Facing an Elite Shinobi Alone

"Uzumaki, the anesthetic hasn't worn off yet. Rest here for a while. We'll deal with our opponents right away, then take you back to Konoha with us." Minato's tone carried a hint of indulgence.

He gently placed Kushina Uzumaki on a tree branch nearby.

"Mm, be careful. And... you can just call me Kushina." Kushina Uzumaki nodded shyly.

"Then Kushina, wait here for us to come back." Kushina Uzumaki's attitude put Minato in an even better mood.

He had already decided that he would hit a little harder later. As long as he did not kill them, it would be fine.

"What? You two little brats think you can take care of us both right away? Have you not figured out the situation?" said one of the Cloud Hidden Elite Shinobi, a man wearing a hood.

"Take care of these two brats quickly. Otherwise, Konoha's other ninja will catch up soon, and we won't be able to leave easily then." The other Cloud Hidden Elite Shinobi, who had a scar across his face, remained somewhat wary.

"I'll take the hooded man. You take Scarface, Minato." Soji had already assigned their opponents.

"No problem. Let's see who finishes first." Minato's voice was full of confidence, but his movements were swift and decisive.

Soji had just been about to answer Minato, but after seeing what he did, he swallowed the words that had reached his lips.

Minato bit his finger, wiped it across the center of his other palm, then slapped it against the ground.

Although Soji had never seen this jutsu performed in this life, he had been far too familiar with those movements when he watched anime in his previous life!

"Ninja Art—Summoning Jutsu!"

Bang! After a cloud of white smoke dispersed, a toad nearly as tall as an adult appeared before them. Its body was orange and covered in blue markings, and it wore armor.

"Little Minato, are we training together?" Iron Wall Toad asked in a resolute voice.

"Iron Wall, I'm sorry, but this isn't the time for training. Those two ahead are spy ninja sent by another village. They kidnapped my classmate, and I hope you can help me."

From Iron Wall Toad and Minato's tones, it was not hard to tell that they were already well acquainted, and Minato had certainly trained under him before.

"Oh? Someone's bullying little Minato? Then I'll help you out." After glancing at the two ninja opposite him, who clearly did not look like good people, Iron Wall Toad curled the webbed toes of his forelimbs into fists and rose onto his hind legs.

"Damn it, he mastered the Summoning Jutsu at such a young age." At that moment, both Cloud Hidden Elite Shinobi developed killing intent toward Minato.

If such a genius ninja did not belong to Kumogakure, then he had to be killed!

Damn it! Minato was fighting unfairly—he actually called for help! Too bad Soji did not have a Summoning Beast.

At that moment, Soji made up his mind that he would definitely find a powerful Summoning Beast to contract with in the future. Otherwise, watching others gang up on one opponent while he had to fight several alone would be far too unfair!

"Let's go, little Minato."

"I'm coming, Iron Wall."

Minato and his Summoning Beast had already made their move. Soji no longer merely watched, opening his Byakugan and charging directly at the hooded ninja ahead.

Seeing Minato Namikaze and Hyuga Soji charge toward them, the two Cloud Hidden Elite Shinobi were delighted at the same time.

They were not afraid that these two brats would refuse to fight them. They were afraid that the two would simply take the little red-haired girl and flee.

After all, if the other side truly chose to run, it would still take the two of them some effort to catch them.

The longer they remained within the Land of Fire, the more dangerous their situation became.

Then, the two Cloud Hidden Elite Shinobi separately engaged Hyuga Soji and the combination of Minato Namikaze and Iron Wall Toad.

Clang!

With kunai in hand, the two clashed and struggled against each other.

However, it was obvious that Soji was weaker than his opponent and was gradually being suppressed. The gap in their physical ages was there, after all. That was perfectly normal.

Soji fell backward onto the ground. Taking advantage of his opponent's unstable balance, he kicked him hard in the abdomen and sent him flying into the air.

Bang!

The hooded ninja's body suddenly turned into a piece of wood as he flew through the air.

"Heh, brat, you're finished." A dagger suddenly pressed against Soji's neck just as he rose to his feet.

"What? How is that possible?" Soji's face filled with disbelief.

Slash! The sound of a kunai cutting through Soji's neck rang out.

Then Soji slowly fell to the ground.

"Hey, blond brat, your partner has already been killed," Scarface, who was fighting Minato nearby, said mockingly.

However, neither Minato nor Iron Wall Toad showed any reaction. They continued suppressing the ninja before them.

That was right. From the beginning of the fight until now, Minato and Iron Wall Toad had been completely dominating their opponent.

"Damn it, this brat is hard to deal with. If only my opponent had been the other brat." At that moment, Scarface could not help but feel envious of his companion.

In his eyes, this blond brat with a toad Summoning Beast was simply too troublesome. He could not inflict any real damage on him at all.

Whenever he was about to strike Minato's body, that giant toad would use its powerful webbed forelimbs to block him.

"Brat, how about we make a deal? I'll let you leave, and you leave that red-haired little girl behind. What do you say?" In this Cloud Hidden Elite Shinobi's eyes, this condition was already the greatest mercy he could offer Minato.

His companion had already killed the other brat. Although he was surprised that the red-haired girl had awakened from the anesthetic so quickly, he did not take it to heart.

It was obvious that she was still incapable of fighting.

Only the blond brat before him was somewhat troublesome. But if he joined forces with his companion, then even if the blond brat and that giant toad worked together flawlessly, they would eventually be killed.

It was a pity that he could not kill such a Konoha genius, but Konoha's other ninja could catch up at any moment. They truly could not afford to delay any longer.

He could only let Minato go for now and kill him the next time an opportunity arose.

"You don't actually think your companion has already won, do you?" Minato gave the Scarface ninja, who had been noisy from the very beginning, a faintly contemptuous smile.

"Hm? What do you mean? Could it be—" Scarface had just been about to turn and warn his companion.

Then he caught sight of Minato rushing toward him at high speed. Startled, he no longer had the leisure to worry about his companion.

"Earth Release—Earth Rampart Return!"

Scarface slapped one hand against the ground, and the earth ahead rapidly flipped upward into a large stone slab.

He hoped to use it to block Minato Namikaze's attack.

"Iron Wall, I'm counting on you." After saying that, Minato did not slow down and continued charging toward the stone slab.

"Alright!"

With that, Iron Wall Toad raised an arm and smashed it viciously into the slab before him.

Bang! Crackle!

The stone slab shattered into chunks of rock, which then fell to the ground.

"How is this possible? My jutsu was destroyed?" Even after his jutsu had been broken, Scarface still wore an expression of disbelief.

"You don't have time to keep spacing out."

A voice carrying a chill reached Scarface's ears from directly in front of him.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. His chin was struck next, and the taste of blood surged into his mouth. Several teeth seemed to have been knocked loose, and finally, his back suffered another heavy blow.

Bang! Ah! Ugh!

First came the sound of his body making intimate contact with the ground, then a scream, and finally the sound of him coughing up blood before losing consciousness.

That was everything the hooded ninja saw after believing that he had killed Soji.

His mouth hung wide open as he simply could not believe that what he was seeing was real.

His Elite Shinobi teammate had actually been taken down alone by that delicate-looking blond brat!

No, there was also that toad!

And neither of them had suffered the slightest injury!

Could this really be something a student who had not even graduated from the Ninja Academy could accomplish?

He could not help but doubt everything he was seeing, and for a moment, he even thought he had fallen under a genjutsu.

"Hey, hooded uncle, your partner's finished. Now it's your turn." Soji's calm voice came from behind him.

"What? How can you still be alive? I clearly used my kunai to—" He stopped halfway through his sentence.

Because he saw that Soji's corpse, which he had just killed, had also turned into a piece of wood.

"Heh, who said only you were allowed to use the Substitution Technique?" Soji's tone seemed mocking, yet also carried an air of utter matter-of-factness.

"Gentle Fist—Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"

His Gentle Fist opening stance was already set. Within the Eight Trigrams, everything was Soji's target.

He was certain that the hooded ninja could neither hide nor evade!

This is bad!

The moment that thought surfaced in the hooded ninja's mind, he was greeted by a storm of attacks.

"Two Palms, Four Palms, Eight Palms, Sixteen Palms, Thirty-Two Palms, Sixty-Four Palms!" As each word left Soji's mouth.

The hooded ninja became like a scrap of cloth caught in a raging storm, unable to offer any resistance.

By halfway through the assault, blood was already seeping from the hooded ninja's mouth. By the end, he was vomiting blood mouthful after mouthful as though it cost nothing.

Whoosh.

After Soji delivered his final palm strike, he drew back his breath.

The hooded ninja's eyes had rolled white, and he had already fainted.

If someone were to observe him with the Byakugan now, they would see that the Chakra within the hooded ninja's body was flowing in reverse. His internal organs were damaged, and the meridian system in his arms had been completely blocked.

Even if he remained conscious and wanted to use jutsu, the moment he used either arm, it would cause that arm to snap apart!

Soji then looked at Scarface, who had fought Minato, and found that he seemed to be in an even worse state than the hooded ninja.

Looking at that twisted body sprawled on the ground, Soji guessed that even his spine had been broken!

"Minato really hit that hard just to avenge his future wife. Tsk, tsk. You really can't judge a person by appearances." Soji watched from the side and muttered to himself.

Then Soji turned to look for Minato.

What he saw made his face instantly darken.

That bastard Minato, after dealing with his opponent, had actually run over to Kushina Uzumaki and started flirting with her, laughing and chatting away.

He had not considered at all that his little partner was still "struggling" in a difficult battle against the enemy.

What a guy—once he had a girl, he forgot all about his brother!

With the way you two keep flaunting your affection every day, if you two don't end up dead, who will?

No, wait!

Minato and Kushina Uzumaki would die in the future!

Soji suddenly realized.

Ever since coming to this world, he had completely integrated into it. This was no longer merely the fictional world from his previous life's memories.

People could die, and once they died, there was nothing left!

Soji had always subconsciously avoided considering the possibility of the people around him dying. But now that he thought about it, if the original story did not change...

Not only would Minato and Kushina die in the future, Shikaku Nara and Inoichi Yamanaka would die as well.

And then there was Uchiha Homura, whom he had never even heard of in the original story. He certainly could not escape the Night of the Uchiha Clan Downfall!

Before, Soji had always wanted to rely on his foreknowledge, avoid changing the plot, and then reap the benefits.

But now, when Soji asked himself, would he still abandon his resolve to save his friends for the sake of that so-called future and its benefits?

He might not have known before, but now he did. He would definitely think of every possible way to make sure they all survived!

He swore it!

But whether the wings fluttered by Soji, this butterfly, would change the future could only be discovered when that time came.