Chapter Forty-Two: Kill

The last time Shirakumo Hayama was hit, he had only suffered minor injuries. That already explained everything.

"Impressive... the Third Hokage's son... Akira Sarutobi..."

After a brief moment of confusion, Raiga Kurosuki calmed down.

Who among those who became Jonin had not clawed their way up from mountains of corpses and seas of blood?

Especially in a brutal place like Kirigakure, Raiga Kurosuki's qualities were beyond question.

He might have been a little mentally unstable, but he was definitely not stupid.

"Hehehe..."

His hoarse voice, accompanied by a low chuckle, formed a crazed expression.

"You've got some skill... and you actually bought off Ringo Ameyuri too..."

What kind of existence were the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?

The importance of that title in the Land of Bloody Mist... was no less than that of Konoha's Three Ninja.

It was glory, and also... a symbol of many things.

If someone among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were bought off by the enemy, it would deal a severe blow to morale.

In the original story, when the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were crippled by Might Duy's kicks, the Hidden Mist chose to retreat. That was one example.

Faced with Raiga Kurosuki's misunderstanding, Akira Sarutobi was somewhat interested in explaining himself.

"You seem to have gotten one thing wrong... I simply couldn't stand the practice of harming the loyal and righteous, so I intervened."

"Boring talk about 'comrades,' huh? Just as expected from a Konoha ninja..."

Raiga Kurosuki neither confirmed nor denied it.

Since the two were standing quite far apart, Nonō and the others could not hear their conversation clearly.

"This conversation ends here. Since we're ninja, we'll decide the outcome the ninja way!"

Raiga Kurosuki shouted in a low voice. As his words fell—

Akira Sarutobi moved instantly as well. "Hah!"

After a fierce shout, he stomped down with force while forming a hand sign with his left hand.

The entire earth seemed to tremble beneath that stomp.

Then, a terrifying killing intent arrived before him.

What appeared to be a simple charge contained multiple techniques.

As a disciple of Konoha's White Fang, Akira Sarutobi had learned far more than swordsmanship.

Konoha's White Fang's swift footwork and Left-Hand Seal Body Flicker Technique were also among the things Akira Sarutobi had learned.

The Body Flicker Technique required only one hand sign.

Normally, it was formed with the right hand.

Body Flicker Techniques were further divided into... ordinary Body Flicker, Water Body Flicker, Lightning Body Flicker, and so on.

When cultivated to the extreme, it could even be performed without hand signs.

To Akira Sarutobi's knowledge, there were probably only a handful of people in the entire shinobi world who currently possessed Hand Signless Body Flicker.

One of them was Hatake Sakumo.

At this time, Akira Sarutobi was naturally nowhere near Hatake Sakumo's level.

But merely learning a portion of it was enough to benefit him for life.

While the left-hand sign was activated, his free right hand could launch an attack at the same time.

Thus, Akira Sarutobi turned into an afterimage and arrived before Raiga Kurosuki almost instantly.

If it had been an ordinary Jonin, Akira Sarutobi would have killed him in a single blow.

But Raiga Kurosuki's main attribute was lightning.

Any Lightning Release ninja would possess extremely sharp reaction speed.

Unless that Lightning Release ninja had an innate Dynamic Vision defect like Kakashi.

If his Dynamic Vision was sufficient, then he would definitely be able to react swiftly.

And so...

Amid the blood-soaked aura washing over him, Raiga Kurosuki's hairs stood on end as he instinctively swung the twin blades in his hands.

Another trait of the lightning attribute—sharpness.

It was displayed to the fullest on this pair of lightning swords.

With a single strike, smashing through an earth wall was as easy as play.

If infused with Lightning Release, they could even easily sever metal.

Crackle!

White lightning coiled around them.

It differed from the blue Lightning Release Ringo Ameyuri used.

Though both were lightning attribute, Raiga Kurosuki's Chakra nature had subtle differences.

But just as the twin blades slashed down fiercely, Akira Sarutobi's body flashed, already shifting to the side.

Then he pushed off hard with his right foot, his body flashing once more as he nearly circled behind Raiga Kurosuki.

"So fast!"

Raiga Kurosuki's pupils shrank sharply, astonished by Akira Sarutobi's speed.

Akira Sarutobi's speed looked as though he had shrunk the earth to a single inch.

The Body Flicker Technique was a ninjutsu.

It did not require physical strength.

In the original story, because the sand in the gourd on Gaara's back was too heavy, he used Chakra's Body Flicker movement method in place of physical movement.

And at this moment, Akira Sarutobi was not only using the left-handed Body Flicker taught by Hatake Sakumo.

He had also added an explosive physical burst on top of it.

His feet stepped on the ground to generate recoil, then he used ninjutsu to propel his body.

With the two combined, his speed rose to another level.

Bang!

Another movement.

Raiga Kurosuki turned around and slashed horizontally.

At the same time, his eyes looked toward the place Akira Sarutobi had stepped.

The crater blasted into the ground was extremely conspicuous.

"So that's how it is..."

He understood.

The power generated by extraordinarily strong taijutsu, combined with the Body Flicker Technique...

It really was... astonishing.

But...

"Thinking you can kill me right from the start is wishful thinking!"

Raiga Kurosuki sneered coldly and crossed his twin blades.

"Ninja Art: Lightning Armor!"

Boom!

White lightning surged. The Chakra spreading from Raiga Kurosuki's body was transmitted through the lightning swords and returned to his body.

This Lightning Armor technique.

Was a move he had created himself.

Even Ringo Ameyuri did not possess it.

"This guy..."

Watching her ninja swords be used by someone else and combined with a technique to produce a new application, Ringo Ameyuri's expression immediately became strange.

Chapter Forty-Two: Kill

Lightning completely wrapped around his body.

It increased his offense, defense, and reaction speed.

"Hahaha..."

Raiga Kurosuki burst into laughter.

With his abilities suddenly enhanced, he gradually began keeping up with Akira Sarutobi's movements.

However, he did not know that he was only getting started.

Akira Sarutobi raised his right palm and struck fiercely.

With a thunderous boom.

The palm strike sent through the air was accompanied by an explosive surge of wind.

In Raiga Kurosuki's eyes, the might of this Crushing Palm was like the heavens collapsing and the earth splitting apart. Icy force, wrapped in overwhelming killing intent, swept toward him together.

Raiga Kurosuki had never expected Akira Sarutobi to be hiding a long-range taijutsu attack.

At that moment, he even mistook it for the Hyuga Clan's Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.

But the Hyuga Clan's Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm absolutely did not possess such power.

Only something at the level of Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher could wield such force.

After that palm strike, Akira Sarutobi's arm went numb from the Lightning Release's shock.

Raiga Kurosuki, meanwhile, was blasted away. The Lightning Armor wrapped around his body flickered several times before actually collapsing!!

"Hmm?!"

Raiga Kurosuki's feet plowed two furrows through the ground.

He barely stopped himself, the astonishment in his eyes growing deeper.

In the blink of an eye, the two had already exchanged several moves.

The surrounding Kirigakure ninja watched in dumbfounded shock.

The battle was so explosive that they had not reacted at all.

Only when Akira Sarutobi's right hand trembled slightly did they begin wondering whether they should step forward and help Raiga Kurosuki...

Wait.

At that moment, a thought arose in everyone's minds.

If Raiga Kurosuki were beaten to death...

Negative desires began to breed.

Kirigakure's tradition of internal strife caused the more than twenty Kirigakure ninja watching nearby to stop where they were.

They... were like bloodthirsty sharks. After devouring Ringo Ameyuri, they were even waiting to continue devouring Raiga Kurosuki...

On Akira Sarutobi's side, he clenched his fist.