Minato stood over the unconscious Iwa scouts, his sharp gaze scanning the forest for any signs of reinforcements.
Arashi, still lounging on the tree branch, twirled a white dandelion seed between his fingers, humming to himself as if he hadn't just witnessed Minato dispatch three trained shinobi in mere seconds.
"You know," Arashi mused, voice light, "for a guy famous for being fast, you sure like to stand around and talk with random people."
Minato ignored the quip. His focus remained razor-sharp, his instincts telling him that the encounter wasn't over yet.
Then he felt a new chakra signature—strong, heavy, and sharp—broke through the forest's natural hum. This one wasn't like the scouts. It carried an undeniable weight, a force that pressed into the environment like a predator stepping into its domain.
This was the presence of a mid-level jonin.
Minato had encountered enough enemy commanders on the battlefield to recognize the distinction immediately. This wasn't just some ordinary reinforcement. This was a trained killer, someone strong enough to lead a platoon into war.
A shadow moved from the treeline, stepping into the clearing with purpose.
The newcomer wore the flak jacket of an Iwa shinobi, but unlike the scouts, his demeanor was calm, composed, and deadly. His gaze swept over the clearing, taking in the unconscious bodies of his men, the scattered kunai embedded in trees, and finally, the man standing at the center of it all.
A slow exhale escaped the Iwa jonin's lips. His hands curled into fists, and in that moment, Minato knew exactly what was about to happen.
The man's face didn't betray much emotion, but the tension in his jaw, the tightening of his stance, it was all deliberate. A decision had been made, and Minato was already piecing together what it was.
He's going to kill them. And by them, Minato meant the scouts, not him or Arashi.
They couldn't afford for Konoha to have captured intelligence officers, not with whatever information they carried. The logical move was to eliminate them before retreating. It was ruthless—but efficient.
Minato was already moving before the Iwa jonin formed his first seal, unfortunately that was the only seal the Iwa jonin needed.
A massive wave of fire erupted from the his mouth, a roaring inferno that engulfed the clearing before Minato could retrieve any of the other enemy ninja.
Arashi moved in an instant, flipping off his perch in the tree, shifting mid-air as his form blurred into a hawk. He dodged effortlessly, wings cutting through the smoke as he soared to a higher branch.
Minato wasn't far behind, flashing out of range, appearing on the opposite side of the clearing. The firestorm missed them—but the scouts weren't so lucky.
Screams, so many agonizing, guttural screams rang through the burning clearing.
Minato's eyes looked at the Iwa scouts that were still tied, still helpless as the flames consumed them.
Minato frowned at the loss of potentially some information but wasn't entirely worried about it because of the fact that they were only low-level scouts. 'They couldn't have known much anyway.' He shrugged
As a section of the forest went up in flames, black smoke twisting into the sky and embers scattering into the wind, the air shifted.
Something more powerful than the jonin had arrived.
Minato's attention snapped toward Arashi as he felt his chakra suddenly pulse out from him in a gigantic wave.
The red-haired wanderer had landed on a low-hanging branch, crouched slightly, his posture still relaxed, but his expression was not.
Minato saw the difference immediately and was right back on guard for what was about to happen.
The casual amusement was gone. The sparkle in his eyes had dimmed to nothing and there was a frown replacing his smirk.
For a split second, Minato swore the entire forest inhaled. The chakra all around him seemed to swirl and coalesce around where Arashi was crouching on that branch.
Then the forest moved.
Both vines and roots erupted from the earth, surging forward with violent precision. The ground itself cracking as these thick roots lunged forward, snapping toward the Iwa jonin with a force so immense that the man barely had time to react.
The enemy shinobi's eyes widened uncontrollably and he moved on instinct, leaping back, trying to evade, but it didn't matter.
The vines caught him mid-air, and with a single, sharp motion the fight was over.
The Iwa jonin barely had time to scream before the roots and vines snaked up his left leg, around his torso, and covered his body. Nothing, not even his head was excluded, as a tremendous force was applied to the cocoon leaving only blood dripping out from the cracks.
Minato didn't move. He didn't need to. The battle had ended in an instant.
And the strangest part wasn't even that both wooden roots and vines were used. It was the fact that Arashi hadn't used even a singular hand seal.
As Arashi's riled up chakra began to relax, so too did the rest of the forest. The vines and the roots retreated back into the earth, body in tow leaving only the leaves rustling in the background. Silence.
Arashi let out a slow exhale, wiggling his shoulders as if shaking off the tension as he watched the fire become smothered by new rapid forest growth. His bright green eyes flickered toward Minato, and the casual grin slowly returned.
"Well," he said, brushing nonexistent dust off his sleeve. "That was dramatic."
Minato didn't respond immediately. He was still processing what he had just witnessed.
That wasn't an ordinary Earth Style technique. That wasn't even the extraordinary Wood Style that Lord Hashirama used.
Minato would know as he had read about the legendary wood style of Hashirama Senju, but even that required seals. Techniques. Chakra control. Add ontop of that, nothing about vines was ever mentioned, roots sure, but vines, never.
Arashi had done none of that.
Minato's fingers twitched again as he pointed to where the upturned dirt was. "That technique…"
Arashi rolled his eyes, his grin widening slightly, as if he already knew the question before Minato even spoke.
"What was that, what are you?" Minato finally asked, his voice calm but firm.
Arashi let out a low chuckle. "Still on that, huh?" He leaned back against the tree trunk, completely unfazed by Minato's question. "Let's just say…" He stretched, cracking his neck lazily before grinning.
"I'm just a wanderer who listens when the forest whispers."
Minato didn't buy that flimsy explanation at all, not for even a second.
And for the first time in a long, long while, Minato realized that he had no idea who he was dealing with.
He exhaled slowly, as he ran a hand through his yellow hair. He was rarely unsettled, but something about this encounter left a gnawing feeling in his chest. Arashi wasn't just an enigma, he was something more.
"The forest does what you tell it to do," Minato stated, less of a question and more of an observation. "It doesn't just react, it seems to listen. That kind of power... it's unheard of."