The night at the Valley of the End was filled with the vast sound of water.
The roar echoed between the towering stone statues of Hashirama and Madara, churning up a sky full of fine, icy mist.
"Uchiha, Kaguya, Uzumaki-" Hizashi's gaze slowly swept over the four figures behind Shura, finally settling on the young Kimimaro.
'The Byakugan Shura took… were they transplanted into a member of the Kaguya Clan?' He was all too familiar with those eyes. They were the very ones Shura had plucked from the sockets of the main family's elders right before his eyes.
Hizashi's figure, like a lone goose soaked by the heavy moisture, slipped quietly down from the shoulder of Hashirama's statue.
He landed steadily a few steps before Shura. His dark casual clothes clung to his tense body. The bluish-gray [Caged Bird]'s mark on his forehead, accentuated by the moonlight and mist, looked like a brand of shame seared into his soul.
He took a deep breath of the damp, fishy air, touched one knee to the ground, and bowed his head deeply in a respectful posture: "Shura-sama."
Menma slightly raised his white three-eyed fox mask, two points of deep gaze falling on Hizashi's lowered head.
"You're here." Without further words, Menma gave a slight nod, the Nine-Masked Beast's pattern on his cloak fluttering in the wind.
Then, he turned. His black robe cut a sharp arc in the damp night wind as he led the way towards the deeper darkness, where the waterfall's roar was swallowed by the ancient forest.
Hikari, Shisui, Kanon, and Kimimaro followed like shadows, soundlessly keeping pace.
Their movements were swift and light, skimming over wet rocks and coiled tree roots, moving through the forest.
As he sped along, Shisui's gaze uncontrollably swept over Hizashi not far ahead.
'That back.'
'The branch family's head least likely to betray Konoha...' Shisui tried to find some trace of coercion on Hizashi, but saw only a kind of resolute, almost desperate silence.
Hizashi seemed to feel this prickling gaze on his back. His steps imperceptibly hesitated for a fraction of a second, his spine stiffening straighter.
But he never looked back.
Between them lay the rushing river, the thundering waterfall, and, even more, the bottomless chasm named 'allegiance'.
In the end, all complex emotions turned into silent heaviness, swallowed down by each of them, buried deep beneath their hurrying footsteps.
Deep within the forest on the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass, the roar of a waterfall was deafening.
Following Shura, the group pushed aside heavy, curtain-like, slippery vines. A cold wind carrying the scent of moss and rock hit their faces.
The entrance to the cavern was like a slightly open beast's maw. Eerie green spring water at the bottom emitted a mysterious, cold glow, illuminating the uneven contours of the cave walls like ghosts.
"Follow me." Shura's low voice came through the mask.
He was the first to jump into the cold spring water. The surface rippled only slightly before his figure quickly sank.
Kanon followed closely, her red hair like a burning flame in the water, gone in an instant.
Hikari, Kimimaro, Shisui, and Hizashi submerged one after another.
A piercing cold instantly enveloped their entire bodies.
After descending several meters, the light changed abruptly, and everyone surfaced.
Before them was a suddenly opened, bizarre passage.
A pale green glow, emanating from an unknown source, filled the entire space, soft yet carrying an unnatural, eerie feeling.
Normal gravity was lost within the passage. Countless bubbles the size of fists, emitting a soft, pale yellow light, floated and drifted silently like jellyfish in a dream.
Grayish-white spherical stones of varying sizes, also weightless, floated scattered among the glowing bubbles like frozen stars.
Everyone adjusted their posture, stepping onto the floating stone spheres.
A hard sensation transmitted from their feet. With a slight exertion of force, their bodies leaped up as lightly as feathers, drifting deeper into the passage.
An absolute silence surrounded them, amplifying the sound of their own heartbeats and blood flow in their ears.
"Where is this?" Kanon watched as pale yellow light bubbles drifted silently past her, emitting faint yet mesmerizing mental fluctuations.
"Be careful. These are all Genjutsu Traps." Menma warned everyone.
Hearing this, Shisui cautiously avoided them, his gaze sharply scanning ahead.
However, when his eyes met one of the bubbles, they seemed to be pulled by some force.
Hum!
Shisui's eyes instantly glazed over, losing focus.
The scene of the fantastical passage distorted and faded, replaced by a blood-red sky and a burning clan's compound!
Piercing screams, the sound of cold blades cutting flesh, the figures of clansmen falling, Sasuke's heart-wrenching cries… every detail of the night of the massacre, carrying a pain and despair more intense than reality, overwhelmed him like a raging tide!
It was as if he was back there again, gripped by that bone-deep sense of powerlessness and heart-rending guilt, unable to breathe. His body trembled slightly in the weightlessness, like a drowning man on the verge of death.
Almost at the same moment, Hizashi was also captured by another pale yellow light sphere.
Hizashi's Byakugan instinctively detected the abnormal fluctuations of mental energy, but the heavy shackles of the [Caged Bird] and the deep, endless worry for Neji's future became the perfect breeding ground for this Genjutsu.
The scene before his eyes suddenly changed. Opening his eyes again, he was in the rain in front of the Konoha's Memorial Stone.
He 'saw' his own body being buried.
And the young Neji, clinging to his mother and crying, rain mixing with tears washing over his young yet twisted face.
Those eyes, which should have been pure, were burning with deep hatred for the main family, for fate, for Konoha!
That look was more suffocating and terrifying to Hizashi than any torture!
It was as if the son he wanted to protect with everything he had was ultimately pushed into the abyss of hatred by the fate he couldn't escape.
The immense pain froze him on the stone sphere, his soul seemingly ripped away.
"Wake up!"
A low shout, like thunder piercing through fog, exploded deep within their souls!
Shura held a bamboo scroll in his hand, emitting a faint red light.
This light spread rapidly like ripples, forming a semi-transparent pale red light shield that steadily enveloped the entire team.
The moment the light shield formed, Shisui and Hizashi were as if dragged out of the deep sea by an invisible giant force!
Their eyes instantly cleared. The sound of their violent panting was clearly audible in the silent passage.
Cold sweat soaked their inner clothes. The pain and despair from moments ago, so deep into their bones, felt utterly real.
Subconsciously, they looked at the Red Moon Scroll in Shura's hand, their eyes filled with shock and gratitude.
Hikari's cold gaze swept over their pale faces. "This type of Genjutsu Trap activates based on the intruder's strongest emotions or weaknesses, constructing a corresponding illusion. Its intensity isn't top-tier, but it excels in stealth and precision. Those with insufficient willpower or heavy burdens on their hearts are extremely easy to be captured and sink into it."
Shisui and Hizashi trembled inwardly upon hearing this. Both pressed their lips tightly together, forcibly suppressing their surging emotions. Their eyes became unprecedentedly solemn and focused, not daring to be distracted in the slightest.
Protected by the pale red shield, the team continued leaping forward along this dreamlike yet dangerous passage.
In the weightless state, every jump off a stone sphere required precise control. The passage seemed endless, with only drifting light bubbles and silent stone spheres.
After an unknown length of time, a dense green glow finally appeared ahead… another spring emitting the same aura.
"The exit." Shura stated succinctly.
Without hesitation, the group leaped into the green light one after another.
Splash! Splash!
The sound of breaking water surfaced one after another.
The scene before them changed drastically. The intense light made everyone, just out of the dark passage, instinctively squint their eyes.
A space even larger and more fantastical than the previous cavern passage unfolded before them!
The cave walls were no longer rough rock but were densely inlaid with countless huge, semi-transparent cylindrical crystals!
These crystals varied in length and thickness, silvery light flowing within them like natural giant light tubes, illuminating the entire cave brightly, filled with a surreal, psychedelic sense.
In the air, the number of those pale yellow light bubbles was greater, their density higher, like countless lazy eyes drifting silently through this space.
The team had just steadied themselves, warily surveying this wondrous sight.
Suddenly!
Boom!
A dense cluster of crystals on one side of the cave wall exploded without warning!
Countless colorful crystal fragments shot out like a storm!
Accompanied by the screech of metal grinding and the sound of shattering rock, an enormous shadow burst through the wall, carrying rubble and a violent air current, ferociously pouncing towards Shura at the front of the group!
It was a giant crab with a ferocious and terrifying appearance. Its carapace displayed a colorful metallic luster.
Two giant pincers the size of houses rose high, joints emitting a grating 'creak', tearing through the air with a sharp whistle like two massive battering rams, smashing down hard!
Before the pincers even arrived, the gust of wind they raised already made everyone's clothes flap wildly!
"Be careful!" Kanon reacted the fastest.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!" With a sharp cry, several chakra chains, as thick as an adult's arm and covered in flowing golden seals, materialized out of thin air!
The chains, as if alive, wrapped with precise accuracy around the two giant pincers swinging down from the crab puppet!
A powerful binding force erupted, forcefully holding the immensely heavy pincers dead in mid-air. No matter how the puppet struggled and roared, its metal joints emitting piercing shrieks, it couldn't lower them an inch!
The moment the pincers were locked, a cold figure had already shot out from the side like an arrow from a bow!
Kaguya Kimimaro's pale face showed no expression, his white eyes held only pure killing intent and combat focus.
"Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets!" With a low shout, the skin on his ten fingertips instantly split. Ten white and sharp finger bones, gleaming with a metallic cold light, shot out like cannonballs, tearing through the air with a sharp whistle, transforming into ten white streaks of light barely visible to the naked eye!
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Precise! Ruthless!
The ten bone spikes hit the crab's outer shell without a single deviation!
Crack… Boom!
A teeth-grating shattering sound accompanied a dull explosion.
The giant crab puppet's massive body stiffened abruptly. The light flowing in its eyes instantly extinguished. All struggling movements ceased abruptly.
The colorful shell was pierced. The giant crab, like a collapsing mountain, crashed to the ground with a shattered groan, stirring up a cloud of dust.
"A puppet." Kimimaro landed lightly, his voice flat and unemotional, as if he had just crushed a bug.
Menma stepped forward slowly, his cold fox mask looking down at the pile of lifeless puppet wreckage at his feet.
'If I remembered correctly, this puppet was the guard responsible for producing the Genjutsu Bubbles, also the final guardian of this passage.'
His gaze swept over the crab's shattered structure. His low voice came through the mask: "It seems the Otsutsuki Clan on the moon already knows of our arrival."
As Menma's words fell, an intangible sense of crisis instantly permeated everyone's hearts.
The team did not linger here.
Led by Menma, they maintained high alert, cautiously navigating through this eerie cavern filled with glowing crystal pillars and drifting light bubbles.
Finally, the endless crystal jungle ended. A huge cave opening appeared ahead, lifting everyone's spirits. They quickened their pace, rushing towards the opening.
The moment they stepped out of the cave, the intense light made everyone instinctively raise their hands to shield their eyes.
"This is..." Once their vision adjusted, the scene before them unfolded like a divine miracle, instantly seizing everyone's minds, even stopping their breath!
Vast! Boundless!
An expansive, calm, waveless ocean occupied almost the entire field of vision, stretching to the limits of sight!
Across the sea, a mountain range appeared. Behind the mountains was another sea, but it displayed a huge, upward-curving arc that is completely defying common sense!
This arc was so pronounced that one could clearly see the blue sea surface extending and curving upwards towards the dome above like the inner wall of a giant bowl!
On this curved sea, several islands covered in lush green vegetation, each with different shapes, seemed held by an invisible god's hand, quietly, steadily 'floating' on the curved 'sea surface'!
"This... this is impossible?!" Kanon was the first to exclaim in shock, her face filled with awe.
"Islands... floating in the sky?!!"
Menma stood quietly, his black robe slightly fluttering in the wind.
"Not floating." He said, looking up towards the extremely high dome, at the 'sun' emitting warm and gentle light.
"We have now arrived inside the moon. The 'sea surface' you see curving upward is not an illusion but the inner shell dome of this massive enclosed space. Those 'islands' are landmasses attached to the moon's inner wall. The 'sky' we see is merely the other side's inner wall."
"And this-" He raised his hand, pointing towards the 'sun' emitting scorching heat at the center of the dome. "-This is the target of our journey."
'Inside the moon?!'
Those words exploded in everyone's minds!
They had looked up at the sky from the Ninja World countless times, even observed the moon with telescopes, but only knew it was a giant, lifeless sphere.
They had never heard the moon's interior contained such a world.
'Was this the secret world guarded for a millennium by the descendants of the Sage of Six Paths' brother, Otsutsuki Hamura?!'
Everyone looked up in unison, their gazes focusing on the 'sun' emitting warm light at the center of the dome.
"Nine Mask Svaha!" Menma formed hand seals, and two arrays appeared behind him.
The masked Seiryu and Suzaku leaped out from the arrays.