"Pfft!"
"Pfft!"
Amid two dull thuds of heavy bodies hitting the ground, the boy and girl landed lightly, collapsing onto the silver-lit grass. A strand of golden hair slowly drifted down beside their faces.
"Teacher Minato!"
Almost simultaneously, Obito cried out in shock.
"Yukina!"
Then came Rin's startled cry.
"Hirohiko..."
Next came Kakashi's soft murmur.
"Drip..."
As the three spoke, a drop of blood slowly fell from the right side of that handsome face. It ran down his cheek, dropped past his half-kneeling knee, and struck the ground with a slap, bursting into droplets that scattered outward.
Chiba...
The next instant, clear shock on his face, the handsome blond figure kneeling between the boy and girl slowly turned to look behind him.
But there was nothing behind him. Other than the night wind sweeping through the grass and raising silver waves, there was only the rolling silver grass.
No one was there! There was no sign of the boy who should have been standing behind him, his hand on his shoulder!
Too fast! Inconceivably fast!
Chiba had been fighting an enemy like that? And he had even managed to trap such an enemy while protecting Hirohiko and Yukina's lives...
That stunned, horrified thought flashed through his mind at that glance.
"Teacher Minato, what happened?"
Just as that thought passed through his mind, Obito and Rin had already run over, their questions spilling out.
Standing before them now was their teacher, Minato Namikaze, who had suddenly vanished. "Hirohiko... Yukina..."
After asking alongside Obito, Rin did not stop before Minato Namikaze like Obito did. Instead, she crouched down immediately to examine Hirohiko and Yukina, pulling a square box resembling a medical kit from the pack on her back as she worked.
"They..."
At that moment, as Rin spoke, Kakashi arrived last. Looking