Chapter 6: Quack, Fight!
A faint smile curved Sarutobi Hiruzen's lips, though his eyes held the weight of decades of leadership. He didn't know exactly what Shimura Danzō was plotting this time, but he could guess the general shape of it. This wasn't something he had authorized—if Danzō was moving, it was without Hokage approval.
That meant, if things went badly, Hiruzen could deny any involvement. But deep down, he knew the game they were playing with the Uchiha clan was dangerous.
Itachi is a good boy, he thought, remembering the quiet prodigy. But even good boys can be driven to terrible acts.
Suddenly, the paper door to his office slid open with force. An ANBU in a porcelain mask burst in, voice urgent.
> "Hokage-sama! Something terrible has happened!"
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed. "What is it?"
The ANBU hesitated, his breathing ragged, as though the very news he carried was heavy enough to crush him.
A cold foreboding welled up in Hiruzen's chest. His years as a shinobi told him: this is not just bad—this is catastrophic.
---
Far from the Hokage's office, in the chaos of the night, laughter split the air.
> "Hahaha! Come on! Come on! HAHAHAHA!"
The sound was raw, wild—less a man's laughter and more a beast's howl. In the center of a street lined with bodies stood a towering figure wreathed in black-red chakra, eyes glowing like molten coals.
Uchiha Raizen.
The last few minutes had been carnage. Konoha ninja had rushed in from every direction, answering the emergency call to suppress the situation. None survived more than seconds. Raizen's casual backhand could smash through bone and armor alike. A single flicker of movement ended lives before they even realized he'd struck.
The air grew cold around him—not the cold of wind or snow, but the bone-deep chill of life force being drained away. Each slain ninja became a source of sustenance, their chakra ripped from their dying bodies in streams of light, flowing into Raizen's monstrous form.
And with each stolen heartbeat, he grew. Taller. Broader. The swirling aura around him thickened until his outline was almost too bright to look at directly, like staring at the sun through black glass.
Nearby, a squad of younger shinobi froze in place.
> "Wh-what is this?!" one stammered.
"That… that's no human. That's a monster," another whispered, his hands trembling around a kunai.
Raizen's gaze shifted toward them. The smile faded from his lips, replaced with a chilling stillness. Then his right hand lifted lazily.
From his body erupted a forest of black chakra chains—each chain tipped with a wicked, bladed hook. They shot forward like arrows, hissing through the air.
---
Before the chains could strike, a blur of gold and brown slammed into Raizen's extended palm.
BOOM!
A massive iron staff—Enma, the Ruyi Jingu Bang—met his translucent Susanoo hand. The ground beneath Raizen cracked and buckled under the impact, his feet sliding half a step back. On the opposite end, Sarutobi Hiruzen gritted his teeth, his old muscles straining with the blow.
But Raizen didn't fall.
Hiruzen did. The recoil sent the Hokage skidding backward, boots digging furrows into the earth.
> "Susanoo…" Hiruzen muttered grimly.
He had seen this before—armored titans of chakra wielded by Mangekyō Sharingan bearers—but never in this form. Raizen's Susanoo wasn't the radiant guardian of legend. It was a black hole given shape, its armor jagged and hungry, every edge whispering of consumption.
On his way here, Hiruzen had pieced together the truth: Danzō had accelerated the plan to annihilate the Uchiha clan. Itachi had acted. Blood had been spilled. But amid the slaughter, someone else—Raizen—had awakened a Mangekyō Sharingan unlike any before it.
And in the chaos, Danzō and perhaps even Itachi had been slain.
> "Danzō… Itachi… what have you two unleashed upon the village?"
---
From within the Susanoo's dark glow, Raizen tilted his head. "Hokage… you came in person. Good."
Chains slithered along his Susanoo's arm, coiling like serpents.
Hiruzen landed in a crouch, gripping Enma tighter. "Old friend," he murmured to the staff, "be careful. This one is not like the others. He… absorbs chakra."
Enma's deep voice resonated back, calm but alert. "Understood."
With a grunt, Hiruzen stabbed the staff into the ground, then used it like a springboard to launch himself high into the air. Mid-spin, he swung Enma in a wide arc, aiming for Raizen's exposed shoulder.
THUD!
The blow landed—yet it was like striking stone. The chakra armor didn't even ripple.
Raizen chuckled. "Is that all the Third Hokage can muster?"
In a blur, his Susanoo hand snapped forward, grabbing at Enma.
The staff shrank instantly, trying to slip free. But the moment Enma's chakra was exposed, Raizen's chains erupted from the point of contact, latching on with barbed hooks.
> "—AH!" Enma's cry was unlike anything Hiruzen had heard from him before.
The chains drank deeply, siphoning chakra faster than Enma could resist. His transformation faltered—staff became fur, iron became flesh—and in seconds, the great monkey king collapsed to his knees, his frame shrunken, fur dulled.
> "Old friend! No!" Hiruzen lunged forward.
Too late. The chains pulsed once, violently, and Enma's life force was devoured completely. The great summon who had stood beside the Hokage through countless battles crumpled to the ground, no larger than a withered doll.
Raizen's gaze never left Hiruzen. "One by one… all will feed the void."
The Hokage's fists tightened around empty air where his partner had been.
---
"Protect Hokage-sama!" a voice shouted from behind.
A fresh squad of Konoha jonin and ANBU flooded into the street, their hands flashing through seals. Lightning, fire, and wind tore through the night, slamming into Raizen's form.
The result was immediate—yet not as they hoped.
The blasts were swallowed whole. The black-red Susanoo pulsed brighter, Raizen's form growing yet again.
"Stop!" Hiruzen's voice roared above the chaos. "Chakra-based attacks only make him stronger!"
But the warning came too late.
Raizen stepped forward, each pace cracking the ground. "Yes… more… give me more."
Chains shot out once more, this time in a wide net, sweeping through the street like a fisherman's cast. Those too slow to dodge were caught, their chakra ripped away in seconds, their bodies left limp on the cobblestones.
The street fell silent save for Raizen's low, satisfied exhale.
Hiruzen stared at him, jaw tight. This was no ordinary battle—this was a disaster in motion. And unless he found a way to sever Raizen's connection to chakra itself… the entire village might be next.