The forest was silent, too silent. Not the gentle stillness of peace, but the heavy quiet that follows slaughter. At the base of a tree, what remained of the Kumogakure shinobi twitched once before going still. His body was no longer the body of a man, but a broken sculpture of ruined flesh and shattered bone. Every inch of him carried the mark of Kaito's wrath: ribs caved in, limbs twisted at unnatural angles, his face destroyed beyond recognition.
Kaito stood over him, shoulders squared, chest rising and falling with steady control. He wasn't panting. He wasn't trembling. For him, the brutal execution had been effortless, like breathing. His golden eyes, spirals glowing faintly in the dark, looked down at the corpse without pity. Blood trickled from his knuckles, steaming faintly in the night air.
Beside him, Soka held Kushina. The girl's crimson hair spilled across her arms like wildfire, her violet eyes wide with shock. Though she tried to be strong, Kushina's body trembled, her breaths shallow and quick. Soka lowered her voice, steady and soft.
"You're safe," she whispered. Her golden chains uncoiled behind her like guardians at rest, shimmering faintly before retracting into her skin.
The forest shifted then, branches rustling as another presence arrived. Minato Namikaze stepped into the moonlight. His blond hair caught the silver glow, his eyes scanning the scene with quiet intensity. He froze at the sight before him: the corpse, the blood, the two red-haired children standing in the moonlight with a predator's calm.
Minato was thirteen—the same age as them—yet he felt like a child before wolves. The chakra pressing from their bodies made his breath hitch, dense and violent like a storm compressed into human form.
Kaito turned his gaze toward him, expression unreadable. For a moment, only silence filled the clearing. The flickering glow of fireflies drifted lazily around them, surreal against the scene of violence. Then Kaito spoke.
"…Take her."
He stepped forward and gently placed Kushina into Minato's arms. Kushina resisted at first, clutching at Kaito's sleeve, her lips trembling. "W-wait… you're not coming with me?"
Soka bent down to meet her eyes, offering the smallest of smiles. Her hand lingered on Kushina's shoulder, grounding her. "Not this time. What matters is you're safe. And someone who cares about you is here now."
Minato felt her weight in his arms and steadied her. He gave Kushina a reassuring smile, though his eyes flickered briefly toward Kaito. There was kindness in the way the boy handed Kushina over, but beneath it was something darker, more dangerous. Minato didn't know if he was looking at an ally—or a storm waiting to break.
Kaito turned his back, cloak shifting as he moved. "We didn't come to play heroes," he said flatly. "We came for blood."
The words struck Minato like a kunai to the chest. He tightened his grip on Kushina but said nothing, only watching as the two shadows disappeared into the trees, swallowed by the night. Their chakra lingered in the air long after they were gone, heavy and unsettling.
Far away, in the Hyūga compound, a lone guardian strolled the halls, idly expanding his vision with the Byakugan. His gaze swept over rooftops, streets, the gentle rhythm of Konoha at rest. Then he froze.
Two presences burned in the distance like twin suns. Immense chakra, crushing in its density, alien to the village. One was massive, endless like a whirlpool devouring everything around it. The other was sharp, radiant like a golden blade. Neither belonged to Konoha.
His body tensed, throat dry. He sprinted through the compound, sandals clapping against polished wood until he burst into the Hokage's office.
"Hokage-sama!" he cried, bowing low, his voice shaking. "Two chakra signatures—monstrous, beyond reason. They're not ours!"
Behind the desk, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up sharply. His eyes hardened, the weight of his presence filling the room. This was not the weary old man history would later see. This was the God of Shinobi in his prime—sharp, unyielding, the very embodiment of Konoha's will.
"Summon the ANBU," he ordered, his voice carrying iron. "Rally the clans. We move at once."
The room shifted into a storm of motion as shadows flickered, masked operatives vanishing into the night.
At the edge of the village, Kaito and Soka walked side by side through the trees. The moon bathed their figures in silver light, turning their hair into streams of red fire. The forest itself seemed to recoil from them—the air tense, the earth trembling faintly with each step.
"They'll come," Soka said softly, eyes scanning the shadows.
Kaito smirked, his hand brushing the hilt of his blade. "Good. I'd be disappointed if they didn't."
Then it hit him—a ripple across his senses, sharper than instinct. His Reality Eyes flared, spirals of molten gold spinning violently. Without thinking, he shifted.
CRACK!
A massive adamantine staff split the air, smashing into the space where his head had been a heartbeat before. The blow ripped through a tree trunk, splinters exploding outward like shrapnel. The earth shook from the impact.
Kaito landed lightly, dust settling around him. His smirk was gone. His gaze locked on the figure before him.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood tall, Enma the staff already spinning into a deadly guard stance. His movements were fluid, his aura immense, his expression calm yet severe. The God of Shinobi himself had arrived.
Kaito's grip tightened on the hilt of Kibō to Shinkō, the steel whispering as he drew it. The blade gleamed under the moonlight, a reflection of his resolve.
Beside him, Soka summoned her chakra scalpels, hands glowing a deadly blue-white. Her golden chains rattled faintly, curling like serpents ready to strike.
"…Funny," Kaito said, his voice low, almost casual, though the ground trembled faintly under his chakra. "I joked about destroying Konoha earlier. But now… I might actually do it."
The spirals in his pupils widened, burning brighter, spinning with impossible speed.
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, grip tightening on Enma. He said nothing, but his silence was heavier than words. Around them, masked ANBU materialized in the trees, kunai drawn, chakra humming. Elite clan shinobi emerged as well, their presence filling the forest with deadly intent.
And then, the storm broke.
Kaito's body ignited with spiraling red markings, crawling across his skin like living flame. His aura burst outward in a violent wave, shaking the earth, tearing branches from trees, sending animals fleeing in panic. The Sage Mode of the Red Spiral was born.
Beside him, Soka's chains slammed into the ground with metallic thunder, her aura golden and radiant, her calm face betraying nothing but readiness.
Together, they faced the heart of the Leaf. Two children against the might of a village.
"…Come then," Kaito whispered, voice low but resonant, laced with wrath and promise.
And under the pale moon, the clash began.
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I saw that most of the votes were for Kaito to be a villain and to explore the world or form his organization, so I'll do that. I'll see if he will form his organization or not depending on your votes.
If you review or give a Power Stone, I'll give you an extra chapter.
A Power Stone: an extra chapter.
A positive review: an extra chapter.
This would help me a lot and would also attract more people, so I'd make more chapters per day.