The sun dipped low, bleeding into the horizon like a dying ember. Kaguya Eiko stood at the head of thirty elite clan shinobi, her jaw tight with fury. Her orders had been clear: find the Amamiya convoy, crush them, and erase their name from the valley. The thirty Hanabira-marked banners fluttered behind her like pale ghosts as they moved toward Wangyang Hill—a quiet stretch of land perfect for slaughter.
When they arrived, Eiko raised a hand, eyes sharp and alert. "Check the area. Traps first. Then the perimeter."
Her troops nodded and vanished into the underbrush, their sandals whispering over damp leaves.
Minutes later, the scouts returned. "All clear, Eiko-sama. No sign of enemies."
Eiko frowned. Something felt wrong. The report she'd received from that masked informant—Sombra, was it?—echoed in her mind. If it was a lie, then they were walking into their own graves.
Still, retreat meant cowardice. "Set the traps. Layer the seals. We'll wait."
Kunai were planted, detonation tags hidden beneath the grass, and thirty killers vanished into the dusk. The air turned heavy with anticipation.
Amamiya Raizen led his clan's small column through the forest path. The wagons creaked behind them, loaded with supplies they could barely afford to lose. His voice cut through the night.
"Alright, we stop after this hill. Camp before dark."
The shinobi sighed in relief. They'd been marching since dawn. Mud caked their armor, sweat glued their hair to their faces. A few even smiled. Bad omen.
The ground gave a sudden snap.
A front-line carriage lurched downward as the soil collapsed. Raizen's stomach dropped a second before the explosion hit.
"Detonations! Scatter!"
The world turned white and red. Fire tore through the convoy as chained explosions rippled through the hillside. Kunai screamed out of the woods, tails flickering with live tags.
"Enemy attack!" someone shouted, but Raizen was already moving.
"Earth Release—Wall Formation!"
Dozens of chakra walls erupted from the ground, shielding what remained of their supplies. Smoke filled the air. The heat was suffocating. Through the chaos, Raizen counted the loss in his head—supplies gone, men dead. A third of their strength reduced to ash.
But the survivors rallied quickly. Amamiya shinobi weren't strangers to ambushes. They tightened formation, their eyes burning with vengeance.
Raizen jumped onto the tallest wall, scanning the treeline. "You think I can't see you?"
His hands blurred through signs. Chakra roared inside him.
"Dust Release: Primary Disintegration!"
A white cone of light burst from his palms and swept across the woods. Trees, traps, and shadows evaporated into nothing—molecules undone by sheer will.
Hidden in the trees, Kaguya Eiko's eyes widened. "What… what kind of jutsu is that?"
She'd heard rumors about the Amamiya leader wielding a forbidden chakra nature—something beyond elemental release. Seeing it firsthand was something else entirely. The air where the light had passed was just… gone.
Fear coiled in her gut. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe Sombra had set her up.
Eiko exhaled, forcing calm, but in that tiny break of focus her chakra slipped—just enough for a sensor of Raizen's caliber to notice. His Sage Mode senses flared, locking onto her position.
"Found you."
He vanished.
Eiko barely had time to blink before a black blur appeared before her. A glint of metal, the whisper of death—then pain bloomed across her throat.
Her fingers touched the wound in disbelief. Blood bubbled between them. She tried to speak, but no sound came. Raizen's special kunai gleamed faintly under the last light of day.
Her knees hit the ground. Then nothing.
Raizen didn't even pause. His voice was low, cold. "Dust Release: Realm Dissection."
A second wave of light shredded the clearing, erasing half a dozen Kaguya in an instant. Those who remained froze, horror plastered across their faces.
"Finish the rest," Raizen ordered.
The Amamiya clan surged forward with renewed ferocity. The Kaguya ambushers—once so confident—crumbled like paper before the storm.
By the time the flames died, silence returned to Wangyang Hill.
Raizen climbed back onto the wrecked wagon and sat down, exhaling through his nose. "So much for diplomacy."
The blood in the dirt steamed as night swallowed the battlefield.