"The patriarch of the Cypress family?"
Raizen froze mid-step at the voice, spinning to see a middle-aged man standing before him. His tone was cold, authoritative:
"Who dares storm my estate, attack my family, and show their face here?"
The man's eyes blazed as he spat out his name.
"Who am I? Did you forget whose hands ended your clansmen?"
Raizen's lips curved into a grim smile.
"So… it's you."
Baimu Baimu's body trembled, disbelief clashing with fury. All along, he had suspected someone had been manipulating the feud between the clans, but evidence had eluded him. And now—here stood the orchestrator, admitting responsibility with brazen audacity.
"What… what do you want?" Baimu Baimu's voice shook, though he fought to mask it.
Raizen's reply was simple, sharp, and cold:
"Isn't it obvious? Kashiwagi and Jane have ruled Yicheng long enough. It's time for a change."
"You brat!" Baimu roared, realizing too late that the entire night had been a setup. He lunged at Raizen in a flurry of rage.
Raizen chuckled under his breath. Typical. Patriarchs always think head-on attacks will crush morale.
Steel met steel in the heart of the Cypress estate. Raizen moved with lethal precision, a blur of calculated strikes. At the same time, Amamiya Gen clashed with Jinen Takuto, the patriarch of the Jane clan, their battle echoing across the streets.
The surprise forces of Baimu and Jane froze mid-attack when the distant fires of their estates caught their eyes. Fury burned in their hearts—they couldn't ignore the blaze—but duty forced them to pivot, racing back toward their homes to see the devastation.
For five agonizing minutes, Raizen and Baimu Baimu exchanged strikes. The patriarch had suffered grievous wounds, yet Raizen couldn't press the first decisive blow—both were locked in a deadly stalemate.
"Young patriarch! The enemy's reinforcements are returning!" a voice shouted from the Amamiya ranks.
Raizen's eyes narrowed. The news was good: the returning forces meant the enemy's ambush units had been diverted, giving him an opening.
Seizing the moment, Raizen unleashed his hidden trump card:
"Chidori!"
Lightning arced from his hands, scorching Baimu Baimu's ankle. A scream pierced the night, and Raizen leapt back, putting distance between himself and the patriarch.
From the shadows, he molded clay into two massive dragons, their forms twisting and writhing as they came to life.
"All ninjas, mount up! Leave this to me!"
"Yes, Young Patriarch!" his troops responded, knowing Raizen's deadly tendencies all too well.
One by one, the clan ninjas leapt onto the clay dragons, soaring into the night sky. Raizen chewed through a third of his clay supply in the palm of his hand, focusing chakra, preparing the next move.
Below, the Kashiwagi clan mistook the Amamiya retreat for fear. They exhaled in relief as their elite forces returned, unaware of the true threat descending from above.
Raizen finished his preparations, and with a flick of his hand, a single doll fell to the ground. It expanded rapidly, silent at first, before erupting in a devastating explosion.
"Boom!"
The ground cracked, the earth turned to dust, and flames engulfed the Cypress estate. Shock froze the remaining ninjas in place as a towering mushroom cloud rose above the inferno.
The Amamiya clan watched from their dragons, awe and fear coiling in their stomachs.
"The Young Patriarch… destroyed the Baimu clan in a single strike," one ninja whispered, voice trembling.
Raizen nodded calmly. The 18th Ninjutsu technique, unleashed at only a fraction of its potential, had obliterated the entire estate. One full-scale release… could level half of Yicheng.
"Half stay to secure the battlefield. The rest, follow me to support Gen-san," Raizen commanded.
Even though the Cypress clan had been reduced to ash, the Amamiya troops obeyed. Some remained to ensure no survivors slipped through, while the others flew toward the Jane clan, ready to strike.
The explosion had shaken Yicheng to its core. Civilians and soldiers alike trembled, some thinking the city itself was quaking. Instead, a massive mushroom cloud rose over the Cypress estate, a grim monument to the Amamiya clan's ruthlessness.
The city had just woken to a new reality: the Cypress family was no more.