On Saturday afternoon, Makoto returned to his house in the main district of Konohagakure.
After several occasions of freeloading meals at each other's places, their relationship had grown quite familiar. So before cooking, Makoto simply called the two of them over to eat at his house.
"Hayu, what are you cooking today?" Kushina Uzumaki asked curiously.
After eating at Makoto's place several times, she had never once encountered the same dish twice.
Variety alone wasn't impressive—the real issue was that every dish Makoto made tasted amazing. That was what made Kushina both impressed and a little envious.
"Mushroom soup and stir-fried mushrooms." Makoto pointed toward a plastic bag filled with mushrooms beside the sink.
At noon, Shisui and the others had gathered far too many ingredients. There were various fish, wild vegetables, and they had even worked together to hunt a wild boar. Makoto had brought the leftover ingredients home.
Wild mushrooms were undeniably fresh and flavorful. But they had to be thoroughly cooked—otherwise food poisoning would be the least of one's worries. At best, it meant a bad stomachache; at worst… you might not wake up at all.
"These aren't wild mushrooms you picked in the forest, are they?" Kushina asked, noticing that the mushrooms were all different shapes and sizes. They didn't look store-bought.
That reminded her of the first time she had eaten at Makoto's place, when she jokingly asked if he had added some strange-colored mushroom that made her hallucinate.
If there really were mushrooms like that in there—combined with Makoto's cooking—wouldn't eating them feel like being caught in genjutsu?
Makoto nodded.
"At noon I had a picnic in the forest with a few students. We gathered too many ingredients and couldn't finish them, so I brought the extras back."
"You even take your students on picnics?" Kushina asked, a little enviously.
She had attended the Ninja Academy for a full six years and had never seen a teacher kind enough to take students out for something like that.
"Those students and I get along pretty well," Makoto explained.
"Hayu, do you need help? I can wash the vegetables," Minato Namikaze offered, stepping forward so he wouldn't feel like he was eating for free.
"In that case, Minato, help me wash the mushrooms. I'll prepare the wild boar meat first," Makoto said without hesitation.
Being overly polite all the time wouldn't help friendships grow.
Relationships improved through give and take.
Since there were three people eating, aside from mushroom soup and stir-fried mushrooms, Makoto also decided to make a dish of braised pork belly.
In his previous life, for some reason, fatty meat usually made him nauseous. The only exception was braised pork belly. In fact, he preferred the version where the fat and lean meat were layered together.
Mei Cai Kou Rou (braised pork belly with preserved vegetables) had been one of his favorite dishes.
Unfortunately, he didn't have preserved mustard greens here, so he could only make regular braised pork belly instead.
"Then what about me? What should I do?" Kushina scratched her head while watching Minato and Makoto working side by side.
For some reason, it felt like the two of them were brothers happily cooking together while she had somehow become an outsider.
"There's no extra space here. Just sit and wait for the food," Makoto replied.
This wasn't a restaurant kitchen. If three people tried to cook together, they would only get in each other's way.
So the bored Kushina sat down in the living room and casually picked up a book from the low table.
"Huh?"
She looked at the title and was surprised.
It was actually a book about Sealing Techniques.
"What Is Sealing Techniques? Hayu, why are you reading a book like this? Just the title alone sounds terrible. You'd be better off—"
Kushina suddenly stopped.
She had flipped the page and saw the author's name.
Uzumaki Ashina.
"Ahem…"
She coughed lightly and immediately changed her tone.
"This book is actually quite good. Makoto, you should read it carefully."
"Mm. I've already read it several times," Makoto replied while preparing the pork.
"Lord Uzumaki Ashina truly deserves his reputation as the founder of Konoha's sealing techniques. Even someone like me who knows nothing about sealing can gain a lot from reading it."
"Of course! He was the leader of the Uzumaki Clan," Kushina said proudly.
"But Makoto, are you really interested in Sealing Techniques (Fūinjutsu)?" she asked curiously.
"Very interested," Makoto said with an expression full of anticipation.
"Sealing techniques feel mysterious… and incredibly powerful."
"If the goal is improving your strength, then sealing techniques are indeed a good direction," Minato nodded in agreement.
The three of them continued chatting about sealing techniques until the food was finally ready.
Most of the time, Makoto simply listened. Occasionally he would offer some beginner-level opinions, which gave Minato and Kushina a pleasant sense of accomplishment.
Kushina was the first to try the braised pork belly.
The moment she took a bite, her eyes widened.
The soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture—rich but not greasy—made her immediately shovel a large mouthful of rice into her mouth.
"This is way too delicious! Why have I never seen such an amazing dish before?"
Kushina instantly fell in love with the flavor.
"If you want to learn, I can teach you," Makoto said with a smile.
"Deal! Tomorrow evening Minato and I will buy the ingredients," Kushina agreed immediately.
Just then she glanced at the plate of stir-fried mushrooms.
More than half of it was already gone.
While they had been discussing cooking lessons, Minato had quietly continued eating nonstop.
"I haven't even had any yet! Leave some for me, Minato!"
Kushina hurriedly joined the battle for food.
Her first bite stunned her as well.
It was unbelievably fresh and flavorful.
After eating their fill, the three of them went out for a walk together.
As they walked, they chatted about various things. Makoto shared some amusing stories from teaching, while Minato and Kushina talked about strange incidents they had encountered during missions.
Two days before the competition, Makoto began Obito's final training.
"If you want a ninjutsu to look more imposing, aside from Chakra Nature Transformation and chakra amount, you can also modify its Shape Transformation," Makoto explained.
"But there are only two days left. Is there still time to train shape transformation?" Obito Uchiha scratched his head.
"Of course not," Makoto answered bluntly.
Obito didn't have particularly strong talent when it came to ninjutsu.
"But you don't need to master shape transformation," Makoto continued.
"You just need to learn the modified Great Fireball Technique that I prepared."
In order to ensure Obito won first place—and maximize the reward from the training task—Makoto had put in considerable effort.
He had specifically modified the Great Fireball Technique so that it looked much larger.
But internally, it didn't contain much more fire.
The power remained roughly the same.
In short—
It looked extremely intimidating.
After all, the Youth Ninjutsu Tournament wasn't a real battle. Each participant only needed to demonstrate a ninjutsu once, and judges would assign scores.
"Teacher Makoto, you're basically my Sage of Six Paths!" Obito exclaimed excitedly.
With Teacher Makoto guiding him, getting first place felt practically guaranteed.
Against him—someone personally trained by Teacher Makoto—
Kakashi Hatake had no chance at all!
"Well, you did say it was the request of your lifetime," Makoto said with a cheerful smile.
"As your teacher, I should give it my all."
He was deliberately encouraging Obito to develop the habit of asking his teacher for help when needed.
"Hehe." Obito laughed awkwardly.
"Now hurry up and train." Makoto tapped Obito on the head.
"Yes!"
Obito immediately began practicing.
He could hardly wait to defeat Kakashi in front of Nohara Rin and claim first place.
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