The two Rasengan stabilized. Then the other two clones slammed their hands together, pointing the jutsu's lightning energy at the Rasengans and imbuing them with concentrated levels of lightning. Lightning stretched between them in controlled arcs, snapping around the spheres without touching them directly. The air began to vibrate. The Rasengan shook, the rotation fighting the lightning field as the two Rasengan floated in the air and threatened to electrocute everything in the vicinity.
Unstable.
Dangerous.
Beautiful.
Minato's smile faded. "Shiro."
"Yeah?"
"That looks unsafe."
"It is."
"How unsafe?"
I lifted both hands and shaped my fingers like guns that pointed at the two floating Rasengan. "Usually explodes after five-ish seconds."
Kushina stood up. "Usually?!"
Yukino also stood. "Shirokumo!"
I smiled wider. "Good thing it only needs one."
The first Rasengan Railgun fired.
There was no throw.
No arc.
No visible travel.
Just a violent crack of thunder and a blue streak ripping across the battlefield.
Minato vanished.
Barely.
The sphere passed where his torso had been and tore through the trees behind him, then in the distance a spiraling explosion ripped bark, leaves, and dust into the air as it left a brilliant flash of blue electricity that rose into the sky.
Minato reappeared near the far fence.
For half a second, I saw it.
A thin line of blood on his shoulder.
A graze.
I had grazed him.
Minato looked at the cut.
Then at me.
His expression was no longer playful.
Good.
"What will you do about the second shot?" I asked.
The second unstable Rasengan launched.
Minato's hand moved toward a marked kunai.
He prepared to teleport.
Then the sphere detonated halfway.
Light exploded and engulfed the training ground as powerful gusts of wind surged and sent the tree tops flaying around. Pure white-blue radiance swallowed the field for a split second, which was all I needed.
Minato's eyes widened as the flash stole his vision.
That was the real attack.
Lightning crackled beneath my feet. "Thunder Step."
I appeared beside him.
His head turned toward me.
Too late.
My fist drove into his side.
"Storm Fist."
Lightning burst.
Minato's breath left him.
I followed immediately.
Elbow to ribs.
Palm to shoulder.
Knee to stomach.
Low kick to destabilize.
Another punch toward the jaw.
He blocked that one.
Barely.
I kept going.
No space.
No distance.
No room.
Flying Thunder God needed at least some focus to be deployed.
A point.
A decision.
A mark.
A breath.
If I stayed on him, if I kept hitting, if I kept his senses rattled and his body reacting to different moves, he couldn't use it freely.
Not like usual.
So I didn't let him think.
My clones came in from the sides.
One swung low.
One went high.
The remaining two circled for support.
Minato's expression tightened as we jumped him.
My fist snapped toward his face.
He ducked and formed hand signs faster than my eyes could follow.
"Wind Style: Gale Burst!"
Wind erupted and a violent gust slammed into me and the clones, causing two to go poof outright. The pressure tore across the field like an invisible wall, lifting dirt, leaves, and loose kunai into the air. My remaining clones staggered.
Minato inhaled.
More signs.
"Wind Style: Severing Line!"
Then he exhaled a thin, sharp line of compressed wind.
It cut through the first clone.
Poof.
Then the second.
Poof.
Leaving me with none.
I twisted away, but not fast enough. Pain split across my arm. Blood sprayed from a clean slice near my bicep. I hissed.
Minato vanished.
My eyes widened.
Above.
He had teleported to a marked kunai carried upward by the gust he'd created earlier.
Of course he had.
He appeared overhead, body twisting midair, heel descending like an axe.
The kick smashed into the side of my head and the world snapped sideways.
I hit the ground hard enough to carve a trench through dirt.
For a second, everything rang.
Sky.
Dirt.
Pain.
My own breathing.
From somewhere distant, I heard Yukino gasp. "Shiro!"
Kushina's voice came sharper. "He's moving."
Good.
Because I was.
Barely.
I rolled before Minato could follow up.
A kunai struck the ground where my shoulder had been.
I kicked off the dirt and made distance, staggering upright.
Blood ran down my arm.
My head throbbed.
My ribs screamed.
I smiled anyway.
Because through the pain, through the ringing in my ears, one thought burned brighter than everything else.
He used elemental ninjutsu.
Against me.
Namikaze Minato had used elemental ninjutsu against me.
Not to train.
Not to demonstrate.
To win.
I laughed once.
It came out rough.
Minato landed across from me, breathing hard now. A bruise darkened along his ribs where my Storm Fist had hit. Blood marked his shoulder. Dust clung to his clothes.
He looked tired.
Actually tired.
Good.
Then he vanished again.
I barely saw him.
He appeared in front of me and drove a palm toward my chin.
I blocked.
He shifted.
Another blow clipped my jaw.
My head snapped back.
He stepped in.
Palm.
Elbow.
Knee.
Palm.
Every strike targeted my head, my chin, my balance. Concussive. Precise. Annoyingly intelligent.
My brain rattled.
I tried to counter but he slipped inside. His hands blurred through seals, then both palms struck my chest and something burned into me.
A seal.
My muscles locked as lightning erupted from the mark.
Pain tore through my body. "ARGH…!"
Minato kicked me hard in the stomach.
I launched backward and upward, electricity crawling over my torso.
He formed more signs before I even hit the apex.
Fire gathered at his lips.
Then he exhaled.
Flaming shapes burst into the air.
Birds.
Phoenix-like flames spiraled upward and swallowed me.
Fire and lightning met.
The explosion lit the training ground orange.
For a second, all I could feel was burning.
Kushina's voice cracked.
"Minato! That's too far!"
Yukino took a step forward, then stopped herself. Because this was a spar. Because we agreed. Because interfering now would insult both of us.
Damn, she really understood.
I fell out of the smoke, body smoking, chest still spasming from the lightning seal.
Minato appeared below, already moving to continue.
No mercy.
Good.
I forced chakra through trembling fingers.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A clone appeared beneath me and I kicked off its shoulders. It vanished from the force.
Poof.
I launched sideways, barely avoiding Minato's follow-up strike as he flashed through the space I'd been falling into.
I hit the ground and rolled.
The lightning seal kept biting as every pulse made my muscles twitch. Every pulse threatened to ruin my movement. Minato landed several meters away, eyes focused. He was waiting. He knew the seal would wear me down.
Smart.
Too smart.
I pressed a hand against my chest.
Fine chakra control.
Tsunade's training, the rasengan training, cultivating the Strength of a Hundred Seal. Two months of pouring chakra into a point smaller than a coin.
If I could do that, then I could do this.
I sent a thin needle of chakra into the seal.
It shocked me harder and my teeth clenched.
Another pulse.
Then another.
I found the structure.
A loop.
A repeating electrical pattern.
I didn't need to remove it.
I needed to break it.
I pulsed chakra into the center.
The seal flickered.
Again.
It cracked.
Again.
It shattered.
The lightning died.
I sucked in a breath.
For a second, I simply stood there, hunched over, smoke rising from my clothes.
Minato stared.
Then smiled faintly.
"You broke it from the inside."
"Yeah."
"That's ridiculous."
"Thank you."
He laughed softly, but there was exhaustion in it now.
I straightened.
Slowly.
My Fifth Gate was still active, but my body was starting to hate me for it.
The muscles in my legs trembled.
My lungs burned.
My head throbbed where Minato had kicked me.
Minato wasn't much better.
His breathing had grown heavy.
His left arm hung slightly lower than before.
The graze from the Railgun Rasengan still bled.
The bruise on his ribs had deepened.
We stared at each other across the torn-up field.
No more games.
No more tricks.
Not because we were out.
Because we both knew.
It was time.
Minato raised his hand.
Blue chakra began to spin.
I raised mine.
The same light answered.
Kushina and Yukino stood at the edge of the field now, snacks forgotten, ice cream melting somewhere beside what remained of the bench.
Kushina swallowed. "They're doing it again?"
Yukino's voice was quiet. "Yes."
"Should we move?"
"Yes."
They moved.
Quickly.
Smart girls.
Minato stood opposite me, breathing hard, bruised, bleeding and still smiling. I was pretty sure I looked exactly the same.
Neither of us spoke.
We didn't need to.
The Rasengan spun above Minato's palm.
My own Rasengan rotated in my hand.
The same technique.
Different people.
The wind picked up.
Dust drifted across the battlefield.
For a second, it felt like the entire world had stopped moving.
Waiting.
Watching.
Kushina took another step back.
Then another.
Then another.
"Yeah, no. Absolutely not."
Yukino silently followed.
Very responsible.
The exact opposite of the two idiots currently preparing to ram unstable balls of concentrated chakra into each other.
Minato's smile widened. "Still think you'll win?"
I snorted. "No."
His eyebrow lifted. "Oh?"
I grinned. "I know I will."
Minato laughed. Actually laughed out loud. The kind of laugh that only came out when he was genuinely happy. "Good!"
The Rasengan in his hand spun faster.
Mine answered.
Blue light illuminated the battlefield.
"Then come prove it!"
I lowered my stance.
So did he.
The world narrowed.
The trees disappeared.
The girls disappeared.
The training ground disappeared.
There was only Minato.
And me.
We moved.
The ground exploded beneath our feet.
Cracks shot across the earth as we accelerated forward.
Fast.
Faster.
Everything blurred.
The distance vanished.
Ten meters.
Five.
Three.
One.
And then…
"RASENGAN!"
"RASENGAN!"
The two spheres collided.
The world exploded.
The sound wasn't a sound.
It was a force.
A pressure.
A roar that swallowed everything else.
The Rasengan screamed against the Rasengan.
Blue chakra erupted outward.
The ground shattered beneath us.
Dust exploded into the air.
Shockwaves tore through the training ground.
Trees bent violently.
Leaves ripped free from branches.
The girls threw their arms over their faces as wind blasted across the clearing.
Kushina's bag of snacks achieved flight.
"MY CHIPS!"
A packet disappeared into the sky.
Neither Minato nor I cared.
The chakra spheres ground against one another.
Rotating.
Grinding.
Fighting.
My arm shook.
Minato's arm shook.
The pressure intensified.
The air itself seemed to vibrate.
For a single instant, I could see him through the storm of blue light.
Grinning.
The idiot was actually grinning.
Not like I wasn't grinning back.
Then both Rasengan collapsed at the same time and the resulting explosion sent us flying.
Hard.
I had enough time to think:
Oh.
There I go.
Before I crashed through a patch of grass and rolled several times across the ground.
The sky spun.
The earth spun.
Everything spun.
Then I stopped flat on my back and staring upward at the sky.
The clouds looked nice.
That was a weird thing to think.
My chest rose.
Fell.
Rose.
Fell.
Breathing hurt.
Existing hurt.
I wasn't entirely convinced my arms still worked.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
The battlefield settled around us.
Dust drifted through the air.
The wind calmed.
Silence returned.
"..."
"..."
"..."
I turned my head slightly.
A terrible mistake.
Everything hurt.
Still.
Worth it.
Minato lay several meters away.
Flat on his back.
Looking just as destroyed as I felt.
His chest rose and fell heavily.
His blond hair was covered in dirt.
One sleeve was torn.
His face was bruised.
He looked awful.
It was beautiful.
For a second neither of us spoke.
Then—
Minato started laughing.
A weak laugh.
A tired laugh.
The laugh of someone who had just gotten punched in the face repeatedly by his best friend.
I stared at him.
Then started laughing too.
Because honestly?
What else was there to do?
We lay there in the dirt laughing like complete idiots.
Across the field, Kushina stared.
Yukino stared.
Then Kushina pointed dramatically. "They broke."
Yukino nodded. "They broke."
"Should we be concerned?"
"...Probably."
Reasonable assessment.
Eventually the laughter died down.
Mostly because laughing hurt.
A lot.
I stared at the sky.
Minato did the same.
The clouds drifted lazily overhead.
For the first time all day, neither of us felt any need to move.
"...Hey." Minato's voice came from beside me.
"Hm?"
A pause. Then, "So, rivals?"
I snorted. My ribs immediately punished me for it.
Worth it.
"Obviously."
Minato chuckled. "Good."
Another moment passed.
Then I glanced sideways. "...So."
"Hm?"
"...Who won?"
Silence.
Minato considered it.
I considered it.
Then we both spoke at the same time.
"Me."
"Me."
We stared at each other.
Then immediately started laughing again.
"Oh, come on!" Kushina groaned loudly. "They're impossible!"
Yukino's shoulders shook slightly since she was laughing too. Giggling behind her sleeve, a very nice sight.
Eventually the girls reached us.
Kushina immediately crouched beside Minato. "You idiot."
Minato smiled. "Hello to you too."
She poked his forehead.
He winced. "Ow."
"I intend to punish you later."
Meanwhile, Yukino knelt beside me. Her pale Byakugan eyes examined every visible injury. I suddenly felt like a patient.
"...You are bleeding."
"A little."
"You're concussed."
"Maybe."
"You have burns."
"Technically."
She stared at me.
I smiled weakly. "...Hi."
The corner of her mouth twitched. Just slightly. "Hello."
For a moment neither of us spoke.
Then she shook her head softly. "Idiot."
"...Fair."
A small hand appeared in front of my face.
I blinked.
Looked up.
Yukino was offering to help me up.
I stared at it for a second, then took it. Her fingers tightened around mine.
Warm.
Careful.
Steady.
She pulled.
I immediately regretted standing as my entire body protested loudly. Minato experienced the exact same thing a few meters away while Kushina hauled him upright.
The four of us stood there for a moment, with us lads bruised, dirty and completely exhausted, but happy.
The battlefield we'd created looked ridiculous.
Broken trees.
Craters.
Burn marks.
Scattered kunai.
A suspicious lack of snacks.
Kushina mourned the snacks for several seconds.
Then pointed accusingly at us. "You're buying replacements."
"That's fair after all that," Minato admitted.
"Completely fair," I agreed.
Yukino looked around the battlefield. Then at us. Then at the battlefield again. "...You know we'll have to explain this."
Minato looked at me.
I looked at Minato.
Then both of us looked at the giant crater where the final clash happened.
"...Run?" I suggested.
"Run," Minato agreed.
Kushina immediately smacked the back of his head.
Yukino sighed. "Let's get out of here…"