"Flying Thunder God? What a troublesome technique."
There had been no Hand Seals, nor any warning signs of chakra fluctuations.
One second, Minato Namikaze had been atop the tower. The next, like a bolt of golden lightning, he had crossed the distance in an instant and appeared out of thin air in front of Yue Uchiha as he fell!
The Yellow Flash of Konoha never let his prey slip easily from his sight.
Midair, Minato's young, handsome face was expressionless. His azure eyes held a chilling killing intent far beyond his years.
A Konoha rogue ninja was a Konoha rogue ninja, whatever the reason. He would subdue him first and ask questions later.
He caught the falling three-pronged Kunai with one hand. In the palm of his other hand, high-density chakra spun and compressed frantically, instantly forming a sphere of chakra that shone with a dazzling blue light!
"Rasengan!"
Too fast! From teleporting to forming the Rasengan, it had taken less than half a second!
No ordinary Jonin could react at that speed!
This was the overwhelming strength that had made the leaders of the four great nations issue the order: "If you encounter this man, abandon your mission and flee at once!"
The Three Tomoe in Yue's pupils showed faint signs of merging, but quickly settled back into place.
Wasting my ocular power here wouldn't be worth it.
With no way to brace himself in midair, he forcibly twisted his spine and swung the Short Blade behind him across his chest, sheath and all, while pouring every ounce of chakra in his body into it!
"Boom—!!"
The raging Rasengan slammed into the Short Blade's sheath.
The terrifying tearing force from the high-density chakra's rotation instantly ground the steel sheath to dust!
The tremendous impact struck like a meteor and sent Yue hurtling through the air!
"Bang!"
Yue's body flew like a cannonball, smashing through a thick metal exhaust pipe nearby before plunging deep into the wall of the abandoned structure.
Yue gave a quiet cough.
"You really are impressive, Minato. But did you forget? We're not the only ones here in Rōran."
Just as Minato prepared to throw another Kunai, the massive metal pipe beneath his feet suddenly blared an ear-piercing alarm.
"Rumble!"
The exhaust pipe Yue had smashed when he was sent flying had been one of the main air pipes in Rōran's Underground Arsenal!
High-pressure purple Dragon Vein chakra gushed from the ruptured pipe like a geyser, forming a wall of high-energy chakra dozens of meters tall between them, impossible to cross!
What's more, drawn by the leak of this rampaging chakra, hundreds upon hundreds of spider-like security puppets were crawling up the surrounding walls, tightly encircling the area where Minato stood.
The direction he flew in... He did that on purpose?! Minato's pupils contracted sharply.
Beyond the surging curtain of purple chakra, Yue's figure began to blur.
He put away the Short Blade, now riddled with cracks, and made a hand signal to Minato—one they had only used back when they were both in Anbu.
"Until we meet again."
By the time Minato used Flying Thunder God to pass through the chakra curtain and dealt with the few exploding puppets that had rushed at him, the black-robed Uchiha youth had vanished into Rōran's dark, winding underground maze. Not even a trace of his chakra remained.
Minato looked at the wreckage of puppets strewn across the ground, his brow furrowed.
"I have to find him as soon as possible. I have a feeling this mission will be hard to complete with him around," Minato murmured. His figure flickered, and he chased after Yue.
Meanwhile, among the maze of metal pipes above the ancient city of Rōran, the purple Dragon Vein chakra that had been flowing steadily began to surge violently.
"Vmmmm~"
With an ear-piercing sound of space warping, a dazzling vortex of light abruptly tore open in midair.
"Waaaaahhh—!"
A shrill scream rang out from the vortex. The next moment, a boy wearing an orange tracksuit, with striking blond hair and azure eyes, tumbled down through the air, flailing his limbs.
"Thud!"
The boy hit a wide metal street in an extremely undignified position, raising a cloud of dust.
"Ow, ow, ow... Damn it, Captain Yamato? Sakura? Sai?"
Naruto Uzumaki rubbed his sore backside and staggered to his feet.
He looked around. Rōran's ruins, which should have been buried beneath endless yellow sand, had become a futuristic metropolis bristling with towering structures.
"Where the heck am I? Wasn't I chasing that bastard Mukade?" Naruto was utterly baffled.
Before he could figure out what was going on, a spine-chilling mechanical grinding sound came from the shadows on either side of the street.
"Clack, clack, clack..."
A dozen mechanical puppets shaped like giant spiders, their bodies entirely made of metal, crawled out from the darkness.
Their single eyes, glowing with purple light, instantly locked onto the intruder.
"What the heck are those?!"
Naruto jumped in fright and instinctively reached for his Ninja Tool Pouch. But he still hadn't recovered from the dizziness of traveling through time and space, and his chakra wasn't flowing smoothly either.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
Without hesitation, several puppets opened their mouths and fired beams of high-density, purplish-red chakra at Naruto.
"Whoa! Watch out!" Naruto rolled across the ground in a panic, narrowly dodging the beams.
The beams struck where he had been standing and blasted a large crater into the ground.
"Damn it, don't underestimate me! Shadow Clone—"
Naruto had just started forming Hand Seals when a massive puppet silently leaped down from the pipes above him. Its sharp metal forelimb, like the scythe of a Death God, slashed at his neck!
It was too fast. Naruto's Hand Seals froze halfway through, his pupils contracting.
At that critical instant—
"Clang!"
A black blur swept past Naruto like a phantom.
Amid the shrill clash of metal, the giant puppet that had lunged through the air was instantly sliced in two!
The severed edges were smooth as mirrors. Purple chakra lines crackled, then burst with a crash.
In the fiery glow of the explosion, a figure in a black, high-collared robe stood in front of Naruto.
He calmly slipped a Short Blade, its edge covered in fine cracks, back into its sheath at his waist, his movements smooth and unhurried.
"I'm saved..." Naruto dropped to the ground, still shaken, and looked at the figure before him. "Thanks, old man!"
At the words "old man," the black-robed youth turned his head slightly and shot Naruto an exasperated glance from the corner of his eye.
"Are you from Konoha?"
Naruto looked up. When he caught sight of the Konoha Forehead Protector partly visible beneath the youth's clothes, he lit up with excitement. "So you're a Konoha shinobi too! That's great! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I was tracking someone called Mukade, and then... I somehow ended up here..."
Yue Uchiha looked at the blond hothead in front of him, who was making a racket and had no sense of caution. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
Of course he knew who this was.
This was the chosen one of this world, the reincarnation of Asura who would one day overturn the board—Naruto Uzumaki.
"Do you know where that damn Mukade is?"
Yue didn't answer directly. He simply looked away, nonchalant.
"It's dangerous here, kid. Stay close."
"Oh, okay!" Seeing Yue dressed like a Konoha shinobi and acting so kindly, Naruto's wariness vanished in an instant. He even felt an inexplicable sense of kinship.
But just as Naruto was about to follow Yue, an extraordinarily sharp whistle suddenly came from above!
"Whoosh!"
A strangely shaped three-pronged Kunai flashed down like lightning and embedded itself in the ground between Yue and Naruto.
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