Nowhere for Three in All of Konoha

Smack! Smack! Smack!

"Obito! Wake up!"

The violent shaking woke Obito. He felt as though something was pressing against his head—it hurt badly, and his face burned too.

The first thing he saw was a head of white hair he despised. Obito froze for a moment, then quickly flew into a rage.

"Damn it! Kakashi, did you slap me?!"

"I didn't!"

"Quit bickering! I only have two clones left, and Sensei's wife is about to catch up!"

Ying Shu's voice rang out from behind them. Obito turned around and saw Ying Shu forming hand seals.

Ying Shu was making the Shadow Clone seal again. After two puffs of smoke, two utterly lifeless-looking Ying Shus appeared.

"Please, I'll eat extra tonight to make it up to you!"

Ying Shu called out to his brave Shadow Clones.

The two Shadow Clones sighed and each made the motion of forming a Rasengan, but they clearly lacked the chakra.

Left with no other choice, the two Shadow Clones could only set off on their brief journey empty-handed.

Since they had already lost the will to live, they might as well face death without fear.

After sending off the two Shadow Clones, Ying Shu immediately gave a light leap, snapped off a branch from a small tree, and began drawing on the ground.

"There's a small river at the southwest corner of Park No. 2—the one beside our usual training spot. We definitely can't beat her. Staying together will only get us all taken out, so we need to split up and run there."

Ying Shu sketched a rough map on the ground and pointed to a corner of it.

"Are we going to use the water to launch a counterattack?" Kakashi asked with a frown. Then he seemed to realize something, his face filling with surprise. "Ying Shu, don't tell me you've already mastered that thing Lord Hokage gave you..."

"Mastered my ass! We're going there to run away!"

Ying Shu was speechless. Kakashi was usually pretty smart, so how had he become just like Obito?

Pointing beyond the map, Ying Shu said, "Sensei's wife doesn't know her own strength. Forget about the bell-grabbing mission—we need to stay alive."

Kumi was pretty and kindhearted. Ying Shu had no desire to make her worry three times over. Besides, Nonō was at Konoha Hospital. What if she took a liking to him and whisked him away? Wouldn't he be practically delivering himself to her?

"Run downstream along this river. We won't have to go far before we reach Konoha's border. Then we run along the border for a while, and we'll reach Konoha Gate."

Ying Shu's plan was simple.

They definitely could not win a fight. That would not be hot-blooded—it would be asking for a beating.

There was really no need to get hospitalized over grabbing bells... In fact, according to the real rules of the bell test, they had already passed when Kakashi and Ying Shu desperately went back to save Obito.

Of course, judging by how quickly his Shadow Clones were disappearing and the pain feeding back to him—

Ying Shu could tell that Kushina probably knew nothing at all. She was still chasing them with every intention of giving them a proper lesson!

Thinking about it, the whole thing was bizarre. The three of them were actually figuring out how to stay alive in this world... unbelievable!

"But I don't think Konoha Gate can necessarily stop Sensei's wife either... Besides, once we become ninja, we can't leave the village without permission. We probably won't be able to get out!"

Kakashi voiced his concern.

But Ying Shu shook his head. He could not say that he knew Kushina was the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki. He had enough sense to keep that to himself.

"At our age, we only need to take off our forehead protectors and pretend we're going out to play. It shouldn't be a problem."

Kakashi's eyes lit up at that. Even Obito caught on and immediately gave a thumbs-up. "Ying Shu, you're amazing!"

"Lord Hokage..."

Inside the crystal ball, Kushina solved another two Ying Shus with two forehead flicks.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could not bear to watch any longer and hurriedly switched back to the three boys. The sight of them gritting their teeth and fleeing desperately was heartbreaking.

No wonder Minato had asked to intervene again.

"Minato... you should know the purpose of this test is..." Hiruzen Sarutobi stopped halfway through his sentence.

Years of being in power had made Hiruzen Sarutobi instinctively want to draw things out a little.

But on second thought, had the purpose of the test not already been achieved?

Reckless Obito had been taken out in a single exchange. The three of them were now choosing to do nothing but flee, clearly giving up on the mission.

Yet before abandoning the mission, they had not abandoned their companion. By all rights, they had already earned full marks on the test.

Hiruzen Sarutobi inwardly cried out in alarm. He had overdone the act this time!

He gave a light cough. "I originally wanted Kushina to spend more time getting familiar with the children. Since that's the case... hurry and go!"

Minato was overjoyed. Without even replying, his figure vanished from the spot. He moved so fast that even Hiruzen Sarutobi could not see what Minato had done!

"Oh? Your Flying Thunder God has improved again?"

Looking at the faint spatial chakra fluctuations lingering in the air, Hiruzen Sarutobi wore a gratified smile.

First the Legendary Sannin, then Minato—and now these three little ones were so outstanding as well.

Konoha truly had nothing to worry about in the future...

Ying Shu ran at full speed. The three of them had set off from different positions toward the same destination, but he was the unluckiest one.

For some reason, the little chili pepper had locked onto him alone and was chasing him like mad!

Are all those Shadow Clones still not enough for you to beat up?!

He cursed inwardly as he ran.

It was true that he had "awakened" a Sage Body, and he probably had three to five times more chakra than he had at graduation.

But even he could not keep wasting it like this. He had already sent out more than ten Shadow Clones along the way. The key was that he could not allocate too little chakra to them either. Even if they all went down in a single exchange, they still had to delay her for a little while.

He had tried having the Shadow Clones attack with Rasengan, but aside from wasting chakra, it had been completely useless.

He had also tried transforming the Shadow Clones into Minato and even Hiruzen Sarutobi, but Kushina still saw through them almost immediately.

Fortunately, Ying Shu was not far from his destination. Obito and Kakashi were loyal enough to wait by the little river, waving to him from afar.

They had not fled on their own. It looked like they had been waiting for quite some time.

Ying Shu glanced once more at Kushina, who was gradually closing in behind him, and sighed.

Kushina had definitely been holding back. Otherwise, with her strength, she could probably have caught him in seconds.

But holding back was nowhere near enough when a Jonin faced Genin... Could she not learn from Minato? Stop at the right point, with just the right amount of force.

It was not as though Ying Shu had not considered using his ultimate move.

He had spent a great deal of chakra, but he could still force something out together with Kakashi and Obito.

But this was not a life-or-death battle. There was no need!

Let's just consider it repayment for that bowl of ramen, Ying Shu comforted himself.

He waved to the other two from afar and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Run! She's about to catch up!"

Life was so merciless to the three boys.

The three of them set out on the run once again. It was laughable—there was nowhere in all of Konoha for them to hide. Truly incredible.

Meanwhile, Kushina felt that she had finally found her rhythm.

"Be harsher on the Shadow Clones, so he understands how vicious enemies can be. Be gentler on the real body, so he can feel his sensei's wife's love~"

"Who would've thought? I'm pretty talented at being a teacher too!"

Kushina was brimming with confidence. She had even decided that she would supervise the three boys' D-rank mission tomorrow as well~

But then, a figure suddenly appeared beside her.

It was Minato, arriving with the Flying Thunder God.

Minato looked somewhat panicked, but when he saw that none of the students were beside Kushina, he immediately sighed in relief.

He put on an indulgent, wry smile and gently tested the waters. "Kushina, how about..."

"Little Ying Shu, that move won't work on me."

As the fist kept growing larger before his eyes—

Minato: "??????"

Kushina: "Huh?"

The little sun had fallen.