"Cut the crap, Konoha's Ghost. You've killed so many of my Cloud brothers—today I'll make you pay in blood!"
"Lariat!
The Fourth Raikage's temper was bad on a good day; after that long pursuit he was practically boiling. As soon as he spat out his threat, his entire body exploded into lightning and shot straight at Feiyu like a cannon shell.
"What insane speed…"
Feiyu sucked in a sharp breath. The three tomoe in his crimson Sharingan spun wildly, catching every detail of the Raikage's movement. A thin sheath of lightning armor crackled to life over his own body, and the Kusanagi sword in his hand howled with wind and thunder as he swung it sideways to meet the charge.
In raw speed, Feiyu couldn't beat the Fourth Raikage.
But with three-tomoe Sharingan enhancing his dynamic vision, his reaction speed was far beyond ordinary. That extra edge in reflexes was enough to make up for the difference in foot speed—and let him block that opening blitz head-on.
Kusanagi's blade and the Raikage's lightning-charged hand knife crashed together, shrieking with a sound that was almost like a thousand birds crying. A shockwave burst out from the impact.
Feiyu was blown backward, skidding seven or eight meters before he managed to dig in and stop.
His sword hand trembled. Blood seeped from the torn skin of his tiger's mouth and dripped down the hilt, staining Kusanagi's blade red.
But the Fourth Raikage didn't press the attack.
There was a clear sword mark carved into his wrist, the wound deep enough to expose bone.
That first exchange had left neither of them with a real advantage.
Feiyu's White Fang sword style was frighteningly sharp, its "point-to-break-surface" principle piercing through the Fourth Raikage's lightning armor and inflicting a serious injury.
At the same time, the Raikage's hand strike carried terrifying force—his raw strength far surpassed Feiyu's—shocking Feiyu's tiger's mouth and wrist badly in return.
One blow, and both men instantly understood:
The one standing opposite was the most dangerous opponent they'd ever faced.
Their gazes locked.
And in that instant of eye contact, the Fourth Raikage's expression abruptly changed.
"Not good—Sharingan—"
"Genjutsu — Sharingan!"
This technique literally had "Sharingan" in its name; that alone said plenty about its level. It was a genjutsu specifically tailored to the Uchiha eye, perfectly compatible with it. In an instant, the Fourth Raikage was dragged into illusion.
He'd never imagined that the guy in front of him—who fought so much like Konoha's White Fang—would actually be an Uchiha. He hadn't even noticed Feiyu's Sharingan at first.
And so, one careless moment of locked eyes was all it took to get him screwed.
"Lord A! Damn it!"
The sensory-type Cloud ninja at the edge of the clearing saw the Raikage fall into genjutsu in a heartbeat and turned pale. He rushed forward without hesitation, trying to disrupt the Raikage's chakra flow.
"Don't get in my way."
Feiyu's face was ice-cold. Kusanagi flashed once, a line of white light thrusting straight for the Fourth Raikage's throat.
"Lightning Style — Lightning Illusion: Thunder Light Pillar! (雷遁·雷幻雷光柱)"
The sensor ninja knew he'd never outrun Feiyu. Instead of trying, he simply threw himself directly into Feiyu's path, putting his own body between Feiyu's sword and the Raikage's neck.
In that moment, his entire body detonated with blinding light.
Lightning flared like a miniature sun, and within it pulsed a powerful genjutsu wave. Even Feiyu's three-tomoe Sharingan wavered under the sudden assault—his vision blurred for a split second.
But only for a split second.
Feiyu snapped back to himself almost immediately. Kusanagi's blade extended in a single smooth motion and punched straight through the sensor ninja's heart.
"Light-based genjutsu, huh… good thing I had intel on it beforehand. Otherwise I really might've flipped over here."
A faint chill lingered in Feiyu's chest.
The Naruto world was also known as the "Legend of Eyes" for a reason. Genjutsu that didn't rely on eye contact were generally pretty trash.
But there were a few exceptions.
And most of those rare exceptions were designed specifically to counter the Sharingan—things like the Darkness Technique, and the Thunder Illusion: Thunder Light Pillar he'd just tanked.
Feiyu had been on guard precisely because he remembered that in the original timeline, this technique had some effect even on Mangekyō Sharingan Sasuke. It was clear evidence that Thunder Light Pillar was tuned to target Sharingan users.
He only had a three-tomoe Sharingan. Out here, he had no backup, no teammates. If he'd taken that hit head-on and gone under at the wrong moment… he'd basically be dead.
Thanks to the sensor ninja's sacrificial block, the Fourth Raikage finally snapped out of the Sharingan genjutsu. He took in the scene in front of him, then roared in pure rage:
"C! You bastard—go to hell! Lightning Release: Liger Bomb!
Feiyu watched the charging Raikage and couldn't help twitching the corner of his mouth.
Three-tomoe Sharingan didn't do much against full-blown Kage-level monsters. That earlier genjutsu had only worked because it was a surprise attack; after this, the Raikage would be on guard, and it would be hard to catch him again.
But without that sensor ninja, Feiyu felt a lot more relaxed.
As long as he opened some distance between them now, the Fourth Raikage would never be able to catch up.
As the Raikage barreled toward him, Feiyu's body flashed with lightning once more. A sword slash of compressed wind screamed out, forming a white arc of blade-light.
The Fourth Raikage plowed straight through it. His charge stuttered minutely but didn't stop.
Feiyu seized that tiny gap, forming a one-handed seal.
A curtain of blackness burst out from him, rippling across the battlefield.
"Genjutsu — Darkness Technique! (黑暗行之术)"
The Fourth Raikage's vision went black.
Everything—sky, ground, the enemy in front of him—disappeared. Completely blind, he instinctively halted, sinking into a guarded stance as chakra surged wildly in his body, trying to shatter the illusion by force.
But the Darkness Technique was brutally simple: it just ripped away your visual sense. Unlike more "delicate" illusions, there was nothing to unravel, no scene to break—it was a hammer, not a scalpel.
So the usual trick of scrambling your chakra flow didn't work well here.
Even so, all genjutsu were fundamentally manifestations of chakra manipulation. As long as your chakra reserves were overwhelming enough, you could break out with brute force. The Fourth Raikage's method wasn't wrong—it just needed time.
While he pounded his chakra to the limit, the lightning armor around his body flared a deep blue, his defenses cranked to maximum.
At the same time, he pushed his hearing and sense of touch to the edge, trying to feel out any attack approaching him.
He waited.
And waited.
Nearly thirty seconds crawled past. The crushing darkness in his eyes had faded to a dim gray; the Darkness Technique was already on the verge of being ground away…
Yet no attack had come.
Finally, with a last burst of will, the Raikage blew apart the remaining fragment of genjutsu chakra.
The darkness lifted. His vision snapped back to normal.
He spun around, scanning the area—
And froze.
Empty. Completely empty.
The clearing was deserted. Not even the corpse of C remained—only a dark pool of blood on the ground where he'd fallen.
A two kilometers away, the air rippled gently, and space seemed to twist.
A moment later, Feiyu stepped out of the void, dragging C's corpse by one leg.
He exhaled slowly.
"Tch. Finally shook that big lug off. Are these two Raikage born just to mess with me or what? Why do they keep chasing my ass all over the battlefield?"
He glanced down at the body he was hauling and grinned.
"Still… this haul was pretty nice. If C weren't still in his 'young and inexperienced' phase, there's no way I'd have taken him down that easily."
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