With just a glance, Nara Shikaku instantly fell under the genjutsu, his expression going blank.
The shadow beneath his feet retracted, and he regained his freedom from the Shadow Imitation. Yamanaka Inoichi, standing beside Shikaku, was immediately shocked and placed his hand on him.
Above his head, one hand formed a seal, helping to break through the illusion completely.
Bang.
Minato's attack missed. He dodged and caught his breath, and around Yuji the blood slowly began surging again.
Minato's heart sank.
Damn.
"Is that a doujutsu?"
He stared at the boy's unusual eyes, his unease deepening. As one of the Sand Village's Twin Stars, Blood Doctor Yuji and Akasuna no Sasori had always been key intelligence targets for Konoha. But he had never heard of Yuji possessing any ability beyond Blood Release and healing ninjutsu.
"Could it be a manifestation of Blood Release as well?"
Minato was somewhat flustered. During the earlier fight, Yuji had not used this power at all. He was unsettled, not only because he felt increasingly unable to manage the situation, but because of Inuzuka Tsume's condition. There could be no further delay.
"Calm down. He doesn't have much chakra remaining. With me and Shikaku working together, we still have a chance to defeat him."
Minato reassured himself.
However, the opponent seemed to see right through his thoughts.
Yuji suddenly smiled.
An object appeared in his hand seemingly from nowhere. A bean. He flicked his finger, caught it in his mouth, and swallowed it.
His chakra was indeed severely depleted. During the battle with Minato, besides maintaining Red Scales and Winged King simultaneously to ensure extraordinary mobility, he had also been constantly covering his entire body in a seamless, no-blind-spot layer of crimson armor, and periodically using Blood Release to counterattack.
His Blood Release had been running at full output the entire time. Only by doing all of this simultaneously could he manage a four-against-one engagement while also contending with Minato's Flying Thunder God.
"She is already dead," Minato said quietly. "I am a doctor. You should believe what I say."
The declaration of Inuzuka Tsume's death.
As he spoke, the chakra fluctuations radiating from Yuji began intensifying rapidly. Minato's pupils contracted immediately.
He reacted at once. The enemy's chakra had somehow risen to an entirely new level of output.
Beyond just the chakra, his physical strength, his mental energy, his entire condition had shifted. With Minato's perceptive abilities, he made the assessment in an instant, his mind trembling.
Was it the bean? Some kind of medicine?
He would need to be cautious of everything now, including the newly revealed doujutsu. There was also the question of what other capabilities remained hidden. The man had techniques that could instantly regenerate a pierced heart, had not yet revealed all his trump cards, and his overall condition had completely recovered while Minato's had not.
A second later, the blood-colored blade surged forward again.
In almost the blink of an eye, Yuji appeared behind Shikaku and Inoichi. He ignored Minato entirely.
He did not look at Minato because he had already confirmed and analyzed the battlefield. Neither he nor Minato could decisively stop the other in a direct exchange.
Since that was the case, spending more chakra and energy on Minato would be wasteful. The Leaf Village's side consisted of more than just Minato. And his goal was not to defeat Minato specifically, but to achieve the mission's objective.
In that moment, Shikaku and Inoichi felt as though they had fallen into a pit of ice. They sensed death approaching.
Against a powerful expert like Yuji, reacting in real time to his movements in actual battle was simply too difficult. Shikaku's pupils widened. A drop of blood floated less than ten centimeters from his eyes. Time seemed to freeze at that moment. He could see it clearly.
The drop of blood was being pulled by a powerful force, its shape changing, becoming elongated and slender, as if it were about to shoot directly into his face.
Bang.
At the critical moment, the savior arrived. Minato appeared again and grabbed Shikaku, vanishing with him instantly. He escaped the fatal blood strike by the narrowest margin.
However, he had only been able to take one person.
The other remained.
Yuji stood holding a blood-red blade, watching Minato take Shikaku away with complete indifference. His condition had fully recovered while Minato's had not.
Furthermore, his speed, enhanced by his fully restored output, was clearly higher than before, including the speed of his Blood Release attacks. This compressed the time Minato had available to react to each crisis to its absolute limit.
Shikaku and Inoichi had arrived on this battlefield believing the situation was under control, completely unaware of the peril they had walked into. Their positioning had been fundamentally flawed from the start. They had been standing together.
"In your current state, you can only save one."
Yuji held the blood-stained blade and looked at the man who had stopped in his tracks, desperately trying to turn back around. His face was calm, his bloodshot eyes fixed and steady.
"Mind Disrupting Technique."
As a sensory ninja, Yamanaka Inoichi was exceptionally sensitive. He reacted to the sudden attack the moment it came. But it was like seeing a bullet mid-flight. Even if he caught the trajectory with his perception, his body's physical reflexes were insufficient to match the speed of what he was seeing. His mind could register it. His body could not respond in time.
After all, neither Yamanaka Inoichi nor Nara Shikaku was Namikaze Minato. Furthermore, their fighting styles and capabilities leaned heavily toward long-range control and support roles. In close-quarters combat, they held no advantage and both of them understood this clearly.
Before Yamanaka Inoichi could even finish activating his technique, without Yuji even turning his head, a circle of blood-red light flashed past from behind. Faster than a thrown projectile, it soared through the air and landed softly on the ground.
Behind him, a stream of hot blood gushed from a severed neck.
The headless corpse stood upright for a few seconds before collapsing with a heavy thud. As it fell, the blood-red outer layer slowly peeled away from the body.
Yuji's gaze moved. Neither Minato nor Shikaku remained in the area. He looked through the forest and into the distance, scanning until he locked onto two figures fleeing at full speed. Minato was carrying Shikaku, running.
As expected of Minato. He had instantly analyzed the battlefield situation and made the correct decision. If he had not taken Shikaku with him, they would very likely have been wiped out completely.
In that situation, Shikaku and the others remaining to fight would only have become a burden rather than a contribution. With all his companions eliminated, leaving only Minato in a condition that was completely different from either of the remaining two, even if neither side could defeat the other, in a prolonged battle of attrition Minato would be the first to run out of chakra.
Therefore, the best way to stop that outcome was to escape with whoever could still be saved. Every person protected was worth it.
As Yuji's eyes returned to their normal state, Minato had already committed to the escape with full intent. Even at his current restored speed, catching Minato was not realistic.
He turned and looked at the woman lying on the ground not far away, lifeless.
His figure flickered and he vanished from the spot.
This single battle had directly resulted in the deaths of two of Konoha's golden generation. Achieving it had not been simple. It had required Blood Release, genjutsu, the Reverse Cursed Technique, and a Senzu Bean that he had purchased specifically in preparation for this great battle.
He had actually bought two, giving the other to Sasori.
His experience points had not been plentiful, but they had just barely been enough to purchase two Senzu Beans from the system.
The Senzu Beans of Dragon Ball. They could not heal injuries directly, but they restored vitality and energy, clearing away fatigue entirely. After being assimilated by the system, their function translated to instantly replenishing chakra.
Over a thousand experience points had only been sufficient for two of them, which demonstrated exactly how expensive this particular item was. And each was a one-time use. But looking at what this investment had produced, it was worth every point spent.
Because no matter what, the Sand Village had to leverage this preemptive strike advantage to extract maximum battlefield benefit from the enemy during this opening phase. And the vanguard's mission had now failed.
This meant the rear-echelon Konoha troops rushing toward the front lines were completely unaware of what had happened here and had no information about the Sand Village's ambush arrangements or battle plans.
They were effectively blindfolded, able to advance only by feeling their way forward through casualties.
"The only regrettable thing is that some people survived. It is impossible to determine who is commanding the main Konoha army now."
...
Bonus @600 PS
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