The immense power surging through Shinzuki Yu quickly settled under his complete control.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan’s unparalleled perception elevated his chakra control to an entirely new level.
He swept his gaze across the battlefield.
Severed limbs littered the ground.
Cries of pain echoed from every direction.
The Konoha squad he had belonged to had already been wiped out.
Scattered Konoha shinobi stood back-to-back, barely holding the line as they were surrounded by Iwagakure forces.
Despair hung thick in the air.
“So much for laying low.
You can only do that after you’ve become invincible.”
Yu muttered to himself.
The mindset he’d developed as an overworked salaryman in his previous life allowed him to assess the situation instantly.
On a battlefield like this, survival wasn’t earned by hiding.
It was earned by striking first.
He stopped concealing his strength.
Several poisoned shuriken screamed through the air, cutting off every possible escape route.
Yu’s figure swayed ever so slightly.
His Sage Body granted him overwhelming speed.
He blurred into an afterimage, effortlessly weaving through the tiny gaps between the incoming shuriken.
“What?!”
One Iwa ninja cried out in disbelief.
His signature shuriken technique had been rendered completely useless.
Before he could react, the pinwheel pattern in Yu’s left eye contracted sharply.
Kamui.
Space itself twisted.
The Iwa shinobi—and the two comrades closing in beside him—were abruptly warped, compressed, and erased from sight.
They vanished without leaving behind so much as a trace.
As if they had never existed.
“S-Space-Time Ninjutsu?!”
One of the few Iwa shinobi outside the attack stared in horror, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
Yu ignored their panic.
Like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep, he plunged into another cluster of enemy shinobi.
Against opponents like these, he didn’t even need to unleash the full power of his Mangekyō Sharingan.
He infused Kamui’s spatial distortion into his fists and kicks.
An Iwa ninja lunged at him with a kunai.
Yu didn’t dodge.
Instead, he threw a punch straight at him.
Crack!
The instant his fist connected with the man’s chest, invisible spatial distortion erupted.
The shinobi’s ribcage and internal organs were crushed and twisted apart in an instant.
His body flew backward like a discarded rag doll.
By the time he hit the ground…
He was already dead.
Another Iwa ninja attempted a sneak attack from the side.
Without even looking back, Yu pivoted and lashed out with a kick.
Space warped once more.
The shinobi’s lower leg bent backward at an impossible angle.
Bone tore through flesh with a sickening snap.
“My leg—AAAAAH!”
The scream ended abruptly.
Yu stepped forward.
A casual chop of his hand landed on the man’s neck.
The spatial distortion shattered his cervical spine instantly.
Efficient.
Lethal.
Within only a few breaths, another seven or eight Iwa shinobi had fallen at his hands.
Every corpse bore different wounds, yet all shared the same gruesome fate—broken bones, ruptured organs, and bodies destroyed by incomprehensible force.
The bizarre method of killing sent chills through everyone who witnessed it.
“H-He…
he’s really just a Konoha genin?”
A surviving Konoha chūnin muttered blankly, his voice filled with disbelief…
and a trace of awe.
In his understanding, not even Konoha’s elite jōnin could slaughter enemies with such effortless precision.
This wasn’t ordinary ninjutsu.
It looked more like an unknown Kekkei Genkai—
One so terrifying that no one had ever heard of it.
“Monster!
He’s a monster!”
“Run!”
“Report to the captain!
Konoha has a monster on the battlefield!”
The remaining Iwa shinobi finally broke.
The figure before them no longer seemed human.
He was a killing machine wearing human skin.
Those blood-red pinwheel eyes had become the face of death itself.
“Retreat!
Everyone, retreat!”
The Iwa jōnin leading the unit roared until his eyes were bloodshot.
He had watched one of his strongest subordinates—a battle-hardened Special Jōnin—be torn apart by an invisible force under that mysterious dōjutsu.
The man hadn’t even managed a scream before exploding into a cloud of blood.
This wasn’t a fight between equals.
Terror spread through the Iwa ranks like a plague.
Their formation collapsed instantly as every surviving shinobi fled for their lives, wishing they had been born with two extra legs.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the pressure on several Konoha shinobi suddenly disappeared.
They stared blankly at the lone figure carving his way through the enemy ranks as though no one could stand against him.
Is that reinforcements?
But…
when did Konoha produce a prodigy like him?
Yu made no attempt to pursue the fleeing shinobi.
His target was the Iwa jōnin who had ordered the retreat.
Cut off the head, and the body would fall.
The moment the Iwa jōnin turned to flee, an overwhelming sense of danger washed over him.
He spun around—
Only to meet Yu’s cold Mangekyō Sharingan.
Not good!
Alarm bells rang in his mind.
His hands flew through hand seals at top speed.
But he was already too late.
Kamui.
The space surrounding him twisted violently.
An irresistible force pulled at him from every direction, threatening to crush him before dragging him into an endless abyss.
“Earth Release—”
He never finished the final seal.
His body distorted against his will.
Then—
A flash of golden light streaked across the edge of the battlefield.
Minato Namikaze had arrived.
After resolving an emergency elsewhere on the front lines, he had sensed the violent chakra fluctuations in this sector, along with the sudden collapse of the Iwa forces.
Without hesitation, he had used the Flying Thunder God Technique to rush over.
And the moment he appeared…
He witnessed a scene he would never forget.
A young Konoha genin, dressed in the standard uniform, stood calmly with his left eye glowing crimson.
He simply looked ahead.
Under that gaze, the fleeing Iwa jōnin’s body twisted, compressed, and shrank in blatant defiance of all physical laws.
Then…
He disappeared completely.
Not a single drop of blood remained.
Throughout the entire process, the boy hadn’t formed even one hand seal.
Minato’s heart trembled.
What kind of terrifying Space-Time Ninjutsu is this…?
Instant activation…
And powerful enough to erase a jōnin outright.
Who is this boy?
Since when did Konoha have someone like him?
Almost the instant Minato appeared, Yu sensed an aura far stronger than anyone else’s on the battlefield.
He slowly turned around.
His expression remained calm and unreadable.
Their eyes met across the battlefield.
Looking into those crimson pinwheel eyes, Minato felt an indescribable depth—and overwhelming power.
[Ding!]
[Key Story Character Detected: Minato Namikaze.]
[New Check-In Location Refreshed: Konoha Forward Command Headquarters, Border of the Land of Fire.]
The system notification echoed in Yu’s mind.
He looked at the legendary Yellow Flash—the man destined to become the Fourth Hokage.
His expression never changed.
In this world…
Power was the only true foundation upon which one could survive.
And today…
He had just proven it.