Time was a concept that lost its meaning within the walls of the Kyuketsuki.Seasons came and went above the surface — empires rose, clans fell, and the world drowned in endless bloodshed — yet beneath the earth, in the stillness of crimson stone, a new power was quietly taking root.
A century had passed since Akira's rebirth.
The Warring States Period raged on. The Uchiha and Senju had become the two pillars of an era defined by violence.The smaller clans aligned, betrayed, and died in their wake.And through it all, the Kyuketsuki watched — unseen, untouched, and growing.
The Lord of the Abyss
Akira sat upon his throne of carved obsidian, his eyes half-lidded as streams of crimson mist flowed around him like gentle waves.
The air itself seemed to bend under the weight of his presence.His hair — long and silver-white — shimmered faintly even in darkness. His eyes no longer simply glowed red; they burned, swirling faintly like twin galaxies of blood and void.
His aura was suffocating, yet eerily calm. It didn't radiate power the way chakra did — it absorbed it. The very atmosphere within the chamber seemed to collapse inward, devoured by his existence.
Naoki stood several steps below him, still outwardly young due to their kind's eternal nature, though her eyes had grown colder.Rai knelt beside her, his body marked by the faint lines of runic tattoos that pulsed with dark-red light.
"My Lord," Naoki said softly. "Our influence in the surface world is complete. Half the merchant routes in the western territories belong to us. The rest are controlled through intermediaries. Money, supplies, and weapons all pass through hands we control — none the wiser."
Akira didn't respond immediately. He simply rested his chin against his hand, lost in thought.
'The humans fight and kill for land... yet they never see that true power comes from control. They're children with swords.'
He looked at Naoki."And what of the chakra lines?"
"They're as you predicted," she said. "The Senju and Uchiha push for dominance over the same regions, drawing their battlefields over ancient ley lines. The constant bloodshed has saturated the land with energy — ripe for harvesting."
A faint smile crossed Akira's lips."Perfect. When blood and chakra mix long enough, they leave traces of essence. And essence... feeds us."
He stood slowly, and the air seemed to hum in response.Every step he took left faint ripples of energy on the floor, distorting the air around him.
Rai lowered his head instinctively. The weight of Akira's presence alone was enough to make him tremble — not from fear, but reverence.
Naoki had long since grown used to it, though even she knew Akira had evolved beyond what any of their kind could comprehend.
The old vampires had spoken of the Crimson Ascension — a mythical threshold reached only by one who devoured both life and chakra until they transcended both.No one had ever achieved it.
Until now.
The Path to Ascension
It hadn't come easily.Akira had spent decades experimenting — merging the essence of his clan with the energy of captured shinobi, perfecting the balance between life and power.
Every drop of blood he drank, every shinobi that died in his hands, brought him closer to understanding the nature of existence itself.
He learned to separate chakra into its base elements — yin and yang — and weave them into his own blood essence. The result was not chakra in its traditional form, but something deeper.
The Crimson Current.
It flowed through him like liquid fire, neither physical nor spiritual, yet encompassing both. It was the reason why even powerful sensory types could no longer detect him.His presence existed outside the normal spectrum of chakra perception.
To mortals, he was nothing.To gods, he was invisible.
The Web of Control
Over the decades, the Kyuketsuki had become more than a clan — they were a system.
Their influence seeped into the foundations of the world.
Merchants who traded between warring clans unknowingly worked for them.Smaller clans received weapons through intermediaries that traced back to Kyuketsuki vaults.Information, coin, and blood — everything circulated under Akira's silent direction.
They had even begun cultivating a network of informants within the shinobi ranks themselves — not vampires, but humans bound by subtle blood pacts.
Naoki had perfected a method to mark a human's heart with a microscopic sigil of essence.Invisible, undetectable, yet granting total control if activated.
To outsiders, the Kyuketsuki no longer existed.To the wise few who still remembered, they were nothing more than myths.
But to those in the know — the ones who had seen their sigil, or lived long enough to notice the pattern of their influence — the Kyuketsuki were the gods of the dark.
The Age of Clan Leaders
By now, both Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju had become clan heads — legends in their own right.Their battles shaped the fate of nations.Their names carried the weight of fear and awe.
And still, the war raged on.
Akira watched from afar. Not with eyes, but through hundreds of threads — whispers from merchants, spies, and shadows.
Rai stood beside him in the grand observatory, a massive underground chamber lined with blood crystals that reflected visions of the surface world.
"Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara," Rai said quietly. "Their power is unmatched. Entire armies crumble when they meet."
Akira nodded slightly. "Power, yes. But not control."
He pointed toward the reflection of a battlefield — a thousand corpses littered across a plain, two men standing at its center.
"Look closely, Rai. You see war. I see economy, fear, ideology — the perfect environment for us to thrive. Every drop of blood spilled up there strengthens us down here."
Rai bowed his head. "Then why not end them now? With your strength, none could resist you."
Akira turned his gaze on him, eyes glowing faintly."And then what? Become another tyrant in the light? No... I've learned from my old world — the one before this life. Control doesn't require crowns. It requires strings."
He extended his hand, and a thin strand of red mist coiled around his fingers.
"The Kyuketsuki don't rule. We own."
The Whisper and the Fear
In time, strange rumors began to circulate through the upper clans.Reports of villages vanishing in the night.Entire supply routes disappearing without a trace.Scrolls rewritten, memories tampered with, history itself bending slightly out of place.
And beneath those whispers — a name resurfaced.Kyuketsuki.
Most dismissed it as ancient folklore.A few didn't.
Among those few were the clan heads themselves.
Hashirama Senju had seen enough wars to know that some disappearances didn't fit human logic.Madara Uchiha, ever the skeptic, sent scouts to investigate — none returned.
And though they never spoke of it publicly, both men came to the same quiet conclusion.
There was something else behind the endless cycle of war.Something that neither clan could see — but could feel.
The King in the Dark
One night, Akira stood before an ancient mirror deep within the sanctum. His reflection shimmered faintly, surrounded by faint tendrils of crimson fog.
He had long transcended his original limits.His strength now rivaled that of the greatest shinobi — but his power didn't follow their rules.
Where chakra users shaped energy into form, Akira rewrote it.He could silence jutsu before they formed, turn blood into chakra, and even erase presence from existence.
In battle, he was untouchable.In strategy, unstoppable.
And yet... he never stepped into the light.
Naoki entered silently, kneeling."My Lord, the Senju and Uchiha are close to peace negotiations. They may form something new — a village."
Akira's eyes flickered faintly. "A village... stability."
He turned toward her. "Then it's time we shift our role once again. From shadows that feed... to shadows that govern."
He smiled faintly — not out of joy, but inevitability.
"Let them believe they're building a new world. We will make sure it's one they can never truly control."
He raised his hand, and the entire chamber pulsed with red light, as if the world's heart itself had answered him.
"Let the age of peace begin," he whispered, his voice echoing softly."For peace born of blood... is still ours."