Chapter 88: The Kaguya's Desperation, Part 2
"Patriarch! Patriarch!"
A lone Kaguya clansman, covered in dust and blood, stumbled through the chaotic battlefield and collapsed at Kaguya Wei's feet.
"Zero?" Wei's heart plummeted. "You were assigned to guard the clan lands! Why are you here?!" He already knew the answer, but a desperate, foolish hope made him ask.
"Patriarch… our home…" Zero gasped, his body wracked with pain and exhaustion. "The Senju… they attacked. They slaughtered everyone. I… I was the only one who escaped. Yu was with me, but he… he didn't make it."
The last shred of hope evaporated, replaced by a cold, consuming rage. "The Senju… you vipers!" he roared, turning his fury on Hashirama. "So the Uchiha spoke true! You knew we would be here, so you went behind our backs and burned our home to the ground! You want to exterminate the Kaguya? Then I will make sure you remember the cost!"
With the arrival of the Senju, the tide of battle had turned decisively against the Kaguya. Seeing his clansmen being cut down, Kaguya Wei's expression shifted from rage to a grim, fatalistic resolve.
"Patriarch, no…!" an elder cried out, understanding dawning on his face.
"Bone Guard!" Wei commanded, his voice cutting through the din of battle. "Fifty of you, with the Second Elder and the remaining clansmen—retreat! Everyone else, to me! Cover their escape!"
The elite Bone Guard moved with disciplined speed, forming a protective cordon around the small group of survivors. The Second Elder, Kaguya Jin, fought against the current, trying to reach Wei's side.
"No! I will not leave you! Wei, let me stay!" Jin screamed, his voice raw.
"Jin!" Wei's voice was softer now, filled with a terrible finality. "Go. You are the last hope of our clan. Our home is gone. Take them… take them to the Land of Water. The future of the Kaguya… I leave it in your hands."
The words were a physical blow. Kaguya Jin stared for one last, agonizing second, then gave a sharp, tear-filled nod. He turned, and with the thirty remaining clansmen and their fifty Bone Guard escorts, they broke through the Senju-Uzumaki lines, fleeing eastward toward the coast.
"Patriarch Hashirama! They're escaping! Stop them!" Uzumaki Arashi shouted, his voice tight with fury.
The Third Elder of the Senju clan stepped forward, his tone respectful but firm. "Patriarch Uzumaki, with all due respect, you will not give orders to our patriarch on the battlefield. Even if you are Lady Mito's father."
Hashirama, however, was not listening. He stood frozen, his mind reeling. Kaguya Wei's accusation echoed in his head. The Uchiha had warned him of the Kaguya attack, yet the Kaguya homeland had been destroyed. He, Hashirama, had given no such order. The only other clan with the power and audacity to pull off such a devastating raid while pinning the blame on another was…
The Uchiha.
Before he could process the horrifying implication, a cataclysmic surge of chakra erupted from the center of the battlefield.
"Patriarch Kaguya, wait! There is a misunderstanding! I did not—!" Hashirama began, but it was too late.
"You think my clansman lied with his dying breath?!" Kaguya Wei screamed, his body beginning to glow with a terrifying, bone-white light. "If we are to die here, we will take a kingdom with us! Bone Release: Dance of the Secluded Bone Forest!"
He formed a final hand seal. The dozens of loyal Kaguya warriors who had stayed behind with him did the same, a network of identical, glowing marks appearing on their bodies. They were not just covering the retreat; they were a living, walking bomb.
The resulting explosion was not of fire, but of bone. A forest of jagged, white pillars erupted outwards in every direction, growing at an impossible speed. It was a tsunami of calcified death. The shriek of tearing bone drowned out the screams of the Uzumaki and Senju shinobi who were instantly impaled, their bodies shredded by the uncontrolled growth.
Even Hashirama, with his god-like power, was forced back, a sharp fragment of bone gashing his arm as he raised a massive wooden wall to shield those he could. The cost was staggering.
As the dust and splinters of bone settled, revealing a landscape transformed into a grotesque, white graveyard, a pair of crimson eyes watched from the shadows far beyond the carnage. The Sharingan spun slowly, taking in the perfect scene of devastation.
A cold, satisfied smile touched Uchiha Madara's lips.
"Now," he whispered into the night. "We strike."