Chapter 164: Taking Minato Namikaze as a Disciple
Now that Hiruzen Sarutobi and the upper echelon of Konoha had learned the truth about the Rinnegan, there was no chance the matter would simply be swept under the rug.
Following a tense, closed-door council, the village leadership dispatched an elite Anbu black ops squad straight into the weeping borders of the Land of Rain. Their objective was absolute: scour the war-torn country for any lingering traces of the legendary dojutsu. They needed to secure the Rinnegan hidden away by Uchiha Kou before the elusive Black Zetsu—or the eyes' original owner—could reclaim it.
Unsurprisingly, Jiraiya had slammed a formal mission application onto the Hokage's desk, demanding to be placed on the frontline of the search.
Hiruzen had braced himself for a fierce debate. He fully expected Stelle to reject the Toad Sage's request, even mentally preparing a budget to bribe her with a lavish meal at an upscale barbecue joint just to smooth things over. Yet, to his utter bewilderment, the mission report was stamped and approved the moment he turned his back.
A heavy sigh of relief escaped Hiruzen's lips. He thanked the heavens that the Fourth Hokage had chosen not to pursue Orochimaru's blatant leak of classified intelligence. Had she pressed the issue, all three of his prized students would be facing severe disciplinary action.
Meanwhile, miles away from the political tension of the Hokage's office, a warm afternoon breeze fluttered through the open windows of Stelle's private residence. Inside, the Fourth Hokage herself sat cross-legged on the tatami mats, locked in a deadpan staring contest with the Nine-Tails.
"Let me get this straight," Stelle began, her voice dangerously flat. "You blew through your entire allowance in just ten days, and you didn't leave a single ryo for actual groceries?" She stared at the miniature fox, whose pockets were currently turned inside out and cleaner than its own snout. "Did the concept of a savings account ever cross your furry little mind?"
"I am a Tailed Beast!" Kurama barked back, his tails bristling with indignation. "Why the hell would I save money? I have every right to be financially irresponsible! If the worst comes to pass, I'll just skip meals and hibernate in my den. But what about you, oh grand and mighty Hokage? Where did your fat paycheck go?"
The miniature fox leaped onto the low wooden table, planting one paw firmly on his hip while jabbing the other aggressively toward Stelle's face. He looked far more outraged than she did, baring his fangs in a spectacular display of misplaced righteous fury.
"You actually have the nerve to tell me we only have thirty thousand ryo left?!" Kurama roared. "Thirty thousand isn't even enough to cover my meat consumption for a week, let alone feed all three of us! There are still ten agonizing days until the next billing cycle. What are we supposed to do, photosynthesize? What kind of Hokage lives in such absolute poverty?!"
A thick blue vein throbbed visibly against Stelle's temple. Her knuckles popped like firecrackers as she slowly clenched her fists.
"I already explained this to you, you gluttonous furball," she hissed through gritted teeth. "Tsunade and Orochimaru requisitioned the funds for their research division, and I accidentally signed over my personal living expenses along with the grant. Do you lack reading comprehension? I am the Fourth Hokage! Am I supposed to march down to the labs and beg for my grocery money back? Do you have any idea how humiliating that would be?"
"Bullshit! I refuse to believe a schemer like you doesn't have a secret stash hidden somewhere," Kurama sneered, crossing his tiny arms. "Cough it up right now. Otherwise, the next time you go broke, I won't even save you a single grain of rice from my bento. You can go graze on the lawn."
Just the mere thought of being deprived of his premium, custom-made bentos made the great Nine-Tails' stomach churn with genuine anxiety.
"If I have to eat dirt, then so be it!" Kurama barked, his tiny form bristling with immense chakra. "I have no money, only this beastly life of mine! Come on, let's take this outside. We'll negotiate after the fight. I'll scatter your ashes across the village with a few Tailed Beast Balls in minutes!"
"Fine!" Stelle shot back, kicking her chair aside. "It's not like I haven't tanked your Tailed Beast Balls before! Get your furry ass out to the woods behind the mountain right now! If I don't beat you until you're crying for your parents today, I forfeit my title as the Fourth Hokage!"
The atmosphere in the room grew suffocatingly dense. It genuinely looked as though these two supreme entities—beings capable of making the entire Ninja World tremble with a single stomp—were about to level a mountain range over a severe lack of grocery funds.
Standing quietly off to the side, a young Minato Namikaze offered a gentle, bright smile. Stepping smoothly between the two bickering titans, the seven-year-old boy calmly reached out and plucked the remaining thirty thousand ryo from the table.
His azure eyes shone with an unwavering, innocent confidence. "Hokage-sama, Kurama, please stop arguing. Leave the meal planning for the next ten days to me. I promise I'll budget the food properly so we can all get through this difficult stretch comfortably."
Both the supreme kunoichi and the legendary demon fox snapped their heads toward the brightly smiling little blond boy. The murderous tension evaporated in an instant. In perfect, pathetic synchronization, they both reached out their hands toward him in a desperate, pleading gesture.
"Minato," they chorused, their eyes wide and watery. "We're counting on you."
Minato, who had only recently celebrated his seventh birthday, suddenly felt the crushing weight of the world settle onto his small shoulders.
He was actually serving as the sole pillar of survival for the Fourth Hokage and the Nine-Tails, the undisputed king of the Tailed Beasts.
It was just... neither of them were anything like the impressive legends he had grown up hearing about.
The Fourth Hokage, renowned across the nations for her ruthless wisdom and decisive military tactics, was actually airheaded enough to donate her entire livelihood to the Research Facility, forgetting to keep enough spare change for a bowl of ramen. It was a level of selflessness that bordered on sheer financial incompetence.
And then there was the Nine-Tails. When the Hokage's Assistant had learned of Minato's assignment to live under this roof, the man had pulled the boy aside for a grave, terrifying lecture regarding the apocalyptic status of the Tailed Beasts.
Yet, looking at this miniature orange furball—a creature who did nothing but complain about snacks all day and literally hopped around the living room like a giant, overexcited toad whenever Minato cooked a tasty dish—the boy felt a deep sense of cognitive dissonance. Was this gluttonous mascot truly the same apocalyptic demon the Assistant had warned him about? Minato couldn't muster a single ounce of vigilance around him.
Shaking his head fondly, Minato decided he needed to visit the village library to borrow some advanced culinary books. If he was going to ensure the Fourth Hokage and Kurama ate well on a shoestring budget, he needed to master the art of frugal, high-yield cooking.
Clutching the thirty thousand ryo to his chest, the young prodigy immediately began running mental calculations, dividing the funds to guarantee balanced, meat-and-vegetable-rich meals that would satisfy two bottomless pits.
A sudden, polite knock at the front door broke his concentration. Stelle dusted off her pants and padded over to the entryway, pulling the door open.
"Kagami?" She blinked in mild surprise at the dark-haired man standing on her porch. "Isn't today the scheduled date for the Uchiha Clan's grand assembly? As the Clan Head, how do you have the free time to loiter around my house?"
Uchiha Kagami offered a warm, easygoing smile. "A few logistical matters came up, so the clan meeting was postponed until tomorrow. I happened to have the afternoon free, so I figured I would..."
Before Kagami could even finish his sentence, an orange blur scurried across the floorboards.
"You brought tribute for this lord, didn't you, you evil black-haired Uchiha?" Kurama demanded, his nose twitching as he sniffed the air. "Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I will absolutely not improve my opinion of your cursed clan just because you brought me a little bit of food!"
Despite his haughty words, the fox held his head high and shamelessly snatched the large paper bag dangling from Kagami's hand. Peeking inside, Kurama spotted a box of premium, limited-edition dango. Instantly, his slit-like eyes curved into delighted little crescents.
"Haha, dango!" Kurama cheered, bounding back into the living room. "Minato, look! The evil Uchiha brought high-tier loot! Out of the boundless goodness of my heart, this lord will reluctantly share exactly one skewer with you. In exchange, you must make dinner extra tasty tonight!"
"Thank you, Kurama," Minato replied with a polite, practiced nod.
The blond boy stood up, offered a respectful bow to the Uchiha Clan Head, and quietly slipped into the kitchen to brew a fresh pot of tea for their guest.
Stelle stepped aside, gesturing for Kagami to enter, and guided him toward the low table in the center of the room.
Kagami's purpose for visiting was relatively straightforward: he wanted to discuss the internal development and political maneuvering of the Uchiha Clan with the Hokage.
As the direct disciple of Uchiha Madara, Stelle had been raised within the clan's compound. Despite her current position leading the entire village, she still placed an immense amount of importance on the Uchiha's prosperity and standing.
Whenever Kagami needed to apply major policy adjustments or draft long-term plans for his people, he always made it a point to seek her counsel first.
After hashing out a few political strategies, Stelle glanced down at the fruit platter on the table. Kagami hadn't managed to touch a single slice, mostly because Kurama had already inhaled the entire plate while they were talking. Shooting the smug fox a speechless glare, she sighed and pushed herself up, heading into the kitchen to wash a second batch of fruit.
Left alone in the living room, Kagami shifted his seating position, coincidentally occupying the spot Minato had vacated earlier. His dark eyes swept across the table, landing on a small, carefully organized notebook the boy had left open.
He scanned the neat columns of numbers and the desperate meal-planning calculations. A knowing, exasperated smile touched his lips. 'Was her salary siphoned off by Orochimaru's science division again?'
He remembered the last time she had actually managed to retain a portion of her paycheck, only to blow every last coin on extravagant congratulatory gifts for various clan ceremonies around the village.
This time, her financial ineptitude had reached new, ridiculous heights. She had literally handed over her own grocery money by pure accident.
Kagami shook his head in silent amusement. How did a woman who could outmaneuver entire enemy nations manage to be so precisely, consistently airheaded when it came to basic accounting? Did the Fourth Hokage truly possess zero concept of personal wealth?
His gaze drifted over to the kitchen doorway, watching Minato seriously study a thick culinary encyclopedia while waiting for the tea to steep.
When Stelle finally returned with a freshly washed bowl of apples, Kagami politely requested that Minato take Kurama, who was currently bouncing off the walls like a sugar-crazed monkey while dual-wielding dango skewers, outside to burn off some energy.
Once the boy and the beast were safely out of earshot, Kagami gestured toward the front door. "You brought that child into your home because you recognized his monstrous talent, correct? You intend to take him as your personal disciple. So why hasn't there been any official announcement? Shouldn't you be preparing to host a grand Apprenticeship Banquet?"
"An Apprenticeship Banquet?" Stelle blinked, a sudden realization washing over her.
In the original timeline, Minato Namikaze was destined to be Jiraiya's prized student. Although she wasn't entirely sure at what age the Toad Sage was supposed to take the boy under his wing, Jiraiya had just sprinted off to the Land of Rain on a high-risk reconnaissance mission. Who knew when that pervert would actually return to the village?
Leaving a generational prospect like Minato to stagnate and figure things out on his own would be a criminal waste of potential. A proper shinobi education needed to be hammered in from a young age.
Besides, she harbored a deep, selfish desire to witness a living, breathing Minato cloaked in the legendary Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Since her own meddling had effectively stolen his destined encounter with Nagato and altered the timeline, it was only fair that she compensated the boy by personally forging him into a legend.
"I'll formally take him as my disciple, yes," Stelle agreed, waving a hand dismissively. "But there's absolutely no need for a banquet. It's way too much of a hassle. Given my current status, every single Ninja Clan in Konoha would feel obligated to attend. All those decrepit old fogies who usually never leave their compounds would show up just to corner me with exhausting political small talk. I simply can't be bothered to deal with them."
Kagami chuckled softly, well aware of her deep-seated allergy to the village elders and their bureaucratic posturing.
"It doesn't have to be a massive public affair," Kagami compromised smoothly. "I'll quietly notify Hiruzen and a few close associates. How about an intimate, private dinner instead? I'll head back to the compound and handle the preparations. Since this is your very first time taking on a formal disciple, I'll need to put some serious thought into an appropriate congratulatory gift."
"If the gift is coming from the wealthy Clan Head Kagami, it had better be exorbitantly expensive," Stelle teased, a sly grin touching her lips. "I won't accept anything ordinary, you know."
"Not a problem. I guarantee our esteemed Fourth Hokage will be more than satisfied," Kagami replied smoothly.
Internally, Kagami was already calculating exactly how much liquid capital he could discreetly stuff into the gift box to ensure Stelle wouldn't starve for the next few months. Cash alone wouldn't be enough, as she would just squander it on another research grant. He owned several highly profitable, well-managed commercial storefronts in the village's business district. He decided he would slip the property deeds into a red envelope and pass them off as a training fund for the boy. That way, the next time the Hokage accidentally gave away her entire net worth, she would at least have a steady stream of passive income to fall back on.
By the time Minato returned to the house, gently carrying a thoroughly exhausted and sticky Nine-Tails in his arms, Kagami had already departed. Stelle sat quietly at the table, pondering the Uchiha's words. As the boy stepped into the room, her golden gaze locked onto him.
"Minato," she called out, her tone shifting from its usual lazy drawl to something sharp and commanding. "Starting tomorrow, you will set aside a dedicated block of time every single day. I will be personally guiding your cultivation."
The young blond blinked, his azure eyes widening in shock as the weight of her words settled in.
"Your talent is exceptional, and my expectations for you are sky-high," Stelle continued, a proud, dangerous smirk curving her lips. "Under my tutelage, you are going to become a truly terrifying shinobi."
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