"That chakra just now…"
Amamiya Raizen stood on the ridge, eyes fixed on the smoking wasteland that used to be the Tōjū Clan's stronghold. The earth was scorched, the air still rippling from the last breath of his Dust Release. No movement. No survivors. Just silence and cinders.
He didn't wonder whether any of them had escaped — if they had, they'd live as ghosts. What caught his attention wasn't the aftermath, but something else he'd felt during the fight — a faint, slippery presence brushing against his chakra sense.
He'd felt it before.
And he hated that he recognized it.
"Black Zetsu… that little cockroach actually showed up again."
Raizen's lips curved, but the expression never reached his eyes. He'd lost count of how many times that shadowy bastard had meddled in his path. Every time, the thing stayed just out of reach, whispering chaos into the cracks of history.
If Konoha wasn't still in its fragile expansion stage, Raizen would've already gone hunting. He wanted to rip that parasite out of the world with his own hands.
Still, the timing bothered him.
"If Zetsu's involved with the Tōjū Clan… then was the Nine-Tails incident his doing too?"
That thought made his stomach twist.
According to the original timeline, the Nine-Tails shouldn't have appeared until after Konoha's founding. Yet here, in this rewritten version of the world, it had appeared early — and even fought him directly. Worse, the Sarutobi Clan somehow knew its location before anyone else.
Raizen clenched his jaw. "I asked Patriarch Sarutobi how he found it. He said a 'mysterious informant' told him." His voice hardened. "Looks like that informant wasn't human after all."
The realization settled like lead in his chest. His presence had twisted the timeline beyond repair. Whatever script this world used to follow, he'd already burned it. And now, something older and darker was taking interest.
Black Zetsu — the remnant will of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki — wouldn't ignore someone who could change history.
Raizen exhaled through his teeth. "I need a way to track him… or next time, he'll make the first move."
A faint chime flickered across his vision.
[Achievement Unlocked – Clan Annihilator]
[Reward Pending]
Raizen shut the system window with a flicker of irritation. "Not the time."
He turned his gaze one last time toward the ashes of the Tōjū territory. Then, his Susanoo lifted him into the night, wings of chakra cutting through the smoke as he vanished into the distance.
Half an hour later, in the ruins he left behind, something black and liquid oozed up from the ground.
A pale, eyeless face surfaced, grinning faintly.
"That damn brat's getting stronger. I can't even touch him now."
Black Zetsu's voice dripped with hatred, like tar sliding through cracks.
"If he keeps growing like this… there won't be a single soul in this era who can stop him."
Then the mud swallowed him whole, leaving the field quiet again — only the wind whispering through what remained of the Tōjū.
Raizen didn't stop there.
He moved through the night like a living disaster, descending upon every clan that had joined the Tōjū coalition. His Susanoo's shadow blotted out the moon, and when he spoke, his voice carried like thunder.
"Remember this name," he said as one clan's defenders stared up at the giant figure. "Amamiya Raizen. When you meet the Shinigami, tell him who sent you."
His hand came down.
Amaterasu's black flames swept across the compound, consuming walls, weapons, and screams alike.
No hesitation. No mercy. Not anymore.
Once, Raizen had planned to offer surrender — integration into Konoha in exchange for loyalty. But the Tōjū's defiance, and Zetsu's shadow behind it, had burned that idea to ash. Now, he'd send a message written in blood.
Resist Konoha, and you don't just die.
Your entire name disappears.
Family by family, he erased them. The sky burned crimson above their ruins, chakra storms lighting the night.
By dawn, the Tōjū coalition was nothing but memory.
Raizen stood among the wreckage, Susanoo fading around him. His face was cold, unreadable, his voice hoarse.
"When this news spreads, they'll call me a monster. Maybe they're right. But monsters end wars faster than saints ever could."
He looked toward the horizon where the front lines lay. "With this, the coalition will collapse… Hyūga Tennin should be able to sweep the rest."
Then he turned away, chakra wings unfolding once more as he vanished into the sunrise.
By morning, travelers and scouts stumbled upon the destroyed clan lands. The smell of blood hit first, heavy and raw. Cries echoed as they uncovered bodies under splintered beams and scorched earth.
Within hours, word spread across the northern Fire Country —
Entire clans erased overnight.
No survivors.
The man responsible: Amamiya Raizen, leader of the rising Konoha forces.
And for the first time, the world began to whisper his name with fear.