Shota crouched behind his boulder, half his body screaming from burns, the other half screaming from common sense. He stared at the dark clouds rolling in overhead. The kind that promised rain and more importantly....thunder.
The burning of forests and so many explosions had created so much heat that the atmospheric atmosphere had changed.
His mind raced back to old fights he'd studied. Sasuke versus Deidara. Sasuke had figured it out fast: lightning cancels explosions. Zap the clay bombs and they fizzle like wet firecrackers.
The same was true with Kurogiri's bombs. And probably the same with those stupid hidden mines that the man had created.
'Of course,' Shota thought, rubbing soot from his eyes. 'Lightning defuses explosive chakra. The mines are just tiny bombs stuck in the dirt. Hit them with enough voltage, and poof, no more boom. But here's the problem: all the lightning users we brought to counter Kurogiri were already dead. Kurogiri took them out first because of course he would take the ones that could be dangerous to him and his bombs.Smart jerk.'
Shota glanced at the sky again. The forest fire was doing half the work already. Heat + smoke + explosions = storm clouds. He remembered Sasuke's Kirin technique. how the Uchiha had roasted the air with Fire Style jutsu until thunderclouds formed.
Then he guided natural lightning to form his jutsu.
'I can't do that,' Shota admitted. 'I don't have talent with lightning chakra. But… I don't need to make the lightning. I just need to invite it to the party.'
He grinned despite the pain. 'Who would've thought Mrs. Yamada's boring science class back on Earth would save my life? And who would have thought that Sasuke future fights would help me right now. I will give him some homegrown tomatoes as a gift whenever we meet. If I am not wrong he liked them a lot.'
Shota shook his head and focused back on the problem in hand.
"Electricity follows the path of least resistance. Yeah, yeah, I was asleep for half of the science lecture, but I remember the diagrams. Metal + height + pointy top = lightning rod. And guess what? We've got puppets made of metal just sitting around like shiny invitations." Shota mumbles
His eyes locked on the remaining puppets. Most of Sōshi's were wood and poison, but the other remaining Suna puppeteer had one puppet that was different. Full metal. Joints, blades, even the face. It looked like a walking kitchen knife set which was perfect for Shota's plan.
'Add some height, stick a pointy hat on it, and boom, nature's lightning rod.'
Shota dug into his pouch with his one good arm. Kunai. Ninja wire. He paused.
'I'm about to knit a lightning rod in the middle of a war zone. If I survive this, I'm telling Shizu that I looked cool doing it. No one needs to know I hummed a lullaby while tying knots.'
He started wrapping the ninja wire around the kunai, linking them end to end. Knot. Loop. Tighten. Knot. Loop. Tighten. His fingers moved slow and careful, eyes flicking up every two seconds to check on Kurogiri so that he does not get his chakra back.
The villain was still lobbing clay bombs at the Suna team, lighting them with his cigarette.
He tied the last knot and held up his creation: a long, straight line of kunai connected by wire, like a metal snake. He nodded at it. It was good enough.
'Now for the hard part.' Shota took a deep breath. His hands moved through hand signs, slow, clumsy, but correctly.
He'd practiced this jutsu a hundred times but this was his first time using it in battle.
'I am glad that I took this jutsu. It's perfect for my needs right now.'
"Fire Style: Fox Fire Jutsu."
Nine small fireballs popped into existence around him, orbiting like tiny suns. They hissed and crackled, casting red light on the boulder and his soot-streaked face.
'Here we go,' he thought. 'Once I launch these, Kurogiri's gonna know exactly where I am. Time to play hide-and-seek with explosions.'
He sent two fireballs skyward. Whoosh! Whoosh! They shot up like fireworks, then BOOM! BOOM! exploded into massive fireballs.
The blasts were way bigger than the fireballs themselves, thanks to the jutsu's design. Heat rolled out in waves. Flames painted the clouds orange. The air shimmered.
Every head turned. Suna nin. Kurogiri. Even the metal puppet seemed to tilt its head.
Kurogiri's cigarette paused halfway to his lips. His eyes narrowed. "There you are, brat."
His smile vanished. Replaced by something cold. Deadly.
He had sworn it, an oath carved into his mind the moment Shota's Erasure first shut down his chakra. This boy had cost him too much. Comrades. Plans. Pride. Iwa's future could not afford another hero like this.
The boy had to die. Even if it meant Kurogiri died too for it.
He shifted his stance. Reached into his pouch. Pulled out a handful of marble-sized clay bombs. Flick. The cigarette ash touched the fuses. Hiss.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The bombs flew in a deadly arc, straight toward Shota's boulder.
Shota didn't flinch. He sent one of his orbiting fireballs forward. It met the first clay bomb mid-air.
BOOM!
The explosion triggered a chain reaction. One clay bomb hit the fireball and blew up. That blast caught the next bomb. Then the next. Then the next. A chain of fire lit up the sky like a festival gone wrong.
Heat surged. Smoke thickened. The clouds above churned faster, darker, heavier.
Shota grinned through the pain, sweat dripping into his eyes.
'He's making it easier for me.'
-------Author Notes---------
Thankyou Curzelake for supporting me!
For every 250 power stones. I would be posting an additional chapter. So gimme those power stones!!!
Y'all can now read the next 15 chapters of the fanfic on my pat*reon. Thankyou for your support!
https://pat*reon.com/Charizard6
[No star]