"Just a clone?"
Kurosuki Raiga stared at the figure that dispersed into white smoke, his expression dark.
All the way here, Ranmaru's Red Eyes had been unstoppable.
With X-ray vision paired with danger-sense, Konoha's Hyuga scouts couldn't detect their movements at all.
But now… an exception had appeared.
"Ranmaru—when did you sense him?"
A child's weak voice came from the sack on Raiga's back.
"When he was about two kilometers away."
"So that's your maximum range?" Raiga nodded. "He came straight at us, didn't he?"
"Yes. If we hadn't triggered some kind of alarm, his Byakugan range might actually be farther than mine," Ranmaru replied softly.
"Then he's a threat that has to be killed."
Raiga frowned.
A vision range beyond two kilometers wasn't a joke on the battlefield—whoever had that kind of scouting advantage would seize every initiative.
"If he sent a shadow clone to probe us, his real body is probably observing from outside your sight. We need to be careful from here on."
At that moment, the rest of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen arrived.
Kushimaru Kuriarare looked around, didn't see any corpse, and mocked him.
"What—did the enemy get away?"
"It was a Hyuga ninja's shadow clone. His field of view may be farther than Ranmaru's," Raiga ignored the provocation and explained. "We need to move carefully now."
"Farther than Ranmaru?" Zabuza's former partner, Biwa Jūzō, narrowed his eyes. The others also lost their relaxed expressions.
Because the Seven Swordsmen were all powerful fighters, they didn't include a medic-nin—and they didn't feel they needed one.
But for perfect assassination work, you couldn't do without a sensor.
Raiga's value to the group wasn't just his jōnin-level strength and mastery of the Thunder Blade—it was Ranmaru's dōjutsu bloodline.
Honestly, in the eyes of the others, Raiga might even be less important than Ranmaru… but Ranmaru saw himself as Raiga's eyes and refused to listen to anyone else.
If the Red Eyes weren't undocumented—and if the village weren't uncertain what would happen if they tried transplanting them—Ranmaru's eyes would have been stolen and implanted into some Mist ninja long ago.
Instead, they could only keep the two together and let them operate as part of the Seven Swordsmen.
And as beneficiaries of Ranmaru's support, they understood immediately how serious this was.
But before anyone could react—
Ranmaru suddenly shouted from inside the sack:
"Run! A massive chakra signature is approaching at extreme speed!"
"Fast—too fast! My eyes can't track him! He stopped at the place we were just standing—Raiga, move now!"
Everyone's face sank.
…
"Sorry. I'm late."
Minato gently lowered the Konoha ninja corpses from the trees one by one, laid them on the ground, and closed their eyes.
Then he looked coldly in a certain direction—
and used Flying Thunder God again.
"So fast… the Fourth Hokage? He came alone? No guards?"
Biwa Jūzō muttered.
"Isn't that perfect?" Kushimaru grinned savagely. "We kill him together!"
Ranmaru ignored the others and kept urgently warning Raiga.
"Run! That speed—Raiga, you can't—"
Before he could finish, multiple kunai cut through the air from all directions, aimed straight at Kushimaru.
Kushimaru reflexively knocked the strange kunai aside with his long blade—
and exposed the tiniest opening.
—BOOM!
"AAAAH!!!"
A golden flash tore through everyone's vision.
An explosion followed, and Kushimaru's scream tore the forest apart.
Inside a spiraling crater, Kushimaru coughed blood mixed with shredded organ fragments. His body spasmed violently.
His eyes, already unfocusing, stared at his comrades as he tried to reach out for help—
but he didn't even have the strength to lift his hand.
And the others had no time to spare for someone whose insides were already ruined.
How is he that fast…? In one instant, Kushimaru—
Jinpachi Munashi broke into a cold sweat.
He stared at Namikaze Minato at the edge of the crater, and the moment Minato's gaze turned toward him, fear erupted in his chest.
Without thinking, Jinpachi slammed the Exploding Blade down into the ground.
BOOOOM!
The blast shredded the earth. Stone and dust erupted everywhere.
"Anyone who can use Hidden Mist—do it! If we let him move freely, we're finished!"
Kisame's predecessor, Fuguki Suikazan, and Jūzō raised their hands at the same time.
Together, they cast the Hidden Mist Technique.
Thick fog surged out, swallowing the battlefield.
"Move!"
The remaining five swordsmen reached an eerie, unprecedented coordination—charging Minato through the mist as one.
Against that kind of speed, splitting up to run wouldn't work.
The only way out was to incapacitate Minato first.
Only Raiga lagged half a step behind, hesitating—
and then a figure wreathed in green steam appeared in front of him, suddenly familiar yet strangely foreign.
A palm strike—already fully loaded as if it had been "charged" before arrival—slammed straight toward his chest.
—Eight Trigrams Air Palm!
Raiga's pupils shrank.
He didn't have time to react properly. He could only twist his body slightly, trying to avoid a direct hit—
BOOOOM!
Palm met flesh at point-blank range.
It wasn't a normal Air Palm anymore. It was edging toward something like a Hirudora-style shock strike—an attack bordering on raw devastation.
Raiga's body erupted. His left shoulder and arm blew apart, and one of his twin Thunder Blades dropped to the ground.
But Raiga had no time to care.
Riding the force of the impact, he launched himself backward dozens of meters—didn't even warn his teammates—
and transformed into lightning, fleeing the battlefield at top speed.
Flying Thunder God was far more terrifying than anything they'd understood.
And now there were two users—
one of whom could ignore the mist entirely with Byakugan.
Winning was impossible.
Hyuga Yuu didn't even look at the maimed Raiga.
His clear, cold voice rang from above the battlefield.
"Seven o'clock direction. Twenty-five meters."
The five swordsmen who had been closing in on Minato stiffened in shock.
Minato's cold face, however, curved into a small smile.
He moved first—pulling out a Flying Thunder God kunai and throwing it toward that exact spot.
Hidden Mist really could restrict him.
In this environment, a clean Flying Thunder God slaughter was difficult…
—unless he had a teammate.
He took back what he'd said earlier.
His fighting style still required allies.
Just not ordinary allies.
Allies who could keep up.
When Minato arrived, his instincts immediately noticed a Flying Thunder God mark on the Thunder Blade. He'd been startled—
because it was the unique mark design Hyuga Yuu used, and Yuu was supposed to be training at the practice field.
But whatever the reason, the dull impact sound nearby made Minato understand.
"You can use Flying Thunder God already?"
Minato's mouth lifted slightly.
He warped to a kunai that had passed close to Jinpachi Munashi, and his Rasengan collided with Jinpachi's raised Exploding Blade.
The blade's paper tags detonated.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The chained explosions drowned out the faint sound of another kunai slicing through the air—
and a figure appeared behind Jinpachi, silent as a ghost.
With Jinpachi's attention locked on Minato, that figure drove a fist into his back—
and shattered his heart meridians in a single strike.
Jinpachi fell, unwilling and furious.
Minato turned and gave Yuu a warm smile.
So this is what it feels like… to have a successor.
For the first time, he could truly understand why Jiraiya-sensei loved bragging about his students.
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