"Hashirama!"
Madara's voice cracked the frozen air as he sprinted across the ruined snowfields.
Hashirama turned, relief flickering across his face.
"Madara! Over here!"
Madara reached the edge of the crater, boots skidding on shattered ice. His Sharingan widened.
"…What the hell happened here?"
The entire landscape had been wiped clean — snow vaporized, earth caved in, trees reduced to ash. It looked less like a battlefield and more like a god had swiped the world with a brush.
"And Raizen?" Madara asked.
Hashirama shook his head slowly. "I don't see him. I felt the chakra quake and rushed here… but there's no trace."
Madara's jaw clenched.
"Damn it."
The two split up immediately, combing the entire region.
One hour.
Six hours.
A whole day.
Nothing.
Not even a scrap of Raizen's chakra.
By the end of the second day, their faces were pale in the moonlight.
By the third, they were forced to accept it:
Amamiya Raizen was gone.
And if Raizen was gone, then the fragile peace in Konoha — the only thing keeping Senju and Uchiha from tearing the world apart — was in danger of collapsing overnight.
They had no choice.
They turned back toward home.
Meanwhile — Beneath the Crater
The snow trembled.
Something crawled up from the shattered earth.
A man — burned, clothing shredded, pale as a ghost — dragged himself from the crater.
An Ōtsutsuki.
The alien godling stared down at his chest.
A deep slash ran through him, carved open by Raizen's Totsuka Sword.
Worse — chakra sealed inside the wound, refusing to dissipate.
Even with Rinnegan regeneration, the mark wouldn't heal.
"…That sword," he muttered. "It carries sealing power. Even I cannot purge it quickly."
His gaze swept the ruined landscape… and he laughed softly.
"I suffered injuries, yes. But that insect is dead. A shame I couldn't devour him… but I found new prey."
His mind replayed the sensation of two chakras he'd felt earlier —
one blazing like the sun,
one sharp as a blade.
Senju Hashirama.
Uchiha Madara.
"Yin, Yang… and a trace of our clan's blood. Thin, but real. Kaguya-hime's tainted descendants."
A smile stretched across his face, too wide, too calm.
"Perfect."
He rose into the air and vanished.
The God Who Wouldn't Leave
Half an hour later, he returned.
He scanned the crater with his chakra.
Nothing.
Another thirty minutes—
He returned again.
Still nothing.
"Hmph. That boy truly died. As expected — no one survives my rebuke."
His arrogance settled again, smug and certain.
He left.
The world grew quiet.
Silent.
Still.
Until the snow twisted like a whirlpool.
A ripple of distorted space opened—
And Amamiya Raizen stepped out of Kamui-space, brushing dust off his clothes.
"Finally left. That guy's caution is on boss-fight level."
He exhaled long and slow.
Minus some cuts and bruises, he was fine — because Sage Body regeneration is absurd.
Half an hour, and he was back to full strength.
He hadn't "disappeared" for dramatic effect.
He vanished because:
The Ōtsutsuki clan was even more dangerous than he'd imagined.
He underestimated them.
He won't do it again.
Even if he, Hashirama, and Madara teamed up right now and killed this particular Ōtsutsuki…
the alien would probably have backup, hidden techniques, memory failsafes, or allies.
Raizen wasn't about to stake Konoha's future on guesswork.
So he made a choice:
Play dead.
Let the Ōtsutsuki think he won.
Then hunt him from the shadows.
"And besides," Raizen muttered, cracking his neck, "I put a Flying Thunder God marker inside that last sword strike. Thought you could walk away from me?"
He closed his eyes and focused.
There — a faint pulse, somewhere far to the southeast, over water.
The Ōtsutsuki had retreated to a tiny island in the Land of Water, hiding his wounded pride and healing quietly.
Raizen smirked.
"Perfect. Nice and isolated."
He rose into the air and glided toward the horizon.
Land of Water — A Month of Shadows
The wounded Ōtsutsuki reached a remote island, sealing himself inside a cave to heal for a month or two.
He thought he was safe.
He wasn't.
Two days later, a "local fisherman" with messy hair, dull eyes, and absolutely average chakra showed up in the nearby village.
Amamiya Raizen.
Disguised.
Silent.
Watching.
And slowly, patiently… peeling apart the secrets of the Ōtsutsuki who tried to kill him.