Ch146. Raijin's Descent

Ringo's blades gleamed blue as she spun on her heel, sending a piercing stab at Jinin who now held only the hammer part of Kabutowari. He quickly put the hammer-head in the path of Ringo's sword, blocking it but Ringo was no longer paying him any attention as her feet impacted Juzo's chest, cracking most of his ribs while breaking some as lightning from her armor shocked him unconscious and the kick sent him flying way back, causing him to let go of Kubikiribocho that quickly spun in the air until it stopped by its blade burrowing into the ground.

'Two down.' Ringo hummed, half-turning her head towards Jinin who just now realized he was used only as a diversion.

The situation was quite bad for him. He was closest to Ringo, half of his weapon was destroyed, Raiga was behind him without any way to help him fast enough for it to count, and other remaining members of the Seven who were capable of fighting may have been on their way to intercept Ringo but it was apparent they would not make it before she attacked him.

Jinin took a defensive stance with his hammer. For now, he had to endure...

Ringo looked behind where Kuriarare Kushimaru was running at her, trying to hide his injured leg by acting alright. She then glanced to the right where Jinpachi Munashi with his Shibuki was also approaching at a fast pace. To her left, Fuguki Suikazan ran at her with an ordinary katana.

'Smart...' Ringo thought as she looked at the giant of a man. She knew he could run faster. That meant he was letting others engage her first. For someone who lost his sword, which was his best advantage, this was indeed the best approach.

And finally, in front of her were Jinin, and Raiga who was still slightly trembling but looked determined to kill her.

Ringo smirked. There was just one last test to do. Stabbing her swords into the ground, their Lightning Susanoo Armor Coating disappeared the second she let go of them and lightning started to surge around them. The sky above her also started crackling with blue bolts as Ringo's lightning chakra seeped into the swords, making them perfect lightning rods.

"Watch out!" Raiga shouted as his eyes briefly widened when he recognized the technique. Gritting his teeth, he started pouring his own lightning chakra in big amounts around himself in preparation for Ringo's technique. "That's Raijin's Descent!"

He was, however, too late...

"Lightning Release: Raijin's Descent!" Ringo gleefully shouted, grinning like a loon with her arms theatrically spread apart, her hair standing up from both excitement and the exhilarating feeling of the static electricity coursing through her body.

From the black clouds above, two blue lightning dragons coiled around themselves in a swift descent. Their maws as big as a house deafeningly roaring at the ground they were fast approaching.

It barely took two seconds since they appeared high in the sky for them to crash on top of Ringo's head... a deafening 'Booom' resounded through the surrounding lands while the lightning painted the world blue as the lightning energy instantly raced through the area.

The trees in the radius of a few kilometers lost all of their leaves. The trees in the radius of a few hundred meters became charred. The ground in a hundred meters radius became shallow but still a massive crater and the air crackled with spontaneous electric discharges all over the whole supercharged area.

Raijin's Descent...

A secret self-sacrificial technique passed from Kiba user to Kiba user through special scrolls. The so-called above S-rank one-time final army-killing move.

Ringo was hunched over with her knees bent from the strain of two S-ranked Lightning Dragon Jutsus smashing together into her as she discharged a large amount of lightning chakra around herself. It was not to protect her body, rather it was a part of the technique. She had to envelop herself in the pure unadulterated lightning chakra of the amount of high-level S-rank Jutsu that would supercharge the two S-rank Lightning Dragons upon impact.

When the three S-rank level energies met head-on, pushing against each other? Naturally, the two S-rank Lightning Dragons would win because the amount of energy was bigger...

At this point, the user who is serving as director for the two Lightning Dragon Jutsus would be torn to shreds because of the immense pressure of three S-rank forces focused on one point... her.

But the Jutsu would continue.

The power and energy contained in the two S-rank Lightning Dragon Jutsus would literally be deflected from being vertical to being horizontal due to coming into contact with the S-rank lightning chakra the user exerted. This would also boost the two S-rank Lightning Dragon Jutsus before it would all explode in a horizontal surge of lightning energy and pressure, devastating kilometers of land around the area of impact.

It was not only Madara and Hashirama who were well above their peers in their time. Every village had one or two of these 'hidden' experts who could fight these two even if such a fight would mean sacrificing their life. Hashirama would never decide to go the peaceful way and hand out the bijuu in wishful thinking for peace if the villages could be easily conquered by him without much bloodshed. His diaries certainly said enough. In the end, he was raised to be a ninja, not a monk.

"Shit..." Ringo let out a deep breath and cursed. She could already feel the bruises forming on her body as her bones creaked. "Thankfully, nothing is broken or cracked." She gritted her teeth through the pain as she straightened herself and stretched her protesting muscles who were just put through a literal shredder made of pure energy.

She would never use the Jutsu if she didn't know she could survive it. Her armor would protect her but... Kirigakure had some recounting on Madara's and Hashirama's power and Raijin's Descent was something made to counter Madara's Susanoo or Hashirama's Wood Techniques. In close range, the trees would be literally liquified and Susanoo would be breached, injuring the user if not killing him.

"Sixty percent of my chakra, huh?" Ringo bitterly smiled as she realized how much of her chakra she had to use to concentrate her Lightning Susanoo Armor in order to prevent her muscles from tearing and bones from breaking. The armor still had massive cracks all over it but was somewhat intact. 'Well, considering this would be way above my chakra reserves limit before bonding with Rei...' She subconsciously smiled while a slight blush dusted her cheeks as she thought about that while looking around, not forgetting she is still in combat.

The first person she spotted was Raiga Kurosuki who was a few meters away from her. He was kneeling on one knee, tightly gripping Kiba blades stabbed into the ground as faint, slowly dissipating bluish shimmering coating covered his body and swords. It was almost depleted and the man himself was already unconscious because of chakra exhaustion but he survived. If he was even a meter closer to Ringo, his chakra reserves wouldn't make it.

'Well, I was ordered to leave him alive.' Ringo sighed and shook her head, 'I so hate calculating these things.'

The next thing Ringo realized was that Jinin who stood closer to her and was in fact, in front of Raiga when she started her technique, was nowhere to be found. 'I guess he was vaporized alongside the hammer, then.' She shrugged.

Not every weapon could withstand such concentrated lightning chakra at such a close range. Kiba survived because it was from the start attuned to lightning. Her own nameless blades were covered in a protective chakra layer... but Kabutowari? It had no chance without Jinin coating it in chakra and the guy had no time for that.

'What a pity to lose one of the seven swords...' Ringo clicked her tongue.

She looked to the right where Fuguki should have been located. Honestly, she didn't put much thought into his survival so she had no idea if he withstood the Jutsu.

The second Ringo spotted his body, she mirthfully chuckled.

'The Earth Dome he hastily created for his protection must have been run through instantly, burying him in the dirt without him even knowing how or when he was knocked out.' Ringo analyzed the situation as she saw Fuguki's half-buried bend-over unconscious form with his legs sticking up towards the sky from the ground. The guy survived only because he was lucky that his nose didn't get covered. 'Then again, the dirt most likely grounded most of the lightning, causing him to survive. How lucky...'

Left side... Ringo only nodded when she saw a bit charred but still breathing form of Juzo Biwa. She kicked him far enough for the energy discharge to give only a slight caress to him.

Merrily walking towards the half-liquified, half-broken Kubikiribocho, Ringo amusedly noted that the 'weakest' of the seven swords actually survived her technique at close range. She took it by the half-destroyed handle, 'He can still regrow it to its former state if he sacrificed about two hundred liters of blood and fifty times of his chakra reserves.' She threw it towards Juzo, where it landed with an audible clang.

"So, Jinpachi is dead..." Ringo's eyes lingered on the dust-covered Shibuki on the ground, "that explosion maniac would never let Shibuki out of his hand willingly." Her head turned slightly, "Hiramekarei is also fine but Arata's corpse was vaporized. Huh? No big loss there..." Ringo briefly pondered if she should take Hiramekarei but decided against it. One sword taken and another destroyed was enough spoils for now. Kiri still needed its swordsmen.

Ringo relaxed. "I guess this is i-"

Kushimaru's Nuibari stabbed into the biggest crack on Ringo's chest, right above her heart. Sparks and lightning discharges flew around as the Nuibari trembled from the strength its user used to push its tip against the impenetrable yet cracked lightning armor.

Ringo blinked and Kushimaru sweatdropped as he realized he fucked up.

"Oya? You are still breathing?" Ringo asked as her empty hand snapped in Kushimaru's direction, taking hold of his masked face before she pulled him closer towards her.

Normally he would surely dodge since he was the most agile of the seven, even surpassing Ringo's past self but now... Kushimaru's left side was incinerated. He lacked his left hand, he lacked half of his left leg, half of his left chest and stomach... only the fact his wounds were burned shut prevented him from bleeding out by now.

Ringo sighed in exasperation. 'Kushimaru was always vicious little shit. Of course, he would try to score a killing blow despite being half-dead when his enemy finally relaxed. How the hell did he even survive?'

She didn't try to talk to him. There was nothing to talk about. She just started a Chidori on her free hand and speared his chest through, tearing his heart out before using lightning discharge to destroy it. Blood started slowly dripping from under the chin of his mask as his body slackened.

Kushimaru Kuriarare died.

Ringo threw his body onto the ground and stretched her arms up before leisurely walking towards her chakra blades stabbed into the ground and picking them up.

'Oh well, job well done. Time to go home, I guess...'