Somewhere in the Land of Hot Water, in a remote town, Hizashi was activating his Byakugan, peering in a certain direction.
A few seconds later, his eyes returned to normal, and he frowned.
"They have taken the residents of that house hostage. Looks like they want to use them as leverage to negotiate with us."
He then relayed the positions of the enemies and the hostages to Minato and Fugaku beside him.
"Minato, the situation's special, why don't you just rush in and wipe them out directly?" Fugaku suggested.
But Minato shook his head. "Right now, my Flying Thunder God is only at the second stage. There's no Flying Thunder God mark inside, I can't teleport straight in."
"If I toss a kunai in there, I'm afraid they'll just kill the hostages immediately."
The thought made him grimace.
The gap between him and his brother was still a bit too big, it seemed his training still wasn't enough.
"So what do we do?" Hizashi asked.
After a brief moment of thought, Minato came up with an idea. "Here's what we'll do first… then we'll…"
"Good idea!" Hizashi and Fugaku said in unison.
This time, their mission in the Land of Hot Water was to eliminate four missing-nin from Konoha.
These ninjas had defected a year ago, back when Konoha was at war with Suna and Ame.
Falsely accused at the time, they suffered harsh punishment from Danzō. Enraged, they sold information to Suna, causing Danzō to be outmaneuvered by Chiyo and suffer heavy losses.
Every time Minato thought about this, he wanted to drag Danzō out and whip his corpse.
How many messes had he cleaned up for that idiot over the past six months?
A fool like that deserved to die.
Hmm… maybe later he could have his brother use Edo Tensei to bring Danzō back every now and then, just to kill him again and blow off steam.
He did feel some sympathy for these four ninjas, but that didn't mean they deserved forgiveness. Nor did he have the right to forgive them on behalf of the ninjas who had died because of them.
What he could do was give them a clean death.
Before long, Minato, Hizashi, and Fugaku arrived at the small building.
"Stop!"
Just as the three of them were about to enter the yard, a furious shout came from a window on the second floor.
In their line of sight stood a young man wearing a Konoha forehead protector, with a deep slash carved across it.
In his grasp was a terrified boy of about seven or eight years old. The boy trembled helplessly, both hands clamped over his mouth, not daring to make a sound.
A kunai was pressed to the boy's neck, ready to strike at the slightest provocation.
"Minato, if you don't want innocent people to die because of you, I advise you not to move a muscle," the young man said viciously.
"I know you can use the Flying Thunder God Technique, but I warn you, if you disappear from my sight, I will not hesitate to act immediately."
"Takahashi." Minato motioned for his two companions to stop. "You're good at hiding, I'll give you that. Took me a long time to finally track you down."
"I didn't expect you to be the one coming this time. Guess the Hokage really thinks highly of me."
Before Minato, two other ninja squads had accepted the mission to eliminate these rogues. But despite searching for a long time, those two teams hadn't even caught sight of them.
From Takahashi's words, it was clear he knew this.
Chances were those squads had gotten close, but the rogues spotted them first and escaped.
After all, Takahashi's team included a sensory ninja, nowhere near Minato's level, but more than enough to avoid pursuit.
"Using civilians as a shield, real classy," Minato mocked.
"But they're not Konoha citizens, nor citizens of the Land of Fire. Why would you think I'd care whether they live or die?"
"Then go ahead, take one more step forward," Takahashi said coldly, wearing an expression that said I've got you right where I want you.
"Since you took on this mission, you should already know I used to be in the Intelligence Division. Over the past year, I've done plenty to avoid pursuit, and naturally, I've researched you as well To be honest, I admire you. But right now, you're after my life, so I can only apologize in advance."
"Who said I'm here to take your life? If you give up resisting, I can guarantee you won't die," Minato replied.
"Don't try to fool me with words like that. I know better than you how the villages deal with missing-nin."
"No, you don't." Minato shook his head. "The current Hokage is Tsunade. She personally gave the order that in special cases like yours, there can be some leniency.
"You won't escape spending the rest of your life in prison, but that's still better than living this, constantly hiding, anxious every day, never knowing when someone will kill you."
Takahashi's eyes narrowed, and his grip on the kunai tightened slightly, though he clearly didn't fully believe Minato's words.
Minato continued, "Let me give you another piece of good news, Danzō is dead."
"What?" Takahashi's whole body trembled violently, his voice full of disbelief. "Are you telling the truth?"
"Do you think I need to lie to you?" Minato said. "His corpse was even hacked into pieces by my brother, then burned to ashes and scattered to the wind."
Hearing Minato mention Shin, Takahashi trembled again. "Is he doing well?"
Minato wasn't surprised at Takahashi's reaction. He nodded. "He's doing just fine. And in fact, it was his idea to suggest leniency for you."
Takahashi's eyes grew slightly red at those words.
It was Shin who had once pulled him back from the brink of death. He had never forgotten that man and had always been grateful.
Hearing that Shin had personally dealt with Danzō and even spoken up for them, he couldn't help believing Minato's words a little more.
Minato sighed inwardly. Damn that hero's aura.
I don't like using your name to lie, but in this situation, I have no choice.
As for Takahashi, he was already on the kill list, there was no such thing as leniency for him.
The shinobi world was harsh in many ways.
If betraying your village, leaking intel, and causing heavy casualties could be forgiven, then such betrayals would only happen more often.
That was something Minato could never allow.
"We really can live?" Takahashi was clearly tempted. After all, he was sick of living like a sewer rat.
Not just him, others hiding in the room who hadn't shown themselves also felt the same. They were all eager to confirm whether Minato's words were true.
"Your crimes are grave," Minato explained, "but all of this began with Danzō. You're lucky you didn't attack the two squads of ninjas who came before us, otherwise, you'd already be dead."
"That…" Takahashi's breathing quickened, his focus completely diverted. He was about to say more when the door to the room suddenly opened.
He quickly turned his head, only to meet a pair of blood-red eyes, each marked with three tomoe. His body froze on the spot.
The next moment, Minato's figure vanished from where he stood and reappeared inside the room.
In a blur of motion and flashing steel, his short blade swept through the air again and again. In an instant, Takahashi and the other three had their throats cut and died on the spot.
When it was over, Minato closed his eyes tightly, his whole body trembling slightly as he tried to calm the storm of emotions inside him.
But no matter how hard he tried, his heart refused to settle.
The memory of Takahashi's hopeful eyes and voice, his trust in him and his brother, and the fact that he still retained some shred of conscience, made him feel a deep, suffocating heaviness.
How many people had suffered because of Danzō's crimes?
Minato swore to himself that, in the future, he would always appoint the worthy and never let such a tragedy happen again.
The greatest mercy he could give Takahashi and the others was letting them believe, in illusion, that they had been forgiven and would return to Konoha as prisoners.
And there was one thing Minato hadn't lied about, Danzō's corpse truly had been hacked apart, burned to ashes, and scattered.
What Minato and the others didn't know was that their every move had been observed, by a pair of familiar, blood-red Sharingan eyes.
But the gaze in those eyes was filled with endless malice.