It had been three years since Andrew reincarnated as Minato.
For the first year, he practised wandless and silent casting. For the next two, he started using his wand, and only then did he realise just how big the difference was.
Sure, as he grew older, basic spells like wandless Expelliarmus could reach similar lethality. But more complex spells like multiple transfigurations or a Patronus clearly needed a wand to be effective. And not just any wand. The Elder Wand gave a ridiculous boost to his spellcasting.
Over these three years, he had already mastered the Hogwarts curriculum for Transfiguration, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts, along with whatever extra knowledge Dumbledore had gained during his time.
Potions, however, were a problem. Gold was required to buy ingredients.
Even if he somehow gets the ingredients, practising them would be too obvious.
Lately, he had started working on Ancient Runes and had taken his first steps into alchemy. But with only whatever scraps he could find in the orphanage, progress was slow.
He had also set up some basic wards, like a Detection Ward, which helped him practise magic in secret.
Minato had thought about contacting Fugaku to confirm his suspicion that Garry had reincarnated as him. But as an orphan, getting close to the Uchiha heir was almost impossible unless they met in the academy.
'I wonder if ANBU is already monitoring the Uchiha at this point. If they are, contacting him might just paint a target on my back.'
A pause.
'Better to wait. I'll confirm it in the academy.'
'I still need to improve my Ancient Runes. And this new knowledge on Transfiguration… It's different. I haven't seen anything like it before.'
Meanwhile, inside the Uchiha compound, the young clan heir had just been informed that he would be joining the Ninja Academy the next day.
'Shinobi training is seriously exhausting,' Fugaku thought as he returned to his room. 'If the system didn't directly install the knowledge, I would've fallen behind in magic practice.'
Over the past three years, Fugaku had focused heavily on Transfiguration and Divination.
He had also managed to secure enough gold to purchase Secrets of the Darkest Arts.
As he continued mastering spells, knowledge of Dark Arts slowly began appearing in his mind, similar to how Minato gained knowledge of Ancient Runes and wards.
This helped him clear several bottlenecks in his training.
At the age of four, he began physical conditioning under his father's guidance. A year later, he started extracting chakra and formally stepped onto the path of a shinobi.
Now, a few months later, he was about to enter the academy.
He had also learned the standard Fireball Jutsu.
The first time he used it, the quality and temperature of the fireball shocked everyone. The only limitation was his chakra reserves.
That single display was enough for people to start calling him a once-in-a-generation prodigy, possibly even comparable to Madara.
Maybe Grindelwald's template had something to do with his… enthusiasm for fire.
The news spread quickly and even caught the attention of Konoha's higher-ups. But with the Second Shinobi War ongoing, they avoided taking any action that might destabilise the village.
Besides, raw talent alone wasn't enough to justify intervention.
Fugaku entered his room, opened his Dark Arts book, and read for a while before summoning his wand.
"Ignis Maledictum."
A faint whisper escaped his lips as red-hot Fiendfyre flickered at the tip of his wand, taking the shape of a cat before shifting into a snake.
Before he could continue, there was a knock on the door.
He immediately dispelled the Fiendfyre, dismissed the wand, and hid the book.
When he opened the door, Mikoto stood there with a shy smile.
"Fugaku, Aunt said you were reading, so I came to see what you were doing."
"You came at the right time," Fugaku replied. "I just finished going through some clan archives. How's your training going?"
Fugaku often trained with Mikoto. Even though his talent far surpassed hers, he preferred her company over most of his clansmen.
In the past few years, he had already formed a clear opinion about them.
Arrogant.
Not all of them were like that, of course. Mikoto was right in front of him as proof. But knowing what would happen to the clan in the future, seeing their current attitude only made things worse.
'And I still haven't found that idiot Andrew.'
A pause.
'Still… with Apparition and Fiendfyre, I should be able to handle myself if things go bad.'
Two years later
It was the academy admission day.
A young Minato Namikaze stood among the candidates.
Inside the testing grounds, clan children were already preparing. Outside, a long line of civilian children waited to register.
Over the past year, Minato had focused entirely on physical conditioning.
Like most civilian children, he didn't know chakra extraction methods yet. But he had worked hard to build a solid foundation.
Yes, he followed the Saitama routine.
Thankfully, his hair survived.
His physical condition was easily among the best in the civilian group. Even some clan children couldn't match him.
Today's endurance test involved running 700 laps.
For Minato, it was manageable.
He didn't come first, but finishing fifth was more than enough to draw attention from the chunin instructor.
In reality, his true strength was far beyond most of the students present.
Except maybe Fugaku.
Physically, he was still behind Fugaku. But as someone who had developed Dumbledore's abilities to a high level and possessed strong magical reserves, he could at least hold his ground. Maybe even win.
In the past two years, Minato had pushed his mastery of Transfiguration and Charms even further.
His understanding of Ancient Runes had reached an advanced level, and he could already be considered an alchemist.
Further progress, however, required materials.
Which meant gold.
And that was still a problem.
As his mastery grew, he also began gaining knowledge related to Dark Arts.
The only field where he had made zero progress was potions.
Again, because of gold.
(AN: Maybe I should change it to oil from gold)