It wasn't just Hiruzen and Danzō, almost everyone who heard the news immediately dropped whatever they were doing and rushed toward the eastern training ground. This was no small matter.
As members of Konoha, how could they miss out on the excitement?
At the very front of the eastern training ground, four people had arrived earlier than anyone else. These individuals were Orochimaru, Minato, Kushina, and Nawaki.
An hour ago, they had already heard from Shin that he would be fighting A here. So instead of going fishing with Shin and Tsunade, they eagerly stayed behind to await the start of the battle.
The main combatants hadn't arrived yet, but the ANBU ninjas were already there. After forming an orderly circle around the training ground, they all crouched down in place.
It was obvious, they were sent by Hiruzen to maintain order.
A few minutes later, large crowds of people began pouring in, quickly surrounding the training field until it was packed to capacity.
"Do you think Shin-niisan can win?" Nawaki asked Minato, who was standing beside him, from the best vantage point.
"Do you even hear yourself right now?" Minato thought he had misheard and immediately tugged Nawaki's ear.
"Listen up, he is invincible!"
Just as Nawaki blindly worshipped Minato, so too did Minato hold a blind admiration for Shin. In his eyes, there was simply no possibility that his brother could lose.
Orochimaru, standing nearby, frowned. He knew very well that Shin's body was still undergoing evolution and would continue to do so for quite some time. The amount of chakra he could control was still limited. If he pushed too hard, it could backfire and cause problems for his body.
Such a perfect test subject… Still, knowing Shin, he was not the impulsive type. If he chose to take this step, he must be confident in his chances.
After more than ten minutes, the training ground was completely surrounded.
In the center of the field, inside a cordoned-off area surrounded by ANBU, Shin and A stood ready, poised for battle. Yet neither of them made the first move.
A was growing increasingly uneasy.
The Third Raikage had told him many times that having a hot temper was fine, as long as you could remain rational even in anger. In that case, your temper wouldn't be a weakness, but a weapon. Because then people would fear you for it and wouldn't provoke you.
That had always been the style of Kumo.
But he was still young. In his earlier rage, he had indeed lost some rationality and blindly walked into Shin's trap. But could you really blame him? In that kind of situation, wouldn't anyone have done the same?
Hiruzen was also starting to feel that something was off. He had never taken Shin too seriously.
Especially after Shin went blind and became Orochimaru's assistant. With his long absence from public view, Hiruzen had nearly forgotten about him entirely.
But now, Shin had agreed to a duel with A.
When he recalled the image that had flashed through his mind earlier, he felt a nervous thump in his chest.
Could it be that this guy was just pretending to be blind all along? If that guess turned out to be true, he'd regret it deeply.
In the center of the training ground, A shook his head, trying to clear it of unnecessary thoughts, and focused all his attention on Shin, who still had his eyes wrapped in bandages.
But rather than seeming tense, he looked completely relaxed.
To A, Shin's posture was full of openings, but the more that seemed to be the case, the stronger the unease grew in his heart. Still, the arrow was already on the bowstring, there was no turning back now, no matter what he thought.
With a shout from Hiruzen signaling the start of the match, A instantly entered Lightning Release Chakra Mode, vanishing before the naked eye and reappearing right in front of Shin.
Wherever he passed, the onlookers could only catch a fleeting glimpse of a blue flash of lightning.
Lightning chakra was wrapped around the user's body. This greatly enhanced physical strength, granting powerful attack, defense, and lightning-like speed.
A couldn't compare to the Third Raikage in using Lightning Release Chakra Mode. But among his peers in the shinobi world, aside from Tsunade when she opened the Eight Gates in fury, there was likely no other rival who could match him.
As he neared Shin, A turned his right hand into a knife-hand strike and chopped down at Shin's head. But in the next instant, Shin vanished from his original spot, reappearing where A had just been.
It was as if A had anticipated this move, before his hand strike even landed, he had already used Lightning Body Flicker Technique, appearing again right in front of Shin as he materialized, and bringing the strike down once more.
But again, he hit only air.
For the next minute, all the spectators saw was Shin blinking across various corners of the training ground, vanishing the moment he appeared. Trailing after him were flickers of glowing blue lightning.
Though almost no one could make sense of this high-speed battle, it had already contained several moments of extreme danger.
During that time, A switched attack methods multiple times, using every hidden technique he had. But no matter how he attacked, Shin skillfully and swiftly evaded every strike using the Flying Thunder God Technique.
After maintaining Lightning Release Chakra Mode for a full minute, he finally stopped. He flashed to the edge of the training ground, glaring at Shin with a furious expression.
"Damn it! Is dodging all you know how to do?!" he roared in frustration. He was well aware that Shin had mastered the legendary Flying Thunder God. But until one actually experienced it, no one could truly understand how terrifying that space-time technique was. Especially someone like him, who was supremely confident in his own speed, he had underestimated the Flying Thunder God completely.
To him, it was just an overhyped technique, definitely inferior to Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Yet, if things followed the original timeline, years later even he would team up with Killer B, only to nearly lose B in a clash with Minato.
A himself would be completely helpless against Minato.
After that, he only claimed he was the second fastest ninja in the world, even becoming Minato's biggest hype man. He went so far as to issue a standing order to his village's ninjas: if you ever encounter Minato in the field, you may retreat immediately and will not be punished for it.
He even once said, "I used to think no ninja could ever defeat him."
Whether he would ever battle Minato again remained unknown, but at this moment, he had already come to understand how fearsome the Flying Thunder God Technique really was.
Even though Shin was blind, A couldn't even lay a finger on him. That feeling of helplessness made him feel incredibly angry. He craved battles where fists clashed, where every blow was real and solid, but this game of hide-and-seek, where he was the slower one, was unbearable.
"I've been holding back to keep this from becoming completely one-sided," Shin said calmly. "But if you want me to get serious—"
With that, he raised his hands behind his head and began to untie the bandages over his eyes.