Space is king, and time is emperor; those who master these two forces are without exception, legendary figures.
Minato Namikaze, a boy of common birth but blessed with extraordinary talent and outstanding aptitude as a ninja, had learned and mastered the Flying Thunder God Jutsu. He had every right to be proud.
But it wasn't until he entered the rain-curtain of Saiki's Auspicious Cloud that he began to understand his own limits.
Drip, drop!
Drip, drop!!
Minato knelt on one knee, clutching his abdomen, his expression a complex mix of gravity and shock as he looked at Saiki. He knew he had lost. If Saiki hadn't held back, it wouldn't have been a simple stab wound to the gut; he would be dead.
"Don't try to bind me with your hypocritical rules. You don't have the right." Leaving behind a cold, indifferent remark, the Auspicious Cloud in the sky shrank and retreated into Saiki's spiritual center, settling back into his Sea of Qi. With a sharp click, Saiki sheathed his sword, turned, and walked toward the Leaf command camp.
The fact that Saiki was still returning to the camp despite everything was primarily because of Tsunade and the others.
Tsunade and Tsume Inuzuka were women he was intimately involved with. Shizune, Genhai, Kurenai, and Rin were his friends. Back in Konoha, there was his teacher, Kushina, and the woman who meant so much to him, Sister Director Nono'u.
With all of them still tied to the village, Saiki couldn't just walk away. Regardless of what happened next, he needed to at least speak with them.
If Hiruzen Sarutobi tried to use him as a sacrificial lamb to appease Danzo's fury, Saiki would simply carve his way out of the village.
Having tested it, Saiki found that his Auspicious Cloud functioned exactly as he had theorized: it could anchor the elements of Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind, manipulating space-time itself to achieve a state of absolute immunity to all Dharmic arts. Frankly, this realization made Saiki even more arrogant.
In just two exchanges, the man who would soon be known and feared across the ninja world as the "Yellow Flash" had been defeated. It wasn't that the gap between their overall strength was an insurmountable chasm; Saiki wasn't that overpowered. In terms of pure Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, they were relatively evenly matched. Minato's defeat was primarily due to the element of surprise—the "first-encounter kill" factor—and Minato's overconfidence in the absolute supremacy of the Flying Thunder God.
However, after taking only two steps, Saiki frowned. He thought for a moment, then stopped.
Swish!
Swish!
Moments later, two figures materialized on the scene. It was Tsunade and Jiraiya.
Seeing Minato clutching his stomach, his face pale, with bright red blood seeping through his fingers (which were glowing with green medical chakra), and Saiki standing there with a calm, indifferent expression as if nothing had happened, Jiraiya's face changed dramatically. He asked tentatively, "Minato... what happened here...?"
Minato didn't answer. He simply cast a silent, complex look at Saiki. To be instantly defeated by a ten-year-old child, several years his junior... Minato, the universally praised genius, had literally just discussed taking action against Saiki with Jiraiya that very afternoon!
He felt deeply, profoundly humiliated.
Currently, Minato hadn't established a formal romantic relationship with Kushina; he had only learned some foundational sealing techniques from her. As he was now, he completely lacked the arsenal necessary to engage in a death match with Saiki.
Of course, even if he had already learned the Reaper Death Seal, it would have been utterly useless against Saiki anyway.
As Minato looked at Saiki, Jiraiya—who had absolute faith in his brilliant student—wore an expression of high alert.
Compared to Jiraiya, Tsunade, who had also noticed something was wrong, was far more relaxed.
She walked straight over, slapped a hand onto Saiki's head, roughly ruffled his messy hair, and demanded with displeasure, "You little brat, what are you doing out here? Didn't you know it's dangerous?"
After that night of passion, Tsunade had indeed run away. But upon returning, she had largely come to terms with the reality of their relationship, so her attitude toward Saiki had begun to revert to its usual, boisterous self.
"Get your hand off me. You're messing up my hair, it's ruining my handsome face," Saiki rolled his eyes at Tsunade and grumbled in exasperation.
"Tch, what a narcissistic brat," Tsunade said with feigned disgust, though she did pull her hand away.
Under normal circumstances, Saiki would have absolutely shot back with a cheeky, "You know better than anyone whether I'm 'little' or not."
But with Jiraiya (a literal author of erotic novels) and Minato (who had definitely read them) standing right there, Saiki decided to save Tsunade some face.
After scolding him, Tsunade frowned and asked, "What happened here? Why are you out here?"
Saiki was still an honest, trustworthy boy, so he replied with absolute candor. "Someone sent me a message to come out here. Then we had a fight, and it ended up like this."
Hearing Saiki's blunt honesty, Tsunade wanted to smack him on the back of the head. When she asked him, she had already vaguely guessed what had happened; she just wanted him to gloss over the details so they could discuss it privately later!
With other Leaf ninja beginning to arrive on the scene, Saiki's brutal honesty had just blown the situation wide open.
Hearing Saiki's answer, Jiraiya's already furrowed brow tightened further. He was an incredibly free-spirited, even naive man—in the original story, even after Orochimaru defected, he spent years trying to bring him back—but he was also a man bound by tradition and duty. He wouldn't let Saiki off the hook easily just because of his connection to Tsunade, especially not with so many witnesses present.
After a moment of thought, Jiraiya asked, "Are you saying that you killed all the people at the bottom of this mountain?"
"Yes," Saiki answered honestly.
Because of Nono'u's situation, Saiki had previously sought Tsunade's help, so she knew he had already had run-ins with Root.
Finding Saiki here, surrounded by corpses, with Minato bleeding from a stab wound... it didn't take a genius to connect the dots. And with Saiki readily admitting to it, Tsunade just wanted to facepalm.
Seeing Tsunade bury her face in her hands, Jiraiya turned to Minato for confirmation. "Minato, what exactly happened here?"
Letting out a helpless sigh, Minato, who had finished stabilizing his wound, replied, "By the time I arrived, Saiki had already reduced the area to this state. I don't know the exact details of what occurred prior."
During their brief interaction, Jiraiya had already sensed Saiki's arrogant, untamed nature; otherwise, he wouldn't have had that conversation with Minato earlier that afternoon, expressing concern over the boy's power.
Thinking it over, Jiraiya decided not to press the issue further right now. Instead, he turned to the Anbu operatives who had arrived with him and issued orders. "Lock down the area. Clean up the scene at the base of the mountain, and ensure no information leaks out. Spread the word that it was a Cloud night raid. Have all patrol squads increase their vigilance tonight."
No further explanation was needed; the Anbu knew exactly what to do. Acknowledging the order, they dispersed, leaving only Saiki's group behind.
With only Saiki and Minato present when they arrived, it was obvious who had stabbed Minato. While Jiraiya was issuing orders, Tsunade stepped over to heal Minato properly.
"Thank you, Lady Tsunade," Minato said gratefully.
Living up to her title as the world's greatest medical ninja, Tsunade nodded and replied, "Make sure to rest. You'll be fully healed in a couple of days."
Now that it was just the four of them, Tsunade's tone became significantly more severe. She asked again, "Saiki, what exactly happened here?"
Internal village politics were one thing, but this was the front lines. If an unexpected variable caused a catastrophic failure here, no one would be able to bear the responsibility.
Any leak of information about internal infighting would be a devastating blow to troop morale.
Shrugging casually, Saiki maintained his indifferent tone. "Just as I was getting ready for bed, I found a note on my bedsheets, so I came out here. Root tried to recruit me, I refused, they tried to eliminate me, and so we fought."
Although Saiki was lying about the exact nature of the blackmail, that was exactly how Danzo operated. Hearing this, both Jiraiya and Tsunade frowned. They were well aware of Danzo's character and Root's recruitment methods. Saiki might be hiding some details, but the core conflict was undoubtedly real.
"And what about you two? What happened?" Tsunade shot a glance at Minato, then looked back at Saiki.
Maintaining his expression of total unconcern, Saiki replied flatly, "Nothing much. I wanted to go back to sleep, he wanted to fight me to bring me in, so I stabbed him."
Minato's face twitched violently. Being stabbed by a ten-year-old child was utterly humiliating. He wanted to argue that it hadn't been that simple, but technically, Saiki's summary was entirely accurate. He ultimately chose to keep his mouth shut.
Jiraiya, however, was stunned. He knew Saiki's talent was exceptional and his strength was formidable, but he had always believed Minato was superior. After all, if Minato engaged in hit-and-run tactics, even Jiraiya couldn't land a clean hit on him. Yet Minato had been stabbed by Saiki, and Saiki was standing there looking as if he'd just taken a leisurely stroll. The disparity in their combat power was glaringly obvious.
Hearing Saiki's casual explanation, Tsunade also gave Minato a measuring look. Jiraiya was constantly bragging to her about how incredible Minato was, and how he had mastered her Second Granduncle's Flying Thunder God. Tsunade knew Minato was strong, but she hadn't expected him to be defeated by Saiki.
Looking from Minato back to the unfazed Saiki, Tsunade realized just how little she truly knew about the boy.
She had witnessed Saiki's excellence firsthand. In her estimation, Saiki possessed the strength of an elite Jonin. For his age, that was already absurd, but she never imagined he was hiding this level of monstrous power.
He had always hidden his true strength, but his previous "low profile" was genuine; he truly hadn't been this powerful before.
Saiki's current god-like strength was entirely thanks to Tsunade and their night of dual cultivation. That breakthrough had provided an exponential leap in his power. Before that, even fighting desperately, Saiki capped out at Elite Jonin level!
After the dual cultivation, his single Qi had bifurcated into Yin and Yang, allowing him to manifest the Auspicious Cloud, achieving absolute immunity to all Dharmic arts. Utilizing the incredibly high-quality Senjutsu chakra he had accumulated, his strength was massively amplified, finally giving him the power to crush Kage-level opponents.
Of course, evolving his single Qi into Yin and Yang had also set Saiki down a very... unorthodox, point-of-no-return path.