Yellow Flash

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

"Looks like there isn't any Aburame Clan jonin after all..."

The Cloud Shinobi jonin who had clearly been dead seemed as though he had not suffered that final fatal blow. Though he was still in a miserable state, his body remained intact as he stared at Kakashi with a savage expression.

His eyes were bloodshot, brimming with cruelty and bloodlust, sending an icy chill through Kakashi's body.

"So you dodged it..."

"What a... pity..."

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

"Don't waste your strength, brat. Thunder Dragon isn't so easy to endure. The foreign lightning chakra that entered your body will paralyze you completely. As someone who practices Lightning Release ninjutsu, you should know that..."

"Accept your death!"

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

Knowing that his body had already reached its limit, Kakashi stopped struggling. For some reason, his gaze became calm at that 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's steps were slow. He had long since exhausted the last of his chakra as well. Withered branches creaked beneath his feet, and the gloomy clouds overhead completely shrouded his silhouette. Slowly, he raised his Kunai. Its sharp blade reflected a frigid gleam that shone into Kakashi's eyes.

An indescribable pleasure at the prospect of release, mingled with fear, made blood rush to Kakashi's head. His eyes were fixed on the Kunai that was about to pierce his body and end his life.

"Die!"

The Cloud Shinobi put his whole body into the strike, driving the Kunai straight toward Kakashi's throat.

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

But they were disappointed...

A spiritual streak of light came at extreme speed, so black it seemed ready to swallow all light. It moved with astonishing speed, as if it encountered no resistance at all. It stirred not the slightest breeze, nor did it emit any chakra fluctuations.

Like a black stream of light from another dimension, it silently passed through the Cloud Shinobi's head before flying into the distance and vanishing.

At the final 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..."

When Kakashi opened his eyes, he saw the Kunai just one centimeter from his head. He could vaguely sense the chill of its sharp blade, yet it had stopped there, completely motionless.

The Cloud Shinobi's face was frozen in its final savage expression, as though his brain had yet to register his body's death. Madness still lingered in his eyes before gradually fading away. Like a ragged sack, he lost all response and collapsed to one side.

Kakashi no longer had the strength to care who had saved him. His entire body went limp as though a breath had escaped him, and the brush with death made him tremble faintly.

Beneath the gloomy sky, he slowly closed his eyes.

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

His consciousness blurred completely. His body seemed to be falling endlessly, and the last remaining light kept fading away. Ever-deepening darkness wrapped around his whole body.

"Kakashi! What happened to you..."

"Rin! Save Kakashi, quickly..."

The last voices he could hear rang out, and Kakashi's consciousness sank fully into darkness.

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

The Cloud Shinobi plan to attack the Sand Shinobi was still underway. 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 goal apparently only to tie down part of Konoha's forces.

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

The camp hidden in the forest was not large. Five similar camps had been set up throughout this woodland, and each had 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 the others, Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, and Fugaku Uchiha studied the reports continuously arriving from the front lines in silence.

Jiraiya frowned deeply. The more wars he fought in, the more he came to dislike war.

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

"As long as we divide and surround the Cloud Shinobi forces, steadily shrink their area of movement, and eliminate the outer Cloud Shinobi squads, we can severely damage their fighting strength..."

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

Through "wife diplomacy," he had established ties with Minato Namikaze, Konoha's newly risen "prominent figure." Fugaku Uchiha understood that only by supporting Jiraiya and helping him ascend to the position of Hokage could the Uchiha Clan slowly change things in peacetime.

Though he had also made moves to run for Hokage, he had long known in his heart that they were merely slogans meant to placate the clan. 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 commander, but he learned quickly, and Jiraiya was very satisfied with his disciple.

Looking at Minato's modest and gentle demeanor, a bold thought suddenly arose in Jiraiya's heart—perhaps Minato was better suited to be Hokage than he was...

Jiraiya had never considered competing with Orochimaru for the position of Hokage. He had never considered becoming Hokage at all.

But he could vaguely tell that Hiruzen Sarutobi did not seem to want to pass the position on to Orochimaru. Instead, he had his eye on Jiraiya.

During this time, Jiraiya had racked his brains trying to figure out how to handle the matter properly, but now enlightenment suddenly struck. The way he looked at Minato grew increasingly warm.

"Orochimaru acts like he doesn't care about anything all day, but he's actually quite petty. If Minato becomes Hokage, he'll still be your junior. Let's see if you'll still have the nerve to hold a grudge against him..."

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

"Jiraiya-sensei?"

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

Seeing Jiraiya's expression shift from grave to grinning in moments, Minato Namikaze could not help but smile softly. Fugaku Uchiha stood quietly to one side, like a deaf and blind man who saw and heard nothing.

"Jiraiya-sensei... Spiral Flash Hurricane Rift Super Blast Sphere has succeeded..."

"It's finally been developed... the Rasengan..."

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

He knew Minato had always lacked a destructive hand-signless ninjutsu suited to his fighting style. He simply had not expected that, at such a crucial moment, the ninjutsu Minato had spent three years developing would succeed so unexpectedly.

"Jiraiya-sensei, it's Spiral Flash Hurricane Rift Super Blast Sphere..."

"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 even geniuses have flaws.

"Uh... all right..."

"Rasengan, huh? It feels like it's missing something..."

Minato scratched his head. However, a small spiraling sphere emitting a deep blue glow slowly appeared in one of his hands. Violent yet compressed chakra was bound within that tiny orb.

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

The violent aura contained within that deep-blue chakra sphere surpassed even most high-level ninjutsu.

But that was not what surprised Fugaku Uchiha. The Uchiha Clan, with its heritage spanning centuries, possessed countless impressive ninjutsu.

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

"Combined with the Flying Thunder God, I think I should be able to split up 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 hidden 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 the same level as the Three Sannin.

"Minato, worthy of being my disciple! Hahaha!"

"Then we'll proceed according to the plan and bring the Cloud Shinobi front to a swift end!"

Jiraiya clapped Minato on the shoulder, instantly filled with heroic spirit as all the gloom of recent days was swept away.

"Yes!"

After leaving the tent, Fugaku Uchiha remained deep in thought. He had long heard of the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God. Paired with such a hand-signless ninjutsu, he could imagine that even a Three-Tomoe Sharingan elite jonin of the Uchiha Clan would likely be unable 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 faint sigh.

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

On the other side of the camp, among dozens of tents shrouded in nightfall, Kato Xu sat quietly inside one of them.

His face was expressionless. He had completely immersed himself in his spiritual world, a realm that seemed like another heaven and earth, boundlessly vast.

Kakashi had been seriously injured, and Minato's squad had temporarily lost its captain. Obito and Rin had gone to visit the severely injured, unconscious Kakashi, leaving Kato Osamu alone in the tent to quietly await the next mission.

Specks of blue light scattered throughout the pitch-black spiritual world, like luminous pearls strewn across black silk, forming a ribbon of dark brocade dotted with starlike blue light.

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

Soul energy, like clouds and mist, separated from the river and continuously flowed into the spiritual body standing at the 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, replenishing the spiritual body more than a hundred meters tall.

After absorbing some spiritual energy, the pitch-black Soul-Extinguishing Blade seemed to become more solid. Kato Xu slowly withdrew from the spiritual space, a trace of dark-blue light flashing through his eyes.

"Soul-Extinguishing Blade..."

With a turn of his palm, a mass of black light, somewhat illusory, slowly emerged into the real world. Though only a threadlike streak of light within it had solidified, 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 allow the Soul-Extinguishing Blade, which was composed entirely of soul energy, to appear in reality 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, can physical energy be as well?"

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

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

The mountains and forests at night were so quiet and peaceful. Wisps of mist rose from the mountain gorge and began to shroud the secluded valley, while light and shadow blended together in the woods.

"Orochimaru-sensei..."

"Will your immortality technique succeed?"

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

A peculiar soul fluctuation suddenly appeared within his perception. A pair of blood-red eyes flashed through the forest. The Uchiha Clan member on watch merely glanced over, confirmed that Kato Xu was a Konoha ninja, and swiftly concealed himself again.

"It's the Sharingan Obito has been obsessing over..."

Kato Xu watched the fleeting red light, and inspiration suddenly struck him, as though he understood something.

"It seems to possess something extraordinary. It isn't merely a bloodline limit..."

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

When Kato Xu woke the next day, he could clearly sense that the atmosphere in the camp had grown tense. It seemed another major change had occurred.

However, Kakashi's absence did not seem to have caused much of an impact. Kato Xu, Obito, and Rin once again followed Minato on missions.

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

The autumn wind swept withered leaves through the forest, gently dropping them between the trees. Their paths differed, yet they seemed to share the same fate. The lives of the Cloud Shinobi, too, came to an abrupt end like fallen leaves.

The wind rustled softly, stirring golden hair.

Minato Namikaze stood atop a large boulder, with Cloud Shinobi corpses strewn all around 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 corpses covering the ground, Minato, normally gentle and handsome, frowned deeply as well. He stared at the remaining Cloud Shinobi, who stood dumbfounded, and said nothing.

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

The trembling genin were merely children in their early teens, about the same age as Kato Xu and the others. They were the only ones still alive on the battlefield.

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

A single squad had penetrated a Cloud Shinobi camp and slaughtered everyone within. Before today, not a single person in the Shinobi World would have believed such a thing possible.

"Just one instant... one instant..."

He stared blankly at the figure atop 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 had appeared like a flash of light, like the scythe of the Shinigami, freely harvesting mortal lives.

"You... can go."

Minato sighed softly. He had expended quite a bit of chakra as well, and these genin could not play much of a role in the war. He could not bring himself to slaughter genin who had already been frightened out of their wits...

Kato Xu's thoughts still lingered on the moment Minato had acted. It was the first time he had truly witnessed the legendary Flying Thunder God. Even his soul perception could not clearly detect Minato's instantaneous disappearance.

The instant the pale-blue chakra sphere appeared, another Cloud Shinobi was reduced to a mangled corpse. Like a gale cutting through wheat stalks, it was unstoppable power.

"If it were me... I would have died too..."

Kato Xu clenched his fists. Looking at Minato's somewhat weary face, he once again understood his own weakness. Compared to these extraordinary ninja, he was like a child.

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

"It's Spiral Flash Hurricane Rift Super Blast Sphere..."

"Too amazing, Minato-sensei! The Rasengan is so strong!"

Obito and Rin slowly recovered from their shock as well. The corpses blanketing the ground had not shaken them much less than they had shaken the Cloud Shinobi genin.

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