Guessing Lantern Riddles

"Lord A, Lord B, over here!"

The Cloud Village's AB Brothers arrived at the place where Yuhara had fought not long ago. Or rather, after the two enemies Yuhara had failed to deal with reported the battle situation, A and B, who had been searching everywhere for the Yellow Flash, had rushed over.

Then they saw an extremely exaggerated metal "dandelion."

Crystalline threads ran through the ground and between the trees, anchoring the thing in place. The low temperature had covered every line with tiny beads of dew... If there had not been a man with his head blown apart stuffed into the exact center, with his body shattered across the ground as well, anyone would have called this thing quite artistic.

"Is this the enemy's technique?"

As he asked this, A reached out and lightly touched one of the fine threads. The skin on his hand was then effortlessly sliced open.

After covering his palm with Lightning Release and fully defending himself, he pulled hard again. This time, the metal line, thinner than a strand of hair, let out a mournful cry before being forcibly snapped by him.

The metal line was extremely tough and sharp, but that did not mean it was indestructible. Even so, A still took the thing's danger very seriously, because under normal circumstances, if one applied pulling force to these lines, it would be a ninja's body—not the line itself—that got cut first.

"Yes, Lord A. At the time..." The ninja then described the battle to A.

"To be able to use such a powerful technique, yet pretend to be unable to fight back at the start? What a sinister bastard..." A, a ninja who favored meeting force with force, looked down on such shameless sneak attacks. "Hey, B, can you pull Toroi out?"

Cold sweat beaded Killer B's forehead. As if startled, he took a step back. "Little Eight's fear, infinite, octopus tentacles, slicing!"

Octopuses were naturally afraid of such thin, long, web-like things. Besides, the Eight-Tails was not originally a tailed beast renowned for physical durability. In fact, the Eight-Tails' defining trait was its powerful regenerative ability... Yuhara's "Mercury Lamp" could certainly slice through the Eight-Tails' body with relative ease.

"What a useless guy!"

A habitually complained about his unreliable younger brother, but he soon noticed that something was wrong with Killer B.

Killer B was slowly backing away step by step, while his eyes kept darting toward a large tree on his right. Once A noticed where he was looking, B gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Given the understanding between the two brothers, A instantly understood what B was trying to convey.

Someone was hiding in that large tree, silently observing their movements.

Then, A, who had been discussing some strange ninjutsu just a moment before, suddenly exploded into action. Powerful Lightning Release enveloped his entire body. He leaped high into the air and smashed his fist into a certain spot on the tree!

"You were hiding this close by! Yellow Flash, you really underestimated us!"

The person hiding there and spying on them was none other than Minato Namikaze, who had been acting alone. Although the AB Brothers' move had been incredibly sudden, Minato was not someone who could be hit by a single strike.

Minato's figure vanished from the tree, and A's entire arm sank into the tree trunk where Minato had been standing. Then Minato's figure appeared on the ground.

"Wait, I..."

Minato tried to ask what the Cloud Village wanted, but the Cloud brothers did not give him any chance to speak.

Killer B directly began to "transform." Although this perfect Jinchuriki had yet to reach his most perfect state, there was no time to worry about that now.

"Tailed Beast Transformation, my own decision. Yellow Flash, don't even think about escaping!"

The battle between two future Kage erupted once again.

Moreover, this battle became even more difficult for Minato Namikaze than the previous one. Although he was extremely powerful, he specialized in fighting humanoid creatures, not tailed beasts... When it came to dealing with tailed beasts, the Yellow Flash was not as professional as one might imagine.

Besides, Minato could not simply retreat, because he had to consider the possibility that these two enemies might attack the Konoha camp directly...

The Cloud's muscle-bound brothers versus Konoha's Flying Thunder God Hokage. This scene seemed to have appeared somewhere before.

Although the experts on both sides had already begun fighting, the main forces of Konoha and the Cloud were still holding their positions. On one hand, those currently fighting had no time to relay information. On the other hand, this state of alert between the two sides was ultimately based on a "misunderstanding" and had arisen too suddenly. Neither side had actually prepared for a decisive battle in the short term. Moreover, neither side could afford the consequences of defeat, so both commanders remained extremely restrained. Their stance was passive defense rather than active offense.

Under these circumstances, Yuhara, who had finally obtained a new ninjutsu, had no chance to cultivate or practice it. Even he had to remain ready to enter the battlefield at any moment.

In Yuhara's impression, although one-on-one battles and squad clashes between ninjas were quite entertaining, large-scale warfare between ninja forces... To be honest, it was downright ugly.

Because ninjas were never weapons meant for large-scale head-on battles.

Moreover, ninja formations were not very efficient in group combat. Forget modern warfare—just imagine throwing a regiment of Konoha Ninjas onto the Western European front during World War II... They probably would not even make a ripple.

The energy projection of a ninja regiment was utterly negligible. The combat effectiveness of a regiment of ninjas might not even surpass that of a single Karl mortar.

Of course, that applied to the current era. Later, ninjas also began developing all kinds of bizarre Chakra weapons.

In any case, yield was the true justice... From this, it was clear that everyone had a Deidara living in their heart.

The enormous Chakra fluctuations soon attracted the attention of both Konoha and the Cloud. They noticed the battle, but...

Both sides continued to exercise restraint.

It was not until several hours later that the battle-worn Yellow Flash finally returned to the Konoha camp.

The battle was declared over. The result seemed to be another draw.

The Eight-Tails had caused Minato Namikaze enormous trouble, but regardless, since he had returned safely to camp and nothing like a Tailed Beast Ball had come flying over, the outcome of the matter was acceptable.

Minato Namikaze seemed to have brought a problem and then solved it. Or perhaps he had neither brought nor solved a problem. He truly was "Schrödinger's Minato."

Afterward, the tense atmosphere between the two sides continued for several more days before gradually easing. As the saying went, the first drumbeat inspired action, the second weakened it, and the third exhausted it. It seemed that the decisive battle would not happen after all.

So...

What exactly had happened during this period?

It was utterly baffling.