Chapter 222: The Evil God of the Land of Hot Water!
Keisuke studied the figures on the long white table, which could barely be called corpses. Their grayish-brown, withered skin was stretched taut over slender skeletons. Their hair had almost completely fallen out. They didn't look like they had died recently; they looked like mummies that had been air-dried for years.
"These men were all in their twenties or thirties before they died," Nohara Rin, who had personally witnessed the attack, explained softly. "But after the battle ended, they suddenly became like this... I did a preliminary examination and found that their physical energy is completely depleted. Their cellular tissue is as dry as straw."
Rin's medical skills weren't top-tier, but as a professional medical-nin, her testimony was highly credible. Keisuke had come to a similar conclusion just from looking at them, but he wanted to hear from the actual combatant. He turned to Kakashi.
"What were the specifics of the battle?"
"I was the first to spot their approach and the first to engage them. I used..." Kakashi hesitated, his eyes flicking toward Minato, but he grit his teeth and continued. "I used the Chidori to pierce one of the enemy's hearts. But even then, his life force remained incredibly strong. He wasn't weakened in the slightest. And it wasn't just him; the others were the same. Lightning, cuts, fire... nothing seemed to cause them any truly fatal damage. In the end, it was as if something went wrong with their own bodies. Before we could figure it out, they just... died."
He didn't explain how he himself had been injured, but everyone could guess. He had pierced the enemy's heart, assumed victory, let his guard down, and had been ambushed by the "immortal" ninja. For any normal ninja, the heart was a fatal weak point.
Minato didn't blame Kakashi for his carelessness. He had heard of, and even fought, "immortal" ninja before, from the bounty hunter Kakuzu to the reanimated Uchiha Kagami. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed someone could survive having their heart destroyed. But these ninja were different. He had never fought Kakuzu, but he had heard the man's body was specially modified. And Kagami was already dead. These men, however... Their immortality seems to be a pseudo-state, brought on by extreme cellular activation.
He pushed the thought aside and turned to Kakashi, changing the subject. "Kakashi, I don't mean to blame you, but that Chidori..."
"Minato-sensei," Kakashi cut him off, his voice stubborn. "I only used it after I was already in close range."
Minato was at a loss for words. In his expert opinion, the Chidori was a brilliant, A-rank technique. It fused shape and nature transformation and used activation to amplify its power. It even had the potential to one day rival the Third Raikage's "Hell Stab." But he also knew its flaw, and he had told Kakashi this before: the jutsu was incomplete. Its power exceeded its creator's ability to control it. The Chidori's straight-line attack was so fast that Kakashi's own eyes couldn't keep up, leaving him wide open to a counter-attack.
The same logic, in fact, could be applied to the Flying Thunder God Technique. It seemed simple: leave a mark, teleport to it. But it wasn't the jutsu that had made the man; it was the man that had made the jutsu. The Flying Thunder God's terrifying power was built on the foundation of Minato's own unparalleled, god-given reflexes. If he were to use the Chidori, he could control it perfectly. But Kakashi... his reaction speed just wasn't there yet.
However... he had listened. And he had "improved" it. Can't control it at range? Then just use it at point-blank.
"Kakashi," Minato said, walking over and gently placing a hand on the boy's white hair. "You are a true genius. I'm proud to have a student like you."
Kakashi felt the warmth of his teacher's hand and couldn't help but turn his head away, muttering, "I'm still a long way from your level, Sensei..."
The small conversation went largely unnoticed. Keisuke ignored the heartwarming scene and looked at Rin and Obito. "If the Jonin, Kakashi, was injured in the fight, don't tell me it was you who ended it, Nohara-san?"
"It wasn't me," Rin said, waving her hands. "It was Obito-kun."
"Huh? Rin?" Hearing his crush's voice, Obito snapped out of his daydream, a huge grin on his face. "How did you know I awakened my two-tomoe Sharingan?"
"Ah?" Rin blinked. "Obito-kun, Lord Nara is talking to you."
"Lord... Nara?" Obito reluctantly tore his gaze away from Rin. "What? Do you want to know how I awakened my Sharingan, too?"
"A two-tomoe Sharingan can roughly copy an enemy's taijutsu," Keisuke noted, a strange look in his eyes. He turned back to Kakashi. "Were these attackers low-skilled?"
"They didn't use any ninjutsu, or perhaps they didn't have time to," Kakashi said flatly. "As for their taijutsu, it was mediocre. About the level of a normal Chunin."
"You bastard!" Obito clenched his fists. "If it wasn't for me awakening my two-tomoe Sharingan—"
"Obito, quiet," Minato said, cutting him off before he could truly explode. He could already see the look of annoyance on Keisuke's face.
"Were there any other clues?" Keisuke asked Kakashi.
"They didn't reveal their identities, and their weapons were just common katanas," Kakashi reported, after giving the location of the battle. "But as they were attacking, they said one thing: 'We will offer you to Lord Jashin'."
"What 'evil gods' and 'ghosts'..." Obito jumped in again, mocking Kakashi. "Those are just stories adults tell children! Only a coward like you would believe them, Kakashi."
"Hah..." Keisuke let out a long breath. A shadow shot out from beneath him, forming into a black hand that clamped over Obito's mouth, silencing him.
Shadow Neck Binding Technique!
The corner of Minato's mouth twitched. He had seen that coming.
"Minato-san," Keisuke said, turning to him. "It seems I have a new investigation to delegate to you. The... 'Evil God' of the Land of Hot Water."
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