Although Mikami Yuu didn't have the Wind affinity required to synthesize Scorch Release,
his Great Fireball could raise temperature, and his Phoenix Sage Fire could explode. If he combined those two traits… wouldn't that be pretty close to Scorch Release?
Come to think of it, couldn't Great Fireball and Phoenix Sage Fire move on their own a little and produce some kind of "sister bowl" bond? Why did everything require him, the "head of the household," to worry about it? Come on, let me see your limits!
[Great Fireball Jutsu: ?]
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: ?]
Since the battle in front of him wasn't over yet, Mikami Yuu only let the thought flash by. Then he took a deep breath and clasped his hands together again, preparing to form seals for a Great Dragon Fire, to see if he could force Pakura to reveal more Scorch Release techniques.
That move just now, Corona, probably still wasn't her limit.
Right then,
two familiar chakra fluctuations approached rapidly from a distance, drawing Mikami Yuu's attention.
"This is…"
It was Namikaze Minato and Obito.
Although Kakashi and Rin hadn't fired a signal flare, the clash between Yuu and Pakura's ninjutsu had caused far too much commotion. Minato and Obito's patrol area also wasn't that far away, and with Minato's sensory ability, he had clearly noticed and was rushing in this direction.
Through the gaps in the trees, Yuu could vaguely see a noisy spiky-haired figure and a flash of bright golden hair.
This sight made Pakura, who had still been hesitating between fighting and retreating, immediately make her decision. She threw a smoke bomb onto the ground and turned to flee—she had infiltrated secretly to begin with. Now her identity had been exposed, and the fight had already caused such a huge disturbance. If the enemy surrounded her, she wouldn't be able to escape.
Seeing this, Kakashi tried to intercept her with his blade, but Pakura released three or four Scorch Release fireballs while running, forcing him back.
Taking advantage of the firelight from the explosions, Pakura rapidly swept past the cloaked man, grabbed him up, and shouted "Run!" toward the more distant black-haired spiky-headed man. Then she fled straight into the depths of the forest without looking back.
The black-haired spiky-headed man wanted to run too.
But he was already injured. The moment he climbed up, Kakashi caught up with him and slammed the back of his blade into the man's nape, knocking him flat on his face.
"Rin, this one's yours… Don't let him escape!"
Kakashi threw out those words and kept chasing after Pakura and the cloaked man, apparently intending to take them all in one go.
On the other side,
Mikami Yuu didn't worry about Kakashi.
Although Kakashi's raw stats were lower than Pakura's, the difference was only about half a tier. Now that he had seen Scorch Release and was on guard against it, it would be hard to settle the fight in a short time. And with Pakura carrying someone, she wouldn't be in the mood to keep fighting anyway. The worst result was simply that Kakashi wouldn't catch her.
So,
Mikami Yuu leisurely walked over to the spiky-haired man, crouched down, tested his breathing, then pried open his mouth to inspect it. He knocked out one molar that looked like it had poison hidden inside, and only then did green light begin glowing from his hands.
Healing Technique.
—Pakura's team had come with unclear intentions, and they even knew the code phrase Konoha had agreed on ahead of time. If they could capture someone alive, that was obviously best, since they could interrogate him for intelligence.
The problem was that this guy's injuries were pretty serious, and whether he could be saved was still uncertain. But even if he died, it didn't matter. In the ninja world, corpses could talk too. When the time came, Minato could seal him up and bring him back to Wildfire City, then find a Yamanaka ninja to read his memories.
With Minato's Flying Thunder God, he should be able to get the body there while it was still warm.
Soon,
Minato and Obito appeared.
The moment Obito arrived, he was shocked by the huge charred pit on the ground and the traces of fire spreading through the surrounding forest.
Minato only glanced around once before roughly piecing together what had happened. He moved beside Mikami Yuu with a Body Flicker.
"Yuu, Rin, are you two okay? Where's Kakashi?"
"He went after the Suna ninja."
Yuu said.
"…Stay here and don't move. I'll go bring him back."
Minato frowned and immediately created a shadow clone to stay behind, while his real body chased after Kakashi.
At that moment, Rin also came over to Mikami Yuu's side, green medical chakra glowing in her palms as she treated the captive with him.
Before long,
the spiky-haired man's external wounds were mostly healed, though he still hadn't woken up.
Yuu didn't mind.
Rin then moved closer, looking pained as she placed both hands over Yuu's arm, treating the burns he had received from the explosive tags when he saved her earlier.
"Yuu-kun, are you really alright? Were you hurt? It's all my fault. I was too careless!"
"It's fine. Just surface burns. What about you? You were stabbed a few times just now, right? Want me to check?"
"I-I'm fine too. Just superficial wounds."
Rin hurriedly waved her hands, her cheeks flushing slightly.
That blush came from two things. First, Yuu's concern made her heart feel warm. Second, the place she had been hurt was close to her chest, just below her right collarbone. Although medical ninjutsu could theoretically work through clothing, it was still a sensitive area.
At that moment,
Obito finally came running over noisily, looking around at the traces of battle as he ran.
"Hey, hey, what exactly happened here? What did you guys do to make such a huge mess… and what's with that big crater? Did a meteor fall here?!"
"…How would there be a meteor? That was left behind when Yuu fought that Suna ninja. Her Fire Release was very special."
Rin glanced at Obito and explained.
Still, Rin could understand why Obito thought that.
After all, the sight of Mikami Yuu and Pakura clashing with ninjutsu just now had truly been shocking. Even she, who had witnessed it firsthand, still felt lingering fear, much less Obito, who hadn't seen the battle.
As for that crater, twenty or thirty meters wide, with its bottom and edges covered in black glass-like scorch marks, it really did resemble a small meteor crater. And with the many trees within a hundred meters burned dry and dead, it looked as if heavenly fire had fallen.
"The Suna kunoichi you mentioned should be Pakura."
Minato's shadow clone thought for a moment and said, "Sunagakure has produced several geniuses in recent years. The most famous is Chiyo's grandson, Sasori of the Red Sand, who specializes in puppet techniques. After him are Rasa and Pakura, who possess the kekkei genkai known as Magnet Release and Scorch Release respectively. The latter is somewhat like an advanced form of Fire Release.
"In the past few months, many Konoha ninja have encountered them and suffered losses at their hands. If you meet them again, you must be extremely careful."
"Oh."
Mikami Yuu nodded.
Judging from his own feeling just now, the current Pakura should be around the normal level of a jōnin. Setting aside Extremely Steaming Murder, which could kill people on first encounter if they didn't understand it, her other abilities weren't too different from an ordinary jōnin's.
However, considering that in the original story she was known as a "Hero of Sunagakure," someone Kirigakure specifically demanded as a bargaining chip and whom Rasa personally sold out, her peak strength was probably close to elite jōnin. Right now, due to her age, she hadn't yet fully matured.
So…
If he got the chance, he could fight her again and see what other methods Scorch Release had yet to reveal, so he could study its principles more deeply and apply them to his own Fire Release.
Yuu thought this to himself.
On the other side,
Obito was still immersed in shock.
He had always known Mikami Yuu was strong, but what he saw now had already exceeded his original understanding. Could a clash of ninjutsu really create this much destruction? Was this still a chūnin-level fight? No, wait, they hadn't even taken the chūnin exams yet. They were still genin…
Damn it… they were all genin who had gone through five years of Ninja Academy education, so why were you so outstanding? And the gap was still getting wider…
Was that reasonable?
Obito rubbed his eyes hard. He felt a strange sourness there, along with a faint sting, though it wasn't very obvious.
He didn't pay it much mind. Only belatedly did he think of the term Minato had just used.
"Oh right, Minato-sensei, what's a 'kekkei genkai'?"
"?"
Minato froze.
This… wasn't this something taught in the second or third year of the Ninja Academy? You've been a genin for a whole year and you're asking me this now? And the Sharingan you're always thinking about is a kekkei genkai, you know?
Fortunately, Rin was kind-hearted and gave Obito a quick explanation.
At that point,
Minato's real body returned with Kakashi.
No third person was with them, so it looked like they hadn't caught up.
Fortunately, Yuu's side had captured one alive, and there was still the bald man's corpse back on the battlefield. Though since he hadn't exactly gotten out of the way when Yuu and Pakura fought, he was probably in pieces by now.
"Minato-sensei, the appearance of this squad is suspicious. Besides Pakura, their overall strength was very high, and they knew Oborozuki Castle's code phrase. They may have stolen other, even more important intelligence. I think this requires further investigation."
Kakashi raised an idea similar to Yuu's.
Minato nodded. "You're right. This needs to be reported back to the main camp as soon as possible."
After a brief discussion,
Minato decided to take the spiky-haired prisoner back to Wildfire City and find a Yamanaka ninja to search his memory. Mikami Yuu and the others would remain here.
"I should be back within a day or two. During this time, avoid combat as much as possible. Two of the enemy escaped, so they may bring your information back and trigger a response from Suna. Be careful not to fall into their traps."
Before leaving, Minato warned them.
"Understood."
Mikami Yuu and Kakashi nodded.
Minato was also very decisive. With a flash of white light, he used Flying Thunder God and left with the prisoner, leaving only the grass trembling faintly behind.
After that,
Yuu's group briefly cleaned up the battlefield, then left the area to get something to eat first.
According to the order they had drawn lots for earlier, it was Obito's turn to prepare the meal today.
…
Outside the Suna camp, the wind howled.
Several Suna chūnin were making their routine patrol along the outer perimeter of the camp. Suddenly, one of them stopped and pointed toward the distant sand.
"Hey, look over there. Isn't that one of our village's ninja?"
"?"
Several gazes turned in that direction. They saw an orange figure carrying another person covered in blood—unclear whether alive or dead—staggering toward them at high speed.
When she drew closer, the Suna ninja recognized her. It was the Scorch Release genius they knew well—
Pakura.
"Lady Pakura! What happened to you…"
"Quick. Take Kouji to the medical team. Tell Yashamaru to do everything he can to keep him alive!"
Pakura spoke rapidly.
After the long dash back, she looked extremely battered. Her combat outfit was torn in multiple places, and her once-neat short orange hair was now disheveled. But her voice carried unquestionable authority—as a jōnin, her power over chūnin and genin was absolute.
"Yes!"
The two Suna ninja didn't dare delay. They immediately took the severely wounded, unconscious cloaked man, Tanaka Kouji, and rushed toward the medical tent in the center of the camp.
Pakura stayed where she was, gasping for a moment to calm her churning blood and breath. Only then did she turn and walk with slightly heavy steps toward the main command tent.
A few minutes later,
inside the main tent,
Pakura stood before a large, stern-faced Suna jōnin.
"Lord Ishikawa, the mission… failed."
"Hm?"
Ishikawa Tetsugan was currently one of Sunagakure's most elite jōnin, and also the frontline commander for this military operation against Konoha. Hearing Pakura's words, he moved his gaze away from the strategic map on the table and studied her battered appearance. His eyes sharpened.
"Report in detail."
"This is what happened…"
Pakura began reporting the mission from the start: how they had cooperated with an insider to take Oborozuki Castle, how they had used the castle's code phrase to ambush several Konoha patrols, and how they had then encountered that strange genin squad in the forest, leading to a bloody battle in which one member of her team died, one was captured, and one was critically wounded…
"…That white-haired Konoha brat is extremely strong. In Fire Release alone, he already has jōnin-level ability. He also possesses a strange and unpredictable Body Flicker technique and extremely sharp swordsmanship…
"I suspect that brat may be a student of the 'Yellow Flash,' which would explain that movement technique. And before I left, I did see a golden-haired figure, but it was too far away to confirm whether it was Konoha's Yellow Flash…
"In any case, the mission failed. I did everything I could and only managed to bring Tanaka Kouji back… I await your punishment, Lord Ishikawa."
How should one put it…
This failure could actually have been avoided.
As long as Pakura hadn't gotten greedy at that moment and had retreated before clashing with Mikami Yuu's group, it would have been fine. Against ordinary Konoha squads, she could easily dominate them.
But…
who could have expected that?
It was clearly a three-person squad full of children. How could they possibly be that strong?
Now, the mission had failed, her squad was damaged, and the intelligence about Oborozuki Castle's fall had been exposed early. This was without a doubt a heavy blow to Suna's later tactical deployment. Even though there were objective reasons for what happened, Pakura could only lower her head and prepare to accept punishment.