Light Wheel Popsicle Launching Whirlwind Jiraiya Twin-Style Ball

On the screen.

In the dream, Naruto looked at the "father" before him, who had the same hair color and eye color as him, with equal parts surprise and familiarity on his face.

Huh? Who is this uncle...? I feel like... I've seen him somewhere before? He looks so familiar...

Naruto had always been at the bottom of the class, so he never read the textbooks.

As for Hokage Rock... asking him to memorize the statues' faces and match them to real people was simply making things difficult for him. He usually remembered even his classmates' faces by giving them nicknames.

Looking at the living, breathing Minato now, he only felt an unusual sense of closeness and familiarity. He never connected him to that legendary hero at all.

He merely watched blankly as Minato walked over, washed his hands, then sat down between him and "Mom" with a smile.

"All right, let's eat."

Kushina picked up her chopsticks and enthusiastically placed a huge, glistening piece of braised pork belly into Naruto's bowl. "Naruto, eat more. Look how skinny you are. Today is the big day you became a genin, so make sure you fill up."

Minato also smiled as he gave Naruto a golden fried chicken drumstick. "That's right. Being a ninja is hard work. You need plenty of nutrition."

"Mm! Mm!" Naruto looked at the food piled into a small mountain in his bowl, then at his "dad" and "mom" smiling gently beside him. He felt as though he had entered heaven.

He nodded vigorously, picked up his chopsticks, and began wolfing down his food.

Even though he knew this might be a dream...

The food Dad and Mom gave him... was really, really delicious!

This feeling of being cared for, being loved, of a family sitting around a table together for a meal... was real.

Naruto ate this meal with incomparable joy and satisfaction.

He felt that it was the most delicious meal he had ever eaten in his life.

It was even... a hundred times better than Ichiraku Ramen's ramen.

A goofy smile remained on his face from beginning to end, and he looked so happy that he seemed about to melt.

[Ding! Emotional fluctuation from Naruto Uzumaki detected! Emotion Points +2000!!]

[Ding! Naruto Uzumaki's deepest obsession/dream Having dinner with his parents has been perfectly fulfilled in the dream instance!]

[Congratulations, Host! Special reward triggered! One-time Emotion Points obtained: 10000!]

"Holy shit!! Ten thousand points?!"

Shigure, hidden in the darkness, nearly bit his tongue in excitement when he saw the number on the system panel shoot up.

"I'm rich, I'm rich! This time, I really hit the jackpot!"

"So... touching the deepest obsessions in someone's heart is the best way to obtain huge amounts of Emotion Points. I'll have to study my various 'clients' psychological needs more in the future. At least my psychology degree wasn't for nothing."

Seeing his total Emotion Points instantly rise to nearly twenty thousand, Shigure felt that he had taken another huge step toward exchanging for advanced bloodlines and ninjutsu.

In the audience.

Kakashi looked at the warm scene of the family of three happily eating together on the screen, his gaze incredibly complicated.

If Minato-sensei and Kushina-senpai had not sacrificed themselves that night twelve years ago...

Then this kind of life should have been Naruto's everyday reality...

He would have grown up like an ordinary child under his parents' love. He would have acted spoiled, complained, and enjoyed everything that should have belonged to him...

An indescribable sorrow and regret welled up in Kakashi's heart once again.

[Ding! Emotional fluctuation from Kakashi Hatake detected! Emotion Points +500!]

In the dream, the warm dinner soon came to an end.

Naruto rubbed his round belly and sat on his stool, giggling foolishly. He felt so happy that he was about to faint.

Minato stood up and began skillfully clearing the dishes from the table. Smiling, he said to Naruto, "Naruto, now that you're full, you can't just sit there. Come on, you're a man now too. Let's wash the dishes."

"Huh? Wash the dishes?" Naruto did not react at first.

Minato winked and gave him a mischievous smile. "Of course! We can't let Mom work hard all by herself, can we? We need to help her with the housework."

"Oh, okay, okay!" Naruto finally understood. He immediately jumped down from his stool and answered excitedly, "I'll help Mom wash the dishes!"

Thus, father and son went together to the kitchen sink.

Minato was in charge of scrubbing the pots, while Naruto was responsible for washing the grease-covered bowls and plates.

Naruto had grown up either eating instant noodles or Ichiraku Ramen. He had hardly ever cooked for himself, let alone washed dishes. His movements were clumsy—either knocking over plates or getting himself covered in soap suds.

But he did not find it annoying in the slightest. Instead, he enjoyed every moment of it.

Doing housework with Dad... felt so nice.

Just as Naruto hummed a tune and awkwardly battled the greasy dishes, Minato, who was scrubbing a pot beside him, suddenly spoke in a mysterious tone.

"Oh, right, Naruto."

"Hmm? What is it, Dad?"

Minato stopped what he was doing, turned around, and smiled at Naruto. "To celebrate you officially becoming a genin today, Dad has decided... to teach you an incredibly powerful ninjutsu!"

"Huh? An incredibly powerful ninjutsu?" Naruto's eyes lit up, but he soon became confused again.

Can I... learn ninjutsu in a dream too?

Minato smiled mysteriously and kept him in suspense. "Once you finish washing the dishes, we'll go to the backyard."

He even added proudly, "This ninjutsu took Dad three whole years to create. It's extremely, extremely powerful, and it has a really cool name too."

Naruto became even more curious, though he still felt that something was strange.

Learning a powerful ninjutsu Dad created himself... in a dream?

No matter how he thought about it... it seemed kind of unreliable.

In the audience.

"A self-created ninjutsu?" Sakura grew interested as well and asked curiously, "Did the Fourth Hokage create some powerful ninjutsu?"

She looked toward Sasuke and Kakashi beside her.

Sasuke shook his head, indicating that he did not know.

The history textbooks at the Ninja Academy mostly focused on the Fourth Hokage's speed as the Yellow Flash and his heroic sacrifice in sealing the Nine-Tails. There was not much description of the specific ninjutsu he excelled at or created himself.

Sakura curled her lips and muttered, "When all is said and done, this is probably still just something Naruto that idiot imagined, right? How could he possibly be the Fourth Hokage's son? If he were the Fourth Hokage's son, how could he have had such a miserable childhood? The Fourth Hokage was a hero who sacrificed himself to save the village. Naruto... must just be dreaming that he is the son of a hero."

Listening to Sakura's logical analysis, Kakashi let out another helpless sigh.

There were simply too many complicated reasons and unavoidable circumstances involved in Naruto's background, as well as the Third Hokage's arrangements for him back then.

Even Kakashi himself did not fully understand them.

But at this moment, he was becoming less and less convinced that everything before him was merely Naruto's "dream"!

A powerful ninjutsu Minato-sensei... created himself...

Kakashi's heart suddenly clenched.

As Minato's most prized former student, how could he possibly not know his teacher's trump card technique?!

Not only did he know exactly what it was! He could even use it himself! Though... not perfectly.

That was why he had used that technique as a reference to invent a ninjutsu better suited to himself.

Could it be...

Was it really that jutsu?!

Kakashi's brow furrowed even more deeply.

He stared fixedly at the screen.

On the screen.

The dream scene had already shifted to the backyard of that warm little home.

Could learning ninjutsu in a dream really work?

Still, since he was with Dad, anything was fine.

Looking at the gentle smile on his "father's" face, he decided to cooperate enthusiastically.

Minato mysteriously extended his right hand, palm facing upward.

The next moment—

Buzz.

Without any warning.

A pale blue sphere of chakra energy, spinning at high speed, suddenly appeared in his palm!

The blue orb spun rapidly, giving off a faint yet distinctive hum. Even the surrounding air seemed to be drawn by it, twisting visibly before their eyes.

In the audience.

The instant that blue orb appeared.

Kakashi froze completely, as if he had been struck by a paralysis jutsu! His pupils shrank to their limit in an instant!

"It, it really is...!"

He could no longer remain calm. He abruptly rose from his seat again.

"Rasengan!"

[Ding! Emotional fluctuation from Kakashi Hatake detected! Emotion Points +1000!]

That was right. It was the Rasengan.

It was the ultimate hand-sign-free A-rank secret technique that his teacher, Minato Namikaze, had finally developed after spending three entire years observing the principles of the Tailed Beast Ball—perfectly combining the pinnacle of shape transformation with high-density chakra!

This was absolutely not a coincidence.

What made Kakashi's scalp tingle even more was—

The way Minato-sensei displayed the Rasengan, the method he used to gather chakra, even that gentle smile on his face as he prepared to teach his disciple his ultimate technique...

Were all exactly the same as when, years ago...

Shortly after Kakashi had become a jonin, Minato-sensei had called him alone to the training ground one evening and shown him the Rasengan for the first time, teaching it to him...

It was identical!

This was absolutely, absolutely not something a simple dream could replicate.

The Rasengan was Minato-sensei's unique self-created ninjutsu. Its principles and training method were extremely complicated. His teacher had died young and never had the chance to spread this technique.

In the entire ninja world, aside from his teacher himself, only Kakashi and Jiraiya should truly have mastered this jutsu by now.

How could Naruto possibly see such an accurate, realistic... Rasengan lesson in a dream?!

This was not genjutsu, nor was it an ordinary dream.

This... existence controlling everything behind the scenes...

Who exactly was it?

Kakashi felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

He had originally planned to observe a little longer and report to the Third Hokage after gathering more clues.

But now...

No!

He could not wait any longer!

The strangeness of this matter had already far exceeded his understanding.

He had to immediately! At once! Report everything that had happened here to the Third Hokage exactly as it was!

Perhaps...

Only the Third Hokage, hailed as the "Professor" for his mastery of all ninjutsu, could find the answer and unravel this mystery!

Kakashi took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the storm raging in his heart. Clearly, he had already made a decision.