Chapter 249

After returning to Earth, Senju Yukika did not immediately head to the Palace of Night.

Having just eliminated a threat from a distant divine being, the people of this planet had no idea what a tremendous danger they had faced in just half an hour. If things had gone even slightly wrong, the entire planet might have been destroyed, and every life form on it would have been wiped out.

Having accomplished this task, Senju Yukika had accumulated an immense amount of karmic merit. He had literally saved a planet and allowed it to continue existing in the vast expanse of the universe.

At this moment, Yukika was walking through the ninja villages of the Five Great Nations, and what he saw shook him to the core. The innocence in the children's faces, the tireless determination of the adults, everyone striving for a better life—this moved him deeply.

From that moment on, he made a heartfelt vow: to do everything in his power to protect this planet.

Just then, something happened in the Hidden Leaf Village. A young girl from the Uzumaki clan suddenly collapsed during training. The incident quickly drew the attention of everyone in the village.

The girl's name was Uzumaki Ziwei—a beautiful name. But she was now unconscious, her body covered in strange marks. These marks spread steadily across her skin, showing signs of expanding further.

When Yukika heard about this, he went to the Leaf Village for the first time and met Uzumaki Ziwei at Lord Naruto's residence.

She looked to be about eleven or twelve years old. Her eyes were closed tightly, her expression pained, and on her skin, a strange pattern had begun to emerge.

When Yukika saw the image, his pupils involuntarily shrank.

The pattern faintly resembled the signature white eyes of the Ōtsutsuki clan—but these weren't ordinary white eyes. They were more like a totem, one worshipped by every member of that powerful race.

So why had this totem appeared on Uzumaki Ziwei?

At that moment, a stream of chakra from Yukika's body silently drifted into the girl's and began probing her internal condition.

Gradually, Yukika made a shocking discovery: all the chakra within Uzumaki Ziwei's body was rotating slowly around a white shadow at the center.

The shadow was terrifying. It could manipulate the immense chakra of the Uzumaki clan!

Who had planted this shadow inside her, and for what purpose?

There was no way to know. Yukika realized he would have to wait for the girl to wake up to learn what had happened before she lost consciousness.

As he stood there, he was stunned to find that the white shadow in Uzumaki Ziwei's body was reaching out to him!

A strange, silent force siphoned off a strand of his chakra. When he felt it, Yukika's lips curled into a faint smile.

He hadn't expected the shadow to be so bold—trying to steal his chakra right in front of him. Was it worth it?

With a cold snort, Yukika raised his palm and infused spiritual pressure into Uzumaki Ziwei's body.

He followed his own chakra pathways to locate the white shadow and then forcefully suppressed it.

Soon, the white shadow began to weaken, curling into a tight mass and finally condensing into a pill.

At that moment, Uzumaki Ziwei's brows twitched. She felt much better and was about to wake up…

Yukika nodded, watching her. He had a few guesses now.

Ziwei finally opened her eyes. She stared up at the ceiling in confusion, clearly not fully aware of what had happened.

Feeling a bit weak and sore, she pushed herself up with difficulty and sat on the bed.

When she spotted Yukika standing in the room, she was startled. "Who are you? Why are you in my room?"

Ziwei was one of the brightest new talents of her generation. But since Yukika hadn't been to the Leaf Village in many years, it was normal that these younger kids didn't recognize him.

Ziwei became slightly afraid and mistook him for a bad person. She quietly prepared to call the village's shinobi to apprehend the intruder.

Her reaction was so innocent that it made Yukika chuckle.

"Uzumaki Ziwei, do you feel anything strange in your body right now?"

Hearing him call her by name, Ziwei froze.

She didn't know why, but Yukika's voice suddenly put her at ease.

There was something magical about it—it made her feel a deep sense of familiarity.

Ziwei nodded obediently, a thoughtful look on her face. Then she said, "It felt like… someone had taken control of my chakra before."

Yukika's eyes flashed, and he immediately asked, "What happened before you lost consciousness?"

Ziwei furrowed her brow, her head aching slightly as she struggled to remember. But eventually, she recalled a few fragments.

"I was training outside the village. I looked up at the sky, and I felt like… like there was a pair of eyes watching me. And then I blacked out."

Yukika fell silent after hearing this. The mention of "eyes" reminded him of the time when he confronted Qiongqi in the ancient kingdom of Loulan—and those giant eyes at the edge of the universe.

Across tens of thousands of miles and countless layers of space, he had once locked eyes with that entity. They had even exchanged a brief conversation...

Could the eyes that Ziwei saw be from the same being?

If so, then it meant the Ōtsutsuki clan had not given up—they were still trying to control and influence the new generation on this planet by other means.

And Yukika couldn't be sure this was an isolated incident. Could it be that similar events were happening in the other ninja villages of the Five Great Nations?