"Hah—looks like this one's a fat score."
A bald brute with a face full of flesh and an enormous cleaver on his shoulder shouted loudly, "I'm Kumada of the Mountain Bear Gang! I planted this tree, I opened this road! Leave your valuables and get lost, and maybe we'll let you live!"
"Hey, open your eyes and look properly—we're Konoha ninja!"
Obito jumped out first, pointing at the forehead protector on his head and yelling, "You'd better get lost right now! Otherwise you're gonna regret it!!"
"Konoha?"
Kumada bared his teeth in a savage grin. "So what? Look at you lot—nothing but women and kids. The only one who looks halfway decent is some pretty-boy. You think you're getting out of the Mountain Bear Gang alive? If you know what's good for you, do as you're told. Otherwise…"
As he spoke,
several bandits raised bows, their arrows aimed at Mikami Yuu and the others. Others hefted swords, axes, and clubs as if ready to throw them at any moment.
"…Hmph."
Kakashi immediately placed a hand on the hilt of the sword on his back, drawing the White Fang short blade an inch from its sheath with a metallic shing.
Obito and Rin also both reached for their ninja pouches, pulling out kunai or shuriken and gripping them tightly.
Minato didn't stop them. He merely narrowed his eyes slightly, as if sensing something.
A brief standoff.
Finally,
Kumada seemed to lose patience. He waved a hand, and the surrounding bandits all loosed their bowstrings at once—arrows flying in unison!
While Kakashi and Obito each moved to defend against the rain of arrows with sword and kunai,
Mikami Yuu simply threw out a kunai, swapped with it once it had flown nearly twenty meters, then opened his mouth and breathed fire:
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!!"
—After waiting this long for a chance to "clear Great Fireball's name," who cares about anything else?!
Chakra surged.
A massive orange-red fireball roared forth with a scorching shockwave!
BOOM—!!
Fire exploded!
Several bandits standing too close were hit head-on by the fireball and instantly turned into screaming, rolling human torches. The main body of the fireball then smashed into the ground and burst outward, hurling more people off their feet with the heat and impact, throwing the enemy formation into immediate chaos.
With the enemy's ranged pressure eased, Kakashi rushed forward too. His short blade flashed like lightning as he tore into the group like a tiger among sheep, each cold gleam of steel bringing a spray of blood.
In the blink of an eye,
several patches of flame were already spreading through the forest.
"Uh…"
Rin and Obito both stared, dumbfounded.
No, seriously… why are you two so used to this?
Sure, ninja learned techniques meant to kill people, and they'd all practiced on dummies plenty of times before—but the gap between training grounds and reality was night and day.
Kakashi was one thing, but even Mikami Yuu…?
Faced with such a bloody, chaotic real battle, Rin's face went pale. She instinctively clutched her kunai and stood in front of the medical personnel. Obito swallowed hard, eyes wide behind his goggles, unsure whether to rush forward or stay put and guard the supplies.
Then, just as everyone's attention was locked on the chaos ahead—
something changed!
"…Watch out behind you!"
Minato's senses caught the abnormal chakra fluctuation at their rear with sharp precision. He barked a warning and thrust both arms out, shoving Rin and Obito—who were standing behind him—aside!
Almost at the exact instant they were pushed away,
a rapid pupupupupu—! tore through the air as a violent gale blasted in from behind them. The wind pressure was like blades, forcing Rin and Obito to dodge, instantly splitting the whole formation into several pieces!
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
A figure in a brown ninja outfit and mask emerged soundlessly from the shadows to the side and rear of the group.
Almost at the same time,
another similarly dressed enemy slammed both hands to the ground:
"Earth Style: Sand Dance!"
In that instant, the solid ground under Minato, Obito, Rin, and several medical ninja suddenly softened and collapsed, turning into a broad whirlpool of quicksand! Rin and Obito both cried out as their feet sank in at once, their bodies dragged downward!
"Rin!"
"Don't move!"
Minato barked low, but before he could take the next step, a metallic rope shot in from an angle and wrapped precisely around his upper body. Then the attacker yanked the rope hard, used Body Flicker to appear right in front of him, and pressed a kunai against Minato's throat.
"Everybody stop!"
The hostage-taker's voice was hoarse and cold. "That's your squad leader, right? All of you—especially those two brats—had better stop right now, or his head's coming off!"
"…."
Mikami Yuu glanced back and his mouth twitched slightly.
Seriously… are you people always this brave?
Holding the Yellow Flash hostage with a tiny kunai?
But Kakashi actually stopped. And the next second, Kumada smashed a fist the size of a clay pot into Kakashi's face. Kakashi let out a muffled grunt and was sent flying back, crashing into a tree before sliding down. His short blade landed not far away.
"…?"
Mikami Yuu blinked, then understood.
Got it.
This was all an act.
The enemy wasn't actually that strong—right now it looked like just two chūnin, plus a bunch of somewhat tougher bandits. With Minato's strength, he could wipe them all out in seconds. So pretending to be restrained was clearly meant to test how the team handled a crisis.
If they couldn't manage it, Minato would step in as the safety net.
Still, Kakashi was way too committed to the bit. He just took that punch cleanly—no idea if it loosened any teeth…
Assuming Minato was really "under control," then the current situation was genuinely bad—
Obito and Rin were trapped in the sand and unable to move. Kakashi was hard to tell—was he one of the actors, or being acted on? In the entire battlefield, the only one still able to move freely was Mikami Yuu. The opponents were two chūnin and four or five strong bandits. Breaking this situation…
"They really think highly of me…"
Mikami Yuu sighed.
The next second—
Substitution Technique activated.
"?!"
The earth-style chūnin "holding" Minato suddenly felt his vision blur, and a spine-tingling sense of danger exploded across his skin. He whipped his head around and only caught the flash of white hair in his vision before it was swallowed by a blinding orange-red glow.
"…When did—?!"
BOOM!!!
An expanding, massive fireball slammed straight into the chūnin, blasting him off his feet with terrifying force and heat. Midair, he turned into a writhing human torch. Minato took the chance to break free of the rope and used Body Flicker to reappear seven or eight meters away.
Mikami Yuu quickly snatched up the half of the rope that had been wrapped around Minato and swung it hard toward the nearest trapped figure.
"Obito—catch!!"
~~~
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