His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, as though he were enduring something-or focusing every last ounce of his attention. Deep within his ocean-blue eyes, countless invisible streams of data seemed to flicker at unprecedented speed, calculating and extrapolating.
He seemed to be using these brief, almost extravagantly precious lulls between exchanges to greedily absorb, analyze, and memorize each opponent's preferred attack patterns, habitual rhythms, and distribution of force, as well as the exceedingly subtle yet real coordination habits and ten-thousandths-of-a-second timing differences between the two clones, the original, and the ninja dog.
After another dizzying exchange, he used the powerful recoil from blocking a ferocious, warhammer-like downward punch from Tsume's original body to propel himself backward. As though he had lost all weight, he executed several crisp backflips in succession, his form graceful enough to be a performance.
His movements were fluid and perfectly coordinated. At last, he narrowly escaped that suffocatingly tight ring of attacks once more and landed near the barrier at the edge of the field.
His breathing had inevitably grown a little quick, and fine, glistening beads of sweat seeped from his smooth forehead and along the sides of his nose, sparkling like tiny inset diamonds beneath the blazing sunlight.
Tsume and her two clones also chose that moment to halt their seemingly endless pursuit, facing him once again in an oppressive semicircular formation that constantly made minute adjustments.
With a few light leaps, Kuromaru returned to Tsume's side. His forelegs bent slightly and his body crouched low, still poised to unleash a lethal strike at any moment. His fangs gleamed coldly, a continuous threatening growl rumbled in his throat, and he stared fixedly at Minato, as though searching for his next chance to pounce.
"Time to end the warm-up, wouldn't you say, Minato?" Tsume shook out her wrists, which had grown numb and prickly from the relentless assault. Her face shone with the exhilaration of a satisfying fight, along with unmistakable smugness at having seized the initiative. "You must be tired of all that dodging by now! Let's see if you can still slip away like an eel from this next move! Kuromaru and I have been skipping meals and losing sleep lately just to finally master this combination secret technique! If even this can't beat you outright, then I, Tsume Inuzuka, will admit defeat right here in front of everyone!"
She, the two solid clones beside her, and Kuromaru, poised at her feet, seemed to share a single mind. All of them began rapidly forming a complex, continuous sequence of hand signs at once, their movements perfectly synchronized like mirror images, carrying a strange sense of beauty and power.
Boom!
A chakra presence far wilder, more violent, and more steeped in primal animal ferocity than at any point before suddenly erupted from them, like a vicious beast awakening from its slumber!
Pale blue chakra, visible to the naked eye and almost tangible, coiled violently around their bodies like ignited blue flames, rising and spinning madly!
The ground across the entire training field began to tremble faintly. Small stones and grains of gravel at its center bounced and jolted uncontrollably, while some of the finer dust slowly rose into the air as though defying gravity, swept aloft by that powerful chakra field.
"Fang Over Fang!"
With a powerful, savage shout that rang out like a four-part chorus, Tsume, her two clones, and Kuromaru-whose chakra was so tightly linked with hers that they had almost become one-began spinning at unprecedented speed amid a sudden burst of dazzling chakra light, like four tops whipped by an invisible, tremendous force!
In an instant, their speed rose to the absolute limit their bodies could withstand, transforming them into four ferocious, deep blue tornadoes carrying countless clods of dust, scraps of grass, and bits of gravel!
These four enormous tornadoes did not charge about at random. Exquisite tactical links and resonating energy bound them together like a military formation. With a terrifying momentum that seemed capable of destroying every obstacle and pulverizing all matter before them, they approached from slightly different angles with minutely precise timing differences. Like intelligent, living beasts of destruction, they completely sealed off every possible route Minato could take backward, sideways, or even in a low leap. Like four ancient blue beasts roaring with their bloody maws wide open, they converged savagely on the spot where he stood, leaving him no room whatsoever to escape their grinding assault!
Incomparably sharp blasts of air and residual chakra plowed deep furrows through the ground. The raging wind whipped up still larger, denser clouds of dust, forming a small sandstorm. Even the spectators near the front rows could not help squinting and instinctively leaning back, shielding their faces with their hands against the almost suffocating pressure and fine grit striking them head-on.
"Here it comes! It's the Inuzuka Clan's famous combination ninjutsu-Fang Over Fang!" an older student with somewhat broader knowledge, perhaps having heard an elder in his family mention it, cried out involuntarily, his voice trembling. After all, not every class at the Ninja Academy was an elite class like Class A, where prodigies from every background gathered.
"That much chakra... that spinning speed and destructive power... there's no way anyone could dodge it through physical ability alone!"
"It's over! Namikaze's really done for this time! If any one of those catches him, his bones will be ground to pieces in an instant!"
"It's finished! The outcome's decided!"
Cries of alarm, incredulous gasps, and premature declarations rose one after another from the stands, which had erupted into an uproar. Nearly every spectator, whether they understood ninjutsu or not, was deeply shaken by the visual and psychological impact of this jointly executed secret clan technique, whose power and momentum far exceeded those of an ordinary genin and even approached the threshold of a chunin.
Those four gigantic, deep blue whirlwinds of death and destruction occupied and dominated almost half the training field. The violent chakra turbulence spilling from them formed invisible shock waves, making even those watching near the barrier at the field's edge feel a distinct pain, as though countless tiny, cold needles were continually pricking their skin.
To them, the blue figure still standing quietly on the field, looking impossibly frail, tiny, and alone beside those four colossal forces, had already been driven into an absolute dead end with no hope of survival. His defeat, and perhaps even his life or death, seemed certain to be decided in the next second.
The four deadly whirlwinds tore through the air with terrifying, deafening howls. The dust they whipped up almost swallowed Minato's figure. In the very next instant, that tiny figure looked set to be engulfed completely by this savage blue force of nature and torn to shreds-
At that critical instant, with the outcome about to be decided and even time seeming to freeze-
Minato finally moved.
Once again, his movements unfolded in a way that surpassed everyone's imagination and understanding.
He did not attempt to retreat at full speed-even though that seemed to be his only path to survival, a human's instantaneous burst of speed could never outpace Fang Over Fang once it had accelerated to its limit, becoming like genuine tornadoes.
Nor did he dodge toward the fleeting gaps to his left and right that seemed to open as the whirlwinds moved-those were merely death traps deliberately left open before the forces of the whirlwinds interwove, tempting him to venture deeper. The even more violent whirlwinds sweeping in behind them would drag him straight into their cores, only making him die faster.
Before you continue