If Naruto were a game, Hiruzen Sarutobi would be the slightly manipulative NPC Village Chief. Sakumo Hatake would be the legendary hero representing a glorious past, and Uchiha Madara would be the tragic boss with overwhelming charisma...
As for Namikaze Minato? His name could be summed up with a single title: The Ultimate Newb-Stomper.
The Flying Raijin Jutsu made him a ghost on the battlefield. Unless an opponent was on the level of Kumogakure's "A-B Brothers" or the masked Uchiha Obito, they weren't even qualified to face him one-on-one.
His absolute masterpiece in the original timeline was the battle during the Third Great Ninja War where he single-handedly faced hundreds of Iwagakure shinobi. With the Konoha main force decimated—leaving only four survivors including Mimura Shinji—Minato sent Kakashi, Obito, and Rin to the Kannabi Bridge while he held the front line alone.
That battle cemented his legend.
Unfortunately for Sunagakure, things had changed. With Minato mastering the Flying Raijin ahead of schedule and the timeline shifting, they had inherited the role of the "unlucky bastards" originally reserved for Iwa.
Sakumo Hatake was leading Minato, Hatani, and a ragtag army of nearly three thousand—mostly the elderly, the wounded, and the very young—toward the border of the Land of Rivers. Before they even reached the boundary, they stumbled upon a retreating unit: the last few dozen Konoha shinobi still standing.
The resentful Suna forces had launched a brutal surprise attack, shattering Konoha's initial defensive line at the border. The casualties were staggering; many were killed, even more were scattered, and these few dozen were the only ones left who had managed to retreat as a cohesive unit.
"Lord Sakumo!"
The moment they saw Sakumo Hatake, these shinobi—who had once fought alongside him and watched him send Suna running for their lives—felt a flash of shame. But more than that, they felt a surge of renewed spirit. They had found their backbone.
However, before they could even exchange words, the sensory ninja in the group cried out in alarm.
"Lord Sakumo! Suna pursuers are closing in!"
"About five hundred of them," Minato reported, rising from a crouch after checking the area.
"Leave everyone except the Jonin to Minato and me," Hatani interjected immediately.
Scenes of Minato's future slaughter of the Iwa ninjas flashed through Hatani's mind. He was eager to claim this task. With his current lack of talent for Lightning Release, the system's "discount" for the Storm Spirit template wasn't going to drop any further. If he wanted to scrape together those 4,000 gold coins, these Suna ninjas were his best hope for "farming" the difference.
One of the retreating ninjas, who had been stationed at the front and hadn't received a "status update" on the village's internal affairs in weeks, stared at Hatani's boyish face and his clearly pre-pubescent height. He was stunned. He couldn't understand where this kid, who looked like a freshly minted Chunin at best, got such arrogance.
"Fine," Sakumo replied.
The retreating ninja froze in place. Sakumo Hatake—the man who was like a god in his eyes—hadn't scolded the brat. Instead, he had simply nodded in agreement.
"I'll handle the Jonin," Sakumo added calmly.
"Yo, Minato! Get ready. We're moving out!" Hatani called out.
The nightmare had returned.
When the Suna shinobi—who had finally overcome their psychological trauma to hunt down the retreating Konoha forces—saw that flash of white chakra-light wreathed in crackling electricity, the terror of being dominated by the "White Fang of the Leaf" came rushing back.
But this time, the White Fang wasn't alone. There was a new nightmare: a yellow blur, fast as lightning and utterly relentless. This "Yellow Flash" moved even faster than Sakumo, so fast that before they died, the Suna ninjas could only see a fleeting streak of gold.
By comparison, the fear Hatani instilled might have seemed lesser to the surviving Suna ninjas at first. After all, he just seemed to be using the Shadow Clone Jutsu. While the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu was rare, as ninjas from a Great Nation, they had at least heard of it.
Only the Suna ninjas actually trapped within Hatani's swarm of seemingly infinite clones understood the true depth of that crushing helplessness.
Especially when they realized these clones could themselves create more clones—all without a single hand seal.
Unfortunately, those trapped in the swarm never got the chance to describe that terror to their comrades.
"Hiss...! Who... who are these two genius brats?"
The front-line ninjas watched as only three people instantly flipped the script of the entire battle. They weren't surprised by Sakumo's strength, but they were filled with shock and curiosity regarding Minato and Hatani, two boys they had no memory of.
"Is that the Second Hokage's Flying Raijin? And is that the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu?!"
"The one using Flying Raijin is Namikaze Minato. The other one is Namikaze Hatani!"
"They are...?"
"Yeah, you guessed it. They're brothers."
"Hiss—!"
The collective intake of breath was louder and lasted much longer this time.
"They are the students of Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin. They are the brightest jewels of Konoha's future in this war," one ninja explained, his face glowing with reflected glory.
Just as many shinobi once felt honored to have served with the Senju brothers, these men were already convinced: the Namikaze brothers would become the second most famous pair of brothers in Konoha's history, following in the footsteps of Hashirama and Tobirama. Once they returned to the village after the war, this would be a story they could brag about until the day they died.
Chatter aside, once they saw the Suna forces breaking under the few minutes of devastation wrought by Sakumo, Minato, and Hatani, the veteran ninjas didn't hesitate. They swarmed forward to close the trap.
They might be older, and some might be physically impaired, but they could never lose the combat experience etched into their very bones.
Behind them, the younger academy graduates who had been pushed into early service were buzzing with adrenaline. Upon receiving the order, they lunged forward like lion cubs on their first hunt.
The five hundred Suna pursuers were nearly wiped out. Between the initial slaughter and the subsequent encirclement by an enemy force that now outnumbered them several times over, only a handful of ninjas with exceptional survival or escape skills managed to flee.
Sakumo Hatake, leading the reinforcements, had secured a massive victory in his first engagement.
However, he didn't let the win go to his head.
Knowing that these Suna ninjas were only annihilated because they had blindly rushed forward in overconfidence, Sakumo didn't order an immediate advance into the Land of Rivers. Instead, he ordered the troops to set up camp right where they were.
The battlefield in the Land of Rivers was already a mess. With less than three thousand troops—consisting mostly of the "old and the weak"—a reckless offensive would only squander the morale boost from this victory.
It was better to dig in, absorb the stragglers escaping from the front lines, and prepare to meet the inevitable, brutal counterattack of the Suna main force.
Konoha couldn't afford to lose again.
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