Otsutsuki Toneri, the Demon of the Ninja World

The rain kept falling, growing heavier by the moment.

Not a single star was visible in the sky, only a vast expanse of pitch-black clouds.

Yet unlike the surface where the Ninja World lay, an unknown world was hidden within the moon suspended in the starry sky.

There were seas and land here, flowers, birds, fish, insects, flying creatures and beasts, as well as villages and stone houses.

Outwardly, it was no different from the Ninja World, only far more ancient.

The sole difference was that there was not a single person here, only ruins.

At the very center of the moon's interior, above the false sky, the "sun" radiated a warm glow.

Inside the "sun" was emptiness, boundless emptiness. Islands of every shape floated in the air, as though they had fallen into a starless universe. Everything in sight was hazy and indistinct. There was no ground to be seen, yet one could touch the edge of the "sky."

Living in such a place for long enough made it impossible to distinguish heaven from earth, leaving only a sense of emptiness in one's heart.

However, for Otsutsuki Toneri, who had lived within the "Artificial Sun" ever since he was born, this small and narrow patch of heaven and earth was his entire world. He had long grown accustomed to its hollow desolation.

"Father."

The young Otsutsuki Toneri knelt obediently on the ground. With pale skin and long blue-white hair, he raised his head and looked toward the man before him with empty eye sockets. "Grandpa Zhang Si hasn't come in a long time."

He did not seem to be asking anything. He was merely stating a fact.

He was only three years old and had been born without eyes, yet his innately powerful bloodline allowed him to clearly perceive the world before him.

The "Grandpa Zhang Si" Otsutsuki Toneri spoke of was a gentle old man. But like the other elders who had disappeared from time to time over the past three years, he too had vanished.

"Toneri, Grandpa Zhang Si will not be coming back."

Toneri's Father reached out and gently stroked his hair. There was only calm in his voice as he softly said, "You need to grow up quickly. One day, I too will be gone."

"Like those grandpas?" Otsutsuki Toneri asked.

"Yes." Toneri's Father nodded lightly. "You were born to save the world. But you still lack strength, and we will become your strength."

"Only a sword hanging over their heads can make those culprits who have strayed from the proper path and shattered the world's peace and order wake up."

Otsutsuki Toneri nodded in vague understanding, then raised his head and asked in a childish voice, "Will you come back then?"

He did not hear his father's answer. After a long silence, his father finally gave a faint laugh and said softly, "We have always been here. So why speak of 'returning'?"

The elder brother of Ancestor Hamura, the Sage of Six Paths, founder of the Ninja Sect in the Ninja World, had personally created such a Ninja World.

The Sage of Six Paths had founded the Ninja Sect with the intention of making Chakra a power that connected people, turning Chakra into a bond between people, and creating a world without war, where everyone could coexist peacefully.

However, after the Sage of Six Paths passed away, humanity turned Chakra into a weapon of slaughter. As the ages advanced, wars continued to erupt. Long wars. The shinobi had never stopped fighting. Endless, unceasing wars...

From the moment Otsutsuki Toneri was born, the entire Branch Family had known that destiny stood on their side. The shinobi of the Ninja World were fated to be purged. The birth of those warlike, cruel, bloodthirsty demons had been a mistake!

Just as Toneri's Father was about to continue instilling the Branch Family's extreme beliefs into Toneri—

Bzz!

An invisible presence stirred through the air, startling him into abruptly raising his head toward the window.

The crescent-shaped island floating in the distance was trembling with a buzzing vibration. Toneri's Father rushed out of the palace without hesitation and ran straight into two others.

The three exchanged grave looks, nodded, and flew together toward the distant crescent island.

Very few Ōtsutsuki clansmen remained alive on the moon. All the women of suitable age had died in the war between the Main Branch and the Branch Family years ago. The brutality of that battle had left behind only the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

The three men, including Toneri's Father, were ordinarily tasked with guarding the Ōtsutsuki clan's supreme treasure—the "Giant Tenseigan."

Bzz, bzz! Bzz!

As they entered the island through the passageway, the invisible fluctuations grew stronger and stronger, whipping their white robes about.

When they reached the end of the passage and entered the vast chamber beside it, they saw the eye, dozens of meters in diameter, at the center of several circular tracks.

That golden eye was the Giant Tenseigan's true form. Yet the ring tracks that should have revolved steadily around the Tenseigan like planetary rings were now twisting wildly, as if invisible fingers had thrown them into disarray.

"What is happening?" Panic spilled from Toneri's Father's eyes. "Why has the Tenseigan suddenly become unstable?!"

Golden particles burst and sprayed from the Tenseigan's pupil like a swarm of Fire Flys pouring through a broken dam. The light flowed like blood through veins, shattering against objects into tiny motes before continuing outward.

Though this Tenseigan was only a half-finished product, nothing like this had happened in the past several years.

One of the old men released Chakra and connected it to the Tenseigan, gradually sensing the direction in which that Pupil Power was leaking.

"Impossible!"

His eyes flew wide, nearly popping from their sockets, as he rasped, "The Tenseigan is responding to someone's call from the Ninja World!"

"Impossible!" Toneri's Father blurted out instinctively. "How could that be possible? How could those demons be qualified to receive a response from a sacred relic?!"

The other elder was clearly more composed. Though he was equally unable to believe the news, he still calmly looked toward the brown-haired elder and asked, "Can you confirm that person's identity, or locate their exact position?"

"No." The brown-haired elder shook his head with a deep frown. "The weather in the Ninja World is terrible. It has interfered with my observation."

At that, he paused and closed his eyes once more, his face gradually turning pale.

A moment later, he snapped his eyes open and said heavily, "The Land of Fire! Their approximate location is near the Land of Fire!"

"Those damned shinobi again!" Veins bulged across Toneri's Father's forehead as he said through gritted teeth, "Stealing the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was not enough for them, and now they actually dare to covet the Tenseigan! Unforgivable!"

This Giant Tenseigan had been prepared for Toneri. It was a supreme sacred relic formed through the sacrifice of countless clansmen and the gathered Pupil Power of countless pairs of Byakugan. They absolutely could not allow those demons of the Ninja World to lay their hands on it!

If he found out who had been so audacious, he would make that person die without a grave!

"Quick!" Toneri's Father abruptly raised his head and said in a low voice, "Set up the seal immediately and sever the Tenseigan's connection to the outside world!"

At his words, the other two elders exchanged a glance and nodded, as though reaching some resolution. They sat cross-legged on the ground together and closed their eyes. Toneri's Father did the same.

"Seal!" The three shouted in low voices. The Chakra within their bodies was drained dry, their faces instantly turning pale and withered. Their flesh, blood, and spirits were squeezed dry before the trembling Tenseigan gradually began to calm.

Crack.

Otsutsuki Toneri sat quietly in his room. He did not know how much time had passed when he heard the door gently open.

But unlike before, his father's breathing was hoarse and ragged, like a broken bellows carrying an utterly decayed stench.

"Father..." Toneri called softly without thinking.

"Cough, cough! Cough!" A rough, wrinkled palm rested on his head. In a hoarse voice, his father said, "Toneri, you have always wanted to go to the Ninja World and see it for yourself, haven't you?"

Upon hearing that, Otsutsuki Toneri immediately cast aside the doubts he had wanted to voice and blurted out, "Can I, Father?"

Toneri's Father fell silent for a moment. He thought of the two clansmen who had already died, of his own body gradually running dry, of Toneri's lonely future, and of those demons in the Ninja World...

Hatred surfaced in his eyes. At last, he slowly nodded. "You can."

"Make your preparations. In a few days, I will take you to the Ninja World."

"I will let you see the ugliness and sins of the shinobi with your own eyes."