Two hundred miles behind the Allied Shinobi Forces, high in the sky.
The moonlight was hazy, and clouds and mist obscured everything. As far as the eye could see, the view was a blur.
Super Whirlwind Style Two flapped its wings and sped through the air, leaving a massive black trail through the clouds.
Houka narrowed his Mangekyō Sharingan to slits as he surveyed the activity below.
"Over there!"
Minato Namikaze pointed grimly toward an area ahead and to the side, hidden beneath a vast forest. The Yin-Style Nine-Tails within him had sensed the lingering Chakra presence of the Yang-Style Nine-Tails!
Houka patted Super Whirlwind Style Two on the neck. With a beat of its wings, it immediately glided in that direction.
After landing, Houka immediately used the Chakra Sensory Technique to scan the area, but Uchiha Madara and the Yang-Style Nine-Tails had already vanished beyond his sensing range.
"Lord Jiraiya?!"
Minato Namikaze suddenly cried out, then turned into a golden flash and vanished from the spot in an instant.
Jiraiya was bound to a tree branch. Another branch had pierced his chest, a white flower blooming from it and swaying gently in the night breeze, tragically beautiful and heartrending.
Minato Namikaze cut off the branch and gently caught Jiraiya in his arms.
The latter had already lost all signs of life.
"It seems necessary to have Hidan come to the front lines." Minato Namikaze spoke with a sorrowful expression, then said to Houka, "Houka, we must find Naruto!"
"I know."
Houka immediately formed Hand Seals and created two hundred Shadow Clones, which rapidly scattered in all directions.
At the same time, Super Whirlwind Style Two flew into the sky and began searching.
Afterward, Minato Namikaze sealed Jiraiya's body into a scroll, then used the Flying Thunder God Technique to