Naruto: Akatsuki

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

One after another, Raiga's came at an incredible speed that I was barely able to sight. Relying primarily on my sense of sound, all I could do was stand firmly and defend against any incoming assaults.

BOOM!

As I blocked another sword slashes from Raiga, I found my arms shaking from stress. Clearly, Raiga at his full strength wasn't someone that I could win face-first.

"Tch...!"

I grimaced as Raiga zapped to my back, before slashing his sword on his left hand to my right as I quickly turned,

BOOM!

I blocked that blade with Ryuma, and while I was doing so, Raiga swung his other sword at my exposed left. My body immediately reacted as I formed a single-handed seal with my left hand,

'Body—'

"Too predictable."

Stopping his sword, Raiga, within a millisecond, changed his course of action into a potent kick that landed on my exposed stomach.

I found myself coughing blood out as I was slammed by the tree at the back. And while my vision has gone hazy from the sudden impact, I saw through the blurry sight—Raiga stabbing the swords on the ground and forming series of hand seals.

'Stand up. Move.'

Focusing to an extent where the veins popped out of my forehead, I supported my weight with the tree that I was crashed onto, raising my body back up.

'My advantage is the fact that Raiga is underestimating me.'

Use everything I got. I didn't have to win the fight. I simply had to kill Raiga—killing and winning were two different things.

One chance. That's all I needed.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Beam!"

Then came, the intense beam of lightning that came crashing in to where I stood, out of Raiga's palms.

'Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole technique.'

I sank into the ground in an instant, by the nick of time before the lightning poured onto the tree behind me.

PAZZZZZZ!!

'Raiga probably saw me.'

Immediately after, while already below the ground, I took out the explosive seal, attached it on the wall, before,

'Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole technique.'

Sinking in further to the ground from my position.

BOOOM!

Just then, the noise, along with a shake, was heard and felt from above.

'Clone technique.'

Creating one illusory clone, I had it jump back up with the ground above me softened back up,

SWOOSH!

which was immediately dispelled by wild sword slashes from Raiga.

"Huh?!"

And there I found the chance, with Raiga right above me.

And apart from medical ninjutsu, genjutsu relies heavily on fine chakra control. I can't teach you in that department, but I'll let you test it on me at the very least.>

'Gin truly was the best teacher that I could've had.' I thought as I formed a Ram seal with one hand,

'Genjutsu: Dual Shade.'

A simple genjutsu technique of mine turned the target's vision entirely black. It was a blatant illusion that anyone would be able to notice... but there was one secret behind it.

Raiga stopped—though less than for a second only.

"Kai!"

Utilizing that chance, I shot out of the ground with Ryuma blazed up in fire again, ready to sever Raiga into two.

BOOOM!

However, it wasn't enough. Raiga managed to get out of the illusion just in time and block Ryuma with Kibas.

"Heh, resorting to petty tricks now? How pitiful." Raiga snarled at me as he leaped back from our clash.

I responded by dashing at Raiga this time, ignoring the fact that my body was screaming from the stress.

As I was rapidly approaching Raiga, who raised up his swords, with a snort,

I raised up my free hand to form yet another seal,

"Shadow Clone technique."

Poof Poof Poof! Three clones appeared around me in an instant with a cloud of smoke, causing Raiga to narrow his eyes.

"Shadow Clone? Three of them, for a kid like you...?" Raiga whispered in disbelief, "Impossible—"

Raiga shifted his eyes downward, and... he probably saw the shadows on the clones.

So, were they the Shadow Clones? Of course not. How the hell would I know how to use it even?

These were the same illusory clones without any shadow. However, 'Genjutsu: Dual Shade.' It wasn't just the mere impairment of vision by turning it entirely black. It consisted of two layers of illusions, where the first was the black vision, and the second... was to produce a shadow on any object that the enemy recognized by sight.

And now,

SWOOSH!

Raiga used milliseconds to dispel the illusory clones that seemed to be close to launching their assaults. Upon his swords going through them without any resistance, Raiga realized that he was tricked.

However, it was too late. Within that millisecond of a gap, I stabbed Ryuma forth, to where Raiga's forehead lied.

SPLASH!

...A water clone. Upon Ryuma penetrating Raiga's forehead, he... crumbled into the water.

'S***.'

I found the blood in my veins chilling down as I found the faint noise of crackling electricity from my back.

"Did you believe that it would be that easy?" Raiga stood behind me with one of his two Kibas next to my neck, ready to kill me at any moment.

Game over, it seemed—

"And... cough... you seemed to have forgotten about me as well... Raiga."

The two of us froze.

Gin. Though he was pale from the blood loss, and he seemed to be a walking corpse already, his hand, accompanied by one explosive tag, lied on Raiga's exposed neck.

"...Gin." I muttered in a complete shock, amazed by the fact that Gin managed to move his body by the sheer will alone.

"Akashi." Gin smiled at me, "I am proud of you."

"GIN—"

Then, just as Raiga screamed while attempting to swipe Kibas backward,

BOOOM!!

The explosion ensued, covering Gin and Raiga in a single go. I was knocked forward, falling face-first to the ground.

And... the silence. All noises ceased, and my breathing was the only one remaining.

Ignoring my hazy vision, I wobbly stood back up. Using Ryuma as the support, I slowly walked step by step, to where the remains of the explosion lied.

...Upon the smoke clearing, there were two corpses. One was without an arm, and the other was without a head. They lied on the ground with blood all over them.

I stopped in front of the one without the arm, and leaned down.

"Gin." I raised up my shaky arm and slowly placed them above the corpse's open eyes, before gently closing them, "Thank you for all that you've done for me."

He looked peaceful. Though he lived a life of suffering, at his final moment, he smiled.

I was glad.

Ignoring the sweat that threatened to spill out of my eye, I stood back up, with the intention to retrieve the Kiba swords.

It was the event that happened at the edge of the land of water, in the state of the world that can be considered as the 'calm before the storm.'