Minato knelt on the grass after his escape. He wasn't entirely sure about the nature of the attack he had just avoided, but his instincts told him it was dangerous.
His eyes snapped up as he felt a familiar disturbance in space, and indeed, the masked man appeared again.
He uses a teleportation jutsu too? Minato thought to himself as he analysed the situation and his opponent.
Is that how he took Kushina and moved away so quickly? He slowly pieced things together.
Since the masked man just stood there, Minato took his time, slowly standing back up.
A shinobi who outmanoeuvred an Anbu unit assigned under Lord Third's direct control…
Who slipped through a top-secret barrier…
And who knew that the Nine Tails' seal would weaken during childbirth.
Furthermore, he had undone the Nine Tails' seal, tamed it, and gone in and out of the barrier set up by the Hidden Leaf without being caught.
I know of only one shinobi capable of this.
"Are you Madara Uchiha?"
The masked man responded by removing his hood. It didn't reveal anything important beyond his hair colour — nothing Minato could use to identify him further.
"No. That's impossible. He's dead."
This caused the man to react, tilting his head slightly. "I wonder about that."
Minato narrowed his eyes. "At this point, it doesn't matter who you are. But why are you targeting the Hidden Leaf?"
Konoha had plenty of enemies. But this man? Why go this far?
Knowing the enemy's motivation was important. It revealed how far they were willing to go, how ruthless they would be.
"I could say I did it on a whim, or that I planned it, or that it's war, or that it's for peace." He spoke in circles, and finally lifted a hand, slowly, calmly, letting a length of metal chain fall from his wide sleeve.
Minato found it a strange weapon — a chain? He didn't know a single shinobi who used that as a primary weapon, nor any village known for it. No clues could be seen, save for the one visible Sharingan.
Whatever the case, Minato knew he was no ordinary man. He could control the Nine Tails, and his teleportation jutsu surpassed both Lord Second's and his own.
Not to mention, while Minato wasn't sure what drove this man, he was sure the stranger had a dangerous ideology.
I must deal with him now or he'll be even more trouble than the Nine Tails, Minato concluded as the man slowly strapped the chain to his arms with shackles.
Minato was certain that if he transported himself back to the village now, this man would follow — and make the battlefield even more chaotic than it already was. After all, who knew better than Minato the terror a teleporter could inflict?
All in all, he was in a difficult position. He had to deal with this man, and he had to do it fast, because while they stood here, the Nine Tails was going wild back in the village.
He would have to entrust the fox to Lord Third for now and hopefully be able to join the battle there quickly.
"Now that I have freed the Nine Tails, you people have no hope left!" the masked man said, before they both rushed at one another.
Once more, Minato's kunai cut right through the man without touching him. And not just his kunai — Minato's entire body went right through the man as if he was nothing but a genjutsu.
He also realized what the chain was for. An unusual weapon, but an effective one, as Minato found himself trapped by it and was forced to use the Flying Raijin again to escape.
It was troublesome that his physical attacks had no effect at all.
Still, he was able to determine that the man had to materialize to attack — likely meaning that when he attacked, he could also be attacked.
A weakness.
Though still a tricky one, as Minato would have to aim for him at the exact instant they both struck at each other.
Given the situation with the Nine Tails, neither of them likely wanted a drawn-out battle.
That meant the one who attacked an instant quicker than the other would win this match.
And Minato was confident in his speed.
He quickly stood back up and charged right back at the man, who rushed to meet him once more.
!
Minato threw his kunai; it flashed through the space between them in an instant, but the man was prepared. Minato watched the kunai pass right through his head without resistance.
A troublesome ability indeed.
Still, Minato wasn't about to be beaten.
As they neared one another, he formed a Rasengan in his free hand. Their hands slowly neared, and while Minato didn't know exactly how the man's powers worked, he was fairly sure that being touched wasn't good. He had been lucky to escape last time, and he didn't want to test whether he could pull that off again.
So one touch likely meant the end for both of them.
Just before the masked man's hand could reach him, Minato disappeared in a yellow flash, his hand closing around the special kunai he had just thrown a moment ago.
He had teleported behind and above the masked man at the precise moment he would have had to materialize.
Minato wasted no time; he twisted in the air and slammed his Rasengan down into the man's back at full force.
Instantly, the man was blasted down into the ground. The force of the Rasengan was enough to cause a crater even after first hitting a body, and Minato felt the man's flesh and bone twist beneath his palm.
"That was my Flying Raijin: Level Two," Minato said calmly as he pushed harder. As expected, the attack wasn't fully lethal, yet he had still won.
Because he had used the chance to also place a seal on the man.
A huge cloud of dust filled the air, covering the clearing completely, before the masked man suddenly jumped out of it — alive, but badly hurt.
Minato slowly stood upright and watched his opponent's state; he had lost a hand, an entire arm likely gone. That level of injury was something only a powerful shinobi could survive, and even then, it could prove deadly if not treated quickly.
And Minato had no intention of letting him go off and heal himself.
"You got me," the man said, sounding surprised, but calm.
"This is what was meant by 'elusive.'" He praised Minato, as if landing a hit on him was a rare achievement. "I should not have let my guard down…"
Minato instantly flashed back to him, slamming his hand into the man who clearly hadn't expected it.
This time, Minato didn't go for a Rasengan, but instead placed a contract seal on him.
"With this, the Nine Tails no longer belongs to you."
-----
The Nine-Tails roared.
The earth shook with the force of a natural disaster. Entire streets were torn apart as the fox's tails lashed out, flattening buildings and sending debris raining like shrapnel.
Shinobi scrambled through smoke and falling embers, dragging civilians to safety while the beast carved a path of devastation through the heart of the village.
Atop the Hokage Tower, the aged Third Hokage tightened the straps of his battle armor.
Fire-resistant plates. Reinforced gauntlets. The same armor he had worn during the Second Great War.
A relic of another time.
"Lord Third!" an Anbu knelt before him. "The Nine-Tails—"
"I know," Hiruzen cut him off. "What of Minato?"
"Hokage-sama hasn't been seen, not since taking away that Tailed Beast Bomb," the Anbu reported.
Hiruzen sighed. He really couldn't imagine what had gone wrong. Even if the seal broke, surely things wouldn't have gone like this… No, something more was happening, and he was sure Minato was at the heart of it all.
Whoever or whatever had caused this, Minato was no doubt dealing with it — which meant he would have to protect the village, at least long enough for Minato to finish things on his side and come to help.
"Let's go!"
He quickly left once he was fully geared up. This wasn't the time to stand around; every moment he delayed, dozens of brave Konoha shinobi lost their lives.
He would not let their sacrifices be in vain. He would protect his village, his home, and everything everyone fought and died for.
He might no longer be Hokage, but he was still a proud Konoha shinobi.
As he ran, many other shinobi rallied to his side. Both Anbu and regular shinobi came to him, seeking his guidance and hope.
"We must avoid damage to the village," he told them as he came to a halt. "Chase the Nine-Tails outside the village walls!"
"Yes sir!" everyone agreed — but in truth, they were powerless to do such a thing on their own.
Hiruzen knew that.
"Buy me time so that I can execute my jutsu!" he ordered. "Do not slow down the attack!"
"Right! Let's go!" one of the Anbu said, before all of them flashed away.
They rushed through the village, jumping from roof to roof, then all jumped high into the air and launched kunai with explosive tags at the beast in a single, coordinated barrage.
BOOM!!!
The attack caused a lot of noise, but had no real effect other than getting the beast's attention.
It swung its massive arms, its clawed paws cutting through the air like enormous blades. The shinobi were instantly sent flying back towards the ground, many of them not getting back up again.
Hiruzen saw that, and his heart bled as still more rushed in to keep the Nine-Tails busy. He bit his finger.
"Ninja Art: Summoning!"
He quickly wove through a long sequence of hand signs and slammed his hand onto the rooftop between his feet.
"Appear… Monkey King Enma!"
"The Nine-Tails, huh," the summon, Monkey King Enma, said as he appeared in a cloud of smoke. "So the seal was broken?"
Hiruzen didn't need to answer; the truth was right in front of them, and it was raging.
"We're going to chase it out of the village with the Adamantine Nyoi!"
"Got it! Transform!"
Enma wasted no time in transforming into a giant staff, flying through the air and into Hiruzen's hands.
"Let's go, Enma!" Hiruzen shouted.
"Extend!"
Instantly, the staff in his hands extended with tremendous speed — and with speed came weight. It slammed into the monstrous Nine-Tails and shoved it, inch by inch, out of the village. Even the great walls, made by the First Hokage's Wood Style, couldn't stop such a large beast once Enma's full strength was brought to bear.
"I have chased him out of the village! Don't let up now!" Hiruzen shouted to the many shinobi around. Now they were free to throw everything they had at the Nine-Tails, with no need to worry about collateral damage.
It was a small moment to breathe for Hiruzen, yet he couldn't help but ask himself one question.
"Minato… where are you?"
(End of chapter)
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