Naruto: Fate System

Directly challenging Minato was an extremely risky endeavor, and Shin was well aware of the dangers involved.

Yet, he pressed on without hesitation. This wasn't out of recklessness or arrogance.

Aside from the sense of responsibility as a leader, he saw immense gains hidden behind the risk. The northern front lay before them like a precarious house of cards, with Minato as its foundation.

He was the linchpin of Konoha's northern front. Many followed his light, but few recognized the crisis underlying his role—

Minato could not fail.

Not only could he not fail, but even the slightest sign of his vulnerability—an inability to dominate his enemies—would deal a catastrophic blow to Konoha's already fragile morale.

At least Akatsuki had Nagato, who was maturing under Shin's guidance, ready to take up the mantle.

In contrast, the northern front of Konoha had no one capable of stepping into Minato's shoes. Though Konoha boasted countless talents, the sheer number of fronts they had to contend with stretched their resources far too thin.

Not to mention the tragedy a few years back when they lost Konoha's White Fang, wasting one of their most capable commanders.

No one could fathom the immense pressure Minato carried beneath his ever-confident and warm demeanor. He couldn't afford to show weakness. Had to maintain absolute control.

Thus, even after being blindsided by Shin's flashbang, tears welling in his eyes, Minato launched his next attack without a moment's hesitation.

He still flickered across the battlefield.

Yet this time, Shin took a more cautious approach, uncharacteristically restrained.

He never let emotions like anger or grief cloud his judgment during a battle.

As icy crystals surrounded him, the blade in his hand gleamed with a thin layer of frost.

The next instant, Minato appeared beside him once more. Having shaken off the effects of the blinding light from earlier, he squinted, aiming a kunai slash at Shin's neck with one hand while tossing another kunai with the other.

His attacks were now more cautious, ready to reposition at a moment's notice with the second stage of the Flying Thunder God.

However, this caution unexpectedly divided his focus.

As his kunai slashed forward, Minato suddenly realized—

An inch too short.

His senses had just been disrupted by a genjutsu.

Despite knowing that Shin was adept at genjutsu, the amount of threats he had to guard against made him overlook this critical detail. Much like the immense responsibilities weighing on him in war, his mental focus was stretched too thin. 

With his skill and versatility, he quickly dispelled the genjutsu and corrected his mistake.

But the Flying Thunder God relied on speed above all.

A single miscalculation was all Shin needed to respond.

Clang!

Minato's follow-up slash met a thin ice shield that formed just in time. At the same time, Shin's sword slashed upward, forcing him to teleport away once again.

But this time, his landing point wasn't far.

Putting some distance between them, Minato quickly formed hand seals. He was famed for the Flying Thunder God, but that didn't mean he lacked other jutsu.

Completing the seals, he unleashed a flurry of shuriken, augmented with—

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

This iconic jutsu, passed down in Konoha, was just as deadly in Minato's hands as it was in those of his predecessors. The shuriken split and multiplied, turning the space between them into a corridor of death.

The distance between him and Shin was around ten meters—too far for a sword, but perfect for the barrage of shuriken. The overwhelming spread of projectiles left seemingly no room for escape.

With the Flying Thunder God in his arsenal, distance was always under his control.

His previous ambushes had been so overwhelmingly effective that they left enemies paralyzed with fear. As a result, few realized that he excelled just as much in maintaining a safe distance and employing hit-and-run tactics.

But this time, Minato's intelligence fell short.

Shin exhaled slowly, his eyes narrowing as the three ice flowers behind his head spun rapidly. The enhancement of his Ice Release made all the difference. This custom technique perfectly complemented his current tactical needs.

With a single slash, snow and ice condensed in front of his blade, transforming the air into his weapon.

While a standard katana had a range of one to two meters, he was not limited by such constraints.

"Ice Spiral Slash!"

A combination of wind blades, shards of ice, and concentrated chakra formed a devastating icy vortex.

The technique roared across the battlefield like a winter storm unleashed, its power visible in the way it crystallized the air it passed through.

It obliterated the incoming shuriken while engulfing the very spot where Minato stood.

Though he managed to evade the attack with the Flying Thunder God, the sheer pressure Shin exerted was undeniable. The ground where he had stood was now covered in a thick layer of jagged ice.

Shin seized the psychological momentum, taunting loudly, "Is running away all Konoha is capable of?"

Unfurling icy wings, he gave chase, forcing Minato to continuously teleport to new positions.

Shin knew full well that pursuing Minato head-on was pointless in terms of tactics. The Flying Thunder God wasn't so easily countered. With each teleportation, Minato left behind a trail of scattered kunai, expanding his network of escape routes.

But on a strategic level, this maneuver was invaluable. Ice crystals spread with each of Shin's attacks, slowly but surely limiting Minato's movement options.

Simply letting the Konoha and Iwa shinobi witness Minato being pushed into a defensive retreat was enough to shift the tides of battle in his favor. 

The cracks in Konoha's morale began to show.

"What's going on?" A young Konoha ninja gripped his kunai tighter, his hands shaking.

Meanwhile, the Iwa forces, who had been on the verge of breaking, began to recover their courage. Hope flickered in their eyes as they watched their greatest nightmare being driven back.

"The line's holding! We might still have a chance!" An Iwa commander rallied his men.

"If we surrender to Akatsuki, will they let us live?"

And as for Akatsuki, their morale had been rock-solid from the moment Shin arrived.

One man single-handedly stabilizing an entire battlefield might seem like an extraordinary feat, but in reality, every step was a precarious gamble.

In the original timeline, Minato pulled off this feat flawlessly, cementing his legacy as the Fourth Hokage.

But in this altered reality, Shin was there from the beginning, scissors in hand, ready to cut the tightrope under Minato's feet.

Sweat froze on his brow as he appeared and disappeared across the battlefield. The strain was beginning to show in his movements.

And to make matters worse, faint whispers of bad news drifted toward him from the distant wind.

The sound of something slicing through the air announced the arrival of reinforcements—this time, a ninja from Konoha.

However, unlike the dramatic entrances of Konan and Shin, who had just saved Akatsuki from disaster, this Konoha ninja's arrival did nothing to bolster the battlefield's struggling forces.

Instead, it further eroded the morale of the Konoha ninja, already sliding into despair, and stomped even harder on their crumbling spirits.

Around them, the sounds of distant explosions and screams painted a grim picture of how badly the battle was going.

This disheveled and hurried Konoha ninja hadn't come to save the day but to protest—and plead for help.

"Minato-sama, why didn't you follow the plan and come to our side of the battlefield? Have you abandoned us?" The ninja's hands trembled as he spoke, blood dripping from a gash on his shoulder. "We waited... we kept waiting for your signal flares, but they never came!"

Minato's heart sank like a stone, a sharp pang gripping him. He wanted to explain, but in that moment, it was as if his throat was seized shut, leaving him unable to utter a single word.

Even he hadn't anticipated this: the strategy he had borrowed from Shin for this offensive had now turned into a double-edged sword, slashing him in the back.

The long, narrow battlefront stretched over hundreds of kilometers. This time, Minato had adopted a tactic inspired by Shin's earlier approach, organizing multiple units to launch simultaneous strikes at weak points along the line.

Konoha's original plan had seemed flawless: with multi-pronged attacks initially masking the main thrust of the offensive, Minato could use his unmatched mobility to swiftly provide support to any battlefield as needed, based on the enemy's response.

The goal was to achieve breakthroughs at multiple points, ultimately collapsing the entire enemy line.

The plan had been perfect in theory.

But now, the harsh reality was hitting back with brutal clarity.

In those critical ten minutes earlier, Minato had failed to penetrate Akatsuki's four-camp joint defense, a shortcoming that began to unravel Konoha's hopes.

While his individual efforts had inflicted tremendous casualties and achieved impressive results, the core issue remained unchanged.

"They're everywhere!" A distant cry pierced the air. "We can't hold! Fall back to point B!"

Konoha had no one else capable of shouldering Minato's immense burden.

Meanwhile, Akatsuki still had Nagato, along with his invincible Pains.

The Konoha ninja who had arrived to protest and plead for help came from a battlefield that had just been shattered by Akatsuki's Mobile Unit, which included three Pains. 

That battlefield had been under the command of a Sarutobi ninja, the nominal deputy leader of the northern front, upon whom Konoha's elders and retired Hokage had pinned great hopes.

Yet even with his leadership, the outcome hadn't changed. The proud Sarutobi clan member had fallen like the rest, his techniques proving useless against Pain's overwhelming power.

Against the combined might of the three Pains had been enforced, and defeat was inevitable. The battlefield had transformed into a graveyard in minutes.

Even a reinforcements unit from Iwa had joined in the chaos, chasing down Konoha's fleeing remnants under the command of Kitsuchi.

Those who had survived were now desperately running for their lives.

The protesting ninja had been separated from his group during the retreat. Driven by frustration and anger, he had changed course and headed toward Minato's position, where the main offensive was supposed to be concentrated, to demand an answer.

Shin laughed heartily, genuinely entertained.

After their brief skirmish, he had realized that defeating Minato outright today was unlikely. Blood trickled from cuts where Minato's kunai had grazed him, and his muscles screamed from the strain of matching the Yellow Flash's speed.

But so what?

Winning a small tactical engagement didn't matter. Strategically, the battle was already a decisive victory, with Konoha's forces crumbling.

Minato launched another Flying Thunder God assault. "I haven't abandoned anyone," he called out. "Do not lose hope."

"Empty words," Shin said, loud enough for nearby troops to hear.

Akatsuki's fanatical morale and fearless battle cries had left a deeper impression than Minato realized. Words alone were insufficient to inspire. Every Akatsuki member fought with absolute conviction, while Konoha's forces looked to a single man for salvation.

Unlike Akatsuki, who had been conditioned over time to trust Shin's resolve, Konoha's ninja had grown accustomed to relying on Minato's assurance: Don't worry; I'll handle it. Trust me.

If even Minato-sama can't handle this... The thought spread through their ranks like a poison.

This style of leadership had worked well for Minato—until it didn't. The moment cracks appeared, his followers felt those tremors more acutely than anyone.

When Minato, attempting to kill more Akatsuki ninja, chose to prioritize his offensive and abandoned pursuit of Shin, the already fragile morale of Konoha's forces deteriorated further.

Shin, using Body Flicker to intercept Minato mid-Flying Thunder God, blocked Minato's attack with his blade.

He unleashed an ice-release technique, sending icy winds scattering Minato's kunai across the battlefield. The temperature dropped sharply as crystals of ice formed in the air.

"What's the matter? Too scared to face me directly?"

Shin's taunts echoed loudly, dripping with mockery. His sweat-drenched face and throbbing temples betrayed the toll of matching Minato's speed. But his provocative words radiated arrogance, as though he held the upper hand.

In most other situations, such behavior would mark him as a cliched villain, setting him up for an inevitable defeat. But here and now, his every taunt was a venomous needle, breaking down Konoha's unity.

Minato hurled a flurry of kunai and began a chain of Flying Thunder God teleports, creating a dazzling array of afterimages in front of Shin.

It was true frame-perfect execution.

Not good. He's moving faster than I can track!

This time, the fabled fastest shinobi in the ninja world was living up to his title. 

In mere fractions of a second, he executed dozens of teleports. Can't predict where he'll strike—he's attacking from every direction at once!

All logic and strategy were abandoned.

Minato had been pushed to his absolute limit, fighting with nothing but pure instinct and raw power.

For an instant, Shin smelled death. The air itself seemed to carry the scent of his own blood, not yet spilled but soon to flow.

A crimson warning flashed in his mind's eye as if even fate itself was screaming. The Fate System's warning pulsed with an urgency he'd never felt before.

Chains burst forth from Shin's back in a desperate attempt to shield his vital points, their links glowing with chakra as they formed a defensive web around him.

Boom!

Before the chains could fully form, Minato's Giant Rasengan struck with unrelenting force.

The cracking of ribs echoed in his ears as the force of the blow rippled through his body.

The impact shattered Shin's chest defenses, sending him flying backward. Blood spattered the ground, his chest heavily injured, his breath labored.

But even kneeling, with his blade embedded in the dirt for support, Shin laughed defiantly.

Crimson chakra flared around him, struggling to keep his heart beating.

"Is that all you've got, Yellow Flash?" Blood trickled from his mouth as he spoke.

Konoha's ninja, who had been on the verge of cheering, froze in horror.

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