Nawaki returned home from school, and Minato began skewering meat for barbecue.
The grilled feast left Tsunade and Nawaki so stuffed their mouths dripped with grease.
Watching them devour the food ravenously, Minato suspected that if he'd used iron skewers, they might have sparked flames from the friction.
Indeed, skewers bring joy!
When their burps carried the aroma of lamb skewers, Minato clasped his hands together lightly, and a perfectly round watermelon suddenly sprouted from the ground before them.
"Here, have some watermelon to cut the richness."
"Wow—! Minato, you're amazing!" Nawaki exclaimed, instantly thrilled by the sight.
Watermelons were notoriously expensive in the Shinobi World, and he fully understood the value of Minato's trick.
A few minutes later, the three of them sat side by side on the porch, eating watermelon as the setting sun bathed them in a warm, golden light.
In the following weeks, Minato's life settled into a peaceful routine.
Each day, he would wake early to cook breakfast, eat, and then go to school.
After school, he'd return home, cook dinner, eat, and then cultivate in the yard.
After cultivation, he'd bathe and go to sleep.
Before he knew it, two months had quietly passed.
The daily routine didn't bore Minato. On the contrary, he enjoyed this simple life.
This Zen-like existence calmed his mind and sharpened his intellect, accelerating his progress in mastering Chakra Nature Transformation.
In the original story, Naruto used the experience-stacking property of Shadow Clones. By summoning over a thousand clones, he mastered Wind Attribute Transformation in just a few days.
Minato lacked the ability to create multiple Shadow Clones, nor did he plan to push himself as relentlessly as Naruto. After all, the fatigue from Shadow Clones also accumulates.
Naruto, bolstered by the Nine-Tailed Beast's chakra, could at worst exhaust himself to the point of unconsciousness.
If Minato dared to attempt such a feat, even the Power of All Things in Creation couldn't save him.
Moreover, Naruto's straightforward, single-minded nature meant he didn't dwell on consequences. With Minato's modern, more active mindset, schizophrenia would be a mild diagnosis.
For safety's sake, Minato limited himself to ten Shadow Clones per day. After school, he would dismiss them to absorb their accumulated experience.
He would then create another ten clones to continue training until bedtime, using the accumulated fatigue to help him fall asleep quickly.
In just one and a half months, Minato completely mastered the Chakra Nature Transformation of the Water Attribute, able to instantly create waves in a calm pool of water!
Then, in the following half month, he successfully began to learn the Chakra Nature Transformation of the Earth Attribute.
Though not as fast as Naruto, for an ordinary person, this speed was practically indistinguishable from cheating.
One could say that Minato had already reached the Jonin level in Ninjutsu!
Tsunade secretly observed this terrifying training speed, inwardly astonished.
She had completely given up.
Minato's training speed was simply not humanly possible.
It wasn't that she hadn't thought of using the Shadow Clone training method.
After all, this technique was originally created for intelligence gathering, and the principle of experience accumulation was understood by all. But not everyone could actually pull it off.
The fatigue from ten Shadow Clones she could endure.
But like Minato, maintaining ten Shadow Clones daily, even temporarily deactivating them mid-day, was something she could never achieve, even under threat of death.
Recovering from that level of fatigue in a single night was impossible, let alone enduring it day after day.
That Minato could do it wasn't surprising.
Judging by the energy Minato displayed, Tsunade was certain that he had not only awakened the Wood Release but also possessed the terrifying vitality of her grandfather—cells that remained alive even after death!
"Hey, Minato, what are your clones practicing over there?" Nawaki asked, finally unable to resist the question as he watched the clones playing with mud in the courtyard on another weekend.
Since the number of clones was limited, they usually trained in the courtyard. Initially, Nawaki had been a bit wary of Minato's training methods, but over time, he had grown accustomed to it.
"They're practicing Earth Attribute Chakra Nature Transformation," Minato explained. "In simple terms, by altering the properties of chakra, we can enhance the power of corresponding Dōjutsu."
"So... you're just playing with mud?"
"Strictly speaking, it's about changing the composition and hardness of the soil!" Minato clarified. "The training is successful when I can instantly turn mud into rock, or rock into mud."
"Sounds incredibly impressive..." Nawaki flopped onto the tatami mat, looking like a lifeless fish. "But isn't this a bit beyond what Academy students should be practicing?"
"Hmm... It's a required course for Jonin."
Minato nodded hesitantly. Nawaki would find out eventually anyway.
Nawaki slumped further. "Jonin, huh... You're so far beyond my comprehension, you genius. I knew it was coming, but it still hits hard."
Minato smiled. "I won't compete with you for the Hokage position."
"So what?" Nawaki lay on his side, propping his head up with one hand while the other sprawled lazily. "With a prodigy like you around, who would ever choose me to be Hokage?"
"Don't put yourself down..." Minato offered an awkward smile, unsure how to encourage him. After a moment's thought, he carefully asked, "Nawaki, why do you want to become Hokage so badly?"
"Of course, to carry on my grandfather's legacy!"
At the mention of this, Nawaki's spirits instantly lifted. He sat up straight, his eyes sparkling with longing.
"I'm the grandson of the First Hokage who founded Konoha! Konoha is my grandfather's most precious treasure, so of course I have to protect it for him!"
"Is that so?" Minato smiled. "Well then, how about I teach you an amazing ninjutsu?"
"Ninjutsu?" A spark lit up in Nawaki's eyes, only to fade instantly. "Forget it. My grandfather is the First Hokage. How could I possibly lack ninjutsu? Besides, you're two years younger than me. Letting you teach me... would be too embarrassing."
Minato sighed regretfully. "What a waste of this handseal-less A-rank ninjutsu."
Thud!
With a dull thud, Nawaki collapsed heavily before Minato, performing a perfect dogeza—a formal prostration—his forehead pressed firmly against the tatami mat.
"I'm utterly ashamed of my earlier rudeness! Please, Lord Minato, teach me!"
"Hahaha, don't be like that..." Minato, torn between laughter and exasperation, hurriedly helped Nawaki up.
"So... what's the ninjutsu?" Nawaki gazed at Minato, his eyes wide with anticipation.
A-rank ninjutsu isn't uncommon.
Handseal-less ninjutsu isn't rare either.
But a handseal-less A-rank ninjutsu is exceedingly rare—so rare that he'd never even heard of one before.
"It's a technique I created myself," Minato said.
Nawaki's lips twitched. "Created... yourself? You developed a handseal-less A-rank ninjutsu at five years old?"
"It's a bit of an exaggeration, so I didn't even tell Teacher Tsunade," Minato said with an embarrassed smile. "With your Senju Clan's chakra reserves, this technique is actually quite suitable for you. Consider it my support for your Hokage dream! You can secretly practice it and surprise Teacher Tsunade later!"
"Ugh..."
Hearing this, Nawaki's eyes welled up with tears. "Minato, you..."
Click.
"I'm home!"
The door opened, and Tsunade's voice echoed from the entrance hall.
"Teacher's back. I'll teach you tomorrow!"
"Huh? No... no, wait!"
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