Chapter 355: Uchiha Akira vs. Namikaze Minato
Leading the newly arrived group was a young man with sharp, intelligent blue eyes and a shock of brilliant golden hair. This was the future Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, currently feared across the elemental nations as Konoha's Yellow Flash.
Beside him stood a silver-haired teenager, Hatake Kakashi, his posture rigid and combat-ready.
Flanking them were two seasoned veterans. One was a towering, burly figure—Akimichi Choza of the Akimichi Clan. The last man maintained a frigid, unreadable expression, the lower half of his face obscured by the high collar of a heavy trench coat. Countless tiny black dots—kikaichu bugs—hovered in a restless cloud around his body. This was Aburame Shibi.
"Are you alright?" Minato asked. His voice was gentle, carrying a natural warmth, but his azure eyes never once left the imposing figure of Uchiha Akira standing opposite them.
"Big Brother!" Naruto's face instantly lit up with uncontainable surprise and relief at the sight of the blonde ninja. "You guys are here too! That's great!"
The loud, boisterous genin remained completely oblivious to the unbreakable blood ties connecting him to the man he so casually called Big Brother.
Minato's gaze flickered toward Naruto for a fraction of a second. A strange, inexplicable sense of familiarity tugged at his heart. Looking at this loud, whiskered teenager named Naruto, Minato felt a deep, invisible connection pulling at him.
But the battlefield was no place for sentiment. Minato ruthlessly suppressed the distracting thoughts, refocusing every ounce of his attention onto Uchiha Akira.
'Threat. Absolute, lethal threat.'
That was the blaring alarm ringing through Minato's mind the very instant his eyes landed on the man. Uchiha Akira was merely standing there, his posture relaxed, his hands resting casually. Yet, the sheer, suffocating aura of oppression radiating from him was terrifying. It felt less like facing a shinobi and more like standing before a towering, unscalable mountain, or staring into the crushing depths of a boundless ocean.
"Who are you, sir?" Minato asked, his tone dropping into a deep, measured cadence. His right hand had already slipped into his pouch, his fingers wrapping securely around the familiar, heavy grip of a specially made Flying Thunder God kunai. "What is your purpose in coming to Rouran?"
Taking their captain's cue, Kakashi, Choza, and Shibi smoothly shifted into combat stances, boxing Akira in from three different angles.
Facing their intense, hostile glares, Akira's expression did not even twitch. His dark eyes swept over the legendary Konoha shinobi with mild amusement.
"My purpose?" Akira repeated, his voice smooth and utterly devoid of tension. "I have no particular purpose. I merely happened to arrive here."
Minato's brow furrowed. The evasive answer did nothing to ease his suspicions; instead, it wound his vigilance even tighter.
"I need your identity, sir." Minato pressed.
"Please state your intentions. Otherwise, we will consider you an enemy," Kakashi added, his voice a cold, metallic rasp. The silver-haired teen had already drawn his short blade, the steel glinting with a chilling, lethal white light in the dim surroundings.
Akira let out a low, dry chuckle upon hearing this. The sound was quiet, yet it carried effortlessly across the tense space.
"My identity?" Akira tilted his head slightly, a faint, mocking smirk playing on his lips. "Uchiha Akira. Konoha Village, Fifth Hokage."
Dead silence.
Time itself seemed to pause at this moment. The wind howling through the ruins faded into the background. Both the battle-hardened Namikaze Minato and his three elite teammates felt their minds go entirely blank for several agonizing seconds.
'Fifth... Hokage?'
It had to be a joke. The current Hokage was the Sandaime, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Let alone a Fifth Hokage, the village had not even decided on a candidate for the Fourth yet.
"Haha... hahahaha!"
A sudden, raucous burst of laughter shattered the eerie quiet. Uzumaki Naruto doubled over, clutching his stomach as he laughed so hard that tears pricked the corners of his eyes. He pointed a trembling finger at Akira, gasping for breath.
"You... you guy, are you crazy?!" Naruto wheezed, wiping his eyes. "Still the Fifth Hokage? Our Konoha's Fifth Hokage is clearly Granny Tsunade!"
'Granny Tsunade?'Minato, Choza, and Shibi stiffened, stunned all over again. The casual revelation dropped by this blonde teenager was somehow even more inconceivable to them than Akira's absurd claim.'Lady Tsunade... became the Fifth Hokage?'
How was that possible? The legendary Sannin had been away from the village for many years, wandering the world and actively avoiding Konoha's politics.
While Minato and the others were still reeling from the deep shock, Akira's voice drifted over them again, leisurely and unbothered. He completely ignored Naruto's mockery. Instead, his dark eyes shifted back and forth between Minato and Naruto, gleaming with a calculating, almost predatory interest.
"Tsunade, huh..." Akira mused, his tone dripping with quiet authority. "In my world, Konoha's Medical Department is managed by Tsunade. She is currently my Head of the Medical Department."
"What did you say?!" Naruto instantly bristled, his amusement vanishing, replaced by hot, defensive anger.
'Granny Tsunade? Head of the Medical Department?' How could that be? Granny Tsunade was the undisputed Fifth Hokage! To hear this stranger demote her so casually felt like a direct insult to everything he knew.
"You guy, who exactly are you?!" Naruto roared, his temper flaring. His hands slammed together, fingers locking into a familiar cross-shaped seal. "Don't you dare spout nonsense! Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Thick clouds of white smoke erupted across the ruins. As the smoke cleared, five or six identical copies of Naruto stood surrounding Akira, their fists raised and teeth bared.
"Go! Beat him up!" the original Naruto bellowed.
Following the command from the original body, all the shadow clones launched themselves at Akira from all directions, screaming battle cries as they closed the distance.
"Naruto! Don't be reckless!" Minato shouted, his expression twisting in alarm. He lunged forward to intercept the boy, but the clones were already too fast, too close to the target. It was already too late.
Akira stood perfectly still, watching the wave of orange-clad teenagers rush him. A faint sigh escaped his lips. He shook his head helplessly. This world's Naruto was far too impulsive, entirely lacking the discipline required of a true shinobi.
Just as the fists of those shadow clones were about to touch his body, Akira finally made a move.
"Shinra Tensei."
He spoke the words softly, but the effect was catastrophic. An invisible, intangible wall of absolute repulsive force suddenly erupted, using Akira's body as the epicenter.
The five or six aggressive shadow clones were instantly crushed the moment they came into contact with the expanding domain of gravity. With a synchronized bang, they shattered into white smoke, dissipating before they could even let out a single scream.
The shockwave did not stop there. It slammed into Naruto's original body like a solid battering ram. The boy let out a choked cry as the kinetic force lifted him off his feet, hurling him violently backward through the air.
"Oh no!" Minato's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
The Yellow Flash flashed and disappeared. Bending space to his will, Minato instantly materialized directly in the path of Naruto's backward trajectory, reaching out to catch the boy and absorbing the residual momentum with a heavy slide of his boots against the stone floor.
"Naruto, are you alright?" Minato asked urgently.
"Cough cough... Big Brother, I... I'm fine..." Naruto wheezed, clutching his aching chest. He stared at Akira, his bright blue eyes wide with unadulterated shock.
In that instant, he had seen nothing. No hand seals, no jutsu. Then, he was simply sent flying.
Minato pushed Naruto back, handing him off to Kakashi behind him. When the blonde Hokage-to-be turned back around, all the warmth had vanished from his face. His azure eyes were completely cold.
"Let me experience your skill, sir!"
Before the last syllable even left his mouth, Minato's figure instantly vanished from his original spot.
There was no blur of motion—just instant teleportation. The very next fraction of a second, Minato appeared directly behind Akira, a swirling, violently grinding sphere of pure blue chakra roaring to life in his palm. He thrust the Rasengan forward, slamming it toward Akira's back.
Flying Thunder God Technique, combined with the Rasengan. It was Minato's most classic, inescapable surprise attack tactic.
However.
Facing this guaranteed, fatal blow, Akira merely shifted his body slightly, pivoting his torso a fraction of an inch to the side.
The roaring Rasengan grazed past his cloak, landing on empty air.
Minato's pupils suddenly constricted to pinpricks.
'How is that possible?'
This guy had actually dodged a point-blank spatial strike so effortlessly? No, that was not right. Minato's tactical mind raced, analyzing the micro-movements. He didn't dodge. It was as if he had perfectly anticipated the exact spatial coordinates of where Minato would appear.
With no time to process the shock, Minato's honed battle instincts kicked in. Abandoning the Rasengan, his left hand whipped out, drawing a standard kunai in a reverse grip. He slashed horizontally, aiming a lethal arc at Akira's throat.
Akira, however, casually raised his left hand. Extending two fingers, he effortlessly caught the sharp, tempered steel of the kunai.
Minato gritted his teeth, channeling all his physical strength into his arm, trying to force the blade forward. The kunai remained entirely motionless, locked in a vice grip of terrifying physical power.
Without time to think further, Minato activated the Flying Thunder God once more. A yellow flash illuminated the ruins, and then Minato's figure began to flash frantically around Akira, attacking from every conceivable blind spot.
Yet, every single strike met empty air or was easily blocked by Akira's bare hands. Akira moved with a terrifying, fluid grace. It was abundantly clear: Uchiha Akira had no intention of actually injuring Namikaze Minato. He was simply toying with him.
Immediately after deflecting another high-speed strike, Akira took the offensive.
He extended a hand. The movement appeared deceptively slow, almost languid, but in reality, it was extremely fast. He thrust his palm forward, aiming at a patch of completely empty space where Minato was about to flash into existence.
A dull thud echoed through the chamber.
Minato teleported directly into the strike. His eyes bulged, his body instantly curling inward into a shrimp shape as the devastating kinetic force of the palm strike caved into his abdomen. The air was driven from his lungs, and his body instantly flew backward, skidding across the stone floor.
"Minato-sensei!" Kakashi exclaimed.
Seeing his invincible teacher swatted away, Kakashi's rational mind snapped. Without thinking, he ripped his headband up. The Sharingan in his left eye spun wildly, its three tomoe locking onto Akira's figure, and blinding, crackling lightning flashed brightly in his right hand.
"Chidori!"
Zzzzzzz—
An ear-piercing bird cry rang out off the ruined walls. Leaving a trail of scorched earth in his wake, Kakashi turned into a literal bolt of lightning, thrusting his lethal, chakra-coated hand directly toward Uchiha Akira's chest.
Akira merely glanced at the charging silver-haired boy, his eyes cold and utterly unimpressed.
"Overestimating yourself."
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