Whoosh—!
A flash of golden light.
Namikaze Minato vanished instantly.
The next moment, he appeared less than half a meter in front of Chiyo—right on the back of the defensive puppet, Salamander!
As it turned out, during their earlier probing close-range exchange, Minato had already left an almost imperceptible Flying Thunder God formula on Salamander's shell. He had simply never activated it during the later clashes—until now.
The kunai screamed through the air, stabbing straight toward Chiyo's wrinkled throat.
"What?!"
Chiyo was genuinely shocked.
In that split second, she could only rely on the body instincts she had trained through decades of battle. She jerked backward, doing everything she could to avoid the kunai, while exerting force through both hands to command the three Chikamatsu puppets beside her to protect her.
Those three puppets were the uniquely shaped Buddha, Dharma, and Monk. The mechanisms in their chests suddenly opened, erupting with terrifying suction aimed directly at the nearby Minato.
"Three Jewels Suction Crushing!"
This technique was a Wind Release jutsu with sealing properties. The instant it activated, it created a violent gale that frantically sucked in everything around it. Because of that, Minato's movement shifted slightly. The kunai that had been aimed at Chiyo's throat ended up cutting across her left arm instead.
Shhk!
Blood sprayed out in a line.
Seeing that his attempt at an instant kill had failed, Minato didn't linger. His figure turned into golden light again, and with another Flying Thunder God mark he had placed farther away, he instantly escaped the terrifying suction range of Three Jewels Suction Crushing.
"Ugh!"
Chiyo groaned, feeling the sharp pain from her arm, and her heart sank.
Minato's Flying Thunder God kunai had been forged with chakra-conducting metal. That strike hadn't been a simple taijutsu slash; it carried Wind Release properties. The wound it created was far deeper than it looked on the surface, already reaching bone.
Chiyo's willpower was enough to endure the pain, but for a ninja like her—one who relied on precise chakra threads to control puppets—an injury like this was a fatal disruption. Under these conditions, controlling thirteen puppets as smoothly as if they were her own limbs was no longer realistic.
Even uninjured, Chiyo had needed to go all out just to keep Minato from assassinating her at close range.
Now that he had taken the initiative, if she kept dragging this out, her old bones might really be buried here.
"…Damn it!"
A trace of unwillingness flashed through Chiyo's eyes, but she made her decision immediately. She controlled one of her puppets and had it smash a purple-black sphere into the ground.
Boom!
An extremely dense cloud of purple-black smoke erupted.
The smoke spread rapidly, giving off a pungent mixture of sulfur and unknown poison. It covered everything within a hundred meters, completely blocking vision.
"Go!"
Using the smoke as cover, Chiyo drew all the Chikamatsu puppets around herself, tightly surrounding her and forming a moving fortress as she fled desperately toward the region occupied by Sunagakure. As for Salamander, which had been marked by Minato's formula, and the slow-moving Black Ant, she abandoned them outright.
Minato reappeared at the edge of the purple-black smoke, brows slightly furrowed. He did not recklessly charge inside. Instead, he formed hand seals and released Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.
Whoosh—!
A powerful gale blew away most of the purple-black poison smoke, revealing the ravaged clearing beneath. Broken puppet parts and severed chakra threads were scattered across the ground, but Chiyo and the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets were already gone.
"…As expected of a Suna elder who once fought Jiraiya-sensei. A pity I couldn't keep her here."
Minato lightly exhaled, his tone carrying a trace of regret.
If he had been able to kill or capture Chiyo in this battle, the blow to Sunagakure would have been enormous. It might even have been enough to make Suna surrender without another fight.
But since the first strike had failed, continuing the pursuit would be troublesome. Considering that Kakashi and the others were still in difficult fights, and that he might need to quickly pull away to support the intercepted reinforcement force, Minato could only give up on chasing her and wait for another opportunity.
This time, they had been the ones schemed against, yet they had still annihilated the elite force the enemy brought with them. That was already a solid result. There was no need to try to finish everything in a single battle.
So,
Minato turned his gaze toward Mikami Yuu, and the gentle smile returned to his face.
"Yuu, excellent work. You actually captured Pakura on your own. At this point, you likely already possess jōnin-level strength."
Previously, Minato had always rated Yuu highly, but still felt he was a bit specialized. Aside from his especially outstanding Fire Release, the rest of his abilities weren't too different from Kakashi's.
But now…
Being able to capture Pakura, a Sunagakure jōnin, alive was more than enough proof of his true value.
"You're overpraising me, Minato-sensei."
Yuu smiled. "It was only because you drew most of Chiyo's attention and puppets away that I found an opening. And she really was strong. I only barely won after going all out."
"Is that so…"
Minato smiled too.
After spending so much time together, he had come to understand Yuu's way of speaking. Although Yuu said things like "going all out" and "barely won," judging from the fact that only the corners of his clothes were a little dirty, and from how short the fight had been… this battle probably hadn't been that difficult for him.
As for exactly how Yuu had done it, that wasn't important. Every ninja had their own trump cards, and information about those trump cards was of utmost importance. Once exposed, it could easily bring danger. So if Yuu didn't want to say, Minato wouldn't ask.
For now,
Minato lifted his chin slightly. "Yuu, go find Obito and Rin and check on their situation. I'll go find Kakashi. The opponents they chose weren't especially strong, but the battlefield can change in an instant. We need to make sure everyone is safe."
"Got it."
Yuu nodded and glanced at Pakura.
Minato understood at once and raised a hand, creating a shadow clone.
"Don't worry. I'll leave a clone here to watch your prisoner. Go."
This time, Yuu no longer hesitated. His figure moved, and he raced in the direction Obito and Rin had gone. As he ran, he used his sensory ability to carefully distinguish the chakra traces remaining in the air while listening for sounds of combat near and far.
…
At that moment,
Obito and Rin stood back-to-back, facing their respective enemies. Both of them were breathing hard, and both had injuries.
A deep cut had been opened on Obito's left arm, staining his armguard red with blood. Several bloody marks from Wind Release cuts could also be seen on Rin's body.
Opposite them,
the Suna ninja with a hideous scar across his face and vicious eyes was grinning cruelly.
Not far away, another female ninja held a kunai in her left hand, while her right arm hung twisted at her side. She was breathing lightly.
~~~
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