"Lord Third, did you keep us here just to watch these children play house?"
Inside a vacant classroom in the Academy building, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood with his three legendary disciples. Orochimaru looked down at the playground below, his voice tinged with a hint of dissatisfaction.
"Don't be in such a hurry. The protagonists I want you to see haven't even taken the stage yet," Hiruzen said, waving a hand dismissively. "I've arranged for the two of them to duel. Watch them closely later; see if they can spark any interest in you taking on an apprentice."
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. "Count me out. I've already promised Tsunade that I would mentor her brother. With our current mission load, taking on another would only be a distraction."
Hiruzen didn't press the issue after Orochimaru's flat refusal. Instead, he glanced at Jiraiya and Tsunade. Jiraiya reached into his robes to scratch his belly, checked the grime under his fingernails, and let out a boisterous laugh.
"I wouldn't mind taking a disciple. I think I'd make a pretty great teacher, actually. But it depends on who they are—I'm not the type to just take anyone! Hahaha!"
Hiruzen smiled at Jiraiya's bravado before shifting his gaze to Tsunade. She frowned, looking unimpressed.
"Jiraiya just said he wanted them," she shrugged. "Why not just give them all to him?"
"Tsunade," Hiruzen began, his voice taking on a solemn, fatherly tone. "The passing of the Will of Fire is not the duty of a single person, nor a single generation. It is the responsibility of every Konoha shinobi—of every citizen. Just as the Will of Fire I inherited from Lord Tobirama was passed to you three, your own fire must eventually be passed down to the new buds of this village."
Hiruzen spoke with earnest weight, but Tsunade merely shrugged again, seemingly indifferent to the lecture. Just then, Hiruzen noticed the two boys stepping into the ring. He stopped his persuasion and gestured toward the window.
"There they are. Look closely. These might just be the ones to inherit your legacy."
Seeing Hiruzen place such high importance on them, even Orochimaru—who had just claimed he had no room for students—shifted his focus toward the training ground below.
Jiraiya leaned against the windowsill, his eyes sharpening as he observed. Tsunade continued to fiddle with her hair, her expression one of lingering boredom.
Down on the field, Tatsuma and Minato stepped into the designated sparring area. Without needing a word from Goppu Sarutobi, they both formed the Seal of Confrontation. Even before the signal to start, both were already intensely kneading their chakra.
"As expected of you!"
Tatsuma opened with his habitual catchphrase. "After training so long last night, you still managed to beat Choza and Chinto back-to-back. But this time, I'm still the one taking the win."
"It won't be that easy, Tatsuma," Minato replied with a calm smile. "Don't forget—you exerted yourself even more than I did last night."
Minato had watched Tatsuma's duel with Tenfu Uchiha. Tatsuma's pursuit of an unnaturally high-speed, efficient finish wasn't his usual style. Minato realized there was only one reason for it: Tatsuma's stamina was likely in a worse state than his own. That was the weakness Minato needed to exploit.
As long as he could capitalize on Tatsuma's lack of endurance and drag the match out, the victory would be his.
Tatsuma remained silent. It was true; his physical state was a mess. Even though his converted attributes were higher than Minato's, his potential caps were still the bottleneck. Minato possessed advantages that weren't yet reflected on a status screen.
Specifically, in Physique and Energy. As his own attribute caps had risen lately, Tatsuma could feel his recovery rate improving, but Minato's natural ceilings were undeniably higher.
In terms of recovery over the same period of time, Minato would always have more gas in the tank. Tatsuma effectively had no home-field advantage in a war of attrition.
Goppu Sarutobi watched the two boys, reminding himself to keep a razor-sharp eye on them. He couldn't afford any accidents, especially since… he had a feeling the Hokage himself was watching.
"Begin!"
Goppu barked the order and leaped back, a kunai gripped in his hand, ready to intervene.
Clang-clang-clang!
In a flash, both boys completed an opening volley of projectiles. Tatsuma's throwing talent had been "harvested" from Minato, and Minato's current form had been refined by Tatsuma's teaching. Their shuriken and kunai met in mid-air with uncanny synchronization, knocking each other out of the sky.
It was a classic case of "two students of the same master—neither can break the other's guard."
However, that only applied to their ranged game. In other areas, while they were intimately familiar with each other's habits from months of training, there was still plenty of room for creative execution.
The moment the tools hit the ground, Tatsuma sprinted forward. He wanted to close the distance and use his slightly superior raw physical stats to overwhelm Minato quickly. Minato, having already anticipated this, immediately backed off to maintain the gap.
"Heh. Those two have some serious fighting spirit," Jiraiya remarked from the window. The kids weren't just going through the motions of an exam like the previous groups; there was a real edge to their movements. His comment even drew Tsunade's eyes down to the field.
Minato, maintaining his distance, drew another shuriken. He timed Tatsuma's dash and flicked it with a snap of his wrist. Tatsuma didn't slow down; he drew two kunai, parrying the incoming blade without breaking his stride.
I can't let this drag on, Tatsuma thought, his eyes darting across Minato's posture.
He flicked his left-hand kunai, aiming for the spot Minato was about to step into. Minato was forced to halt his retreat to deal with the flying blade.
Noticing Tatsuma was closing in fast, Minato snatched the flying kunai out of the air and lunged forward to meet him.
Clang!
The kunai clashed, sending a shower of sparks between them. Minato retracted his right hand and immediately thrust again. Tatsuma timed the strike, tilting his head to let the blade whistle past his ear.
Tatsuma grabbed Minato's wrist with his left hand, while his right arm snaked under Minato's bicep, driving his own kunai toward Minato's throat. It was a fluid, deadly application of the "Sleeve-Threading" maneuver.
But Minato had sparred with Tatsuma countless times. He knew this move. He ducked and twisted, causing Tatsuma's kunai to merely graze his shoulder protector instead of drawing blood.
Minato tried to pull his wrist back to reset the distance, but Tatsuma wasn't letting go. He clamped both hands onto Minato's right arm and yanked it downward, simultaneously driving a brutal knee toward Minato's face.
"Yikes! That's vicious!" Jiraiya hissed, actually shuddering.
It wasn't that he hadn't seen far more brutal things—he'd seen things a hundred times worse—but Tatsuma and Minato were barely six years old. Seeing a student show that much cold decisiveness was rare. Most Academy spars looked like kids playing at being ninja; these two were actually fighting.
Faced with a knee to the face, Minato was forced to use his left arm to block. It wasn't about vanity; his face was a vital area. A solid hit there would disorient him and end the fight instantly.
The first knee strike was blocked, but Tatsuma immediately pivoted on his heel, chambering his other leg for a follow-up knee. Minato, realizing he couldn't just keep blocking, dove forward into a low tackle, dragging Tatsuma down to the dirt.
The sudden loss of balance forced Tatsuma to release Minato's arm. Minato scrambled for top position, his kunai driving downward to end the match.
Tatsuma abandoned all other defense. He caught Minato's right wrist with his left hand, digging his thumb into a pressure point, while his right arm wrapped around Minato's left to prevent him from using his free hand for leverage.
"Aren't you going to stop them?" Jiraiya asked, frowning as he saw the kunai hovering just inches from Tatsuma's eye.
Hiruzen Sarutobi merely waved a hand. "For these two... the fight is only just beginning."