The garden gave way without warning to a graveled path. The estate wall loomed high and forbidding overhead. In the dim pool of light cast by a hanging lantern, a green-haired man in shinobi armor was struggling with a civilian couple. Katsuko didn’t need to see the civilian man’s opulent dressing gown to identify the master of the house: the twin streaks of grey hair at Tsuto Masaaki’s temples were distinctive, even if grief and terror had twisted his face into something unrecognizable.

“My children!” the woman shouted, wild-eyed. Masaaki’s wife, Euiko. Her unbound hair flew every which way as she attempted to yank free of the Kiri shinobi’s grip.

“Already dead,” the shinobi snapped. Masaaki moaned in horror; the shinobi’s free hand shot out and grabbed him by the collar, giving the merchant a violent shake. “Keep it together! You and your wife—”

The shinobi’s gaze snapped sideways. He shoved Masaaki and Euiko out of the way and spun two kunai into his hands, bringing them up in time to catch Katsuko’s swords in a cross-block. Fire licked at his fingers and seared the fabric of his gloves away; he cursed and disengaged, jumping back to gain more breathing space. Reddened fingers interlaced and flickered through the beginnings of a jutsu.

Katsuko lunged at him and scythed her katana out in a broad arc, shearing his hands off at the wrist. Smoke rose from cauterized flesh. The Kiri shinobi screamed and buckled, falling down to one knee. His chakra roiled in agony.

Then it disintegrated like ashes in the wind. Katsuko stared as the clone unraveled into thin air and realized she’d been tricked. There’d been enough chakra in the bunshin to convince her it had been the real thing. She bit her lip until it bled, drawing on the spike of pain, and twisted her fingers in a seal. “Kai!” she barked.

Masaaki and Euiko huddled together against the garden wall. Their wide eyes and pinched faces faded into nothingness as the illusion broke, leaving Katsuko alone with her rising fury.

A thin infant scream rose from inside the house. Part of the roof caved in with a hungry roar of flames.

Raidou.

Katsuko ran.