296: The Moon Princess (2)
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Chapter 296: The Moon Princess (2)
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[Past]
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was a lower member of the great Ōtsutsuki Clan who was sent to earth with her superior and partner Isshiki Ōtsutsuki. As a lower member, belonging to the branch family, Kaguya was to be used as a sacrifice to create the God Tree.
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki was a main family member, and he had the job to plant a 'seedling'– a Ten-Tailed beast– on earth. Later, when the seed would grow into a small tree and bear the Chakra Fruit, Kaguya was to be sacrificed by merging with the tree to make it grow up rapidly and devour the lifeforms of earth to enrich the Chakra Fruit with more power.
However, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki didn't want to be sacrificed.
After reaching Earth, Kaguya used Isshiki's weakness that she knew to backstab and nearly kill him. Kaguya had believed Isshiki had died, but Isshiki had survived and since then was living through a Vessel and was trying to regain his full powers.
In the meantime, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki got attached to the planet she was sent to destroy. She fell in love with an Emperor and had two children—both of whom later betrayed her to put a stop to her cruel ruling.
That was when Kaguya's story came to an end, a thousand and two years ago, when she was sealed using the Jutsu– ‹Six Paths Planetary Devastation› –on the core of the celestial body that was the Moon.
Three years after that, an outer lifeform, a world jumper, Rumi Usagiyama appeared in this universe, replacing Kaguya to the fabrics of her existence while still stuck on the moon.
Today, December 24th of the year 1002 of the ninshu calendar, marks the 999th year since Rumi Usagiyama has been living within the moon, like a trapped rabbit.
* * *
[Still Past]
When Rumi first woke up, she thought she was dreaming– or killed after the Gods finished Neji and hunted down the escapee girls.
For a long few days, she had believed that and lived in depression. Until one day, she accidentally channelled mana into her eyes and felt her range of vision expanding in a 360º manner, across hundreds of kilometres.
Rumi realised that she had actually been sealed inside a moon, and on the surface of the said moon strange, pale-skinned people were living. Rumi could hear what they said as well, thanks to her bunny powers, and therefore quickly deduced her current situation.
The people living on the moon, called the Ōtsutsukis, were 'her' descendants. Their leader was Hamura Ōtsutsuki, who was 'her' son. Hamura was panicked after sensing the spike in 'chakra' on the core of the moon, where his mother– Kaguya Ōtsutsuki– was sealed. He seemed to believe that his mother had somehow regained her chakra and might break out of the moon anytime.
Only Rumi knew what Hamura was sensing wasn't Chakra, but Mana that came to this world with Rumi. Rumi also understood that she had replaced the existence of Hamura's mother, in a process that she could only dub as 'somehow'.
Hamura's worries about his 'mother' breaking free weren't false, however. Rumi was a bit hesitant at first because breaking herself free would break the moon and would make strong meteorites fall to the earth-like planet below. That'd cost millions of lives. As a former Hero, Rumi couldn't bring herself to decide the death of that many people so easily.
But as confinement got more suffocating for her over the months, and as she started to miss Neji and her friends, Rumi decided she could not but break free. Otherwise, she would go senile sooner rather than later.
Rumi Usagiyama was strong. Now stronger after she gained all of Kaguya's abilities– excluding the ones Kaguya lost after getting her chakra stripped off by Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki.
With that level of power, Rumi could break free from the confinement of the moon if she tried.
…Or so she had hoped.
When she tried to actually break free, she failed. Rumi had underestimated the weight that the moon was pressing down on her body. It was so strong that, even after she tried to break free countless times, she always failed. However, her countless tries did manage to create strong moonquakes that threatened the life of many people. That made Hamura Ōtsutsuki take strong precautions to stop her.
Hamura went to earth, and when he returned his white eyes were blue, with a flowery pattern within them. Rumi found out it was called the 'Tenseigan' eye. With his new powers, Hamura modified the sealing in such a manner that all of Rumi's Mana was spread across the moon to strengthen it, while at the same time leaving Rumi nearly mana-less.
Rumi knew Hamura had no bad intentions, he just wanted to save people. She also knew that it was mainly her fault for threatening him by creating moonquakes. Yet, Rumi couldn't help but hate getting angry at him and his people.
For keeping her away from her loved ones.
—-
Across the centuries, through her boring confinement, Rumi found out many interesting things about Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
One such thing was that Kaguya's Byakugan was special, it could read the thoughts and memories of people.
Rumi used this technique to read her own memories, and there she found Kaguya's memories in one, locked corner of her brain. That was natural, after all if Rumi's appearance changed enough to give her horns and change her eyes it's not surprising if her physical brain changed as well.
Rumi had learned many things from Kaguya's memories, including a technique called ‹Yomotsu Hirasaka› that could have allowed her to escape her confinement if she had learned about it before, when she still had enough mana to perform the technique.
That made Rumi regret and greatly enraged when she first learned about it. In frustration that was directed at nobody in particular, she was almost about to use her authority as a [Moon Bunny] to clash the Moon with Earth.
Eight months before Neji teleported her along with the other girls, Rumi was given a Special Tier potion that evolved her race to that of a Moon Rabbit. With that evolution, she had gained slight authority over the moon that allowed her to change the position of the moon– allowing her to bring Tsunamis to the earth.
However, that happened when she was controlling the moon while on earth. From her current position inside the moon, even without mana, she could simply will the moon to move towards the earth and clash against it, effortlessly destroying all life forms.
Thankfully, a slight bit of sanity was still left in her mind after such a long time of lone confinement. That's how billions of people didn't die, along with herself.
That incident was what made Rumi finally learn 'patience' as she left her fate in her lover, Neji's hands.
Rumi Usagiyama was sure, as long as Neji was alive, he would come here.
One day, she was sure, Neji would come to find and free her.
That was how the Moon Princess started her millennia-long wait, just to meet her Prince one more time.
* * *
In her 977th year of confinement (980th year if counted Kaguya's time), Rumi had felt something strange for the first time. An 'essence' left her body at that time, summoned by someone.
Later on, she learned the essence was basically a duplicate of her current body, called the Gedo Statue, that was summoned by Madara Uchiha to connect it to himself to preserve his life for just a few more years.
That was when Rumi recalled that, besides Neji, she had another possibility to escape. As an extension of Kaguyas' Will, the slime-like creature called Black Zetsu was still trying to free Kaguya after too many centuries.
Rumi could hear everything through the Gedo Statue's ears, but she couldn't see because all of the statue's eyes were closed because of the lack of chakra. But through her hearing only, Rumi felt a bit touched by how Black Zetsu manipulated Madara and others just to free her.
'...At least not everyone abandoned me.'
For the first time in what felt like aeons, Rumi had cracked a smirk at that thought.
'Neji is probably messing around with new bitches he found. No wonder he hasn't come to look for used goods.'
She didn't believe Neji died. If she started to believe that, Rumi doubted if she would have any will to live. Lone confinement. Of all tortures out there, this was the worst that any living being could go through.
At this point, even her uselessly strong mind and mentality were on the verge of breaking. If the possibility of Neji's death affirmed itself in her mind, Rumi knew that would be her last moment. So she rather liked making up fake scenarios about why Neji wasn't here to free her yet.
—-
After Madara's death, it was Obito Uchiha who Black Zetsu started to manipulate. They didn't obviously chat beside the Gedo Statue all the time, but the creature called Black Zetsu would often come to sit beside the statue and recite the events that recently took place.
Rumi had slowly started liking the strange creature. She was never a mother, she didn't have the mentality for it, but she could see it as her nephew/niece. Rumi didn't even know if the creature had a gender, so she wasn't sure what to call it. Sure, it spoke in a male's voice, but it was the extension of Kaguya's will, so shouldn't it be a girl? Rumi wasn't sure.
On one such day of Black Zetsu reciting the recent events to the Gedo Statue, Rumi heard something that gave her… hope. Endless hope.
"Mother, I found that a strange child has been born in the Hyuga Clan. You might not know, but they're the descendants of Hamura Ōtsutsuki, one of your betraying sons." the Black Zetsu said. "This child has white hair, something that hasn't occurred amongst the Hyuga before, moreover since both his parents have black hair. Not only that, he doesn't have white eyes either. That's surprising since every other time when the Hyugas mated with someone from outside their clan, their eyes always had white eyes, even if he never managed to unlock the Byakugan later on."
'White hair… Blue eyes…'
Those two words made Rumi so emotional that her tears reached the Gedo Statue which started to cry even with all its closed eyes.
Since that day, somehow realising that his 'mother' very much liked to hear about this Neji Hyuga, the Black Zetsu always shared a story about him with the statue.
Since then, Rumi had really come to like this creature. She promised herself to give it a big hug when she was finally freed.
* * *
Over the next few years, all of Rumi's hopes that this Hyuga boy was actually her Neji slowly perished. Other than the name and appearance, there were no similarities between them.
But it would be wrong to say that all her hopes were gone.
Rumi came to accept that this Neji Hyuga was to Neji Hado what Kaguya was to herself. Basically, a vessel to be used if Neji Hado one day came to this world.
It was her 999th year in confinement that her hypothesis was proven correct.
Gaara of the sand, the Jinchuuriki of the One-Tailed Beast, got connected to the Gedo Statue and had all his chakra sucked. The Gedo Statue finally opened one of his eyes, allowing Rumi to see for the first time since the time when Hamura strengthened the seal.
The One-Tails chakra was mostly sucked out, however, an interruption had happened back then that forced the Akatsuki to stop the absorption process. That day, through the x-ray vision of the statue, Rumi had seen who the interrupter was.
'White hair… Blue eyes…'
That may have been the first time she had seen him in a millennium, but she recognised him in an instant.
'Is that… No, no, Rumi, there is no way.'
Rumi shook her head and refused to feel any more hope as Nagato had un-summoned the statue.
—-
Later that evening, Black Zetsu reported what had happened after the Statue was un-summoned.
"This… I don't know if I really saw that right, but Neji Hyuga transformed into a huge, white lizard-like creature. Then, he annihilated the One-Tailed Beast from the face of earth with black-coloured fire."
Blackflames… That wasn't a power that her Neji had, but who knew how many other places he had been to before coming to this world? The main part was the 'white lizard-like creature' description.
'...I am sure of it.'
Even whilst being sandwiched by the moon, Rumi felt all the hair in her body stand up.
'It was a White Dragon.'
The situation had registered to herself
'My Neji is finally here!'
That day, Rumi had smiled to herself for the longest in what felt like an eternity.
* * *
The next interaction with Neji she had was direct. Rumi and he met face to face, through the Gedo Statue.
After Nagato destroyed Konoha, Neji came for revenge with a blonde woman in his arms.
'Who the fuck is that bitch? Why isn't she getting off his arms?'
That was the first thought Rumi had when summoned the statue and rushed at Neji. However, Rumi soon ignored that woman. The only person here who deserved her attention was Neji.
Rumi tried, again and again, to contact Neji somehow, to send her thoughts flying to him, but in no way did she succeed in doing so. Rather….
– Bam!
Neji punched the Gedo Statue right under its chin, making its head burst out into splinters. Rumi yelled in unhinged pain as she felt as if her own head was destroyed. The Gedo Statue would be fine the next time it was summoned, but the pain Rumi felt wouldn't cease to exist.
For the first time since she had learned patience, Rumi felt anger once again. That Neji was picking up girls, taking revenge for them with that serious and enraged face of his, while she was suffering here for eternity? Has he ever tried to find her? Or any of the other four girls, for that matter?
To her, it seemed like he only came to this world to pick up more girls.
'...'
Even in the last millennium, Rumi had never cried.
But today, she did.
* * *
[Present]
Black Zetsu had succeeded in freeing her, freeing from the core of the moon.
Rumi's true body was summoned to earth, and under the moonlight night she stood floating in front of her Neji.
When her eyes met with him, his eyes immediately went slightly wet. The moment she saw that all her previous rage vanished like cotton candy to water.
Rather, countless new emotions raged within her as she stared at him with a slightly agape mouth.
Soon, she realised someone else was staring at her affectionately. Black Zetsu.
Rumi was about to smile at the creature who she was grateful to for keeping her company for the last few decades. Before she could smile, she noticed Black Zetsu was about to say something.
However, the creature couldn't speak a word as Neji opened a rift in space and shot Black Zetsu through it.
Rumi's expression froze.
She immediately turned back to Neji to say something, but she found him busy using a technique to transform into his previous world's appearance, wearing his previous world's clothes, while his hair was short and tidy.
Rumi shut her mouth as her jaws clenched.
Did he think she couldn't recognise him just because he had his hair longer? Did he think she was as worthless as himself?!
How dared he hurt Black Zetsu, the only thing that kept her sane while he was busy fucking around, and act as if he did her a favour??
"Rumi,"
Neji floated forward, gulping as he did– but Rumi didn't notice it.
When he reached her spot, he reached out his hand to her shoulders, which made Rumi tremble.
"Rumi, it's me. Neji."
Rumi's eyes went bloodshot.
"I have come to—"
Even without intending to, she interrupted Neji by throwing a powerful punch right under his chin.
– Boom!
Holding back a bucket of tears, Rumi flew after the oblivious bastard with an enraged expression.
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Master4thWall: At the rate things are going for the five girls, Neji might start self-hating by the time he saves his 2nd or 3rd girl.
By the way, Neji looks very much like Hamura, one more reason why Rumi couldn't control her rage.