"Minato, should we keep moving forward?"
A four-man Konoha Ninja squad halted at the edge of a Dense Forest.
Going further ahead, the terrain would change from thickly wooded highlands to low grassland, making concealment much harder and increasing the chance of leaving behind traces of movement.
For ninjas, conducting reconnaissance here would become far more difficult.
Minato Namikaze smiled without directly answering his teammate's question. He pointed into the distance and countered, "Do you have any idea what's out there?"
The three teammates exchanged glances. One prepared to take out a map to verify their current location.
Minato interrupted him before he could do so, continuing with his explanation, "Every year around this season, frost forms here in the early morning like snowfall... That's why this place has a commonly accepted name: Frostland."
"..."
This was the Land of Waterfalls; beyond it lay the Land of Earth.
After a brief silence, one finally said, "Alright then, let's move out."
Since Minato had said so, how could these Konoha Ninjas possibly stop here?
Thus, this rather young Ninja Squad advanced straight into the Land of Earth. In fact, they discovered Iwagakure's temporary camp stationed at the border of the Land of Earth merely one day later.
Brave yet careful, decisive and strategic—since arriving on the Battleground, Minato rapidly matured, immediately showing all the qualities expected of a "practical-field ninja"... If compared to insects, this kind of growth could at least be described as complete metamorphosis—like how caterpillars transform into butterflies.
Minato's mission was reconnaissance. Naturally, he wouldn't lead his teammates to attack Iwagakure's camp. Even the dumbest person wouldn't fall into such recklessness… Someone had recently provided a clear example of the consequences of charging into an enemy camp alone—a textbook failure.
From a distance, Minato observed the Iwa camp through his binoculars. Then he pulled out a map, a ruler, and a pencil. After silently calculating the scale, he precisely marked the camp's location onto the map.
"Considering the surrounding terrain, if the gathered Iwa ninja want to invade the Land of Fire, they'll most likely penetrate through the Land of Grass..."
Minato traced a line lightly over the map with his finger—this represented his guess about the route that Iwagakure would probably take.
At present, Iwagakure hadn't launched any large-scale offensives against Konoha yet. The war remained at the stage of probing skirmishes. Yet with so many Iwa ninja concentrated at this location, the Land of Fire had become like land beneath a suspended lake—should even a single mistake happen, the war front protecting Konoha would quickly collapse.
For a reconnaissance team, discovering the location of this camp should have already been their limit. However, in such an abnormally dangerous location, Minato didn't immediately withdraw.
"Now comes the next step—we need to figure out exactly how many Iwa ninja are stationed here."
Minato meant that since they'd come this far, they should at least determine the number of Iwa troops. But… how? There was no way to tell how many were inside just by looking at the size of the camp.
Although Iwagakure's camp was still under construction and not fully arranged, this small team definitely didn't have anyone with the Byakugan ability.
How exactly was Minato going to pull this off?
True to his reputation as a once-in-a-generation genius, Minato Namikaze had an incredibly straightforward method of reconnaissance—just counting with his eyes.
It sounded simple enough, but in practice, it was extremely difficult—since Iwa's personnel kept moving around, and ninja were especially fast. Therefore, Minato's plan consumed an extraordinary amount of eye drops.
But they still took action.
For three consecutive days, this squad remained almost motionless on a high slope, repeatedly counting three times before finally estimating the approximate number of Iwa ninja within the camp.
"It should be somewhere between 5,800 to 6,400. More importantly, over these past three days, the number of ninja at Iwagakure's camp has continued to increase. Based on this trend... eventually, at least half of Iwagakure's entire ninja force will gather here."
Actually, all they could say was that enemy numbers fell somewhere between five and seven thousand—such long-distance counting couldn't possibly yield precise figures.
The moment he heard that number, Minato Namikaze's expression turned grim.
Konoha's forces had to be spread thin across three separate fronts, while the enemy had already formed a single, concentrated "hammer" ready to strike.
"We're retreating."
The enemy's war preparations and determination exceeded everyone's expectations, but at this point, besides withdrawing with heavy hearts, they had no other choice… bringing back such reconnaissance data to their base was now the top priority.
Logically speaking, their most dangerous moment should have come while they were hiding outside Iwagakure's camp, but they managed to stay completely undetected then. Ironically, shortly after beginning their return journey, they suddenly found themselves pursued.
"Minato, 48 degrees behind our left rear—a group of enemies has caught up."
Prompted by their companion with the strongest reconnaissance abilities, Minato turned his head to observe carefully, and indeed spotted a group of Iwa ninja silently tailing them from behind.
Minato couldn't help but frown.
"If we continue like this, we'll remain passive and in extreme danger—we can't just let them follow us."
After saying this, Minato abruptly halted mid-step. Before his teammates could react, he suddenly turned around and charged straight toward the enemies.
His two teammates froze completely—they couldn't understand Minato's actions for a moment… Why had Minato, who was usually so calm, suddenly become so reckless?
Another slightly older teammate tried to stop Minato right away, but—
"Minato, slow down!
Minato, don't act impulsively!
Minato… damn it."
Sorry—we didn't even manage to slow him down.
That move looked strangely familiar.
Helplessly, the others could only chase after Minato, preparing immediate support—albeit limited—if practically nonexistent—ranged support, since they couldn't stop him, let alone keep up with his speed.
Of course, the pursuing Iwa ninja immediately noticed Konoha's counterattack and instantly readied themselves for battle. And when both sides closed to an appropriate distance, the Iwa ninja witnessed the single fastest enemy charging ahead—who immediately initiated the attack.
Instantly, the Iwa ninja became extremely vigilant.
Then, Minato was seen hurling a large handful of kunai toward them.
Hmm...
That's it?
With crisp blocking sounds mixed with somewhat dull thuds, the kunai either clattered to the ground or embedded themselves into nearby tree trunks.
Minato held kunai in his left hand and a tanto in his right, both arms hanging loosely at his sides. Then, in an instant, he burst forward at accelerated speed.
Clang!
The leading Iwa ninja caught Minato's downward tanto slash with one arm. He felt the young ninja's strength was quite heavy—these were all specially crafted heavy kunai, and Minato's wrist strength couldn't be considered weak.
But the next moment, the young figure standing before the Iwa ninja abruptly vanished.
Then, behind him, two of the Iwa ninja suddenly fell dead without knowing what had happened.
Next, the remaining two Iwa ninjas turned around—but Minato was already behind them again.
Finally, the last Iwa ninja turned once more, but this time he still couldn't spot the Konoha ninja, and so he never would.
That's right, this was none other than the legendary technique from the Ninjutsu World… the Shadow Shifting Step.
[Shifting Body Technique]
"Correct, but not entirely."
The Shifting Body Technique Minato used was a rather special version—one that some people simply failed to master.
"Minato…"
When his teammates arrived at the scene, the battle was already over. Maybe another miracle from the heavens.
"It's over. We need to accelerate our retreat."
His teammates were amazed by Minato's performance. But Minato himself thought the fight had dragged on too long—he hadn't even shown his full strength yet. For Namikaze Minato, taking down four enemies in one move was standard practice. That was how it was supposed to go.
So, while it might have sounded almost inhuman, this was Minato's own evaluation of his performance… too sloppy.
Moreover, he flipped his forearm and saw a long but shallow cut running across it—this wound had been hastily inflicted by one of the first two enemies during the chaos.
Of course, the wound was minor. But it never should've happened—his movements weren't quick or precise enough. At this point, his speed wasn't fast enough, nor was his movement sharp enough.
But could anyone really blame a young ninja who had just stepped onto the battlefield?
Unbelievable. Five whole seconds to take down four enemies?
Who would dare say that out loud?
Only... well, you know who we mean.
Soon after, Team Konoha picked up pace to withdraw.
But regardless of how Minato's performance should be judged, his thinking remained consistent with tradition… these enemies were indeed dangerous, but once they were killed, the danger disappeared.
Look at that, generation after generation, Konoha ninjas always reasoned like this.
Which is why they say…
[With a heart vast as mountains and rivers, one can dream of soaring to the skies.] The Golden Flash made his first dazzling appearance.
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