Morning light washed over the forest as Ryusei's forces emerged from the last stretch of trees.
They moved in absolute silence.
Fifteen hundred shinobi.
Dozens of elites.
And Ryusei's core team at the front.
As they approached Konoha's outskirts, Ryusei felt it first.
A pressure in the ground.
A faint distortion in the air.
Dimensional anchors.
Hidden and woven deep into the land itself.
His otherworldly sensing marked each one clearly, like invisible stakes hammered into reality.
As if they were walking deeper and deeper into a layered net meant to contain them.
He said nothing.
He didn't tell anyone to stop.
Soon, the village gates rose into view.
Ryusei came to a halt.
Orochimaru, Tsunade, Fugaku, Ashina, Nagato, Kanae, Kiyomi, and Renjiro stood beside him.
Their army stretched out like a silent wave behind them.
In front of the gates, Konoha's response waited.
Tobirama. Hashirama. Hiruzen. Mito. Jiraiya. Minato. Hiashi.
And behind them, row after row of shinobi, filling the entranceway, rooftops, and walls.
For a moment, the world stood still.
Wind swept through the cleared field between the two armies.
And then Orochimaru smirked.
A soft, cold sound.
"So this is how they want to do it," he murmured.
He sensed it now, too.
The village in front of them was no longer normal.
Translucent barriers were rising, thin as mist, but strong enough to make the air hum.
A protective dome forming around Konoha from all directions.
And behind Ryusei's army, the ground rippled with dimensional disruptions, like glass breaking under the soil.
They were boxed in.
A battlefield chosen deliberately.
"They intend to fight us right here, in the middle..." Orochimaru said, amused despite himself.
But internally, even he felt a curl of unease.
This was beyond fuinjutsu.
Beyond barrier ninjutsu.
Something spiritual, otherworldly, and dimensional, tied to a force far above the mortal realm.
"It will be difficult to reverse-summon myself out… if I decide to retreat," he thought. "This isn't a normal barrier. Something else is mixed in."
His golden eyes shifted toward the distant figures.
Tobirama stood like a blade forged from winter.
Hashirama beside him radiated overwhelming vitality.
Both of them...
not weaker than Orochimaru's current vessel.
Not by much.
Orochimaru's fingers twitched once, instinctively.
The battlefield they were about to enter was far too sturdy, far too prepared, far too precise.
But then he felt a gaze on him.
Ryusei.
Calm.
Steady.
Completely unbothered by the dimensional cage forming around them.
Orochimaru exhaled slowly.
"Well… with that monster here," he thought, "it's worth trying. He wouldn't have walked into this unless it was optimal. And he always leaves himself an escape."
He straightened his back, the tension easing from his young shoulders.
If the world wanted to trap them here…
Then so be it.
They would just break the world.
Tobirama made the first move.
A faint pulse of telepathic intent brushed against Ryusei's mind — cold, clipped, efficient.
"Have the shinobi behind you enter the village. In what is about to happen, numbers will not matter. Let's save more lives this way on both sides. They are from the village, too, after all."
Ryusei didn't even blink.
He sent a message through his own spiritual link soon, amplified by his monstrous senses.
"Move into the village," Ryusei told his army aloud. "Prepare for the Hokage election. This part… isn't for you."
The troops exchanged uneasy looks.
None of them wanted to stay out here anymore.
Not when they saw who stood across from them.
Not when the air itself felt heavy and wrong.
Inside the village, surrounded by civilians and other clans, they would be safer.
Harder to purge.
Harder to erase in one sweep.
So they moved, a steady flow of shinobi stepping past Ryusei's side and entering Konoha, under the watchful eyes of Tobirama's masked subordinates behind him.
At the same moment, Ryusei spoke telepathically to Orochimaru and Fugaku.
"Don't waste your people here. This will be a battle between monsters, not mortals. If you burn your subordinates now, who will help you rule afterward? And for you, Fugaku… if they're inside, they can help protect your clansmen when the village reacts."
Both men froze.
Then Fugaku nodded sharply.
Orochimaru smirked, but he agreed at once.
They understood perfectly.
Ryusei had never cared about numbers.
He cared about winning.
As their soldiers continued slipping into the village, Ryusei's mind flickered to something else — someone else.
"Backup for the now 'stranded' Uchiha…" he thought. "As if I'd rely only on them entering the village to help. Duy is in position."
Might Duy — the strange, eccentric, unfathomably principled man who had become Ryusei's unexpected taijutsu mentor and philosophical anchor years ago.
Duy, who refused to take sides publicly.
Duy, whose respect for Ryusei had quietly shifted into loyalty over time.
And Duy, who had been secretly strengthened by Ryusei's Yin–Yang new regimen just days ago—at the same time Konoha conveniently sent him on some distant mission because he was too troublesome to kill, due to his fully grown reputation as a hero during this same war, yet absolutely unwanted for today—had his physique tempered through that ritual, by Ryusei, allowing him to use the inner gates far more effectively next too.
He was already inside Konoha.
Unexpectedly, without them anticipating him now as he returned from his mission prematurely on Ryusei's directives just minutes ago.
Waiting.
Not to fight for a village.
Not to fight for a faction.
But to protect the innocents who might be swallowed up in the crossfire.
And among them, the Uchiha children and civilians.
Ryusei's lips curved slightly.
"Good… one more piece in place."
Ahead of them, the battlefield formed.
Behind them, the last of their troops entered the gates.
The trap was ready.
And so were they.
As the last of their subordinates slipped past the gates, Tobirama gave a small nod.
His own forces received the silent order and withdrew as well, leaving only the core figures standing in the clearing.
The air grew heavier.
Ryusei and his group on one side.
Konoha's pillars on the other.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then Tobirama stepped forward.
"Ryusei Nishida Senju," he said. "You chose to walk into Konoha after all. That saves us time."
Ryusei met his gaze calmly.
"And you prepared well to greet me. Pretty brave for a revived corpse propped up by forces you don't even fully grasp."
Orochimaru let out a low chuckle.
"Brave is one word," he murmured. "Desperate is another."
Jiraiya snapped immediately.
"Shut it, Orochimaru. You're only standing here because this kid dragged you down with him."
Orochimaru's smirk widened.
"You think I needed dragging… Jiraiya?"
Minato stepped closer, placing a gentle hand on Jiraiya's shoulder before he could say more.
"Enough. Not today."
His blue eyes landed on Ryusei.
"I don't want this to happen. But you've left us no choice."
Ryusei tilted his head slightly.
Mito's voice cut through the tension next.
"Ryusei," she said quietly. "Her path… Our granddaughter's path... does not have to be yours to corrupt. Come inside, too, Tsunade. Surrender peacefully. The village will judge you, but it does not need to end in ruin."
Tsunade stepped forward instantly, enraged already, her gaze icy toward the so-called family.
"Surrender?" she echoed. "After everything they did? To Nawaki? To my clan? To him?"
Hashirama flinched at her tone.
"Tsunade… you do not understand the whole story. Danzo—"
Ryusei cut him off.
"It's insulting how shamelessly that lie was prepared."
Tobirama's expression sharpened.
"You speak as if you know more than we do."
Silence.
A faint breeze rolled over the grass.
Finally, Hashirama stepped forward, his voice carrying that old softness.
"Ryusei. Please. Enough blood has been spilled. You are powerful. Talented. But if you continue—"
"I will be killed," Ryusei finished for him. "Yes, I know. That's what your 'god' and that despicable giant frog told you all."
Jiraiya stiffened.
Minato's fingers twitched.
Even Tobirama's eyes narrowed a fraction.
Eventually, Hiashi finally stepped forward and broke the strange silence, his face cold.
"Kanae Hyūga. You also stand with traitors and raise your hand against your own clan. After everything we gave you, you choose to shame us like this."
Kanae's gaze did not waver.
"You gave us nothing. You only chained us. And now those chains finally mean nothing to me anymore. Why don't you try testing it now on me again? You don't know how long I waited for this day, in suffocating silence."
Her Byakugan opened fully.
The air around her tightened, pressure rippling outward in a way no ordinary Byakugan could produce.
Even the chakra flow around her feet distorted slightly.
Hiashi's eyes narrowed, but for a split second, something inside him twisted.
Fear.
Recognition.
Confirmation.
So it was true.
The cursed seal on her forehead had failed to activate before when they tried it remotely.
He had hoped it was an error.
A fluke.
A delay.
But seeing her eyes now, alive with a new, oppressive force that made even his own pupils contract—
It meant only one thing.
Her Byakugan had evolved beyond the clan's ancient seal.
Transcended it entirely.
Kanae spoke again, her voice calm.
"For a thousand years, the Main Branch lived by one rule. The side branch bows, suffers, and dies when ordered. But your chains broke. And I broke them."
Hiashi's jaw tightened.
"You dare lecture me? You disgrace three hundred generations of Hyūga discipline. You abandon your own bloodline."
Kanae took one step forward.
"I abandoned nothing. You are the ones who twisted the clan into this shape. Today, I show the world that the Side Branch was never weak. You kept us weak."
Her Byakugan pulsed again.
A thin crack formed in the ground beneath her feet.
Hiashi held his composure, but inside his thoughts churned violently.
'Impossible. That seal was absolute. That system was absolute. How did she…'
His nails dug into his palm.
'Her eyes… transcended it. She surpassed the Main Branch. If she lives, the old system is finished.'
Rage tightened his throat.
He could not wait to kill her.
Hiashi lifted his chin, voice cold.
"You speak boldly for someone who will not live past this morning."
Kanae stared back, expression unchanged. "Try."
Hiashi then stared at her insolent look in rage for a while longer and then realized he had one more reason to deal with Ryusei's group next, and the thought made his blood boil.
It was obvious to him now.
It was that heaven-defying brat who must have been the one who helped her break free of the Caged Bird Seal for the first time in history, like this.
And not only that, she had evolved her Byakugan into something even Main Branch members could not touch.
The only reason he avoided participating in Tobirama's previous raid on Ryusei was that the Hyuga's own Giant Tenseigan on Earth had been used shortly before to repel that mysterious attacker from the moon.
The same monster who had slaughtered their clansmen and stolen Byakugan.
The same one who, Hiashi knew, had awakened his own personal Tenseigan by this point.
The Earth Tenseigan was powerful, practically an infinite source, but even infinite sources needed time to recover.
It had a kind of cooldown.
If he pushed it too hard, if it did not regenerate properly, the entire construct could collapse.
It was a living organism in its own way, built on Byakugan's inherent stability and biological properties, on ancient fuinjutsu, Yin-Yang, and on the accumulated Byakugan of past generations and the constant flow of energy harvested from the sealed eyes of the entire Side Branch.
A "pumping factory", of sorts, drawing toward an ancient technology "converter" hidden far from Konoha, fed by a mysterious ocular energy only the clan's ancestors understood, converted into a usable form of powerful, far-reaching chakra and remotely sent for every generation's patriarch like himself if necessary, through additional technological layers.
Its purpose was simple: protect the Hyuga forever. Their ultimate weapon.
It had originally been created to make those moon-dwellers think twice before ever trying to steal Hyūga's eyes again, like they did during the initial parts of their interwoven history.
In ancient times, that was why the Side Branch accepted the chains willingly.
Because they never realized those were the chains that could be twisted into something else entirely, far more 'sinister'.
They believed it was a noble sacrifice.
A way to protect the clan's eyes from being stolen, and to shield the clan from those overpowered cousins who once hunted them through moon-born portals.
But that original purpose eroded over generations.
What began as a safeguard slowly hardened into a tool of control.
Eventually, it became clear that a clever minority of clan elites had twisted the system, hiding behind noble pretexts to bind the less informed majority.
The Caged Bird Seal became a leash, not a shield.
And now that corrupted hierarchy stood with Hiashi at its peak.
But even with that powerful weapon at his personal disposal now, the current Hashirama and Tobirama, and their followers, together were simply currently way more powerful than the Hyuga's Tenseigan's output at full strength.
The last time, Hiashi cleverly used that "cooldown period" excuse to avoid confronting Ryusei.
But he couldn't hide behind it now, once again, for obvious reasons.
Therefore, he had no choice at the moment whether or not to use it against Ryusei next.
He could not defy Konoha's current power, especially when he also needed the village as a shield against that moon-born monster who had humiliated the Hyuga, stolen their eyes, and could return at any moment.
But the truth was even simpler at this point, he realised.
He wanted to kill Ryusei. He wanted to crush Kanae.
He wanted to vent his rage on both. And now, he finally had the chance.