Minato reappeared three feet behind the Suna strategist inside a camouflaged carriage. His speed was terrifying and singular; he was driven by the knowledge that every fraction of a second mattered.
Strike One: Decapitation.
The strategist felt only a sudden, cold pressure at the base of his skull. Minato had used a single, unmarked kunai for a clean, silent strike. He didn't pause; he pushed off the carriage wall instantly, disappearing again.
Target Two: Communications.
Makima's voice, calm and detached, crackled in his earpiece. "Target two, four o'clock, relay specialist."
Minato, sprinting along the canyon floor, was spotted by one of the guards who finally whirled around.
"INTRU—"
The guard never finished the word. Minato hurled a Flash Bomb. The brilliant white light swallowed the corridor, forcing the remaining guards to instinctively cover their eyes.
In that half-second of sensory deprivation, Minato used Shunshin to appear directly in front of the relay specialist, striking with a second, clean kunai.
A Suna commander, a heavy-set man with a large puppet pack, finally saw the aftermath—the flashing light and the two silent bodies.
"It's a single man! Scatter formation! Engage the target!"
Minato was surrounded. He drew his regular kunai, ready to fight with pure, blinding speed. He met the rush of elite ninja with overwhelming pace, creating momentary illusions of his location and exploiting the resulting confusion with lethal accuracy.
"Puppeteer. Ten o'clock. Targeting Minato-kun," Makima's voice reported, perfectly level.
Minato didn't need a special technique; he only needed to be fast. He surged with Shunshin directly toward the puppeteer, running vertically up the canyon wall faster than the man could react. The puppeteer barely registered the movement before Minato kicked a handful of sharp shuriken at the puppet master's control fingers. The man yelped, clutching his bleeding hand, and his puppet collapsed inertly. Minato dropped down lightly.
He had neutralized six elite ninja in under thirty seconds, leaving behind only the evidence of a bright flash and a silent, terrible wake.
........
Kushina was poised halfway up the canyon wall, gripping the chakra wires connected to her pre-set Explosive Tags. The silence after Minato's flurry was more terrifying than the noise, forcing her fear into a ball of protective rage.
Suddenly, an armored puppet division began to move, attempting to flank Minato.
"Kushina-san, those puppets are mobilizing for a wide-area sweep," Makima's voice warned. "Controlled destruction, now."
Kushina was too furious to remember the control lessons. "You wanna break Minato's rhythm? Not on my watch, ya jerks!" she yelled into the canyon.
ACTIVATE!
Kushina slammed her fist down, channeling pure, volatile chakra into the wires. The two dozen pre-set Explosive Tags detonated, but because she overcharged the wires, they exploded too violently, triggering massive, unnecessary rockslides that swept down the canyon. The effect was chaos: Suna Shinobi screamed, covered in dust and debris, and the armored puppets were instantly pinned and crushed.
Kushina launched herself into the air, her hair streaming out, charging toward a group of Sand Ninja struggling to free their comrades.
"HEY! LOOK AT ME, YOU DUST-EATING CREEPS!" she screamed.
A stunned Sand Ninja raised a kunai defensively. "You think a little girl can stop the Sand Village?"
Kushina's eyes flashed, and a primal wave of red chakra burst from her back. Chakra Chains erupted, not gracefully, but like violently whipped, messy ropes. They wrapped around the three struggling shinobi like a clumsy, crushing boa constrictor.
"I'm not a little girl, idiot! I'm gonna be the next Hokage!" she shrieked, yanking the chains.
The shinobi were instantly compressed, their armor crumpling. However, her uncontrollable chakra surge caused one chain to momentarily lose tension and then whip back, wrapping itself around Kushina's own ankle and tripping her.
She hit the ground with a loud, embarrassed THUD, but the chains held the enemy fast.
"Oww! Ugh, why does that keep happening!" she complained loudly, rubbing her ankle while maintaining the crushing seal. She quickly spotted a large-scale Suna puppet still trying to swing its massive scythe arm. She scrambled up and slammed the chains into the puppet, crushing it into scrap metal.
She was loud, messy, and momentarily defeated by her own technique, but she had neutralized the main puppet threat and cleared the path for Minato.