On the way home.
"Jinzō, why do you look so pissed off?" Minato tilted his head, genuinely curious.
Well, it was hard not to notice when someone slaps the table, storms out of class, and looks ready to strangle the next guy who breathes too loudly.
Even Satoru Inoue, the class clown, had been stunned.
"I'm fine. Just… surprised I'm graduating early." Jinzō shrugged.
On his face: a pleasant little smile.In his head: MMP.
"Really?" Minato wasn't buying it. That smile looked way too sarcastic to be genuine. He glanced at Jinzō, then wisely decided not to press further when the Uchiha didn't elaborate.
Instead, Minato muttered, "I wonder if we'll end up on the same team."
Kushina immediately jumped in. "Ohhh, I hope so!"
Jinzō only shrugged again. Honestly, he wasn't holding his breath. He was still an Uchiha — the clan everyone loved to hate — and even within the clan, he was a nobody. Too bad he couldn't change his surname.
Still… if it did happen, teaming up with Kushina would be the safest bet. A jinchūriki in the early years wasn't in danger inside Konoha, and teammates of the Nine-Tails host were basically untouchable.
For now. He knew eventually things would change. But by then, he'd be stronger.
"By the way," Minato piped up again, "have you heard? A bunch of shinobi have been disappearing lately."
His voice dropped. He'd noticed it around his own neighborhood — vanishing adults, families crying at night.
"That has nothing to do with us," Jinzō cut him off.
But deep down, he already knew. This is the Hashirama Cell experiments…
That stain on Hiruzen Sarutobi's record — the one history would never scrub clean. Countless test subjects disappearing into Danzo's research labs, all in the name of "Konoha's future."
And the reason Academy graduation had been pushed forward. More kids pushed to the frontlines, to plug the manpower gap created by those lost experiments.
"That old bastard…" Jinzō muttered under his breath, grinding his teeth.
"What?" Minato blinked.
"Nothing." Jinzō shook his head quickly. No point dumping this on them.
"Wait, look!" Kushina suddenly jabbed her finger toward a tree. A man was lurking there, peeking at something.
Right next to… the women's bathhouse.
Jinzō's forehead twitched. He didn't even need to check. There was only one idiot in all of Konoha who'd pull this stunt.
Jiraiya.
"There's a PERVERT!!" Kushina roared, vanishing in a flash.
Wham!
The next thing anyone knew, Jiraiya was screaming, kicked straight through the wall and into the women's bath itself.
"AHHHH!!""SOMEONE'S IN HERE!!""IT'S THAT DAMN JIRAIYA AGAIN!!"
Fireballs immediately roared to life. Half the women inside were kunoichi. One particularly angry voice screamed:
"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!"
A massive ball of flame punted Jiraiya straight back out. He landed in front of Minato and Jinzō, smoking.
The two boys exchanged a look.
"…He's dead.""Yep. Let's bury him."
They started to move.
"W-Wait!!" Jiraiya wheezed, half his hair burned off, clothes in tatters. "I—I can still… survive!"
But Kushina was far from done. Red hair whipping like octopus tentacles, chakra glowing faintly gold, she stomped forward like some wrathful witch.
"You disgusting old perv!!"
BOOM!
Her fist smashed his skull into the ground, leaving a cartoonish lump. Jiraiya passed out cold.
By the time he woke up, he was tied to a tree with rope, trussed up like an animal.
In front of him, Minato, Jinzō, and Kushina cracked their knuckles, glaring.
"Wait, wait! I'm not a pervert!" Jiraiya panicked. "I was researching! For my—my novel! Do you brats get it?!"
"Researching… in the women's bath?" Kushina raised an eyebrow. "Unforgivable."
"I'm destined to become a famous novelist!" Jiraiya announced proudly, despite his sorry state.
"Famous? My fist will make you famous!" Kushina lunged.
Minato grabbed her arms just in time. "Kushina! He's still a jōnin."
Jiraiya straightened, masking his panic with faux seriousness. "Exactly. You know my rank, yet you still tie me up. Aren't you kids taking this too far?"
Jinzō just leaned in with a smirk. "Funny, Jiraiya-sama. If we all know your identity… why do you think we still haven't let you go?"
That smirk screamed blackmail.
Jiraiya froze. Oh. This brat was dangerous.
"…What do you want?" he asked cautiously.
"Eh." Jinzō rubbed his chin, unimpressed. "You're not even worth blackmailing. Your toads? Meh. Your intel? Boring. Honestly, you're useless."
The disgust in his eyes stung worse than Kushina's punch.
"HEY! What's with that look?!" Jiraiya roared, indignant. I'm a legendary ninja, damn it!
Jinzō ignored him and muttered to Minato instead, "We should just dump him at the Police Force."
Jiraiya went pale. "Wait, wait, WAIT! Not the Police! I'll—I'll teach you ninjutsu!"
Kushina and Minato traded looks. Minato hesitated, tempted for half a second. But before he could speak—
POOF!
A substitution log.
"He's gone," Jinzō snorted.
"Coward," Kushina muttered, fists trembling. "I hate filthy adults like that."
Minato scratched the back of his head. "…At least he didn't actually do anything."
Hokage's Office.
Sarutobi Hiruzen puffed his pipe, staring at reports that made his blood pressure spike. Sunagakure and Iwagakure were clearly probing Fire Country's borders, clashes erupting every few days. The nobles were screaming about territorial losses. Even the daimyo had stormed into his office demanding answers.
With a puff of smoke, Jiraiya appeared before the desk — half-charred, twitching.
"You've made contact?" Hiruzen asked, eyes still on the paperwork.
Jiraiya's mouth twitched. He stared at the ceiling. "…Let's call it contact."
Finally, Hiruzen glanced up, brows lifting at the sight of Jiraiya's fried hair and missing clothes. "…Were you attacked?"
"…No," Jiraiya muttered. More like karma.
Hiruzen sighed deeply. This disciple of his… always a headache.
He changed the subject. "Well? What do you think of them?"
Jiraiya scowled. "Those three brats are monsters. Minato, Kushina… and that Uchiha kid, Jinzō. Especially him. He's dangerous."
He ticked them off grimly: "A natural genius, a taijutsu freak, and a jinchūriki. And Jinzō? He's hiding more than he lets on."
Hiruzen leaned back, exhaling smoke. Yes… these three were the future of the village.
Minato, the civilian genius.
Kushina, the Nine-Tails' vessel.
Uchiha Jinzō, the heir of the clan's pride.
Three pillars, three paths.
But Jiraiya wasn't done. His tone darkened. "Old man, are you seriously planning to send the jinchūriki on missions? She's still just a kid. If the fox ever goes wild—"
"Kushina has been stable for months," Hiruzen interrupted. "Not a flicker of Nine-Tails' chakra. If this continues for half a year, she'll be cleared for missions."
Jiraiya gritted his teeth. "You're treating her like a weapon. She's not expendable."
The Third Hokage closed his eyes. For once, he didn't argue.