At the moon, in the Hamura shrine.

Deep within the shrine, light and shadow flowed through the void, clearly projecting scene after scene of the brutal slaughter unfolding across the Shinobi World before the eyes of the two people in the hall.

Nobunaga Otsutsuki and Nobuhiro Otsutsuki stood side by side before the curtain of light while remaining silent.

"Hmph."

After a long time, Nobuhiro Otsutsuki coldly snorted and was the first to break the silence within the shrine.

"Nobunaga, do you see it? This is the world you place such hope in. Those so-called ninja villages, those so-called ninjas, day after day, year after year, what do they do besides slaughter one another and fight for power and profit? They're no different from beasts!"

"They're even worse than beasts. At least beasts know satisfaction after filling their stomachs, but the chain of hatred among these ninjas never ends, especially that of Shinichi Higashino!"

"Do you think this is the world ancestor Hamura wanted us to protect?"

Nobunaga Otsutsuki remained calm as he slowly replied, "Nobuhiro, war has never been the fault of only one side. You only see the slaughter, but fail to see that behind every person who picks up a weapon lies something they wish to protect. Shinichi Higashino is using his own way to protect his comrades and his village. That will be no different from our Otsutsuki Clan's mission to protect the Shinobi World across generations."

"Protect? Hahahahaha!"

Nobuhiro Otsutsuki threw back his head and laughed loudly, his laughter echoing harshly throughout the empty shrine.

"Using slaughter to protect, what a grand and righteous excuse! That kid called Shinichi Higashino probably has more blood on his hands than anyone else in this war! When he infiltrated the Land of Lightning a few months ago, how many people did he kill? Can you even count them? And you dare say a butcher whose hands are stained with blood shares the same mission as us, Otsutsuki?"

Nobunaga Otsutsuki remained silent for a moment before slowly speaking again: "To stop killing through killing is already difficult. To stop killing without killing is truly a great virtue. But how can the affairs of this world ever proceed exactly as one wishes?"

"He kills for the sake of protection, and after the killing, he is also truly thinking about how to bring peace to this world. Isn't that a path worth looking forward to?"

He paused, then raised a hand and waved it lightly.

The images in the void shifted once more, moving away from the bloody battlefield and freezing on a village somewhere in the Land of Fire, far removed from the flames of war.

In the image, brand-new houses were rising from the ground, roads were stretching forward through the villagers' combined efforts, rice stalks in the fields swayed gracefully in the breeze, and several children played in the stream, their laughter seeming capable of passing through the screen of light and reaching this place.

"Look, the people here are creating their lives with their own hands. They did not participate in the war, nor have they harmed anyone. Should they really be buried together with this world's mistakes?"

"If we follow your plan and purify this world, should these people, together with everything they worked so hard to create, together with the laughter of those children, all be reduced to nothingness?"

Nobuhiro Otsutsuki's gaze lingered on those images for a moment before he let out a cold laugh.

"Soft-hearted foolishness."

"This is not soft-hearted foolishness, Nobuhiro."

Nobunaga Otsutsuki straightened his back, his white eyes meeting his younger brother's without yielding in the slightest.

"This is the bottom line of a protector. Every time we interfere with this world, we must act with utmost caution, because we cannot bear the consequences of making mistakes. Shouldn't the lives of those innocent people also be protected?"

Nobuhiro Otsutsuki straightened up as well. The air between the two seemed distorted and torn apart by invisible forces.

After a moment, Nobunaga Otsutsuki let out a soft sigh, took the first step back, and relaxed his tone.

"Nobuhiro, I didn't call you here today to continue arguing with you. I have good news to tell you. Masako is pregnant."

Masako was his daughter-in-law. After learning the news, Nobunaga Otsutsuki had originally hoped to use this opportunity to ease the relationship with his younger brother.

Over the years, because of the differences in their beliefs, the two brothers had not truly spoken properly for a very long time.

He had thought that news of a new life might ease the ever-deepening crack between them.

Yet unexpectedly, the moment they met, it was just like every conversation they had in the past, and after only a few sentences, they had once again fallen into an argument.

It inevitably filled his heart with deep exhaustion.

Hearing this, Nobuhiro Otsutsuki fell silent for a while. After a moment, he spoke stiffly. "Then congratulations, elder brother. The main house now has another heir."

"Nobuhiro."

Nobunaga Otsutsuki sighed softly and shook his head.

"You know, our clan should never have had any distinction between main house and branch house to begin with."

Speaking of it, the entire matter itself was absurd.

The Otsutsuki Clan on the moon originally had no distinction between the main house and the branch house.

Everyone living on the moon belonged to the same clan, so naturally, there was no need to carve the Curse Mark: Caged Bird like their distant relatives, the Hyuga Clan of the Shinobi World, in order to prevent the Byakugan from leaking out.

After every clansman died, their Byakugan would be uniformly merged into the Tenseigan (Energy Vessel) deep within the Hamura shrine, becoming part of the Tenseigan's power.

It was only at some unknown point in history that irreconcilable differences emerged within the moon's Otsutsuki Clan regarding the state of the Shinobi World and the will left behind by ancestor Hamura.

Only then did the distinction between the main house and the branch house gradually appear.

And this division was not based on birth or Kekkei Genkai, but purely on ideological alignment.

Those who agreed to continue protecting and monitoring the Shinobi World became the main house.

Those who believed the Shinobi World was beyond salvation and should be purified became the branch house.

Nobuhiro Otsutsuki and Nobunaga Otsutsuki were twin brothers born from the same womb. By bloodline, they should naturally have belonged to the main house.

Yet in the end, Nobuhiro Otsutsuki walked toward the branch house's camp and even became the branch house's leader.

"Heh."

Nobuhiro Otsutsuki sneered mockingly.

"I just hope this child won't become as stubbornly old-fashioned as you people from the main house."

With that, he suddenly flung his sleeve, turned around, and strode toward the outside of the shrine, his footsteps gradually fading away through the empty corridor.

...

Nobuhiro Otsutsuki returned to his residence with a gloomy expression. He stood in the room for a moment before finally letting his gaze fall upon the portrait of ancestor Hamura hanging on the wall.

The figure in the painting had calm eyes, as though they had passed through thousands of years of time and were quietly watching this clan that had split apart over differences in belief.

Nobuhiro Otsutsuki remained silent for a long time.

"We can't wait any longer!"

"The main house! And Nobunaga as well, they are completely hopelessly stubborn! They have already strayed from ancestor Hamura's true will!

"The purification must be carried out by our branch house!"

If the people of the main house dare to stand in the way… then kill them all!

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