Yamashiro Aoba, Sarutobi Asuma, and Yuhi Kurenai finally reached the epicenter of Ui's battlefield. The moment they saw the scenery, they understood why Ui had insisted on splitting the groups and keeping as much distance between them as possible.
Staring at the aftermath, none of them wanted to imagine the consequences of being caught within the blast radius of that technique.
The rain, which had momentarily thinned during the summoning, surged back with renewed violence after the Kirin struck, returning to a torrential downpour as if trying to wash away the evidence of what had just occurred.
The terrain had been fundamentally altered. The ground looked like a sheet of glass that had been struck by a god's hammer. Not only was the earth shattered into jagged chunks, but it had cratered inward, with the center collapsing roughly eight to ten meters below the original surface level.
The lightning had vanished, but the residual current had carved deep, branching fissures into the mud. Some were no wider than a finger, while others were gaping maws that swallowed the pouring rain, channeling the water directly into the lightless depths of the earth.
At the periphery, the surrounding trees bore scorched, blackened trunks. Those closer to the center fared much worse—their internal fibers had been completely carbonized, standing as skeletal monuments to the strike.
The Physics of Destruction
The difficulty and power of Lightning Release: Kirin is broadly classified as S-rank, but its actual output varies wildly based on the weather.
To put it simply: a Kirin fueled by storm clouds manually created through Fire Style can rarely match the scale of a naturally occurring super-cell. Human-made weather lacks the sheer, primordial magnitude of a natural disaster. A standard lightning strike is composed of multiple tiered discharges; Ui's technique had harvested all that layered energy and focused it into a single, instantaneous point of impact.
Before the release, Ui had estimated the energy based on the bio-electrical principles he understood.
The peak voltage of that specific Kirin reached approximately 500 million Volts, with an average current between 150,000 and 250,000 Amperes.
In terms of pure energy release, the strike was comparable to a tactical nuclear explosion. Even accounting for its "crude" nature—it was a wide-area carpet bomb rather than a precision strike—the instantaneous power output surpassed anything Ui could generate through his own internal chakra reserves.
It was a true "Descent of the Thunder God."
While low in chakra cost and high in lethality, its limitation was obvious: it was a situational trump card, not a daily driver. You couldn't exactly summon a natural disaster on command in a desert.
Using it on a single mercenary was, in truth, a massive overkill. But Ui had a mission to complete and no time for a game of tag. The Fuma leader was too agile, jumping around like a flea and countering Ui's standard linear attacks.
So... Question: How do you quickly remove a flea from a stray cat? Answer: Electrocute the cat.
Aftermath and Regrouping
Ui began searching the "well-done" remains of the ninja, hoping to find any scrap of intelligence.
The reality was "bony"—quite literally. Carbonized flesh and shattered white bone were all that remained of the Fuma leader. There were no scrolls, no maps, no identifying marks left. Apparently, Fuma ninjas don't look any different from standard ninjas once they've been turned into charcoal.
He wasn't annoyed, though. If a human could survive a 500-million-volt direct hit, that would be annoying.
"Ui... was this... your jutsu?" Asuma asked, his voice hesitant as the three of them approached.
If Ui said "yes," it would be a crushing blow to their morale. They had all graduated together, after all. If this was the gap between them, how were they supposed to "play" on the same level anymore?
"Sort of," Ui explained. "Did you notice the flashes in the sky earlier? I just used my chakra to guide the natural lightning down. The effect is exaggerated because of the weather; it's not entirely my own power."
It sounded plausible—logical, even—but it didn't make it any less terrifying. Guiding a bolt of lightning from the heavens isn't exactly a graduation-level skill.
Ui had warned them earlier to ignore any strange lights in the sky. At the time, he hadn't been certain he'd need the Kirin, but he knew the weather was ripe for it. He just hadn't expected it to be that bright.
Ui abandoned the search of the "Black and White" remains. He had a better option. In their three-on-one skirmish, Asuma and the others had managed to take the younger Fuma ninja alive.
Yamashiro Aoba was currently lugging the captive over his shoulder.
"A survivor? Under Genjutsu?" Ui asked.
Aoba nodded. Capturing an enemy is far harder than killing one. Even though their opponent was only a Chunin, the three Leaf ninjas hadn't escaped unscathed. Asuma's right shoulder was bleeding steadily, and Aoba had multiple deep lacerations across his body.
Only Kurenai was uninjured, likely due to her teammates' protection and her role as a long-range specialist.
"Wait," Asuma interjected, his tactical mind catching a flaw. "If that lightning was that powerful and covered that much ground... how are you still alive?"
"Now isn't the time for a Q&A," Ui replied, cutting him off. "We need to clear out immediately. That noise was too loud."
They were still technically in the Land of Fire, but they were a stone's throw from the border. Visually, the Kirin was a giant flare in the sky. Anyone with a brain—friend or foe—would realize that wasn't a natural lightning strike.
For the safety of the team, the first priority was to vanish.