"This isn't the time for that."
Sasuke stepped forward after finishing with Haruno, his tone steady. Naruto and Sakura snapped out of their daze.
"It's enough to know they're enemies."
Questions about war, justice, or whose suffering mattered more never held his interest. Too many people obsessed over those things already. Sasuke didn't. In a world where individual power could tilt nations, arguments about morality before securing strength were meaningless.
The gray-haired Rain shinobi scoffed. "So this is how the great villages decide right and wrong. Useful ones are allies. The rest are enemies."
Sasuke didn't answer.
He swept his gaze across the enemy formation.
Thirty-five.
Haruno's report had put the attackers at around sixty, all Rain shinobi except for Suien. That meant more than half were here.
End it now.
"Naruto. Sakura," Sasuke said quietly. "Full coordination. Combined technique."
Kakashi's situation was unknown. Speed mattered.
Sakura hesitated for a heartbeat, then nodded. Whatever doubts the Rain shinobi's words had stirred, she buried them.
"Got it," Naruto said immediately.
Sasuke's hand closed around the hilt of the Homura blade at his waist.
The sword trembled faintly, its rhythm aligning with his breathing.
"Prepare."
The Rain shinobi captain raised his arm. "Kill them."
Shuriken and senbon filled the sky.
"Now."
Sasuke moved first.
Steel flashed.
Flames erupted along the blade's path, condensing into a massive arc of fire that surged forward, heat rolling outward in waves.
At the same instant, Naruto stepped in, driving a straight punch through the air.
The impact detonated.
Compressed wind howled like a dragon's roar, a spiraling force that fused seamlessly into Sasuke's fire.
Wind fed flame.
The combined attack bloomed into a sweeping firestorm, devouring the incoming weapons and scattering sparks like molten rain.
The Rain shinobi captain's eyes widened. "Defensive formation!"
Walls of water rose in quick succession, one after another.
They shattered.
The flaming arc tore through them relentlessly, steam exploding outward as heat and water collided.
The captain joined in himself, chakra surging as he reinforced the barriers, teeth clenched.
Still, the pressure didn't ease.
Through the boiling mist, Sasuke's voice carried, calm and distant.
"The Land of Rain is always covered in clouds."
The man struggled to hold the line.
"Do you know what exists above them?"
The firestorm pressed closer.
"Lightning."