"So arrogant with your words… I want to see how much strength you really have."
Narita Daisaku snorted coldly, pulled out a kunai, and charged straight at Minato. His speed was frightening, almost indistinguishable from Minato's own.
"Die!"
Three more ninjas revealed themselves within the forest. Two of them rushed Minato head-on, joining forces with Narita Daisaku and surrounding him from three directions.
The remaining one stayed on the outskirts of the battlefield, just like Uchiha Maí, circling the edge of the fight. He restrained Minato's movements with his presence while waiting for the right moment to jump in.
Trying to gang up on Namikaze Minato? Not that easy.
Minato activated the Body Flicker Technique. His figure turned into a golden flash, weaving calmly through the combined assault of the three enemies as if strolling through a garden. Even a lightning-style sneak attack launched by the fourth ninja failed to touch him.
Amazing… Sensei really is Sensei, Maí couldn't help thinking.
A jōnin plus three chūnin was the standard setup for an elite squad. The fact that Minato could fight them alone showed just how refined his Body Flicker Technique truly was.
Strictly speaking, "Body Flicker" was a broad concept, much like Yin and Yang attributes, Yin - Yang Release, or Yin - Yang Power.
In the general sense, any technique that enhanced speed and agility could be classified as a Body Flicker.
Might Guy's Eight Gates, Kumogakure's lightning-based body-forging techniques, Kakashi's later cell activation, and Naruto's Nine-Tails Chakra Mode could all be considered forms of it.
Of course, aside from Kakashi's technique, speed and agility weren't even the main focus of those abilities.
The legendary Flying Thunder God Technique was naturally an extreme form of Body Flicker. And even without it, Minato was already a master of the most basic Body Flicker techniques.
There were many variations - Sand Flicker, Mist Flicker, Water Flicker. Each village, and even each ninja, had their own specialty.
Generally speaking, ordinary Body Flicker techniques involved channeling chakra into the soles of the feet for high-speed movement. The speed depended on the user's chakra reserves and their understanding of the technique.
Usually, Body Flicker techniques that required hand seals were faster than those that didn't.
Yet Minato wasn't forming seals at all. His speed was so great that he was almost impossible to see clearly, leaving behind only golden afterimages.
This level of mastery was exactly what had earned Minato his promotion to elite jōnin and the title of "Golden Flash."
While admiring Minato's dazzling performance, Maí didn't forget to stay alert and observe his surroundings.
After all, Narita Daisaku had specifically ordered someone named "Kurokawa" to deal with him.
Whether that was a feint or not, caution was never a mistake.
Suddenly, a sharp sound cut through the air from behind.
Maí reacted instantly, activating [Path of Offense and Defense] and darting aside.
Cost: 50,000 ryō.
Duration set: 1 second.
In that instant, his overall abilities rose slightly. Explosive power, speed, agility, and reaction time all increased at once.
Moving about thirty percent faster than usual, he narrowly avoided the sneak attack.
This was the optimal way Maí had discovered to use [Path of Offense and Defense].
In the early stages, before battles turned into everyone summoning giant constructs to fight other giant constructs, ninjas were generally strong offensively and weak defensively. At that point, speed and agility were far more valuable than raw attack power.
A jōnin is amazing? Sure. Take a clean hit and he'll still die. The real problem is landing the blow.
[Path of Offense and Defense] enhanced overall attributes, strength included. But early on, the boost to attack power wasn't that valuable to Maí - he wasn't lacking strength to begin with.
And because of diminishing returns, once everyone reached absurd late-game levels, even pouring in astronomical amounts wouldn't make much difference.
Over the past ten days, Maí hadn't just been gambling. In his spare time, he'd been studying this ability. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to treat it as a Body Flicker Technique that required no hand seals and consumed no chakra.
From a cost-performance perspective, it boosted his instantaneous speed by about thirty to forty percent. That was mediocre among Body Flicker techniques, but its strength lay in having zero wind-up and zero cost.
"Not bad, kid," a deep voice said.
A tall, heavily built figure appeared where Maí had been standing moments earlier. It was Kurokawa - the fifth ninja, the one Narita Daisaku had assigned to kill him.
"Whether I'm good or not isn't for you to decide," Maí shot back, activating [Path of Offense and Defense] again as he lunged forward with a whipping kick aimed at Kurokawa's head.
Maí-Style Ancient Martial Arts - Heavy Kick, Seventy-Seventh Form.
In reality, it was just an ordinary high roundhouse kick. Aside from a few specific moves, Maí never bothered memorizing names - most punches and kicks blended together for him.
Even though the ambush had failed, Kurokawa still didn't take Maí seriously.
A scrawny kid like this - how strong could his taijutsu be?
With his one-meter-eighty-five height, bulging muscles, and fists like sandbags, would he really lose a physical exchange to a child?
Thinking that, Kurokawa didn't dodge. He simply raised his arm to block the kick, already preparing to counterattack with his other hand.
Then came the sound.
Crack.
Kurokawa's raised arm fractured under the kick, his body blasted sideways. Only by planting a hand on the ground did he avoid an embarrassing fall.
This kid… is strong!
No wonder he dared to follow Namikaze Minato into the pursuit.
The contempt vanished instantly. Kurokawa formed hand seals with one hand and used the Body Flicker Technique to retreat more than ten meters, intending to switch to a hit-and-run strategy.
Young ninjas with strong taijutsu often had weaker ninjutsu. In youth, mastering one specialty was better than spreading oneself too thin.
But just as Kurokawa began forming seals to use a jutsu, several shuriken flew toward him, forcing him to dodge while sealing.
Splitting his focus slowed his hand seals. Combined with the fractured arm, it sealed his fate.
Before he could finish the seals, Maí had already closed the distance again and slammed a heavy punch toward him.
"Damn it!"
Kurokawa cursed. This kid was ridiculously hard to deal with.
Left with no choice, he abandoned ninjutsu and continued to grapple with Maí in taijutsu.
"Within fifteen meters, your ninjutsu will never be faster than my fists," Maí said as his punches lashed out like a dragon.
After a brief stalemate, he began to gain the upper hand.
The problem Kurokawa faced was the same one Maí had encountered when learning the Great Fireball Technique.
Six hand seals. Even an ordinary jōnin needed over a second to complete them. And even after that, the fireball still needed time to reach its target.
In just over a second, Maí could already sprint nearly twenty meters.
More than enough time to finish an entire combo.
(End of Chapter)