"Ding… Dong…"
That damn system tone again.
Amamiya Raizen opened one eye. The sound meant something new had triggered—but right now, he had a camp to build and a thousand anxious shinobi to keep alive.
The Amamiya coalition was busy fortifying the Blade Gorge, carving a camp into the rock. The open plain by the cliff wall was already crawling with tents and smoke. Water Style users soaked the ground, Earth Style teams raised barriers, and someone was yelling about latrine placement like it mattered in a war.
Then came the shout.
"Patriarch! Movement ahead!"
Raizen turned, the faintest smirk tugging at his mouth. "Finally."
He motioned with two fingers, and within seconds, a few hundred Amamiya and allied shinobi moved into formation behind him.
"Let's go greet our guests."
They sprinted out of the gorge, chakra surging underfoot. The forest ahead was thick and quiet—the kind of quiet that meant trouble was hiding behind the trees.
Sunlight broke through the canopy as they emerged from the shadows. Raizen squinted—and saw it: a glint of metal slicing through the light.
"Attack!"
Kunai clashed in the next heartbeat, metal screaming against metal. The first line hit hard—blood sprayed across the dirt before half of them even finished shouting.
Raizen didn't slow. He slipped his hand into his pouch, slamming a chunk of clay onto the ground. The small white spider that formed twitched once.
"Go."
The explosion ripped through the front line, black smoke twisting through the trees. Kaguya shinobi screamed as the blast tore through their ranks.
"Be careful! Explosives!" someone shouted, but it was already too late.
Raizen flicked his wrist, sending a Flying Thunder God kunai forward. The instant it embedded into a trunk, his body vanished in a shimmer of light.
The Kaguya weren't idiots—they knew the jutsu. The moment he disappeared, they tensed, weapons raised.
"There!" one shouted.
A bone blade flashed, meeting Raizen's kunai mid-swing with a sharp clang. Sparks scattered across both their faces.
Raizen caught the man's wrist, palm pressing briefly against his chest—then retreated in a blur before the Kaguya could react.
The Kaguya shinobi blinked, confused. "What the—?" He checked himself. No wound. No seal. Nothing.
Raizen was already gone. He reappeared a few meters away, moving through the battlefield like a phantom—blink, kill, vanish. Each time he appeared, another Kaguya fell, throat crushed or chest shattered by Rasengan.
It didn't take long before the Kaguya line began to break.
"Retreat!" one of them shouted. The survivors fell back into the forest, disciplined even in withdrawal.
Raizen stood amid the smoke, breathing steady. "What are they playing at…?"
He didn't have to wait long to find out.
Within the hour, the Kaguya came back. Then again. And again.
Twelve hit-and-run raids in a single afternoon—each one small, fast, just enough to keep the Amamiya forces from resting.
"Guerrilla tactics, huh?" Raizen muttered. "Cute."
He respected the move, even if it was exhausting. His troops were tense now, twitching at every rustle. The constant skirmishes frayed nerves faster than blades could. Still, by sundown, the Amamiya camp was nearly complete—defenses solid, supplies unpacked, guards posted.
"Patriarch! Kaguya forces approaching again!"
Raizen groaned. "Of course they are."
He led a unit out once more. Same pattern—quick clash, few casualties, Kaguya pull back. Predictable. Annoyingly so.
But as Raizen and his squad began to return to camp, something felt… wrong.
The retreating Kaguya suddenly stopped halfway through the forest. And from behind them, shadows moved. Hundreds. Then thousands.
Raizen's stomach dropped.
Shit.
The main force had been waiting all along.
Kaguya Takemoto's voice echoed from the treeline, low and cold. "Kill them all."
The forest erupted.
Thousands of Kaguya shinobi surged forward like a flood, chakra flaring red and blue under the moonlight.
The Amamiya sentries barely had time to shout before blades slit their throats. The first defense line collapsed in seconds, screams mingling with the roar of exploding tags and shattering jutsu.
When the main camp heard the noise, Raizen was already running.
And then—
"Enemy attack!!!"
The night sky burned.