Naruto rebirth! Xenoverse!

Chapter 62: The Edge of Death!

The three Cloud jōnin moved with the fluid coordination of wolves closing in on wounded prey. Raikiri'sThe blade, infused with lightning, crackled with a volatile and restrained energy, whilst his companions flanked Team 15 with the practiced precision of assassins who had executed this countless times before.

"This should be quick," the lean woman said, her voice laced with effortless cruelty as she drew twin daggers that gleamed with a poisonous sheen. "Three exhausted children against jōnin-level opponents? I almost feel sorry for them."

"Don't," the massive man rumbled, electricity dancing across his tattooed arms. "They've caused us enough trouble already. Better to end this decisively."

Behind Team 15, the three survivors pressed against the cliff wall, their eyes wide with terror as they watched their young protectors prepare to face impossible odds again. Ayame clutched her side with her good arm, whilst Hiroshi and Kenji seemed frozen by the prospect of witnessing another massacre.

"Stay together," Kōzaru said quietly, though his enhanced senses were screaming that they were about to face something far beyond their capabilities. His chakra reserves were still recovering from the genjutsu battle, and Yuki and Riku pressed close to his sides, their instincts warning them of the deadly threat approaching.

"We can't win this," Aotaka whispered, his lightning-enhanced blade feeling pathetically weak compared to the electrical energy radiating from their enemies. "But we can try to buy time. Maybe sensei will—"

"The Yellow Flash is too far away kid," Raikiri interrupted with a cold smile, having overheard their desperate planning. "By the time he reaches this position, you'll all be decorating the rocks below."

The first attack came without warning. The massive Cloud ninja moved with startling speed for someone his size, his fist wreathed in lightning as he charged directly at Aotaka's position.

"Lightning Style Thunder Punch!" The technique struck like a bolt from the heavens, the sheer force of it sending shockwaves through the cliff road.

Aotaka barely managed to raise his sword in defense, channelling his own lightning through the blade in a desperate attempt to deflect the attack. But the difference in power was overwhelming—jōnin-level strength and chakra against that of an exhausted genin.

The impact shattered Aotaka's defence completely, his sword flying from his grasp as the massive fist connected with his chest. Ribs cracked under the tremendous force, and he was hurled backwards through the air, slamming into the cliff wall with bone-jarring impact.

[Health: 216/216 - 50/216]

"Aotaka!" Kōzaru screamed, but he had his own problems as the lean woman appeared beside him like a shadow given form.

"Poison Style Jutsu Serpent's Fang!" Her twin daggers carved deadly arcs through the air, each blade dripping with toxins that would kill within minutes of entering the bloodstream.

Kōzaru dropped into his Beast Mimicry stance, his claws extending as he tried to match her speed. But she was a jōnin, a level 28, and he was an eight-year-old boy, only level 9, whose chakra was already running low from previous battles.

[Chakra: 107/167 → 77/167]

"Too slow, little puppy," she taunted as her first dagger opened a line across his shoulder, the poisoned blade biting deep into flesh. Immediate numbness spread from the wound as the toxin began its deadly work.

Yuki and Riku launched themselves at the woman's flanks, their loyalty absolute despite the hopeless odds. She twirled with effortless elegance, her second dagger catching Riku across the ribs whilst her foot lashed out to send Yuki tumbling across the cliff road.

"Riku! Yuki!" Kōzaru's anguished cry echoed off the stone walls as his ninken companion collapsed, bursting into smoke as their transformation dispersed, blood matting Riku's brown fur whilst poison now coursed through his system.

Meanwhile, Tatsuma faced Raikiri himself, the Cloud leader's His eyes glowed with satisfaction as he relentlessly stalked his weary prey. The boy's shadow clones had already been eliminated, dispelled by casual strikes that demonstrated the vast gulf between their abilities one after the other.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Tatsuma called out desperately, pouring the last of his chakra into the technique.

[Chakra: 47/222 → 22/222]

A single clone materialised beside him, but it was pale and barely solid—a pathetic imitation created from fumes rather than substantial energy reserves.

"Is that all?" Raikiri laughed, his lightning-enhanced sword carving through the clone with contemptuous ease. "Pathetic. Let me show you what real power looks like."

"Lightning Style Raikiri's Fang!" The technique that followed was devastating—a concentrated bolt of electrical energy that tore through the air with the sound of rending metal.

Tatsuma threw himself aside desperately, but the attack clipped his left arm, sending agony shooting through his nervous system as electricity coursed through his body. He hit the ground hard, his muscles spasming uncontrollably as the lightning technique left him partially paralysed, crying out in pain.

"This is why children shouldn't play at being ninja," Raikiri said, raising his sword for the killing stroke. "Nothing personal, boy. You just chose the wrong profession."

Across the battlefield, Aotaka struggled to his feet, blood streaming from a head wound where he had struck the cliff wall. His enhanced Senju constitution had saved his life, but multiple ribs were cracked and his breathing came in painful gasps.

The massive Cloud ninja approached him slowly, electricity crackling around his tattooed fists as he prepared to finish what he had started.

"Tough little bastard," he acknowledged with grudging respect. "Most genin would be dead from that first hit. Guess I'll need to hit you harder this time."

"Lightning Style Crushing Thunder!" Both fists came down like hammers of the gods, the combined technique designed to pulverise anything caught beneath it.

Aotaka tried to roll aside, but his injured body betrayed him. The attack struck the ground where he lay, sending cracks racing through the stone whilst electrical energy coursed through his frame. His scream of agony echoed across the cliff road as his body convulsed under the assault.

This is it, he thought as consciousness began to fade. I'm going to die here. We all are...

[Health: 50/216 - 2/216]

Nearby, Kōzaru was in equally desperate straits. The poison from the woman's blade was spreading through his system, and Yuki lay motionless where she had fallen. Riku's breathing was growing increasingly laboured as the toxin did its deadly work, spreading through the small puppies body.

"Such loyalty," the woman observed as she watched him crawl toward his fallen companions. "It's almost touching. Don't worry—I'll make sure you all die together."

She raised her daggers for the final strike, their poisoned edges gleaming in the afternoon light. Kōzaru's enhanced senses were failing as the toxin affected his nervous system, but he could still smell the approach of death.

This is how it ends, he realised with crystal clarity. We weren't strong enough. We weren't ready. And now everyone's going to die because we failed.

Behind them, the three survivors watched in horror as their protectors were systematically destroyed by opponents whose power dwarfed anything they could hope to match. Ayame's medical training told her that all three young shinobi were dying—from poison, from electricity, from massive internal injuries that no child should have to endure.

"Please," Hiroshi whispered, though he knew his words were meaningless. "They're just children. They don't deserve this."

"Children who chose to stand against us," Raikiri replied coldly, his sword poised above Tatsuma's neck. "This is what happens to those who stand in the way of the Hidden Cloud's interests."

Tatsuma stared up at the gleaming blade, his vision blurring from pain and chakra exhaustion. His left arm was useless, his body was wracked with electrical burns, and he could taste blood in his mouth from internal injuries.

In his mind, he thought of his teammates—Kōzaru fighting desperately to protect his ninken, Aotaka struggling against impossible odds with typical Senju stubbornness. They had come so far since their academy days, had grown so much as both individuals and as a team during their short time in this word.

And now they were going to die on this cliff road, their bodies thrown into the gorge below whilst their mission failed and the survivors they had sworn to protect were captured or killed.

"This is the end." Raikiri said, lifting his sword to deliver the finishing blow.

But as Raikiri's blade began its descent toward his throat, Tatsuma's hand brushed against something in his equipment pouch—a three-pronged kunai he had kept as a souvenir from their previous battle in the forest. He had thought it would be nice to have something to remember their first real combat alongside the legendary Yellow Flash.

Now, with death mere inches away, that silly memento might be their salvation.

"Sen... sei..." Tatsuma gasped, his fingers closing around the marked kunai just as Raikiri's sword reached the apex of its killing stroke.

And suddenly the world exploded in golden light.

FLASH-

Minato materialised between Raikiri and his student, moving with such speed that reality seemed to bend around him. The Cloud jōnin's blade, aimed at Tatsuma's throat, stopped mere millimetres from flesh as it met the legendary Yellow Flash's kunai in a shower of sparks.

"What—" Raikiri began, his eyes wide with shock and dawning horror as he found himself face-to-face with legend itself.

The other two Cloud ninja froze instantly, their attacks halting mid-strike as they recognised the distinctive three-pronged kunai and the flash of yellow hair that marked their opponent. The massive man's fists, crackling with electricity and poised to crush Aotaka, trembled as he slowly backed away. The lean woman's poisoned daggers, raised above Kōzaru's fallen form, lowered as terror filled her features.

"The Yellow Flash..." Raikiri whispered, his voice barely audible as the full weight of their situation crashed down upon him.

Minato's blue eyes blazed with cold fury as he took in the scene—his students broken and bleeding, poison coursing through Kōzaru's system, Tatsuma's body wracked with electrical burns, Aotaka barely conscious from massive internal injuries. The sheer presence of controlled violence that radiated from his frame was beyond anything they had ever encountered.

"You have five seconds to explain why I shouldn't kill all three of you right now," Minato said quietly, his voice carrying the promise of immediate death for the wrong answer.

The three Cloud jōnin exchanged desperate glances. They had all heard the stories, had seen the reports of entire Stone divisions eliminated by this single shinobi. Up close, facing the legend himself, they understood with crystal clarity that they were utterly outmatched.

"We... we were just following orders," the woman stammered, her earlier confidence completely evaporated. "The medical supplies... we needed them for—"

"You were torturing children," Minato interrupted, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper—a tone that somehow carried more menace than any shout. "Eight-year-old children who were protecting wounded civilians."

"Four seconds," he added, and the temperature on the cliff road seemed to drop ten degrees.

Raikiri's mind raced through their options, but every scenario ended with their deaths. The Yellow Flash had just eliminated three Stone jōnin with casual efficiency—they had witnessed the golden flashes from the forest as he approached. Fighting him would be suicide.

"Retreat!" Raikiri shouted to his companions, his voice cracking with barely controlled terror. "Smoke bombs! Now!"

All three Cloud ninja moved simultaneously, throwing explosive tags that detonated in clouds of thick black smoke. Through the acrid haze, Minato could hear them fleeing with the desperate speed of those who knew death was breathing down their necks.

"Lightning Style Storm Barrier!" Raikiri's voice echoed from within the smoke as they covered their escape with a defensive technique.

"Body Flicker Technique!" The massive ninja's chakra signature vanished as he employed every speed technique he knew to put distance between himself and the legendary speedster.

When the smoke cleared, all three were gone—fled into the forest like the cowards they had proven themselves to be. Only the scent of their terror remained, along with the three broken children they had been systematically destroying mere moments before.

"Smart choice," Minato said quietly to the empty cliff road, though his attention was already shifting to more important matters.

His students were alive, but barely. All three were grievously injured, and the poison in Kōzaru's system was spreading rapidly. Yuki and Riku lay motionless beside their master, their own conditions critical from the toxins they had absorbed.

"Sensei..." Tatsuma whispered, his voice barely audible as he struggled to remain conscious. "The... the kunai... I kept it..."

"You did perfectly," Minato said gently, kneeling beside his injured student. "That souvenir just saved all your lives."

As he began assessing their injuries, Minato's expression grew increasingly grim. They needed medical attention immediately—the kind that went far beyond basic field treatment. The poison alone was life-threatening, and the electrical damage to Tatsuma's nervous system required specialist care.

"Ayame," he called to the surviving medic, his voice carrying absolute authority. "I need your assessment of their conditions. Professional opinion only—can they be moved?"

The medic hurried forward despite her own injuries, her training overriding her shock at the violence she had just witnessed. As she began examining the three young shinobi, her expression grew increasingly troubled.

"The poison is spreading rapidly," she reported grimly. "And these electrical burns are severe. They need proper medical facilities within the hour, or..."

She didn't need to finish the sentence. Everyone understood what she meant.

Team 15 had survived their encounter with three jōnin-level opponents, but they weren't out of danger yet. The next hour would determine whether their courage and determination had been enough to save not just the survivors they had sworn to protect, but their own lives as well.

The cliff road fell silent except for the laboured breathing of the injured and the distant sound of wind through the gorge below. The Yellow Flash had arrived just in time to prevent a massacre, but the real battle—the fight for survival itself—was only just beginning.