The elderly figure spoke, his voice resounding directly in Toneri's mind, calm yet powerful, with a distant quality that seemed to transcend time and space.
Toneri recognized him. A gigantic statue of this man stood outside the Hamura Shrine.
"A-Ancestor Hamura?!"
Toneri's voice trembled in disbelief. He instinctively tried to bow, but the hand gently holding him stopped him.
"You're not dead? You're still here?"
The translucent figure called Hamura slowly shook his head. A trace of complicated emotion showed in his sharp Byakugan-affection, the weariness of age, and a faint hint of regret.
After all, Toneri was the last of the descendants he had brought to the moon.
"No, I am already dead."
Hamura's chakra consciousness stated calmly, "What remains here is merely a wisp of chakra consciousness I left behind all those years ago. It exists through my longing for my mother and my determination to protect the seal, waiting for descendants who might need guidance, or to deal with unforeseen changes."
He paused, turning his gaze toward the immensely solid Sealing Core behind him, which radiated a suffocating sense of oppression. His tone grew more solemn, almost pleading:
"My mother is inside. I hope you will leave her undisturbed."
"Your mother?"
Toneri's expression tightened. Even his cyan Chakra Cloak rippled slightly with the violent surge of his emotions.
The one sealed inside was actually the mother of Hamura Otsutsuki, the ancestor they revered?
That meant she was his ancestor too.
But without gaining more power, how could he stand against his formidable enemy?
Seeing the shock and hesitation on Toneri's face, along with his lingering thirst for power, Hamura's chakra consciousness sighed softly.
He understood his descendant's predicament and desire to grow stronger, but he understood even better the unpredictable, catastrophic consequences of disturbing his mother's seal.