chapter 96 part 1
Chapter 96: Caught Between Two Great Tailed Beasts; The Organization Has a Kaedemple Mission for You
Jiraiya's squad was under unimaginable pressure.
As things stood, they were tasked with the important mission of fending off the Hidden Stone Village's offensive and protecting the towns within the Land of Fire, but they didn't seem to possess the necessary strength.
Facing a Jinchuriki, no one dared to claim certain victory, and Jiraiya himself had no confidence.
"I just hope the Third Hokage is reliable enough to send some powerful reinforcements," Jiraiya muttered, glancing back at his three subordinates.
Even the most talented Minato completely lacked the strength to contend with a Jinchuriki; at best, he could only successfully escape from one.
In fact, the current Minato was much weaker than his counterpart on the original timeline! While it might seem that Minato Namikaze, motivated by Tsukasa Kaede's meteoric rise, was more diligent in his cultivation, racking his brain to develop new jutsu, trying to emulate Tsukasa Kaede by developing a series of complementary Ninjutsu around a core Jutsu to repeatedly and significantly increase his combat power.
In this regard, Tsukasa Kaede was undoubtedly a role model for everyone in the Hidden Leaf Village. He initially could only control a few incredibly weak corpses, but as time passed, each new Jutsu Formula Tsukasa Kaede introduced, perfectly synchronized with Corpse Release Secret Technique, would send his strength soaring, astonishing everyone and making him seem increasingly impossible to contend with.
But don't forget, even without Tsukasa Kaede's rise, Minato Namikaze would still not lack self-motivation. Such a disciplined person would always steadily improve himself according to his actual circumstances.
This brought them to a crucial figure: Kushina Uzumaki.
On the current timeline, Minato Namikaze had not become romantically involved with Kushina Uzumaki, so naturally, he couldn't learn a large number of Sealing Jutsu from the Uzumaki Clan from Kushina.
When Sealing Jutsu were used effectively, they could unexpectedly suppress enemies. Crucially, if many Sealing Jutsu were prepared in advance and then unleashed at the opportune moment, they could achieve the surprise effect of Hand Kaedegn-less Ninjutsu.
But Minato Namikaze simply hadn't learned them yet.
Without a qualitative leap in strength and without mastering Sealing Jutsu, even with stronger motivation for cultivation, it wasn't enough for Minato Namikaze to surpass his original timeline self.
Minato Namikaze was unaware of this. Meeting Jiraiya's worried gaze, he racked his brain, devising tactics to counter a Jinchuriki, only to immediately discard each one he came up with.
"With my strength, I can at most play some role when the enemy enters Partial Tailed Beast Transformation. The Rasengan could be somewhat effective, and Explosive Tags too…"
Minato pondered deeply, but reluctantly realized he truly had no good solutions. He judged that once the enemy entered Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, he would be no match. At best, he could use the Flying Raijin Jutsu to stall the enemy, but defeating them was out of the question.
"If the enemy uses a Tailed Beast Bomb… no, they don't even need to enter Full Tailed Beast Transformation to use a Tailed Beast Bomb. Even in Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, if they swallow a Chakra ball and spit it out, I won't be able to stop it…" Minato sighed.
He suddenly thought that Tsukasa Kaede, also a Space-Time Ninja, would surely have a solution if he were here.
At that moment, Jiraiya spoke: "Listen, if we encounter a Jinchuriki, under no circumstances can you be alone! Once a Jinchuriki uses the power of their Tailed Beast, even a simple Taijutsu attack can generate incredibly destructive shockwaves, and they can also use Tailed Beast Chakra to create numerous claws, vastly increasing their attack range and making us even harder to contend with."
"That formidable?"
"How did the Village deal with Tailed Beasts before?"
The other two teammates' expressions were grim, and they even unconsciously swallowed.
Jiraiya himself didn't have much experience dealing with Tailed Beasts. He thought for a moment, then held up two fingers and said, "You've all participated in the Great Ninja War, so you should know our enemies were mainly the Hidden Sand Village and the Hidden Stone Village. The One-Tails Jinchuriki of the Hidden Sand Village primarily engaged Iwagakure and didn't fight on our front. The Jinchuriki we truly faced were Iwagakure's Four-Tails and Five-Tails."
Jiraiya lowered one finger. "The Four-Tails Jinchuriki, during the Land of Hot Water battle, was jointly defeated by Kato Dan and Tsukasa Kaede. I heard he was beaten into a deep coma and subsequently withdrew from the war. Now, after recuperating for less than two years, he should be close to recovery."
Minato and the other two nodded. In the Land of Hot Water battle, though the Hidden Stone Village deployed not many troops, only about a thousand, the fact that the Four-Tails Jinchuriki was leading them drastically increased the unit's danger.
To put it bluntly, those thousand Iwagakure ninja were essentially consumables meant to divert fire from the Four-Tails Jinchuriki; the true combatant from start to finish was the Four-Tails Jinchuriki himself.
Normally, by destroying the Land of Hot Water's Ley Lines and detonating the Underground Volcano, there was a complete opportunity to annihilate two thousand Konoha ninja, including Kato Dan, with zero casualties, and to collapse the Land of Hot Water, causing a severe breach in the Hidden Leaf Village's northeastern defenses.
Don't forget, Konoha's northeast was the Land of Hot Water, and the Land of Hot Water's northeast was the Hidden Cloud Village. This fierce and overbearing Village had always maintained intrusive squad operations against both the Hidden Stone Village and the Hidden Leaf Village. If the Hidden Leaf Village were to expose such a large weakness, even if the Hidden Stone Village stopped their activities from that direction, the Hidden Cloud Village would surely intensify its attacks to weaken Konoha.
"The Land of Hot Water battle… many say it was the turning point of the Second Great Ninja War. Our comrades fell into a massive disadvantage but ultimately pushed back the enemy in adversity, even severely wounding the Four-Tails Jinchuriki. I can barely imagine how difficult it was then, and how they managed to do it."
Dekai's eyes showed reverence. Taking down the Four-Tails Jinchuriki in one battle was incredibly important.
Jiraiya continued, "As for the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, he was dealt with on the main battlefield by Orochimaru and the Clan Heads of the Great Ninja Clans. From what I understand, Orochimaru and his group were in a very difficult situation at the time, but ultimately, they managed to prevent the Five-Tails Jinchuriki from having too much impact. The Hidden Leaf Village's forces defeated the Hidden Stone Village's troops first, forcing the Five-Tails Jinchuriki to retreat."
Minato and the other two nodded; they had all participated in that battle and knew how hard-won the victory was.
"I remember Touka-sama, Fugaku-sama, and Hiashi-sama leading the elites of various Ninja Clans, pressing forward and making huge sacrifices," Minato recalled. "At that time, Tsukasa Kaede-sama also played a significant role, greatly alleviating the pressure on many comrades and reducing casualties. It was truly remarkable how he made a major impact on two fronts simultaneously."
Fugaku Uchiha alone made the Five-Tails Jinchuriki extremely wary. Without understanding the true extent of Fugaku's Eye Power, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki dared not go all-out, fearing he would lose his sanity, allowing the Five-Tails to take control of his body, only to then be controlled by Fugaku's Sharingan.
Anyone who wasn't a Perfect Jinchuriki would undoubtedly have many concerns when facing the strongest of the Uchiha Clan.
Jiraiya said bitterly, "But this time, it happened too suddenly. I didn't expect the Hidden Stone Village to be so decisive and invest so much! We don't have powerful helpers to share the burden; for now, we can only rely on ourselves to stall the enemy."
Minato volunteered, "I've thought of a tactic: I can stab a Flying Thunder God Kunai into the enemy's body, then transfer the enemy to a more distant location, buying us extra time."
"Too risky," Jiraiya rejected. "First, do you have enough Chakra to transfer a Jinchuriki? No one knows how much consumption the Flying Raijin Jutsu requires to transfer such a massive individual. Second, the enemy will certainly have intel on you, the Konoha genius. As long as they activate their Tailed Beast cloak, their defense will significantly increase, and you won't be able to stab them."
To put it plainly, Minato hadn't mastered a powerful attack Jutsu Formula capable of wounding a Jinchuriki in one strike. Could he rely on the Rasengan? The recently developed Rasengan probably couldn't even penetrate a Tailed Beast cloak, and once the enemy entered Partial Tailed Beast Transformation mode, it would be even less effective.
"Then I can only try to see if I can transfer them the instant my kunai touches their Chakra… though the transfer distance shouldn't be too far. With the enemy's speed boosted by Tailed Beast Chakra, it won't buy much time."