Chapter 63: Minato Sets Out
Li Yao turned his gaze toward the rear courtyard, then turned to leave.
Pssht!
A black iron chain extended from his back, piercing the skull of the Konoha ninja who thought he had narrowly escaped death.
Li Yao entered the kitchen in the backyard, and sure enough—there was food. Freshly made oden, still steaming.
"Life of the nobles really is decadent."
Sitting atop a still-bleeding decapitated corpse in the kitchen, Li Yao ate greedily from a large bowl of oden, savoring every bite as he gazed around in admiration of such opulent living.
The sky had yet to brighten, yet someone had already prepared food in advance for the morning.
But now, it was Li Yao who benefitted.
His appetite was unexpectedly massive. It took several large bowls before he finally felt full and satisfied.
He finished with a large bowl of soup and felt completely refreshed.
Afterward, Li Yao walked out of the kitchen. The area was quiet, thick with the stench of blood.
He found a decently fitting outfit and dressed, then returned to the fallen Konoha ninja.
Crouching down, he began looting the body.
"Explosive tags: ten."
"Kunai: six."
"Shuriken: twenty."
"Not much of a fighter, but well-stocked."
Grumbling to himself, Li Yao pocketed the explosive tags, stuffing them into the ninja pouch he had taken.
He didn't need the other weapons.
He was particularly interested in the mechanism behind the explosive tags. He wanted to study them.
"Hmm… finally some good loot."
He grinned when he pulled a small pouch from inside the ninja's inner jacket—similar to a storage pouch from cultivation novels. Inside were twelve round pills.
Li Yao picked one up and sniffed. Faint scent, no strong odor. It was definitely a soldier pill.
"Nice. This'll make things a lot easier."
He smiled.
With high-compression, high-energy soldier pills—each enough to sustain a person for a full day—he wouldn't need to enter towns like tonight just to find food. He could remain hidden in the wilderness, reducing the risk of exposure.
This would give him more time to travel—and more importantly, to leave the Land of Fire.
It was Konoha's territory. Staying there made him uneasy. He had to go to one of the smaller nations.
Securing the pouch, Li Yao stood up and raised his hand.
Fwoosh!
A flame ignited above his palm—fire-style chakra he had copied from the Third Hokage, now transformed into a visible flame with a bit of manipulation.
"Hmm… looks a bit like the Third. Could this guy be his son?"
He glanced once more at the Konoha ninja, whose features bore a slight resemblance to Hiruzen, and that thought crossed his mind.
Then, with a wave of his hand, he cast the flame onto the corpse, which immediately burst into a raging fire.
The fire chakra from the Third was high quality. Li Yao could sense the intense heat and ignition properties—even freshly dead flesh burned easily.
"I wonder how strong lightning and water release are…"
Feeding more fire chakra into the blaze, Li Yao's thoughts drifted to the other chakra types he had acquired.
Aside from fire, he had also copied lightning and water chakra from the Third.
Back then, the Third had used all three elemental releases—fire, lightning, and water—against him.
Thanks to his powerful chakra sensing ability, Li Yao had instantly understood their nature and transformation upon contact with his skin. Except for the more complex sealing chakra, he could analyze any basic elemental chakra on the spot.
And so—he now possessed fire, lightning, and water chakra.
He chuckled. He had become a three-element chakra user overnight.
Recalling the theory in Naruto that the more chakra natures you had, the more of a genius you were, he smirked.
"Seems like being a genius isn't so rare after all."
Soon, the young Konoha ninja was reduced to ashes.
Now, even if Konoha sent someone after him, they wouldn't be able to recover any intel from the scene.
He treated the other guard the same way—burned to ash under his fire-style chakra. Only when both were completely incinerated did Li Yao leave.
In the ninja world, intel was everything.
Li Yao understood that clearly.
His escape from Konoha, though aided by many surprises, had ultimately succeeded because neither the Third nor Danzo knew about his terrifying ability to copy chakra nature transformations.
If they had, he never would have made it out of Danzo's underground base.
So keeping his abilities hidden was vital.
Especially the Adamantine Sealing Chains—an ace up his sleeve that could save his life. The longer he kept it secret, the better.
...
Sunrise.
Another new day dawned in Konoha.
In the Hokage's office, the Third massaged his aching temples. He hadn't slept a wink the entire night.
Right after returning, he was hit with the news that Uzumaki Kushina had been abducted—before he'd even recovered from the shock of Li Yao's escape.
Then the Cloud delegation came knocking, claiming three of their members had gone missing. They demanded that Konoha return them, clearly suspecting foul play.
At first, the Third didn't make the connection between the missing Cloud shinobi and Kushina's abduction.
But when the Uchiha responsible for monitoring the Cloud visitors were summoned, one of them countered: a commotion in Danzo's secret base had drawn their attention away, which led to lax surveillance.
And that allowed Kushina's abduction—and the disappearance of the Cloud shinobi.
Only then did the Third realize the two events were linked.
Otherwise, why would they go missing at the exact time Kushina was taken?
As the future Nine-Tails jinchūriki, Kushina was normally guarded by ANBU. Only at night, when she was in the Senju compound, did the guards pull back.
He remembered that last night was also the time Lady Mito had gone into seclusion to reinforce the Nine-Tails' seal.
These weren't details one could learn without significant planning and intelligence.
The Uchiha clan was supposed to be monitoring the Cloud delegation—there was no way they hadn't noticed anything.
Worried they'd already lost control, the Third had originally planned to send four teams to retrieve Kushina.
In the end, he dispatched only one.
He needed to keep the rest of his forces in Konoha.
If the Uchiha rebelled, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Now, the Third could only hope the ANBU team could retrieve Kushina. Losing the future Nine-Tails jinchūriki was bad—but losing Lady Mito's trust would be far worse.
Yet, a whole night had passed without any word.
Kushina still hadn't been found.
The Third was growing anxious.
And now—someone else had come to pressure him.
"Damn Cloud!"
"Damn Uchiha!"
He clenched his fists, glaring at the protest letter the Cloud delegation had sent that morning. For a moment, his calm demeanor shattered.
"Looks like the Uchiha hunt will have to begin."
Their actions regarding Kushina had crossed the line. The Third, who had been waiting for the war to end before executing the purge plan, was starting to waver.
Knock knock!
At that moment, there was a knock on the office door. The Third frowned slightly.
This early in the morning, even his secretary, Chiba Megumi, hadn't arrived yet. Who could it be?
Though puzzled, he quickly returned to his calm, wise demeanor.
"Come in," he said warmly.
The door opened.
In stepped a bright, golden-haired boy.
"Lord Hokage."
"Ah, Minato. What brings you here so early?"
The Third's expression softened. Minato had graduated a year early and was officially a genin—but only the Third knew his strength already reached jōnin level.
Still, the Third hadn't sent Minato to the battlefield.
He had forbidden anyone under fifteen from being deployed.
They were the future of Konoha. Sending them to war too soon would only destroy that future.
Minato, in particular, was someone the Third had placed his hopes in.
He couldn't afford to lose him to some battlefield accident.
He would only be sent out once he matured, gained more experience—assuming the war wasn't over by then.
As the Third pondered this, Minato's face showed a rare sense of urgency.
It reminded him of six years ago—when Minato had come to him, panicked over Kimura Yao's condition.
Now, that same concern had transferred to Kushina.
"Lord Hokage, I request permission to go search for Kushina."
Before sunrise that morning, Minato had gone to their usual meeting spot by the River of Seven Segments, expecting to train with Kushina.
But even after the sun fully rose, she didn't show.
He rushed to the Senju compound—only to learn she'd been taken.
Now, all he wanted was to get approval as soon as possible and go find her.
"No. An ANBU squad is already on it," the Third said flatly, rejecting him.
The Cloud were no joke. Minato still needed more training.
"Lord Hokage, I've worked with Kushina on many missions. We often practiced ninjutsu together. If she left any signs or marks along the way, the ANBU might miss them—but I won't."
"If I go, I'll be able to read the signs she left behind."
There was truth in his words, and the Third hesitated.
Seeing this, Minato met his gaze, eyes unwavering. "I will bring Kushina back."
The Third studied Minato's eyes, his expression shifting several times—then finally nodded.
He agreed.
But warned Minato: if the kidnappers crossed the border out of the Land of Fire, the mission would be immediately terminated.
"Understood," Minato replied—and left at once.
(END CHAPTER)
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