After school that afternoon, at the Academy gates—
Standing behind Kizaru, Yoshihiko kept sneaking glances at Namikaze Minato beside him.
Damn it...
Back then, he had begged his Kizaru-nii to let him train with him, but Kizaru had never agreed.
And yet today, the moment Namikaze Minato asked, Kizaru had said yes.
What was so special about this blond guy that Kizaru-nii was willing to take care of him like this?
"Damn it... seriously, what's so great about him..."
Just as Yoshihiko was muttering under his breath, Yuki and Tannin, who had gotten out of class a little later, arrived at the gate.
"What are you mumbling about now?" Yuki asked the moment she walked up beside him.
"Tch." Hearing her voice, Yoshihiko turned his head away and stared up at the sky like he hadn't heard a thing.
Seeing him get stubborn again, Yuki couldn't be bothered with him. She stepped past him and went straight to Kizaru.
"Kizaru-nii!"
Yuki called out sweetly, a bright smile already on her face.
"Now that everyone's here, come along. I'll train with you today," Kizaru said with a smile, reaching out to pat her on the head.
Train together?
Yuki froze for a second.
Then joy burst inside her heart.
Wonderful... really so wonderful.
Even though she was thrilled, she still forced herself to keep a proper, ladylike smile on her face.
"This is Namikaze Minato, my classmate. He'll be training with us from now on too," Kizaru said, taking the initiative to introduce him instead of leaving Minato standing there awkwardly.
"Hello, Minato-san. My name is Shimura Yuki. Please take care of me from now on."
The smile on Yuki's face stiffened just a little, but her greeting remained perfectly graceful.
When did this blond suddenly show up? she screamed inwardly.
At that moment, Yuki instantly understood why Yoshihiko had been standing off to the side earlier, muttering to himself with such a dark expression.
"Hello, Yuki-san!" Minato replied at once with his usual warm smile.
"It's getting late, so let's go. Yoshihiko, Tannin, get moving."
With Kizaru leading the way, the group of five left the school gate together.
Since this was Minato's first time joining them and he wasn't familiar with the Shimura clan grounds, Kizaru didn't take them to the clan's private training area.
And considering the short legs of the four little ones trailing behind him, he also gave up on taking them all the way out to the forest training ground beyond the village.
Instead, Kizaru chose a smaller training field behind the Hokage Rock, not too far from the Academy.
Kizaru walked in front.
The gentle Tannin naturally drifted closer to Minato and began talking to him, while Yoshihiko, for once, ended up walking beside Yuki.
At the back of the group, the two little Shimura glared at Minato's back, then looked at each other.
Neither spoke.
They didn't need to.
Their eyes were saying enough.
Yuki: Where did this blond come from? Why is Kizaru-nii letting him train with us?
Yoshihiko: How should I know?
Yuki: Then what do you know?
Yoshihiko: Nothing!
"Idiot," Yuki muttered under her breath without mercy.
"The hell did you say?!" Yoshihiko snapped back instantly.
"Hmph."
Yuki gave a cold snort, then quickened her pace and trotted up to Kizaru's side, taking his right hand without hesitation.
The moment Yoshihiko saw that, he nearly exploded.
Grinding his teeth, he stomped forward and grabbed Kizaru's left hand.
"Hmph!"
"Hmph!"
The two children snorted at each other like rival cats.
Following just behind them, Minato's usual gentle smile faltered in visible confusion.
"They're always like this," Tannin explained with understanding. "Don't mind them."
"You all seem really close," Minato said with a slightly envious smile.
Hearing that, Tannin almost let out a sigh.
Close...?
Well, technically.
Still, some things really shouldn't be explained to outsiders.
"Yeah," Tannin said at last, forcing an awkward smile.
The little commotion along the way didn't slow them down much. After about twenty minutes, the group arrived at the training ground behind Hokage Rock.
"Yoshihiko, take everyone through a warm-up first," Kizaru said.
Since he hadn't actually thought through any proper training schedule on the way over, he could only start by making them warm up.
"Got it, Kizaru-nii!"
Given a task at last, Yoshihiko puffed out his chest proudly and answered at full volume.
After replying, he shot Yuki an especially smug look, which immediately made the little girl's face turn colder.
Watching the four children begin warming up, Kizaru stood off to the side and scratched his head.
How should I train them?
Yoshihiko, Yuki, and Tannin had all started learning chakra control and the basics a year before entering the Academy. At their age, they only really needed time and steady growth.
Minato was different.
As an orphan, he'd had no one to teach him before school. Chakra refinement, basic taijutsu, all of it—he had only begun learning after entering the Academy.
And even so, he was still managing to stay in the upper-middle range of the class.
That alone said enough about his talent.
After thinking it over for a while, Kizaru finally came up with something.
Ninjutsu training was still too early for children this age.
Taijutsu and reaction training, on the other hand, suited them much better.
Once Yoshihiko finished leading the warm-up, Kizaru clapped his hands and motioned for the four to gather around him.
"For today's first session," he said with a smile, "let's play a little game."
"A game?"
All four children looked at him blankly.
Instead of answering right away, Kizaru raised his right hand.
His index finger lit up with golden light.
Then...
a laser no thicker than a chopstick fired out.
The beam flashed across the field and slammed into a large tree in the distance.
Boom!
The tree exploded and toppled over.
The four children's eyes followed the beam all the way to the impact. After a stunned pause, they slowly turned back toward Kizaru, their faces full of shock and admiration.
"Kizaru-nii... are you going to teach us ninjutsu?" Yoshihiko asked first, too straightforward to hold it in.
Kizaru smiled and shook his head.
"No. I'm going to shoot at you with the laser."
"What?!"
Yoshihiko shouted in disbelief, staring at Kizaru like he'd just heard something insane.
"We've all played dodgeball before, right?" Kizaru asked casually. "Same idea. I shoot, and you dodge."
The four children instinctively looked back at the fallen tree.
Yoshihiko swallowed hard.
"Kizaru-nii... isn't that way too umm... unsafe?"
Still smiling, Kizaru replied, "Don't worry. I'll control the power. I won't leave you disabled."
Disabled?
The word struck all four of them at once.
Tannin, being the most timid, visibly trembled.
"Kizaru-niisan, maybe we should—"
"Then let's begin."
Kizaru cut Yoshihiko off before he could finish and raised his glowing finger toward him with an easy smile.
Yoshihiko's hair stood on end instantly.
Without a second thought, he jumped to the side—straight behind Yuki.
"Bastard!" Yuki snapped coldly.
But even while cursing him, she had already moved, trying to put distance between herself and Kizaru's finger.
Looking at the four children scrambling around for cover and constantly shifting positions, Kizaru's smile widened.
Now this was fun.
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