The Fire Country was burning with chaos—figuratively and almost literally. Eight hundred Kaguya clan shinobi fled south like cornered animals, while the Amamiya coalition and allied clans tore through the forests in pursuit.
The Kaguya's ancestral lands weren't far from the southern border, but reaching it meant crossing through multiple hostile territories. The retreating force didn't care. They stormed through foreign lands, leaving confusion and blood in their wake.
When the Kaguya army stumbled into other clans' borders, the locals panicked at first, thinking an invasion was underway. But once the truth spread—that the once-feared Kaguya clan was on the run, hunted like prey—the air across the Fire Country shifted.
The story traveled faster than chakra through a battlefield. The Kaguya clan, famed for their brutality and arrogance, had been crushed. No one had expected them to fall so completely. Eight hundred shinobi reduced to terrified fugitives, scattered and bleeding.
In reality, the Kaguya still had the numbers to fight. But their homeland was gone, their supply lines burned. Takemoto had no choice but to flee south, hoping to find Kaguya Kuma and regroup under his protection. It was a desperate gamble, and everyone knew it.
To the rest of the ninja world, though, the message was clear:
The Kaguya Clan was finished.
And the Amamiya were rising.
The pursuit dragged on through the day. The Kaguya ran ragged, their movements erratic, like a pack of starving dogs chased by wolves. A few stragglers fell behind—Amamiya kunai caught up with them soon enough. By dusk, dozens of Kaguya were dead, but most still fled on, breathless and furious.
Raizen, watching from the front of the chase, finally lost patience.
"Tch. This is taking too long."
He broke formation and vanished in a flicker of light. When he reappeared, it was right in front of a Kaguya jōnin.
"Amamiya Raizen?!" the man gasped.
The only answer was a flash of steel. Raizen's blade slit the man's throat cleanly, blood spraying across his armor before the body hit the ground.
One strike. One kill.
The Kaguya ranks froze. Then, chaos.
"Amamiya Raizen! How dare you come here alone!" Kaguya Takemoto roared, veins bulging in his neck. "Kaguya warriors, cut him down!"
"Dust Release—Primary Disintegration!"
Raizen clasped his hands together, chakra flaring white-hot. A blinding cube of energy exploded from his palms, swallowing several charging Kaguya shinobi whole. In an instant, they were gone—disassembled into dust and wind.
"Blood Burial!"
One survivor screamed, his body erupting with ivory bone spines that ripped through his skin like knives. His eyes burned with madness as he lunged forward.
"The Dance of the Shaved Grass!"
He spun like a blur, slicing through Raizen's water dragon jutsu in a storm of shattered spray and white light, then charged headlong toward him.
"Persistent, huh?" Raizen muttered, pulling out several marked kunai. They flew through the air—then he vanished again.
The bone-armored Kaguya blinked in confusion.
"Behind you!" one of his comrades screamed.
Too late.
A giant Rasengan whirled in Raizen's palm, humming like thunder.
"Big Ball Rasengan!"
The impact shattered the Kaguya's bone armor and hurled him backward. His spine snapped audibly before he hit the dirt, twitching once, then went still.
Takemoto's howl echoed through the forest. "Raizen!"
He tore two massive bone spurs from his shoulders, wielding them like blades as he charged. Sparks flew as they clashed—Takemoto's brute strength against Raizen's speed and precision.
Even for Raizen, fighting an elite Kaguya jōnin head-on wasn't smart. But with the Flying Thunder God technique, he didn't need to win directly. Every flicker of his teleportation kept Takemoto guessing, every kunai mark a trap waiting to spring.
Realizing this, Takemoto gritted his teeth. "Kaguya Tō! Lead the clan south! I'll hold him off!"
"But, Takemoto-sama—"
"Go! That's an order!"
The younger commander hesitated only a heartbeat before obeying. The remaining Kaguya fled once more, their desperation pushing them beyond exhaustion.
Raizen watched them disappear into the distance. He sighed, lowering his Rasengan as his eyes hardened.
"This ends here," he muttered, chakra flaring again.