An Imperial Influence

[Minato Namikaze]

Minato flew through the hallway, his cheek red and dusty. The clone knew how to throw one hell of a right hook. The blonde landed with a thud, but quickly sprang to his feet and launched himself back at his opponent. Orbs of swirling chakra formed in his hands as he dashed through the hallway and past his companions, who seemed to be having just as much trouble as he was. A trail of dust kicked up into the air behind him from the combination of his speed and the swirling chakra in his hands.

Minato released a flurry of lightning fast strikes into his opponent’s body. His sustained rasengan tore through the clone’s body with each s trike. Creating swiss cheese of his opponent would have been quite the understatement. The blonde breathed heavily, taking a couple of steps back as he let his jutsu dissipate. Sustaining them seemed to be getting easier and easier, but it still took quite a bit of his chakra and stamina to do so. He glanced around at his companions as the sound of electricity emanated throughout the hallway.

Suddenly, he felt his clothing tear and steel piercing his stomach, followed by electrocution. He’d been careless, and his opponent had taken advantage of the fact. The man dropped to the ground as he found himself unable to control his limbs momentarily. Blood dripped from his wound, staining his white coat. 

“Minato sensei!” Kakashi called out before appearing beside his mentor, striking the clone with a swift kick that sent it flying. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” He coughed as he regained control of his body and pulled himself to his feet. “It was just a glancing blow.”

A small blade appeared between the two ninja, causing the both of them to dive towards opposite sides of the corridor. Kakashi’s clone looked back and forth at the two, almost taunting them. Minato dashed forward, outstretched arm, while the clone’s attention was focused on the silver haired shinobi. His palm connected with the creature’s mask and threw it into the wall besides Kakashi.

“Let’s switch opponents for a while.” Minato smirked as Kakashi nodded and launched himself at his Sensei’s clone. Minato Pulled a pair of Kunai from his pouch and readied himself for battle. Blood still dripped from his torso, but the wound had already started to feel better.

One of the perks of this world, I guess.

The Kakashi clone launched itself at him but, with a flash of yellow light, failed to land a strike. A moment later, the blonde reappeared behind it, the faux Kakashi spun around, but only caught glimpse of the same yellow flash as Minato seemed to disappear again. 

“There’s a reason I’m called The Yellow Flash.” Minato spoke as he continued to teleport around the clone, releasing strike after strike onto the dust creature’s body. The creature’s limbs began to come apart, as if they had been sliced all the way through, as the former Kage continued his assault. The clone fell into the dust on the floor as Minato reappeared several meters back from the clone. Panting heavily, he watched as an arm extended from the dust pile. No matter how hard they tried, these things would just keep coming back.

Time to stop holding back.

Minato dropped one of his kunai and held out his right hand, palm facing towards the ceiling like it was gripping onto something round. Chakra began to swirl and form in his hand as a rasengan began to form. Before long, the orb of chakra began to howl with the sound of wind as four blades of wind seemed to extend outwards from the center of the Orb. Guts of wind began to kick dust up into the air around the Blonde as the wind began to rotate rapidly around the rasengan. Minato moved his arm up and back, as if he was about to throw a baseball, before pausing.
“Kakashi, Kito, move!” he called out as the duo looked towards him, their eyes widening as the man threw his jutsu through the enclosed hallway, striking and carrying the copy of Kakashi. Kakashi dove down, covering his head, as the Rasenshuriken connected with the clone Minato and pulled him along with it.

The young ninja couldn’t seem to shake his clone. Kito looked over his shoulder, the hissing orb of chakra and wind getting closer. A flash of yellow light appeared between them as Minato’s arm wrapped itself around the boy’s waist before pulling him to the ground. The Jutsu flew past the two and struck the third clone. Minto shielding the boy as the jutsu exploded and tossed the pair back towards Kakashi.
The former hokage grunted with each bounce, his would spitting a little more blood every time he hit the ground. Kakashi got in their path and caught the two of them, sliding backwards down the hallway as he tried to compensate for their velocity.

“That’ll only give us a moment.” Minato winced as the trio dusted themselves off. “We should leave, now.”