For Konoha at present, two of the Legendary Sannin were still showing up to work on time, the Third Hokage was not yet frail with age, Namikaze Minato was at the height of his prestige, and the Uchiha clan was still intact.
From a purely military standpoint, Konoha was more than capable of suppressing Kumogakure.
Konoha's condition was excellent—its strength could be described as… well—
Not exactly unprecedented, but certainly formidable.
Of course, the awkward part was that this era just so happened to be sandwiched between two generations overflowing with monsters and "cheat-code" individuals.
That much had to be acknowledged.
But regardless, Kumogakure remained Konoha's most dangerous opponent—the strongest enemy of the entire Third Great Ninja War.
Konoha was powerful, but it was a well-rounded village.
Kumogakure, on the other hand, could be summarized in three words:
A pure combat faction.
From the Raikage at the very top to the most ordinary Kumo shinobi at the bottom, this trait was obvious.
Kumogakure excelled at kenjutsu and Lightning Release, but even more terrifying than those was their taijutsu. If it came down to close-quarters combat alone, Kumo could overpower nearly every other village.
That made them extremely difficult to deal with.
After their brutal conflict with Iwagakure, Kumogakure had suffered significant losses. But precisely because of that, on the current battlefield in the Land of Rice Fields, they were fighting with utter desperation.
First, they lost the Third Raikage.
Then, Iwagakure had pushed all the way to the outskirts of their village.
These events forged an atmosphere of "a mourning army that must win" within Kumogakure.
Fight? Fine.
They didn't even need Konoha to kill them.
Before the battle began, they had already prepared themselves mentally to die.
With psychological resolve complete, and bodies hardened to an extreme degree, Kumogakure was in a contradictory state—
Numerically disadvantaged, yet frighteningly strong.
On the front lines where Konoha and Kumo were pressed together at near-zero distance, Kumogakure's suicidal combat style and refusal to retreat caused a surprising outcome.
Even while at a disadvantage, Kumo gained the upper hand in several consecutive engagements after the fighting resumed.
This was a hard bone to chew.
That was why Konoha made the decision to disengage from direct contact along the front—going so far as to temporarily pull back across the entire line, creating distance to reorganize and reclaim the initiative.
At present, Konoha's primary objective was to eliminate the jagged salients of the Kumo front that protruded toward the Land of Fire.
And Minato's squad was tasked with the secondary cleanup after those operations.
Of course, Minato's squad wasn't the only unit assigned to this type of mission.
But their responsibility focused on high-threat targets.
All squads performing similar tasks were elite formations. At minimum, they possessed exceptional reconnaissance ability. To prevent enemies from slipping through and infiltrating Konoha's lines, nearly every squad was equipped with at least one Hyūga clan member with the Byakugan.
Minato's squad was the exception.
They didn't need one.
"Enemy detected. Nine o'clock direction. Distance: twelve hundred meters. One individual… not moving."
Aburame Shibi reported calmly.
Even without a Hyūga, Minato's squad's reconnaissance capability was still top-tier. While they might be slightly weaker in instantaneous detection, in terms of long-range surveillance, Shibi was exceptional.
As he reported, his gaze remained fixed on a small black insect perched on his right index finger.
Though his round sunglasses hid his eyes, Hagoromo was certain—
Shibi was watching through the insect.
Minato nodded and made a hand sign, signaling a direct engagement.
One enemy.
In practice, this meant surrounding the target to prevent surprises—while the actual kill would be handled by Minato alone.
Following Minato's signal, the four of them moved swiftly to encircle the enemy. Throughout the approach, the target did not shift position at all.
At just over one kilometer away, even with stealth and sound suppression, closing the distance for Minato's squad took only moments.
Both Kumogakure and Iwagakure had standing orders:
If the Yellow Flash interferes with a mission, retreat immediately.
In reality, this order was utterly meaningless.
If you could still escape after encountering Minato—
He wouldn't be feared.
It was precisely because you couldn't win and couldn't run that the Yellow Flash of the Leaf had earned his reputation.
Most of the time, Minato spotted the enemy first.
And if both sides detected each other simultaneously?
The odds were even worse.
In short, the chance of discovering Minato, escaping unnoticed, and surviving was infinitesimally small.
This time, the enemy was completely unaware of Minato's squad approaching.
His lack of movement wasn't due to injury—it was deliberate concealment, lying in wait like a hunter.
Unfortunately for him—
He'd encountered a superior one.
To Hagoromo, Minato's attacks always felt effortless. Eliminating an enemy was easier than the approach itself.
The target was hiding in a tree canopy.
Once Minato reached optimal range, he flicked his wrist and threw a Flying Thunder God kunai.
The kunai grazed the enemy's body and embedded itself in the trunk behind him.
For a normal shinobi, the reaction sequence would be:
Feel the attack → glance backward → see it's just a kunai → judge the attacker's direction → turn to look → then decide whether to dodge or counter.
Under ordinary circumstances, that reaction was correct.
But his opponent was Minato.
The instant the enemy turned his gaze—
Minato appeared at the kunai's location.
And that was the end of it.
From the enemy's perspective, he had merely blinked and shifted his focus—
—and Minato had already slit his throat.
No Rasengan needed.
In terms of efficiency, assassination was the optimal form of combat.
And Minato's true terror lay in the fact that even his normal attacks could be considered assassinations.
A shinobi who blurred the line between open combat and silent killing—
That was Namikaze Minato.
The reason he developed the Rasengan as a seal-less technique was likely to match the rhythm of Flying Thunder God combat. Trying to form hand seals while flashing around at extreme speed was simply unrealistic.
The Rasengan was a perfect complement to his teleportation-based offense.
With the ease of eating and drinking, the enemy was eliminated.
The mission continued.
The true difficulty of this mission lay in operating directly under Kumogakure's nose.
Minato's squad was moving laterally along the Kumo front, with large enemy formations nearby. A single mistake could cause the enemy to surge forward, trapping the squad in an encirclement.
Fortunately, Kumogakure's attention was currently focused on Konoha's primary elimination operations.
Not long after dealing with the previous target—almost immediately—Shibi reported again.
This time, however, he halted his steps.
As the squad's eyes and ears, once Shibi stopped, the entire team stopped with him.
"New enemies detected," he said calmly.
"Still very far away…"
Normally, Shibi would prioritize reporting closer targets. Distant enemies rarely warranted immediate attention.
But this time, his tone carried unusual weight.
"There are two enemies."
"I see," Minato replied.
Shibi's emphasis on number, combined with Jiraiya's earlier warning, made the implication obvious.
"The exact situation is unclear," Shibi continued.
"But my kikaichū are… afraid."
"They're experiencing intense fear and aversion."
The moment his words fell, the others exchanged glances.
Two people.
A duo.
A and B?
They hadn't expected to encounter them so soon.
For such high-level threats, Minato's squad would never retreat.
On the contrary—they abandoned lower-priority targets and headed straight toward them.
But when Hagoromo finally saw the pair—
His mood was indescribable.
Like chugging a spoonful of chili paste straight.
He had come prepared to deal with some grizzled veteran.
Instead, he was greeted with this.
What was going on?
Had a valkyrie just landed on the battlefield?
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