Chapter 52: Bones of the Savage God, A Celestial Whisper, and the Final Key
The lawless borderlands where the Kaguya clan carved out their savage existence were a maelstrom of perpetual conflict, a place where only the most brutal survived. Kenji Senju, a phantom clad in Konoha green, moved through this domain like an apex predator. His target was the chieftain of the strongest Kaguya faction, a behemoth named Gorotsuki Kaguya, whose mastery of Shikotsumyaku was legendary – bones erupting from his flesh not just as weapons, but as an ever-shifting, nigh-impenetrable exoskeleton.
The confrontation was not a battle of armies, but a collision of monsters. Kenji, with his nascent Sharingan and newly integrated Byakugan working in terrifying synergy (the former predicting movements and seeing chakra, the latter granting 360-degree vision of chakra pathways and tenketsu), met Gorotsuki's primal fury with cold, calculated precision. Steel Release clashed against bone, Crystal Release shattered skeletal constructs only for them to regrow instantly, Lightning Release crackled against dense calcium, and Wind Release carved momentary openings. The Kaguya chieftain was a force of nature, his every attack imbued with the clan's suicidal love for battle.
But Kenji was something more. He used his Swamp Release to turn the ground beneath Gorotsuki into a treacherous mire, hampering his ferocious charges. He employed Uzumaki fuinjutsu to create binding seals that momentarily restricted bone growth. And finally, after a grueling, destructive battle that leveled a significant portion of the desolate landscape, Kenji found his opening. As Gorotsuki lunged, a forest of bone spears erupting from his body, Kenji, moving with Denki Myaku-enhanced speed that even the Sharingan struggled to fully track, phased through a micro-second gap in the bone lattice using a high-frequency chakra vibration (an application derived from his study of sound and resonance), his hand, coated in a layer of diamond-hard crystal and charged with lightning, pierced Gorotsuki's heart.
The harvest of the Shikotsumyaku was perhaps the most physically transformative yet. It felt like his own skeleton was being forcibly reshaped, ground down and rebuilt from its very core. He felt the primal rage of the Kaguya, their battle lust, their almost divine connection to the act of creation and destruction through their own bodies. When the agonizing process subsided, Kenji possessed it: the ability to manipulate his own skeletal structure, to draw forth blades of bone, to create armor from within, a power both terrifying and exhilarating. He meticulously erased all traces of his presence and the true nature of Gorotsuki's demise, leaving behind a scene that would speak only of a particularly violent internal clan struggle.
With the essences of Senju (Hashirama), Uchiha (Sharingan), Hyuga (Byakugan), Uzumaki (vitality and fuinjutsu affinity), and now Kaguya (Shikotsumyaku) thrumming within his being, Kenji felt himself on the precipice of a profound understanding. These were not just disparate powers; they were echoes of a single, ancient source, fractured legacies of the Ōtsutsuki. His plot knowledge, combined with the deepest, most esoteric lore he had plundered from the Senju and Uzumaki archives, painted a clear, audacious picture: true apotheosis, the completion of his Ōtsutsuki bloodline, lay beyond this world. It lay with Hamura's direct descendants, on the moon.
The very concept was staggering. But Kenji, his god-complex now a core facet of his being, saw it not as an impossibility, but as the next logical, inevitable step.
His search for a "passage to the moon" began in the deepest secrecy. He knew no conventional shinobi technique could achieve such a feat. This required forgotten lore, ancient mechanisms, or a profound understanding of space-time ninjutsu far beyond even Tobirama Senju's Hiraishin. He poured over damaged Uzumaki star charts that hinted at "celestial gateways" active during specific cosmic alignments. He cross-referenced Senju legends of "sky people" and "fallen stars" with his own knowledge of Ōtsutsuki arrival on Earth.
Tsunade, his devoted, loving wife, became his unwitting instrument in this cosmic hunt. Her research, under his subtle guidance, had shifted from pure vitality studies to the theoretical underpinnings of dimensional rifts and large-scale chakra constructs. He'd "found" fragmented texts for her, supposedly detailing ancient Senju attempts to "commune with celestial spirits," pushing her brilliant mind to explore concepts that bordered on the impossible. She, believing she was helping him unlock profound secrets for Konoha's future or to find a path to true peace beyond the endless wars, dedicated her genius to these esoteric problems, her findings unknowingly paving the way for Kenji's lunar ambitions.
Orochimaru, meanwhile, was a growing, প্রত্যক্ষ (pratyaksh – perceptible, evident) threat. His use of Edo Tensei had become a horrifying staple on certain fronts, and his network of spies and researchers was undoubtedly also seeking out Ōtsutsuki lore, though likely for different, if equally nefarious, reasons. Kenji sensed Orochimaru's gaze more frequently now, a cold, reptilian scrutiny that knew Kenji was more than he seemed. The serpent was hunting for power, for immortality, and Kenji knew that any path to Ōtsutsuki secrets would likely see their ambitions collide violently.
The Second Shinobi World War was entering its final, most brutal stages. Nations were exhausted, their ranks of shinobi decimated. Konoha, despite its resilience, was bleeding. Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke increasingly of seeking a lasting peace, but the path was unclear, the enemies still potent. Jiraiya, now a fully realized Sage, his power immense and his spirit burdened by the world's suffering, fought with the strength of ten men, a beacon of Konoha's will, yet increasingly at odds with the village's darker undercurrents embodied by Orochimaru and Danzo.
Kenji moved through these dying embers of global conflict with chilling detachment. His official duties continued – leading elite missions, his successes more inexplicable and legendary than ever. But his true focus was elsewhere. His newly integrated Shikotsumyaku gave him an unparalleled adaptive offense and defense, his bones shifting and reforming at will. His Sharingan was evolving, its tomoe slowly increasing. His Byakugan offered almost omniscient awareness. The Hashirama cells were knitting it all together, granting him monstrous vitality.
One night, deciphering a particularly obscure Uzumaki text on celestial navigation and archaic dimensional equations, cross-referenced with a Senju myth about a "silver bridge" that appeared when the "weeping star" (a specific comet in its perihelion) was at its brightest, Kenji found it. Not a map, but a complex set of calculations, a ritualistic fuinjutsu sequence, and a geographical marker – a remote, forgotten mountain peak in the Land of Frost, a place where the veil between worlds was supposedly thin during specific astronomical events.
A cold, triumphant smile touched Kenji's lips. The path was unclear, fraught with unimaginable peril, but a whisper of a possibility now existed. He had the Kaguya's might, the Uzumaki's life force and seals, the Senju's vitality, the Uchiha's perception, and the Hyuga's all-seeing eyes. He was a tapestry of stolen divinity. The moon, and the "last bloodline" of the Ōtsutsuki, awaited. His journey to complete godhood was about to transcend the terrestrial.