LightningSword5: I'm back! Sorry it took so long. Here's the next chappie!

The Lightning Shinobi chapter 7

"CHEEEYAA!" she fell from the sky, fist blazing blue, and the ground she punched in front of me cracked open. A small part the earth caved downwards, and I used the inward fracturing to leap upwards. Her back was to me now, and I was ready to strike her.

I infused a shuriken with my chakra and launched it towards her with a halfhearted throw. I knew what she'd done.

"Sakura" turned into a log due to her substitution jutsu as I landed on the unmarred land a few feet away. If I wasted time trying to find her through sight alone, she'd get the better of me. My eyelids slid shut as I focused on my surroundings, my senses of smell and hearing revealing every subtle movement that my eyes could not.

There, I thought to myself. That's where she's hiding. So it stands to reason...

"Nijuu Chidori!" I shouted out as I swept my hand horizontally through the air, deflecting her oncoming punch before driving my other hand into her stomach. She gasped out in pain before she flew over the ground briefly and landed, skidding on her feet.

"You're strong, Rai," Sakura told me, forcing a grin as she coughed, electricity sparkling on her skin.

"And you're tough, Sakura," I returned the sentiment. "But you're not pressing me so much as I would've hoped."

"Really now?" she asked me before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"A shadow clone?!" I asked in surprise.

"Dang straight!" I turned ti see her holding a boulder five times her size above her head, leaning back slightly.

No way.

"CHEEEYAA!" she shouted powerfully, chucking the small mountain at me with a strength I'd never once witnessed.

"Chidori Jinrai!" I shouted panickedly, forcing my hand into the rock. It split into countless pieces, leaving my hand hurting like heck and raising a dust cloud that blocked my vision. In my haste, I hadn't thought of an effective countermeasure. I cursed myself before leaping out of the dust cloud and looking downwards.

Her approaching form was even closer than I'd thought it would be, leaving me open and unprepared.

Or so she thought.

I smirked, grabbing hold of each of her arms and throwing her backwards over my head, taking her completely by surprise and leaving her vulnerable. Meanwhile, I compressed the necessary chakra for a Chidori for my new experimental jutsu. I'd never tried it before, and training was the best time, was it not?

I landed once more, lining myself up vertically with her falling form as she fell ever closer to me. She saw where her path was leading her and cocked her flaming hand back above her head. I bent down as close to the ground as I could, focusing my chakra into my hand as intensely as I could.

"Chidori..." I murmured before bringing my hand up when she was just above it. "Chājibīmu!"

And of course something went wrong...

My chakra burst out of my hand in an open explosion, sending her flying upward and me careening into the ground painfully.

"Owwww..." I groaned on the ground as Sakura ran to my side, having landed flawlessly.

"Raikou, are you alright?!" she asked me with fear and concern.

"Peachy," I responded with a lopsided grin. "After a little rest, at least." I got the feeling that the hand I'd used for the attack was asleep, little stings running up from my wrist to my fingertips, and I shook it out.

"Honestly," she groaned. "Imagine if you had done that in a serious battle! You'd be part of the sand by now!"

"I guess there's a reason we leave making jutsu to the professionals," I muttered, pushing myself to my feet. "I just can't keep my chakra in a straight line after it leaves my hand."

"That's what you were trying to do?" she asked me. "Hm... I think I could help you with that."

"Really?" I asked dubiously. "How?"

"Look at this," she ordered, strolling a couple yards away to another boulder, slightly larger than the one she'd launched before. She lifted it effortlessly above her head, hands glowing a faint blue.

"See, with my chakra in my hands like this, it's easy to just throw the Sphere of Graves," she told me, once again tossing it a few feet away. It rolled for a couple of seconds before promptly halting.

"Yeah... so?" I asked her. I didn't understand how she was so strong, and I respected her heavily for it, but what was the point of just showing that to me?

"I can change it up," she told me, walking over to the oversized rock once more. "Let's say I lift it over my head like this..." she did so with a grunt. "And then..." she brought her arms down quickly, the rock still attached at her hands before it suddenly rocketed forward, blasting off into the sky almost faster than my naked eye could watch.

"W-Whoa!" I gasped, impressed. "How'd you do that?!"

"I expended my chakra into the boulder to make it launch off my hands," she told me, pulling her gloves down and making their elastic snap against her skin. "Putting it in just the right areas boosted ol' Rocky away. It's chakra control."

"I think you probably really could help me," I said with a grin. "If you want to."

"Sure," she chirped, turning away from me. "But I need to go take care of a little errand first. Wait for me here, alright?"

I nodded as she sauntered off, her hands behind her head.

Then I remember everything going black.

3-3-3-3-3

"Oh no!" he cried out, looking at me with fright. "Uh, little boy, you didn't see me, all right?"

"I can see you right now," I told him, giving him a strange look. He wore the same cloak as the orange-haired ma, but his face was covered by a swirly orange and black mask, black hair coming out of the top.

"Gah!" he shouted, looking at me. "Okay, please don't tell anybody, alright? I'm not doing anything!"

"You look like you're doing something to me," I commented drily. "Something... out of the ordinary."

"Now, Tobi!" a voice called down from the air. I leapt up just in time to avoid-

3-3-3-3-3

"And he's holding up fine?" he asked her, flipping the page in his book.

"Perfect, Kakashi sensei," Sakura responded. "No debilitating pains, no gruff attitude, no anything. It's like he was never sick."

"Good, good," Kakashi said with a smile. "Now, why don't I join you and Rai for some training, hm?"

"Sounds great, but ah..." Sakura looked at him square in the eye. "Aren't you supposed to be on a mission with Naruto?"

"... Good work, Sakura," Kakashi told her, smiling with one eye closed.

"So I'm guessing you're a shadow clone, then?" Sakura asked him slyly.

"Yup."

"Alright. Go ahead and disappear now, then."

The Kakashi clone nodded before doing just that. Sakura sighed as she turned to return to the training field, shaking her head at her teacher's simple test.

Raikou had only hours ago been continuously comatose. He'd launched into convulsions when the Hokage attempted to touch his cursed shoulder. Sakura would never forget his face in that moment. He'd been paler than the moon, his eyes bloodshot and rolling randomly. She feared for his life.

Who would've guessed that all it took to get him back to normal was putting a shirt on him?

It was unlike anything she'd ever studied, and only barely related to ONE thing the Hokage recognized. Just what had Orochimaru done to Raikou in his few, tortured years of captivity? And why was it only just now popping up?

"Ah, darn it," Sakura muttered as she arrived back at the training field to see Raikou, out cold. "I really hope this is just one of his routine drops off reality."

"Don furry, vit iff," he grumbled into the ground.

"What?"

"Don't worry, it is," he repeated, crawling to his feet. "That's gotten to be a real inconvenience. Forget the Chājibīmu, what if THAT happens in the middle of a fight?"

"That's twice so far today," she pointed out. "They're getting closer together. We might want to find a cure soon."

"There is no cure, right?" he asked her for confirmation. "That's what Granny said."

She was silent.

"But that's why I've got friends like you, right?" Raikou looked to her with a smile. "You've got my back, right?"

"Well, yeah," she coughed, blushing at the ground. "I-"

Raikou's mind went blank as he saw it.

"What?" I whispered, staring at her without comprehension.

"I-I said that I-"

Sakura's words didn't reach his ears as he stared at the figure behind her. A figure he hadn't seen in years. A figure he'd presumed dead.

His mother. She gave him a warm smile, beckoning for him before turning to leave.

"Mom!" Raikou dashed past Sakura as rapidly as he could, desperately pursuing the fleeting silhouette of his mother.

"Mom?!" Sakura turned to watch him go before noticing the figure he was chasing. "Rai, wait up!"