25 Minato

After Pakura had purchased everything they needed, they returned to the Konoha base. After a day, Konoha's scouts saw them near Konoha's base and reported it to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank god he returned in time, but he's really smart and annoying for someone who's 12, Minato was so much better compared to him, even Nagato, Konan and Yahiko were much better than him in terms of behavior.

"But I have to admit that he has talent like no other, maybe that's why he's so arrogant. Once Minato comes back, I'll make sure Minato humiliates him a little."

Soon, Yama entered the inside of Jiraiya's camp. "See, I told you that I would return soon."

A day passed.

Pakura woke up early in the morning and looked beside her, there was a second mattress beside her and Yama was sleeping over there and Friday was sleeping between them.

It hadn't even been a month since she had met this boy, but she already owed him a lot. He had saved her life twice in the last few months and had even threatened the people of his own village, telling them not to hurt her.

He was four years younger than her, but he was stronger than her. She had made it her new goal to become stronger than him and protect him, not the other way around.

So she woke up early in the morning to start training. After waking up, she also woke up Friday, who liked to train with her, and the two of them quietly slipped out of the tent, not wanting to wake up Yama.

Yama woke up almost two hours later, stretched a bit, and walked out of the tent. He ate a quick breakfast and headed into the forest to join Pakura and Friday for training.

Suddenly, he sensed something. He activated his observation haki and saw a yellow haired guy running towards him at high speed.

"He's already very fast without using the flying thunder god, if he uses the flying thunder god, his speed will..." Yama shook his head and continued running towards the forest.

"Nice to see you again, sensei." Minato greeted.

Jiraiya came over and hugged Minato with a big smile on his face.

"How have you been, Minato?"

"I'm fine, I just wish the war was over, there are too many dead already."

"Yeah, I heard one of your students died."

"Yes, Obito Uchiha, he was a good boy."

"Let's not talk about the depressing stuff. Let's talk about your relationship with Kushina, how far did you guys get?" said Jiraiya as he nudged him with his elbow, a smirk plastered on his face.

"It's going great." Said Minato with a forced laugh.

Minato quickly changed the subject. "I heard you had some trouble with a kid."

"Don't mention that bastard, he's a real pain in the ass to me. He's inconsiderate and arrogant and has no respect for others."

"It sounds like you really don't like him."

"The first day I met him, he hinted at allying with the Uchiha to overthrow Konoha right in front of me. And that Fugaku bastard agreed."

Minato grew serious when he heard that. "The treatment the Uchiha clan is getting in the village is not good, Fugaku has the right to be angry, but this..."

Jiraiya nodded. "This could make things even worse, and the likelihood of an Uchiha revolt will increase many times over. So when this war is over, we have to try to solve the problem between Konoha and Uchiha, or things will get ugly."

"Tell me more about the boy."

"Well, you know they call you the greatest genius of all time."

Minato nodded.

"Well, he is a greater genius than you. He's about 9 or 10 years younger than you, but his strength is already very close to Kage level. His genius level is scary and he can become Konoha's greatest weapon, but if he plans on going against Konoha..."

"What are the chances of that happening?"

"I'd say about 20%, he's young and arrogant but he has some respect for the village, if we can get him to lose his arrogance and humble him a little that would be perfect."

"And that's where I come in?"

"Yeah, you're the only one who can compare to his genius. He seems to be the type to follow his heart and do what he wants, but if you beat him, no, if you absolutely destroy him in a fight, he'll probably lose his arrogance and start training hard to beat you."

"So where is he?"

"Are you going to fight him now, aren't you tired from all the running?"

"Haha, you can't even call that a warm up, don't worry, I'm in great shape."

"He should be in the east forest training with Pakura."

Minato headed towards the forest to meet Yama.

Friday had turned into a giant dog and sparks were coming out of his body and he was chasing Yama. Pakura controlled her three scorch release balls and sent them after Yama. At the same time, she was also attacking him with shurikens.

Yama dodged the attacks of two of them while he was blindfolded. Minato saw this scene and was shocked, even his senses weren't sharp enough to do what Yama just did.

Yama took out a kunai and threw it towards Minato while he was still blindfolded. The kunai flew straight towards Minato's head. Minato moved his head slightly to the side and dodged the kunai.

Yama took off his blindfold and looked at Minato. "It's not nice to spy on other people, is it?"

'This guy is good." thought Minato to himself.

Minato came down from the tree and laughed awkwardly. "It wasn't my intention to do that."

Pakura was the only one surprised by Minato's presence Friday knew about Minato's presence even before Yama did, but he just ignored him.

_____________________

The last couple of days have been really stressful. I lost all my contacts and data on my phone, and my dad suddenly fell ill and had to undergo surgery so I have spent the last 3 days in the hospital and I will be here for 2 more days.

I didn't get to do much research at all but I did plan the basic outline of the story and I am pretty happy with the outline.

Thank you to everyone that stuck around to support me.

Image of my Dad's surgery.