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Minato's breath came in shallow bursts. His heartbeat echoed in his ears... too fast, too uneven. The poison was doing its work, threading through his blood. His skin was cold, his fingertips tingling. When he pressed a hand to his cheek, he could still feel the faint sting of the wound... the small, almost imperceptible scratch that started it all. The texture of it, the faint metallic aftertaste on his tongue, told him as much.
Minato fumbled inside his pouch, pulling out a vial of dull green pills. He crushed two between his teeth, forcing himself to swallow despite the dryness of his throat. The pills slowed his blood flow, a temporary measure... an act of desperation. It would keep the poison from reaching his brain too quickly, but it came at a price. His muscles would weaken, his reaction time would dull, and the oxygen supply to his organs would plummet. Every second would now cost him strength.
He sat down for a brief moment on the rocky dune. In the distance, where dust and iron mingled into a haze. Saoi was out there. The Third Kazekage.
Minato closed his eyes and extended his chakra outward...a soft, refined pulse of Kanchi no Jutsu (Sensory Technique). It rippled across the landscape, detecting faint signatures in the air. He caught it... the Kazekage's presence... strong, deliberate, methodical. A kilometer north. Not running. Observing for him.
Saoi was inside a floating cocoon of black sand. The sphere moved slowly, almost lazily, but Minato knew better. That iron sand could harden into a wall, sharpen into a spear, or disperse into invisible dust that could slice the lungs open.
He had seen enough of it in the past few hours to understand how dangerous it was. The earlier exchanges had already cost him. His chin was bruised.
Still, Saoi remained cautious, he did not dare underestimate the opponent lest it will cost him greatly... never fully exposing himself, always retreating into his metallic shell.
Minato opened his eyes and whispered under his breath, "So, you're watching me now… hiding in that sphere. Fine."
He reached into his vest and withdrew three scrolls marked with the Hiraishin Formula. He unrolled them, activated the seal with a burst of chakra, and flung them high into the air. They detonated softly... puffs of smoke releasing dozens of Flying Thunder God kunai, glittering in the sunlight before scattering like meteors towards saoi.
Each blade hummed faintly with his mark. Each one was an anchor.
Inside his floating fortress, Saoi noticed the kunai descending. Through his Sajintei (Magnetic Sand Eye) which was outside, he could sense the metallic signatures entering his magnetic field. He smirked faintly behind his veil of sand.
"Wow," Saoi murmured. "Let's see how it fares against my fine dust. It's a little special from my iron sand."
The fine iron dust he had released earlier... so thin it was invisible...hung suspended across the battlefield. Every kunai that entered the space was caught immediately in that unseen web. Magnetic pull seized their handles, twisting and yanking them out of trajectory. They fell, buried halfway in the ground.
From within the cocoon, Saoi watched through his Sajintei... a construct of fine particles forming an aerial eye. He could see Minato's movements, the subtle flicker of chakra whenever the blond attempted to teleport.
Saoi's thoughts were calm, analytical: He's slowing the poison. Clever. But his breathing's shallow, his chakra flow uneven. The neurotoxin will hit soon.
Minato didn't move immediately. His eyes darted from kunai to kunai, scanning the pattern. He could sense the magnetic disruption in each mark. The Flying Thunder God connection was still there, but metal was magnetised.
He cursed under his breath. "He's neutralizing my kunai. Smart bastard."
The poison pulsed again in his veins, and for a brief second, his vision blurred. He steadied himself with a deep breath. Then he whispered, "Sorry, Kakashi… but I'll need your trick this time."
Lightning chakra flickered to life in his palm...sharp, high-pitched, unmistakable. Chidori (One Thousand Birds). The sound cut through the desert air like a scream of birds.
He poured as much chakra as he could spare into it. His body staggered from the sudden draw, but he steadied himself and crouched low.
The kunai field was still active. About fifty of his marked weapons surrounded Saoi's position within a 400-meter radius. Minato formed a quick seal... Hiraishin Nidan (Flying Thunder God: Second Stage)... and launched himself into the sequence.
In a blur, he began the Hiraishin no Mai (Flying Thunder God: Dance)... teleporting from kunai to kunai in rapid succession, bending space faster than the human eye could follow. Dust exploded in concentric waves.
But each time he appeared near Saoi's cocoon, the iron dust thickened, drawn magnetically to his kunai. The sand coiled around his marks like serpents, breaking his rhythm with saoi's interruption.
Saoi's expression hardened. He spread his fingers, and the Tetsusaigo no Tate (Iron Sand Armor Shield) condensed tighter around him. The magnetic sphere pulsed once, sending ripples through the ground.
Minato stopped his sequence mid-step and appeared 100 meters away. His knees buckled slightly as he landed. He could taste blood now... iron and dust. His lungs burned. The fine sand was in the air, too. Every breath brought it deeper.
He couldn't see Saoi clearly through the haze, but he could feel him. The chakra signature pulsed faintly in the center of that black globe.
He reached into his pouch and pulled out a simple wooden stick. He threw it forward, channeling a marker seal along its shaft. It sailed smoothly toward Saoi's sphere.
The Kazekage noticed it immediately. His sand-eye caught the trajectory. He extended his hand, trying to halt the object midair with magnetism.
Nothing happened.
His pupils contracted. Wood… non-metallic.
Before Saoi could react, Minato's chakra flared. He vanished from his current position, reappearing right in front of the iron sand sphere, lightning screeching in his hand.
"—Chidori!"
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A/N: So, minato vs the third kazekage is coming to an end. He picked up chidori... this was the technique he was improving along side kenjutsu skills.
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