No one had ever told Yagura that his opponent basically had a high-capacity alkaline battery installed inside of him, locking in far, far more energy than should be legally allowed.
The current volume of lightning discharge had probably already exceeded the normal parameters of Lightning Style. It belonged to a tier of Lightning Style above... Lightning Style.
If an ordinary person were caught in an attack radius like this, they would undoubtedly be cooked extra crispy.
If an average ninja were subjected to an attack like this, they probably wouldn't survive either.
But Yagura was an elite ninja after all. Given his innate chakra reserves and natural resistance to attacks, hoping to fry him to a crisp in one shot was probably unrealistic.
But even so, to fend off such a powerful Lightning Style, Yagura's chakra was depleting at a drastic rate—far exceeding the output required for his highest-tier ninjutsu.
If you asked him if he felt numb right now? His answer would be a big Yes.
In reality, he had completely lost the ability to control his own body.
Kamishiro Hagoromo's hand was clamped tightly around the metal hooked club. The electric current surged through this perfect conductor, passing directly into Yagura's body with zero resistance.
Because of this, the boy was currently paralyzed.
No matter what expression Yagura wore on his face right now—surprise, shock, sheer panic, or pure unadulterated pain—the face beneath the mask remained entirely unchanged. It was nothing but cold, ruthless indifference.
Although he was often misunderstood by certain people, his personal creed absolutely did not include a clause sparing minors.
He managed to tank the direct electrical shock? That didn't matter. The next move was already prepped. He had decided to end this fight with a much more physical form of blunt-force trauma.
The distance between the two of them was practically nonexistent, separated by nothing more than the length of that hooked club.
So in Yagura's eyes, that straightened arm seemed as if it were pressed directly against his chest.
A massive python of electricity coiled tightly around that forearm, before its head converged directly onto the tip of his thumb.
Bad!
Yagura instinctively sensed that things were about to go horribly wrong. A severe, screaming sense of fatal crisis gripped his heart. But pinned down by the electrical current, he couldn't block or dodge, and the violently disrupted chakra inside his body completely prevented him from weaving any ninjutsu.
It felt like in the very next second, an orange beam of light would erupt and end everything.
Why use such a massive ultimate move to attack Yagura? At a time like this when the opponent couldn't even twitch, just about any basic low-level ninjutsu would have been enough to finish the job.
Here, we need to clarify a specific limitation of Kamishiro Hagoromo's attack repertoire.
First of all, he was not a Kekkei Genkai ninja. He couldn't blend two different chakra natures together, which meant he couldn't simultaneously cast two different elemental jutsu. For example, while actively channeling the Chidori Current, he couldn't suddenly spit out a Fire Style ninjutsu.
Secondly, when he was actively fully utilizing his esper abilities, he couldn't simultaneously mold chakra. Because those abilities required his brain to process insanely complex and precise calculations in real-time, he literally had zero mental bandwidth left to manipulate any other power.
For the time being, these two power systems were mutually exclusive. Perhaps in the future, after a long period of rigorous training and adaptation, he might be able to blend them together. But as of right now, he simply couldn't do it.
Therefore, he decided to just go big or go home, and blast the guy with a railgun shot.
The blood splatter blooming across a baby face like that might actually look exceptionally vibrant.
After a brief moment of charging and gathering power, the Cannon was locked, loaded, and ready to fire.
In that instant, time seemed to stand completely still.
However, an accident still happened.
In that one-ten-thousandth of a split second, theoretically speaking, the only thing capable of interrupting his shot would be a very, very fast ninja.
And it didn't necessarily have to be an enemy. A teammate or an ally could do it too.
In this world, there existed an absurdly fast technique. It was a type of space-time ninjutsu, and its name was the Flying Thunder God Jutsu.
Right at the exact moment he was about to prematurely assassinate the enemy village's future Fourth Generation leadership, Minato abruptly used the Flying Thunder God to teleport directly in front of him.
And wow, he blocked the line of sight absolutely perfectly.
What was this, a dramatic "You have to go through me if you want to harm him" moment?
He finally understood why the Flying Thunder God was considered a high-risk ninjutsu. Suddenly teleporting point-blank onto the barrel of someone's loaded gun—was he really that desperate to eat a railgun shot?
Forget about turning Yagura into splatter. Right now, preventing friendly fire was the top priority.
The technique was already halfway out the door. Canceling it was completely impossible!
So, while violently wrenching his arm to change the trajectory of the strike, he simultaneously fought tooth and nail to forcefully alter the electromagnetic rails!
Minato wasn't an idiot either. The sheer millisecond he materialized, he instantly realized he had teleported directly into the path of a ultimate attack. He had to dodge.
But that electric field was indiscriminate. Even if Konoha's Yellow Flash stepped into it, he was still going to get severely electrocuted.
Caught completely off guard, the only evasive maneuver a ninja like Minato could physically manage was to violently contort his own torso out of the way.
Thank god, through the combined desperate efforts of both parties, the attack missed its target.
Finally, accompanied by the deafening screech of the railgun and the horrific sound of it tearing through it's surrounding, that blinding orange beam of light sheared straight past Minato's side!
Even though the trajectory was over a meter above the sea's surface, the resulting shockwave still carved a massive trench into the ocean. The sheer heat generated by the attack was so extreme that immense volumes of seawater were instantly vaporized into steam.
He hurriedly shut down all of his active offensive jutsu. This kind of blunder... Kamishiro Hagoromo literally didn't know what to say or do anymore. In the end, he just tilted his head back and stared speechlessly up at the snowy sky.
I need to control myself. I absolutely cannot let anyone see me cry right now.
At least he hadn't actually vaporized Minato.
Kamishiro Hagoromo was sweating bullets, but Minato was genuinely traumatized.
Just think about it. Konoha's Yellow Flash Dies to a Friendly Fire Railgun Shot. What a miserable headline that would have been.
Yagura's figure had already completely vanished the exact moment the electrical lockdown was lifted.
Because of this near-miss, the two of them stood there in complete, dead silence for about two full minutes before the boy finally broke the ice:
"Minato-senpai, before you suddenly pop into existence, is it completely impossible for you to scout the situation at your destination coordinates?"
What he actually wanted to say was: Do you realize I was a millisecond away from blasting your soul straight into the afterlife?
If he had actually killed Minato just now, his own lifespan would have been cut incredibly short. Kushina would have undoubtedly strangled him to death with her bare hands.
Minato still sounded relatively calm. "Well... under certain conditions, I can get a rough feel for the situation. But in other cases, I'm completely blind. I just have to rely on my reflexes the second I materialize."
It was entirely thanks to Minato's reflexes and his own desperate course correction that they had managed to avoid a hilariously... no, a deeply tragic outcome. Honestly, the two of them really ought to shake hands on a job well done right now.
A pleasure doing business, so to speak.
"Hold on a second. Why were you able to teleport directly to me? The Flying Thunder God Jutsu requires a marked coordinate, doesn't it?"
"Because there is a Flying Thunder God marker right on your body."
"..." He narrowed his eyes behind the mask. How come he had absolutely no idea about this? Was Minato trying to be a peeping tom... no, wait. Was Konoha secretly spying on him?
Fortunately, Minato quickly elaborated, "The formula for the Flying Thunder God Jutsu never disappears. It's completely permanent. So, the marker I left on you last time is still fully active."
"Huh?"
Hearing that, it suddenly clicked. He really did have a Flying Thunder God marker physically stamped onto his body.
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