Minato Namikaze

A spiky-haired boy and a short-haired girl walked into the barbecue restaurant. Behind them was a silver-haired boy who looked a little shorter than the two of them. The boy wore a black mask, a tight black combat outfit, and carried a Tanto on his back.

The spiky-haired boy kept turning his head now and then to say something to the silver-haired boy, while the silver-haired boy wore a dead-fish stare, clearly not the slightest bit interested in the spiky-haired boy's provocation.

And behind the three of them was a golden-haired, blue-eyed man with a warm smile on his face.

The man sensed Uchiha Yuan's gaze and turned to look this way.

Senior Shibi? I see. Are these the three Hokage-sama specifically mentioned? Minato Namikaze thought.

"Obito, let's sit over there! Your clansman is there too," Minato Namikaze said with a smile.

Hearing that, Obito looked around the barbecue restaurant and only then noticed Uchiha Yuan.

"It's Classmate Yuan and Classmate Asana!" Rin also noticed the three of them and couldn't help exclaiming.

The three of them and Minato Namikaze came over to Uchiha Yuan's table.

"Senior Shibi, long time no see!" Minato Namikaze greeted Shibi Aburame.

The taciturn Shibi Aburame nodded in response.

Minato Namikaze was clearly on very good terms with Shibi Aburame. Seeing Shibi Aburame act so "cold," Minato Namikaze did not mind in the slightest. Instead, he smiled and asked, "Senior Shibi, can we sit beside you?"

"You can."

Hearing that, Minato Namikaze immediately called his students over to sit down.

Uchiha Yuan looked at the future Konoha's Fourth Hokage before him, who had not the slightest air of superiority, and some of Minato Namikaze's deeds could not help surfacing in his mind.

In the original work, Minato Namikaze succeeded as the Fourth Hokage not long after the Third Great Ninja War ended, and he had only been Hokage for one year.

Naruto and the others graduated from the Ninja Academy at twelve years old, and that graduation was in Konoha 60. From that, it could be inferred that Naruto should have been born in Konoha 48, which meant Minato Namikaze became Hokage in Konoha 47.

And the Third Great Ninja War had roughly ended between Konoha 46 and Konoha 47.

It was now Konoha 42, still four to five years away from the end of the Third Great Ninja War.

In these few years, it would be no exaggeration to say that the entire battlefield of the Third Great Ninja War was Minato Namikaze's personal stage.

Before even turning twenty, he could face the A and B Combination of Kumogakure head-on and instantly kill fifty Jonin. Because he often won through speed in battle, he was called the "Yellow Flash," and the various great ninja villages even directly ordered that anyone who saw Minato Namikaze could immediately flee and abandon the mission without punishment.

Such fierce battle achievements made Minato Namikaze Konoha's greatest contributor in the Third Great Ninja War.

And after he became Hokage, he always maintained his tolerant and gentle personality.

Minato Namikaze's attitude toward the Uchiha Clan was also completely different from that of the other higher-ups in the village, and Fugaku Uchiha trusted him greatly as well.

If Minato Namikaze had not sacrificed himself to seal the Nine-Tails, the fate of the Uchiha Clan might very well have been rewritten because of it.

"Yuan, the barbecue's going to burn. Aren't you eating?"

Yamanaka Kizuki's words interrupted Uchiha Yuan's thoughts.

He picked up a piece of grilled meat with the tongs, copied Yamanaka Kizuki by sprinkling on some seasoning, then put the meat into his mouth.

"Not bad."

"Hehe! I'm still pretty confident in my grilling skills," Yamanaka Kizuki said with a smile.

Uchiha Yuan's group had arrived at the barbecue restaurant first, and very soon the meat they had ordered was almost finished.

Uchiha Obito could no longer sit still. He stood up and shouted at Uchiha Yuan, "Hey! Uchiha Yuan!"

"What is it?" Uchiha Yuan turned his head and asked expressionlessly.

"Which battlefield is your squad going to?"

"Obito, we can't ask about that kind of thing, can we?" Rin tugged at Obito and said.

And Uchiha Yuan had no intention of answering either.

Seeing this, Obito grew a little anxious. At this moment, Minato Namikaze, who was at the side, smiled and asked Shibi Aburame, "Senior Shibi, you should be going to the Land of Bears battlefield, right?"

Shibi Aburame froze when he heard that. He clearly had not expected Minato Namikaze to violate the village's regulations for a disciple he had only just accepted and directly ask about their mission.

If someone else had asked, Shibi Aburame would absolutely have refused to answer, but the one asking now was Minato Namikaze.

So Shibi Aburame said without hesitation, "That's right. We're going to the Land of Bears."

"Uchiha Yuan, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist are in the Land of Bears. You absolutely must not act impulsively. Don't let hatred over your parents cloud your head," Obito hurriedly said.

Uchiha Yuan nodded and said, "Don't worry! I know what I'm doing. Thank you for your concern."

With Uchiha Obito cutting in like that, Uchiha Yuan's group no longer felt like continuing to eat.

After finishing the meat on the table, Shibi Aburame led the three of them away.

After coming out of the barbecue restaurant, Shibi Aburame said, "Tomorrow morning at eight, we'll gather at Training Ground No. 3."

Uchiha Yuan and the other two all nodded in agreement.

At the same time, inside the barbecue restaurant, Obito thanked Minato Namikaze, thanking him for his help.

Minato Namikaze waved his hand unconcernedly and said with a smile, "Helping disciples resolve trouble is a teacher's duty to begin with. But speaking of which, Obito, did that clansman of yours lose his parents to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist?"

Obito nodded and told him some things he knew about Uchiha Yuan.

"So Classmate Yuan awakened his eyes because he was overwhelmed with grief from his parents' deaths? The price of awakening them like that is far too great," Rin could not help sighing.

"Yeah. I don't think he wants that kind of Sharingan either," Minato Namikaze said after him.

Kakashi's expression shifted a little off to the side as well. Clearly, Uchiha Yuan's experience had struck something of a chord with him.

The next day, Uchiha Yuan and the others arrived at Training Ground No. 3 on time.

After yesterday's test, Shibi Aburame had basically gotten a handle on the three of them.

Among the three, Uchiha Yuan's overall strength should have been the greatest. His Body Flicker was astonishingly fast, his Fire Release was practiced, and his Chakra Amount far exceeded that of an ordinary Genin. Setting aside the flaw that he had too little real combat experience, Uchiha Yuan should have possessed the combat ability of an average Chunin.

Hyuga Asana, meanwhile, was like most members of the Hyūga Clan: skilled in Taijutsu. The Hyūga Clan's fighting style mainly relied on the Byakugan and the related Taijutsu that worked in tandem with it, so Shibi Aburame guessed that the Fire Release Hyuga Asana knew had probably only been learned recently, and might even have been learned from Uchiha Yuan.

Lastly, there was Yamanaka Kizuki. Yamanaka Kizuki's Taijutsu could be described as an utter mess, and the Yamanaka Clan's mental secret techniques could only be considered average at his age. His only redeeming quality was that he was obedient enough and willing to play a supporting role.