Chapter 60: Breaking Through the Nightmare!

The cliff road had become a stage for two distinct but equally deadly performances. Whilst Team 15 struggled against the phantoms of their own minds, Minato faced a coordinated assault from three jōnin-level opponents whose combined skills represented everything the Hidden Stone Village could bring to bear against the legendary Yellow Flash.

The grey-haired leader, Ishida Roku, moved with the fluid precision of a master swordsman, his blade work enhanced by decades of combat experience. His sword sang through the air in deadly arcs, each strike calculated to force Minato into the range of his companions' attacks.

"Wind Style: Vacuum Blade!" Roku called out, his sword wreathed in cutting wind that extended its reach by several feet.

The massive shinobi with the hammer, Gozu, brought his weapon down with earth-shaking force, the impact sending cracks racing through the stone beneath their feet. "Earth Style: Boulder Crush!" His hammer struck the ground, causing massive stones to erupt upward in a deadly shower aimed at Minato's position.

Meanwhile, the lean knife-wielder, Tetsu, moved like a shadow around the battle's periphery, his multiple blades flashing as he sought openings in Minato's defence. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" A barrage of small fireballs erupted from his position, each one perfectly timed to force Minato into his companions' attacks.

But Minato was the Yellow Flash, and three opponents—even jōnin-level ones—were simply not enough to contain him for long.

"Flying Thunder God Technique!" Minato called out, vanishing just as Roku's wind-enhanced blade would have taken his head off.

FLASH

He reappeared beside one of his marked kunai, having thrown it earlier to land near Tetsu's position. The lean shinobi's eyes widened as he realised the trap too late.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Palm!" Minato's hand crackled with electrical energy as he thrust it toward Tetsu's chest, the technique enhanced by the momentum of his teleportation.

Tetsu barely managed to interpose two of his knives, the metal conducting the electricity and sending numbing shocks through his arms. But his sacrifice bought precious seconds for his teammates to respond.

"Earth Style: Rock Pillar Prison!" Gozu slammed his hammer into the ground, causing massive stone pillars to erupt around Minato's position, attempting to trap the speedster within walls of solid rock.

But Minato's response was immediate, throwing his kunai in the air before he formed hand signs. "Fire Style, Fireball Jutsu!" A massive sphere of flame erupted from his position, the intense heat causing the stone pillars to crack and crumble even as he vanished once again.

FLASH-

This time he appeared above the battlefield, gravity adding momentum to his descending strike as he aimed for Roku's exposed back. But the Stone leader's experience showed as he spun with perfect timing, his blade meeting Minato's kunai in a shower of sparks.

"You're fast, Yellow Flash," Roku acknowledged, his blade work forcing Minato to give ground step by step. "But even you can't maintain that technique indefinitely. How much chakra do you have left?"

"More than enough," Minato replied calmly, though there was a note of strain in his voice that suggested the sustained combat was beginning to tell.

The three Stone ninja pressed their advantage, their coordination honed by years of working together. Gozu's hammer strikes forced Minato to dodge whilst Tetsu's thrown knives limited his escape routes. Roku's sword work was the centrepiece of their assault, each cut designed to drive Minato toward his companions' attacks.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Roku's technique sent a massive gust of cutting wind across the cliff road, forcing Minato to teleport to avoid being sliced apart.

FLASH-

He appeared beside another marked kunai, but Tetsu was already there, having anticipated the move., catching on to his technique. "Gotcha!" The lean shinobi's blades flashed toward Minato's vitals, but the Yellow Flash's own knife work was supreme.

Steel rang against steel as Minato parried three strikes simultaneously, his movements so fluid they seemed to bend physics. But the distraction cost him, as Gozu's hammer came down like the fist of an angry god.

"Earth Style: Crushing Blow!" The massive weapon whistled through the air with bone-shattering force.

Minato twisted aside at the last second, the hammer's edge close enough to part his hair. But even as he dodged, Roku was there, his wind-enhanced blade seeking the gap in his defence.

"Now!" the Stone leader roared, all three attacking simultaneously.

For a heartbeat, it seemed as though the coordinated assault might succeed. Three jōnin-level techniques converged on Minato's position with perfect timing, leaving him no room to dodge or deflect.

But Minato was eighteen years old and already a legend in his own right.

"Flying Thunder God Second Step!" he called out, his voice carrying absolute confidence even as death closed in from three sides.

FLASH-

In the span of a single heartbeat, Minato teleported between three different kunai positions, his movements so rapid they created afterimages. Each flash brought him behind one of his opponents, and each appearance was accompanied by a perfectly placed strike.

Tetsu gasped as a kunai found the gap between his ribs, whilst Gozu roared in pain as another blade pierced his shoulder. Roku managed to partially deflect his attack, but still took a shallow cut across his chest that left his shirt in ribbons.

"Impossible!" Roku breathed, his eyes wide with disbelief. "No one can move that fast!"

"You've never faced me when I'm truly serious," Minato replied, his blue eyes carrying the cold certainty of victory. "I've been holding back because I hoped to capture one of you alive for interrogation. But you've forced my hand."

The realisation hit the three Stone ninja like a physical blow. Everything they had witnessed, all the incredible speed and skill that had pushed them to their limits—Minato had been restraining himself.

"Impossible," Roku whispered again, but his voice lacked conviction. The evidence was right before his eyes.

"Attack together!" he roared to his companions, desperation lending strength to his voice. "All of us, now! It's our only chance!"

Meanwhile, deeper in the realm of nightmare and illusion, Team 15 fought battles that existed only in their minds but felt more real than reality itself.

Tatsuma stood alone in a burning village, the flames casting dancing shadows across the bodies of his fallen teammates. Kōzaru and Aotaka lay motionless at his feet, their eyes staring sightlessly at the smoke-filled sky whilst accusation seemed to emanate from their lifeless forms.

"This is your fault," Aotaka's corpse whispered, its voice carrying the weight of absolute condemnation. "You were supposed to protect us. You were supposed to be strong enough."

"We trusted you," Kōzaru's body added, blood flowing freely from wounds that would never heal. "And you let us die."

Tatsuma fell to his knees, his hands shaking as he reached toward his friends. But every time his fingers almost touched them, they crumbled to ash, leaving him grasping at nothing.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, tears streaming down his face. "I'm so sorry. I tried, I really tried..."

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he called out desperately, hoping his technique might somehow bring them back. But the clones that appeared were pale, lifeless imitations that dissolved the moment he looked at them directly.

In another nightmare realm, Aotaka knelt before his uncle's disappointed gaze, the weight of failure crushing down upon him like a mountain.

"Pathetic," his uncle's voice cut through the air like a blade. "I wasted years training you, believing you might amount to something. But you're weak, Aotaka. Weak and worthless."

"No," Aotaka protested, but his voice sounded hollow even to his own ears. "I've grown stronger. I've learnt to fight, to protect others..."

"Have you?" his uncle asked, his tone carrying cruel amusement. "Then why are your teammates dead? Why did the civilians you swore to protect die screaming your name?"

Around them, the training ground where they had spent countless hours was littered with bodies. Team 15, the three survivors, Shibi and even Minato lay broken and bleeding whilst accusation filled their dying eyes.

"Lightning Style: Static Force!" Aotaka called out, electricity crackling around his body. But the technique fizzled and died, his chakra system sluggish and unresponsive in the face of his crushing despair.

Kōzaru's nightmare was perhaps the cruellest of all. He stood in an empty forest, calling out desperately for companions who would never answer.

"Yuki! Riku!" His voice echoed through the trees, but no familiar barks responded. "Where are you? Please, don't leave me alone!"

He had searched for hours, days, weeks in the endless woodland, but found only silence. The bond that had sustained him through every battle, every challenge, had been severed. His ninken partners—his family—had abandoned him.

"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough," he whispered to the empty air. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. Please, just come back..."

But the forest remained silent, and Kōzaru sank to his knees as the weight of absolute solitude crushed his spirit.

Yet even as the genjutsu specialist's technique threatened to destroy their minds, something stirred in the real world. Yuki and Riku, unaffected by illusions that targeted human consciousness, sensed their partner's distress through their unbreakable bond.

With fierce determination, both ninken launched themselves at Kōzaru's motionless form. Their sharp fangs found flesh, piercing through skin to deliver precisely calculated bites designed to shock him back to consciousness without causing serious injury.

Pain exploded through Kōzaru's system—real, immediate, and absolutely undeniable. The sensation cut through Saki's genjutsu like a blade through silk, shattering the illusion and returning him to the cliff road where his teammates still stood trapped in their personal hells.

"Yuki! Riku!" Kōzaru gasped, his enhanced senses immediately locking onto the real world around him. The scent of his ninken, the feel of wind on his skin, the sound of distant combat—all of it rushed back in a flood of sensation that banished the lingering shadows of nightmare.

His eyes snapped to Saki, who stood over the cowering survivors with a kunai raised for the killing blow. The genjutsu specialist's green eyes were focused entirely on her victims, her attention divided between maintaining her technique on Tatsuma and Aotaka whilst preparing to begin her true work on the helpless civilians.

"Now!" Kōzaru roared, and three forms launched into motion with perfect coordination.

"Man Beast Clone!" Both Yuki and Riku transformed instantly, their bodies dissolving into smoke before reappearing as perfect copies of their master.

"Fang over Fang!" All three called out in unison, their bodies becoming spinning vortexes of claws and fangs as they launched themselves at Saki's position.

The genjutsu specialist's eyes widened as she detected the real attack cutting through her carefully constructed illusions. She twisted aside with jōnin-level reflexes, but three simultaneous strikes from different angles proved too much even for her considerable skill.

Kōzaru's claws raked across her right arm, tearing through cloth and flesh alike. The wounds weren't deep enough to be life-threatening, but they sent bright lines of pain through her system and, more importantly, disrupted her concentration on the genjutsu affecting his teammates, freeing both Aotaka and Tatsuma as they dropped to the ground, trying to get a grip on reality.

"Argh!" Saki screamed, both from pain and rage as her carefully constructed technique shattered around her. "You little beast! I'll kill you all! Every last one of you will die screaming!"

Her green eyes blazed with murderous fury as she raised her kunai, her elegant composure replaced by the raw hatred of a predator denied its prey. The survivors cowered behind Kōzaru as he landed in a protective crouch, Yuki and Riku flanking him with bared fangs.

The nightmare was far from over, but Team 15 had taken their first step toward victory, all they had to do was survive another life and death battle!

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