Saiki's sudden, ghost-like entrance had left the Cloud Jonin momentarily stunned by the boy's speed and stealth. However, the fact that Saiki dared to turn his back on an elite Jonin in the middle of a battlefield was an insult the man simply couldn't tolerate. It was pure arrogance, and the Jonin decided to punish the boy with a fatal sneak attack.
He had burned a lot of chakra, but a Jonin was still a Jonin. As a Taijutsu specialist, he had absolute confidence in his ability to land a lethal blow from behind.
"Saiki! Look out!" Seeing the Cloud Jonin lunging toward Saiki's exposed back, Shinku and Kurenai's pupils shrank in terror as they screamed a warning.
The Jonin's chakra blade was mere inches from piercing Saiki's heart. A savage, victorious sneer twisted the Jonin's face. Too late!
The blade was almost touching Saiki's coat when the boy finally moved. To the Cloud Jonin, Saiki's movement seemed agonizingly slow yet impossibly fast. Saiki pivoted smoothly, bringing his longsword up in a flawless, ascending parry that effortlessly deflected the Jonin's thrust high into the air.
The Jonin's pupils dilated in absolute horror. He hadn't anticipated Saiki possessing such god-like reflexes and precision. He tried to desperately backpedal, but it was far too late.
The deflected blade reached the apex of its arc. Saiki, now gripping his hilt with both hands, took a single, explosive step forward. Moving with a velocity that defied human limits, he executed a flawless Kesagiri (diagonal downward slash). The strike was so fast the Jonin didn't even have time to register the pain before his body was perfectly bisected.
"Steel Tempest!"
Saiki's assault didn't end there. Carrying the momentum of that single step, Saiki blurred through the two halves of the falling Jonin's body. By the time his silhouette solidified again, he was already standing behind the remaining three Cloud ninja.
It looked as though nothing had happened, but in reality, it was all over.
Click.
Saiki slid the pristine, bloodless blade of 'Thunderstorm' back into its scabbard. As the hilt locked into place, three perfectly straight, crimson lines suddenly appeared across the torsos of the remaining Cloud ninja. Their eyes bulged in shock. Before their brains could even process that they had been cut, their bodies collapsed limply into the dirt.
Watching Saiki casually sheath his sword, the minds of Shinku, Kurenai, and Genhai went completely blank. The Cloud squad that had pushed them to the brink of death had been erased in the blink of an eye, before any of them could even react. Only total silence and expressions of profound shock could convey the magnitude of what they had just witnessed.
Just as the Leaf squad was struggling to process the slaughter, Saiki—who had just executed a flawless, dramatic sheathing—suddenly spun around and drew his blade, unleashing a horizontal arc of razor-sharp wind.
Swish!
A silhouette materialized directly in the path of Saiki's wind blade at the exact center of the clearing. It was only then that Saiki's hyper-acute vision caught a flash of bright yellow hair, and he realized he might be attacking the wrong person.
CLANG!
A unique, three-pronged kunai sparked against the wind blade for a fraction of a second before the yellow-haired figure flickered and vanished again, reappearing several dozen meters away.
The wind blade continued its path unhindered, cleaving through the forest behind the figure and leaving a deep, blackened trench dozens of meters long in the earth.
"Incredible reaction speed. No wonder he can master the Flying Thunder God," Saiki murmured to himself, watching the figure standing in the distance.
Landing safely, Minato Namikaze immediately threw several of his marked kunai into the surrounding trees to establish his escape routes before finally taking stock of the situation.
Minato was actually quite confused. He had sensed the commotion of a battle and teleported in to provide backup, only to be greeted instantly by a lethal, high-pressure wind blade aimed directly at his neck.
He finally got a clear look at the battlefield and saw Saiki standing there, sword in hand.
The Flying Thunder God's abrupt, ghost-like materialization was notoriously difficult for allies to adjust to. What if he had been an enemy? Minato's mouth twitched slightly, but he ultimately didn't complain. Instead, he asked the squad, "Is everyone alright?"
Minato's team had originally been slated to deploy to the Stone front, but after receiving orders from Hiruzen to locate Tsunade, they had eventually tracked her down near the Cloud front.
Finding Saiki had been Minato's secondary objective—or rather, it wasn't his primary concern. Since they had already located Tsunade, Minato had planned to stay in the area for a couple of days to help relieve the pressure on the Cloud front using his high-mobility Flying Thunder God before returning to the village.
Well, now he had found Saiki. The boy was clearly alive, kicking, and had just nearly beheaded him.
Saiki looked at Minato and sheathed 'Thunderstorm' once again, offering no apology whatsoever. He was, however, genuinely intrigued by the mechanics of the Flying Thunder God.
While traveling with Tsume, Saiki would periodically expand his sensory net to scan the area.
He had detected the skirmish from several kilometers away and sprinted to the scene at full speed. Because his focus was entirely locked onto the Cloud squad and his teammates, he simply hadn't noticed Minato's chakra signature approaching until the man literally teleported into his line of fire.
"We're fine!" Shinku answered Minato's question.
Minato let out a breath of relief. He walked closer, his eyes lingering on the neatly bisected and instantly executed corpses. He shot another glance at Saiki. If his own reflexes hadn't been superhuman, he would be lying in pieces right next to those Cloud ninja.
He had always been slightly skeptical of the intelligence reports detailing Saiki's kills. As a genius himself, Minato had his own pride. But seeing the aftermath of Saiki's terrifying power firsthand, Minato was finally forced to believe the hype.
His gaze returned to the corpses, and his brow furrowed. "Cloud scouts have been getting increasingly bold lately, but for them to infiltrate this deep... the Cloud must be preparing for a massive offensive."
Ignoring the throbbing pain in his arm, Shinku replied, "The situation is definitely tense, but the Cloud took catastrophic losses during their last night raid. They shouldn't be ready to mobilize so soon. This might just be a feint to keep us on edge."
"Dad!" Seeing her father wince in pain, Kurenai called out anxiously.
"I'll handle it," Saiki said, stepping toward Shinku.
Minato was briefly taken aback by the boy's bluntness—a mix of extreme perceptiveness and total social obliviousness. Perhaps Naruto's future personality traits were inherited from encounters like this. Seeing Saiki move toward Shinku, Minato quickly snapped back to reality.
However, whether Naruto would even exist in this timeline, given Saiki's presence and the butterfly effect he was causing, was highly debatable. Who knew how many of the "Konoha 11" would even get the chance to be conceived?
"I've got it!" Minato said, stepping in front of Saiki. He helped Shinku sit down against a tree and began administering field first aid to the deep wound.
Kurenai looked at Saiki, and Saiki offered her a reassuring smile. Having not seen him for days, she had a thousand things she wanted to say to him, but with her father bleeding against a tree, she had to suppress her eagerness.
Shinku noticed Kurenai's reaction and sighed internally. He genuinely felt that Saiki wasn't a suitable match for his daughter; the boy was simply too overwhelmingly exceptional. Kurenai would never be able to keep up with him or hold his attention.
Of course, the fact that Kurenai hadn't abandoned him to run to Saiki's side was still a great comfort to the veteran ninja.
"Boss! You are seriously incredible!" Genhai jogged over, his voice vibrating with pure excitement.
From the moment Saiki appeared, Genhai had been vibrating with excitement. His starry-eyed, hero-worshipping gaze was a bit much for Saiki to handle, but seeing that his friend was safe and sound made Saiki genuinely happy. Genhai was one of the very few people Saiki actually considered a friend in this world.
And, of course, Saiki hadn't forgotten the promise he made to Genhai's mother. He couldn't let the lovely Mrs. Inuzuka worry about her son, after all!
Saiki threw an arm around Genhai's shoulders and laughed. "Not bad yourself, Genhai! You've really grown. I saw your whole fight just now. You did great. You were very brave." He shot the boy a genuine thumbs-up.
Hearing Saiki's praise, Genhai immediately rubbed the back of his head, looking bashful. "Ah, it was nothing, Boss. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to save anyone."
As he spoke, Genhai's excitement faded into a sudden, crushing depression as he realized his own powerlessness. Saiki understood exactly how he felt. "Hey! Don't get down on yourself! Once we get back to camp, I'll teach you a few new, devastating tricks."