บท 26: Chapter 25: Lost to Time
It was late at night and the sky was clear.
It was rare, though only for a short moment.
In that moment the stars glittered, while a shooting star shot across the sky.
The clouds quickly passed by letting rain once again fall upon the land.
The rain was cold, it helped the Shinobis on guard stay awake.
Jun, one of the guards for the night, was watching the sky, admiring the beauty the stars showed in that split second before the clouds loomed once more.
Just as he regained his focus, a bright light lit up the surrounding area, the light came from the east of the compound.
He turned his eyes towards the light, only to find the moonlight to be replaced by what seemed like a comet passing through the night sky.
"What is that?" voiced a shinobi that was on duty.
The commotion from the guards caused people near them to wake up coming outside their house.
As they watched the comet pass through the sky.
But to their horror, the comet seemed to be growing bigger and bigger.
Just as it reached close enough to light the entire compound as it were day.
It exploded into a multitude of rays.
"It's pretty" voiced a child watching the display.
"It's like a shooting star!" voiced another child.
Yet the adults showed no look of amazement as they realized what was going on.
"Everyone take cover!!!"
"We're under attack!!"
The blue comets descended upon the compound.
The unlucky individuals who were directly hit against Ritsu's powered Storm Release were directly exploded on contact.
Or those who managed to avoid the direct contact only to be fried leaving nothing but a charred corpse.
Unluckily the man next to Jun was one of those unlucky individuals who turned into a sizzling corpse as the comet's current crackled among his body.
Fortunately it dispersed after frying his comrade.
Jun snapped from his dazed getting into cover.
Once the initial barrage settled, he took a peak over his cover.
Jun looked around and he saw craters, dismembered bodies, broken and collapsed buildings within the compound.
Nothing was spared.
Despite the despairing view Jun gathered himself, 'It's not over yet.'
He quickly headed towards the inner part of the Clan hoping to join the rest of the shinobi.
But just moments later Jun heard screams resounding throughout the compound.
He could smell the blood permeating through the air.
He looked towards the screams but the rain started to pick up more than usual covering his vision.
The rain didn't block the smell of iron that continued to linger.
Jun quickly hid in a house that was occupied by a family of four, civilians of the Matsui Clan.
He quickly calmed them down as he pointed to his clan uniform as he peeked out the windows unsure of what was happening.
Jun watched as a clansman nearby who survived the initial bombardment walked outside before they were quickly slaughtered by a group of foreign shinobi who quickly moved away heading deeper into the compound.
Even the shinobi who stayed at their home to protect their loved one were no match as they were fighting by themselves.
Those enemy shinobi quickly killed anyone who was outside before moving to their next targets.
Jun controlled his breathing as he waited for those shinobis to leave, hoping to escape the compound.
It was clear that the people who invaded weren't the Hara Clan; they were being attacked by a much stronger Clan.
Just when Jun thought the coast was clear, an explosion was heard, then another resounded, until it became rhythmic, as it continued to sound throughout the compound.
Jun was paralyzed as he saw smelt burned wood through the humidity, fires couldn't be seen as the rain likely watered it away.
Jun was just a low rank shinobi, he had at first thought of uniting with the clan and stopping the foreign invader.
But those thoughts were smashed by these successive attacks.
Jun was lost in his mind, as his mind refused to believe what he was experiencing was real.
'It must be a dream.'
Jun's focus snapped back to reality as in his vision through the curtain he saw foreign shinobi entering the farthest house he could see.
He could hear the screams from that particular house.
They were being slaughtered.
Jun quickly turned to family within the house.
He saw as the man and woman held their children covering their ears from the screams, explosion, and destruction.
Jun was no hero, he wasn't powerful.
He wanted to leave but seeing the children closed their eyes as they shed tears as they held back their fear.
His eyes met the man and the woman's eyes, he saw their pleading look.
Jun made his decision, tossing a kunai to both the man and the woman.
Causing the man and the woman to look at one another as they quickly took their children to a hidden compartment just beneath the bed.
Jun heard the man and woman as they whispered to their children, "Mama and papa will be back but until we do, don't come out. No matter what you hear, don't come out. Okay?"
The children nodded.
He gripped his sword till his knuckles turned white, he was waiting just beside the door.
He listened as they killed the families one by one till the sounds were directly next door.
He glanced at the man and woman as they held each other kneeling at the center of the building.
He could tell they were truly afraid but he could tell they were ready to be bait.
He could tell through the man's look.
Jun took one last breath to calm his nerves
Moments later the door burst open as a shinobi quickly entered the room with a sword dripping with blood.
The shinobi was young but it wasn't uncommon, it must be his first raid as the young man didn't check his surroundings as his eyes immediately locked onto the couple kneeling at the center of the house.
Jun watched the young shinobi raise his sword and just before the young boy could swing his sword Jun acted.
He swung his sword into the young shinobi's left shoulder.
He watched as his sword went through the shinobi's body, but to his surprise there was no resistance as his sword penetrated the man's body with ease as his sword sliced downwards.
His eyes were filled with shock as the parts that were cut had turned into a smokey substance, before solidifying once more.
Jun was frozen in place as the shinobi turned around allowing Jun to see the young man's face, the young man's eyes showed sadness, unwillingness, but a burning determination.
Jun watched as the seemingly unharmed shinobi proceeded to swing his sword in an attempt to kill him.
Jun blocked swing after swing, his hope diminishing as it was clear that the young boy in front of him was less skilled than him yet no matter how he slashed the young man was fine.
'A monster….' was his last thought as the sword decapitated him from behind.
"Sota hurry, we spent too much time here, we need to move on, the seal has already been placed, now hurry."
The young boy named Sota turned to face the couple who lost all resistance, after all who wouldn't when seeing an opponent being slashed in half only to act as if nothing had happened.
They were only civilians.
Though the man made one last attempt to shield his wife's body as Sota swung his sword.
Sota watched as the couple laid together, he felt his insides turn.
His hands shook in fear at what he had done, it only lasted a second as he recalled the place was about to explode.
'Its for the young master. He gave me this life.' he told himself, as he ignored the turmoil within him just as he had with his previous targets, he quickly left and moved to the next target.
Unaware of the two pairs of eyes that watched their parent's being slaughtered.
—--------------------------------
Ritsu watched as his shinobi fought the last remaining survivors offering resistance at the inner part of the compound.
It wasn't long till the line of resistance was quickly broken leading to them being overwhelmed as his group slaughtered them till none of them stood.
Ritsu walked to the corpse that was presumably the clan leader as he saw the man give commands to his shinobi, he quickly cut the dead man's head off before handing it to Kaz who was beside him.
Kaz quickly stored the man's head into a storage scroll.
"You saw who the Clan leader was for the Hara Clan was right?"
"That is correct young master, I am capable of identifying who the Hara Clan leader is."
"That's good. I will be decimating their compound repeatedly with Storm Release."
Ritsu watched as the shinobi were all battered up either resting, throwing up, or bandaging themselves or those in need of tending.
It was a better result than expected, after all most of these people had never killed a person in their life before.
Their casualties weren't high as the Iburi Clan were the first to barge into houses incase of a surprise attack, Ritsu was sure that no one would have used Ninjutsu in close quarters as it would be detrimental not only to the opponent but to themselves as well.
Ritsu even had his Clan members become the captains as they were more experienced than anyone else.
But even with the Iburi and cursed subordinates taking the brunt of the attack while his clansmen led the squads and cells, shinobi still died.
Though not that many of them mattered as the majority who died were the cursed subordinates.
After all, someone had to be cannon fodder.
Ritsu had forced them to be at the forefront along with the Iburi Clan, but unlike the Iburi they couldn't dodge all the physical attacks aimed at them.
While the Iburi only had to dodge attacks that were infused with chakra and those enemy shinobi who were capable of doing so were targeted by the backlines.
"Have them rest for a while before checking for any valuables in the Clan heads house and the buildings surrounding it.
After they are done sweep the compound once more. Leave no survivors."
They stopped bombing once they neared the center of the compound as shown from the Fuji, Toru, and Yua Clan.
Most if not all valuables are kept in the inner part of the clan.
As for the valuables that were possibly destroyed in the ordinary houses it was negligible.
They had already raided a couple of stores in the Land of Rain, accumulating millions of Ryos.
Though money is necessary they can't care about all the scraps.
Ritsu grabbed onto Kaz as they disappeared from the shinobi's eyes, reappearing in front of Riku.
They were situated at a tree far from the Hara Clan compound.
There weren't any suitable elevated grounds, so Riku decided to stay in the most crowded area of the forest.
Once Ritsu arrived he quickly congregated a massive sphere one after the other as he prepared to empty out all of Ryumyaku's reserves.
The sphere was ten times the size of what he used at the Matsui Clan.
Ritsu remained fully focused as it was taking him a couple of minutes.
It was the first time he was emptying Ryumyaku's reserves, he wanted to know how much power he was currently capable of wielding.
But it wasn't long till the Hara Clan sent shinobi to investigate the source of light that was being emitted from the sphere, Riku and Kaz engaged them, stalling for time for Ritsu to finish the jutsu.
Seeing the arrival of the Hara Clan shinobi, Ritsu stopped supplying chakra leaving a small amount of Ryumyaku's reserves left, as he condense the sphere before it launch a massive comet of pure Storm Release energy descended onto the Hara Clan completely leveling it into the ground.
The Hara Shinobi stood still shocked as they watched the comet fly over their heads destroying what was their home.
Now nothing was there, the buildings were leveled, everything was destroyed, just some pillars and walls that managed to keep standing was all that suggested a compound was once here.
The majority of shinobi dropped their weapons as their mind couldn't process that they had lost everything within minutes.
The rest directed their anger towards the boy who casted the jutsu, as they ran completely avoiding Riku and Kaz, clearly rushing toward Ritsu.
It was all for naught as not a single one of them were capable of causing a cut on Ritsu, his speed and occasional teleportation caused them unable to respond to his attacks.
Riku didn't even do anything as they all just avoided him as their anger clouded their mind, focusing on one thing.
'Kill him, the boy must die.'
Riku watched as their rabid expressions were still held in place even after they had died.
It wasn't long till all shinobi were slain even those who put no resistance.
Riku simply looked at the casual destruction, 'one bo— not it's better to call him a man now. He did all of this.
I'm still alive. But for how long….Maybe I should…'
Riku shook his thoughts as he wiped his blade, sheathing it into its sheath.
Ritsu watched Riku as he could faintly sense his emotion through the seal.
Seeing that Riku has calmed down, he looks back towards the devastation he caused.
Kaz seeing Ritsu's look couldn't help but say, "Young Master unfortunately due to your devastating power we will no longer be able to identify the Clan Head of the Hara."
Ritsu gave Kaz a look that said, 'Way to state the obvious' but eventually he sighed,
'So much for identifying the Clan Head, we'd be lucky to find a corpse.' Ritsu thought as he placed his hands on Riku and Kaz vanishing from the scene.
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