Raiga Kurosuki

, renowned as the , was a jōnin from Kirigakure as well as a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Prior to his defection from the village, he also served as an Anbu. After defecting his village, Raiga became a crime boss of the Kurosuki Family, alongside his partner Ranmaru.
== Background ==
Raiga had served the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist starting at some point before or during the Third Shinobi World War, where he wielded the Thunderswords: Kiba. Sometime after the war had ended, Raiga and his fellow swordsmen encountered Might Guy, Ebisu and Genma Shiranui on a mission. The shinobi managed to flee until they were cornered, at which point the timely arriving Might Duy saved them by sacrificing himself to use the Eight Gates Released Formation,Naruto chapter 668, pages 14-15 killing four of Raiga's allies in the anime.Naruto: Shippūden episode 456 Also unbeknownst to him in the anime, Raiga became the father of Buntan, whose mother despised him.Boruto episode 30
At some point in the anime, Raiga served as an Anbu during the Fourth Mizukage's reign, where he was tasked with finding spies that had infiltrated Kirigakure. While looking for his target, Raiga met Ranmaru, a disabled boy who came to act as additional eyes and ears for Raiga in exchange for protection being carried upon Raiga's back. Ranmaru would become the only person Raiga cared about, especially following his own desertion from the village. Sometime after defecting and traveling the world, Raiga migrated to the Land of Rivers and amassed a gang of criminals to form the Kurosuki Family. Under his leadership, Raiga and his gang took control of the village of Katabami Gold Mine, imposing a tyrannical rule upon them. Anyone that had disobeyed him or his laws were sentenced to premature burials.
== Personality ==
During his life in Kirigakure, Raiga was a very tormented, cruel and lonely individual asking every day to look for the meaning of life, killing unscrupulously and randomly anyone during his missions without any precise purpose in mind, and began to cry in his heart whenever he killed someone. During his tenure, Raiga would openly resent Zabuza, Kisame, and all of the other Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist for reasons only known to him.
After he met Ranmaru and deserted Kirigakure, his goal was to take care and protect Ranmaru at all costs with Raiga serving as Ranmaru's body and Ranmaru being Raiga's eyes and ears, thus allowing him to see and explore the world that he could never do alone, which resulted in both finding their meaning of life. One of Raiga's favourite pastimes was his love for funerals, often to the point of burying his victims alive prematurely as a punishment he imposed. According to him, it is because of his rationale that people have a more positive outlook on the deceased as oppose to the living. During such time, he would openly reminisce about his victims to a mocking degree; even crying genuinely for them as they are laid to rest. 
== Appearance ==
Raiga had blue eyes with a darker ripple around the pupil, waist-length green hair with the top two bangs falling down on his cheeks on each side, and having dark, full lips. When he lived in Kiri as an Anbu, he wore the traditional Kiri Anbu uniform with a white mask with thin, short curved eye-holes, a mischievous smile and two red wave design on the top and bottom on the right side, as well as the Kirigakure symbol on the forehead.
After his defection, he wore a grey hooded mantle with three red stripes where he hid Ranmaru in a nest-strapped to his back. Under his mantle, Raiga wore a dark-brown sleeveless vest falling to his knees where the inside was purple, light brown belt, a light grey pants and, like all the Swordsmen of the Mist, he had bandages covering most of his body, his neck down to his chest, including his arms and his shinbones.
== Abilities ==
As a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist as well as an Anbu-ranked shinobi, Raiga is one of the most powerful shinobi ever produced by Kiri. 
=== Ninjutsu ===
==== Kenjutsu ====
Raiga wielded Kiba, twin swords imbued with lightning. Considered the sharpest swords ever made, that could cut through anything, Raiga could use them with great dexterity, able to defend himself against Lee's attacks.Naruto episode 154 He can connect them at their hilts to form a larger double-bladed sword, effectively increasing the weapon's size and versatility to perform different and more powerful blade-wielding techniques.
Using his swords, Raiga could use long-distance, powerful or defensive lightning techniques faster and more easily than normal lightning techniques. He could also use natural lightning by calling multiple lightning strikes or used it as a power source. As long as he had access to it, he could battle continuously without tiring. By using it, the power of his lightning techniques become incredibly powerful, with one strike he was able to one-shot both Neji and Naruto. His mastery over natural lightning was so great that he needed no movement to call a lightning strike and could cover a large area with some of them as a means of defence.Naruto episode 156 He was also able to use natural lightning to completely destroy his body if he was on the verge of death, leaving no trace of it.Naruto episode 157
==== Nature Transformation ====
Even without his swords, Raiga can use Lightning Release, as he did to cause a Rock Avalanche in order to bury his foes. He is also proficient in Water Release and is capable of blinding his targets by blanketing the area in a thick mist and making them more vulnerable.
== Part I ==
=== Kurosuki Family Removal Mission ===
When Raiga tried to bury Rokusuke, his group ran afoul of Naruto Uzumaki, Rock Lee, Neji Hyūga, and Tenten. He later engaged them using the Hiding in Mist Technique while Ranmaru negated Neji's Byakugan. While unconscious from one of Raiga's attacks, Lee manages to fight him off despite this. When Naruto asks if he knows Zabuza Momochi and Kisame Hoshigaki, Raiga stated that he hated those two, along with the rest of the seven sword members. Naruto then manages to hit him with his Rasengan, causing him to fall from a cliff and be left unconscious.
When Karashi brought Ranmaru to where Raiga's body was, his energy awakened Raiga, who thought Ranmaru died trying to revive him. When Tenten arrived, she fought Raiga but was defeated. Raiga then had Karashi lure Naruto, Lee, and Neji to where he is. Raiga manages to trump the three until the curry Tenten and Karashi fed them enabled them to be able to fight him again. When Ranmaru acts on his beliefs and tries to convince Raiga to stop fighting, Raiga feels betrayed. Upon being knocked off a cliff by Naruto, Raiga kills himself in midair with one of his own bolts of lightning, but not before saying "Ranmaru, you're free now", presumably stating that he now believed that Ranmaru can live on since he has friends and that he can live a life without fear or loneliness.
== Trivia ==
* The name means lightning fang. means black spade or black plough.
** Due to the fact that Raiga's character originated from the anime then incorporated into the manga, his last name does not follow the same convention as the others and derives from a type of produce; though spades and ploughs are used in the planting and cultivating of crops. He is also the only member of the group to not have pointed teeth due to his anime-origins. Whether or not this was changed in the manga is unknown as his teeth were not shown during the flashback he appeared in.
* On the official TV Tokyo website, Raiga's family name was consistently given as . The ending credits of the anime episodes gave his name as .
* Raiga's relationship with Ranmaru was similar to that of Zabuza's relationship with Haku. 
* Raiga is the only originally anime-exclusive character to be integrated into the Naruto manga, along with his weapon, Kiba.
** However, Raiga's integration to the manga appears to contradict his anime background, having him be a Swordsmen of the Mist decades before his death, while in the anime he only rose to the position after meeting Ranmaru and securing his assistance in battle, who as a young boy wouldn't have been born during Raiga's tenure in the manga.
== References ==
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