"The Moon…?"
For a moment, the conference room didn't just fall silent—it froze.
Tsunade's brows shot up. Hiashi Hyūga looked like the floor had vanished beneath him. Fugaku and Shikaku both went rigid, as if the words had physically struck them.
"The Moon has people on it?" someone blurted, almost choking on the sentence. "How could Hinata even—"
"This can't be right," another voice snapped. "Fifth Hokage, are you sure you're not—"
"It's the Moon."
Ren's tone didn't rise. It didn't waver. He spoke like he was confirming a map location.
Then he added, calmly—almost bluntly:
"I'm going to tell you something you won't like hearing. The Hyūga Clan are descendants of Ōtsutsuki Hamura. And the Ōtsutsuki on the Moon have made their move."
The air shifted.
Hiashi's pupils shrank. For a heartbeat he couldn't breathe.
"The Ōtsutsuki…?" he whispered.
He'd read fragments. Old records. Half-burned genealogies and forbidden notes that older heads dismissed as mythology. He'd never believed he'd be forced to say that name inside the Hokage Tower.
Tsunade's jaw tightened, her eyes narrowing hard.
"Hamura… Moon Ōtsutsuki…" Shikaku muttered, the strategist in him already trying to turn madness into a pattern. "So this wasn't a normal abduction. It was… extraction."
Fugaku leaned forward sharply, voice low but urgent.
"Hiashi. Why take Hinata specifically?"
Hiashi opened his mouth—then stopped.
His hands clenched under the table.
Because the answer was obvious, and it made his blood run cold.
The Byakugan.
Hinata was the main family's eldest daughter. Her bloodline was pure. Her dōjutsu… was exactly the kind of "material" a monster would want.
Fugaku saw the change in Hiashi's face and slammed his palm on the table.
"Her eyes."
His voice cracked on the last word.
"If they took her… it's for the Byakugan. If we don't bring her back—"
Ren nodded once, expression unreadable.
"You're right."
His voice stayed even, but the pressure behind it turned heavy.
"They took Hinata for her Byakugan. Her bloodline is pure enough to be used as a trigger—because they're trying to awaken the Tenseigan."
"Tenseigan…?" Tsunade repeated, half disbelief and half disgust.
Around the table, Konoha's upper ranks exchanged tense glances. They were used to secrets. Used to ugly truths.
But this felt like stepping into a world that had been hidden above the clouds the entire time.
Hiashi sagged back into his chair.
The word pure echoed in his head like a sentence.
Ren stood.
The chair legs scraped softly against the floor—one clean sound that snapped everyone's attention back to him.
"I'll go to the Moon," he said.
His gaze swept across them, steady and final.
"Hinata is a shinobi of Konoha. No one takes her and gets away with it."
Then his tone sharpened by a hair—just enough to make the room feel smaller.
"Even if Hamura himself is still alive… I won't show him any courtesy."
Hiashi jolted upright, the desperation in him breaking through.
"Fifth Hokage-sama… please—save her."
Tsunade hesitated, then spoke with rare caution.
"I'll come with you."
"No."
Ren waved it away like it wasn't worth debating.
"The Moon won't stop me."
Tsunade's lips pressed into a thin line. She didn't like it—but she understood the meaning behind that confidence. Ren wasn't bluffing. He was stating physics.
Ren turned back to the table.
"Meeting's over."
He didn't let the relief settle. He pushed them forward.
"You prepare Konoha. When I return, we begin collecting the remaining tailed beasts."
A pause—just long enough for everyone to feel the weight of the next words.
"And then we unify the shinobi world."
"Yes, Fifth Hokage-sama."
One by one, they stood, bowed, and filed out—Hiashi last, moving like a man walking away from a cliff edge, clinging to the only rope left.
When the doors shut, the room quieted.
Ren's gaze drifted to the window, to the village below—peaceful on the surface, unaware of how close the sky itself had come to stealing a child.
"The Ōtsutsuki…"
His Sharingan glinted faintly.
"I didn't plan to move against you," he murmured. "But you struck first."
He lifted his tea and took a slow sip, as if sealing the decision.
At that moment, a familiar mechanical voice rang through his mind.
Ding… Congratulations, Host. The sign-in location has refreshed. Please check.
Ren's brows rose slightly.
"So it refreshed already?"
He opened the panel.
And there it was:
Sign-in Location: The Moon (Inactive).
Ren stared at the words for a beat—then a small, sharp smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Inactive…' he muttered. 'So the location won't unlock until I take control of the Moon."
He set the tea down gently.
Perfect timing.
He was going there anyway.
To bring Hinata back.
And while he was at it—
He'd make sure the Moon learned a simple rule of the new era:
Konoha's people were not prey.
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