"If my chakra pool were bigger... could I really summon twenty-five Susanoo at once, like Madara Uchiha in the legends?"
The thought hit Raizen mid-training. Madara had the body of a sage and Rinnegan eyes—basically a walking nuclear reactor of chakra. Raizen, on the other hand, was running on what he liked to call "mid-tier Kage energy." A terrifying gap, both in power and chakra reserves.
That's why Madara could unleash a small army of Susanoo, while Raizen could barely keep his up for five minutes before his body felt like burnt meat.
Still, the idea made his pulse quicken. The gamer in him whispered, "If you can't match Madara's energy bar, optimize the loadout."
So he trained harder.
When one colossal blue Susanoo rose in the camp, the shinobi gasped. When ten appeared, panic rippled through the entire army.
They called it "training." It looked more like the apocalypse.
Ten days blurred by. During that time, Hyūga Tennin and his forces stayed holed up in Qishui Gorge, guarding the twin valleys like paranoid hawks. The other fronts saw minor victories, but the Hyūga front remained the key.
After a full ten days of recovery and chakra refinement, Raizen was ready to move again. His next target: Hyūga Tennin himself.
Confidence burned steady in his chest now. He had Three Tails sealed within, and with it, enough raw chakra to challenge an army of ten thousand.
When word spread that Raizen planned to march south, the camp exploded with energy.
Ten days of waiting had built up tension thick enough to choke on. The shinobi pounded their fists against armor, the sound echoing through the night.
Qishui Gorge wasn't far—about a day's march—but it wasn't exactly next door either. Raizen had camped further back to avoid being surrounded, since Tennin commanded more than ten thousand troops.
Now that the offensive had begun, Raizen led five thousand shinobi forward, banners snapping in the wind.
When they reached a narrow canyon near Qishui, Raizen didn't bother to hide. His arrival was loud and deliberate, dust clouds announcing him long before the scouts did.
Tennin received the report but didn't send anyone to intercept. He wasn't stupid.
Raizen's five thousand weren't an easy bite to chew—and if Tennin moved too early, it'd become a full-scale battle on Raizen's terms.
So, he waited.
The Hyūga's Byakugan watched everything from the shadows, tracking every step, every chakra flare.
The terrain of Qishui Gorge was complicated: cliffs, narrow trails, and thick fog near the riverbed. Tennin's men had been fortifying there for months.
Raizen knew charging head-on was suicide.
The Konoha Allied Forces built camp fast. In less than a day, the valley transformed into a fortified base—palisades, watchtowers, and seal barriers humming with chakra.
Once settled, Raizen ordered reconnaissance.
Scouts were sent toward the gorge... and never came back.
Every single one of them vanished.
Hyūga Tennin had anticipated this—his own ambushers were buried all over the terrain, snuffing out Konoha scouts before they could even signal.
Raizen stood over the latest empty report scroll and exhaled slowly.
"So that's how we're playing it."
He turned to his aide. "Form a vanguard. Five-man squad. Their job is to sweep out Hyūga ambushes and hidden sentries. I want this area clean."
The messenger bowed. "Yes, my lord."
This time, Raizen chose carefully—Inuzuka, Aburame, and Hatake.
Perfect balance.
Inuzuka and Aburame for tracking and recon—fangs and bugs.
Hatake for the strike—blades sharp enough to carve through shadows.
Within hours, the vanguard set out. But the Hyūga weren't passive either. They sent their own small squads to intercept.
For three straight days, small battles erupted across the no-man's-land between the two armies—brief, bloody skirmishes fought under the fog-choked sky.
The dead were left where they fell, their chakra slowly fading into the cold soil.
The air reeked of death and ozone.
"Found anything, Inuzuka?"
A whisper cut through the forest. Aburame Funato emerged soundlessly behind Inuzuka Hideki, his voice monotone as ever.
Hideki jumped, growling. "I told you not to sneak up on me like that!"
Funato tilted his head slightly. "My apologies. I'll… pay attention next time."
Hideki sighed, tension bleeding out. "You said that last time."
The rest of the squad regrouped, crouching among the undergrowth. Hideki sniffed the air, then lifted a leaf from the ground.
"The scent's fresh. They're nearby."
Funato frowned behind his collar. "Strange. My kikaichū didn't sense anything."
That was bad. The bugs rarely missed. Which meant either the Hyūga had found a way to suppress chakra traces… or something worse.
"Doesn't matter," Hideki said, baring his teeth. "We'll flush them out."
The five-man team moved through the trees, quiet as ghosts, until they found a narrow cave hidden behind moss and stone.
They stopped. No one wanted to say it, but everyone knew.
Going in blind meant walking straight into a death trap.
Hideki exhaled, fingers twitching toward his kunai pouch.
"Guess we're knocking anyway."
And with that, the first vanguard stepped into the dark.