"Everyone, are you okay?"

Kento's words hardly reached his comrades due to the smoke screen that interrupted his word flow. But his hopes started to rise as his ear caught the replies of all his pals faintly, assuring him that they were okay. Kumiko and Yamazaki abandoned their cover and walked up to Kento. At the same time, Kyuzo and Hinako tried to see through the smoke line to identify the ghostly figures that emerged into their vision.

In the expectation of increasing the clarity, Hinako started to swing her fans to blow away the thick smoke and the fire that was covering up their line of sight. And eventually, half of the annoying smoke wall disintegrated, and the true figures belonging to the shadows started to materialise in front of the eyes of the Teen Ninjas.

"Oh, look what we have here!"

At once, the entire team stood up in a snap of a finger when their line of vision was enough to see the group of seven people who stood fifteen feet in front of Kento. Buffy and tall these figures stood before Kento. Slowly and steadily, he inspected the six people, with their eyes barely exposed through the broad, narrow opening of their masks. Their eyes had a colder look than ice, and their robes had an ivory-black hue with a vermillion-coloured hooded cowl. But Kento was irritated when he realised that six of the seven guys who appeared within his sight had the same outfit, which led him to believe that the six of them might belong to some kind of gang of bandits. Besides, it wasn’t the first time he had encountered a situation like this.

But all these thoughts were shattered when Kento actually saw the person who stood in the middle of the group of vermillion-cowled Kōga shinobi. A surprisingly big moustache, accompanied by a few hairs that had turned white, made Kento believe that the person was actually over forty-five years old. His beard was trimmed short, with a spiky edge. His narrow eyes retained the true wickedness of an antagonist, almost overpowering the cowled bandits. It also possessed something that the bandits didn’t have. The bold, calculating glint which is almost invisible to a usual person. Kento took most of his time examining the old man’s shinobi shozoku, which was very identical to his grandfather’s, even though it had a very dark green shade to it, with two katanas tied onto each shoulder diagonally. They had a matte coating that didn’t cause it to shine under the rays of the sun that’s now slowly creeping into the horizon. His aura was…malevolent. Spiteful. Hostile. After the inspection, his instincts chilled out, and his mind recollected the last time where he had encountered this Kōga Shinobi. Upon realising that, he was startled. And his body started to tremble with an incredible sensation of discomfort and when he finally certified his identity, which caused his mouth to produce words of surprise and excitement even though they hardly forged it to the ears of his teammates to decode the interpretation.

“You...you...are…”

Yamazaki insisted that his friend calm himself down.

“Kento! Cut it out!!!! Calm down.”

Kumiko too tried to volunteer, but their job was interrupted when the man unmuted his voice and howled out, which caused Kento to whisper the name of the villain who had appeared.

“You are….”

“Kento!” Yamazaki persisted. “Who is he?”

A gasp forcibly pulsated the hearts of the Teen Ninjas, increased by the green-robed Kōga shinobi himself, who laughed even louder as an ideal reaction to Kento’s words.

“Sensei...Sensei Keiichi.”

Hinako yelled out. “What? Don’t tell me that this guy with the big moustache and this green ninja suit which is similar to my grandpa’s is...Sensei Keiichi?”

“Very well, Kento,” Tokiyoshi Keiichi replied. “It seems like you haven’t fully forgotten me since I went into you and your heroic parents a few years ago. My, my, you have matured a lot. Seems like puberty has allowed you to become even stronger than you once were. What can I say? I am impressed. Like really impressed. The work done by the ‘Reborn Warrior’ of the Hattori clan has been nothing short of wonder.”

Keiichi then glanced around the area while Kento and the others held their silence for a few more seconds until Keiichi responded with a sentence that agitated Kento thoroughly.

“Well...it seems like all my apprentices failed to guard…. I can’t believe it. How could they fail to squeeze the life essence out of the masterless shinobi battalion leader of the royal army and the so-called Chief Physician of the royal medical centre?”

“Shut up, you wicked rascal!”

"Kento, try to control yourself!"

Yamazaki reacted.

Kumiko conceded.

"Kento, Yamazaki is right. Please try to be patient."

The gang loosened their hands when Kento paused, and Kyuzo tried to inquire from his teammates about the identity of what looked to be Keiichi’s subordinates.

"Guys, who are those other scary-looking ninjas?"

Kumiko broke through with her reply,

"Could they be…"

But Yamazaki was the person to finish it.

"The Arcane Scarletshades!"

A gasp full of unpleasant surprise spread throughout the entire gang, forcing their eyeballs to glance upon the fearsome and terrifying-looking Kōga shinobis’ eyes. Sensei Keiichi brought out his surprise with another laugh and acknowledged Yamazaki for learning the actuality.

"Well done! I had heard that you were the most retarded of the Teen Ninjas. But I guess those rumours were just mere lies. Well, Kento, aren't you glad to be able to see the elite black ops ninja squad who poisoned your mother when she was pregnant with you?"

His voice was instantly interrupted by Kento who smashed his wounded foot on the floor due to the rage that elevated inside his mind against Keiichi and his Scarletshades. But deep down, that didn’t seem to be the case. Within the eyes and voice that secreted rage and madness hid a dark secret that Kento only hid to himself for so long.

He was afraid. Like really, really afraid. No enemy could have come close enough to be able to cause fear to such an extent, except Sensei Keiichi. When he and his friends were chosen to be part of a squad, his sensei was always keen on making their fear little to non-existent. They deemed it a necessity to push them to the extreme and test their mental capabilities. Like a good leader, Kento always carried the weight of being a good leader that their friends could look up to. Yet, they weren’t aware that Kento carried an unhinged sense of fear towards Sensei Keiichi, despite the times that they had encountered could be counted with just one hand. Kento has never had the opportunity to grow through his fear towards Sensei Keiichi ever since he started training. That very sense of anxiety that Kento held was fueled by the dreads that the Hattori family experienced through the years.

Keiichi's expression switched and obnoxiously gazed upon Kento's face with contempt while demanding his lost belongings.

"I am very certain that you have some stuff that actually belongs to us Kōgas right now."

"No!" Kento yelled. "This battle is over now, Sensei Keiichi. Me and my team now have all the fragments of the Star of Izanagi, and we have successfully completed our mission even with all those hardships, with plenty of time to spare. I'll tell you once more, this is finally over."

"Oh? Do you really think that I will allow this to end so easily? Huh, you have made a big mistake Kento."

"With all due respect, I must clarify to you something. Of course, your apprentices made us have a tough time during our mission, and we all had many close calls. But we overcame all those. And once I connect the Diamond of Finality into the Star of Izanagi, everything will be over. You are going to lose, Sensei Keiichi."

Keiichi chuckled out. Following the chuckle, the arcane Scarletshades drew their mysterious weapons out, but Keiichi lifted his hand and instructed his guards to hold on to their weapons.

He responded to Kento’s previous comment with a high uplift in his tone.

"Oh, is that so? Well, Kento...as the Leader of the Council of Kōga, I have only one phrase to say."

He hesitated for a few seconds before replying with an even more formidable tone, which ended up filling Kento's heart with courage.

"If you have the courage, I dare you to recombine all the pieces together, Hattori Kento-kun!"

With the ending, all the gazes including his friends’ switched to Kento's face. With a pump of bravery and courage into his entire body, Kento deliberately sent his scarred hand into his ninja pouch and unloaded the virtually completed Star of Izanagi. Its bright rays of colour filled with vibrance and brilliance gradually generated jealousy in the eyes of the arcane Scarletshades. Kento lifted the star to the level of his heart. His senses picked up something that he has been desiring to listen and feel; his parents’ heartbeat. The moment the star was on level with Kento’s chest, he almost felt his parents' pulses resounding inside his fatigued body. Seeing his friend holding the jewel with the hope of defeating a sworn enemy of his father for decades, Yamazaki quickly handed the final piece, the Diamond of finality, to Kento. When the crystal was passed on, Kento's mind picked up on the progress of how his mentality fatigued after he witnessed the unconscious bodies of his parents. Kento sensed a feeling of attainment as the crystals were now in his sight.

“This is it. When I assemble this final fragment, Sensei Keiichi will fail. My mission will be over, and me and my siblings will be able to feel the affection of my parents once again.”

Keiichi warned Kento once more.

"I shall tell you once again Kento…"

Keiichi's eyes followed Kento's hand holding the Diamond of finality. Scepticism started to discomfort his body as Kento was closing the distance between the jewel and the diamond.

Kento answered, without letting the enemy finish his words.

"You asked for it, Sensei Keiichi."

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His friends shouted out his name when he was about to execute the action that would judge the existence of his parents. In the blink of an eye and a sigh, he brought the Diamond of finality into the Star of Izanagi in front of his caretakers' executer, crying out,

"This is for my family!"

And with a click, also like other parts, the Diamond was attracted and flew right into the majestic creation of Lord Izanagi, attaching on to the amethyst. As the final piece of the puzzle embraced its lost siblings, the star trembled, emitting a ring of lights of colours around the star, flaring the eyes of all around who were enchanted by its brilliance.

Yamazaki slowly spoke.

"Is it…. over?"

Moments later, the star began to pulse, with the intensity of the trembling increasing each second. This ended up petrifying Kento with the foresight of a bad omen.

And all of a sudden, an unexpected occurrence took place. Immediately after fixing the star, an extremely powerful force surged out of the star after the vibration ended. The tide was so powerful, big and dominant that its force inflicted a force thrust into everyone who came into contact with the spurt. That included all the Teen Ninjas and the Kōga ninjas as well. When the surge went rogue, Kento and his friends were thrown up against the half-burnt walls of Osada's cabin and brought down onto the ground. Although the impact wasn't severe, the post-state of the Teen Ninjas after the previous battles had depleted their energy and health, making it quite difficult for them to stand back up. Their eyesights were blurry after the influence, and the arcane Scarletshades had suffered the same fate even though they had the power and ability to stand back up in just a few seconds.

But right after a few seconds, Kento's eyesight started to recover, and he gradually began to see everything. While lying on the dirt, Kento's mind was flushing with novelty about the star's current state after it had released its devastating upon the person who managed to forge it back. His burn wounds were still stinging with pain, reverberating along with the now clotted bandaged cuts. Right after his eyesight almost regained its full potential, Kento's impulses forced him on the ground in a crouched position, while his eyes scanned the whole area in the expectation of finding the star.

“Where is it? Where is the star????”

Kento's ears suddenly caught one of the scarlet shades calling out to his master to notify him about something. He swiftly changed his attention to them.

"Sir, take a good look at that!"

The Scarletshade gradually lifted his hand into the air, while Keiichi followed, only to look rather surprised after catching something in the air.

Kento pursued the same thing and turned his head and eyes into the air and in a blink, he completely froze, primarily due to the amazement that occurred inside his fatigued mind.

Yamazaki and Hinako arose from their lying posture and unknowingly called out to Kento for looking up into the empty sky for nothing.

"K..Kento? What happened? Why are you looking at the sky?"

Kumiko and Kyuzo were the last ones to escape the effects of the shock. Both of them looked upon Kento with perplexity. But Kento made everything clear. Well, at least he tried to, which then worsened their condition to a higher extent. He tried to produce the sentence correctly, but the disturbance he was experiencing made this difficult.

"Guys….ta..take a look at that."

At that moment, all the eyes of Kento's teammates were simultaneously redirected upon the sky. And their sights pumped surprise and bafflement into their bodies at the same time. Kumiko replied with the confusion that the others retained with the unexplainable phenomenon,

"The star….is...floating in the air….and it is…"

and it was finished off by Kento.

"It is morphing!"

Yes. The Star of Izanagi was levitating in the air with its bright-coloured rays. But at the same time, it was undergoing a morph. The diamond of finality, the gem that depicted itself as an unstable material with its massive energy supply had started to distort into a much bigger gem, while also changing its uneven cubical form into a deformed prism-like form. Its siblings were also following its angry big brother’s procedure except on a much smaller magnitude. Combined, these transformations as a whole were nothing short of a preternatural and eerie alteration. Kento's mind constantly strove to untie the truth behind the Star's morphing. But his attention to untying the mysteries was only destined to last for a few seconds until more trouble decided to come his way to suspend his crucial task.

"Go Scarletshades! Kill those teen ninjas before they get their hands upon the star."

And that was it. Shortly after Keiichi Sensei had finished his commanding, the arcane Scarletshades dashed onto the Teen Ninjas intending to slay them like chickens in front of the eyes of the Kōga leader. Their charging scene heated the Teen Ninjas, and in a few seconds, the lair of the Star of Izanagi became another battlefield for the Igas and the Kōgas.

Kento's friends advanced into the frontline to face the notorious criminals of the most wanted list, without fully realising their utmost capabilities. But they never chose to back off to help Kento in his struggles to revive his parents. And even after being injured several times, Kento's best friends, Kumiko and Yamazaki tried enabling their maximum strength in order to take down the dangerous assassins who once almost killed Kento and his mother.

As for Kento, he was pushed by two Scarletshades who wielded two ninja swords as their primary weapons. Kento safeguarded his entire body and mind with many precautions before facing the black ops ninja squad of Kōga.

"Get ready to die, Kento-kun,"

One of the Scarletshades hissed. Kento as he pulled out his blood-stained katana to combat them. He replied with a smart tone, agitating the Scarletshades before they could even lay a finger on him.

“Bring it on, snakeheads.”

The Scarletshades commenced the battle with two horizontal sword slashes to Kento's legs from two directions, which Kento successfully avoided with a backflip. Following the motions, one Scarletshade chose to block Kento's vertical katana strike by maintaining the ninjato horizontally at his chest level, which could adequately nullify the attack. As he proceeded to block the attack as Kento put force on it, the other Scarletshade appeared from behind Kento and tried to thrust his sword into Kento's body to impale it across his organs. Hearing the sounds, Kento quickly changed his course and rotated clockwise while swinging his sword into the backstabbing Scarletshade's body.

"Aaa!!"

Kento's counter move ended up cutting through the Scarletshade's torso diagonally, creating a kesagiri cut on his body. Though the slash didn't create a deep cut overall since the scarletshade tried to dodge the move, it was powerful enough to make it bleed out severely. The scarletshade instantly lost his grasp on the sword while clasping onto the right side of his chest while repenting for executing a move that didn't even manage to cause a scratch on Kento's body.

“Don’t tell me that this is all they got.”

"Not so fast, kiddo."

He was excited. But his instincts were triggered at the last second when he heard the sound of iron slicing through the air paired with the shouting of the remaining steel scarletshade. At the very last moment, Kento chose to roll to the right side, barely missing the ninja sword strike that would have deepened the already existing wounds on his body.

Following the revenge attack for his injured teammate, the scarletshade dashed past Kento when he was right about to get onto his toes, ending up damaging Kento's left arm with a cut. He didn't care about the pain at all, but he did start to catch up on the fear that the scarletshade must have poisoned him with his sword. However having previous experiences with poisons helped him catch up to the conclusion that the cut didn't show any signs of poisoning, replanting the lost confidence into his muscle memory.

However, as the battle went on, Kento recollected the fact that the star was undergoing a transformation during that time. The moment this memory was restored to Kento's senses, he started to feel anxious about the current state of the gem and directly decided to take a peek at the star.

And his reaction was certainly filled with perplexity.

“Whaaat? What am I seeing? The star…it looks like…it’s enlarging. But at the same time, the diamond of finality, it’s sort of wrapping around the crystals in the middle! What sort of unearthly phenomenon am I witnessing now?”

But Kento's excitement never got a chance to fade away from his body. His mind heats up. The rumbling soon engulfed his entire body when his cautious eyes showed an intruder who was trying to close the distance between the star and him. And he was none other than Keiichi, who attempted to sneak up on the star while his subordinates kept the Teen Ninjas busy fighting. Kento's agitation allowed him to kick his opponent with a kick that downed him for a few seconds and allowed Kento to rush up to Sensei Keiichi and hopefully stop him from reclaiming the star.

Kento shouted.

"I won't let you take the star again!"

With the fear everpresent, he struck Keiichi while manifesting his katana and the slash was obstructed by Keiichi himself, drawing out his katana at the same time to halt the attack.

Keiichi said,

"Get lost, Kento!"

It was inevitable. The head of the Teen Ninjas had ensued a duel against the unforgiving boss behind all the atrocities that the Hattori clan had to go through. Fighting for the possession of the star, Kento never held back against the person who tried to kill him. His desire to drive his blade through Keiichi was fueled by fear and urge. But going up against Keiichi’s unmatched sword skills as the monarch of Kōga ninjutsu was no easy task, apparent by the multiple fresh injuries throughout the battle. Keiichi on the other hand hadn’t undergone several injuries, even though Kento's determination and battle skills opened up a few scratches on his knuckles and his face during their duel.

Kento was dragged to retreat after he had suffered a cut on his stomach and a painful kick from Keiichi. Taking his withdrawal as a golden opportunity, Keiichi tried to rush towards the star. Excitement and anger rejuvenated Kento's tendencies to defend the star, and so he regripped his sword and charged into Keiichi.

“This kid is very annoying!”

But things started to take a weird turn. Kento's movement began to slow down as Keiichi reacted after anticipating the arrival of Kento. Promptly running his hand into the pocket, Keiichi unpacked what seemed to be a shiny-looking, red-brown stone. All of a sudden, in an abrupt manner, the brownstone escaped from Keiichi's hands and mysteriously began to float while being attracted to the star of Izanagi.

Kento was rapidly stuck in a dimension of perplexities. He tried to decipher the mystery behind this unexplained happening.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? What is that other gem that escaped Keiichi’s hand? And…the star is also morphing at the same time. Does that…WAIT!!! NOOO!!!!”

He was awakened in a flash, and the speculations of Kento became clear as the brown stone abruptly clashed with the star that appeared like a cube, almost complete yet it had one difference. The boundaries of colours that the unmorphed star retained had dissolved, now looking like a spectrum. Attaching itself to the morphing star, the newcomer ended up astonishing all its spectators from within. Kento's friends too were spectating these strange happenings, and Yamazaki yelled out with surprise erupting in his eyes.

"What??? What the hell was that?"

The star was only moments away before it began to showcase signs of instability. It vibrated once again, with nine pieces attached to it. the gem began to tremble and throb and shiver like it had when Kento refixed the Diamond of finality into the star. And a few seconds later, the gem had finally turned into a full, flawless cubical structure. The pulsing however continued to occur, which strongly made Kento anxious and uneasy, making him fretful about the same destructive surge that beamed out of the star. When the star was about to break out its energy once again, Kento screamed out, warning his friends with strength in his voice.

"Everybody, get down!"

And then….

Emission of an extremely bright, luminous red-orange light occurred from the morphed Star of Izanagi, flashing its spectators’ eyes with an eye-burning orange lens flare. Kento anticipated an explosion of a tidal wave, but his expectation didn't come to fruition as the light radiated, flashed and twinkled for a few seconds, until….

"Graa!!!! I have returned, after all these years!"