They bustled around until a little past five in the evening, and Minato brought Xue Ge to a restaurant and sat him down.
"What kind of flavors do you like, or is there anything you can't eat?" Minato was treating.
Xue Ge shook his head, looking somewhat blank. He hadn't eaten a proper meal in four years.
After casually ordering a few dishes, Minato began writing and sketching in the notebook he carried with him.
After a long silence, Xue Ge spoke up and asked, "Are ninja missions all this boring?"
Today, the two of them had done five D-rank missions-three cats found, two fields plowed. Xue Ge felt as though he had returned to his poverty-alleviation days in the past.
"Of course not, these are just D-rank missions." Minato shook his head. "Still, you're only a student after all. C-rank and higher missions should still be difficult for you, and they take time. You only have two days, so of course we're doing D-rank missions."
"You're a Jonin, right?" Xue Ge said. "Isn't it a waste to use your precious time to accompany me?"
"You can't look at it that way." Minato smiled and said, "I used to be a kid just like you, everyone was. We can't just have no one care about you future pillars of Konoha, right? Cultivating the future of Konoha can also be considered a high-difficulty mission."
"Besides, I'm a ninja of the village, so how could I possibly refuse an order from Lord Hokage?"
Xue Ge was speechless for a moment.
The ninjas he had known in the past were either bottomless, gloomy veterans like Danzo, or straightforward efficiency fanatics. The most unusual one was Hatake Sakumo, but even though he was gentle, when it came to ninja matters he was quite rigid.
Yet Minato was different from them. It was the first time Xue Ge had seen such a gentle ninja; throughout the entire day, he had been as patient and tolerant as an older brother caring for a younger sibling.
So ninjas weren't simply killing machines.
After another moment of silence, Xue Ge watched as Minato seemed to fall into deep thought, and took the initiative to ask, "Are you having some difficulty?"
"Ah, well..." Minato seemed a bit troubled. "This might be a bit early for you... But never mind, take a look, consider it a preview."
With that, he took his notebook and sat next to Xue Ge, pointing with his pen at a spherical pattern on it.
"Do you know about Ninjutsu?" "I do." "Then do you know about seal-less Ninjutsu?" "I know the concept." "Well, I'm currently developing a seal-less Ninjutsu."
Minato tapped the paper: "This Ninjutsu only has a concept for now. I want to see if I can achieve a destructive effect directly by manipulating Chakra to flow outside the body, bypassing control within the body."
"Abandoning nature transformation?" Xue Ge asked directly.
Minato's eyes lit up. Xue Ge's question was of a high standard and somewhat unexpected.
"It can't really be considered abandoning it, but initial research should be streamlined, so it can be omitted for now depending on the circumstances."
"That means relying solely on shape transformation..." Xue Ge pondered. "This sketch, a sphere?"
"Mhm, if it's a sphere, you can hold it lightly in your hand or push it, plus its aerodynamic performance is good, so it flies far when thrown." Minato nodded. "The problem is, how do you control the Chakra so that it both easily turns into a sphere and has destructive power? Compression and explosion?"
Minato actually had a reason for thinking this way. When he and Jiraiya were developing this Ninjutsu together, the initial concept came from the Tailed Beast Bomb, and the explosive release of a Tailed Beast Bomb was an explosion!
"Why develop a seal-less Ninjutsu?" Xue Ge suddenly asked.
"This has to do with my combat style; I need my speed to be fast enough." Minato didn't answer the question directly either. At present, he had only recently learned the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Minato didn't answer the question directly, and Xue Ge could understand. He continued to ask, "Then what is the target of this technique...?"
"People." The answer to this question was very direct.
"Is it only targeted at people?" Xue Ge narrowed his eyes. "In other words, rather than destructive power, you consider damage area and attack speed more?"
"Putting it that way isn't wrong. Although most ninjas have very strong defensive Ninjutsu, flesh and blood are still very fragile." Minato nodded in agreement.
The next second, he reacted abruptly, covering his face in slight embarrassment.
I'm actually seriously discussing Ninjutsu development with a little kid...
"Then use a rotational method." Xue Ge suddenly said.
Minato froze for a moment: "Rotation?"
"Rotation can tear flesh, it can loop back onto itself, and it's easy to heal into an integrated whole." Xue Ge said.
Rotational lethality was astonishingly terrifying-of course, that was under the condition that the target was a creature of flesh and blood. However, Xue Ge mainly said this considering the speed requirement Minato mentioned; spinning alone would certainly be faster than shaping it into any specific form.
Although Xue Ge didn't quite understand why he didn't just simply knead the Chakra together and smash it out-once it exploded it would still harm people and the speed would be fast, instead of bothering with a seal-less Ninjutsu that, in his view, had no substantive difference from directly throwing raw Chakra-perhaps Minato, as a veteran ninja, knew more things.
As he spoke, he drew on Minato's notebook.
"Rotation. If this point hits a person, it can twist and tear the skin, and the pulling force can also snap bones and muscles, easily causing huge wounds on the surface."
Minato frowned. Countless thoughts seemed to be spinning rapidly in his mind, and he even muttered under his breath, "This... hiss... it actually seems feasible..."
The look he gave Xue Ge carried a hint of uncertainty and amazement. Could it be that he was a genius at Ninjutsu?
"You... have experience in developing Ninjutsu?"
"...I suppose I have a little."
Researching and modifying Ninjutsu on his own naturally gave him experience, but it was basically all armchair theory.
He took a scroll from his waist, unrolled it, and explained his situation to Minato.
"Does a physical disability mean you need to modify techniques?" Minato smiled and patted Xue Ge's back. "Isn't that simple?"
"?"
Xue Ge raised an eyebrow.
"Ahem, Lord Third is known as the Professor of Ninjutsu, a Shinobi Hero proficient in the Five Basic Nature Transformations. I'll find Lord Third for you later and have him help out." Minato said in a relaxed tone.
"Then why didn't you look for Lord Hokage when you were developing your seal-less Ninjutsu?" Xue Ge felt like he was about to get Kakashi's deadpan eyes.
"For one thing, I am an independent ninja after all, and it's not good to keep bothering Lord Third with these things." Minato explained. "Secondly, what Lord Third excels at is the study of Chakra properties, and he leans more toward the application of seals. Therefore, seal-less Ninjutsu is not the Third's research direction."
Xue Ge nodded, considering the explanation accepted.
"You're just a student, so Lord Hokage probably wouldn't begrudge helping you out."
Minato continued, "However, rather than having Chakra flow adapt to Ninjutsu, having Ninjutsu adapt to Chakra flow... this idea is truly creative. People who developed Ninjutsu in the past seemed to always think of the effect of the Ninjutsu first and then figure out how to execute it. If you think in reverse like this..."
"Conventional Ninjutsu can be learned by everyone, but it's divided by difficulty." Xue Ge also vaguely realized something. "If we use this kind of thinking..."
"The Ninjutsu you research will be extremely adaptable and convenient for you personally, but for others, it might be as hard as reaching the heavens." Minato said softly, "You might have thought of an entirely new path, Xue Ge."
Xue Ge shut his mouth; he felt the topic was drifting somewhat beyond the scope of what he could comprehend.
Just as the two wanted to explore the topic of Ninjutsu a bit further, the restaurant waiter began serving the dishes.
Seeing this, Xue Ge and Minato each put away their paper and pens.
"Then let's stop here for now," Minato let out a long breath. "There's no rush; we can chat when we have time. Let's eat first."