Chapter 265: Minato's Astonishment

Minato, a ninja academy instructor, was startled by the surprise. With chakra bursting from his feet, he swiftly moved toward the more open left side, then threw Flying Thunder God kunai toward Kakashi and Rin, while carefully observing his surroundings, trying to locate Obito's main body.

Kakashi and Rin both easily dodged the kunai Minato had casually tossed, and together they pressed toward Minato.

Kakashi drew a kunai and stabbed at Minato's vital points each time, but Minato was even more skilled with the kunai, calmly blocking all of Kakashi's attacks. Rin's harassment also had little effect.

However, this was just their prearranged attack plan. While Minato blocked Kakashi's thrust aimed at his heart, Rin gathered a large amount of chakra in her arm, greatly enhancing her physical strength, and threw a Monstrous Strength Fist at Minato.

This punch needed no explanation—even someone ignorant of chakra could sense its power, because the momentum of the punch was entirely different.

Minato immediately increased his strength to push Kakashi, who was locked in a kunai struggle with him, away, then gathered chakra in his palm and collided with Rin.

Bang!

With a loud noise, under the heavy force, Minato was knocked back two meters.

"Such strong power. I didn't expect a child who looks so ordinary in the records to have this much strength," said the repelled Minato, very surprised.

The power hidden in Rin's slender frame shocked him. He had just used chakra, though he was still holding back, but for a freshly graduated student like Rin to achieve this level was already quite remarkable—Rin's grades at the academy were not as outstanding as Obito's.

Kakashi seized the opportunity and quickly stabbed at Minato, forcing him to dodge backward.

Just as Minato was thinking about whether to reveal more of his strength, he suddenly sensed a hint of danger. He saw Kakashi stop moving and begin forming hand signs.

"Explode."

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

At the same time, Obito's main body appeared on a nearby big tree, spitting out numerous small fireballs to seal off the area.

Boom!!

The explosive tags Kakashi had buried underground were detonated, and fierce flames engulfed Minato's position. The thick smoke of the explosion made it impossible to see what was happening inside.

Obito jumped down, walked over beside Rin, scratched his head, and said, "What do we do now? We didn't kill Minato-senpai, did we? It seems like he didn't dodge our attack."

"We're doomed—Minato-senpai is a good friend of Teacher Muyue."

Kakashi glanced at Obito speechlessly. Did he have no idea of his own strength? It took all three of them going all out to defeat a Cloud ninja jonin, and Minato was clearly no ordinary jonin—there was no way they could take him down so easily.

"Probably not?" said Rin uncertainly. She had the least combat experience and had never fought a strong enemy, so she felt Minato was in danger.

The smoke quickly dissipated, revealing a patch of charred ground, but Minato was nowhere to be seen.

Kakashi's expression immediately turned alert, and he was very surprised internally—he had no idea how Minato had disappeared.

"You've really given me a considerable surprise. It seems I need to be more serious in response to you."

Minato's voice came from behind them. Kakashi spun around quickly and saw Minato, smiling broadly and completely unharmed.

Obito immediately stepped in front of Rin, activating his Breathing Method to its fullest, entering an extremely focused breathing state.

"With speed like that, he really isn't easy to deal with." Kakashi's eyes flickered, but he wasn't too surprised—after all, Minato was someone even Muyue said was strong. It would be strange if they could take him out in one wave.

Seeing the three of them immediately enter combat mode again, Minato felt somewhat emotional inside.

He was glad that he had become the trio's instructor. If it had been any ordinary jonin, they might have actually lost due to carelessness. Who would have thought that three nine-year-old children could display such strength?

Obito's Fire Style, Rin's immense physical strength, Kakashi's attack rhythm and traps—all these abilities far exceeded those of their peers.

Swoosh swoosh!!

Minato threw a handful of Flying Thunder God kunai at the three.

Clang!

Obito swung his kunai to block the attack, and the kunai embedded into the ground beside him.

Then Kakashi and Obito exchanged a glance and nodded.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Obito gathered a large amount of chakra in his throat, rapidly performing nature transformation, and spat out a vast amount of flames, eventually forming a huge fireball over four meters in diameter.

Meanwhile, Kakashi silently leaped onto a big tree, using the tree as a springboard to rapidly close in on Minato, while throwing shuriken to seal off his escape routes.

Whoosh!

Just as the fireball was about to reach him, Minato vanished from his spot in an instant, the fireball and shuriken missing. Kakashi scanned around rapidly, searching for Minato's position.

Bang! Bang!

Using the Flying Thunder God, Minato appeared beside Obito and Rin, and with extremely swift taijutsu, he sent both of them crashing into a tree.

"So fast!" Obito, who was relatively durable, quickly got up and exclaimed in surprise.

He hadn't seen how Minato had come over at all; he just appeared in an instant and knocked them flying.

Kakashi, having noticed Minato's position, showed a thoughtful expression.

If he remembered correctly, there seemed to be a kunai at the spot where Minato had appeared earlier. Was it just a coincidence?

Kakashi silently memorized the positions of two kunai, then launched another attack.

Not wanting to hold them back, Rin also endured the pain and stood up, assuming a fighting stance.

The two who quickly got up, plus Kakashi who had returned, stood in three different positions surrounding Minato.

The first to move was Obito. His breathing in this extreme state wouldn't last long; he had to end the battle as quickly as possible.

After Obito charged forward, Rin once again used her Strange Power to rush at Minato, and Kakashi used the Body Flicker Technique to stab at Minato with a kunai.

Minato unhurriedly threw a kunai towards Obito.

The moment Obito dodged the kunai by sidestepping, Minato's figure vanished and reappeared behind Obito, punching him flat to the ground.

"It must be connected to the kunai!" Having seen Minato use the Flying Thunder God head-on, Kakashi instantly judged that Minato's godlike Body Flicker Technique was related to the kunai he threw.

"Damn it!" With the girl he cared about right in front of him, he was either being knocked away or knocked down. Obito's inner fire ignited. Without caring too much, he directly used the nature of the Flame Breathing to produce flames on his foot and kicked towards Minato, while his left hand quietly formed hand seals.

Minato leaped back to dodge, but Obito, having completed the hand seals, immediately turned over and spat out several small fireballs at Minato.

"He can use Fire Release in this situation?" Minato was extremely surprised in his mind.

Just now, Obito was lying face down on the ground; there was no way he could have formed hand seals.

Whoosh!

Minato's body vanished again before everyone's eyes. Kakashi immediately burst out chakra, maximizing his Shave Hair technique to rush towards Minato's Flying Thunder God kunai.

There were now three Flying Thunder God kunai on the field. The first kunai was used to attack Kakashi and Rin and was now far from them. The second was used by Minato to attack Obito and Rin. The third was the one that knocked Obito down. Kakashi was rushing towards the second kunai.

At this moment, the kunai beside Obito was unsafe—it might be hit by the Phoenix Flower fire. The first kunai was too far. The second kunai was closer to Rin, so Kakashi judged that Minato would transfer to the second Flying Thunder God kunai's position.

"Total Concentration: Thunder Breathing!"

Kakashi inhaled a large amount of oxygen to strengthen his body, then concentrated power in his legs. He quickly performed a nature transformation of lightning-nature chakra, using lightning chakra to enhance his legs, reaching a peak in speed.

After using the Flying Thunder God, Minato had intended to attack Rin, but upon discovering that Kakashi was rushing towards him at extreme speed, he immediately switched from offense to defense.

"Could he have already figured out the effect of the Flying Thunder God? Such strong analytical ability." Minato was very astonished inwardly.

Minato's reaction was extremely fast, faster than Kakashi's speed. Even though Kakashi struck decisively, he still couldn't successfully hit Minato.

The attack missed, but Kakashi, now close to Minato, showed no sign of discouragement; instead, the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile.

Minato couldn't see Kakashi's expression under the mask, but he keenly sensed something was wrong, and then noticed the explosive tags attached to Kakashi's body.

"Detonate."

Boom!!

An explosion sounded, and flames engulfed both Kakashi and Minato.

"That Kakashi really is quite cunning," Obito said with a sigh of relief.

There was no way Kakashi would use his real body to take Minato down with him in a training exercise. From the time they went to find Minato up until now, Kakashi had been a Shadow Clone.

It was all Kakashi's plan. Obito's Shadow Clone was the first decoy, and Kakashi's own Shadow Clone was the second decoy.

The smoke cleared, and it was the same as before—only the ground was scorched black, nothing else.

Whoosh!

Minato appeared at the first Flying Thunder God position, but the moment he emerged, he spotted a Kakashi wielding a purple lightning bolt rushing towards him.

Zzzzap!!

Kakashi controlled the Purple Lightning to split into numerous lightning snakes that surged towards Minato like a tide. Minato's extremely fast reaction allowed him to dodge the attack, but Kakashi's purpose was not to hit Minato's body—he only wanted the bells at Minato's waist.

A tiny bolt of lightning struck the bell, knocking it down, and Kakashi, who had burst into top speed, caught it in his hand.

"Captain Minato, was that considered a successful training?" Kakashi asked calmly.

"It was a success. To be honest, your performance really surprised me." Minato said with a smile.

His squad members' performance truly far exceeded his expectations. Although he had held back a lot, even not using his important sensory ability, he was still the Yellow Flash who slaughtered on the battlefield. It was no easy feat for Kakashi and the others to snatch the bell from him in one go.

Obito's Fire Release was not only powerful but also had a release method that he didn't understand. Just now, if it weren't for Obito's Ground Phoenix Flower, he wouldn't have been forced to use Flying Thunder God twice in a row.

Kakashi had super combat intelligence. In just a few exchanges, he had analyzed his Flying Thunder God and immediately came up with a battle plan sufficient to snatch the bell.

Even Rin had her moment of glory, using Monstrous Strength to force him into that trap where he had to use Flying Thunder God.

Minato felt that these three in his team, even an ordinary Jonin wouldn't necessarily be able to defeat them if they weren't careless—their combat ability was truly not to be underestimated.

"Finally over. Minato-senpai, you're really fast." Obito, who had come to support Kakashi, sighed as he heard their conversation.

Muyue was also fast, but Muyue's speed was different from Minato's. Muyue was fast, but Obito could still sense a flash of blue light, just not clearly, while Minato's speed was eerie—disappearing out of nowhere and appearing out of nowhere.

"Sorry, I don't think I played much of a role." Rin felt like she had just muddled through to victory.

Because she had been training in Medical Ninjutsu for a long time and her combat strength wasn't strong, Rin hadn't participated in Muyue's intra-team battles. The only battles she had were during the practical exam against classmates. Suddenly fighting against a powerful ninja like Minato, Rin truly felt she couldn't keep up with the pace and was just tagging along.

Hearing Rin's words, Obito disagreed and said, "That's not true. If it weren't for you, Little Rin, helping out, Kakashi's Shadow Clone would have been destroyed long ago and wouldn't have been able to play much of a role. Besides, that punch you used to repel Minato-senpai was really cool."

He wasn't saying this purely because of his feelings for Rin; he genuinely thought that without Rin, the battle would have turned out differently.

"Obito is right. Rin, you just played a different role in the battle compared to us." Kakashi nodded.

In gaming terms, Kakashi and Obito were the main DPS, while Rin was the support. The main function of a support, of course, isn't to output damage.

Actually, Kakashi thought the current team composition was more reasonable. Rin had mastered Medical Ninjutsu, so if he or Obito got injured, she could treat them.

Fighting with Might Guy was different; the three of them could only rush straight ahead the whole time.

Hearing Kakashi and Obito's words, Rin felt a lot better, but she also secretly resolved to train harder in Taijutsu, striving to play a bigger role in battles.

"This internship system created by Muyue is really good. If future graduates can have such coordination, the strength of the village's Genin will improve significantly." Minato recalled Obito and Kakashi's cooperation and felt the internship could be promoted more widely.

Obito, who had teamed up with Kakashi during the internship, had noticeably better coordination with him than Rin did. Obito and Kakashi could understand each other's thoughts with just a glance and then act on them.

"You've completed the training earlier than I expected. Take a rest today and then practice battle coordination. Tomorrow I'll take you on a mission." Minato thought for a moment and laid out the next plan.

This coordination training was mainly aimed at Rin; Obito and Kakashi had no issues at all.

"Yeah! We're going on missions again." Obito cheered.

He couldn't wait to defeat various enemies in front of Rin and then enjoy her praise.

"Ninja missions..." Rin recalled the mission experiences Obito had told her about, feeling a little anticipation inside.

Kakashi originally wanted to tell Obito not to be too happy too soon, but seeing that Rin also seemed a bit expectant, he stayed silent. Now his own experience was also a bit insufficient.

Today is also 8k.