Naruto was burning with impatience, desperate to know who he would be training under and what kind of ninjutsu he would learn.
Minato Namikaze flashed him a bright smile, a row of white teeth showing, and placed a hand on Naruto's head, rubbing his hair gently.
"I've developed a ninjutsu of my own," he said. "And I want to teach it to you."
"!!!"
Naruto was ecstatic. His big blue eyes didn't blink once as he stared at his dad.
Sasuke and Sakura couldn't help feeling a tiny bit jealous.
But that was Naruto's father, after all. Spoiling his son a little was only natural.
And having witnessed what happened at Naruto's birth, as well as the discrimination he endured growing up, it really did feel like he deserved this long-overdue compensation.
If there was still any lingering dissatisfaction, it was Sasuke's unresolved bitterness. Questions about the village, about his clan, about his parents, and about Itachi still had no answers.
"Dad! Are you going to teach me the Flying Thunder God Technique?!!" Naruto's eyes practically crackled with excitement.
Just imagining it made him giddy. Multiple Shadow Clones combined with Flying Thunder God! How cool would that be?!
The battlefield filled with nothing but his figures. Just picturing how awesome and elite he'd look! That idiot Sasuke wouldn't even be visible anymore!!
"..."
If one were to look at Minato Namikaze right now, his gaze was filled with pure resentment.
The sunny smile from a moment ago vanished, replaced by awkward gloom.
"The Flying Thunder God Technique was developed by the Second Hokage. Don't you want to learn your dad's Rasengan instead?"
"Rasengan?"
Naruto and the others paused, thinking back carefully…
"Could it be the ninjutsu the Fourth Hokage-sama used during the Nine-Tails incident to defeat the Masked Man?" Sakura suddenly exclaimed.
With her reminder, Naruto instantly recalled that terrifying technique that nearly crippled the Masked Man in a single blow.
"Really?! That was the Rasengan?!!" Naruto shouted excitedly. "And Dad made it himself?! That's amazing!!"
Minato Namikaze straightened his posture slightly and said with understated pride, "It's still an incomplete technique, but like Kakashi's Chidori, it can at least be classified as A-rank."
"A-rank!" Completely ignoring the words 'incomplete technique,' Naruto was overjoyed. "It's A-rank, just like Shadow Clones?! Then doesn't that mean I have two A-rank techniques now?!"
Minato thought to himself that if Naruto had learned Shadow Clone Jutsu from the Scroll of Seals, then it was almost certainly the S-rank forbidden technique, Multiple Shadow Clones, sealed inside by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
Thinking back to Naruto's earlier idea of combining Multiple Shadow Clones with Flying Thunder God, Minato couldn't help wondering if, in the future, Naruto might really pull off a combination of Multiple Shadow Clones and Rasengan.
If that ever happened, what kind of name would be worthy of such a flashy technique?
Seeing the conflicted look on his father's face, Naruto mistakenly assumed that Rasengan must be incredibly difficult to learn.
It could only be said that at this moment, Naruto had yet to experience his father's unique talent for naming techniques.
Too naive. Far too naive.
…
At the Hatake family estate, intensive training officially kicked into high gear. Minato Namikaze kept the promise he had made earlier. Although his primary focus was teaching his son, Naruto Uzumaki, he also frequently offered sharp insights to help Sasuke and Sakura break through bottlenecks in their training.
At the same time, he made sure to set aside at least one or two hours each day to spar with them.
...
On the other side, after meeting Orochimaru and parting ways with Minato, Jiraiya headed straight to the Hokage Tower.
As soon as he met the Third Hokage, Jiraiya reported both Naruto's SS-rank mission and the A-rank mission in full.
He took a deep drag from his cigarette and let out a heavy sigh. "So we've finally reached this point. If I hadn't sent him to keep an eye on Danzō back then, maybe things wouldn't have ended up like this."
Lowering his gaze, Jiraiya continued, "He's obsessed with mastering Senjutsu. So obsessed that he even developed a forbidden technique like Living Corpse Reincarnation, having others learn Senjutsu for him, then temporarily occupying their bodies through possession."
"That's why he set his sights on Sasuke and Itachi," the Third Hokage said calmly. "Not only does he covet Senjutsu, he's also after the Sharingan."
"What Minato and I can't wrap our heads around," Jiraiya said, "is why stopping you from being killed was only rated as an A-rank mission, while stopping Sasuke from receiving the cursed seal was rated SS-rank."
"There's nothing puzzling about it," the Third Hokage said with a chuckle. "I'm just a useless old man who's stayed in this position for far too long."
He took another drag from his cigarette and looked out through the glass window behind the Hokage's office, his gaze drifting toward the distant Hokage Rock.
There stood the stone faces of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage.
Ever since learning that the Masked Man possessed the Sharingan and might be the reincarnation of Madara Uchiha, or at the very least a descendant of the Uchiha clan, he had come to realize something. It seemed that Konoha and the Hokage were fated to remain entangled with the Uchiha clan until the very end.
"As for the SS-rank mission involving Sasuke," he continued, "there are only two possibilities that could warrant such a rating."
"First, Orochimaru uses a forbidden technique like Living Corpse Reincarnation to take over Sasuke's body, then uses it to unleash large-scale destruction upon the ninja world."
"And the second possibility is that Sasuke turns on Orochimaru, but due to certain circumstances, ends up standing on the opposite side of the world…"
No matter which outcome it was, neither he, nor Konoha, nor the entire ninja world wanted to see it happen.
Orochimaru had once been his most promising disciple.
If not for what happened back then, if not for the Second Shinobi World War, if not for the changes in Orochimaru and Tsunade, or Jiraiya's years spent wandering the world in search of the Child of the Prophecy, then above Minato, the position of Fourth Hokage should have belonged to one of those three.
And Sasuke…
No matter how one looked at it, it was ultimately Konoha and the Hokage who had failed the many ordinary members of the Uchiha clan who had once genuinely wanted to integrate into the village.
"In any case," Jiraiya said, "you'd better start increasing security, old man. Knowing Orochimaru, there's a good chance he'll make his move during the third round of the Chūnin Exams. You absolutely need a backup plan."
The Third Hokage smiled faintly. "Then how about using you as that backup? You're back now anyway."
"Huh?" Jiraiya played dumb. "I have no intention of becoming your personal bodyguard. But if Orochimaru dares to make a move, I won't let him get away with it."
"You know what I mean," the Third Hokage said, his expression suddenly turning serious. "The Minato of this era will eventually return to his own time. And your student, this world's Minato, sacrificed himself protecting Konoha after only a few years as Hokage."
"After this Chūnin Exam, I intend to hand over the position of Hokage to you, Jiraiya."
"You know I never wanted to be Hokage, old man."
"This has nothing to do with what you want. It's about responsibility."
"My responsibility is to find the Child of the Prophecy," Jiraiya shot back. "That's someone who'll bring change to the entire ninja world!"
"Decades have passed," the Third Hokage replied. "Have you found that person yet? This world's Minato was willing to believe that Naruto is the Child of the Prophecy. Why not try trusting Naruto yourself?"
At those words, sorrow crept into Jiraiya's eyes.
Back then, he had once believed he had found that person. Yet ten years ago, he heard news of their deaths. After more than a decade had passed, just as he had finally come to terms with the deaths of those three disciples, fate played another cruel joke on him. He was told that Konan and Yahiko were still alive, and that Yahiko had even obtained Nagato's Rinnegan, becoming Pain.
Something about it all felt wrong to Jiraiya, though he couldn't say exactly what.
According to Itachi, Pain's appearance was unquestionably Yahiko's, yet those eyes that belonged to Nagato still made him uneasy.
Was Pain… really Yahiko?
"I'm old, Jiraiya. I should have stepped down a long time ago."
"Alright, alright," Jiraiya said, digging a finger into his ear, clearly uninterested in the lecture. "Compared to me, isn't Tsunade a better fit? She's already back in Konoha. In a couple of days, Minato and I will go see her."
"And what about you?" the Third Hokage asked. "Still planning to wander the ninja world as some kind of bestselling novel writer?"
"Tch. What's wrong with writing novels?" Jiraiya shot back. "Don't tell me the girls we peeked at back then were fake! I'm making a great contribution to the spiritual well-being of the ninja world, you know!"
The Third Hokage was left speechless. He waved his hand, signaling Jiraiya to get lost as far away as possible. He was already irritated enough.
Just as Jiraiya was about to leave, Hiruzen Sarutobi called out to him again.
"Oh, right. We didn't deliberately hide the news about Minato's team. Have Asuma bring the others from their generation to meet up with them. It's a rare opportunity."
"Why are you telling me this?" Jiraiya clicked his tongue. "Do you think I'm your errand runner?"
The Third Hokage chuckled. "It's on your way anyway. Besides, among Kakashi's peers, there's a child named Anko Mitarashi."
"Orochimaru's disciple?"
Jiraiya and Tsunade had left the village earlier and weren't aware of this.
His gaze dimmed slightly. "After Nawaki died, once he finished training that team, he never took another student, did he? I thought he'd never accept disciples again."
Truth be told, having disciples die before their teacher was something he understood all too well. After Konan, Yahiko, Nagato, and Minato, he had experienced it himself.
Even if it wasn't explicitly forbidden, he suspected that, emotionally speaking, he would never truly take in another disciple again.
The Third Hokage tapped ash from his cigarette. "Although Anko was once Orochimaru's student, Orochimaru treated her more like an experiment. She bears his cursed seal. You and Minato can help check whether the sealing technique on it is still stable."
"What?!" Jiraiya exclaimed in shock. "That bastard would even do something like that to his own student…"
"In the end, it was my failure to guide all of you properly," the Third Hokage sighed. "At my age, even without Orochimaru, I probably don't have many years left. When I reach the Pure Land, I don't even know how I'll face the First Hokage and the Second Hokage."
"..."
Jiraiya was speechless.
Here he went again, playing the old man card.
If he didn't argue, the old man would never stop, and before he knew it, the conversation would circle back to forcing him to become Hokage.
But If he tried to argue, it would feel like he was being disrespectful to an elder.
"Fine, fine. I'll go talk to them," Jiraiya said at last, completely exasperated. He really didn't get it. The Hokage couldn't even communicate properly with his own son, yet insisted on using his disciple to pass messages. What kind of mentality was that?
In any case, when Jiraiya went to find Asuma Sarutobi—
Not long ago, after running into Rin Nohara at the Yamanaka flower shop together with Kurenai Yuhi, he had already informed most of their former classmates one by one.
The news of "seeing Rin Nohara and Obito Uchiha" had practically exploded among their generation of Academy graduates.
Although most of them were now capable jōnin or elite instructors who could stand on their own, the bonds forged during their Academy days and shared missions had never faded.
On top of that, there was word that Minato-sama, before becoming the Fourth Hokage, was also present. Those who had once carried out missions under the Yellow Flash or served as guards for the Fourth Hokage were so shocked they wanted to rush over immediately.
That previous experience of collective time travel felt like a dream to all of them, as if they had been caught in a genjutsu or watched a movie. It reignited their reverence for the Fourth Hokage, and—
If Naruto Uzumaki truly was the Fourth Hokage-sama's son, it also stirred the guilt they had buried deep in their hearts.