Advance on the "Sun"

Konoha, wine cellar.

Endless regret filled Tsunade's heart. She suddenly raised her hand and slammed it hard on the wine rack next to her with a "bang." The thick wooden rack groaned under the weight.

"I—I deserve to die!" She closed her eyes in agony, her voice hoarse, "Nine-Tails - Nine-Tails Fox—where are you, you damned fox? Get out here right now!"

Her anger reignited, raging even more fiercely than before, threatening to burn away the last vestiges of her reason.

Mizuki felt a chill run down her spine, as if the air itself had frozen into ice, making it hard for her to breathe.

She mustered all her courage and, in a voice trembling with tears, carefully added the most crucial sentence, "Lady Tsunade —Lady Nine-Tails —it, it—went to its post today—along with Lord Taiichi —and has been gone for most of the day—"

"Gone—gone?!" Tsunade suddenly opened her eyes, her raging anger as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over her head, and with a "sizzle," a plume of despairing white smoke rose up.

Her fist, brimming with power, slammed into the air. The pent-up frustration, with nowhere to go, pressed against her chest, making her vision blur and almost causing her to cough up blood.

However, the next second, a fear colder and sharper than the loss of all her wine collection, like a chilling Ice Spike, instantly pierced through all her anger and frustration, precisely nailing itself into her heart!

Her voice suddenly rose, more than an octave higher, trembling without her even realizing it. "No! Say it again? Taiichi went on a mission? What mission? Where did he go?!"

Mizuki was taken aback by the sudden surge of panic emanating from her, and stammered, "Y-yes, Lady Tsunade. Taiichi... he... he was on a top-secret mission... I don't know the specifics."

Mizuki spoke cautiously, afraid that Tsunade.

But Tsunade seemed to have lost her soul; all her anger had vanished, her eyes were empty, and she staggered as she turned and walked towards her room, muttering to herself, "So that's how it is, so that's how it is. No wonder the two Hokage praised me, so that's why."

Looking at the distraught Tsunade, Mizuki couldn't help but click her tongue inwardly. "Taichi is really Taiichi. Lady Tsunade forgot about her stolen drink as soon as he left. Poor Lady Tsunade, will she be like this for the next few days?"

She stood there, looking in the direction Tsunade had disappeared, then looked down at the empty bottle fragments and the long-dried drop of wine in the cellar. Her heart was filled with mixed emotions, which finally turned into a helpless sigh.

The true core of the Moon Core World is a complex of buildings located inside the artificial Sun Barrier, consisting of a main island and numerous floating islands.

The Otsutsuki Sacred Hall.

A cold, metallic sheen covered the dome and walls; thick energy pipes, like the veins of a giant python, silently slid within the walls.

It pulsed, emitting a faint blue light.

This is the central hub of the entire lunar core space, and also the last stronghold of the Moon Otsutsuki Clan.

The council hall, once a symbol of supreme authority, is now so empty that you can hear the echo of your own heartbeat.

Thirty-one figures sat sparsely, their bodies, some tall and some short, wrapped in grey robes. Each face bore a similar weariness, fear, and a deep-seated sense of defeat.

In the current situation, the distinctions between elders, elites, and ordinary clansmen have long lost their meaning.

Those who were able to gather here were the remaining thirty-one members of the Otsutsuki clan, all of whom were still alive and well.

A low, irritating buzzing sound filled the hall, like countless startled flies fluttering inside the skull.

Everyone was whispering to those around them, their voices hushed, yet they couldn't hide their fear and unease.

There's only one topic: the monster that lingers on the "earth" below.

"Enough! Shut up, all of you!"

A furious roar, like a thunderclap, instantly silenced all other noise. Thirty pairs of bloodshot, greyish-white eyes turned in unison to the source of the sound: an elder with bristling hair and a fresh burn scar on his face.

"Chieftain!" The scarred elder stared intently at the figure in the main seat, his voice hoarse with excitement, "Say something! Five days, a full five days! That guy is down there, like he's strolling in his own backyard. He neither attacks nor leaves! Are we just going to cower in this turtle shell and wait it out forever?"

On the main seat, Katsuya Otsutsuki, the man who once led the Main Family Branch Family ascended to the position of clan head with an iron fist, was now as silent as a cold stone statue.

His eyes were lowered, his gaze fixed on his empty sleeve, the phantom pain from his severed arm seeming clearer than ever before.

What could they say? Go down and fight to the death? What could they possibly fight with? Most of their remaining tribesmen had perished at the hands of that monster below, and all that remained were these people before them, each one terrified.

Their only reliance is this temple, and the Giant Tenseigan at the core of the temple, which took the entire clan's efforts and countless Byakugan to complete.

With it, we might be able to launch a counter-attack.

Taking the initiative? What's the difference between that and driving your people to jump into lava Suicide?

"Go down? Aren't you badly injured enough?" A clansman with a thick nasal voice and a splint on his arm immediately retorted, his voice filled with fear, "If we keep fighting, the Otsutsuki will truly be extinct! Not a single one left!"

"Exactly! I saw that guy wandering around down there, looking here and there, touching everything. He probably doesn't understand how this place works and has no idea we're here." Another tribesman with a sallow complexion quickly chimed in, with an almost self-deceiving sense of relief.

"Once he gets tired of it and finds it boring, he'll naturally go back to his filthy place! Then we'll completely seal off the spatial passage to the outside world! That'll solve everything! Nobody will be able to find this place!"

These naive and foolish remarks immediately ignited the tense atmosphere.

"Fool!" a relatively calm middle-aged clansman shouted sternly, "How could such a monster not be aware of the Sun Barrier's secret? In the last two attacks, the Puppet Legion we mobilized attacked directly from the Sun Barrier's internal passages!"

Even a blind person could sense the energy source above! Why do you think he kept looking up?

The arguing resumed, boiling and churning in the empty, cold hall like water. Despair and hope, fear and resentment clashed violently, their buzzing echoes striking the metal walls and adding to the agitation.

Katsuya Otsutsuki finally raised his head. His weathered and weary face was filled with disappointment. He glanced down at the terrified, angry, and numb faces below, and slowly raised his only remaining left hand, making a downward gesture.

As if an invisible hand had gripped his throat, all the arguing instantly subsided. All eyes were once again focused on him, with a last glimmer of hope, waiting for the clan leader to make the decision that might determine the fate of the tribe.

Katsuya's lips moved a few times, his chapped lips rubbing together, producing a hoarse sound, each word heavy with weight. "Wait."

"Wait for him to come to us."

"Using the Giant Tenseigan —for one last—and only—counterattack."

He paused for a long time, then slowly closed his eyes, as if using all his strength to squeeze out his last few words: "If—we still can't repel them—"

"Just surrender."

Dead silence.

Absolute silence enveloped the entire hall; even the air seemed to freeze.

Although everyone had a vague premonition of this ending deep down, when it was spoken so bluntly and coldly from the chieftain's mouth, the feeling was still like being skinned alive, the pain piercing to the bone.

The glory of the Otsutsuki Hamura's ancestors. A thousand years of pride and perseverance—at this moment, like a glass cup smashed to the ground by a wolf, it shattered with a crisp yet desperate sound, turning into dust, never to be pieced back together.

A suffocatingly low pressure weighed heavily on everyone's hearts.

The clansmen began to turn and leave one after another, silently, their steps heavy and dragging, their backs hunched, as if they had aged a hundred years in an instant.

Soon, only Katsuya remained in the empty hall, sitting alone on the cold stone throne of the clan chief.

The cold, blue light cast by the metal dome stretched his solitary figure long and distorted on the cold ground.

Was I really wrong?

This thought, like a venomous snake, gnawed at his heart once more.

What did that brutal and inhumane civil war with the Main Family, which shed the blood of their own kind and exhausted a thousand years of accumulated resources, ultimately bring them?

What resulted in an even weaker, more hopeless situation?

What a ridiculous ending: needing to seek help from the "ground branch" only led to utter annihilation?

Arrogance—ignorant arrogance! Fatal underestimation of the enemy!

They looked down upon the Ninja World from a high place, viewing it as something that needed to be "integrated" or even "purified," and the Hyuga as a "container" to be exploited at will.

They never thought that they would actually set foot on that land they despised, to understand what kind of power those creatures, whom they regarded as ants, truly possessed!

Despite holding the key to communication between the two worlds, they have never truly sent out a pair of eyes to measure the enemy's strength!

This defeat—a complete and utter loss, a defeat that was entirely justified!

On a giant rock at the edge of the forest in the Moon Core World.

Taiichi slowly withdrew the light he had projected onto the "sky". So many days had passed, and the miniature world beneath his feet, which had been created and nourished by Hamura's supreme power, had been repeatedly scanned, analyzed, and imprinted in his mind by his powerful perception.

The parts that can be understood are transformed into numbers jumping on various skill and experience bars; those profound rules that cannot be understood for the time being are transformed into seeds, buried deep in the soil of consciousness.

I've read everything I needed to read and memorized everything I could learn. What's left is a matter of patience and perseverance, a higher level of hurdle that can't be rushed.

It's time to uncover the final mystery of this place.

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze piercing through space, finally locking onto the "Sun Barrier" radiating eternal light. That was the true core of Hamura's legacy.

On Taiyi's shoulder, the Nine-Tails lay limply against Taiichi neck like a piece of crimson felt that had lost its elasticity, its four paws hanging limply, and it didn't even bother to wag its fluffy tail.

Since the Ōtsutsuki Clan completely retreated into that "Sun Barrier" fortress and stopped sending Puppet and living people down, the Moon Core World has become a huge, magnificent, but lifeless cage for Nine-Tails.

There were no living creatures to tease, no novelties to explore, only unchanging silence and artificial natural scenery. All its energy seemed to have been drained by this boredom, and the fox exuded an air of despondency, too lazy to even lift its eyelids.

"Let's go, lazy fox." Taiichi his finger and gently tapped the Nine-Tails fox's fluffy forehead.

Nine-Tails listlessly opened its drowsy eyes, glanced at Taiichi beside it, and saw that he was looking up at the sky, or more accurately, staring at the artificial light source that emitted a warm glow and simulated the real Sun Barrier. Its fox ears immediately perked up, and its languid spirit was invigorated.

"What, finally leaving?" Nine-Tails's voice carried a hint of impatient complaint. "If I'd known you were this slow with every mission, I would have stayed in Konoha! Even facing that old woman Tsunade would have been better than sitting here staring at rocks with you!"

"Oh!"

Taiichi's lips curled into an undisguised sneer, his gaze still fixed on the "Sun Barrier," his voice calm yet precise, piercing through Nine-Tails' bluff.

"You've got the desire but not the guts. If you really had that kind of guts, you wouldn't have run to me for refuge right after making a mistake. What, are you afraid Tsunade will pluck all your shiny, slick hair out and use it as a rag?"

"I was—I was—" Nine-Tails was hit where it hurt, its vertical pupils widened, and it made a gurgling sound in its throat. It wanted to explain but couldn't find any plausible reason.

Even Nine-Tails old man like him has his pride! Since he did it, he should admit it and stand up straight when he gets beaten!

In the end, it could only mutter a few meaningless syllables in a dejected manner, then slumped its head onto Taiichi's shoulder in frustration and fell completely silent.

Forget it, arguing with this sharp-tongued human will only make me angry.

Seeing that the fox had finally calmed down, Taiichi stopped pursuing it. He took a deep breath, his eyes becoming sharp as knives.

With a slight thought, a soft "hum" sounded behind him, and two wings made of azure Chakra instantly materialized. He gently pushed off the giant rock with his feet, and his entire body shot into the sky like an arrow, his target the "Sun Barrier" radiating endless light in the heavens.

Nine-Tails felt a sudden weight on its body and quickly used its four claws to grip Taiichi's broad shoulders, letting him carry it rapidly upwards. The wind whistled in its ears, and the forest and ocean below shrank rapidly in its field of vision.

However, just as Taiichi was about to touch the Light Sphere, an overwhelming and unstoppable resistance suddenly appeared! It was as if he had crashed into an indestructible, transparent wall.

Bang!

A deep, resounding boom echoed through the silent interior of the moon. Taiichi's figure was abruptly stopped a hundred meters above the surface of the "Sun Barrier".

The azure Chakra wings flapped violently, rubbing intensely against the invisible energy barrier in front of them, splashing out countless tiny energy ripples.

"Tsk, as expected, there are protections." Taiichi steadied himself, his brows furrowing slightly. The space in front of him seemed to be covered by an extremely precise energy grid, isolating the inside from the outside. It was clearly the last line of defense of the Moon Otsutsuki Clan, protecting their core.

"Haha! You ran into a wall, didn't you? Serves you right for flying so fast!" Nine-Tails yelled gleefully, his earlier annoyance seemingly vanished. "This broken shield looks pretty sturdy. Shall I give it a Tailed Beast Bomb?"

"Shut up, you stupid fox." Taiichi hissed, holding down the Nine-Tails, who was about to cause more trouble.