Chapter 28 - Tsume (1/2)

Seeing the Anbu leave, Tsume exclaimed ”Minato is far ahead of us. Even if he says he will not grow stronger, it did not mean that he will not be more skilled. We have to train our ȧss off if we want to at least have a chance to catch up to him”

”Right dattebane! We can't let him be the strongest all our life!”

”You're both right, but we can't be too harsh on ourselves, after all, we have progressed by leaps and bounds since we came to know him” Interjected Mikoto wisely.

Hearing that, Tsume and Kushina fell deep in thoughts. It's true that so many things happened since encountering him, that they did not really saw their progress, with Minato always being far ahead of them.

Thinking back of all the times passed with Minato, Tsume had a look of reminiscence.

--

Tsume was busy doing some last minutes revisions before the small exam of today at the academy, when suddenly

”Ooooh, oi, that's a nice dog that you have!”

She was startled out of her thoughts and look up to see Minato. She was surprised that he was talking to her. Despite being in the same class for one week, he never said anything to her before.

Registering what he said, she raised her eyebrows in surprise and took her dog from the table into her arms, while looking at him proudly ”It's my ninken, Kuromaru”

”Oh, so you're from that shinobi clan, the Inuzukas”

She was going to answer yes when she was interrupted by Kaito ”Oi Minato, what are you doing with dog breath? Come here, we were talking of who had the biggest chance to become the next Hokage. Who do you think it will be?”

Hearing that Tsume fumed, and she looked angrily at Minato. 'I knew it, there was no way that someone as popular as him will talk to me if it's not to insult me'

Since day one, not a lot of people were willing to talk to her because of the dog smell that permeated her body, with her being always with Kuromaru, adding the fact that she lived in a place where dogs are everywhere.

Instead of the insults she expected, she saw that Minato frowned and shot a dissatisfied look at his friend. He then turned around and smiled to her ”Just ignore this guy, he has no tact at all. So, what's your name?”

She was a bit perplexed at what happened, this guy always ignored her when Keito insulted her but here he was talking to her casually, and even sitting next to her despite the smell. She regained her senses soon enough, and answered him fast, not willing to lose a chance to have a friend that doesn't mind her smell.

”I'm Tsume Inuzuka”

”I'm Minato Namikaze, I think we were destined to meet, Tsume!”

”Destined?” Inquired Tsume, not understanding from where it came from.

Minato just smiled ”Do you wanna turn the classroom upside down with me?”

”Huh? The classroom?”