The rain kept falling, growing heavier and heavier.
There was not a single fragment of starlight visible in the sky, only a vast expanse of pitch-black storm clouds.
However, unlike the surface of the ninja world, inside the Moon hidden within the starry sky lay a world unknown to most.
There were seas and land here, flowers, birds, fish, and insects, as well as flying and walking beasts. There were even villages and stone houses.
From the outside, it looked no different from the ninja world, just far more ancient.
But there was one difference: it was completely deserted. All that remained were ruins.
At the very center inside the Moon, above a false sky, a "sun" emitted a warm glow.
Yet inside that "sun" was emptiness, boundless emptiness. Islands of various shapes floated in the air as if they had fallen into a universe without stars. Everything in sight was hazy and indistinct. There was no visible ground, yet one could somehow touch the boundary of the "sky."
Living in such a place for a long time made it impossible to distinguish up from down, filling one's heart with a sense of emptiness.
But for Ōtsutsuki Toneri, who had lived inside this "artificial sun" since birth, this small, confined space was his entire world. He had long grown used to its cold, hollow silence.
"Father."
The young Toneri Otsutsuki knelt obediently on the floor. He had pale skin and long, blue-white hair. He looked up at the man before him with hollow eye sockets.
"Grandpa Shoji hasn't come for a long time."
He did not sound like he was asking a question, more like he was stating a fact.
He was only three years old, born without eyes, yet thanks to the powerful bloodline he was born with, he could clearly perceive the world around him.
The "Grandpa Shoji" Toneri spoke of was an old man who spoke softly and gently, but he had disappeared, just like the other elders who had vanished periodically over the past three years.
"Toneri, Grandpa Shoji won't be coming back."
Toneri's father reached out and gently stroked his hair. His tone was calm as he said softly:
"You need to grow up quickly. One day, I will also be gone."
"Like those grandpas?" Toneri asked.
"Yes." His father nodded lightly. "You were born to save the world. But right now you still lack strength, and we will become your strength."
"Only with a sharp sword hanging overhead will those who have strayed from the path and disrupted the world's peace and order wake up a little."
Toneri nodded vaguely, then looked up with childish innocence.
"Will you all come back then?"
He did not hear his father's reply. After a long silence, his father chuckled softly and said:
"We have always been here. So how could there be such a thing as 'coming back'?"
The elder brother of Ancestor Hamura, the Sage of Six Paths, was the founder of the Ninshū of the ninja world, and it was he who personally created the world as it existed.
The Sage of Six Paths originally established Ninshū so that chakra would become a force connecting people, turning it into bonds between individuals, creating a world without war where everyone could live in peace.
But after the Sage passed away, humanity turned chakra into a weapon for killing.
As the ages advanced, wars erupted again and again. Endless wars.
The ninja never stopped fighting, wars without limit, wars without end.
From the moment Toneri was born, the entire branch family of the Ōtsutsuki clan knew that destiny had finally sided with them.
The ninjas of the ninja world were destined to be purged.
Those war-loving, cruel, bloodthirsty demons should never have existed in the first place.
Just as Toneri's father was about to continue instilling these extreme beliefs into him.
Buzz!
An invisible ripple surged through the air.
Startled, he suddenly looked out the window.
The crescent-shaped floating island in the distance was vibrating with a humming tremor.
Without hesitation, Toneri's father rushed out of the palace and ran straight into two other men.
The three exchanged grave looks, nodded to each other, and flew toward the distant crescent island.
Now, only a handful of Ōtsutsuki remained alive on the Moon.
All the women of marriageable age had died years earlier during the brutal war between the main family and the branch family. The battle had been so devastating that only the elderly, the weak, and the disabled remained.
These three men, including Toneri's father, were responsible for guarding the Ōtsutsuki clan's supreme treasure: The Giant Tenseigan.
Bzzz! Bzzz!
As they passed through a corridor into the island's interior, the invisible fluctuations grew stronger, whipping their white robes in the air.
When they reached the end of the passage and entered a vast chamber, they saw it,
At the center of several circular orbital tracks floated a gigantic eye dozens of meters wide.
That golden eye was the true form of the Giant Tenseigan.
Normally, the ring-shaped tracks around it rotated steadily like planetary rings.
But now they twisted wildly, as if stirred by an invisible finger.
"What's going on?" Toneri's father cried in alarm. "Why is the Tenseigan suddenly reacting?!"
Golden particles burst from the pupil like swarms of fireflies escaping a broken dam.
The light flowed like blood through veins, colliding with objects, shattering into tiny sparks, and spreading outward.
Even though this Tenseigan was still incomplete, it had never shown such abnormalities in the past few years.
One of the elders released chakra and linked with the Tenseigan, gradually sensing the direction in which the pupil power was flowing.
"Impossible!"
His eyes widened as if they might burst from their sockets.
"The Tenseigan… is responding to someone's call from the ninja world!"
"Impossible!" Toneri's father blurted instinctively. "How could those demons possibly be worthy of the sacred relic's response?!"
Another elder, clearly more composed, looked at the brown-haired elder and asked calmly:
"Can you determine the person's identity or their exact location?"
"No." The elder frowned and shook his head. "The weather in the ninja world is terrible. It's interfering with my observation."
After a pause, he closed his eyes again, his face gradually turning pale.
Moments later, he suddenly opened them.
"The Land of Fire! The approximate location is near the Land of Fire!"
"Those damned ninjas again!" Toneri's father snarled, veins bulging on his forehead. "Stealing the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path wasn't enough; now they dare covet the Tenseigan?! Unforgivable!"
This Giant Tenseigan had been prepared for Toneri.
It was created by sacrificing the lives of countless clan members and gathering the ocular power of countless Byakugan.
It was the clan's supreme sacred relic.
The demons of the ninja world must never be allowed to touch it.
If he found out who dared to do this, he would make sure that person died without a burial place.
"Quick!" Toneri's father shouted. "Set up a seal immediately and cut off the Tenseigan's connection with the outside world!"
The two elders exchanged glances and nodded as if making a firm decision.
They sat cross-legged and closed their eyes. Toneri's father did the same.
"Seal!"
The three shouted in unison.
Their chakra was instantly drained. Their faces turned pale and withered as their flesh and spirit were squeezed dry.
Only then did the violently trembling Tenseigan gradually calm down.
Click.
Toneri sat quietly in his room.
After an unknown amount of time, he heard the door gently open.
But something was different.
His father's breathing was hoarse and labored, like a broken bellows, carrying the scent of decay.
"Father…" Toneri called softly.
"Cough… cough…"
A rough, wrinkled hand rested on his head.
In a hoarse voice, his father said, "Toneri… you've always wanted to go to the ninja world and see it with your own eyes, haven't you?"
Toneri immediately forgot the doubts in his heart and blurted out excitedly:
"Can I, Father?"
His father fell silent for a moment.
He thought of the two clan members who had just died.
He thought of his own body slowly withering away.
He thought of Toneri's lonely future.
And he thought of the demons of the ninja world… Hatred flashed in his eyes.
Finally, he nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"Make preparations. In a few days, I'll take you to the ninja world."
"I'll let you see with your own eyes… the ugliness and sins of the ninjas."