"Your combat experience is really too poor; you could have won."
The group gathered, and Kakashi was helping them review the recent battle.
Obito immediately protested loudly, "What? You're saying I would lose?"
He was as noisy as ever, and it seemed that what had happened earlier hadn't affected him much.
In truth, Obito knew very well that Rin Nohara had no other thoughts about Toki; she was simply kind, and that applied to everyone. If he had been the one lying there, Rin would have still come over and offered her hand.
It was just… he wondered if Toki would now have thoughts about Rin.
Thinking of this, Obito couldn't help but glance at Toki, but his attention was entirely focused on the battle they had just discussed.
"Hmm… Kakashi, if I could have won, then there must be something I did better than Obito, but I can't figure it out."
Kakashi spread his hands slightly: "At the very beginning of the fight, facing Obito's sudden punch, at least sixty percent of the people in this class wouldn't have reacted in time. Another thirty percent could have blocked it, and at most ten percent could have dodged and counterattacked."
Toki suddenly understood: "I see, it's my reaction speed and quickness that are more outstanding."
Kakashi continued, "Exactly. As long as you can dodge all of Obito's attacks, you'll eventually wait until he reveals an opening, and victory will naturally be yours."
Their analysis was logical, but Obito couldn't accept it: "There's no way you can dodge all my attacks. Even if your reaction speed is fast, I'll always land a hit. Wasn't the previous battle enough to prove that?"
"That's the difference in combat experience." Kakashi rolled his eyes at Obito. "If you two had equal combat experience, then Toki would definitely win, unless you could keep up with his speed."
"Tch!"
Obito crossed his arms and was silent for a moment, then pointed at his eye and said, "If I could awaken my Sharingan, then… not to mention Toki, even you, Kakashi, would lose to me."
Sharingan.
Hearing this term, Toki subconsciously looked at Obito's eyes.
One of the Three Great Dojutsu of the Ninja World, possessing abilities such as observation, copying, and hypnosis. A saying circulated in the Ninja World: when fighting a Uchiha who has awakened the Sharingan, it requires at least two against one. In other words, it's almost impossible for anyone to single-handedly fight a Uchiha with an awakened Sharingan.
Of course, Senju Hashirama was an exception.
The power of the Sharingan was undeniable. Faced with Obito's provocation, even Kakashi didn't dare to guarantee a definite win.
Kakashi turned to look at Toki: "Don't mind that idiot Obito. I'll spar with you for a bit and teach you how to fight."
"Okay, thank you." Toki didn't stand on ceremony, simply silently noting this favor in his heart.
Kakashi walked and said, "When fighting, don't be too focused. You need to be aware of your surroundings. Just now, you focused all your attention on Obito's hands and ignored his leg movements. Once he awakens his Sharingan, you'll also need to pay attention to his eyes and be careful of genjutsu…"
"I remember the Sharingan can also enhance one's observation skills."
"That's right."
"That's just cheating."
"You're not the only one who thinks so."
…
With Kakashi's help, Toki quickly mastered basic combat techniques, focusing on training his observation skills, speed, and reaction time.
Even during his afternoon training with Kushina, he would allocate attention to gather information from his surroundings. No matter how tedious or boring it was, he gritted his teeth and persevered.
Gradually, Toki discovered an unexpected situation.
The training ground wasn't his alone; many people trained there. Among them, a blond youth always wandered around, almost like a constantly respawning NPC.
Toki initially thought it was a coincidence, but after observing more, he realized that this person would always appear shortly after he arrived at the training ground, and his gaze was always intentionally or unintentionally fixed on Kushina.
As for when the blond youth left… Toki didn't know; he always went home dizzy every day.
And observing his gaze, Toki believed he must know Kushina, but for some reason, he never approached her to talk.
Today, Toki began to pay attention to his surroundings as soon as he arrived at the training ground.
As usual, he had only run one lap around the training ground when the NPC respawned.
The blond youth naturally ran up to him and said with a smile, "Hello, I'm Minato Namikaze."
"I'm Uzumaki Toki," Toki replied.
"I've been observing you for a while. You're intentionally training your speed and reaction time, aren't you?" Minato Namikaze continued.
Indeed, Minato Namikaze had been observing him for a long time, even before Toki noticed him.
Toki nodded with a strange expression.
Minato noticed the wariness in his eyes and explained, "You don't need to be too wary of me. I'm Kushina's classmate."
There was no mistake, word for word, in every single detail!
"But I haven't heard that you were a member of Jushinnai-jie jie's Genin team."
In Konoha, students would become Genin after graduating from the Ninja School. Every three Genin would form a Genin team, led by a Jonin or Special Jonin, until the Genin were promoted to Chunin.
But Kushina was an exception; she didn't join a Genin team. Toki was intentionally providing false information.
"It was a Ninja School class. I know she didn't join a Genin team; you don't need to test me."
Minato still wore a gentle smile, trying his best to make Toki believe he had no ill intentions. But no one would feel good about someone who had been staring at them for so long, and Toki was no exception.
"Since you know each other, why do you never actively greet Jushinnai-jie jie?"
This question seemed to hit a sore spot for him. Minato's expression instantly became much more dejected: "Hmm… For some reason, she doesn't think highly of me."
He spoke pitifully, but Toki, remembering how long he had been stared at, still couldn't muster any good feelings: "There's a reason she doesn't like you."
"I'm very sorry," Minato also knew he was in the wrong. "As compensation, I can teach you a Body Flicker Technique."
"Body Flicker Technique?" Toki immediately turned to look at him.
Although he was at fault first, as long as the compensation was sufficient, he wasn't unforgivable.
Minato continued, "Body Flicker Technique is a rather broad concept. Any technique that achieves instantaneous movement through different methods can be called Body Flicker Technique."
"And what I'm going to teach you is a type of Body Flicker Technique that involves a short burst of Chakra to increase one's speed."
Toki frowned slightly, deliberately pausing for a moment before continuing, "A method for bursting Chakra, I remember Lady Tsunade also wanted to teach me this."
Minato seemed a little troubled: "Lady Tsunade is indeed proficient in methods for bursting Chakra, but it leans more towards a burst of strength. As for speed… I'm not entirely sure. How about I teach you another Ninjutsu? What's your Chakra nature?"
Wait!
Toki's eyes widened suddenly, but quickly returned to normal.
'Lady Tsunade really does know how to burst Chakra. I was just trying to get a little extra, but I hit the mark by accident…'
"I've never tested my Chakra nature," Toki answered truthfully.
Minato didn't notice his change in expression just now: "In that case, you continue training. I'll go buy a Chakra paper and be right back."