Reiji stared at the blond in front of him, expression cold, his attention already turning inward as the last traces of mist slipped from his hands and dissolved into the air. The faint chill lingering around his fingers faded quickly, the technique collapsing faster than he would have liked. He could feel the imbalance in his chakra flow—the slight delay in gathering, the instability on release.
I need to refine this.
The time it took to form… the speed at which it dissipated… both were flaws he couldn't ignore. In a controlled setting, it worked.
Against someone like Minato—
It wasn't enough.
Too slow to set up. Too short to maintain.
His eyes remained fixed on him.
The opening is already gone.
Minato brushed a hand through his hair, flicking away the thin layer of frost clinging to the strands. His expression shifted slightly—curiosity more than concern.
"Huh? I definitely felt something cold… frost, huh…" he murmured, glancing at his fingers before looking back at Reiji. "I don't know that jutsu. Is it a bloodline? That's impressive, Reiji."
Reiji's eyes rolled slightly, the reaction automatic.
"Will you quit with that patronizing tone?" he replied flatly. "And what's your deal? That's the second time you've detected me from behind. What are you, a scaredy-cat?"
Minato blinked, caught off guard for a brief moment, then scratched the back of his head with a small, awkward laugh.
"Ah, that? I told you—I sensed your chakra approaching from behind. But still…" He tilted his head slightly, thoughtful. "You really surprised me this time. I only picked you up when you were already crouched on the tree behind me."
Reiji stilled for half a second.
A sensor.
The realization settled quickly, slotting into place with everything he had already observed.
His gaze sharpened.
And he just told me that? Just like that?
No hesitation. No attempt to hide it. No pressure applied afterward either.
Why didn't he follow up after the first strike?
His fingers tightened slightly at his sides.
Is he not taking me seriously…?
A flicker of irritation rose—sharp, immediate.
This fucking orphan…
His jaw set.
I'll show him.
He was done talking. Every exchange with Minato ended the same way—controlled, measured, irritatingly calm. There was no point dragging it out.
Reiji's hands came together as he pushed off the ground, leaping backward. The grass bent under the force of his step, dirt shifting beneath his sandal as he created distance.
Minato moved instantly.
A flick of his wrist—then another.
Shuriken cut through the air in rapid succession, their paths tight and controlled as he advanced without hesitation.
Reiji adjusted mid-air.
His body rotated cleanly, shoulders turning first, hips following as he twisted through the incoming projectiles. Steel passed close—too close—but missed. Chakra surged to the sole of his foot as he angled it precisely, catching one of the spinning shuriken for the briefest instant.
He didn't stop.
Using the momentum of his rotation, he redirected it—his leg snapping outward just enough to send the shuriken back toward Minato.
Minato's reaction was minimal.
A slight tilt of the head.
The projectile passed harmlessly by.
At the same time, his arms moved back—subtle, deliberate. Sunlight filtering through the canopy caught something thin between his fingers—a faint glint, barely visible unless you were looking for it.
Wire.
Reiji's eyes tracked it immediately.
Too late.
He tilted his head back sharply, just in time to catch the returning motion behind him—the shuriken he had previously avoided now snapping back along a curved trajectory, pulled by the tension of the wire.
Minato was already closing in.
Fast.
Tch.
Reiji's hands separated as he dropped toward the ground, fingers slipping into his pouch and emerging with two kunai, one in each hand. His feet hit the earth lightly, knees bending to absorb the impact as he shifted his weight forward again.
The attack came immediately.
Steel from the front.
Steel from behind.
Reiji moved.
His right arm snapped up first, deflecting one of the incoming blades with a sharp impact that vibrated through his wrist. His body twisted with it, letting the force carry past instead of resisting it directly. Another shuriken passed just behind his shoulder as he stepped off-line, his footing adjusting across the uneven ground.
Too many angles.
His left hand moved next—short, controlled—catching another deflection while his torso dipped just enough to let a third pass overhead. The wire lines shifted with each movement, tightening, redirecting, forcing constant adjustment.
Not random.
Controlled trajectories.
Minato was guiding everything.
Reiji's eyes narrowed as he read it.
Then he moved forward.
His left hand snapped out, releasing one of the kunai in a clean, direct throw toward Minato's centerline. The motion was sharp, timed between the returning arcs of the wire-controlled shuriken.
Minato caught it.
Clean.
No wasted movement.
The distance between them vanished in the same instant.
Reiji stepped in hard, his weight driving forward as the last of the projectiles cleared past him. The ground shifted under his foot, dirt scraping as he pushed through the final gap.
Minato met him halfway.
They entered each other's range—
Steel met steel.
The clash rang out sharply, metal striking metal and cutting through the forest air. Sparks snapped between them as their momentum collided head-on, the force traveling straight through Reiji's arms and into his shoulders. His grip tightened instinctively, forearm muscles tensing as he absorbed the impact, his stance lowering slightly to stabilize against the uneven ground.
Minato didn't yield.
Neither did he.
They collided in a tight exchange, the distance between them collapsing into immediate violence.
Steel flashed in short, controlled arcs as kunai met again and again, edges sliding with sharp metallic friction before snapping apart and re-engaging. Each impact traveled up Reiji's arms, the repeated shock settling into his forearms and shoulders as he absorbed and redirected the force. His feet shifted constantly—grass bending under his sandals, loose dirt grinding beneath his heels as he adjusted with each movement.
Minato was faster.
Not by much—but enough.
His movements were clean, efficient, stripped of anything unnecessary. Every strike came at the correct angle, every adjustment minimal, his eyes steady as they tracked Reiji's centerline. He wasn't guessing.
He was reading.
Reiji met him head-on.
Where Minato was precise, Reiji was forceful. His strikes carried weight, his shoulders and hips fully engaged with each motion, driving power into every exchange. He didn't try to match Minato's efficiency—he pressed through it, slipping past blades by inches, parrying at the last possible moment, forcing collisions instead of avoiding them.
He adjusts too fast.
Reiji felt it in the rhythm. Every time he tried to shift the tempo, Minato followed. Every feint was recognized a fraction earlier than it should have been.
A sensor… and sharp.
Reiji changed approach.
Instead of disengaging, he stepped in deeper, compressing the space between them. His shoulder drove forward, forcing Minato to give ground for the first time—
His leg snapped up immediately after.
His heel drove into Minato's midsection.
The impact landed solidly, forcing the blond back half a step, his footing sliding slightly over disturbed dirt.
Reiji didn't pause.
His hand was already moving.
A small cylinder dropped from his fingers.
It hit the ground.
The world vanished into gray.
Smoke expanded rapidly, thick and heavy, swallowing the clearing as the wind shifted through the trees. Sound dulled. Visibility collapsed.
Reiji pulled back into the cover, his breathing steady, controlled.
Last one.
His hands came together again, chakra already circulating as he repositioned, his senses stretching outward, searching—
Then—
"Fūton: Daitoppa!"
The response came instantly.
A violent surge of wind tore through the clearing, ripping the smoke apart in a single sweeping motion. The gray veil collapsed, scattering into thin fragments that vanished into the trees.
Reiji was caught in it.
The force slammed into him, knocking the air from his lungs as he was thrown backward, his footing lost entirely as the ground dropped away beneath him.
That jutsu again—!
He reacted mid-flight.
A kunai snapped into his grip, wire trailing from its base. His arm moved without hesitation—the blade whipping forward and embedding into the trunk of a nearby tree with a sharp impact. Chakra surged through the wire, reinforcing the hold.
The tension hit.
His body jerked to a halt mid-air, the sudden stop pulling hard through his shoulders and core as his momentum redirected.
He didn't resist it.
He used it.
His body curved around the anchor point, legs trailing before snapping forward as he completed the arc, the rotation tightening as he redirected everything into a forward launch.
He shot back toward Minato.
Fast.
Direct.
Like a projectile.
Minato's eyes widened slightly.
Too late.
Reiji's legs drove forward in a double kick, his hips rotating fully as both heels slammed toward Minato's chest—
And passed straight through.
No resistance.
No impact.
…Genjutsu.
The realization came instantly.
He cast it before dispersing the smoke—
Reiji's senses flared outward, his body already trying to correct—
A presence behind him.
Too close.
No time to turn.
A palm struck his back.
"Fūton: Reppūshō."
The force detonated on contact.
Wind slammed into him at close range, sending his body spinning violently through the air. His vision blurred as the world tilted, trees and sky flipping past in uneven flashes before his back crashed into a trunk with a heavy impact that rattled through his spine.
The tree shuddered.
His body dropped.
Still.
Then—
Poof.
A log struck the ground in his place.
Minato's head snapped toward the disturbance instantly.
Reiji was already elsewhere.
Perched on a branch, one knee bent for balance, his body angled forward as he watched from above, hands pressed together. The bark pressed rough beneath his foot, the branch swaying faintly under his weight as the wind settled around them.
His eyes remained locked on Minato.
Cold.
Focused.
Mist gathered once more in his palms—faint at first, then thickening as chakra condensed.
Minato smiled.
His hands moved instantly, forming signs as he launched himself upward, closing the vertical distance without hesitation.
Reiji moved at the same time.
He dropped from the branch, descending fast, his body angled downward as gravity and momentum carried him straight toward Minato.
They met in mid-air.
"Hyōton: Hōshō!"
"Fūton: Reppūshō!"
The collision exploded outward.
Wind and cold slammed into each other, pressure snapping violently between them as the surrounding air fractured. Frost spread rapidly, freezing the moisture caught in the clash—fine particles crystallizing before shattering under the force of the impact.
Reiji felt the recoil immediately.
His body was thrown backward, torn out of the exchange as his trajectory broke apart.
Minato dropped to the ground, landing with a slight stagger.
His expression tightened.
His palm was encased in ice.
Frost crawled up along his forearm, thin lines spreading across his skin as the cold bit deeper.
Reiji twisted mid-air, catching a branch with one hand. The bark scraped against his palm as he redirected his fall, dropping down immediately after. His feet hit the ground in a low stance—
And he pushed forward again without hesitation.
He sprinted.
Fast.
Closing the distance.
Before it fades—press now.
The frost wouldn't last.
The opening was temporary.
He needed to capitalize—
Then—
His body stopped.
Abruptly.
Mid-motion.
His muscles locked, his posture frozen in a low crouch as if something had seized control of his limbs.
Reiji's eyes widened slightly.
…What?
He tried to move.
Nothing responded.
Not his legs.
Not his arms.
Only his eyes shifted—barely.
I can't—
A quiet sigh came from behind him.
"…Was it a good time, Minato?"
Minato's voice answered from ahead, calm as ever.
"Yes. It was perfect, Kasumi-san."
Reiji's gaze strained to the side.
From the shadows behind him, a figure stepped forward—her presence resolving now that he could no longer turn to face it.
Long dark hair.
Half-lidded eyes, heavy with boredom.
Her posture relaxed, almost lazy, as if none of this required effort.
"…What a drag," she muttered. "Don't make me do this again, Minato. It was scary."
Kasumi Nara stepped into the light.
—
Reiji's gaze dropped, following the dark line stretching from his feet across the uneven ground, where his shadow merged seamlessly with Kasumi's.
The connection was clean.
Absolute.
It clung to him like a second set of limbs he no longer controlled—every attempt to move swallowed before it could begin.
Nara technique…
The realization settled quickly, cutting through the irritation building in his chest.
His eyes shifted slightly—the only movement still available—tracking the edge of the shadow binding him.
She can already use it? Since when?
He hadn't sensed her.
Not even a hint.
No disturbance in the air. No misstep in the terrain. No fluctuation in chakra.
His focus had been entirely locked onto Minato—
Too narrow.
Too absolute.
And now it showed.
A slow breath slipped through his nose, controlled, though tension pressed tight against his ribs.
"So you had to use a cheap trick against me?" Reiji said, voice level but edged, each word measured. "You're not as much of a ray of sunshine as you want people to think, are you, blondie?"
Minato blinked once, the nickname landing without visible effect. If anything, he just looked mildly surprised—like he was trying to understand what part of that was meant to provoke him.
"You thought this was a one-on-one fight?" Minato replied, tilting his head slightly, tone calm as ever. "It's a team exercise, you know."
Reiji's jaw tightened.
The answer was simple.
Obvious.
And that made it worse.
From the outside, it probably did look like that—like he'd ignored the structure of the exercise, thrown himself into a duel out of pure ego.
Maybe he had.
But even knowing Minato was right didn't ease the pressure coiling tighter in his chest.
Because it wasn't about the rules.
It was the interruption.
The fight had found its rhythm—movement, pressure, adjustment—
And then it had been cut cleanly in half.
Again.
Just when it had started to sharpen into something real.
And once more, it left him standing there, locked in place, while Minato remained composed, untouched by the disruption.
Reiji's fingers twitched uselessly at his sides, muscles straining against control that wasn't his.
I didn't even check the field…
The thought came flat.
Undeniable.
He had been too focused.
Too intent on breaking through Minato's defense.
On forcing a result.
On proving something he couldn't even properly define anymore.
He hadn't scanned his surroundings.
Hadn't considered interference.
Hadn't even imagined Minato would rely on someone else to end it.
Careless.
And beneath that realization, something else lingered.
A faint, irrational edge of disappointment.
As if something had been taken from him mid-stride—right as it had begun to matter.
"So what now, blondie?" Reiji muttered, forcing irritation back into his voice. "Going to ask me about the scroll too, like you did with the other girl?"
Minato shook his head lightly, expression steady—almost apologetic without quite being so.
"There's no need. I know you won't tell me," he said. "And I'm not going to insult you by trying. I'll just knock you out until the exercise ends."
Reiji let out a short breath through his nose, dry, humorless.
"What a noble soul."
Minato didn't answer.
He simply stepped forward.
Grass shifted softly under his sandals as he closed the distance, posture relaxed but precise, kunai already in hand.
Reiji's thoughts tightened, racing beneath the enforced stillness.
Think.
His eyes dropped again, tracing the shadow stretched beneath him—the link anchoring him in place.
Shadow possession… it's dependent on alignment. Light affects shadows—if I break the angle, disrupt the source—
But his body didn't respond.
Not even slightly.
Damn it—move—
Minato stopped in front of him.
Close.
Too close.
Reiji could see everything clearly now—the steady rise and fall of his chest, the subtle shift of weight, the minute adjustment of his grip on the kunai.
The blade angled deliberately.
Blunt edge.
Toward his temple.
Non-lethal.
Efficient.
Final.
Reiji met his gaze without flinching.
Defiant.
If this was how it ended—
Then so be it.
Minato's arm lifted—
"Everyone stop! Uzumaki Kushina, the carrier of the first team, has been found! The exercise is over! All participants, return to the meeting point!"
The voice cut sharply through the clearing, shattering the moment.
Minato froze mid-motion, blinking once, then again as the words registered. His arm lowered gradually, intent draining from his posture as he exhaled lightly and scratched the back of his head.
"…Well," he said, a little awkwardly, "this is… unexpected. Congratulations on winning?"
Behind Reiji, Kasumi sighed—soft, distinctly annoyed.
"All that work just to lose? What a drag…"
The pressure vanished.
Reiji felt it immediately—the invisible grip releasing as the shadow connection broke. Sensation flooded back into his limbs all at once, a faint tremor running through his muscles as control returned. His weight shifted slightly as his body corrected itself, balance reestablishing after the forced stillness.
He didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Even with the announcement.
Even with the win.
There was no satisfaction.
The fight hadn't ended.
Not really.
It had just…
Stopped.
Reiji exhaled slowly, his gaze lingering on Minato for a brief second longer before turning away, jaw tight, shoulders set.
…This sucks.