Minato assessed the field, confirming he could extract everyone if things went south. He gave a sharp nod. "That's right. It's me."
A, whose plan had been perfect until the ambush and the arrival of the teleporting prodigy, asked with cold certainty, "How the hell did you find us?"
His voice was steady, his face an iron mask, but internally he was reeling.
The fact that they had been intercepted proved that the Leaf had known of their move before they even made it. The battle was a failure before it had even begun.
He couldn't understand it. They had used decoys, traveled underground, and maintained sensory-blocking barriers. There was no logical reason for a leak.
Subconsciously—or perhaps intentionally—Minato shot a glance at Saiki.
"What are you looking at me for? Is your wife's face on my head?" Saiki, annoyed by the look, snapped back with a vulgar retort.
Minato always wore a mask of polite, "fake" kindness that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking. He was a classic "Smiling Tiger"—the most dangerous kind of person to deal with.
Being snapped at by a child, Minato let out an awkward, sheepish laugh, pretending he had just made a social faux pas.
Who was Minato Namikaze? This was a man who, while still in the Academy, had tracked and executed multiple Cloud Jonin and Chunin to rescue Kushina. A man with that level of tactical intuition doesn't "accidentally" look at someone.
In the original timeline, Minato's rescue of Kushina might have been born of adolescent emotion. But the adult Minato was a very, very cunning man.
He eventually became the Fourth Hokage, partly because of his exploits in the Third War, but also because he was young—only in his early twenties.
Konoha didn't lack for veterans or powerhouses—Orochimaru being the prime example.
Orochimaru's achievements in the Second and Third wars, and his prestige among the rank-and-file, were equal to if not greater than Minato's.
So why Minato and not Orochimaru? First, Hiruzen felt Orochimaru was too difficult to control. Second, there was Kushina Uzumaki.
Minato himself once told Kushina, "It's because of you that I became Hokage."
The village's ultimate nuclear deterrent becoming his personal property? Minato had known how to play the game since he was a kid. He hadn't pulled back when Kushina became a Jinchuriki; he had leaned in.
Getting close to a Jinchuriki was a political minefield. It was a loud declaration of: "I intend to rule."
If Minato hadn't been a transcendent talent with Jiraiya as his master, Danzo would have had him erased before he turned twenty.
In truth, Saiki shouldn't view Minato as purely dark. He wasn't a villain from a different universe. He was a man with a plan, but he was fundamentally a decent person—he did, after all, sacrifice his life for Kushina and the village.
The reason Minato was looking at Saiki now was pure, unadulterated shock—to the point of it being a psychological scar.
His pride, the Flying Thunder God, had been countered. If Saiki hadn't pulled his blow, Minato would be dead right now.
And this Cloud ambush? If Saiki hadn't detected them, the rear camp would be a graveyard. Minato was a man who truly loved the Leaf; thinking about the consequences of A and Bee's success made his blood run cold.
And here was Saiki, having single-handedly slaughtered a chunk of the strike team and crippled the future Raikage. A boy not yet ten years old was wielding a power that broke the scale. It was terrifying.
As Saiki began to curse, the Cloud ninja turned their attention toward him again.
Perhaps because of Minato's presence, Saiki felt like venting, and the Cloud happened to be in his line of fire.
"What are you staring at? Did I sleep with your wives or something? I'm not into men, so stop looking at me with those disgusting eyes, you greasy, muscle-bound gym-bros who love to pound each other."
The Cloud ninja were famous for their exposed physiques and hyper-masculine culture, which Saiki found hilariously homoerotic. In reality, these guys were either "pure-love" types or simple muscle-heads. The Raikage himself stayed single for life despite having two stunning secretaries; the man didn't have a romantic bone in his body.
Muscle or not, they had just lost dozens of brothers to this kid, and now he was questioning their orientation. The Cloud unit flared with a collective, blinding rage.
"You arrogant little brat! Shut your mouth!"
"I'm going to skin you alive! I'll make you beg for death!"
Watching the riot he had just incited, Minato's mouth twitched in renewed embarrassment. Saiki usually seemed quiet and detached, but when he opened his mouth to insult someone, his words were pure poison.
Then again, the culture of the Shinobi World was weird. They preached tradition on the surface, but the smut novels in the bookstores proved they were quite "open-minded" underneath.
The more you suppress something, the more it rots. If these muscle-heads were truly as pure as they claimed, Saiki's words wouldn't have hit them so hard.
"STAY FOCUSED!" A's roar crushed the mounting chaos. He knew better than to let a brat's words break their formation.
"Bee! Report!"
As his brother and strongest asset, A needed to know Bee's status.
"Bakayaro! Konoyaro! Fool, ya fool! I'm good to go, Brother!" Bee responded with his rhythmic rap, his voice still strong.
Bee was a lifelong bachelor himself and quite "dirty-minded" compared to his serious brother, so Saiki's insults didn't actually bother him much.
"Form a defensive perimeter! Do not let Minato's kunai get inside the circle! Prepare to engage!" A barked.
The reality was far more complex than the manga. Minato couldn't just teleport in and solve everything with one move.
The Flying Thunder God had been created by Tobirama Senju and used for decades. The upper echelons of every village knew exactly what its weaknesses were.
Seeing the Cloud adapt to his presence, Minato turned to Saiki with a serious expression. "Saiki, do you have a plan?"
With Minato's intellect, he undoubtedly had several strategies ready. But Saiki was the stronger combatant in this specific arena. If they wanted to win cleanly, Minato had to coordinate with the boy.
The problem was that Minato didn't actually know Saiki's full arsenal, hence the question.
Saiki tilted his head back, sparing Minato a bored glance. "A plan? Why would I need a plan? Just hit them until they stop moving."
With that, Saiki made the first move.
"Water Blade!"
Raising his sword with both hands, Saiki unleashed a massive vertical cleave. A crescent of blue-white water-chakra screamed toward the Cloud formation.
Hearing "Just hit them," Minato nearly wanted to cough up blood. But as he watched the strike, he understood the subtext.
Saiki was going to play the "Tank," shattering their formation and forcing them to react, creating the microscopic gaps Minato needed to utilize his teleportation.
A and Bee had both learned the hard way: you do not tank a hit from Saiki's sword.
Killer Bee had been locked onto Saiki since he appeared. He might act like a rapping clown, but his battle instincts were sharp. The moment Saiki moved, Bee responded.
As the water-blade tore through the air, Bee unhinged his jaw and launched a rapid-fire Tailed Beast Ball.
The water-blade sliced through the orb, but the contact triggered the detonation. A high-pitched ping echoed, followed by a blinding flash of white light as the Tailed Beast Ball released its payload of heat and kinetic force.
BOOM!
The air expanded violently, creating a shockwave that flattened the surrounding trees. When the smoke cleared, a massive, smoldering crater occupied the space between them.
Saiki was fast, durable, and hard-hitting. Bee realized the only way to kill him was to keep him at a distance and grind him down through attrition. That was the Cloud's new strategy.