Northwestern Land of Fire.
In a dense border forest near the Land of Rain.
Hizashi Hyuga knelt on one knee on the branch of a towering tree, his pure white eyes slowly sweeping his surroundings.
It was already the ninth day.
Ever since Hanabi disappeared, he had set aside all the clan's affairs and pursued her out of Konoha alone, but the presence of whoever had abducted her... was too strange.
It flickered in and out, and there was an eerie familiarity to it.
Hizashi clenched his fists.
He remembered that straight-backed figure kneeling before the ancestral hall, that voice entrusting the Hyuga Clan, Hinata, and Hanabi to him.
"Help me take care of Hinata and Hanabi. Tell them... their father loves them."
Hizashi closed his eyes.
He would rather Neji had been abducted than Hanabi, because she was his elder brother's remaining flesh and blood.
He did not even dare return to Konoha, did not dare face his sister-in-law and Hinata's eyes as they fought back tears.
Just then-
"Screech!"
A pure white ninja hawk pierced the mist between the trees and landed steadily on Hizashi's shoulder.
This was a summoning ninja hawk specially bred by the Hyuga Clan, used only in the most urgent circumstances.
Hizashi's heart tightened, and he quickly untied the scroll from the ninja hawk's leg-
After quickly reading it, Hizashi's pupils contracted sharply.
Akatsuki, Otsutsuki Kaguya, the Shinobi World's joint assault on the moon, the Earth-Moon Passage...
Hizashi froze.
Of course he knew where the Earth-Moon Passage was.
Before his elder brother died, he had told him every secret passed down orally through generations of Hyuga Clan heads, including that branch on the moon-
The descendants of the Ōtsutsuki Clan.
That also included the super-giant Tenseigan suspended at the moon's core, powerful enough to