You're too extreme.
Nobuhiro Otsutsuki lowered his head and looked at the fanatical clansman, his brows slightly furrowing.
The words circled around in his mouth, but in the end, he did not say them.
If they were not extreme, how could they accomplish such a great undertaking?
If they were not extreme, what could they use to defeat the main house?
If they were not extreme, how could they carry out Ancestor Hamura's will and completely purify this Shinobi World filled with slaughter and betrayal?
Thinking of this, Nobuhiro Otsutsuki opened his mouth, preparing to give the order…
"Nobuhiro, I didn't call you here today to continue arguing with you. I have good news to tell you, Masako is pregnant."
But at that moment, the voice of his elder brother, Otsutsuki Nobunaga, suddenly seemed to ring in his ears without warning.
Nobuhiro Otsutsuki's lips moved slightly, and the command that had already reached his throat was forcibly swallowed back down.
After a moment of silence, he slowly lowered the hand holding the Tenseigan and said in a deep voice: "There is no rush."
"Clan Head!?"
As soon as the words fell, the branch house members gathered around him immediately became anxious, they looked at each other and then stared at their Clan Head in disbelief. Several clansmen with hollow eye sockets even stepped forward abruptly, nearly pressing up against Nobuhiro without regard for status.
"Why?! We've already waited this long!"
"The Tenseigan is already in our hands, Clan Head! We only need to make it bigger!"
"If the Clan Head doesn't dare give the order, we can find someone else to do it!"
Nobuhiro Otsutsuki slowly turned his head and looked at the clansman who had spoken. The man lowered his head, but showed no intention of backing down.
As the Clan Head of the branch house, he knew better than anyone that every single branch house member, himself included, had long since staked everything on the goal of carrying out ancestor Hamura's will.
For that goal, they could sacrifice their eyes and kill anyone, including the Clan Head standing in their way.
The moment he showed hesitation, those clansmen who had just been shouting long live the Clan Head could swarm him the next second, tear him to pieces, and then elect a new head from among themselves, one even more extreme and with even less room for retreat.
Nobuhiro Otsutsuki raised his hand and pressed it gently downward.
After the crowd quieted down, he coldly said: "A bunch of idiots!"
"Have none of you noticed that this Tenseigan is extremely unstable? In its current state, it can only be used two or three times before completely collapsing."
"With only such a defective product, what if we attack and fail to wipe out the main house in one stroke? At that point, who will carry out Ancestor Hamura's will?!"
"Hm!?"
As he spoke, Nobuhiro Otsutsuki's gaze swept across every fanatical face present like a blade, and his voice suddenly rose: "Answer me!!!"
The hall fell completely silent.
Even the clansmen who had shouted the loudest moments ago subconsciously avoided his gaze.
A moment later, an elderly branch house member stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and said in a low voice: "Please calm your anger, Clan Head. We failed to think things through and became impatient. This matter should indeed be considered carefully and handled step by step. We should first stabilize the Tenseigan, make thorough preparations, and then strike in one decisive move."
"Please instruct us on our next course of action, Clan Head."
Nobuhiro Otsutsuki indifferently withdrew his gaze, turned around once more, and left only a cold, rigid back facing the crowd.
"One year! Use this year to continue perfecting the Tenseigan and truly stabilize its power. You should also make your preparations. One year from now will be the main house's day of destruction!"
"Yes!"
The branch house members responded in unison. Then, with lowered heads, they walked out of the hall one after another. As their footsteps gradually faded away, the vast hall returned to dead silence.
Only Nobuhiro Otsutsuki remained standing there alone.
Lowering his head, he silently gazed at the Tenseigan in his hand, which emitted a faint purple glow.
One year.
That should be enough time for the child to be born.
A trace of complicated emotion flashed through his eyes, but only for an instant, and soon, they returned to their cold hardness.
He shook his head forcefully, as though trying to drive away thoughts that should not exist.
I am only doing this to ensure absolute certainty.
As for that child… In the future, I will personally raise that child.
Brother… consider this the last bit of mercy I, your younger brother, can leave you.
Nobuhiro Otsutsuki slowly closed his eyes and said nothing more.
In the moon, at a mysterious and unknowable place.
Hamura Otsutsuki silently withdrew his gaze and let out a soft sigh.
Compared to the path he had originally foreseen, this civil war had been forcibly delayed by more than a year due to his unexpected intervention and the arrival of that child who should not have existed.
For a moment, even Hamura Otsutsuki did not know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.
So be it.
Hamura Otsutsuki sighed inwardly once more.
The grievances between the main and branch house, everything that Toneri and his sister, Yo, would face in the future, their entanglements and choices, all of that would be left for those two children to handle personally in the future.
...
At the same time that Village Hidden in the Mist was intensively preparing for its final offensive, Konoha was systematically organizing the evacuation of civilians, and the Otsutsuki branch house on the moon was secretly building up strength for the civil war.
At the Land of Iron, which seemed forever detached from the conflicts of the outside world, it had finally ushered in its own moment of excitement.
The triennial National Swordsmanship Tournament had entered its final seven-day countdown.
The streets of the capital were becoming increasingly crowded with swordsmen.
In taverns and teahouses, debates over the victories and defeats of masters from various schools almost never ceased.
It was also on this day that one of the Shinobi World's most influential newspapers, World Weekly, released its latest issue.
The headline occupied nearly half the front page, printed in large bold characters: "The boy who survived disaster, the astonishing youth! Shinichi Higashino! Once again overturns the common sense of the Shinobi World!"
The article opened with lavish praise, reporting in great detail on the revolutionary breakthrough known as Konoha's medical scroll.
Beginning with its actual battlefield performance, it listed how the medical scroll had drastically reduced Konoha ninja casualties on both the Village Hidden in the Sand and Village Hidden in the Mist fronts.
It then bluntly stated that the developer behind it was the young genius who had been shaking the entire Shinobi World ever since the war began, Shinichi Higashino.
God only knew how World Weekly managed to obtain so much detailed frontline information.
And this was far from the first time.
During the war against the Village Hidden in the Cloud, all kinds of reports about Shinichi Higashino had repeatedly appeared on the newspaper's front page.
The details were so abundant, and the insider information so thorough, that Konoha had once strongly suspected… There was a mole!
Because of this, Konoha launched several internal investigations and managed to uncover several spies from other ninja villages hidden within the village.
Yet they never found the person feeding information to World Weekly.
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