Storm Release Debuts, Cutting Down Kirigakure

The salty, briny sea wind whipped up raging waves that slammed against jagged rocks, shattering into clouds of white foam.

But colder than the seawater were the Demon Face Masks emerging, one by one, from the surrounding shadows.

"Kakashi... looks like we have nowhere left to run."

Asami Ri spoke quietly, sounding somewhat resigned, and instinctively tightened his grip on the kunai in his hand, its edge already slightly curled.

A little farther back lay Konoha's position. If they retreated any farther, the Three-Tails inside Rin Nohara would be detonated.

Within his sensory range, at least twenty Chakra signatures of varying strength were forming an impenetrable ring, trapping them on this rubble-strewn beach.

Just then, the unconscious Rin Nohara let out a faint groan. She struggled down from Asami Ri's back and barely steadied herself on her swaying legs.

She looked at the powerful enemies looming before them, then at her bloodied, exhausted companions. A heartbreaking smile appeared on her pale face.

"Kakashi, Ri... leave me behind." Rin Nohara's voice was soft but resolute. "I'm only a burden now. Leave me while the seal is still holding. That's the only way you'll have a chance to escape this encirclement."

"Shut up!"

Kakashi suddenly roared, and the killing intent that erupted from him in that instant seemed to make even the nearby waves shudder.

He forced his nearly spent body to stay upright and stood in front of Rin Nohara.

"Don't... ever say that again!" He panted violently, his voice hoarse and trembling. "I already lost Obito... I will never, ever abandon another comrade!"

The wild look in his eyes left Rin Nohara's words caught in her throat.

"Kakashi is right, Rin."

Asami Ri turned his head. His expression remained grim, but a little warmth entered his gaze.

"You're my friends in this world."

After their journey through blood and fire, even Asami Ri, accustomed to cold calculation, could not help feeling a bond of comradeship stirring in his chest.

Besides, a cold thought flashed through his mind: as Obito's closest friend, Kakashi would surely survive.

And if I want to carve out a future from this collapsing situation, Rin Nohara is my most crucial bargaining chip.

She has to live, whether for our friendship or for the plan already underway.

"I'll bring you both back." Asami Ri turned to face the slowly approaching Kirigakure ninja, turbulent emotions buried in his eyes. "As long as I'm still standing, no one gets to touch a hair on her head."

The Kirigakure Anbu's loose encirclement abruptly shifted, leaving not a single gap.

Alarm bells rang in Asami Ri's mind. He keenly realized that they were not trying to overwhelm all three of them at once. Instead, like butchers carving up meat, they used Water Release Ninjutsu to forcibly separate him from Kakashi and Rin.

"They're... clearing the stage."

Asami Ri's heart sank. He was the unwanted extra they meant to remove.

He scanned his surroundings out of the corner of his eye and cursed inwardly. Damn it, they're all coming at me.

Ten Anbu wearing Demon Face Masks spread out in a fan, blocking every route he could use to break through.

Their coordination was flawless. To welcome another "lead actor" about to make his entrance, they were carrying out a targeted removal of the unpredictable element that was Asami Ri.

Countless water bullets and densely packed kunai rained down in a torrent.

Though most of his opponents were only at chunin level, their relentless use of numbers and suffocating pressure made Asami Ri, whose Chakra was already depleted, feel as though he were trapped in a mire.

Prompts from "Celestial Pivot" flashed frantically across his vision.

Even with their movements fully calculated, he was still forced back step by step under the combined assault of ten ninja.

He twisted and darted through the scattered rocks, the webbing between his thumb and forefinger aching from repeated impacts. Every breath sent burning pain through his lungs.

They were not trying to kill him. They only wanted to keep him pinned in place behind a living wall of a dozen or so fighters.

"Hah!"

Asami Ri hurled several Explosive Tags and glanced over his shoulder in the glare of the explosions.

On the other side of the battlefield, a brilliant point of blue lightning flickered wildly in Kakashi's hand.

Exhaustion had slowed his movements, but the Chidori in his right hand still let out a chilling shriek, venting the fury in his heart.

Protecting Rin Nohara, he weaved through the overlapping ranks of Kirigakure Anbu, trying to carve a bloody path out.

Asami Ri clenched his teeth and rapidly formed hand seals again, his gaze dark and vicious.

Faced with the encircling assault, the helplessness in Asami Ri's eyes gradually gave way to a chilling madness.

He knew perfectly well that if he did not try, he might truly die here.

"Since you're so eager to die, I'll send you on your way first."

Asami Ri feinted, then used a Water Clone as cover to retreat like an arrow toward the very edge of the rocky shoreline.

The waves roared behind him. He had nowhere left to retreat, but he had also drawn the dozen or so Kirigakure Anbu onto the narrow stretch of rocky beach.

On terrain like this, they had to close the gaps between them to maintain their encirclement.

With his life hanging by a thread, Asami Ri quickly pulled a Soldier Pill from his ninja tool pouch, tipped his head back, and swallowed it.

A fierce burning sensation rose from his stomach and spread through his chakra pathways. Moments later, Chakra formed within those depleted pathways, forcing his exhausted body into motion once more.

He stared fixedly at the Kirigakure Anbu before him, his hands swiftly forming a sequence of seals he had never shown anyone before.

Asami Ri drew a deep breath.

Inside his body, lightning release Chakra and water release Chakra intertwined and twisted under his control, finally recombining into a strand of unusual Chakra.

One Kirigakure Anbu watched the young Konoha ninja cornered before him as the boy formed unfamiliar seals.

"Water Release? Lightning Release? Heh..."

He sneered inwardly. No matter what Ninjutsu the boy used, he could never escape the combined assault of more than a dozen Anbu.

"Storm Release: Light Fang!"

The Konoha ninja before him called out sharply and spat an exceedingly thin, brilliant beam of nearly pure white light from his mouth.

He felt only a flash of heat at his neck and thought nothing of it. He was just about to call his teammates over to finish off the troublesome Konoha ninja.

But there was only silence. After that fleeting silence came the dull thuds of heavy objects hitting the ground.

He saw his teammates' heads fall in unison, and his own vision began to spin.

The last thing he saw was that blood had yet to gush from his own neck. Only a scorched surface remained at the cut.

"Too... fast."

Asami Ri collapsed to his knees amid the bodies, utterly drained. Storm Release had consumed the last of his Chakra.

"Hah... hah..."

He gasped for breath as rain and the briny sea wind lashed his face, stripping the heat from his skin.

Yet when his gaze passed over several of the corpses, his eyes abruptly sharpened.

A strange, greasy white substance was seeping from the mutilated remains of several “Anbu.”

As though alive, the substance flowed rapidly through the gaps between the rocks and back underground, vanishing without a trace.

“Just as I thought...” Asami Ri's lips curled into a self-mocking smile as he muttered to himself. “Kirigakure Anbu, my ass... from beginning to end, they were all White Zetsu planted by Madara Uchiha. He really did set this stage without leaving a single gap.”

He rolled over with difficulty and lay on his back on the cold Reef Rock. The raindrops grew larger, striking his eyes with painful force.

Not far away, Kakashi's Chidori still cried out, but its sound was gradually weakening.

Asami Ri knew that Obito must be almost here.

This carefully orchestrated performance, designed to force a boy to confront hell, was finally about to reach its climax.