No! This was not the time to dwell on failing to kill Minato Namikaze! If he could not kill Konoha's Golden Flash, then killing Konoha's Little Monster was just as important!
The piercing momentum of the single-finger Hell Stab in his hand slowly came to a halt. As the sensation of time seeming to freeze and space seeming to tear apart when he watched Minato Namikaze vanish instantly faded, the faint annoyance swirling in the Third Raikage's heart instantly dissipated, and his mind suddenly cleared.
This Little Monster was no pushover either. Since the start of the Third Great Ninja War, his threat level had been second only to the Golden Flash!
Moreover, the battles this kid had appeared in had basically all been turning points that concerned the direction of the Third Great Ninja War! Sunagakure's poisoning plan against Konoha... Iwa's final encirclement of Sunagakure... Iwa's Defense Map plan... and now, the critical moment in the two great ninja villages' war against Konoha...
Every moment this kid had appeared had been of utmost importance, almost all turning points capable of deciding the overall trend of the Third Shinobi World War. If this kid had not been there at those moments, things would have looked entirely different.
At the very least, Konoha would have suffered terrifying losses. It might even have withdrawn from the battlefield early.
It was precisely because of what this kid had done that the entire war situation had shifted toward more restraint than cooperation, more confrontation than battle, maintaining a relatively stable state. Only when we reached a certain understanding with Iwa and dealt Konoha a heavy blow did this situation change...
All along, I had believed this to be the Third Hokage's strategy, but after fighting this kid, I was no longer so certain! It