"I understand," Minato replied with a deep glance at Aoshi's shadow clone. He strapped the Fūma Shuriken to his back and quickly departed with the two others.
Immediately after, Aoshi's shadow clone turned to face the pursuing Rain ninja, formed hand seals, and created another clone.
With his current chakra reserves, doing something like this wasn't particularly difficult.
After all, just one of his shadow clones already had chakra exceeding that of an average Jonin.
"I can't let you catch up to them."
The overwhelming strength Aoshi had displayed earlier had left a lasting impression on the Rain ninja—this was someone whose combination jutsu had wiped out nearly half their comrades in a single strike.
Even now, facing a clone of Aoshi, some of them felt an instinctive fear.
"Don't be afraid! It's just a shadow clone!" One of the Jonin finally spoke, dispelling their fear.
"Exactly! It's just a clone, and we have the numbers on our side!"
As the Rain ninja regained morale and rushed forward, Aoshi's clone didn't hesitate and immediately began weaving hand seals.
He was about to use the same combo jutsu that he had once used to challenge Jiraiya.
Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet!
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!
Once again, the wind directed the fire. With Wind Release boosting it, the Great Flame Bullet became even more ferocious, its power rising to a terrifying level.
Seeing the massive fireball surging toward them, the same Jonin stepped up again:
"Everyone, use Water Release together! It's just a clone—his chakra won't last!" Without hesitation, the Rain ninja formed hand seals and cast Water Release in unison.
With their combined effort, they did manage to block the clone's Fire Release.
Letting out a cold snort, Aoshi's clone said icily: "So what if you blocked it once? Let's see how many more you can handle."
It wasn't that his chakra reserves were endless.
But since the Rain ninja had overwhelming numbers, the clones naturally had to avoid close-quarters combat.
Shadow clones had a fatal weakness—low durability. A single serious hit and they'd pop and vanish. Even if the original had Six Paths-level power, that wouldn't change.
So under these circumstances, Aoshi's clone could only act as a long-range caster—a ninja artillery turret. When another massive fireball appeared, the Rain ninja started to panic.
"Does he have infinite chakra or what?!" One of them couldn't help but mutter.
None of them had ever seen a ninja who could repeatedly unleash large-scale jutsu like this, seemingly without concern for chakra consumption.
While powerful jutsu were common among ninja, the usual battle style revolved around taijutsu, with ninjutsu reserved for decisive moments.
"Don't give up! He's a clone—he has to be running out of chakra!" That same Jonin once again rallied their spirits.
The others thought it over—he had a point. No one truly had unlimited chakra. Reinvigorated, the Rain ninja once again combined their Water Release to block the second massive fireball.
"Charge! There's no way he can use another jutsu like that!"
But when a third gigantic fireball came roaring toward them, their spirits finally broke.
This guy's inhuman!
We're all ninja—why are you this strong?!
Wait… don't tell me you're a Tailed Beast in disguise!
Although Aoshi's clone had successfully stalled most of the Rain ninja, one of them still managed to catch up with Minato's group.
Such a thing was inevitable. After all, Aoshi's side was truly outnumbered.
"Die!" The Rain ninja, grinning cruelly, launched a sneak attack on Minato.
As a Special Jonin, he figured ambushing a mere Konoha Genin would be child's play.
However, just as he was about to strike, Minato suddenly turned and kicked, catching him completely off guard.
The Rain ninja was sent flying. Immediately after, Minato threw a kunai, to which an ignited Explosive Tag was attached.
Boom! A thunderous explosion rang out.
The Rain ninja had no time to react and was blown to pieces.
Seeing how easily Minato handled the threat, both Tomoki and Ayame were deeply impressed. We're all Genin—how are you this good?!
"Let's go! Our mission is to find Lord Jiraiya and save Aoshi and Mikoto!" Even after defeating the Rain ninja, Minato didn't let the admiration from Tomoki and Ayame get to his head.
Fortunately, they weren't far from where they had last seen Jiraiya. With their speed, they quickly made it back.
"Lord Jiraiya! Please, you have to save Aoshi and Mikoto!" At the time, Jiraiya was training with Konan and the others. Hearing Minato's urgent voice, he immediately asked what had happened.
"It's Hanzo of the Salamander!"
"Aoshi and Mikoto are fighting him right now!"
Jiraiya's expression changed instantly. Having fought Hanzo before—and even lost—he knew exactly how dangerous Hanzo truly was.
This was the man who had bested even him, Tsunade, and Orochimaru together.
Though Aoshi and Mikoto were strong, they still had a long way to go before they reached that level. There was no way they could win.
"Minato, stay here with the others. Don't run off. I'm going to save them—now." With that, Jiraiya immediately created a shadow clone, which sat down in meditation.
The real Jiraiya vanished in a flash.
"Let's hope I'm not too late..."
---
"You two have managed to hold out this long. Impressive."
Hanzo's voice carried a tone of genuine admiration as he looked at the panting Aoshi and Mikoto.
Normally, when facing such promising young ninja, he might have considered sparing them. But unfortunately, these two had killed his subordinates.
He had to give his people in Amegakure an answer. There would be no mercy.
"So this is the famous 'Demi-God' of the Shinobi World, Hanzo of the Salamander... You live up to the legend." Aoshi replied without backing down, holding Mikoto upright as he faced Hanzo.
During the earlier battle, Mikoto had run out of chakra—even her Sharingan had faded, leaving her with plain black eyes.
In truth, they had lasted this long thanks largely to her Sharingan. Even Hanzo couldn't ignore the illusions cast by the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
However, he was no stranger to fighting Uchiha and knew exactly how to deal with them. Mikoto had found no opening to use genjutsu effectively.
After all, not every Uchiha was Itachi.
As for Aoshi, his chakra, empowered by the Rinnegan, gave him enough strength to continue fighting.
"Hahaha! Bold words. You're the first in years to talk to me like that." Instead of getting angry, Hanzo laughed heartily.
He could tell that Aoshi, at such a young age, was undoubtedly a genius.
And all geniuses had their pride. He understood. After all, wasn't he a genius too in his youth?
"Shame you're not from Amegakure!" With a regretful sigh, a cold glint flashed in Hanzo's eyes as he launched himself toward Aoshi.