"It has brown hair, a black pattern with the word 'king' on its forehead, and a red bow on its head. Haha, I finally caught you!!" As the sun set, Ishikawa caught the cat Tora, panting as he shouted with joy.
Although it was already afternoon and he had spent a lot of time and energy, he was still the first one to capture the target—Tora the cat.
One thousand ryo is in the pocket!!
Although Taro and Jiro had also done their best to search and narrow down the target's location, their physical strength, chakra, and chakra control were not as refined as Ishikawa's.
The continuous consumption had forced the two of them to stop and rest from time to time, so their overall speed naturally fell behind...
'Mitarai Ishikawa... with these ninja qualities, he's already at the level of an elite Genin. I didn't expect him to surprise me like this. I wonder how talented he is at learning ninjutsu. Has he already learned either of the two jutsu?'
From the shadows, Kakashi watched with surprise and satisfaction. With such ability and dual-attribute chakra, Ishikawa was already a genius among ordinary ninjas!
"Alright, you can go home and rest now. We'll meet at the usual place tomorrow." With a whoosh, Kakashi appeared and casually called out to Ishikawa.
"Teacher Kakashi..." Ishikawa wasn't surprised by Kakashi's sudden appearance. Since Kakashi had designed the challenge, he would definitely monitor their progress in secret.
Glancing up at the sky and recalling that he still needed to train at night, Ishikawa quickly set the cat down and prepared to leave.
But before that—
"One thousand ryo. Thank you for your guidance, teacher." Ishikawa stepped forward with both hands extended, staring at Kakashi with sparkling eyes and speaking directly.
'This kid… he can't wait until tomorrow??' Kakashi was so amused that a big "Well..." seemed to pop above his head, but he still reached into his pocket, pulled out a thousand ryo, and handed it over.
"Alright then, Taro and Jiro are in your hands now, Teacher!" After receiving the money, Ishikawa made a respectful gesture, then turned and headed home with a big grin on his face.
Anyway, Tora was already caught, and his two younger brothers were nearby. With Kakashi present, there was nothing to worry about.
"Damn it, my 1,000-ryo price..."
"That 300-ryo second-place prize is mine! Cat, don't you dare run!"
Moments later, the indignant cries of the two of them echoed through the woods, and the once calm atmosphere turned chaotic.
Nighttime — Time-Space Bedroom.
"Finally, I can get back to real business!" Glancing at the familiar space, Ishikawa looked around with bright eyes and immediately began preparing to practice Earth-style Wall.
But just as he was about to begin, he saw Nohara Rin forming hand seals. Ninjutsu: Shadow Clone Technique...
With a bang, a physical clone appeared beside Rin. Ishikawa's eyes widened in amazement.
'Shadow Clone! If I learn this, can I send a clone to secretly explore the Third Ninja World War? Since it's just a clone, I wouldn't need to worry about unexpected danger.' His breathing quickened as excitement burned in his chest.
"Um, Miss Rin, could you teach me the Shadow Clone Technique?" Ishikawa immediately stepped forward with a hopeful grin.
"You?" Rin blinked, then looked at him with a strange expression, half speechless.
"Ishikawa, with your chakra reserves, even practicing Earth-Style Wall is already pushing the limit. Why do you want to learn the Shadow Clone Technique, which splits your chakra in half?"
"Even for me, the shadow clone lasts less than five minutes. If it were you, you might not even last a full minute." As she said this, a faint sadness appeared in Nohara Rin's eyes.
She had underestimated the difficulty. It was just as Minato-sensei had warned—Shadow Clones were not very effective for her due to limited chakra reserves.
Five minutes? You can't do anything in that time!!
"Uh..." Hearing that he might not even last one minute, Ishikawa, as a man, couldn't bring himself to say 'I can.'
But with his mouth open, he couldn't refute that cold, hard truth. All he could do was give up on the Shadow Clone Technique for now, wearing a dejected expression.
It is true that Shadow Clone is an excellent auxiliary jutsu and a powerful training cheat.
But without Naruto's vast chakra reserves and Uzumaki physique, the Shadow Clone Technique is, frankly, a joke—no matter how good it sounds on paper.
In some ways, Shadow Clone is a jutsu that only the protagonist, like Naruto, can truly make full use of!
"Let's talk about it later. I'll focus on Earth-Style Wall first." Ishikawa smiled awkwardly, then turned and walked toward the inner wall door.
A one-minute shadow clone was far less valuable to him than fully mastering Earth-Style Wall. That should be his priority!
"Crack…" Once again, that tingling, sour, and refreshing sensation surged through every cell in his body, and Ishikawa collapsed straight onto the sofa.
Opposite him, Nohara Rin nodded toward her shadow clone, then reached out to touch the doorknob. The moment her fingers connected, she collapsed like she'd been electrocuted.
Almost instantly after Rin lost consciousness, her shadow clone gently caught her and laid her softly on the floor. Then—with a puff—it vanished in a cloud of white smoke!
Two minutes later, Nohara Rin slowly opened her eyes, and as her energy gradually returned, she sat up and began focusing the chakra into her right palm.
One hand raised in a claw-like shape, she concentrated on gathering chakra at her palm... Though she had experience with Mystical Palm Jutsu, that technique required hand seals to initiate.
While there might've been some similarity in chakra control, it offered little actual help here. Nohara Rin's cheeks turned red with effort. At last, a few weak chakra ripples formed at her palm—only to fizzle out almost immediately...
It was extremely difficult to condense a highly compressed chakra ball like the Rasengan that Minato Namikaze had mastered!
And all of this… was seen by Ishikawa, who lay slumped on the sofa.
'That's… Rasengan. How? Why is Nohara Rin practicing Rasengan too? Is this the Butterfly Effect...?' Ishikawa narrowed his eyes, heart stirred by a storm of emotion.
Based on the timeline, Kakashi would go on to develop Chidori at age 12, because he couldn't combine lightning chakra with the Rasengan. Instead, he created that A-rank Lightning Release technique by combining nature transformation and form manipulation.
Right now, Rin and the others were only 11. And yet… here she was, practicing the Rasengan.
But had Minato Namikaze really taught Rasengan to others at this stage?
"As expected, I still can't stabilize my chakra properly… This technique is too difficult for me."
Feeling her energy drain away, Nohara Rin looked down at her palm and sighed bitterly.
"It really is worthy of being an A-rank ninjutsu, one even Kakashi hasn't mastered yet..."
"If you want to train in the Rasengan… I can help you!"
Just as she was about to touch the doorknob again to restore her strength, Ishikawa's voice suddenly rang out, echoing sharply in her ears.
"Rasengan? You… you actually know about the Rasengan?" Nohara Rin instantly turned to him, shocked and suspicious.
Her eyes were full of disbelief. Ishikawa was just Kakashi's student. They didn't even share a particularly deep relationship. So how on earth could he know about a secret technique like Rasengan?
It didn't make sense!
"Flying Thunder God and Rasengan… Those are the signature moves that the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, used to become the Yellow Flash. As Kakashi's student, how could I not know about them?" Facing Rin's disbelief, Ishikawa calmed his heart and delivered the finishing blow with composure.
If he wanted Rin to truly learn Rasengan and gain a trump card to protect herself in the future… then he would need to take a risk.
Even if it meant making a bold claim.
"F-Fourth Hokage?! Minato-sensei… is the Fourth Hokage of Konoha?!"