"So… Garuda, those children of yours…"
Although Isamu knew it might not be the most appropriate question, he still asked.
"They're your children. We had twins—a boy and a girl. The boy was named Ōtsutsuki Ganesha, and the girl was named Ōtsutsuki Aditi. My uncle chose both of their names…" Garuda replied, her cheeks tinged with embarrassment.
Hearing that they were his children, Isamu's eyes widened.
He and Garuda had only been together that one time.
He hadn't expected that a single encounter would result in twins. It was a surprise beyond anything he had imagined.
Thinking of someone on the moon, Isamu asked,
"What about your brother? Did Mandala ever have children?"
Garuda shook her head.
"My brother spent his entire life without marrying or having children because of me. He devoted everything he had to raising Ganesha and Aditi."
A trace of guilt appeared on her face.
Her brother had sacrificed so much for her that she could never truly repay him.
"I see…"
Isamu sighed softly.
"I never expected that someone as cold as Mandala would be willing to sacrifice everything for his younger sister."
Now he finally understood.
Since Mandala had left no descendants, every surviving member of the Moon Ōtsutsuki Clan came from him and Garuda.
That meant…
Ōtsutsuki Toneri was actually Isamu's own descendant.
No wonder Toneri had remained so powerful despite the countless generations that had passed.
As the descendant of two top-tier Six Paths experts, it wasn't strange that Toneri's bloodline could still reach the Six Paths level.
Seeing the faint smile on Isamu's face, Garuda tilted her head in confusion.
"Tian Qi… what are you smiling about? Did something funny happen?"
"Garuda, I don't think you know what became of our descendants."
"Did… something happen?"
"Heh…"
As time passed, the Moon Ōtsutsuki Clan gradually expanded.
Eventually, they split into two factions:
The Main Family and the Branch Family.
The Main Family held greater authority and possessed stronger bloodlines, while the Branch Family was tasked with guarding the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
"Wait…"
Garuda suddenly interrupted him.
"Isamu… how do you know about the Demonic Statue? That secret was passed down only within our clan. People on Earth shouldn't know anything about it."
She stared at him in disbelief.
The way Isamu casually mentioned the Demonic Statue made it sound as though he had known about it all along.
"How do I know?"
Isamu smiled.
"Because the Demonic Statue is no longer on the moon."
"It was brought down to Earth."
Garuda's expression changed instantly.
"How is that possible?!
How could the people on the moon fail in the duty Father entrusted to us?!
How could they let the Demonic Statue fall into someone else's hands?"
"Don't blame them."
Isamu shook his head.
"The one who summoned the Demonic Statue to Earth… was my father—
Uchiha Madara."
"My… my father?"
Garuda stared blankly at him.
"What exactly happened?"
"I'll explain."
"In his later years, my father gathered both the power of the Sage's Eyes and part of the Sage Body's chakra. By combining them, he awakened the Rinnegan."
"Using the Rinnegan—and with the help of a certain little black schemer—he established a connection with the Demonic Statue and simply summoned it from the moon."
"A summoning technique isn't something the people on the moon could stop."
Garuda fell silent.
She knew he was right.
If someone had established a summoning contract with the Demonic Statue, there was no way the moon's guardians could have prevented it.
Still…
She sensed there was much more behind the story.
"Tian Qi…"
She hesitated.
"Your father…"
"I know what you're trying to ask."
Isamu smiled.
"But that's a very long story."
"It involves many things that can't be explained all at once."
"We have plenty of time now."
"I'll tell you everything later."
"For now, let's continue talking about our descendants."
Garuda nodded.
"Alright."
"Go on."
"As the years passed, the Branch Family grew dissatisfied with the endless wars taking place on Earth."
"They believed that preserving the world created by the Sage of Six Paths was meaningless."
"They wanted to erase that failed world entirely."
"But the Main Family considered themselves the guardians of Hagoromo's will."
"They naturally refused."
"So…"
"A war between the Main Family and the Branch Family began."
"It lasted for centuries."
Garuda clenched her fists.
"Protecting Uncle Hagoromo's world was Father's dying wish!"
"How could they betray it?"
"It's unforgivable!"
Isamu sighed softly.
"Actually… it was inevitable."
"Wherever people exist, conflict follows."
"The split between the Main Family and the Branch Family only made that conflict worse."
"Everyone has their own beliefs."
"The same blood doesn't guarantee the same ideals."
"Even families cannot escape that truth."
"What ideals?"
Garuda's voice grew colder.
"No matter what their beliefs were, raising weapons against members of their own bloodline is unacceptable."
"When I return to the moon…"
"I'll make every one of them answer for this."
"You probably won't get the chance."
Garuda froze.
"…Why?"
"Did both sides destroy each other?"
Her heart tightened.
If all the descendants she and Isamu had left behind had vanished…
It would be too cruel.
"It wasn't total mutual destruction…"
"But it wasn't far from it."
"The Main Family was almost completely wiped out."
"Practically no one survived."
"The battle was unimaginably brutal."
Garuda's face turned pale.
"How… could that happen?"
"The Main Family was stronger."
"How could they possibly lose?"
"They were stronger."
"But the Branch Family possessed something even more dangerous."
"They created an ultimate weapon—
the Tenseigan."
"It was because of that weapon that the Branch Family defeated the Main Family."
"But…"
"They also doomed themselves."
"Tenseigan?"
Garuda frowned.
"What kind of weapon could destroy both sides?"
She already hated it.
If this weapon had destroyed the descendants she and Isamu had left behind, then it was nothing short of a cursed creation.
"It wasn't merely a weapon."
"It was created by gathering together the eyes of countless members of the Ōtsutsuki Clan."
"It possessed genuine Six Paths-level power."
"Its destructive force was overwhelming."
"It was even capable of altering the moon's orbit."
"But…"
"Such immense power required an equally immense source of energy."
"Although it allowed the Branch Family to annihilate the Main Family…"
"It also consumed the Branch Family itself."
"They won the war…"
"…only to slowly destroy themselves afterward."