Raizen's eyes narrowed as he sized up the Ueshi ninja in front of him. Hatred boiled beneath his calm exterior, a cold storm ready to break. The Flying Thunder God kunai left his hand, a streak of death hurtling toward the enemy.
The Ueshi ninja barely registered the movement before the invisible snare of Raizen's kunai hung over his head.
"The Ueshi clan has attacked our Amamiya again and again," Raizen growled, voice low and lethal. "Now they dare strike our home and butcher our people. That hatred burns in me, and it should burn in all of you! Follow my lead—kill every last one of these bastards!"
The Amamiya ninjas turned toward him, stunned at first. But when they recognized Raizen, the shock melted into something fiercer: pure, unrelenting hatred. Thoughts of friends and family slaughtered before their eyes ignited a savage fire within them.
"Kill them! Avenge your family!" one ninja roared, crimson eyes blazing.
Humans, even trained shinobi, can only hold so much grief. The Amamiya clan erupted as one, surging toward the Ueshi ninjas with a ferocity born of vengeance. Raizen allowed a thin, grim smile—his words had worked.
Then he joined the fray. The Flying Thunder God kunai became an extension of his will, leaving afterimages that danced across the battlefield. To the Ueshi ninjas, it was as if death itself had split into a dozen forms. Panic flickered in their eyes, and that hesitation was all Raizen needed.
"Rasengan!"
A spinning sphere of chakra collided with a Chūnin, vaporizing any chance of reaction. The Ueshi staggered back as the first of their numbers fell, terror spreading through their ranks.
Four Jōnin roared to rally their troops. "Do not retreat! If the rear of the Amamiya falls, our clan dies!"
But the Amamiya's hatred would not be denied. With Raizen leading the charge, the enemy's precision crumbled under sheer, unbridled force. Ten minutes later, one-third of the Ueshi ninja lay dead. Among them, a Jōnin had fallen to Raizen's merciless strike.
"Dead!" he hissed, unleashing the Flying Thunder God again. The Jōnin didn't even have a chance to react; the kunai pierced through chest and armor in a single, perfect motion.
The Amamiya shinobi who had been cornered stopped mid-fight, eyes widening as the pressure around them eased. With renewed confidence, they pressed the advantage, counterattacking with precision.
Raizen moved like a whirlwind of death—ice escape, explosive clay, Flying Thunder God, and the Eight Inner Gates combined into a relentless torrent. Every Ueshi ninja caught in his path fell, one after another, until only one Jōnin remained, surrounded and desperate.
"The Ueshi clan… is defeated," the last Jōnin howled, fury and disbelief warring in his gaze. This was their final gamble: victory meant survival; defeat meant extinction. But it was already too late.
The elite Ueshi ninjas who had dared attack the Amamiya—four Jōnin and over twenty Chūnin—had been annihilated. Two-thirds of their Chūnin lay dead, their clan's history shattered in a single battlefield. Raizen's arrival had not just saved the Amamiya clan; it had rewritten the fate of two families.