The moment the two groups met, Minato Namikaze noticed that Yechen's team was missing two people. Although he already had a guess, he still asked,
"Where are Zh Qing and Yuan Yi?"
"They died," Yechen replied bluntly.
Minato Namikaze sighed at the news, but this was no time to dwell on grief. He asked how things had gone on their end.
Yechen said nothing. The Jonin from the Nara Clan beside him answered,
"All the targets have been eliminated."
"All of them..." Minato Namikaze sounded surprised.
Although the objective of Operation Decapitation was to wipe out the enemy's senior commanders, killing just half of them would have largely accomplished their goal.
To Minato Namikaze, eliminating a third of the Rock Ninja commanders would already have been an impressive achievement. He had never expected them to wipe out the entire enemy command. That result genuinely stunned him.
"Yes," the Nara Clan Jonin confirmed. Then he glanced at Yechen and added,
"We owe much of that to Captain Yechen. Without him, we couldn't have completed the mission so smoothly."
Minato Namikaze gave Yechen a slightly astonished look. Then he recalled Yechen's past achievements, and much of his surprise faded.
No wonder Nara Yijiu pushed so hard to recommend Yechen before the formal meeting. They must have worked very well together.
Setting those thoughts aside, Minato Namikaze looked at the four of them.
"Yechen, Xi, wait here for a moment. I'll take Jinghong and Zao Tai back first."
As he spoke, Minato Namikaze took out a specially made kunai, intending to leave a mark there.
At that moment, Yechen stopped him.
"No need to go to all that trouble. I'll take Jinghong back first."
Under the astonished gazes of the other three, Yechen took Jinghong by the arm and said,
"Relax. Don't resist."