A/N : Man, should I say you guys were so close. We hit 496 stones. So close.
We didn't hit the goal but still here have the bonus chapter anyway. Enjoy.
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The battle dragged on, violent and relentless, neither monster yielding an inch.
Raikage adapted.
He noticed it during a clash of fists—when Sukuna chose not to phase, when their bodies were locked together for a fraction of a second. Kamui faltered when Sukuna committed to physical contact.
That was the opening.
Raikage roared and drove his knee up, lightning-coated and merciless. Sukuna tried to warp away, but the hit landed first. Ribs cracked. The impact sent him flying through three trees before he twisted midair and vanished in a swirl of distortion.
Now he wasn't the only one looking for an opening to injure Raikage, but the Raikage was the same.
A strange standstill where Sukuna had to make physical contact with Raikage to deliver any form of damage to the Raikage, and Raikage too knew that he couldn't attack Sukuna any time besides when Sukuna attacked him and was tangible.
Both were literally trading blows at this point.
Sukuna instantly fixed his internal damage done by Raikage's lethal attack and teleported himself away toward Raikage once more.
He reappeared behind Raikage, coughing blood as a side effect of the earlier attack.
Raikage turned instantly and punched.
This time, Sukuna couldn't fully escape. The blow smashed into his shoulder, tearing muscle and snapping bone. Sukuna skidded across the ground, carving a trench with his back.
Though not before he tore out nerves and muscles from Raikage's hand with his cleave in that instant.
Raikage panted, lightning flaring wildly around him. "Bastard," he growled.
Sukuna pushed himself up slowly. He too was panting.
Blood ran freely down his arm. His shoulder hung wrong.
Raikage smiled—until Sukuna rolled his neck and the bone snapped back into place with a wet, sickening sound.
But the skin didn't heal.
The blood stayed.
Sukuna wiped his mouth, leaving the damage visible. Though internally, he healed it with RCT.
He expected this fight to be tough; he was, after all, fighting a Kage-level shinobi. A speedster no less.
He doubted even the original Ryomen Sukuna would have fared much better against the Raikage without his domain and world-cutting slash at his prime.
It was Sukuna's Kamui right now which was saving him. Once again, he found himself thanking his younger self for going ahead and acting on that risky plan back in the Uchiha massacre. It was all paying out now.
His Sharingan observed Raikage with keen detail. Raikage's chakra looked slightly weaker now. And he was running out of breath.
'The fight haven't lasted long enough for either of that to happen, so why?'
Let alone Sukuna, even Raikage was asking himself why. He felt his energy draining for some reason.
Sukuna for a second thought it was the black flash. Though he didn't remember black flash having abilities to weaken something or someone like this.
"Brat... what is your name. You're an opponent worthy for me to remember your name before I kill you," Raikage asked again.
Sukuna waved his hands again. He had no reason nor fetish to announce his name to an enemy. He didn't do it to Shisui, not to Itachi when they fought, not to Mangetsu, and he surely wasn't planning on doing it now.
"I don't see what use a soon-to-be-dead man would have of my name. Just die quietly, don't be a pain in the ass..."
Raikage snorted.
Somewhat cursing how much kids nowadays lack manners. At least in his time, enemies had the decency to tell their name before fighting to the death...
This time, Raikage pressed harder, exploiting every grab, every clinch, smashing elbows into Sukuna's ribs, slamming fists into his spine. Sukuna felt organs rupture. He felt his heart skip.
And quietly—silently—he healed the damage inside once again.
Raikage's hits were heavier. They hurt more. However, Sukuna's CE reinforcement kept him from breaking beyond what he could heal in an instant.
That doesn't mean it was painless, though. It was painful as hell.
'Damn it, gotta do something about his speed,' he cursed.
"haaaaa..." He shouted and then slammed his hand to the ground the moment he got a chance.
Imaginary lines divided the entire landmass into a grid before the ground exploded upward with excessive curse energy into multiple blocks.
It was a display of pure how much curse energy Sukuna had at his disposal to waste, to make the entire area blast with just curse energy alone.
However, it worked. The stable plain land was now like a bombardment zone, craters and obstacles hindering Raikage from taking advantage of his speed too much.
'Tch...' Raikage clicked his tongue and rushed at Sukuna again, though this time he couldn't reach his top speed.
Both collided again.
Cleave and lightning flashed again and again, slicing through lightning armor in shallow arcs. Raikage's body was a map of red lines now, blood seeping steadily. He ignored them, but they didn't fade. They stacked. Multiplied.
Even the slightly available healing factor Raikage had due to his boosted cell activity by lightning armor couldn't keep up with this damage.
His breathing grew rougher the longer the fight dragged on.
"You're getting sloppy, old man," Sukuna said while panting, teleporting with Flying Thunder God and slamming his elbow into Raikage's jaw.
Raikage staggered—only a step—but it was there.
"Shut up!" he snarled, grabbing Sukuna mid-warp and smashing his head into the ground.
The earth cratered.
Sukuna vanished at the last instant, reappearing above, dropping down with a heel strike that split the ground beneath Raikage's feet.
They separated again, both standing, both bleeding.
Neither was winning.
Neither could finish it.
Raikage's wounds burned and accumulated, slowing him by degrees he refused to acknowledge.
Sukuna's body seemed like a wreck on the surface, but internally he was completely fine due to RCT. However, this much use of RCT, his technique, and Kamui, for the first time, was putting pressure on his mind.
It was curse technique overload. In layman's terms, literally frying his brain. Though far from it, this was the first time he felt its effect.
Sukuna cursed to himself. 'If only I had perfected my Domain by now.'
That was one of the two techniques which he still hadn't been able to complete. Domains are highly personal to an individual. Even having the same curse technique doesn't mean that the Jujutsu Sorcerer will have the same domain.
It's not necessary that Sukuna here will have the same Malevolent Shrine which Ryomen Sukuna had in the anime.
He had to figure out his own domain. It can't be copied. And thus he still hadn't figured out his domain. The second technique was, of course, Sukuna's World Cutting Slash.
This technique was ridiculously hard. Even after having Ryomen Sukuna's memories on how he did it, Sukuna here couldn't copy it.
Simply a skill issue on his part. It would take more time for him to pull it off.
These two techniques were the strongest in Sukuna's arsenal which he couldn't use.
'Fuck...' Sukuna was very unwilling to just leave this fight. He wanted to kill this Raikage who went after Karin and Hinata.
Call it stubbornness of his or Sukuna's very nature, but he wanted Raikage dead.
Just as both were about to start another round of trading blows, while Sukuna was going back to his default problem-solving method, Binding Vows... he saw something.
It was minor, but Sukuna captured it with his Mangekyo.
A protrusion on Raikage's chest.
Sukuna's eyes narrowed, recalling what Shizune told him about the poisonous insect infecting Raikage's subordinate.
"Don't tell me." Sukuna realised something, and his lips curled up.
He suddenly broke out in laughter....
"Hahaha.... Karma's a bitch, isn't it, Raikage." Sukuna grinned; he knew by now even Raikage would have realized what was wrong with him.
He was infected by the same infection.
Perhaps in the main story, where Kishimoto's plot armor still held strong, he would have gotten cured after his subordinate by Tsunade.
But here, no....
Here he decided to kick the doctor behind her back for profit.
And yes, Sukuna was right. Raikage had realized by now. His face fell harder. The insect was consuming his chakra and making him weak as time passed. It was slower since he had a bigger chakra pool and his lightning style was a hindrance for the insect.
However... for how long?
'That means a change in strategy is in order...' Sukuna grinned.
However, that was when he felt a huge surge of chakra. Lightning started to crackle even strongly around Raikage, and even his hair stood on end.
This was his Lightning Chakra Armor V2.
'So, he is planning to end this fight faster with this, huh...'
xXx
A/N : How was the chapter? Worth throwing some stones over... come on guys, don't hoard them, give some here.
Also... as you see... with domain or WCS beating Raikage was possible but MC haven't unlock those yet... Not that I didn't want him to but just to emphasize the fact that Domain is one area where he just can't copy the OG. As for WCS... well as said, skill issue. That one will take time.
Without both Domain and WCS,... Sukuna can't beat Raikage. That a fact...
At best it would have been a slatemate...
So what would be the tipping scale here...
Kamui and Raikage being infected by Poisonous Insect.
I just didn't wanted to write he won cause he's the OP MC... which he is but still...
There is your reason, if you're wondering.
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