Chapter 207 - Fetal Movement! The Era of Beautiful Eyes Never Ends, Activate the Tenseigan!
"Please, right this way."
Otsutsuki Uki gestured forward, inviting the three guests directly into the heart of the Main Family's domain.
A large crowd of clan members had already gathered along the stone courtyard, their curious eyes fixed on the outsiders. For the vast majority of these lunar inhabitants, they had never once laid eyes on humans from the earth below, relying entirely on sparse, secondhand accounts brought back by past scouts.
Yet, physically, the surface dwellers looked almost identical to them.
The brunt of their intense scrutiny naturally shifted toward Hyuga Hiashi, drawn by the striking, milky-white luminescence of his pure Byakugan.
Otsutsuki Uki quietly signaled a servant to pour fresh tea.
Once the trio took their seats, he refrained from immediately pressing Bai Ye and the others with questions. He patiently waited until all three had lowered their cups back onto the table before opening his mouth, though his eyes betrayed his desperate urge to unravel the mystery surrounding the missing Gedo Statue.
Setting all peripheral details aside, while the raw combat ceiling of the Byakugan couldn't match the explosive power of the Mangekyo Sharingan, its true terror lay in its passive, perpetual enhancements. Consequently, the restrictive Caged Bird Curse Mark actually operated as a protective shield for lower-tier Hyuga kin.
However, given that Hyuga Neji had somehow managed to completely unravel his own Caged Bird seal, it was obvious the Hyuga Clan possessed a strictly guarded, ancestral secret to break the lock.
Perhaps that was a subject worth raising with Hiashi once they returned to the lower world.
Looking at the current power dynamic, the Main Family still maintained complete dominance over the Branch Family. In the original timeline, the Branch Family had only managed to flip the table by making a monstrous sacrifice—plucking out every single pair of Byakugan within their ranks to forge a massive energy sphere that wiped the Main Family off the face of the moon.
Bai Ye never spelled this out directly, but Otsutsuki Uki easily deciphered the underlying warning in his words.
Was it still possible for them to descend to the surface and reclaim the gedu statue?
Judging by Bai Ye's indifferent tone, the shadowy entity who had stolen the Gedo Statue possessed utterly staggering power.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Hiashi was sitting nearby in absolute silence, violently reevaluating his entire reality.
He was particularly unnerved by Bai Ye, whose passive, crushing aura caused even a veteran elder like Otsutsuki Uki to feel utterly suffocated from several feet away.
What kind of monster was this?!
If Bai Ye's information held true, the moon Branch Family would never get another opportunity to annihilate the Main lineage.
In short, they had to prevent those fanatics from ever assembling that energy stone at all costs.
"Since we are all bound by common blood, why must we rely on the Caged Bird seal to enforce control?"
From this perspective, the strange statements coming out of the young man's mouth might not be a bluff after all.
Meeting Otsutsuki Uki's piercing gaze, Hyuga Hiashi found himself nodding in silent agreement, while the lingering dialogue between the two leaders sent a cold spike of sheer terror straight into the Branch Family Leader's heart.
Every clan member was human, and every life carried equal weight.
Even with the strict hierarchy separating the Main and Branch lineages, neither side was supposed to view the other as subhuman livestock.
"If we rally our forces and descend to the surface together, we can undoubtedly retrieve it!"
The Branch elders had gone completely mad—mad enough to gouge out every single eye in their bloodline just to construct a mass-destruction weapon meant to wipe their own kin from existence.
Now you can see the true value of the Caged Bird Curse Mark, can't you?
"Actually, his drastic change in demeanor is largely due to the Gedo Statue's influence, combined with the fact that the surface world has been locked in endless, brutal conflicts," Otsutsuki Uki said quietly.
When Otsutsuki Uki returned to his seat, he looked as though he had aged a decade in a single moment. He had once naively believed that the ideological split between the Main and Branch lineages was merely a philosophical dispute—one where both sides might clash fiercely, but ultimately maintain a baseline of familial restraint.
"I will personally question the Branch elders about this matter later," he added, his voice strained.
Furthermore, reading between the lines of Bai Ye's proposal, the young man clearly intended to strip away the absolute power over life and death inherent in the seal. If he actually pulled that off, it wouldn't just be a minor adjustment to the protocol; it would completely shatter the foundational hierarchy of the clan.
Without waiting for a reply, the elder turned on his heel and marched his personal guard directly toward the Branch Family's district.
Tsunade, meanwhile, maintained a rather peculiar expression as she watched him leave.
If they traced their bloodlines all the way back to the dawn of chakra, shouldn't all three major clans present share the exact same celestial ancestor?
"But this... this goes directly against the ancestral mandate..." the Branch Leader rasped, a shadow of despair flickering across his eyes.
A sharp glint of shock flashed through Otsutsuki Uki's gaze. He had been completely unaware of these hidden movements, having not crossed over to the earth side in recent years. The lunar forces simply didn't make frequent visits to the surface.
"No, we must mobilize immediately and cut them off!"
Wait, no?!
Did this young monster honestly expect them to rewrite a sacred seal on the fly just because he demanded an optimization?
"Patriarch Uki, I expect you to keep a tight leash on those lunatics," Bai Ye said, his eyes narrowing into a dangerous glint. "Make absolute sure they don't pull off anything that threatens the surface world. Otherwise, my next trip to the moon won't be a peaceful negotiation."
Hearing the heavy threat laced in Bai Ye's tone, Otsutsuki Uki instinctively straightened his spine, fixing his gaze on the youth with absolute gravity: "Please, speak your conditions clearly!"
Besides, if one dug deep enough into their ancestral origins, every single one of them was technically a descendant of extraterrestrial conquerors anyway. Why act so high and mighty about blood purity?
"Hey, wait a minute... isn't something completely off here?"
Bai Ye's casual exposure of the plot drove a wooden stake straight into Otsutsuki Uki's chest.
"If you're planning to discuss someone's secrets, at least have the decency to whisper behind their backs," the captive Branch operative sneered, blood trickling from his lip. "Besides, I'm nowhere near as fragile as you make me out to be!"
Ignoring the man's weak defiance entirely, Bai Ye looked past him and continued: "They are actively planning to gouge out their own Byakugan to fuel that giant weapon. Their goal is to erase your Main lineage from existence, and then use that secondary construct to rain total destruction down upon the earth. You know precisely which artifact I am referring to, don't you?"
Having failed to execute the surprise strike, the Branch operative was fully prepared to accept death.
Yet, if the surface world truly managed to achieve total, lasting peace, perhaps he might actually want to witness it with his own eyes before he died.
"Yes, exactly, you speak the truth."
Hyuga Hiashi stood frozen in place, a flicker of genuine shock crossing his face. Hadn't Bai Ye explicitly stated earlier that the seal would be completely abolished?
"Never forget that Ao of the Mist Village currently possesses a stolen Byakugan in his right socket," Bai Ye pointed out, turning his head slightly. "Your clan's ocular trait can be plugged into an outsider and used immediately without any of the violent neurological drawbacks that plague our Uchiha bloodline. Therefore, maintaining a modified defensive safeguard is simply practical long-term planning."
Something was horribly, horribly wrong!
Hyuga Hiashi whipped his head around to stare at Bai Ye and Tsunade in utter disbelief—he had caught every single word of that exchange!
When it came down to blunt honesty, these two truly held nothing back whatsoever.
The Gedo Statue was actually summoned by Uchiha Madara. At that time, to prolong his fading life, the old legend relied on that ancient shell to continuously pump vital life force into his body just to remain breathing.
Bai Ye stood there, rendered entirely speechless by the sheer absurdity of the situation.
In truth, many lower-tier Hyuga Clan members themselves were likely unwilling to abolish the Caged Bird Curse Mark. For those lacking raw combat strength or living as ordinary civilians, that restrictive seal actually functioned as a vital layer of personal protection.
"This guy..."
At the very least, during Otsutsuki Uki's tenure as leader, the Gedo Statue had vanished into thin air. To his mind, this was a shameful failure to uphold the sacred duty handed down by his ancestors!
"Hm?"
They were all human beings, all sharing the blood of the Hyuga Clan, so why were certain members forced to be branded with the Caged Bird Curse Mark from childhood?
Although the main line called it a form of protection, the majority of the branch members could never accept that logic. To them, it simply placed their very lives entirely in the palms of the Main Family.
It seemed that because of Bai Ye's intervention, Neji had successfully unraveled the mechanics of the mark, going so far as to formally propose its total abolition.
Hearing Bai Ye state these facts so casually, a look of profound shock flashed across Otsutsuki Uki's face. He truly hadn't expected this surface dweller to be privy to such deeply guarded secrets!
Hyuga Hiashi glanced at Otsutsuki Uki, his eyes widening in mild surprise.
He then shook his head in secret disappointment. The practical combat strength of this lunar branch of the Ōtsutsutsuki Clan couldn't even match the current military might of their own Hyuga Clan down below.
"You can't even suppress the internal rebellion of your own Branch Family, and you expect to handle the retrieval of the Gedo Statue?"
The Branch Family Leader surged to his feet in a sudden fit of rage, glaring directly at Bai Ye as he roared in anger.
He even went as far as accusing the Main line of being spineless cowards.
Bai Ye calmly outlined his previous strategic deductions to Hyuga Hiashi. As the detailed explanation unfolded, Hiashi's expression shifted rapidly, turning darker by the second.
"Look at yourself," Bai Ye said, turning his gaze toward the furious Branch Family Leader. The man maintained a posture of stiff defiance, yet he subconsciously shrank back, utterly lacking the courage to meet the young monster's eyes directly.
"I don't think that scenario is even remotely possible," Hiashi added coldly.
That giant husk had been transported to the moon by their ultimate ancestor at the personal request of the Sage of Six Paths. Their entire clan line, aside from guarding the primary seal, had been tasked with safeguarding the vessel itself.
"The surface world is completely unified under a single order now," Bai Ye remarked evenly. "If Patriarch Uki ever finds a free moment, he is welcome to descend and witness it with his own eyes."
"Your whole sacred belief is nothing more than a delusion," Bai Ye continued, cutting through the silence. "The words passed down from Hamura have been distorted across generations of word-of-mouth repetition. If I were Hamura right now, watching my own descendants plot to eradicate the very world my brother built, I'd kick my coffin lid wide open just to strangle you all!"
Once Hyuga Hiashi finished his stern rebuke, the Branch Family Leader offered no further rebuttals. He slumped back down, sitting quietly on the cold stone floor in utter defeat.
"We haven't located the exact coordinates of the shell yet," Bai Ye stated smoothly. "The Gedo Statue was forcefully summoned down by an outside actor, but we will hunt it down in due time. As for the conflicts of the surface, we earthlings will resolve them with our own hands!"
Unlike other bloodline traits, a stolen Sharingan could be plucked out and implanted directly into a new socket for immediate use. However, doing so imposed a constant, agonizing chakra drain on any non-Uchiha wielder, which was why most sensible shinobis were entirely unwilling to graft one into their own heads.
Since he already knew their exact plan, he would certainly take strict measures to guard against it. The lingering details of this arrangement could be thoroughly discussed and ironed out later.
Besides, since you reside all the way up on the Moon, why are you still poking your nose into the chaotic affairs of the Earth below?
Aren't you meddling just a bit too much?
"Alas, everything you said was entirely accurate," Otsutsuki Uki sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping.
"He claims that you were the one who revealed all of this to him?"
After Kakashi had the Sharingan implanted into his socket, his chakra reserves were under a constant, relentless drain. The baseline consumption was so severe that he could barely squeeze out one or two standard ninjutsu before collapsing from exhaustion. Most sensible shinobi wouldn't dare force a Sharingan into their own heads.
Tsunade stood quietly off to the side, maintaining a calm silence as she watched Bai Ye casually dominate the entire conversation.
"The Branch line has gone completely off the deep end," Bai Ye said, his gaze settling coolly on the Branch Family Leader.
The Branch Leader's eyes locked onto Bai Ye the moment he entered. He had demanded to be brought up specifically to face this youth, having heard from Otsutsuki Uki that Bai Ye was the ultimate source of these shocking revelations.
Originally, although their core philosophical ideals diverged from those of the Main Family, their feud had not yet escalated to the point of mutual total annihilation. However, the precise moment the Gedo Statue was forcefully summoned away from the lunar surface, their relationship rapidly fractured beyond repair.
The Unohana Goddess...
"Hiashi, you are a very sharp man!"
Why had a scheming shadow like Danzo never dared to conduct illegal human experimentation on the Hyuga Clan's bloodline over all these decades? Wasn't it explicitly due to the ironclad presence of this very seal?
Had the Caged Bird Curse Mark not existed to lock down their secrets, the entire Hyuga lineage might have been systematically slaughtered and harvested back during the bloody Sengoku era.
When the Branch Family Leader was dragged into the grand hall, the very first face that caught his attention was Hyuga Hiashi.
It was becoming increasingly obvious that reforming this ancient system would require careful, long-term strategic planning.
Since the Main line had not yet been wiped out by their rebellious kin, it was best to let them continue keeping a tight leash on the Branch faction for the time being.
However, Bai Ye also managed to glean several key details from Otsutsuki Uki's unscripted remarks. A sudden realization struck him: he might have completely misjudged the true underlying nature of the problem from the very start.
Bai Ye fixed a serious gaze on Hyuga Hiashi. If you truly possess the drive to enact structural change, then take the leap without fear of failure. If you lack even the basic courage to take that single initial step forward, how could you ever hope to achieve genuine success?
Although Otsutsuki Uki was far less radical than the Branch extremists, every breath he took was consumed by an overwhelming obsession to retrieve the stolen Gedo Statue.
"..."
Did this old man turn completely brain-dead from living on the Moon for too long?
"What on earth do you surface bugs actually know?!" the Branch Leader spat back, his voice trembling with manic fury. "That sacred artifact was stolen directly by you treacherous Earthlings!"
The Main Family would never sit idly by and allow the Branch faction to detonate the Moon into cosmic dust.
Naturally, the lower Hyuga Clan would still need to hand over the underlying blueprint of their Caged Bird Curse Mark later for inspection.
"Hiashi, certain truths are far better left buried in total obscurity!"
Listening to Bai Ye's sharp critique, Hyuga Hiashi nodded his head in silent agreement.
It appeared that Bai Ye had picked up on that exact point as well—the very same terrifying risk that the clan elders had endlessly fretted over in years past.
Hearing Bai Ye utter those specific words, a flicker of strange disbelief flashed across Hyuga Hiashi's face.
Didn't you vehemently oppose the existence of the seal just a moment ago?!
What on earth changed your mind so fast?
Ignoring the Branch Leader's futile glare, Bai Ye turned away and smoothly reiterated the strategic proposal he had previously mapped out with Hyuga Hiashi.
The sudden shift left the Branch Leader completely caught off guard.
Those who actively wished to strip away the Caged Bird seal could be granted total freedom to remove it. As for those who preferred to retain its protection, or perhaps modify its core mechanics—why not simply adjust the seal so that the Byakugan automatically seals itself and goes completely blind the moment the eye is extracted or the wielder passes away?
Forget it, trying to reason with these narrow-minded fanatics was a total waste of breath.
This was truly a massive pain. Suddenly, Bai Ye came to the stark realization that reforming an entire society's deep-rooted doctrine wasn't as simple as just moving his lips.
The moment those protective restrictions vanished, the entire Ninja World would go completely wild, scrambling like ravenous wolves to tear out and claim every last Byakugan in existence.
[Ding! Changed the fate of Ōtsutsuki Toneri, rewarded with one lottery chance!]
Indeed, the Branch Family's lingering grievances couldn't be cleanly resolved right now. Although the Main line had consistently suppressed them for generations, the core hatred festering beneath the surface had never truly been addressed.
Use system draw! Bai Ye commanded silently in his mind the second the reward was issued.
"Oh?!"
After carefully listening to his proposal, Otsutsuki Uki fell silent for a long moment. He shook his head slowly and admitted, "We don't possess a functional solution yet, but we can immediately deploy our researchers to test the theoretical mechanics!"
"Impossible?!"
Yet, the preliminary sweep of the Branch district yielded exceptionally pleasing results: the Main Family forces had successfully located and seized that dangerous magic stone before it could be fully charged.
That seizure proved Bai Ye's strategic deduction had been dead-on from the start. Once the Branch operatives were dragged into custody and confronted with Bai Ye's outline of the plot, the Branch Leader dropped all pretense and admitted without a shred of hesitation that he fully intended to execute the planetary strike.
Unlike the troublesome Sharingan, a Byakugan could be plucked out, shoved into an outsider's eye socket, and activated immediately without suffering from a constant, debilitating chakra consumption debuff. On top of that, possessing a clean Byakugan meant an outsider could potentially master the Hyuga Clan's most guarded secret techniques.
"I've seen your face before," the Branch Leader sneered, glaring toward the leaf ninja.
Who on earth claimed that the golden era of visual bloodlines had come to an end?
Forget that—now was the era of divine seal tattoos!!
He was personally going to make the glory of ocular bloodlines flourish higher than ever before!!
Even though he had already come to terms with the reality, Otsutsuki Uki couldn't help but feel a heavy surge of emotion washing over him as he listened to Bai Ye's casual breakdown of world events. Had the shinobi inhabiting the surface world truly grown to such terrifying heights of power?!
Yet, thinking through the cold logic, it made complete sense. The sole reason the lunar clan had managed to successfully guard the Gedo Statue for so many centuries was that surface ninjas lacked the spatial means to ascend to the moon, while lacking the requisite summon protocols to pull the shell down. But now that an actor on the surface had cracked the spatial linkage and summoned it down at will, it proved the lunar guardians were completely outmatched.
A sharp flash of sheer exasperation crossed Hyuga Hiashi's face. Was this young monster openly mocking him like an absolute idiot?
What did he mean by "you're very sharp"?!
Hadn't he literally just voiced the exact same stance a minute prior?
Otsutsuki Uki nodded his head in somber agreement. The fundamental driver behind the bitter war between their Main and Branch factions had always been this insurmountable rift in core ideology.
However, the moment the elder voiced his agreement out loud, the subtle expressions on Tsunade and Hyuga Hiashi's faces became extraordinarily intriguing.
The Branch Leader certainly recognized Hyuga Hiashi—he had personally spied on him and his young daughter Hinata when he previously escorted Ōtsutsuki Toneri on a secret scouting mission down to the surface.
Prior to the Branch faction refining that catastrophic magic stone, their raw martial power had never posed a genuine threat to the Main line's dominant standing.
"What the hell do you actually know about your ancestor's true will?"
Otsutsuki Uki looked at Hyuga Hiashi with a flicker of genuine surprise. As for the mechanics of the Caged Bird Curse Mark, the lunar clan was well aware of its existence.
It was just that from their perspective, every clan member shared the exact same noble lineage, so why would anyone brand their own bloodkin with such a humiliating, oppressive mark?
The single most critical vulnerability, however, was the absurd plug-and-play reality of the shinobi world.
Bai Ye's dark pupils unconsciously shifted, bleaching into a pair of immaculate, silver-white Byakugan. The very instant his ocular trait flared to life, every single person present in the hall gasped in absolute shock!
The trio continued chatting completely unbothered, as if no one else was standing in the room, while the guard operatives of the Ōtsutsuki Main Family stationed nearby wisely pretended to be stone deaf.
"Speaking of which, did Ancestor Hamura personally tell your delusional cult that he wanted to obliterate this supposedly failed world?"
[Ding! One lottery chance consumed.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained: Tenseigan.]
Why did the Hyuga Clan enforce the Caged Bird Curse Mark while the Uchiha Clan never adopted anything similar?
The Branch Family Leader naturally refused to swallow the truth; he had already driven himself to the absolute brink of insanity, fully prepared to sacrifice every single eye in his bloodline.
"Haha, I'm just messing with you. In any case, your Main Family should be more than capable of putting a lid on this internal rebellion," Bai Ye chuckled casually, rolling his shoulders. "However, there is one matter we definitely need to deliberate at length once we return to the surface: the structural mechanics of the Caged Bird Curse Mark require a complete overhaul."
Although the Branch operative was entirely unwilling to concede, a cold part of his mind recognized that the young monster's words carried terrifying weight.
Even so, there were still several glaring anomalies he failed to comprehend.
If Hiashi had known the full scope of this hidden threat beforehand, he likely wouldn't have slept a single wink for months.
"Are you fully aware that fusing hundreds of Byakugan eyes into a singular core yields a world-ending weapon?"
Otsutsuki Uki's solemn revelation provided Hiashi with an entirely new perspective on the grand game.
"I am well aware!"
"However..."
Unlike the volatile Sharingan, the Byakugan possessed none of the severe neurological feedback loops.
And wiping out an entire continent with that shortcut was genuinely possible!
The lunar Branch faction had relentlessly parroted their desire to purge the Earth, but how exactly did they intend to execute a planetary extinction event?
They could only achieve that level of raw devastation by utilizing the giant Tenseigan. With the ancestral vessel missing, their sole remaining path was to force that magical energy stone into existence by harvesting the ocular power of their entire population.
Now that the Gedo Statue had vanished under his watch, Otsutsuki Uki felt an overwhelming surge of guilt weighing on his soul.
First off, this highlighted the extreme emotional volatility of the Uchiha Clan; their psychological baseline was notoriously unstable. If someone attempted to brand an Uchiha with a restrictive slave seal, they would likely awaken a Three-Tomoe or even a Mangekyo Sharingan that very same afternoon out of sheer rage.
Bai Ye rubbed his temples, feeling a dull headache pulsing behind his eyes. His original, straightforward strategy was rapidly shifting under the weight of these unexpected variables.
The system lottery reward had been delivered directly into his body, signaling to Bai Ye's inner senses that this particular crisis was effectively neutralized.
Hiashi shook his head slowly, his eyes locked onto the floor. He understood Bai Ye's broader vision perfectly. Ever since his twin brother Hizashi sacrificed himself to protect the main line, Hiashi had harbored a deep, burning desire to dismantle the cruel inequality dividing the Main and Branch houses.
"Is there a viable way to optimize the seal's formula? For instance, configuring the Caged Bird mark to automatically dissolve the moment the wielder dies or has their eyes forcefully extracted?"
Could the shinobi world try acting just a little more civilized for once?
Was this brutal survival culture truly the ultimate peak the Hyuga Clan sought to achieve?!
Watching Bai Ye's passionate, unfiltered critique of their sacred history, Otsutsuki Uki opened his mouth, desperately wanting to interject and regain some semblance of dignity.
After all, this was the grand history of the Ōtsutsuki Clan being dissected in public, and letting an outsider trash their legacy so casually made them lose immense face.
The tense standoff dragged on until late into the night, when Otsutsuki Uki finally returned to the central hall, travel-worn, exhausted, and wearing bloodstained robes from a fresh, decisive battle.
The Branch Family Leader's voice lacked its earlier booming fury, dropping into a strained, hollow rasp.
Otsutsuki Uki sighed, his brow furrowed with deep trouble.
Was such an optimization even remotely possible?
If tweaking the seal's matrix were that simple, the clan scholars would have resolved the flaw centuries ago. Altering an ancient bloodline lock was never a trivial task.
The sheer scope of the Branch faction's madness was mind-boggling!
The rebellious operative didn't fear dying on the battlefield, but he harbored a mortal terror of the Caged Bird Curse Mark. The moment that mark was branded onto his flesh, his soul would be bound to the absolute whim of the Main Family forever, utterly destroying their sacred crusade. If that happened, how could the ultimate mandate of their ancestors ever be realized?!
"Look at the reality of your situation," Bai Ye said, his eyes cold as he addressed the captive operative. "With the Main Family's overwhelming military strength, they could have easily wiped out your Branch district or forcibly slapped the Caged Bird Curse Mark onto every single one of you decades ago. They held back because they still viewed you as kin—yet you lunatics went so far as to gouge out your own eyes just to execute a total mass suicide!"
"What on earth are you blabbering about?!" the Branch Leader hissed back through gritted teeth.
Bai Ye refused to buy the idea that the Branch extremists had unlocked these ancient secrets while the governing Main line remained entirely in the dark.
Alright then!
Looks like we've got a real stubborn fanatic on our hands!
"First of all, let's address your flawed cosmology," Bai Ye continued smoothly, pacing across the stone hall. "This planet was never created by the Sage of Six Paths—the terrestrial realm existed long before his birth. Furthermore, your ancestor Hamura never left a dying wish instructing his lineage to obliterate the world below."
Otsutsuki Uki had never even considered such a catastrophic scenario initially. He simply couldn't fathom that people could grow so utterly deranged—and even if a few extremists existed, surely it wouldn't contaminate the entire Branch population. But looking at the cold evidence before him, he realized the threat was terrifyingly real.
"If the surface is truly unified under a single banner, then it makes sense why you possess intimate knowledge of the Gedo Statue," Otsutsuki Uki noted, his voice heavy with tension. "Has your alliance already located its exact hiding spot?"
Next time, they'd march directly onto the moon.
Judging by the youth's terrifying presence, he possessed more than enough power to make good on that threat.
What on earth did the boy mean when he claimed "they all know"?
In reality, it was almost certainly just Bai Ye alone who held access to these grand secrets, wasn't it?!
Tsunade, standing nearby, stared at Bai Ye with a deeply suspicious glare. She was beginning to genuinely question whether this kid was a time-traveler who had returned from a distant future, considering how he spoke as if he had read the entire script of history.
"Do we actually know each other?" the Branch Leader rasped, staring at Bai Ye in total confusion.
"Your Branch faction has completely mangled the core intent of your founder's mandate," Bai Ye said, ignoring the question. "You honestly believe your mission is to purify the supposed 'failed world' created by the Six Paths Sage, don't you?"
Bai Ye had initially leaned toward completely abolishing the Caged Bird seal across the board. Yet, after carefully analyzing the brutal realities of the shinobi world, he recognized that a modified version genuinely served to safeguard the clan's bloodline from external predators.
As expected, these surface visitors hadn't climbed all the way up to the lunar realm on a simple diplomatic stroll—they came with a crystal-clear agenda.
"Why not just brand every last one of those rebels with the Caged Bird Curse Mark right now and be done with it?!" a Main Family guard blurted out from the side.
After all, within their own inner compound, quite a few high-ranking elders firmly believed that the Branch lineage existed solely to serve and sacrifice for the Main Family.
However, after listening to the full breakdown of the plot, Hiashi felt an immense surge of personal relief—and that lingering relief made him feel even worse about the state of his own clan.
Hiashi was clearly swayed by Bai Ye's logical arguments. Perhaps once they returned to the leaf compound, he could initiate a formal summit with the elders to address these structural flaws.
Otsutsuki Uki solemnly nodded, giving Bai Ye his firm word that the lunar clan would handle its internal security.
Furthermore, now that the Gedo Statue had been forcefully summoned away from its lunar altar, it could be used to resurrect the apocalyptic Ten-Tails. Once that ancient terror broke its seal, the surface world would face absolute annihilation.
Realizing the grand scale of the forces at play, Hiashi felt that his previous obsession with immediately lifting the Caged Bird Curse Mark had been somewhat naive and presumptuous.
He desperately wanted to voice a refutation, but the words caught in his throat. Among the three surface travelers standing before him, Hiashi appeared to be the weakest link—and even he admitted as much. The true depth of power possessed by the woman and this youth named Bai Ye was something his mind couldn't even begin to fathom.
"Bai Ye, I know you genuinely want to transform our Hyuga Clan, but a shift of this magnitude cannot happen overnight," Hiashi said, his voice heavy with the burden of leadership. "I recognize your good intentions, and I share your desire for reform, but the obstacles standing in our path are monumental."
Dismantling the systemic oppression facing the Branch Family required far more than mere rhetoric. If Hiashi truly wished to prevent future tragedies like those that befell his brother Hizashi and nephew Neji, he had to take concrete, decisive action. At the end of the day, the vast majority of Branch members within the clan operated entirely under the terrifying shadow of the Caged Bird Curse Mark.
Otsutsuki Uki wiped a bead of cold sweat from his forehead, momentarily paralyzed by hesitation.
How could he bring himself to fully trust the words of this terrifying youth from the surface?
"Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you, Chief Uki," Bai Ye said, turning his gaze toward the elder. "Tell me, does your lunar lineage possess a practical method to refine the structure of the Caged Bird Curse Mark?"
"Still spewing grand principles," the captive operative spat weakly.
Listening to Bai Ye's merciless dissection of their entire worldview, the Branch Leader's complexion shifted rapidly from an unhealthy green to a deep, suffocating purple.
Bai Ye simply shrugged his shoulders and continued speaking at a measured pace, though a part of him recognized that his own past actions had subtly contributed to this sudden wave of chaos.
"Of course something is wrong with him! Traumatic memories are slamming into his skull all at once!"
And yet, this outsider from the surface dared to deliver such arrogant, unyielding pronouncements in the heart of their sacred domain!
"So your logical response should be hunting down the thief who actually stole the Gedo Statue, shouldn't it?" Bai Ye demanded, his tone dropping into a icy register. "Why drag the entire planet into your total extinction plot? Have the millions of innocent civilians down below ever offended you? You endlessly claim to act in the name of your legendary founder, yet your ancestor stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his brother to seal his own mother away just to safeguard humanity. And what are you doing? You are actively spitting on his legacy! Didn't he lead your lineage to the lunar surface strictly to guard the sealing core and shield the celestial body?"
Otsutsuki Uki stared at Bai Ye in utter shock. He had never imagined that mortals on the surface could hold such intimate, precise knowledge regarding the ancient genesis of their bloodline.
The elder began to seriously ponder whether he should simply order his forces to surrender the remaining relics and let the surface dwellers return down below.
Taking that step might be the only way to permanently prevent the Branch faction from plunging into total annihilation.
Deep within his socket, Bai Ye felt a subtle, rhythmic pulsing sensation—almost like a faint fetal movement stirring within his ocular nerve.
If someone attempted to force a restrictive slave mark onto an Uchiha, they wouldn't bow their heads; they would march straight into your domain and slaughter you with their Mangekyo Sharingan. The Uchiha lineage placed an absolute, almost dangerous premium on raw emotional bonds.
What the old elder had never anticipated was that the internal rot within his Branch faction had already reached such a critical, point of no return.
"Why continue debating the Branch Family's rights?" a Main guard muttered coldly. "Why not just slap the Caged Bird Curse Mark directly onto every last one of those traitors?"
The most terrifying reality was that even infant children of the clan inherited the pure Byakugan from birth. If the protective locks of the Caged Bird Curse Mark were completely abolished without an immediate safeguard, the Hyuga Clan would face an unprecedented, endless wave of global abductions and targeted assassinations.
Their ocular bloodline was simply too convenient to harvest, offering immediate strategic power with zero neural side effects.
Looking back, the younger Bai Ye had been entirely fixated on chasing system rewards, acting with complete disregard for the broader fallout. Reflecting on it now, he recognized that even a ruthless cultivator needed to maintain a core anchor of basic humanity.
Bai Ye nodded in agreement with Hiashi's assessment. At the end of the day, the Branch Leader was simply a broken man consumed by an unbreakable obsession.
Am I actually hallucinating right now?! the captive operative thought, his sanity fracturing as he stared at the young monster standing before him.
He actually possessed the pure Byakugan?!
Tsunade leaned in, grabbing Bai Ye by the shoulder and whispering urgently into his ear. The current dynamic of the entire room had veered completely off course!
"Chief of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, I came here today to discuss mutual cooperation," Bai Ye said smoothly, stepping past her.
Although Hiashi now harbored a deep internal repulsion toward the oppressive mechanics of the Caged Bird Curse Mark, he recognized the undeniable truth: both the Hyuga and Ōtsutsuki lines shared a singular origin, which meant the lunar line possessed its own version of the restrictive seal.
"Even if you manage to pinpoint the exact location of the Gedo Statue, your forces lack the raw power to retrieve it," Bai Ye pointed out mercilessly. "Your overall combat capability is simply too weak. Only those specific legendary eyes possess the spatial authority to summon that vessel away."
From the perspective of the lunar Main Family, their sole duty was safeguarding the celestial body; anything occurring beyond that boundary was entirely outside their concern. Yet the Branch faction remained stubbornly convinced that fulfilling their founder's mandate required the total annihilation of the surface world.
If events had escalated down that dark path, the Main lineage would have been completely wiped out as well.
"Just how much hidden knowledge do you actually possess, you monster?!" Hiashi blurted out, his composure cracking. "And back during the divine era, when our respective founders ascended together... does that mean the ancestral blood of our Hyuga Clan truly originates from the Ōtsutsuki line?!"
Even with the Main Family taking control of the situation, numerous Branch operatives had already perished in the preliminary clashes.
For a faction bound to the moon, they were certainly meddling in terrestrial affairs far beyond their jurisdiction.
"You speak the truth," Otsutsuki Uki admitted with a heavy sigh. "Our own restrictive seals are not designed merely to enforce subjugation over our kin; their primary function is shielding the weak from external threats."
A sudden flash of genuine gratitude crossed Otsutsuki Uki's face as he bowed his head slightly: "My deepest apologies, guests from the surface, but I am unable to host you properly today."
In the original timeline, it was only after the aging Madara located Obito and secured a successor that he felt relieved enough to disconnect his life-support tubes from the demonic husk.
Bai Ye wasn't entirely confident in resolving every ancient feud, but he was certainly willing to test his hand.
"Young Master Bai Ye, the Gedo Statue is a sacred relic our bloodline has protected for generations," Otsutsuki Uki said, his gaze turning grave. "I humbly request that you reveal its current whereabouts to us!"
Seeing the young man fall silent, Hiashi felt a wave of mild displeasure, yet he hesitated to interject.
"The lunar Main Family will resolve our internal crisis thoroughly," Otsutsuki Uki promised firmly. "Please rest assured that a disaster of that magnitude will never spill over onto your world!"
First off, it was utterly laughable to think Obito would allow them to casually march up and haul the Gedo Statue away. Even if the entire lunar clan mobilized and descended to the surface together, they likely wouldn't survive a direct confrontation with Nagato's Rinnegan.
"Hey, I'm standing right here—I'm neither deaf nor a complete idiot!" the bound Branch Leader barked, gritting his teeth.
Just how formidable was the remaining military power of the lunar Ōtsutsuki Clan anyway?
judging by the historical record, aside from the exceptional talent of Ōtsutsuki Toneri, their overall combat efficiency was far from impressive. The surface shinobi, by contrast, had been refined through a brutal thousand-year crucible of endless warfare.
It was only when Nagato was pushed into absolute, blinding rage that the husk was forcefully summoned across spatial dimensions, but by that point, the vessel was already anchored firmly on Earth.
"That is utterly impossible!" the Branch Leader roared in denial.
Ah!
To think our grand lineage has degraded to such a pathetic state... Otsutsuki Uki quickly shook his head, forcibly clearing the bitter thought from his mind.
"His reaction is entirely predictable," Bai Ye remarked, eyeing the thrashing operative with cold indifference. "I already told you that he completely distorted his founder's original intent. The instant the Gedo Statue vanished, his mind tumbled straight into a permanent state of frantic delusion!"
Even so, encountering a remnant of this ancient bloodline in the flesh remained an unexpected turn of events.
Hiashi felt as though his entire understanding of history had been violently shattered. When it came to the deepest secrets of the Hyuga Clan's origin, this youth named Bai Ye seemed to possess a far clearer picture than the clan's own leadership.
Otsutsuki Uki stepped forward to offer a brief explanation on behalf of the Branch Leader's motives. In truth, looking down at the surface world over the centuries, even he had occasionally felt that the terrestrial realm was an irredeemable, chaotic warzone.
Even if they ignored the fate of Earth, they still had to fight for the survival of their own Main line.
Yet, even if the odds were hopelessly stacked against them, shouldn't they at least attempt to recover the vessel?
Simply because they were outmatched by the shadowy figure who summoned away the Gedo Statue, were they expected to just stand by and watch in complete, humiliating helplessness?!
To the elder, it felt like watching a cherished deity stolen right before his eyes while he stood paralyzed, entirely powerless to intervene.
Hiashi rubbed his eyes repeatedly, but the brilliant, silver-white luster of the Byakugan staring back at him from Bai Ye's sockets remained unchanged. He pinched his forearm hard, and the sharp, stinging pain instantly confirmed that this mind-bending reality was no illusion.
For a long moment, Hiashi was plunged into unprecedented, dizzying confusion.
So long as the Branch extremists didn't cross the ultimate line into suicidal madness, surely there remained a slim chance to reason with them over time, right?
After all, the lunar realm had remained secure for centuries. Even though the Branch and Main factions had locked horns over conflicting philosophies for a thousand years, their feud had never escalated to total extinction.
Bai Ye actually possessed the pure Byakugan!
What in the world was going on here?!
Bai Ye's gaze drifted toward a young man standing quietly behind Otsutsuki Uki—a youth burning with raw, unchecked vigor.
Suddenly, a strange thought crossed Bai Ye's mind: perhaps maintaining a modified version of the Caged Bird Curse Mark wasn't such a terrible outcome after all.
Maybe it was best to simply brand every last one of these unhinged fanatics and call it a day.
"I'd rather make a fatal mistake than sit back and accomplish nothing at all," the captive operative spat from the floor.
Wait—what?!
The Tenseigan!!?
He already held the Rinnegan within his arsenal, and now the divine Tenseigan had awakened within his sockets. At this rate, acquiring a Tomoe-Rinnegan or the legendary Jōgan felt like a matter of immediate time.
"You have the lunar Ōtsutsuki Clan right in front of you," Bai Ye noted casually, motioning toward the guards. "You can collaborate with their scholars later to test new seal matrices."
Hiashi silently watched the Main Family contingent depart. Aside from a small detachment left behind to secure the perimeter, the main force surged in a single direction.
Based on Bai Ye's earlier breakdown, Hiashi knew they were marching directly to neutralize the remaining Branch holdouts.
"Even an outsider like you knows about our sacred roots?!" the operative gasped.
How could he possibly wield the Byakugan?!!
Tsunade, standing beside Bai Ye, felt her upper lip twitch in pure exasperation. What was this brat's motivation for suddenly unveiling a divine ocular trait out of nowhere?!
Was he simply trying to flex that he could effortlessly master the ultimate technique of the Hyuga lineage on a whim?
Was he completely disregarding Hiashi's fragile mental state at this point?
She was utterly, speechlessly amazed by his audacity.
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