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The battles of high-speed Ninja are extremely cautious and dangerous.
Especially when both sides are high-speed types.
"Hoo."
His entire body seemed to be enveloped in an indescribably blurry wind. With Hatake Sakumo's ordinary eyes, he couldn't see his surroundings at all. All his safety depended entirely on his perception, which was as precise as a three-dimensional map.
However, to outsiders, it was a momentary disappearance and appearance.
A piercing whoosh swept through the lush forest. His Chakra perception was completely locked onto that powerful Chakra target, which was so intense it seemed to spark.
Then, he swung his blade.
"Clang—!"
Accompanying the extremely violent inertia was an enormous force unimaginable to ordinary people. The seemingly fragile White Fang Short Sword, instantly covered with a thin layer of Wind Release Chakra, moved so fast it surpassed sound, yet made no noise at all.
The blade pierced the intensely steaming lightning on the surface of the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, creating a subtle ripple, like a skipping stone on water.
But if you zoomed in, you could see the mark that could even cut through lightning.
If it were on an ordinary Ninja, this single strike could cleave the person behind a several-meter-thick stone in two.
However, the man in front of him was the Third Raikage.
Not fast enough.
And not sharp enough.
A thought flashed through Hatake Sakumo's mind, or rather, in such an intense battle, he didn't even have time for thoughts to linger in his mind; he merely instinctively realized this point.
Then he immediately ducked before the sound of the wind arrived.
"Boom—!"
A violent, hammer-like strike swept over his head, stirring up several fine silver-white strands of hair. That heavy, pure white trajectory seemed to forcibly carve out a vacuum zone in this brief space.
The air was filled with a burnt ozone smell, subtly intertwined with lightning.
At the same time, the White Fang Short Sword, like truly continuous biting teeth, repeatedly stabbed the Third Raikage's thigh three times in this extremely short instant, each deeper than the last, but none managed to break through his defense.
Before the fourth strike could land, Hatake Sakumo's body had already sharply retreated, driven by an instinctive sense of danger.
"Bang!"
A giant foot, like a pillar of heaven, stomped down. The Third Raikage's body seemed completely unaffected by Hatake Sakumo's previous consecutive strikes. He stomped on the ground where Sakumo had just stood, creating a large, spreading rock formation and kicking up a thin wave of dust.
The Third Raikage's focus for strengthening his Lightning Release Chakra Mode was completely different from his son, the Fourth Raikage; it leaned towards an absolute offense-defense build.
While his absolute speed surpassed most Ninja, he was indeed a step slower than the current Hatake Sakumo.
However, in return, a squishy type like Hatake Sakumo would never dare to take any of his attacks.
During the brief lull in their exchange, several three-pronged Kunai had already been scattered in various directions without anyone noticing.
A young man, flashing like a meteor, suddenly threw a Kunai forward, perfectly wedged in the gap between Hatake Sakumo's retreat and the Third Raikage's advancing step.
A brilliant azure glow suddenly shone in the young man's palm.
Rasengan.
Then, "Flying Thunder God Technique."
The Kunai, still in flight, could not be considered damaging to either the Third Raikage or Hatake Sakumo.
However, the Third Raikage, who had fought them multiple times, keenly sensed the Konoha Ninja's attack intent. He immediately extended his arm upwards in the direction the Kunai was flying, as if to pierce him through in one go.
"Buzz—"
Unfortunately, the golden-haired young man who appeared before him ducked, brushing past that thick arm without hesitation, and slammed the glowing Chakra orb in his hand directly into the Third Raikage's chest and abdomen.
"Boom!!"
The intense swirling glow and the Lightning Release Chakra Mode collided, erupting into two brilliant points of light like fireworks.
However, Namikaze Minato himself, during this inch-by-inch advance, narrowed his eyes.
"Whoosh."
His figure suddenly vanished.
The next moment, the Third Raikage's extended arms suddenly clasped together in the center, letting out a dull thud.
If Namikaze Minato had remained in that position, he would likely have had his spine directly snapped by that ruthless blow.
Clearly, Namikaze Minato himself realized this.
After teleporting away with the Flying Thunder God Technique, he looked in the Third Raikage's direction, panting heavily.
"What's wrong?"
The Third Raikage shook his hand, clearing the dust that had risen in front of him, and sneered as he looked at the two around him, taunting, "I waited for so long, and this is all you've got? These few paltry tricks?"
"If you accidentally die, don't say this old man didn't give you a chance."
During the Third Raikage's speech, Hatake Sakumo and Namikaze Minato, who had retreated dozens of meters, immediately exchanged glances.
Noticing Minato's gaze, Hatake Sakumo immediately looked towards the Third Raikage's chest and abdomen.
He saw that the previously complete Lightning Release Chakra Armor had, just now, under Minato's Rasengan, momentarily revealed a fleeting void.
Had that Jutsu already been initially completed?
That technique.
Hatake Sakumo thought to himself, but immediately understood Minato's intention.
Their biggest problem right now was actually just one thing.
Insufficient attack, unable to cause damage.
However, if they could seize the opportunity Minato had created now, even if it was just one strike...
At that point, the Third Raikage might consider retreating.
Yes.
From the very beginning, Hatake Sakumo had never considered the possibility of their combination killing the Third Raikage. What he was actually thinking about was how to force this monster to retreat, and then quickly go support the logistics center at the rear.
As a Commander, Hatake Sakumo's primary concern was always the safety of the front-line Ninja.
Therefore, almost the moment he realized Namikaze Minato's intention, Hatake Sakumo's spirit immediately lifted a few points, staring directly in the Third Raikage's direction.
"Then please, Raikage-sama, witness it."
"The power of Konoha Ninja."
The moment his words fell, Hatake Sakumo's figure once again sharply transitioned from stillness to motion, erupting with extreme speed beyond sound within the brief vacuum tunnel.
"Wind Release: White Fang!"
The piercing blade swept across like a blooming flower dancing in white silk.
The Third Raikage merely sneered and raised his arm, blocking with his iron-pillar-like arm, while extending his other hand forward like the sharpest spearhead.
Hatake Sakumo's blade was obstructed, but his body ducked, letting go of his short sword while kicking the Third Raikage's shin, producing a dull thud.
The Third Raikage's supporting leg was suddenly struck, and his body swayed, his upper body unconsciously leaning forward.
Hatake Sakumo seized this moment. The White Fang Short Sword, spinning in mid-air, was once again gripped in his reverse hand and plunged down, aiming directly at the Third Raikage's nape.
"Zzzzz—"
The surging current of gathered Lightning Release desperately resisted the blade, which was imbued with Wind Release, causing even Hatake Sakumo's hand, completely enveloped in Wind Release, to feel an intense numbing sensation, along with a burning sensation intertwined with Tailed Beast Chakra.
Has he already incorporated Tailed Beast Chakra into his Lightning Release armor?
This thought flashed through Hatake Sakumo's mind, but his hand suddenly grasped the Third Raikage's shoulder. With a forceful push of his foot, his body immediately avoided the Third Raikage's downward chop as he ducked and plunged, his blade tracing a full-moon arc in mid-air.
The Third Raikage's reaction was also beyond ordinary. He instinctively kicked backward and then suddenly surged forward.
The moment he turned, Hatake Sakumo's blade was already clinging to him like a persistent maggot.
However, his vision suddenly reflected the Third Raikage's triumphant sneer.
"Lightning Release: Black Lightning!"
Suddenly, a roaring thunder erupted. Black lightning, like a spiderweb, spread along the air gaps, suddenly rising from the Third Raikage's body, covering a radius of several meters around him.
Hatake Sakumo instinctively took a step back.
But someone reacted even faster than him. With a flash and disappearance, both their figures instantly vanished from in front of the Third Raikage.
"Hoo!"
When they reappeared, Hatake Sakumo and Namikaze Minato were already on another tree trunk.
That was close.
Hatake Sakumo felt his heart skip a beat just now.
Engaging in close combat with a monster that couldn't be killed with a single strike meant facing such dangers.
No matter how many times he cut, he couldn't take the opponent's life, but the opponent only needed to hit him once, and his life would be over.
However, just as the two had barely had time to catch their breath, they saw the Third Raikage's figure transform into a blazing stream of light, rushing towards them with extreme linear speed.
"Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite!"
A violent roar filled the entire forest.
Hatake Sakumo and Namikaze Minato almost simultaneously dispersed to both sides.
With a crash, the giant tree they had just been standing on was split in two. The Third Raikage's figure shot straight forward for an unknown distance, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
However, just as the Third Raikage's speed reached its peak.
A golden figure, like a meteor, suddenly appeared behind him, extremely abruptly.
On a piece of wood debris flying in mid-air, a subtle Sealing Technique mark was imprinted.
In an instant, the Rasengan in his hand, which had originally been azure, now seemed faintly tinged with a golden hue, as if it was transforming from the inside out in a certain direction.
Simultaneously performing both the Flying Thunder God and Rasengan, infusing them with space-time Chakra, even Namikaze Minato's brain seemed to reach a limit at this moment. His whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was taut to the extreme from the rapid movements.
Whether it was Sakumo's initial close-quarters entanglement or that first Rasengan, everything was to lower the Third Raikage's vigilance and his estimation of the danger he posed.
Until this moment, Namikaze Minato maintained an overhead posture, beginning to twist, like a small compressed spring.
Compress, release!
He let out a deafening roar:
"Rasengan!"
The clear, golden Chakra sphere suddenly slammed into the Third Raikage's back.
It was almost instinctive; the Third Raikage, still in his Hell Stab stance, had already sensed the danger from behind him.
The Lightning Release armor covering his body suddenly expanded to its maximum extent, becoming almost twice as thick as it was initially, with faint traces of dark red Tailed Beast Chakra visible within it.
However, the moment that golden-yellow Rasengan pressed down, the surface of the impenetrable Lightning Release armor still showed an extremely distorted state.
It seemed not to be rotating from the material surface itself, but rather distorting the entire space where the material and energy existed.
The alarm bells in the Third Raikage's heart suddenly rang loudly.
He suddenly realized clearly that this insidious brat had ambushed him, not revealing his strongest killing move.
On the contrary, this was the strike now.
The moment the Third Raikage realized this, there was almost no change on the surface of his body, but the Hell Stab in his hand suddenly shifted from forward to downward.
"Boom—!"
Namikaze Minato's pupils contracted.
The Third Raikage, who had been maintaining a forward charge, actually drilled a tunnel in the ground at an even faster speed than before, using the inertia of the incline to avoid part of the impact.
"Pop!"
However, on the surface of the layer of Lightning Release armor behind him, a distorted hole like an air bubble still appeared.
Just as he sharply distorted his body, looking at the brat in front of him with a furious expression, a shrill whistling of wind once again sounded from behind him.
The Third Raikage seemed to suddenly realize something and instinctively tried to twist his body.
But the speed of his reaction was completely outmatched by the speed of the blade light coming from behind him.
Hatake Sakumo had been aiming for this brief moment from the start; although Minato couldn't completely penetrate the opponent's armor, achieving this much was already incredibly impressive.
The rest was up to them, the adults.
His figure shot forward at an almost blurring, super-high speed, his entire body enveloped in a full-power vacuum channel, holding his breath, even the skin on his face rippled and flattened under the inertial pull, and his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins like a spiderweb.
Unprecedented, full-power.
"Wind Release: White Light Blade!"
Hatake Sakumo's charging figure made him seem to transform into a peerless treasure blade, suddenly stabbing towards that momentary weakness created with his life on the line.
Before the Lightning Release armor could heal, he plunged the tip of his blade through the smallest hole!
"Pfft—!"
A single point, and it broke, the entire blade pierced through!
The White Fang short blade, completely enveloped in Wind Release Chakra, almost irresistibly, its entire blade sank into the Third Raikage's robust body.
An incredibly dense Wind Release Chakra exploded within his body in an instant, causing a thin, empty bubble to suddenly swell on the surface of his already massive physique.
A surprisingly dull thud echoed.
He's done for!
Both Hatake Sakumo and Namikaze Minato almost instinctively had this thought.
However, the Third Raikage still stood there.
With a blade stuck in his back, a line of blood trickled from his mouth.
But the corners of his mouth slowly spread into a ferocious, extremely furious smile.
"Heh, heh heh heh—"
"You two brats are truly impressive."
"But."
He slowly turned his head, met Hatake Sakumo's eyes behind him, and spoke coldly, "Is this all you've got?"
Almost the instant this sound fell, a strong sense of crisis, making all the hairs on Hatake Sakumo's body stand on end, suddenly rose in his heart, and his figure abruptly retreated like an arrow.
Namikaze Minato also immediately rushed towards the Third Raikage at top speed, the Rasengan in his hand reforming, attempting to use this threat to make him stop.
However, the Third Raikage seemed to finally disdain continuing this childish game with these guys, completely disregarding the danger behind him, suddenly stepped forward, his body covered in a layer of dark red Tailed Beast Chakra cloak, and faintly, a thick tail could even be seen slowly emerging from his back.
The moment this form was completed, the Third Raikage's speed seemed to have advanced another level beyond his previous Lightning Release Chakra Mode, his explosive power even surpassing Hatake Sakumo's.
One step! Two steps!
His forward-striding big feet and the Chakra kinetic energy pushing from behind transformed his figure into a straight streak of light, like an arrow, suddenly avoiding the Rasengan behind him while also moving closer to Hatake Sakumo.
Hatake Sakumo's Chakra sensing seemed to be instantly and completely overwhelmed by an unfathomably vast Chakra reaction, like tens of thousands of enemy planes suddenly appearing on a radar screen, his brain even subtly overheating.
His naked eyes, barely able to glimpse a blur at relative extreme speed, immediately noticed that figure smashing through trees along the ground, hurtling towards him with an utterly irresistible ferocity.
Even faster was a dark red giant claw, suddenly extending like a whipping lash.
The extremely sharp claw tip seemed to need only an instant to tear his entire head apart.
"Flying Thunder God Technique!"
Namikaze Minato's figure disappeared and reappeared, then disappeared again.
The two figures constantly shifted between the markers left by several three-pronged Kunai, instantly creating a huge distance from the Third Raikage, who was beginning his Tailed Beast transformation.
Only at this moment did they finally understand what kind of monster Lord Sarutobi Hiruzen had faced the first time he fought him back then.
Even more terrifying was that, unlike the information obtained previously, the Third Raikage's control over Tailed Beast Chakra now was clearly far more precise than they had imagined.
Even in his Ichibi state, he could freely materialize Tailed Beast Chakra!
At the same time, Namikaze Minato had clearly observed in that instant that the large wound on the Third Raikage's back, which had just been pierced by the White Fang short blade, was now rapidly healing at a visible speed.
In just a second or two, it had completely healed.
Namikaze Minato stared intently at him.
Is this the true power of a Jinchuriki?
If that's the case, then he doesn't have to worry about Kushina dying from injuries.
This thought inexplicably popped into his head.
"Minato!"
Just as he was inexplicably spacing out, Hatake Sakumo's roar suddenly startled him awake.
The next moment, he saw the Third Raikage, now simultaneously enveloped in electricity and a Tailed Beast Chakra cloak, pierce through the giant tree in front of them at an uncatchable speed.
"Bang!"
He landed with a crash exactly where they had just been.
The two jumped again.
However, their expressions were not very good at this moment.
Because, under the Third Raikage's foot, a three-pronged Kunai stuck on the surface of the giant tree was suddenly crushed to dust by him.
"You like to run?"
"Then this old man will let you run to your heart's content!"
The Third Raikage's emotions were clearly becoming more irritable under the influence of the Tailed Beast Chakra, but the smile on his face grew even wider.
Namikaze Minato's expression was equally grim.
While his Flying Thunder God markers could be placed freely, the Flying Thunder God Kunai, which could be moved randomly, were not infinite.
If this continues...
The moment this thought popped into Minato's head, he saw the Third Raikage's gaze sweep completely across the large forest around them, and then he suddenly darted wildly like a stream of light leaping through the woods.
But only the two of them could clearly see that each time the Third Raikage's figure shot out, he crushed a Kunai.
"Stop him!"
Hatake Sakumo gritted his teeth and stood up, the Wind Release Chakra on his body growing more intense.
Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique and Rasengan were their last trump cards to repel the Third Raikage here!
Namikaze Minato, however, had an ominous premonition.
Sakumo's speed was already slower than the Third Raikage's now.
If they forced it...
As if to confirm his premonition.
Almost the instant Hatake Sakumo charged out from atop the giant tree, a ruthless glint, like a fish taking the bait, suddenly appeared in the Third Raikage's eyes.
His figure in mid-air abruptly distorted, and like a spring, he shot towards Hatake Sakumo with a snap.
The Chakra on the surface of his already thick right wrist suddenly expanded, transforming into a giant claw.
Hatake Sakumo instinctively used Wind Release to flash to one side.
However, the moment he appeared on the other end, the Third Raikage appeared in front of him even faster.
In that instant, the world in Hatake Sakumo's eyes seemed to fall into stillness.
The intensely tearing sensation from the claw tip, sharper than any blade, as it neared his body, felt as if it could seep through his skin into his flesh.
The spatiotemporal ripple generated the moment Namikaze Minato activated the Flying Thunder God Technique was so clear.
But even clearer was the deep sense of death that came with his body being about to be torn apart.
However, until the very last moment, Hatake Sakumo still maintained a resolute, unhesitating posture, extending the White Fang short blade in his hand forward in a death-defying strike.
The Wind Release Chakra on his body, like an invisible curtain enveloping him, tore through the air.
At the moment of death, he charged forward without hesitation.
Just at this moment.
As if piercing through space, carrying the explosive inertia from traversing tens of kilometers, a figure, squeezing through the moment of death at many times the speed of sound, like a true beam of light, directly kicked the Third Raikage's dark face in front of him.
In an instant.
The Third Raikage's face, encased within the Tailed Beast Chakra, distorted into an almost distorted shape, turning to one side, his entire neck seemingly stretched out by this immense force, and faintly, the sound of exploding cervical bones breaking and rotating could even be heard, even the air was wrapped up in large, wave-like white patterns, carrying his entire body, point by point, and sending him shooting into the distance.
"Boom—!!!"
After an unknown delay, a series of sonic booms and kicking sounds from behind suddenly exploded in everyone's ears.
Piercing the clouds and splitting stones.
The figures of both Namikaze Minato and Hatake Sakumo froze in place at that moment.
Sawara Kiri's figure, however, seemed completely unaffected by inertia, rotating in mid-air with borrowed force, finally landing with a "thud" as he knelt on one knee, digging into the ground.
Looking at the two who were almost stunned, Sawara Kiri smiled gently as usual.
Facing the dappled light filtering through the dense forest, with his back to the rising dust, he let the gentle breeze caress his face and slowly stood up:
"Sakumo-sensei, long time no see."
"I wasn't too late, was I?"
join p atreon.com/KeyofStars and become a Sequence 9: Reader for advance chapters | Every 100 powerstones = 1 extra chapter | Report issues @discord.com/GVBdncd9Wr