Minato Namikaze moved at incredible speed, weaving through the forest as the shadows of trees on either side streaked backward in a blur.
Considering that Tōka was not a ninja, he simply grabbed Tōka by the back of his collar and carried him like a little chick.
Though Tōka looked thoroughly unwilling, his life was more important...
So, he decided to endure it for now!
A gentleman's revenge could wait ten years. They would see who had the last laugh!
Night fell like a massive net, slowly drawing the entire sky together from every direction, as carefree and unrestrained as splashed ink.
The crescent moon hung like a hook. Summer insects chirped crisply, and a few stars twinkled alongside the cold moon.
Suddenly, Tōka noticed something was wrong.
The Land of Fire had the most fertile land among the Five Great Nations.
Dense forests, emerald fields, and countless plants blotted out the sky and sun.
Based on the meteor's trajectory, gravity, Archimedes' principle, Newtonian mechanics, and the distance between the moon and Earth...
Tōka guessed...
He had landed in some forest west of Konoha, in the direction facing Sunagakure.
Therefore, he reached a conclusion!
If he wanted to go to Konoha, he should be heading east!
Yet at that moment, Tōka looked up at the night sky and saw the eternal North Star hanging high overhead.
Minato Namikaze was carrying him at full speed toward the vertical left of the North Star—west!
Gulp...
Tōka secretly swallowed, unable to stop himself from growing nervous.
What was this guy trying to do?
He had seemingly spared him and promised to bring him into the village, but in reality...
Was he taking him to some fertile patch of land to silence him forever?!
Calm down, calm down! Tōka silently warned himself. Judging from the difference in their combat strength...
Even a hundred Tōkas would not be enough for one Minato Namikaze to kill.
Still, he could not understand why this blond bastard wanted to kill him!
While Tōka's imagination ran wild, Minato had already carried him into a forest at the border of the Land of Fire.
From beyond the forest in the distance came the faint howling of winds sweeping across endless yellow sands.
"That is..." Tōka was jolted awake by the sound of the sandstorm. He narrowed his eyes and looked ahead.
On a hill a hundred meters away stood a large encampment.
Tōka's expression shifted slightly as he discreetly glanced at Minato's profile.
Rather than taking him back to Konoha, Minato Namikaze had brought him to Konoha's military camp on the border.
What exactly was he planning to do? Send him to the battlefield as cannon fodder?
Suddenly, Minato Namikaze's voice rang out, interrupting Tōka's thoughts.
"Are you thinking about how to escape?"
Minato smiled gently. Yet that sunny expression looked like a grinning demon to Tōka.
His heart sank. Had he seen through him? This damn guy!
However, Tōka was not thinking about how to run away. He was thinking about how to get rid of Minato Namikaze.
If he remembered correctly, the Third Shinobi World War had been the Yellow Flash's rise to fame.
That battle had been between Konoha and Iwagakure of the Land of Earth, at Kannabi Bridge.
By now, Minato had probably already learned the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Escape in front of a cheat code user?
There was no chance at all!!
As that thought flashed through his mind, Tōka's restless heart instantly calmed.
"You damn cheat code!"
Tōka spat in irritation, then lowered his head without another word.
"Cheat code?" Minato blinked slightly, mulling over the phrase. He did not quite understand what it meant.
Still, Minato knew that Tōka was insulting him.
"You're quite an energetic little fellow. I hope you'll still be this energetic in a while."
As soon as Minato finished speaking, he vanished from the spot in a flash like the wind.
When he reappeared, the two of them were already inside Konoha Main Camp.
"Lord Minato, this kid?" The night patrol guard jumped at Minato's sudden appearance, then immediately asked after recognizing him.
"I'm taking him to see Senior Sakumo," Minato said with a smile.
"Yes!" At that, the night patrol guard immediately stepped aside.
But when Tōka heard the name "Sakumo," his face abruptly darkened.
After taking two steps, Minato noticed that the kid behind him was still standing in place.
He turned around with a puzzled look and asked Tōka, "What is it? Why do you look so pale?"
"Sakumo? Could that be the Sakumo Hatake?" Tōka hesitated, then finally forced himself to ask calmly.
Yet he did not realize that his voice carried a faint tremble.
Sakumo Hatake, Konoha's White Fang—Konoha's Killing God was an even more fitting title!
The White Fang slaughtered people as easily as pigs and dogs, and during the Second Shinobi World War, he had killed Sunagakure Shinobi until none were left standing.
The title of Killing God had been piled high with countless corpses and rivers of blood.
Even the son and daughter-in-law of Grandmother Chiyo, the puppet master and Kage-level powerhouse, had died at Sakumo Hatake's hands during the Second Shinobi World War.
That guy actually... actually...
Wasn't dead???
"If you're asking about Senior Sakumo Hatake, he's right in there." Minato merely assumed Tōka was shocked and excited by Sakumo Hatake's reputation.
"Come on. Don't keep Senior Sakumo waiting."
No wonder, no wonder! Sunagakure had massed a huge army at the border of the Land of Fire and was about to break through.
Yet Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade were nowhere to be seen. Even Minato Namikaze had left the camp.
So there was an even fiercer monster guarding Konoha Main Camp!
Tōka followed behind Minato expressionlessly, his face looking terrible. Kakashi should be a Chunin by now, right?
Shouldn't Sakumo Hatake already be dead?
Could he have remembered wrong?
Tōka was far less calm inside than he appeared. One cheat-enabled Minato Namikaze was already enough.
The Legendary Sannin were powerful, but each of them had major flaws!
Orochimaru had fled during the Third Shinobi World War, and Jiraiya had left one after another in search of Orochimaru, leaving only Tsunade in the end.
And Tsunade should currently have Hemophobia. She had only appeared on the Sunagakure battlefield to counter Grandmother Chiyo's poison.
The so-called pervert, gambler, and druggie Sannin were not much of a threat to Tōka at the moment.
But faced with a Konoha Sakumo Hatake who was even more overpowered than a cheat code, Tōka truly wanted to turn and run immediately.
"Ugh, not realistic!" He could only entertain such thoughts in his head.
Before he knew it, Tōka had followed Minato to the main tent of Konoha Main Camp.
Minato lifted the curtain, and a bright beam of light spilled out, making Tōka's eyes light up.
He instinctively looked up.
Sure enough!!
Sakumo Hatake—and Sakumo Hatake at the height of his power.
His killing intent was completely restrained within, hidden without form. From afar, he looked like nothing more than an extra wearing a Ninja Vest.
Aside from his striking silver-white hair, Sakumo Hatake did not give off even the slightest aura of a powerhouse!
"So it's Minato. Is this the kid?"
Sakumo Hatake's senses were incredibly sharp. He had noticed Minato and Tōka when they were still twenty paces outside the tent.
"Yes, Senior." Sakumo Hatake naturally knew that Minato and the others had gone to investigate the Falling Stone Rain.
Still, the intelligence report had been far too absurd.
Even now that Sakumo Hatake had seen Tōka in person, he still felt dazed.
A human child who had popped out of a rock?
How interesting. Sakumo Hatake grinned.
The moment Tōka saw Sakumo Hatake smile, his scalp began to tingle.
Though the other man smiled kindly, Tōka found it more terrifying than any ghost.
"Inoichi, are you ready?" Sakumo Hatake asked faintly, as though speaking to the air.
Before his words had even faded—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!
Three black shadows appeared together, landing in the tent in an instant.
Inoichi Yamanaka with his single ponytail, Shikaku Nara with his pineapple hair, and Choza Akimichi, whose body was like a small mountain.
One of Konoha's powerful fighting forces, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio!
Each possessed the strength of a Jonin or even an elite Jonin. Working together, they could fully contend with a Kage-level powerhouse.
Tōka did not look particularly surprised by their strange appearance.
Among ninja, appearing and disappearing like ghosts was perfectly ordinary.
This was merely the Body Flicker Technique, one of the advanced Three Transformations. It was nowhere near Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God!
What truly unsettled Tōka was what Sakumo Hatake had just said.
Inoichi Yamanaka, ready for what?
What were they planning to do?
The Yamanaka clan's secret techniques: Mind Body Switch Technique, Mind Body Disturbance Technique, and so on.
Suddenly, as though he had thought of something crucial, Tōka's heart skipped a beat.
The Yamanaka clan's secret technique—Mind Reading Technique!!
No device was needed. It directly read the target's thoughts.
Tōka narrowed his eyes and examined Inoichi Yamanaka. Inoichi was still very young, only in his twenties.
He wondered how proficient Inoichi was in the Mind Reading Technique.
"I'm ready, Lord Sakumo Hatake," Inoichi Yamanaka said in a low voice.
"Then do it." Sakumo Hatake nodded slightly, signaling Inoichi Yamanaka to proceed in his own way.
Having received the order, Inoichi Yamanaka turned and walked toward Tōka.
He formed a hand seal in front of his chest, as though protecting his heart. The hand seals used for secret techniques were sometimes not among the basic twelve.
A pair of eyes that seemed capable of seeing through people's hearts fixed on Tōka.
A cold bead of sweat slid down Tōka's temple. He felt nothing at all and did not even know whether the technique had already been activated.
Time seemed to freeze as everyone stood silently where they were.
Shikaku Nara and Choza Akimichi of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio stood to Inoichi Yamanaka's left and right.
Though Minato Namikaze and Sakumo Hatake appeared more relaxed, one standing and one sitting, their auras remained locked onto Tōka.
The moment he dared to make a move, he would face the thunderous suppression of all four.
In an instant, he would be torn into several pieces!
This was both protection for Inoichi Yamanaka as he performed his secret technique and a warning to Tōka not to act rashly.
A kid who had crawled out of a falling meteor, especially at such a sensitive time.
Konoha was being extremely cautious.
Even for an escort, they had sent Minato Namikaze, who possessed Kage-level strength.
Though his body had lived for over a thousand years across both lives, his mental age across both lives was only around thirty.
Facing such a powerful lineup, it would have been strange not to feel pressure.
The oppressive atmosphere made it difficult for Tōka to breathe.
Those who did not understand fear were not humans, but monsters.
Tōka's delicate little face had turned slightly pale. He pressed his lips together tightly, even though he felt nothing at all...
Drip...
A crystal-clear bead of sweat slid down and fell onto the floor, splashing into droplets the size of grains of rice.
Who knew how long passed...
Tōka only felt that he was about to reach his limit.
Then suddenly, a low exhale sounded like heavenly music.
"Whew!" Inoichi Yamanaka let out a deep breath, withdrawing the hand seal before his chest at the same time.
Everyone's gaze shifted away from Tōka and onto Inoichi.
The atmosphere became even more solemn!
At that moment, Tōka was exceedingly weak. Even facing Shikaku Nara and Choza Akimichi alone would be difficult.
Not to mention that two Kage-level powerhouses were standing nearby!
"Inoichi, did you find anything?" Sakumo asked.
"I searched everywhere. It's all blank." Inoichi looked puzzled, though he also relaxed slightly.
Tōka was like a blank sheet of pure white paper, as innocent and flawless as a newborn baby.
Other than one name—Tōka.
Inoichi Yamanaka had seen only those two characters in Tōka's mind. He had found nothing else.
"A blank slate?" Sakumo Hatake repeated Inoichi's words faintly.
For a moment, the atmosphere inside the tent relaxed.
That suffocating pressure, like Mount Tai bearing down on them, vanished in an instant. The air was still the same air as before.
Yet Tōka felt countless times more refreshed. The feeling of surviving a disaster left his whole body somewhat weak.
The night wind rose, stirring the tent flap as it slipped inside.
It swept across Tōka's back, sending a chill through him.
Only then did he notice that, at some point, the clothes on his back had already been soaked through with cold sweat.
"His name is Tōka. Those are the only two characters I saw." In the end, Inoichi added one more sentence.
Sakumo Hatake nodded slightly and raised a hand in a wave.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!
Countless gusts of wind sounded outside the tent, and the black shadows vanished into the air in an instant.
Tōka's pupils suddenly contracted. So the area had been surrounded by Anbu ever since he entered the tent!
The Anbu were forces directly under the Hokage, their full name being the Assassination Tactics Special Force.
"They really think highly of me." Tōka silently composed himself, not allowing the others to see the oddness on his face.
Since even the Anbu had withdrawn, it also showed Sakumo Hatake's attitude toward Tōka.
Inside the tent, Minato Namikaze and the four members of Ino-Shika-Cho also relaxed. Maintaining such a highly focused state for so long was extremely draining.
Everyone stood silently like wooden stakes. Tōka lowered his head and chose to remain silent.
Everyone was waiting for Sakumo Hatake, who was rubbing his forehead in thought, to make his decision.
"Minato, send him to the village." In the end, Sakumo Hatake still decided to send Tōka to Konoha.
A six-year-old brat who had not even cultivated chakra.
He was not even qualified to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder. He would only add one more corpse to their side.
"Yes!" Minato neither opposed nor approved of Sakumo Hatake's decision. He was merely carrying out an assignment.
Only then did Tōka truly let out a sigh of relief.
He was glad—glad that there was not a trace of chakra in his body.
Tōka knew that if he possessed the strength of a genin now, he would definitely be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder.
Unlike the other ninja villages, Konoha rarely sent genin onto the battlefield as cannon fodder.
It was not that they never did, but they rarely sent genin from their own village to war.
Someone like Tōka, who had appeared out of nowhere, was absolutely the ideal choice for cannon fodder.
The night was cool, and stars twinkled across the sky.
After walking out of Sakumo Hatake's tent, Tōka finally felt that the night could be so beautiful as well.
"Let's go." Minato patted Tōka on the shoulder, signaling for him not to think too much.
Now that he had determined Tōka was not an enemy, Minato's attitude toward him naturally underwent a complete reversal.
"Heh, then let's go." Tōka grinned and followed behind Minato as they headed into the distance...
His very first night had already been so unforgettable.
Before you continue