Raiga Kurosuki

, renowned as the, was an Anbu-level shinobi from Kirigakure as well as a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

Background
In the manga, Raiga was a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist who wielded the thunderswords, Kiba. At some point in time, 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 Dai saved them by sacrificing himself to use the Eight Gates Released Formation.

In the anime, while he was still loyal to Kirigakure and a member of Anbu, Raiga met Ranmaru during a mission, 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. Sometime after his defection, Raiga enslaved a town and forced its villagers to work in its mines, also assembling some followers (including Karashi) to form the Kurosuki Family. Besides him, his followers wore a hooded robe, gloves that sprout claws from the back of the hand, and enforced his laws. Should a law of his be broken, whoever committed the "crime" would end up being buried alive.

Personality
During his life in Kirikagure, 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. After he met Ranmaru and deserted Kirigakure, his goal was to take care and protect Ranmaru at all costs, Raiga being Ranmaru's body and Ranmaru being Raiga's eyes and ears, allowing him to see and explore the world that he could never do alone, both finding their meaning of life. One particularity of Raiga is his love to give funerals to people by burying them alive, where he cries sincerely and remembers their lives. Also, for unknown reasons, he hates Zabuza, Kisame and all of the other Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

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 fleshy 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 left 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, a 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 tibias.

Abilities
As one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and a former Anbu, Raiga is one of the most powerful shinobi produced in Kirigakure. Ranmaru, being hidden under Raiga's hood, uses his ability, which involves heightened perception and analytical powers, like the Sharingan, locate and track others by sensing chakra, picking up chakra from long distances and sense how many individuals are present, noticing changes in an individual's chakra, as well as performing genjutsu that can fool even the all-seeing Byakugan, to assist Raiga and making him more effective in battle.

Kenjutsu
Raiga wielded Kiba, twin swords imbued with lightning, which are claimed to be the sharpest swords ever made, having the ability to cut through anything, by apparently functioning in a similar manner to Lightning Release-based chakra flow which he wielded with great dexterity, able to defend himself against Lee's attacks. He can connect them at their hilts to form a larger double-bladed sword, effectively increasing the weapon's size and allowing him 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 such as Fangs of Lightning, Lightning Ball, Lightning Burial: Banquet of Lightning, Lightning Dragon Tornado and Lightning Strike Armour. 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. 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.

Nature Transformation
Even without his swords, Raiga can use electrical energy to cause a Rock Avalanche and the Hiding in Mist Technique to blind his targets by blanketing the area in a thick mist and making them more vulnerable.

Curry of Life Arc
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, now that 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.
 * Raiga is so far the only one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist whose name does not derive from a type of produce, though spades and ploughs are used in the planting and cultivating of crops. He was also the only one who does not have pointed teeth and also discarded his Kiri forehead protector.
 * 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 so far the only originally anime-exclusive character to be integrated into the mainstream Naruto manga.