Ryusei was in the middle of his usual training session by the steaming hot springs, his breath steady, movements sharp and methodical.
He wore his standard black training gear, body glistening with sweat and mist, the faint hum of chakra pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.
It felt like any other day—until it didn't.
In the next instant, every instinct in his body screamed.
His sensory web hadn't even fully formed, yet his danger perception spiked so violently that his body moved before thought could catch up.
The ground erupted beneath him.
Enormous yellowish chains tore through the earth, glowing with sealing chakra.
To his left, a towering magenta-colored Susanoo materialized, its blade unmistakable—the Totsuka Sword, gleaming with an eerie, divine light.
Overhead, blue orbs of ghostly flame descended like meteors, while from the far right, serpentine dragons of violet fire surged toward him, hissing and spiraling through the air.
At the same time, Ryusei sensed something crawling up from deep underground—an ominous pressure, suffocating and ancient—and another flicker, a shadow darting around him faster than sight.
For a heartbeat, his mind processed the impossible.
Then instinct took over.
"Too many. This isn't a battle—it's an execution."
He didn't hesitate.
Physical escape was impossible; the entire perimeter was sealed.
He couldn't risk summoning a new Katsuyu fragment to trigger a reverse summon toward the Shikkotsu; it would take too long, and the enemy would connect in some way before the summoning even completed.
But Ryusei always planned for the worst.
Around his sector, hidden under rocks, soil, and water, dozens of small Katsuyu fragments were scattered like invisible lifelines.
Without wasting a second, his chakra pulsed outward, locking onto the nearest one.
His body vanished in a blur of blue light—just as the Susanoo's blade cleaved through where he stood.
In the next instant, he reappeared miles away, near the edge of the valley, where another slug fragment awaited.
His senses immediately reached further, locking onto the next one positioned near his hidden laboratory, his real home and base of operations.
He could already feel the distant presence of Kanae, Renjiro, and Kiyomi there.
Without delay, the nearby slug pulsed faintly, reacting to his chakra signature.
A second later, the air warped—and Ryusei was reverse-summoned straight toward the laboratory.
Ryusei frowned as the world steadied around him.
Ryusei found the situation strange—unnervingly so.
He recognized none of the chakra signatures closing in, yet every one of them radiated tremendous power, spread across different spectrums of Kage level.
There wasn't a weak one among them.
But what unsettled him most was not their strength; it was their similarity.
The flow of their chakra, the uniform undertone within their energies—cold, constant, hollow.
His expression darkened as the realization clicked.
"Edo Tensei…"
That explained the unnatural steadiness, the lifeless precision.
Each of those presences was reanimated, bound souls of the dead, twisted into weapons once more.
He gritted his teeth. "So that's how far they've gone this time."
For a moment, he weighed his options.
He could take everyone and retreat to the Shikkotsu Forest, safe behind its natural barriers and Katsuyu's protection.
However, that would compromise his entire main laboratory and living hideout—everything he had built, studied, and hidden for months.
After all, even though the laboratory itself was carefully placed geographically and was hidden beneath layers of the most advanced fuinjutsu seals possible, he and Ashina had crafted, it wasn't foolproof.
If the enemy managed to linger nearby for too long after expelling him out, they would eventually probably uncover it—and with it, countless world-shifting discoveries Ryusei had spent a very long time building, all of which would fall straight into his enemies' hands.
And beyond that, he despised this feeling—being in the dark, forced to react instead of dictate.
He wanted to see who they were exactly.
Who was leading the attack on Konoha's side and how?
He wanted to understand what was going on overall.
He took a deep breath, mind shifting into cold calculation.
No panic, no hesitation. Only movement.
He knew he had to keep the enemy occupied long enough for everything in the laboratory to be transferred safely to the Shikkotsu Forest.
So, without hesitation, he formed a quick sequence of seals.
Several shadow clones appeared around him, each understanding their task instantly.
"Secure the lab," he ordered.
They nodded once and vanished in flickers of blue light, moving to carry out the evacuation.
The real Ryusei turned sharply and strode down the narrow corridor toward the laboratory's central chamber.
The metallic tang of active chakra seals filled the air, humming faintly against the reinforced walls.
Inside, Kiyomi, Kanae, and Renjiro were already waiting, each of them reacting the moment he appeared.
"Guys, we're under attack," Ryusei said flatly. "Edo Tensei—five, maybe more. All at the Kage level. It's most likely Konoha after me again, after all this time. But don't worry, I'll summon every strong ally I can reach currently. We hold them off at least until the evacuation's done. Once I give the signal, I'll teleport everyone out. My clones are already clearing the lab."
Kanae's Byakugan flared without a word, after she nodded calmly, her veins rising as she scanned the perimeter.
Renjiro cracked his knuckles, smirking faintly. "Finally, some action."
Kiyomi's Sharingan whirled once before settling, her tone cool and steady. "Understood."
She was here for two reasons: first, because she refused to leave Ryusei alone any longer, especially not with Kanae constantly nearby, her quiet "rival", his teammate, she found more about over time.
And second, because Ryusei himself had sensed for months that danger could eventually come for him here, and he wanted every strong ally within reach, especially someone with her kind of potential.
Ryusei, this time, meanwhile, didn't linger.
He extended his chakra outward in a focused pulse, one meant for only a handful of people to detect, all across this familiar, small nation, which would help him in the current situation.
Far away, in the hidden southern valleys, on the shore directly across the forgotten Land of Whirpools, Ashina Uzumaki paused mid-step.
The pulse reached him clearly.
He had been scouring the world for the few barely remaining survivors—scattered remnants of his decimated clan—and had recently established a small sanctuary for those willing to help him rebuild, directly across their hometown symbolically, and the place was near Ryusei, always geographically.
Now, Ryusei's telepathic voice echoed in his mind.
"Ashina. Konoha struck first. Edo Tensei. I need you here."
Ashina's jaw tightened. "On my way."
Meanwhile, Ryusei's consciousness flickered across his sensory network, dozens of clones scattered across the Land of Hot Water, each serving as a silent sensor and relay node.
One in the far north eventually glowed brighter than the rest.
Orochimaru's sector.
He linked to it at once.
Through the sensory connection, the clone relayed everything—enemy chakra data, terrain structure, battle coordinates—along with Ryusei's precise instructions on what to tell Orochimaru.
"Konoha broke the ceasefire," he transmitted. "They came for me personally. Tell him I'll hold until I can't."
Meanwhile, the clones inside were already moving fast, scrolls, notes, and vials vanishing into storage.
"Damn," Ryusei muttered quietly, glancing once at the newly created mess in the sealed containment room.
He hated doing this—packing up in chaos, abandoning his setup—but there was no choice.
It had been a long time since Konoha had managed to corner and suppress him like this, yet that feeling was impossible to forget.
His survival instincts flared sharper than ever again.
He was, before anything else, a survivor in this world.
Never arrogant—just calculating.
With a quick seal, another small Katsuyu fragment appeared on his shoulder.
He ordered, voice even.
"Reverse summon Tsunade here."
At the same time, he activated his southern network of sensory clones stretching all the way toward Fugaku's Kiri front in the Land of Fire, sending a pulse of information through the link—he was under attack and needed support.
They were allies now, and Fugaku would perhaps understand the urgency.
However, Ryusei was not sure whether he could arrive on time.
After all, Fugaku was perhaps even farther away than Orochimaru in the north, and unlike Ryusei and Orochimaru, he didn't have any reverse-summoning tricks to close the distance.
However, truthfully, Ryusei wasn't even sure Orochimaru, the biggest "shut-in" in the entire world currently, would bother leaving his underground lair at all now for him, after being shut in already for so many months before this.
No, the ones he was really counting on now were Ashina, who was closest to him currently physically, also in the south of this smaller nation, and who had already started moving toward him, as he was sensing, and Tsunade.
But as the message spread, Ryusei's senses picked up another disturbance, large-scale movement.
Entire ANBU and Root divisions, likely mobilized to intercept or confuse his own troops, cutting off any possible reinforcements to him from his section before they could reach him.
They were probably already branding him as a traitor or something similar.
Ryusei was certain that if they'd gone this far, his chess pieces around the Daimyo were already under attack, or about to be.
Otherwise, the Hokage's faction would never have dared to make such a bold move.
A split second later, a powerful chakra signature flared right behind him.
Tsunade finally appeared inside the laboratory.