Illegal Adventures After Running Away (5)

After saying that, the Hyuga ninja took the lead and sprinted off in a certain direction, with Kushina and Minato close behind him.

"I can sense Hagoromo's Chakra!"

After some more time and a long stretch of running, Kushina suddenly spoke up.

She could sense that highly active Chakra. Regardless of Hagoromo's current condition, at least it meant he was not dead yet.

At that point, they no longer needed the Hyuga ninja to lead the way. Kushina and Minato accelerated again and instantly left him behind.

Then, the two of them quickly found Kamishiro Hagoromo.

Sure enough, he was still fighting.

And he was fighting one against many, so he did not look particularly good. As for his clothes... well, however Goku looked after beating a boss, that was more or less Hagoromo's current state.

He looked rather bedraggled.

All right, extremely bedraggled.

At a rough glance, Minato and Kushina initially thought that nine Chakra beasts were attacking Hagoromo. But upon closer inspection, they realized that was not the case.

The beasts were split into two groups. Hagoromo was commanding three of them to attack the other six ferocious dogs.

Although he looked miserable, his positioning still made him look quite impressive to anyone watching.

The bloodstains on Hagoromo's face had already dried. Though he was at a disadvantage in the fight, his expression remained resolute. His messy, half-long hair danced in the wind, and from time to time, he would toss out a Fire Release Ninjutsu.

...None of that was the point. The point was that he was standing atop the head of a gigantic strange bird. The bird had an enormous yellow beak, while the rest of its body was dark teal. More importantly, it had one leg on its belly and two legs growing from its back...

The strange bird was practically hovering in midair. It was not flying very high, flapping its wings from time to time, while the eight ferocious dogs were directly below it.

Whenever the dogs tried to leap up and attack the airborne target, Hagoromo would command it to rise higher. Once the dogs shifted their attention to the enemies on the ground, he would have the bird rapidly descend and close the distance, then throw out some Fire Release or the like himself.

Facing many with few, Hagoromo was not in a hurry. Chakra firmly anchored his feet to the Yata Crow's head, and he only attacked when opportunities arose, without seeking a quick victory.

For the moment, he had no way to win quickly.

"These beasts aren't ordinary."

Watching the scene, Minato spoke in a low voice. Setting aside the amount of Chakra they possessed and their control over it, their size and strength alone were comparable to Gamabunta's.

Minato immediately judged that Hagoromo's advantage in this battle lay in the fact that these beasts were merely beasts. They possessed the foundational strength of high-level Summoning Beasts, but lacked the intelligence of high-level Summoning Beasts.

Generally speaking, a Summoning Beast's strength was directly proportional to its intelligence. The stronger it was, the less ordinary its intelligence would be. Of course, some were highly intelligent despite being only average in strength, but creatures like the ones Hagoromo had encountered—powerful but unintelligent—were the rarest.

While Minato was seriously analyzing the situation, Kushina was so angry that she laughed.

She was not laughing at Minato, but at her own bizarre student.

Her focus was completely different from Minato's.

She had spent all these days worrying about Hagoromo, but what was this brat doing? She saw it at a glance.

After arriving in this strange place, regaining consciousness, and becoming free to move around, Hagoromo had neither considered how to leave as quickly as possible and return to Konoha, nor thought about finding her. In a place where even his safety was not guaranteed, what was he doing?

He was busy capturing Summoning Beasts.

A world war was raging outside, every village was straining with all its might to beat the shit out of its enemies, and this bastard had actually hidden himself away here to get himself a bicycle.

What was he doing? Couldn't he be a little more serious during a world war?

Yes, Kushina was not wrong at all. Hagoromo really was happily busy capturing Summoning Beasts right then.

At that moment, Kushina had the urge to beat Hagoromo senseless.

However, Kushina had also guessed wrong. She had indeed misunderstood Hagoromo somewhat. After all, he had not gone looking for these monsters—they had come after him. He had been the passive party. Hagoromo might enjoy fooling around and be quite good at Seeking Death, but he did not actually enjoy Seeking Death.

At first, his injuries and blood loss had dulled his reactions. But after being chased by the Splitting Dog for a while, he suddenly realized that these things with Chakra were perfect for becoming Summoning Beasts, weren't they?

Once such a wonderful thought occurred to someone like Hagoromo, there was no stopping him... So he began changing his escape strategy, fully exercising his initiative and turning passivity into action. Showing not the slightest bit of restraint, he launched a series of Deceit and Swindling, beatings, and tricks against these rare beasts whose instincts far exceeded their intelligence...

Although he had already succeeded more than halfway and captured three of them, he himself was not having an easy time. Since the battle that night, apart from the period when he had been unconscious, he had been fighting these beasts nonstop. He had not rested at all, and he was already at his limit.

If he had not positioned the monsters so well, he would have had only three choices: first, obediently go from Kamishiro Hagoromo to Hagoromo on the Tip of the Tongue; second, risk worsening his injuries by electrifying himself, though he wanted to capture them alive rather than blast them to pieces in one shot; third, flee outright and use the Reverse Summoning Technique again. But if he did that, only a ghost would know where he would end up next.

Fortunately, Kushina and Minato arrived at that moment. They were his reinforcements.

The instant they appeared, Hagoromo, who had remained highly vigilant, spotted them. Without the slightest hesitation or politeness, he immediately shouted, "Teacher Kushina, don't just stand there watching! Hurry up and help!"

Kushina covered her eyes with one hand. What sort of expression was she supposed to use to face this world? Better not to see it and spare herself the annoyance.

"Minato, help him out."

Minato Namikaze was also rather speechless, but he still nodded. He could see that Hagoromo was struggling, so he acted decisively.

The moment Hagoromo saw Minato approaching, he immediately relaxed. But then he added a reminder, "Senior Minato, be careful. These six dogs are actually one dog. After taking a certain amount of damage, it splits apart. It didn't split any further after becoming six, no matter how much I hit it, but I'm not sure whether it can keep splitting."

Did he think Hagoromo was reminding Minato because he was worried about his safety? Wrong.

"Also, Senior Minato, I quite like this dog. Don't accidentally kill it completely..."

"And one more thing, try to herd them together. Since it can split apart, I think it can definitely merge back together."

Wasn't that annoying as hell...

The Splitting Dog itself possessed the characteristic of splitting apart. However, after it became six dogs, it would not split any further on its own. Severe damage would only put it down. But if it received the Rinnegan's enhancement technique, and if it had an infinite supply of Chakra, then this dog could split endlessly...

Of course, those were ideal conditions. Hagoromo could not possibly possess something like the Rinnegan, and even someone with the Rinnegan could not possibly have infinite Chakra just because they had obtained the Splitting Dog...