Minato Namikaze was genuinely surprised.
When he used the Flying Thunder God Technique, even many jōnin from the other villages couldn't react and could only be cut down at will.
"Minato-senpai, sorry." Kageyama Kokugetsu drew back his fist, apologetic.
"It's fine. On the battlefield, that kind of alertness is exactly right." Minato smiled faintly.
"Sensei." Kakashi's eyes lit up—then dimmed again.
Kakashi wasn't like Obito; he didn't blame Minato for arriving late, because he knew how busy his teacher was.
Obito's resentment was unreasonable.
Minato was their leading jōnin and instructor, but not a personal bodyguard who had to hover over them at every moment.
As the Leaf's sole current user of Flying Thunder God and an elite of Kage level, Minato was the fire brigade for the entire war effort.
Though he was mainly stationed on the front against Kumogakure, he often had to jump between battlefields to execute high-difficulty missions.
And Team Seven were no longer academy students; graduating as genin meant they had the basic ability to act independently.
They weren't even genin on this mission, but a chūnin and a jōnin capable of leading standard squads.
From the moment they stepped onto the battlefield—no, from the moment they became genin—they should have had the resolve to die.
What, did they think the ninja "games" at the academy were still in session?
Sometimes the difference between one person and another is larger than the difference between a person and a dog.
"Kakashi… about Rin…" Minato hesitated, pained.
"Sensei, it's because I was useless. I didn't protect Rin. Scold me, hit me if you want." Kakashi clenched his fists and bowed his head, choking up.
"No… no." Minato shook his head, face full of hurt. "I came too late. I'm sure you already gave everything—your very life—trying to save her."
He had long grown used to life and death on the front, but the fall of that gentle, kind girl still wouldn't sit in his heart.
Nohara Rin had been a girl from an ordinary family; she didn't have to become a ninja.
She chose this path because she saw the cruelty of war with her own eyes and decided she wanted to save the wounded on the front.
"Minato-senpai, Kakashi—why tear yourselves up inside?" Kokugetsu said. "If we have to blame anyone, blame the Mist for invading the Leaf. If they hadn't, there wouldn't be so many dead."
"Instead of eating yourselves alive, crush the inherently vicious Mist as fast as possible—and stop more tragedies like this."
In this world, far too many shinobi chew themselves to pieces until they become neurotics, madmen, and monsters.
He was different. When something went wrong, he pushed the burden outward; he rarely laid it on himself.
"Phew… 'eating yourself alive,' huh?" Minato murmured. "Interesting phrase—and there's truth in it."
"Kakashi, pull yourself together. Hold on a little longer; the war's almost over."
"Iwagakure has pulled back and is surrounding the Third Raikage. Both sides are taking heavy losses—they can't spare attention elsewhere for now."
"Sunagakure is running on fumes; sooner or later they'll lose to us. If we beat the Mist now, the Sand might withdraw immediately."
Kakashi forced himself to rally a little. "The Mist will probably retreat soon. Their scheme failed—and the Three-Tails is dead."
"The Three-Tails?" Minato's expression tightened. "Explain."
Kakashi recounted their mission from start to finish.
At the point where he said six Mist Anbu had suddenly surrounded the three of them, Minato's eyes flashed cold and his killing intent surged, terrifying and sharp.
Don't be fooled by Minato's sunny, gentle demeanor and mistake him for a pushover.
The "Yellow Flash" didn't earn that name by talk; if anyone in the Leaf claims second in kills during the Third War, none dares claim first over him.
Across the whole shinobi world, perhaps only the Third Raikage could compare.
"Yellow Flash" wasn't bragging—it was a red name, red with blood.
When he heard that Kokugetsu had stayed behind alone to block six Mist Anbu, Minato was truly impressed.
"Kokugetsu—you did great!"
Kokugetsu shook his head. "Not great enough. I didn't buy enough time. I only took out half of the Mist Anbu before I had to disengage."
"If I'd wiped them all out, maybe Kakashi and Rin wouldn't have been tracked."
"No—you already did more than enough," Kakashi said earnestly.
Putting himself in Kokugetsu's place, he felt that even at full power he wouldn't have done much better; a total wipe was unlikely.
"Kakashi's right. And then?" Minato pressed, fully agreeing.
"Then…" Kakashi told how the Three-Tails had been sealed into Rin, laying bare the Mist's vile plan.
Minato's anger exploded—not only because his disciples had been targeted, but because of the catastrophic consequences if the Three-Tails had been successfully unleashed.
"Kokugetsu—why am I still alive?" Kakashi asked. By all rights, he shouldn't have made it out.
"I don't know." Kokugetsu shook his head. "When I arrived, the spot where you'd been was a forest. Mist Anbu bodies were everywhere."
"No—'bodies' isn't accurate. It was meat. Heads. Blood. The stench was so thick it was like a slaughterhouse."
"From the traces, it looked like the Mist Anbu ran into an unknown enemy, someone they couldn't resist at all—and got butchered."
"Rin's body was gone. I couldn't find a single clue about her at the scene."
Both men frowned, deep in thought.
"No—that area around me was forest, yes, but the center was a clearing about half the size of the academy training field," Kakashi said, baffled.
"But when I found you, there was no clearing—only trees. You were lying beside one."
"Oh… right." Kokugetsu's eyes moved. "I didn't think much of it at the time, but those trees were different from the rest."
"Newer. Greener. Shorter—as if they'd just grown. The heads, the meat, the blood were mostly on the trees—as if the forest had come alive."
"Wood Release," Minato said, face taut, voice heavy with certainty.
"Huh?" Kokugetsu and Kakashi exclaimed together—one feigned, one real.
What Leaf shinobi hasn't heard of Wood Release?
It's the bloodline limit that ended the Warring States and is the Leaf's signature.
"Yes. It had to be Wood Release."
"Only Wood Release has that kind of overwhelming power—only it could annihilate so many Mist Anbu and leave that kind of scene."
"This is trouble." Minato's expression hardened. He was utterly convinced.
The Leaf's signature bloodline limit—absent from the Leaf, and in unknown hands outside. Fate's a cruel joke.
"The good news, judging by Kakashi being unharmed, is that the Wood Release user seems to have no hostility to the Leaf—for now."
"I say 'for now' because the Leaf holds many of the First Hokage's secret Wood techniques. If he wants to learn them, conflict becomes possible."
"I have to report this to the Third Hokage immediately."
"And as soon as I'm done, I'm launching an attack on the Mist."
"They harmed my students and schemed against the Leaf. How could they not pay?"
"I'll carve it into the Mist's bones—one blow to break them!"
In the next instant, murderous intent rolling off him, Minato set his hands on Kokugetsu's and Kakashi's shoulders.
The three vanished.
Only the little stream, hiding stars and cradling the moon, unmoved by human sorrow and joy, kept murmuring along.