First Meeting Namikaze Minato: The Optimal Strategy Is Living Off a Woman

"Chapter 43: First Meeting Namikaze Minato—The Optimal Strategy Is Living Off a Woman"

"How's the reading going? Tired?" At noon, Sarutobi Biwako set down the documents in her hands and asked.

"Not bad. I love learning!" Hyuga Ningyuan replied with a smile.

"How much have you memorized?" Sarutobi Biwako asked again.

"About twenty pages," Hyuga Ningyuan said.

"Oh?" Sarutobi Biwako paused. "Your memory is quite impressive too!"

Hyuga Ningyuan smiled bashfully, quietly concealing his accomplishments.

"Is there anything you don't understand?" she asked again.

"No. I recognize all the words, and I can understand all the sentences!" Hyuga Ningyuan said with a smile.

"Is that so?" Sarutobi Biwako was a little surprised. Hyuga Ningyuan was only five years old!

His comprehension and literacy were nothing like those of an ordinary five-year-old.

But then she thought of Kakashi at the Ninja Academy. A genius like Hyuga Ningyuan suddenly did not seem so hard to understand.

"That's good. Come on, let's eat!"

"Okay!"

Having just gained a new skill, Hyuga Ningyuan naturally had to test it properly.

When he infused Qi into his clothes, their movement followed his thoughts.

That meant his clothes were not only unaffected by gravity—they could float even without wind!

Unfortunately, Hyuga Clan clothing did not have many parts that could flutter, so it did not look very good when it floated. Later, he would have to commission a set of ethereal, flowing robes to properly bring out this skill's effects.

He could also infuse food, plates, and chopsticks with Qi, but aside from making them fly under his control, they had no special effects.

Still, that gave Hyuga Ningyuan another idea.

He could infuse poison with Qi, then make it crawl into an enemy's teacup or bowl on its own.

He could poison someone without a sound!

Besides, was he limited to controlling only solid objects?

If he could control a cloud, could he stand on it and fly?

If he controlled the air, then blocked someone's throat or windpipe while they slept, could he kill them silently?

If he controlled water, could he use the refraction of light for long-range reconnaissance?

"Ah!" The moment he thought of controlling water, Hyuga Ningyuan suddenly realized what this Object Control ability was. Wasn't this the Flap-Flap Fruit?

He infused something with the fruit's energy, then controlled it and made it float!

Of course, his floating ability was far inferior to the Flap-Flap Fruit's. That fruit could make entire islands float, while even lifting a stone stool took effort for him.

But his ability could level up. In the future, it might not necessarily be inferior to the Flap-Flap Fruit.

Besides, his ability was more precise than the Flap-Flap Fruit's, and it was not afraid of seawater.

"Hehe." Thinking that Object Control was similar to the Flap-Flap Fruit immediately put Hyuga Ningyuan in a much better mood.

What was this called? Being in Naruto and starting out with the Flap-Flap Fruit's power?

"Why are you suddenly grinning like an idiot?" Sarutobi Biwako asked.

"Uh, nothing. The tempura is just really good!" Hyuga Ningyuan chuckled. "It's just that I still can't believe I actually got to take you as my teacher."

"Taking me as your teacher isn't difficult. I have quite a few disciples at the hospital. I even taught Tsunade!" Sarutobi Biwako said with a smile.

"But you're the Hokage's Wife!" Hyuga Ningyuan grinned. "To me, you're an unmistakably important person!"

"I'm not some important person. I'm just an ordinary Medical Ninja. As for being the Hokage's Wife, there's nothing special about that identity either. I'm simply a member of the village like everyone else!" Sarutobi Biwako's face was full of kindness.

Hyuga Ningyuan nodded with food in his mouth. He believed Sarutobi Biwako was not merely saying it—she genuinely thought that way.

Come to think of it, Asuma believed his father was hypocritical, rejected the Will of Fire, and betrayed his own class. Perhaps that sincere trait of his came from Sarutobi Biwako.

"Behind every successful man stands a great woman. You're the great woman behind the Hokage!" Hyuga Ningyuan said.

"You really know how to talk, child." Sarutobi Biwako looked a little puzzled. "Where did you learn those sayings?"

And those things he had said before—heroes were not defined by youth, and ambition was not limited by age.

When taking a wife, take Yūhi Kurenai. When becoming a ninja, be like the Second Hokage.

Was it because she had not read enough, or had she fallen behind the times?

"When the mood struck, I just said them," Hyuga Ningyuan casually replied.

He had never considered writing them down in a book or anything. Ninja had the dedication to turn a place upside down looking for books.

If they could not find it, would they not start suspecting Ningyuan?

"I've always felt that my mind is lively and my writing is brilliant. Maybe I could become a great writer!" Hyuga Ningyuan said.

"Great writer, eat your vegetables!" Sarutobi Biwako picked up a piece of meat and placed it in Hyuga Ningyuan's bowl. "So what does this great writer plan to write?"

"Hmm, maybe a book about a doctor healing people and saving lives?" Hyuga Ningyuan thought for a moment. "The protagonist would be based on the grown-up me. He'd be tall and handsome, with no woman able to resist him. So every female patient would want him to treat her. Some would even pretend to be sick when they weren't. The patients would listen to everything he said and follow every precaution he gave them. His medical skill would also be extraordinary. There would be no illness in the world he couldn't cure and no problem he couldn't solve."

"That actually sounds rather interesting!" Sarutobi Biwako imagined such a book, then burst into laughter. "But there's no one that handsome in the world!"

"Who says there isn't? There's one right over there." Hyuga Ningyuan pointed.

"Huh?" Sarutobi Biwako turned her head. They were eating at a restaurant outside Konoha Hospital. At this hour, the restaurant should have been filled with doctors and nurses, but because the food was so delicious, there were indeed some other customers as well.

The person Hyuga Ningyuan pointed at was a handsome young man with tousled blond hair and a warm smile.

"Minato?" Sarutobi Biwako softly called.

Minato had sharp ears. The moment someone spoke his name, he noticed. When he looked over and saw Sarutobi Biwako, his guard immediately dropped.

"Lady Biwako!" Minato stood and walked over. His dishes had not arrived yet, so it was just the right time to join their table.

"Are you eating alone?" Sarutobi Biwako asked curiously. "I remember you and Kushina have confirmed your relationship, haven't you?"

"Uh..." Minato's face reddened. "I'm not here to eat. I came to buy some food to take back..."

He had only seen Kushina at school before, and he had fallen in love with her at first sight.

Back when they were apart, his mind had been full of wonderful fantasies. Only after they officially got together did he discover that Kushina could not cook!

He could cook, but he had always eaten alone before, so he had only ever made do. His cooking was very ordinary, completely unsuitable for treating Kushina to a meal.

So they had been relying on takeout these past few days. After that...

He would properly learn how to cook.

"I see!" Sarutobi Biwako nodded. "But if you're going to live together, it's best to cook at home. Eating out can be hard on your wallet!"

"I'll work hard at learning!" Minato smiled gently, then looked at Hyuga Ningyuan. "And this is...?"

"Hyuga Ningyuan, my newly accepted disciple. He's studying Medical Ninjutsu under me!" Sarutobi Biwako introduced.

"Hello, Senior Minato!" Hyuga Ningyuan looked at the tough guy before him with a curious expression.

They said—just supposedly, of course!

Supposedly, from Minato's graduation until his death, he had never lost a single battle!

He was a man with a one-hundred-percent win rate. Even against the Nine-Tails, he had only died because he wanted to.

Or rather, he had been killed off by the plot because he was too strong. Otherwise, the story could not have continued.

If Minato had lived, the Uchiha would not have rebelled, Itachi would not have defected, and with Shisui, Itachi, Fugaku, Minato, Kushina, and a whole group of Kage-level fighters in Konoha, the Akatsuki Organization would have had no chance at all. Konoha might even have tried taking on the other four villages and Unify the World.

After all, Konoha was not the only village whose talent pool declined in the later years. The other villages were much the same.

Hereditary Rule was not just Hiruzen Sarutobi's problem. The Kage of the other villages were the same, with Kirigakure being the sole exception.

If he had not wanted to die, there should have been no one in the world capable of killing him.

There might have been traces of conspiracy in his love with Uzumaki Kushina, but his love for Kushina was genuine. Otherwise, he would not have chosen to enter the afterlife with her.

At any rate, if it were Hyuga Ningyuan, he could not have done it.

"Hello to you too!" Minato said with a smile. "Lady Biwako is a master of Medical Ninjutsu. If you study under Lady Biwako, your future achievements will be limitless!"

There was a hint of envy in his words. He came from a civilian background and did not have learning resources as good as Hyuga Ningyuan's.

What he did not know was that Hyuga Ningyuan's learning resources were not all that great either.

The paths the two had taken were very similar. Both had relied on their respective girlfriends.

Minato had learned the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu, then used his connection to the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki to become Jiraiya's disciple.

Hyuga Ningyuan had learned the Yūhi Clan's Genjutsu, then used his connection to Yūhi Shinku to become Biwako's disciple.

What did that prove?

It proved that when classes were rigidly entrenched, living off a woman was not necessarily a bad way to break through class barriers!