"Now—no matter what—calm the people first!"
Raizen's voice was low, rough, but steady.
The three senior shinobi before him exchanged grim looks and bowed slightly.
After the death of Patriarch Amamiya Gen, panic had become a living thing inside the camp — whispering through tents, seeping through every heart.
Raizen sat alone after they left. The chair beneath him felt too large, too heavy. For the first time, he understood what responsibility truly weighed like — heavier than any blade, heavier than any battlefield.
"If I fail here... the Amamiya name dies."
He clenched his fists.
Outside the walls, the Kaguya Clan were circling like wolves, waiting for weakness.
If he faltered, everything Gen had built — every life, every dream — would vanish into ash.
"I need strength," he muttered. "Enough to crush their doubts... and to face that clan head-on."
But strength like that didn't come from training alone.
For years, Raizen had felt something sleeping deep inside his chakra — a strange resonance, born from his lineage and awakened through sheer defiance of death itself. Now, in the silence of the patriarch's chamber, that power stirred.
White light gathered at his palms, faint at first, then blinding.
A whisper echoed within his mind — not mechanical, but ancient, like the will of his ancestors.
'Prove yourself worthy, Amamiya Raizen.'
He exhaled sharply. The air trembled. A seal burned itself into his chest, and with it came knowledge — a lattice of energy spinning in perfect harmony.
"Dust Release…?" he breathed.
The air itself seemed to recoil.
It was the fusion of three elemental chakras — earth, wind, and fire — converging into a single, annihilating art.
A jutsu that didn't simply destroy matter — it erased it, reducing all to dust and void.
He raised his hand, testing the energy.
A small white cone shimmered into being.
"Dust Release: Origin Realm Dissolution Technique!"
The cone fired forward like a lance of light — a roaring column of white that cut through the forest below.
Trees, stone, and soil dissolved into glittering particles — then vanished. Silence followed. Only a blank scar remained where the forest had stood.
Raizen stared, heart pounding.
"With this... I can protect them."
But even this newfound power had limits. The chakra drain was immense — enough to cripple most shinobi after a single use. Yet the Amamiya bloodline carried deep reserves, and Raizen's mastery of Sage Mode meant he could sustain it longer than anyone else.
He looked toward the horizon — toward the distant smoke that marked the Kaguya camp.
"No more waiting," he said softly. "I'll bring the fight to them."
What Raizen didn't yet know was that across the plains, the Kaguya Clan was already moving.
Rumors had reached them — whispers of the patriarch's death, of chaos within the Amamiya.
They fed the flames gladly.
Within hours, word spread across the Land of Fire:
"Amamiya Gen fell in battle — slain during an attack on the Kaguya supply unit."
At first, Amamiya shinobi refused to believe it. But when five severed heads — the escort team that had left with Gen — were found hanging from spears outside the Kaguya camp, even the bravest hearts cracked.
By dusk, the once-disciplined Amamiya forces were unraveling into panic.
Raizen stood at the edge of the camp, watching men and women who had once fought proudly now shout and argue, fear drowning their spirit.
"Damn it…" He clenched his teeth. "If this keeps up, we'll fall before the war even begins."
He took one last breath, feeling the storm gather in his chest.
The light of Dust Release flickered faintly in his palm — a reminder of what he now carried.
A weapon strong enough to turn the tide... or consume him with it.
...
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