Battle

Ryu summoned Rukh after a very long time.

Rukh had grown in size since the last time he saw him.

Rukh finally saw Ryu after a long time. For a long time, Rukh was unable to meet Ryu; thus, he was thrilled that he had finally summoned him.

Rukh flapped his wings, causing a gust of wind to blow. Both Rukh and Ryu were staring at each other.

"It's been a while!"

Rukh acted like he didn't care about Ryu's calling for him: "So, you finally remembered my existence."

Ryu jumped on Ryu's back and replied, "How can I forget about my only partner?"

Rukh took to the sky and began complaining: "How could you abandon me with that wretched snake? You have no idea how much pain I'm in."

Ryu chuckled at Rukh's remarks, "Looks like you have grown close to him from your words."

Rukh recalled feeling as if the snake was going to eat him for lunch through of his gaze.

"If I ended up in his stomach, I'd be close to him."

Ryu wanted to mock him: "How can an eagle be afraid of a snake?"

Rukh ceased his whining immediately and returned to the primary objective.

"Why did you call me? I don't honestly believe it was for a conversation."

Ryu went into sage mode.

"There is a rat in hiding. I believe it has moved on a bit too far."

Rukh flew high in the sky to give Ryu a good view.

"Are you familiar with his chakra signature?"

Ryu could now sense all of the chakras in a large area. After becoming one with nature, he was able to see and feel everything.

"I know. That's why I am in sage mode."

Ryu began to detect Kawaki's chakra signature.

"It appears he is in the forest, possibly in a cave."

Ryu gestured towards Kawaki's location.

Rukh activated "God-speed."

Rukh was moving at lightening speed, hurling bolts of black lightning as he went.

Ryu was impressed by Rukh's increased speed and was unfamiliar with this type of lightning.

Kakashi developed purple lightning, Mitsuki snake lightning, and Rukh's lightning was the same as Sasuke's from the Cursed Mark.

Ryu was intrigued by the lightning that Rukh created.

"What's the deal with this lightning?"

"This is sage energy infused lightning," Rukh responded.

Ryu activated his sharingan, observed the lightning, and attempted to copy it.

"Black lightning."

Ryu was now spewing out black lightning.

Rukh became annoyed when he saw Ryu create black lightning.

This is unacceptable. It took me all day each day to create this lightning, and you just copied it like it was nothing.

Ryu cracked a grin. The black lightning was more powerful than his normal lightning, but it was scattered and required Sharinagan to use it to its full potential, much like chidori.

That's why Rukh only produced a limited amount of black lightning, but black lightning opened up a whole new world of possibilities for Ryu.

'It looks like I'll be learning Dark Chidori very soon.'

Ryu had decided to learn black lightning in order to increase his speed and use it as a weapon. It would have been a waste of time not to learn it.

In his battle against Sasuke, Ryu had already seen how chidori works in anime and in real life. It was no problem for him to recreate it now.

Rukh and Ryu arrived at Kawaki's location.

He moved in the direction of Kawaki's chakra and came across an entrance that was blocked by a massive boulder.

Behind the massive boulder, Kawaki was hidden inside the cave.

Ryu found it ironic that Kawaki was hiding behind a cave when he could easily walk through it.

Ryu knew he could destroy it with a punch, so he decided to put his black lightning to the test.

Ryu began to focus his black lightning on his palm.

"Chidori, black!"

Ryu dashed towards the boulder, slamming the black chidori against the rock's surface.

The boulder crumbled into stone fragments.

The cave's entrance was opened.

Rukh was surprised by the move's destructive power.

Ryu gave him a look and gestured for him to leave.

Then after Rukh had left the scene Ryu entered the cave.

Ryu entered the cave. He could sense Kawaki was inside the cave and knew kawaki had already noticed his entry.

Ryu considered a possibility: 'Is he planning something?'

It didn't matter to Ryu what Kawaki was planning; he'd just walk right through all of his traps.

Ryu moved slowly in the direction of Kawaki.

The room was suddenly filled with a strange gas.

Ryu experienced a burning sensation in his eyes. He wasn't even able to open them. It had temporarily gone blind.

Ryu could still sense his surroundings thanks to his sage mode. Ryu noticed Kawaki approaching him quickly and directly aiming at his eyes.

Ryu side stepped the stab and rolled behind a boulder.

Kawaki fired a laser beam from his hand, destroying the boulder that was securing Ryu's.

Ryu's back sprouted two claws. Kawaki was lightning fast.

Kawaki carefully planned this, Ryu was pushed back too much in the span of a few seconds after he went blind.

Kawaki fired another laser within a second of the previous one.

Ryu was targeted by a laser. Ryu used his claws to cover his body.

His claws were both broken.

Within the duration of two laser beams, Ryu made a hand-sign.

"Fire Release: Hiding in Smoke Jutsu"

The entire cave was filled with smoke. Ryu was able to hide and could only wait for his rapid regeneration to heal.

When Ryu was about to activate his sharingan when he realized something was wrong, but he simply went blind. He took cover behind the boulder to prepare for an attack, but a series of laser beams caught him off guard and landed him in this situation.

Ryu's ribs are broken, he has a large hole in his claws, and blood is pouring out of them.

Ryu needed time to regenrate, but Kawaki had no intention of giving him a second to rest.

Ryu underestimated Kawaki; if Kawaki possessed the Karma, it meant he had access to millennia of battle experience, though in a limited capability for the time being.

It meant he could defeat Ryu in advantageous circumstances, such as when he couldn't use his eyes and was injured. A ll that has happened as of now.

Ryu's forearm started growing a sword.

"Clank!"

Kawaki's sword slash was deflected by Ryu.

Kawaki couldn't see Ryu but could tell where he was by the blood pouring from his body.

Ryu wanted to use Susano, but it puts too much strain on the body, and using it in such a frail state was like inviting death.

"Haaaah! I'm losing like hell to a kid."

Kawaki had already traced Ryu and created the third laser beam.

"Dark chidori; maximum caliber"

Ryu focused and overflowed his chakra to its full potential before combining it with the overflowing, overflowing senjustu chakra."

'Let's see if your karma can outperform my jutsu.'

Kawaki didn't listen to Ryu and shot the laser.

"Die!" *2

Ryu charged directly at Kawaki's intensely focused laser beam.

Laser beam got divided into four halves after colliding with "Dark chidori; maximum caliber"

After being divided, the laser beams were pushed at different spots throughout the cave.

Dark lightning was sprawled about and buzzing. It was brimming with pure destructive power.

Ryu laughed as his injury began to heal quickly, and Kawaki took note of Ryu's quick recovery.

This time, instead of firing a laser, Kawaki charged at him, his hand turned into his sword.

Kawaki was confident that if he stalled Ryu for a few minutes and did not allow him to heal himself, he would go unconscious.

Ryu's palm still held dark lightning. He used dark lightning instead of normal lightning to activate "God-speed."

Kawaki, for his part, pushed karma as far as he could and attacked Ryu.

It was impossible for the user to see while using dark lightning, with god speed, it was even more difficult, but Ryu was able to sense with nature energy.

Kawaki dashed forward and swung his sword at Ryu.

Ryu took an insane back flip and kicked Kawaki, launching him into the air and crashing him onto the boulder.

The cave was starting to fall apart and was on the verge of collapsing.

Kawaki regained his footing after collapsing on the boulder. Kawaki's bones were cracked as a result of the damage.

Ryu harden his hand furiously. Ryu charged at Kawaki and assaulted him in the face.

Kawaki transformed his hand and harden it. Ryu's punch shattered the hard matter and broke both of their hands.

Kawaki collided with the boulder once more, causing a massive hole in it.

Ryu approached Kawaki, caught his head, and dragged him outside.

Soon after, the cave collapsed.

Kawaki had no strength left but continued to struggle. Ryu kicked him, causing Kawaki to crash into a tree and vomit a mouthful of blood.

Ryu's chakra had been exhausted. He went overboard with his dark chidori and god-speed.

Ryu's injuries were healing as a result of his modifications, which was a good thing for Ryu at the moment.

Ryu went to check on Kawaki. Kawaki was out of it.

Ryu was relieved and fell asleep.

They were both unconscious.