The night was quiet, save for the soft chirping of insects. Lanterns glowed across the Kashiwagi estate, but the patrolling ninjas were sluggish, weighed down by sleep.
Raizen moved like a shadow, silent and deliberate. Every step was calculated. He slipped into the Cypress residence, a ghost among the tatami floors, until he reached the innermost chamber. With a soft push, the door creaked open.
"Who's there?!"
Not everyone was as easy a target as those he'd eliminated before. Kashiwa Mujing, the pacifist holding the fragile bridge between clans, was alert even in sleep. One eye flicked open, scanning instinctively. Years of surviving assassination attempts had honed him to react instantly.
"The one who'll kill you," Raizen whispered, his voice low, methodical, stepping closer with a predator's patience.
Mujing didn't flinch. He even smirked. "So many have tried before… and yet here I am. Meanwhile, their graves are overgrown with weeds."
Confident to the point of foolishness, Raizen thought. Good. Overconfidence is a blade I can sharpen.
Moonlight spilled into the room, illuminating the emblem on Raizen's arm. Kashiwa Mujing finally caught sight of it—but too late. Raizen's hands flashed, a Flying Thunder God Kunai spinning toward him. Mujing leapt aside, muscles taut, eyes wide—but Raizen had already anticipated it. A black shadow erupted in front of him, and the kunai gleamed like frost under the moon.
Pain seared across Mujing's neck. Scarlet blood sprayed, painting the tatami as he fell, twitching, his howl piercing the night. Within moments, the estate erupted in chaos.
"Again!"
A Jōnin, recognizing Raizen's style, charged. He had seen the massacre of his own family's ninja days ago and knew exactly who he faced.
"My clan will be finished, just like Mujing," Raizen said coldly, a twisted smile beneath his mask.
The Jōnin's roar split the air as he lunged, and others followed. But Raizen wasn't flustered. Four elite Jōnin, emanating chakra comparable to Ueshi Tokusei himself, converged. Among them was the patriarch of the Kashiwagi clan, Baimu-san.
"Training time," Raizen muttered, crouching slightly. Hands came together as he exhaled, voice low and grim.
"Open the door, close the door, strike the door… Dumen! Open!"
The ground beneath him cracked, splintering under the pressure of his chakra. Red flame-like energy surged along his body, illuminating the flush beneath his mask.
"Let's see what fear really feels like," he whispered, stepping forward. The floor fractured with a resounding boom as he slammed his kick into the charging Jōnin. The air exploded, bones shattered, and blood sprayed from the mangled limbs.
"Everyone… go!"
Shock rippled through the Kashiwagi ranks as Raizen unleashed a single devastating strike. A dozen ninjas lunged together, but the first had already learned what it meant to face a reincarnator turned predator. The night had only just begun, and Raizen was already the storm.