CHAPTER 181: CHAPTER 181

"So this is the Flying Thunder God?"

"I’ve always been really curious about it."

The moment a kunai landed behind Hatake Satoru, he vanished from the mud wall and reappeared on a vine not far away.

Cracks covered Namikaze Minato’s face where the sealing technique had failed. Compared to the First and Second Hokage—who still looked almost like living people—

He honestly looked more like a poorly patched-together version.

Still, the fact that he could use Flying Thunder God at all meant he wasn’t a complete failure.

Almost as soon as the kunai hit the ground, Minato reappeared at the exact spot Satoru had been standing, but his kunai stabbed into empty air.

His hollow eyes slowly lifted, locking tightly onto Satoru.

Satoru met that gaze with a faint, relaxed smile.

Let’s see this famous high-speed movement for myself.

"But if you’re being controlled, even fighting you feels kind of boring."

"So quiet..."

Satoru muttered casually to himself.

By now, the kunai with sealing marks had multiplied into more than a dozen, all flying toward him at once.

This time, they didn’t leave much time to think—Minato’s body appeared next to Satoru the moment the kunai flew past him.

But right at that moment, as Minato launched his attack—

Satoru vanished right before his eyes.

!?

Even though it was just a reanimated body being controlled, back inside the barrier, not a single person had been able to vanish so suddenly right in front of Namikaze Minato like that.

His face didn’t show any surprise, just a slight pause.

Then Minato looked around at the kunai scattered all over the ground, each one marked with his Flying Thunder God seal.

He quickly memorized the locations of all of them.

Right now, Hatake Satoru and the space around him were filled with Minato’s teleportation marks.

"You’re still a bit far from hitting me."

"But with all these kunai lying around, I might trip if I’m not careful."

Hatake Satoru lowered his head and took a small step back. Right then, he felt something solid touch his heel.

Minato appeared behind him in a flash and swung a kick at the back of his head.

"Already trying to hit me?"

Hatake Satoru didn’t seem the least bit surprised. He simply tilted his head, then ducked.

Minato’s leg swung through empty air. Hatake Satoru spun around and punched him.

Minato’s head jerked slightly from the hit, but right after, he reached for Hatake Satoru’s arm.

As long as he made contact, the Flying Thunder God mark would stay there permanently.

But Hatake Satoru easily dodged to the side and quickly stepped back a few times.

It seemed Minato never meant to touch him in the first place—it was just a feint. He reappeared at Satoru’s side in the next instant, raising his hand to strike.

"Trying to sneak up on me from a blind spot won’t work~"

"After all, I don’t really rely on my eyes to see."

Hatake Satoru turned and grabbed Minato’s wrist, tightening his grip before slamming a kick downward.

With brute force, he tore off the reanimated body’s arm. Minato staggered back several steps from the blow.

But then, dust swirled around him as the lost arm started to rebuild itself.

Hatake Satoru looked at the Minato slowly reforming from the dust. So this was the quality of a second-rate reanimation?

While they kept flashing around the battlefield, Hatake Satoru suddenly noticed something strange about the surroundings.

The mist had risen up to their level.

Below them, everything was completely blurred. It was impossible to tell where anyone was.

Only the occasional jutsu blast, or a raised sword cutting through the fog, gave any sign of what was happening below.

"Mist, huh."

Pretty good for cover.

Hatake Satoru licked his lips and looked at Minato, who was staring straight at him.

Even though those eyes were fixed on him, their real target was Sarutobi Hiruzen.

As for him and Hozuki Mangetsu—they were just obstacles.

Because if Minato really managed to close the distance, even all these Kage combined might not be enough to protect Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Guess I’ll play with you a bit longer."

A sly smile spread across Hatake Satoru’s face as he faded into the mist.

This kind of battlefield definitely worked in favor of him and Hozuki Mangetsu. As for the others, whatever happened to them didn’t really matter.

...

"That guy actually went in."

Kakashi stood outside the barrier, stunned, and took a step back.

He’d already been surprised when he saw Minato’s figure appear inside the barrier. But he didn’t expect Hatake Satoru to just say he was going in—and then vanish right next to him.

Trying to enter a Four Violet Flames Formation from the outside should’ve burned him alive.

But judging from the current situation—

No one knew exactly what power Hatake Satoru had used, but somehow he had made it straight into the sealing formation.

"That’s seriously impressive."

Hozuki Mangetsu hadn’t seen with his own eyes how Hatake Satoru entered from outside the barrier—

But the fact remained: not a single Anbu, or rather, no one except Hatake Satoru had managed to get in.

"It’s already starting to fog up in there."

"Give it a little more time, and you won’t be able to see anything around here."

Haku stood to the side with Hozuki Suigetsu, both looking toward the inside of the barrier.

Kakashi had the Sharingan, but the mist was filled with chakra, making it hard to see anything clearly, even for him.

"So we just wait for them to come out on their own?"

Kakashi pulled his headband down over his Sharingan.

In Kirigakure’s mist jutsu, not only the enemy, but even allies can’t see anything around them.

Only after years of training could one move freely in that kind of mist.

Haku paused, then nodded firmly.

"Or wait until the Mizukage ends the Hidden Mist Technique himself."

Kakashi let out a sigh and scratched his head, frowning as he looked toward the barrier.

There was nothing anyone could do to get involved in that fight now—they couldn’t even see what was happening inside.

He wasn’t too worried about Hatake Satoru’s safety. Even against someone like Namikaze Minato, Satoru had always looked calm and in control.

While everyone else focused on fighting seriously, Hatake Satoru always looked like he was just playing around.

No matter how you looked at it, he was someone you could trust to handle himself.

The real concern was the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Because, based on what Kakashi knew about Hatake Satoru, that guy definitely wasn’t the type to protect the Hokage if things got bad.

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