Chapter 51

'You shouldn't have forgotten me right? Minato Senapi.' Kazuo thought as his lips curled upwards.

Team Seven looked around trying to find a table, at that moment Minato's gaze landed on Kazuo who was looking at him with shining eyes and a soft smile on his lips.

Minato felt uncomfortable however he decided to head closer to the young ninja that idolized him so much.

"We meet again, Kazuo right?" Minato asked as he smiled at Kazuo.

Kakashi, Obito, and Rin who were behind him were showing confused looks before Obito made an exclamation as if he had just remembered something.

"I'm honored that Minato Senpai remembered me. Do you want to join me for some dinner? You guys too." Kazuo said as he showed an expression of joy as if Minato remembering him was one of the greatest things that could have happened to him today.

Kakashi made an expression as if he was already bored with this conversation whilst Obito seemed to nod, Rin remained still, not showing an expression of rejection or acceptance, clearly leaving it to Minato's decision.

Minato seemed to think about it for a second or two before he nodded his head.

"Alright then we'll join you for dinner tonight, hope we aren't intruding Kazuo," Minato said with a light smile.

"Not at all Senpai, it's a pleasure that I can eat together with a shinobi like you," Kazuo said, his words made Minato's smile twitch however his students showed different expressions, Obito and Kakashi looked especially proud as if Kazuo was praising them instead of Minato.

The group settled down around the table and soon enough the waitress came to take their order, Kazuo decided to take a second serving of food as a way to congratulate himself for having completed his training.

As soon as the waitress went away, Obito turned toward Kazuo and asked, his expression showing that he was extremely curious.

"So are the rumors that you defeated more than one hundred cloud ninjas at the same time by yourself true?" Obito asked, his eyes practically shining.

His question clearly piqued the interest of the rest of them as they turned toward face Kazuo curiously.

Kazuo simply shook his head and gave a light chuckle.

"I'm afraid that most of the rumors are quite exaggerated, sure I did technically eliminate more than a hundred cloud ninjas however it was because of a plan that I and the camp commander came up with," Kazuo said, however his words instead of lowering Obito's and the others curiosity interested increased it by leaps and bounds.

Even Kakashi's eyes sharpened as he looked at Kazuo.

"What did you do?" Minato decided to ask himself.

Kazuo turned toward the man and replied, explaining the strategy that he had come up with and then executed on the battlefield.

"So you used the hiding-like-a-mole technique and planted hundreds of explosion tags under the ground? Your mastery over earth elemental jutsu must be high." Minato replied, his eyes clearly showing that he was thinking of ways he could have countered the strategy.

"How did you manage to use the hiding-like-a-mole technique and plant the bombs simultaneously? And even then how did you manage to explode all of the tags at the same time when the distance was that large?" Kakashi finally talked for the first time since he had sat down, his gaze clearly showed that he doubted if what Kazuo had said was true.

Kazuo gave the young ninja a sidelong glance before nodding and starting his explanation.

"I have enough mastery over the jutsu where I only need to use a single hand seal to start the jutsu and after that, I can simply copy and continue the path of chakra movement indefinitely, this makes it so that the jutsu can be maintained even when I'm not holding the hand seal. As for how I managed to launch all of the explosives at the same time? I'm afraid that it's a secret." Kazuo said as he winked at the youngest Jonin of the leaf.

"That's impressive, I thought you simply had high levels of earth chakra manipulation however that comes close to perfect mastery over a jutsu, I'd say that you're quite close to perfect mastery, which should remove that last hand sign for the jutsu as well," Minato said as he nodded his head.

Rin simply remained silent as she listened to the group, clearly deciding that she didn't have enough knowledge to add anything to the conversation.

'She's going to die soon enough either way.' Kazuo thought as he gave her a minute glance before completely ignoring her as if she wasn't even part of the group, though he was doing it secretly so that he wouldn't offend the others at the table.

The food quickly came and the shinobi started eating, the conversation coming to a close for a while.

"You're group gets sent back to the battlefield tomorrow if I recall correctly?" Minato questioned as he finished eating his meal.

Kazuo gulped down the rest of the food still in his mouth and nodded as he patted the edges of his mouth with a white cloth.

"That's right Minato Senpai, I'm unsure where I will be sent to however, I just hope it's not to the battlefield with the mist, my earth style would be suppressed quite heavily when there is no ground underneath our feet," Kazuo said.

Kakashi nodded his head, as he added on.

"Right, Earth-style users do have a large disadvantage in that battlefield, it can be even worse than the disadvantage fire users have when fighting a water-style user simply because the amount of Jutsu that requires contact with the Earth for Earth-style jutsu is quite high."

"That's right, however even if I get orders to head to the Mist, I won't object, anything for the greater good of the village and I'm sure the Hokage knows better than me either way," Kazuo replied with a soft radiant smile.

Minato stood silent for a few moments before finally asking Kazuo a question.

"Would you like to join my team, I won't be able to be with them in the next mission so they would be a member short," Minato asked as he turned to look at Kakashi, asking with his eyes if the boy had any objections.

Kakashi simply nodded his head showing no objection to the addition of Kazuo.

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