With a quiet thought, Uchiha Gen pulled a specially crafted Flying Thunder God kunai from his pouch and flicked it into the misty waters below.
The blades he had thrown earlier were simple decoys, ordinary kunai forged in the same style, but without the teleportation seal carved into their steel. They were bait; this one carried the real mark.
Meanwhile, Shuryu and Shizukamaru kept up their assault. Fire and lightning clashed again and again, their thunderous collisions masking the faint splash of the marked kunai sinking into the lake.
Beneath the surface, the weapon stirred to life. From its hilt sprouted tiny spectral limbs that paddled furiously, carrying it toward its target; Kaguya Gang, who stood at the water's edge refining chakra.
It moved slowly, but the distance was short. Within a minute, the weapon had reached the shallows. Ripples spread quietly across the misty shoreline as the kunai crawled onto the bank, inching closer.
When it was a meter and a half away, the sky above emptied. Gen's figure vanished in a flicker and teleporting to the marked kunai. His sleeve snapped, and four venomous snakes of many colors burst forth, fangs bared.
He kept his distance. To approach carelessly meant risking discovery.
But Kaguya blood ran on instinct. Danger prickled through Gang's body, his eyes snapping open as bone tore through flesh. With a roar, twin blades jutted from his forearms, slicing through the air.
His reflexes were remarkable proof of his clan's brutal conditioning. Few could respond to a sudden ambush so quickly.
But Gen was no ordinary ninja. He had planned for this.
Mid-flight, his summoned snakes twisted, colliding and rebounding to alter their trajectories. They curved past the swinging blades and sank their fangs into Gang's neck and waist. Venom pumped deep.
Pain erupted. With a snarl, Gang ripped the snake from his throat and crushed its head. Spikes of bone erupted from his waist, skewering the serpent clamped there.
"I'll fight you—!"
His chakra surged, body bristling with jagged ivory.
Dance of the Larch.
Spikes were about to explode outward when he made the mistake of looking up.
Crimson tomoe locked his gaze. The Mangekyō Sharingan spun.
In that instant, Kaguya Gang's body froze. The spikes halted mid-growth. His unfinished challenge hung in the air like broken glass.
Gen's lips curved faintly. With a thought, the man's soul and lifespan unraveled, drawn into the Uchiha's grasp.
And then he was gone, vanished again, and reappearing by Shuryu's side. Both Shuryu and Shizukamaru bore his seals; he could reach them in an instant.
The mist still rolled heavy over the battlefield, drowning sound and sight. Mangetsu Hōzuki and the others, unable to sense chakra without specialized jutsu, remained blind to what had just transpired.
Minutes more of fire and lightning shook the air before Gen felt the storm had ripened. He tilted his head back.
His Mangekyō whirled into a new form, black, triangular pickaxes gleaming in his gaze.
Lightning Release: Kirin.
A jutsu whispered of as the ultimate lightning technique in the Book of Ninja, devastatingly fast, wide in reach, colossal in power… and treacherously unstable.
It demanded a storm, demanded sight sharp enough to track the flow of lightning itself, faster than sound, gone in thousandths of a second. To misstep was to risk self-destruction.
Sasuke had needed but three tomoe to wield it. Gen's Mangekyō could see further still.
He raised Shizukamaru. Lightning surged from the blade, lancing upward into the brewing storm.
Chidori could call thunder. Other lightning jutsu could stir the sky. Shizukamaru, infused with Kiba's essence, was no different.
The storm answered. Thunder writhed in the swollen clouds, serpents of light coiling through shadow. The heavens glowed white-blue as the air itself grew heavy, pressing down with suffocating might.
Far below, instinct screamed at the four enemies. Mangetsu's eyes narrowed.
"Captain… I have a bad feeling. This mist... we need to clear it. Now."
The others nodded grimly. Terumī Meina, Minazuki Tō, Hagoromo Masayuki, each felt the same dread.
Mangetsu released his jutsu. The mist unraveled, the world opening once more.
And there he was. Uchiha Gen stood on the sky's edge, blade raised high, lightning roaring through him into the clouds.
"Listen well!" Gen's voice cracked across the battlefield. "This is an S-rank jutsu. Its power is immense, its speed impossible to escape. If you have trump cards, use them now. Hold back, and you'll die without ever drawing breath!"
The four froze.
Was it arrogance? A taunt? Or a warning?
They couldn't tell.
Suspicion rooted them still. Perhaps this Uchiha wanted them to burn chakra in panic, to waste their aces.
Gen read their hesitation. With a scowl, his Mangekyō blazed brighter. Lightning intensified around Shizukamaru, climbing higher, raking more fury from the clouds.
And then the heavens split.
Countless bolts laced together into a vast net of light. The storm's belly tore, and from it surged a colossal beast of lightning antlered head, fanged maw, crimson eyes burning like suns.
The Kirin roared. Thunder and beast became one, shaking the heavens, pressing the world beneath its weight.
For a heartbeat, even Mangetsu and his comrades forgot to breathe.
"Move, damn you!" Gen's voice snapped them out of their daze. "Or you'll be ashes!"
Survival instincts lit like fire.
Mangetsu merged with the water beneath him, the lake spinning into a vast whirlpool. A compressed column of water shot skyward like a missile.
Meina spewed torrents of white-hot lava, the air blistering as her corrosive flood raged toward the clouds.
Minazuki Tō unleashed a frigid gale, bone-white frost crystallizing the very air, flowers of ice blooming mid-sky.
Masayuki merged with his crocodilian summon, body swelling and armoring with azure scales. Chakra flared as a seething blue orb gathered in his claws, then launched skyward like a Tailed Beast Ball.
Gen let out a small breath of relief. At least they weren't fools.
"Then let's finish this."
His Mangekyō flared, guiding the storm. The Kirin descended.
The world erupted.
Lightning met water, lava, frost, and chakra head-on. The explosion ripped the heavens apart, shockwaves flattening forests, shattering stone, and boiling the lake into mist.
Even then, nature's fury proved greater. The Kirin's remnants smashed through, crashing downward in a blinding torrent.
When silence finally fell, smoke and steam shrouded the world.
Gen's eyes narrowed. Four souls remained. They lived.
He descended, wind release scattering the haze. Rain began to fall, gentle spring rain, and soft against the scorched earth.
Gen smiled faintly. Rain was always his favorite.
"Rest, Shuryu," he said softly. The fire spirit vanished into his sleeve.
He strode through the mud. The four lay broken, bodies burned, torn, charred. Two unconscious, two still clinging to awareness.
Mangetsu and Masayuki forced themselves upright, trembling.
Gen's voice was calm, almost respectful. "Your courage deserves acknowledgment. For that, I'll grant you a clean end."
Their gazes met his Sharingan. Hypnosis took them. Souls and lifespans drifted free without fear. Their bodies fell with soft thuds into the mud, Masayuki's scaled form dissolving back to human beside his crocodile summon.
Gen conjured an earth clone to check the unconscious. Meina was still alive.
But as the clone reached Minazuki Tō, her eyes snapped open. An ice blade burst from her hand, piercing its throat. The clone crumbled back to dirt.
Coughing blood, she gave a faint smile.
"Even now… I won't lower my guard. We lost. Fair and square."
Her body collapsed.
Gen blurred forward, catching her before the warmth faded. With precision, he ensnared her final spark of life, pulling her soul free.
He exhaled sharply, heart racing.
"That was close… another moment and I'd have lost her to the Pure Land."