Turning the tables

Sensing the two surges of Chakra erupting behind him, Asami Ri's eyes flashed.

He knew his chance to strike back had come.

"Overclock Mode, activate!"

Asami Ri growled, forcibly tearing down the limiter deep within his brain.

His blood flow accelerated instantly. His heart hammered like an engine, his pain signals were forcibly blocked, and his skin turned an alarming crimson as his capillaries dilated.

Ignoring the wound in his flank that cut deep enough to expose bone, he became a bolt of red lightning and closed on Ran En in an instant.

"Konoha Strong Whirlwind!"

That kick carried the strength of seven years of grueling training.

The air burst at his toes. Before Ran En could react, he was sent flying like a struck baseball, his body twisting as he hurtled over a dozen meters and smashed through two massive trees before finally stopping.

"What? That explosive power..." Ran En coughed up blood, disbelief filling his eyes.

Yet he still forced himself upright and brought his hands together with a vicious expression. "It's useless! Before Storm Release, you're still nothing but ants!"

"Storm Release: Laser Circus!"

Dozens of brilliant white lasers poured down like a torrential rain once more, sealing off every route Asami Ri could take.

Just then, Hyuga Shin moved. His bloodshot Byakugan locked onto the trajectory of every laser.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

Hyuga Shin thrust both palms forward, unleashing two violent streams of Chakra visible to the naked eye.

Although this was his first time using the Main Family's secret technique in Practical Combat, its power was several times greater than Hyuga Hiko's during the Chunin Ninja Exam!

Guided by the precision of his Byakugan, the compressed air blasts, each over a meter wide, slammed head-on into the lasers in midair, setting off a series of violent explosions.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Uchiha Tekka's support followed immediately.

Having awakened his second tomoe, his Chakra control had undergone a qualitative leap. The enormous fireball hurtled toward Ran En like a falling sun, carrying heat that threatened to consume everything.

Cornered, Ran En could only form hand seals on instinct. "Water Release: Water-Style Wall!"

Boom! Water and fire collided violently, producing thick steam that blotted out the sky.

Just as Ran En tried to locate his opponents, a pair of blood-red Two-Tomoe Sharingan lit up within the haze.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

Their eyes met. A buzzing filled Ran En's head, and his body froze.

As a Jonin, his combat instincts prompted an automatic response.

"Storm Release: Light Screen!" But his body could no longer move.

"Only two seconds... hurry!" Tekka roared. Blood slid from the corners of his eyes as he overtaxed his Eye Power, and he collapsed to his knees, utterly drained.

Two seconds was enough.

Like a red meteor, Asami Ri crossed over a dozen meters of wreckage and appeared right before Ran En.

He extended his right hand, fingers loosely curled, as the Lightning Release notes stored in Celestial Pivot and the principles of Lightning Release Shape Transformation Kakashi had mentioned flashed frantically through his mind.

At the brink of life and death, a spark of inspiration ignited.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Spear!"

Rampaging Lightning Release Chakra stretched and condensed in his palm, finally forming a long spear coursing with brilliant blue electricity.

Screeech! With a shriek that seemed to tear through space, the Lightning Spear punched straight through the Light Screen.

Ran En had only just broken free of the Genjutsu when the lightning spear pierced his heart.

Shhk! Lightning punched through his heart, the rampaging current destroying the chakra pathways and muscles inside his body.

"Damn it... to think I... fell to a commoner like you..." Ran En's lips moved. His once-arrogant eyes held nothing now but bitter defiance.

The Lightning Spear dissipated, and Ran En's tall, lean body fell heavily to its knees.

Asami Ri pressed one hand against Ran En's cooling corpse. Hidden from his teammates' view, Celestial Pivot extracted the special Chakra that had yet to dissipate within Ran En's body.

"Storm Release..." A dangerous smile appeared on Asami Ri's pale face.

"...is mine."

As the last of Ran En's Chakra was absorbed, Asami Ri's Overclock Mode receded like the tide.

The pain he had suppressed, the dizziness from blood loss, and the weakness from exhausting his Chakra overwhelmed him in a flood.

The scenery before his eyes began to warp and overlap. His legs, held steady by sheer will until now, could no longer support his weight, and he fell backward.

But the cold, hard scorched earth he expected never caught him.

Pat, pat!

With two soft sounds, two bloodstained hands reached in from either side and caught Asami Ri by the shoulders.

Asami Ri turned his head with difficulty.

On his left stood Hyuga Shin. The bulging veins around his eyes had yet to fully recede, and his once-pristine white robe was in tatters. Bloodstains from the Vacuum Palm's backlash were even visible.

On his right stood Uchiha Tekka. The two tomoe had vanished from his eyes, and the wound through his left shoulder was still bleeding, but his fingers held Asami Ri with remarkable strength.

Against the drifting smoke and sunlight, those two usually cold faces managed awkward yet genuine smiles.

"We won..."

Hyuga Shin's voice was a little hoarse. He looked at the Kumogakure prodigy, now a corpse, then back at Asami Ri.

"...Ri."

Meanwhile, in another stretch of forest ravaged by lightning, the battle had also entered its final stage.

Kakashi knelt on one knee in a muddy pit, his quick, heavy breaths sounding unusually clear in the silent forest.

His left arm hung limply at his side, his fingertips trembling.

That was the price of being grazed by Rael's heavy punch earlier. Even the force trailing his fist had struck like a sledgehammer and broken Kakashi's arm.

Across from him, Rael's burly frame resembled an iron tower on the verge of collapse.

The Lightning Release Armor he took such pride in had grown dim. Arcs flickered intermittently across his skin, and his Chakra was nearly depleted.

"Konoha's prodigy... you certainly live up to your name." Rael spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his eyes blazing with a crazed hunger for battle. "But you can't even hold your blade anymore, can you?"

Kakashi glanced down at the White Fang Short Blade at his waist, the keepsake his father had left him.

Yet his damaged chakra pathways and broken bone now prevented him from using his sword techniques.

Suddenly, his conversation with Asami Ri during their rest before the battle surfaced in his mind.

"You could try slowing the condensation at the tip. Build a stable 'point' first, then let the Lightning Release Chakra collapse inward."

Kakashi slowly closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.

Rather than reach for the White Fang Short Blade, he pulled an ordinary kunai from his Ninja Tool Pouch.

"Given up? Going to surrender?" Rael roared, squeezing out the last trace of Chakra in his body. He crossed his arms over his chest, preparing for one final charge.

"No. This is to... kill you."

Kakashi's eyes snapped open. His right hand gripped the kunai tightly as pale blue Lightning Release Chakra began gathering furiously in his palm.

Bzzzt—bzzzzzt!!!

In an instant, a piercing roar rang through the sky, as though thousands upon thousands of birds were crying out in the forest at once.

Violent electricity erupted in Kakashi's hand, its dazzling blue light even blotting out the moonlight above.

Lightning Release: Chidori!

"What is that technique?!" Rael's pupils contracted sharply. Its terrifying piercing power made him feel death closing in.

He could only concentrate all his Lightning Release Armor on his arms, desperately shielding his throat and heart.

Kakashi vanished.

Fast! So fast he was at the very limit of what the eye could follow!

Stimulated by Lightning Release Chakra, Kakashi became a blue-white meteor cutting through the darkness.

He shattered the rock beneath his feet and, amid the shriek of tearing air, drove that mass of screaming lightning hard into Rael's defense.

Crack!

Rael's Lightning Release Armor, strong enough to withstand explosions, was as fragile as shattered glass before the Chidori-cloaked kunai.

The lightning pierced his sturdy arms and tore through his taut muscles. Then, with a sickening sound of steel entering flesh, the kunai plunged deep into Rael's heart.

The chorus of a thousand birds in the forest stopped abruptly.

Rael's burly body froze. He looked down at the kunai buried in his chest, then at the pale-faced Kakashi before him.

"What a fast Ninjutsu..."

Bloody froth poured from his mouth. His towering body finally gave way and fell heavily backward into the mud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Kakashi knelt on one knee, his right hand trembling slightly as blood dripped from the kunai onto the ground.

He looked at Rael's lifeless corpse, then turned toward where Asami Ri and the others were. At last, the tension in his eyes eased.