"I see now."
Raiga tightened his grip on the twin blades of Thunder Fang. His eyelids lowered, his voice oddly calm.
"You're using me as a whetstone. An Uchiha carrying both glory and hatred needs something to sharpen himself on."
Then his eyes snapped open.
His face twisted, killing intent surging like a storm breaking its banks.
"So tell me, Uchiha. Did those eyes of yours see how you die?"
He laughed, harsh and feral.
"All I see in your future is one thing. Death."
The closer the battle crawled toward its end, the quieter Sasuke became.
Not numb. Not empty.
Clear.
He held the hilt of the lightning blade. He didn't need to look. Every detail of it lived in his hand, the balance, the texture, the pulse of chakra. It felt less like a weapon now and more like an extension of his arm.
Golden arcs of lightning, too fine for the naked eye, wrapped around the blade in tight spirals. They layered, overlapped, rotated at terrifying speed, compressing into a focused cutting force that hummed like a living thing.
The sound rose.
Sharp. Shrill. Like a thousand birds screaming at once.
Sasuke's presence faded instead of growing. His killing intent thinned, his chakra signature collapsing inward, everything he had poured into that single point.
Raiga felt it and stilled.
The madness drained from his face, replaced by solemn focus.
He dismissed the lightning armor around his body and drew every last fragment of chakra into his blades.
"If we're going to die," he said quietly, "then let's go together."
He raised Thunder Fang.
The sky answered.
Dark clouds rolled. Thunder cracked.
A bolt of lightning fell from the heavens, striking the blades as if they were conduits meant to receive it. Raiga leapt, dragging the storm down with him, descending like a god of thunder delivering judgment.
Thunder Blade Art. Lightning Burial.
This was never meant to kill an enemy.
It was a way to end everything.
Sasuke felt his pulse spike. His hand trembled, not with fear, but exhilaration.
"Good," he breathed, laughter breaking free. "Come."
The sea detonated beneath his feet.
Sasuke launched upward, body reduced to a streak of gold. The cry of a thousand Chidori tore through the air as the lightning around his blade compressed, reshaped, spinning faster and faster until the weapon became a spiraling core of destructive force.
A drilling star of light.
The storm Raiga summoned met it head-on.
And shattered.
Lightning collapsed inward. Thunder tore itself apart.
The impact erased sound.
A vacuum bloomed across the sea, water and air blasted outward in a perfect ring. Waves rose like walls. Debris, scorched fragments, and blood were hurled into the sky before falling back into the boiling surface.
For an instant, nothing existed.
Then both figures were thrown apart.
When the light faded, Sasuke staggered forward, breathing raggedly. His body was torn and burned, blood blackened by heat. The hilt of his lightning weapon had shattered, leaving only the blue-gold chakra crystal intact.
Raiga lay motionless on the water.
His twin blades were broken.
Sasuke stopped in front of him.
"Uchiha… kid," Raiga said faintly. A hole gaped in his chest. He was already gone, held upright by nothing but will. "Do me one favor."
Sasuke waited.
"Bury Ranmaru properly. He was kind. He doesn't belong at the bottom of the sea. As for me… let the ocean take what's left."
Sasuke was silent for a long moment.
"I'll bury you together," he said. "You'll watch over him. No one will hurt him there."
Raiga stared, then laughed softly.
"Uchiha Sasuke… you're strange."
He closed his eyes.
Sasuke drew Homura.
"Leaf ninja, stop!"
Figures rushed in from the mist, Mist shinobi in flak jackets and masks. The one in front, blue-gray hair and a patterned eyepatch over his right eye, shouted urgently.
Sasuke heard him.
His blade did not slow.
Steel slid cleanly through Raiga's neck.
The Mist ninja froze.
Sasuke turned, Sharingan burning, gaze flat and merciless.
The man's words died in his throat.
"Are you telling me," Sasuke asked quietly, "how to do my job?"