...
One year later.
Uchiha Kaien raised a hand and unleashed a fierce Wind Release technique toward Namikaze Minato.
A violent gale tore through everything in its path, whipping up rocks and sand in a swirling frenzy.
Minato, faced with the oncoming whirlwind, remained perfectly calm. Instead of confronting the storm head-on, he chose the most efficient way to dodge it.
Chakra surged rapidly into his legs, enhancing both nerve response and strength. In a flash, Minato used the Body Flicker Technique to zip away from the approaching storm, landing safely at a distance. As he moved, fire-natured chakra began to gather in his throat.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A massive fireball erupted from his mouth, roaring toward Kaien with unrelenting force. The sudden rise in temperature made Kaien break into a light sweat.
But Kaien didn't panic. His hands moved in a blur, forming seals at lightning speed.
The nearby river stirred. Streams of water rushed toward Kaien, swirling around him before condensing into a high-density, flowing water wall.
Water counters fire.
The fireball slammed into the wall and fizzled out in a cloud of steam. But Kaien didn't stop there. His hands remained locked in a seal, unwavering.
The clash of water and fire generated a thick mist, obscuring Kaien from Minato's view.
Minato couldn't see what Kaien was doing—but he could feel it.
The air grew increasingly damp. Water from the river continued to surge toward Kaien like he was a magnet.
Then, a massive water dragon emerged beside him—lifelike and majestic.
The creature, several meters long, cast a huge shadow on the ground.
"Here it comes, Minato!"
As Kaien's voice rang out, the water dragon lunged forward, weaving through the trees toward Minato's hiding spot with precision.
Minato watched the dragon close in and muttered,
"Great... and I barely just got the hang of Earth-Style Wall."
Still, he didn't hesitate.
Leaping down from the tree canopy, Minato's hands flew through a rapid series of seals. He slammed his palms into the ground, funneling earth-natured chakra deep into the soil.
"Earth Release: Multi-Layered Linked Barricade Wall!"
The ground rumbled as a series of stone walls shot upward in succession, stacking tightly to form a barrier against Kaien's Water Dragon Bullet.
Just as the final wall began to crack under pressure, the water dragon lost its force and collapsed into a harmless puddle.
Minato, breathing a small sigh of relief, was about to relax—only to sense another attack incoming.
His instincts kicked in before conscious thought could catch up.
"Lightning Release!"
"Wind Release!"
The two jutsu collided in sequence.
The leftover puddles on the ground sparked as the lightning chakra surged through them, aiming to paralyze Minato on contact.
But Minato had already launched himself upward with a burst of wind chakra under his feet, lifting himself into the air to evade Kaien's chained jutsu assault.
Yet in his focus on dodging the ninjutsu bombardment, Minato forgot something crucial—Uchiha weren't just masters of ninjutsu. Their shuriken techniques were deadly too.
"Ninja Art: Manipulated Shuriken Technique!"
Thin wires glinted in the sunlight for just a split second.
Several shuriken, already suspended midair, formed an inescapable web waiting to ensnare Minato.
But Minato's reflexes were extraordinary.
Twisting his body midair with incredible flexibility, he narrowly slipped through the trap. Spotting a sturdy tree nearby, he channeled chakra into his legs and launched himself toward it.
With a final burst of his Body Flicker Technique, he escaped the encroaching web—again.
However, a faint glimmer in the corner of his eye made his heart skip a beat.
That light... It's the wire I saw earlier. Crap!
He wanted to dodge again, but his chakra reserves were running dangerously low.
At this point, Minato made a decision—he surrendered.
He wasn't a masochist, after all. Better to concede now than end up totally humiliated.
Besides, he could tell just by looking at Kaien—barely flushed after unleashing so many jutsu—that the guy still had plenty of chakra left.
If this kept going, he'd just be digging himself into a deeper hole.
"I give up, Kaien," Minato said, now bound by Kaien's steel wire.
"You didn't even use taijutsu yet, Minato. Giving up already? That's sneaky," Kaien replied with a faint trace of disappointment.
Minato let out a sheepish smile.
"Well, you got way more chakra than I do. I'm totally spent. If I kept going, I'd probably pass out."
Despite putting more effort into his taijutsu training than Kaien, and despite his chakra growing at a solid pace, Minato still couldn't keep up with Kaien after he awakened the Sharingan. The boost in chakra was just too massive.
Kaien, mindful of his Kekkei Genkai illness, hadn't pushed himself too hard in taijutsu training. Instead, he'd focused on becoming a living ninjutsu artillery unit.
After a full year, the results spoke for themselves. He'd learned a wide variety of jutsu and believed he could overwhelm even a chunin with sheer firepower alone.
The only downside?
...
After his tenth draw, Kaien's newbie bonus ended.
From then on, the [affection] points needed to pull the gacha increased tenfold. While the rewards also improved, getting a purple-tier [trait] became much harder.
One drew now cost 100 affection—and a 30-draw streak to guarantee it.
That meant 3,000 affection just for one purple-quality trait or item!
Still, Kaien had managed to pull one purple trait in the past year.
It didn't cure his Kekkei Genkai illness, but it did make him feel a lot safer.
[Illusion Immunity: A formless force protects your mind, rendering you immune to genjutsu.]
Even with the Sharingan, Kaien wasn't confident against high-level genjutsu—especially those from more advanced Sharingan users.
But now, with this trait, he didn't have to worry about ending up trapped in Infinite Tsukuyomi like a tree ornament.
...
"A man can't just say he's done, Minato! If you say that in front of your girlfriend one day, she's not gonna be happy!"
Kaien tossed the quip out instinctively when Minato said he was "done."
But the mention of girlfriends made Minato sigh.
If there was one person in the class everyone agreed was the most beautiful...
It was Kaien.
Even after the class found out during a sparring session that Kaien was a guy, his popularity never dipped.
Every day, after being bombarded by Kaien's unfairly perfect face, Minato found himself completely uninterested in the average schoolgirl.
So if he was going to get a girlfriend... she'd at least have to be someone who could rival Kaien's looks, right?
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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