The old shrine maiden opened her eyes. Under the moonlight, they gleamed pure white with a cold, eerie light.
Shigeo flinched in surprise. Byakugan? But she had no chakra flow—she couldn't possibly use the Byakugan's power.
Yet he clearly remembered her eyes being black before. Was this caused by some forbidden spell?
"You… are you from the Hyūga clan?" Shigeo asked suspiciously.
She trembled but said nothing. Though she feared the monstrous power within him, she stubbornly refused to answer.
"No matter," Shigeo said flatly. "I'll find out myself."
His fingertip pressed harder against her forehead—Rinnegan: Shinso Senchi no Jutsu (Rinnegan: Mind Layer Probe).
He dove straight into her consciousness.
When the truth appeared, even Shigeo felt his scalp prickle.
The "old woman" wasn't an elder at all—she was less than two years old.
Once, the Orchid Sect had been a modest and righteous organization. Their doctrine was simple: uphold justice, save the weak, protect the innocent.
But during the Third Great Ninja War, everything changed.
Constant conflict, resource shortages, and the deaths of their members in endless skirmishes had twisted their beliefs. They learned that in this world, survival required power.
So they abandoned their old ideals and began pursuing strength by any means.
For the sake of survival, they turned to secrecy, expanding their underground base and seeking forbidden knowledge.
Five years ago, during one of their expansions, they discovered a mysterious cave. The walls were carved with instructions for obtaining the power of Tōten Nyūchi—"to reach heaven and descend into the earth." In the center was an ancient altar.
To unlock its secrets, they began human-blood rituals.
They spread rumors, abducted shinobi, and hypnotized civilians into believing the legend of the "Sea God's Bride"—that the Moon City would be cursed if it failed to offer maidens in sacrifice.
They enhanced selected subjects with drugs, creating pseudo-jōnin to serve as enforcers. These "Sea God servants" then attacked Moon City twice with Suiton (Water Release) to make the myth appear real.
Before that, they had used Doton (Earth Release) to cause earthquakes, then followed up with tsunamis, devastating the coastal towns.
Fear spread. The people of Moon City came to believe the legend completely—
and they began offering living sacrifices.
Everything went smoothly. The Orchid Sect grew bolder, even as the Land of Water's daimyo hired ninja to investigate—no one found their trace.
Their goal was to master Tōten Nyūchi—not a ninjutsu of flight or earth-burrowing, but a spiritual force: "Tōten" meant summoning gods from the heavens; "Nyūchi," commanding the dead from the underworld.
In the first ritual, they used the blood of ninety-nine women to fill the carved runes with yin energy and resentment.
That year, they succeeded—partially.
They gained only Nyūchi, the "descent into the earth" power: the Inkonrei (Soul-Summoning Bell), the very one now held in Shigeo's hand.
When the full moon of the third month rose, their ritualists filled the grooves of the altar with blood and chakra. After the chants ended, the cavern collapsed—and from its ruins, the cursed bell emerged.
The bell could summon the spirits of the underworld and bind them to its wielder.
But after years of study, they realized this "Soul-Summoning Bell" had nothing to do with "Tōten" itself. Summoning ghosts wasn't enough—they still lacked the heavenly connection.
Why they had failed remained a mystery.
The following year, a group of Orchid Sect members encountered shinobi from the Hyūga clan during a mission. Seeing the Byakugan triggered a revelation: the stone carvings had spoken of eyes that could "see the path to heaven."
They kidnapped a Hyūga ninja and began genetic experiments.
The "old woman" before Shigeo was one such result—an artificial creation grown from Hyūga genes. Her life force was abnormally strong, and she was the only surviving specimen among many failed ones.
Due to hormone acceleration and genetic mutation, her body aged rapidly—though only two years old, she appeared like an elderly crone.
The sect trained her as a shrine maiden, teaching her to wield the Inkonrei and command the dead, spreading the myth of the Sea God to keep Moon City under fear and control.
The Hyūga experiments continued elsewhere—they wanted the Byakugan's power itself.
The experiment site, however, wasn't on this island. From her memories, Shigeo now knew the approximate location of their main facility.
As for the "brides" and "maids," they had been transferred there. Their purpose wasn't sacrifice—
they were test subjects.
For the blood rituals, ninja with chakra-rich bodies worked best. Ordinary women were useless for that—but perfect for biological trials.
According to the memories he read, the old maiden's recollections began two years ago, when her predecessor—the previous priestess—passed her knowledge on. After that, her own life had accelerated unnaturally fast.
After only three months of forced growth, she matured into an adult body and presided over the next ritual.
To ensure the second year's success, the Orchid Sect had prepared far more elaborate measures. They raided every region of the shinobi world, capturing female ninja to use as blood donors.
But the second ritual failed.
So this year, they increased the number of participants again—unintentionally drawing the attention of the Blue Gate, the Hidden Mist, and other ninja villages to Moon City.
Shigeo's gaze deepened as the final images flickered through her memories.
The "power to reach heaven" that the sect sought—was no divine gift. It was a summoning ritual meant to call the Ōtsutsuki Clan.
Fortunately, they had failed.
If they had succeeded, the consequences would have been catastrophic.
The carvings on the altar's wall described the ultimate form of the Byakugan, exactly matching what Shigeo already knew:
Only when the Byakugan evolves to its final stage can it resonate with the Ōtsutsuki—and that evolution, even for geniuses, may take a lifetime.
(End of Chapter)
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