After getting some inspiration from chatting with Mokgetsu, Minato decided not to take any missions for a while and focus on developing ninjutsu.
But just as Minato was pondering how to imitate the Tailed Beast Ball, a ninja arrived to inform him that the Hokage had summoned him, so Minato quickly headed to the Hokage Office.
Knock knock!
Minato knocked on the door of the Hokage Office.
"Come in." Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice came from inside.
Minato then pushed open the wooden door and walked into the Hokage Office.
"Lord Third, do you have a mission for me?" Minato asked directly, wasting no time.
Being called in like this usually meant that someone specifically wanted him to complete a mission, or the Hokage had a special mission to assign to him.
"It's not exactly a mission." Sarutobi Hiruzen removed his pipe, exhaling white smoke as he spoke with a smile.
"Minato, you've been a Jonin for a while now. Have you thought about becoming a mentor?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen greatly appreciated Minato, as Minato not only possessed outstanding ninja talents but also had a very good personality.
Thinking about this, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt a headache. Although his three disciples were strong, they all had personality flaws.
Tsunade was deeply addicted to gambling, to the point of giving up, and due to her hematophobia, she could now only handle treatment and was unable to engage in combat on the battlefield.
Orochimaru was cold and indifferent, caring little for so-called companions except for a select few, going to any lengths to achieve his goals.
Compared to them, Jiraiya seemed relatively normal, with only a slight tendency towards lechery, but Sarutobi Hiruzen felt this wasn't a major issue.
If he had to choose one of the three disciples to become Hokage now, Sarutobi Hiruzen would choose Jiraiya.
Hearing Sarutobi Hiruzen's words, Minato fell into thought.
Minato's mentor was Jiraiya. Although Jiraiya often displayed lecherous and unreliable behavior, Minato genuinely believed Jiraiya to be an excellent teacher.
Jiraiya rarely put on the airs of a teacher. Besides during cultivation, he interacted with them more like friends.
Furthermore, in executing missions and teaching cultivation, Jiraiya was always extremely reliable. Jiraiya's unreliability mostly appeared in everyday life, but whenever Jiraiya showed a serious or stern expression, Minato felt a strong sense of security.
Minato believed that Jiraiya greatly contributed to his current strength.
Minato then thought of Mokgetsu, recalling the warm scenes of Mokgetsu with his disciples in the camp.
The child named Uchiha Obito dared to retort even to Jiraiya, yet he followed Mokgetsu's every word.
"Yes." Minato replied with a smile to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
He also wanted to become a teacher, to cultivate excellent ninjas like his mentor Jiraiya, and to have a few outstanding and lovely students like Mokgetsu.
Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded in satisfaction with a smile.
As Jiraiya's disciple, and being so outstanding, Sarutobi Hiruzen believed that Minato had a chance to become the Fifth Hokage.
And if one wanted to become Hokage, cultivating successors was a skill that needed to be mastered. The Second Generation had cultivated him and Danzo, and Sarutobi Hiruzen had cultivated the Sannin.
"The graduation exam of the Ninja Academy is about to begin. Soon there will be a batch of new Genin. At that time, you'll be responsible for these three students." Sarutobi Hiruzen handed three files to Minato.
Although the exam hadn't started yet, the three students prepared for Minato were certain to pass. Moreover, during the war times, the graduation standards of the Ninja Academy would be lowered to enhance the capability of dealing with war, so there was basically no chance of anyone not graduating.
Minato nodded and took the files. Upon seeing the photos and names on them, he was stunned.
"Hatake Kakashi, Chunin..." Looking at the white-haired boy with the mask, Minato was a bit surprised.
He remembered that this was a member of Mokgetsu Squad, who had gone to the battlefield with Mokgetsu last time. Considering his current age, his strength was quite remarkable.
"Mokgetsu was only leading an intern squad. Once the interns graduate, they're disbanded, so they're reassigned to me?" Minato thought to himself of the reason.
Mokgetsu's main job was still a teacher at the Ninja Academy. As long as Kakashi wasn't following Mokgetsu as a teaching assistant at the Ninja Academy, he had to join another team.
"Such an excellent child, too bad the White Fang senior didn't..." After reading Kakashi's file, Minato sighed in his heart.
When Minato saw the second file, he was a bit confused. It read Uchiha Obito, with a photo of a black-haired boy wearing goggles and grinning.
He knew this person too, as it was Mokgetsu's student. Minato recalled that he was teased by Obito while having dinner at Mokgetsu's home for looking like Mokgetsu's twin brother, and Obito had even helped him take photos.
Seeing Obito's mission records shocked Minato. The Ninja Academy student Obito had records of completing two A-Class missions and one S-Class mission. Many Chunin didn't even have records of completing an S-Class mission.
"Even if Mokgetsu led the team, it wouldn't mean letting interns take on such high-level missions, right?" Minato wondered to himself.
He could guess that the S-Class mission was due to a sudden large-scale war, hitching an S-Class with Mokgetsu, but the two A-Class missions were a mystery, and there was also a B-Class mission, while there was not a single C-Class mission.
After reading Obito's records, he had to acknowledge that this was an unprecedented Ninja Academy student, perhaps the only one there ever would be, as these records were extraordinary.
Upon seeing the third student's file, Minato breathed a sigh of relief, as it read Nohara Rin and not Might Guy.
If the third student had been Might Guy, Minato probably couldn't resist asking Sarutobi Hiruzen if there was any special significance to such an arrangement.
Among the three students, two are Mokgetsu's disciples. Minato was already prepared to join in for dinner to have a good chat with Mokgetsu.
"Minato, you need to pay special attention to that disciple named Hatake Kakashi," Sarutobi Hiruzen said, puffing out smoke as he spoke.
"You should know of Hatake Sakumo, right?"
"Of course, the White Fang was so outstanding. No ninja in Konoha wouldn't know his name," Minato replied, thinking of the White Fang as soon as he saw Kakashi's surname.
"Kakashi is his child. After that incident, Kakashi changed completely, heading in a negative direction..." Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke about Kakashi's experiences with a sigh, from a respected Chunin at the Ninja Academy to a cold-blooded comrade shunned by others.
"With Mokgetsu's efforts, Kakashi seems to have returned to his old self, but I don't know if this is temporary or permanent. I'll need you to keep an eye on him, Minato."
Significant changes in a person can be seen with the naked eye. When Sarutobi Hiruzen saw Kakashi in the mission hall earlier, he knew Kakashi had changed; the whole aura around him had shifted.
To not let Mokgetsu's efforts go to waste, Sarutobi Hiruzen arranged for Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito, who were on good terms with Kakashi, to be his teammates.
"I will," Minato said earnestly. Even without Sarutobi Hiruzen's special reminder, he would handle any issues he found with his own students, otherwise, he wouldn't be worthy of being called a teacher.
...
In the evening, Minato went to Mokgetsu's house to talk about Obito and the others, and to have dinner.
It's not that he's overly obsessed with having meals there, it's just that if he went too early, Mokgetsu wouldn't be home.
Except for mealtimes and evenings, Mokgetsu is usually busy teaching students.
Minato expertly helped Mokgetsu wash vegetables, then smiled and said:
"Mokgetsu, I'm going to be a teacher too from now on. Although I won't be teaching at the Ninja School, a guiding teacher is still a teacher."
"A guiding teacher is definitely a teacher, and weren't you already my Fuinjutsu teacher?" Mokgetsu said with a laugh.
"Most of the credit goes to Kushina," Minato said humbly.
Even though Minato's level of Fuinjutsu was not as high as Kushina's, he was still a master in the field, and of great help to Mokgetsu, who was just learning it.
"The Third Hokage let me see the materials for student distribution in advance. Two of them are your disciples: Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Obito." Minato's expression turned subtle as he mentioned this.
"That means you have a lot of fate with them," Mokgetsu said, showing a slightly surprised smile.
"It's their luck to have a guiding teacher like you, Minato. I know your strength; among the Konoha Jonin, only the Sannin surpass you."
Mokgetsu glanced at Minato's stats; after a few months of training on the battlefield, Minato's capabilities had improved significantly, with his Chakra reaching 55,000, and his proficiency with Flying Thunder God increasing, along with improvements in other skills. It could be said his overall strength had elevated by a tier.
Mokgetsu felt that Minato now surpassed many Konoha Jonin, making him a semi-top-tier force in Konoha.
"There are still some Jonin seniors whose abilities are on par with mine." Minato quickly waved his hands when he heard Mokgetsu say he was second only to the Sannin.
"Everyone has their own strengths, Mokgetsu. Your Ninjutsu is even more powerful than mine."
"But if you can't hit anyone, then power means nothing. Your Flying Thunder God is too fast, Minato." Mokgetsu said as they exchanged compliments.
"Usually, there are three students in a team, right? Who's the other one?" Mokgetsu cautiously asked.
Though the original team comprised Nohara Rin, Obito, and Kakashi, with his presence, there was a chance Sarutobi Hiruzen could place Kakashi, Obito, and Might Guy together if he saw them getting along well.
If Rin and Obito weren't on the same team, Mokgetsu would have to hasten the development of the Breath of Water technique. If the teammates weren't strong, he needed to enhance his abilities even further.
"It's a girl named Nohara Rin." Minato handed the washed vegetables to Mokgetsu and replied.
This wasn't a piece of classified mission information, so there was no need to hide it.
"That's quite a coincidence. Actually, Nohara Rin is also my disciple," Mokgetsu said with a surprised expression.
Previously, it was necessary to be discreet about this due to insufficient strength and his visible affiliation with the Root, which made it inconvenient.
Now, his visible strength was enough to defeat Explosion Release Gari, a powerful Jonin. Moreover, the person in question was Minato, so there was less to conceal.
"Mokgetsu, don't you have another disciple named Might Guy?" Minato asked with a puzzled look.
"Earlier, I provided special training for the fourth-year Ninja Academy students. During that training, I discovered Nohara Rin's potential, so I took her as a disciple for cultivation," Mokgetsu explained.
Minato showed a look of realization, followed by a strange feeling in his heart: all three of his disciples were Mokgetsu's disciples.
"Why don't you just become a guiding teacher, Mokgetsu? That way, you could always instruct them," Minato asked.
He felt that with Mokgetsu's strength, becoming a guiding teacher would be better, offering more flexibility and a chance for self-improvement.
"I prefer teaching at the Ninja School, plus, after they graduate, I can still guide them in my spare time," Mokgetsu replied with a smile.
With his current strength, teaching at the Ninja School would yield greater rewards.
Based on the usual mission rewards, there would be rewards for disciples performing missions with Minato, though there'd be no extra bonuses, amounting to a reduction of about one-third.
"Then in the future, Mokgetsu, you should come and give me some pointers on how to teach students. This is where you're particularly strong," Minato said with a smile, noting that Sarutobi Hiruzen himself praised Mokgetsu's educational abilities.