Chapter 182: The Final Farewell
Minato Namikaze's natural aptitude for Space-Time Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu was staggering. Stelle dumped a mountain of foundational scrolls and complex sealing diagrams onto his lap, ensuring his theoretical knowledge matched his practical skills. Naturally, she didn't let his Taijutsu slack off either.
Under her brutal, high-intensity regimen, the young blond spent his days battered, bruised, and utterly exhausted. A normal kid with slightly weaker willpower would have thrown in the towel, sobbing for their mother by day two.
But Minato truly lived up to his future legacy. The boy who would one day rise from a mere commoner to the seat of Hokage gritted his teeth and endured the hellish gauntlet. Watching him pick himself up off the dirt time and time again, even Stelle had to admit she was impressed.
She had survived Uchiha Madara's sadistic, hell-mode training solely because she was a blatant cheater with a system. Minato, on the other hand, was pushing through on pure, unadulterated perseverance and raw talent. If that wasn't impressive, nothing was.
"Minato, you're truly remarkable," Stelle praised, her tone carrying a rare note of genuine warmth. "You're destined to become a massive pillar for Konoha in the future."
Caught completely off guard by the sudden affirmation from his usually demanding master, the boy's face flushed a bright, embarrassed tomato red. He rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling nervously. "Master, I'm really not as amazing as you make it sound..."
"Don't sell yourself short!" Stelle beamed at him. Then, in the blink of an eye, her warm smile vanished, replaced by a terrifying, demonic scowl. "Is your training finished? What are you doing standing around daydreaming?! If you dawdle for one more second, I'm going to chase you across the training grounds with three Great Fire Dragons!"
Minato froze, a drop of cold sweat sliding down his temple. It's an absolute miracle the Fourth Hokage wasn't beaten to death by the Second Hokage back in the day, he thought wildly as he scrambled back to his feet. Regardless of her past, he was very certain he was about to be beaten to death right now.
When an already brilliant prodigy is subjected to systematic, hellish refinement, the results are explosive. Within weeks, Minato's reaction speed, precise chakra control, and hand-seal execution speed skyrocketed. He left his peers eating dust, cementing himself as the absolute pinnacle of his generation.
The grueling routine broke one afternoon when an ANBU courier delivered an urgent, highly encrypted intelligence scroll. It was dispatched directly from Sakumo Hatake on the Land of Wind front.
Stelle unrolled the parchment, her eyes scanning the coded text. Her brows furrowed. The contents were... strange.
Sakumo reported that he was steadily pushing Chiyo's forces into a desperate retreat. During a raid, his unit had intercepted an internal dispatch belonging to the Four Nations Alliance. The intercepted intel detailed the situation on the Land of Lightning battlefield. It claimed that Konoha's frontline commander, Uchiha Kagami, had severely overused his Mangekyo Sharingan. The backlash had allegedly left him blind in one eye, drastically crippling his combat strength and trapping his forces in a bitter, losing struggle.
Stelle stared at the scroll, her expression deadpan.
Right. I totally would have believed that... if I hadn't literally just pumped Kagami full of Hashirama cells.
Even if someone beat Black Zetsu to a pulp, the shadowy manipulator would never in his wildest dreams guess that she had a private stash of the First Hokage's miraculous cells. The original battle report intercepted by Sakumo definitely didn't say this. Black Zetsu must have possessed or mind-controlled the alliance's intelligence personnel to deliberately alter the documents before they were "conveniently" captured.
It seemed the aloe-vera mastermind had prepared multiple contingencies. After her 'Mie' persona had successfully drained a significant portion of her main body's strength, the next phase of his grand scheme was kicking into gear.
Plan A had used the heavily fortified Karaku Village, the rampaging Seven-Tails, and a coordinated strike with the Rinnegan. That had ended in a spectacular, staged draw. Right now, to the outside world, she was heavily injured and recovering—exactly like Mie. When Mie returned to the shadows, he would naturally be wrapped in bloody bandages, putting on a perfect show for Zetsu.
Seeing his target supposedly weakened, Black Zetsu clearly felt the time was ripe to launch Plan B.
Stelle had to give the parasite some credit; he had actually improved. Losing the Rinnegan hadn't made him reckless; it had made him colder, more calculating, and infinitely more insidious. He was actively hijacking the very exit strategy she had carefully arranged for her 'Kazushi' alias, twisting it into an even grander, inescapable death trap meant to bury her for good.
Repeatedly infiltrating the highly secure intelligence networks of multiple hidden villages just to orchestrate her assassination... the sheer effort was almost flattering.
A wicked, thoroughly shameless smirk tugged at the corners of Stelle's mouth. It looks like I'm about to harvest an absolute mountain of mood values from my favorite Top Donor again.
There hadn't been any official battle reports from the Land of Lightning for the past two days. That silence could be attributed to standard wartime delays, or the fact that setting up a trap of this magnitude required massive troop deployments.
Standing across her desk, Nara Kajisuke analyzed the situation with a deep frown. He proposed dispatching Hiruzen Sarutobi to reinforce the Lightning front. Meanwhile, on the Land of Earth battlefield, Tsunade's trio could hold the line temporarily. With the elite vanguards of the Senju Clan backing them up, Kajisuke argued that the crisis could be safely mitigated.
Stelle firmly shot the idea down.
Are you kidding me? Right now, the Land of Lightning was a meat grinder designed specifically for her. Anyone else who stepped foot into that ambush would be slaughtered—a complete, merciless total party wipe. Only by going personally could she shatter the trap and safely evacuate the Konoha forces pinned on that front.
The absolute best elites of the entire Uchiha Clan were stationed there. How could she possibly sit back and let them be massacred? She had poured sake over the graves of Izuna and Madara, swearing an oath to look after their clan. She wasn't about to break it now.
"But Lord Hokage, your injuries..." Kajisuke protested, his voice laced with deep concern as he tried to reason with her.
"I'm fine now," Stelle replied, her tone leaving no room for argument.
As shamelessly easy-going and lazy as the Fourth Hokage usually appeared, whenever she made a concrete decision, she transformed into an immovable mountain. Her presence flared with a forceful, commanding aura that instantly silenced any further objections.
Seeing the absolute resolve in her eyes, Kajisuke swallowed his words and nodded. He quickly ran the tactical calculations in his head. At her absolute peak, the Fourth Hokage had the monstrous power to suppress four Kages simultaneously. Even if she wasn't in top form right now, handling a brute like the Third Raikage and the rampaging Eight-Tails shouldn't be an impossible problem. Plus, she would have the full backing of the Uchiha elites once she arrived.
Rationalizing the odds, the Nara strategist finally felt his tense shoulders relax.
Stelle rolled the intelligence scroll back up and tossed it onto the desk. "Kajisuke, I'm leaving the village's daily operations in your hands. Koharu is managing the supply lines; keep a very close eye on her department. You must ensure the frontline logistics flow without interruption. I will not accept a single mistake."
Late that night, the Hokage's residence was quiet, save for the scratching of a quill. Stelle stayed up well past midnight, burning through several candles as she drafted an exhaustively detailed, multi-year training regimen for Minato.
He was already a legendary grassroots genius, but since the boy had formally taken her as his master, how could she possibly let his future play out exactly as it did in the original canon? Where was the fun in that?
To ensure his survival, she documented dozens of her own self-created Fuinjutsu. Each one was infinitely more practical—and far less suicidal—than the Reaper Death Seal.
Seriously, why sacrifice your soul to the Shinigami just to fight a Tailed Beast? It was a terrible trade. All Minato had to do was have Kushina lock the massive beast down with her Adamantine Sealing Chains, and then slap a super-powered, chakra-severing seal right on its snout. If a Tailed Beast couldn't even gather energy to fire a Tailed Beast Ball, it was just a giant, oversized pet. What was there to worry about?
She also packed the box with highly classified research notes on the Flying Thunder God technique. These notes contained the combined genius of Senju Tobirama and her own 'Senju Mutsuki' alias. She even slipped in advanced spatial theories, detailing the mechanics for techniques like the Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder.
To avoid any future suspicion, she had carefully forged all the documents in Tobirama's exact handwriting. If anyone asked, it was the Second Hokage's secret legacy. It had absolutely nothing to do with her.
With Minato's terrifying level of comprehension, he would undoubtedly master the Flying Thunder God Level 2 years ahead of schedule. Armed with an arsenal of defensive Fuinjutsu and a massive library of Forbidden Techniques to study, his foundation would be unshakable. She also included a personalized analysis of his elemental affinities and cultivation path. If he used all this to invent his own original Ninjutsu, his future would be blindingly bright.
Most, thanks to her earlier meddling, the Nine-Tails was already on relatively friendly terms with the boy. In the future, if Minato ever encountered an enemy he couldn't handle with speed alone, tapping into the Golden Chakra Mode would be a matter of seconds.
, she had included the blueprints for her signature Big Dipper Sealing Array. It was a notoriously chakra-taxing formation, but as long as Minato could access the Nine-Tails' vast reserves, powering the grand array would be a walk in the park.
Satisfied with her work, she closed the heavy lid of the oversized wooden chest and locked it down with a series of complex, layered sealing formulas.
Just as she finished, the elite ANBU guards Kajisuke had arranged arrived in the courtyard outside. The faint clatter of their gear echoed through the quiet house. Hearing the commotion, a groggy, pajama-clad Minato shuffled out of his bedroom, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Master...?" he mumbled, blinking against the lamplight. "Why are you up so early? You're still recovering from your injuries. You need to rest. I'll... I'll go make some breakfast for you right away."
"Sorry for waking you, kid," Stelle said softly. She gestured toward the massive wooden trunk sitting in the center of the living room. "This is your birthday gift for this year. I prepared it a bit in advance."
She tapped the sealed lid. "You can only open it once you've thoroughly mastered the Fuinjutsu I've taught you. If your skills aren't up to par and you can't break the locks, then your gift stays shut. Don't come crying to me, because I won't help you open it."
Minato's sleepy gaze drifted from the box to his master. Taking in her full combat attire, the heavy flak jacket, and the iconic white Hokage haori draped over her shoulders, the last remnants of sleep vanished from his mind. He stood up straight, suddenly wide awake.
"Master... you're heading to the battlefield."
Stelle nodded silently. She stepped forward and reached out, affectionately ruffling the boy's spiky blonde hair.
This iconic hair isn't something just anyone gets to mess with, she thought with a faint, melancholic smile. If I don't do it now, I might never get another chance.
"There are a lot of interesting, powerful things hidden inside that box," she told him, her voice steady but carrying a weight he couldn't yet understand. "You need to keep pushing yourself. Master your Fuinjutsu so you can unlock it all. Practice hard, Minato. Don't you dare slack off while I'm gone."
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]