Saruto | The Bloodline Prophecy (Part 1)

Chapter 30: Answer in the Stars

"Sasuke," Kakashi questioned, "Tell me everything about your encounters in the Outlands."

As we walked through the forest, the quietness of the trees allowed us to better understand one another. Sasuke and Naruto were still in the dark about what Shikadami, Inojou, and I were here. They probably understood their sensei's secrecy.

"From what I am able to understand," Sasuke nodded, "the foreign landers had claimed to have seen moving stars on the last day of the fourth war. Then, I had assumed it was just them seeing the backlash of the battle in the war. But it wasn't until they were very specific on seeing the moon bleed."

"The Infinite Tsukuyomi!" Naruto was quick to conclude.

Sasuke shook his head before addressing us once more, "That's what I thought as well but they said it was nothing like my eye."

Sasuke had then revealed his Sharingan and Rinnegan, confirming to us that he had shown the foreigners as a means to confirm his suspicions. Sasuke's conclusions had me thinking about the moon I saw the night that I was attacked on patrol. It had to have been the same moon. But why on that night specifically two years ago and why could only foreign lands see it.

"Something else happened on that last night of the war that we aren't aware of," Kakashi interjected as he rubbed his chin, "did they say anything else?"

"Yes," Sasuke nodded, "they told me that local astronomers in the village recorded the stars looking like this on the night."

Handing Kakashi a paper from under his poncho, he opened it to reveal an astronomical map. He looked at it with a puzzled look, probably unable to read it.

"What does it mean?" Kakashi wondered.

"I'm not sure," Sasuke said as he turned towards Kakashi, "they couldn't even understand it."

As I looked over Kakashi's shoulder, I recognized certain patterns on the page. Some of them I seemed to recognize because of my particular hobby in the area. My eyes wandered the page, as I identified the main constellation on the page. Leaning in closer, Kakashi began to feel my sudden interest in the page, turning around, he handed it to me.

"You see something that we don't?" Kakashi wondered with obvious curiosity.

Grabbing the wrinkled piece of paper, I was able to take a closer look at the page. At first glance, the constellation seems random but when you ignore the biggest stars and focus on the ones that were farther away, it was all too obvious as to what it was showing.

"I guess you could also call me an astronomer in my village," I said as I rotated the page around.

I thought long and hard as to what this specific pattern mean't. I remember one book that had been collecting dust in the original Leaf archives as a child. My father had brought me there on my fifth birthday because most of the books were studies of the stars. I used to spend hours and hours there, reading every page, learning about every constellation. But one book caught my attention above all else.

"Look here," I pointed at the smallest recorded stars on the page. Everyone immediately leaned into view of the page following my finger as it traced the line of stars, "This right here is called Ketto's Constellation."

There was a long pause as their eyes tried to find what I was seeing.

"But what does that mean?" Naruto questioned.

How could I have not noticed it before, this constellation of stars had only been seen a few times before in history. I could only guess that the constellation was on the same day I was born.

"It means The Bloodline Constellation," I confirmed, "It has only shown up in history two other times."

If I could get my hands on that book, I could confirm my theories. I took a deep breath, as I slyly glanced up at them. My grandfathers, Sasuke and Naruto, seemed particularly interested in the page and the secrets it held while Kakashi normally seemed uninterested. Of course, that was only a front, his eyes said it all. Shikadami and Inojou exchanged looks of concern because with their knowledge of what was going on back home meant only bad.

"Before the last day of the fourth war, " I looked back down to the page, "this specific constellation came up during the fights of Indra and Ashura Otsutsuki, and Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha."

Immediately, Naruto's face lost its color as he turned to Sasuke. I knew all too well what happened on the last night of the war but I couldn't reveal how I knew that information to them. Besides, they knew that all too well as well.

Subtly, Naruto moved Sasuke aside to talk to him, in which Kakashi joined in as well. Trying to avoid the rest of us from knowing the information that they were sharing. On the last day of the war, my grandfather, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, fought in the Valley of the End. The same place that their predecessors had also fought. Two Otsutsuki bloodlines so close together but yet fought to be even farther apart.

It was all too obvious as to what the next step that we had to do to find the real truth.

"We must go to the Valley of the End," Kakashi instructed.