"Uchiha Eiya!"
"What are you trying to do?"
The air itself seemed to congeal.
Blue veins stood out on Satō's forehead as he glared at the subordinate who suddenly felt like a stranger.
The quiet, obedient underling who always followed orders—now daring to look at him like this?
Daring to challenge the jōnin leading the squad?
Daring to defy a shinobi world iron law?
Absurd.
When he saw lightning leaping over Eiya's body, Satō's pupils shrank.
This was the very Lightning Release the Kumogakure jōnin had used ten minutes ago.
"It's not what I want to do…"
Eiya stepped forward. With each step, thunder snapped in the air.
"It's what you want to do, Captain."
"Why abandon the mission? Why abandon a comrade?"
"Yukino idolizes you more than anyone."
"If not for her, you'd already be a dead man, Satō… Captain."
A flicker of strain crossed Satō's face.
Of course he remembered.
The instant their squad blundered into the explosive tag trap, the enemy's lead jōnin had flared with the same Lightning Release chakra now crackling around Eiya and blitzed him. If not for Yukino's keen sensing and timely warning, the captain would have been beheaded right there.
Satō didn't understand how Eiya could use Kumogakure's Lightning Release, but he knew one thing.
His chakra was nearly spent. If he fought here, both sides would be ruined.
And he would never risk his life on this foolish mission.
"Has he lost his mind—caught in the enemy's genjutsu?"
"Damn it."
Cold sweat slid down Satō's temple. His right hand slipped a kunai from his pouch on reflex.
Shio was petrified.
His eyes flicked between the two as the tension climbed, his lips trembling, unable to make a sound.
The captain's alarm shattered his image of what a jōnin was.
The pressure rolling off Eiya made his knees weak.
Eiya watched Satō in silence.
He felt power surging inside, and as he savored the shift in Satō's expression—from disbelief to shock—he couldn't stop his smile from growing.
"So indulgence makes me stronger. Interesting."
Lightning Release: Armor—also called the Lightning Release chakra mode.
The signature of successive Raikage, an unshared secret of Kumogakure.
Cloak the body in lightning-natured chakra and, through a secret method, stimulate the cells to increase nerve conduction speed.
As lightning chakra builds, cellular activation deepens and both defense and speed keep climbing.
With it, the Fourth Raikage could tank Chidori with his flesh and slip past Amaterasu in a blink.
The thirty percent boost to chakra capacity showed its effect at once.
With Lightning Release: Armor he could, for a short time, harden his defenses and match Satō's speed.
Backed by the Sharingan's insight, that advantage would be pushed to the limit.
His eyes pricked with pain, along with a strange, thrilling sensation.
He didn't need a mirror to know.
Something was changing in those scarlet pupils.
"Three tomoe."
Satō, watching closely, saw it too. Sweat drenched his back as a rumor from the village flashed through his mind.
"Because a teammate was captured, the shock spiked his ocular power."
"Damn it. Uchiha—nothing but lunatics."
He drew a steadying breath and barked, low and hard.
"Eiya, get a grip."
"If we turn on each other here and Kumogakure finds us, we all die."
Eiya took in Satō's forced calm, his white-knuckled grip on the kunai, and let his smile spread.
In that instant he understood.
Indulgence wasn't mindless venting. It was the shattering of every shackle—
Absolute freedom.
After a beat of silence, Satō inhaled and slowly put his kunai away, as if backing down.
"Fine. If you want to try and save her, go. I won't stop you."
"I'll go back and request support from Konoha."
He spoke while edging backward step by step.
His movements were slow—as if wary of Eiya lunging—or as if waiting for something.
Eiya didn't move. He simply watched, the three black tomoe spinning.
As Satō slipped into the shadows beneath the trees, Eiya turned slightly toward Shio.
"And you?"
"I…"
Shio's Adam's apple bobbed. His eyes wavered.
"The captain must have his reasons. If we rush in, we could be wiped out."
"With reinforcements from Konoha, if we're lucky, maybe we can still save—"
He never finished.
A smoke bomb arced from where Satō had vanished.
With a bang, thick white smoke billowed out, blotting their view.
"Cough, cough."
Shio hacked and threw an arm up to shield his face.
The next instant—
Whizz, whizz, whizz.
Three sharp cuts tore through the smoke without warning.
Eiya twisted, narrowly avoiding a kunai aimed at his waist.
Shio didn't even have time to react. A kunai punched through his throat and another through his heart.
Blood sprayed.
"Guh…"
"C-captain…?"
Hands clamped to his neck, pupils shrank to pinpricks, disbelief filling his eyes. He staggered back two steps and crashed to the ground.
The smoke thinned.
Four shinobi wearing Kumogakure forehead protectors ringed them, sealing every exit.
Satō's chakra signature was long gone.
"I see."
Eiya's gaze swept the circle, cold and precise, and in a heartbeat he understood.
Satō had likely sensed the Cloud-nin approaching already and used the smoke bomb to slip away—drawing the enemy's attention and using the two of them as bait to buy time for his escape.
A seasoned Konoha jōnin indeed.
As his thoughts raced, the four Cloud-nin closed in.
"So he ran. It seems a Konoha jōnin is nothing special."
"Are you all here?" Eiya's face was impassive as he scanned them. "Have you already killed Yukino?"
"Drop the act. That woman has already given up your squad's intel."
"Brat, be smart and surrender. You might keep your life, like she did."
"He's just a chūnin. No need to waste words." The lead jōnin slid a short blade from his back and fixed his eyes on Eiya.
A jagged knife-scar on his face twitched as he licked his lips.
"Uchiha brat, those eyes of yours—belong to Kumogakure."