The shock on Nara Motoha's face flashed by, and he quickly returned to his calm expression.
"If Renya believes that people become stars in the sky after they die, then Hyūga Muki will indeed appear in the sky."
He thought Renya believed the kind of story adults use to fool children, and said with a smile.
He had never told anyone about Hyūga Muki's whereabouts, not even his own biological father knew the reason behind it.
No matter how hard others racked their brains, they would never be able to figure out his location—let alone someone whose cultural exam score was only five points.
Renya naturally noticed the change in Nara Motoha's expression, and the corner of his mouth curved into a faint smile.
"Motoha, I think you should know what I mean."
"Sorry, Renya, I don't understand what you mean."
Nara Motoha shook his head. He firmly believed that Renya could not possibly know about this!
"That's no fun to say it like that."
Renya leaned closer to Nara Motoha and said softly,
"What I meant just now wasn't the stars, but… the moon."
As soon as these words were spoken, Nara Motoha froze, his mind going blank instantly.
Why would Renya know Hyūga Muki's whereabouts?!
Could it be that he had learned the truth from the Hyūga clan head?
After a long silence, he gave a bitter smile.
"I didn't expect you to find out."
At this point, there was no need to hide anything anymore.
He had clearly promised Hyūga Muki to keep it a secret, but in the end, Renya still found out.
However, since it wasn't revealed by his own mouth, it didn't count as breaking his promise, right?
"Tell me, what exactly happened on the battlefield back then?"
Although Renya knew Hyūga Muki's background, he knew nothing about how he left the ninja world.
"At that time, our squad was carrying out a mission…"
Several years ago, during the Second Ninja World War.
"Motoha, there are a large number of enemy forces ahead. We might be surrounded."
Hyūga Muki used his Byakugan to see many enemy forces approaching them, while pursuers continued to close in from behind.
At this moment, Nara Motoha was supporting a severely injured Yamanaka teammate, his expression grim.
"How unlucky. We're being attacked from both sides."
Because Nara Motoha's father was the clan head, they were not sent to the front lines, but instead continued performing patrol and food supply escort missions in the rear.
Unexpectedly, the three great ninja villages suffered setbacks on the front lines and wanted to destroy Konoha's food supplies, intending to drag Konoha into a prolonged war.
And so, they unfortunately ran into ninjas ambushed by the three villages.
"You all leave first. I should be able to hold them off for a while."
Hyūga Muki looked at the two squads blocking the front and the squad relentlessly pursuing from behind, and said in a deep voice.
"Muki!"
...
"Stop, stop, stop!"
Nara Motoha was in the middle of recounting what happened back then when Renya interrupted him.
"You're talking too much nonsense. Can you just get straight to what happened?"
It was already late, and he still had to deliver food later to Senju Tobirama and Orochimaru, who were soaking in the laboratory.
Where would he have the time to listen to him slowly narrate everything?
Although he had just been beaten yesterday, Senju Tobirama's anger had not completely subsided.
He didn't want to be beaten again by that old man just because he delivered the food too late.
Most importantly, only the three of them knew about yesterday's beating.
If he got beaten tonight in front of his disciples, he wouldn't have the face to see anyone again.
Nara Motoha: "..."
Are you in such a hurry?
You clearly already knew Muki was on the moon, yet you still finished eating barbecue before bringing up this topic.
You weren't in a hurry for that long, and he just wanted to describe it vividly, but this guy didn't appreciate it.
He was the one who hated trouble the most. He had kept this matter buried in his heart for so many years and finally had someone to confide in.
Yet Renya found it troublesome…
Nara Motoha rolled his eyes and said concisely,
"Simply put, our squad was escorting food supplies when we encountered an enemy ambush. At the critical moment, several flying vessels descended from the sky and eliminated the three ninja squads attacking us. They called themselves the Ōtsutsuki clan and came to the ninja world to take back their clan's young clan head."
"Before leaving, Muki told me not to tell anyone about this. Once he settled down there, he would naturally return to the ninja world to see us…"
It was worth mentioning that the Yamanaka teammate had fallen unconscious due to severe injuries and didn't know what happened.
He always believed that Muki sacrificed himself to cover their retreat and ultimately died under the enemy's blades.
Because of his testimony, Danzō and the others believed Hyūga Muki had died in battle.
Nara Motoha explained the whole sequence of events in one breath and rolled his eyes again in annoyance.
This guy was really troublesome, making him talk so much.
"Wouldn't it have been better if you said it like this from the beginning? All that buildup before was a complete waste of time. Why didn't you start from when Hyūga Muki was sent by his father to the Hyūga clan head?"
Renya had just eaten his fill and didn't want to process too much information. It was too mentally exhausting.
A concise explanation like this was perfectly fine.
Nara Motoha: "..."
Hmph, a poor student is still a poor student!
He had finally gone out of his way to share what happened back then.
Yet this guy found it troublesome.
Forget it. After all, he was a top student. There was no need to argue with someone whose cultural exam score was only five points.
In all his years of teaching at the academy, he had never seen a score lower than five.
If it were a child from another clan, bringing home a report card with five points would have gotten them beaten to death.
Take the Uchiha clan as an example. Nara Motoha imagined…
"Father, this is my report card."
"You bastard! You worthless trash! You are not worthy of being my son!"
"Slap!"
A slap landed on the face, followed by being thrown out the door, forced to kneel outside and desperately pound on the door.
"Waaah, Father, I know I was wrong."
"Do not call me father until you achieve full marks."
The next day, this matter would spread throughout the clan…
"Oh, isn't this the trash who only scored five points in cultural studies?"
"An idiot like you isn't worthy of bearing the Uchiha name!"
"This guy has disgraced the clan. He must be taught a profound lesson!"
Mockery from Uchiha peers of the same age, followed by being pinned to the ground and beaten by a group.
If Renya knew what his friend was thinking, he would definitely think this was a new template for Uchiha awakening their eyes.
This was clearly the classic useless-trash-turns-genius template!
That's right—even if Renya really knew Nara Motoha's thoughts, he wouldn't feel that scoring five points was embarrassing.
Instead, he would be more interested in whether doing this could help Uchiha clan members awaken the Sharingan.
...
"When the time comes, I'm going to take a trip to the moon. Do you want to come with us?"
"You can go to the moon?"
"Sort of."
Renya remembered that the special spring underground could enter a space-time gate, allowing direct travel to the moon.
As long as he found that spring, it would be enough.
"Alright, I'll go with you then!"
Nara Motoha agreed without hesitation.
Muki hadn't returned for so many years. It was very likely that something had happened to him on the moon.
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