"You want to stay at your grandparents' house?"
That evening, after Father and Mother returned home, Minato told them of his intentions.
"That's fine too. Your grandfather and grandmother must miss you. With them cooking for you, you won't have to order takeout every day—that stuff's unhealthy, not as clean as home cooking," Mother said.
"Right." Although Minato knew she had a point, he still felt a headache coming on.
Minato had only moved from the countryside to the city starting in elementary school. His childhood was spent in Minami Town below Heiwa City, and he was quite familiar with the area.
He remembered there was a forest back home where the trees grew extremely dense and hard. Perhaps because this area had merged with a Special Zone in the past, the density of trees far exceeded what he remembered of ordinary thickets.
This was the location Minato had carefully selected for Eevee's special training.
Minato's proactively wanting to return to his grandparents' house was something Father and Mother were happy to see. The next day, Minato called his grandfather and grandmother to tell them about this.
Minami Town wasn't far from Heiwa City. It took an hour by car, while Minato and Eevee chose to take the bus. Though it took longer, it was just enough time for one movie.
Minami Town was one of six towns under Heiwa City. Urbanization had begun there last year, but it wasn't complete. Due to various factors, the project was halted not long after it started.
In the old house, Minato's grandfather and grandmother had already cleared out a room for him and little Eevee. Though somewhat simple, it was where he had lived since childhood, so Minato still felt quite at home.
And crucially, it lacked nothing—the internet was available, and air conditioning was available. It was almost no different from the city. After having a meal with his grandfather and grandmother, Minato spent the afternoon assembling the laptop he had brought from home. As for his and Eevee's daily necessities, plus Eevee's food and nutritional supplements, because there was too much to carry, he hadn't brought everything. He would have to make another trip back to get them later.
So, Minato planned to start special training with Eevee beginning tomorrow.
In the countryside, the elderly woke up relatively early. However, Minato indicated that he and Eevee were determined to train hard, so they woke up even earlier. The next day, when they got up, the entire Minami Town was still very quiet.
"Gurgle..."
Standing somewhat sleepily in front of the wash basin, brushing his teeth, Minato's eyes weren't even fully open. But little Eevee, sitting on the washing machine nearby, kept chirping at him, urging Minato to move faster.
"She definitely thinks 'special training' is as easy as 'watching movies,' 'amusement parks,' and 'building sandcastles.'"
Although Minato's eyes were still squinting, his mind was very clear. He knew Eevee still faced another difficult problem.
Persistence.
Even he himself had experienced many times where he planned the next period of time perfectly, imagined it beautifully, but behind beautiful goals lay efforts that most people couldn't persist in...
"What should I do... to get Eevee to voluntarily persist?" Minato thought to himself. "I don't know how much effect the hobbies I cultivated for her earlier will have."
Black Forest.
An undeveloped forest not far from Minami Town, named for its dark environment inside. Adults in town often used it to scare children: "If you don't behave, we'll throw you into the Black Forest to feed the bugs."
Some time ago, they had decided to build high-rises, e—a major project. There were no longer any Pokémon inhabiting it. Outside the forest was a large open area that Minato felt was a very good training venue. Perhaps because it was the countryside, such a good location had no Trainers coming to train their Pokémon. It was very quiet.
"Indeed, compared to such a remote, quiet little place, most people would probably prefer to train at public training grounds or training halls—those lively places."
Besides that, perhaps it was also related to this place being scheduled for deforestation. But since the construction crew hadn't started yet, Minato didn't mind using it first.
Use it for as long as possible.
"No wonder no one wants to come. The environment here is really oppressive."
"Eevee..." Sitting on Minato's shoulder, little Eevee began to panic. This forest looked gloomy and dark—it clearly wasn't a safe place...
"It's fine. I already scouted it while you were sleeping. There won't be any danger." Minato was relatively bold. Even though it was gloomy inside, he had already taken time to walk around the outer perimeter. Sure enough, just as the rumors said, there were no longer any creatures living here.
To facilitate the upcoming clearing, the trees inside the forest had already been sprayed with insecticide. Bug-type Pokémon naturally couldn't live here, and without Bug-types, Flying-type Pokémon wouldn't come to such barren places either.
Moreover, Pokémon permitted by the Trainer Association to inhabit human residential areas had almost no aggressiveness left.
So before official construction began, it was Minato's gain. He wanted to use these trees to train Eevee's physical stats.
And fortunately, it wasn't far from Minami Town's Pokémon Center. Minami Town didn't have a Trainer Association branch, but it did have a Pokémon Center. However, this Pokémon Center was much simpler than those in the city, both in equipment and function...
Medically, it was equivalent to a small clinic, only able to handle simple colds, wounds, and fatigue for Pokémon.
But for Minato and Eevee, that was enough.
In Black Forest, the dense tree trunks were the reason Minato chose it. Only such dense trees could better train Eevee.
This special training was named by Minato as the "Tree Stump Training Method"—simple and crude. It involved having Eevee explode with maximum speed to sprint back and forth.
First, train explosive power.
Second, train stamina through prolonged continuous exercise.
Third, train movement speed and reaction speed.
Fourth, train body coordination ability. The intricate, densely packed tree trunks were excellent obstacles.
Fifth, train body strength. As long as the speed was fast enough, colliding with trees was inevitable. The impact of the reaction force could also temper Eevee's will.
Minato had already explained the training content to Eevee in detail before coming. Regarding the "shuttle sprint training," Eevee looked down on it greatly.
The little creature thought it had no challenge whatsoever.
After Minato drew a line, this little one swaggered to the back of the line to prepare. In the dense forest, Minato had already tied a red string at a boundary line. When Eevee reached the red string, she could come back. The full distance was about 400 meters. Minato planned to gradually increase the distance.
Holding a broken watch he had found from who-knows-where, Minato used it casually. With his shout of "Start," Eevee burst out.
But...
When approaching the dense tree trunks, Minato could clearly feel that this little one retreated. To avoid hitting the trees, she subconsciously slowed down, giving herself plenty of time to judge before entering the dense forest. After entering, her speed became even slower... In this dense forest where every tree was close together, as long as she was willing to accelerate and run, a collision was inevitable, given Eevee's size. This was the best training location Minato had thought hard about. If used well, it wouldn't be inferior to professional training hall equipment.
After all, it could train multiple basic qualities simultaneously.
"This kid..." When Eevee returned, the total 400-meter distance, counting the time she spent avoiding the intricate obstacles, took 133 seconds total—over 2 minutes 13 seconds.
"Fail." As Eevee returned with lingering fear, Minato called out helplessly.
"This is still without using moves. If you can't accelerate through the whole course, you won't be able to control Quick Attack's speed at all. Rest for one minute, then we go again. This time I'll follow you to supervise."
Minato wasn't too anxious. He planned to let Eevee adapt for a few laps, training her stamina first.
However, the ultimate goal of this training method wasn't training stamina...