"Earth Release: Aggravated Rock Technique!"
Taking advantage of Sakazuki's brief moment of distraction, the Second Tsuchikage reappeared from the air, summoning an enormous rock statue that slapped Sakazuki out of the sky.
Bang!
Sakazuki crashed heavily into the ground. Before he could rise, a short-handled, trident-like weapon came flying toward him.
Realizing by now that each of these foes wielded their own deadly techniques, Sakazuki didn't dare be careless. He immediately shifted into elemental form, letting Minato's Kunai of Love pass straight through his body.
"Flying Thunder God Technique!"
But the next moment, Sakazuki's expression shifted drastically. A flash of golden light appeared in a spot he could not see.
The suddenly appearing Namikaze Minato pressed a hand—coated in pitch-black Armament Haki—onto Sakazuki's shoulder.
Startled and furious, Sakazuki instinctively tried to counterattack—
—but instantly realized that he had been teleported into the open sea.
The moment he opened his mouth, seawater surged into his nose and throat.
A Devil Fruit user thrown into the ocean was, in most cases, doomed.
And though someone of Sakazuki's monstrous physique and vitality wouldn't drown easily, the loss of all strength left him unable to fight back.
"Water Release: Water Prison Technique!"
Standing on the surface of the sea, Minato did not relax just because the enemy had fallen into their trap. He carefully followed Orochimaru's instructions: first injecting Sakazuki with a large dose of snake venom and an extremely high-concentration anesthetic, then using the Water Prison Technique to restrain Sakazuki's body before finally bringing him up from beneath the water.
Even with Sakazuki's body—considered exceptionally tough even among top-tier fighters—the layers of precautions Minato added left him completely unable to resist. All he could do was glare furiously at the enemies outside the Water Prison.
After confirming Sakazuki's condition several times, Minato activated the Flying Thunder God Technique once more, returning with the captured admiral to Orochimaru's side.
"As expected of the Yellow Flash. You truly did not disappoint me, Minato."
Orochimaru patted Minato's shoulder with satisfaction, then his eyes gleamed as he looked at Sakazuki imprisoned in the Water Prison.
It was no exaggeration to say that ever since joining the Dimensional Chat Group, this was the most valuable trophy he had obtained.
Even pure gold—capable of granting him immortality—was to some extent inferior.
After all, eternal youth was not particularly difficult for Orochimaru to achieve, but a top-tier fighter who had eaten a Logia-type Devil Fruit was something priceless and nearly impossible to obtain.
"Holy crap— you actually caught him? That was way too easy…"
The bystander nearby was already struck dumb with shock. Even when Orochimaru had laid out a plan specifically targeting Sakazuki and Minato had summoned four previous Kage using the Edo Tensei scroll, the bystander had known that Akainu was likely in trouble.
But seeing Sakazuki truly reduced to a prisoner before their eyes still left the bystander stunned.
Even in the Dimensional Chat Group—which was now filled with terrifyingly powerful members—the only one who could defeat Sakazuki with certainty was Kizaru.
Aside from him, Esdeath could fight Sakazuki to a draw, and Orochimaru and Tatsumaki could probably survive against the admiral. Everyone else combined would only end up being flattened.
Yet with only a few brief exchanges, the mighty Akainu was subdued by Namikaze Minato and a group of former Kage. Throughout the entire encounter, Sakazuki practically had no chance to fight back.
"Easy? Heh…"
Hearing the bystander's somewhat naïve comment, Orochimaru couldn't help finding it amusing. Even though the bystander had reached the level of a mid-tier warlord, he was still, at heart, a flower raised in a sheltered greenhouse.
Not to mention that they already knew Sakazuki's abilities and weaknesses in advance and prepared a plan specifically to exploit them. The lineup of Minato the Yellow Flash plus four former Kage was so overwhelming that even Orochimaru himself wouldn't dare say he could survive against it with certainty.
Especially for enemies encountering Namikaze Minato for the first time, the Flying Thunder God Technique's "first-sight kill" effect was practically unbeatable. Otherwise, with how tough Iwagakure's shinobi were, they wouldn't have been beaten to the point of giving up missions the moment they spotted Minato. The fearsome reputation of the "Yellow Flash" was built atop the piled corpses of Iwa and Kumo ninja.
"Yellow Flash plus four Kage-level shinobi… no wonder Akainu lost so miserably."
Xiao Yan looked at Minato with great curiosity. Before he transmigrated to the Dou Qi Continent, he had also read the Naruto manga.
But back then, Namikaze Minato had only been a background character. Who would've thought he would one day see the man in person?
To be fair, the strength of Namikaze Minato and the Edo Tensei shinobi was below Akainu's. But the fight was never fair to begin with—Minato already knew Akainu's abilities and weaknesses before the battle even started.
Meanwhile, Sakazuki had fought Esdeath more than once before running into Minato; both his stamina and focus were far from peak.
Add to that the fact that Sakazuki had zero precautions against Minato's abilities, and worst of all, his Observation Haki was being disrupted by Esdeath… If he could have won under those conditions, that would've been the real miracle.
"How do you feel about Edo Tensei's combat performance, Minato?"
Orochimaru didn't rush to begin studying Sakazuki. He simply locked the Marine Admiral into a seastone prison cell prepared in advance, then turned his attention toward evaluating Edo Tensei's real-combat results.
After all, for now he still had no method to bypass the dimensional chat group's restrictions. And the number of Zoan Devil Fruits that could slip through loopholes was limited. For a long foreseeable future, Edo Tensei shinobi would be Konoha's main combat force for missions in other worlds.
"Edo Tensei shinobi controlled with talismans have rather stiff fighting styles, and their strength seems noticeably weaker than when they were alive. But the immortality aspect is indeed incredibly effective in battle…"
Minato answered honestly. Although he personally found it somewhat disrespectful to the dead, they were enemies from another village after all—it wasn't enough to cross his moral bottom line.
For Konoha shinobi who had just endured the heavy casualties of the Third Great Ninja War, it wasn't all that hard to accept using the former Kage of hostile villages to fight for Konoha.
Minato was simply too moral by comparison. A normal Konoha shinobi would probably eagerly send Edo Tensei shinobi to slaughter the enemies of their own village.
°°°
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