The moment the domain opened, countless pale white dotted lines appeared in Mikami Yuu's vision, tracing the puppet's attack paths and weak points. Following those weak points, several key joints connected to chakra strings became perfectly clear.
In that case—
"It's over."
Yuu let out a quiet breath, then drove forward in a sudden step. In the space of a single instant, the short blade in his hand slashed several times in succession. Accompanied by three tearing whistles, the silver flash of the blade cut precisely through the joints of three of the puppet's arms!
After twisting his body slightly to evade the next strike, he cut off the fourth arm at the shoulder joint as well. The curved blade coated in pale green poison missed completely and flew into a nearby tree trunk with a heavy thunk.
"What?!"
"No way—how could—"
The Sand ninja felt his fingers jolt as most of the chakra threads controlling the puppet snapped at once. The puppet, which had been attacking so fluidly a moment ago, instantly went stiff and erratic, as though its bones had been ripped out.
And in his vision, the white-haired boy with the short blade had already stepped on the puppet's shoulder and launched himself through the air, diving at him like a hunting hawk!
Slash!
A flash of cold steel.
A head flew.
Blood sprayed up like a fountain. The headless body swayed once, then collapsed.
On the other side, Rin and Obito had also finished their fight.
Obito hadn't awakened his Sharingan yet, but as an Uchiha, after nearly a year of training and missions, he was still at the level of a fairly standard chūnin. Rin was a little weaker, but not by much. With the two of them working together, they dealt with their opponent without too much danger.
Kakashi, meanwhile, had cut off the last Sand ninja's left arm and pressed the White Fang short blade to his throat.
"Talk. How many infiltrators are in your unit? What's the objective?"
"Heh… damn Konoha ninja… you'll get no information from me!"
The Sand ninja clenched his teeth. Black blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. His body convulsed violently a few times, then went still.
"He bit down on poison."
Kakashi withdrew his blade, expression calm.
As a veteran chūnin with four years on the job, scenes like this weren't exactly routine to him, but they also weren't surprising. Some of the smaller villages had ninja so fanatical they'd strap explosive tags all over their own bodies and turn themselves into living bombs. A simple poison suicide was nothing in comparison.
But for Obito and Rin, both of them froze.
They had already seen blood before while dealing with bandits and thieves, and had even killed people with their own hands. But this felt completely different.
These Sand ninja were, on average, only in their teens. Yet their indifference toward life made both Obito and Rin's hearts pound the first time they witnessed something like this.
At that moment, Minato also stepped out from his hiding place more than ten meters away.
"Yuu, Rin, Obito—are you all alright? Sorry I couldn't show myself earlier. This was something you had to go through yourselves. If I'd stepped in too soon, they probably would've fled at once."
Well, it looked like the name Yellow Flash had already spread across the southwestern battlefield.
What Yuu didn't know was whether that famous order—if you see the Yellow Flash, you may abandon the mission without punishment—had appeared yet.
After that, Minato did his usual quick post-battle review, summarizing each person's strengths and weaknesses.
Obito nearly stepping on the explosive tag was naturally the main point.
That kind of mistake was one of the most common errors made by battlefield newcomers, and one of the biggest reasons fresh rookies died as soon as they entered the war. Learning to constantly observe the battlefield no matter the situation was a required lesson for every ninja.
The truth was, Minato had already been prepared to intervene. It was only because Yuu had moved first and saved Obito that Minato stayed where he was until the battle ended.
"Uh…"
Obito opened his mouth, wanting to defend himself, but couldn't find the right words.
In the end, he could only turn red and blue in the face, then look away and say to Yuu with an awkwardly wandering gaze, "Hey… um… thanks for that, Yuu. That makes twice now! But I'll definitely pay you back!"
Yuu almost said something, then stopped himself.
Honestly, for one brief moment earlier, he really had considered whether he should pretend not to notice and let Obito die there.
But the thought had only flashed through his mind for an instant before he abandoned it.
After all, a named character being blown to death by an explosive tag was a very low-probability event. Even if Yuu had ignored it, Minato and Kakashi definitely would have stepped in. There was almost no way it would have turned into another Nawaki Senju situation. If Obito got hurt but didn't die, Yuu and Rin would probably just have ended up taking care of him.
Too troublesome.
More importantly—
Uchiha Madara was still alive right now, and Obito was the person he had chosen. If Obito died here, there was no telling whether Madara might lose his mind. It was hard to say whether old Madara could kill Minato at his current age, but killing Mikami Yuu would be easy. To avoid running into the final boss before he had even properly started his career, it was better to play it safe for now.
"It was just one little life-saving favor. You don't need to remember it so clearly."
Yuu sheathed his short blade and glanced at Obito, his tone flat. "If you really want to repay me, then just don't stab me in the back over something someday."
"Hah?!"
Obito froze, then exploded. "Yuu, what kind of stupid thing are you saying?! I'm Uchiha Obito, the future Hokage! How could I ever do something like that?! Hurting a comrade? I'd rather die first!"
"Is that so? Good."
Yuu nodded and said no more. He just started cleaning the battlefield with Kakashi, looking for anything useful.
The search didn't turn up much.
All Yuu really got from looting the bodies were more kunai, explosive tags, soldier pills, and similar supplies, which he handed out to Obito and Rin.
Kakashi, as usual, didn't take any.
After a short rest, the team moved out again, cautiously making their way toward the Wildfire City outpost.
Halfway there, they encountered another three-man Sand squad. Yuu and Kakashi both sensed them first and signaled Rin and Obito to stop.
But the Sand side seemed to notice them as well. After pausing briefly at a distance of a hundred or so meters, they withdrew decisively, with no apparent intention of engaging.
Yuu and the others didn't give chase.
About half an hour later, a fortified camp built into the mountainside came into view. It was the same Wildfire City outpost they had briefly stayed at half a year earlier. Only now, after reinforcement, it looked even more imposing and grim.
At the gate, Minato identified himself and responded to a round of password checks before leading Yuu and the others inside. The moment they entered, the smell of gunpowder, sweat, blood, and medicinal herbs hit them all at once.
"Hahaha, Minato! You're finally back, kid!"
A booming, hearty voice rang out, cutting through the camp's heavy atmosphere.
Yuu turned to look and saw a large, powerfully built man with a full head of white hair striding toward them, a broad, easy grin on his face. He wore an open red outer robe and carried a massive scroll on his back.
It was the third of Konoha's Sannin—
"Jiraiya-sensei!"
A smile appeared on Minato's face as he stepped forward to meet him.
~~~
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