Minato reemerged amidst the tangled undergrowth just a few hundred meters behind his squad. The air was still, but his senses were sharp, zeroed in on the five chakra signatures chasing them like hounds.
He stood upright in a shallow gully, cool mist curling around his sandals. Behind him, the faint noise of movement—branches creaking, leaves whispering, footsteps pressing down on damp earth.
'They're close.'
"Ah… there you are," a gruff voice muttered above the treeline.
Rustle.
Five Kumo shinobi dropped from the trees, landing around Minato in a loose semicircle. Their chakra flared. Two wielded chained kama, one had a wide fan strapped to his back, while the last two formed a sensor-assault pair. All were seasoned. Elite, judging by their quiet confidence.
The fan wielder stepped forward. "You're alone," he said with a smirk. "Are you here to sacrifice yourself for your team?"
Minato said nothing.
In the next instant, the entire team lunged.
"Clang!"
Steel glinted as the kama shot forward on their chains, whistling through the air, aimed at Minato's head and legs.
Minato's hand blurred, flicking a three-pronged kunai upward.
"Ping—Shff!"
He vanished.
The kama struck nothing but empty air.
"Wha—?!" one shinobi gasped.
"Fwump!"
Minato reappeared behind him, hand already glowing with spiralling chakra.
"Rasengan!"
The swirling sphere of chakra slammed into the man's back, launching him into a tree with a thunderous crack, bark exploding outward.
The fan-wielder spun midair, unleashing a massive wind bullet, but Minato blurred again, body flickering mid-trajectory as though untethered by gravity.
He appeared beside the sensor-nin next, grabbing his collar and driving a chakra seal directly onto the man's chest.
"Exploding Seal: Suppression Variant."
"Boom!"
A sharp burst of light flared from the seal, and the man crumpled unconscious, his nervous system overwhelmed by the feedback.
The second kama-wielder snarled and swung his chain in a wide arc.
Minato caught it mid-swing.
Eyes narrowing.
Then jerked it forward, dragging the man off balance—right into a rising heel kick.
"Crack!"
The man spun midair before collapsing to the ground, motionless.
The last two remaining shinobi tried to regroup, but it was too late. In a flicker of motion, Minato darted through them, tagging one with a seal on the shoulder, the other on the waist.
He vanished.
"Boom!"
A twin eruption of controlled chakra slammed them into the undergrowth.
Silence returned.
Minato stood amidst the five incapacitated forms, his cloak fluttering gently with the fading momentum.
He inhaled deeply, staring toward the direction his team had gone. The horizon was already painted with the faint blue glow of dawn.
"At least this will give them a head start," he said softly, before disappearing.
=====
A dull mist clung to the ruins. Smoke curled gently from broken barricades. The shattered remnants of stone walls and earthworks bore scars from both Kumo's siege attempts and Konoha's strategic demolition. Craters dotted the field like pockmarks in the skin of a dying beast. Wooden pikes, chakra-tagged mines, and collapsed watch towers surrounded the vacant perimeter.
Minato emerged in silence, standing atop a ridge overlooking the ruined stronghold. His boots touched the cracked stone of what used to be the outer command post.
His blue eyes scanned the destruction.
'Just as we planned… They didn't dare enter it yet. Too cautious.'
Then he closed his eyes and crouched, right hand on the ground. A pale ripple of chakra expanded outward, a dome blooming from his position like a rising tide. His chakra field pulsed across three miles, revealing the chakra signatures of thousands—scattered like embers across the bordering woodlands and river trenches.
Thousands.
They were setting up a new front just outside the danger perimeter.
'Yes,' Minato thought, standing slowly, eyes narrowed. 'Come find me.'
He knew the activation of his chakra field would not go unnoticed. That was the point.
They'd feel him.
And they'd come running.
"Hmm…" he whispered, voice calm, calculating. "Three thousand. Won't be easy…"
A smile curved on his lips.
"Good thing they're exactly where I placed my marks."
Then he flickered away.
====
Arakaki stood with arms folded behind his back, issuing orders as his sub-commanders constructed a new field HQ. Shinobi moved like ants, raising tents, anchoring scrolls, and sealing food into reinforced containers. Water was being channelled from nearby rivers via earth jutsu.
Despite their advantage, they were cautious.
"Maintain a 700-meter buffer from the Konoha stronghold," Arakaki ordered. "Too many unknown traps. We occupy it once we've ensured full Konoha withdrawal."
"Yes, Commander!" came the chorus of replies.
He turned toward the field map stretched across a supply crate. Their intel suggested Konoha's forces were falling back toward No Man's Land—leaving the stronghold in a feint, perhaps, but it was better to delay occupation than risk chakra-triggered devastation.
That's when a young sensory-nin sprinted toward him, panting and wide-eyed.
"Commander! Sudden chakra flare! Large field detection from within the stronghold perimeter!"
Arakaki's face darkened.
"Define 'large.'"
"Radius is roughly… three miles. It's a signature we didn't register earlier. Likely a single Konoha shinobi. But extremely high chakra capacity."
Arakaki scowled. "A Konoha sensor? Alone?"
"No, sir. Too refined. This is likely one of their elites."
Arakaki exhaled slowly, before waving toward his lieutenant.
"Take care of it," he said flatly. "Don't underestimate him. Send ten squads. If he's a decoy, eliminate him fast."
"Yes, sir!"
Just as the man turned, a flash of golden light caught the corner of Arakaki's vision.
He turned sharply.
And froze.
Standing in full view, not two hundred meters away, atop a crumbling tower at the edge of the old base, was a blonde shinobi in a flak jacket, wind tousling his hair, face calm and terrifyingly serene.
Minato raised his hand, and in the air around him—dozens of kunai marked with flying thunder seals blinked into existence. He had placed them earlier. In the soil. In dead trees. In discarded scrolls. Even in the clouds of ash floating above the field.
They were everywhere.
"Boom!"
He vanished.
Then reappeared mid-air above the first unit of Kumo shinobi.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Spiral!"
A massive spiralling inferno dropped from his mouth, devouring the formation below.
Before they could scream, he vanished again.
"Fwump!"
"Fwump!"
A pair of flash tags erupted beneath a second unit, blasting them into disarray. Before they could recover, Minato reappeared in their centre, tossing kunai in all directions.
"Barrier Seal: Quadrant Collapse!"
A glowing square formed midair, slamming down with concussive force, flattening dozens of shinobi in a pulse of energy.
"GET BACK!" someone shouted. "HE'S EVERYWHERE!"
They were right.
He was.
He moved like lightning itself—a golden blur that never touched the ground for more than a moment. One instant, he appeared above an officer and knocked him out with a chakra scalp strike; the next, he reappeared behind a squad and released a wave of paralysis tags, stunning them before disappearing.
"Crash!"
"Boom!"
Screeeecch!
Fuinjutsu chains erupted from marked points, binding enemy ninjutsu mid-formation.
Wind cutters flew uselessly into the trees.
Earth walls crumbled before they finished forming.
Minato appeared in the centre of a Kumo barrier squad, placed seals at their feet, and teleported them fifty meters into the air—then blinked away before they hit the ground.
Even as Shinobi began to rally, forming tighter formations and trying to corral his movements, Minato was already countering.
He spun midair and clapped his hands.
"Four Symbol Seal: Expanded Formation."
A glowing field of red seals surged outward, forcing an entire regiment to freeze in place.
Only Arakaki remained upright, fury trembling in his jaw.
"Fall back! Break the field! Regroup at the secondary ridge!"
But no one made it far.
Minato's final strike was the culmination of it all—every mark, every delay, every seal culminating in a final cascade of chained explosions, all teleporting onto the battlefield in a crescendo of annihilation.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
The sky turned orange. Smoke curled like demons into the clouds. The very earth seemed to warp under the pressure.
And then… stillness.
Minato reappeared at the centre of it all, panting, blood dripping down his left arm. His cloak was tattered. His chakra was nearly dry.
The battlefield, once filled with 3,000 elite Kumo shinobi, was now a wasteland.
Ash drifted gently like snow.
He stumbled to a half-broken log, sat down, and leaned his head back.
"It seems… this is close to my limit," he said softly, the wind rustling his hair. "I still have to increase my strength… if I want to deal with even more numbers."
=====
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