It must have been covered by some sort of jutsu or barrier that inhibited the byakugan’s power, which was why Hinata’s byakugan couldn’t see through it.
“Where could the entrance be?” Sai asked as he looked up at the artificial sun.
“Let’s have them tell us.”
Shikamaru smirked as he threw an exploding kunai at the artificial sun. The exploding tag detonated magnificently in mid-air, and reacting to the sound, puppet shinobi emerged in succession from inside the artificial sun riding on eagle beats.
“What are you doing!? The enemy will notice us!”
Sai was panicking, but Shikamaru had an idea. In order to save Hanabi and Hinata, they would have to invade the enemy’s hideout. He wanted to see how the puppets got in and out of the artificial sun.
A round opening formed on the surface of the artificial sun, and Shikamaru observed the enemies’ movements at the moment they came out. All of the puppets riding on the backs of the eagle beasts seemed to be forming the same hand seal.
“Alright, that’s enough… Hey, retreat!”
Prompted by Shikamaru, the stunned Sai made his ink bird change course. However, the enemies would not ignore them. They pursued Shikamaru and Sai wherever they went.
They retreated into a large canyon, and flew weaving through the valley. The eagle beasts were approaching. The puppets threw glowing bubbles. They hit the cliffs and exploded. Crumbling rocks rained down on the ink birds.
“I’m trusting you, Sai! Do something!”
“…How convenient for you.”
Despite his annoyance, Sai was expressionless. He took out his scroll, and after a bit of thought, he moved his ink brush.
“Ninpou: Choujuu Giga!”
Appearing along with smoke was a crab like the one Sakura had taken down in the cave. The crab’s giant body was caught between the cliffs, blocking the valley.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
Unable to avoid it, the eagle beasts collided with the crab’s shell, and exploded.
Shikamaru gave a thumbs-up, praising Sai’s cleverness. Sai nodded without any expression.
The broken fragments of the moon gradually formed one giant ring around Earth. Eventually the fragments would be drawn in by Earth’s gravity and rain down to the surface. The thousands of broken pieces would become ultra-high-speed meteorites and plunge into the atmosphere.
Booooom!
They struck down and burned through everything in their path.
The shinobi of each village destroyed the falling meteorites in mid-air, and endeavored to minimize damage to the surface. Water release, wind release, wood release, particle release—each shinobi used their own specialty jutsu, and protected their home towns and comrades. However, the fall of the meteorites continued non-stop, day and night. The shinobi who were part of the air defense mission were nearing their physical limits.
*****
—Onee-chan.
She could hear Hanabi’s voice. When Hinata opened her eyes, she could see a high ceiling and a chandelier. She had been put in a bed by herself. It was an old-fashioned yet extravagant guest room. The bed was also not uncomfortable. However, she had a slight headache.
The last things she had seen were the burning red scarf, and Naruto falling. After that, Toneri had cast a jutsu on her, and she lost consciousness.
“This is… Toneri’s castle…?”
She jumped from the bed as if repelled from it, and examined the inside of room with her back to the wall. She ran to the window and observed the outside. There were bristling spires.
Confirming first off that there was no danger within the room, she then investigated outside the room with her byakugan. On the other side of the door was a long hallway, and there was no sign of a look-out or guard. She crept up to the door and tried turning the doorknob. The door opened easily. Hinata proceeded while using her byakugan to stay on guard in the hallway, which had lamps hanging on the walls on both sides.
Hinata’s feet stopped in front of a particular room.
“Hanabi!”
Hinata raised her voice without thinking. Her younger sister had been put in that room’s bed. Hinata burst into the room and rushed over to the bed. Hanabi seemed to be unconscious. Her eyes were heavily wrapped in bandages. Hinata used her byakugan to check beneath the bandages, and gasped.
…Her eyes have been taken out!
The one who had stolen Hanabi’s byakugan was Toneri. Hinata remembered. When they had escaped from the genjutsu space and Naruto and the others had jumped into the spring, the words that she and Toneri had exchanged:
*****
“Married!”
“You and I are destined to be together according to a celestial decree from ancient times.”
“What are you saying? Hanabi…”
At that time, a dome-shaped device rose up from the sand, and another Toneri was projected there. Perhaps the Toneri in this image was the real one.
“Your sister is in my castle,” the image of Toneri said. The form of Hanabi sleeping in a bed was projected on the dome.
“Hanabi!”
“I have taken her byakugan.”
“Te-terrible…”
“I’m sorry… It was for Hamura’s celestial decree.”
“Hamura?”
“The ancestor of the shinobi of the moon, Ootsutsuki Hamura… Would it be easier to understand if I said he was the younger brother of the ancestor of Earth’s shinobi, the Rikudou Sennin? You of the Hyuuga clan inherited Hamura’s blood…”
“!”
“It’s a story from the distant past, thousands of years ago…”
The on-screen Toneri began to quietly tell the tale.
Chakra originated from a giant tree called the “Shinju.” The Shinju bore fruit only once every one thousand years—a “chakra fruit” so to speak. Queen Ootsutsuki Kaguya ate this fruit, and gained an enormous amount of chakra within her body. Using that power, Kaguya subdued the conflicts of the human world. After that, Kaguya gave birth to two sons. They were the brothers Ootsutsuki Hagoromo and Hamura.
The Shinju however, took on the form of a powerful beast in order to take back its stolen fruit, and began to attack human villages. This was the origin of the Juubi. The two brothers, who had inherited their mother’s chakra, worked together, and at the end of a life or death struggle, they succeeded in sealing the Juubi inside the older brother’s abdomen. Hagoromo became the first jinchuuriki.
Creating “ninshuu” after that, Hagoromo, who had become the Rikudou Sennin, became the ancestor of Earth’s shinobi. Hagoromo regarded the Juubi sealed in his abdomen as dangerous. That immeasurable power might bring catastrophe to the world. Creating the nine bijuu, he divided the Juubi’s chakra into nine and bestowed it upon the bijuu, attempting to disperse its power.
The empty shell of the Juubi’s body from which the chakra had been extracted was referred to as the Gedo Statue. The Gedo Statue was a chakra container—if the chakra that had been divided into nine parts was once again gathered and returned to the statue, the Juubi would be revived. To prevent the Juubi from ever being resurrected, Hagoromo created a new celestial body, naming it the moon, and confined the Gedo Statue there.
The younger brother Hamura and his clan immigrated to the moon, and chose to live as guards of the Gedo Statue. Hamura, who became the ancestor of the moon’s shinobi, was skeptical of the world that his older brother Hagoromo had created. Hamura continued watching over Earth from the moon for the rest of his life. He then entrusted his descendants with the command to destroy the world that his older brother created if they ever erred in their use of chakra. For the thousands of years to follow, Hamura’s descendants lived on the moon for generations, protecting the Gedo Statue and observing Earth.
When he got to this point in the story, the on-screen Toneri’s manner of speech grew rough.
“For those thousands of years, shinobi have continued to use chakra as a weapon with no end to their conflict. Eventually, the even stole the Gedo Statue and resurrected the Juubi!”
“……”
“So we have concluded that it is Earth’s shinobi that are the catastrophe that destroys the world’s peace and order. The world that the Rikudou Sennin created has failed! I shall follow Hamura’s celestial decree and destroy the Rikudou Sennin’s world by my own hand!”
“!”
According to Toneri, Ootsutsuki Hamura was also the originator of the tenseigan. Using the great power of the tenseigan, he brought order and stability to the world of the moon. Even after his death, the people of the moon treated “Hamura’s tenseigan” as a treasure. They enshrined it as a religious object, and devoted a plan to eternally preserving it.
The tenseigan however, was not limited to Hamura’s tenseigan only. By implanting the Hyuuga clan’s byakugan, those who inherited the Ootsutsuki’s blood could manifest and acquire a new tenseigan. By combining the chakra of both clans, the byakugan would transform into the tenseigan.
“That is why I had to obtain the byakugan.”
Using the powerful ocular ability of the tenseigan, even a destroyed planet Earth could be revived. To create a world with peace where chakra is not used as a weapon—Toneri said that Hanabi giving up her byakugan would be a sacrifice for this noble goal.
Toneri ranted to Hinata for ten minutes.
She too had fought in the Fourth Shinobi World War. She knew very well of the excessive bloodshed. The ones continuing this foolishness were none other than Hinata and the other shinobi of Earth.
Yet at the same time, she felt that there were problems with this way of thinking. To destroy the world that Hagoromo created because it was evil and rebuild a world that is right—could she be so simply convinced of that? There must actually be countless phases and categories between good and evil. At times, right and wrong are debatable, and she didn’t even know which way was right and which way was wrong.
But it was difficult when it came to the world of humans. Toneri’s simple dualism was easy to understand, but it was too extreme.
“I don’t believe your story! I’ll save Hanabi for sure!” Hinata yelled without thinking.
“Save her? When you don’t even know where my castle is?”
Leaving a sneer, Toneri’s image disappeared. The dome also vanished. Hinata found herself standing on the ball of sand face to face with the puppet Toneri.
“I will come back again to hear your answer but… this is fate!”
—Hinata!
It was then that Naruto returned. He jumped in between the puppet Toneri and Hinata.
*****
Hinata was by Hanabi’s side thinking. At that time, Hinata had been the only one who had heard the circumstances from Toneri. In other words, Hinata had acted along with Naruto and the others even after finding out the reason for Hanabi’s kidnapping and the reason why Toneri had launched an attack against Earth.
She understood the words and the images that the old man had shown her in the underground cemetery in the ruined temple.
Hinata was troubled. There had to have been another way if she had told Naruto and Shikamaru and cooperated with them. But Hinata had kept quiet from her comrades and chose to take action on her own. To protect the village, and Naruto.
This mission might be far beyond her own ability, but she had no choice but to carry it out. Otherwise, rejecting Naruto’s confession, hurting him, and infiltrating Toneri’s castle would be meaningless.
I won’t run away. I never go back on my word. That’s mine and Naruto-kun’s nindou.
Hanabi was sleeping before her eyes.
Hold on just a little longer. Hinata swore to her sister.
“Good morning.”
Toneri was standing behind her.
“I’m glad that you have accepted my feelings, Hinata. Come. I’ll show you around the castle.”
Toneri’s castle was huge. There were all kinds of puppets working, including women, men, children, etc.
“They’re all just marionettes that my ancestors left behind,” Toneri answered without interest.
Toneri never doubted his own sense of justice. The world that the Rikudou Sennin created was wrong, and if it was wrong, then he was convinced he should destroy it. Because it was fate, he pressed Hinata to marry him, but he hadn’t thought about Hinata’s feelings at all. He was selfish.
Toneri said that he had lost his father when he was young, and had always lived by himself with his puppets. Perhaps circumstances like these in his childhood had influenced his self-righteous disposition. Puppets would only agree. They didn’t object or oppose him. Anyone might have become this kind of lonely person if they had grown up in a world where they could get away with anything they wished.
Toneri might not have even had the slightest bit of ugly greedy or desire for power. Hinata supposed that he was only trying to carry out what he believed to be justice. But no matter how much she knew about Toneri’s circumstances, she could not forget that he was an enemy who was trying to destroy humanity.
Toneri lead Hinata to a large shrine.
“This is where the wedding ceremony will be held.”
Toneri said that after the ceremony, he and Hinata would enter a room called the “rebirth chamber” and fall into a long sleep until the environment of the destroyed Earth stabilizes.
But if the moon was dropped onto Earth, there was no way that the moon should be safe. This castle, the tensei chamber, and the moon, should all be caught up in the destruction.
“No need to worry. This castle is protected by chakra… a chakra powerful enough to move the moon, the power of the Ootsutsuki’s treasure… Even if the moon is destroyed, this castle and the rebirth chamber will be safe.”
Hinata realized that the source of that powerful chakra was the tenseigan.
“Where is it?”
“That, I cannot tell you…”
Hinata couldn’t let her true intentions be revealed yet. To destroy that—
Hinata tried to go back to her room to come up with a plan.
“Oh, right… will you knit me a scarf?”
“Eh…?”
“You don’t want to?”
At this love-testing type of request, Hinata closed her eyes and thought, then finally nodded.
“I understand.”
“I see… thank you… I’m happy, Hinata.”
A moment after smiling, Toneri grasped at his eyes and began to show anguish.
“Don’t worry… It’s a sign that the byakugan is maturing into the tenseigan… It should stop if I rest for a bit.”
Toneri walked out, leaving Hinata in the shrine.
Left alone with Toneri no longer present, Hinata searched the shrine with her byakugan. However, no matter how much she focused, it seemed that Hamura’s tenseigan wasn’t hidden there.
—Byakugan Princess…
Hinata recalled the images that the old man had shown her in the underground cemetery at the temple. If she believed what she had been shown, she would have to destroy Hamura’s tenseigan, which was sleeping somewhere in this castle, before being noticed by Toneri.
*****
“Byakugan Princess…”
In the underground cemetery at the temple, the old man without eyeballs stepped out of the darkness and released a glowing sphere from his mouth.
Hinata’s byakugan reacted to that light. Various images revolved around and jumped into her head. An army, the design of two crossing shuriken, a giant eyeball, an explosion, a mountain of corpses—
Hinata found herself alone in the temple’s underground cemetery surrounded by thousands of stone coffins. The figures of people rose above the coffins. The number of figures gradually increased until there was one standing on every one of the coffins. They were all armor-clad soldiers. Hinata took a breath.
“We are the descendants of Hamura, the main family of the Ootsutsuki clan. We were annihilated by the branch family, who misinterpreted Hamura’s celestial decree.”
The man who began to speak was in his prime, but looking closely at his face revealed that he was the old man that had released the glowing sphere earlier.
“Toneri, a descendant of the branch family, is misusing Hamura’s tenseigan to try to drop the moon onto Earth. Hamura’s tenseigan must be destroyed. Byakugan Princess, the only one who can do this… is you.”
All at once, the soldiers bent down and knelt. A tall old man walked in. Horns extended from his long blond hair. Hinata thought he was the Rikudou Sennin, Ootsutsuki Hagoromo, but that was not the case.
“My name is Ootsutsuki Hamura… Byakugan Princess… You must not allow the world that my elder brother created to come to an end!”
*****
Having returned to Hanabi’s room from the shrine, Hinata was knitting Toneri’s scarf. Sleeping in the bed, Hanabi was making sounds as if she was having a nightmare. Hinata stopped her knitting needles and grabbed her little sister’s hand.
“You poor thing… I swear I’ll bring you back home.”
As she said this, she felt as if a little bit of strength had come into the unconscious Hanabi’s hand.
The old man she had met in the underground cemetery and the soldiers were probably apparitions. Carrying their regrets of having been annihilated, they might have wandered about wishing to protect humanity and Earth.
Also, the words of Ootsutsuki Hamura—he had said that Hinata was the only one who could destroy the tenseigan.
No matter what, she had to do it. The future of Earth and humanity were at stake.
“I swear I’ll find it and destroy it… Hamura’s tenseigan!”
Hinata tightly grasped Hanabi’s hand.
Shikamaru’s team, whom Hinata had abandoned, concealed themselves in a hiding place made inside a cave. Naruto’s consciousness had not returned after losing a great mass of chakra from the effects of Toneri’s glowing sphere. Sakura was putting all of her medical ninjutsu into saving Naruto. She kept up the flow of chakra into Naruto’s body, but his consciousness still wouldn’t return. Sakura put her ear to the left side of Naruto’s chest, and listened to his heartbeat. She heard a weak echo that hardly seemed like the sound of Naruto’s lively heart.
Naruto was in a critical state.
“Hi-Hinata… Hinata –ttebayo…”
The incoherent mutterings that Naruto occasionally blurted out were of Hinata and nothing else.
Sakura had come to support Hinata’s love. This was because she felt that what Hinata had was the same as her own unrequited feelings towards Sasuke. Yet on the other hand, Naruto had held favor for Sakura since he was a child.
For a mere moment, just one moment, Sakura’s medical ninjutsu-casting hands stopped.
“……”
In Sakura’s mind, thoughts floated around of the clueless boy who smiled while scratching his head, and the face of the awkward girl who in sharp contrast, would cast her eyes downward. The two were Sakura’s childhood companions, her comrades on the battlefield, and most importantly, her precious friends. She wanted to make the two of them happy.
“Hi-Hinata…” A small voice came from Naruto’s mouth.
So you finally get it, you dummy.
Sakura opened her mouth.
“I’ll definitely heal him! I will save Naruto!”
Sakura gathered maximum chakra in her hands.
-
Entrusting the near-death Naruto to Sakura, Shikamaru and Sai had gone out on reconnaissance on the ink birds. They could see the huge hole that Naruto’s chakra had blown open in the ground below their eyes. Beyond the hole was a jet black space. A blue celestial body was floating there.
“That’s Earth, no matter how you look at it, isn’t it?” Sai asked, pointing to the blue, shining planet.
“There’s no mistake. Judging by where we are in relation to it, we’re on the moon.”
“It’s actually the moon… and I thought we had just gone underground.”
The cave that descended underground had somehow connected to the moon. Furthermore, this moon—it was filled with a giant open space, and had an artificial sun floating in the center of it. It was an abnormal celestial body.
“There was a strange darkness where the bubbles were floating. That may have been the passage linking Earth to the moon.”
Judging by the ruins in the abandoned buildings and shrine, there was no mistaking that an advanced civilization and a shinobi clan possessing vast chakra had lived on the moon in the past. Perhaps they may have been the ones who created the passageway connecting Earth and the moon. Also, it might have been the descendants of that clan from the moon who kidnapped Hanabi. There was no way that this was unrelated to the moon falling to Earth.
“The guys who kidnapped Hanabi, and the guys who are trying to drop the moon onto Earth… In other words, our enemies, are one in the same!”
Kakashi’s reading was amazingly on-target.
Shikamaru checked the remaining time on the clock on the palm of his hand. The time limit was approaching. The birds gradually increased their altitude. They got closer to the artificial sun. That was the destination of this reconnaissance.
Having seen Toneri’s circular stand return the previous night, they knew that his hideout was inside the artificial sun. It must have been covered by some sort of jutsu or barrier that inhibited the byakugan’s power, which was why Hinata’s byakugan couldn’t see through it.
“Where could the entrance be?” Sai asked as he looked up at the artificial sun.
“Let’s have them tell us.”
Shikamaru smirked as he threw an exploding kunai at the artificial sun. The exploding tag detonated magnificently in mid-air, and reacting to the sound, puppet shinobi emerged in succession from inside the artificial sun riding on eagle beats.
“What are you doing!? The enemy will notice us!”
Sai was panicking, but Shikamaru had an idea. In order to save Hanabi and Hinata, they would have to invade the enemy’s hideout. He wanted to see how the puppets got in and out of the artificial sun.
A round opening formed on the surface of the artificial sun, and Shikamaru observed the enemies’ movements at the moment they came out. All of the puppets riding on the backs of the eagle beasts seemed to be forming the same hand seal.
“Alright, that’s enough… Hey, retreat!”
Prompted by Shikamaru, the stunned Sai made his ink bird change course. However, the enemies would not ignore them. They pursued Shikamaru and Sai wherever they went.
They retreated into a large canyon, and flew weaving through the valley. The eagle beasts were approaching. The puppets threw glowing bubbles. They hit the cliffs and exploded. Crumbling rocks rained down on the ink birds.
“I’m trusting you, Sai! Do something!”
“…How convenient for you.”
Despite his annoyance, Sai was expressionless. He took out his scroll, and after a bit of thought, he moved his ink brush.
“Ninpou: Choujuu Giga!”
Appearing along with smoke was a crab like the one Sakura had taken down in the cave. The crab’s giant body was caught between the cliffs, blocking the valley.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
Unable to avoid it, the eagle beasts collided with the crab’s shell, and exploded.
Shikamaru gave a thumbs-up, praising Sai’s cleverness. Sai nodded without any expression.
