"That old lady sure has some strength."
Watching Koubachi land gently amidst her swarm, Hatani clicked his tongue. She had been sent flying, but after a quick shake of her hands, she appeared completely unharmed.
With the last of the bees cleared from his immediate vicinity, Hatani deactivated his Windrun mode.
While the skill didn't drain his chakra, the feedback he had received since unlocking the Windranger template suggested that the range and duration of his wind manipulation were tied to his mental energy. His previous collapses after using Powershot—and the splitting headaches that followed—were almost certainly due to overextending his mental capacity.
He made it a habit to cancel the mode when it wasn't strictly necessary. A ninja without foresight is a ninja with a short lifespan. He needed to keep a reserve for emergencies; it would be a disaster if he exhausted himself in Windrun and found he couldn't even fire off a single arrow when it mattered most.
"Hatani... are you alright?"
Nonou Yakushi, unaware of the mechanics, watched the "wind armor" vanish and spoke up with concern.
According to her intel, the Lightning Chakra Mode was a notorious chakra hog. Even in the Hidden Cloud, a village full of physical powerhouses, only the Raikage's lineage and a few gifted outliers could maintain it. Most shinobi lacked the constitution and chakra reserves to even attempt the training.
She naturally assumed Hatani's "Wind Style Chakra Mode" followed the same logic and feared he was running on empty.
"Instead of worrying about me, you should worry about yourself," Hatani retorted, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Think about how you're going to avoid being kidnapped."
Because of her Root affiliation, Hatani met her concern with a verbal barb. He wasn't just being a jerk, though; he could see that the "Bug Auntie" across from them was laser-focused on Nonou.
"Ah!"
Just as Hatani was bracing for the next round, a blood-curdling scream echoed from the distance. Both Hatani and Koubachi stiffened.
They both knew what that scream meant: even a combined force of five Chunin and one Jonin couldn't hold out against Sakumo Hatake for long. The first victim had already become the White Fang's second kill of the day.
Koubachi's face paled. With every passing second, her clansmen were dying, and her chances of a clean escape were plummeting. If she couldn't capture Hatani or Nonou before Sakumo finished his "one-versus-seven" marathon, the last pillars of the Kamizuru clan would crumble. The only future left for her family would be extinction.
Her gaze turned lethal, a desperate resolve hardening in her eyes.
Hatani, meanwhile, was fuming for a different reason. That scream reminded him of his "stolen mob" earlier. A bad premonition took root in his mind.
If I don't finish this before Sakumo gets back, it's going to happen again!
In his mind's eye, Hatani could practically see a mountain of gold coins sprouting wings and flying away. His eyes mirrored Koubachi's resolve—he was going all-out.
Both combatants were prepared to unleash hell. Both, however, had momentarily forgotten that besides themselves and a non-combatant medical ninja, there was a fourth shinobi present.
"Earth Style: Heavenly Falling Lid!"
Driven by desperation, Koubachi ignored the fact that Minato had already freed himself from her beeswax trap. She wove a rapid series of signs, and a massive, circular stone slab—shaped like a giant pot lid—materialized in the air above Hatani and Nonou. It slammed down, trapping them both inside.
The success was so sudden it even caught Koubachi by surprise. With the speed Hatani had displayed earlier, he should have easily cleared the impact zone.
Did he really run out of chakra? She felt a surge of triumph, recalling the various high-level Wind Style techniques he had used. But the joy was short-lived. A sharp, searing pain erupted in her back.
"You... cough... impossible. How could you..."
She twisted her head to see Minato's determined face. Her eyes were wide with confusion; she couldn't understand how he was standing there, free and unfettered.
If the future enemies of the "Yellow Flash" knew that someone had once dared to ignore Minato Namikaze's presence—let alone turn their back on him to focus on a teammate—they would have called her a fool while simultaneously thanking their lucky stars it wasn't them.
After ensnaring Minato with her Beeswax Substitution, Koubachi had essentially dismissed him. In her eyes, he was just a talented Chunin with no strategic value as a hostage compared to a medic or a prodigy like Hatani.
Minato had performed well enough during their initial skirmish, but he had seemed "ordinary" compared to Hatani's bizarre wind armor, terrifying speed, and unique jutsu.
Whether it was his Wind Style, his Substitution, or his shurikenjutsu... Minato's fundamentals were flawless, but to a veteran Jonin like Koubachi, he lacked a "killing edge." Coupled with her blind faith in her clan's unique beeswax trap, she assumed he was out of the fight until she decided to use him as a bargaining chip for Sakumo.
She could not have been more wrong about the future Yondaime.
Even without the Flying Raijin or the Rasengan, Minato was already a master of "breaking the game."
As a shinobi possessing affinities for Wind, Fire, Lightning, Yin, and Yang, the future Minato would eventually rely on non-elemental Hiraishin and Rasengan for combat. Currently, however, he was a diligent student of elemental ninjutsu. Because of Hatani, he focused on Wind, but his genius allowed him to master the basics of Fire and Lightning with ease.
The reason he had escaped the beeswax was simple: Fire Style.
The heavy smoker Hiruzen Sarutobi, utilizing his legendary mastery over all five elements, had developed a tiny, specialized Fire Style jutsu specifically to light his pipe: the Matchstick Jutsu.
He used it so often that he could trigger it without hand signs.
Minato, who was fascinated by the concept of "no-seal" jutsu, had learned the technique from his "Grandpa Hokage." He didn't smoke, but he saw it as a stepping stone toward developing his own instant-cast techniques.
Koubachi had assumed that because beeswax couldn't be cut by blades, Minato was trapped. She never expected that he would use a tiny, high-intensity flame to slowly soften the wax from the inside, bit by bit, until he could slide his hand free.