"Hey, hey, are these two really still Ninja?"
Within the storm, Kisame's shark-like face was continuously battered by the torrential rain.
Watching the earth being ravaged with scorching marks, he couldn't help but sigh.
Before him, Sasuke had no intention of engaging in conversation, merely watching him and Black Zetsu coldly with caution.
During his training at Ryuchi Cave, his increasingly refined Observation Haki sensed a strong aura of blood from the blades of these two.
Though he was deeply worried about his mother and clan members back in the village's clan compound, eliminating these powerful invaders was the best way to protect his loved ones right now.
"Enough talk, let's fight!"
The scales on Sasuke's body slightly bristled. Chakra flowed into the metal longsword he drew.
The stored Chakra within his body was pushed out by newly refined Chakra, transforming into flickering lightning that enveloped him.
[One Sword Style: Lightning Erosion!]
"Hahaha, Lightning Release? Then let me..."
Raiga laughed excitedly, pulling out the sword Kiba from his back.
But Kisame in front of him stopped him, reaching back to take down Samehada and unwrapping its bandages.
"Wait, that move isn't ordinary. Let me handle it!"
As he spoke, he directly swung Samehada, clashing with Sasuke's slash mid-air.
Amidst the cry of blade meeting blade, sparks flew.
The Lightning Release, which could originally become active like a venomous snake, sprouting tiny fangs to tear at the enemy, was now slowly being devoured bit by bit by Samehada in Kisame's hand.
The penetrating power brought by its high-frequency vibration also vanished.
"Hmm, creating a technique like this at your age is truly remarkable!"
The sword in Kisame's hand expanded, wriggling as it began to seek out Sasuke's direction. "Oh? Samehada also likes your Chakra very much!"
"Who needs praise from an enemy like you? You..." Sasuke wanted to throw out some trash talk before attacking, but realized he seemed to have forgotten this shark-face's name.
"My apologies, I haven't introduced myself." Kisame placed a hand on his chest. "I am Hoshigaki Kisame, and this is Kurosuki Raiga. Pleased to meet you!"
"Hey, you shark-faced bastard, giving your information away like that… if you get killed, I'll laugh at you plenty at your funeral!"
Raiga pulled out the twin swords Kiba from his back, infused them with his Chakra, then cloaked them in a high-frequency vibrating chakra coat.
"Good, Hoshigaki Kisame, Kurosuki Raiga. I'll remember these two names!"
Sasuke took a deep breath, his entire body swelling three or four times in size. "After you become corpses under my blade, I'll boast about it properly to my comrades!"
"Hmph, truly a characteristic of the Uchiha, I must say."
Kisame didn't mind the insult at all, instead laughing heartily. "Such arrogance, just like Uchiha Itachi!"
"Don't you dare! Mention that name!!!"
The semi-dragonized Sasuke shattered the ground beneath his feet, leaping high into the sky, avoiding the storm generated by Sakura's battle with Pain.
Pulled down by gravity, he fell, the chakra-conducting metal longsword in his hand turning black, its sharp aura ringing sharply.
"Hehe, you can't snatch this one from me now!"
Seeing the dark lightning flicker on Sasuke's blade, Raiga showed an excited expression.
Crossing the twin swords over his chest, he poured chakra into them, summoning lightning and rapidly spinning to create a dragon-shaped vortex of electricity.
[Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Tornado!]
A blazing, bright-white blade thrust straight for Sasuke's chest, while the dragon-shaped lightning also opened its maw towards him.
The Sharingan reflected the approaching lightning dragon. A smirk tugged at Sasuke's lips.
'You're playing with dragon forms in front of me?'
The youth's longsword cleanly and decisively slashed towards the twin swords carrying the furious lightning, producing a crisp sound.
"Hahaha, using lightning against these blades that can absorb it, you..."
Raiga was about to laugh, but his triumphant expression froze on his face before it could fully form.
Sasuke's black blade, wrapped in Armament Haki, sliced straight through Kiba, cutting a huge wound across Raiga's chest.
"Argh!"
A torrent of blood sprayed from the gash on Raiga's chest, forming a mist in the air.
Behind the rapidly expanding blood mist, Sasuke, floating, had blazing light rising from him.
In the turning motion, a scorching, sun-like golden vertical pupil opened in the heavens above, glaring down ferociously.
Sakura Dragon!
The mythical beast from legend unfurled its sacred outline within the clouds, its maw full of sharp teeth opening wide, the burning breath of heat already ready to be unleashed.
"Not good!"
Kisame on the ground hurriedly thrust Samehada into his own body. Then, as Chakra circulated, he fused with the sword, his physique transforming, bursting through his robe to become a huge fish-man with three fins.
Forming hand seals, Samehada's Chakra mixed with his own, gathering in his chest, swelling and bulging.
[Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!]
Kisame violently spewed a wave of water from his mouth, instantly forming a massive ellipsoidal water prison. He plunged into the water prison like a flying fish.
Swimming within the giant water prison, he caused the entire mass of water to break free from gravity's pull, flying up into the sky.
This was to catch Raiga, who had no foothold mid-air.
However, his speed was ultimately a bit too slow.
Raiga's dragon-shaped lightning, after colliding with Sasuke, was grabbed by him with a claw.
Then the scorching maw aimed at Raiga's head.
[Bolo Breath!]
In the next instant, intense flames filled the sky, pure fire tearing apart all other colors.
At the center of the endlessly rushing pillar of fire, Raiga had no time to make a sound before being burned to ashes.
The remaining flames, their power undiminished, poured into Kisame's water prison, boiling the water, causing the smooth spherical surface to tremble and churn.
"Hey, they didn't mention we'd encounter enemies of this level when assigning the mission!"
Feeling himself about to be boiled into dried shark slices, Kisame could only helplessly expend a large amount of chakra to form seals.
Gathering the remaining cool water around himself, he shaped it with Chakra into the outline of a shark.
[Water Release: Water Shark Bomb Technique!]
Wrapping himself in the shark-shaped water bullet, and with powerful strokes from the fish tail produced by his fusion with Samehada, Kisame swam rapidly within the boiling water prison.
In an instant, he broke free from the constraints of the boiling water, swimming directly into the sky along the direction of the wind.
The shark-shaped water bullet opened its jaws, biting down on Sasuke who had transformed into the Sakura Dragon. Samehada ravenously devoured his chakra!
"A technique that absorbs chakra? If that's all you have, then it's time for you to exit the stage!"
Sasuke directly and chaotically drew in the surrounding natural energy mid-air, processing it into Senjutsu Chakra for Kisame to absorb. Then, the Mangekyo within his dragon eyes opened.
[Mangekyo: Toyokumono-no-Mikoto!]
The Dojutsu that could drag all things from order into chaos fell upon Kisame.
The Senjutsu Chakra that had just been processed immediately fell into chaos, disintegrating into pure Natural Energy and regular Chakra.
"This is... Natural Energy? You're actually a Sage!"
Kisame let out a pained roar. He never thought a single intelligence oversight would lead to such a crushing defeat.
'Ah, what a pity! I likely wouldn't get to see that world without strife.'
Kisame's consciousness gradually faded. The Natural Energy within him was running wild, constantly destroying his body.
Samehada promptly sold him out, spitting all the energy into his body before severing the fusion.
Then, in too much pain to speak, he began to mutate and deform. His body grew slender, a snake tail appeared, and his limbs atrophied.
In less than twenty seconds, Kisame completed his transformation into a large gray snake.
"Members of Akatsuki are nothing special!"
Sasuke stepped forward using Geppo, cleanly severing the snake's head.
Watching the serpent corpse fall to the ground, struggling before losing its signs of life, he slowly returned to human form, stomping the approaching, ingratiating Samehada into a pit.
"I've already become stronger than before, haven't I?" Sasuke murmured.
Enemies he couldn't even match in Genjutsu before could now be easily slain by him.
'Perhaps I now had a chance...'
The youth stole a glance at the young girl wrestling with the massive repulsive force sphere, his mind beginning to wander.