In the Naruto world, nobles and ninja basically had a relationship of divided labor and cooperation.
The former handled the economy, while the latter handled military affairs.
Nominally, the daimyo ranked higher and controlled matters like appointing the Kage, but in practice it depended on the situation. Generally speaking, the harsher a village's natural environment, the more dependent it was on its daimyo—unless it could find some new way to support itself.
Like Sunagakure's Gold Dust kekkei genkai.
But no matter the circumstances, ninja rarely took the initiative to target the noble class, even nobles from enemy countries. Because those people were not only potential patrons, but also held legitimacy and political authority. Unless you could guarantee it would never be traced back to you, once exposed, it would invite the wrath of the entire ninja world.
As a transmigrator from modern society, Mikami Yuu couldn't say he had any fondness for that class, but he didn't really hate them either.
After all…
For the ninja world, feudalism was already fairly advanced.
Compared to ninja as a whole—where nearly everyone seemed at least a little mentally unstable—the nobles certainly had their share of twisted, power-abusing people, but at least their level of education was generally higher, and they did engage in civil administration. If someone truly wanted to reform this world, the ninja system was the one that deserved the blade more.
"…Come on, let's go back and pack. Time to hit the road."
Mikami Yuu walked home with both hands behind his head.
…
This escort target was a family of four.
The head of the household was named Tachibana Masamune, supposedly some distant relative of the Fire Daimyo. This trip was meant to take his wife and two children to the neighboring Land of Tea to visit the Uesugi family—his brother-in-law's household.
At the start of the journey, the two children were a little intimidated by these "ninja-sama" wearing forehead protectors and carrying ninja gear. But as time passed, their stiffness faded, and they started curiously talking to Mikami Yuu and the others—especially Obito, whose intelligence level was closest to that of children.
"Hey, Ninja Big Brother, can you really breathe fire?"
The little boy clung to the carriage window and asked.
"Of course I can! It's called Great Fireball Jutsu! I'm super good at it!"
Obito proudly raised a thumbs-up, his eyes shining behind his goggles.
"Wow! Then can you make lots of copies of yourself?"
The little girl also leaned over, eyes wide and round.
"That's Clone Technique! Watch this!"
Obito formed hand seals at top speed. With a puff, two identical Obitos appeared beside him, both making exaggerated funny faces.
"Pretty awesome, right?!"
The two kids immediately burst into giggles, all their previous wariness gone. Obito, meanwhile, seemed like he'd found his stage and launched into a nonstop stream of fun stories about Konoha, with special emphasis on several of his own "great heroic deeds."
"…Obito-kun really is good at entertaining kids. Even though he was the one complaining the most at first."
Rin watched from behind and spoke softly.
Minato nodded. "Yeah. Obito may be rough around the edges and impulsive most of the time, but deep down he's a very kind child. If I have children in the future, I'm sure they'd get along with him very well."
"…"
Mikami Yuu thought, Well, obviously. Obito was the first person to hold Naruto. He might even be the one who held him the longest.
Right then, Mikami Yuu quickened his pace a little and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Minato.
"Minato-sensei, can I ask you something?"
"Hm? Go ahead, Yuu."
Minato turned his head slightly.
"Is there any way to train spatial balance and neural reaction speed?"
Mikami Yuu carefully organized his words. "Lately I've been developing a fighting style centered on Substitution Technique, mixed with Transformation Technique, Clone Technique, and even some illusion-like properties, to create the effect of multiple real bodies striking at once within a certain range. But after trying it, I ran into some problems…"
"…"
Minato glanced at him thoughtfully.
Of course, he had long since noticed that Mikami Yuu's "Substitution Technique" was different from other people's.
It was a little too much like Flying Thunder God.
And it was becoming more like it by the day.
Actually, if Mikami Yuu truly had the aptitude for space-time ninjutsu and an interest in it, then Minato wouldn't mind teaching him Flying Thunder God. After all, every additional person who mastered Flying Thunder God would become another safeguard for Konoha's future.
But it was still too early.
For one thing, Mikami Yuu was only a genin, and only nine years old, while Flying Thunder God was an S-rank forbidden technique. It demanded high chakra reserves, perceptive ability, observational skill, and more. In all the years since Konoha's founding, only two people had successfully mastered it, which said enough about its difficulty.
For another, Minato's team had only existed for two months. Mikami Yuu's temperament still needed more time to be observed.
Still,
the idea Yuu had just proposed did genuinely interest him, and reminded him of the technique he himself had been developing recently: Spiraling Flash Super Round Dance Howl Style Three.
"For spatial balance, fundamentals matter a lot."
Minato answered seriously. "You can try maintaining high-speed movement and jumping across all kinds of extreme terrain—cliffs, rushing rivers, swaying suspension bridges. You can also practice tree-climbing and water-walking under waterfalls, to get used to the disorienting effects of moving water.
"Once you're comfortable with that, you can try doing it blindfolded.
"Another, more extreme training method is to jump from high places and try to stabilize your body in the last few seconds before landing. That can greatly improve your instantaneous chakra control over your body. But it's very dangerous and absolutely requires full safety measures."
"As for neural response, that depends more on natural talent. If you want to train it after the fact, you can try things like high-speed moving-target drills or blocking dense volleys of shuriken, but those only help you dig out the potential already present. Once you hit a certain level, improvement becomes very difficult."
"If you want to break past that upper limit, there actually is one method—using chakra to forcibly stimulate and activate the cells and nervous system. Kumogakure has gone deeper into that line of research. Konoha tried to study it before too, but there didn't seem to be much progress.
"For the specifics, you can ask Tsunade-sama. If I remember correctly, she and Orochimaru-sama were the leads on that project."
"…Understood."
Mikami Yuu nodded.
Since this involved Tsunade, it became a little troublesome.
But not too troublesome.
Because he'd been getting along fairly well with Tsunade lately. Especially after Mikami Tajima returned to Konoha wounded, Mikami Yuu had gained another reason to be in contact with her. Their relationship still wasn't as close as that of true master and disciple, but finding a chance to probe the subject indirectly shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe it'd be better to wait until he passed the Advanced Medical Class exam before asking. The timing was close anyway.
"Then I'll start by working on balance training."
Mikami Yuu made up his mind.
At that moment, Minato spoke again.
"Oh, by the way, Yuu—have you come up with a name for this new technique you're developing?"
"…?"
"If not, I might be able to help. To be honest, I'm actually pretty good at that sort of thing."