Future Plans

"Mm... just minor burns and shock trauma. You've got a good constitution; one day of rest and you'll be fine."

"Thank you, but I..."

"Don't worry, your face is fine. It's just a shame about your hairstyle, but it'll grow back soon enough. Won't stop you from picking up girls."

The doctor had clearly misunderstood and left the ward with a smile.

Before leaving, he did not forget to give Minato a reminder.

"Oh, right. Make sure to thank those two kids. If they hadn't found you in time, that face of yours might've been scarred."

The moment his words fell.

The two boys standing at the door stiffened all over.

Just as the two of them were at a loss.

A figure came rushing over in a flurry, her red hair exceptionally eye-catching.

The woman looked frantic. As she passed the doorway, she had already caught sight of Minato inside.

But Minato, who had gone from flowing long hair to a burly buzz cut, was not recognized. The woman kept running ahead, but clearly failed to find the person she was looking for.

Before long, she vanished into the corridor.

"Sigh! She's in such a hurry. Who knows what her family's been through."

The doctor sighed, then shook his head and left.

Obito felt the same and sighed along with him.

"Sigh!"

But Hideki's heart jolted. He seemed to have thought of something.

Red hair... blond hair...

Could it really be such a coincidence?

The thought had barely surfaced when the woman turned back.

This time, she no longer searched by instinct. Instead, she followed the room numbers and checked them one by one.

After confirming Minato's room number, the woman first poked her head inside.

"Kushina, it's me..."

Minato's somewhat conflicted voice rang out.

Hideki's heart skipped a beat.

It really was Kushina!

Then the person in there...

Well, no wonder.

To stop Obito in that instant...

That speed had not gone to waste.

Obito's heart also tightened.

It was over. The injured party's family had come looking for them. She had looked so anxious just now—was she about to curse the two of them to death?

And yet...

"Pfft—!"

With a snort of laughter, Kushina came to the bedside, her eyes filled with both pain and amusement.

"Your hair... Pfft! Where did your hair go?"

"Ahem! It was an accident..." Minato wore a bitter smile.

"Are you okay?" Kushina laughed for quite a while before remembering the important matter and hurriedly asking.

The smile on Minato's face grew even more bitter...

"I'm fine. It's thanks to those two kids. If it hadn't been for them..."

As Minato spoke, he looked toward the two little heads peeking in at the doorway.

The two boys tensed up again.

"Is that so?" Kushina also looked at the two boys and waved them over. "Come in and let big sis take a look!"

"I heard about it downstairs just now. I really have to thank you two properly! I've decided—once Minato gets out of the hospital, how about I treat you both to a big meal?"

Hideki and Obito looked at each other, unsure how to answer for a moment.

Good grief. They had blown someone into the hospital, and they were still getting treated to a feast?

Can I make one impolite request and blow him up one more time?

"What... are your names?"

Minato spoke from the side. His gaze was somewhat complicated at first, but it soon became a faintly amused smile as he looked at them.

"My name is... Obito. Obito Uchiha."

"My name is Hideki. Just Hideki."

Having only a given name and no surname was not actually rare in Konoha.

Even some great clans concealed their surnames when living anonymously, like Tsunade.

But Hideki had no surname simply because he did not have one. He was not worthy of one... just an ordinary civilian through and through.

Like Jiraiya and Orochimaru.

"Obito, Hideki..." Minato murmured, quietly memorizing their names.

Then, under Obito's increasingly nervous expression and Hideki's increasingly complicated gaze, he suddenly smiled.

"Thank you for this."

The little sun bloomed with a radiant smile. Even that buzz cut could not diminish his charm.

Obito's whole body shook, and his eyes immediately reddened.

Hideki did not feel much at first. Once he had confirmed that it was Minato, he had relaxed.

But after glancing at Obito beside him, he still put on a show and pursed his lips.

"Alright, it's settled then!" Kushina clapped her hands together, easing the strange atmosphere.

"This guy can't leave the hospital for now, so I'll take you two out for a big meal instead!"

"How about Ichiraku Ramen?"

Minato: ...

"Hokage-sama, I'm sorry, I..."

While Kushina took the two boys out for ramen.

Buzz-cut Minato hurriedly checked himself out of the hospital and went to the Hokage Building.

But it was already late. He had been unconscious for four or five hours alone.

"No matter. I already sent ANBU in your place... Are you alright, Minato?" Hiruzen Sarutobi waved a hand and asked with concern.

Minato's face was full of shame. "I'm fine. I was just careless. I didn't expect..."

"Haha."

Seeing his dejected grandstudent, Hiruzen Sarutobi laughed heartily.

He already knew the rough details of what had happened.

Minato had been injured badly enough to be hospitalized, and he had been attacked within Konoha. This was no small matter.

Yet the investigation results were enough to make anyone laugh and cry.

Two groups of children arranging a fight had "accidentally injured" Minato, a Jonin.

Were kids these days really this fierce?

But soon, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Minato with interest.

"Minato... do you know what ANBU found while investigating the scene?"

Minato was stunned at first, but his expression quickly turned serious.

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not wait for an answer and directly revealed it.

"The traces left at the scene resembled an Explosive Tag, but they were not the same thing."

"Do you... understand what I mean?"

Minato nodded thoughtfully, and an unusual gleam flashed in his eyes. "Indeed, it wasn't an Explosive Tag."

"If it had been an Explosive Tag, I couldn't have gotten away with only these injuries... Then it may have been a jutsu."

As Minato spoke, his expression became strange again.

The question was.

What kind of jutsu came in a bottle and was ignited with a firecracker?

"I don't know about that. There were indeed faint traces of chakra at the scene, but they weren't obvious."

"Since someone has already taken over your mission, you can use this time to look into it."

"Maybe it could even help with the hand-signless ninjutsu you've been researching lately."

Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a faint smile.

Minato's expression sharpened. "Yes!"

Night.

After eating a huge bowl of undeserved noodles, Hideki bid a heavy farewell to the troubled Obito and returned home.

For once, he did not refine chakra, abandoning his usual principle of working harder because he lacked talent.

Mainly because Kushina had been too enthusiastic, and both he and Obito had eaten until they were stuffed...

Lying on the roof, he looked at the scattered stars and the solitary moon.

Hideki had none of the complicated feelings of lowering his head and thinking of home, nor any interest in inviting his shadow to drink with him.

He was thinking about his future.

"The power of Hydrogen Release... not bad, huh?"

Minato's fate today made that clear.

If the amount had been just a little larger, even Explosive Tags would have had to step aside!

And the most critical issues—activation time and timing—would be solved sooner or later.

They were nothing more than matters of proficiency and ninjutsu level.

He would get there eventually.

What troubled him was not that, but two kinds of "quantity": the quantity that determined Hydrogen Release's maximum scale, and the quantity that determined its maximum power.

One was amount, and the other was quality.

Amount was simply his chakra reserves. That was not something talent could make up for; it could only be made up for with bloodline.

There was no shortage of solutions—Eight Gates plus Creation Rebirth plus the Yin Seal. A chakra perpetual-motion machine might theoretically be possible.

It would just be rather brutal on the user.

But the water needed for Hydrogen Release could not be Water Release created purely from chakra.

He had tried it. It was merely a form of energy expression and could not be electrolyzed.

Nor could he always rely on borrowing water from nature and electrolyzing it into a hydrogen-oxygen mixture.

If he did, then like ordinary Water Release ninja, he would be easily restricted by terrain.

He had also thought of a solution: Yang Release.

Yang Release could grant chakra a certain degree of creative power. The reason the First Hokage's Wood Release could remain after the ninjutsu was dispelled was because of Yang Release.

In theory, Water Release infused with Yang Release should also be able to persist.

And learning Yang Release was not actually difficult.

The Eight Gates, or medical ninjutsu like the Mystical Palm Technique, were manifestations of Yang Release.

"So next, do I need to win over Might Guy?"

Hideki murmured.