Chapter 147: The Profound Truth of the Blade
As the Raikage launched his desperate charge up the Kyuubi's back, Darui took command on the ground. "Focus your attacks! Drive the beast away from the village center! Use everything you have! Buy the Raikage time!"
A chorus of "Hai!" echoed as the Cloud shinobi unleashed a renewed barrage of ninjutsu and projectiles against the Nine-Tails' colossal legs, a desperate attempt to distract it.
The Raikage, a living storm of lightning and rage, ignored the chaos below. His entire being was focused on the figure standing atop the beast's head. "UCHIHA REN!"
Ren watched him come, a predator's smile gracing his lips. He raised the Ryūkō Seiun, its blade igniting with a hellish crimson glow. "Your recklessness will be your epitaph, Raikage."
They met in a cataclysmic clash. Ren's fiery sword met the Raikage's lightning-wreathed fist.
**BOOM!**
The impact was a thunderclap of opposing energies. A visible shockwave rippled out from the point of contact, so powerful it made the Kyuubi itself stagger, its roar turning into a grunt of irritation. The Cloud shinobi below were thrown off their feet by the concussive force.
"You bastard! Taste my wrath!" the Raikage bellowed, using the force of the blow to propel himself high into the air. He spun, condensing his lightning chakra into a devastating axe kick aimed to cleave Ren in two. "Raiton: Rairyū no On'iki! Raifu!" (Lightning Style: Lightning Dragon's Rage! Lightning Axe!)
Ren didn't evade. His Mangekyō Sharingan blazed. The skeletal ribs of the Susanoo materialized around him in an instant, a phantom shield against the heavens.
**CRACK-BOOM!**
The Raikage's heel slammed into the Susanoo with the force of a meteor. The sound of shattering bone echoed as a web of fractures spread across the chakra construct. The force of the blow was so immense that it drove the Kyuubi down onto its haunches, its massive weight shaking the very foundations of the mountain.
A cheer went up from the Cloud shinobi below. "It's the Raikage! He's winning! Hold the line!"
Their celebration was premature.
Inside the cracked Susanoo, Ren's anger simmered. *Enough of this.*
The skeletal arm of the Susanoo reformed in a flash of grey-white chakra and swung in a brutal backhand, catching the Raikage as he landed from his attack.
**THWUMP!**
The blow connected solidly. Even protected by his Lightning Armor, the Raikage was hurled from the Kyuubi's back like a discarded toy.
Ren didn't give him a moment to recover. In a flicker of Space-Time Ninjutsu, he vanished from the fox's head and reappeared directly above the Raikage's tumbling form.
The Raikage, disoriented mid-air, looked up to see Ren descending upon him like a vengeful god, his right leg coiled with crackling Lightning Chakra—a perfect mirror of the Raikage's own technique.
"Raiton: Raifu!" Ren snarled, delivering the "Lightning Axe" kick directly into the Raikage's stomach.
**CRUNCH!**
The sound of impact was sickening. The Raikage's eyes bulged as all the air was driven from his lungs. He was smashed downward, accelerating into the ground like a cannonball.
**KABOOM!**
He cratered the earth, the impact creating a shallow pit five meters wide, surrounded by a spiderweb of cracks.
Ren landed gracefully at the pit's edge. The fight was not over. He gripped the Ryūkō Seiun with both hands, pouring a torrent of scorching Fire Nature Chakra into the blade. It glowed brighter, hotter, until flames themselves wreathed the steel, licking hungrily at the air. The very space around the sword warped from the heat.
He leaped into the air above the crater, his chakra reaching its peak. He didn't need to see his target; he could feel the Raikage's flickering chakra below.
"Ōgi: Enjin!" (Secret Technique: Blazing Depth Slash!)
He plunged the sword downward, not as a stab, but as a conduit. The tip of the blade struck the center of the crater.
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then, the ground erupted.
The five-meter crater exploded outwards to twenty meters as the stored fire chakra violently discharged into the earth. The ground shattered into fist-sized rubble. But the true horror followed. From every crack and fissure, geysers of concentrated crimson fire erupted, spewing pillars of flame high into the sky, turning the area into a vision of hell itself. The heat was so intense that Cloud shinobi hundreds of meters away felt their skin blister.
This technique was Ren's creation, inspired by forgotten memories. The Ryūkō Seiun's unique properties allowed it to store and amplify chakra to a critical point before releasing it not as a wave, but as a subterranean inferno. It was a move of devastating power and terrifying beauty.
As the pillars of fire raged, consuming the crater where the Raikage lay, a stunned silence fell over the battlefield. The unthinkable had happened. The invincible Raikage had been struck down.
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