Naruto concealed his real body among the clones. Eight shadow clones darted about, searching for Minato's weakness.
One shadow clone launched an attack from behind Minato. Minato swiftly spun around and delivered a flying kick, following up quickly to break free from the encirclement.
"Gotcha!"
Actually, this first shadow clone was just a feint meant to lure Minato into breaking through from this spot. Other shadow clones had already been ready, launching coordinated attacks toward Minato's inevitable path.
Several of Naruto's clones simultaneously jumped high into the air, holding hands to form tight circles. Then they successively extended their short legs in consecutive flying kicks, spiraling upward to lift the real Naruto even higher.
The shadow clone below seized the opportunity, delivering a high kick to Minato's neck, sending him airborne.
Up above, Lee watched in disbelief. Never did he expect that after simply challenging someone like Sasuke to a sparring match, this move would not only be copied but now also used by Naruto.
In midair, multiple Narutos launched successive strikes. As Minato reached the peak of his ascent, the real Naruto, already waiting above, delivered one final fierce downward kick.
[Naruto Barrage]
The combo struck Minato, who crashed heavily onto the ground with a dull thud.
"Great job, Naruto!" Sakura couldn't help exclaiming.
"Hehe." Naruto beamed at Sakura.
"Victory isn't certain until it's over," a voice called from above Naruto.
Looking up, they saw the previously struck Minato had transformed into a wooden log. The real Minato hovered directly above Naruto, throwing a shuriken straight downward at him.
Naruto barely dodged, shouting in frustration, "Damn it! A substitution jutsu!"
Minato landed calmly on the ground, stating, "You won't defeat me with Shadow Clones alone."
"Shut up! Get him together with me!"
Naruto and his several clones charged forward again.
This time, Minato held nothing back. With swift movements wielding kunai, he destroyed every single one of Naruto's clones effortlessly.
"That's incredible."
Lee, who constantly trained in taijutsu, sucked in a breath of awe. He himself could have handled these clones as well, but he wouldn't have done it with such precision and efficiency, not a single wasted movement. He turned to look at his Master Guy.
At that moment, Guy's expression looked quite heavy. What Lee noticed, he naturally understood as well—even more clearly. This genin from Takigakure was absolutely no ordinary opponent.
All the shadow clones were destroyed, every attack useless—this opponent was flawless. At first glance, he seemed gentle and easy to push around, yet his presence left others feeling helplessly outmatched.
Even those watching from the outside could sense the gap—but for Naruto in the middle of it, the feeling was even more crushing. Right now, Naruto had completely lost the confidence he possessed before the battle began. His eyes remained fixed, unblinking, upon Minato, obviously racking his brain for a strategy to overcome him.
Minato shook the bell in his hand and asked, "Ready to give up?"
"I won't admit defeat. You're an adult, right?" Naruto suddenly asked a very strange question.
Although Minato was somewhat surprised, he nodded and said, "Yes."
[Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!]
The entire training field became filled with Naruto's clones—at least a hundred solid physical clones.
Lee cried out enviously, "Wow, this is amazing!"
Even Neji expressed some surprise as he remarked, "Unexpected. That class clown actually has so much chakra."
Noticing how Naruto had naturally inherited such vast chakra reserves, just like Kushina, Minato couldn't help but feel a sense of warmth in his heart. Then he turned serious again and said, "Just keep in mind—sheer numbers won't work against me."
"Transform!"
At the same time, all of Naruto's shadow clones activated the Transformation Technique. A group of naked beauties occupied the entire battlefield. The males present froze for a second… and then blood started gushing from their noses.
Anya couldn't help laughing: "Naruto trying to seduce Minato with his Harem Technique—if Little Pepper saw this, she'd probably chase them both halfway across the world."
In the middle of it all, Minato immediately shut his eyes while sighing. He raised the shuriken in his hand and formed hand seals: "[Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!]"
As soon as he finished the seals, the shuriken in his hand rapidly expanded, and he hurled one giant shuriken in every direction. Then those shurikens created countless replicas for continuous attacks.
"Puff! Puff! Puff..."
White smoke kept rising as Naruto's shadow clones were effortlessly destroyed by the shuriken replicas. Before his Harem Technique could even take effect, every last clone had been eliminated.
Seizing the opportunity, Minato lit up with runes across his five fingers, then forcefully pushed toward Naruto's original body's stomach.
Hit hard, Naruto slammed into the ground with a painful groan.
Above, watching from the stands, Orochimaru's eyes gleamed with sharpness as he instantly recognized who this person was. *So it's you. I never expected Anya would give you a puppet-like form—no wonder you saw right through my Five Elements Seal.*
The fallen Naruto only felt a voice echoing within his mind.
At the iron-barred cage, Nine-Tails approached with fierce eyes and said, "This familiar chakra... Kid, do you know who you're fighting?"
"It's you, stinky fox."
"Hehe, interesting. Seems like you don't know. Good. Today, I'll lend you some power."
As he spoke, terrifying chakra far beyond human capability surged from inside Naruto's body. Under the corrosion of this chakra, Naruto's facial whiskers grew more pronounced, his eyes turning a shocking blood red.
An orange chakra cloak enveloped Naruto's body. Chakra that had once been tightly sealed now emerged, devastating and apocalyptic. Right now, the evil energy of the Nine-Tails roared like boiling water, finally erupting without reservation.
Boom!
A violent wind whipped across the battlefield. The mighty chakra, dense and fast-spreading, radiated outward from Naruto like wildfire. With merely a casual wave of his hand, the gusts blew so fiercely that Minato's clothes flapped violently.
"What the hell is this power?! How is this even possible?!"
Activating his Byakugan, Neji couldn't believe it—the amount of chakra had actually surpassed that of a Jonin. Recalling rumors from the village, Neji suddenly understood—everything the villagers had been saying was actually true.
Equally shocked was Gaara nearby. Could it be… am I seeing myself in him…?
Kankuro and Temari exchanged glances before simultaneously exclaiming, "This guy is a monster."
The word "monster" pierced Gaara's nerves. A flash of crimson flickered through his eyes as he growled darkly, "Shut up."
Both Kankuro and Temari shuddered involuntarily and didn't dare to say another word.
On the second floor, Kakashi saw the situation spiraling toward chaos. Using Shunshin, he instantly reached Hiruzen Sarutobi's side and said, "Third Hokage, please end this battle immediately and reinforce Naruto's seal. If the Nine-Tails erupts fully, not only this area but the entire Konoha will be destroyed."
Hiruzen fell silent for a moment before replying, "No need. Rest assured, the seal your teacher cast at the cost of his life isn't so easily broken. This is merely a small leakage from the Nine-Tails, still within controllable limits."
"So just a little bit?" Kakashi stared at the Naruto below, speechless for a long time—he could only envy others with his Sharingan due to the constant drain from his Sharingan.
Minato, the one who started it all, faced directly the shocking surge of chakra spilling out from Naruto, his expression somewhat grave.
"It's the power of the Nine-Tails. Looks like it recognized my chakra. Driven by rage, it resonates with Naruto. However, its chakra mustn't keep increasing; otherwise, Naruto's body will be in danger."
The Nine-Tails' chakra wasn't something easy to endure, especially when one's own chakra reserves were insufficient. With the increase of fox chakra, Naruto's skin already showed tiny cracks under its destructive force.
"The Nine-Tails is playing a sinister game," Anya discerned the Nine-Tails' scheme—not only did it want to manipulate Minato and Naruto into fighting each other, but it also attempted to completely ruin Naruto using its evil chakra, aiming to break free.
Boom!
Empowered with new strength, Naruto instantaneously vanished from his spot. A terrifying punch exploded outward—before Minato could even react, he was already sent flying midair.
After flipping violently over dozens of meters across the battlefield, Minato finally stopped, leaving deep craters on the ground.
Before Minato could even stabilize himself again, a giant hand extended from Naruto's chakra cloak. That infinitely extendable colossal hand came crashing down toward where Minato had fallen.
Seeing this, Minato didn't wait to get up properly. He rolled across the ground to escape the attack's range. But having barely moved forward a few steps, the violent winds generated by the chakra cloak swept away shattered rocks on the ground—those tiny stones flew like a swarm of shuriken, launching an all-directional assault against Minato.
"Is this... really Naruto?"
Sakura on the second floor had never seen a Naruto like this before, completely frozen in shock. Fear even arose instinctively from her heart.
In fact, not only she—most Konoha ninja present felt fear deep down. Everyone remained speechless, profoundly shaken by Naruto's display of power.
Anya turned to Sasori beside him and asked, "Do you think this puppet you crafted can endure attacks from the Nine-Tails?"
"Just this level of attack is fine, but..."
"What?"
Sasori watched Minato dodging frantically and remarked, "He hasn't been using his full strength. If this drags on, once the power stored in the puppet runs out, he'll have to supplement it with his own spirit energy. Continuing the fight will cause permanent damage to his soul."
"This guy really doesn't care about his own life just to test his son."
Anya didn't have time to dwell. She activated the Spirit Transformation Technique and immediately entered the puppet where Minato was housed.
"Have you played enough? Our remaining chakra isn't much anymore. Why don't you make your move already?"
Seeing Anya approach, Minato said somewhat embarrassedly, "I wanted to see the limits of Naruto's control over Nine-Tails' power. That masked man once tried to obtain Nine-Tails' power, and surely will come after Naruto again in the future."
Anya replied, "Who knows what will happen in the future? Right now, it's time to end this battle. Naruto's physical endurance has nearly reached its limit too."
"Alright."
Minato, now focused, suddenly changed his demeanor. Invisible air currents gathered around him, intensifying the storm already raging within the battlefield as he casually tossed shuriken into the wind.
Gradually, more and more shuriken filled the sky, becoming increasingly dense. From a distance, they seemed to form countless walls of shuriken completely locking down Naruto's movements. This attack surpassed even Tenten's [Great Twin Circles].
"Begin."
At Minato's light shout, the motionless shuriken in the sky suddenly spun rapidly, following the thousand winds' path to create a massive net of wind. Shuriken blades were accompanied by blades of wind, creating piercing screeching sounds from high-speed friction through the air.
"Zz... zz... zz."
This terrifying ninjutsu eventually formed a wind net like a gigantic encirclement, tightly compressing Naruto's chakra cloak within a specific area while continuously shrinking and cutting at the chakra spilling from Nine-Tails.
Naruto, finding himself at a disadvantage, let out wave after wave of defiant roars. His orange chakra emitted one final glow before he lowly growled, leaped upward, and confronted the whirlwind head-on.
As the chakra of Nine-Tails and his own merged and circulated, a brand new purple-red cloak enveloped his entire body, forcefully neutralizing the enormous whirlwind.
"Explode."
Just as Minato saw his Wind Release technique about to be completely nullified, he decisively injected a stream of fire chakra into it, disrupting the storm's balance. With wind fueling the flames and fire drawing strength from the wind, the whole thing exploded violently.
The massive explosion caused the entire battlefield to tremble, and dust billowed into the air. Except for Neji, almost no one could clearly see the situation amidst the chaos.
Minato, as if having already anticipated the outcome of their clash, wore a smile. He flicked his hand to dissipate all the shuriken in the sky, then swiftly formed fists with both hands, aligning them in a straight line with his body as he launched a final assault against the nearly depleted Naruto.
At the same time, Naruto also swung his fist to meet him.
"Boom."
Another deafening sound rang out, followed by powerful counter-force. Both fighters flew backward simultaneously. As the smoke cleared, the two opponents lay motionless on the ground, neither moving.
As the examiner, Genma Shiranui glanced at the two fighters and was about to declare a draw when Minato had already sat up. Part of his facial mask had shattered, revealing those piercing blue eyes.
Kakashi, who'd been suspicious from the start, froze the moment he saw those eyes—stunned, unable to believe what he was seeing. Could it be…?
"Sensei, is that really you…?"
"The winner is…"
"Hold on," Minato interrupted Genma before he could announce the result. "I lost this fight."
"Why?" Genma asked in confusion. "Konoha doesn't back down from a loss. Since Naruto has already fainted and you remain conscious, naturally you are the victor."
"No," Minato shook his head. "I made a prior agreement with Naruto. If he could've stolen my bell, then he wins."
Hearing this, Genma immediately turned his eyes to Naruto's still body on the ground. Sure enough, tightly clenched within Naruto's left hand was that small bell symbolizing victory. A gentle breeze passed by, causing the bell to ring out softly with silver bell chimes, as if proclaiming the true winner of this match.
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