Chapter 43

Explosions continued to shake the entire ground as Kazuo lay hidden underground.

He counted every second in his mind, he needed to be precise otherwise any mistake could lead him into an even worse situation.

After counting to seventy seconds, The ground finally stopped shaking.

'Either everyone is dead or Minato has arrived, I don't see any other solution as to how the battle ended.' Kazuo thought, he had tried to think of countless ways that the leaf could win the battle however he had only come up with one.

Shikaru had taken the three-pronged kunai that he had dropped and used it to summon Minato.

*Sigh*

'Worst comes to worst, I'll just die and go back to the start of the loop.' Kazuo thought before slowly heading above ground.

As his head and then torso appeared above the ground, Kazuo quickly looked around.

Hundreds of corpses were scattered, most of them entirely missing the upper part of their bodies, as if they had been punched by an immense force.

'The Raikage really is fucking strong.' Kazuo thought as he quickly caught sight of the man.

The Raikage was around one hundred meters away from Kazuo, with a large muscly build and a lightning aura around him.

His blonde hair had gone up in spikes and he had a furious expression on his face.

Before him stood a single man with bright yellow hair wearing a Jonnin flak and blue ninja pants.

'So you have arrived Minato Namikaze.' Kazuo thought as he looked at the legendary ninjas staring at each other.

At that moment the Raikage's eyes turned toward Kazuo who had just fully emerged from the ground.

"So it was you kid." The man said, his voice being clearly heard, likely enhanced by his chakra.

"Me? No, im just a Chunnin sir, how could I?" Kazuo asked with a light smile.

He hadn't used chakra to reinforce his voice however the Raikage still heard him.

"You fucking leaf ninja, always spawning geniuses as if they're mushrooms." The Raikage said before disappearing from Kazuo's view.

In the next second, Kazuo saw the Raikage once more.

He was right in front of him, his fist already heading toward his face.

*Boom*

The punch however landed on the ground rather than on Kauzo.

Looking around, Kazuo found himself next to Shikaru, he had been teleported more than two hundred meters away from his previous location in an instant.

Meanwhile, Minato once more stood before the Raikage.

"Head back to the village, there's nothing more you can do here, the mission is accomplished," Minato said with a loud voice whilst starting directly at the Raikage.

Shikaru nodded and quickly turned to address the remaining shinobi who had managed to somehow survive the rampage of the Fourth Raikage.

"Follow me, we're leaving here," Shikaru said before quickly using the body flicker jutsu and starting to run in the direction of the land of fire.

Kazuo didn't hesitate as he immediately followed the man.

Even a slight hesitation in a place like this would lead to his own demise.

As Kazuo headed further and further away, arriving at around four hundred meters away from the Raikage he stopped.

Turned around and with a large toothy grin on his face he looked directly at the man.

"I fucking killed 'em all, what are you going to do about it huh? Tell every woman in the cloud that their Daddy did it." Kazuo practically screamed to make sure the Raikage heard him clearly.

For a moment after, silence engulfed the entire clearing, the only thing being heard was the lightning flashing around the Raikages body.

The surviving leaf ninjas turned to look at Kazuo as if he were some kind of madman.

Kazuo however only gave one last smile before using the body flicker and disappearing from his location.

Behind him, Kazuo heard an enraged roar however he didn't turn or stop, merely continuing to run away.

'With that, every ninja should know that it was me who caused the devastation, this way Shikaru or anyone else won't be able to steal my achievements, this also increases my standing inside the hidden leaf and further cements my standing as a prodigy.' Kazuo thought as he ran away.

Minutes passed and they soon turned into hours as the ninjas continued running through the forests and clearings along the way.

Finally, they were returning to their home, the hidden leaf village, the greatest of all military forces in the elemental nations.

Seeing that the danger had mostly passed, the shinobi turned to Kazuo and asked with wide surprised eyes.

"You planted the explosives that killed the cloud forces?" One of them asked, his voice clearly tinged with disbelief.

Kazuo smiled and answered the man.

"I did, it was dangerous however I wanted nothing more than to take revenge for our fallen comrades. Those cloud bastards got what they deserved." Kazuo said, his voice sounding slightly furious.

His words combined with his newly gained charisma and acomplishments seemed to resonate with the entire remaining leaf forces as their eyes gazed at Kazuo.

They didn't utter words of praise, Kazuo had already surpassed what all of them put together had achieved in their battles.

He had risen up further in their minds, becoming someone who couldn't be touched, merely idolized.

The situation also made it so that jealousy didn't plant its seed, only leaving admiration behind.

Shikaru who witnessed everything had a slight gleam in his eyes.

'Sadly you won't get to enjoy this for long Kazuo, the orders of the root must be carried out.' Shikaru thought as he ordered the ninjas to camp out at the small clearing they were in for the night.

The hundreds of shinobi had dwindled down to a measly force of seventy.

Quickly the Ninja stopped and set up camp using the sealed tents that they had in their scrolls.

Unlike before, the guarding unit which used to consist of only twenty ninjas turned into fifty, they couldn't afford to be ambushed with such a small force, if they did then they could be facing complete annihilation.

Hours passed and soon midnight arrived.

Four ninjas rose up from their beds and geared up quickly.

Their mission? Don't let the Target wake up to see the morning.

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Here's the daily chapter, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

I saw what everyone said about the root and I agree as well however I've written around 10 chapters ahead so I hope this won't be too much of a turndown. Sorry about that and ill write better in the future.

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Thanks for reading once more.

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Naruto Author