While four other shadow clones practiced fuinjutsu, this shadow clone disappeared and sent all its progress to the main body.
Of course, Natsuo didn't absorb them immediately since everything his shadow clone sent him was stored in his mind palace, where a partition of his thoughts reviewed it and decided whether it was important or could wait for later.
Since it wasn't that important, Natsuo continued with what he was doing, sleeping in class.
With each passing day, attending school became more and more boring.
But there was little Natsuo could do to escape this situation.
If he graduated, he would have to go on missions or work at the hospital. Neither option appealed to Natsuo.
Since Tsunade was his teacher and didn't have much time, Natsuo would have to join other teams if he decided to undertake missions. This was dangerous because anything could happen outside the village.
And if he didn't want to go out on missions, he'd have to work at the hospital, and that would take away valuable time he could be using for training. At his age, he should take advantage of this time when he was growing the most.
In any case, if she didn't want either of the two options, she could only continue attending the academy.
It was good that this year was about to end and I had a few months of vacation.
When the sound of the bells signaled that classes were over, Natsuo woke up and stretched while yawning.
Around him, the other students said nothing because it wasn't the first time this had happened and they were already used to it.
The teacher also said nothing after Natsuo answered all his questions and demonstrated that he knew everything about the classes.
Grabbing his things, Natsuo left the academy along with Kushina and Minato.
The blond boy was an addition from shortly after the middle of the year as he also began to live in the Senju complex.
Since Minato's master, Jiraiya, didn't spend much time in the village, the Third Hokage appeared one afternoon and asked that Minato live at the Senju compound and spend time with his friends.
Mito and Tsunade agreed, and now the blond boy spent his afternoons with them.
Upon arriving at the Senju compound, the 3 children had lunch before practicing Fuinjutsu under Mito's guidance.
Of course, afternoons like this were also used to assess other branches of the ninja way, such as Taijutsu and weapons skills.
In Mito's words, a ninja must be good at everything and have no weaknesses.
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.
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Minato felt a little unwell.
As he struck rapidly, his friend could only do his best to dodge.
Although he hadn't defeated him and felt he just needed a little more effort to do so, Minato didn't want to do it because he felt bad about what he was doing.
But remembering his master's words, Minato didn't want to lose either.
'If she falls in love with you, then it won't be your fault'
During this year, a red-haired girl arrived in her class and caught her attention.
Although nothing happened at first, Minato became attracted to the girl in the following months.
Her beautiful red hair and tomboyish behavior caught his attention, and Minato realized he had fallen in love.
But there was little Minato could do.
The red-haired girl was close to his friend and they were always together, so Minato didn't know what to do in his situation.
But miraculously, his master visited him at that moment and told him to move to the Senju compound. Since he wasn't in the village very often, he didn't want him to be alone and so helped him move.
Accompanied by the Third Hokage, Minato arrived at the Senju compound and there he found the girl he liked.
It turns out the girl was related to the First Hokage's wife and could now spend time near her.
Of course, his friend also spent time at the Senju compound, and seeing how close the two of them were, Minato felt guilty about his thoughts about the red-haired girl.
When her master visited her shortly after, which was rare since he returned to the village very often, she asked him for advice and Jiraiya told her that he would not be to blame if he proved to be superior and she fell in love with him.
As the top student of his year at the academy, Minato didn't need much to prove his superiority.
'And take care of Tsunade for me'
Of course, Jiraiya left him in charge of watching over Miss Tsunade, demonstrating the reason why he started returning to the village more often.
Shaking his head, Minato turned his attention back to the training fight, as he didn't want to lose due to an accident if he wasn't paying attention.
As he was deciding to increase his speed to win the fight, someone interrupted them.
"Fight seriously, you're holding back," said Mito, who was watching the training fight from the sidelines next to Kushina.
Hearing Mito's words and seeing Kushina by his side, Minato made up his mind and resolutely increased the speed of his movements.
His fists were aimed at his friend before his foot was also lifted as his friend managed to defend himself.
When he jumped back, dodging her foot, Minato moved forward to continue his attack.
Time and again, Minato struck with his fists and feet, moving at great speed, demonstrating why he was the rookie of the year.
But as time passed and she felt herself getting tired, Mito spoke again.
"Natsuo, I said fight seriously."
"You're hurting Minato by not fighting with all your strength."
Mito's words disconcerted him, and he quickly backed away.
Standing a few meters away from Natsuo, Minato saw him and found no sweat running down his friend's skin.
Unlike him, who had a few drops of sweat on his face after trying to hit him for several minutes at his maximum speed.
Seeing his friend and remembering Mrs. Mito's words, Minato realized that it was Natsuo who was holding back.
No matter how much or how he attacked, Natsuo was never hit. And remembering what happened at the academy, Natsuo could always defend himself and only lost when he 'accidentally' stepped out of the fighting circle.
"Natsuo, fight with all your might or you'll spend the next month practicing calligraphy," Mito said, and Minato saw Natsuo tremble before he looked at Minato and sighed.
In comparison to before, when Natsuo had a relaxed posture, now his posture made Minato feel a little threatened.
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.
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"Natsuo, fight with all your might or you'll spend the next month practicing calligraphy."
Hearing Mito's words, Natsuo could only sigh listlessly.
It was logical that a veteran ninja like her would notice something that the academy teachers ignored.
And although Natsuo didn't want to get serious against Minato, he also didn't want to spend the rest of the month practicing calligraphy.
And since he couldn't let a shadow clone do it for him, as Mito would notice, he could only do everything with his own hands, and he felt chills at the thought of spending the next month that way.
Sighing, Natsuo could only take a stance in front of Minato and use a little force.
In any case, Mito already knew that he was holding back, so showing only a little of his strength was reasonable.
Seeing that Minato was now looking at him with a very serious expression, Natsuo moved.
And suddenly, he appeared in front of Minato and punched him.
Minato opened his eyes in surprise when Natsuo appeared in front of him and quickly raised his arms to defend himself.
Bang!
Ignoring the slight pain in his arms, Minato had to react quickly as the blow had pushed his arms back and left his defense open.
Seeing that Natsuo raised his right leg, Minato did the same with his left leg, trying to stop the blow.
In addition to that, he planned to use the force of Natsuo's kick to propel himself backward and create space between the two of them.
Of course, things were not as they seemed, and Minato quickly realized that he had made a mistake by lifting one foot off the ground and putting his balance on his right leg.
Natsuo tricked him with a feint and ducked to the ground to sweep and hit his right leg.
¡Bang!
With a thud, Minato fell to the ground and opened his eyes to find Natsuo beside him with an outstretched hand.
Still surprised by what happened, Minato took her hand and stood up before the two of them approached Mito and Kushina.
While Mito had a look that indicated she was expecting this, Kushina and Minato still hadn't reacted to what had happened.
It was when Mito received both children that they recovered.