The convoy ground to a halt in the middle of the forest path. Wheels creaked, armor rustled, and nervous whispers filled the night air.
The Kaguya squad leader frowned. "What's wrong, Kyōhei?"
Kaguya Kyōhei, a lean man with pale hair and veins pulsing around his temples, stepped forward. His expression tightened. "Captain, I'm sensing another chakra signature nearby... but I can't pinpoint the location."
"Oh?"
The leader's tone shifted immediately, hands tightening around his weapon.
Perceptive-type shinobi weren't rare — but accurate ones were worth their weight in gold. Kyōhei's chakra sense was known among the Kaguya as unnatural, almost beastlike. If he felt something, it wasn't a false alarm.
The air grew heavy.
Tch. Great. A sensor-type. Just my luck, Raizen thought from above, watching from the back of his clay bird. The moonlight painted his cloak pale as ash.
He exhaled slowly, hands pressing together. Chakra flowed through his arms, humming faintly as the bird's wings expanded, feathers flaring with faint blue light.
"Alright, let's ruin someone's night."
The bird descended in a slow spiral — the kind that announces bad news.
Kyōhei's eyes snapped wide. "Above! Enemy in the sky!"
The Kaguya ninjas reacted instantly. Kunai flashed, and several sharp bone projectiles burst from their forearms, streaking upward like a white storm.
Raizen jerked the clay bird higher, narrowly dodging the barrage. A few shots clipped the bird's wing, tearing chunks of white clay into the air.
Yeah, that's bone alright. Kaguya clan — the 'I'll stab you with my own skeleton' people. Charming as ever.
The bird screeched, losing altitude. Raizen grimaced. "Alright, fine, we're landing early."
The bird crashed through the treeline and exploded into fragments.
"Now! Attack!"
The Kaguya leader raised his hand, his men charging forward.
Raizen rolled, kunai in hand. He didn't even glance at the incoming blades — his eyes were locked on one man. The sensor.
"Perception types die first."
He threw a marked kunai — the Flying Thunder God's seal flashing faintly.
A blink. A hum.
And Raizen was gone.
A split-second later, he appeared beside Kyōhei, kunai already at the man's throat.
Schlick.
The blade whispered through flesh. Kyōhei's eyes widened, disbelief freezing his expression. His body fell without a sound.
"Kyōhei!" The Kaguya leader's roar split the night. Bone spurs erupted from his arms as he lunged forward, a walking spear of rage.
Raizen blocked with his kunai — the impact rang like steel meeting steel. The shock numbed his arm.
Guy hits like a truck. Guess calcium's a hell of a drug.
He twisted, using the recoil to leap backward, flipping through the air. The leader's next strike buried itself into the dirt where he'd just been.
"Surround him!" the man barked.
Raizen landed on one knee, lips curling into a smirk. "You sure about that?"
He slapped the pouch at his side — clay spilled between his fingers. Tiny spiders formed instantly, each twitching with unstable chakra.
"Fetch."
The spiders scattered across the supply wagons.
BOOM!
Twin explosions split the night, lighting the forest in orange flame. Wood, rope, and metal shattered in every direction.
"Protect the supplies!" the Kaguya leader bellowed, voice cracking with panic.
Half the squad broke off to salvage what they could; the rest charged Raizen head-on.
Priorities, huh. Guess I'll help them make the choice.
He hurled more Flying Thunder God kunai around the clearing, teleporting between them in flickers of light. Each time he reappeared, another Kaguya dropped.
The survivors regrouped desperately, defending the remnants of the convoy.
Raizen formed a hand seal, voice low. "Clay Bird."
A new creature burst from his pouch — larger this time, wings stretching wide as it took form. He jumped onto it mid-run, ascending again into the burning night.
"No, stop him!" the Kaguya leader screamed from below, his voice breaking.
Too late.
Raizen hovered high above the remnants of the convoy. His hand reached into his pouch again, drawing out a final clay doll — his biggest yet.
"This one's for your logistics report."
He tossed it.
The doll fell silently, spinning in the air, and before it hit the ground—
Raizen whispered: "Art is an explosion."
The night became white.
The blast swallowed the world — flame, wind, and shrieking stone. Trees ripped from their roots. The convoy was erased. The shockwave rolled over the land like a god's exhale, visible even from miles away.
Down below, the Kaguya leader's scream was drowned out by the roar of the detonation. His bones, his pride, and his supplies — all vaporized in an instant.
A mushroom cloud bloomed above the forest, stark against the stars.
Raizen stared at it from the bird's back, eyes reflecting the inferno below. Then he grinned.
"Mission complete. Materials: zero. Witnesses: zero. PTSD: probable."
He turned the bird toward the east, where the horizon bled faintly with dawn.
The Warring States... what a great place for an office job, huh.
He vanished into the night.