A mushroom cloud rose on the horizon, and tremors rippled through the earth from far away.
Zou Hyuga knew those were the aftershocks of Oto and Toneri's battle. Both possessed strength worthy of legendary ninja, enough to subdue a shinobi village single-handedly.
Even with Toneri as her opponent, Zou Hyuga was not the least bit worried about Oto's safety.
He had deliberately chosen the moment when the Tenseigan was at its weakest. Besides her senjutsu-enhanced Mangekyo Sharingan, Oto was a powerful Jinchūriki who housed both the Leyline and the Nine-Tails.
Even he was not confident he could defeat her.
After all, to guard against the Otsutsuki lurking in the shadows, he did not dare devour too much tailed beast chakra. He had even handed over both the Nine-Tails and the Leyline.
Reining in his wandering thoughts, Zou Hyuga took a deep breath and activated his Byakugan, searching the area for lingering traces of tenseigan chakra.
According to the Merchant Company's covert investigation, Toneri and Fū had recently been active near this town.
There was nothing in this town worth lingering over. The only possibility was that something extremely important to Toneri was hidden here.
And from what Zou Hyuga vaguely remembered, a passage connected the shinobi world to the moon.
He intended to reach the moon before Toneri and deal with the Tenseigan there, eliminating this thorny problem and reducing the unpredictable factors in his next plan.
Before long, Zou Hyuga found residual traces of tenseigan chakra on a treetop.
The traces were exceedingly faint. Had he not fought Toneri twice, he might have overlooked them without a second thought.
Following those traces of chakra, Zou Hyuga arrived at a secluded mountainside. After forcibly breaking through the genjutsu formation, he successfully entered a cavern, where the space suddenly opened up