Kuro Got MVP! Minato and Kushina Got Carried!

Jiraiya stared wide-eyed at the "Minato" before him.

"Minato, really, is it really Minato?!"

His lips trembled slightly, and he asked again in a hoarse voice, confirming the question.

"Ah, it's me, Jiraiya- Teacher."

Minato responded with a smile.

On Naruto's youthful face, that gentle smile remained unchanged.

Minato reached out and scratched the back of Naruto's still slightly chubby little hand, saying with a touch of nostalgia:

"Do you remember? The time you dragged me to spy on the women's bathhouse and made me keep watch for you from the tree outside."

"It really is you!! Minato!!"

In a fraction of a second, Jiraiya's old face underwent a transformation from shock to certainty, and then to red-rimmed eyes.

He shouted, took a big step forward, opened his arms, and rushed towards the Minato with tears in his eyes.

Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at his good-for-nothing apprentice with disdain.

He shook his head, his hand unconsciously tilting slightly towards the crystal ball beside the table.

"Minato!!"

Jiraiya tears streaming down his face, Jiraiya rushed towards "Naruto".

"Puff--!!"

He was met with a powerful punch coming straight at him!

The fist wasn't big, but its power was astonishing. It struck Jiraiya's nose precisely, slamming him against the wall.

Jiraiya's back slammed against the wall with a dull thud, and he slid down the wall, sitting on the ground, looking completely bewildered.

"You old lecher! What exactly did you do with my Minato?!"

Naruto's voice was no longer Minato's gentle tone, but a furious, murderous roar.

Kakashi stood to the side, watching Jiraiya, and said in a flat tone:

"Hey, hey, it's Naruto's body after all..."

Even though it was controlled by Kushina, wasn't the power of that punch a bit too exaggerated?

His gaze lingered on "Naruto's" fist for a moment, and he analyzed the situation with some concern in his heart:

"Could it be the effect of the Nine-Tails Chakra?"

As Kakashi muttered to himself, Jiraiya got up from the ground.

He rubbed his nose, which was red from being hit, and looked at Naruto with surprise in his eyes.

At this moment, Naruto's youthful face was filled with rage.

"Hey! Minato! What's this about peeping into the women's bathhouse? I've never heard you mention this before! You'd better explain yourself!!"

Naruto's expression instantly shifted to a gentle yet awkward one, similar to Minato's.

"That happened right after we graduated from the Ninja Academy, before we started dating..."

"Um?!"

"I... I swear I didn't spy on them, I swear!!"

Minato's voice became urgent as he earnestly explained:

"I was just waiting for Jiraiya- Teacher outside the door, I didn't see anything! Really!"

The sound of the Minato became even more serious:

"I'll explain the details to you properly later, Kushina."

The most urgent thing now is to explain our current situation to Jiraiya- Teacher.

"Hmph, I doubt you'd have the guts..."

Naruto's expression turned somber again, before transforming into Minato's gentle demeanor.

Minato, who had temporarily escaped disaster, breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiraiya looked at Naruto's face, which had switched between several personalities in just half a minute, and murmured in realization:

"So, not only Minato, Kushina is also inside Naruto's body now?"

Minato nodded, his gentle smile unchanged on his youthful face.

"Ah, that's right."

Minato explained in a calm tone:

"Kushina and I are currently existing in Naruto's body as souls."

Although Naruto's consciousness is primarily his own normally, we can temporarily take over Naruto body when needed, with his consent.

"In a soul state?"

As Jiraiya repeated these words, the excitement in his voice had not completely subsided, but it had already taken on a hint of solemnity.

Minato nodded and said calmly:

"Ah, that's right, in reality, we are indeed dead."

"He died... seven years ago Nine-Tails Incident."

Minato paused, then added:

"The reason why Kushina and I were able to exist in Naruto's body as souls is actually thanks to one person's help."

"Help..."

Jiraiya murmured, his consciousness pausing for a moment as the image of that roguish yet handsome face involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

"It's a knock."

Minato didn't keep them in suspense and stated it directly.

There was a moment of silence in the office.

When Minato uttered the name "Kou," Kakashi, who was leaning against the window, stiffened almost imperceptibly.

His lazy, dead-fish eyes dimmed for a moment as his gaze shifted from the old pine tree outside the window to the cover of the book "Icha Icha Paradise" in his hand.

The finger that had been resting on the edge of the book's pages stopped and silently pressed down on the illustration on the page.

"Knock..."

Looking at the illustrations in the first volume of the collector's edition of Icha Icha Paradise, Kakashi couldn't help but mutter to himself.

(This is so weird...)

"Knock on it..."

Jiraiya repeated softly.

For some reason, I wasn't surprised at all when I heard Kou's name.

Jiraiya didn't press further, but simply looked at Minato with curiosity, quietly waiting for him to continue.

Minato didn't keep them in suspense and continued, a glint of reminiscence in his eyes:

"It was probably shortly after the end of the Third Ninja World War, in Rin..."

When he mentioned Lin's name, he subconsciously glanced at the silver-haired figure by the window out of the corner of his eye.

Kakashi raised his eyes, met Minato's gaze for a moment, and then nodded slightly to indicate that he was alright.

Minato breathed a sigh of relief, then turned his gaze back to Jiraiya's face and continued:

"Shortly after Lin's death, Kou approached me, expressing his desire to learn Sealing Jutsu from me."

"At that time, I was already worried about the mental state of Kotori and Kakashi after Rin's death, so when Kotori approached me, I happily agreed."

Recalling the past many years ago, a hint of regret flashed in Minato's eyes.

At the time, he had also invited Kakashi, hoping to take this opportunity to let the two children, who had also lost Obito and Rin, spend more time together.

However, Kakashi's mental state was already very bad at the time, and knowing this, he believed that he would only hold Kakashi back, so he politely declined the invitation.

Looking back now, if I had been more assertive, perhaps...

Minato shook Naruto's little head, temporarily suppressing the regret that couldn't be changed in his heart, Jiraiya:

"At that time, you had already left Konoha, so I didn't take Kou to the Training Ground. Instead, I invited him to my house for training."

A slight upturn at the corners of his mouth revealed a hint of embarrassment on his youthful face.

"Although I made the suggestion with the thought of 'spending more time with Kushina ' in mind... I never imagined it would have such a big impact on what happened afterward."

"My original plan was to start teaching him from the basics of Sealing Jutsu, but the result was not ideal."

Minato's voice became serious, carrying a hint of regret that lingered to this day:

"In terms of the theory of Sealing Jutsu, Kou's learning speed is very fast, even faster than mine was back then."

He only needed to hear the complex principles of the techniques, the laws governing Chakra flow, and the structural logic of the seals once to understand them immediately; even Kushina was quite surprised by this.

His voice was full of admiration, but also tinged with a hint of regret:

"But he struggled to get the hang of it."

Whether it was the precise control of Chakra required for Sealing Jutsu or the construction of the techniques, he made no mistakes in any of them, but the process of mastering them was very slow.

The same technique, which I only needed to practice ten times, he needed to practice hundreds of times...

Minato paused, and the light in his sky-blue eyes softened:

But he never complained, and he never gave up.

With each failure, he would silently start over. With each mistake, he would find the reason and correct it again and again.

That resilience, that indomitable spirit, made me feel somewhat ashamed of myself.

"Although there are still some problems in actual operation, they are more of a matter of time."

With more practice, one can quickly master the art of knocking.

He took a deep breath and continued:

"So, I focused more on explaining the theory to him, and left the practical application to his subsequent practice."

The sound of Minato grew softer and softer, as if recalling a conversation he would never forget:

"And it was at that time that I heard an idea from that child..."

At the time, I thought it was too idealistic, almost impossible to achieve.

Minato looked at Jiraiya before him, his tone becoming slightly more serious:

"Can a person on the verge of death, through the use of Sealing Jutsu, seal an energy similar to life force within the caster, in the same way as sealing Tailed Beast?"

By breaking the seal, life force is replenished, thereby prolonging the life of the dying.

There was a moment of silence in the office.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating Jiraiya and Naruto's youthful yet earnest face.

"The idea that Kou brought up at the time surprised me."

Minato remarked with emotion:

"I think that was probably a thought he had kept in his heart for a long time after losing Obito and Rin..."

Jiraiya nodded silently.

It's not hard to understand why people would have such thoughts.

Back then, Tsunade proposed a plan to train medical-nin on a large scale after losing her younger brother, Nawaki.

While implementing this plan during wartime would be absolutely foolish, the plan does indeed have considerable value.

In the post-war peace period, Konoha did indeed vigorously develop the training of medical-nin.

Tsunade's systematic plan to train medical professionals made a significant contribution to Konoha's victory in the Third Ninja World War.

It's a pity... Tsunade, who was the one who devised the plan and had long since left Konoha, did not witness the results firsthand.

Thinking of Tsunade, whom he hadn't seen for many years, Jiraiya couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Jiraiya thought of Tsunade, whom he hadn't seen for many years, and a slightly bitter feeling welled up in his chest.

But that emotion only lingered in his heart for a moment before he forcefully suppressed it.

He knew very well that now was not the time to think about these things.

What Minato next was the key.

Minato looked intently at Jiraiya and continued speaking:

"When faced with Kokoro's idea, not only I at the time, but also Kushina who was listening nearby became interested."

After a period of theoretical research, we ultimately concluded that this hypothesis was unlikely to be valid.

He paused, and the light in his sky-blue eyes deepened:

"There are actually techniques similar to this idea... such as Lady Tsunade's Yin Seal."

"But such a technique is an extremely special case. Lady Tsunade herself is the top medical-nin in the Ninja World, which is why she can use the Chakra accumulated by the Yin Seal to this extent."

For non- medical-nin, achieving the same level of precision is virtually impossible.

"Therefore, after a period of research and deliberation, we temporarily put that plan aside."

At this point, Minato fell silent for a moment.

The silence was short, but in the quiet office, it felt incredibly long.

Sunlight streamed through the window of the Hokage's office, Naruto's youthful face. The thoughts in his sky-blue eyes shifted from reminiscence to contemplation.

"Until..."

"After Kushina became pregnant with Naruto."

The atmosphere in the office seemed to become a little heavier at that moment.

(This is the third update today; there are two more chapters to go, but they might be a little late.)

(Just a quick question, could you guys please rate this? I'd like to increase my score...)

(Sorry guys, I'm really exhausted. I'll post both chapters tomorrow morning.)