Disclaimer: I. own. NARUTO. not.
Warning: Spoilers & wild theories abound…

- CHAPTER 3 - Reposition -

.

Minato slowly breathed out as he took in the large expanse of open beach before him. "It's really gone."

The sky was clear, the sea was gentle, the sand sparkling, and a few seagulls were even lazily gliding overhead. The scene was so deceptively tranquil that Minato had trouble reconciling the sandy stretch with its true function: a burial ground for thousands.

This was, as Jiraiya-sensei had alluded earlier that morning, all that was left of Touwan and its surroundings.

His eyes felt a little irritated around the edges. Minato wished that he could say it was just some stray sand grains that had blown into them—but there was no sense lying to himself. After all, he was seeing what was supposed to be Kushina's homeland.

Just to be sure, Minato bent down and picked up a few pebbles from beside his feet. With several of them in hand, he began to fling them towards the beach opposite from his position. The pebbles stuck, sunk, and disappeared.

…Within seconds.

"So he created an artificial zone of quicksand," the blond sighed at the irrefutable proof. Minato had to hand it to Madara; the old fossil had a twisted talent for orchestrating "natural disasters".

From what he could observe, the entire peninsula that used to comprise Uzu's mainland territory had been completely transformed into a sandbar-like landform. The country's actual administrative center was too far east for him to spot, but Minato could easily imagine a similar (if not worse) fate for that offshore island.

Minato had to consciously relax before he could bite off his own tongue in anger.

Was Kushina truly gone? Minato had difficulty swallowing that bitter conjecture. After ascertaining his time-traveling status, Minato had hoped that he might eventually meet her again; even if she was not the same Kushina he had lost in the future, she could at least grow into that woman someday. But fate just had to toy with him again. It seemed as if he was not even given a chance to start over this time.

Why was it so hard for a ninja to hold onto their precious people?

Kushina could not have already died—Minato simply refused to believe it. There were survivors from the country last time, and he doubted even Madara could track down every single last one of the Uzu fishing boats that had been out on the sea during his attack. There had to be flaws in the execution of that accursed Uchiha's plan, some ways for her to have escaped.

Besides, whatever technique Madara used, it could not have wiped out the entire country in an instant. While it was possible to time all the "attacks" in quick succession, they could not occur all at once. There was a limit to just how much one person could accomplish with elemental jutsus.

…Unless Madara knew about space-time manipulation too.

The thought chilled Minato to the bone. He had always prided himself with his original approach to breaching the conventional boundaries of space and time, but who was to say that such techniques were not already part of some existing bloodline? The one-time Hokage certainly did not know enough about the mysterious Mangekyou Sharingan's exact abilities to deny the possibility. In fact, he did not even know enough to determine what Madara had against Whirlpool Country in the first place.

So many questions, so many hypotheses… and no certain answer.

Minato's knowledge of current affairs was insufficient for him to draw any solid conclusions. He needed more information—information that he could have easily amassed as a Hokage. At this time though, Sandaime-sama was in his prime and Minato had no wish of displacing his perfectly capable predecessor.

Besides, his age right now posed an insurmountable obstacle.

But even if Hokage-level clearance was out of the question for him in the next few years, what about ANBU-, jounin-, or even chuunin-level clearance? Destruction of a moderately sized country like Whirlpool was a major event; some of the details could not possibly be as sensitive as others. Clues to Kushina's survival might easily fall under what he could learn as a lower-ranked ninja… It was not as if she was an important dignitary or something.

And for Minato, a quick rise through the ranks once he became a Konoha ninja again should not be too big of a challenge; after all, he had already done it once. If anything, the one-time Hokage knew that he might even get the needed clearance faster this time. He could simply exploit loopholes in the system that he now knew about. So…

"Dead… or alive," Minato whispered as he suppressed his negative thoughts, "I will find you, Kushina."

Without taking another glance, Minato adjusted the straps of his backpack and forced himself to turn away from the ruins of Touwan. The blond had an immigration application to file at his village's local outpost in Nishwan.

He would find the answers at Konoha.

.

It was late July in Fire Country, with drafts of hot air rising off the ground in translucent waves. Minato wearily swiped a hand over his forehead to keep the sweat beads out of his sight as he nimbly hopped across the treetops. Despite his light-colored hair, the blond still felt as if he was being steamed under the direct sunlight. Maybe he was due for a haircut?

"Freeze! Don't move!"

The sudden shout startled him a little, but Minato simply picked a more suitable landing point and steadied himself. The crown of this particular tree was reasonably broad for him, allowing him to divert some attention away from maintaining a good balance and onto a proper assessment of his surroundings.

That voice had sounded close, but the words spoken were sufficiently indistinct that it must have come from somewhere well below the forest canopy… Perhaps it was someone on those trails? A few months ago, his untrained ears would have been unable to make out anything; even now, after all those exercises that he did to deliberately hone his auditory sense, Minato could still only half-guess at what was being said.

In any case, the directives were unlikely to be meant for him.

'Should I even investigate?' Minato would estimate that he was at most only a day's travel from Konoha. Had the war already gone so bad for his village that hostile forces could reach this close without being detected? It did not happen last time, but with how screwed up this timeline was already …

The former Hokage in him was immediately worried. How many enemies were in the area? What was their mission? Who or what was their target? Questions after questions were popping up in Minato's mind, all screaming for an immediate answer. His body itched to go ahead and scout for the information, to gauge enemy layout, to do something, anything to help his village. But he was not even a Konoha ninja yet. Wandering blindly onto a battlefield at his body's current age was hazardous; he had to proceed with caution.

After locating a small opening in the thick layer of leaves, Minato carefully applied some chakra to his feet and quietly "walked" down the main tree trunk. The blond tried to avoid contact with the smaller twigs as much as he could, but his clothes still rustled.

Calmly but swiftly, Minato rearranged his lips and tongue to let out a series of squirrel-like sounds.

It was not anything suspicious, just the typical pattern of shrills used by a squirrel to warn its neighbors about territorial intruders. Any Konoha ninja above genin rank, though, could easily recognize the underlying message: "Friendly about. Is assistance required?"

Of course, save for a special ending note, this trick also happened to be quite common among civilian hunters.

Minato frowned when he received no response. Why was the security so lax around Konoha? If his memory still applied, there should be a sentry point regularly staffed with chuunin rangers not five meters away from here. Was this another reminder that he needed to be less reliant on his past knowledge?

The blond cautiously continued with his downward descent. Slipping a hand into the pouch tied to his waist sash, he took out some make-shift senbon he had made during the past few months of travel. Alright, calling them "senbon" was pushing it, but his arm and hand muscles were not developed enough to deliver precise strikes yet. So bigger sticks were bound to give him bigger chances of hitting his targets, right? They would look less suspicious in the hands of a supposed civilian like him, too.

"Hold up your hands!" the same voice ordered.

Now that Minato was nearly at the forest floor, he could hear the words much better. However, their implied meaning only deepened the crease between his brows.

With one last cluster of leaves still concealing his presence, Minato finally saw the source of all this commotion. Below him, a stocky man in tattered clothes was jabbing a club of some sort at three boys. The children did not appear any better off than their opponent, being dressed in plain and simplified yukata that were obviously frayed at the edges.

'He just… contradicted himself,' Minato smiled wryly. 'How can the kids not move and still bring their hands up?'

Nonetheless, it seemed that the contradiction posed no trouble for the boys; they simply went for the more submissive option and held up their empty hands.

'So, a road robber,' Minato was not sure whether to be indignant or incredulous with this conclusion. Surely no robber would be foolish enough to create a scene so close to Konoha? The village's location might not exactly be public knowledge, but its authority in this entire region was absolute. If the man's interior accent was anything to go by, he should already know that his actions would be seen as a direct challenge to Hidden Leaf's juridical powers…

And during wartime, there was very little that Fire Country's "loyal" ninjas could not get away with on home turf.

'Okay, either this guy has exceptional skills to back him up… or he has exceptional stupidity,' the blond gave a mental sigh and decided that this was a matter better left to the care of those tardy rangers.

But just before he was about to leave, Minato suddenly paused as the ridiculous nature of this situation truly hit him. Indeed, there should be no reason why a robbery should even take place within Konoha's proximity… No sane civilian would attempt such an act, no matter how desperate he might be. The repercussions for the criminal in question were too great.

'Ah… Don't tell me this is another stupid test they've set up to test young newcomers to the village?' His suspicions fully aroused, Minato closed his eyes so that he could better focus on sensing the chakra around him.

It took a while (and he was lucky to have no one there to distract him), but he finally managed to get a blurry picture. Minato could not "see" very far at this time for obvious reasons, what with all the overwhelming buzz of the forest lives around him, but the "robber" obviously had more chakra than was normal for a civilian. For that matter, there was also a definite localization of rich and vibrant chakra that he could detect just across from his position…

A jounin. They actually stationed a jounin here.

Perhaps his village was not being as lax as he thought.

'And I can't believe I almost fell for this,' Minato berated himself for his momentary lapse of common sense. However, now that he knew this was some twisted test, the blond had other things to worry about. Obviously, he should stop using any more chakra-based techniques. The tree-walking could be explained as a trick taught by retired ninjas for mundane activities like fruits-gathering, but any actual ninjutsu…

Not that he could perform any at this point anyway.

'I can't be too good with my aim either,' Minato mused as he thoughtfully fingered the wooden sticks between his fingers. 'I don't need the status of a suspected child-spy on my record.'

Feeling rather stupid in spite of his own decision, the blond started to "randomly" shower as many sticks as he could on the robber's head. There was really nothing tactical about it; the goal was just to hit the man so many times that he could hopefully be rendered "unconscious".

Of course, Minato had to be quick enough so the "robber" would have little time to react. He also had to adjust his angle continuously to prevent the disguised chuunin from moving out of his attack range.

If this was an actual skirmish, Minato would have already perished within seconds after exposing his position.

But it would seem that Konoha did not really expect much from young children like them anyway. As soon as Minato finished throwing five sticks, the supposed criminal went down like a lifeless doll. The blond almost winced at the chuunin's poor acting skills. Seriously, no healthy and living human being would fall forward with such rigidity in his or her posture. It was not as if he had applied any paralyzing poison on those mock-senbon sticks.

Nevertheless, he had accomplished his "task". Taking a rough estimate of his distance from the ground, Minato decided it was safe enough to simply slide down along the tree trunk. Almost immediately, he felt the curious gaze of those children zoning in on him.

Nodding politely at them in acknowledgement, Minato quickly took out a roll of ropes and began tying the "robber". He did not get too fancy with the knots; in fact, he even specifically used an ordinary type that was more commonly found for securing fish nets on boats. With his future career at Konoha on the line, Minato did not intend to leave any exploitable holes in his background that could give his past training away.

"Thanks," one brown-haired boy stepped forward with a friendly grin as Minato finished his work, "Name's Umino Kujira. What's yours?"

"Namikaze Minato," the blond returned a bright smile of his own, "More nasties here than up?"

There. That should somewhat explain his unusual method of travel to that jounin still up in the trees.

"Yeah, who'd thought we'd meet a robber on the road," Kujira shook his head, clearly still not recovered from the shock of nearly being "robbed".

Minato nodded as if equally confused, "It's really weird. I thought there are ninjas around?"

"Maybe they are," another boy with sleek grey hair spoke up. "But they probably can't cover everywhere."

"Oh, that makes sense," Minato let his expression shifted into one of dawning comprehension. "Um, sorry, but what's your name?"

"It's Yakushi Shiso," said boy replied in a quiet voice before pointing to his remaining companion. "And this is Uzuki Noyaki."

The purple-haired boy dipped his head slightly in Minato's direction, but otherwise said nothing.

'So… Kujira the Teacher, Shiso the Medic, and Noyaki the Scout,' Minato's smile deepened as he returned the nod. 'Well met again, Team Clanless-Rights-Advocacy.'

Despite whatever ridicule the snobs from those old clans would pile on them, these three shinobi would always have the one-time Hokage's true respect. Being latecomers to Konoha, first-generation ninjas were historically at a disadvantaged position when compared with their associates from established clans. Even before children are enrolled at the Academy, the gap already existed. The clans began systematically training their young very early, which easily led to bloated and yet often justified egos at school. The clanless ninjas had to shed blood, sweat, and tears just to catch up—only to find themselves behind again when their classmates from clans had advanced ahead as well. It was a vicious cycle that only very few exceptional individuals ever managed to break.

Such as Jiraiya-sensei. Such as Orochimaru-senpai.

Such as himself.

But Minato was ashamed to admit that they all failed to go back and help out their struggling peers. Once they had achieved village-wide acclaim for their skills, it never occurred to them to assist other "outsiders" who were still left to bite the dust of clan members. Minato winced as he remembered that he too had been only too content to bask in the respect that those old clans were finally giving him. Thinking back, Minato wondered if that was part of a conspiracy to keep the clanless ninjas divided and weak as a political group.

It was truly ironic that three "average" ninjas had gone out of their way to do what their "accomplished" peers should have been doing.

"Where are you going?" Minato tried to keep the conversation going as he stuffed the rest of his ropes back into a pack. Unless something else had happened in this new timeline, the blond already had some inkling of what their answer would be.

Indeed, Kujira confirmed it almost immediately, "Konoha, of course! I'm going to become a ninja!"

"Same here," Minato grinned. Kujira might not have been an exceptional ninja—in fact, he was still a chuunin when the Fourth Hokage heard of his early demise after Kyuubi's first sighting in the south—but he had been an excellent and inspirational teacher. As an instructor at the Academy, Kujira was fair to all his pupils. This often led him to give additional lessons for the clanless students. Minato had received strong complaints from the clans about Kujira's "bias" on more than one occasion, but the Yondaime had resolutely stood on the chuunin's side.

It was the least he could do to make up for his past negligence.

Feeling a little thirsty, the blond fumbled through his pack some more for his water bottle and salt bar. Pinching off a bit of the salt, he added it to the water to replenish what he lost through perspiration before turning his eyes to Shiso and Noyaki, "And you?"

"I'd like to be a healer if I can," Shiso shrugged nonchalantly. He was still eyeing the bound and unconscious "robber" a little suspiciously. "But learning some self-defense skills can't hurt."

That was as Minato expected. After all, Shiso had been a high-ranking medical officer under his command. After Tsunade-hime's temperamental departure, the tokubetsu jounin had finally been able to walk out of her shadow and become recognized as the village's valuable asset in his own right.

And before the blond could question the trio's final member, Noyaki spoke, "What Kujira said."

Noyaki had a raspy voice, which was particularly unsettling given his still childish appearance. Minato wondered if that was why the boy was so reluctant to speak. Even as an adult, Noyaki was a quiet man. Of course, that suited his role in the shadows just fine; very few people could make the connection between Noyaki and his codename as a member of the Hokage's ANBU guard—simply because he disguised himself so well and there was never a record of his voice to identify him. Some of the junior squad members from civilian families might have guessed, but they would never sell out on their mentor.

Minato was glad that at least Kujira was still pretty talkative, so he let the brown-haired boy take up most of the chatter as the four of them moved down the trail towards Konoha. The genjutsu defense in place would lead them in a merry circle until someone came to retrieve them anyway, so Minato was not in any particular hurry as Kujira began to spill out all sorts of "trade secrets" that apparently any aspiring ninja should know.

Some of what he said, such as determining ninja ranks from the shade of green a person was wearing, sounded rather amusing from Minato's point of view. Others, like the sore spot about Coast Country's boundary that started the conflict between Konoha and Suna during the last war, had Minato wondering if some of his fellow ninjas had been doing too much gossiping outside the village.

Somewhere along the way, though, Kujira admitted to have also come from the coastal regions. When he found out that Minato was from around Nishiwan, the boy was all too eager to trade notes on fishing techniques. Thankfully, Kujira's family was more into actual fishing—so he could not tell that most of what Minato had said about clam and oyster farming was not actually from his own personal experience.

The blond figured that his purely theoretical knowledge could probably fool anyone outside the actual business.

Nonetheless, Minato tried to keep his own words to a minimum and often phrase them in a way so that others were doing the talking. He had very little idea how four-year-olds like him were supposed to act; his past infiltration missions had never actually required him to pose as so young a child. So he tried to play it safe by speaking as succinctly as possible. In fact, he might just as well hold onto this persona even after entering Konoha; it would be the same as the image he presented during his early career last time, after all.

When a whole afternoon did not seem to bring them any closer to Konoha, Minato realized his village's Internal Affairs department probably still found Kujira and his companions lacking. Wanting to test his deduction, the blond made an excuse of wishing to find a bush for relieving himself. Minato had to sigh at just how easily the trio accepted his superficial excuse.

It was little wonder that the village did not want to accept them yet. Oh well, they would eventually make it into Konoha; but maybe just not now.

Retracing his steps back to where he remembered they had left the "robber", Minato did not have to walk very far before a ninja jumped down to approach him. After the chuunin presented credible proof of his identity at Minato's insistence, the blond smiled sheepishly as he watched the man shuffled the papers to give him a different Offer of Acceptance for Immigration.

They were assigning him to a cooperative housing on Tea Street? If that commercial district was still as prosperous as he remembered it, the location should be quite convenient for grocery shopping… They were allocating him a monthly allowance of five hundred ryou? That amount was more than generous for a new immigrant… Oh, and they were giving him a coupon book for buying certain products in sponsoring shops? Hmm, this certainly added icing to the cake…

By the time a checkpoint finally came into view, Minato's lips had settled into a wide grin. It seemed that Konoha had not only found him trustworthy after a background check—but also valuable enough to nurture for his potential. The Offer was a lot better than the standardized one he got along with a large group of civilian immigrants last time. Despite this being another deviation in his life, Minato really saw no reason to complain.

At least for him, it could even mean things were finally looking up.

.

Minato wandered aimlessly on the streets.

It had been three months since he entered Konoha. Kujira's trio had also finally been admitted a week ago and was currently going through orientations at the Academy. At age nine, they were a little too old to start their ninja education, but they were all civilian outsiders who had no ways of knowing the admission age. Besides, there were still some small clans in the village that insisted on training their children at a later time; to them, keeping their bloodline alive was more important than being ridiculed for their over-protectiveness.

And given that the level of inter-village conflict so far had yet to really necessitate a shorter training cycle, the Academy authorities could not simply force those clans to follow a "recommended" edict. So Kujira and his friends should not stand out in their class… too much.

Turning right on a street corner to avoid going into a dead end, Minato continued to assess the state of his village. There might be fewer idle ninjas on the street, but the civilians did not seem affected. Shops were still stocked with regular products without imposed quotas, and customers were still frequenting them in healthy throngs… Perhaps, in the beginning, Konoha never thought its decision to join Kusa in assisting one side of Bamboo Country's civil war could really start an all-out Great Ninja War.

Well, it might not have been the case if the other side did not happen to be assisted by Taki—which was allied with Iwa, which in turn had a long-time grudge with Suna, which…

Massaging the sides of his head, Minato decided to drop his attempt at remembering the convoluted mess that the Second Great Ninja War eventually turned into. After all, he would not be in a position to influence any of Konoha's tactical decisions, and questioning them might just make him appear insubordinate.

Shifting his attention back to his immediate surroundings, Minato continued to navigate the streets like a native. Really, if not for his unusually bright hair, he could have blended anonymously into the crowd.

After all, he did spend months of morning runs and evening walks to re-familiarize himself with his village.

But this was and was not his Konoha. It had the same location and the same people, but something still feel off.

It was not just the whispers behind his back about his immigrant status rather than his eligible bachelorhood. It was not his missing image on the Hokage's Monument either—the likeness of his carved face had been totally off anyway. He was tempted to say that it was simply because he was in a different time, but his mind already knew that was not the true reason.

It truly all came down to Kushina's absence.

Ever since he confirmed the shocking news of her homeland's early destruction, Minato had tried to put off his thoughts of her by submerging himself in training. Minato had initially agonized for days on just where to begin, before deciding to use tree-hopping as a multi-purpose routine on his way towards Konoha. For one, the hops helped with building his leg muscles and motor coordination. They also forced him to develop a stronger sense of balance, if he did not want to fall off from the trees. At first, he was simply jumping between branches closest to the forest floor; later, when he grew more confident, he gradually progressed through the canopies and went for the treetops.

The one-time Hokage intentionally combined the hops with tree-walking, a very rudimentary chakra control exercise. If he ran low on chakra, Minato would simply keep to the ground and walk leisurely along those trails to keep pushing the limits of his stamina. And when he was finally too tired to move at all, he would find a good resting spot among tree branches and meditate. His sensing exercises usually took place around such times.

Minato knew he could have probably chosen more rigorous exercises, but he did not want to put excess strain on his four-year-old body. His muscles were still developing, and it would be unwise to weaken them with premature stress. Furthermore, while he could explain strong legs with frequent running as a child… but how would he cover for muscled arms?

Um, not that would be possible.

In terms of bringing his body up to a tolerable (but not suspicious) level of fitness, Minato could say that he had succeeded. However, for avoiding thoughts of Kushina, he had failed abysmally.

Just where could she be now? Minato had practically made the public library his second home since he arrived here, but none of the civilian newspapers had said anything beyond a dry statement about the total destruction of Whirlpool Country.

"What is a child like you doing here?"

Minato blinked, suddenly aware that his feet had taken him to his old training ground. It was the same place where both Team Jiraiya and Team Minato had trained… or would train… The semantics was a little confusing now with his time-travelling added to the mix.

But he was getting distracted again. Minato tried to look around, and had to suppress a mischievous grin when he ascertained the one who spoke. After letting himself wander about the village like a lost soul, a fish finally had bit his bait.

"I want to know how ninjas train!" Minato kept his blue eyes wide and innocent; he was well aware of their useful effect on certain members of the Konoha populace. "'Cause they won't let me in at the A-ka-da-mi… but I'll show them I can still find out on my own!"

"There's a reason why they don't admit students before six," the dark-haired woman shook her head, but her expression was clearly one of amusement. "You just have to wait for your turn, child."

The blond kicked at the ground as he pouted childishly, "But I want to know now! I'll never catch up if I just wait."

A sharp glint entered the woman's pale eyes, "Why do you need to catch up? Your classmates will enter the school with you at the same time."

"But!" Minato interjected with seeming impatience, but he knew that he would have to phrase his next words carefully; there was a subtle distinction between the speech pattern of an adult and a precocious child. "I saw White-Eye doing ninja tricks the other day! And, and I'm as tall as him!"

"White-Eye," the woman was obviously trying to hide a full-blown laugh now. "Right… Well, he's probably learning it from his family. You could probably ask for help from yours too."

Minato lowered his head and bit his lips, "Don't have one."

"Oh?" The woman narrowed her eyes as they scrutinized him, but Minato kept his downcast look. "You're an orphan and yet Danzou hasn't sunk his teeth into you?"

Hmm, was the Ne really that big of a public secret even at this time? Minato played his innocent child card and feigned ignorance, "Huh? What's an or-fan or dan-zo? They sound scary."

"Never mind," the woman chuckled lightly. "Well, you must be from the outside then. You just came to Konoha, is that right?"

Minato pretended that he had to think before he could place the village's name, but finally nodded as he counted with his fingers, "Uh-huh. I'm in Ko-no-ha for one… two… three months?"

The woman smiled faintly, "So this is all new to you. Why don't you look around a bit then? There's no hurry for you to start learning 'ninja tricks', as you call them. You have a lot of time in the future."

"But I want to start now," Minato tugged on his plain waist sash. "Don't like them saying things about me."

"Them?" The woman quickly caught his slight stress on the word.

Minato nodded morosely, "Yeah, they say I'm always eating and no good."

Although her eyes hardened, the woman's tone softened, "Is that so? Well, would you like to try something today then?"

The blond instantly jumped on her, "Really? Are you going to show me how to do the tricks?"

The woman peeled him off with ease, "Sure. But just this time—unless you can get it today."

"I'll get it!" Minato grinned confidently. "Show me, show me!"

"We'll see," the woman's lips twisted slightly upward on one corner. "Watch carefully then. First, you hold your hand like so…"

It turned out to be a simple water tracking technique, very useful when one had no visible source of drinking water. Minato used it often enough when he had missions in the Wind Country. Nonetheless, the blond had no idea how this woman could possibly expect a four-year-old to perform a water-element ninjutsu. He would be lying if he said that he still held a high opinion of her now.

Regardless, it would not do to show his annoyance. The explanations involved would get rather messy. So Minato merely twisted his fingers clumsily and let his chakra flow through them; he was a little curious himself on what kind of effect he could get. To avoid possible suspicion, the blond had yet to attempt any hand seals or ninjutsu since he came back into the past. As a result, he was currently just as clueless as the woman beside him when it came to how specialized his chakra actually was.

After he completed the jutsu, Minato immediately felt a stream of chakra erupting from his hand. Before he could even blink, a massive fountain of water had burst forth from the ground in front of them.

"Woah!" This time, Minato was not faking his surprise.

'I thought my primary affinity was wind?' The one-time Hokage could only stare at the enormous jet of water that his own chakra had called forth. 'I did develop a water affinity later on… but that was like my quaternary affinity?'

In any case, he should not have been able to get this much water. True, Fire Country might be richer in groundwater than Wind Country, but this was getting a little outrageous!

The woman was just as shocked as him. "That was… great. And it's your first try too."

Minato was not so optimistic. He could already imagine the kind of problems that he would run into in the future. Given how easy it had been for him to execute a water jutsu at this age, there was a high likelihood that somehow his primary affinity was now changed to water…

What was he supposed to do with a water affinity??!!

Sure, he knew plenty of Water Release techniques, but he was used to having a wind affinity. Despite his knowledge on various types of ninjutsus, his mind tended to automatically fall back on Wind Release techniques. He was used to cutting and slicing… And losing that natural trait now was going to wreak all sorts of havoc if he continued to fight with the same mentality. With how intimately he had known the wind element, he probably could get it back as a secondary affinity later on—but it would still not be the same. But he would have to adjust to this new development soon. Complaining about a situation would not make it go away.

A treacherous part of his mind was already linking his changed affinity to his dead mother. She was already no longer around, true, but could she have done something to him before her death? Or, for that matter, fail to do something to him?

Minato did know of certain seals that could block off natural affinities if they were applied at an early age…

Another woman's excited voice saved him from any more dangerous thoughts, "Well! I do believe you are ready for ninja tricks after all. I have to head back to my home soon, but would you like to meet again tomorrow?"

The blond plastered an equally excited smile on his face, "Sure, sensei!"

He made a mental apology to Jiraiya-sensei, his past and hopefully future teacher. If the chuunin was not already dispatched to Rain Country with his team at this time, the Toad Sennin would definitely have been Minato's instructor of choice. After all, the blond did train under Jiraiya—so the man would have been a much more believable cover for his body of advanced knowledge. But this woman would not be a bad alternative… not a bad one at all…

Said woman was currently startled by the new title he had given her, but she smiled readily, "Oh, there's no need to call me sensei, child. I'm not about to compete with your Academy teachers. Just call me Touka-san and we'll be set, okay?"

Minato nodded, carefully dulling his smile to a shyer one, "Okay, Touka-san. Thank you, Touka-san."

"So polite," the woman tried to pat down his spiky hair, which only bounced right back to their messy form as soon as her hands departed. She chuckled at the futility of her attempt as she asked, "And what is your name, child?"

"Minato," the blond felt it easier to curl his lips to a natural angle, now that he had confirmed the woman's identity. "Namikaze Minato."

"Okay, Minato," Senju Touka's face returned to its original aloofness as she straightened up. "I will see you tomorrow then."

"See you, Touka-san," Minato waved happily as she left the training area. Well, his plan had gone relatively smoothly—other than this annoying change of his affinity.

After all, he was now the honorary student of an adviser to both Shodai-sama and Nidaime-sama. Such an identity would be most useful against the likes of Danzou and that arrogant Council in the future.

They wanted to flaunt their seniority over him? Well, he would not mind throwing it right back at them this time. And in a few years when he had rebuilt or even improved his connections within the village, he would make them regret having ever tried to turn Namikaze Minato into their nice little puppet-Hokage.

.

"Namikaze Minato," the Third Hokage scanned the student record in front of him with his dark eyes as he read out the key points. "Academy entry – 17th Spring Semester: age 6… Advanced placement exam – 100% cumulative… Semester grades – 1/180 in Taijutsu, 1/180 in Ninjutsu, 1/180 in Tactics… Graduation exam – 100% cumulative… These are very impressive marks, Minato-kun."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Minato blushed as he felt his ears heating up as his one-time predecessor turned to face and compliment him. Indeed, it would have been embarrassing for a former Hokage to perform anything but impressive on those basic assignments and tests. Not to mention, he had been tutored by an elite member of the Senju clan for the past two years and could legitimately reveal some of his regained skills without suspicion. It truly felt like he was cheating the system.

Of course, this was normally not a big issue with the ever "flexible" Minato; but Sandaime-sama somehow always retained the power to reduce him to the same "naturalized" ten-year-old who just got his Konoha hitai-ate, and was so excited that he actually stayed up all night so he could race to the Hokage Tower the next day to get his ninja registration number…

Only to discover he had forgotten his headband at home as he arrived at the Tower.

For absolutely no reason at all, Minato felt like the same sheepish look that he had back then was silently creeping up on his face.

"From the looks of things," Sarutobi mercifully shifted his eyes back to the paper at the last moment. "There's no reason why you cannot graduate this September."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Minato could only parrot himself again as he tried to distract himself with examining the Hokage's desk. Yes, it was the still the same one that he had back in his original time. That 45 degree grazing mark looked a little lighter, but not by much. And there was also that hidden drawer where Minato had to clear out the porn stash before stuffing in his own research notes… Damn, he needed to get the image of Sandaime-sama reading that mindless trash out of his mind again.

"So have you thought about your career options?"

Minato blinked dumbly just as he got rid of that last vision of a voluptuous woman in a half-stripped state. "I think so, er… Hokage-sama."

Whew. He nearly said "ero-Hokage-sama"…

"Which track do you intend to pursue?" Sandaime-sama asked, completely oblivious to the plight of his village's latest prodigy.

Well, if Minato just wanted the easiest way out, becoming a seal master would probably be the best answer; he was already a widely-acknowledged one in his last life, even if it was only known to himself at this point in his new life. But "easy" also meant a lack of challenge and intellectual stimulation—something that was totally abhorrent to Minato.

Besides, Minato needed to rise through the ranks fast if he wished to obtain the needed clearance for locating Kushina's whereabouts. While he was at it, he might as well continue to match and surpass Orochimaru-senpai's career advancement; such a record would only help him become a less disputed candidate for the Fourth Hokage this time around. Minato had neither the time nor patience to go along with the Council's power plays in his second life—especially when he knew that Madara's existence was still threatening his village. He needed unquestioned authority within Konoha if he was to lead a united front against Kiri.

And the only area that allowed him to explore new frontiers of knowledge, to go on high-rank missions during the war despite a relatively low ninja rank, to gain seniority quickly in a department still in its infancy…

"Medical ninja," Minato replied calmly as he steeled his resolve. It was a path he never walked last time, but it was the best one in his second life given the new priorities. "I would like to become a med-nin."

A/N: The trio's surnames pretty much gave away their relation to canon cast. And Senju Touka is yet another 'historical' character Kishimoto had left us very little info with—so I figured she would fit nicely with my story?

Feedback appreciated. It's rather depressing to see many hits but few reviews. Is my writing so bad people would leave after reading 3 sentences?