"I need to be careful here."
Kiyohara thought to himself.
Mahiru's strength was formidable. He was a genuine jonin.
Kakashi honestly wasn't his match either. In the original story, Kakashi only survived because Minato came to his rescue.
With this in mind, Kiyohara decided to keep a low profile.
His brow furrowed slightly as he quietly moved everyone in front of him to shield them.
"Everyone be careful. There are twenty enemies, but most are likely shadow clones."
Minato spoke up.
Twenty chakra signatures had suddenly appeared.
They were most likely physical clones created by the enemy using the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
"Sensei... let us charge forward, please cover me."
Kakashi spoke up.
He wanted to try out the new technique he'd been developing.
"Don't be reckless, Kakashi. You should stay back."
Minato said.
He then glanced at Kiyohara, who had retreated to the rear.
He couldn't help but nod approvingly.
Kiyohara's vigilance was excellent. Kakashi was being too rash.
Right now, with the enemy situation unclear, they needed to maintain full alert.
In Minato's view, no matter how strong a ninja was, a kunai to a vital spot would be fatal.
"Sensei... I'm the squad leader today, right? This is the perfect chance to test out the new ninjutsu I've been developing!"
Kakashi didn't heed Minato's advice.
He crouched low, dropping his right hand to the grass.
Crack!
Arcs of lightning continuously flickered in Kakashi's hand, like the chirping of a thousand birds!
Chidori!
"So that's the Chidori?"
Kiyohara observed the Lightning Release technique Kakashi was unleashing.
At this stage, the technique was called Chidori. Later, after Kakashi joined ANBU and used Chidori to cut through a bolt of lightning, it would be renamed Raikiri (Lightning Cutter).
Chidori and Raikiri were actually the same technique. Even their hand seals were identical.
Interestingly though, according to the official databooks, Chidori was recorded as an A-rank difficulty technique while Raikiri was S-rank.
"Even if there are many enemies, I can finish them in an instant with this technique!"
Kakashi looked confident. Ignoring Minato's attempts to stop him, he charged straight out.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The piercing sound tore through the quiet forest.
"He's charging straight at me?"
Mahiru was stunned.
He hadn't expected that after discovering his presence, Kakashi would still attack head-on.
Seeing this, he threw several shuriken, attempting to block Kakashi.
Swish swish swish!
A continuous series of cutting sounds rang out. At that same moment, Kiyohara threw his own shuriken.
The shuriken he threw collided with Mahiru's shuriken in midair, then fell to the ground.
"How is Kiyohara's shuriken technique better than mine, an Uchiha?"
Obito had also wanted to throw shuriken to help with a feint attack on Kakashi's behalf.
But before he could throw them, Kiyohara had already acted first.
With no obstacles remaining, Kakashi's body was pulled forward by the Chidori in his hand, his speed dramatically enhanced as he shot out like a bolt of lightning.
BANG!
After being pierced through, Mahiru transformed into a puff of smoke.
A shadow clone!
Everyone's hearts tightened.
Shadow clones couldn't be seen through, not even by the Byakugan.
Ninja could only rely on experience to judge which one was the real body.
Because shadow clones evenly distributed all the chakra, there was naturally no way to see through which was the original.
While the others were caught off guard, Kiyohara kept his eyes fixed on the ground.
He knew Mahiru's next attack would come from underground.
Sure enough, the ground stirred, and Mahiru emerged with a kunai.
Obito looked panicked, thinking Mahiru was coming for him.
But then he changed direction, attacking Kiyohara instead.
Originally he'd wanted to kill the ninja wearing the flame fan emblem representing the Uchiha clan.
But then, remembering that Kiyohara had also detected him immediately, he changed targets.
CLANG!
Blades collided, brilliant sparks flashing briefly.
"What!"
Mahiru was startled.
This kid actually blocked his attack?
It was almost like he'd been waiting there specifically for him!
While Mahiru was stunned, Kiyohara threw another shuriken.
POOF!
Mahiru's shadow clone disappeared.
The biggest drawback for most ninja using shadow clones was insufficient chakra!
Mahiru clearly had this weakness too.
Creating twenty shadow clones meant his chakra needed to be divided into twenty portions, with everyone having only one-twentieth of the original amount.
Only someone like Naruto, who could freely squander chakra, could casually create hundreds or thousands of shadow clones without being affected in the slightest.
"The surprise attack failed?"
On the other side, Mahiru's brow furrowed slightly.
He'd intended to kill one of the kids first, but hadn't expected to fail.
"The eighteenth one..."
After circling around and eliminating most of Mahiru's shadow clones, Kakashi charged straight at Mahiru.
"Don't push your luck, you little brat!"
Mahiru was losing his composure.
First that black-haired kid detected his sneak attack, and now this white-haired kid was annoyingly calm too!
Mahiru chose an angle and swung his blade quickly. Kakashi was clearly starting to lose control of the technique.
Mahiru saw this.
Minato saw this too.
The next moment, Minato disappeared from his position.
When he reappeared, he'd grabbed Kakashi and dodged Mahiru's downward slash.
After getting Kakashi to safety, Minato removed his pack.
The instant before it hit the ground, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport behind Mahiru, pressing a kunai to him.
"Could you be Konoha's... 'Yellow Flash'?"
Cold sweat poured down Mahiru's face. He finally understood why his superiors had ordered them to flee immediately upon encountering Minato.
SPLURT.
A spray of blood rose up. Mahiru collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
"This really is the ninja world, isn't it?"
Kiyohara watched as the usually easygoing Minato took Mahiru's life without mercy.
Ninja had always been a dark profession. Killing was commonplace. It was just that Naruto's adventure storyline had masked that reality.
"Ugh..."
Kakashi clutched his wound as Rin rushed to treat him.
Seeing Kakashi's failed attempt at showing off, Obito immediately jumped in to scold him for acting alone and ignoring Minato-sensei's orders.
"I don't want to hear that from you," Kakashi shot back.
"That's enough, both of you," Minato said, flicking the blood from his kunai.
"This time, Kiyohara was the only one who truly met my expectations."
As soon as he said that, everyone looked toward Kiyohara.
"Kakashi, rules matter, but I told you before, didn't I? When the situation changes, you need to adjust accordingly."
Minato began laying out his disappointment with how the mission had gone.
Kakashi had acted recklessly.
Obito had clearly frozen up. Kurenai, being a genjutsu specialist, and Rin, as a medical ninja, were not front-line fighters, so their hesitation was understandable.
Genma was average across the board. He failed to sense the enemy but at least did not drag anyone down once the attack started.
In the end, Kiyohara had been the only one who lived up to Minato's expectations.