Win over his stomach first

The seats by the window in the back row had become forbidden territory in the classroom ever since Kushina Uzumaki made a name for herself.

Hardly anyone dared walk past them all day.

The crowd that used to torment Minato Namikaze every day had now vanished without a trace.

The reason was simple.

The Konoha students she had knocked flat that day still remembered the cold sensation of a fist brushing past their cheeks.

That had been nothing like the restrained Taijutsu sparring at the Ninja Academy. Those were brutal, full-force blows that treated human bodies like punching bags.

Three punches shattered their loyalty to Konoha. Sir, I'm with the Uzumaki.

Even the students who hadn't taken a beating filled in the whole scene through their classmates' accounts.

Red hair flying, a shoulder throw taking her opponent down, a foot planted on his chest as she made her threats.

Every detail was embellished and passed around several times. By the end, everyone imagined Kushina Uzumaki as a terrifying, seven-foot monster who could smash a desk with one punch and whose red hair could wrap itself around an enemy's throat.

The good-natured Minato Namikaze had once been someone anyone could bully.

Blondie, orphan, hedgehog head-they threw all sorts of nasty nicknames at him. He never fought back, only smiled and asked whether they liked their lunch that day.

But no one dared push their luck anymore.

Throw a red-haired transfer student who could smash people like tomatoes into the mix, and everyone knew to reassess the risks.

No one was bored enough to gamble their spine on testing the Red-Hot Habanero's limits during recess.

A person only had one spine, but Kushina had more than one pair of fists to offer. Everyone could do that math.

But in Amamiya Maki's eyes, he was the biggest victim, not these Konoha brats.

Ever since Kushina Uzumaki stole Minato's seat that day, he hadn't enjoyed a single peaceful day in his own seat.

The redhead and the blond surrounded him every day, battling openly and behind the scenes, turning every trivial little matter into utter chaos.

Amamiya Maki's advice to "hit hard when trouble comes" seemed to have unlocked something deep inside Kushina.

She had fully embraced doing whatever she pleased.

If she liked something, she would take it for herself. That was her personal interpretation of Amamiya Maki's advice.

She had even swiped an ordinary pencil from inside Amamiya Maki's desk right then and there.

Amamiya Maki had used a kunai to carve three crooked characters into its shaft: hit hard.

Kushina's eyes lit up the instant she saw those words, and she pocketed it without a second thought.

From then on, she used only that pencil to take notes in class.

More than once, Amamiya Maki saw her tracing those three characters over and over in the margins of her textbook.

She kept tracing until the pencil tip pierced the paper, until the marks were practically engraved into the desktop, and still refused to stop.

Naturally, Minato Namikaze wasn't about to be outdone.

He had stayed by Amamiya Maki's side since the first day of school. He had earned that seat beside him through countless training sessions and endless teasing.

He had endured a whole semester of taunts like "yellow hedgehog" and "little orphan" to gain this close friend. Why should some red-haired transfer student who had just arrived be allowed to steal him away?

During recess, Minato often lay on his desk and pretended to sleep, but he never actually fell asleep.

Whenever Kushina entered the classroom through the back door, his ears twitched slightly.

Amamiya Maki's keen motion perception had caught that tiny movement several times.

Now, the first thing the two did upon meeting was never say hello. It was compete to claim the seat beside Amamiya Maki first.

Sometimes Minato arrived early and sat there practicing hand seals for over ten minutes, with an exquisite lunch box already laid out on the desk.

Sometimes Kushina got there first, tossed her bag onto Minato's seat, and sat beside it leisurely sharpening her pencil to stake her claim.

They stared at each other across an empty seat, neither speaking nor willing to yield.

An unspoken contest hung in the air, perceptible only to the two of them.

Unable to watch any longer, Amamiya Maki finally decided to end the farce himself.

He borrowed a third chair from Junji Ito, wedged it between the two seats, and calmly sat down.

Blond on his left, redhead on his right.

Amamiya Maki glanced from side to side, a note of impatience in his voice.

"Are you two done yet? Keep arguing, and I'll throw you both out."

[Detected: Host caused mental pressure to "Minato Namikaze." Pressure points +110]

[Detected: Host caused mental pressure to "Kushina Uzumaki." Pressure points +120]

[Obtained: Spatial Perception talent fragments ×50, Sealing Jutsu talent fragments ×50.]

Minato lowered his head in silence.

Kushina gave a haughty huff and turned her face away.

The two finally settled down.

Amamiya Maki leaned back in his chair, thinking this bloodless war over seating had finally ended.

But he soon discovered that no sooner had the seating issue been resolved than a whole new competition came knocking.

At every mealtime, two exquisite packed lunches appeared in front of him right on schedule.

Minato's cooking remained absurdly consistent.

His rice balls were firm and neatly shaped, his grilled fish cooked to perfection, and the colors of his side dishes were a textbook example of good presentation.

Every dish was plated so beautifully it could have gone straight into a cooking magazine.

He had a particular habit when cooking: whenever he finished mixing a sauce, he dipped his chopsticks into it and dabbed a little onto the inside of his wrist.

He let the warmth of his wrist heat it slightly before tasting it himself.

He had worked out this technique on his own. The skin on the inside of the wrist was especially sensitive to temperature, allowing him to judge precisely how the sauce would feel and taste in his mouth.

Kushina's cooking skills, meanwhile, were the product of recent intensive training.

She had specifically sought Mito Uzumaki's guidance to learn the Uzumaki Clan's secret stock recipe.

The first time she made the stock, she stood at the stove skimming foam and adjusting the heat for an entire afternoon. Even when her feet went numb from standing, she never once complained of fatigue.

Granny Mito sat nearby drinking tea, occasionally raising a hand to offer a few pointers and correct her heat or ingredients.

She never complained about the hard work, because she knew Minato never complained about cooking for his friends either.

From that day on, a packed-lunch arms race officially began, with Amamiya Maki's stomach as its central battlefield.

When Minato added diced beef to his rice balls, Kushina put abalone straight into her lunch box the next day.

When Minato switched to a better-quality soy sauce, Kushina immediately countered with the secret stock Mito had personally taught her.

Not to be outdone, Minato secretly developed new dishes, hiding sauce-coated fried chicken at the bottom of his lunch box.

He mixed ground Sichuan pepper into the coating. One bite broke through the crisp exterior into tender meat, releasing an explosion of savory-sweet juices that could splatter onto the desk opposite.

Kushina countered with her trump card, bringing an entire, carefully grilled teriyaki eel the very next day.

The competition grew more and more frenzied.

Whenever Amamiya Maki looked down at the food heaped high in his bowl, a piece of fried shrimp hovered on his left and a piece of grilled eel on his right.

Both of them watched him, waiting to see whose offering he would eat first.

Whichever piece he ate first would decide who won that day.