The Method of Certain Victory

Gasping for air, Yang Xing, who truly couldn't run any further, could only sit on the ground. It was obvious that Minato Namikaze was intentionally trailing behind him, clearly just toying with him.

Looking at that guy's smiling face, it was easy to understand.

Watching the two little ones panting and exhausted, the Fourth Hokage crossed his arms, not in any rush to make a move: "I really don't understand, how did you know I was there?"

"Just a coincidence." Yang Xing waved his hand, speaking with feigned lightness.

Minato Namikaze didn't think so. He stared at Yang Xing with extremely sharp eyes and said quite calmly: "Well, let's just say it was. However, there is one thing I don't understand. Although your method wasn't wrong, the rule I stated was about touching the bell. If you hadn't thrown shuriken and instead had the two of you sneak up from behind, you might have actually touched it. Why did you use projectiles first?"

"Haha!" Yang Xing couldn't possibly reveal the system mission he had accepted—the mission to defeat the Fourth Hokage was something he wouldn't admit even if it killed him.

"Kid, I get the feeling you're hiding something."

"Ah, Kakashi, take this chance, hurry up and use your ninjutsu!"

Yang Xing's shout made Minato Namikaze tense up and turn his head to focus on the threat. After all, Kakashi's strength was not to be underestimated; if he, the Fourth Hokage, were to be defeated, it would be a huge joke. Who would have thought that the moment he turned around, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

There wasn't even a trace of chakra fluctuation nearby. Where was there any Kakashi? There wasn't even a rabbit.

Swish!

There was only the sound of grass rustling rapidly. By the time the Fourth Hokage turned his head back, the two little ones had vanished right before his eyes.

This brought a wry smile to the corner of his mouth: "This little brat is truly troublesome!"

Dragging Rin Nohara for several hundred meters, Yang Xing finally stopped.

"Phew, saved."

"Can you let go of my hand now?" Feeling Yang Xing's grip on her hand tighten, Rin Nohara was starting to get a bit annoyed.

Just as she tried to pull away, she didn't expect that Yang Xing had no intention of letting go.

"No, no." Yang Xing turned his head, his face looking extremely serious: "You didn't see it earlier, but that Fourth Hokage isn't the same Fourth Hokage as before. Our situation is very dangerous right now."

"Huh?" Blinking her beautiful eyes, Rin Nohara still looked at Yang Xing in a daze.

"I almost didn't notice it myself, but that Fourth Hokage is actually an impostor. Look at how he couldn't even keep up when he was chasing us, and that scary look he gave me—don't you find that strange?" Yang Xing gripped her small, smooth hand tightly, doing his best to maintain a righteous expression.

The simple-hearted Rin Nohara, seeing Yang Xing's serious face, felt a bit of trepidation in her heart: "No way? The Fourth Hokage is so strong, that's impossible... but, he did seem different earlier, not like the one we usually see in Konoha." Her muttering showed she had clearly believed half of Yang Xing's nonsense.

If it were Yang Xing's teacher from before, he would have just given him a heavy knock on the head for such tall tales.

The perpetrator himself, of course, felt indifferent, because the feeling of deceiving a young girl was just too good. Fortunately, there were no police here, so he didn't have to worry about anything else.

In short, the talk of an impostor made Rin Nohara somewhat concerned, to the point that she didn't even notice how close their bodies were.

At this moment, although the girl did indeed have a faint fragrance, Yang Xing really didn't have the time to consider such things.

He suddenly realized that there might actually be a way to complete his mission. That possibility made him so excited that he didn't even care about the cute loli leaning against him.

"Defeat him once"—according to the wording, it just means making Minato Namikaze admit defeat. The system didn't explicitly say I had to make him submit with true strength. Yang Xing's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but shout internally: "I am a genius."

Calming himself down, he looked at the little loli who believed his words and said with a serious face: "Alright, that was just my guess. Next, we are going to expose the Fourth Hokage's true colors."

The simple-minded Rin Nohara nodded heavily: "Mm!"

After nodding, her little face turned anxious again: "But, that person is so strong, with just the two of us..."

"I have an excellent plan. This plan might not only let us discover whether the Fourth Hokage is real or fake, but it could also let us win this game." Yang Xing held up a finger, speaking with complete sincerity.

Rin Nohara's eyes held a hint of doubt: "Really?"

"Trust me."

Perhaps it was because Yang Xing's gaze was so earnest, or perhaps because his fighting spirit was so high, at the very least, Rin Nohara had no room to refuse. Right now, she really wanted to know the method for victory that Yang Xing mentioned, which piqued her interest more than anything else.

And so, Yang Xing tricked... no, he took Rin Nohara and circled back toward Minato Namikaze's location.

On the tree branches, leaves swayed with the wind.

"Where did those two run off to?" Observing his surroundings, Minato Namikaze frowned. He didn't want the two of them to run too far, fearing they might get lost. Just as he was about to use ninjutsu to check their locations, his ears twitched, and he sensed someone approaching.

"Kakashi, I didn't expect you to actually keep up, but you seem to have forgotten something." Looking at the Kakashi who had followed closely, Minato Namikaze's smile was a bit strange. He glanced at the spot where Yang Xing had left and chuckled to himself: "Well, you don't quite understand yet, and I don't have time to play with you."

"Wind Style, Wind Cutter." Kakashi didn't care about anything else. He had already raised one hand, his palm wreathed in sharp wind chakra. With an aggressive momentum that sliced through the leaves in mid-air, he charged straight at Minato Namikaze.

Unfortunately, Minato Namikaze simply leaped lightly, using a clever movement technique to dodge Kakashi's palm strike. With a smile on his lips, before Kakashi could react, he tapped his toes against the branch and shot forward with great speed.

He left without looking back, moving with incredible swiftness.

This left Kakashi feeling a bit resentful as he followed closely behind. As the strongest in the team, he should have been the one to pique Minato Namikaze's interest. Why did it feel like Minato Namikaze had no interest in him at all, as if he were still chasing someone else? Who exactly was it that made the usually calm Fourth Hokage burn with such fighting spirit?

Minato Namikaze's speed was fast enough to leave Kakashi behind. Soon, he sensed a person's chakra signature. The location and position of this signature left him feeling puzzled.

"Found you. But why is this kid's chakra so intense? He's not hiding his chakra signature anymore—what kind of trick is he playing? Better be careful. This Yang Xing is the most troublesome kid I've ever met. If he's this cunning now, I wonder what he'll be like when he grows up." Recalling how he had been tricked by Yang Xing earlier, Minato Namikaze couldn't help but smile.

Having spotted Yang Xing, he didn't hesitate at all, leaping several times as he charged toward Yang Xing's location.