"Hidden Mist Technique! Is that guy from Kirigakure!?"
As the white mist began to spread, the six elite jonin present—all except Minato—cried out in unison.
Qi's Hidden Mist Technique was incredibly conspicuous anywhere outside the Land of Water. After all, a jonin's knowledge was far greater than a chunin's. Unless something was classified as an extreme secret, there was little they wouldn't know.
Qi's so-called ... could fool Special Jonin at most. Even ordinary jonin had enough clearance to read the intelligence their villages had gathered, including descriptions of techniques similar to this one.
The Hidden Mist Technique was practically the Mist Ninja's trademark. Even if others knew how to use it, they wouldn't, because only Mist Ninja had the skill to use dense fog to enhance their combat abilities. There was no way they would believe Qi had nothing to do with Kirigakure.
As far as they knew, if this unique technique ever leaked, any of the great ninja villages would send Anbu to hunt down the culprit. They wouldn't care where he was...
"Don't get the wrong idea. He's a ninja from Konoha Village, not a Mist Ninja!"
Minato gave a cold snort. With Tsang Yeh's support, he had finally been freed up. He was now facing three Rock Ninja alone, while Tsang Yeh was holding off two Cloud Ninja by himself. His Special Jonin subordinates had gone to support the other Sunagakure Ninja, who were outnumbered.
An elemental advantage was certainly helpful, but a huge difference in numbers was still dangerous. The Cloud Ninja outnumbered the Sunagakure Ninja by more than two to one...
That had nothing to do with Minato, though. He only needed to focus on taking down these three elite Iwagakure jonin.
"Disappear!"
With a shout, Minato rapidly formed a new series of hand seals. In an instant, the space around the three Rock Ninja twisted strangely. Their bodies were torn to shreds in the blink of an eye, then turned into a mass of mud.
"Is that so? Since when did Konoha learn to use the Hidden Mist Technique?"
A low voice rang out. A Rock Ninja appeared behind Minato, flicked his wrist, and produced a kunai, then thrust it toward Minato's back. Two more Rock Ninja emerged from the ground and closed in on him.
"Everyone knows it's an exclusive technique of the Mist Ninja. Do you dare deny he has ties to them? I doubt Kirigakure even knows about this."
"Ridiculous."
The kunai stabbed at empty air. An attack like that could hardly threaten Minato. With a single instant movement, he easily slipped out of the three men's encirclement.
"He's not a Mist Ninja. Kirigakure isn't worried, so you're all meddling far too much."
The Fourth Hokage narrowed his eyes, studying the vital points all over the three Rock Ninja in front of him, as if deciding where to stab first...
"He's already Lord Hokage's grand-disciple and my junior. If you make it out alive, spread the word all you like. See whether Kirigakure cares."
Minato knew perfectly well that Qi had learned the Hidden Mist Technique from the leader of Kirigakure's Anbu, who had personally taught it to him. Ogata had discussed this with the Konoha High Command long ago. If Kirigakure wanted to hunt Qi down, they would have done so already.
The reality was that Kirigakure's leadership had tacitly accepted it and had no intention of taking the technique back. The Konoha High Command had carefully analyzed this strange attitude, but couldn't figure it out. The only explanation was that Kirigakure was in such chaos that they couldn't even spare a thought for this.
These three Rock Ninja had made a serious mistake by bringing up Kirigakure. The village was probably too busy to deal with Konoha even if they came knocking. They were caught up in internal strife, and Uchiha Madara wouldn't care whether Kirigakure's ninja techniques leaked. What did it have to do with him?
"Why does he seem not to care at all?!"
Seeing that Minato hadn't wavered in the slightest and was instead growing more ruthless, the three Rock Ninja were thoroughly vexed. One of them glanced at the dense fog nearby, then heard the screams from within. His anger flared.
"We can't let that kid wipe out all our men. I'll go kill those brats! You two handle him. Can you manage?"
"We're elite jonin, after all. Even if we can't kill him, we can at least protect ourselves. Go do what you need to. Since he isn't a Mist Ninja, then we'll kill him."
Another Rock Ninja glanced coldly at the fog and nodded in agreement.
"Damn it, stop!"
Minato's expression changed. The Hidden Mist Technique was powerful, but it depended on the target. At Qi's current level, it wasn't enough to deal with even a single elite jonin. If that Rock Ninja got over there, Qi and Kakashi would be in serious danger.
Minato changed his hand seals again, and the surrounding space immediately began to twist. The range was several times larger than before. By then, the Rock Ninja had already burrowed completely underground!
"He's getting serious! Watch out!"
The two Rock Ninja fighting Minato were horrified. They had only moved closer, yet a tearing pain shot through their bodies. If they hadn't been protected by the Hardening Technique, they would have lost a few limbs!
"Rise!"
With a roar, the entire stretch of land between the four of them and Qi's position vanished, as if something had scraped it away. Then, under the horrified eyes of the two Rock Ninja, it appeared above their heads and crashed down hard!
The power of Space-Time Ninjutsu was truly terrifying. Unable to stop the Rock Ninja from using the Earth Release: Stealth Technique, Minato had simply moved the entire mass of land...
"What a monster..."
The two Rock Ninja sucked in a deep breath. At their level, their eyesight was exceptional. The man before them was clearly almost as formidable as the White Fang of the Leaf...
"Rumble!"
The mountain-sized block of earth plummeted from the sky, sending dust and rubble flying...
But an attack like this couldn't do much damage to the Rock Ninja. Before long, all three had risen from the now-settled ground. Every one of them looked grim.
"Damn Sunagakure Ninja... Looks like we can't kill him today!"
Hearing the cries of battle and screams from the fog gradually fade until they were almost gone, the three men knew their ninja force had suffered heavy losses.
Whatever the case, failure was all but certain. There was no doubt about it.
"We'll remember this. Soon, the name Yellow Flash will echo through the Shinobi World, just like the White Fang of the Leaf."
The three Rock Ninja glared at Minato with sinister expressions as their bodies sank into the ground.
"We lost today. Until next time!"
Before they could finish speaking, the three had vanished completely underground. They had simply left.
Minato didn't try to stop them. They were elite Iwagakure jonin who were highly skilled in Earth Release. If they wanted to leave, no one could stop them. There was no need for him to try.
Still, he didn't dare let his guard down. He remained crouched in place for a long while, only relaxing once he was certain the three Rock Ninja had truly gone.
"They're finally gone. The Rock Ninja's Earth Release is a real pain..."
That was no exaggeration. The Rock Ninja's Earth Release techniques were refined to the extreme. Their defense was absurdly strong, and once they went underground, Minato could only wait for them to show themselves.
Who among the Five Great Shinobi Villages was easy to deal with? Konoha's reputation as the strongest was only relative...
After silently admiring their skill, Minato turned his gaze behind him. There, two Kumogakure jonin were locked in combat with Tsang Yeh.
The area between the three of them had become a wasteland. Wind Release and Lightning Release had wreaked havoc all around them, and the three elite jonin displayed the full extent of their destructive power...
"The Rock Ninja have left. It's about time I dealt with you!"
A murderous glint came into Minato's eyes. His usual warmth was for his allies; he had no warmth to spare for his enemies.
Just then, the dense fog spreading all around them abruptly vanished, and Qi and Kakashi slowly emerged from within.
Around them, more than ten Rock Ninja lay scattered across the ground. Some were dead, while the rest had all their limbs broken and had completely lost the ability to fight...
Qi's Hidden Mist Technique had clearly yielded another satisfactory result...