The mark didn't just itch. It screamed.
Anko Mitarashi crouched behind a rotting mangrove stump, her hand clawed over the cursed seal on her neck. It felt like someone had pressed a lit cigar against her skin and left it there.
A low, rhythmic thump-thump echoed in her ears, syncing her heartbeat with the strange, serpentine frequency in the air.
The pain pulsed in rhythm with the thunder rolling overhead, a toxic harmony that made her vision swim.
Not now, Anko hissed mentally, digging her nails into her flesh until she drew blood. Shut up. Orochimaru isn't here.
But the resonance was undeniable. The chakra in the air wasn't just heavy with Raiga's lightning; it was thick with a specific, serpentine natural energy.
The smell of wet scales and musk overpowered the sulfur stench for a terrifying second, making Anko gag.
"Anko-sensei!" Sylvie's voice cut through the yellow sulfur mist. "Right flank! The mud is bubbling!"
Anko snapped back to reality. The Katabami mine was a kill-box. The air smelled of rotten eggs and ozone. The ground was a slurry of conductive sludge that wanted to cook them alive.
"Move!" Anko barked.
She leaped to a wooden walkway just as the mud below her erupted.
GLORP-BOOM.
The mud exploded with a wet, heavy sound, showering her boots in hot, gritty slime.
CRACK-BOOM.
A bolt of lightning, channeled through the wet root system of the stump she had been hiding behind, vaporized the wood. Splinters the size of kunai flew through the air, smoking.
The wood hissed as it landed in the water—tssss—releasing a sharp scent of burnt charcoal.
Raiga stood in the center of the extraction pit, his Kiba blades held high. He looked like a conductor orchestrating a symphony of disaster.
"Dance!" Raiga wept, tears streaming down his face as he swung the swords. "The funeral march must be loud enough for the heavens to hear!"
"Lightning Ball!"
Five spheres of crackling electricity formed around him. He didn't aim them at the ninja. He aimed them at the dyke wall where the miners were huddled.
"No!" Karashi screamed.
The Curry of Life maker's son—the coward, the traitor, the boy who had sold his soul for protection—moved.
He didn't run away. He scrambled over the mudbank, throwing his skinny, malnourished body in front of Yonsuke and Tsurai. He held up a rusted shovel like a shield.
The metal shovel rattled against his knees—clack-clack-clack—betraying his shaking legs.
"Run!" Karashi yelled at the miners, his voice cracking.
Raiga sneered, pointing the blades. "A weed trying to stop the storm? pathetic."
The lightning balls fired.
Karashi squeezed his eyes shut.
WHOOSH.
A blur of orange crashed into the mud.
Naruto didn't attack Raiga. He didn't aim for the opening in the swordsman's guard.
He slammed a Rasengan into the incoming lightning balls.
GRIND-BOOM.
The spiraling chakra ground against the electrical spheres, detonating them mid-air.
The explosion flashed blinding white, searing an afterimage of Karashi's terrified face onto Anko's retinas.
The explosion threw Naruto backward, skidding through the toxic sludge, but the blast wave blew the lightning away from the civilians.
"Naruto!" Anko shouted.
Naruto sat up, wiping muck from his face. His jacket was singed, smoking.
The smell of burnt synthetic fabric and ozone hung heavy around him, sharp and acrid.
He looked at Karashi, who was hyperventilating behind his shovel.
"You..." Karashi stammered. "You saved me? I... I work for him!"
"You stood in front," Naruto grinned, though he winced as he stood up. "That means you don't deserve to die today. Get them out of here!"
Karashi stared at Naruto. Then, he grabbed Tsurai and Yonsuke, dragging them toward the upper ridge.
Anko let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
Kid, she thought, a grudging respect cutting through the pain in her neck. You're an idiot. But you're a good idiot.
She looked at Raiga. The swordsman was furious. His tragedy had been interrupted.
"You ruin the moment," Raiga hissed. "You ruin the burial."
He crossed his blades. The sky darkened further.
"I will not let you interrupt again."
"Kakashi!" Anko signaled, flashing hand signs. bait. switch. kill.
Kakashi, perched on a crane tower, nodded. "Go."
Anko surged forward.
She was tired. She was hurting. She wasn't a Sannin. She wasn't a copy-ninja prodigy. She was a Special Jōnin with a cursed tattoo and a bag of trauma.
Mud coated her hands, slippery and cool, contrasting with the burning heat of the seal on her neck.
But I'm the leader of this squad, Anko thought, biting her thumb. And nobody dies on my watch.
She wove the signs. Boar. Monkey. Snake.
She channeled her chakra. Usually, this technique summoned three or four snakes from her sleeves—a distraction, a bind.
But as she molded the energy, the Curse Mark pulled. It drank in the ambient nature energy of the Land of Rivers.
What the—?
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
It wasn't a handful of snakes.
It was a deluge.
Dozens of massive, thick-bodied pythons erupted from her sleeves. They were three times their normal size, their scales shimmering with an iridescent, oily sheen.
Their scales rubbed together with a dry, rasping sound—shhh-shhh—like leaves blowing across pavement.
They roared out of her wrists like a hydra, crossing the distance to Raiga in a blink.
The Ryuchi Cave, Anko realized, the recoil nearly knocking her off her feet. We're close. We're in the snake's backyard. My summons are boosted.
Raiga's eyes widened. He tried to slash, but there were too many targets.
The snakes slammed into him, wrapping around his arms, his legs, his torso. They bit into his Lightning Strike Armor, ignoring the shock, grounding the electricity through their massive bodies.
The snakes hissed in pain as the lightning coursed through them, the smell of cooked meat rising instantly.
"Get off me!" Raiga screamed, thrashing as the serpents pinned him to a mangrove stump.
"Now, Scarecrow!" Anko yelled, her voice raw.
Kakashi was already moving.
He dropped from the tower, trailing blue light. The sound of a thousand birds chirped, cutting through the thunder.
The sound was deafening—CHIRP-CHIRP-SCREEE—a high-pitched shriek that vibrated in Anko's teeth.
"Raikiri!"
Raiga saw him coming. "Ranmaru! Vision!"
But the child on his back was silent. The snakes had wrapped around the carrier too, obscuring the boy's view.
"Too late," Kakashi whispered.
He drove the lightning blade into Raiga's gut, shattering the armor.
The impact felt like hitting a solid wall of static, blowing Kakashi's hair back with a shockwave of displaced air.
CRACK.
Blood and electricity sprayed into the air.
Raiga gasped, the Kiba blades falling from his hands. They landed in the mud with a wet thud.
They sank slowly into the ooze, disappearing with a final, sucking glug.
The snakes dissolved into smoke. Kakashi landed in a crouch, sliding back.
Anko panted, clutching her wrist. The surge of power had left her drained, the Curse Mark throbbing with a dull, satisfied ache.
Raiga fell to his knees. He looked at the wound in his stomach. He looked at the grey sky.
"It... rains," Raiga whispered, blood bubbling past his lips.
His breath rattled in his chest—a wet, wheezing sound like a broken accordion.
He looked at the carrier on his back. He reached back, his trembling hand touching the strap.
"Ranmaru..."
The boy didn't answer.
Raiga's expression shifted. The sadness vanished. The madness returned, colder and sharper than before.
He looked at Anko. He looked at Kakashi.
"You think you have stopped the funeral?" Raiga laughed, a wet, gurgling sound.
He grabbed the hilt of his swords. He didn't pick them up. He drove them deeper into the mud.
"Ninja Art: Thunder Funeral."
The ground beneath them began to glow.
"If I go," Raiga smiled, his teeth stained red. "I take the audience with me."
The ground hummed beneath Anko's feet, vibrating with a rising frequency that made her bones ache.
The mud began to boil.
"Run!" Anko screamed.