"Yueshu, we'll be starting missions again soon."
"Already?"
It was early morning, and they were sitting at the dining table in the Senju Residence.
Minato Namikaze had nothing else to do, so he'd started "going to work" again.
Yueshu responded to Minato's words with a look of utter disdain.
He really wasn't suited to going on missions.
The easy ones were too boring, and the difficult ones were exhausting. He couldn't understand why he'd chosen to become a ninja in the first place.
"It's not that soon. We've already had six days off. I just ran into Jiraiya-sensei, and he said we're meeting at Training Ground No. 9 tomorrow."
"Tch."
Minato looked helplessly at Yueshu, who made no effort to hide his reluctance.
They'd had six days off since their previous mission. Honestly, that was more than enough. Ninjas had to take on missions, both to support themselves and to contribute to the village.
For Minato, who had been born and raised in Konoha and dreamed of becoming Hokage, contributing to the village was something he was more than happy to do.
But Yueshu didn't care much about Konoha. It was just that the village had the best living conditions in the entire Ninja World.
Unlike the other ninja villages, where the wind carried sand everywhere or the air was thick with bloody mist.
By comparison, Konoha's advantages were obvious.
"Well, that's the ninja's path," Tsunade said with a smile, patting Yueshu on the shoulder.
She'd gone through the same thing herself. The number of missions she'd completed ranked among the highest in the village.
"What a pain."
Yueshu continued eating his breakfast.
He truly did find it a pain. Most of the important figures of this era were in the same squad, and he didn't believe their missions would be easy.
For all he knew, they'd get another "simple" mission that was anything but, just like last time.
Take their previous mission, for example. They'd been covered in wounds and utterly exhausted, and one wrong move could've wiped out the entire team.
This wasn't a game. There was no respawning after a few minutes—or even a few dozen seconds. Once you were gone, you were gone.
After breakfast, there still wasn't anything to do. As usual, Yueshu lounged in his hammock, bored, watching the master and pupil begin their Medical Ninjutsu training.
Oh, and now there was a blond one as well.
Minato seemed to have already learned tree climbing and Water Walking from Jiraiya. Now he was practicing his basic skills.
In the original story, Minato was the only Hokage in Konoha's history to come from a civilian family. His success had certainly been well deserved.
His talent was one thing, but he was far better than most when it came to self-discipline and training.
Looking at the blond figure before him,
Yueshu couldn't recall ever seeing Minato slack off. He spent almost all his free time training. They were complete opposites.
Too bad Yueshu had a cheat. Minato probably wouldn't be able to beat him.
"By the way, Yueshu, could you teach me that jutsu of yours?"
As Yueshu lay there, Minato's voice suddenly sounded beside him.
"Huh?"
Yueshu glanced at Minato, who had come over, and smiled innocently.
"That jutsu with no hand seals—the one that looks like a ball."
"The Rasengan?"
"Is that what it's called? That's a nice name, but Thunderbolt Whirlwind Impact Sphere would be even better."
"You still name things the same way. Good thing all the jutsu already have names."
Yueshu looked at Minato's slight excitement and sighed helplessly.
Minato was a genuinely warmhearted guy, with a good personality and a handsome face. He was a genius, too. But surprisingly, there was a chuunibyou streak in him.
The names he came up with were ridiculously long and reeked of chuunibyou.
"It's not that bad."
When Yueshu teased him, Minato offered a rare rebuttal. He genuinely thought names like that sounded cool.
And in Yueshu's mind,
Maybe he's just secretly a show-off.
"Sure. I'll teach you."
"Really? Thanks!"
As soon as Yueshu agreed, Minato brightened.
"By the way, why do you want me to teach you this jutsu?"
Yueshu suddenly thought of something and asked Minato.
Minato seemed to have expected the question and immediately started thinking.
A little while later—
"Just a hunch. I feel like this jutsu is perfect for me. I can't really explain it."
"Is that so?"
That's just like you.
Yueshu smiled faintly. Minato's intuition was right.
This ball of chakra was a first-rate technique. It could keep evolving and changing, and once combined with the Flying Thunder God Minato would learn later, it would be even more formidable.
The three sages of Mount Myoboku were all Rasengan enthusiasts.
As the one who was supposed to create the Rasengan, Minato had come up with an incredible jutsu, even if he wouldn't have to finish that work now.
Yueshu had no reason to hold back the Rasengan. It had been Minato's to begin with; Yueshu had only beaten him to it.
Minato was Yueshu's first friend, and Yueshu was happy to help him become stronger—stronger, at least, than he'd been in the original story. That way, he wouldn't die young during the Nine-Tails Incident.
No one wanted to watch their friend die, after all.
Just like that, Yueshu explained the training method Jiraiya had used in the original story.
"Hmm. Looks like I'll need to go buy some balloons."
"Go ahead. And pick up dinner while you're at it, so Shizune doesn't have to make another trip."
"Sure."
Minato gave a helpless smile and headed out.
He was so eager to learn the Rasengan that he couldn't wait to start training.
He didn't know why, but some instinct had led him to choose the Rasengan.
Minato didn't understand it, so he decided not to worry about it.
His best friend, Yueshu, lived that way.
There was no need to overthink things. He could put all that aside for now and focus on what he needed to do.
Live in the moment. That was something Minato had gradually learned from spending time with Yueshu.
As far as Minato could tell, his best friend, Himeshima Tsuki, might well have been the happiest person in all of Konoha.
He ate when he wanted, slept when he needed to, and didn't have too many worries. He was even strong enough that he didn't need to work himself to the bone like everyone else.
Minato knew there were two men in Konoha who wore green spandex and trained day and night. Just looking at the intensity of their training was enough to make anyone shudder. Even Minato had never heard of anything like it.
Minato admired them and was grateful to them, too. They had taught him not to rest, and that he should always keep striving.
It was impossible for ordinary people not to envy someone like Yueshu. Minato had felt that way once, too, but he hadn't let himself wallow in it. That wouldn't have been right.
Minato wouldn't allow himself to harbor envy—a feeling he knew he shouldn't have.
Ever since he'd met Yueshu, Minato had never beaten him. Yet in the original story, the Yellow Flash had swept across the battlefield without suffering a single defeat.
Every defeat in this life had come at Yueshu's hands.
The blond boy took a deep breath and headed toward his future, even though an unmatched prodigy stood ahead of him, seemingly impossible to catch up to.
This was Minato's ninja way.
The ninja way of chasing after someone.
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