"I know you're not interested in normal fights—and I'm not trying to show off my new power either,"
Sasuke said, turning slightly to glance to the side.
"I just want you to help me test a new Storm Release forbidden jutsu I've developed."
On the adjacent operating table, Genichi lay unconscious, a helmet over his head connected by finger-thick cables. Several Naruto clones in lab coats were monitoring the instruments at the back of Genichi's skull.
Sasuke couldn't even tell if the Naruto who responded to him was the real one.
"Storm Release… a forbidden jutsu?"
One of the Narutos glanced at him sideways.
"I should warn you: if you're just looking for a thrill and want to use that Storm Release technique on me... things won't go your way."
"Of course I know that," Sasuke replied.
"But I have no other worthy opponent."
He stared at the Naruto who had spoken.
"Unless you're willing to take me to Uchiha Itachi."
"Oh?"
Naruto smiled.
"Judging from your tone, I take it you believe only I or Itachi could withstand this technique of yours?"
"You definitely can,"
Sasuke said, blood-red Sharingan eyes flashing with killing intent.
"But Itachi... will definitely die."
"Tch. Arrogant little brat."
Kurama had just returned to the seal when he heard that last sentence.
Looking through Naruto's perspective, he snorted, then slipped off into the Mirror World.
"Not bad eyes."
Naruto hadn't noticed Kurama's brief return. He chuckled.
"Seems I'll have to see this technique of yours for myself. Let's find out if your power lives up to your confidence."
"Do you need time to—"
Before he could finish, Sasuke's projection vanished.
Naruto turned, took off his lab coat, and in a flash—disappeared.
SWOOSH—
In the blink of an eye, Naruto had arrived in the icy forest where Sasuke had been training.
He looked up—
Sasuke was already high in the sky, clad in chakra armor, hovering hundreds of meters above.
Expressionless, Sasuke twisted the wristband on his left arm.
POOF!
With a puff of smoke, Naruto too donned his chakra armor.
"If these storage tools could be made even smaller, they'd be a lot more convenient… I really should have Kichijirō's team expand. More brains, better solutions..."
As Naruto was still musing, Kurama's voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
"Be careful, Naruto. That brat really did develop a Storm Release jutsu powerful enough to potentially kill Itachi."
"Oh?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"How dangerous is it?"
"If this were a life-or-death battle,"
Kurama said after a pause,
"and if he's cautious and keeps his chakra flow steady... I'd say there's about an eighty percent chance. His forbidden jutsu draws on the one you used last time—"
"No need to tell me,"
Naruto cut in calmly.
As he spoke, he flung a kunai into the sky.
After several body flickers, he soared past Sasuke, rising to over a thousand meters before deploying the wings of his chakra armor.
Sasuke quickly caught up.
Moments later, the two stood suspended above the sea of clouds, facing each other from several hundred meters away.
Sasuke's face darkened.
He hadn't expected Naruto to be able to fly—
which meant he had to jump straight to Phase Two of his technique.
"But the second phase isn't stable yet..."
Naruto, watching Sasuke's hesitation, formed a single hand seal.
Instantly, his chakra flared violently, surging outward in all directions.
Sasuke's heart jolted.
He activated his Sharingan and formed seals.
Unlike Naruto, dark lightning flickered across his body, spreading like liquid and branching like trees.
RUMBLE—
Thunder cracked as lightning erupted from the void.
Dark clouds began to form—
linking where Naruto and Sasuke hovered, the cloud sea turning jet-black, arcs of lightning flashing wildly through the sky.
Massive storm clouds began to rotate into twin vortexes around each of them—
but oddly, Sasuke's storm vortex remained stable in size, while Naruto's continued to grow.
"My chakra can't match Naruto's... I have to strike first!"
Sasuke's eyes sharpened.
At this rate, Naruto's storm would devour his own completely.
Despite both wielding Storm Release, Naruto's chakra capacity gave him the advantage.
"Take Mikazuchi! Thunder God Titan!"
With Sasuke's roar, the clouds above surged violently.
Arcs of lightning converged on him, coalescing into the shape of a giant upper-body titan—ten meters tall, fierce-faced, wielding massive twin hammers.
"Ha! Look at that brat. His jutsu's only half-complete!"
"Didn't Naruto just say if he used Storm Release on him it'd go badly? This kid really doesn't think things through."
"Still, even half-finished, it looks powerful enough to threaten Naruto. I'd say he should use Flying Thunder God to dodge."
"Tch, you think Naruto's the type to flee if he's losing? If he planned to run, he wouldn't have come up here."
"..."
Inside the titan's chest, Sasuke was both startled and angry.
He'd planned to form a fully-constructed lightning deity from pure Storm Release—
but after finishing just the upper half, he realized something was wrong.
The thunderclouds were no longer responding.
He tried multiple times—no luck.
Then he understood.
His jutsu wasn't faulty.
Naruto was using his own Storm Release to interfere.
"How much chakra does this guy have?!"
Through the crackling thunder, Sasuke's Sharingan locked onto Naruto—
just in time to see him thrust his right arm straight into the sky, fingers spread, palm upward.
Then—
Naruto's body rapidly expanded—
transforming into a towering giant, even taller than Sasuke's lightning titan.
BOOOOM—
The thunderclap was deafening.
Sasuke's Sharingan clearly saw Naruto grasping a colossal bolt of lightning—
barrel-thick and over 40 meters long.
"Spear of Oblivion!"
"No—!"
Sasuke's pupils shrank.
Even though he couldn't hear over the thunder, he read Naruto's lips.
And worse—Naruto was already winding up for the throw.
"Explode!!"
With a shout, Sasuke's titan lifted its massive hammers and brought them crashing down—
CRASH!!
Jagged bolts of lightning burst out in all directions, thick and tangled like spiderwebs.
BOOM—
"No way!"
Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief.
Unlike last time—when he was overwhelmed by a falling lightning cascade—
this time, he watched it unfold in real time.
All of his scattered lightning was being drawn—sucked—into Naruto's lightning spear.
And after that—
He knew nothing more.
Because by the time the jutsu landed—
He was already ash.
Two Minutes Later
Sasuke revived using Izanagi, and returned with Naruto to the lab.
Borrowing a Byakugan, he used a clone to surgically implant it in place of one eye.
His face twitching with veins, Sasuke said nothing—
and silently returned to his own lab.
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