Children's sadness fades quickly. Toneri soon forgot his earlier pain and happily asked, "Lord Aizen, are you here to see my father?"
Aizen smiled slightly. "Actually, I'm here to see you today. Of course, this matter does need to be discussed with your father too."
"I don't really understand," Toneri tilted his head, "Anyway, we should go find Father first, right?"
With that, Toneri grabbed Aizen's big hand and started walking toward the castle.
As he walked, he chattered nonstop.
As they entered the castle grounds, many puppets surrounded them.
Unlike the puppets in Sunagakure, which required Chakra Threads for control, these puppets needed no manipulation at all and even possessed certain artificial intelligence.
When they saw Toneri, the puppets stopped their work and respectfully bowed.
The two walked smoothly into the castle interior. At the long dining table sat a middle-aged man who looked very refined, though his face appeared somewhat pale. His eye sockets were just as empty as Toneri's.
"Toneri, where did you go..." Tongren suddenly paused, then asked respectfully, "Lord Aizen, is that you here?"
"Tongren, your Heart Eye is getting more powerful!" Aizen smiled and praised.
"You flatter me. It's just a small improvement," Tongren politely replied.
He naturally remembered how shocked he had been two years ago. This man had suddenly appeared before him without even triggering the slightest reaction in his ancestor's Chakra Barrier!
From that moment on, he knew this man had reached a height far beyond his reach.
Fortunately, the man had come with good intentions.
Beside him, Toneri couldn't help but excitedly share, "Father, Lord Aizen said we're both a unique kind of apple!"
Tongren looked completely confused. When had he become an apple?
Seeing Tongren's bewildered expression, Aizen proceeded to recount what had happened earlier.
When he heard how Toneri had run outside alone crying, Tongren knelt down and gently stroked Toneri's head, filled with compassion, "I'm sorry, Toneri. Father neglected your feelings!"
Toneri felt somewhat embarrassed. "I thought Father would scold me. I remember you once said a real man shouldn't cry!"
"Oh, I didn't think you'd remember!" Tongren's expression turned complex. Back then, he thought he wouldn't live much longer and worried Toneri would be crushed by loneliness, so he often told Toneri men should be strong.
"Thankfully, Lord Aizen gave me a second life!" Thinking about this, his father stood up and expressed his gratitude. "Lord Aizen, I'm really sorry to trouble you to comfort Toneri!"
"No need for that," Aizen smiled. "Such a clever and excellent child—I quite like him too!"
Hearing his idol, Lord Aizen, praise him like this, Toneri felt both happy and shy.
"By the way, Lord Aizen..." Tongren started to say, but suddenly began coughing violently.
Aizen quickly took out a small piece of dark green crystal. He crushed the crystal in his hand, then guided the abundant life force emanating from the crystal into Tongren's body.
At last, his cough finally eased a bit.
"Father, are you alright?" Tonari asked with concern.
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"I'm fine. I've already gotten used to it!" Tongren shook his head.
"Is there no way to cure it completely?" Aizen asked, frowning.
"It's our constitution. There's no way to change that!" Tongren replied with a bitter smile.
There was another thought he kept to himself.
"This must be the punishment from ancestor Hamura for distorting our destiny!"
Their branch had once been a cadet house that used the Tenseigan to overthrow the main house. The Tenseigan itself was born from the fusion of countless Byakugan.
They had believed it was a victory that rewrote their fate, but in reality, it marked the beginning of a nightmare.
The ancestors who dug out their own Byakugan left their descendants unable to produce even a single Byakugan—cursed as if by fate. From birth, people in their branch had no eyes.
Moreover, their bodies suffered from various strange illnesses.
Eventually, this once-prosperous cadet house was reduced to only father and son remaining.
"Fortunately, Tonari's body has absolutely no issues! Not only that—he's even inherited the powerful constitution of ancestor Hamura!" Tongren said, looking at Aizen with admiration. "It must be because your arrival, Lord Aizen, brought new ideas and led us to salvation, causing ancestor Hamura to forgive us!"
"Even just for Tonari's sake, I, as his father, must demonstrate enough value. I absolutely cannot allow Tonari to be abandoned by Lord Aizen!"
Thinking this, Tongren pretended to be strong as he continued, "You don't need to worry about me, Lord Aizen. This minor issue has no effect on me at all!"
Aizen fell silent for a moment before speaking. "I've heard about your clan's history. Since the root cause was losing the Byakugan, why don't you try to regain the Byakugan?"
"Regain the Byakugan... Right, how come I never thought of that!" Tongren exclaimed joyfully.
Aizen smiled slightly. He could indeed understand the mindset of Tongren and his ancestors.
From memories of his past life, the wars of the shinobi world were often joked about as 'the five-village brawl.' Even so, there were still different ideologies involved. But on the Moon, there had always been only the Otsutsuki Clan.
This closed environment bred intense ancestor worship among the clan.
Even Tonari's original motivation in canon—to destroy the world—was merely to follow the divine destiny of ancestor Hamura, without any personal understanding or independent thoughts.
Naturally, after being 'cursed,' this cadet branch never sought a solution, simply accepting their fate as punishment from ancestor Hamura!
Tonari jumped with joy. "Great! Finally, there's hope for our family's curse, Father!"
Something about those words felt strange... Tongren shook his head, pushing the odd thought aside. "It's not certain yet. It's just a possibility!"
"Besides, to regain the Byakugan... Are we going down to the lower world to 'borrow' a pair from our distant relatives?"
"It's not that complicated," Aizen smiled. "Didn't you say that the Tenseigan enshrined in the temple was formed by the fusion of countless Byakugan?"
"Could it be...you're planning to separate multiple Byakugan from the Tenseigan, Aizen-sama?" Tongren asked in shock.
Aizen nodded. "Exactly — that's exactly what I'm aiming for!"
Tongren hesitated a little. "But wouldn't this be disrespectful toward the great ancestor Hamura?"
Aizen chuckled. "Do you really think your ancestor Hamura would care about something so trivial? What truly disrespects him is people fighting and killing each other over power!"
"Besides, considering Toneri's talent...only the purest Byakugan in a thousand years, separated from the Tenseigan itself, will be enough not to hinder him!"
Convinced that this would help Toneri, Tongren finally decided. "Alright, let's enter the temple right away!"
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