Kunai clashed like steel raindrops, and the battlefield howled with the sound of exploding tags. The air stank of smoke and sweat. What used to be the Hanabira Clan's front line was now a collapsing mess — bodies in the mud, screams torn apart by thunder.
If the Amamiya Clan had come even a few minutes later, the entire line would've been gone.
Raizen — or what the panicking Hanabira soldiers saw as the "Amamiya Patriarch" — stood high above the chaos on a clay bird. From the sky, the battle looked like an anthill on fire. He exhaled sharply.
Find their leader first. If he's still breathing, the rest will remember how to fight.
He flicked a marked kunai downward, its handle gleaming with the seal of Flying Thunder God. In the next instant, Raizen vanished from the air — and reappeared right between a Kaguya swordsman and the Hanabira Patriarch, whose chest was already half-cut open.
The Kaguya's blade stopped mid-swing. He blinked — and felt his throat bloom open like a second mouth. Blood spilled down his armor before he even realized what had happened.
By the time his body hit the dirt, Raizen was already wiping the kunai clean.
The Hanabira Patriarch staggered back, eyes wide. "A-Amamiya Raizen?! No… Patriarch Amamiya?"
"Still alive, huh?" Raizen's voice was calm, almost lazy. "Good. Hold that thought."
"You—you came yourself? Then the Amamiya reinforcements…"
"They're already in position."
A blatant lie, but morale worked better than medicine.
"Good! Very good!" The patriarch forced chakra into his voice and bellowed across the field:
"Hanabira warriors! Reinforcements have arrived! The Amamiya stand with us!"
The words rolled like thunder.
For a moment, the exhausted shinobi of the Hanabira froze — then someone screamed, "Reinforcements! We're saved!"
The cheer spread like wildfire. Men who were seconds from collapse suddenly found their legs again, and the breaking line knitted itself back together with renewed fury.
Across the field, Kaguya Tani, commander of the enemy clan, narrowed his eyes.
"So, Amamiya dogs finally show their faces." His tone was venom. "All units — no retreat! Break their line or die standing!"
The Kaguya surged forward, bone blades bursting from their arms. The clash of will between two desperate clans turned the plain into a slaughter pit. Every second was a gamble between life and dismemberment.
Raizen moved like lightning through it all. He pressed his hands together — chakra hummed around his arms and condensed into a glowing white cone.
"Let's make this quick."
He thrust forward.
A hum, then silence. Seven Kaguya vanished — erased in a flash of white. Those around them froze, staring at the empty air where their comrades had stood.
"T-that chakra… that's the Amamiya demon!" someone shouted. Panic rippled through their ranks.
Most of the Kaguya on this field had fought in the Great Plains War — and they remembered. They remembered the golden Buddha that crushed armies, the white light that left nothing but ashes. Fear tore through them faster than kunai.
One of the younger Kaguya, too arrogant to know fear, screamed, "Cowards! He bleeds like anyone else!" and lunged.
His body hit the ground before the echo of his words faded. His head rolled a heartbeat later. Raizen's kunai dripped blood as he vanished again in a flicker of light.
One mark. Two marks. Three.
Everywhere he appeared, black flashes followed — and another Kaguya fell clutching a ruined throat.
"Surround him! All at once!"
The order came too late. Raizen's pupils shifted — sage marks crept around his eyes. Gold light erupted behind him like dawn breaking through the storm.
"Sage Art: Senju Kill!"
A golden Buddha rose from the earth, its face serene, its fists merciless.
Each blow it struck landed like a landslide. The ground quaked. Kaguya bodies shattered under the pressure, their famed bones cracking like twigs. Blood painted the battlefield in strokes of crimson and dust.
The Hanabira Patriarch could only stare, stunned by the sight — the calm figure of Raizen standing before the colossal Buddha, eyes like molten steel.
For a moment, even through the chaos, it was hard not to believe in miracles.