Darui: The Black Lightning of the Fifth Raikage

Kinkaku and Ginkaku did not need his name: the "lightning" kanji tattooed on his shoulder was enough for them. That detail sums up Darui, the laid-back jonin of Kumogakure, heir to a technique the Third Raikage entrusted to no one else.

A jonin who is not named A

Darui enters the story as the Fourth Raikage's right-hand man, the jonin who escorts his leader to the Five Kage Summit, before succeeding him at the head of Kumogakure.

His appointment breaks a stubborn habit: the first four Raikage all bore the personal name "A", set aside in advance for candidates to the post. Darui breaks a run of four, not of two; he is neither the son nor a relative of his predecessor, and the canon knows of no clan and no family for him. The character himself comes down to one tic: he finds just about everything "lame," except his own hairstyle.

Ranton, a kekkei genkai without a storm

The kekkei genkai Ranton (Storm Release) is born of the combination of Lightning Release (Raiton) and Water Release (Suiton), in other words of lightning and water, and not of lightning and wind. Darui carries that dual nature on his body: the "water" kanji on his right shoulder, the "lightning" kanji on his left shoulder.

Its name promises storms, and the manga shows none: the technique fires beams of electricity that behave like a fluid, which the user still steers after the shot, with enough precision to spare a hostage. The only attested storm comes from a movie. As for the Storm Release - Laser Circus, it appears well before the war, and while the profiles list only Darui as its user, other shinobi of Kumogakure use Storm Release against the Ten-Tails.

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The Third Raikage's legacy

You often read that he "learned Storm Release" from his master. That is impossible: a kekkei genkai is genetic, it cannot be taught. What the Third Raikage did pass on to him is Black Lightning, of which the two men remain the only recorded users.

From that lightning comes the Lightning Release - Black Panther, whose kanji form a phonetic play meaning "black-spotted difference" and not "black panther," its double version existing only in the anime. The tattoo reads like a coat of arms: the Third wears the "lightning" kanji on the right, Darui on the left, and it is by that detail that the Gold and Silver Brothers identify him. Master and student, however, never fought each other.

The cleaver sword, not the Kiba

His weapon is a giant cleaver-shaped blade with no proper name, which three hinges allow him to fold up outside of combat. He channels Lightning Release through it, and the blade keeps its charge even when let go: he uses it to pin an opponent against a wall during the Five Kage Summit.

Then comes the most widespread confusion: he does not inherit the Kiba. Those two "Fangs" belong to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and his official weapons list ignores them. The misunderstanding comes from the anime, where a swordswoman reanimated by the Edo Tensei (Reanimation Jutsu) — and not "dying," since she had been dead for years — hands the blades to Omoi, not to Darui. His Shadow Clone Jutsu belongs to the anime, and his "Azure Eagle Blade" to a game.

The First Division and word souls

During the Fourth Great Ninja War, he commands the First Division, officially the mid-range combat division: thousands of shinobi and samurai on the west coast of the Land of Lightning, and not an assault vanguard. He opens hostilities by striking down dozens of White Zetsu clones.

Facing him, Kinkaku and Ginkaku are pseudo-jinchuriki, and not jinchuriki: swallowed by Kurama, they survived two weeks by devouring his flesh, which a distant kinship with the Sage of the Six Paths explains. That extraordinary chakra reserve then lets them wield the Treasured Tools of the Sage of the Six Paths.

These tools work on the word soul: a rope extracts it, a sword severs it, a gourd sucks in whoever speaks it — a homophone or a silence held too long is enough — and a jar seals whoever answers the call of its holder. Trapped in his turn by a pun in which two syllables spell out his own name, Darui stops the pull by apologizing three times, so that his most-spoken word becomes "sorry." He seals Ginkaku unaided, but Kinkaku will demand the jar from headquarters, Asuma's team and reinforcements from three divisions: "almost single-handedly," and not alone.

The Raikage of the New Era

The adult Darui has changed shape: bulkier, with a mustache, a hood in place of the raised collar, and Omoi as his bodyguard. No guide covers his term as Raikage, apart from his height.

His only feature film, Boruto: Naruto the Movie, shows him crossing blades with Momoshiki and putting him on the defensive, before being overwhelmed, like the Tsuchikage and the Mizukage. The date of his accession, for its part, remains impossible to find: in the novel Sasuke Shinden: Book of Sunrise, several years after the war, A still holds the office. Writing that he takes up the hat "shortly after the war" is pure invention.

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Summary Table

FAQ

• Does Darui wield the Kiba swords?
  No, and this is the most widespread mistake. He fights with a foldable cleaver sword that has no proper name, and his canonical weapons list holds only four entries. Those two "Fangs" belong to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, and the confusion comes from a Shippuden episode, absent from the manga, in which Ameyuri Ringo gives them to Omoi.
• What is Ranton, and is Darui the only one who can use it?
  It is a kekkei genkai born from the fusion of Lightning Release (Raiton) and Water Release (Suiton). Despite its name, it sets off no storm in the manga: it fires beams of electricity that behave like a fluid, redirectable in mid-flight with enough finesse to spare a hostage. Darui is its most notable wielder, but not the only one.
• What did the Third Raikage really pass on to him?
  Black Lightning, and nothing else: the Third entrusted that peculiarly black Lightning Release to Darui alone, and they are its two only recorded users. Both wear the "lightning" kanji tattooed on the shoulder, the Third on the right and Darui on the left. Ranton, for its part, cannot be taught.
• Did he defeat Kinkaku and Ginkaku all by himself?
  Almost, and the nuance matters: the accepted phrase is "almost single-handedly." Once he has worked out how the word souls function, he turns the Treasured Tools against their wielders and seals Ginkaku unaided. Kinkaku, for his part, requires the jar sent by headquarters, Asuma's team and reinforcements from three divisions.
• Why does he become Raikage when he is not named "A"?
  He is the only leader of Kumogakure not to bear that name: the first four Raikage were all called A, to the point that the given name was assigned in advance to candidates for the post. Darui does not belong to that line; he is neither the son nor a relative of the Fourth, only his right-hand man and the student of his father. The manga never dates the succession.

In summary

Darui holds his place through a precise inheritance rather than through a title: a Black Lightning that a master gave to him alone, a kekkei genkai that no storm accompanies in the manga, a cleaver that was never a sword of the Hidden Mist.