"This is a tough one..."
Minato furrowed his brow and scanned the area. The Shadow Ninja weren't very strong individually, but they made up for it with sheer numbers.
If he were alone, he could pull a "Going Home, Minato" and fight a drawn-out battle to his heart's content. But right now, he had three children with him, along with an ordinary person who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag.
The Shadowkhan weren't about to give Minato time to think up a countermeasure. They pulled out more round spheres, only this time, each one bore the character for "explode."
"Explosive Tags! Scatter!"
The instant Minato's words rang out, flames shot skyward, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris that blocked everyone's view. "This is bad!" Minato cried. He immediately rushed back to Dayuan, but the man was already gone.
Dayuan, held in the Shadow Ninja's grasp, wisely raised both hands and put on a harmless expression. "Bosses, I know things aren't easy for you. How about this? I've got some cash in my pack. It's not much, but it should be enough for you brothers to eat, drink, and have fun for a few days."
Mistaking the uniformly dressed Shadowkhan for some huge bandit gang, Dayuan promptly pulled out several bundles of banknotes and begged for mercy.
But the Shadow Ninja ignored him, scanning him from head to toe with a strange device. It had four dragon heads pointing in the cardinal directions at the top and a grip shaped like a square pillar at the bottom. When the scan was done, they shook their heads and turned their attention to the cart full of goods.
?
Dayuan had never seen bandits who weren't after money before, and his head filled with question marks. Could it be... that they wanted his cargo more than his money?
But he was only transporting everyday food and spices! Unless... their hideout had run out of ingredients to cook with!
Yes! That had to be it!
Dayuan couldn't help thinking he was clever as hell.
He didn't feel nearly as aggrieved about being robbed anymore. He was unharmed, and he hadn't lost any money—just some cargo. No big deal!
"Mr. Dayuan! Are you all right?!"
The Shadowkhan had barely left when Minato arrived.
"Oh! Jonin Minato! I'm fine. Those bandits don't seem to be after money or our lives. They just wanted to steal some cargo."
Elsewhere, at the cart, now without its horse, the Shadowkhan scanned the piles of goods until the eyes of the strange dragon-shaped object in their hands lit up.
It was a somewhat old wooden box. Hidden inside was... a stone carved with the image of an ox's head.
"That's... the Ox Talisman!"
Having seen the power of the Rooster Talisman firsthand, Minato recognized it at a glance. Determined not to let the Shadowkhan get their hands on it, he flashed forward, his Kunai almost piercing one of their chests in an instant.
But the next moment, the enemy caught the razor-sharp Kunai between two fingers with ease. Then the steel Kunai actually broke apart?!
A Shadow Ninja's fist, as big as a sandbag, came flying at him. Minato retreated and dodged repeatedly, shouting to the others behind him, "Get Mr. Dayuan to safety!" He sidestepped another attack, then took advantage of the opening as his opponent threw a punch to thrust out a Rasengan—
"What?!"
The Shadow Ninja wasn't sent flying or turned into black smoke as Minato had expected. Instead, it threw a powerful punch of its own. The force of the punch alone twisted Minato's face and bore down on him like an invisible weight.
—Whoosh!
Minato immediately used the Flying Thunder God to flash to safety. The spot where the Shadow Ninja had attacked was left utterly devastated. The sheer force of its punch had sent everything in sight flying and ground it to pieces—the earth, roots, trees, rocks, everything.
"What incredible strength!"
Staring at the wreckage, Minato's eyes widened. With that kind of power, perhaps only Tsunade, famed for her strength among the Sannin, could match it?!
(PS: That was what Minato thought, anyway.)
"So... is this the power represented by the Ox Talisman...?"
Strength, like speed, was one of a ninja's five basic attributes. It wasn't necessarily useless—after all, everyone in the Ninja World was a glass cannon.
But Minato had one guiding principle: he absolutely couldn't let the Shadowkhan get the Talisman. Shendu's existence was still up for debate, but the Talisman was part of Dayuan's cargo. He couldn't just let it get lost.
By ninja rules, the danger of the mission had already far exceeded that of a C-rank mission. They could choose to abandon it. But all three kids wore the same stubborn, "I won't give up" expression.
It made sense. They'd finally gotten the chance to leave the village for a C-rank mission, only for it to be nothing like they'd expected. And now they were about to fail, too? Who could put up with that?
Obito even stubbornly insisted that he'd help Minato-sensei fight his way through the Shadowkhan's encirclement. Kakashi, who believed that "ninjas must obey orders," stopped him and said expressionlessly, "Minato-sensei told us to get Mr. Dayuan to safety..."
"Are you saying you'll just watch Minato-sensei face those black-clad ninjas alone?!"
Obito's face flushed red. He put his comrades first, and clearly couldn't understand Kakashi's rigid way of thinking.
Just as the two were on the verge of a fight, Rin stepped in once again to smooth things over.
The two of them both huffed and turned away, muttering insults at each other. "I'm not going to argue with an idiot!" "I'm not going to argue with a dead-last!"
Meanwhile, Minato knew he couldn't fight them head-on, so he kept dodging, trying to find an opening amid the attacks that could easily tear up the terrain one after another.
But the Shadowkhan didn't seem interested in prolonging the fight. After testing the Ox Talisman's power, the Shadow Ninja around them surged forward, completely blocking the Talisman-wielding Shadow Ninja from Minato's view.
"No... I can't let him take the Talisman...!"
Minato leaped up, pushing off a Shadow Ninja's shoulder, and threw two Kunai in succession.
The second Kunai struck the first hard, sending it flying through the air for quite a distance. Minato immediately used the Flying Thunder God to flash in front of the Shadow Ninja holding the Ox Talisman and threw a hook.
Naturally, that attack wasn't enough to turn the Shadow Ninja into black smoke. It didn't even bother to dodge. With the Ox Talisman's divine strength, it only had to throw a light punch to force Minato to abandon his attack and retreat nearly a kilometer away.
"Cough, cough..."
The punch had only grazed his clothes, yet it sent Minato crashing heavily to the ground. Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt—he just looked a little disheveled.
"Have they retreated...?" Minato slowly got to his feet and brushed the dust off his clothes. He hadn't managed to keep the Ox Talisman, but he hadn't come away empty-handed, either...
He calmed himself and closed his eyes, carefully sensing for its location. "The Flying Thunder God Mark is..."
Minato hadn't thrown that punch to attack. He wasn't an idiot. He wasn't a Taijutsu ninja, so why would he try to match strength with a Shadow Ninja strong enough to lift a mountain? He'd only get himself beaten up.
He'd thrown that hook just to place a Flying Thunder God Mark.
But... the Mark's location left Minato utterly confused...
From what he could sense... the Shadowkhan's base didn't seem to be in the Ninja World?
"An alternate dimension...?"
"Uncle advises you not to try entering the Shadow Kingdom."
Before you continue