The Akayama Clan sank into utter despair.
For them, this was a night of calamity.
Selling village intelligence to Kirigakure had indeed been their crime.
But they had already intended to stop.
And yet they learned that Rasa, the Kazekage, already knew everything—and was prepared to punish the clan for it.
If it had been some lesser offense, perhaps they might still have found a way out.
But this was treason against the village.
What kind of punishment awaited the Akayama Clan?
Rasa had not approached them in private.
He had already coordinated with the other high-ranking figures of the village and kept only the Akayama Clan in the dark.
What did that mean?
It meant the punishment awaiting them would be enormous—so enormous that the clan could never bear it.
Under such circumstances, only two choices remained.
Run.
Or fight.
And then, just at that moment, Rasa's secret meeting with the female Uchiha gave the Akayama Clan what looked like a perfect opportunity.
Even if it might have been a trap.
Even so, no matter how they thought about it, they could not imagine how one man—Rasa—could pose any true threat to the entire Akayama Clan.
There were no other shinobi nearby.
No traps had been laid in the area.
But now... they finally understood.
Rasa possessed an overwhelmingly powerful jutsu, one that not a single person in all of Sunagakure had known about.
With one technique, he had manifested three hundred sand puppets.
Each of them was formidable.
Each of them fought without fear of death.
Each of them was maddeningly difficult to deal with.
Those three hundred sand soldiers were like a net, locking the Akayama Clan in place.
Then came Yatagarasu.
And with its arrival, final judgment descended upon the clan.
It did not even need to aim.
All it had to do was bombard the ground below, and everything would end.
"No!"
They could not withstand it.
They simply could not.
All the Akayama Clan members could do was watch, helpless, as one clansman after another died—blown apart by explosions, flesh and blood flying, bodies charred black.
Others were pierced clean through by spears.
Some sand soldiers even grabbed Akayama ninja and dragged them straight toward the places where the explosive eggs were about to land.
Yatagarasu cried out in excitement.
Then several more explosive eggs fell.
When the smoke and destruction finally began to settle, the sounds below had grown much quieter.
Because far fewer people were still alive.
Before, there had been hundreds of Akayama shinobi.
Now, only a few dozen remained.
The sand soldiers charged those remaining few without pause.
The Akayama ninja sank further into despair.
"Why?"
"How did this happen?"
"Why is Rasa this strong?"
"What kind of jutsu is this?"
Once again, the sand soldiers formed a tightening ring.
Even under Yatagarasu's bombardment, their numbers had fallen somewhat—but compared to the Akayama Clan, their losses were far smaller.
First, because Yatagarasu had not really been aiming; most of its bombardment had been centered on the Akayama ninja.
And second, because even if a sand soldier lost an arm or a leg, it could still keep fighting.
The circle grew smaller.
Dozens of Akayama ninja stood back-to-back.
One man's eyes were bloodshot.
"Damn it! Let's fight them to the end!"
Another said hopelessly, "What's the point? They're just sand puppets!"
"Damn you, Rasa!"
"Is the Akayama Clan really going to be annihilated here tonight?"
"Heavens are unjust!"
Some began blaming Akayama Tsuchiha.
"Akayama Tsuchiha, this is all your fault!"
"If we had just fled, none of this would've happened!"
"That's right! It's your greed! You wanted the Kazekage seat!"
"And now you've dragged us all into dying with you!"
"You were never fit to be clan head!"
"If not for you, the Akayama Clan would never have betrayed the village!"
Akayama Tsuchiha turned back to look at them, his face full of disappointment.
Everything he had done had been for the sake of the clan.
Yet now his own people spoke to him like this.
And this outcome was the last thing he had wanted.
A trace of regret surfaced in his heart.
"These clansmen... were not worth it."
He raised his head and looked toward Rasa high above.
"Rasa! Come down and fight me properly!"
"Hiding up there in the sky like a coward—what kind of Kazekage does that make you?"
"If you have the guts, come and face me fairly!"
Rasa gave a cold laugh.
"Akayama Tsuchiha, isn't that a little absurd?"
"My jutsu and my summon are both part of my power. Since when do they not count?"
"You think you can provoke me into coming down and giving you an opening? How naïve."
"Stop struggling. Accept your death."
Rasa snapped his fingers.
At once, the sand soldiers launched their final charge.
Puchi!
Puchi!
Puchi!
Spear after spear plunged into Akayama flesh. Blood poured from the wounds and spread across the ground, gathering into little streams, and from streams into pools.
Then, in the next moment, the sand soldiers vanished.
Part of the chakra used to sustain them returned to Rasa's body.
Rasa raised a hand to deliver the final blow.
"Magnet Release: Great Gold Sand Funeral!"
The earth around them suddenly surged.
An immense quantity of sand boiled upward, forming a towering circular wall that surrounded the remaining Akayama ninja.
And then—
It crashed down.
Boom!
In that instant, the remaining Akayama shinobi were swallowed, buried, and entombed beneath the sand.
Yatagarasu could not help recalling the moment Rasa had subdued it.
Its entire body buried.
No sky.
No light.
A chill of delayed fear ran through it.
Rasa sensed the shift in Yatagarasu's emotions and casually waved a hand.
The giant bird flapped its wings at once and fled the area in a hurry.
Rasa clenched the hand he had raised.
Immediately, the sand mountain tightened.
The crushing pressure came down in an instant upon the buried Akayama ninja, snuffing out the last of their lives.
Only then did Rasa lower himself slowly to the ground on the gold sand beneath his feet.
By now, the abandoned training ground had completely disappeared.
There was not the slightest trace of what it had looked like before.
And as for the Akayama Clan ninja who had come here tonight—
Not one survived.
The towering sand mound stood there like a grave.
Then came the sound of countless footsteps from all around.
Figures rushed toward him at incredible speed.
"Kazekage-sama!"
"Kazekage-sama!"
"Greetings, Kazekage-sama!"
Patrol shinobi.
Nearby villagers.
And most of all, Sunagakure's upper echelon—village leaders and the heads of various ninja clans—all of them had heard the commotion and rushed over.
And what they saw was a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
Hundreds of Akayama Clan ninja had been trapped here and slaughtered in a single night.
And from beginning to end, the only one who had acted was Rasa alone.
One man against one clan.
The annihilation of the Akayama Clan.
And not even his sleeves were dirtied beyond a faint stain.
What kind of power was this?
Everyone looked at the figure standing at the center. Their emotions differed, their thoughts differed, but at that moment they all shared a single realization—
On this night, Kazekage-sama's name would shake the entire shinobi world.
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