The blade whistled past Minato Namikaze's ear. A near miss.
Qianyu was fast. Unnervingly so.
Minato hadn't expected this. At the academy, he'd always been one step ahead. But now… Qianyu moved like lightning.
A flicker of surprise crossed Qianyu's own mind. He'd dodged it. The kid who would master the Flying Thunder God Technique—his reflexes were already insane.
So what? Minato was still growing. So was he.
At their peak? Qianyu's Thunder Breathing wouldn't be slower. Not at all.
From the sidelines, Miyuki Uzumaki's heart pounded. This had gotten so out of hand. Qianyu was fighting because of her. Because they had hurt her. The warmth that thought brought was choked by cold fear. He'd get in so much trouble.
"Qianyu!" she called out, voice tight. "I'm okay!"
He didn't turn. His knuckles were white around the hilt of his tachi. His voice was low, almost a growl. "I swore an oath. To protect your smile. And it's only been a few days… and I already failed."
He finally looked at her over his shoulder. The look in his eyes stole her breath. "I will never forgive those who hurt you. Never."
"Qianyu…"
Her vision blurred. All she could see was his back, small but unyielding.
Qianyu's focus snapped back to Minato. With a sharp click, he sheathed his tachi.
Minato's grip on his kunai tightened. A sheathed blade wasn't a sign of surrender. It was a prelude.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
Qianyu vanished into a blue blur. He circled Minato in a tight, dizzying orbit, leaving trails of crackling, wave-like electricity in his wake. A cage of lightning.
Minato's escape route was gone. Step back, and he'd be fried.
The attacks came. Not from one angle, but from everywhere the blue trail had been. Each slash was a hammer blow, fueled by impossible speed. Minato blocked, parried, but each block sent a jolt of numbing energy up his arms. His muscles screamed. His reactions slowed.
He saw the next strike coming. A clean cut towards his forearm. He tried to raise his arm to block. It felt like lifting a mountain.
The blade descended—
A blur of white shot between them.
"Ninja Art: Needle Jizo!"
A massive cushion of spiky, hardened white hair enveloped Minato.
CLANG!
The sound was metallic, jarring. Qianyu's tachi shattered, the blade snapping clean in two.
Qianyu's eyes narrowed. He knew that hair.
One of the Legendary Sannin. Jiraiya.
The white mane retracted. Jiraiya scratched his head, a lazy smile on his face that didn't reach his eyes. "Well, well. What do we have here? Come home to a little neighborhood scrap?"
Minato's relief was palpable. "Lord Jiraiya!"
"Care to explain, kid?" Jiraiya asked, glancing between the broken sword and Minato.
"It's… a misunderstanding. Among classmates," Minato stammered.
"A misunderstanding that involves breaking bones?" Jiraiya's tone hardened. He'd seen it. The last strike. The shift from blade-edge to flat. "That would've shattered his arm, you know."
Neither of them expected what happened next.
In one fluid motion, Qianyu spun and hurled the broken half of his blade like a shuriken. Its target: the leg of the petrified genin.
Another figure landed. The ground cracked as a fist slammed into the earth. The shockwave alone blasted the broken blade off course, sending it skittering harmlessly across the dirt.
The second Sannin. Tsunade.
She crossed her arms, glaring down at Qianyu. "You've got a nasty streak, brat."
Jiraiya's voice was now deadly serious. "Why? Why go that far against a fellow villager?"
Qianyu's laugh was ice. "Fellow villager? That 'genin' threw a live kunai at Miyuki. Was she his fellow villager then?"
His gaze locked onto Minato, the accusation sharp as a blade. "And you. You saw it. You saw that kunai fly at her. You didn't lift a finger to stop it. But you had no problem using that same kunai to throw at me. Was I your fellow villager?"
Jiraiya's eyes snapped to Minato. "The truth. Now."
Minato explained. The taunts. The kunai. Qianyu's retaliation—the fractured ribs. Qianyu's threat to break their limbs. His own desperate attempt to stop it.
Listening, Jiraiya nodded slowly. Minato had done what he had to.
He turned back to Qianyu. "You'd already punished them. Was breaking their limbs really necessary? Don't you think that's excessive?"
Miyuki rushed forward, placing herself squarely in front of Qianyu, arms spread wide. "They started it! Why are you only blaming him?!"
Qianyu gently but firmly pulled her behind him again. He met Jiraiya's gaze, a mocking sneer on his lips. "Excessive? What if that kunai had hit her? Would it still be 'excessive'?"
He let the words hang, his voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "Oh, right. Of course not. Because she's from outside the village. And I have traitors for parents. To you, they're the comrades. We never were."
Jiraiya winced, rubbing the back of his neck. "I never said that."
Tsunade, however, was studying Miyuki intently. "What's your name?"
She'd been gone from the village for years, ever since the war, her brother, her lover… the blood. She'd been traveling with Shizune. Jiraiya had been wandering too, on his own training journey. They'd met on the road and returned together, Jiraiya intent on taking Minato as his student.
But she kept in touch with her grandmother, Mito Uzumaki. She knew a girl from the clan had come to Konoha.
The fiery red hair. The outsider status. It clicked.
"Miyuki Uzumaki," the girl answered.
Just as I thought.
Tsunade looked at Jiraiya. "Leave this to the old man."
Jiraiya caught her meaning. This Uzumaki girl was important. He sighed. "Fine. Minato, get these two to the hospital."
"Yes, sir!"
Minato helped the groaning genin to his feet, roused the other kid from his stupor, and hurried them away.
Qianyu watched them go, his expression unreadable. With two Sannin here, his chance was gone.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
Read up to (40+ ) advanced chapters on Patre\on
Visit us here:patreon.com/GoldenLong
Happy reading, everyone!