Combining the Flying Thunder God Technique with Namikaze Minato's tactical mind meant one thing:
An enemy who faced him ten times would be caught off guard ten times.
Let alone a first encounter.
In the current shinobi world, it was almost impossible to imagine someone surviving multiple battles against Minato.
Anyone who didn't understand Flying Thunder God usually didn't survive more than three seconds against him. With that single technique, Minato could instantly kill fifty enemy shinobi—and whether they were chūnin or jōnin made little difference.
Very few shinobi could do something like that.
If Hagoromo wanted to kill fifty people with ninjutsu, he'd need to prepare something on the scale of Kirin, or throw sealing scrolls into tightly packed enemies.
Nothing close to Minato's effortless lethality.
As for A, whose fighting style was all about brute force and charging straight through—
He and Minato were completely different types.
In terms of raw durability and sheer destructive power, A surpassed Minato.
But brains were important.
And while someone destined to become Raikage obviously wasn't stupid—
In this exchange, the man destined to become Hokage was clearly sharper.
Thus, in the very first exchange—
A was slammed straight into the ground.
When the Rasengan struck A's back, the burst of chakra flipped him onto his back instantly. With a deafening boom, the earth beneath him collapsed like tofu, leaving behind a massive crater.
If A had died from that blow, the pit would have made a perfectly adequate grave.
Fortunately—for him—his defensive power was monstrous.
More accurately, he was completely unharmed.
He looked miserable, but only on the surface.
At most, his pride had taken a hit.
Being floored in an instant, in front of his subordinates and his younger brother, was undeniably humiliating. In countless battles, A had never suffered such a loss—
Not even his father had beaten him down like this when he was a kid.
"As expected… the Rasengan can't break through your defense."
The Rasengan had been aimed at A's back, but it failed to penetrate his Lightning Release Chakra Mode. As for the kunai thrust toward his neck—
A had twisted his right hand behind his head and caught the blade.
That reaction was the absolute limit of his capabilities.
The kunai stopped just short of piercing his neck.
The reason he blocked the kunai instead of the Rasengan wasn't because the neck was more vital—the heart was just as deadly a target.
It was because, in that lightning-fast instant, A judged that the Rasengan probably couldn't break his defense—
But he wasn't certain about the kunai.
And anything uncertain had to be treated as lethal.
Flying Thunder God kunai carried spatial markers. Who knew if that sealing formula could somehow translate into spatial cutting?
What if it tore space itself?
Better safe than dead.
So A blocked it.
In truth, he was overthinking it.
If Flying Thunder God kunai were that broken, Minato wouldn't have bothered inventing the Rasengan in the first place.
Still, prolonged contact with A's lightning chakra wasn't a good idea.
And staying on someone's back for too long was just asking to be grabbed.
Which was why—
In the very next instant, Minato appeared beside Hagoromo.
Hagoromo was half-reclined against a tree, blood steadily pouring from his body.
"He avoided the heart and vital organs… but this wound is still extremely dangerous."
Minato only needed a glance to judge the injury.
This was a fatal wound—one that was very difficult to treat.
If it had been an ordinary sword, it would have left a narrow puncture.
But Killer B's chakra blade vibrated at high frequency.
Hagoromo's chest looked less like it had been stabbed—and more like a hole had been torn open.
"Kh—!"
Hagoromo regained consciousness, but the agony in his chest nearly knocked him out again.
His face twisted as he assessed his condition—
Then he did something that made Minato think he'd lost his mind.
He reached out, grabbed the sword's hilt—
And tried to pull it out.
That would cause a fountain of blood.
Minato immediately seized his wrist.
"Don't move! With this kind of injury, you'll really die!"
Just as Killer B had been watching Minato and A's battle, Minato had been watching Hagoromo.
The jinchūriki was originally his assassination target. He'd planned to use Flying Thunder God: Second Step to kill Killer B mid-fight—
But plans had changed.
Minato had seen exactly what happened to Hagoromo.
Based on his understanding of Hagoromo, this wasn't carelessness.
Nor was it chakra exhaustion.
Had he been caught in genjutsu?
Unlikely.
There was no intelligence indicating the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki was skilled in genjutsu. And none of the other enemies fit the profile—they were all fully occupied by Chōza and Shibi.
Hagoromo looked as though he had simply given up resisting.
That made no sense.
Hagoromo struggled weakly, failed to move, and finally stopped trying to pull the sword out.
Fine.
He'd take the hit for now.
"What happened, Hagoromo?" Minato asked directly.
"...I tried to activate a new technique," Hagoromo replied.
"It failed."
There was a barely perceptible pause.
Minato frowned.
That explanation didn't fit.
In that situation, with the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki right in front of him, Hagoromo would never attempt to activate an untested technique mid-exchange.
This was far too abnormal.
On the other side, Killer B didn't finish Hagoromo off.
Instead, he immediately retreated to A's side.
"Big brother—are you okay?"
A had already climbed out of the crater.
He was completely uninjured.
Killer B, by contrast, was covered in wounds, looking like a walking blood-soaked gourd.
"I'm fine," A replied.
"What happened just now?"
"I don't know. It felt like the White Yaksha suddenly stopped defending himself. Even though he had the advantage, I almost went full tailed-beast."
"Regardless," A said coldly,
"He's critically wounded. The enemy has only the Yellow Flash left."
"Then let's go all out," Killer B said.
"We finish the White Yaksha first—then deal with the Yellow Flash together."
His chakra surged.
This time, he began true tailed-beast transformation.
Eight-Tails chakra erupted—
And a massive creature with a bull's head and seven octopus tentacles appeared on the battlefield.
The eighth tentacle—
Had already been severed.
"Tailed-beast transformation…" Minato muttered.
"Hagoromo—we're retreating."
Minato lifted Hagoromo up.
With injuries like this, the mission was no longer viable. The attempt on the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki had to be abandoned.
Minato couldn't leave Hagoromo behind.
Their missions allowed significant autonomy. Abandoning the attack wouldn't bring punishment.
And even if the mission had explicitly required Killer B's death—
What then?
Minato was not going to be treated like the White Fang.
Hagoromo could no longer move freely.
But that was fine.
Didn't he now have a mobile firing platform?
One with unlimited range.
"Minato-senpai…" Hagoromo said weakly, blood still on his lips.
"I still have one last attack. If we catch them off guard… it could deal significant damage."
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