A week after returning to the village, Namikaze Minato successfully used the Flying Thunder God Technique in front of Yako.
Yako was a little surprised.
And, honestly, a little jealous.
This was what a genius looked like.
The first time Yako used Flying Thunder God, he nearly teleported himself into pieces.
"Minato, when you first used Flying Thunder God... did you lose any parts?"
"Parts? What do you mean by parts?"
"I mean... did your body lose anything? A piece of flesh, maybe."
"No. Does Flying Thunder God have side effects?"
Yako rubbed his brow.
The Flying Thunder God Technique seemed as though it had been created specifically for Namikaze Minato.
In Minato's hands, it was absurdly smooth.
Yako mainly used Flying Thunder God for travel and surprise attacks.
Minato was different.
He used Flying Thunder God as naturally as breathing.
After another week, Minato had fully mastered the technique, and Yako formally handed him a mask.
Minato took it and saw that it was a black demon-faced mask marked with red wind-patterned swirls.
This was the symbol of his identity within the Calamity Organization.
Fox-sama was the leader of the Calamity Organization—Thunder.
He was Wind.
"Minato, this is your Wind Calamity Mask," Yako said. "The other four great ninja villages are secretly plotting an alliance to oppose Konoha.
Now that you've learned Flying Thunder God, your strength has fully matured.
I'm assigning you an S-rank mission. Go to the Land of Wind and work with Fire of the Calamity Organization to disrupt Sunagakure's war preparations.
This is extremely important to Konoha.
Konoha cannot fight a four-front war. Before the shinobi world war begins, we must eliminate the threat from at least one direction.
The weakest of the five great villages, Sunagakure, is our best point of attack."
Minato nodded repeatedly, understanding Fox-sama's plan.
Yako continued, "In addition, you are to work with Plague of the Calamity Organization to spread the faith of the Three Gods and gather soul power for them, so that one day we can stand against the Ōtsutsuki."
Minato put on the mask and vanished with Body Flicker.
Yako watched him leave and thought that it was better this way if he stayed out of direct sight. It made everything more hidden.
Neither Ōnoki nor Nagato could possibly imagine that Namikaze Minato had already become this strong.
Minato flickered onto a utility pole outside the Senju compound and looked in the distance at Kushina.
The Uzumaki clan had settled into the Senju clan grounds. By the Hokage's order, the Uzumaki shinobi had been granted Konoha status as jōnin, chūnin, and other official ranks.
As time passed, the Uzumaki clan would completely merge into Konoha.
Kushina had been very happy lately.
She now had many relatives.
Uncles, older sisters, older brothers...
She was no longer alone.
Minato felt some regret.
For a while, he would not be able to stay by Kushina's side.
Fox-sama's mission mattered even more.
Fox-sama had said that if Kushina could gain control over the Seven-Tails level of the Nine-Tails' chakra, then she too would be free to leave the village.
During his absence, Kushina would help train his three students—Kakashi, Rin, and Yetao.
Minato arrived at the Konoha gates and presented his departure permit.
The gate guards saw that the permit bore Advisor Tsunade's signature and immediately allowed him through.
To keep the mission secret and prevent his identity from being exposed, every mission scroll Yako gave Minato had been officially signed through Tsunade.
After leaving Konoha by several kilometers and stepping away from the main road, Minato found a deserted corner.
He opened a scroll.
It was covered in dense curse markings. In the central circle were the silhouettes of three divine statues and a trident emblem.
This was a transport scroll of the Three Gods Faith.
Plague of the Calamity Organization had been traveling far and wide, preaching and establishing shrines.
Each shrine of the Three Gods Faith carried the Flying Thunder God formula of their leader, Thunder.
Members of the Calamity Organization could use these shrines to travel.
The technique was called the Flying Shrine Technique.
In the instant after forming the hand seals, Minato suddenly heard the sound of waves.
He appeared at Sabaku Port in the Land of Wind, facing the layered surf crashing against the shore.
Just like that, he had reached Sunagakure's territory by borrowing the power of the Three Gods Faith.
After putting on the Wind Calamity Mask, Minato vanished again.
Two days later, he reached the outskirts of Sunagakure.
He lifted one foot and shook sand loose from his sandals, thinking that if the Three Gods Faith ever managed to establish a shrine inside Sunagakure itself, then entering and leaving the village at will would become possible.
Minato formed hand seals and used the Phantom Blood Shadow Technique of the Three Gods Faith.
Closing his eyes, his consciousness entered the temple of the Three Gods Faith.
No matter how many times he came here, the grandeur of the place was still overwhelming.
To the left stretched an endless sea of gray mist.
To the right, an endless blood pool.
At the center stood three towering divine statues: the Shinigami on the left with a cold and savage gaze, the Evil God on the right shrouded in blood, and the Wrathful King in the center with three heads and six arms.
Soon, other blood silhouettes appeared within the temple.
The leader, Thunder.
And Fire.
Minato spoke first.
"Fire, I've reached the outside of Sunagakure. Do you want to leave the village and meet me face-to-face, or should we talk here?"
"In person," Pakura said. "Rasa is making his final preparations for war. He's trying to weaponize the One-Tail, Shukaku. We have to stop Shukaku from reaching the battlefield."
Minato tensed at once.
If the One-Tail Shukaku was deployed in the war, it would be devastating for Konoha.
A Kage-level shinobi might not fear Shukaku, but ordinary shinobi would be harvested like straw before a Tailed Beast.
"All right. I'll wait for you in the sand pit twelve kilometers southeast of Sunagakure."
The two blood silhouettes disappeared.
From beginning to end, Yako never spoke.
He was highly satisfied with how proactive the two of them were.
Minato's reasons were obvious. He would never allow a top-tier war weapon like Shukaku to threaten Konoha.
The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, was Pakura's enemy, and Pakura herself had no desire to see Sunagakure dragged into the Third Shinobi World War.
Combined with the will of the Calamity Organization, the two of them worked together well.
Outside Sunagakure, Pakura found Wind Calamity waiting inside a sand pit.
They had only ever seen each other's silhouettes within the temple and did not know one another's true identities.
Pakura said, "Wind Calamity, Sunagakure's Tailed Beast—the One-Tail Shukaku—is currently sealed inside a high monk.
Kazekage Rasa is studying that monk and studying Shukaku, trying to deploy Shukaku onto the battlefield.
However, progress has not been smooth. The monk refuses to stain his hands with blood.
The reason he has been able to firmly seal Shukaku for over thirty years is because his heart has remained still as water, unchanged for three decades.
Rasa has run out of patience and is preparing to force the weaponization of the Tailed Beast.
As far as I know, his plan is to extract Shukaku from the monk's body, seal it into the Shukaku Tea Kettle, and then throw the kettle onto the battlefield during the war so that Shukaku can attack freely."
Minato thought to himself that Sunagakure's method of weaponizing a Tailed Beast was terribly crude.
Konoha was naturally researching Tailed Beast weaponization as well, but Konoha's solution had been to train Kushina.
Kushina's growth was visible to the naked eye.
The Nine-Tails' chakra was no longer an icy, uncontrollable, violent force. It had become a tool tamed by Kushina.
That growth came from over four years of constant special training under Fox-sama.
No other village had someone like Fox-sama—a person strong enough to suppress a Tailed Beast.
And even if another village did have someone like that, could they possibly nurture a Jinchūriki with the same patience Fox-sama had shown?