"Kaguya Takemoto! Your opponent is me!"
The man's voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
Takemoto's cold gaze locked onto his challenger. "You think you're worthy to face me, Amamiya Raizen?"
"Worthy?" Raizen scoffed, flashing a wolfish grin. "You're not even on the list."
The moment the last word left his lips, Raizen vanished—chakra flaring, lightning crackling across his body like chained thunder. Chidori. The air split with a shriek, and the first of the Kaguya fell screaming before they even saw the blade.
"Die!" Raizen's snarl was drowned out by the explosion of light.
"Don't ignore me!" Takemoto roared, tearing a bone spear from his shoulder and hurling it with killing intent.
Raizen felt the air scream behind him—too fast to dodge—but he didn't. His kunai tore through another Kaguya's throat, a clean cut, before his own body flickered out of existence. The spear pierced only empty ground.
"I told you," Raizen's voice whispered from the void, reappearing right beside Takemoto. "You're not my equal."
Chakra surged around him in waves, blue heat thick as mist. His veins bulged, eyes bloodshot with intensity.
"Eight Inner Gates… Dōmon, open!"
The air cracked. Raizen blurred forward. His kick landed with a sonic boom, shattering Takemoto's forearm with a sickening crack.
Takemoto staggered back, disbelief twisting his features. "Impossible! My bones—"
But Raizen was already moving again.
Takemoto gritted his teeth, bones erupting from his body like jagged armor. His speed spiked, his power magnified. Now he matched Raizen's fury blow for blow, every strike thunderous, every movement lethal.
"Tch. You're tougher than I expected." Raizen flexed his numb wrist, smirking despite the pain. "Guess I'll stop holding back."
"Afraid already?" Takemoto barked a laugh, tearing another bone from his broken arm and wielding it like a blade.
"Afraid?" Raizen's chakra flared gold. "No. Just done wasting time."
Golden light flooded the battlefield. A massive Buddha-like aura towered behind him, radiating killing intent instead of peace.
"Sage Art: Senju's Wrath!"
The golden construct brought its fist down with the weight of a mountain. The ground split apart. Takemoto barely rolled aside, but his men weren't so lucky—four, five of them were crushed to pulp beneath divine light.
"Still standing?" Raizen sneered, sending another glowing fist crashing down.
In the distance, the Amamiya coalition finally arrived, drawn to the beacon of destruction. Thousands of shinobi surged forward, surrounding the exhausted Kaguya from every direction.
Raizen glanced back at them once and smirked. "Good timing. Surround him."
With that, he vanished again—flashes of Flying Thunder God light cutting through the dust.
Elite Jōnin struck from every side, their blades catching what little light the fires offered.
Takemoto fought like a cornered beast, blood and bone flying. "If the Kaguya must die—then we die in battle!"
He roared and lunged, his entire body bursting with sharpened bone spines.
"Then die already."
Raizen appeared behind him, palm crackling with lightning, and slammed his hand into Takemoto's back. The light bloomed once more, and Takemoto's scream echoed across the ruined field before his body fell still.
The Kaguya resistance was broken.
Far to the south, the remnants of the clan stumbled into the camp of Kaguya Kuma. Their clothes were torn, their eyes hollow. Kuma listened to their tale in silence—the fall of Takemoto, the slaughter, the destruction of their homeland.
His fists trembled, but his voice remained calm.
"The Amamiya won't stop. The Land of Fire has no place left for us."
He turned toward the horizon. "There's an island nation across the sea. If the mainland won't have us, we'll make our future there."
The Kaguya packed only what they could carry. By dawn, ships pushed off from the coast, creaking over dark water.
As the mainland faded behind them, a deep melancholy settled over the survivors. Some wept openly; others stood silent, staring at the fires in the distance that marked the graves of their kin.
Kaguya Kuma watched the shrinking continent, the land that had birthed and buried his clan.
"The Kaguya will endure," he whispered, though his voice cracked on the wind.
"Even if the world forgets us."