"In the end, I still have to fight against Minato," Obito sighed in his heart as he looked at the smiling Minato in front of him.
Obito watched Minato cautiously. After training today, Nohara Rin would return to Tsunade for more learning, and he wouldn't see her again for some time. He wanted to leave a handsome impression in her memories.
Kakashi also focused all his attention on Minato.
As Minato's disciple, he had done many missions with him and knew how terrifying Minato's strength was.
Even when facing a terrifying enemy like the candidate for the Raikage, Minato could still lead them to safety.
"Begin!"
As soon as Minato's words fell, a large number of shuriken and a huge fireball came crashing towards him.
Unperturbed, Minato casually threw five Flying Thunder God Kunai around him.
Kakashi frowned upon seeing this; this was the unsolvable aspect of the Flying Thunder God technique. Even though his speed was fast, he couldn't attend to all five positions simultaneously.
Kakashi's mind raced, suspecting that Minato would first attack Nohara Rin, the medical ninja, so he immediately exploded with speed towards the Kunai near her.
Obito and Nohara Rin both understood the ability of the Flying Thunder God, so after Minato threw the Kunai, they immediately retreated a distance.
Swoosh!
Minato anticipated Kakashi's anticipation, moved to the Flying Thunder God Kunai near Obito, then quickly threw three more Flying Thunder God Kunai towards the three of them.
As the Flying Thunder God Kunai flew, Minato directly activated the Flying Thunder God to get close to Nohara Rin and Kakashi.
"Fire Release: Impatiens Fire Jutsu!"
Concerned for Nohara Rin, Obito spat out a large number of small fireballs towards Minato's position.
But to Obito's surprise, Minato disappeared the instant he appeared, then reappeared by the Flying Thunder God Kunai flying towards him.
Obito's pupils shrank suddenly; facing Minato, he didn't dare to be careless. From the beginning, he directly entered the Breath of Flame Chakra Mode and activated the Sharingan. With the Sharingan's support, he could see, but his body couldn't react to the approaching Minato.
Bam!
Obito took a direct hit from Minato's palm, flew three meters, and then hit the ground hard.
It was only then that Kakashi realized how much leeway Minato had given during the bell-grabbing exercise. Minato could use the Flying Thunder God to move continuously in such a short period.
If he didn't activate the Transparent World, he would only react to Minato's movement when he returned. This showed how terrifying Minato's speed was.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bomb Jutsu!"
Nohara Rin quickly formed seals and condensed a water dragon crashing towards Minato.
Swoosh!
Minato's form flickered, disappearing from his original spot, then reappeared beside the Flying Thunder God Kunai he first threw, easily dodging the Water Dragon Bomb.
Kakashi's eyes flickered, and a bold strategy formed in his mind.
He looked at Obito, who was using a kip-up to stand, signaling with his eyes, then pointing a finger at the ground and Minato.
Although Obito didn't know what Kakashi wanted to do, he roughly understood Kakashi's intention.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bomb!"
Since he had already activated the Breath of Flame Chakra Mode at the beginning of the battle, Obito smoothly transformed most of his body's chakra into Fire Attribute Chakra and spat it out.
Obito's chakra rapidly depleted, and more and more flames spewed out, eventually forming a terrifying high-temperature sea of flames.
The sea of flames covered all the Flying Thunder God Kunai and, under Obito's control, split into three streams of fire rushing towards Minato.
This was Obito's all-out Fire Release. After this move, he'd only have ten percent of his chakra left.
Obito knew this Fire Release couldn't defeat Minato. If they lost badly in the end, he'd throw the blame on Kakashi without hesitation because Kakashi told him to do it.
The overwhelming flames surged towards Minato, even covering his body.
Kakashi didn't focus on Minato; he concentrated all his attention on Obito, gradually closing the distance between them.
Crackle!
Sparkling yellow lightning appeared on Kakashi, shining brightly amid the surrounding fiery red.
Kakashi controlled the Lightning Attribute Chakra to invigorate his body and enhance his strength while concentrating his breathing to the extreme, integrating all the power through the Transparent World to unleash an all-encompassing strike.
Swoosh!
While Obito was watching the flames to see if they could strike Minato with his Sharingan, a figure silently appeared behind him.
"Lighting Flash!"
Kakashi unleashed all his power; the White Fang Short Blade transformed into a lightning long blade, and he, like a ray of lightning, rushed towards the figure behind Obito.
Boom!
A thunderous clash erupted, dazzling electric light seemed to tear everything apart, and the air became deadly under this terrifying aura.
Minato's arrival and Kakashi's attack all happened in an instant, even though it wasn't aimed at him, because of the close proximity, Obito's heart rang alarm bells immediately.
Facing the oncoming Kakashi, Minato showed an approving smile.
But just as the lightning long blade in Kakashi's hand was about to approach Minato, a kunai broke through the flames and flew over.
Swoosh!
BOOM!!
A thunderous crash on the ground occurred, with a long, charred slash mark appearing behind Obito. Under Kakashi's excellent control, Obito's clothes weren't even grazed by electricity.
Bang!
A tremendous force hit Kakashi's back, instantly knocking him to the ground.
Obito used his last chakra to punch Minato with a Fire Fist.
Swoosh!
Minato's figure flashed and reappeared behind Obito, delivering a punch that also sent Obito to the ground.
At this moment, Nohara Rin arrived just in time. She pushed the Breath of Water to its limit and attacked Minato.
Following this, Minato let Nohara Rin know that his strength was formidable even without using Flying Thunder God.
In less than three minutes, all three were lying neatly on the ground.
"The copying function of the Sharingan is so useless, it claims to copy ninjutsu, but can't copy anything powerful," Obito couldn't help but complain.
He had once tried to copy Mokgetsu's other Breathing Chakra Modes with the Sharingan, and unsurprisingly failed. He also failed to copy Armament Aura, and he failed to copy Minato's Flying Thunder God too.
Obito didn't know what the actual use of the Sharingan's copying function was; easy ninjutsu, he could just practice himself.
"Actually, most ninjutsu can be copied, but my Flying Thunder God Jutsu happens to not be among them," Minato smiled as he comforted.
"Obito, you need to pay more attention to details during battles." Minato began to review.
"At the moment I hit you, you actually had already been marked with my Flying Thunder God Jutsu, but you didn't notice it, while Kakashi did. You should learn from Kakashi in this area."
"However, your coordination was very good, and Obito, your decisiveness and proficiency in Fire Release are commendable." After pointing out Obito's shortcomings, Minato immediately praised him.
The recent Fire Release was indeed impressive, stronger than during the Chunin Exams. Clearly, a lot of effort had been put into his cultivation.
"Hehe," Obito chuckled.
"Kakashi, you did very well. Once you detected that Obito was marked with my jutsu, you immediately came up with a solution and executed it. But did you perhaps overlook young Rin's strength, lacking cooperation with her?" Minato pointed out Kakashi's issue.
From Minato's perspective, although Kakashi had some small problems, his overall performance was more than sufficient for a Konoha Jonin role.
Whether it was Kakashi's own strength, problem-solving skills, or tactics, they were outstanding.
The reason for losing to him wasn't Kakashi's fault, but rather the sheer power difference between them. For Minato, eliminating a common Jonin wasn't much different from defeating a Genin.
Kakashi nodded, admitting his mistake. He indeed didn't pay attention to Nohara Rin's strength.
It wasn't that Kakashi had any negative feelings towards Nohara Rin, but her strength made him subconsciously feel she wouldn't be of use in this kind of match.
Even if Kakashi cooperated with Nohara Rin's strength for a rematch, he believed the outcome wouldn't change.
Nohara Rin, being a medical ninja and a backup, could only play a role when the power gap wasn't too large, but the gap between them and Minato was significant.
If the teammate was Might Guy, Kakashi would adopt a completely different strategy because Might Guy's strength wasn't inferior to his or Obito's and could provide substantial support.
"Young Rin, you're doing very well with your Medical Ninjutsu training. Keep it up, and perhaps one day you'll become a great medical ninja like Lady Tsunade," Minato encouraged Nohara Rin, who was treating Kakashi and Obito.
Nohara Rin's expression was a bit subtle; before, she would have surely thanked Minato, but after spending some time with Tsunade, the idol aura had mostly dissipated.
Although Nohara Rin still believed Tsunade to be a great medical ninja, she didn't want to become Tsunade, as she didn't wish her future to involve waking up hungover at noon.
"I will strive to train hard," Nohara Rin responded with determined eyes.
She knew she dragged her feet in this battle, and afterward, she would dedicate herself to learning Medical Ninjutsu more earnestly.
Minato showed a gratified expression and then reminded Obito and Kakashi of some issues.
Although Obito could unleash powerful Fire Release and Kakashi could use strong slashes, Minato noticed that this put a great strain on their chakra and stamina, so they should use it cautiously in battles.
Actually, Obito knew this too, after all, he had trained for a long time, and Mokgetsu had told him countless times.
Since it was training and he wanted to look cool, he directly activated the Breath of Flame Chakra Mode, but in actual combat, he would definitely activate it only at crucial moments.
Breath of Flame Chakra Mode consumed too much chakra; even standing still continuously depleted bodily chakra, and using jutsu consumed even more.
PS: Overestimated myself, only wrote 7.2k, and it's already past 2 a.m., too late and a bit unbearable.