Ch274. The source

"And the answer for the million Ryo question is... who is supposedly sealed in the moon?" Rei leadingly asked and the whole group except Yuriko dropped their jaws on the floor when the realization hit them.

"You mean Kaguya?" Konan finally managed to rein in her surprise.

"Maybe." Rei hummed, "After all, a jinchuuriki can use the chakra of his bijuu, and even if they are sealed in an inanimate item, the chakra can still be drawn. The limiting factor is that people never thought to make a technology capable of utilizing this chakra. Why wouldn't it be possible for Kaguya's energy to seep into the moon in small quantities? It would be prudent to make use of it, no? Moreover, Hamura was supposed to be the closest thing to the Sage of the Six Paths and the guy lived on the moon. It wouldn't be weird if he got the idea and made a little something capable of doing exactly that."

"Wait, you want to tell me this residue of energy from this Kaguya is involuntarily releasing is capable of instantly destroying the moon?" Pakura made a face at Rei, "And you want to free her? Are you barking mad?"

Mei, however, just rolled her eyes and replied before Rei could open his mouth, "Paku-chan, the residue from each of us could do that if it had a thousand years to build up."

That made Pakura a bit more subdued. Mei's boil bloodline's steam Jutsu worked mostly through the chakra residue a person is releasing at any given moment. Mei's bloodline was literally able to increase this released residue and shape it into the form of steam with various properties. Thanks to that, the group believed Mei's words instantly. She was the expert on that in the group.

"You would be surprised how much chakra seeps out of a person during the day. Especially us. Since we became jinchuuriki, our bodies are bonafide chakra factories. If we didn't have enough chakra control to keep it in, we would be like a sun to any semi-competent sensor. "

"But... aren't we talking about nature energy here? Why would Kaguya's body release that?" Tsunade crossed her arms under her chest and asked.

"She supposedly ate a chakra fruit. Considering there was no chakra people could freely manipulate before she was beaten by her sons... my bet is that chakra originates from nature energy of the planet gathered to form chakra fruit. That's my guess." Rei remarked.

"And since the chakra fruit is made out of the stuff, her body naturally releases it too." Konan nodded before shrugging, "Well, could happen. Who knows."

"I think you are forgetting the main problem here. It might be important how this is possible but I think we have more pressing matters to contemplate." Ringo reminded. "There is a guy capable of dropping a moon on our home. I think that demands some very violent actions."

"Agreed. We will know the answer to these theoretical questions once we get the device capable of using the residue for the moon-dropping Jutsu." Rei agreed, getting the attention of the others.

"You want to do what?" Konan turned towards Rei. "Do you at least know how many enemies are there and where exactly they are located?"

Rei turned towards Yuriko who smiled, "I am stationed here a few months already and there was no contact with anybody. Rei made sure the first thing we installed were seals blocking detection through any means he could imagine." She started, taking out a file with a few pictures. "That said, when we discovered chakra under the surface, I was tasked with investigating. I used my snow-natured Senjutsu and looked around a bit using snow in tandem with sensory Jutsu. Naturally, I can't cover an entire planet and I also had to make it unnoticeable so there was that, but..."

Yuriko triumphantly slid the file towards Konan who opened it and raised an eyebrow at a picture of a... "A cave?" She asked.

"An entrance." Yuriko corrected. "I found this by a complete coincidence. One nice day, I got a signal from my fine powder-like snow sparsely covering the ground around one area that somebody stepped on it. Which was weird, considering there isn't supposed to be anybody on the moon." She chuckled, "Imagine my surprise when I saw puppets walk around carrying supplies before disappearing into the cave. I didn't enter but I know the puppets didn't leave either until two weeks later and they returned in three hours with a new batch of supplies.

"Puppets..." Pakura pursed her lips, "And you didn't see any puppeteer nearby?"

When Yuriko shook her head, Pakura's eyes slightly widened. Suna puppeteers tried for a long time to create a Jutsu capable of remotely controlling puppets. Even Sasori mostly failed in that endeavor, deciding to be satisfied with controlling a hundred puppets via a hundred chakra strings.

Unfortunately, Pakura was not a puppeteer so she could not help much in that regard but Shun Riku was making some progress. Needless to say, a technology capable of remotely controlling puppets was very interesting for Pakura.

"Clearly, whoever lives there is very advanced in some fields. Getting from the moon to our planet... since I doubt the puppets found these supplies on the moon... is also no small feat." Konan reasoned. "We should probably assume the residents are fairly strong when it comes to chakra manipulation with a completely different Jutsu than what we are used to."

The group nodded. Being a ninja could be surprising but... stereotypes were a thing. One sees a Kiri ninja? He instantly prepares for Hiding in the Mist technique. Every single Kiri ninja knew and most used that technique to a great effect. One sees a Suna ninja without a war fan? He instantly assumes they are a puppeteer. It might not be always true but puppetry is deadly enough to rather be prepared than be caught off-guard.

The residents of the moon, however, had millennia to develop their Jutsu differently, which was noticeable from their advanced knowledge of puppetry. On top of that, it was plainly obvious they had a way to get supplies from the Elemental Nations, which meant they might have some knowledge of the Jutsus from hidden villages too.

In short, the group quickly assumed the enemy knew most of the widely known Jutsu while having a totally unknown repertory of their unique techniques.

The group became silent in contemplation. They had an advantage because the Jutsus most of them used were in no way widely known. That evened the playing field a bit but still...

"There is no point in this." Tsunade sighed, "We can't scout because we have to assume it will be discovered. Really... we have our bijuu that are already matured and ready to go. If anything, we can use them to run away."

Konan chuckled, "Looks like we became quite cocky." She said in a self-reproachful manner, "I still remember times when I was young and weak... we had almost no intel before most of our missions." She looked at Rei who smiled in nostalgia. "Yet, here we are contemplating and worrying about what-ifs because of no reliable intel. I think... we will simply have to wing it as ordinary ninjas do."

The group smiled at that, remembering their early days. Whether they were from Suna, Kiri, or Konoha, being a ninja was almost the same. Everybody had a memory of at least one mission where they had no idea what they were getting into, yet, they had to go.

"So... when do we start?" Tsunade asked.

"I think you misunderstood. There is no 'we', in this operation." Rei said, causing the women to show discontent expressions. It was obvious they wanted to argue about it but Rei had already decided. After all, he knew there would be only one man waiting for him and he really wanted to see how he compared to him. "For this, I am going alone."