Minato could not help sighing with admiration.
"The younger generation in the future really is something. They make us look over our shoulders."
After all, the Rasengan demanded extremely precise chakra control. Even a genius jonin like Kakashi had struggled to learn it.
Kakashi could copy the shape with his Sharingan, but only halfway. It was unstable at best.
Minato understood better than anyone how difficult the jutsu was, since he had created it himself.
A technique even Kakashi found troublesome, yet Naruto had mastered it as a teenager. The thought filled Minato with a pride he could barely describe.
Akira waved a hand and smiled. "It's not like everyone in our generation is a monster. We only had a handful of standouts."
"Besides me, Naruto, and Sasuke, most of the others are just normal ninja."
"After Naruto learns to control the Nine-Tails' chakra, he steps straight into Kage-level territory. And the genius he's always chasing, Uchiha Sasuke, is no joke either."
"A big part of why I helped Naruto loosen the seal was because he's desperate to catch up to Sasuke."
"Right now, Sasuke is far ahead of him. He's both the goal Naruto wants to surpass and the bond he refuses to let go of."
"Sasuke eventually defected from the village, and Naruto, stubborn idiot that he is, has been dreaming of dragging him back ever since."
"The feelings between those two are complicated, so I won't get into all of it. Just know that Naruto's biggest reason for getting stronger is so he can haul Sasuke back to Konoha."
"The problem is, after training for three years and coming home, Naruto still got crushed by Sasuke. That hit him pretty hard."
Minato nodded thoughtfully. Though he had never met Sasuke, he could tell the boy mattered deeply to Naruto.
"That kind of stubborn devotion really does sound like Kushina."
Akira laughed. "I'll give Kakashi credit. The Team Seven he trained is full of monsters."
"Leaving me aside as the outlier, Naruto might not be stronger than Sasuke right now, but he still outclasses almost everyone else from our year."
"Sasuke reached quasi-Kage level at sixteen. And the pink-haired girl on their team is no pushover either."
"She became Tsunade-hime's apprentice and inherited her superhuman strength and medical ninjutsu. She's already comfortably at jonin level."
"Her medical skills in particular are impressive. Even Chiyo-hime of Sunagakure praised her, and Sakura is only sixteen."
As Minato listened, his expression slowly turned amused. "You took a very long way around just to brag about yourself, didn't you?"
Akira shrugged without shame. "My strength speaks for itself. I don't need to brag."
And he really didn't.
Minato had experienced it firsthand.
That suffocating speed, that terrifying Lightning Style that could fire instantly without hand signs—everything about Akira proved that he had already surpassed ordinary Kage-level strength.
In fact, Minato knew very clearly that Akira was stronger than he was.
And that was the truly frightening part.
This monster was only sixteen.
Akira lifted his gaze toward the strange high-rises of Roran, their foreign architecture towering above the desert, and said calmly, "Enough talking. Time to work."
Minato, Choza, and Shibi all sharpened at once, slipping into combat mode.
The instant the four of them entered ancient Roran, the chakra detection network spread throughout the city was triggered.
Deep in the Dragon Vein's core chamber, Mukade's eyes snapped open, madness gleaming in them.
"So you finally came. I waited more than ten years for this. I was starting to think the Dragon Vein's time currents had torn you apart."
Mukade remembered the name Akira all too well. Back when he still operated within Sunagakure's upper circles, he had known exactly how terrifying that young man was.
Four figures appeared like phantoms in Roran's central plaza.
Akira looked up and saw a vast puppet army blotting out the sky like a swarm of locusts.
Choza's expression darkened. "This is bad. We've been detected."
Akira remained perfectly calm. "The underground channels beneath the city are lined with chakra threads. This whole place is his territory."
"The moment we stepped inside the city, he was watching us."
Before he even finished speaking, a loud, arrogant laugh echoed from the mass of puppets above them.
"Akira! I have waited so long for this day! Hahaha!"
"Back then, I was only a jonin. In front of you, I was nothing. But now everything is different. I command the endless power of the Dragon Vein!"
"So what if you can suppress Tailed Beasts? I am not the same man anymore!"
"Once I grind you into paste with these war machines, I'll conquer the Five Great Nations and become ruler of the world! Hahaha!"
Hearing that, Minato instinctively glanced at Akira.
So Akira had not been exaggerating earlier. He truly was strong enough to pin Tailed Beasts down.
Otherwise, there was no way a proud creature like the Nine-Tails would have cooperated with him.
Listening to Mukade's delusional rant, Akira's mouth curved into a mocking smile.
"So that's what happened. You hid in this era for over a decade and started believing you were invincible."
Mukade clearly had no desire to waste more words. With a thought, hundreds of puppets moved at once.
Metal joints clattered.
Countless mechanical arms opened, their dark cannon barrels all aiming down at the four ninja below.
In the next instant, blinding violet chakra beams poured down like a storm.
Each beam was linked directly to the Dragon Vein's power. Every shot carried force comparable to an A-rank jutsu, and the speed was terrifying.
Against saturation fire like this, an ordinary ninja would have nowhere to run.
At the critical moment, brilliant purple-gold lightning erupted from Akira's body.
Crackling electricity roared outward.
It was Akira's signature jutsu: the Lightning Net.
Countless wild lightning serpents wove together in an instant, forming a massive half-dome barrier of electricity that shielded all four of them inside.
Explosions thundered one after another.
Dust blasted skyward, swallowing the entire battlefield.
The ground trembled, and the buildings around them began to break apart under the shockwaves.
Inside the cloud of smoke and debris, ordinary sight became useless.
But the puppets did not rely on sight. They attacked through chakra sensing, and their bombardment did not slow at all. With the Dragon Vein behind them, their ammunition was practically endless.
Watching the center of the battlefield vanish beneath the barrage, Mukade laughed wildly.
"Akira! Even if you were a god, this much firepower would reduce you to ash!"
"These are the ultimate weapons I built to conquer the Five Great Nations. A few hundred of them are enough to wipe out a country!"
Objectively speaking, those several hundred war puppets really did have the power to flatten a small or mid-sized nation.
But against the Five Great Nations, that level of force was still far too thin.
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