Minato Namikaze had realized he was different from a very young age.
It was not because others often called him a genius or praised his excellence, but because he saw things differently from everyone else.
In terms he would learn later, Minato Namikaze's worldview had been different from other people's since childhood.
He had not come from a prominent family, nor did he possess a kekkei genkai.
His parents had been nothing more than an ordinary Konoha genin and a villager.
A simple C-Rank Mission had left them unable to ever return to the village.
An ordinary mission, the village stepping in to settle matters, a simple funeral, and then their child receiving compensation... that had been the entirety of Minato's parents' lives as ordinary people.
Their deaths had taught the young Minato Namikaze early on what it meant to lose his parents.
But that experience was hardly rare.
At least, as far as he could see, people like him were everywhere in the village.
It seemed to be the fate of most ninja. Without his parents' care or the protection of a prominent family, his young self had no choice but to enter the Ninja Academy and follow the same cycle as his parents.
He was observant.
When he saw people with experiences similar to his own spending their days crying in grief, the young Minato noticed his nose would sting, and sadness would rise in his heart unbidden.
Later, his teacher Jiraiya told him.
That was called empathy. It meant he had a rich emotional life and could feel other people's emotions.
But the young Minato did not yet understand. He only knew that when he saw someone cry, the people around them would cry too, and he would want to cry himself.
There was nothing wrong with