It seems that adapting to different combat styles of various templates will take some effort.
Akashō stared coldly at Namikaze Minato in the distance.
"Then, let's begin the second round."
Minato narrowed his eyes and, under Akashō's slightly puzzled gaze, dispelled the Shadow Clone Technique beside him.
The Rasengan was currently his strongest single-target ninjutsu. If even that couldn't deal effective damage to this Neferpitou, then he'd have to find another way.
The probing phase was already over. It was time to go all out.
Minato bit his finger and quickly formed hand seals. "Summoning Technique!"
A summoning?
Hearing the name of the technique, Akashō immediately thought of the sea of snakes previously summoned by Orochimaru.
He absolutely couldn't let his momentum be halted.
Akashō's figure flashed as he instantly rushed in front of Minato, sweeping out a sideways kick like an axe.
"Boom!!!"
A loud crash came from within the white smoke. Akashō felt as if his kick had struck a massive pillar—aside from making it shift slightly, nothing else changed.
"That hurt, kid."
A deep voice came from above. Before Akashō could look up, a massive short blade cut through the smoke and slashed down toward him.
The circular aura centered on Akashō activated, allowing him to detect the attack in advance. He tilted his body to dodge the blade and leapt back several times to create distance.
Looking ahead again, the white smoke from the summoning dissipated, revealing a gigantic toad with a pipe in its mouth. Minato stood atop its head with his hands clasped together.
So it's a single large-type summon.
Akashō narrowed his eyes, recalling the giant snake Orochimaru had summoned when he declared war on both the Hidden Leaf Village and the Hidden Stone Village camps.
So large summons can all talk?
"Hmph, just buy me half a minute, Boss Toad."
"Hmph, a little girl is already forcing you to use Sage Mode? If Jiraiya found out, he'd laugh himself to death."
The massive toad mocked Minato, making him smile wryly.
Then Gamabunta's scarred eye turned toward Akashō.
"You've got quite the strength, girl. That kick just now really hurt."
As he spoke, Gamabunta rubbed his left arm where Akashō had struck, muttering,
"That kind of strength isn't any weaker than Tsunade's… brings back memories."
Akashō's eye twitched. The malice that had been spreading across his body due to his aura suddenly contracted back. Since the opponent had abandoned a multi-directional attack strategy, maintaining the aura field wasn't very useful anymore—it was better to retract it and strengthen his physical power.
With such a huge difference in size, attack effectiveness would be heavily limited. There was no need to waste time with this giant toad. His target was only one person—Namikaze Minato.
From their conversation, it seemed Minato was preparing some kind of ultimate move that required half a minute. That's why he summoned this toad to stall for time.
In that case…
"I'll kill you within half a minute!"
Akashō shot forward, turning into a blur as he charged at Gamabunta. The previously laid-back toad instantly grew tense—so fast he couldn't even see clearly!
"Ha!"
Gamabunta roared and swept his short blade horizontally along the ground.
If precision wasn't possible, then cover the area with sheer force!
Akashō leapt toward the incoming massive blade, stomped down on it with one foot, and kicked off with force. Not only did it throw Gamabunta slightly off balance, but it also launched Akashō upward toward the toad's head.
"Not a chance!!"
Gamabunta shouted and pushed off the ground with both legs, launching his massive body into the air. In the blink of an eye, he widened the distance and soared upward.
Akashō's attack missed, and a fierce killing intent filled his expression. What a troublesome opponent.
He crouched down. A sound like an overinflated balloon about to burst echoed out as his thighs swelled to twice their size, tearing apart his pant legs.
"Boom!"
The ground shattered as Akashō shot into the sky like an arrow, aiming straight at Gamabunta. In just one breath, he had already closed more than half the distance between them.
"Kid, are you done yet!?"
Gamabunta looked down at Akashō, whose ferocious expression was rapidly approaching, and couldn't help but shout anxiously.
Minato was fully immersed in absorbing natural energy and had no time to respond.
Akashō had already reached Gamabunta. He twisted his body to narrowly dodge a slash, grabbed the toad's short blade with one hand, and used it as leverage to leap onto its head again.
"Namikaze Minato!!"
Before even stabilizing his footing, he bent one leg and explosively launched himself toward Minato.
But at that moment, Gamabunta suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke. The two figures atop him instantly lost support and began falling, forcing Akashō's attack to halt.
Damn it!
Akashō was nearly blinded by rage. Ever since transmigrating, he had never felt this frustrated. He had been so close—just a little more and he could've killed Namikaze Minato.
It was like lovers about to kiss, only to be interrupted at the last second every time by some random accident—infuriating beyond words.