The square of the Katabami Gold Mine was silent, save for the hum of the electrical storm gathering in the grey clouds above. The air tasted of ozone and rot, a metallic tang that coated Kakashi's tongue.
A low-pressure headache pulsed behind Kakashi's eyes—throb... throb—syncing with the distant rumble of thunder.
Raiga Kurosuki stood in the center of the mudflat, his blue eyes scanning the group of miners Karashi had dragged out.
"Yonsuke," Raiga murmured, looking at the thirty-something man trembling in the mud. "You dig well. You have purpose."
He turned to the older miner, a man in his sixties with skin like weathered leather.
"And you," Raiga said softly. "What is your name?"
"S-Shichisuke," the old man stammered, bowing low. "It means... Seventh Helper."
Raiga froze.
The air pressure dropped. The Kiba blades in his hands sparked—zzzt-crack—a sudden, violent discharge that made the puddles around him boil.
The smell of electricity spiked sharply, burning the inside of Karashi's nose like ammonia.
"Seven," Raiga whispered. His face, which had been a mask of tragic sorrow, twisted into something petty and cruel. "You dare?"
"R-Raiga-sama?" Karashi stepped forward, his voice cracking. "He's just an old man! He works hard!"
"There is only one Seven here," Raiga hissed, raising a blade. "I am a Swordsman of the Mist. I am the legacy. You are mud. How dare you steal the number?"
It wasn't justice. It wasn't discipline. It was ego. Raiga wasn't just a mercenary; he was a zealot for his own legend. He saw a random old miner with an unlucky name and took it as a personal insult to his existence.
"Die," Raiga commanded.
He didn't swing. He just pointed.
A bolt of lightning, thin as a needle but bright as the sun, shot from the tip of the blade.
CRACK.
It hit Shichisuke in the chest.
There was no scream. The old man just folded, smoke rising from his vest, and fell face-first into the chemical-slicked mud.
The mud swallowed the body with a wet shhh-luck sound, closing over his face instantly.
"No!" Yonsuke screamed, scrambling backward.
Karashi stared at the body. He looked at Raiga. The mask had slipped completely. This wasn't a misunderstood artist of death; this was a natural disaster with a sword.
"You... you killed him," Karashi whispered. "For his name?"
"I corrected a mistake," Raiga said, turning his cold eyes to the Konoha ninja. "And now, I will correct the rest."
"Move!" Kakashi ordered.
The battle began with thunder.
Raiga slammed both swords into the mud.
"Lightning Burial: Banquet of Lightning!"
Bolts of electricity didn't fly through the air; they traveled through the ground. The salt-crusted mud acted as a superconductor, the lightning racing through the wet earth like snakes made of light.
The ground vibrated violently, knocking loose piles of shale into the bubbling pools.
"Jump!" Anko screamed.
The team scattered.
HISSSSSS.
Steam explosions erupted along the path of the lightning. The water in the mud instantly flash-boiled, sending geysers of superheated vapor into the air.
The steam smelled of cooked sulfur and wet earth, thick enough to choke on.
Kakashi landed on a wooden post, his Sharingan spinning.
"Water Style is useless here," Kakashi analyzed rapidly. "It just conducts him. Earth Style is too slow in this slurry."
"Byakugan!" Neji landed on a roof, veins bulging. "I can't see his chakra points! The air is filled with static! It's blinding me!"
Static electricity made Neji's hair stand on end, crackling softly near his ears.
"Mist," Raiga intoned, his voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere.
Thick, yellow-grey fog rolled in from the settling pools. It wasn't normal mist; it smelled of rotten eggs and mildew. The fog was heavy and yellow-tinged, coating Kakashi's exposed skin in a fine, gritty layer of sulfur dust.
"Hiding in Mist Technique: Sulfur Variant."
"Great," Anko coughed, pulling her collar up. "Spicy air. My favorite."
"Ranmaru!" Raiga's voice boomed. "Eyes!"
On Raiga's back, the child's red eyes glowed through the fog.
"Three degrees left," Ranmaru whispered. "The silver-haired one."
Raiga moved. He didn't run; he slid through the mist, silent as a ghost.
Only the faint hiss of the wet mud parting around his boots gave him away.
CLANG.
Kakashi blocked the strike with a kunai, sparks flying. The impact vibrated up his arm, numbing his fingers.
"You are fast," Raiga complimented, his face inches from Kakashi's. "But you are blind."
"Lightning Dragon Tornado!"
Raiga spun. A vortex of wind and black-and-yellow electricity formed around him. It didn't just hit Kakashi; it sucked up the toxic mud, turning into a centrifuge of sludge and lightning.
The wind roared like a jet engine, tearing the tiles off the nearby shanty roofs—rip-clatter.
Kakashi was thrown back, landing hard in a puddle that hissed on contact with his vest.
Sasuke watched from the shadows of a mangrove stump.
He saw Kakashi get hit. He saw Neji struggling to see through the static.
They're too slow, Sasuke thought, the Curse Mark buzzing on his neck. They're playing defense.
He looked at Raiga. The man was surrounded by a sphere of crackling electricity. Lightning Strike Armor.
"It's just a shield," Sasuke muttered. "I can pierce it."
He didn't wait for a signal. He didn't check with the team.
Chidori.
The sound of a thousand birds filled the fog. Blue lightning gathered in his hand, sharp and focused.
The chirping was deafening—CHIRP-CHIRP-SCREE—drowning out the thunder for a split second.
"Sasuke, no!" Kakashi's voice cut through the mist. "Don't engage! It's a trap!"
Sasuke ignored him. Fear dressed as wisdom, he thought.
He charged.
"Chidori!"
He thrust his hand forward, aiming for Raiga's chest.
Raiga turned. He didn't dodge. He smiled.
He crossed the Kiba blades.
"Thunder Gate."
Sasuke's Chidori hit the crossed swords.
It didn't pierce.
Raiga's lightning was natural. It was raw sky-fire. Sasuke's chakra-based lightning hit the superior frequency and shattered.
The feedback shock was a physical punch to the chest, stopping Sasuke's heart for a terrifying microsecond.
CRACK-BOOM.
The feedback loop was instantaneous. The lightning traveled back up Sasuke's arm, blowing him backward.
"Gah!" Sasuke screamed, crashing into a pile of lumber. His arm smoked, the nerves misfiring.
The smell of singed hair and burned flesh wafted up from his arm, sickeningly sweet.
"A child playing with sparks," Raiga mocked, looming over him. "Let me show you the storm."
He raised his swords to finish him.
THWUMP.
Something heavy hit Raiga in the face.
It wasn't a weapon. It was a massive, rolled-up rubber mat.
"What?" Raiga stumbled back, the non-conductive material disrupting his electrical field for a split second.
The rubber mat hit with a dull, heavy THWUMP, smelling of old tires and warehouse dust.
"Now, Naruto!" Tenten yelled from a high tower.
She stood atop a water tank, a massive scroll unrolled at her feet. She wasn't summoning weapons. She was summoning industrial supplies. Rubber mats. Insulated tarps. Heavy canvas.
She was paving the battlefield.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Naruto burst from the fog, running on top of the rubber mats Tenten had laid down. The lightning in the mud couldn't touch him.
Naruto's sandals squeaked on the wet rubber—squeak-squeak—a frantic, cartoonish sound amidst the chaos.
"Rasengan!"
Naruto slammed the sphere of spiraling chakra into Raiga's gut while his armor was disrupted.
BAM.
Raiga flew backward, skipping across the mud like a stone.
He hit a puddle with a massive SPLASH, sending a wall of black water over the nearby miners.
"Nice aim, Tenten!" Naruto cheered.
"It's called logistics!" Tenten yelled back, wiping sweat from her forehead. "You can't shock what you can't touch!"
Sylvie appeared next to Sasuke, her hands glowing green.
"Hold still," she ordered, slapping a healing tag onto his burned arm. "That was stupid, Uchiha. You tried to out-lightning a lightning bolt."
Sasuke glared at her, but he didn't pull away. His arm throbbed. He looked at Raiga getting back up, electricity arching angrily around him.
He looked at Tenten on the tower, calculating angles. He looked at Naruto, using the environment.
They're adapting, Sasuke realized bitterly. And I'm just charging in.
Raiga roared, pointing his swords at the sky. The clouds churned, answering his call.
"The storm isn't over!" Raiga screamed. "I will bury you all!"
Lightning struck the ground around him, vaporizing the rubber mats.
The mats caught fire instantly, burning with thick, acrid black smoke that mixed with the yellow sulfur fog.
Rain began to fall—heavy, cold drops that sizzled when they hit the superheated ground—tsssss.