Seeking Clues to the Tenseigan

Whoosh—

Whoosh, whoosh—

In the forest outside Konoha, four Anbu ninja continuously leaped and darted between the trees, gradually converging from different directions.

"Target not found!" One Anbu ninja stopped on a large branch, scanned the surroundings with his sensory ability, then reported to his comrades through the communicator hanging from his ear.

The Shinobi World's technology tree was rather strange. The development of firearms had basically stagnated, and technological standards varied wildly, yet they already possessed things like radio communications and even microphones.

The other Anbu ninja stopped as well, each taking up a high position on tree trunks and keeping watch over the surroundings.

"Strange. Where did he go?" The sensory ninja formed hand seals again. Chakra rippled outward, but he still found nothing.

Whoosh—

A sharp sound of tearing wind rang out as Kakashi, wearing a White Cat Mask, landed nearby.

As an Anbu captain, Kakashi would not normally deploy so easily. But this incident involved the Hyuga Clan, one of Konoha's two great clans.

The Third Hokage had personally ordered Kakashi to lead a squad of Anbu ninja to investigate.

"Captain!" The other Anbu ninja turned toward him.

"You found nothing either?" Beneath Kakashi's White Cat Mask, his single visible eye was grave.

After that mysterious person vanished into the night, Kakashi had immediately led the Anbu ninja after him. They had spread out like a vast net in pursuit.

Yet they were nearly at the village's barrier, and there was still no trace of their target.

"The Orphanage has been searched. Nothing unusual." One Anbu added, "There are only a few scattered buildings in this area. The director is Yakushi Nonō."

"The Wandering Shrine Maiden?" Kakashi murmured.

Naturally, he had heard of her. Root was, after all, considered one of the Anbu's subordinate divisions, and intelligence on many of Root's spies and personnel had been filed with the Anbu.

As for the ninja Danzo secretly trained, they were not included.

"Continue searching! You two search east along the village barrier. The rest of you, come west with me!" Kakashi ordered.

"Yes!" The ninja swiftly moved out.

At Konoha Hospital, inside a special care ward.

After being treated by medical ninja, Hizashi Hyuga had escaped mortal danger and been placed in a private ward to recover.

After all, Hizashi was not only a jonin, but also the head of the Hyuga Branch House and the younger brother of the Hyuga clan head.

Yet Hizashi Hyuga, who should have been sleeping and recovering from his wounds, could not fall asleep no matter what.

He lay on the hospital bed, his Byakugan fixed on the ceiling, the furrows between his brows as deep as blade cuts.

Scenes from the earlier battle flickered through Hizashi's mind.

When he and Hiashi had attacked, the mysterious person had directly struck his blind spot. It was as though that person knew the Hyuga Clan's circumstances extremely, extremely well.

Knock, knock—

A knock sounded at the door.

"Come in." Hizashi turned toward the entrance from his bed.

The door slowly opened, and Hiashi, now changed into ordinary clothes, walked inside.

"Brother..." Hizashi struggled to sit up and pay his respects, but Hiashi raised a hand to stop him.

"Lie down. You are not in good condition." Hiashi walked to the bedside and sat on a stool, his expression heavy as he looked at his injured younger brother.

Because of what had happened recently, he had held considerable resentment toward his younger brother. But he had to admit that Hizashi's combat ability was on par with his own.

The two of them had attacked the mysterious person from front and back, yet one had been severely injured while the other had suffered light injuries!

Such a powerful ninja could not possibly be an unknown nobody. They should have heard of his name.

And besides...

"I came to confirm the technique that mysterious person used earlier." Hiashi gave a soft snort, his face stern.

"Yes..." Hizashi lay on the bed, recalling it with a dark expression. "That person knew a great deal about us—or rather, about the Hyuga Clan."

"When I first fought him, whenever my Gentle Fist struck his acupoints, he could force chakra out through those acupoints to resist and use chakra to protect them. Every strike felt as if it had landed on iron. Gentle Fist could barely seal his acupoints, much less drive Gentle Fist chakra into his chakra pathways."

Hiashi's fight with the mysterious person had been brief. He had not used Gentle Fist to strike acupoints, instead directly employing Eight Trigrams Palms.

Thus, upon hearing this, Hiashi's expression became even more grave.

"I tried to use the Byakugan to see his face beneath the mask, but beneath it was an endless abyss of darkness. His chakra was even more immense than words could describe."

"And he seemed to know my blind spot..." Hizashi's body trembled slightly as he remembered it.

The blind spot created by the Caged Bird seal differed for every member of the Hyuga Branch House. It was ordinarily almost impossible to discover a Branch House member's blind spot in a single battle.

For a jonin like Hizashi, who had experienced countless brutal battles, almost no one had ever found his blind spot.

Yet today's mysterious person had done so after barely more than ten exchanges—

Hiashi crossed his arms over his chest, fell silent for a moment, then slowly said, "I was defeated by his Twin Lion Fists."

"What?!" Hizashi, lying on the hospital bed, was suddenly shocked.

After being sent flying by the mysterious person, he had been half-conscious and had not seen the miserable sight of Hiashi being blasted away by the Twin Lion Fists.

But as the head of the Branch House, Hizashi had often seen his older brother use Twin Lion Fists during their sparring sessions.

The full name of Twin Lion Fists was Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists, a high-level taijutsu that only the Hyuga Main House could learn.

By clenching both hands into fists and gathering vast amounts of Gentle Fist chakra, the chakra took the form of two lion heads that attached themselves to the fists. Combined with footwork, it could greatly increase both the power and range of one's attacks.

Its difficulty was no less than Rotation. Even Hizashi Hyuga, who had developed Rotation himself, had not managed to develop Twin Lion Fists.

In an instant, countless possibilities flashed through Hizashi Hyuga's mind.

The Hyuga Clan... could there be a defector?

Late at night, at the Hyuga Main House compound.

After shaking off the pursuing Anbu ninja, Uzumaki Menma made his way back.

Taking advantage of both Hizashi Hyuga and Hyuga Hiashi being at the hospital, Uzumaki Menma casually strolled into Hyuga Hiashi's study.

Little Nine-Tails leaped out from Menma's fur collar, hopped onto the desk, and began rummaging through drawers and cabinets.

"What did you say we were looking for again?" Little Nine-Tails opened a drawer, then froze. What were they looking for again?

"Clues about the moon and the Tenseigan." Menma stood before a bookshelf packed with books, reaching out with his right hand as he searched through them.

The descendants of Otsutsuki Hamura on the moon could not possibly have had no contact with the Hyuga Clan of the Shinobi World.

Otherwise, it could not explain why, among the many Kekkei Genkai clans in the Shinobi World, only the Hyuga Clan had developed Cursed Seal Jutsu like the Caged Bird.

What they guarded against might not necessarily have been other Shinobi World clans stealing the Byakugan.

At most, other Shinobi World clans could seize one or two Byakugan, like Ao had.

But the Otsutsuki on the moon were different.

Moreover, in the Naruto movie, Otsutsuki Toneri had come to the Shinobi World with his father when he was young. They had found the Hyuga Clan's territory and observed Hinata from afar.

After Otsutsuki Toneri became an adult, he had even arranged to meet Hyuga Hiashi. Hiashi had gone to meet him with two trusted attendants.

It seemed Hyuga Hiashi might also have learned something about the moon from records in the clan's ancient texts.

"Menma." Little Nine-Tails, who had been searching through the drawers, suddenly sensed something and quickly jumped back into Menma's fur collar.

"That big sister is here." After saying that, Little Nine-Tails withdrew into the mental space.

"Hm?" Uzumaki Menma, who was flipping through a copy of Byakugan User Manual, paused.

He expanded his malicious intent sensing and detected a somewhat familiar chakra approaching.

And the other party seemed rather angry.