When Shinsei and Hinata landed on a grassy field, neither of them spoke immediately.
The sky overhead shone with a soft blue-white light, like moonlight diluted and evenly scattered.
The grass beneath my feet was unrealistically soft, with tiny dewdrops clinging to the tender green blades.
In the distance lies a lake, its waters as still as a giant mirror.
Further away, a cluster of white palaces, built against the mountainside, stretched layer upon layer to the horizon. At the top of the tallest tower, a pale blue spherical gemstone was embedded, emitting a faint glow.
"Is this the inside of the moon?" Hinata crouched down and gently touched a blade of grass with her finger.
The grass was real, damp and cool. She looked up at the sky again; the light wasn't the sun, nor the moon, but a uniform, omnipresent brightness, as if the entire sky was glowing.
" Hamura Otsutsuki and his clan have lived here for over a thousand years; they can't possibly live in a crack in the rocks."
Shinsei observed his surroundings.
"The environment here is artificially maintained. The light overhead, the grass underfoot, the lake in the distance—everything is driven by Chakra."
Even the land we're standing on was brought from the ground.
Little Nine jumped off Shinsei's shoulder, stomped its four paws on the grass, and then sniffed it.
"There's no smell of life. Besides grass and trees, there are no animals, not even insects."
"What's the point of having animals when everyone's gone?"
Shinsei looked towards the palace complex. The white buildings appeared quiet and solemn under the blue and white sky, not like an inhabited castle, but more like a forgotten temple.
They walked toward the palace, passing several small lakes along the way.
The lake was as smooth as a mirror, without a single ripple.
The white flowering trees by the lake were in full bloom, their petals carpeting the ground like a white path. Hinata picked one up; the petal felt cool to the touch, like it was made of jade.
"These flowers won't wither," Hinata said. "There's no wind, so they won't fall. This flower has been blooming for a long time."
Shinsei glanced at the petals. "Time stands still here."
The Ōtsutsuki Clan uses Chakra to maintain all of this, synchronizing time and the earth, but stopping the changes.
So the buildings never age, the flowers never fade, and the lake never rises. But because of this, there is no life here, no new life, no death. Everything remains unchanged.
" The Ōtsutsuki Clan lives in a place like this?" Hinata put the flower back on the ground and straightened up.
"That's why they're getting worse with each generation," Little Nine interjected, her tone full of disdain. "A place where even life has stopped, all that's left is to wait for death."
As you approach the palace complex, the scenery changes. The buildings here appear even taller than they did in the distance, with white stone walls extending upwards and their surfaces covered with dense patterns.
Shinsei placed his hand on the wall and infused it with a Chakra. Suddenly, the patterns on the wall lit up, like countless silver lines moving across the stone surface.
The light spread outwards along the patterns, illuminating the entire wall in the blink of an eye, then the pillars, and then the roof.
In just a few seconds, the entire palace lit up, as if it had awakened from a thousand-year slumber.
Hinata was stunned by the sight. The glowing patterns intertwined on the wall to form a huge mural.
In the first painting, a man floats in mid-air, his hands Hand Seals, with a huge sphere in front of him.
In the second painting, the sphere splits into more than a dozen smaller circles, which rotate around the person in the center.
In the third painting, the man stands atop a tall tower, with countless people kneeling before him at his feet.
"This is the story of Hamura Otsutsuki," Hinata whispered. "The origin of the Hyuga Clan is written on the walls of the ancestral temple, but it's not as detailed as these drawings. So, Lord Hamura really did create this world on the moon."
Shinsei walked forward along the mural. Hamura's story was just the beginning; the murals began to change afterward.
The painting depicts two opposing camps: one led by Hamura Otsutsuki, and the other consisting of a faceless figure.
The two factions waged a protracted war on the moon, the flames of which turned the blue sky red.
In the last painting, Hamura and the faceless man disappear simultaneously in a beam of white light, leaving only a giant eye suspended in mid-air.
"That eye." Shinsei stopped and looked up at the enormous eye in the center of the mural. "It's the Tenseigan from outside."
"Hmm." Hinata nodded, her voice lowering. "It's written in the scroll that Lord Hamura sealed the bloodline and power of the Ōtsutsuki Clan within his Tenseigan."
It is formed by the combined eyes of all the powerful Ōtsutsuki Clan. Once activated, it is equivalent to the entire Ōtsutsuki Clan taking action simultaneously.
Only a pure Tenseigan can perfectly master it.
" Perfect Tenseigan?"
Shinsei was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected that the Tenseigan also had different levels.
Hinata gently shook her head.
I don't know the specifics either.
Shinsei didn't say anything more and continued walking forward.
They passed through the mural gallery and came to a deeper, more secluded corridor.
This corridor was narrower and much dimmer than the ones we had passed through before. There were no glowing patterns on either side, only a small lamp embedded in the wall every few steps.
The dim lighting cast long shadows on the ground.
The corridor was lined with rooms. Shinsei pushed open the first door.
The room was small and simply furnished.
A stone bed, a stone table, and a stone chair. On the stone table sits a white cup, half-filled with liquid that has solidified into a block.
A white robe hung on the wall, neatly folded, with a pair of white boots underneath.
Beside the bed was a wooden box. When I opened it, I found several old, yellowed clothes and a few smooth pebbles inside. It looked like someone had lived here for a long time.
"Could this be Toneri's room?" Little Nine jumped onto the stone table and poked at the cup with its paw.
"No." Hinata walked to the wooden box, picked up a pebble and looked at it. The surface of the pebble was engraved with very fine lines. She rubbed it with her fingers, then picked up another one.
Each of these pebbles was polished to a shine, clearly having been rubbed countless times.
Shinsei frowned. He walked to the wooden box and picked up a pebble.
The smooth surface was slightly warm, the warmth left from being touched repeatedly by fingers.
The pebble was small, just the right size to fit in the palm of your hand. The engravings on its surface varied in depth, and some parts were worn away, as if they had been read too many times.
They continued walking inside. The other rooms were much the same; some rooms were piled with many such stones, and some rooms had deep and shallow scratches carved on the walls, as if someone had used their sense of touch to measure every inch of the wall in the dark.
The room near the end of the corridor was noticeably larger, containing a large stone bed and a white stone box on a small table beside it.
The stone box was unlocked, and Shinsei opened it. Inside, dozens of thin stone slabs were neatly stacked, each about the size of a palm, and covered with dense Braille.
The stone slabs were exceptionally well-preserved, their edges wrapped in fine linen, stacked one on top of the other, without a speck of dust. The top slab was thicker than the others, with deeper carvings, as if certain sentences had been carved with extra force.
Shinsei looked at Hinata.
Hinata walked over, gently picked up the top stone slab, and slowly ran her fingertips over the fine engravings.
She didn't open her Byakugan; she was reading by touch alone.
"These are the words that the Toneri's father left for him." Her voice was very soft, as if she were afraid of disturbing the sentences carved in the stone.
She read it aloud slowly.
"My Toneri, you were born without eyes; this is my fault."
The Ōtsutsuki bloodline on the moon is nearly exhausted, and the Main Family is unwilling to change the status quo.
You were born into the Branch Family; without eyes, you wouldn't even be the lowest member of the clan. That's why your father hid you in the Main Family's separate courtyard, teaching you to perceive the world through touch."
"I have observed the Hyuga Clan on the ground for many years. Their Byakugan was originally the bloodline closest to Hamura's ancestor, but after generation after generation, their bloodline has long been impure."
Even if you were to have a regular Hyūga Byakugan transplanted into you, you wouldn't be able to awaken a perfect Tenseigan. Therefore, once you possess true power, you must seek out a pure Byakugan.
"So I've been waiting. Waiting for a child with the Byakugan to be born."
When the time comes, I will do everything I can to get these eyes for you.
At that time, you will not only be able to see, but you will also be able to activate the Tenseigan left by Hamura's ancestors through these eyes.
You will no longer be the abandoned son of the Branch Family, but someone closer to the ancestor Hamura than anyone in the Main Family.
"Don't blame your father. Being born into this family is your destiny."
Hinata stopped reading when she reached the last sentence. She looked down at the stone slab and remained silent for a long time.
Little Nine squatted to the side, its tail no longer wagging, but quietly lying down and resting its head on its front paws.
"These stone tablets," Hinata finally spoke, her voice a little hoarse, "Each one has been touched countless times. He must have opened this box many times, reading them over and over again."
Shinsei stood behind her, his gaze fixed on the stone box. The stone slab was so well preserved, with the edges still neatly wrapped in linen.
A child who has been propelled for countless years by the words his father carved in stone, a blind child who can only understand the word "destiny" through touch.
The first thing he saw after receiving the eye was these stone carvings. From then on, his life never deviated from these sentences.
"Let's go," Shinsei said. "He's waiting for us at the Tenseigan."
They left the room, walked through the last section of the corridor, and came to a Taiseki. A pale blue light shone from behind the door, like the faint glow of light floating in the deep sea.
Shinsei Gate of Opening, and the enormous space appeared before him.
The Tenseigan floated in the center of the temple, tens of meters in diameter, its entire body a deep blue, with flowing patterns on its surface, like a giant pupil that had not yet fully opened.
Otsutsuki Toneri stood below the Tenseigan, with his back to them.
He was dressed in a plain white robe, his white hair reaching his waist.
Hearing the door open, he slowly turned around. His pale blue eyes shone brightly in the dim blue light, like two tiny moons.