Based on the original configuration of Minato's squad, the imbalance in combat power actually caused a split into two distinct parts. This led to a situation where, during squad operations, they often divided the tasks: Minato handled the most crucial and dangerous part alone, while his three students took care of the rest.
For example, in the recently concluded Battle of Kannabi Bridge, the mission objective was to destroy the critical chokepoint—Kannabi Bridge—and completely sever the Hidden Stone's supply lines. After Minato's squad entered the Land of Earth to execute the mission, Minato ventured deeper alone, acting as a decoy to draw the Hidden Stone ninjas' attention, while Kakashi, Obito, and Rin were responsible for the actual sabotage.
In that scenario, Minato appeared to be taking on a supporting role, but it was obvious which task was actually far more difficult and dangerous.
In the current large-scale, frontal battlefield engagements, if Minato truly wanted to maximize his combat prowess, he had to push his speed to the absolute limit. In reality, given Minato's combat style—which relied heavily on Space-Time Ninjutsu and godly reaction speeds—the presence of "bodyguards" wasn't particularly meaningful right now. If they really wanted to maximize their comprehensive effectiveness, the new squad shouldn't be engaging in four-man coordinated combat; they should still be utilizing that original "1+3" model.
The combination of these two factors led to a slight disconnect between the movements of Minato and Hagoromo's trio.
This also indicated that Minato's mindset hadn't completely shifted yet, or perhaps he still lacked a full understanding of his status as the Fourth Hokage candidate.
The ultimate mission for Hagoromo's trio wasn't to cut down enemies, but to ensure that Minato wasn't cut down by anyone else. While the new Minato squad was indeed a combat squad, the essence of being a "bodyguard" meant that front-line combat was not their primary directive.
Regardless, compared to the previous trio of Kakashi, Obito, and Rin, the comprehensive strength of Hagoromo, Choza Akimichi, and Shibi Aburame was entirely different. Even though it was exhausting, they faithfully executed their duties.
The Konoha forces used their smaller numbers to repeatedly strike the supply-deprived Hidden Stone troops. After gaining an advantage, they never lingered in combat, instead rapidly retreating from the battlefield according to their predetermined strategy.
This combat mission wasn't just a one-time thing. Over the following half-month, Konoha launched similar operations constantly. Through their actions, they conveyed a very clear message to the Hidden Stone: Are you leaving or not? If you don't leave, we will harass you until the bitter end.
Like water continuously dripping to pierce through stone, Konoha truly had the potential to slowly, piece by piece, grind the Hidden Stone forces to death while maintaining minimal casualties themselves.
Consequently, the Hidden Stone finally saw the writing on the wall and gave up. Unable to hold out much longer under Konoha's relentless strikes, they chose to abandon the Land of Grass and retreat back into the borders of the Land of Earth... Without supplies, what else could the Hidden Stone do? Even Onoki of Both Scales was completely helpless.
Unable to exert the strength they possessed, the Hidden Stone ninjas retreated in disgrace.
This ironclad fact proved an unbreakable truth: the absolute necessity of maintaining a nation's infrastructure and supply lines during warfare. Otherwise, you become highly vulnerable to critical strikes and end up losing in the most frustrating way possible.
With the war reaching this stage, both Konoha and the Hidden Stone knew clearly that while it was easy for the Hidden Stone's massive army to leave the Land of Grass, returning would be monumentally difficult.
Now that utterly defeating Konoha was an impossibility, the Hidden Stone returning to the Land of Grass had become a meaningless strategy—one that would never be brought up or implemented again.
From this point forward, Konoha's only true remaining enemy was the Hidden Cloud. The end of the Third Great Ninja War was drawing even closer.
Continuous victories fostered a joyous atmosphere among the Konoha ninjas. Even on the frontlines, this emotion was difficult to suppress.
If one viewed the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars consecutively, the fighting had truly dragged on for many years. Generations of ninjas from every village had practically died on the battlefield. Now that the dawn of victory was finally visible, emotions that had been repressed for so long naturally erupted.
Ninjas, after all, possess personal feelings too.
However, based on the judgment of Konoha's high command, the reality wasn't quite so optimistic. The sole remaining enemy, the Hidden Cloud, was still incredibly difficult to deal with.
If there were no interference from other villages, and the war was strictly a 1-on-1 brawl between Konoha and the Hidden Cloud, the victor would be hard to predict. Claiming that the Land of Lightning's military strength was equal to the Land of Fire's was no exaggeration. Although Konoha currently held the advantage, there was no guarantee they could conquer the Hidden Cloud in one fell swoop.
Just as the Hidden Cloud held an overwhelming advantage during the early stages of the war when all nations besieged Konoha, they were still never able to push deep into the Land of Fire. The situation was the same now; the roles of offense and defense had simply reversed.
The frontline... it could be referred to in the singular now, because Konoha only had this one frontline left.
Since there were no longer any Hidden Stone ninjas in the opposing Land of Grass, Konoha's frontlines against the Stone and the Cloud would "fold" together. The length of the battle line was no longer necessary; what they needed now was thickness. The Konoha ninjas facing the Land of Grass would be relocated. Aside from essential reconnaissance and surveillance personnel, everyone else would be shoved over toward the Land of Rice Paddies to deal with the Hidden Cloud.
Minato's squad would naturally move along with them, but as always, they would be among the very last to mobilize.
Because of this, they had a relatively free period with no immediate missions.
Currently, inside the Minato squad's tent, only Hagoromo and Minato Namikaze were present. The other two were elsewhere—perhaps wandering around the Konoha camp, or maybe keeping watch around the perimeter. During this sensitive period of troop transfers, there was bound to be some chaos, and there was no telling if someone might try to slip in.
Minato was holding a sphere in his hand, lost in deep thought, his expression indicating he had hit a wall... It was a blue, high-density, rapidly rotating sphere of chakra. Its formal name was the Rasengan.
This was probably one of the very few things in Minato's life that he actually managed to name correctly.
It was obvious that Minato wanted to add a change in chakra nature to the Rasengan, but so far, he hadn't found the right approach.
When it comes to ninjutsu, the difficulty of development, the difficulty of mastering it, and its actual power are entirely different concepts. It took Minato about three years to develop the signless ninjutsu, the Rasengan, and its learning difficulty was later classified as an A-rank, ultra-hard ninjutsu... As for the nature transformation he was currently attempting, there was no telling how long it would take to complete.
The difficulty of the Wind Style: Rasengan wasn't just adding the nature transformation itself, but figuring out how to eliminate the severe negative backlash the powerful Wind Style inflicted upon the user. A regular Rasengan could severely burn the user's skin if they were even slightly careless, but a Wind Style: Rasengan could easily cripple the user's hand entirely.
Regarding this, Hagoromo truly couldn't offer any help. He vaguely remembered someone in the future using a "trinity" of clones to rub the sphere together, but as for the underlying principles of how that granted damage immunity, he had no idea.
As for Hagoromo himself, he wasn't just sitting around blankly watching Minato stare blankly at his jutsu. He was busy with his own task.
Right now, holding a medical scalpel in his right hand, he was continuously carving something into his own left arm. Drops of crimson blood were slowly sliding down his skin.
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