Kaguya Tani was terrified.
He possessed the strength of an elite jōnin and the iron bones of his clan's kekkei genkai, yet under Amamiya Raizen's cold stare, he felt anything but safe.
That gaze—it wasn't just watching him. It was dissecting him. Every twitch, every shift of chakra—Raizen seemed to see through it all.
"Damn it!" Tani snarled, fury and panic twisting together. He lunged, bone spurs bursting from his arm like jagged blades.
Raizen didn't even flinch. His form shimmered—and vanished.
By the time Tani blinked, Raizen was already at his side. A flash of light trailed in the air as his kunai traced a fine line across Tani's ribs. Blood scattered in the wind like rain.
"Bastard!" Tani roared, spinning, bone spikes erupting from his spine.
But Raizen's voice came from the right. "Too slow."
Another flash—another cut.
Blood sprayed again.
"I told you," Raizen's voice dropped to an icy murmur. "No matter where you run, no matter what you try… you can't hide from me."
Tani staggered backward, gritting his teeth. How? The Flying Thunder God Technique was supposed to be lost to time, yet this kid wielded it like second nature.
"This is impossible…!" He scanned the battlefield desperately. His clan's line was breaking; the Amamiya were pushing through with brutal precision.
The plan's failed, Tani thought grimly. If I stay, that white barrier will tear even me apart.
Then—black liquid seeped from his skin.
It pulsed like living tar, spreading faster than chakra could flow. His eyes went wide. "What… what is this—"
The substance tore free from his body and sank into the ground. Tani collapsed, limbs twitching before falling still.
Raizen's eyes narrowed. "So that's it… Black Zetsu."
Everything clicked into place. The erratic orders, the suicidal tactics—Tani hadn't been fighting of his own will. He'd been a puppet.
The Kaguya soldiers froze as their commander's body hit the dirt.
"L-Lord Tani?!" one of them shouted, horrified. The rest instinctively stepped back, fear spreading faster than flame.
Raizen surveyed the chaos. The Kaguya ranks were breaking; disbelief and terror were already eating away at their formation. Pursuing Zetsu now would be pointless.
First came the cleanup.
His hands snapped together.
"Dust Release: Primary Realm Stripping Technique!"
A white geometric barrier exploded forward, swallowing a cluster of Kaguya shinobi. Their bodies disintegrated into glittering dust before they could scream.
"He's dead?! Lord Tani is dead?!" someone screamed.
That was all it took. Panic erupted. The Kaguya formation shattered, their morale collapsing.
"Retreat!" a senior Kaguya jōnin shouted, voice trembling. "All units, retreat!"
Even the proud warriors of the Kaguya hesitated, but self-preservation won. They turned and ran.
From the other side, Hanabira Shinji, patriarch of the Hanabira Clan, saw it unfold and raised his voice in triumph.
"The Kaguya are retreating! Hanabira Clan—forward!"
His words ignited his troops like gunpowder. The Hanabira shinobi surged forward, kunai gleaming, shouting war cries that split the night air.
Raizen's lips curved faintly. "Time to finish this."
He flashed into the disarrayed Kaguya ranks, scattering them like leaves in a storm. The retreat turned to a rout. Bodies fell, screams echoed, and blood soaked into the mud until it was black.
Then the Amamiya reinforcements arrived.
Their arrival was wordless but coordinated. As they clashed with the retreating Kaguya, both sides moved like predators—no hesitation, no mercy.
Raizen's voice cut through the din: "Amamiya shinobi! Erase every last Kaguya!"
"Yes, Raizen-sama!"
Kunai, fireballs, and detonating tags filled the battlefield. The Amamiya shinobi pressed forward, driven by fury and exhaustion alike.
The Kaguya were finished. Their chakra reserves were drained, their command dead, their supplies lost. They were wolves turned lambs before the Amamiya onslaught.
Raizen didn't bother with speeches. His hands formed another seal.
"Dust Release!"
White light erupted again. The front lines of the Kaguya simply vanished.
And that was it.
The proud Kaguya clan—once feared for their monstrous strength—finally broke. Their line dissolved as individual survivors fled in all directions, abandoning comrades and corpses alike.
The Amamiya and Hanabira forces pressed the advantage, their coordination cutting down stragglers one by one.
Within minutes, the battlefield fell silent.
Over a hundred Kaguya shinobi lay dead, their bones jutting through the mud like the remnants of a failed uprising.
Raizen stood amidst the carnage, breath steady, eyes cold. The wind carried the stench of iron and ash.
"Another clan buried," he murmured. "And people still call this the Warring States… as if there's ever peace between wars."
...
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