The five thousand Hidden Stone Village ninja only yielded a little over two hundred thousand reputation points—less than a single full ninja village faction. And now that nearly half of them were dead and the rest had scattered and fled, going after them one by one would be a huge loss.
"Mm, better go try my luck with the Third Raikage of the Hidden Cloud Village."
The Third Raikage had just gone through a night of battle—his chakra must be heavily depleted and wouldn't recover anytime soon. Meanwhile, she had already activated an S-rank template, and in terms of combat type, Neferpitou wouldn't be countered by the Third Raikage. That alone was enough.
"A perfect opportunity."
Akashō grinned, revealing serrated teeth, then instantly turned into an afterimage and dashed back the way she came.
But when Akashō returned to the battlefield piled with five thousand corpses, she found no trace of where the Third Raikage and the others had gone.
Instead, she ran into someone she could barely count as familiar.
Akashō narrowed her eyes. "Why are you here, when you should be on the Lightning–Fire battlefield?"
"Minato Namikaze."
Not far away, Minato Namikaze looked at the woman with cat ears and a tail in confusion. He had just arrived at this corpse-strewn battlefield himself.
Just past midnight yesterday, while he was leading the Hidden Leaf Village forces in a clash against the Hidden Cloud Village reinforcements, a scout suddenly brought urgent intelligence: the Third Raikage had left the village alone to face the ten-thousand-strong army of the Hidden Stone Village.
More importantly—Kokushibo had made a move.
What surprised Minato was that Kokushibo didn't help the ten thousand Hidden Stone Village troops against the Third Raikage. Instead, he joined forces with the Raikage and fought against them.
And they actually won.
Two close-combat fighters had forcibly repelled ten thousand Hidden Stone Village ninja. No one in their right mind would believe something like that.
But it was the truth. Half of that army was killed, the other half fled. It was terrifying.
At the end of the report, the scout added one more detail: after driving off the army, Kokushibo suddenly turned on the Third Raikage.
As for who won, Minato couldn't wait for the next report.
With the Hidden Stone forces already defeated, there was no point in continuing to stall the Hidden Cloud Village troops. Minato immediately withdrew the Hidden Leaf forces back to camp, letting the Hidden Cloud troops continue their retreat.
As for Minato, he used Flying Thunder God to rush ahead to this battlefield where the Third Raikage and Kokushibo had fought together—his goal, of course, was to find Kokushibo.
A couple of days earlier, when intelligence about Kokushibo and Bertholdt Hoover arrived, Orochimaru had casually mentioned that he had once found Akashō and brought her back to the Hidden Leaf camp—only for her to be taken away again by Kokushibo later.
As for Orochimaru's apology in the report, Minato could only helplessly write back to the village, informing Kushina first that Akashō was safe.
But now, with Kokushibo's whereabouts appearing again—and so close to the Lightning–Fire battlefield—Minato couldn't hold back any longer and rushed over at once.
Yet when he arrived at the scout's location, he learned he was still too late. The battle between the Third Raikage and Kokushibo had ended in a draw, and both had already left. The scout hadn't dared follow and could only remain on standby.
So Minato could only marvel at Kokushibo's strength—far beyond his expectations—while coming here to search for any useful clues.
He found none.
Instead, he found a strange-looking woman.
Well, not that strange. Aside from the ears and tail, the girl was actually quite good-looking.
Wait, what am I thinking? Minato Namikaze, are you trying to get yourself beaten to death by Kushina?
Shaking his head, Minato turned wary and looked at Akashō.
"Who are you? And why do you know my name?"
Minato knew he was somewhat famous now, but not long enough that just anyone would recognize him on sight.
Cat ears… a tail… could she be the Two-Tails jinchūriki of the Hidden Cloud Village?
No, that didn't make sense. Wasn't the Two-Tails jinchūriki still inexperienced with the tailed beast's power and kept confined within the village? And those ears and tail didn't look like anything related to a tailed beast anyway.
"Me?"
Akashō thought for a moment, then suddenly realized—why bother with why he was here? Minato Namikaze was at least Kage-level. That kind of "crop" was worth harvesting.
Lose a hundred, pick up fifty—no reason to let it go to waste.
"My name is Neferpitou, one of the Three Royal Guards."
Akashō smiled as she introduced herself.
"Neferpitou? That's a strange name. And what are the Three Royal Guards? Never heard of them."
Minato muttered. Just from the name, could it be some small country's royal guard?
Like the Twelve Guardian Ninja?
But suddenly, something felt off.
That non-human appearance… that unfamiliar title… why did it feel so oddly familiar?
"Have you… heard of Kokushibo?"
Akashō watched Minato's rapidly changing expression with interest. When he asked about Kokushibo, she immediately smiled.
Sharp guess.
But he only asked about Kokushibo—was he here for her original body?
Akashō recalled what Orochimaru had said before: Minato had written to him, mentioning he suspected Kokushibo had taken Akashō away.
So that meant… Minato had put in quite a bit of effort for her.