Yellow Flash

"What a formidable little brat. I almost died..."

"So there was no Aburame Clan jonin after all..."

The Cloud Shinobi jonin, who had clearly been dead, seemed untouched by the final fatal blow. Though he was still in a wretched state, the rest of his body was intact. He stared at Kakashi with a savage expression.

His eyes were bloodshot, brimming with cruelty and bloodlust, and Kakashi's entire body turned icy cold.

"So you dodged it..."

"What a... pity..."

Watching the Cloud Shinobi stagger toward him, Kakashi struggled, but his body seemed no longer under his command. It twitched, yet he could not stand no matter what he did.

"Don't waste your strength, brat. A Thunder Dragon isn't so easy to withstand. The foreign lightning Chakra that invades your body will paralyze you from head to toe. As someone who practices Lightning Release ninjutsu, you should know that..."

"Just die obediently!"

"So that's how it is... Fine. I'll just die like this..."

Knowing that his body could no longer bear the burden, Kakashi stopped struggling. For some reason, his gaze became calm at this moment. As he watched the Cloud Shinobi approach step by step, his eyes seemed to pass through the man's body and drift toward some unknown distance.

The Cloud Shinobi moved slowly. He had long since exhausted the last of his Chakra. Withered branches creaked beneath his feet, while the gloomy clouds overhead swallowed his silhouette completely. He slowly raised his kunai, its sharp edge reflecting a chilling gleam into Kakashi's eyes.

An indescribable sense of impending release, mixed with fear, made the blood rush to Kakashi's head. His eyes remained fixed on the kunai that was about to pierce his body and end his life.

"Die!"

The Cloud Shinobi put his entire body into the strike, driving the kunai straight for Kakashi's throat.

The air throughout the forest seemed to freeze all at once. The clouds in the sky and the water on the ground stood perfectly still, as though all of them were holding their breath to witness the passing of a living life.

But they were disappointed...

A streak of spiritual light arrived at extreme speed, black as though it would absorb all light. It moved so astonishingly fast that it seemed to encounter no resistance at all, stirring neither the slightest sound of wind nor any Chakra fluctuation.

Like a black stream of light from another dimension, it silently passed through the Cloud Shinobi's skull, then flew toward the horizon and vanished.

At the last moment, Kakashi had been unable to stop himself from closing his eyes. His heart pounded violently, yet he felt none of the pain he had expected.

"I... I'm not dead..."

Kakashi opened his eyes and looked at the kunai just one centimeter from his head. He could faintly feel the coldness of its sharp, frost-covered blade, yet it had stopped there, utterly motionless.

The Cloud Shinobi's face froze in its final savage expression, as though his brain had not yet registered his body's death. Madness still lingered in his eyes before slowly fading away. Like a ragged sack, he lost all reaction and collapsed to one side.

Kakashi no longer had the strength to care who had saved him. His whole body suddenly went limp, as though all the air had escaped him. Having come within a hair's breadth of death, he trembled faintly.

Beneath the overcast sky, he slowly closed his eyes.

"So... I'm afraid of death too..."

His consciousness completely blurred. His body seemed to be falling endlessly, while the last remaining light kept fading, until deepening darkness wrapped around his entire body.

"Kakashi! What happened to you..."

"Rin! Save Kakashi, quickly..."

The final voices he heard rang out, and Kakashi's consciousness sank completely into darkness.

"I'm sorry. I probably can't go see you for now..."

The Cloud Shinobi's plan to attack the Sand Shinobi continued. Jiraiya was stationed at Konoha's border, and after clashing with the Cloud Shinobi several times, he had noticed something was wrong.

There was almost no large-scale fighting. Every Cloud Shinobi squad seemed to be playing hide-and-seek with Konoha, their purpose apparently only to tie down part of Konoha's fighting force.

"Minato, Fugaku, we can't go on like this. We must take the initiative and force the Cloud Shinobi into a decisive battle! End the Cloud Shinobi battlefield quickly..."

The concealed camp in the forest was not large. Five similar camps had been set up throughout this woodland, and each contained members of the Yamanaka Clan serving as communication hubs. Orders from across the battlefield could be relayed to every command center in an instant.

Inside the camp, within a tent that looked no different from any other, Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, and Fugaku Uchiha looked over the information continuously arriving from the front lines and fell silent.

Jiraiya frowned deeply. The more wars he took part in, the more he disliked war.

"Lord Jiraiya! The Uchiha Clan has already spread throughout the forest according to the original plan. Countless traps have been secretly deployed on the three highlands of Suiping Mountain, High-Gap Mountain, and Shallow Field Mountain..."

"As long as we divide and encircle the Cloud Shinobi forces, steadily shrink their operational territory, and clear out the Cloud Shinobi squads around the perimeter, we can deal a severe blow to their living forces..."

Fugaku Uchiha looked at Minato Namikaze, then at Jiraiya. He knew Konoha's upper ranks had always been excluding the Uchiha Clan, but the two men before him held some goodwill toward the clan.

Through "diplomacy between wives," he had established ties with Minato Namikaze, this newly risen "Konoha dignitary." Fugaku Uchiha understood that only by supporting Jiraiya and helping him ascend to the position of Hokage could the Uchiha Clan gradually change things in peacetime.

Although he had made gestures toward running for Hokage himself, he had long known in his heart that they were merely slogans meant to placate his clansmen. He had no chance at all...

"Jiraiya-sensei, I think... I should be able to do that."

This was Minato Namikaze's first time serving as a ninja at the command level, but he learned quickly, and Jiraiya was very satisfied with his disciple.

Looking at Minato's modest, gentle appearance, a bold thought suddenly surfaced in Jiraiya's heart—perhaps Minato was more suited to becoming Hokage than he was...

Jiraiya had never thought of competing with Orochimaru for the position of Hokage. He had never thought of becoming Hokage either.

Yet he could vaguely tell that Hiruzen Sarutobi did not seem to want to pass the position to Orochimaru. Instead, his teacher had set his sights on him.

During this time, he had racked his brains over how to handle the matter properly. But now, he suddenly saw the light, and the way he looked at Minato became increasingly kind.

"Orochimaru spends all day pretending he doesn't care about anything, but he's actually quite petty. If Minato becomes Hokage, he'll still be your junior. Let's see if you'll have the nerve to stay angry with him then..."

The more Jiraiya thought about it, the more he felt that he was a genius for coming up with such a perfect solution.

"Jiraiya-sensei?"

"Huh? Oh... what did you just say, Minato?"

Watching Jiraiya's expression shift from solemn to amused, Minato Namikaze could not help smiling softly. Fugaku Uchiha stood quietly to one side, like a deaf and blind man who saw and heard nothing.

"Jiraiya-sensei... Spiral Flash Super Round Dance Howl Style Three has succeeded..."

"You finally developed it... the Rasengan..."

At Minato's words, Jiraiya's gaze sharpened slightly.

He knew Minato had always lacked a powerful, hand-sign-free ninjutsu suited to his fighting style. He simply had not expected the technique Minato had been developing for three years to succeed at such a crucial moment.

"Jiraiya-sensei, it's Spiral Flash Super Round Dance Howl Style Three..."

"Minato, you really are a genius at developing ninjutsu. Let me see what the Rasengan truly looks like..."

"Jiraiya-sensei, it's..."

"Rasengan!"

Jiraiya looked at Minato and sighed inwardly. It seems geniuses have flaws too.

"Uh... all right..."

"Rasengan... It still feels like something is missing."

Minato scratched his head, but a small spiraling sphere glowing azure gradually appeared in one of his hands. Violent yet tightly compressed Chakra was bound within that tiny orb.

Fugaku Uchiha stood nearby, looking at Minato Namikaze with a trace of surprise, as though seeing him anew.

The violent aura contained within that azure Chakra sphere surpassed even the vast majority of high-level ninjutsu.

Yet that was not why Fugaku Uchiha was surprised. The Uchiha Clan, with its inheritance spanning centuries, possessed countless praiseworthy ninjutsu.

But among them, there was not a single ninjutsu that required no hand signs!

"With the Flying Thunder God, I think I should be able to divide the Cloud Shinobi battlefield..."

Minato Namikaze wore his signature gentle smile, but in Fugaku Uchiha's eyes, it was the first time he had sensed the extraordinary brilliance concealed beneath that mild expression.

For the first time, he elevated Minato Namikaze in his mind from Jiraiya's disciple, a newcomer favored by the Third Hokage, and one of Konoha's Elite Jonin, to someone on the same level as the Three Legendary Sannin.

"Minato, as expected of my disciple! Hahaha!"

"Then we'll proceed according to the plan and end the Cloud Shinobi battlefield quickly!"

Jiraiya patted Minato's shoulder, instantly filled with heroic spirit as all the gloom of the past several days was swept away.

"Yes!"

Even after leaving the tent, Fugaku Uchiha remained deep in thought. He had long heard of the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God. Combined with such a hand-sign-free ninjutsu, he could imagine that even a Three-Tomoe Sharingan Elite Jonin of the Uchiha Clan would likely struggle to withstand a single exchange with Minato Namikaze.

Fugaku Uchiha walked alone through the night, gazing at the stars filling the sky. He gently touched his eyes and let out a soft sigh.

Bright moonlight decorated the earth through the autumn night sky. The dense stars were merely tiny sparks rippling through the pitch-black night, even if what they shone with was crimson blood...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the camp, within one of the dozens of tents shrouded by night, Kato Osamu sat quietly.

His face was expressionless, and his entire being had sunk into his spiritual world, a realm as boundless as another heaven and earth.

Kakashi was seriously injured, and Team Minato had temporarily lost its captain. Obito and Rin had gone to visit the badly wounded, unconscious Kakashi, leaving only him sitting quietly in the tent, waiting for the next mission.

Starlike blue light scattered throughout the utterly black spiritual world, like luminous pearls strewn over black silk, forming a dark brocade dotted with blue starlight.

It was also like a river of black smoke and clouds, flowing slowly around the spirit body wielding a long blade, strand by strand stripping away the mist.

Cloudlike, mistlike soul energy separated from the long river and continuously entered the spirit body standing at the very center of the spiritual world. The entire body began to emit a faint blue glow.

The souls devoured by the Soul-Extinguishing Blade were broken down here into pure soul energy, filling the spirit body more than a hundred meters tall.

After absorbing some spiritual energy, the black Soul-Extinguishing Blade seemed to become slightly more solid. Kato Osamu slowly withdrew from the spiritual space, and a faint dark-blue gleam flashed through his eyes.

"Soul-Extinguishing Blade..."

He turned his palm, and a mass of black, somewhat illusory light slowly emerged in the real world. Though only a thread-thin streak of light had solidified within it, it had truly appeared in reality.

"I still need more advanced Sealing Jutsu. This is already the limit..."

The Sealing Jutsu Orochimaru had given him was only the most basic foundation. Being able to barely make the Soul-Extinguishing Blade, which was composed entirely of soul energy, appear in the real world was already its limit.

"Chakra is extracted by combining spiritual energy—that is, soul energy—with physical energy. If spiritual energy can be manifested on its own, then can physical energy be manifested as well?"

Kato Osamu did not know how to do it, but he knew someone who should have some ideas.

He slowly walked out of the tent and looked in Konoha's direction.

The mountain forest at night was so tranquil and peaceful. Wisps of mist rose from the mountain gorge and began to blanket the secluded valley, while light and shadow mingled among the trees.

"Orochimaru-sensei..."

"Will your Immortality Technique succeed?"

After standing silently for a long while, Kato Osamu's eyes shifted slightly.

A peculiar soul fluctuation suddenly entered his perception. A pair of blood-red eyes flashed through the forest, and the Uchiha Clan member standing watch merely glanced at him. After confirming Kato Osamu's identity as a Konoha ninja, he swiftly concealed himself again.

"So this is the Sharingan Obito has been longing for..."

Kato Osamu looked at the fleeting red gleam, and inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind, as though he had understood something.

"It seems to possess something extraordinary as well. It isn't merely a bloodline trait..."

"This is the perfect fusion of spiritual energy and a human organ..."

When Kato Osamu woke the next day, he could clearly sense that the atmosphere in the camp had become tense, as though some major change had occurred.

However, Kakashi's absence did not seem to have had much impact. Kato Osamu, Obito, and Rin once again followed Minato to carry out missions.

But the first time Minato Namikaze made a move in front of Kato Osamu, Kato Osamu instantly understood Danzo's foresight. Perhaps the person in all of Konoha who understood Hiruzen Sarutobi best was this Root leader hidden in Konoha's darkness.

The autumn wind swept withered leaves gently down among the trees. Their paths were different, yet they seemed to share the same fate. The lives of the Cloud Shinobi also came to an abrupt end like fallen leaves.

The wind brushed past with a soft rustle, stirring golden hair.

Minato Namikaze stood atop a large boulder, with the corpses of Cloud Shinobi piled beneath him. Whether Genin, Chunin, or even Jonin, the moment they saw him, it was as though they had been sentenced to death.

Looking at the bodies littering the ground, Minato, normally gentle and handsome, frowned deeply as well. He stared silently at the remaining, dumbfounded Cloud Shinobi without saying a word.

"This... this is impossible... How can there be someone like this? How can there be a ninjutsu like this..."

The trembling Genin was only a child in his teens, around the same age as Kato Osamu and the others. Across the entire battlefield, only they were still alive.

The corpses all over the ground exuded a suffocating aura of death. The young Cloud Shinobi standing at the front slowly let the kunai in his hand fall to the ground. Its crisp clatter seemed to shatter his mental defenses completely.

A single squad had penetrated deep into a Cloud Shinobi camp and slaughtered everyone within. Before today, no one in the Shinobi World would have believed such a thing possible.

"Just an instant... just an instant..."

He stared blankly at the figure on the boulder, his lips trembling as though he wanted to say something but could not force out the words. In the end, only two words slowly escaped his mouth.

"Yellow... Flash..."

He appeared like a flash of light, like the Shinigami's scythe, wantonly reaping mortal lives.

"You... can go."

Minato sighed softly. He had spent a considerable amount of Chakra as well. These Genin could not play much of a role in this war, and he could not bring himself to slaughter Genin who had already been scared out of their wits...

Kato Osamu's thoughts remained fixed on the moment Minato had attacked. This was the first time he had truly witnessed the legendary Flying Thunder God, and even his soul perception could not clearly sense Minato's instantaneous disappearance.

The instant the pale-blue Chakra sphere appeared, a Cloud Shinobi became a mangled corpse. Like a gale cutting through wheat stalks, it was an irresistible force.

"If it were me... I would die too..."

Kato Osamu clenched his fist and looked at Minato's slightly weary face. Once more, he understood his own weakness. Compared to these extraordinary ninja, he was like a child.

"Minato-sensei... your Rasengan finally succeeded!"

"It's Spiral Flash Super Round Dance Howl Style Three..."

"That's amazing, Minato-sensei! The Rasengan is so powerful!"

Obito and Rin gradually recovered from their shock as well. The corpses scattered across the ground had not shaken them much less than they had shaken the Cloud Shinobi Genin.

Though they were still smiling, Kato Osamu inexplicably sensed a trace of fear in Obito and Rin's emotions...