Chapter 155: The Reanimated One!
The rain stopped, and the sky cleared.
Faced with Minato's request for aid, Nara Keisuke simply replied in a low voice, "Retsu, the mask."
Hyūga Retsu's brow furrowed slightly, but she quickly retrieved the carefully stored Yin Release Mask from her ninja pouch and handed it to Minato without hesitation.
'Another white mask?'
Minato took the mask and turned it over, the spider-like sigil on the back immediately reflecting in his blue eyes.
"This is..."
"My own chakra is running low, Minato-san," Keisuke cut him off, quickly laying out their strategy. "Your frontal assault capabilities are lacking. I need you to draw the enemy's attention and create an opportunity for me to face him head-on!"
It had to be admitted. Before developing the Rasengan and its subsequent upgrades, Minato was severely lacking in damage output against the ninja world's top-tier "tanks." The throat-slitting power of his Flying Thunder God kunai was potent, but only against true glass cannons. Most ninja could be described as such, but there were always a few "aberrants"—ninjas with impossibly high attack, speed, and defense, their main combat stats almost maxed out.
Examples included the Third and Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure. And, of course, the still-unidentified white-masked man below. Against this type of opponent, Minato could swing his kunai until sparks flew and still fail to inflict any meaningful damage. Sealing jutsu might help, but in a battle where the situation could change in an instant, who had time to form the necessary hand seals?
Minato's original idea was for Keisuke to play support, using those "black gale bullets" to interfere with the enemy while he used his kunai to get close and whittle him down—ah, no, to look for an opening. But now, Keisuke had proposed a different approach.
To this...
"Keisuke, leave it to me!"
As everyone knows, the Flying Thunder God Technique, while written as a "space-time ninjutsu," is read as "the strongest support skill in the ninja world." And when it came to playing support, Minato was second to none.
Minato put on the Yin Release Mask, and his figure instantly vanished from the back of the Shadow Creature. When he reappeared, he was in the river valley below the ruins of Kannabi Bridge. Just as Minato had teleported to the Shadow Creature, the white-masked ninja had also made his way down to the river. He had confirmed that his "Rain Formation" jutsu was an effective counter to the creature in the sky. While his own chakra wasn't enough to produce a sufficiently powerful version, there was a raging river right here. Using natural forces to perform jutsu both conserved chakra and amplified its power.
However, Minato had already left a Flying Thunder God marker on the cliff wall of the ravine. Sensing the man's movements, he decisively dropped into the valley and hurled a kunai at him. The three-pronged weapon cut swiftly through the air, flying unerringly toward the white-masked man's position. Already familiar with the damage—or lack thereof—from this kind of attack, the man paid it no mind, merely glancing at it before speeding up his hand seals.
But Minato knew the limits of his own attacks better than anyone. He had only thrown the kunai as a momentary distraction.
His real diversion was—
"Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Technique!"
A complex summoning formula erupted from Minato's palm. His chakra linked the space of the river valley with Mount Myōboku, and from that distant sacred land, he summoned a colossal toad.
Gamabunta!
BOOM!
The massive toad fell from the sky like a meteor, crashing down with immense force onto the white-masked man in the river below. Its enormous body sent up a towering splash. The water jutsu the man had just been completing was forcibly interrupted by the "Toad from Above" attack.
"Minato—"
Before Gamabunta could even figure out what was happening or greet his summoner, the chakra sustaining him ran out. With a poof, the great toad vanished in a cloud of smoke.
"Sorry, Bunta," Minato muttered mentally, already rushing towards the river. A giant summoned beast was effective in most battles, but considering the "high-pressure water gun" jutsu the enemy had used earlier, Minato didn't think Gamabunta could actually overpower him. He had only summoned the toad to interrupt the man's jutsu, not for a real fight, which was why he hadn't used much chakra for the summoning. The amount of chakra a summoning consumed was largely determined by how long the beast remained on the field.
Of course, there were times when one summoned a beast with the full intention of having it fight, only for it to take a stroll, get beaten up, and immediately flee...
A moment later, Minato landed on the river. Using his exquisite chakra control, he stood on the water's surface, scanning his surroundings vigilantly, another kunai held firmly in his right hand.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
Just then, a straight, high-pressure jet of water shot out from the river below, aiming to pierce right through Minato's upper body. Noticing the attack, Minato quickly sidestepped, using a D-rank Body Flicker to avoid direct contact. The water jet continued past him and slammed into the cliff wall, leaving a tiny, perfectly round hole. The powerful stream effortlessly bored through layers of rock until it emerged from the ground and shot into the sky.
'Right choice not to let Bunta fight!' The thought flashed through Minato's mind. He seized the opening, using the jutsu's trajectory to pinpoint his opponent's location and instantly flickered closer. Even without the Flying Thunder God, the Yellow Flash's mastery of the basic Body Flicker was exceptional.
The white-masked man's figure emerged from the water. Seeing Minato rapidly approaching, he formed another hand seal.
"Water Release: Instant Water!"
The man seemed to merge with the waves, using the current to glide across the surface at a speed that was no less than Minato's. The distance between them closed in an instant.
Minato swung the kunai in his hand, a faint layer of wind-style chakra wrapping around its three-pronged blade, greatly enhancing its cutting power. The kunai was a custom-made tool, forged with a good amount of chakra-conductive metal. However, because this tactic was so chakra-intensive and most enemies didn't require such an elaborate attack, Minato rarely used this "chakra enchantment." But facing the nigh-invincible defense of the white-masked man, he had no choice but to infuse his weapon.
"Wind nature transformation?" the man noted. Having previously ignored Minato's attacks, he now chose to bend at the waist, dodging the "wind-enchanted" slash rather than meeting it head-on.
Minato's kunai cut a sharp arc through the air, narrowly missing his opponent's afterimage. But as he saw the man dodge, he fluidly reversed his grip and swung the kunai down toward the back of his neck. The man's combat experience was just as rich; he bent backward again, avoiding the follow-up attack, before straightening up to keep his opponent in sight.
Minato swung again, aiming for the man's abdomen. The man shot his left hand out, stopping the attack before the wind-infused blade could reach him, while simultaneously thrusting his right fist toward Minato's stomach. Minato raised his knee to block the punch.
Thud!
The collision of fist and knee echoed with a dull sound. After a brief exchange of taijutsu, both fighters leaped back before charging at each other once more.
While Minato and the white-masked man were locked in their thrilling, high-stakes melee, up on the Shadow Creature, Nara Keisuke had already created a Shadow Doppelganger to take control of the beast. His true self was continuously molding Yin Release chakra. A deep, black, spiraling shadow sphere appeared in his palm, growing larger with his every breath.
Sensing the gravity of the situation, Shisui and the others remained silent.
Down in the valley, Minato and the white-masked man exchanged round after round of taijutsu. Though Minato couldn't land a damaging blow, he also hadn't taken any hits himself. They clashed and separated again. The white-masked man adjusted his stance and began to move toward Minato. But at that moment, Minato reached into the pouch on his back and threw something.
'Another Flying Thunder God kunai?' the man thought. He focused his eyes, only to see that Minato had thrown a simple, plain mask. 'What kind of attack is this?'
In that brief moment of shock...
"Flying Thunder God Technique!"
Nara Keisuke's figure traversed space, appearing above the river. He held the Yin Release Mask in his left hand and the condensed black shadow sphere in his right. Aiming at the white-masked man charging toward him, he unleashed the Yin-style attack he had been preparing for so long.
"Spiraling Shadow Killing Cannon!"
THOOM!
The impossibly fast projectile of dark energy shot forward with unstoppable momentum. Before the white-masked man could even register the sound of the attack, the shuttle-shaped blast had already torn through his abdomen, leaving a massive, empty hole. The cannonball continued onward, burying itself in the cliff wall before finally unleashing its full power.
BOOM!!
With a deafening roar, a horrifying crater nearly ten meters in diameter was blasted into the cliff face. Deep fissures radiated outwards from the impact point, compromising the entire structure and sending huge chunks of rock and earth sliding into the river below. The once-pristine cliff wall, polished by the river for countless years, was nearly brought down by a single blow.
The grievously wounded white-masked man froze in place.
"I can see the scenery on the other side through the hole in his body," Minato remarked, finally feeling a sense of relief. He couldn't help but praise the attack. "Keisuke, I shall call this move 'Flying Thunder God Secret Art: Ultra-Black Yin Release Purgatory Peerless Gale Wave Burst Cannon'!"
Ignoring Minato's chuunibyou nonsense, Keisuke focused intently on the white-masked man. He was confident in his attack's power, but... the hole blown through the man's body wasn't bleeding. Not a single drop.
On the contrary, as Keisuke watched, small, paper-like scraps began to swarm toward the wound, continuously filling the impossibly large cavity.
Keisuke's silence caught Minato's attention. He instinctively looked back at the enemy, just in time to see the man's torso fully regenerate, leaving behind only smooth, white skin with the faintest of scars.
Keisuke's pupils shrank. The name of a forbidden jutsu surfaced in his mind.
'Edo Tensei!'
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