Teammates' Battles

Meanwhile.

On another battlefield.

Minato Namikaze stood steadily on a tree branch. Though the branch could have been snapped with a light tug, it did not sway in the slightest beneath his feet.

His gaze fell on the enemy he had kicked away.

A thin man was rapidly forming hand seals on the ground.

Without a forehead protector, it was impossible to tell which ninja village he came from.

"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique."

Invisible wind blades appeared out of thin air and raced toward him at tremendous speed.

Minato Namikaze vanished from where he stood with a Soru. The tree he had just been standing on was instantly cut in two.

The broken trunk collapsed onto another tree.

The enemy's attack was not over.

"Wind Release: Wild Wind Cutter Technique!"

Even more invisible wind transformed into sharp blades. Every tree in their path was severed, toppling down in a chaotic mess.

Minato Namikaze moved swiftly atop the falling trunks, his feet darting across them.

He always evaded the enemy's wind blades a step ahead of time.

Even now, he had not suffered a single injury.

"Kid! Do you only know how to run?!"

The man was furious. During their fight, he had set quite a few traps and had even deliberately exposed weaknesses.

Yet this brat only knew how to dodge and refused to take the bait.

Whenever he showed any intention of engaging in close combat, the boy would swiftly pull away.

That left him no choice but to act like a turret, endlessly firing ninjutsu.

He took out several shuriken and lightly tossed them upward, then slammed his hands together.

"Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm!!"

Countless shuriken shot toward Minato Namikaze at extreme speed. The continuous "thud, thud, thud" came from shuriken striking the trees.

Minato Namikaze flicked several shuriken back at him.

The man swiftly formed the hand seals for Violent Wind Palm again and clapped his hands forcefully.

A powerful gust blew the shuriken away.

Minato Namikaze did not lose heart. Instead, he stopped atop a tree.

"Given my current strength, I'm not your match."

The man did not listen. His hands never stopped forming seals.

One Wind Cutter Technique after another came flying at him, carrying transparent wind blades.

Minato Namikaze weaved through the wind blades, which could not harm him in the slightest.

"Damn brat!"

The man cursed and charged Minato Namikaze with a kunai in hand.

Watching the man rush toward him, Minato Namikaze hung upside down from the tree and began forming hand seals as well.

"So I need to strengthen myself a little."

"This is the first ninjutsu I created. I don't know if it can defeat you!"

"Dancing Gale Rapid Wind Howl! Four Styles!"

Wind began to swirl around his body.

The next moment, the man still in midair swiftly raised his kunai in front of his throat.

Clang!

Sparks flew as the two kunai collided.

The next moment, Minato Namikaze vanished. The man immediately kicked backward.

Minato Namikaze appeared behind him, his entire body floating as though he could fly.

Their kunai clashed rapidly.

In the end, the man was forced onto the ground.

His pupils darted rapidly.

His kunai moved quickly in defense. All anyone could see was him waving his kunai alone, while metallic clangs rang through the air.

Yet Minato Namikaze was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell is wrong with you, brat?!"

The man roared and slashed with his kunai. Minato Namikaze, who had just appeared, floated upward instead.

He was certain the boy could not fly, yet every time he attacked, this brat happened to be directly above his strike, just one body length away.

And there was that high-speed taijutsu.

It was incredibly troublesome.

"It's the wind."

Minato Namikaze explained softly.

If one looked carefully, they could see a layer of airflow wrapped around his body.

As long as the wind stirred by the enemy's fists, ninjutsu, kunai, or even shuriken was stronger than the wind around his body, it could carry his entire body along.

Dancing Gale Rapid Wind Howl! Four Styles was the result of combining the Four Styles with Chakra's wind nature.

It was also his proud creation.

It could be considered a type of Nintaijutsu. Its evasion ability was maxed out, though unfortunately, it lacked any outstanding offensive power.

Minato Namikaze's figure moved like a ghost around the man, constantly attacking.

The man could only defend passively and had no ability to counterattack at all.

If he could not hit his opponent, every attack was pointless.

It only wasted Chakra and stamina.

Using Soru for movement, Kami-e to control the airflow around his body, Tekkai's method to rapidly adjust the Chakra within his body, and finally the utterly useless Shigan.

That had created his Dancing Gale Rapid Wind Howl! Four Styles!

Shigan was his only offensive method, though unfortunately, it was not as useful as a kunai.

Creating this technique at the young age of ten had relied heavily on Jiraiya's explanations, as well as the Chakra control provided by the Basic Inner Cultivation within his body.

However, this technique had one extremely severe weakness.

Once again, his kunai was blocked by the enemy.

Minato Namikaze appeared on a tree some distance away, panting heavily.

The flowing aura around his body dissipated.

It consumed too much stamina. For an ordinary ten-year-old ninja, the Chakra consumption would be enormous and impossible to endure.

Fortunately, Minato Namikaze had the Chakra accumulated through Basic Inner Cultivation. For someone who had built it up over time, the expenditure was not great.

"Kid, you're out of stamina, aren't you? Wind Cutter!"

Facing the incoming Wind Cutter, Minato Namikaze did not move, as if he truly had no strength left to fight.

The next moment.

"Spirit Gun!"

A thin blue beam of light pierced through the ninja's skull from the back before he could react, passing through his forehead and blasting through who knew how many trees before stopping.

As the man fell, the transparent wind blades also vanished without a trace.

"Jin, your timing was perfect." Minato Namikaze sat on a branch and greeted Uchiha Jin in the distance.

"Minato, you really gave me a surprise."

Jin instantly crossed the distance between them and landed beside Minato Namikaze.

He had never expected Minato Namikaze to develop a new ninjutsu from the Four Styles.

Though it was still extremely crude in his eyes, where there was a first, there could be a second.

Perhaps Minato could create something even stronger.

It was all the Golden Finger's fault for leveling up. Before, the results of someone else's research would enter his mind directly.

Now it was just a search engine paired with artificial stupidity.

"I'm still not as good as you." Minato Namikaze replied with a somewhat lost expression.

He was clearly the number-one academic genius at the Ninja Academy, yet he could not compare to Jin. He still felt frustrated inside.

He was not yet the Yellow Flash who would one day dominate the ninja world. He was only a boy.

A normal person would have offered a few words of comfort.

Unfortunately, this was Uchiha Jin.

"If you want to catch up to me, you've still got a hundred years to go."

Jin put his hands on his hips proudly, shameless to the extreme. Though the Golden Finger had only provided a tiny bit of help.

But weren't those things his? Didn't that make them his talent?

"I wonder how Kushina is doing."

Minato Namikaze helplessly changed the subject. Asking Jin for comfort was a waste of effort.

If he ever went dark in the future, it would definitely have something to do with Jin!!!

"Do you even need to worry about her?" Jin curled his lip. "That silly girl really thinks she hid it well."

Minato Namikaze also realized the issue, and his face filled with bitterness.

Uchiha Jin was the sort of genius said to rival the Second Hokage. It was one thing that he could not compare to Jin right now.

But Kushina's strength had also been unexpectedly impressive.

Though Kushina believed she had concealed it well, the two of them both knew.

Kushina's strength

was actually the greatest among the three.

Boom!! A deafening explosion came from afar.

A massive energy barrier resembling the end of the world appeared before them.

Then a fierce gale swept toward them, forcing the two to grab onto tree trunks to steady themselves.

Once everything stopped.

The two stared at each other.

Unlike the fierce battle between Minato Namikaze and Uchiha Jin.

Kushina's battle was a chase.

"Stop running if you've got the guts!!"

Kushina roared. Three chains behind her rapidly wrapped around nearby trees, allowing her to move like Spider-Man.

Her enemy stepped on a tree, fierce flames erupting beneath his feet as he shot forward like a rocket.

The fleeing man glanced back.

His face was filled with terror.

"A perfect Jinchūriki! What the hell is that village doing?!"

Kushina's entire body was covered in golden motes of light, as though an immortal had descended into the world.

Kushina reached toward the fleeing enemy, and a massive golden fox claw burst from her body and grabbed at him.

Flames burst from the man's feet as he leaped into the air, narrowly dodging the fox claw.

A tree turned to powder beneath that claw.

With that kind of power, was he supposed to stay and wait for death?

This was completely beyond what a Chunin like him could handle.

Fortunately, he was highly proficient in Fire Release: Fire Breath Technique, giving him a tremendous speed boost when fleeing.

As for why he did not use the Clone Technique.

Konoha's Jinchūriki could somehow tell the difference between a fake clone and the real body.

Wasn't Konoha's Jinchūriki from the Uzumaki Clan?

The Uzumaki Clan seemed to have sensory-type ninjutsu too.

Then never mind.

Running for his life was more important!!

"Damn it, the others are nowhere to be seen. This mission is truly completely screwed."

The fleeing man gritted his teeth.

At the end of this direction lay a weak point in Konoha's barrier. If he could rush there, he would have a chance of escaping.

"Damn it!! How can I let you get away!!"

Kushina's fury intensified. In exasperation, she raised both hands as a black-and-red sphere of light gradually condensed above her palms.

Tailed Beast Bomb!!

She threw the Tailed Beast Bomb in her hands at the distant ninja.

This was her full-power strike.

The Chakra in her body was rapidly drained. She had even drawn quite a bit from that stinky fox to complete this Tailed Beast Bomb.

(Kurama: Can someone control this crazy girl?! She's robbing me now!!)

As the sphere descended, it rapidly expanded into a massive energy barrier, followed by fierce winds sweeping outward.

Looking at the enormous crater in the ground, Kushina could no longer maintain that form and withdrew from it. Though her face was pale as paper, she could not suppress the excitement on it.

"So I'm actually this strong! Hahahahahaha..."

Her laughter gradually faded.

Because figures clad in green flak jackets appeared one after another before her.

Looking at the old man in a conical hat leading them.

"Third Hokage, fancy seeing you here... haha."

Sure enough, future Naruto took after his mother.