I'll One-Shot You So Hard It'll Leave You Awestruck, Believe It or Not

The piercing pain in his left arm made Minato Namikaze grit his teeth. As he looked toward the distance, where thick smoke and dust had risen, he felt the relief of having survived a disaster for the first time.

If he hadn't mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique, he would probably have been blown apart in that instant.

Blown apart in the literal sense.

"But that level of physical strength..."

"Is that guy some kind of monster wearing human skin?"

As he recalled everything that had happened in that lightning-fast exchange, Minato Namikaze's expression grew incomparably grave.

In terms of speed—

That guy was in no way weaker than A in Lightning Release Chakra Mode. If anything, he was even faster.

In terms of explosive power—

A blond figure immediately appeared in Minato Namikaze's mind.

In his memory, only Tsunade, the Slug Princess among the Three Legendary Sannin, who stood on the same level as his teacher, possessed that kind of monstrous strength.

He had originally thought his opponent was someone like A.

If that were the case, helping Hidden Stone from the sidelines and causing some trouble for Hidden Cloud shouldn't have been a problem.

But his opponent was someone who had perfectly fused speed and power into one!

"You dodged that?"

As the smoke dispersed, Sora let out a dissatisfied murmur as he looked at Minato Namikaze a hundred meters away.

That punch should have ended all seven hundred and twenty episodes of the Hokage storyline right there. He hadn't expected it to be dodged.

This guy's combat reflexes really were something else.

"I don't like playing cat and mouse, but if the target is you, it should be pretty interesting."

"This guy..."

Feeling the wildness and fighting spirit flickering in Yotsuki Sora's eyes, Minato Namikaze took a deep breath and endured the pain from his ruined left arm.

"This guy's defense is even stronger than A's. Even his most vulnerable areas are as tough as steel. Even kunai coated in Wind Release chakra can barely inflict any real damage."

Minato Namikaze's gaze fell upon Sora's neck.

There was a wound there that had barely drawn blood, and it was healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

In the blink of an eye, the wound had completely vanished.

"This level of recovery ability..."

Minato Namikaze's heart sank to the bottom.

This felt completely different from fighting A.

Against A, he could still rely on the unpredictability of the Flying Thunder God Technique and Wind Release's elemental advantage over Lightning Release to contend with him.

But against the Yotsuki Sora before him, even a weak-point strike with the Rasengan had produced such negligible results.

"No, it should have had an effect."

"His body is this strong because it's built on the foundation of Lightning Release chakra. The reason Wind Release chakra-enhanced kunai can't do much is because the kunai themselves aren't strong enough."

"And while the Rasengan is powerful enough, it lacks Wind Release chakra to destroy the Lightning Release chakra covering his body..."

"Are you ready to have your neck snapped by me, little Konoha fly?"

Watching Minato Namikaze's solemn expression, Yotsuki Sora clenched his fist, his bones cracking in unison.

Then, flickering Blood Lightning abruptly appeared around his body. He vanished from the spot in an instant and, in the span of a flash, charged straight before Minato Namikaze.

His powerful muscles swelled and surged in that moment. His sweeping right arm radiated suffocating force, as though it would destroy everything before it.

"Lightning Plow Hot Knife!"

"BOOM!!"

Everything in Sora's path was utterly destroyed. Thick smoke and dust filled the air, and Pakura's eyes widened in shock at the terrifying destructive power.

Yet a moment later, only Sora emerged from the dust, his face full of displeasure.

"D-Did you get him?"

"He ran."

Sora snorted unhappily. "Space-time technique users... pests like flies."

Being in the Third Shinobi World War, he had long prepared himself to fight the most outstanding genius of this era.

But the course of their battle had left Sora deeply disappointed.

What was the difference between someone with no fighting spirit like this and old Pantheon hiding behind the minion wave and spamming QQQ?

Boring!

Still, Sora wasn't too surprised. Their roles had been different from the start.

He was a broad, hard-hitting combat-type ninja, while Minato Namikaze was clearly a mobility-type ninja.

In terms of speed alone, Sora prided himself on not losing to the Flying Thunder God Technique in close combat. But if his opponent insisted on wearing him down—flying over, landing a hit, then running away—Sora really had no good way to deal with it.

That was the strength of the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Though that guy could not break through his defenses at all, those attacks were like mosquitoes buzzing by one's ear in summer—no blood drawn, just pure annoyance.

"I wonder if one Astonishing Shot could kill him outright..."

"Who goes there?!"

"Wait, that looks like Lord Minato."

"It really is Lord Minato... Holy shit, medic! Get a medic, now!"

The ninjas on guard were the first to notice Minato Namikaze flying back.

After confirming his identity, they had intended to greet him.

After all, Minato Namikaze had performed exceptionally over the past few years. Coupled with his status as Jiraiya's disciple, he was showing signs of firmly claiming the top spot among the younger generation.

But with one look—

Their outstanding young man, Minato Namikaze, had not only lost an arm, but was also in an utterly miserable state, covered in dust and dirt, and had collapsed unconscious on the spot.

The two guard brothers were nearly scared stiff.

"What happened? How did you get hurt this badly?!"

After receiving rough treatment from the medical ninja, Minato Namikaze slowly woke up and saw a wild-looking white-haired figure rushing into the tent.

"It's Teacher Jiraiya."

Minato Namikaze sighed and forced a faint smile. "I ran into a little trouble during a mission."

"Trouble?"

Jiraiya frowned deeply.

As Minato Namikaze's teacher, he knew very well just how capable his disciple was.

Although Minato was inferior to him in overall strength, with his complete mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique, even Jiraiya might not necessarily be able to leave a mark on him.

When they had first set foot on the battlefield, Jiraiya had encountered two Hidden Stone Jinchuriki alongside Minato Namikaze. Yet even against opponents like that, they had not suffered serious injuries.

But now, he was in such a wretched state...

His entire left arm had suffered a comminuted fracture, practically ruined beyond use!

Could he have encountered the Tsuchikage?!

"It was Yotsuki Sora."

Inside the main tent, Minato Namikaze sighed and reported everything that had happened earlier. Every so often, the intense pain from his hand made him bare his teeth in agony.

The more Jiraiya heard, the tighter his brow furrowed.

He had intelligence on Yotsuki Sora as well.

As the highest commander stationed on the Hidden Stone front line, there was no way he would fail to pay attention to such a major incident on the Hidden Stone side.

Reports on everything in the Heavenly White Mountains, Hidden Stone's pursuit of Yotsuki Sora, and the other details were sent to him almost every day. He knew exactly how powerful that suddenly emerged figure was—the man who had successively defeated Kitsuchi and the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, then toyed with over a thousand Hidden Stone ninjas.

But he had never expected the Third Hokage to send Minato here to pick a fight with Yotsuki Sora!