Minato Namikaze, Born Evil

Early the next morning, as soon as Tsunade left the house, Nawaki eagerly scurried over to Minato's side.

"Minato—"

Nawaki looked at Minato with wide, longing eyes, putting on a pitiful expression.

"I know, I know..."

Minato couldn't help but smile, leading Nawaki out into the courtyard.

He pressed his palms together, and a wooden post as thick as a washbasin erupted from the ground in front of him.

Minato then extended his right hand toward Nawaki: "Watch closely!"

As he spoke, a chaotic swirl of chakra gathered in his palm. The chakra spun at an incredible speed, eventually condensing into a high-density sphere of energy!

The high-density chakra whipped up a frantic gust of wind, ruffling both of their hair.

"Such powerful chakra!"

Nawaki's eyes sparkled: "What is the name of this technique?"

"Rasengan!"

As Minato spoke, he turned and slammed the Rasengan into the wooden post.

Boom!

The moment the Rasengan made contact with the post, it blasted a spherical hole right through it.

"So amazing..."

Nawaki stared blankly at the hole in the post, lost in a trance.

Suddenly, he couldn't contain his excitement: "Let's start training right away!"

"We have to wait a moment."

Minato gently raised a hand, signaling Nawaki to calm down: "Before that, I need to test your level of chakra control."

"Tell me! What do I need to do?" Nawaki said, eager to try.

"Like this..."

Minato clapped his hands together, and the broken wooden post suddenly shot up over ten meters, its top sprouting countless branches until it transformed into a straight, tall tree.

Minato then stepped onto the trunk and, as if walking on flat ground, strode step by step to the very top.

"By distributing your chakra evenly across the soles of your feet and balancing it against your body weight, you can adhere to surfaces and walk freely."

"Yosh! Watch me!"

Nawaki took a few steps back and charged excitedly toward the trunk.

Thump, thump, thump. He managed three steps.

Before he could even celebrate, his foot slipped, and the back of his head plummeted toward the ground.

Whoosh—

Minato had anticipated Nawaki's mistake.

He appeared instantly beneath Nawaki, catching him steadily.

"Damn it, I messed up!"

Nawaki looked annoyed, especially since being caught in a bridal carry by Minato made him feel quite embarrassed.

"Take it slow, no need to rush."

Minato comforted him with a smile: "I have a method that should help you master tree-climbing quickly."

"What is it?"

Nawaki asked impatiently.

Minato reached up and pressed his hand against the trunk, causing a branch as thick as a bowl to extend two and a half meters above their heads.

"You should be able to reach this height easily."

Minato said, leaping up to grab the branch and resting his feet against the trunk.

"You can hold onto the branch while continuously adjusting the chakra output in your feet. Adapting this way a few times should be more effective than blindly charging upward."

Seeing this, Nawaki laughed: "Minato, you look just like a koala!"

Snap!

Minato broke the branch off, looking regretful: "Since you don't like this method..."

"No, no, no, Lord Minato, I love this training method the most!"

Nawaki panicked, and as Minato jumped down from the tree, he lunged forward and hugged Minato's leg.

Minato chuckled, tapped the trunk lightly, and sprouted another branch.

Nawaki leaped up to grab the branch, pressing his feet against the trunk.

Seeing this, Minato Namikaze hooked the corner of his mouth and formed hand seals: "Earth Style: Earth Spear!"

Swish, swish, swish...

Sharp earthen spikes suddenly sprouted from the ground all around the tree trunk!

"Eh?"

Nawaki hugged the trunk, his face turning pale at the sight: "Minato, you..."

"It is said that many powerful ninjas only break through their limits during life-or-death moments."

Minato said with a straight face: "I think that makes a lot of sense. You are the man who is going to become Hokage, Nawaki. If you don't push yourself, how will you ever know your true potential?"

"Anyway, I'm off to buy groceries. Good luck~"

With that, Minato vanished from the spot using a Body Flicker.

Seeing Minato leave, Nawaki grew frantic.

"Wait a minute!"

"Minato, come back! I won't make fun of you anymore! It was my fault!"

"Hey! Help! Someone come help—"

Listening to Nawaki's cries for help, Minato smiled brightly.

Of course, he wouldn't joke around with Nawaki's life; those earth spears were merely fragile mud sculptures designed for psychological pressure, actually crumbling at the slightest touch and collapsing entirely within two minutes.

In the yard, Nawaki clung tremblingly to the branch, watching the forest of sharp earth spears below, and swallowed hard.

Whether it was a psychological effect or not, his arms felt increasingly sore and swollen, and his palms were slick with sweat.

"Minato, I was wrong, please, let me down."

Nawaki shouted pitifully at one of the clones standing not far away.

The Wood Clone glanced at him: "You've got the wrong person. I'm just an ordinary, unremarkable clone."

Nawaki gave a sheepish laugh: "Then, Brother Clone..."

"Who are you calling 'clone'? Don't I deserve a name? You're really annoying!"

The clone huffed and turned away, while several other clones let out a burst of laughter.

"Ahhh, Minato Namikaze, you bastard!!!"

Just as he was shouting, a breeze blew by, and the earth spears below collapsed silently like melting ice cream.

"Eh? Fake?"

Noticing this, Nawaki realized he had been played, and his face flushed bright red.

"Damn it, that black-hearted guy!"

"Minato Namikaze is naturally evil!"

"Damn it, ahhhhh!"

Two hours later, Minato returned from buying groceries.

As soon as he entered the house, Nawaki suddenly descended from above and slammed a fist onto his forehead.

"Gotcha! Ha! This is the price for teasing me!"

The words had barely left his lips when the Minato in front of him suddenly exploded with a poof, turning into a wooden log.

"Substitution?"

A flash of surprise crossed Nawaki's eyes, but suddenly, a popsicle was held against his neck.

"Alright, KO!"

Minato had appeared behind Nawaki at some point, his tone carrying a hint of a smile.

"As expected, the gap in strength isn't so easily bridged..."

Nawaki took the popsicle, but his tone didn't show much surprise; instead, he looked rather smug.

"Tree climbing... I've already mastered it!"

"Well done!"

Minato carried the groceries into the living room and then pointed to the small pond in the yard: "Next is water walking. It uses the same technique, but you have to constantly adjust your chakra output based on the flow of the water. Go on~"

Minato wasn't surprised that Nawaki had learned to climb trees so quickly.

When it came to chakra control, Tsunade was arguably among the best in the entire Hokage series.

As Tsunade's younger brother, even if Nawaki's talent wasn't as outstanding as his sister's, it shouldn't be too bad either.

"Again?"

Nawaki grew a bit anxious: "Can't I just learn the move directly?"

"No."

Minato shook his head and explained: "Chakra training has two directions: shape transformation and nature transformation. The Rasengan is the pinnacle of shape transformation, and it will indirectly enhance your control over your chakra."

"So, theoretically speaking, provided you possess the corresponding chakra nature, if you can master the Rasengan, you can master any ninjutsu!"

"Is that really so?"

Nawaki found it hard to believe. If things were truly as Minato said, the value of this ninjutsu far exceeded that of an ordinary A-rank technique!

"Then... how long did it take you to learn it, Minato?"

"If we're talking about pure training, it took me about three months."

"Three months, huh..." Nawaki's tone was complicated.

In that instant, he finally gained a clear understanding of Minato's talent.

According to Minato's logic, if he could master the Rasengan in three months, he could learn any ninjutsu within three months!

Minato was unaware of Nawaki's thoughts; had he known, he might have clarified that he usually learned standard ninjutsu just by glancing at them once.