Konoha — Third Training Ground.
Hiruzen stood there with a half-smile, watching him, his fingers clamped tightly around the Flying Thunder God kunai.
Minato's expression shifted in shock, and in the blink of an eye, he teleported far away.
Hiruzen chuckled and released the kunai in his hand.
In the very next instant, a flash of golden light streaked through the air—Minato reappeared right in front of Hiruzen.
He had already assumed a slashing stance, ready to bring his strike down with full force!
It wasn't that Minato lacked respect for the Hokage, nor that he had lost his temper and was going all out in what should have been a simple spar.
This was Hiruzen's requirement.
For shinobi of his level—and Minato's—
If they didn't fight seriously during sparring, the benefits in terms of identifying weaknesses and improving themselves would be minimal…
Fighting with the mindset of real combat was also Hiruzen's own standard for himself.
As Hokage, handling administrative duties was only one aspect of his role.
His position also meant he couldn't act casually.
Every move the Hokage made externally was closely watched; even a slight misstep could trigger uncontrollable consequences, leaving him with few opportunities for real combat…
But internally, things were different.
Konoha valued inheritance.
As the head of the Hokage lineage, sparring with disciples, grand-disciples, and the village's promising talents was perfectly natural…
So, Hiruzen had a list in mind.
From it, he would randomly select a talented Konoha ninja—
For a lucky private one-on-one spar with the Hokage!
And the moment Minato had just teleported in—
Hiruzen formed a hand seal almost simultaneously with him, then brought his hands together.
A powerful pressure descended from above!
It felt as if a small mountain had been placed upon Minato's limbs and entire body. Having never experienced such a thing, Minato's chakra flow was instantly thrown into chaos.
A hint of amusement flickered through Hiruzen's eyes.
Hooked!
A Flying Thunder God user, bold by nature…
Invisible gravity was extremely difficult to detect. A field-type technique, if prepared in advance, could effectively ambush a Flying Thunder God user…
Over the past two months, Hiruzen had temporarily set aside the directionless work on Boil Release's form transformation.
Instead, he focused on refining Earth Release: Weighted Rock Technique.
That effort had borne fruit—he had successfully completed the framework into a fully functional technique.
Hiruzen had been using this move to temper his body for nearly a month now. Just as he had expected, it allowed him to develop his physical potential in multiple ways, distinct from the Lightning Release chakra mode.
As for combat—
Minato was the first to get a taste of it.
In a flash—
Hiruzen maintained one hand seal, while his other fist, even under the crushing pressure, still moved at considerable speed as it drove toward Minato.
'Flying Thunder God… has been countered!' Minato's heart jolted. As he stared at the incoming fist, his brain processed information at high speed, rapidly calculating a response.
'What kind of technique is this…' As the fist drew closer, a long-unfelt sense of pressure surged back within him.
A bottleneck that had long refused to budge—
Loosened in that very instant.
He could feel the Flying Thunder God mark again!
Even if he couldn't completely evade it, taking half a hit was far better than taking the full force…
Minato knew the Hokage wouldn't strike him with full power.
But to instill a sense of danger and prevent subconscious complacency, Hiruzen would still hit hard—just not to the point of killing or crippling him…
As long as he didn't die, he could always be sent to Tsunade and be restored to full vitality.
These days, even damaged internal organs could be dealt with—patched up with Earth Grudge Fear and then treated with medical ninjutsu. As long as it wasn't delayed too long, it wouldn't be a major problem…
Thinking of the pain, Minato clenched his teeth as his chakra finally began circulating again!
But at that exact moment—
The gravity field suddenly vanished.
Minato's eyes lit up with joy. He hurriedly tried to teleport away using Flying Thunder God—
Only to discover that after the gravity suppression was lifted, his body instead felt strangely weak, as if he had entered a state of weightlessness!
His bodily senses fell into disarray once more, and his chakra was disrupted again!
Hiruzen's body flashed with dazzling lightning. His fist loosened, thumb and middle finger snapping together—
Flick!
He struck Minato square on the forehead.
Minato felt the world spin. His mind buzzed, and his eyes rolled upward uncontrollably.
Hiruzen's forehead flick—dizzying, but brain-safe!
Minato immediately crouched down, raising both hands high as tears welled up in his eyes. He waved his arms weakly.
"Hokage-sama… let me catch my breath…"
If he had been facing anyone else, Minato might have tried to tough it out—after all, he was Konoha's top genius of the new generation.
But the person before him was the Hokage…
There was no need for that.
"Go ahead, rest. That must've hurt, didn't it?"
Hiruzen chuckled as he rubbed Minato's head, like adjusting a sunflower: "You have to remember that pain! Flying Thunder God isn't invincible. The ninja world is vast and full of strange techniques. If you rely too much on a single jutsu, sooner or later it will fail you…"
Hiruzen sighed.
"Even the Second Hokage possessed Flying Thunder God—but Kumogakure's Six Paths Treasures were no less formidable…"
"I let you feel pain now so you won't have to later."
"If something were to happen to you, it wouldn't just be me—many people would be heartbroken."
Minato froze for a moment.
A warm current seemed to flow through his heart as he nodded seriously.
"I understand, Hokage-sama!"
At that moment, Minato couldn't help but feel—
Some nicknames and jokes actually made sense.
People called him the Little Sun.
And some also called Hiruzen the Big Sun.
Even a Little Sun…
Could be warmed in front of a Big Sun.
"Being able to activate two successive Flying Thunder God jumps in such a short instant…"
"Minato, you've been hiding quite a bit. You must have prepared this for a long time to give me a surprise, right?"
Hiruzen said with a smile: "You're improving constantly. Facing such an outstanding young man like you, I feel both gratified—and under a lot of pressure…"
Minato's lips twitched.
He felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
The way he usually comforted less talented ninjas…
Was exactly how Hiruzen was comforting him now.
"Hokage-sama, are you trying to comfort me?"
Minato eyed Hiruzen suspiciously and muttered, "It feels kind of perfunctory…"
"See? You're overthinking again!" Hiruzen waved his hand.
"I'm already this old—how could I possibly make any breakthroughs? At most, I just serve as a whetstone for you, the future of Konoha, burning through my last embers."
"No breakthroughs, really… Hokage-sama?"
Minato said faintly: "You just caught my strike with your fingers. I won't even mention your physical strength—this clearly means your neural reaction speed has improved. And it even sped up mid-combat…"
"And that technique of yours—what was that? It felt very targeted against Flying Thunder God!"
Minato and the Hokage were already close. After sparring many times, their relationship had grown increasingly familiar, and they could even joke privately.
Minato was very happy about this.
Though he had the personality of a Little Sun and had been mature since childhood—both because of his exceptional talent and his natural disposition—
Being able to have a good relationship with the Hokage naturally lifted his spirits.
But more importantly—
In front of Hiruzen, Minato didn't need to maintain that maturity and composure.
He could let out the parts of his personality he usually kept hidden.
A touch of cunning.
A desire to complain and joke.
It made him feel relaxed.
After all, always being a perfect, flawless person…
Was exhausting.
Hearing this, Hiruzen burst into laughter.
"Well, since I've been your whetstone for so long, it's only natural that I'd gain something as well."
"You're practically my student. I may not be able to learn Flying Thunder God—but if you can use it, that's the same as me being able to use it… Why would I target you?"
There was some truth to that…
First, Hiruzen had used Earth Release: Weighted Rock Technique to form a gravity domain to temper his body.
Second, it wasn't mainly prepared for Minato—but rather to guard against the possibility of his teacher, Senju Tobirama, pulling something unexpected on him one day…
Minato just stared at him.
After a moment, he finally nodded, half-convinced.
During this period of sparring with Hiruzen—
If Flying Thunder God wasn't used, and only close combat was considered, the two of them were roughly equal in speed.
Overall, Minato had faster neural reaction speed, but slightly weaker physical explosiveness.
Hiruzen, on the other hand, had slower reactions but stronger explosive power.
So it balanced out to a draw.
Now that Hiruzen's dynamic vision and neural response had improved slightly, that balance had been broken.
The improvement wasn't huge—
But at their level, what mattered was precisely that tiny margin.
"Hokage-sama, today's spar really stimulated my nerves…"
"I can become even faster!"
Minato rubbed the swelling on his forehead and said with a grin, "Training with you really brings rapid improvement. Thanks to your constant guidance, otherwise I don't know how long I'd have been stuck…"
"When I train with Jiraiya-sensei, I don't get this effect. No wonder you were his sensei…" Minato muttered.
"That brat is working hard too!"
Hiruzen smiled. "He's training at Mount Myōboku while writing a book…"
It was worth mentioning that Jiraiya was having a hard time with his Sage Region Pills novel series…
He struggled for ages with his Tale of the Gutsy Ninja and simply couldn't fit that setting in.
So Hiruzen gave him an outline—
Borrowed from a novel he had read when he was younger.
"Next time, you won't be able to catch me!" Minato nodded solemnly.
If his teacher was working hard, then he had to work even harder.
Hiruzen gave Minato a thumbs-up: "Good. I look forward to you becoming faster and stronger! I love seeing young people full of vigor!"
As for his own recent improvement—
Hiruzen himself wasn't sure which "performance bonus" had been triggered this time…
Although he believed different "modules" corresponded to different aspects, it didn't always strictly follow that pattern.
After all this time, he had figured out some patterns.
His talent was like a bucket.
When one aspect grew too prominently, it would first compensate for the weaker areas—
Emphasizing all-around development.
Even the settlement cycle sometimes showed a certain delay.
After all, in his previous life, performance evaluations weren't settled daily—
They were usually calculated quarterly.
But that didn't really delay Hiruzen in any way. Under normal circumstances, he just had to keep training steadily until he reached full mastery, and when the breakthrough came, it would come…
Talent also needed time to be cashed in—it only required that he not slack off.
In Minato's case, it was basically the equivalent of Hiruzen's payday happening to arrive…
Exceptionally lucky!
'Though of course, it could also be that the sweat from all my hard work has finally paid off!'
'With all my insights, half a lifetime of ninja philosophy, my aptitude, and my wisdom, making a little progress is only natural…' Hiruzen joked to himself inwardly.
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