The evening at the Hyuga estate had been peaceful. Minato and Kushina spent nearly two hours chatting with Hiashi and Hanako in the pavilion. As the night deepened, Minato gathered his family and bid their hosts farewell.
At the front gates, Hiashi, Hanako, and Hinata watched as the Fourth Hokage's silhouette vanished into the night. Shinichi was absent from the farewell; he had left an hour earlier after introducing Naruto to Hinata in the dojo, giving the two friends space to catch up.
The two children had spent the time sparring. Naruto, despite his talent, found himself constantly on the defensive against Hinata's precise Gentle Fist and early-blooming physical strength. While he lost the bout, he left the Hyuga compound not with frustration, but with a wide grin, chattering to his parents about how he would train harder to one day surpass Hinata.
The Silent Intruder
As the lights in the Hyuga compound dimmed, a strict "curfew" settled over the estate—a tradition that had kept the clan secure for centuries. Hiashi and Hanako retired early with young Hanabi, leaving the sprawling complex in a heavy, ancient silence that contrasted sharply with the distant noise of Konoha's night market.
In a spacious guest room, Toneri slept soundly, his breathing rhythmic. Pale moonlight filtered through the paper windows, barely illuminating the room.
Suddenly, a black void opened soundlessly in the ceiling.
Yomotsu Hirasaka.
A fair-skinned man drifted out of the portal. He landed beside Toneri's pillow, his Byakugan fixed on the boy's bandaged left eye. He reached out a hand toward the gauze.
"The Tenseigan..." the man whispered, though no sound left his lips. His eyes burned with a feverish ambition. "If I can seize this power for myself... I won't have to wait any longer!"
Just as his fingers touched the bandages, the Tenseigan within Toneri's socket gave a violent "fetal throb." Toneri's eyes snapped open in his sleep, and his body acted on pure instinct. He threw a palm strike at the intruder's chest.
"Hm?" The man grunted in surprise, leaping backward to dodge the sudden surge of chakra. The shockwave of the strike sent cracks spider-webbing across the wooden walls.
Displeased, the intruder blurred back toward Toneri and drove a fist into the boy's abdomen. The sheer force knocked Toneri unconscious for a split second—long enough to see a handsome, white-haired face—before the pain sent him spiraling back into darkness.
The man grabbed the unconscious Toneri by the collar and reached again for his eye.
"Hey."
A cold, razor-sharp voice cut through the room. The bedroom door stood wide open, and the moonlight silhouetted a figure standing there.
"Who are you? And what do you think you're doing?"
Hyuga Shinichi stood in the doorway, his Tenseigan glowing with a murderous azure light.
Ancestor or Predator?
The intruder paused, his expression shifting to shock as he looked at Shinichi's eyes. But the shock quickly melted into a hungry, predatory grin.
"I didn't expect to find another one! You are far more valuable than this brat." He tossed Toneri aside like a rag doll and tilted his chin up arrogantly. "My name is Otsutsuki Ryushiki. You could call me your ancestor, little Hyuga. Now, offer up those eyes to your lord!"
Ryushiki's Byakugan suddenly transformed, shifting into a pair of rippling Rinnegan. In a flash, he disappeared, reappearing inches from Shinichi's face, his fingers clawing toward Shinichi's sockets.
Shinichi didn't flinch. He didn't know the name "Ryushiki" from any of his memories, but the man's arrogant aura and white skin confirmed his origin.
Do you talk to insects like they're equals? Shinichi thought. No. And neither will I.
As Ryushiki's hand lunged forward, Shinichi's hand moved faster. He caught Ryushiki's wrist mid-air, halting the "god's" momentum instantly. The resulting shockwave exploded out of the room and into the courtyard.
Before the sound could even register, the environment changed.
Flying Raijin: Dimensional Displacement.
Ryushiki didn't even feel the shift. One moment, he was in a bedroom; the next, he was standing in the middle of a primeval forest thousands of miles away from Konoha.
The Gap in Power
Ryushiki tried to pull his arm back, but Shinichi's grip was like a vice made of iron.
"Is this the 'Great Otsutsuki' power?" Shinichi asked, his voice dripping with boredom. He squeezed. The bones in Ryushiki's forearm shattered and deformed.
Ryushiki didn't scream. With a cold snort, he swung his right hand like a blade, severing his own left arm at the elbow. He kicked off, sliding back to create distance.
"Interesting," Ryushiki muttered. His severed arm, still held by Shinichi, suddenly began to glow. He had turned his own limb into a chakra bomb.
BOOM!
A massive explosion leveled the surrounding trees, sending a pillar of fire into the night sky. Ryushiki watched the flames with a smirk, his arm already regenerating at a visible rate.
The smirk lasted three seconds.
Out of the wall of fire, a figure emerged. Shinichi was now draped in a cloak of shimmering emerald energy. Nine Truth-Seeking Orbs hovered in a halo behind his back, and black markings adorned his chest.
Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
The aura was so oppressive that Ryushiki felt a cold shiver of death run down his spine. "You... what are you?!"
He slammed his hands onto the ground. "Earth Style: Piercing Spikes!" Thousands of stone spears erupted from the earth, racing toward Shinichi.
Shinichi watched the attack with disappointment. He had expected a "god," but this felt... mundane.
"That's it?" Shinichi muttered. One of his Truth-Seeking Orbs flattened into a shield, effortlessly disintegrating the stone spears upon contact. "You're an Otsutsuki, yet your power is so weak. Tell me, Ryushiki... are you just an 'energy pill' for someone more important?"
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