The Fall of the Kusanagi Clan

"Move the lumber here over there."

"Carry all the grain and vegetables into the warehouse. Store them carefully."

"Get rid of the blood from the dead beasts as soon as possible. Skin them without damaging the pelts."

A steady, middle-aged man nearing forty calmly directed the clan members working throughout the camp.

Though he did not need to labor personally, commanding such a large group to finish building the camp was hardly easy either.

Before long, sweat covered his face. He picked up the waterskin at his waist and took a deep gulp to quench his thirst.

He was the current head of the Kusanagi Clan—Kusanagi Seiryu.

There were more than three hundred ninja and ordinary people living here, all of them members of the Kusanagi Clan.

Under the clan head's command, the ninja and ordinary clansmen were separated, each handling their own work.

Even the elderly and children, as long as they were still nimble enough, could not remain completely idle. Even if they did less work, they had to contribute.

With the river at its core, the Kusanagi Clan expanded outward, clearing land and constructing houses and wooden fences. The settlement was beginning to take the shape of a small village.

Nearly a month had passed, and this stretch of forest had clearly become the Kusanagi Clan's new homeland.

To ensure the safety of this brand-new territory, the Kusanagi Clan's ninja had also laid a great number of traps around the camp's perimeter.

They served two purposes: guarding against the beasts in the forest, and ambushing enemies, raising alarms, and creating a strategic buffer so that the flames of war would not reach the camp directly.

"Next, we need to scout the terrain farther out. The Land of Night probably won't let this go. They'll likely send ninja and samurai soon..."

After looking over the family's camp, clan head Kusanagi Seiryu nodded slightly.

At last, the clan could settle down here.

Then, as if recalling something, a solemn look appeared on his face.

Yet despite his grave expression, there was no worry in his eyes. Clearly, he had ample confidence in his own strength—or rather, in the sacred weapon passed down through generations by the Kusanagi Clan's ancestors: the Kusanagi Sword.

In the past, it had been this sacred weapon that allowed the Kusanagi Clan to establish its reputation in the Land of Grass.

Even when they had been forced into exile, he had relied on it to safely withdraw from the Land of Grass after losing only a small number of clansmen, leaving the other ninja clans there too afraid to pursue them carelessly.

He believed that with his own abilities and the sacred weapon, he could still build something great in the Land of Night.

Many people said that the Land of Night was one of the few military powers beneath the great nations.

But whether it was truly strong or not, in the ninja world, people were accustomed to fighting first and talking afterward.

For now, the Land of Night did not feel nearly as powerful as he had imagined.

The border troops had been swiftly crushed by the handful of people he led, without even room to resist.

"If I could become a general as well..."

A fierce ambition gleamed in Kusanagi Seiryu's dark eyes.

He wanted the throne of a nation too.

Then, under his leadership, the Kusanagi Clan would become great once more!

Just as he envisioned that bright future, BOOM—

An explosive roar abruptly shattered the camp's peace.

It was immediately followed by several more thunderous explosions—

Buildings detonated amid flashes of fire, and the shockwaves spreading outward drew cries of agony from every direction.

Some ordinary people who were not even ninja lost their lives directly in the blazing explosions.

Those were the sounds of Explosive Tags detonating.

Ninja were attacking! The thought flashed through Kusanagi Seiryu's mind in an instant.

"Impossible. The traps outside clearly haven't been triggered. How could—"

Kusanagi Seiryu stared wide-eyed in shock.

Someone had actually passed through the tightly guarded perimeter without causing the slightest disturbance.

Even he would have had to lose a layer of skin to force his way through those outer traps.

But Kusanagi Seiryu reacted quickly. No matter what, the enemy had already reached the heart of the camp. They had to be driven out immediately to minimize the losses.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The other Kusanagi Clan ninja shouted as well, searching everywhere for the enemy.

"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"

A deep voice rose from nowhere, and a patch of ground turned into a swamp. Several ninja and more than a dozen ordinary Kusanagi clansmen sank into it, unable to break free, able only to watch helplessly as the bottomless mire swallowed them.

"Damn it! Stop!"

Kusanagi Seiryu wanted to go help them, find the attacker, and stop the Earth Release Ninjutsu.

They were the Kusanagi Clan's future. They could not die here.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

Accompanied by a cold female voice, Kicho, dressed in a light-purple ninja uniform, rushed out from the shadows of the nearby woods.

Her right palm thrust forward violently, her five fingers curled into a tiger-paw shape.

A powerful mass of Chakra gathered directly in the center of her curled palm before being released in an instant.

The air trembled, producing a sound like an explosion as the attack shot straight toward Kusanagi Seiryu.

BOOM!

Kusanagi Seiryu's expression changed dramatically as he leaped aside.

The force of the Gentle Fist strike, launched from a distance, blasted a horrifying hole through a stone wall. The wall crumbled, and countless fragments scattered in every direction.

"This is... the Byakugan!?"

Kusanagi Seiryu cried out when he saw Kicho attacking him with murderous intent, especially those strange eyes radiating pure white light.

Everything he had failed to understand suddenly made sense. With the Byakugan's help, the traps he had arranged around the camp were indeed useless.

"I heard that the general of the Land of Night married into the Hyuga Clan. I thought it was just a false rumor, but I never expected..."

Cold sweat streamed down Kusanagi Seiryu's face. At last, he no longer looked calm and composed.

He had never expected the famed Hyuga Clan to truly form a marriage alliance with the Land of Night.

No wonder he had thought the rumor false. Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed unbelievable.

The Hyuga Clan was an ancient and prestigious family, while that general of the Land of Night had come from humble origins. He had been a wandering orphan who did not even qualify as a commoner, once lurking like a sewer rat in filthy places such as the underground Black Market for money.

Even after becoming a general, many people secretly looked down on his origins, believing him to be nothing more than a lucky lowborn wretch.

Yet the Hyuga Clan had truly married into his family.

Weren't ninja who called themselves legitimate descendants of prestigious houses supposed to care most about status and lineage?

Kusanagi Seiryu could not understand it, but he knew that things had now completely spiraled out of control.

He had not expected the Land of Night's retaliation to come so swiftly—or so fiercely.

Kicho ignored Kusanagi Seiryu's words. She pushed off the ground hard, her body shooting forward.

The sleeves of her ninja uniform were wider and looser than those of ordinary ninja attire. They were beautiful without hindering her movements.

Thus, as Kicho sprang forward, she resembled a dancing butterfly. Not only was she incredibly fast, but her fluttering sleeves also had the effect of confusing her enemy.

So beautiful...

Kicho's graceful, butterfly-like figure seemed like a divine maiden descending into the mortal world, sacred and untouchable.

The instant that thought surfaced, Kusanagi Seiryu jolted awake.

No, this was Genjutsu!

"Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!"

Seeing Kusanagi Seiryu enter the range of her Gentle Fist, Kicho swung her arms. Chakra currents burst from her palms, and her body began to spin.

The swirling Chakra currents instantly formed a massive sphere of Chakra around Kicho, rotating at high speed.

The powerful airflow created by its rapid rotation formed a violent suction force, dragging Kusanagi Seiryu fiercely toward the spinning Chakra sphere.

If he were caught within it, his body would undoubtedly be torn and battered, leaving him severely injured.

Not to mention that the Gentle Fist possessed the dangerous ability to seal the chakra pathway system, making it an extremely effective killing technique against any ninja.

Kicho's elegant yet murderous dance came to a stop. Her long black hair also ceased swirling and slowly drifted down.

Her white eyes narrowed slightly as she glanced at Kusanagi Seiryu, who had not only avoided being dragged into her Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven and torn apart, but had even had the leeway to retreat.

At some point, Kusanagi Seiryu had gripped a straight-bladed sword with a pale red hilt in his palm.

Its blade was slimmer than that of an ordinary katana, and its length was below the standard for such swords.

Judging by its design, it should have been a weapon suited for a woman.

Now, held in the palm of a large man like Kusanagi Seiryu, it looked somewhat out of place.

The Chakra driving my Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven seemed to vanish all at once...

Kicho's thoughts raced, and she quickly grasped Kusanagi Seiryu's situation.

As expected, the katana in Kusanagi Seiryu's hand was likely the Kusanagi Sword passed down through the Kusanagi Clan for generations.

"What a dangerous ability. You used Genjutsu to confuse me through your movement technique, and then followed it with a deadly attack... Without this Kusanagi Sword, I probably would have been killed in an instant. Is this the power of a Kekkei Genkai? It's truly chilling."

Kusanagi Seiryu gave a smile that did not reach his eyes, his tone filled with envy and jealousy.

A Kekkei Genkai... What a beautiful, terrifying power.

Because such things existed, small clans like theirs could never take center stage. They could only become background pieces in the struggles between great clans.

He did not believe he was weaker than Kicho, but the truth was that he had nearly been killed in a single exchange.

It left him feeling profoundly unbalanced.

"Compared to that, isn't the Kusanagi Sword in your hand the stranger thing? Just now, it 'ate' my Chakra, didn't it?"

Though Kicho phrased it as a question, her meaning was utterly certain.

Though she was only seventeen, she was a genius of the Hyuga Clan and an elite who had crawled out of piles of corpses many times.

Combined with the Byakugan's abilities, as long as it was not something too bizarre, she could make an accurate judgment after seeing it once and coming into contact with it once.

"You saw it with the Byakugan? That's right. This Kusanagi Sword has the special ability to devour Chakra. As long as I draw this blade, no ninja can defeat me. In other words, your Gentle Fist is useless against me."

Although Kusanagi Seiryu was wary of the Byakugan, he was not afraid of it.

In his eyes, Kicho was like the enemies he had faced in the past: powerful, but soon to be slain by his Kusanagi Sword.

This inherited sacred weapon could erase the gap between him and ninja with Kekkei Genkai, even allowing him to surpass those ninja who relied solely on their bloodline powers to flaunt their strength.

Kicho said nothing.

If that was true, the effectiveness of the Gentle Fist would indeed be greatly diminished.

After all, a ninja's Taijutsu also required Chakra to increase its power.

Or rather, the more skilled a ninja was in Taijutsu, the greater their demand for Chakra became.

"You're right, but..."

A faint smile appeared on Kicho's face.

Just as Kusanagi Seiryu was about to ask what she meant, his body abruptly stiffened, unable to move.

An icy sensation suddenly came from his back, connecting directly with the chakra pathway system inside his body through the surface of his skin.

"It's over, Clan Head."

"Wait, I—"

Before Kusanagi Seiryu could finish speaking, Kicho's elegant, butterfly-like figure had already drifted down before him.

A light breeze passed by, and Kicho's slender palm touched his chest.

Thump.

A faint sound of a palm strike echoed through the air.

"Cough!"

Kusanagi Seiryu's face turned deathly pale. He could not help coughing as blood flowed steadily from his mouth.

His heart felt as if a blade had pierced it, then viciously shredded and torn it apart.

The muscles in his face twitched as agony overwhelmed him.

More importantly, he could no longer mobilize any Chakra. His chakra pathway system had been completely sealed by Kicho's Gentle Fist.

Because the heart was the core of the chakra pathway system, once the pathways around the heart were cut off, a ninja could no longer mobilize or refine Chakra.

Kicho's Gentle Fist had directly robbed him of the chance to use the Kusanagi Sword for one final counterattack.

Damn it, I haven't even used the Kusanagi Sword's hidden ability. Otherwise... my consciousness is...

No matter how much hatred and unwillingness filled his heart, Kusanagi Seiryu's eyes dimmed and closed weakly. His head drooped, and the breath of life left him.

However, though Kusanagi Seiryu's body had lost all signs of life, it did not fall. Another force held it upright.

Five Chakra Threads had somehow attached themselves to Kusanagi Seiryu's back.

Like a puppet, Kusanagi Seiryu slowly swayed. Holding the Kusanagi Sword, he seemed to have come back to life and could continue fighting.

Not far away, Yayoi silently landed on the branch of a thick tree. His open right hand extended five Chakra Threads that connected to Kusanagi Seiryu's back, taking control of his body.

"What perfect coordination, my dear husband."

Kicho smiled brightly. Looking back on the sequence of their battle, it had been almost flawless.

The moment Yayoi used Chakra Threads to control Kusanagi Seiryu, she seized that crucial opening without wasting a word or pausing for even a moment. She simply rushed at full speed toward Kusanagi Seiryu and delivered a fatal blow with the Gentle Fist.

The entire sequence had happened in no more than a flash.

Kusanagi Seiryu had likely not even had time to react. He might not have noticed Yayoi's presence at all before Kicho killed him.

"Mm. I didn't expect the Puppet Play Technique to unfold so smoothly either. His vigilance was entirely focused on you, Kicho."

Yayoi was not at all surprised by the result.

He had been far stronger than Kusanagi Seiryu to begin with, and with the advantage of a sneak attack and Kicho's cooperation, it was perfectly normal for Kusanagi Seiryu to be killed in an instant despite wielding the Kusanagi Sword, especially when he had not realized there was a second opponent.

The Puppet Play Technique Yayoi mentioned was a puppet-style Ninjutsu that created special Chakra Threads to control the movements of living people.

Moreover, this Ninjutsu could use Chakra Threads to interfere with a target's chakra pathway system, giving it a certain degree of control.

That was why Kusanagi Seiryu's body had stiffened so completely the instant he was struck by the Puppet Play Technique.

The Chakra Threads had interfered with the chakra pathway system inside his body, which in turn affected his physical movements.

"He paid too much attention to my Byakugan and Gentle Fist. Until the moment he died, he probably believed I was the commander of this operation in the Land of Night."

Kicho summed up the reason for Kusanagi Seiryu's defeat.

"Then we can wrap things up smoothly now."

Yayoi jumped down from the branch. The fingers releasing the Chakra Threads moved nimbly, like fingers playing cat's cradle.

Under Yayoi's control, Kusanagi Seiryu's still-warm corpse moved no differently from when he had been alive. Its agility had not diminished in the slightest—instead, it had become even more nimble.

Kusanagi Seiryu gripped the Kusanagi Sword, his agile figure leaping forward as he charged into the distant crowd locked in battle, carrying out the final extermination of the remaining Kusanagi Clan members.

About ten minutes later, the Kusanagi Clan's stronghold had become a sea of flames.

Including Kusanagi Seiryu, the Kusanagi Clan head, a total of forty-seven ninja and over two hundred ordinary clansmen had their corpses burned in the blaze.

"There shouldn't be any fish that slipped through the net, right?"

Yayoi turned his head and asked.

Whether they were old people or children, as long as they were enemies, every last one had to be slaughtered. This was the lesson he had learned during the Warring States Era, and it was also the greatest respect he could show his enemies.

Kakuzu held a woman's corpse in his hand. Aside from Kusanagi Seiryu, she was the Kusanagi Clan's only other ninja with Jonin-level strength—and Kusanagi Seiryu's wife.

Kakuzu tossed the woman's corpse into the fire as well. The fierce flames illuminated the face hidden behind his mask, while his eerie green eyes looked particularly terrifying.

"There are none left. Every last one has been eliminated."

Kakuzu's tone did not waver. Having followed Yayoi for so many years, he clearly understood Yayoi's ruthless methods of dealing with enemies.

Yayoi and Kicho had handled Kusanagi Seiryu, the clan head. The other Jonin-level ninja, Kusanagi Seiryu's wife, had been dealt with by Kakuzu.

Aburame Yuto had been responsible for the rest of the Kusanagi Clan's ninja. With his ability to control insects, he could swiftly clear out the Kusanagi Clan's lesser fighters.

Through this joint operation, Aburame Yuto had also gained a deeper understanding of Yayoi's character and methods as the Land of Night's general.

As long as they were enemies, even if they were elderly or children, he would deal with them all without mercy, leaving no one alive.

Aburame Yuto suspected that the Land of Night's regime was so stable because Yayoi had ruthlessly executed every past rebel who had opposed him, along with their relatives.

He had even completely sealed away all information and records of those rebels, erasing their history at its root and robbing people of even the meaning of discussing them.

The remaining work was very simple: pack up all the Kusanagi Clan's organized valuables and take them away, then have the border forces handle the final transportation.

As for the Kusanagi Sword, which had been passed down through generations of the Kusanagi Clan, Yayoi personally kept it.

(I originally wanted to let the Kusanagi Clan head show off a little more, but considering he was only an ordinary Jonin wielding the Kusanagi Sword, there seemed to be no need to make such a fuss. Just seize an opening and kill him in one strike.)

(One update today, two tomorrow.)