The Ninja Academy's training field was bustling with noise. A group of children of the proper age were undergoing the entrance test.
At first, the line was a chaotic mess, but very quickly, as usual, it split into three sections.
A small number were leading at the front, a large crowd was packed in the middle, and a little tail trailed behind at the back.
Tenten, Neji, and Lee were at the very front of the line.
Makoto stood in the crowd, watching the familiar scene, feeling as if he had returned to the time when he had first entered the Academy.
Back then, the ones running at the front of the line had been him, Shisui, and Yūgao.
In the blink of an eye, nine years had already passed. He had also lived in the shinobi world for a full fifteen years, going from an Academy student to a jōnin—and a semi-retired one at that.
Unlike the little brats below who were working so hard, becoming a ninja had never been his dream. For him, it had been more like something to try for the experience before running off once he had had his fun.
Rinne, standing beside him, smiled and said, "What's wrong, Makoto? Remembering when you entered the Academy?"
"Yeah, Rinne-nee. It feels like it happened yesterday."
"Cut it out. Don't make yourself sound so world-wide. How old are you?"
"Haha, maybe it's because what we've been through really is a bit too much for our age." Tetsuen joked, then looked toward the training field. "Tenten might actually place first in the test. As expected, she inherited my excellent genes."
Rinne said, "What does that have to do with a guy like you who has no ninja talent? Isn't it because her sensei taught her well?"
Tetsuen said, "Right, right. It's all thanks to Makoto. Our family can finally produce a genius ninja."
Makoto: "…"
That was Konohagakure for you. Every ordinary person, in their youth, had once carried a dream called "becoming a ninja."
Hyūga Hizashi, however, was not nearly as happy among the crowd.
He did not care whether Neji got first place. The more outstanding his son was, the more he felt he had wronged the child.
He only hated that, when they had been born back then, he had not outrun his elder brother.
...
After the entrance ceremony, Makoto returned once again to his happy life of being obsessed with training.
Ever since he had found his own path of training, he had no longer mentally worn himself out like those transmigrator seniors of his.
He no longer spent all day worrying that Madara might jump out of his coffin, or that Ōtsutsuki Kaguya might fall down from the moon, single-mindedly trying to stop Black Zetsu's plan because of it.
Makoto's current thinking was very simple: as long as he could keep getting stronger, there would be no problem. When the time came, whoever popped up would simply be beaten to death.
Time flew by amid his steady improvement.
In Konoha Year 57, another class of new students entered the Academy.
This time, it was finally Naruto and the others' turn—the batch of children born after the Third Shinobi World War.
All of the Konoha Nine were present. Oh, no—now it should be the Konoha Ten. Karin had also entered the Ninja Academy with them.
After they completed six years of study and graduated, they would begin their own shinobi chapters.
Unfortunately, because of Makoto's interference, the worldline was already destined not to develop the way he remembered. Many of those famous scenes from his memories would probably no longer be seen in the future.
Haruno Sakura might not even end up joining the legendary Team Seven.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, Karin had greater potential than her. She even came with a fast, life-saving medical attribute. No matter how one looked at it, she fit better with Naruto and Sasuke.
As for that, Makoto's thought was: what the hell does that have to do with me? That was something Minato, as the father, should be worrying about.
In any case, with him around, he would not let Haruno Sakura fall behind.
Whatever Tsunade knew, he knew too—and in a super-enhanced version at that. He guaranteed he could teach that girl Sakura properly.
Makoto was still quite principled as a person. He had no prejudice against Sakura.
...
July was scorching hot. After several years of cold periods, the shinobi world had entered a hot period again. Konohagakure's winters had no snow, and its summers were hot enough to kill.
When Makoto had called this place a little Westeros Continent before, he had not been saying it casually.
On the evening of the 17th, inside Minato's home.
After a little more than two and a half years of research, Makoto and Kushina had finally succeeded in fusing the Strength of a Hundred Seal and the Two Forms Seal together.
During this process, Minato had also offered quite a few suggestions. In any case, he was currently Konohagakure's third-ranked sealing master.
Fūinjutsu was the most mysterious and also the most complicated discipline in the shinobi world. This was especially true of sealing techniques applied to the human body, which involved even more things.
The fusion of two top-tier sealing techniques could not tolerate the slightest mistake. Even a single uneven rune could potentially lead to failure.
In the living room, Makoto and Minato quietly waited for the preliminary preparations.
This part had to be done by Kaori.
The function of the Strength of a Hundred Seal was to collect the chakra that a ninja naturally generated in daily life and then let dissipate—but how to collect it was a technical challenge in itself.
After being produced, that chakra would not automatically flow into the Strength of a Hundred Seal. Therefore, this sealing technique required that special chakra solution be used in advance to draw patterns across the surface of the body, linking the chakra pathways throughout.
These patterns were usually hidden and invisible to ordinary people.
They would only appear when releasing the chakra stored in the seal, or when using certain ninjutsu that worked in conjunction with the Strength of a Hundred Seal. For example, when Tsunade used the Hundred Healings Technique or Creation Rebirth, special markings would spread across her entire body.
Did Makoto not know how to draw them? Of course he did.
But the process required the other party to be unclothed, and it would also involve certain private areas.
He was already a grown man now, fully equipped for the job. No matter how magnanimous Minato was, there was no way he would let him go around drawing all over his wife's body.
In fact, even he himself had been kicked out.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Kushina already had a son in school and had a fiery personality—when it came to certain things, she was still quite shy and unwilling to strike strange poses in front of her husband.
Fortunately, Kaori's sealing technique was now quite advanced as well, so she had been successfully roped in as forced labor.
After quite a while, Kaori called out from the bedroom, "Alright, you can come in now."
The two of them went in to take a look. Kushina was lying on the bed, already dressed, with only her fair abdomen exposed.
Her entire body was covered in snake-like runic patterns, like tattoos coiling around her.
Not only did it not look bad—it even carried a strange, mysterious kind of beauty.
Kushina snapped, "Hey! You two idiots, have you seen enough? Never seen a woman before?"
Minato: Only ever seen you. Haven't gotten tired of it even after all these years.
Makoto: Not in this life. In the last one, though, I did.
Under pressure from his wife, Minato averted his gaze. "Makoto, I'll leave it to you."
"Don't worry. Even if it fails, it's fine. At worst we'll just redraw it—it won't be dangerous."
After replying, Makoto raised his right hand and opened his palm. Tangible chakra surged up from it, clearly divided into black and white, condensing into the improved pattern of the Two Forms Seal.
The yin–yang symbol in the inner circle slowly rotated, as if it had come alive.
Then he placed his left hand over Kushina's lower abdomen and instantly released the old version of the Two Forms Seal.
As the seal was undone, Kushina's brows knit slightly.
She once again felt the drain of her life force—but not as quickly as it had been on the night of the Nine-Tails incident.
Over the past nearly six years, the Two Forms Seal had more or less helped regulate the yin–yang balance within her body. Even if it were left alone now, she could still keep going for quite a few days.
Fortunately, Makoto had no hobby of killing his own teacher. His right hand quickly pressed down onto her abdomen, engraving the brand-new seal onto Kushina.
But it wasn't over yet. This time, it wasn't just about resealing—it also had to be connected with another one.
Makoto did not lift his hand. Instead, he carefully adjusted the angles of the outer runes of the Two Forms Seal, and at a certain moment, guided them to align and interlock seamlessly with the patterns extending from the Strength of a Hundred Seal, forming a unified whole.
As the seal was completed, the Two Forms Seal sank beneath the skin. Even the patterns of the Strength of a Hundred Seal across her body rapidly contracted, finally returning to her forehead and condensing into a diamond-shaped mark.
Only then did Kushina finally let out a long breath of relief. She suddenly sat up straight, moving her arms and feeling the comfort spreading through her body.
Makoto said, "Mission accomplished. It worked."
Minato asked, "Kushina, how do you feel?"
"Great! I can't feel any loss of life force at all anymore. I finally feel like a normal person again. I'm gonna live to a hundred, dattebane!"
Makoto said, "No problem, sensei. With the added effect of the Strength of a Hundred Seal, you'll be a hundred-year-old maiden."
"Don't try to fool me. The Strength of a Hundred Seal isn't that magical. Granny Mito still aged in her later years."
"Oh, then that's great. Minato-senpai's progress in senjutsu training is pretty good. By then, he'll probably still be a charming middle-aged man. It doesn't matter if you grow old—he can just find himself a younger wife."
Minato: "…"
Whether he could live as long as the sages of Mount Myōboku, he didn't know—but he felt that if things went wrong, he might not make it through tonight.
Kushina said, "Is that true, Minato?"
"I'm not, I didn't, don't listen to Makoto's nonsense."
"I don't care. Don't even think about leaving me to marry some younger woman. Starting tomorrow, I'm training too."
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