Green Aoi had never stood a chance.
His throwing techniques were precise, practiced. Against Sasuke, they were predictable.The lightning blade he formed by flooding chakra into his weapon flared brilliantly, but brilliance alone didn't make it dangerous.
Flame severed it in a single arc.
Homura cut through the light, through the body behind it. Fire swallowed what remained. When the heat faded, there was nothing left to scatter.
Sasuke sat in silence, the memory already cooling.
Blood had been shed. Enough to answer the question.
And there was the blade.
He drew the hilt from his waist. The metal was dark, unadorned, almost crude. He studied it for a moment, then sent chakra into it.
The response was immediate.
A sharp crackle split the air. Golden lightning surged outward, forming a solid edge of light. Arcs snapped and recoiled along its length, alive and restless.
Sasuke watched closely.
Lightning usually ran blue or white. This glow was different. Dense. Heavy.But beneath the color, the nature was the same.
Pure Lightning Release. Nothing more.
He withdrew the chakra and closed his eyes.
Power gathered.
Electricity danced along his limbs, snapping at joints and muscle. The sound built rapidly, converging into a familiar chorus. When it peaked, he moved.
His eyes opened.
Sasuke thrust forward.
The world compressed.
Lightning collapsed into a single point at the blade's tip as he crossed the hall in a blink. Pillars shattered as he passed. Metal spheres burst apart, torn open without slowing him.
The strike landed.
The steel statue at the far end detonated inward, then outward, fragments screaming through the air before clattering lifelessly to the floor.
Silence returned.
Sasuke lowered the blade. The lightning faded.
"Acceptable," he said quietly.
Homura amplified fire. It rejected anything else.This blade was different.
Fire excelled in explosive range, in decisive cuts. Lightning ruled distance. Penetration. The kill that arrived before the sound.
He would need both.
Sasuke looked down at the hilt again, considering.
Lightning was meant to pierce. To break through what resisted. He shaped chakra carefully, adjusting flow and rotation.
The golden blade reformed. This time, the surface remained smooth, unchanged. Only at the very tip did something shift.
Tiny arcs of lightning spiraled inward, rotating at extreme speed, compressing against a single axis.
A focused field. Not wider. Deeper.
Sasuke nodded once.
That would do.