Observation Haki Emerges, a Secret Spar with the Future Fourth Hokage

For the next three days, Minato Namikaze created a jaw-dropping spectacle at the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Every day, he came to school with an emerald-green leaf stuck to his forehead. Whether he was walking, eating, or even using the restroom, that leaf seemed to have grown onto his head.

On the first day, the leaf fell from his forehead forty-seven times. Each time it fell, Minato patiently picked it up and stuck it back on.

On the second day, the number of times it fell dropped sharply to twenty-three.

By the third day, it had fallen only five times over the entire morning.

During practical class, the chunin instructor finally could not stand it any longer. Pointing at the leaf trembling gently in the wind on Minato's forehead, he questioned him about it. Minato grinned and scratched the back of his head, brushing it off by saying he was practicing chakra control. The chunin instructor opened his mouth but did not lecture him further. He merely turned around and added a heavily emphasized note to the remarks column of the evaluation roster.

On the training field, the children of other clans were still smugly celebrating whenever their kunai and shuriken barely hit the targets, praising each other nonstop. Meanwhile, this civilian-born student had already begun practicing high-level chakra fine control. A genius's growth curve was so steep that it simply defied reason.

By comparison, Uchiha En's grades were stable to an outrageous degree.

In shuriken throwing, he always calculated his strength and angle perfectly. Every throw landed right at the very edge of the wooden target, never missing and inviting ridicule, but never touching the bullseye either. During the Three Body Techniques assessment, his Clone Technique always produced a wooden dummy with a blurred face and missing limbs, something that looked like it would fall apart in a gust of wind. In physical fitness tests, he consistently ranked in the middle to lower end of the group, and his panting performance looked even more convincing than the real thing.

Only in theoretical classes did his written scores dominate the rankings. Whether it was ninja world history, tactical deduction, or terrain analysis, he always scored above ninety-eight.

En's specialty was precise score control. He was building himself the image of an academic type.

In this cannibalistic ninja world, the way of moderation was absolutely a technical skill. Perform too poorly, and you could easily be singled out by your clan as a negative example, criticized, or even discarded. Stand out too much, and you would draw the excessive attention of the higher-ups, like maggots clinging to bone. Only by staying in the range of "smart but physically useless" could one best avoid notice and feel completely safe.

On the third day, the dismissal bell rang right on time.

As the crowd streamed away like a receding tide, Minato did not head for the civilian district he usually frequented. Instead, like a little tail, he followed far behind En.

The two walked one after the other in silence through three bustling streets. When they reached a rarely traveled fork at the edge of the clan grounds, En suddenly stopped.

Five minutes earlier, his ever-active Observation Haki sensory net had already firmly caught that living creature deliberately suppressing its breathing, though its heart was beating cheerfully with excitement.

He turned around, shoved his hands into his pockets, and sighed helplessly.

A tuft of golden hair poked out from the shadows by the wall. Seeing that he had been discovered, Minato wore an odd expression, part awkward embarrassment at being caught and part stubbornness like an unyielding mule.

"Where do you go after school?" Minato simply stepped openly out of the shadows and asked directly. "I've been following you for a long time. Every day, you avoid the main streets and deliberately take deserted alleys. En, I don't mean anything by it."

En rolled his eyes inwardly. This kid's observational skills were viciously sharp. He usually looked carefree, like a sunny and cheerful boy, but that tenaciously sharp instinct of his was already the solid foundation of the future Fourth Hokage.

"You've been secretly training on your own." Without waiting for En to answer, Minato stated his conclusion with certainty. Then his eyes lit up as he leaned closer. "Take me with you."

En stared at him for two seconds. Getting a free sparring partner was not merely a guaranteed profit—it was an absolute steal.

What did En lack most right now? Close-combat experience! The Magma-Magma Fruit certainly had an extremely high ceiling, and Logia types were even known as natural disasters, but his current physique could not keep up, and he had no foundation in hand-to-hand combat. If he encountered an agile assassin who got close, he could easily suffer badly. And Minato Namikaze, one of the top taijutsu talents in the academy, had quick reactions and incredible speed. He could not have been more suitable as a sparring partner.

"Fine." En spat out two words.

Minato's eyes instantly lit up like two searchlights.

"But first, we set a rule. Whatever you see from now on, bury it deep in your stomach. You are not allowed to mention it to anyone, including whatever teacher you might have in the future." En's gaze turned unusually serious.

"I don't have a teacher yet." Minato scratched his head and smiled innocently.

"You will sooner or later." En curled his lip and turned to lead the way.

Thirty minutes later, they arrived at a concealed, unnamed clearing on the outskirts of the Forest of Death.

"Today, we're only practicing taijutsu." En took off his faded, washed-out jacket and casually tossed it onto a tree branch beside him. He rolled his neck and loosened his wrists.

Minato immediately nodded, instantly losing that cheeky grin. He bent his knees slightly and assumed the most textbook-perfect taijutsu opening stance taught at the academy. In an instant, his gaze became as sharp as an eagle's.

En formed no hand seals and assumed no stance. He merely took a deep breath.

Observation Haki, fully unleashed!

Within the sensory net in En's mind, Minato's bright cluster of life signs remained steady and fluid. One second later, that cluster of light suddenly contracted.

His opponent moved.

A twelve-year-old body erupted with acceleration far beyond what his peers could hope to match. In the blink of an eye, Minato had closed in, a fierce straight punch tearing through the air as it shot directly for En's face!

The fighting knowledge from his previous life told En that there were always signs before the human body exerted force. The shoulders, waist, even shifts in one's center of gravity could expose intent. But with a ninja's speed, the naked eye could not catch those signs in time. By the time you saw them, the fist had already smashed your nose flat.

Only Observation Haki could perceive things beyond the range of sight.

Upper left, seventy percent force, center of gravity not committed—this was a classic probing step.

These predictive details had already formed clearly in En's mind 0.3 seconds before Minato threw his punch.

En merely tilted his head slightly. The fist wind barely brushed past his ear, even stirring several strands of black hair.

Minato's sure-hit attack missed, and a flash of disbelief crossed his eyes. Seizing that fleeting opening, En lowered his center of gravity and swept out with his right leg like an iron bar!

This strike carried the strength of the Magma-Magma Fruit's initial physical enhancement—enough to snap even a solid wooden stump with one kick! The sweep forced Minato to abruptly halt his forward momentum. The muscles in his legs erupted with astonishing power as he leaped upward.

There was nowhere to brace himself in midair, but Minato forcibly relied on his incredible core strength to flip his body around. He carved a full moon through the air, then brought down a crushing axe kick from above!

En did not retreat. He directly raised his arms and blocked it with his forearms.

"Bang!"

Bone and flesh collided with a dull explosive crack. The tremendous force traveled through their arms, and both were pushed back two steps by the recoil. En shook his numb arms, a trace of excitement blazing in his eyes.