The Konoha Ninja strike came and went in the blink of an eye. From the moment Minato Namikaze attacked to the moment he marked Roshi with the Flying Thunder God technique, only a few minutes had passed.
It wasn't until the Stone Ninja saw the attacking Konoha Ninja begin to retreat that they realized their leader, Roshi, had vanished from the battlefield.
The night was still, and the moonlight hazy. Thin moonlight filtered through layers of dark clouds and fell upon the earth.
This was a stretch of desert. A strong wind had risen at nightfall, carrying yellow sand as it whirled into the sky.
Beneath the night sky, a red-haired young man stood atop a dune, his eyes gently closed as if resting. Suddenly, he opened them and looked toward a patch of sand not far ahead.
"Did it work?"
Uzumaki Kuming murmured as he looked toward the sand ahead. Then he sent a bolt of lightning into the sky. At the same time, a thick red barrier rose around the area, covering a radius of several thousand square meters. Terrifying Chakra surged from its surface.
"Whoosh!"
With a sharp sound, partially transformed Roshi appeared on a dune not far in front of Uzumaki Kuming, looking around warily. A moment ago, he had been in a dense forest, fighting Minato Namikaze. The next, he was in this desert, inside a square red barrier.
"Where is this?"
"Is this one of Minato Namikaze's techniques?"
"That guy is—! Damn it!"
Roshi looked around and soon spotted Uzumaki Kuming. Even the slowest person would have realized his predicament by now. Transported from the battlefield to this place by the enemy for no apparent reason, Roshi knew he had fallen into Konoha's trap.
"Long time no see, Old Man."
"This is the grave