Chapter 46 – The Kaguya Clan's Final Dance
The night was thick and soundless.
To prevent any unforeseen complications, a ghostlike figure appeared silently at the edge of the Kaguya clan's new territory.
This was the freshly established burial ground—
the air heavy with the scent of newly turned soil, laced with a faint trace of blood that had yet to fade.
"So this is the Mizukage's so-called mercy,"
Namikaze Yami sneered softly.
"It certainly saves me a lot of trouble."
After confirming there was no one nearby, he calmly summoned the system.
"Pawn."
---
[Scan complete. Pawnable items detected:]
[Ding! Kaguya bloodline corpses (intact) ×33
Estimated value: 80 points per body]
[Ding! Kaguya clan corpses (damaged) ×15
Estimated value: 50 points per body]
---
"Confirm."
There was no sound.
No flash of light.
It was as if a gentle breeze swept across the graveyard.
In the next instant, the bodies within the coffins vanished completely—leaving behind nothing but empty caskets and undisturbed soil.
From the outside, it looked as though nothing had happened at all.
---
[Current Pawn Points: 6,260]
Yami noted the numbers with mild interest.
A living Kaguya was worth 100 points.
A corpse, only 80.
The missing twenty points were almost certainly tied to the soul.
Back at the battlefield beneath the Mizukage Tower, he hadn't been able to approach freely—otherwise, the harvest would have been far greater.
Pawning so many Kaguya remains triggered a refresh in the system store.
---
[Available Exchange:]
[Kaguya Sage Bone
Cost: 2,000 points]
---
Yami stared at the option briefly—then looked away.
The surge in points didn't satisfy him.
A clan as fanatical and self-destructive as the Kaguya was doomed from the very beginning.
He had merely nudged history along its inevitable course.
Without lingering, he slipped into the shadows and made his way toward the Yuki clan's territory.
Compared to the Kaguya, the Yuki clan's Ice Release was far rarer.
Most of the clan were little more than civilians or ordinary shinobi who carried the name but not the bloodline.
And that—
That made them perfect prey.
The final dance had only just begun.
Avoiding the buildings that radiated powerful chakra signatures, Namikaze Yami chose an abandoned house on the fringe of the clan's territory—remote, forgotten, and unlikely to draw attention.
He opened the system interface and located the four Kaguya shinobi he had previously pawned alive. Without much thought, he selected one and redeemed it.
A body appeared before him—
alive in the most technical sense, yet utterly empty.
Breathing. Circulating blood. No consciousness.
A living shell, no different from a vegetable.
He placed the body casually inside the room and etched a discreet Flying Thunder God formula onto it.
Only then did he proceed to the most critical step.
Channeling the Shikotsumyaku he had exchanged for, Yami carefully scarred the floor and walls—deep gouges, shattered surfaces, unmistakable signs of violent resistance.
Perhaps due to the overwhelming purity of the bloodline within Yami himself, the dormant body reacted.
The bones inside the unconscious Kaguya twitched.
Sharp protrusions burst faintly beneath the skin.
Yami paused, momentarily surprised—then nodded.
If anything, it made the scene more convincing.
Next, he activated Ice Release, deliberately leaving traces of frostbite across the body—on the skin, within the organs, damage precise enough to suggest torture rather than execution.
Once everything was in place, he reviewed the scene carefully.
No flaws.
In the next instant, he vanished—
as though he had never been there at all.
---
At noon the following day, an anonymous letter—its handwriting crude and uneven—appeared inside Kaguya Gengon's new residence.
The letter itself was brief.
Most of its contents consisted of a rough, hand-drawn map.
Gengon recognized it immediately.
The Yuki clan compound.
One peripheral building was circled heavily, beside which four words were written:
"The truth behind the clan's disappearances."
Gengon's heart lurched.
For the rest of the afternoon, he was visibly distracted, unable to focus on any affairs. By nightfall, he finally made up his mind.
Relying on his familiarity with the village layout, he slipped out toward the Yuki territory under cover of darkness.
There was a minor complication.
Gengon's stealth was… mediocre at best.
Barely after leaving his clan grounds, he was spotted by a Mizukage-assigned chūnin patrol preparing to report in.
Before the signal could be sent, the man collapsed silently.
From the shadows, Yami withdrew his hand.
As expected, the "scene" had been set near the outer edge of the Yuki compound. Even with Gengon's limited skills, he managed to infiltrate successfully—and found the body.
Covered in unmistakable battle wounds.
Though reduced to a living corpse, Gengon recognized him instantly.
One of the clansmen who had vanished during the inn explosion.
"So it's true…"
"…The Yuki clan… they've gone too far."
People believe what they want to believe.
Gengon's eyes burned crimson.
The signs of struggle.
The frostbite.
The location.
Everything pointed to the Yuki clan.
Spying was one thing.
But abducting and abusing Kaguya clansmen?
Without the Mizukage's tacit approval, this would have been impossible.
The resentment born from exile, humiliation, and loss surged uncontrollably—
and hatred swallowed what little reason he had left.
---
That very night.
Under a moonless sky, Gengon gathered every remaining clansman still capable of fighting.
There was no fiery speech.
No grand rhetoric.
He simply told them what he had seen.
"The Kaguya will not endure this humiliation.
The Mizukage is unjust.
The Yuki trample upon us."
"We will become vengeful spirits—
and carve the Kaguya's wrath into their memory forever."
He left behind the genin, the wounded, and the youths.
Seeds.
The remaining few dozen fighters—scarred, broken, furious—moved like moths into flame, silently advancing toward the Yuki clan compound.
Despite the hatred burning within him, Gengon was not completely blind.
He knew this was the Kaguya clan's final requiem.
Victory was never the goal.
Only blood.
Only remembrance.
Only to etch their extinction into Kirigakure's history with the most brutal stroke possible.
"Remember," Gengon ordered coldly,
"our primary targets are the Yuki bloodline elites—and their descendants."
"In the core zones…"
"…leave no one alive."
---
Night concealed them well.
Within their own territory, the Yuki guards were lax.
Most were killed before they could even cry out—bone spikes pinning bodies to walls.
Only when a Yuki jōnin narrowly survived an assassination attempt did the alarm finally sound.
"Enemy attack! It's the Kaguya—those madmen!"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Three Kaguya warriors descended on him instantly, abandoning all defense.
They fought not to win—but to trade lives.
Even with ice senbon riddling their bodies, they drove bone blades straight through his chest.
Scenes like this erupted throughout the Yuki compound.
Doors smashed open.
Bone spears stained with innocent blood.
Ice techniques faltering under suicidal close-quarters combat.
Accustomed to controlling the battlefield from afar, the Yuki had never faced enemies who welcomed death.
The targeted slaughter of bloodline kin shattered their morale completely.
That night, Kirigakure's silence was torn apart.
When the Third Mizukage, leading a force of elite ANBU, finally arrived—
What greeted him was nothing short of hell.