The combined Hidden Mist Technique from the two chūnin was far stronger and denser than a normal one — the mist spread wider, thicker, and heavier.
Raiga Kurosuki chuckled. "As shinobi of Kirigakure, moving freely within the mist is our basic skill."
He let out a hearty laugh — but before he could finish, a cold voice echoed right beside his ear.
"What a coincidence. This jutsu doesn't restrict me either."
Crackle!
Squelch!
"Ah—ahh!"
Raiga froze for an instant, and in that blink, a golden flash sliced through the fog.
Then came the sharp crackle of lightning, followed by the agonized screams of his two chūnin subordinates. Raiga's entire body stiffened.
"Damn it! He's too fast!"
Alarmed, he leapt backward several steps, putting distance between himself and where his men had stood.
Through the thick mist, Yoruha's calm gaze locked onto Raiga's direction.
At his feet lay the two Mist chūnin — dead, their bodies still twitching faintly, blood pooling beneath them.
Instant kill. A terrifying instant kill.
They hadn't even had time to react, much less resist.
The moment the kunai pierced their bodies, the lightning surging through it shredded them from the inside out, extinguishing every spark of life in a heartbeat.
A lightning-imbued kunai was far deadlier than any ordinary stab.
Raiga was shaken. He had known Yoruha was strong — but not this strong.
"That distance… he crossed dozens of meters before I could even react!"
"His Body Flicker Technique is insanely fast!"
"Could he be… the Yellow Flash's disciple?"
Memories from the Third Shinobi World War flashed through Raiga's mind — the legend of Konoha's Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato.
The man so feared that enemies were allowed to abandon their missions if they merely encountered him.
Yoruha's speed had already surpassed that of elite jōnin, and golden lightning accompanied his movements — it was no wonder Raiga mistook him for Minato's pupil.
He even thought Yoruha might be using the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Yoruha was simply too fast — faster than Raiga's eyes could track.
And Raiga was no novice; as a lightning-style master, speed was his specialty.
But Yoruha's movements left him helpless to respond.
It wasn't strange that he'd reached that conclusion.
Still, Raiga's shock quickly turned into fury.
"Bastard! Don't think killing two chūnin makes you powerful! The gap between chūnin and jōnin is like heaven and earth!"
"Lightning Release: Banquet of Lightning!"
He thrust both Thunderswords into the ground.
In an instant, dozens of roaring bolts of lightning erupted outward.
Crack!
Rumble—rumble—!
Like serpents of blue light, the lightning tore through the fog and lunged toward Yoruha.
In a heartbeat, they surrounded him from every direction.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Net!"
Crackle!
BOOM! BOOM—BOOM—!
Yoruha brought his hands together.
Golden lightning flared to life around him, converging into a radiant barrier that wrapped his entire body.
Blue lightning met gold — the collision unleashed a blinding explosion that tore everything apart.
The ground beneath them collapsed. Stones shattered and turned to dust under the violent surges of electricity.
A blinding white light burst forth, illuminating the fog as if it were midday.
The shockwave whipped into a raging storm, stirring a whirlwind of dust and debris.
Far away, Sakura shielded Tsunami and Inari with her arms as they braced against the fierce winds.
Her eyes widened in fear at the towering tornado of dust in the distance.
"It's terrifying… Is that the power of a jōnin's jutsu?"
"Can Yoruha really withstand that?"
Even hundreds of meters away, the storm's force was immense — Sakura's hair whipped wildly, her clothes snapping in the wind.
She looked toward the battlefield, heart trembling. Inari clenched his fists, eyes fixed on the distant flashes of gold and blue.
"It's like watching gods battle… Shinobi are terrifying. How can someone as young as Brother Yoruha hold such power inside him?" Tsunami murmured, awestruck.
For someone who had never seen ninjutsu before, the clash between Yoruha and Raiga was overwhelming — like witnessing divine beings collide.
That kind of power felt utterly inhuman.
At the center of the chaos, dozens of thick lightning arcs pounded relentlessly against Yoruha's golden barrier. The destructive force was immense — yet even after all that, his shield didn't so much as flicker.
This was Lightning Release: Lightning Net — a defensive ninjutsu Yoruha had created himself.
Even Kakashi had been stunned by its power, recognizing it as an absolute S-rank technique.
It required an extraordinary understanding of lightning-style chakra and near-perfect control — a single mistake could be fatal.
After learning the principle behind it, Kakashi had shaken his head and admitted, "Even I can't master this jutsu."
It was a technique only Yoruha could use — because one small misstep could cause the lightning to backfire and obliterate the user entirely.
For all its defensive strength, its danger was immense.
The amount of chakra required was vast, and the risk of self-destruction made it practically a forbidden jutsu.
If Yoruha hadn't mastered it so completely, Kakashi would never have allowed him to use it in battle.
It was the kind of jutsu that deserved to be sealed away in the Scroll of Forbidden Techniques.
In truth, Lightning Net was even more dangerous than Chidori — several times more so.
Raiga watched as his lightning storm battered Yoruha's position, his face twisting into a smug grin.
"Ha! Brat, I bet you regret surviving earlier — now you've been blown to pieces!"
He had absolute faith in the destructive power of his Thunder Blades.
Lightning Release: Banquet of Lightning was easily an A-rank technique.
But as the smoke slowly cleared, Raiga's triumphant smile froze.
The expected sight of shredded flesh never came — instead, a golden barrier shimmered before him, untouched, radiant.
Around it, the ground was devastated — shattered, cratered, and split into web-like fissures stretching for dozens of meters.
The grass was gone, reduced to ash; even the soil had turned black and still smoked from the heat.
But Raiga's gaze stayed fixed on that golden shield, disbelief twisting his features.
"Damn it… that jutsu again! So that's how you survived the explosion earlier!"
"What is that technique? How can it even block my lightning-style attacks?"
He could hardly believe it — that someone, and a mere genin at that, had just deflected his most powerful jutsu.