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Young Ay shouted, "Father, open your eyes!"
But the Raikage ignored him.
He was feeling for rhythm... the pulse of killing intent, the faint electric pressure in the air when chakra focused or the air is bent. The world around him was full of random noise and static at first... then it slowly began to align.
Another huge fireball came. He moved early this time, avoiding it by a hair's breadth. A kunai clanged against his forearm... he felt the vibration travel through bone, registering direction and force.
"Interesting," he murmured, half to himself. "My body knows before my brain does."
Bee crossed his arms, half-smiling. "Old man's usin' pain as training again. pain stings' like hell."
Fugaku exhaled slowly. He's adapting mid-battle? Impossible. Wait is he Mahoraga? who is Mahoraga? Why did i think of that?
He drew two kunai and flicked them in an arc, thin wires controlling their trajectory. The Raikage ducked one, caught the second midair... and threw it back without looking. Fugaku deflected, frowning.
"He is reaction speed is improving even though he is fighting blind. That's a reckless way of thinking."
"Reckless," Raikage said, breathing evenly now, "You say Reckless, I say Damn Right."
--
Minutes stretched into an hour. The battle slowed from fierce exchange to brutal endurance. Raikage was covered in dozens of cuts... thin, deliberate incisions meant to wear him down and the kunai stabs which could not penetrate his muscles. But his breathing stayed steady. He did not even labour in pain.
The Raikage brushed it off... by flexing his muscles to halt the bleeding through sheer muscle control.
Fugaku was sweating, he is not built for long battles. His Sharingan tracked everything, yet somehow, the Raikage's movements no longer made sense. They were imperfect, unrefined... and unpredictable.
The Raikage had begun to move only when his gut told him to.
The ground cracked beneath his feet as he rushed forward. Fugaku leapt back, hurling a wall of fire. The Raikage stepped into the flame, shielding his face with his arm. The heat seared skin... but he swung through it anyway.
Fugaku tried to backflip out of range, but the Raikage's leg shot upward, slashing with such force the Uchiha's vest tore completely open. The blow stopped just short of piercing flesh... but Fugaku's chest burned where it landed.
The Raikage straightened, still closing his eyes. "Instinct is just training what was buried so deep. What the eye sees late, the body already knows."
He rolled his neck. "But it's incomplete. Something's missing."
He shifted his stance... lower, balanced, almost animalistic. Bee, watching, recognized it instantly.
"His weird... Muay Thai stance," Bee murmured. "He's mixin' in leg pivots… oh man, he's really doin' it."
The Raikage smiled faintly. "My wife was here. She would've said everything is a weapon. Well... She is not a weapon master for nothing."
--
Fugaku could barely keep up now. Every time he moved within three meters, Raikage's body reacted. Shoulders tensed before attacks came. The Raikage felt the air pressure shift when Fugaku lunged.
He began to counter... clumsily at first, then sharply. Elbow to rib. Knee to thigh. Each strike like a hammer. He made sure to hit not to hard in order not to kill him. Why is he not using the Giant's power documented in the previous raikage records.
The Sharingan spun wildly, struggling to process movement that didn't follow normal prediction lines.
For a moment, he lowered his guard slightly, breathing in the rhythm of the field... the smell of iron, the hum of chakra in the air, the faint vibration through his soles when Fugaku shifted weight. It all connected.
He murmured, "Battle instinct… sixth sense… it's not magic. It's just… listening to everything else. That spark."
Fugaku dropped to one knee, his Sharingan dimming. His chest was bleeding where Raikage's slash kick had struck. He could barely stand.
Still, he smirked with arrogance. "You fought blind… and won. I'll remember that."
The Raikage opened his eyes finally, "You seem pretty confident that you will go back alive. Well... I will let you go anyway. Don't hesitate to reach out to kumo, incase you want to leave konoha. We are willing to take you in under certain conditions."
Bee landed beside him, grinning. "Guess you have mastered a new skill, Raikage-sama?"
The Raikage glanced at him. "And a few bruises to prove it."
The konoha shinobi praised their commander, Fugaku for holding back the Raikage and even bruising him. They were retreating on Fugaku's command. The Raikage didn't pursue. He just folded his arms.
"Let them retreat. He will gain fame just for wounding me... which even hokage could not do. There will be someone inside konoha, who will definitely not want the Uchiha gaining fame. Let's see who in konoha takes bait. We need to keep an eye on that. Whoever it is will be the doom of konoha. That is when we will step in."
Young Ay approached, still limping. "Father… that was reckless."
The Raikage smirked. "So was your mother, when she decided to marry me."
Bee barked a laugh. "That ain't the answer to the question, you dodgin' the lane."
The Raikage ignored him... well he just love her hopelessly. His mind lingered on what he'd just experienced... the hum of tension before every strike, the pulse of danger that his nerves somehow detected before his eyes. The pure awareness was mystical.
The Raikage smiled faintly. "The art of fighting blind will prove useful against uchiha. Maybe I'll refine it and combine Muay Thai with battle instinct. It is still not perfect."
--
Just as the tension began to fade, the shadows shifted near the ridge. A long, sinuous presence emerged from the darkness, voice smooth and cold.
"My, my… such fascinating progress, Raikage-dono."
Bee's expression turned sharp. "Who the hell—"
Young Ay's eyes narrowed recalling the last words of Blue B. "You were the one who caused Blue B's death."
From the dark, a pale figure stepped forward... robes dragging over the dust covering his severed left arm. Orochimaru smiled faintly, Right hand clasped behind his back. Damn you, Onoki... You will pay for it.
Fugaku stopped them from retreating and wondered why orochimaru was here. There was no information that he will be assisting.
"You learned to fight without sight. That's quite… innovative. Even for a Kage."
The Raikage didn't attack recklessly... Why would he appear here when there 3 kage-level opponents. Something is wrong. "You are one of the konoha's sannin. What are you doing here?"
Orochimaru's tongue flicked slightly. "I was observing the Sharingan's limits… and your new form of perception."
Bee raised a hand, already half transformed into his Gyuki cloak mode. "You better start talkin' or start dyin'."
Orochimaru chuckled. "So quick to hostility. You Kumogakure types are all muscle and pride."
The Raikage stepped forward, the air crackling faintly. "You're not leaving this place alive, snake."
Orochimaru tilted his head, eyes gleaming. "Oh, I doubt that."
With a subtle clap to the ground, Two wooden boxes came from the ground. "Reanimation jutsu."
--
A/N: In Canon, Fugaku was supposed to awaken Mangekyou when his friend died protecting him in 3rd Great ninja war and choose to keep it a secret.
However, aizenDuchiha0 said in Chapter 33:
[Kaien leaned forward, eyes gleaming. "Not enough. The Uchiha feed on emotions. Their eyes grow sharper the deeper they drown in them. We strike at the source. Deploy calming bombs. They dull the nervous system, dampen emotion. Pair them with sedatives. We capture, but we do not kill. "]
Since, kumo were ordered to capture not kill... it proved to be a quite difficult task with kumo's morale flanking with explosions in the land of frost and fugaku taking the opportunity. So, young Ay flank was in a disadvantage. Fugaku didn't awaken his mangekyou since young Ay was using calming bombs and sedatives and kill any nearby fellow uchiha just in case.