Minato's Request

"You... you!" Hyuga Toda stared at Uchiha Inabi's eyes, frozen in place.

"Hahaha!" Uchiha Inabi let out a triumphant laugh, hands on his hips as he declared, "Hyuga-san, thanks to you, I've awakened my Sharingan!"

Inabi's words struck like a thunderbolt, instantly sending the quiet classroom into an uproar.

"Impossible!" Hyuga Toda refused to accept the fact that he had helped Uchiha Inabi unlock his Sharingan, shaking his head in denial.

Pointing at his own eyes, Uchiha Inabi boasted, "I've awakened my eyes at just six years old—I'm finally qualified to talk to you now, Hyuga~san!"

The sheer frustration! Just as Hyuga Toda prepared to retort, he felt a hand pat his shoulder and instinctively turned his head.

"Hyuga-san, please sit down. Class is about to start," Kizaru said with a beaming smile, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Oh!" Hyuga Toda responded instinctively, obediently taking his seat.

It wasn't until he was seated that Hyuga Toda realized what had happened. He looked up at the smiling Kizaru, wanting to say something, but the words died in his throat, and he could only swallow them back in silence.

"Haha, Hyuga—"

"Inabi-san, please sit down as well!" Kizaru smiled at Uchiha Inabi, cutting him off.

Intimidated by Kizaru's presence, Uchiha Inabi also wanted to speak, but found himself unable to open his mouth, forced to sit down in frustration.

"Thanks!" Kizaru said with a smile as he watched Uchiha Inabi settle in.

With that, Kizaru scanned the classroom, and the noisy room instantly fell silent once more.

Satisfied, Kizaru kept his smile, shoved his hands into his pockets, and strolled slowly back to his own seat.

"Achoo!"

After a comfortable stretch and another yawn, Kizaru was just about to lay his head down when he heard a voice from in front of him.

"Your presence is getting more and more imposing, you know." The speaker was Nara Shikaku, who sat in front of Kizaru.

"Just a little bit!" Kizaru smiled and made a "C" gesture with his hand.

Nara Shikaku, feeling annoyed by Kizaru's nonchalant reply, rolled his eyes, turned back around, and went back to sleep.

Watching Nara Shikaku drift off again, Kizaru tilted his head, then rested it on the desk, ready to sleep as well.

When Yamakawa Kiyoshi walked into the deathly silent classroom, he was surprised, but upon seeing the sleeping duo in the back row, he seemed to understand everything.

Preparing to start the lesson, Yamakawa Kiyoshi expressionlessly picked up a piece of chalk and threw it with pinpoint accuracy at Nara Shikaku's head.

Just like on the first day of school, Yamakawa Kiyoshi roared to make an example of him: "Nara Shikaku, get up and stand in the back!"

With a heavy sigh, Nara Shikaku stood up from his seat. As he walked toward the back, he said to Kizaru, who was still slumped over the desk, "You guy, hurry up and graduate already!"

Hearing this, Kizaru didn't lift his head; he simply raised his right hand, made an "OK" gesture, and let it drop back down.

On the podium, Yamakawa Kiyoshi saw that Kizaru hadn't looked up today, took a deep breath, and slowly let it out.

"Let's begin the lesson!" Forced to ignore Kizaru, Yamakawa Kiyoshi started the day's curriculum.

"Kizaru-san, Kizaru-san!" Deep in a beautiful dream, Kizaru heard someone calling his name through a hazy fog.

Lifting his head from the desk and resting his chin on his hand, Kizaru looked toward the source of the voice.

As his eyes slowly opened, Kizaru saw who had woken him up.

With a warm smile on his face, Namikaze Minato looked a bit embarrassed to have disturbed him.

Scratching his head, Namikaze Minato said sincerely, "Kizaru-san, I'm really sorry for waking you up."

Kizaru let out a yawn. Instead of answering immediately, he looked out the window, trying to gauge how much time had passed.

"It's already the third period. Everyone is at the training grounds; we'll be having lunch soon," the observant Namikaze Minato guessed his thoughts based on his actions.

"Is there something you need, Minato-san?" Kizaru asked with a smile.

"Kizaru-san, I heard from Zen-hiko that you go to the training grounds to practice every day after school," Namikaze Minato looked at Kizaru, hesitated for a moment, and then continued, "I'd like to train with you after school, if that's alright? Kizaru-san!"

After speaking, Namikaze Minato felt a bit nervous, his small hands gripping his trousers by his sides unconsciously.

This request wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision; it was something Namikaze Minato had deliberated over for many days.

As an orphan, he harbored a grand ambition: to become the Hokage.

But after entering the Elite Class, Namikaze Minato realized the gap between himself and the children of the ninja clans and established families.

Without any foundational education or the guidance and heritage of a family, Namikaze Minato, despite his extreme diligence and hard work, only managed to maintain mid-to-upper-tier grades in class.

For an ordinary orphan with no one to teach him, such grades were already quite excellent.

But for Namikaze Minato, who dreamed of becoming the Hokage, it wasn't enough!

Namikaze Minato was dissatisfied with his performance; he wanted to achieve more, but that wasn't something he could accomplish through effort alone.

In the Shinobi World, knowledge of cultivation was valuable, expensive, and completely inaccessible to an orphan like Namikaze Minato.

Therefore, after thinking it over for many days, he sought out Kizaru.

He didn't harbor any delusions of learning secret ninjutsu or special training methods from Kizaru; he simply felt that training alongside someone strong would surely help him grow.

Hearing Namikaze Minato's request, Kizaru didn't answer immediately. It wasn't that he was unwilling; he was simply using Namikaze Minato as a catalyst to recall a few things in his mind.

"Kizaru-san, I won't get in your way. I just want to train with you," seeing that Kizaru remained silent, Namikaze Minato quickly added, fearing a misunderstanding.

Kizaru smiled and spoke up.

"Of course! It just so happens that Zen-hiko has been pestering me to train with him, so from now on, you can join him and train with me after school!"

Hearing Kizaru's reply, Namikaze Minato felt a surge of joy, and his smile grew even more radiant.

"Thank you, Kizaru-san." Bowing sincerely to express his gratitude, Namikaze Minato looked at Kizaru with eyes full of happiness and appreciation.

"Don't mention it, Minato-san."

Kizaru had two reasons for agreeing to Namikaze Minato's request. The first was that, knowing the plot, he understood the potential of Namikaze Minato, the future Fourth Hokage, and was naturally happy to strengthen the ties between him, the Shimura clan, and himself.

The second reason was that after hearing Namikaze Minato's plea, Kizaru suddenly thought of a jutsu that this "little sun" of the class would create in the future.

A-rank non-elemental, hand-seal-less ninjutsu: Rasengan!

This hand-seal-less ninjutsu would pair quite well with his own high-speed movement abilities.

More importantly, creating a new A-rank ninjutsu would allow him to harvest more fame, helping him advance his Fusion Progress Bar.

Kizaru had already mapped it out: on the day of the graduation exam, he would say "How scary" with every breath, land a Light Speed Kick with every step, fire a Laser with his left hand, and unleash a Rasengan with his right!

After winning, he would add, "The monsters of the Uchiha clan are truly terrifying!"

That scene would certainly be amusing.

Thinking of this, Kizaru's smile took on a mischievous, wicked edge.