When the two sides met, Namikaze Minato saw that Qian's group was missing two people. Though he already had a guess, he still could not help asking, "Where are Daqing and Yuankong?"
"They were killed."
Qian answered cleanly and crisply.
Hearing this, Namikaze Minato sighed softly, then asked about the progress of the mission.
The jonin from the Nara clan answered directly, "All predetermined targets have been eliminated."
"All the targets were dealt with?"
Namikaze Minato seemed somewhat surprised by that answer and confirmed it.
"Mm."
The jonin from the Nara clan nodded, then glanced at Qian and said, "It was all thanks to Jonin Qian."
Hearing this, Namikaze Minato looked at Qian with slight surprise. Although he had heard of Qian's famous name as "Ghost Sword," and knew some of his past battle records, over the past few days, Qian had put most of his energy into Body Enhancement. To save unnecessary Chakra consumption, he had not had any head-on clashes with Iwagakure's jonin.
As a result, his performance in this great battle had not been particularly dazzling. Coupled with the fact that he had stayed on the western mountain the whole time, Namikaze Minato had instinctively begun to doubt his true strength.
It was not that he looked down on Qian or anything like that, but rather a quality a ninja ought to have: maintaining necessary doubt toward anything they had not personally seen.
Only...
From the looks of it now, his doubt had been unnecessary. Qian's strength was even greater than the rumors claimed.
"No wonder Nara Sishui strongly recommended Qian before the formal meeting!"
All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind, then were quickly pushed to the back of Namikaze Minato's head.
He looked at the four of them and said, "Qian! Xi!