Nawaki was the truly impressive one, practically a trap-finding machine. Wherever he went, there was bound to be a trap. One look at his torn clothes told you just how many he had set off.
Trap-finding machines in the Shinobi World relied on keen observation, like Minato Namikaze.
Nawaki simply triggered them himself. If there was a trap, he was sure to set it off.
"Minato, do you think specializing in traps would be pretty good for me?" Nawaki asked dejectedly.
He was starting to want to switch to studying traps.
Chapter 21: Go Easy on My Own Little Brother
"You really are a sorry sight."
A gloating voice rang out. The light of the moon and stars illuminated the tree, as well as the figure standing in it.
Hyuga Akira stood on a branch, looking down at the three of them.
Nawaki and Kushina were both dressed in tatters and hanging upside down from the tree, looking utterly miserable.
Even Minato Namikaze, who was trying to free the two of them, had damaged clothes.
The three of them looked just like beggars now.
Akira threw two Shuriken, striking the ropes wrapped around their ankles with precision.
The two of them fell to the ground with a pair of thuds.
Kushina looked furious. "Just how many traps did you put here?"
She had lost all composure. She sprang up from the ground, ready to fight Hyuga Akira to the death.
But just as she barely reached the height of the branch, Hyuga Akira acted in time...
He flicked Kushina on the forehead, sending her straight back toward the ground.
"Not that many, really. Just fifty thousand ryo's worth." He had spent all of Nawaki's money making the traps here.
Nawaki nearly fainted when he heard that. That was all his pocket money.
Minato Namikaze jumped up and caught Kushina in a bridal carry.
"Aah, let go of me!" Kushina struggled, her face red, and jumped out of Minato Namikaze's arms.
Minato Namikaze rubbed his nose with a finger. "Sorry."
"Who asked you to butt in?" Kushina snapped angrily at Minato Namikaze, the night hiding the blush on her face.
"You sissy."
Nawaki stepped forward and chopped Kushina on the forehead with the edge of his hand. "Be polite, Kushina."
Kushina held her forehead, gave a haughty "Hmph," and turned away so she did not have to look at Minato Namikaze.
Minato Namikaze scratched his cheek awkwardly. He had not expected such a strong reaction from Kushina.
Hyuga Akira sat down on the branch, swinging his dangling legs as he enjoyed a bun.
At the smell, all three of their stomachs growled at once.
"You have two days left. If you don't catch me, you'll be going hungry for three days," Hyuga Akira told them as he ate.
"Aaaah! Get him!" Kushina made to jump into the tree.
As a student in the lower grades, she had yet to master tree climbing, and she had completely forgotten the pain of that flick to her forehead.
Hyuga Akira held out a hand, ready to flick Kushina down just as he had before.
Minato Namikaze and Nawaki had not forgotten what had just happened to Kushina. They jumped at the same time, reaching for Hyuga Akira from either side.
Hyuga Akira did not continue his attack. Instead, he jumped straight up, heading higher into the tree.
"Don't run!" Kushina finally landed in the tree, her hair whipping about as though it had a life of its own.
The three hurried after Hyuga Akira.
Nawaki was the fastest. He leaped and was about to grab Hyuga Akira, but Akira jumped backward, dropping down instead.
Just as Nawaki was about to act, he looked down at the Explosive Tag on the branch.
"Again?"
Boom! An explosion roared, blasting Nawaki off the branch.
Minato Namikaze and Kushina jumped down from the branches, charging toward Hyuga Akira with steel wire stretched between their hands.
The darkness concealed the wire.
But even without his Byakugan, Hyuga Akira had good eyesight. He held out his hand, and a bronze saber appeared. He slashed at the wire, flames flaring along the blade as it instantly severed it.
Kushina and Minato Namikaze landed and charged at Hyuga Akira again.
Not to be outdone, Nawaki also charged toward Hyuga Akira upon landing.
The three surrounded him, cutting off his escape.
The corners of Hyuga Akira's mouth curled up.
[Experience 1][Experience 45][Experience 66]
Hyuga Akira put away his saber and looked at the three groaning on the ground.
"Not bad." He glanced at Minato Namikaze. He had not expected the little fellow to be so close to becoming a ninja.
Genin provided over a hundred experience points.
Sixty-six experience points was already not far from Genin.
He checked his Experience Pool.
[Experience Pool: 1370]
The bulk of his experience had come from the brown bear. The other wild beasts had provided twenty points at most, with the rest giving fewer than ten.
Even in the Forest of Death, ninja beasts were hard to come across.
If he wanted to keep finding wild beasts, he would have to venture deeper into the Forest of Death.
This was the first time Kushina and Minato Namikaze had provided him with experience, but since they had yet to reach the level of a ninja, it was better than nothing.
"Still..." Hyuga Akira lifted his foot. At some point, wire had wound around it, leading all the way to Minato Namikaze's hand.
He looked at Minato Namikaze. "You're pretty impressive."
Minato Namikaze had taken the opportunity to wrap the wire around him during their three-pronged attack. In truth, the wire could not accomplish much. It was not even wound tightly, and Hyuga Akira freed himself with a shake of his foot.
Since it posed no threat, he had failed to notice it at first.
His face bruised and swollen, Minato Namikaze rubbed his nose with a finger, then sucked in a breath, perhaps having touched an injury.
"I'll count that as a success."
"Yay!" Kushina cheered.
"Minato, you really are the man who'll inherit my will." Nawaki threw an arm around Minato Namikaze. He had to admit that this little brother of his was outstanding.
Once Nawaki graduated, Minato would stand at the pinnacle of the Ninja Academy: Minato Namikaze the Third.
"So, what do you want?" Hyuga Akira asked the three.
"Food," Minato Namikaze answered without hesitation.
Hyuga Akira did not go back on his word. He took out a bag of steaming buns and tossed it to the three. "These are yours."
After tossing them the buns, he jumped onto a branch and disappeared with a few leaps.
Nawaki and Kushina began wolfing down the buns without any regard for appearances.
They had not eaten all day. The three had originally planned to hunt, but the area was so full of traps that they could barely take a step.
"That's strange. These buns seem freshly made." Minato Namikaze took a bite of his bun.
Thinking of the bloodstains on Hyuga Akira, he did not look as though he had gone off to make buns.
Beside him, Nawaki said mysteriously, "My big brother has a magical treasure pouch. He can pull anything out of it. Never mind meat buns-he could even pull out a living person."
"Wow, that's amazing." Minato Namikaze's eyes lit up.
"How could that possibly happen?!" Kushina looked utterly unconvinced.
"Believe it or not." Nawaki rolled his eyes. He had seen his big brother pull plenty of things out of his pouch many times. He could even pull a spiked club out of a ninja tool pouch no bigger than a palm.
Pulling a person out was not impossible either.
He admitted he had exaggerated a little.
But he firmly believed it.
His big brother Hyuga Akira could definitely pull a person out of his pouch.
Hyuga Akira sneezed as he searched for wild beasts to farm experience.
"Who's talking about me?"
Chapter 22: Nawaki: A Mere Hokage? My Future Is to Rule the Shinobi World!
He farmed for two straight days.
Only then did Hyuga Akira barely manage to scrape together another 545 experience points.
Some had come from Minato Namikaze and Kushina, whom he had also farmed down to one experience point each.
The rest had come from the wild beasts in the Forest of Death. He had pretty much cleared out all the beasts in the outer area.
He had never encountered a second ninja beast.
The drops were all things like wolf fur, tiger pelts, and wild boar meat, none of much use.
"If I want to keep farming, I'll have to head deeper in."
In the end, Hyuga Akira could only give up and lead Nawaki and the other two out of the Forest of Death.
"We made it out alive." Kushina looked ready to cry but had no tears. Her once-pretty little face was covered in dust, her clothes were in tatters, and quite a few wounds were visible.
"We improved a lot this time, too." Minato Namikaze scratched his cheek. He felt as though these three days had completely transformed him.
Beside him, Hyuga Akira nodded. Minato Namikaze's strength had made a qualitative leap, refreshing his experience once more.
It had become 104 experience points, then 52 the second time, 26 the third... 13... 5... 1.
Kushina had not changed much. Her strength must have improved too, just not nearly as much as Minato Namikaze's.
As for Nawaki...
"I want Ichiraku Ramen." The idiot Nawaki rubbed his stomach, a silly grin spreading across his face.
"Let's go! My treat."
Hyuga Akira said quietly beside him, "I've already spent all your pocket money."
Nawaki instantly turned to stone. A cold breeze blew past, and tears of sorrow streamed down his face.
Nawaki's strength had improved quite a bit too, but it had yet to undergo a qualitative change. He still provided only one experience point, though he had become much more alert.
The way Nawaki is now, he probably won't get blown to death by Explosive Tags anymore, right?
Hyuga Akira gave Nawaki a doubtful look.
Probably not, right?
"My treat!" Kushina waved a hand. She had quite a bit of pocket money too.
Ichiraku Ramen.
"Another bowl, boss!" Kushina and Nawaki set down their empty bowls and shouted in unison.
Minato Namikaze stared at the pile of bowls beside them, lost in thought.
Hyuga Akira, however, said without the slightest concern, "Chakra is the product of combining physical and spiritual energy. People with vast amounts of chakra generally eat a lot."
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