Chapter 41 - Skirmiches before the war (1/2)

The months passed by, with Minato not doing any more missions because Jiraya became more and more busy since skirmishes already broke out between Konoha, Suna, and Iwa. Kiri and Kumo were only sitting on the sidelines for the time being.

The main skirmiches' battlefields are: the Land of River, between Konoha and Suna. The land of Stone, between Suna and Iwa. The land of Grass, between Konoha and Iwa. The armies were ever so slowly converging in the direction of the Land of Rain, where in around six months the war will truly begin at full blast.

But all of that had nothing to do with Minato, that kept himself in the 'safe' haven that is Konoha, and was training like a madman, to increase his chance of survival. Unfortunately for him, despite all this training that would have made a grown ȧduŀt into a powerhouse, he only increased his chakra from mid-high chunin to low special jonin level. Before his growth spurt in some years, his increase of chakra will be slow, his body already having successfully reached his peak.

Thankfully, all this time was not wasted. All his capacities shot through the roofs, and he can now proudly declare that he can run through all the weak jonin, and with luck escape from pretty strong ones.

He would have been even stronger if he could use the Hiraishin no jutsu, unfortunately, he somehow sense that his body will not take well the spatial leap, and that he could very well die from it. Not only that, even if he has the advanced formula improved by Minato and his experience, it did not mean that he can create it for the time being with his level of skills. It's like having a legendary sword in a game but not being able to use it because of the lack of level. Or like having the recipe of the 'Gamabunta roasted meat accompanied by mushrooms à la poêle' and the experience of making it, but not having enough oil to cook it.

The area where he improved the most is of course Taijutsu. All the battles with Dai allowed him to have a certain mastery over the combination Hyper Intuition-Sharingan, making him more and more deadly.

Minato had the foresight to do preparations before training with Dai.

First, he created a resistance seal. It's a seal that basically makes the air denser, so it's like he was in water instead of air. He only kept it to the first level, that of water density, not willing to stunt his growth. It's not like kids that run in the water would have their growth stunt, do they? And for him, it's safer than using weights, applying even pressure on the whole body. He only used it sparsely, kids don't play in the water all day.

Then, he used it for the training with Dai, and asked him to put weights on during their spars. Dai, of course, thought that it was for a youthful training regiment, unaware of Minato's true thoughts.

In the anime, Dai was pretty much mediocre during day time, because all the training that he did in the night tired him. So, Minato asked him that to slow him down, to not make the Hokage and the stalkers aware of Dai's true power. If they knew it, Dai will be promoted and sent to war, having high chances of dying.

As it is, the Hokage probably think that Dai has a good eye for Taijutsu, and that he was helping Minato correct his form, but was still a weakling that needs Minato to restrain his true power to truly learn things.

People like Dai are a great ȧsset to Konoha, the Sandaime is probably thinking of putting Dai in the academy the moment Minato stops to train with him. Even if he is still a genin and people need to be chunin to become instructor, he already became genin by some sorts of machinations, a grade more is nothing for the Hokage, if it could help the future generations becoming stronger in Taijutsu.

--

”Gatsuga!” Tsume roared and spun at high speed with Kuromaru her ninken, in the direction of Mikoto. The latter, having already predicted the path that Tsume will take sidestepped easily, and struck Tsume with a sidekick, sending her rolling around the ground.

Tsume was gasping for breath, too tired to stand up ”Huff...Your Sharingan is such a cheat Mikoto. Since you awakened it, I have not won any of our battles”