After leaving the Ninja Academy, Minato moved swiftly through several streets as usual, heading toward the mountain behind Konoha.
Unbeknownst to him, someone was secretly following close behind. Even with Minato's current abilities, there was absolutely no chance he could detect this follower.
It was none other than Jiraiya.
Originally, Jiraiya had intended to intercept Minato at the entrance of the Ninja Academy, but before he could act, he saw Minato rushing out in a hurry.
The direction Minato was heading wasn't toward the residential areas of Konoha, but rather away from them.
Curious about what his future disciple was doing, Jiraiya followed—though he hadn't expected it would bring him all the way to the back mountain of the village.
He hid himself high up in a giant tree, employed a few subtle techniques, and easily took position where he could watch Minato's every move unnoticed.
Down below, Minato placed his backpack on the ground in an open clearing and stood still, lost in thought, momentarily silent.
At that moment, his mind was occupied by today's battle against Uchiha En. If not for his noticeable increase in **Speed** over the past week, he definitely wouldn't have escaped unscathed from En's Grand Fireball Jutsu.
Then there was the issue of shuriken techniques—in spite of diligent practice, compared to Uchiha En, who hailed from the Uchiha clan, Minato's self-taught skills were clearly inferior.
His only advantage was his incredible **Speed**—an ability even Uchiha En didn't possess.
Staring blankly at his own palm, Minato also realized something else: during today's fight with Uchiha En, his combat experience had grown at an astonishing rate.
Yet he still couldn't figure out why.
[Lately, there's been one thing after another that just doesn't add up…]
Minato sighed slightly. Ever since the day he regained consciousness after intense training, something unknown had changed within him… along with that red-haired woman constantly appearing in his consciousness—Kushina.
All of these lacked clues, and he couldn't piece them together.
He was doing his best to unravel the mysteries surrounding himself, while Jiraiya, hiding in the shadows, scanned the area and noticed several marks scattered across the clearing, as well as damage on some nearby tree trunks.
Clearly, this was Minato's personal training ground. Based on the traces left around, Jiraiya deduced he had trained here for at least six months already.
At first, this revelation shocked him—but upon reflection, it somehow made perfect sense.
What surprised Jiraiya was that even as a mere academy student, Minato had come here persistently to train on his own initiative, without supervision or encouragement.
For a child of his age, such determination was rare and precious.
Recalling Minato's performance at the Ninja Academy earlier that day, Jiraiya found this entirely reasonable. No matter how much innate talent Minato possessed, without diligent private training, there was no way he could've achieved his current level of skill.
In this world, nothing comes without a price.
A ninja's strength is earned through years of relentless training. Jiraiya, being a top-tier ninja himself, understood this all too well.
Under Jiraiya's watchful gaze, Minato first cast aside all his doubts and began his training for the day.
Under the dim yellow sky, a seven-year-old child was pouring sweat as he repeatedly practiced the most basic ninja drills.
Perhaps it was because of his previous fight against Uchiha En, but today Minato focused mainly on shuriken jutsu. His training tools were nothing more than a few simple wooden shuriken.
Yet, his progress was remarkably noticeable. He had even begun launching shuriken in multiple directions and angles. Since his battle with Uchiha En, those jutsu seemed etched into Minato's mind.
Minato's improvement genuinely shocked Jiraiya.
Although he knew Minato was talented, he hadn't expected that just one encounter with Uchiha En could allow him to accurately grasp the key points of such shuriken jutsu.
Such talent was akin to that of a born ninja.
Dusk fell, and Minato temporarily halted his training. He took out a rice ball from his backpack, bit into it heartily, and began chewing.
This rice ball was brought from home earlier that morning. Though it hadn't spoiled after sitting all day, it had long turned cold and, with the dropping temperature, had even become slightly hard.
But Minato didn't seem to care. Rather, he'd clearly gotten used to it.
Watching from the shadows, Jiraiya felt an inexplicable pang in his heart. At this moment, children Minato's age should have been sitting with their parents in warm homes, enjoying steaming hot dinners.
Minato was an orphan. Though the village took care of his daily needs, and his parents—both merchants—had left him quite a bit of money before they passed away,
Jiraiya could tell, judging by the oddly-shaped rice ball Minato held in his hand, that it was probably homemade.
Without parental companionship, completely alone—if the Minato people knew was full of warmth and amazement, the Minato seen now was surprisingly heart-wrenching.
After hastily finishing his meal and resting briefly, Minato resumed his training once again.
The night had fully set in. This time, Minato did not continue practicing shuriken jutsu. Instead, he focused on improving his most prominent trait: speed.
Reflecting back on Minato's battle with Uchiha En earlier that day and combining it with his training methods, Jiraiya finally reached an understanding.
After sustained training like this, Minato's reflexes, reaction speed, and perceptiveness had already reached astonishing levels.
That was how he managed to precisely judge the distance of Uchiha En's thrown shuriken and deflect them using wooden replicas.
Not wanting to disturb Minato, who was now completely immersed in his training, Jiraiya quietly left the scene.
...
The next day, when Minato walked into his classroom, a figure—clearly waiting for him—appeared before him.
It was Akasaki Yu.
Right now, his face carried an expression of fear, and deep in his eyes was a hint of guilt.
"Minato, I'm sorry. It's my fault!" Akasaki Yu deeply bowed before Minato, apologizing sincerely while Minato looked on in surprise.
Actually, Akasaki Yu wasn't inherently bad; he was simply a bit mischievous and playful by nature.
This whole chain of events had started with him, nearly causing irreversible harm to other students.
Seeing this, Minato gently patted his shoulder in comfort and gave him a warm smile. "It's not entirely your fault. My approach was too extreme."
Minato didn't feel the slightest bit of blame toward Akasaki Yu. As he'd said, he considered this merely a family disagreement.
Once everything was spoken openly, there were no more problems left.
Touched by Minato's words, tears welled up in Akasaki Yu's eyes.
Just then, two figures walking together appeared within his line of sight. Catching sight of one of them, Akasaki Yu immediately looked away and rushed out of the classroom.
Minato felt a little confused at first, but then spotted the two figures walking toward him.
It was Kushina and Mikoto.
They naturally noticed Akasaki Yu running off just now.
Later, Minato found out that shortly after he left yesterday, Mikoto had really attacked Akasaki Yu.
Minato found it hard to believe when he heard about it.
After all, Mikoto had always been such a gentle person…
...
...
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