Before the wisps of smoke from the Hoshigakure's Hoshikage turning to ashes had even dissipated, Ama -Tian Uguisu's Susanoo had already turned around, its massive black hand gripping a broken stone spear on the city wall. "Those pampered bastards from the Land of Birds, it's time to settle accounts with them." Her voice, carrying the harshness of a millstone grinding through bone, echoed through the Susanoo. "Thirty thousand Iwa ninja, follow me, and we'll wipe out the Land of Birds!"
On the stone path of Iwagakure, ninjas marched in formation, stepping over the still-burning Mars. The clanging of their armor startled the sparrows hiding under the eaves. Tian Uguisu took the lead, and the black figure of Susanoo smashed open the half-collapsed city gate. The ground trembled slightly wherever her giant foot stepped.
"Remember those villagers burned to death by the black flames," she said, turning back to reveal her terrifying crimson Sharingan on her giant face. "The nobles of the Land of Birds unleashed the Golden Crow to wreak havoc; today, they will pay for their blood debt!"
The capital of the Land of Birds was still immersed in a false sense of peace. At the nobles' banquet, the skirts of dancers swept across silver goblets, and ministers boasted of the allied forces' imminent "victory" in Iwagakure. It wasn't until the screams of the city's defenders pounded in like hailstones that a minister, drunk, opened the window. "What's the panic? They're just defeated soldiers..." The words caught in his throat—the black giant was smashing through the city gates, and the tattered armor of the defenders still clung to his stone spear.
"It's a ninja from Iwagakure!" Someone screamed first, and the banquet instantly turned into a boiling mess. Nobles trampled over the hems of their maids' skirts to get out, jewels tumbling to the ground. The scepters they usually used to reprimand the common people were now useless, tossed aside carelessly. Tian Uguisu's Susanoo out and grabbed three panicked Earl, lifting them into the air. Their bodies, clad in silk and satin, trembled like leaves in the giant's hand.
"My lord, spare us! We were just drinking..." The fattest Earl wept, his golden belt barely containing his trembling fat. The Tian Uguisu's voice rolled from the giant's chest, making their eardrums ache. "You didn't look at us like this when the Golden Crow burned the village." The black giant finger tightened slightly, the sound of tearing silk mixed with the muffled cracking of bones, "These scum who prey on the people should rot in the mud."
The Iwa ninja flooded into the noble district like a tide, their kunai Kunai coldly. Those lords and ladies who usually acted arrogantly and domineeringly were now too weak to even draw their swords; some hid in wardrobes and were dragged out, while others clung to pillars, crying and begging for mercy.
"Don't kill me! I'll give you gold!" The Finance Minister's hand, holding a money pouch, was Kunai to the wall with kunai. As Tian Uguisu walked over, she crushed his jade thumb ring that had fallen to the ground. "The blood of Iwagakure, how much gold will you use to pay for it?" As her sword slashed down, the splattered blood stained the plaque on the wall that read "Love the people like your own children."
From sunrise to midday, the noble district of the Land of Birds fell completely silent. Tian Uguisu stood beside a pile of corpses, wiping the blood from her blade with a noble's brocade. "Let's go to the Land of Bears." The Iwa ninja's formation was even more disciplined than when they arrived, the bloodstains on their armor gleaming dark red in the sunlight—their comrades torn apart by the Land of Bears's Star Ninja were now watching them take their revenge from behind.
The nobles of the Land of Bears had learned their lesson and led their families into the secret passage early on. But they forgot that the Iwagakure was most skilled in Earth Release. Tian Zhiyun emerged from underground with a team of ninjas, Kunai directly to the king's neck. "You think you can escape by digging a rat hole?" The imperial seal in the king's arms fell to the ground, rolling to the feet of a maid with a missing leg, whom he had whipped with a horsewhip yesterday.
"Kill! Leave no one alive!" Tian Uguisu's command was concise and clear. The Iwa ninjas' swords did not hesitate for a moment, and the noblewomen hiding in the secret compartments and the young masters hiding in the wardrobes were dragged out one by one.
A young city lord, holding up the Star Ninja Token, cried out, "I am an ally of Hoshigakure!" Tian Zhiyun kicked him in the face, "When you turned our ninjas into snacks for birds, did you not think of your allies?" A flash of light, and the token and the man were severed in two.
As the palace of the Land of Bears burned, Tsubasa was leading Tian Yueqing and Tian Muyan across the desolate plains of the Land of Ghosts. Piles of bones on the ground were higher than the city walls. Tian Muyan's ice bow remained drawn, the chilling aura of the ice arrows freezing the oncoming gusts of wind. "Where did these undead come from?" Tian Yueqing's hands, gripping the talisman, turned white, and black blood seeped from the ground beneath her feet.
"The rift is just ahead." Tsubasa stopped. The black mist ahead was as thick as ink, and he could vaguely see a twisted spatial rift from which countless translucent undead were crawling out. Tian Yueqing suddenly grabbed his arm. "Be careful, there's a very evil power inside." Her talisman moved without wind, spinning a golden circle in her palm.
Tsubasa's Golden Core Spiritual Power began to circulate, and the air around him was scorching hot. " Muyan, freeze the edge of the crack! Yueqing, use the strongest sealing talisman!" Tian Muyan fired ice arrows in unison, freezing an ice wall around the black mist, temporarily blocking the outflow of the undead; Tian Yueqing threw all the talismans into the air, forming a huge golden net that covered the crack.
"Open for me!" Tianyi's hands Hand Seals so fast they became blurry, the Senjutsu mark Tsubasa brows shining like a second sun. His Golden Core core spun wildly, Spiritual Power surging through his meridians to his hands, ultimately transforming into a golden pillar of light that pierced the heavens and earth. "Sealing Magic - Heaven and Earth Lock!" The Setsuna the pillar of light crashed into the black mist, the cracks emitted a piercing scream, and the newly emerged undead were instantly incinerated by the golden light.
Golden runes began to spread across the crack, clinging tightly to the entrance to the underworld like vines. Countless ghostly wails echoed from within the black mist. A withered ghostly claw attempted to break through the runes, but Tsubasa cleaved it into smoke with Spiritual Power: "Trying to come out and harm people again? In your next life!" Tian Yueqing continuously applied talismans, causing the golden light to intensify, and the black blood around the crack began to congeal into clumps.
Tian Muyan's ice wall expanded further and further, freezing the entire crack area into an ice cave. "How long can this seal it?" Tsubasa breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the runes completely cover the crack, "At least for a hundred years, these filthy things won't be able to get out." As he turned around, he saw Tian Yueqing using talismans to purify the black blood on the ground, and Tian Muyan's ice arrows stuck in the pile of white bones, forming an icy white barrier.
As they returned to Iwagakure, news of the battle in the Land of Grass, west of the Land of Fire, arrived. Tian Uguisu, wiping the blood from her sword, listened. " The Land of Grass is still fighting?" Tsubasa took the water pouch from Tian Muyan. " The Vermilion Bird Corps is locked in a stalemate with the monsters of Hozuki Castle." He gazed at the western sky, where the clouds were darker than elsewhere. "However, the rest is for you to handle yourselves. I must hurry to the Land of Hot Water."
The reconstruction of Iwagakure has begun. Villagers are setting up tents on the ruins, and ninjas are helping to repair walls and build houses using Ninjutsu. Villagers are emerging from their refuge caves to rebuild their homes. Tian Yueqing, Tian Muyan, and Tian Zhiyun, along with the Fujin and Suijin, are heading to the Land of Grass to end the Western War. Tian Uguisu stands on the highest observation platform, watching the setting sun cast long Kageko of the Iwagakure ninjas—those once withered leaves are now taking root anew under the nourishment of blood and fire.