To defeat his brother, Uchiha Sasuke needed a technique that Itachi couldn’t see through, avoid or counter with his superior talent and more powerful Sharingan. He needed one that didn’t follow the ordinary rules and could kill his enemy in an instant. After mastering the fire and lightning chakra natures and learning from one of the most intelligent shinobi of this era, Sasuke arrived at his answer.
Kirin, the S-rank Lightning Release ninjutsu that existed for the sole purpose of avenging the Uchiha.
The fundamental principle of this ninjutsu is to summon natural lightning – not lightning-natured chakra – from thunder clouds. The lightning is gathered into a single point in the sky and shaped into a mass of energy like the mythical creature it is named. Then, using his lightning chakra as a guidepost, Sasuke fires this energy as an immensely powerful lightning strikes that travels in 1/1000th of a second to unleash a force capable of destroying anything in its path.
There are actually different two ways that Kirin can be performed:
The first method manipulates the atmosphere through ‘natural’ means by using Fire Release to rapidly heat up the surrounding air and create the necessary weather conditions, covering the sky in thunderclouds. The greater the storm, the more electricity it has and the more powerful this technique becomes.
Unfortunately this method is very time-consuming as it relies on indirectly manipulating the weather, forcing Sasuke to survive in battle long enough for it to take effect rather than using it from the beginning. However, it also requires much less chakra than a technique of that power would typically require which means it can be used even if Sasuke is near chakra exhaustion.
The second method requires Sasuke to send a significant amount of lightning chakra into the sky to directly manipulate the weather by creating a localised thundercloud. The lightning chakra stimulates a reaction that gathers natural lightning within the cloud which Sasuke takes control of this lightning and then directs it towards his target on the ground in a lightning bolt, just like the original version.
The difference is that the Kirin created from this method isn’t as powerful and requires so much chakra that it couldn’t be performed more than once a day, even if it doesn’t need nearly as much time to set it up.
The Narutoversity 