Rei followed the Iwa shinobi at his top speed but he was slower compared to the Iwa shinobi in terms of speed as well as stamina, he would never have wasted his time following him if not for the direction the shinobi was going in.
Rei smiled as he noticed something and made a few hand signs.
..
The Iwa shinobi ran as fast as he could, his mind was in shambles from fear.
After he had run for about a thousand meters his mind slowly started to calm down as he thought that he was finally somewhat safe when suddenly..
*boom*
..he heard a loud sound from beneath him, his body was suddenly lifted in the air and his vision spun around in circles a few times before his body fell back to the ground.
Dust rose for a brief moment before it scattered with the wind, all that was left was the Iwa shinobi's wiggling body covered in blood and wounds with a small black crater beneath him.
*rinnggg*
His ears still rang due to the earlier explosion, his vision was blurry and his body was in pain as blood flowed from his wounds.
After a while he pushed his hands against the ground as he tried to stand up.
*crunch* *step* *step* *step*
"Wow! you are still alive. You Iwa shinobi are quite tough, aren't you?"
"Is that you Rotch?" The Iwa shinobi asked in a shaky voice as he saw he tried to look at the face of his big and bulky friend through his blurry vision.
"Hmm! this is great though, at least for me." Rei smiled as he extended his hand to touch the injured Iwa shinobi, who extended his hand thinking his friend was here to help me.
"Looks like my trip here didn't go to a complete waste."
Rei undid his transformation as his lips curled into a cold smile, black seals appeared all over the body of the Iwa shinobi before his body disappeared, stored in a storage seal on a cloth wrapped around Rei's wrist.
He cleared the area around the blast removing all the bigger traces of blood and walked up to a tree to rest as he waited for the others to arrive.
...
The leader of the shinobi was tough, especially due to his earth style jutsu that he used as an armor, but he couldn't beat Minato who was faster than him.
He died with a smile knowing he had bought enough time for his teammates to escape, or that's what he thought at least.
The other leaf shinobi thanked Minato for saving their lives and applied some first aid to the injured shinobi while Minato met with Kakashi who had captured one of the enemy ninja.
Minato praised Kakashi for his work and after a while they all made their way towards Rei's location.
...
"What happened here Rei, are you alright?" Minato looked at the black crater that seemed like the result of an explosion.
"Sensei, I set up a few explosive seals in case we had to retreat, and triggered them when the Iwa shinobi passed by here..."
Rei explained as he jumped off the tree and walked towards Minato with a disappointed expression.
"...but it seems like it wasn't enough to disable him."
Minato tried to look for the enemy's traces as he explored the area after hearing Rei, but it looked like the shinobi was smart and fast enough to erase his tracks.
"It's fine, we have completed our mission. Let's head back to the village." Minato looked at the five leaf shinobi who had managed to survive and asked everyone to head back after he surveyed the area one more time with his chakra.