The night at the Valley of the End was consumed by the thunderous roar of rushing water.
The sound echoed between the towering stone statues of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, kicking up a mist of fine, biting spray that saturated the air.
"Uchiha, Kaguya, Uzumaki..." Hyuga Hizashi's gaze drifted slowly across the four figures standing behind Shura, finally coming to rest on the young Kimimaro.
"The Byakugan that Shura seized... has it been transplanted into a member of the Kaguya clan?" Those eyes were all too familiar; they were the very orbs Shura had gouged from the sockets of the Main House elders right before his eyes.
Hizashi's silhouette, looking like a lone bird soaked by the heavy mist, slid silently down from the shoulder of the Hashirama statue.
He landed firmly a few paces away from Shura. His dark, civilian clothes clung to his tense frame, and the ashen-grey "Caged Bird" seal on his forehead stood out against the moonlight—a mark of shame branded into his very soul.
He took a deep breath of the brackish air, dropped to one knee, and lowered his head in a deep bow. His posture was one of absolute reverence.
"Lord Shura."
Menma slightly tilted his white, three-eyed fox mask. Two dark points of light from his gaze fell upon the crown of Hizashi's bowed head.
"You have arrived."
Without further words, Menma gave a slight nod. The Kumen Shinbu (Nine Masked Beasts) pattern on his cloak fluttered in the damp wind.
He turned, his black robes cutting a sharp arc through the moist night air as he led the way toward the depths of the roaring waterfall—into the darkness swallowed by the ancient forest.
Uchiha Hikari, Shisui, Uzumaki Karin, and Kaguya Kimimaro followed like shadows, moving without a sound. They moved with lethal grace, leaping over slick rocks and gnarled roots as they traversed the woods.
As they ran, Uchiha Shisui could not stop his eyes from darting toward Hyuga Hizashi.
That back.
The head of the Branch House... the one man in Konoha least likely to defect.
Shisui tried to find a trace of coercion in Hizashi's movements, but he saw only a terrifying, resolute silence.
Hizashi seemed to feel the prickling gaze on his back; his pace faltered for a fraction of a second, and his spine stiffened, yet he never looked back. Between them lay the rushing river, the thundering falls, and an abyss deeper than any canyon: the divide known as "Allegiance."
Ultimately, all complex emotions were swallowed whole, buried beneath the weight of their rapid footsteps.
Deep within the forest bordering the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass, the roar of the waterfall was deafening.
Following Shura, the group pushed through a curtain of thick, slimy vines. A cold wind, smelling of moss and wet stone, whipped against their faces.
The entrance to the grotto looked like the maw of a great beast. Deep green spring water at the bottom emitted a mysterious, chilling glow, casting ghostly silhouettes against the jagged walls.
"Follow me," Shura's muffled voice came from behind the mask.
He was the first to plunge into the icy water. With barely a ripple, his silhouette sank rapidly.
Uzumaki Karin followed immediately, her red hair appearing like a flash of flame beneath the surface before vanishing. One by one, Hikari, Kimimaro, Shisui, and Hizashi submerged.
A piercing chill instantly encased their bodies.
After descending several meters, the light shifted abruptly. They broke the surface and emerged into a bizarre, cavernous passage.
A faint green luminescence permeated the space, soft yet carrying an unnatural, eerie quality. Gravity had vanished here. Countless floating bubbles, the size of fists and glowing with a pale yellow light, drifted like jellyfish in a dream.
Stone spheres of varying sizes floated weightlessly among the bubbles like frozen stars.
The group adjusted their stances, treading upon the floating stones. They felt the solid impact beneath their feet; with a light push, their bodies rose as light as feathers, drifting deeper into the tunnel.
Silence reigned, save for the amplified sound of their own heartbeats and the rush of blood in their ears.
"What is this place?" Karin whispered, watching a yellow bubble drift past her, emitting a faint, seductive mental ripple.
"Careful. These are genjutsu traps," Menma warned.
Hearing this, Shisui cautiously avoided them, his eyes sharp. However, as his gaze met one particular bubble, his eyes seemed to be ensnared by an invisible force.
Vroom!
Shisui's vision instantly blurred, losing focus. The fantastical tunnel twisted and faded, replaced by a blood-red sky and a clan compound in flames!
The piercing screams... the sound of cold blades tearing through flesh... the falling bodies of his kin... Sasuke's heart-wrenching cries...
Every detail of the Night of Extinction returned with a pain more visceral than reality, drowning him like a tidal wave. He was back there, gripped by that bone-deep helplessness and agonizing guilt. He couldn't breathe. His body trembled in the weightlessness like a drowning man.
Almost simultaneously, Hyuga Hizashi was captured by another yellow orb.
Hizashi's Byakugan instinctively sensed the abnormal fluctuation of spiritual energy, but the heavy shackles of the "Caged Bird" and his soul-deep worry for Neji's future proved to be the perfect breeding ground for the illusion.
The scene shifted. He opened his eyes to find himself in a downpour before the Konoha Memorial Stone.
He "saw" his own body being buried.
He saw young Neji, huddled in his mother's arms, weeping. Rain mixed with tears washed over a face that was young, yet twisted. In those eyes that should have been pure, there burned a hatred for the Main House, for fate, and for Konoha that cut to the bone.
That look was more terrifying to Hizashi than any torture. It was as if everything he had sacrificed to protect had only pushed his son into an abyss of malice.
The sheer agony left him paralyzed atop a stone sphere, his soul seemingly stripped away.
"Wake up!"
The low shout struck like a thunderclap through the fog, exploding in the depths of their souls.
Shura held a bamboo scroll that emitted a faint red glow. This light spread like ripples on water, forming a translucent crimson barrier that firmly enveloped the team.
The moment the barrier formed, Shisui and Hizashi felt as if they were being dragged from the depths of a dark ocean by an invisible force.
Their eyes cleared instantly. Their heavy gasps echoed sharply in the silent passage.
Cold sweat soaked their undergarments; the bone-deep despair they had just felt had been terrifyingly real. They looked toward the Book of the Vermilion Moon in Shura's hand, their eyes filled with lingering shock and gratitude.
Uchiha Hikari's cold gaze swept over their pale faces. "These genjutsu traps trigger based on the intruder's strongest emotions or weaknesses. The intensity isn't top-tier, but they excel in stealth and precision. Those with wavering wills or heavy burdens are easily ensnared."
Shisui and Hizashi felt a jolt in their hearts. They pressed their lips thin, forcibly burying their surging emotions. Their gazes became heavier and more focused than ever before.
Protected by the crimson barrier, the team continued leaping through the dreamlike, dangerous corridor.
In the zero-gravity environment, every jump required precise control. The tunnel seemed endless, populated only by drifting bubbles and silent stones.
After an unknown amount of time, a rich green glow appeared ahead—another pool of water with that same mysterious aura.
"The exit," Menma said laconically.
They dived into the green light without hesitation.
Splash! Splash!
The sound of breaking water echoed one after another.
The scenery changed violently. The sudden, intense light forced everyone to squint after the gloom of the tunnel. A space even more gargantuan and fantastical than the previous grotto lay before them.
The walls were no longer rough stone; they were embedded with countless massive, translucent cylindrical crystals. These crystals, varying in size, flowed with a silvery light like giant natural lamps, illuminating the entire cavern with a surreal, psychedelic glow.
The density of the pale yellow bubbles was even higher here, drifting like countless lazy, silent eyes.
As the team found their footing, alertly scanning the wonders—
BOOM!
A dense cluster of crystals on one side of the wall exploded without warning!
Shards of multicolored crystal sprayed out like a hailstorm. With the screech of grinding metal and the roar of shattering rock, a massive shadow burst through the wall, lunging toward Shura at the front of the pack.
It was a monstrous crab, its carapace shimmering with a multicolored metallic luster. Two house-sized claws were raised high, the joints emitting a bone-chilling creak as they swung down like two massive battering rams, whistling through the air.
The wind from the descent was so strong it made the team's cloaks whip violently.
"Watch out!" Karin reacted the fastest.
"Adamantine Attacking Chains!"
With a sharp cry, several chakra chains—as thick as a man's arm and glowing with golden runes—erupted into existence. As if possessed of their own life, the chains coiled precisely around the crab's descending claws.
The binding force was immense, halting the crushing weight in mid-air. No matter how the puppet roared or how its metallic joints groaned, it could not move an inch further.
The moment the claws were pinned, a cold silhouette shot out from the side like an arrow.
Kaguya Kimimaro's pale face remained expressionless. His Byakugan held only pure killing intent and battle focus.
"Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets!"
With a low hiss, the skin on his fingertips split. Ten sharp, white bone fragments—glinting with a metallic sheen—launched like cannonballs. They became ten white streaks of light, screaming through the air.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Precise. Lethal.
The ten bone shards hit the crab's shell without a single miss.
Crr-ack—
BOOM!
The sound of splintering metal was followed by a dull explosion. The massive frame of the crab puppet stiffened. The light in its eyes flickered out, and its struggles ceased instantly.
The multicolored shell was pierced through. Like a collapsing hill, the crab crashed into the ground with a final metallic groan, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"A puppet," Kimimaro said as he landed lightly. His voice was flat, as if he had simply stepped on a bug.
Menma stepped forward, his cold fox mask looking down at the heap of lifeless wreckage. If he recalled correctly, this puppet was a sentry responsible for producing the genjutsu bubbles—the final guardian of this path.
His gaze swept over the shattered structure. "It seems the Otsutsuki clan of the Moon is already aware of our arrival."
The moment those words left his lips, an invisible sense of crisis filled everyone's hearts.
They did not linger. Led by Menma, they moved with high alertness through the eerie cavern of glowing pillars. Finally, the crystal forest ended, and a massive opening appeared. Their spirits lifted, and they sprinted toward the mouth of the cave.
The moment they stepped out, the blinding light forced them to shield their eyes.
"This is..."
As their vision adjusted, a scene like a divine painting unfurled before them. It seized their souls, stealing the very air from their lungs.
Vast. Infinite.
A colossal, tranquil ocean occupied nearly their entire field of vision, stretching to the very edge of sight. Beyond the sea, a mountain range appeared, and behind that, another ocean—but it followed a logic-defying, massive upward curve.
The curvature was so pronounced that they could clearly see the turquoise sea acting like the inner wall of a giant bowl, extending and closing toward the zenith above.
Upon this curving sea, several islands covered in lush greenery "floated" steadily, as if held by the hand of a god.
"This... how is this possible?!" Karin gasped, her face written with shock. "Islands... floating in the sky?!"
Menma stood silently, his black robe fluttering in the breeze.
"They are not floating." He looked up at the very top of the vault, toward the "sun" that radiated a warm, gentle light.
"We have reached the interior of the Moon. The 'sea' curving upward is no illusion; it is the inner shell of this massive, enclosed space. Those 'islands' are landmasses attached to the inner wall. The 'sky' we see is merely the other side of the interior."
He raised a hand, pointing toward the center of the vault at the scorching sun.
"And that... is our objective."
The interior of the Moon?!
Those words exploded in their minds. Back in the Shinobi world, they had looked at the moon countless times, seeing only a barren, lifeless sphere. They had never heard that such a world existed inside it.
Was this the secret world guarded for a thousand years by the descendants of Otsutsuki Hamura, the brother of the Sage of the Six Paths?
Everyone looked up in unison, their gazes locking onto the warm "sun" in the center of the sky.
"Kumen Shinbu!"
Menma performed a hand seal, and two arrays appeared behind him. The masked forms of the Azure Dragon and the Vermilion Bird leaped forth from the seals.