Elsewhere.
The people of Konoha ran back while regrouping.
In a short time, the force of a thousand had quickly assembled.
After all, they were all Konoha elites. Once they realized something was wrong, they stopped their pursuit.
With Signal Flares and instant messages from the Yamanaka Clan, everyone had withdrawn.
However, compared to their earlier high spirits, their retreat was somewhat bedraggled.
Everyone was being chased by the sandstorm, sprinting without pause.
The Hyuga Clan constantly reported the sandstorm's distance.
The winds had already picked up. Unless they shouted at the top of their lungs, they could not even hear one another.
"Lord Fourth Hokage! The sandstorm will catch up to us in five minutes!"
And Minato's Shadow Clones had not yet disappeared during that time, which meant—
Minato's Shadow Clones had yet to leave the sandstorm's range.
After all, there were a thousand people this time. It was impossible to teleport them all back to Konoha from here.
The simplest method was to reach the edge of the sandstorm's range.
About ten minutes later, Minato's Shadow Clones had brought back all the Hyuga clan members.
Hyuga Neji was among them. He suggested, "The sandstorm covers too large an area. We haven't found its boundary. The best option is to teleport back to Suna City!"
Senyo glanced at Minato beside him. "Do you have enough Chakra?"
Minato nodded. "With Naruto here, it won't be a problem."
The Nine-Tails' Chakra recovered extremely quickly. After traveling from here to Arasuna City and then pursuing them for several hours, it had long since fully recovered.
Under Minato's command, Neji took out the assembly Signal Flare and fired it into the sky.
He fired several in a row, since the strong winds could easily cause them to fail.
Everyone was nearby, so they