Hearing this, Minato wore an expression full of expectation.
What exactly was this so-called fundamental training?
"Let's go. The morning training ground isn't here," Jiraiya said and began walking forward slowly.
Without hesitation, Minato followed, and the two once again arrived at the streets of Konoha.
Jiraiya raised his arm and pointed a finger. "First, run forty laps around the Hidden Leaf Village. You must complete it before noon... Otherwise, the afternoon session gets cut, and you'll have to run sixty more laps instead. Also, no chakra allowed."
Minato was slightly stunned. He never expected that fundamental training would start with nothing more than running.
"Begin now," Jiraiya reminded him again. Minato glanced at the sun overhead—there were less than six hours remaining until noon.
"Oh no!" Minato cried out in alarm and took off at full speed.
He moved so fast that he vanished down the street within seconds. Meanwhile, Jiraiya gave a faint smile and disappeared in an instant.
It was still early, so there weren't too many people on the streets of Konoha, meaning Minato could advance at high speed without much obstruction.
As he quickly passed through one road after another, he calculated the difficulty of this training in his mind.
At his current pace, if maintaining an average speed, he would just barely finish forty laps before noon.
But that was merely considering an average speed. Even as a ninja, physical stamina was limited; with high-speed running, stamina would gradually decrease.
Using chakra to recover stamina would've helped… but Jiraiya had already forbidden the use of chakra.
While calculating, he also pondered the purpose of such training—apart from enhancing some endurance, how did this relate to what his teacher mentioned about body speed and reaction time?
Even Minato couldn't immediately grasp the logic behind it, but he trusted that his teacher had good reasons.
Thus, the expression in his eyes gradually became serious as he focused entirely on this "training."
He finished the first lap in less than eight minutes—an even faster speed than an ordinary genin.
However, every subsequent lap was slightly slower. By the tenth lap, Minato's forehead already had fine beads of sweat.
Still, his breathing remained steady—he had trained himself regularly and grown used to this kind of physical strain.
So the basic drills at the Ninja Academy barely even made him break a sweat.
"At this rate, I can finish," Minato murmured inwardly, continuing his run.
The villagers watched him with puzzled expressions—it was unusual to see a child no older than seven or eight taking on such a task.
Minato, however, had no energy to pay attention to those glances. At that moment, any distraction would cost him precious focus and energy.
That might result in failing to complete this training, thus having to continue running again in the afternoon.
It wasn't that he feared such hardship, but rather that he truly wanted to know what his teacher had planned for his next training session.
"Curiosity..." Jiraiya sat in a small tavern within Konoha, thinking exactly as he'd expected. Even though Minato's mind was meticulous, in the end, he was still just a child.
For kids, nothing motivates them more than sparking their curiosity—not encouragement or threats.
The weather became increasingly hot, and Minato's stamina gradually declined. Yet he kept trying his best to maintain his speed. By now, he had already circled around the Hidden Leaf Village nearly thirty times.
For some Genin, this would already be the limit of their physical endurance.
Even Minato, who often trained alone with intense workouts, felt his legs becoming heavy, slightly sluggish in movement. However, whenever this feeling intensified, his body seemed to respond accordingly.
Strength was quickly returning, eliminating his sense of fatigue.
This somewhat unnatural recovery of energy wasn't the first time it had happened to Minato; he had experienced the same sensation during previous training sessions.
He didn't have time to figure out why this was happening. Although his speed had slightly slowed, he maintained a relatively steady pace. At this rate, he should be able to complete the morning's mission of running forty laps around Konoha before lunch.
Watching from atop one of the rooftops along Minato's route, Jiraiya observed everything with slight surprise.
He hadn't anticipated that this kid possessed such strong stamina—enduring an intensity that would take time for even many Chunin to adapt to.
Jiraiya was beginning to doubt even the Third's information—was Minato Namikaze really just the son of ordinary people?
Without any bloodline advantages, how did he manage to reach this level?
"I originally intended to let you try this in a few days, but now it looks like things need to start earlier than planned..." Jiraiya gave a bitter smile before his figure vanished once again.
Minato kept going at the same pace. After completing his thirty-fifth lap, noon approached. The sun grew fiercer, and many pedestrians searched for shade to stay cool.
Therefore, Minato running under direct sunlight was particularly noticeable.
His golden hair shone brightly, casting radiant glints in onlookers' eyes.
Sweat dripped from his gentle, good-looking face, but his clothes weren't soaked at all.
Just as Minato thought he was about to finish his morning training, suddenly, a black afterimage dashed toward him.
Whoosh!
The shadow moved with blinding speed, catching Minato completely off guard while he was already exhausted. Still, he managed to dodge slightly. The shadow swept past his ear and temple, severing a few strands of hair.
"Shuriken!" Minato's heart jolted—he was certain of it; the weapon that nearly hit him was definitely a shuriken.
Furthermore, he could tell the thrower's technique surpassed that of Yan Uchiha's, though clearly without any intent to harm.
Among those he'd interacted with, besides his teacher Jiraiya, there wouldn't be anyone else.
Immediately afterward, he looked in the direction where the shuriken had come from, only to find absolutely nobody there.
Furrowing his brow, Minato thought to himself—Jiraiya-sensei wouldn't want to hurt him, so why throw those shuriken…? It had to be—to stop him from finishing the rest of his training!
As he was thinking this, slightly distracted, a sharp whistling sound came from behind him once again. This time, Minato was prepared and quickly dodged aside.
Still just two shuriken.
"I can't keep wasting time like this!" Minato thought. Although he didn't understand why his teacher was doing this, he was certain it was part of the training.
The sole goal? To make him stronger!
Without hesitation, Minato started running again. His speed now felt even faster than before!
...
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