Kushina, who was about to start cooking dinner, suddenly sniffed the air.
"Minato, do you smell something?"
"Yes," Minato Namikaze nodded. "A very tempting fried aroma."
"That's right! It smells amazing. How did someone make something that smells this good?" Kushina took another deep breath, curiosity rising.
She cooked fairly often herself and had even made fried dishes like tempura, but she had never produced a fragrance like this before. Just from the smell alone, she could already imagine the food—golden, crispy, and perfectly fried.
"No, I have to go see what this is."
Kushina immediately stepped outside.
After carefully following the scent drifting through the air, she realized the smell was coming from the house to the right of Minato's.
"Hey, isn't that Hosokawa 's house? Minato, come out here!" Kushina waved toward Minato inside.
If she remembered correctly, that house belonged to Hosokawa Makoto, the Ninja Academy teacher.
Although they had only known him for a few days, Makoto had already left quite an impression on Kushina.
Golden hair and blue eyes similar to Minato's, eloquent speech, and excellent teaching ability.
Minato walked out, glanced toward the house Kushina pointed at, and nodded.
"Yeah, that's Hosokawa 's place."
"Come on—let's go visit our neighbor."
Kushina grabbed Minato and knocked on the door.
Inside, Makoto placed the shrimp he had picked up into his bowl, set down his chopsticks, and walked over to open the wooden door.
The moment the door opened, Kushina asked impatiently:
"Hosokawa , are you making dinner?"
"Sorry for interrupting," Minato said apologetically when he noticed the apron Makoto was still wearing.
"It's fine. I've already finished cooking and was just about to start eating. You came at the perfect time," Makoto replied with a warm smile as he invited them inside.
Kushina followed the delicious smell straight to the dining table.
The moment she saw the slightly golden tempura arranged on the plate, her eyes lit up.
So this was the source of that smell.
But once inside Makoto's house, Kushina noticed another fragrance—fried rice.
"Hosokawa , you're secretly a master chef!" Kushina praised. "I could smell this tempura from next door."
"I wouldn't call myself a master chef. I just cook often since I live alone," Makoto said as he took two cups from the cabinet and poured water for Minato and Kushina.
"You can try some if you'd like. I just finished making everything."
He brought out two sets of tableware.
"Is that really okay? It looks like you haven't eaten yet," Kushina said while staring at the tempura.
She truly wanted to know what tempura that smelled this good would taste like.
"I'm starting now," Makoto said with a smile, picking up a piece of tempura and placing it into his mouth.
"Thank you, Hosokawa ," Minato said.
"I'm starting now!" Kushina clasped her hands together ceremoniously before picking up her chopsticks and placing a steaming piece of tempura into her mouth.
"Mm!"
The moment she bit through the crispy golden coating, the tender, juicy shrimp inside burst with flavor, causing Kushina's eyes to widen instantly.
Then something even more magical happened.
For a brief moment, Kushina felt as if she had entered the ocean. All around her was a mysterious and dazzling blue world, and she herself seemed to have become a carefree little fish, swimming happily through the sea.
"Huh?"
Kushina quickly snapped back to reality, almost thinking she had been caught in a Genjutsu.
But after thinking about it, there was no one present capable of casting a Genjutsu on her.
"Hosokawa , how exactly did you make this tempura?" Kushina asked suspiciously. "You didn't add some weird-colored mushrooms, did you?"
She had once heard of a ninja who picked mushrooms in the forest during summer. After eating them, he ended up in the Konoha Hospital, insisting that branches were growing out of his body and asking someone to prune them.
"Uh… no," Makoto replied awkwardly. "I just did this, then that…"
He briefly explained his cooking process.
At that moment, Kushina noticed something strange.
Minato had taken one bite of fried rice and then gone silent.
She turned to look at him and found him staring blankly into space.
So she tapped him on the shoulder.
"Minato, what's wrong?"
Minato subconsciously replied,
"I'm eating wild vegetables."
"Where are there wild vegetables here?"
Kushina looked at the fried rice. Aside from eggs and chopped scallions, there was nothing else—certainly no mushrooms.
Confused, she asked, "What are you talking about?"
"After eating the fried rice just now," Minato explained slowly, "I suddenly felt like I'd turned into a wild pheasant living in the mountains…"
Kushina looked at the plate of fried rice.
Each grain was plump and golden, almost as if it were glowing faintly like gold.
Because she had been focused on the tempura earlier, Kushina had only just realized—
The fried rice seemed to be shining.
"This is the best fried rice I've ever eaten," Minato said, scooping two more spoonfuls into his mouth.
"Is it really that good? You should try the tempura instead," Kushina said doubtfully.
So Kushina tried the egg fried rice, while Minato ate the tempura.
Moments later, the same expressions appeared on both of their faces—
Shock… followed by pure happiness.
"Hosokawa , did you invent some kind of ninjutsu that makes food taste better? This is ridiculously delicious!" Kushina joked.
"If you ever decide to open a restaurant someday, please tell me," Minato said seriously.
He wasn't someone who cared much about material pleasures.
But Makoto's fried rice and tempura had given him an experience he had never felt before.
"If you like it, you're welcome to come over more often," Makoto said with a gentle smile. "My place is pretty quiet anyway."
"As long as you don't mind the trouble. You can also try my cooking and Minato's sometime—though it probably won't be as good as yours," Kushina said excitedly after hearing the invitation.
"Then I'll look forward to it," Makoto replied with a smile.
After seeing them off, Makoto thought to himself:
This new skill really is powerful. We skipped straight to the stage of sharing meals.
Makoto then went upstairs and brought down some books from his bedroom.
It was time to gradually reveal some of his interests.
…
Encouraged by Makoto—and inspired by his friend Asuma Sarutobi setting an example—Obito Uchiha trained with tremendous enthusiasm.
By Saturday, he was already close to completing his Chakra Control training and would soon begin practicing Chakra Nature Transformation.
When the weekend arrived, it was time for Makoto to resume his work as a private tutor.
"You liar!" Asuma shouted angrily at Makoto.
Last week, in order not to waste the expensive tutoring fees, he had trained like his life depended on it. By the time he got home each day, he was completely exhausted.
The harder and more painful the training had been, the more furious Asuma felt after learning the truth.
"Oh? What exactly did I lie to you about?" Makoto asked with a smile.
"Your tutoring fee is clearly 2,000 ryō per hour, but you told me it was 25,000 ryō!" Asuma snapped.
"Did you actually lose anything?" Makoto continued calmly. "Did you really give me 25,000 ryō?"
"Well… I…"
Asuma suddenly realized he couldn't say that he had.
"See? You didn't lose anything," Makoto said quickly. "In fact, you made a profit. You thought you were spending 200,000 ryō, but you actually only spent 16,000 ryō. That means you earned 184,000 ryō. You should be thanking me."
"I… made money?"
Following Makoto's logic, it actually seemed to make sense.
"Exactly. So there's no problem. Let's begin training," Makoto said leisurely.
"Wait… something's wrong. Extremely wrong."
Asuma frowned.
Something about this logic felt very suspicious.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/NextChapterStudios