"I see you're ready for some excitement," Jiraiya said to a serious Kosuke, an uncomfortable Minato, and my most unfriendly expression. "Hahahaha, I'm really looking forward to it," the wise toad chuckled awkwardly.
"Really eager to do a lot of things like that," I said, teasing him. Honestly, I planned to check on the progress of those two guinea pigs I have in the lawless zone today; if the training goes as planned, they'll soon be ready to learn the most basic chakra techniques.
"Okay, enough joking around," Jiraiya said.
"I was just kidding; it sounded like you were being really serious about all that nonsense," Kosuke added. I see my partner's sarcasm was rubbing off on him.
"With yesterday's training, I was able to see their strengths and weaknesses; now, with my help, they will become the strongest shinobi this village has ever produced, as they have the potential," Jiraiya continued, ignoring Kosuke's comment.
"I'll start with Minato first," he said, pointing at the young man.
"Me?" he pointed at himself, his voice revealing his eagerness to know what our sensei could do.
"Yes, Minato, your skills in moving around the battlefield are unparalleled. Your speed, your dexterity, your ability to think rationally in seconds, and your almost instantaneous reactions make you a force capable of entering, destroying, and leaving without anyone noticing your presence. But there's a problem," Jiraiya explained. "If you can't kill or defeat your opponent in less than five seconds, your only options are to flee or die."
This made Minato thoughtful, and it was true. His fighting style relied on speed and acting before his opponent could, but if he faced an invincible enemy or one he couldn't defeat quickly, Minato was guaranteed to lose.
Previously, he was able to do something because his enemies were overconfident and didn't think a genin could pull off something like that, but now it's different; that technique is more complicated to execute, so if he doesn't have a powerful ninjutsu to defeat or at least distract his opponent, he's doomed.
"But I have a way to remedy this. Long ago, the Second Hokage had a technique that allowed one to appear and disappear as if by magic, as recounted by the Third Hokage when he spoke about his own sensei. I'll talk to the old man to see if he can give you that technique, but I need you to do your part too," Jiraiya told Minato.
"Understood, Jiraiya-sensei, I won't let you down," Minato replied.
"Understood, Jiraiya-sensei, I won't let you down," Minato said.
"I understand, Jiraiya-sensei; I won't let you down." "Alright, let's continue with you, Kosuke," to which the man nodded. "You already have all three magatama Sharingan, so I won't interfere there, since there's nothing more that can be done. But, as I recall, your dream is to be the best user of fire-style ninjutsu, right?"
"That's right," Kosuke confirmed.
"Yes, but the problem is that fire-style ninjutsu is rarely very effective; it only works when your enemy is very weak compared to your power. To improve on that, you need to be fast and able to perform most of your jutsu with no or only one hand seal, as well as increase your chakra reserves to power up your attacks and prevent them from running out," the toad sage said.
"Understood," Kosuke said, satisfied.
"Also, we can work your genjutsu only as an emergency if necessary, and last but not least," he said, looking at me, "I don't have much to say about you."
"That's normal, considering how amazing I am," I said.
"Except for your body," Jiraiya declared, something that broke me more than I expected. From then on, I learned to keep quiet and not speak before I should.
"What I mean is that, being still very young, she's still developing. Her spiritual power is high; along with her lineage, it gives her a high chakra reserve, on par with an elite jonin, but her physical development is lagging behind, since chakra is the union of physical and mental strength," she clarified. "Ideally, she should exercise more and not be sedentary all the time; you're always doing something. That way, as you continue to grow, you'll have four or five times your current chakra."
"Oh, yeah, whatever," I said, feeling a bit broken. I knew my body was still very young, but there was no need to speak so badly of a young lady's body.
(Note: Such a lady, lol).
Now, all joking aside, she's right. I've been so busy watching what others do for me that I've become quite sedentary.
I sighed. I don't think I'll have time to watch those two being tortured—I mean, trained—in a highly professional and dedicated manner for their future.
And mine.
...
I entered Hitori's office and sat down to rest after about five hours of intense, rigorous exercise.
"Good work, Miss Miyu," Hitori said, congratulating me on my training day.
"Yes, good work," I replied without thinking much.
"..." Wait, this was Hitori's office, if not mine, and that meant something.
"Good, here's the rest of the paperwork that needs verification." That means it's a death trap.
"I don't want to. I'm too young for this," I complained like a child.
"Don't do that, Miss Miyu, if it's not important for your overall development to become a great clan leader," she retorted.
"Overall? What's that? Is it edible?" I said. "Besides, I'm already an amazing clan leader."
"And what about the lost money you took out, which I heard you used in a bet with Miss Kushina and Miss Mikoto?" she informed me.
Ah, they found me out.
"Senju needs," I can't say I lost all that money; I'll have to use my own personal funds to replace it, even though it hurts. It's all Kushina's fault; she said it was a sure thing.
Hitori, I can only sigh at the current situation.
"It's just money, though, as much as we need it for our next project," I contradicted myself. "Speaking of which, how are we doing?"
"We've already found the ideal location to build the super-greenhouse; we just need to finalize the budget and submit it to the daimyo for his permission," Hitori informed me.
"I think I'll have to go and talk to that wannabe leader of a country myself, to avoid things getting out of hand, and right now we don't have the power or influence to do things in another country like Kusa or Taki."
"What follows is the security of this; we can't ask the daimyo for it, he won't charge more than he already can, and he won't defend the place for free," Hitori said.
"Yes, I have an idea; if I remember correctly, there's a record of a special place in the Land of Lightning that I want to visit; with this, we can solve our clan's military personnel needs," I informed her.
After all, the Senju clan, not counting Tsunade or me, only has one jōnin, eight chūnin, and twelve genin, who were all recently recruited.
The clan, being more merchant than ninja, integrated civilian members, which is what it needed right now, but among these families were ninjas.
And just to clarify, I didn't let just anyone in; everyone in the clan has Senju blood, it's just that some no longer carry the surname; an example of this is Hitori's son. She has the surname, but her husband doesn't, so their son, by default, doesn't have it either. I also left the option of having the surname again or not for those who returned to the clan.
At that moment, I heard a knock at the door.
"Come in," I said.
The person who had entered was a little girl; this little girl was a 4-year-old shizune.
"Sister Miyu, I've finished reading the book you gave me," it said, "30 ways to deceive your roommate."
It was a book to instruct the ninja world in the most natural and subtle way possible, since she's not like me and will be able to train chakra control at 3 or 4 years old. Does that make me a monster? Maybe, but I don't care if I am or not.
"Little Shizune, just in time; as a reward, how about we go get some ice cream?" I said happily.
"Miss, are you thinking of running away from your responsibilities?" Hitori challenged me.
"If I say yes, you'll let me go," I told her.
"But, Sister Miyu, yes, that one, in the future you'll become a useless adult just like Uncle Jiraiya," Shizune said.
That hit me right in the heart. I clutched it and started complaining, but when I saw I wasn't winning Shizune's sympathy, I stopped my performance.
"Fine, I'll do the paperwork," I said defeatedly. I sat down to look at the papers on the table. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shizune and Hitori giving each other high fives, which made my eye twitch.
I got ripped off.
...
Jiraiya unfurled a long scroll, on which appeared seals and matrices of a level I could barely comprehend.
I approached the scroll to examine it more closely.
"Are those tears?" I asked, noticing a dried drop on the scroll.
"Perhaps from the last guy who tried to learn this ninjutsu and failed," Kosuke said, and something tells me that's true.
"Well, it takes a lot of work, Minato; I had to use my own merits and a favor from Miyu to obtain this scroll," the wise toad said.
Minato turned his gaze to me.
"I had it; I could have given it to you, but even though you're my brother-in-law, I wasn't going to give it to you for free," I said, striking a good-girl pose.
Minato just stared at me blankly, as if he didn't know what to do or say in response.
"Well, I'm no great master of fuinjutsu, but I think I'll have to use it if I want to help you understand all this," he said. "It's a good thing you have two women in your social circle who are experts in fuinjutsu."
At that moment, Jiraiya looked in my direction; at that, I glanced behind me to make sure no one was there before looking ahead again.
"Me?"
...
"Welcome to the Senju residence. Intruders are charged 10,000 yen to enter, but I'll let you in for free this time," I said to Minato as we entered the Senju clan's established grounds.
"Am I an intruder?" Minato asked with an awkward smile.
"Uncle Toad already owes me about 40,000 yen," I said, gesturing toward the rooftop.
"I'll pay you back when the book I'm starting to write makes me famous and a millionaire," he replied.
"That means you'll never pay me," he retorted. My response caused Jiaiya to trip and fall to the ground.
As I led Minato to my office, where I kept the clan's important belongings, including the seals, I heard a voice interrupt us.
"Minato, what are you doing here?" I saw a violent tomato slam into us.
"Kushina, it's good to see you," Minato said upon seeing his beloved.
"Since you're here, let me show you what I'm doing," she said, grabbing Minato's arm and running with him in one direction.
At this, I grabbed his other arm, stopping them both.
"I didn't bring Minato here for that. We have to go train; that's more important," I retorted.
Kushina looked at me, narrowing her eyes.
"They train every day, this is a unique thing that only happens once in a lifetime, it's more important"; he began to exert more force.
"You can't deceive, Kushina. I bet you just want to show off your true self, now capable of walking on water or some basic genin skill." I started straining too, but in the opposite direction.
"That's not how it is. I didn't say it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she began to complain.
"Girls, you're breaking my arms," Minato said, which we both ignored.
"Youth is beautiful," Jiraiya said, lying on the ground watching.
In the end, we had to take Minato to get her shoulders fixed and her broken arms healed.