Preliminaries End
The Iwa ninja had actually already taken down Shinnosuke and Hiashi. But the instant they saw Minato Namikaze, Minato had already appeared behind Kitsuchi, pressing a kunai directly to his throat.
When Minato negotiated, he was both calm and cold, refusing to entertain any bargaining. In the end, the Iwa ninja agreed, and both sides withdrew.
"They got off easy!" Akaseki said bitterly after hearing Minato recount what had just happened.
"It wasn't entirely without gains. One of their Iwa ninja took a heavy hit from me before Minato arrived—cough, cough, cough—and whether he's dead or alive is still unknown. Hahaha—cough." Shinnosuke said with a hearty laugh.
Clearly, he had suffered serious injuries as well, and was even somewhat short of breath when speaking. However, the one who had taken his blow was most likely out of the running.
"If his fate is unknown, then he's dead!" Akaseki optimistically cursed.
Akaseki then asked curiously, "By the way, Minato, why did you come?"
"Shibi told me that you and Ranwu were injured and were heading for Shukuba Town. I didn't find you in Shukuba Town, so I searched along the road to Tanzaku Town. That was when I happened to find Shinnosuke and Hiashi being attacked by Iwa ninja," Minato said.
"Shibi? When did he see us—" Akaseki wondered.
"He probably spotted us with some kind of scouting insect," Shinnosuke guessed.
Indeed, not long after Hatake Sakumo left, Shibi had discovered Akaseki and the others.
Although he had no idea what had happened, he knew that Akaseki and Ranwu were injured. Since they had previously been in Tanzaku Town and had encountered Akaseki and Shinnosuke there, he could naturally infer that Akaseki would be heading to Shukuba Town afterward.
As it happened, Shibi's team later received a mission