Kaguya's Bones

After a while, the old man's lips curled into a cold arc. "You're just a bunch of guys hiding behind the Sharingan! You want us to be your dogs? That's a pipe dream!"

Kosuke's eyes turned slightly cold. He hadn't expected to easily persuade this group of unruly "wolves" who had been abandoned and hurt.

"Then, the trade..." He slowly scanned the wary crowd, his gaze as sharp as a knife. "I need one man and one woman from your clan who possess the purest bloodline potential."

As he spoke, a faint red glow seeped from the Mangekyo in Kosuke's eyes. He raised his hand and tossed out a sealing scroll.

The scroll automatically unsealed the moment it landed. Amidst the flying dust, the piled-up food, medicine, and a small amount of ninja tools inside gradually revealed themselves, looking exceptionally striking in the dirt.

"In exchange, this is enough for you to eke out an existence in the ninja world!"

The Hagoromo Clan Leader's face contorted instantly. The fingertips of his hand gripping his cane turned white from exertion, his knuckles almost breaking through the skin.

The clan members who had gradually gathered around, their gazes burning like hungry wolves eyeing prey, shifted between the supplies on the ground and their clan leader, bypassing the clan's ninjas.

The wind and sand lifted the corners of their tattered clothes, revealing shriveled ribs and cracked skin beneath.

The old man felt the desperate, pleading gazes of his clan members. He closed his eyes in pain, his aged body trembling uncontrollably.

"Must... my Hagoromo Clan truly be reduced to this?"

Suddenly, he snapped his eyes open. Bloodshot veins surged within his cloudy pupils, and his voice was dry and hoarse. "...Bring them here."

Before he finished speaking, two emaciated children, their eyes filled with fear, were cruelly pushed out of the crowd by their parents, stumbling and collapsing to the ground.

The girl used the last bit of strength within her body to hide behind the boy. Her chapped lips and fearful eyes were just like a startled young deer.

Kosuke nodded expressionlessly and waved for his subordinates to step forward and take the two children.

Then, he didn't spare another glance at the Hagoromo people. He turned and, under countless gazes intertwined with humiliation, resentment, and a sliver of pathetic relief, calmly disappeared from the Hagoromo Clan Land.

"Clan Leader!!" a young ninja cried out, his eyes about to burst, "You... you just let them take away the hope of our clan's future?!"

At this moment, the one-armed old man's once upright posture suddenly stooped, as if his spine had been removed.

"What else can we do?!" the guard captain suddenly turned, his bloodshot eyes sweeping over the clan members. "Look around at your clanmates, look at their hands that can't even hold a kunai steady! Pride?! Can pride fill their stomachs?!"

"If it weren't for..."

The guard captain was about to continue, but was interrupted by a dry cough.

"Shut up!!"

The clan leader suddenly let out a beast-like roar, instantly silencing everyone.

His chest heaved violently, and endless pain and self-reproach surged within his cloudy eyes.

After a long while, he spoke in an extremely weary voice, yet one that still held a trace of his former authority, "Let it be, Third Brother... Tally the supplies and distribute them."

He paused, hunched over, each word heavy as a thousand pounds, "Tomorrow... the Clan Head selection ceremony will be held..."

After speaking, he straightened his hunched back again and, in the deathly silence, walked step by heavy step towards the dilapidated house.

"Clan Head!"

"Clan Head..."

Kosuke, having left the Hagoromo Clan, appeared within the borders of the Land of Water.

He sensed the Kaguya Clan territory, permeated with a strong smell of the sea and the aura of death.

Unlike the desolation of the Hagoromo, the Kaguya Clan still maintained a terrifying ferocity.

But a hint of morbid fanaticism and decay wafted through the air, the unique aura of the Kaguya Clan's Bloodline Disease, present everywhere.

Kosuke went directly to the outside of the Kaguya Clan Land, ignoring the guards, and released his powerful Chakra fluctuations.

He knew very well that he could not adopt the same strategy as with the Hagoromo Clan for the Kaguya Clan.

If he wanted to subdue them, he could only defeat their proud bones!

"BOOM!"

With a deafening roar, the wall of the stone house where the Kaguya Clan Head resided exploded!

As crushed stones flew, a massive, rock-like figure, enveloped in smoke and a violent aura, instantly stood on the open ground inside the clan land's gate.

Kaguya Hōseki!

His half-exposed upper body was covered in ferocious bone spurs and morbidly pale markings.

Irregular bone protrusions bulged beneath his skin, muscles coiled around his bones like vines, filled with explosive power.

His bloodshot eyes flickered wildly between madness and fleeting clarity, his heavy breaths like those of a ferocious beast.

His exposed muscles and bone spurs trembled restlessly, as if ready to devour him at any second.

Hōseki locked his chaotic gaze onto the sudden figure outside the clan land's gate, letting out a guttural growl from his throat, "From the Land of Fire... Uchiha?"

The moment he spoke, outside the gate, Kosuke's eyes suddenly changed!

An exquisite Mangekyo pattern spun and appeared, its scarlet light instantly flaring, clearly reflecting Kaguya Hōseki's bone-spurred, morbidly marked physique within the crimson halo.

"ROAR--! Uchiha! Intruder! Die!"

At this moment, Hōseki's reason was consumed by the pain and madness brought on by the Bloodline Disease.

He didn't need any reason at all. He suddenly threw his head back and roared to the sky.

The entire figure charged towards Kosuke like a cannonball.

His right arm changed in the blink of an eye, a bone-white blade tearing through the air, whistling with a terrifying sound, and slashing directly at Kosuke's face!

The battle erupted in an instant, its ferocity and brutality far exceeding the scenes of Kosuke's past battles with the Senju.

At this moment, Kaguya Hōseki completely abandoned defense, each strike employing a strategy of trading injuries for lives.

Bone blades, bone spikes, and bone projectiles rained down on Kosuke like a storm, and the clan grounds' main gate instantly turned into a slaughterhouse.

Relying on the insight of his Mangekyo Sharingan and his exquisite Body Flicker Technique, Kosuke weaved and dodged within the bone blade storm. His fingers danced, "Fire Style: Majestic Fire Destruction!"

A surge of scorching Chakra quickly formed in his chest, and was then expelled, creating a sea of raging flames that engulfed Hōseki's furious form.

Whoosh~

The flames were violently torn apart. At some unknown time, Hōseki's entire body was covered in a bone-white armor.

Only a pair of eyes, reddened by the sea of flames, stared intently at Kosuke, emitting a chilling laugh.

"Roar! Clan Head is mighty!"

"Go on! Kill the Uchiha!"

The suddenly shouted cheers madly stimulated Hōseki's excited nerves.

"Hahaha! Uchiha! Die!"

Hōseki, with an excited expression, once again charged ferociously towards Kosuke.

"Kaguya! Let me see just how hard your bones truly are! Hahahaha..."

In Kosuke's rapidly spinning Mangekyo, Hōseki's charging figure was reflected, and the corners of his mouth curled into an exaggerated arc.

"Susanoo!"