Chapter 68: Forbidden Land

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Forbidden Land

Within the Land of Hot Water.

Inside a narrow cave, the unconscious Guy and Kakashi lay side by side on the ground. Hyuga Kagami sat alone, leaning against the wall off to one side, while Shisui was the only one busying himself beside the campfire.

Stirring the small pot over the flames, Shisui said softly, "Senpai, the soup will be ready soon."

Kagami nodded. He really was getting hungry.

He still had plenty of military ration pills left on him, but they tasted absolutely awful. Given the choice, he naturally preferred a bowl of delicious, freshly made fish soup.

Before long, Shisui brought over a steaming bowl of fish soup and handed it to Kagami.

Taking the bowl, Kagami drank the soup while glancing toward the unconscious Guy and Kakashi.

Thinking about it, the whole situation was rather amusing.

Kagami and Shisui had clearly been the ones responsible for covering the retreat, yet after Team 11 regrouped at the rendezvous point in the Land of Hot Water, the two who had suffered the worst injuries were actually Guy and Kakashi—the pair who had withdrawn ahead of them.

Guy, in particular, had been relentlessly pursued and intercepted by the Kumogakure shinobi. With no other choice, he had been forced to use the forbidden technique—

Eight Gates Released Formation!

Forbidden techniques like the Eight Gates were the kind that harmed the user almost as much as the enemy. So although Guy had successfully driven back his pursuers, the extreme strain he had placed on his body had left him unconscious.

Kakashi’s condition, on the other hand, was somewhat more complicated.

Aside from his injuries and excessive blood loss, there seemed to be another reason behind his unconsciousness. As for exactly what that reason was, Kagami couldn’t figure it out for the time being.

Of course, Kagami didn’t have much energy to spare investigating it right now. He still hadn’t even dealt with his own problems.

Crack...

Kagami’s brows suddenly furrowed, and the bowl in his hand slipped to the ground, shattering into two pieces.

Shisui hurriedly asked, "Senpai, what’s wrong?"

Kagami shook his head with a grim expression. "Nothing."

After brushing Shisui off with that answer, he turned his gaze toward the mouth of the cave.

The night sky outside was breathtaking.

Countless brilliant stars were scattered across the heavens like diamonds, while the moonlight was clear and gentle, painting a scene so beautiful that it seemed almost like a dream.

Gazing at the magnificent night sky, Kagami sighed inwardly.

"Sigh... In the end, I still alerted them."

Just moments ago, another concealed wave of Tenseigan chakra had swept past them.

If Kagami hadn’t already been intimately familiar with that particular Tenseigan chakra, even he might have failed to notice it.

Shisui, sitting right beside him, had shown no reaction whatsoever from beginning to end.

He hadn’t sensed a thing.

From this, it was clear just how sophisticated and discreet the giant Tenseigan’s chakra detection was. Unless someone was already familiar with Tenseigan chakra, even the visual prowess of the Mangekyo Sharingan wouldn’t be enough to detect it.

"Counting this one, that makes seven times over the past few days, doesn’t it? Why haven’t they given up yet? All I did was borrow a little chakra. Do they really have to be this relentless?"

Kagami was starting to get irritated as well, but he knew that the remaining descendants of the Otsutsuki Clan on the moon were all radicals from the branch family.

These Otsutsuki descendants had misunderstood Otsutsuki Hamura’s intentions. They believed that the shinobi world created by the Sage of Six Paths was a failure and were utterly determined to destroy it and remake the world from scratch.

So if these people ever learned of his existence, Kagami felt the consequences would be completely unpredictable.

Moreover, having personally borrowed chakra from the giant Tenseigan before, Kagami understood better than anyone just how powerful the giant Tenseigan on the moon truly was.

It could genuinely be called a divine artifact—the supreme treasure belonging to Otsutsuki Hamura’s bloodline!

The Otsutsuki descendants could freely control the giant Tenseigan, whereas Kagami could only barely trigger a resonance with it when his life was in mortal danger.

The difference was obvious.

When it came to authority over the giant Tenseigan, those Otsutsuki descendants on the moon possessed privileges far beyond Kagami’s own.

If the two sides ever came into conflict, Kagami would have to face a giant Tenseigan that surpassed his own in both quality and quantity.

The outcome went without saying.

At this moment, he even felt somewhat fortunate.

Thankfully, because he had completely exhausted his chakra, his Tenseigan had temporarily regressed into the Byakugan and entered a brief dormant state.

Otherwise, he truly wouldn’t have had any way to evade the giant Tenseigan on the moon as it swept the Earth again and again in search of him.

On the moon.

"Cough, cough..."

After a bout of violent coughing, the First Elder lowered his hands from the hand seal and slowly shook his head.

Seeing this, the Second Elder’s brows knitted tightly together. "Still nothing?"

The elderly First Elder took a moment to steady his breathing before slowly replying, "Mm. Aside from those nine Forbidden Lands, there haven’t been any other anomalies on the surface."

In truth, the Otsutsuki descendants on the moon had long since contemplated destroying the shinobi world.

However, through the giant Tenseigan’s probing, they had discovered that the shinobi world seemed to conceal numerous mysterious places that even they knew little about.

They collectively referred to these places as Forbidden Lands.

Some of these Forbidden Lands were protected by strange natural energy.

Others were concealed by bizarre powers from beyond this world.

Still others were tainted by sinister and mysterious forces.

It was precisely because of these places that the Otsutsuki descendants on the moon had refrained from making their move all this time.

By now, there were barely any Otsutsuki descendants left on the moon.

Aside from the three elders, all of whom were already nearing the ends of their lives, there was only a single three-year-old child named Toneri.

Such strength was clearly nowhere near enough to sweep across the entire shinobi world.

Thus, no matter how radical they were, they had no choice but to remain patient for the time being, waiting for the right opportunity...

Or waiting for Toneri to grow up.

At that moment, the Third Elder asked, "What about the Gedo Statue? Have you found any clues?"

The reason the Third Elder asked was because several years ago, they had briefly sensed the Gedo Statue.

However, that sensation had vanished almost immediately, preventing them from pinpointing its exact location.

The First Elder shook his head again.

The Second Elder, the most radical of the three, rose from his cushion. "Are we supposed to just sit here and watch without doing anything?"

The First Elder replied calmly, "We are already old and frail. We no longer possess enough strength to fulfill our ancestor’s dying wish. That responsibility should be left to Toneri. He is the most gifted child of our clan. If it is him, he will surely be able to fulfill our ancestor’s dying wish."

The Third Elder tentatively suggested, "Perhaps we could establish contact with the Hyuga Clan. After all, they share the same bloodline as us."

The First Elder snorted coldly.

"No. They are all degenerates. They are unworthy of possessing the Otsutsuki bloodline. They deserve nothing more than to be destroyed alongside the failed world created by the Sage of Six Paths!"

The Third Elder desperately wanted to point out that if everything were exterminated, then the Otsutsuki Clan on the moon—with only a handful of members remaining—would inevitably suffer the same fate of extinction.

But seeing the First Elder’s resolute expression, he opened his mouth several times, yet ultimately couldn’t bring himself to say it.

In truth, when all was said and done, even the Third Elder himself believed that the Hyuga Clan on Earth was unworthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the Otsutsuki Clan on the moon...