Author's Notes: So, I didn't post a chapter yesterday, and it wasn't
because I couldn't have, but because I forgot to! My apologies everyone,
but perhaps it was good to let the suspense accumulate for a little while.
This chapter has a lot of revelations in it, and so I'll keep quiet
otherwise about it. I think it's a really good chapter though.
Thanks to reviewers and readers!
X2Darklord: Thanks for the complements, I appreciate it. Really the rapid updating was due to me having too much free time over the weekend (I wrote like three chapters on Friday and four on Saturday). When I sit down and write I can just keep going if there's nothing to stop for. This story writes really fast anyway, mostly because its not all that deep, but just an action thing.
The Dark Storm
The Hall of the Raikage is the most ancient and sturdy structure in all of Hidden Cloud village. It is not so much an office as a fortress, built during the end of the Great Ninja Wars, a fortress that would anchor the rest of the village against those dark times. It was built by the labor of many hands, and at the cost of many lives. For even as men and women struggled to construct this safe bastion at the fork of two rivers in what was then called the valley of fog, ninja fought and died around them, some defending the work, and some attacking it. In the end every one of the defending ninja sacrificed themselves to save the fortress and only the woman who became the first Raikage, hidden among the laborers, survived by using the power of the Hall to cleanse the invaders after laying the last brick herself.
Filled with ninja artifacts of power and mementoes of old this place has become a hall for memory and a focus of power for the ninja of Lightning Country. Now, sitting on a dais carved from the wall atop the last brick itself, at the end of the long hall of state, the current Raikage waited.
Against any outside attacker the defenses of this place are assured, the power to call lighting down into the corridors and destroy any those who assault this place, the sky spirits and stormcrows bound into the structure will defend it. To take this place from without would require a ninja force more powerful than any that has walked the Shinobi countries in over a century. Raikage recalled the lessons from long ago. With a bitter sigh he knew the last bit. Except for the one who is coming now.
It was in blue robes and hat, sword at his back that Raikage sat upon that dais, waiting for the door to the hall to open, waiting for the footsteps to echo down the stones. He chaffed to be in this position, stuck in one place and out of the battle while his village was dying in civil war, but he knew it was where he must be. By remaining here I protect this building, I keep the center unclaimed. Only I can use the defenses and protect the artifacts within. So long as I am here, she must come here as well. So it was that the Raikage waited.
I am the seventh of my kind, seventh Raikage, a poor record have we of Lighting. The Leaf ninja have only five Hokages, the Stone a mere three, even Mist and Sand had only six. Seven for us, and I will die tonight, there is no preventing it. Seven for us, and five will have died of no cause but the hands of lightning ninja, including the first. For me, at least I will be in good company, Raikage thought ironically. I will be the second Raikage that my killer has slain.
Then the doors opened.
A slow and steady stride echoed down the stone floor.
Three steps in Raikage concentrated upon the dais, and great arcs of lightning shot up from the floor, to envelop the figure before him, slashing and crackling, enough power to burn away a demon.
Three more steps echoed on the floor.
Raikage made the lightning cease.
"A futile gesture for the mere purpose of futility?" A sonorous voice asked down the hall, and the form gradually came into view.
"Not for futility," Raikage replied. "The lightning tried to harm you, and even if it failed that very act shows you are no ninja of this country."
"Really? You draw that conclusion from this display?" The voice was surprised and amused. "How philosophical, but wrong. What it means is that I am more truly lightning than any of you."
With those words the figure stepped fully into the dim light surrounding the dais.
The ninja who stood before Raikage was a beautiful woman, appearing in her twenties, with midnight blue hair that sank to her knees, a perfectly sculpted face with high, shear features, and eyes like the darkest sapphires. Even her skin was touched with that midnight's ink, giving her an exotic flair that made the hearts of men yearn when they heard her speak.
More than beautiful, she was fit and trim, and power did not surround her, it positively crackled in her presence, her hair sparkled as if electrified and a charge seemed to move about her constantly.
She wore the standard uniform of the ninja of lightning, though made of garments fitted especially for her. As she stepped into the light blades of lightning, which were not the normal blue or yellow, but a viscous black and blue dark shade, extended from her hands like katanas.
"Dark Storm." Raikage whispered, naming her.
"Good evening old enemy." The Dark Storm answered. "It has been eight years I believe?"
"Yes, eight years." Raikage replied. "You failed eight years ago, why couldn't you go off and die somewhere far from here?"
"The storm never dies, you should know that much." She replied, speaking normally, as if making idle chatter, even as she held deadly weapons in her hands. "It simply reemerges somewhere else and gains new strength."
"I would have thought you would come wearing Akatsuki robes and their ring." Raikage remarked. "Yet it seems you continue to defile the lightning forehead protector by wearing it."
"The Akatsuki was merely a means to an end." She replied evenly. "I can hardly be part of that organization and be the new Raikage at the same time." She smiled, a beautiful move if it hadn't been so filled with naked malice. "Don't worry, we have an arrangement, when the Akatsuki rises to power this country will be the center of their control."
"The new Raikage?" Raikage replied. "It seems your ambitions have not dulled, but that will never happen."
"Please, you may have stopped me once soldier, by cunning timing, but you have never been able to match my strength. This city is collapsing, and all those who were loyal to you have been eliminated, if you ever had any allies to begin with. My order will come." Her voice was matter of fact, simple, as if everything was already accomplished.
"There is one question I have," Raikage said slowly. "Why did you choose this point?"
"I suppose it does no harm to tell you," She smiled again. "As you will soon be dead. I will at least offer the one who thwarted me once this much." She paused. "I did not choose this moment. My affiliate in the Akatsuki, Mehize Kizen, failed his attempt to get rid of Draci Xi. Now that irritating dragon ninja is getting far too close to finding me, so I was forced to move."
Inwardly Raikage smiled. So, it seems I accomplished that much, Xi is on her trail, she attacked before she wished. I hope it has been enough.
"Now, answer a question of my own." The Dark Storm looked at Raikage curiously. "Why are you so calm knowing you are going to die?"
"Do you think," Raikage's voice was completely serious. "That I did not know this day would come, that I was accepting my eventual death when I became Raikage eight years ago. I have long accepted and readied myself for this day."
"Apparently without success." She remarked. "Well then, since you are so ready for this, it is time for you to die."
Raikage raised his head from the ground, fingering his hat with his left hand, his right hand twitching toward his sword. "I know you will kill me Dark Storm, but as I soldier I fully intend to take my enemy with me!"
"Please, you haven't the speed to draw that blade before I reach you." She raised her crackling blades of lightning.
You're not as smart as your think you are. Raikage leapt to he feet, and the Dark Storm surged forward with the same motion, incredibly fast.
The Raikage's right hand moved to his sword, but his left hand grabbed his hat and ripped. "Hidden Ribbon Blade!"
The blade, thin as the fabric that made up his hat, and packed into a ribbon that spun free with that expert tug, flashed around Raikage in a circle, screaming around and slashing through the air with metallic strain. That blade could cut into anything, and the Dark Storm was forced back for a moment.
Raikage leapt up, pulling his true sword free, discarding the hidden blade. He reached the ceiling, and slashed straight through it, coming free to stand upon the roof behind the hole he made. There he felt the wind and rain lash down upon him, even as he flipped back further, sword held straight before him.
The Dark Storm burst through the roof in a blast of lightning, coming to stand in front of Raikage. "So, it seems you will force me to exercise myself a little, but really, that sword is not enough to offer a resistance to me."
A single seal formed around Raikage's blade. "Instant Readiness no jutsu!" His robes vanished, and in a single moment he was clad in the battle garb of a combat ninja, armored both legs and arms, a mask covering his lower face and upper head. A second sword extended from his back, and shuriken and kunai adorned that armor, the armor of a ninja ready for war.
"Well, well, the faithful soldier at his post once more." The Dark Storm made a show of looking around. She formed no seals, but then armor formed of lightning covered her entire body, thin and crackling. "Pity your post is so lonely."
"What do you mean?" Raikage barked, his eyes narrowed.
"Upon the roof of the Raikage's hall, wearing battle armor and bearing the sword that has seen a hundred battles in his hands, bereft of allies and abandoned by all. This is the end of the Lightning country's greatest battlefield ninja, it is laughable." And the Dark Storm laughed then, and thunder careened across the sky, seeming to laugh with her. "This is what you built with eight years, you have no jounin or chuunin to stand with you, and yet you dare say that I am not of Lighting?"
The jibe struck deep, but Raikage gritted his teeth. "Enough, you will go no further while I live." He raised his sword to guard in both hands, and his feet shifted to battle stance.
Fireworks split the sky to the south, but though the two ninja atop the roof remarked it, neither spoke. They gathered their chakra and made ready.
Then it began.
Raikage dashed forward, closing the distance to his foe, ready to strike. She dodged aside, faster than he, but his sword had greater speed than his body.
The brilliant blades of black lightning sliced the air, and between them passed a sword made of much used steel, they passed each other by, and the two ninja spun, coming again.
That aerial dance came around once more, and Raikage rolled under the Dark Storm's weapons and stabbed up, only to find she was behind him. He kicked out, striking her sparking armor, feeling the pain it caused, but forcing her back. So, the first blow is hers. He decided.
"Your swordsmanship has improved." The Dark Storm remarked from before him. "It seems I will have to do something a bit more."
"Shuriken Kage Bushin!" Raikage launched his weapon at her, cloning it a thousand times in midair. "Metallic spark meld!"
The shuriken condensed together into a wave of sharp spines, crashing through the air like a living tendril of fog, to rend and tear.
"Black Lightning Shatterstorm!" A bolt of black lightning thick as a man's head burst from the Dark Storm's mouth, to impact that moving wave of shuriken, blasting them asunder and sending lethal darts of shadow everywhere.
She simply stood firm as they impacted against her armor, the clones disintegrating before struck, but Raikage was forced to dodge aside.
He rolled to his feet some distance away. Damn! She's not even breathing hard! What a monster you truly are, no wonder Xi has become so strong, trying to kill you.
He raised his blade up to guard, and then stabbed it higher, jabbing into the sky. "Rain of blades no jutsu!"
They fell just like rain, metal blades fitting among the droplets of the storm, a hundred or more the falling swords, set to impale anything in their reach.
The Dark Strom flipped away, moving with great speed through the falling weapons, nimbly avoiding any hits. Raikage dashed in to strike her, but lightning arced out from her hands and grabbed one of his blades even as he raised his ninja-to to cut her. Her other hand formed the seal, and the weapon reversed its course, slamming itself deep into his side, and pushing him away.
The pain was cold and stinging, terrible, but Raikage ignored it, he had suffered many stab wounds in his days on the battlefield, and every true soldier could keep fighting no matter the wounds. He was up in an instant, dodging the three blasts of black lightning that targeted his rolling form, and he pulled the blade free of his side, grimacing as he did so. To think she could do that.
"You have grown stronger, strong enough to amuse me for a time." The Dark Storm said. "But it is not enough. This ends now." She raised her hands, and bolts of lightning arched between them, building to tremendous force.
Standing there, holding his bleeding side, Raikage tried to think of a way to avoid the coming attack, but could see nothing.
"Raikage-sama!" The naked shout broke though the storm lash and the crackle of lightning around the Dark Storm, as a whirlwind of metal, long links of chain, impacted against the woman, carrying her charge into the ground, though lightning curled around her and protected her from harm.
Kabure Gosain, with forty genin in two lines behind him, landed on the rooftop.
The Dark Storm looked at them all with base contempt.
"It seems," Raikage breathed, recognizing that the wound he had been given was terribly serious. "That I have one chuunin to stand with me after all." And he gave the Dark Storm a withering smile.
She turned for a moment to face Gosain, and a lashing bolt of lightning snapped out from her hands, faster than he could move or react, it came toward him, and he could only watch as it projected toward space between his eyes.
Then Raikage was there, catching the blast on his sword blade, taking it into himself with shudders and shakes of pain, but he did not fall. "Don't dismiss me so lightly woman." He spat.
Still watching the Dark Storm, Raikage inclined his head to Gosain.
"Raikage-sama." Gosain spoke hurriedly. "We have cleared the village of traitors to you, but many remain. The genin and I, and there are more of them, are all I could find loyal to you. Please Raikage-sama, command us!" Gosain's voice had a strident desperation. "Give the order to sweep away the traitors and reclaim this village!"
"No." Raikage said slowly, levelly. "No, I cannot do that, Gosain. The village is lost. Too many have turned to this one's banner or stood aside as weaklings. Even should you cleanse them all, no one here can oppose this one." He gestured with his sword. "The Dark Storm."
The name sent shockwaves through the genin, who had all heard the whispers, the terrifying stories, but Gosain stood firm. "Then give us the order to fight and die with you, Raikage-sama, we are not afraid."
"No!" Raikage refused. "No, Gosain, you are my last loyal chuunin, and to you I give my last command." He paused; making absolutely certain Gosain understood what he was saying. "Take these genin and scatter them all, have them flee this place, only to come back when the evil of the Dark Storm is cleansed. Flee to those far from here, rally a resistance. But Gosain, from you I must demand one final thing, this woman must die, and there is only one who can do it. Find Draci Xi, and tell him I command that he come home and kill the Dark Storm!"
"Raikage-sama!" Gosain began to protest.
"If you are my ninja Gosain, if you are loyal to lightning, you will do this thing!" Raikage screamed over the crash of thunder.
Gosain nodded. "All of you!" He yelled at the genin. "Go!"
With a terribly sad look Kabure Gosain turned his back on his Raikage and leapt from the rooftop.
"Touching." The Dark Storm muttered. "But you shall not escape to trouble me."
She raised her hand and lightning crackled between them. She launched the great bolts after Gosain and many, many genin. "Die all you fools!" Her voice held true malice to mirror the storm above for the first time.
"Lightning shield no jutsu!"
Black lightning struck pure lightning, blue and glorious, and a tremendous thunderclap spilt the air, knocking both the Raikage and Dark Storm to their knees.
Raikage stood a moment later, wracking pain in his eyes, but burning pride there as well. "You shall not have them, you cannot kill this village." He hissed, his voice cutting below the storm.
"You will not stop, not you, you mere soldier." She retorted. "I will finish you and catch them."
"You are a fool Dark Storm." Raikage replied. "If there is one thing a true soldier understands, it is the sacrifice necessary to protect his comrades. I have already made one part of it. I broke the roof of the hall, and you foolishly broke it wider. With that flaw all its powers are useless and all the artifacts within are sealed, it will be months before you can use them."
A hideous inhuman rage took over the Dark Storm's body, lightning hissed from her mouth, but she seemed beyond words.
Now, Gosain, please, you must succeed. Raikage cast his pledge to the winds. Let the clouds cover your passage and run with the speed of the very lightning itself. I will stop this one here. "The second part is this!" Raikage needed no seals, but he took he sword in both hands and placed it so the blade faced outward between his eyes. "Anthem of the Last Rear Guard!"
The Dark Storm's jaw dropped. "You cannot have the strength to use that technique!"
To save my people I can do anything required of me! Was Raikage's last thought, as his body and sword crumbled to dust in the rain before the Dark Storm's eyes.
From every piece of dust formed a suit of armor and a sword, form after form they came, empty shells, yet standing with all the strength of a living man, and empty helmets that saw everything. Hundreds upon hundreds they numbered, standing in ranks like an army of ninja, and every last one wearing the forehead protector with the symbol of lightning.
Hundreds of swords were raised to strike, and as one those empty sandals stepped forward and charged.
Lightning formed around the Dark Storm's hands and feet, and she screamed in a cackling voice. "This is far from enough to finish me!"
When it was over the last genin, a volunteer who had braved death and worse to watch their Raikage's fate, saw the last empty suit of armor crumple, struck by a sword of black lightning, but the Dark Storm was covered in a hundred cuts or more, and lay exhausted and depleted upon the rooftop. Through her forehead protector was a single line, a flat cut that slashed completely through the symbol of the Lightning ninja.
Thanks to reviewers and readers!
X2Darklord: Thanks for the complements, I appreciate it. Really the rapid updating was due to me having too much free time over the weekend (I wrote like three chapters on Friday and four on Saturday). When I sit down and write I can just keep going if there's nothing to stop for. This story writes really fast anyway, mostly because its not all that deep, but just an action thing.
The Dark Storm
The Hall of the Raikage is the most ancient and sturdy structure in all of Hidden Cloud village. It is not so much an office as a fortress, built during the end of the Great Ninja Wars, a fortress that would anchor the rest of the village against those dark times. It was built by the labor of many hands, and at the cost of many lives. For even as men and women struggled to construct this safe bastion at the fork of two rivers in what was then called the valley of fog, ninja fought and died around them, some defending the work, and some attacking it. In the end every one of the defending ninja sacrificed themselves to save the fortress and only the woman who became the first Raikage, hidden among the laborers, survived by using the power of the Hall to cleanse the invaders after laying the last brick herself.
Filled with ninja artifacts of power and mementoes of old this place has become a hall for memory and a focus of power for the ninja of Lightning Country. Now, sitting on a dais carved from the wall atop the last brick itself, at the end of the long hall of state, the current Raikage waited.
Against any outside attacker the defenses of this place are assured, the power to call lighting down into the corridors and destroy any those who assault this place, the sky spirits and stormcrows bound into the structure will defend it. To take this place from without would require a ninja force more powerful than any that has walked the Shinobi countries in over a century. Raikage recalled the lessons from long ago. With a bitter sigh he knew the last bit. Except for the one who is coming now.
It was in blue robes and hat, sword at his back that Raikage sat upon that dais, waiting for the door to the hall to open, waiting for the footsteps to echo down the stones. He chaffed to be in this position, stuck in one place and out of the battle while his village was dying in civil war, but he knew it was where he must be. By remaining here I protect this building, I keep the center unclaimed. Only I can use the defenses and protect the artifacts within. So long as I am here, she must come here as well. So it was that the Raikage waited.
I am the seventh of my kind, seventh Raikage, a poor record have we of Lighting. The Leaf ninja have only five Hokages, the Stone a mere three, even Mist and Sand had only six. Seven for us, and I will die tonight, there is no preventing it. Seven for us, and five will have died of no cause but the hands of lightning ninja, including the first. For me, at least I will be in good company, Raikage thought ironically. I will be the second Raikage that my killer has slain.
Then the doors opened.
A slow and steady stride echoed down the stone floor.
Three steps in Raikage concentrated upon the dais, and great arcs of lightning shot up from the floor, to envelop the figure before him, slashing and crackling, enough power to burn away a demon.
Three more steps echoed on the floor.
Raikage made the lightning cease.
"A futile gesture for the mere purpose of futility?" A sonorous voice asked down the hall, and the form gradually came into view.
"Not for futility," Raikage replied. "The lightning tried to harm you, and even if it failed that very act shows you are no ninja of this country."
"Really? You draw that conclusion from this display?" The voice was surprised and amused. "How philosophical, but wrong. What it means is that I am more truly lightning than any of you."
With those words the figure stepped fully into the dim light surrounding the dais.
The ninja who stood before Raikage was a beautiful woman, appearing in her twenties, with midnight blue hair that sank to her knees, a perfectly sculpted face with high, shear features, and eyes like the darkest sapphires. Even her skin was touched with that midnight's ink, giving her an exotic flair that made the hearts of men yearn when they heard her speak.
More than beautiful, she was fit and trim, and power did not surround her, it positively crackled in her presence, her hair sparkled as if electrified and a charge seemed to move about her constantly.
She wore the standard uniform of the ninja of lightning, though made of garments fitted especially for her. As she stepped into the light blades of lightning, which were not the normal blue or yellow, but a viscous black and blue dark shade, extended from her hands like katanas.
"Dark Storm." Raikage whispered, naming her.
"Good evening old enemy." The Dark Storm answered. "It has been eight years I believe?"
"Yes, eight years." Raikage replied. "You failed eight years ago, why couldn't you go off and die somewhere far from here?"
"The storm never dies, you should know that much." She replied, speaking normally, as if making idle chatter, even as she held deadly weapons in her hands. "It simply reemerges somewhere else and gains new strength."
"I would have thought you would come wearing Akatsuki robes and their ring." Raikage remarked. "Yet it seems you continue to defile the lightning forehead protector by wearing it."
"The Akatsuki was merely a means to an end." She replied evenly. "I can hardly be part of that organization and be the new Raikage at the same time." She smiled, a beautiful move if it hadn't been so filled with naked malice. "Don't worry, we have an arrangement, when the Akatsuki rises to power this country will be the center of their control."
"The new Raikage?" Raikage replied. "It seems your ambitions have not dulled, but that will never happen."
"Please, you may have stopped me once soldier, by cunning timing, but you have never been able to match my strength. This city is collapsing, and all those who were loyal to you have been eliminated, if you ever had any allies to begin with. My order will come." Her voice was matter of fact, simple, as if everything was already accomplished.
"There is one question I have," Raikage said slowly. "Why did you choose this point?"
"I suppose it does no harm to tell you," She smiled again. "As you will soon be dead. I will at least offer the one who thwarted me once this much." She paused. "I did not choose this moment. My affiliate in the Akatsuki, Mehize Kizen, failed his attempt to get rid of Draci Xi. Now that irritating dragon ninja is getting far too close to finding me, so I was forced to move."
Inwardly Raikage smiled. So, it seems I accomplished that much, Xi is on her trail, she attacked before she wished. I hope it has been enough.
"Now, answer a question of my own." The Dark Storm looked at Raikage curiously. "Why are you so calm knowing you are going to die?"
"Do you think," Raikage's voice was completely serious. "That I did not know this day would come, that I was accepting my eventual death when I became Raikage eight years ago. I have long accepted and readied myself for this day."
"Apparently without success." She remarked. "Well then, since you are so ready for this, it is time for you to die."
Raikage raised his head from the ground, fingering his hat with his left hand, his right hand twitching toward his sword. "I know you will kill me Dark Storm, but as I soldier I fully intend to take my enemy with me!"
"Please, you haven't the speed to draw that blade before I reach you." She raised her crackling blades of lightning.
You're not as smart as your think you are. Raikage leapt to he feet, and the Dark Storm surged forward with the same motion, incredibly fast.
The Raikage's right hand moved to his sword, but his left hand grabbed his hat and ripped. "Hidden Ribbon Blade!"
The blade, thin as the fabric that made up his hat, and packed into a ribbon that spun free with that expert tug, flashed around Raikage in a circle, screaming around and slashing through the air with metallic strain. That blade could cut into anything, and the Dark Storm was forced back for a moment.
Raikage leapt up, pulling his true sword free, discarding the hidden blade. He reached the ceiling, and slashed straight through it, coming free to stand upon the roof behind the hole he made. There he felt the wind and rain lash down upon him, even as he flipped back further, sword held straight before him.
The Dark Storm burst through the roof in a blast of lightning, coming to stand in front of Raikage. "So, it seems you will force me to exercise myself a little, but really, that sword is not enough to offer a resistance to me."
A single seal formed around Raikage's blade. "Instant Readiness no jutsu!" His robes vanished, and in a single moment he was clad in the battle garb of a combat ninja, armored both legs and arms, a mask covering his lower face and upper head. A second sword extended from his back, and shuriken and kunai adorned that armor, the armor of a ninja ready for war.
"Well, well, the faithful soldier at his post once more." The Dark Storm made a show of looking around. She formed no seals, but then armor formed of lightning covered her entire body, thin and crackling. "Pity your post is so lonely."
"What do you mean?" Raikage barked, his eyes narrowed.
"Upon the roof of the Raikage's hall, wearing battle armor and bearing the sword that has seen a hundred battles in his hands, bereft of allies and abandoned by all. This is the end of the Lightning country's greatest battlefield ninja, it is laughable." And the Dark Storm laughed then, and thunder careened across the sky, seeming to laugh with her. "This is what you built with eight years, you have no jounin or chuunin to stand with you, and yet you dare say that I am not of Lighting?"
The jibe struck deep, but Raikage gritted his teeth. "Enough, you will go no further while I live." He raised his sword to guard in both hands, and his feet shifted to battle stance.
Fireworks split the sky to the south, but though the two ninja atop the roof remarked it, neither spoke. They gathered their chakra and made ready.
Then it began.
Raikage dashed forward, closing the distance to his foe, ready to strike. She dodged aside, faster than he, but his sword had greater speed than his body.
The brilliant blades of black lightning sliced the air, and between them passed a sword made of much used steel, they passed each other by, and the two ninja spun, coming again.
That aerial dance came around once more, and Raikage rolled under the Dark Storm's weapons and stabbed up, only to find she was behind him. He kicked out, striking her sparking armor, feeling the pain it caused, but forcing her back. So, the first blow is hers. He decided.
"Your swordsmanship has improved." The Dark Storm remarked from before him. "It seems I will have to do something a bit more."
"Shuriken Kage Bushin!" Raikage launched his weapon at her, cloning it a thousand times in midair. "Metallic spark meld!"
The shuriken condensed together into a wave of sharp spines, crashing through the air like a living tendril of fog, to rend and tear.
"Black Lightning Shatterstorm!" A bolt of black lightning thick as a man's head burst from the Dark Storm's mouth, to impact that moving wave of shuriken, blasting them asunder and sending lethal darts of shadow everywhere.
She simply stood firm as they impacted against her armor, the clones disintegrating before struck, but Raikage was forced to dodge aside.
He rolled to his feet some distance away. Damn! She's not even breathing hard! What a monster you truly are, no wonder Xi has become so strong, trying to kill you.
He raised his blade up to guard, and then stabbed it higher, jabbing into the sky. "Rain of blades no jutsu!"
They fell just like rain, metal blades fitting among the droplets of the storm, a hundred or more the falling swords, set to impale anything in their reach.
The Dark Strom flipped away, moving with great speed through the falling weapons, nimbly avoiding any hits. Raikage dashed in to strike her, but lightning arced out from her hands and grabbed one of his blades even as he raised his ninja-to to cut her. Her other hand formed the seal, and the weapon reversed its course, slamming itself deep into his side, and pushing him away.
The pain was cold and stinging, terrible, but Raikage ignored it, he had suffered many stab wounds in his days on the battlefield, and every true soldier could keep fighting no matter the wounds. He was up in an instant, dodging the three blasts of black lightning that targeted his rolling form, and he pulled the blade free of his side, grimacing as he did so. To think she could do that.
"You have grown stronger, strong enough to amuse me for a time." The Dark Storm said. "But it is not enough. This ends now." She raised her hands, and bolts of lightning arched between them, building to tremendous force.
Standing there, holding his bleeding side, Raikage tried to think of a way to avoid the coming attack, but could see nothing.
"Raikage-sama!" The naked shout broke though the storm lash and the crackle of lightning around the Dark Storm, as a whirlwind of metal, long links of chain, impacted against the woman, carrying her charge into the ground, though lightning curled around her and protected her from harm.
Kabure Gosain, with forty genin in two lines behind him, landed on the rooftop.
The Dark Storm looked at them all with base contempt.
"It seems," Raikage breathed, recognizing that the wound he had been given was terribly serious. "That I have one chuunin to stand with me after all." And he gave the Dark Storm a withering smile.
She turned for a moment to face Gosain, and a lashing bolt of lightning snapped out from her hands, faster than he could move or react, it came toward him, and he could only watch as it projected toward space between his eyes.
Then Raikage was there, catching the blast on his sword blade, taking it into himself with shudders and shakes of pain, but he did not fall. "Don't dismiss me so lightly woman." He spat.
Still watching the Dark Storm, Raikage inclined his head to Gosain.
"Raikage-sama." Gosain spoke hurriedly. "We have cleared the village of traitors to you, but many remain. The genin and I, and there are more of them, are all I could find loyal to you. Please Raikage-sama, command us!" Gosain's voice had a strident desperation. "Give the order to sweep away the traitors and reclaim this village!"
"No." Raikage said slowly, levelly. "No, I cannot do that, Gosain. The village is lost. Too many have turned to this one's banner or stood aside as weaklings. Even should you cleanse them all, no one here can oppose this one." He gestured with his sword. "The Dark Storm."
The name sent shockwaves through the genin, who had all heard the whispers, the terrifying stories, but Gosain stood firm. "Then give us the order to fight and die with you, Raikage-sama, we are not afraid."
"No!" Raikage refused. "No, Gosain, you are my last loyal chuunin, and to you I give my last command." He paused; making absolutely certain Gosain understood what he was saying. "Take these genin and scatter them all, have them flee this place, only to come back when the evil of the Dark Storm is cleansed. Flee to those far from here, rally a resistance. But Gosain, from you I must demand one final thing, this woman must die, and there is only one who can do it. Find Draci Xi, and tell him I command that he come home and kill the Dark Storm!"
"Raikage-sama!" Gosain began to protest.
"If you are my ninja Gosain, if you are loyal to lightning, you will do this thing!" Raikage screamed over the crash of thunder.
Gosain nodded. "All of you!" He yelled at the genin. "Go!"
With a terribly sad look Kabure Gosain turned his back on his Raikage and leapt from the rooftop.
"Touching." The Dark Storm muttered. "But you shall not escape to trouble me."
She raised her hand and lightning crackled between them. She launched the great bolts after Gosain and many, many genin. "Die all you fools!" Her voice held true malice to mirror the storm above for the first time.
"Lightning shield no jutsu!"
Black lightning struck pure lightning, blue and glorious, and a tremendous thunderclap spilt the air, knocking both the Raikage and Dark Storm to their knees.
Raikage stood a moment later, wracking pain in his eyes, but burning pride there as well. "You shall not have them, you cannot kill this village." He hissed, his voice cutting below the storm.
"You will not stop, not you, you mere soldier." She retorted. "I will finish you and catch them."
"You are a fool Dark Storm." Raikage replied. "If there is one thing a true soldier understands, it is the sacrifice necessary to protect his comrades. I have already made one part of it. I broke the roof of the hall, and you foolishly broke it wider. With that flaw all its powers are useless and all the artifacts within are sealed, it will be months before you can use them."
A hideous inhuman rage took over the Dark Storm's body, lightning hissed from her mouth, but she seemed beyond words.
Now, Gosain, please, you must succeed. Raikage cast his pledge to the winds. Let the clouds cover your passage and run with the speed of the very lightning itself. I will stop this one here. "The second part is this!" Raikage needed no seals, but he took he sword in both hands and placed it so the blade faced outward between his eyes. "Anthem of the Last Rear Guard!"
The Dark Storm's jaw dropped. "You cannot have the strength to use that technique!"
To save my people I can do anything required of me! Was Raikage's last thought, as his body and sword crumbled to dust in the rain before the Dark Storm's eyes.
From every piece of dust formed a suit of armor and a sword, form after form they came, empty shells, yet standing with all the strength of a living man, and empty helmets that saw everything. Hundreds upon hundreds they numbered, standing in ranks like an army of ninja, and every last one wearing the forehead protector with the symbol of lightning.
Hundreds of swords were raised to strike, and as one those empty sandals stepped forward and charged.
Lightning formed around the Dark Storm's hands and feet, and she screamed in a cackling voice. "This is far from enough to finish me!"
When it was over the last genin, a volunteer who had braved death and worse to watch their Raikage's fate, saw the last empty suit of armor crumple, struck by a sword of black lightning, but the Dark Storm was covered in a hundred cuts or more, and lay exhausted and depleted upon the rooftop. Through her forehead protector was a single line, a flat cut that slashed completely through the symbol of the Lightning ninja.