The road home, as Minato-sensei escorted Roy, was very long.
It was also very quiet.
The two walked one in front of the other, on the deserted streets of Konoha late at night. The streetlights stretched their shadows out long.
"Roy."
Minato stopped in front of the apartment building.
He didn't turn around.
"Forget what happened tonight.", His voice sounded a bit tired.
"Forget?" Roy asked.
"Yes," Minato said. "Just pretend we only went to the post town and had a bowl of bad ramen."
"And then, nothing happened."
Roy watched his teacher's back.
He could "hear" it. Inside that tall, reliable body, that heart, warm like the sun, was gradually growing cold.
"I understand," Roy replied.
"Get some rest."
After Minato finished speaking, his figure flickered and vanished into the night.
Roy stood alone downstairs for a long time.
He looked up at the waning crescent moon in the sky.
Forget it? How could he.
Some things, once seen, can never be unseen.
He returned to his room and locked the door.
He didn't turn on the light. Darkness allowed him to think better.
He pulled out the box containing the iron ingot from under his bed.
He didn't start training. He just took out a new, blank notebook.
On the first page of the notebook, he wrote down two words with his pen.
"Power."
Then, he turned to the second page. He wrote down two more words.
"Authority."
He looked at these two words, lost in thought.
Before, he only thought about having enough power to protect himself.
With power, he could survive in the chaotic plot of the future.
Now, he understood.
Power alone was not enough.
In a system that was already rotten from top to bottom, a strong person without authority was merely a more usable blade.
Today, it was Minato Namikaze.
Tomorrow, it could be himself.
He didn't want to be a blade. He wanted to be the one holding the blade.
He closed the notebook and placed it together with the one he previously used to record only his training plans.
From today onward, he had two goals.
The next day, at Training Ground 11.
Minato-sensei, acting as if nothing had happened, announced the new training plan with a gentle smile.
"From today, our mission load will decrease."
"Most of our time will be spent on higher-intensity team training."
Tokuma and Yakumo were somewhat confused.
They thought that after successfully completing the B-rank mission, more difficult missions would await them.
Only Roy understood his teacher's meaning.
Minato-sensei was disappointed in the village.
He no longer trusted those missions assigned by the higher-ups, filled with unknowns and calculations.
He chose to cultivate his own students in his own way.
He wanted to build a team that was absolutely reliable, belonging only to him and answering only to his orders.
The new training began.
It was more brutal than before and demanded greater coordination.
Minato no longer just had them practice formations.
He started teaching them how to survive in extreme environments.
How to endure for three days without food or water.
How to fight alongside comrades in complete darkness, relying only on hearing and touch.
He even began teaching them techniques for codes and anti-tracking.
These things exceeded the scope of what a normal genin squad should learn.
This was more like…
ANBU training methods.
Tokuma's complaints lessened.
He simply gritted his teeth and completed those seemingly impossible tasks, time after time.
Yakumo's tears also lessened.
She learned to entrust her back to her comrades when she felt she couldn't hold on any longer.
Roy, meanwhile, was quietly doing some other things.
During a break in taijutsu training.
He walked over to Tokuma, who was wiping off sweat.
"Tokuma."
"What?"
"Your Branch House seems a bit restless lately," Roy said casually.
Tokuma's body stiffened abruptly.
"What nonsense are you talking about!" he retorted instinctively.
"The day before yesterday, the Hyūga Main House patrol caught a Branch House ninja stealing a scroll in the warehouse east of the clan grounds," Roy said flatly. "The Main House suppressed the matter. But some people in the village already know."
Tokuma fell silent.
His face alternated between pale and flushed.
This matter was a secret of the Branch House.
He himself had only heard about it from his father last night.
How did Roy know?
"I don't mean anything by it," Roy said. "I just wanted to remind you."
"This is wartime."
"Any internal instability could be magnified indefinitely."
"Be careful. Don't get swept up in it."
With that, he walked away.
Leaving Tokuma standing there, his expression shifting uncertainly.
Roy knew he had planted that seed of doubt.
Tokuma valued the clan's honor greatly.
But precisely because of that, he couldn't tolerate the unfair treatment of the Branch House.
He needed an opportunity to see reality clearly.
Roy had now given him that opportunity.
On the other side, Yakumo was painting on her easel.
She had been having nightmares lately.
The lines in her paintings were becoming increasingly chaotic and dark.
Roy walked over to her and glanced at her painting.
"It's good," he said.
"Thank you…" Yakumo replied quietly.
"But your mind is a bit unsettled," Roy said.
Yakumo's hand holding the brush trembled.
"I… I don't…"
"Your genjutsu comes from your mental energy," Roy said. "The stronger and more stable your spirit, the more powerful your genjutsu."
"Conversely, if your heart is consumed by fear and darkness."
"Then your power will turn back and devour you."
Yakumo's face turned pale.
Roy's words struck the deepest fear in her heart.
"I have a book here," Roy said, taking an old book from his ninja tool pouch.
"It was given to me by a traveling monk."
"It doesn't discuss ninjutsu, but rather some methods for meditating and calming your mind."
"Maybe it'll be useful to you."
He placed the book on Yakumo's lap.
Then, he walked away as well.
Yakumo looked at the book.
There was no title on the cover.
She hesitated for a moment and opened the first page.
Minato-sensei, watching from a distance, saw all of this.
He didn't say anything.
He just felt that this student of his was becoming more and more like…
A spider weaving its web. He was using a method that even he couldn't fully comprehend.
Imperceptibly, he was taking Tokuma and Yakumo, these two who were merely comrades.
And weaving them, bit by bit, into his own web.
Making them into bonds that belonged only to him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Like the story? Read many advanced chapters in patreon!
patreon.com/atomelectron
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━