The Desolate Senju Clan Grounds

"Don't be discouraged, Guangxia. Our ninjutsu may be garbage to ninjas, but our determination to transform agriculture is not garbage."

After Jiraiya left, Minato comforted Guangxia.

Guangxia nodded. He would not easily deny himself because of criticism from a few ninjas he did not know. Guangxia said:

"Lord Minato, although you are very young, I am still deeply grateful to you. I feel that there will be many things for us to do in the future. I am not discouraged at all.

However, the three of us are nearly out of money. We have to leave Konoha Village."

Minato Namikaze felt a little embarrassed. He was poor himself and had no money to subsidize Guangxia. He said:

"Write to me after you return. Give me an address. Once I earn money from missions, I can provide you with some funding.

I really want to see how far agricultural ninjutsu can go—whether it can help farmers and reclaim more wasteland.

Guangxia, I wrote several agricultural ninjutsu on this scroll: Earth Release Tilling, Water Release Irrigation, Fire Release Pest Control, Medical Ninjutsu Healing Wheat Seedlings, and so on.

Take the scroll and leave. Explore, experiment, and find a way."

Guangxia accepted the scroll with reverent eyes. What he held was incomparably important.

"Lord Minato, once I return, I'll find someone literate and have them explain the contents of the scroll to us properly."

Minato froze. So Guangxia could not read.

Farmers lived such miserable lives. They could barely avoid starving to death and had no money to learn to read.

After seeing Guangxia and the others off, Minato said to the rest:

"Thank you for humoring me all this time. Although we received a 'garbage' evaluation from Teacher Orochimaru, we all developed our own D-Rank Ninjutsu, didn't we?"

Uchiha Mikoto looked at Minato Namikaze's sunny smile. He showed no discouragement at all after being criticized.

Haneina found it interesting instead. It was her first time using Medical Ninjutsu on plants, and it had produced such unusual feedback.

After parting with the others, Minato and Kushina walked back into the village.

Kushina kept glancing at Minato's profile and could not help saying, "Minato, I feel like you changed a lot after going out with Teacher Jiraiya."

Minato paused. Kushina was very perceptive and had sensed the changes in someone familiar to her. He said:

"Teacher Jiraiya is a teacher with a great deal of personal charisma. We spent three or four weeks together day and night, so I was influenced by him in many ways."

Kushina recalled some unpleasant rumors.

"Mikoto said she had heard some rumors about Teacher Jiraiya. The female ninjas of the Uchiha Clan have a very poor opinion of him, but Teacher Jiraiya is the Third Hokage's disciple, so they cannot do or say anything.

I asked Mikoto what the rumors about Teacher Jiraiya were, but her clansmen would not tell her. They only told Mikoto to be careful of Jiraiya once she grew up."

Minato Namikaze coughed repeatedly.

Jiraiya's uninhibited lifestyle had finally affected him. Minato said:

"You know, Kushina, ninjas always have to face many corpses and many deaths.

Some people develop strange quirks. Otherwise, the deaths would drive them beyond the limits of sanity.

Teacher Jiraiya does have some peculiar habits, but you must believe in him. He would not commit any great evil.

You should also believe in me. I will try my best to avoid those quirks."

Kushina only half understood, but she nodded anyway.

"Minato, isn't your hobby of naming things, along with your current interest in obscure agricultural ninjutsu, a strange quirk too?"

Minato nodded repeatedly. To normal ninjas, what he did was indeed somewhat bizarre.

"Let's stop talking about strange quirks. Come on, I'll walk you home."

Kushina's home in Konoha was located within the Senju Clan Grounds.

The Senju Clan Grounds lay on the west side of Konoha's Central Avenue, while the Uchiha Clan's grounds were on the east side.

The two clan grounds covered an enormous area. Together, they occupied nearly one-tenth of the village.

As the two great ninja clans that had founded the village, both their location and status placed them at its core.

Standing at the entrance to the Senju Clan Grounds, Minato sighed at the Senju Clan's desolation.

Beyond the clan gates stretched a long path, with weeds growing along both sides.

Noticing Minato's gaze fixed on the weeds, Kushina explained:

"When the Uzumaki Clan was destroyed, the Senju Clan, which had intermarried with the Uzumaki Clan for generations, mobilized its entire clan to support us in Uzushio.

However, the Second Hokage had only recently fallen, and the Senju Clan's strength had declined greatly.

In order to seize the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Technique, the Cloud Hidden Village and Mist Hidden Village joined forces. The Uzumaki Clan was wiped out, and after that battle, only a little over fifty members of the Senju Clan remained."

Kushina looked desolate and sorrowful.

Minato patted Kushina's shoulder, hoping to lift her spirits.

The Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Technique was a powerful weapon to every village. It could be used to seal tailed beasts and even create Perfect Jinchuriki.

If not for the Hashirama Senju brothers of Konoha keeping watch, the other ninja villages would have long since swarmed in and torn the Uzumaki Clan apart.

Unstable Jinchuriki were terrifying ticking time bombs for every ninja village.

Although the Senju Clan had not been wiped out, its core strength had been completely lost. It was not far from destruction.

Minato looked toward Hokage Rock, wondering why the village had not supported Uzushio at the time and had only allowed the Senju Clan to rush to its aid alone.

Perhaps there had been many reasons. During the Second Ninja World War, war had broken out in every direction across the Land of Fire, and Konoha was too weak.

Now, the number of Senju Clan ninjas had fallen from more than a thousand at its peak to just over fifty. Among the clan's important ninjas, especially the direct descendants of the Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju brothers, only Princess Tsunade remained.

This was also one of the reasons Princess Tsunade had left the village.

For Princess Tsunade, there was little left in the Senju Clan Grounds to hold her here.

"Don't be sad, Kushina. Let me use my newly developed Earth Release: Overclocked Seismic Fracturing—One Thousand Acres Tilled Per Day, Type Two—to clear the weeds along the paths of the Senju Clan Grounds!"

Minato rapidly formed hand seals and used two ninjutsu in succession.

Along both sides of the fifty-meter-long path, the earth turned over, rolling the weeds underground and bringing fresh soil to the surface.

As a result, the Senju Clan Grounds no longer looked quite so desolate.

Just then, a female ninja of the Senju Clan walked in from outside.

She held a letter in her hand and repeatedly wiped away tears with her arm.

"Cousin Takeoto, what happened?"

Senju Takeoto, the only jonin from the Senju Clan in the village, had just come out of the Hokage Building.

"The Third Hokage wrote a letter to persuade Princess Tsunade. He hopes the Senju Clan can sell some vacant houses for the village and other ninja clans to use," Senju Takeoto said.

"Some people in the village think it is too wasteful for the Senju Clan, with so few people left, to occupy such a large area."

"What about Sister Tsunade? Did she agree?"

Senju Takeoto nodded. "Princess Tsunade's teacher personally wrote to persuade her, so she could only agree. She wrote to me, asking me to cooperate with the village and sell some houses and courtyards. Kushina..."

Senju Takeoto did not know what else to say. After wiping her tears dry, she continued walking deeper into the empty clan grounds.

Minato frowned as he watched Takeoto leave.

The Senju Clan had not yet been wiped out. It had merely declined to its lowest point. In the future, the Senju Clan would suffer another great calamity, unable to preserve even these fewer than fifty elderly and young members.

Minato decided to change the Senju Clan's fate. Such a ninja clan should not be exterminated so miserably.

He grabbed Kushina, who wanted to follow after Takeoto. "Kushina, take me to find Mikoto."