"As expected, the Sand Village shinobi came to intercept the Stone Village team," Shibi Aburame said, his voice low and measured.
"Yeah." Seiran nodded, frustration flickering across his face. "Who would've thought the so-called large-scale material trade was actually a setup by Sunagakure?"
After using his own methods to probe for intel, the results had surprised everyone. The mysterious seller moving huge quantities of supplies through the black market was Sunagakure itself—one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. The deal was bait, pure and simple. Lure in naive buyers, let them commit to the purchase, then move in from behind and collect the cash.
A classic con. Seiran couldn't help but think it wouldn't hold up long before everything fell apart.
Sunagakure was the weakest of the five great villages. It took real audacity for them to attempt something like this. But when he thought about it, the logic made sense. In the original timeline, the Third Shinobi World War erupted partly because the Third Kazekage disappeared. Iwagakure had gotten beaten into submission by Konoha and had to beg for peace. It wasn't surprising that Sunagakure was making a desperate move now.
"Seiran," Shibi said, his expression serious. "Sunagakure sent Pakura and Rasa. If we jump in blindly, our chances of winning are slim."
Shibi was confident he could handle one elite jonin solo, but two? That was a different beast entirely.
"Don't worry," Seiran replied with a smirk. "We don't have to fight them. We just have to ruin their plans."
Shibi considered this for a moment, then a grin spread across his face as understanding dawned.
"Right. I almost forgot about your little trick."
---
In the forest below, the battle had already turned one-sided.
The Stone Village shinobi were completely outmatched. Trapped between two elite jonin, they couldn't mount any real defense. One by one, they fell.
Taiseki watched his comrades die right in front of him. His eyes went bloodshot. Veins bulged across his forehead as rage consumed him.
"Damn you!" he roared. "Even in death, I'll take you with me!"
His hands flew through hand seals. He slammed his palms into the ground, and chakra erupted from him like a tidal wave.
"Earth Style: Mountain Breaker Jutsu!"
The ground beneath his feet split open. Massive hemispherical walls of earth rose up on either side, then began grinding toward each other with crushing force.
"Pathetic," Rasa said coldly. He raised his hands, and countless particles of gold dust erupted from beneath his feet. Golden tendrils shot upward, bracing against the closing walls.
The two forces clashed with a sound like thunder. Debris rained down as cracks spread across the stone like spiderwebs.
Taiseki had chakra left—plenty of it—but this wasn't a one-on-one duel. He glanced over his shoulder and his heart sank.
His comrades were already dead. Cut down by Pakura and the other Sand Village shinobi in just moments.
The last Iwa shinobi fell beside him, bloodied hand clutching at his pant leg.
"Lord Taiseki..." the man gasped. "Run..."
Something inside Taiseki snapped.
A massive wave of force exploded from his body. The earth roared toward the sky. Blood and tears streamed from the corner of his eye.
The wall Rasa was holding trembled violently, squeezing inward.
"Damn it!" Rasa cursed, leaping backward to escape the attack's range. "Fall back! This technique is too strong to block head-on!"
Without Rasa's chakra maintaining them, the gold dust tendrils shattered. The massive walls slammed shut with a deafening boom, forming a stone tomb. Any Sand Village shinobi who hadn't escaped fast enough was buried alive.
Rasa narrowed his eyes, staring at the collapsed mountain.
"He's completely out of chakra after a technique like that."
He didn't move in himself. Instead, he gestured to one of his shinobi as dust settled over the area.
"Yura, finish him."
"Got it!"
The Sand Village shinobi named Yura pulled a kunai from his pouch and crept toward the tomb. As he got closer, he saw Taiseki kneeling on the ground, panting heavily. Completely spent.
"Die!" Yura's eyes twisted with malice. He thrust his kunai at the back of Taiseki's head.
Then—
Crack.
Before the blade could land, goosebumps erupted across Yura's body. A chill shot straight up his spine. Before he could even process the sensation, a blue flash split the air.
His head exploded.
Brain matter and blood splattered everywhere. The remaining Sand Village shinobi froze in absolute shock, unable to comprehend what had just happened. They hadn't even seen it.
Taiseki's eyes widened in disbelief. He immediately forced the last trickle of his chakra into the ground.
"Damn it! Don't let him escape!" Rasa's voice cracked with urgency.
The Sand Village shinobi snapped to attention and charged toward Taiseki.
Then the second arrow arrived.
This one was even more devastating. It shot straight through the unsuspecting group of Sand Village shinobi.
Flesh tore apart. A scream of agony echoed through the forest as the arrow punched through one shinobi's chest, sliced through the abdomen of another, and finally pinned the third to the ground through the thigh.
Three kills. One shot.
"Who's there?!" Rasa's pupils contracted as he roared in fury.
At the exact moment he shouted, his hair suddenly stood on end. A terrifying chill erupted directly behind him. Some primal instinct forced him to stop and channel every ounce of gold dust he could summon into a defensive shield.
A blue light flashed. It shattered the lower limbs of a Sand Village shinobi standing nearby, his internal organs spilling onto the ground.
Silence.
Only the screams of the dying remained. No one dared move. Fear hung over them like a suffocating fog—fear that the blue light of death would descend on them next. They could only watch helplessly as Taiseki disappeared into the forest.
When no more blue lights appeared, they finally breathed again.
"It's... it should be gone," Yura stammered, his voice shaking.
"I don't know," another shinobi said, wiping sweat from his brow with a trembling hand.
Rasa dispersed his gold dust shield and ordered coldly, "Search the area. The attacker should have left."
The remaining Sand Village shinobi gritted their teeth and moved forward to investigate.
"An arrow," one of them said, holding up what he'd found. It was a slender metal projectile with a flat body—unlike anything they'd ever seen before.
Rasa's eyes narrowed. What kind of jutsu could give an arrow that much power? While they were fighting, he'd been aware of his surroundings. There had been no shinobi within at least a kilometer.
Could the attack have come from that distance?
Impossible.
"Rasa," Pakura said indifferently, "I think you should prepare an explanation for the Kazekage. This mission is a complete failure."
The two had never gotten along. If the Kazekage hadn't ordered Rasa to lead, she would never have followed his commands.
Rasa's expression was grim. Taiseki had escaped, which meant Iwagakure would learn exactly what Sunagakure had done today. The village would pay a heavy price for this.
"Who the hell was it?" he snarled through gritted teeth.
---
A kilometer away, high in the branches of a massive oak, Seiran lowered his electromagnetic railgun. A faint smirk played at the corners of his mouth.
He adjusted his grip, feeling the lingering tingle of recoil through his Electromagnetic Manipulation. The shot had been perfect. Wind speed, humidity, gravity, his Byakugan's targeting angle—all factored in automatically. The weapon was responding beautifully at Level 2.
Rasa and Pakura were too panicked to sense him at this distance. A kilometer was well within his effective range now.
Taiseki had escaped. That was what mattered. The Stone Village would find out about Sunagakure's ambush, and the tension between the two villages would reach a breaking point.
Seiran slung the railgun over his shoulder and melted back into the shadows. He needed to return before anyone noticed his absence.
Another step forward, he thought as he moved silently through the trees. Electromagnetic mastery is rising. The railgun is more stable. And now, Sand Village and Stone Village will tear each other apart.
He checked his status window mentally.
[Electromagnetic Force LV2 (0/6000 EXP to next level)]
6000 EXP until Level 3. That's a lot, but I'll manage. Plenty of power to make a real difference now.
As he moved through the forest, one thought consumed him. The Third Shinobi World War was coming. He could feel it in his bones. But this time, things would be different.
He wouldn't let the Hyuga Clan be sacrificed.
He wouldn't let his family bleed for the "Will of Fire."
Not again.
Let's see how the village elders react to this chaos, he thought, his smirk widening. This is only the beginning.
Seiran vanished into the darkness, leaving nothing but the faint scent of ozone in his wake.