"Is that the young patriarch of the Amamiya clan? He looks… eleven, maybe twelve?"
The Huaxing clan's ninjas whispered among themselves, their eyes glued to the convoy approaching the clan station. Raizen led the front, the bundles of supplies behind him clinking and shifting with every step. Even at this age, he carried himself like a storm barely contained.
"Quiet!" barked the patriarch of the Flower-shaped Clan. His sharp gaze swept over his own men, silencing the murmurs instantly. Raizen stopped at the edge of the clan residence, waiting for the formal handover from the Flower-shaped Clan's patriarch.
Three tense minutes passed. Then, with a synchronized step, Raizen and the patriarch met in the center of the two clans, clasping hands tightly.
"The Amamiya Clan!"
"Flower-shaped Clan!"
The names rang out together, and the Huaxing ninjas bowed deeply, showing the utmost respect to the 720-strong Amamiya contingent. Though the Amamiya and Flower-shaped clans had only a fragile paper alliance until now, this ceremonial exchange formalized their mutual support. One sentence could have ended it before—but today, the alliance was sealed with supplies.
The logic was brutal but simple: Huaxing and the Daitō Clan were already stretched thin fighting the Kaguya Clan. By sending supplies, Raizen's Amamiya Clan prevented the Kaguya from concentrating their forces, buying time for allies to survive. The Flower-shaped Clan understood the price—Amamiya was the gun, and the Kaguya were the target. Strength dictated survival.
That evening, the Huaxing Clan hosted a grand feast in honor of the Amamiya ninja. Raizen didn't bother hiding his thoughts. Of course there'd be more of these parties… building Konoha is a full-time social game. Still, he knew the value of observing clan politics up close. Negotiation, alliances, respect—all part of the game.
At the height of the feast, the patriarch of the Flower-shaped Clan stood, voice booming across the hall.
"The Kaguya Clan's ambitions are wolfish! They seek to swallow our Flower-shaped Clan. With the Amamiya Clan at our side, we can resist. Today, we officially pledge alliance with the Amamiya Clan. May our unity prosper, and our enemies falter!"
"Flower-shaped!"
"Amamiya!"
The hall erupted in cheers. From this day on, neither clan would stand alone. Raizen allowed himself a subtle smirk—alliances could be formalized in words, but the real strength came from action.
Three days of ceremonial VIP treatment later, Raizen and the Amamiya ninja bid farewell to the Flower-shaped Clan, supplies secured, hearts and minds prepared for the next battlefield.
But Raizen had no idea that chaos had already ignited elsewhere.
Far from the Flower-shaped Clan, within the walls of the Kaguya Clan, civil war had erupted. Patriarch Kaguya Koga fell amid the strife. The Kaguya war faction executed all internal opposition with ruthless efficiency, consolidating the throne under a single hand. By the time scouts could deliver the news, the battle was already over. The conservative faction—shocked, leaderless, and terrified—had no choice but to submit.
The civil strife lasted barely five days, but in that brief span, the Kaguya Clan's internal power structure was rewritten. The war faction strengthened its control, preparing even five-year-old children for combat, while simultaneously using the external conflict to stabilize the clan from within.
The first target in Kaguya's new operation was the Daitō Clan. Positioned closest to the Kaguya heartland, Daitō had maintained a fragile peace—but Kaguya's greed had fixated on one thing: gray grass, the Daitō Clan's vital resource. Essential for medicine, lucrative in trade, and now coveted by Kaguya for both profit and strategic leverage.
The inevitable clash began. Daitō's hold on gray grass was unyielding, and Kaguya was relentless. With internal strife quelled, the war faction now turned outward, setting the stage for another bloody campaign—and Raizen's world was about to be drawn into it.