Chapter 67: Black Coffin
Some say the fastest thing in nature is lightning, and the fastest in the ninja world is the Raikage.
Lightning Release Armor, chakra activation, and chakra fluidization supported by the latest chakra theory all converged on a single point.
His movement outpaced his voice. Even as he spoke, the Raikage's towering frame flashed in front of Aizen, cloaked in countless arcs of light, a single finger driving straight into the twisting fabric of space.
Hell Stab was the signature technique that made the Third Raikage famous.
Concentrating immense lightning chakra into a needle point and spinning it at extreme speed created an indestructible beam that pierced all things, warping time and space as it cored straight through its target.
At the instant of contact, a grating shriek of friction filled the air. As everyone clapped hands to their ears, a crisp crack rang out and the sky itself fractured like glass, splintering into a sea of fissures.
Boundless lightning unfurled against an invisible wall, spreading like a net across the heavens. Shrill whistles and rolling thunder hammered down, followed by muffled booms, yet every surge broke against the unseen barrier, accomplishing nothing but a dense fog that spilled in every direction.
Did it succeed or fail?
Cloud ninja stared at the roiling mist above the cargo platform, nerves drawn taut.
In the shadows, the thick fog churned and peeled back under a harsh, inward pull of air.
Two figures, one tall and one small, still stood where they had been. From within the shroud, a calm, elegant voice drifted out again.
"Impressive presence. You are called A, yes? It seems every Raikage before you bore that name. The legacy of the Cloud."
As the vacuum implosion's inward wind cleared the smoke, Aizen's face came into view. He smiled gently at the dark giant before him.
"You did interrupt the transmission, but not with any special technique. You used raw physical strength to drive chakra like a rotor, twisting space time for a moment. It is unbounded spatial distortion and, technically speaking, quite unqualified."
"Whether a technique is good or bad, if it works, it is good."
"A pragmatist. Understandable. But a sound grasp of theory makes application faster and cleaner. Consider that a friendly suggestion."
The Raikage said nothing. Suspicion and surprise tightened his gaze on the smiling man.
The hand said to pierce everything had been stopped by a single finger.
The pale, delicate finger that did not look like a fighter's at all met the storm of lightning that could almost pierce space and held it there.
An invisible wall separated the two. The Third Raikage's near infinite lightning struggled and spread, a spiderweb racing across the sky, but could only weave a brilliant net. Aizen, a single step away, remained untouched.
"Hado #81: Danku."
Aizen pushed his glasses and regarded the slightly aged Raikage with a pleasant smile.
"Well then, shall we have a little fun?"
With his left finger still braced against that legendary spear, Aizen lifted his right hand and pointed at the lightning crowned titan.
"Hado 90:, Black Coffin."
His flat voice fell, and straight black lines extended from nothingness.
They were black, yet seemed to glow with a dangerous violet sheen. They crept slowly and yet moved with impossible speed, encasing the Raikage whose reactions rivaled lightning.
When the lines met, a calamity blossomed. A pure black curtain, mountain high, surged skyward before the stunned Cloud ninja. Like a true marvel or a celestial omen, that massive wall rose into the clouds and blotted out everything.
Even the wind's whistle was swallowed. For an instant, the world fell silent.
Cloud ninja stared in horror at the black wall filling their vision, unable to speak.
It had happened too fast for thought.
Moments ago, the Raikage who seemed unassailable, the one you could only blunt or divert, had failed to harm his foe head on and had been sealed by a strange technique.
Even without sensing it, instinct felt the violent gravitational turbulence raging within that coffin, shredding its captive like cloth in a grinding wheel.
Then, perhaps a moment later, perhaps much sooner, a sharp knock sounded from within.
Boom.
The black frame shivered.
Hairline cracks traced across the wall.
Under the Cloud's fixed stares, the knocking grew quicker, built to a tremor, and with a sharp shatter the colossal wall split beneath a single finger.
Marked from head to toe, chakra blazing around him, the Third Raikage stepped from the ruin to stand once more in the sunlight.
"Haa…"
He exhaled a long plume of white breath as the markings slowly faded.
Crunching over broken black fragments, the Raikage strode to Aizen. Arms crossed, he looked down at the young man's slightly surprised face and barked a booming laugh.
"Hahaha. Chunin, you say? You have no attack at all. Where is that famed strength, brat? But!"
Laughter snapped to fury. He slammed a fist to his chest and roared.
"Do not think such petty gravity turbulence can harm me!"
Even if it is shameful, even if it is despicable, it does not matter.
If it keeps my village and its children smiling, let the world condemn me.
He remembered the mountain children and their poverty, remembered life before the village. It was the Raikage and a united village that let them endure this beautiful forest of death.
Those who live easily can afford to talk of honor. The ones clawing to survive in the mountains have only two choices. Show overwhelming power or die.
So we must kill Aizen.
We cannot allow such a terrifying talent to keep growing in Konoha.
Even at the cost of my life.
"Thunder Mania."
Patterns bloomed again across the giant frame, flower after flower of light, as chakra condensed to near substance around his raised fist.
"Hell Thrust!"
"No. The damage is already done."
Aizen never moved. He simply looked up at the old man wreathed in flame bright chakra, pity in his eyes.
"Keep on and you will die, A."
"What did you say…"
A cascade of sharp cracks ran through the Raikage's body.
Like porcelain fracturing under strain, even encased in an indestructible lightning cloak and bearing the strongest spear and shield in the shinobi world, he stared down in disbelief.
Before the horrified Cloud, his skin split, hinting at torn flesh beneath. Blood and chakra still flowed, but with the feel of artificial augmentation.
His chakra had shattered into fine fragments, barely holding his body together and keeping that immense energy from exploding outward. Natural energy and his own chakra had mingled into a massive bomb, beating slowly against his heart while despair edged his eyes.
He had lost.
Without question.
"I am not surprised by your ability, but by your stubbornness. For the sake of your image, I advise you to stop shouting. You will drag the Cloud down with you."
Silence.
"Understand this. It is not you keeping you alive, it is me. If you force your power, your body will become a massive chakra bomb. Everything within ten kilometers without your level of defense will be destroyed. If you refrain, you will recover in three days."
Aizen looked at the Raikage, frozen where he stood, then sighed and turned to Kakashi's steady gaze.
"Something went wrong, but we are going back."
"Anti membrane. A special technology I developed from the instincts of a unique life form. Reverse summoning is too easy to disrupt, so it requires a protected space."
"It is too early to deploy widely, but it works as a strategic reserve. It is also part of the Will of Fire."
Kakashi's eyes said, I do not believe you at all. Aizen only glanced at the Cloud ninja, whose faces had gone white, and nodded slightly.
"Goodbye, shinobi of the Cloud. I hope you bring me more surprises in the new year."
A brilliant golden film wrapped Aizen and Kakashi, lifting them gently into the black cavity above as if under reversed gravity. They vanished without a sound.
Only the cold words lingered in the Cloud village.
"Having ideas is good, but your actual strength is lacking."
"Not yet."
"It is not enough."
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