"Senior Gin, I've made a fool of myself in front of you."
To withstand Anrokuzan's Time Stop technique, Minato had nearly wrung the last trace of Chakra from his meridians. Pale-faced, he swayed as he straightened up, then gave Uchiha Gin a bitter nod.
"If I'm not mistaken, you only mastered your Flying Thunder God Technique not long ago, right?"
Uchiha Gin gently shook his head, reached back into his bag, pulled out a mysterious potion giving off a suspicious glow, and tossed it over without even looking.
"Senior, your guess is really accurate."
Minato raised a hand and caught the potion. He looked doubtfully over the unbranded little bottle in his hand, which did not even have a label, then nodded and responded.
He had been training in the Flying Thunder God Technique for several years, but because no one in the village knew the technique, he could only feel his way through it on his own. Building on the Second Hokage's version, he had made a few adaptive modifications.
In the end, one year ago, he had finally succeeded in mastering the improved Flying Thunder God Technique. Only then had he had the time to continue developing the Spiraling Jiraiya Twin Style Sphere, launched from a Halo Popsicle.
"It's fine. Just practice more in the future. If you want to take a technique like this a step further, there's nothing else to it—only familiarity through repetition."
Uchiha Gin urged Minato with his eyes to drink his secret little potion, then loosened his stiff neck and slowly stood up.
"Senior Gin, please be careful. His space-time ability is very strange."
Minato pinched his nose and tilted his head back, pouring the entire bottle of Glimmering Potion 2.0 into his mouth. The cloying sweetness made his brows furrow hard.
"Huh?"