Chapter 52: The Wrath of Uchiha Raizen
Uchiha Raizen stood at the edge of the camp for nearly half an hour, watching as the sun fully crested the horizon, bathing the world in a light that felt too bright for the day's grim purpose.
Uchiha Tajima appeared silently behind him. "Elder Raizen. Are you prepared?"
"I am," Uchiha Raizen replied. "But the Hyūga clan, they—"
"Enough," Uchiha Tajima cut him off, his voice firm. "I know you are unaccustomed to warfare on this scale. But your role today is simple. Unleash the techniques, then you may withdraw. You need not involve yourself in the rest." He misinterpreted Uchiha Raizen's hesitation for squeamishness.
Hearing this, Uchiha Raizen simply nodded. Arguing for the Hyūga's sake was futile. He was an Uchiha. And the Hyūga had killed Uchiha children—Madara's brothers, clansmen who had never seen battle, innocent lives snuffed out in a sneak attack. The injustice of it, the sheer waste of life in this brutal world, ignited a cold fury within him.
"When do we begin?" he asked, his voice now flat.
"Now."
As Uchiha Tajima spoke, ten ANBU guards materialized behind Uchiha Raizen. They were not mere escorts; they were the clan's elite, prepared to die to ensure his technique was completed. Together, they set out.
They reached the Hyūga clan's defensive perimeter quickly. The first line of defense was, of course, the Byakugan. The all-seeing eyes of the Hyūga, capable of perceiving chakra flows over vast distances, were a formidable obstacle. It was this Kekkei Genkai that cemented their status as one of the three great clans, just below the Uchiha and Senju. Their leader, Hyūga Tōgen, was a master of the Gentle Fist, a peer to Uchiha Tajima and Senju Butsuma.
A Hyūga elder stepped forward, his Byakugan veins pulsing. "Uchiha! Must you push this to its conclusion?! The attack was a misunderstanding! We were framed!"
"A misunderstanding?" Uchiha Raizen's cold fury finally broke its dam. "The Uchiha did not force you to attack us! Your actions resulted in the deaths of our clansmen! Our children! And now you have the audacity to claim we are forcing you?!" Having been an orphan in his past life, he valued family above all else. The Uchiha were his family now, and their murdered children were his kin. This hypocrisy was unbearable.
"We... we didn't—"
"Enough talk! Attack!" Uchiha Raizen roared, his authority as the ranking elder on the field absolute.
"Fire Release: Susanoo's Wrath!"
He unleashed five of the S-Rank techniques simultaneously, holding back five in reserve. There was no visible chakra flow, no hand seals for the Hyūga to read. The very air began to superheat.
Seeing his signal, the ten ANBU guards surrounding him moved as one.
"Fire Release: Concentrated Flame Blast!"
Ten A-Rank techniques erupted from the guards, not aimed at the enemy, but at the five colossal orbs of fire Uchiha Raizen had created. Their purpose was to contain and compress the S-Rank infernos, forcing their combined power to coalesce into a single, cataclysmic blast that approached the SS-Rank. It was a brutal, coordinated effort to amplify destruction on an unimaginable scale. The battle for annihilation had begun.