Whoosh! Whoosh!
Through the vast mountain ranges, Minato carried Nawaki on his back, steadily moving forward, though at a noticeably slow pace.
The previous battle had drained over seventy percent of his chakra. Traveling alone would have been manageable.
But carrying Nawaki drastically increased his physical exhaustion and limited his speed.
Yet the young man showed no sign of wanting to give up. His bright blue eyes burned with unyielding determination.
Ever since he recovered his past memories, Minato had been determined to change the fate of those who had perished before.
Nawaki was the youngest among those who had died before, possessing limitless potential. In Minato's eyes, no one else could better inherit the powerful water release techniques of Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage.
Furthermore, in this life, the two of them had become close friends. He absolutely refused to let his fellow ninja die here.
Back then, even though he'd been known as the "Yellow Flash," he still missed far too much—his students, his loved ones... This time, he would not let history repeat itself.
At this moment, the special training methods from Jiraiya began to show their effect. Even though his chakra reserves and physical stamina were nowhere near their peak, Minato's endurance was truly remarkable.
Meanwhile, he extended his sensory perception in a specific direction.
Minato had calculated the shortest possible distance for Jiraiya and the others to reach him as reinforcements. As long as he kept moving forward in this direction, he was certain he'd meet them coming toward him.
Of course, only Tsunade could neutralize Chiyo's poison!
As the sole female among the Sannin, she would later be hailed by countless people across the ninja world as the strongest kunoichi.
The chakra fluctuations from Nawaki, unconscious on Minato's back, had weakened significantly under his perception.
But… perhaps due to the Nine-Tails' chakra, Minato could clearly sense the boy slumped behind him—the unbreakable will burning inside.
He didn't want to die like this—not when there were still so many things he had yet to accomplish!
In truth, according to Chiyo's usual toxin strength, once the poison reached its peak, Nawaki should have died within a short time after full-body poisoning.
However, upon entering the Land of Rain, the constant rainfall weakened the potency of the poison. Also, without proper replenishment, Chiyo had diluted the toxin before distributing it among Suna ninjas for large-scale combat usage.
Earlier, the Konoha ninja struck by shuriken coated with this poison hadn't died immediately. They simply needed to circulate their own chakra to fight enemies, which accelerated the spread of the toxin.
But Nawaki was different. Not only had Minato tightly sealed off the area where the poison entered, slowing its spread, but he also made sure Nawaki used no chakra at all and avoided any strenuous activity after being poisoned.
If everything went smoothly, they might actually make it until meeting up with the main force for rescue.
Yet just as Minato silently calculated in his mind, suddenly, several unfamiliar chakra signatures appeared within his sensing range—and these chakra presences felt extremely foreign to him.
"Damn it!"
Minato muttered a curse and vanished into the shadowy forest.
He carefully extended his sensor perception toward them and said grimly, "About twelve people... and among them, three have chakra signatures at jonin level!"
At this moment, Minato recalled that when he and Sakumo's Konoha reconnaissance team went to reinforce, they had also encountered a Sand Ninja Unit consisting of twelve individuals. Those ninjas seemed to be on watch duty.
Because Sakumo was there, they hadn't even managed to send out a message before being swiftly eliminated.
"So they're afraid that some Konoha ninja might escape and report back, so they've set up positions nearby as well?"
Minato instantly understood the sand ninja's intention. If everything went smoothly, Chiyo's arrangements would be enough to silently wipe out the Konoha reinforcement squad in these mountain forests.
But this also proved one thing—they came prepared!
This realization sent a cold shiver down Minato's spine. After all, even their fellow Konoha ninja didn't know the exact location of the reinforcement squad.
Then how could the Suna ninja know?
Information leak!
And it must've come from inside Konoha!
Minato's pupils slightly constricted. Finally, all the confusion made sense now.
That explained why the previous Konoha forces' movements were exposed and why the current reinforcements were ambushed.
All of it—was due to an insider.
"Damn it!"
Killing intent surged fiercely within him, yet he forced himself to suppress his anger.
The key issue now was how to evade this Sand ninja unit and locate Master Jiraiya's group.
But... there was no guarantee that taking a detour wouldn't lead to encountering other sand ninja.
More importantly, if they took a detour, Nawaki's poison would reach its peak. Even if they found Tsunade, he probably couldn't be saved.
"What should I do!?"
This was the first time since his reincarnation that Minato felt somewhat powerless. In such a situation, his former self could have easily solved it.
Ultimately, there just wasn't enough time left for him to grow—or rather, to recover.
If only his chakra reserves weren't depleted, perhaps he could still attempt a risky move.
But in his current condition, it felt nearly impossible...
Shhh! Shhh!
The faint rustling of those Iwa ninja moving echoed through the mountains, while Minato could only hide his and Nawaki's presence.
Looking at Nawaki beside him, who was gradually slipping into unconsciousness, Minato tightly clenched his fists.
"If only... I still had sufficient chakra..." Minato muttered inwardly. An idea surfaced in his mind, but with his current abilities, it was practically unachievable.
An overwhelming sense of frustration surged through Minato's very soul...
"Hehe, Fourth Hokage, I told you long ago—even if you return, you can't change anything!"
Just then, a mocking voice rang from deep within Minato's soul. Upon hearing it, the turbulence in his sapphire eyes intensified.
That... was the Nine-Tails' mocking growl.
As Minato's emotions stirred, a familiar yet foreign voice suddenly echoed from within his soul, reverberating in his ears.
"That's not necessarily true. We still have... the Nine-Tails!"
Minato's pupils constricted. This voice was incredibly familiar—it was none other than his own voice, but seemingly from someone older... or perhaps it was himself from the future!
And just as Minato stood stunned in his mind, the voice sounded again, this time with a faint chuckle: "This power—none other than your very own Nine-Tails!"
A surge of indescribable emotion crashed over Minato. He abruptly shut his eyes tightly, and at that moment, a force both familiar and somewhat foreign erupted wildly from within him.
[Chakra!]
In the next instant, Minato suddenly snapped open his eyes, beams of tangible chakra shooting outward like rays. His once sapphire-blue eyes now burned with a fierce, blood-red hue.
Most striking of all, his pupils had transformed into vertical slit-like eyes—just like those of the Nine-Tails!
...
...(To be continued.)
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