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OPI Chapter 352: What Lies Beneath the Sand
🕑 Added 2025-04-22 02:24:40 +0000 UTCBefore Minato could even make a move, Chōza had already unleashed his jutsu.
At the same time, he shouted, “Minato, go do what you need to do!”
Having worked with Minato many times before, he knew exactly what role he should play in moments like this.
“Alright, I’ll leave it to you!”
Minato paid no attention to the black-clad swordsman charging toward him.
Instead, he calmly nodded at Chōza.
Meanwhile—
Chōza’s massive right arm and palm, now enlarged, slammed down with a force so dense it was visible to the naked eye, compressing the air beneath it with a powerful gust.
“Then let’s see what you’re made of!”
Gozuki narrowed his sharp eyes.
His whole body was wrapped in the airstream generated from moving at extreme speed.
The Shingu in his hand, boosted by his Swordmaster-level mastery, instantly turned into an even brighter arc of blade light and slashed outward.
The next moment—
The sharp sword flash collided with the massive palm strike in an explosive boom.
The surrounding air seemed to be violently compressed and burst apart—
sending out a ripple of shockwaves like a ring of white mist, which cracked the exterior wall of the nearby tower.
While Chōza and Gozuki clashed for the first time, Namikaze Minato had already vanished without a trace.
This caused Gozuki’s pupils to contract—he had just been within striking distance.
His Observation Haki had suddenly lost track of Minato’s presence, and then—just a heartbeat later—detected it again…
Right at the exact spot where Gozuki had just been standing!
With a leap, Minato entered the top-floor hall through a gash in the outer wall. On the wall next to the window, a black sealing mark had appeared.
“Y-You’re from Konoha…”
Queen Sara covered her mouth in shock, staring at Minato and the emblem on his forehead protector.
Then, memories suddenly came flooding back—Mako, Sarai, and other citizens had all mentioned a blond-haired, blue-eyed shinobi from Konoha. The one who had defeated Minister Anrokuzan and saved them all!
There was no doubt in her mind.
Sara felt that this was the hero she had seen in her dreams—though, in her dreams, he didn’t seem quite this tall?
“Hm?”
Minato noticed the strange look in Sara’s eyes and felt puzzled. Had she recognized him? That shouldn’t be possible—he had sealed her memories himself.
But now wasn’t the time for questions.
Inside the hall, aside from Sara, there were also two beautiful women dressed in black dresses, both with graceful figures and violet hair—
In addition, there were twelve clearly subordinate black-clad men, all muscular and exuding a cold aura.
The next moment—
Two of the CIPHER POL-No.8 agents swiftly used Soru, appearing in front of Minato at a speed imperceptible to the human eye.
One aiming a thrust at Minato’s throat, the other delivering a powerful kick to his right leg.
[Boom!]
Substitution Technique!
With a puff of white smoke, a wooden log, now splintered by the impact of the finger and the kick, appeared in Minato's place.
By then, Minato had already used his Body Flicker Technique to relocate to the ceiling above.
Minato now hung upside down from the ceiling.
With clear, sharp eyes, he quickly scanned the room—at the two violet-haired women now standing protectively by Sara’s side, at the six black-clad men surrounding them, and at the other six closing in to attack him.
[Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…]
The next second, he suddenly pulled out more than a dozen specially crafted kunai and hurled them out.
The kunai scattered, each flying in a precise trajectory toward everyone present, except Sara. The speed was so great that they left afterimages in their wake.
However, these black-clad agents were no ordinary opponents.
Although they had yet to awaken their own Haki, their physical skills was exceptional—elite level, in fact.
Otherwise, they would never have qualified for CIPHER POL-No.8, the division tasked with performing dangerous missions across worlds.
Some of them used Kami-e to dodge the kunai, others drew short blades from their backs to deflect the projectiles, and still others swept the blades away with powerful leg kicks.
Of course, there were also those who simply stood their ground and used Tekkai to endure the impact.
[Ding!]
Sure enough, the kunai was stopped. But the man’s black suit now had a puncture in it.
Yet the next second, under the gaze of everyone present, Namikaze Minato vanished once more. Without so much as a sound of displacement, he reappeared like a ghost behind the agent who had used Tekkai.
In the blink of an eye—
Just as those nearby heard a faint slicing noise, Minato’s figure disappeared again, only to rematerialize next to the man who had used Kami-e to dodge the kunai.
This time, someone finally caught a clear glimpse of the kunai clutched tightly in Minato’s hand—its blade wrapped in a violently swirling, pale green energy that looked razor-sharp.
“Ugh—ahhh!”
At that very moment, the black-clad man who had used Tekkai collapsed to the floor, clutching his throat, which had been cleanly sliced open and was now gushing blood. His face twisted in agony.
The gash was far too wide—no breathing technique could possibly stop the bleeding.
The next to die was the one who had used Kami-e, and after that, the one who had blocked the kunai with a short blade.
The entire sequence felt like Minato’s kunai were still mid-flight, while he was already teleporting over and over again, wiping out the six advancing CP8 agents in a matter of heartbeats.
[Bang!]
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out. Before the sound had faded, a second shot fired—then a third. Bullet after bullet erupted from the muzzle in rapid bursts of fire.
The ferocity of the assault even momentarily drowned out the chaos of Chōza and Gozuki’s battle outside.
“It’s that short-haired purple woman!”
Minato caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye and instantly flashed backward to dodge.
But he was surprised to find that some of the bullets were curving around from the sides to catch him in a pincer movement, while others ricocheted off the walls and pillars behind him—aiming straight for his back.
Bullets can… do this?
“But it won’t help.”
In a flash of yellow light, Minato vanished again.
In the blink of an eye, he reappeared behind Sara and the two violet-haired women, reaching out to place his hand on Sara’s shoulder.
But Sara was suddenly pulled away by the long-haired, glasses-wearing woman—who simultaneously thrust forward with a massive pair of scissors.
At the same time a bright blue sphere of energy spun rapidly in Minato's left hand.
“Rasengan!”
While Namikaze Minato and Akimichi Chōza were engaged in a fierce battle around Queen Sāra after being detected by Gozuki’s Observation Haki—
Hyūga Hizashi and Inuzuka Gaku had also reached the western district of Rōran, aided by the Invisibility Technique.
Perhaps due to the commotion near the central tower drawing most of the attention, their journey had been unexpectedly smooth and largely free of danger.
That was until they noticed more and more soldiers and black-clad figures patrolling the area. Without hesitation, they chose to stop and hid behind a nearby building.
Hyūga Hizashi immediately activated his Byakugan.
He first scanned the heavily guarded base up ahead.
Aside from the sheer number of people, there was nothing unusual. Then, following Minato’s directions, he gradually shifted his gaze underground.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…”
He saw a massive cylindrical space that descended directly into the earth, with wide spiral staircases along the walls. People in various uniforms were moving up and down the steps in constant flow.
At the center were two massive elevator cables and platforms.
The platforms moved up and down, left and right, continuously transporting crates of all sizes between the surface and the underground. The crates were then carried off by those black-clad soldiers to various buildings or trucks.
The entire operation was so orderly that it gave Hyūga Hizashi an overwhelming sense of suffocation.
“And that is…”
His gaze finally fell upon the underground palace Minato had mentioned.
The area had undergone significant changes compared to what it looked like at first.
The two aerial stone bridges that had been hastily constructed were now part of a semicircular stone platform, greatly expanding the space available for movement.
This allowed for the construction of small buildings, like a Den-Den Mushi communication relay station and a biosafety checkpoint.
The other half of the semicircle still remained a terrifying abyss of pitch-black darkness.
At the very center between the abyss and the platform stood the altar. Four statues, each draped in what resembled black cloaks with hoods, stood at the corners. In the center, a small Dimensional Gate shimmered faintly with radiant light.
“What the hell is going on here…?”
Hyūga Hizashi murmured in a daze, unable to make sense of what he was seeing.
Inuzuka Gaku, standing beside him, caught the whisper and asked in a low voice, “What did you see?”
“Well, there really is an altar and a palace down there… I even saw a glowing gate. And—huh?!”
Just as Hizashi was about to say more, his eyes widened.
A man stepped out of the glowing gate—extremely tall, incredibly muscular, and draped in a long coat over his shoulders. He had long hair flowing down his back.
In that instant, Hizashi realized: that really is a gate. So the people here must all be...
But just as this thought formed—
The 'giant' who had just emerged from the light gate let out a couple of booming laughs… then suddenly whipped his head around and locked eyes with him!
His heart skipped a beat.
There’s no way that man could see him.
Unless… that man had some kind of visual prowess similar to the Byakugan.
