Chapter Size: 1752 Words.

Third Person POV

Somewhere in the training fields, Konoha, Year 32.

...

...

"I'm exhausted, my body doesn't seem to have much endurance yet. I have a long and challenging journey ahead for more intense training..." Minato said to himself dissatisfied as he returned to the village center after his intense training.

The sky had an orange hue at this moment, indicating that it was nearing the end of the day, and the sun was losing its shine to make way for the rising moon on the other side. In Konoha, nighttime activities were beginning.

But not nighttime activities like gambling houses or brothels; Tobirama, the Second Hokage, never wanted those in the village. However, he couldn't prohibit them either, so he pushed these establishments away from the main streets, and these types of places seemed to act as a black market within the village. This was beneficial for many ninja and civilians because their actions could be more discreet in these places without tarnishing their family or wife's reputation.

As Minato walked, he couldn't help but notice something.

"Strange, the village looks as developed as it did in the anime. I thought it would be less developed since we're about 30 years before the TV series..." Minato thought as he passed Uchiha ninja patrols, acting as the village's police force.

Putting aside thoughts about Konoha's urbanization, Minato couldn't help but marvel as he saw people going about their business, traders opening their shops, families with children, civilians in plainclothes, and some leaping between rooftops silently. Others passed by like a flash so fast that Minato couldn't keep up with them using his current eyes. All of this seemed to be a pretty normal sight within Konoha.

"This place is so active at dusk, and it's just beginning. This world is incredible!" Minato laughed internally, thinking that all of this would be part of his life.

He continued walking through the village center, admiring everything and everyone, to finally leave the bustling area and enter a more modest region. But even here, there were activities in some shops and people outside their homes.

Minato moved forward through the somewhat poorer area of Konoha until he reached a two-story building, his orphanage. It wasn't very well maintained, and the building looked old, even though it was only a little over 30 years old. Yet, this orphanage could accommodate more than 30 children, and Konoha's administration financed and took care of it to ensure they could support these children.

Minato sighed and went to the door. There was no one playing in the yard at this time, and the young boy with blond hair knew what was waiting for him.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

With his knocks on the door, he heard someone with heavy steps approaching, appearing to be in a hurry.

"Did you find the boy?!" The first thing Minato heard before a middle-aged woman, in her 40s, opened the door and exclaimed these words with a worried expression.

The woman quickly looked at him and fell silent, which lasted for 10 seconds before she made sure he was alone and showed a stern face from there.

"Minato! Where were you?! I asked some Genin to look for you when you weren't among the children at curfew! Now you show up alone, so you came back on your own, but still, you better tell me where you were!" She said sternly while analyzing him, all sweaty, with dirty clothes and some calluses on his hands from throwing kunai after hours of training. Minato had to shrink his shoulders a bit, knowing how severe this woman was, but she still cared for him.

"Madame Gorete, I was training, and I lost track of time while doing so on one of the training fields..." Minato said a bit reluctantly. He had to let her know.

"I know you want to be Hokage and all, and you're excited to start the academy tomorrow, but you shouldn't go out like this and come back so late, boy. I'll let it slide today since you and a new batch of children will be going to the academy tomorrow, but there won't be a next time, so you better be more careful!" She warned him, and Minato gave her an apologetic smile.

"Thank you, Madame Gorete! I promise to be more careful next time," he said, and she made way for him to enter and go past her.

"Go to your room and get some clothes. You need to take a bath before dinner." She requested, and he nodded, heading to the orphanage's stairs since the children's rooms were upstairs.

Minato climbed the stairs and entered one of the doors in the hallway. There was a shared room for the children with several beds, and it was still too early to sleep, so everyone was awake, gossiping, and playing with each other.

Minato's arrival didn't go unnoticed, and many raised their eyebrows when he entered, looking disheveled...

"Where were you, Minato?" one of them raised their voice, gaining the attention of the other 8 children.

"I was training in the forest," he said simply.

"Hm? Training? Well, you'll need it, as you'll be behind me tomorrow," one of the boys said arrogantly, wearing a mocking smile.

"Good luck with that. As you can see, I'm dirty, and Madame Gorete asked me to take a bath before dinner, so I'm heading to the bathroom. See you later." Minato simply said, reaching his bed, grabbing his towel and some clothes, and leaving through the same door he entered, leaving the children quickly bewildered.

He didn't want to pay them any attention. Minato had a much more mature mindset now, so why bother responding to a bunch of kids? He didn't even care and continued taking care of his own business.

Minato quickly took a bath in the communal tub and, once clean and fresh, went to the first floor where the large communal kitchen was located.

The 30 orphanage

 children were already eating at this time. They ranged in age from 4 to 14, and by 15, they had to leave the orphanage and find a job to carry on with their lives. In a world where 8-year-old children were taught to kill like emotionless machines, the age of majority was 15 for those who weren't ninja.

"Hey, Minato went to train in the forest, can you believe it!" one of the children suddenly shouted these words to the older kids.

"Hm?! Is it true? Do you think you'll pass the tests tomorrow? I can even show you some cool jutsu I learned at the academy if you want!" One of the boys, about 3 years older, said, seemingly showing off in front of him and the other children.

Minato rolled his eyes. He knew the boy was lying. In the academy, you only learned the basic techniques, which were 3 E-rank jutsu, or at least that was how it was in the anime. This boy just wanted to show off to the younger ones.

"Really?! Big brother, please teach me!"

"You're so cool!"

"It seems your trick to look cool worked..." Minato murmured internally but didn't care any further. He grabbed his bowl of stew to replenish the energy he had spent during his training that afternoon.

"Enough chit-chat! Finish your meals before bedtime!" Madame Gorete quickly told them to stop gossiping and focus on their food.

Minato remained silent after that, not wanting to talk much, and ate in silence while savoring the stew at the end of his plate.

They returned to the room afterward and went straight to bed.

Minato could hear the children's chatter about going to the academy tomorrow and the younger ones complaining about having to wait one or more years.

The blond let his consciousness fade as he closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep, not caring about the outside world.

...

...

"WAKE UP! LET'S GO TO THE NINJA ACADEMY! WAKE UP, LET'S BECOME NINJAS!" Minato woke up with all that noise being made by one of the children.

"Stop yelling! I'm trying to sleep!" someone said, but the boy in question seemed quite excited and kept shouting.

The future Yellow Flash got up after that, yawning, and started preparing to return to the center of Konoha. He had never been to the academy in these two years, so he needed to get ready.

After having a quick breakfast, Madame Gorete asked the other orphanage staff to take care of the other children who would stay behind. There were children who had already gone to the academy to study earlier since they had passed the academy's ninja test in recent years. Meanwhile, Madame Gorete would take a group of six children to fill out the forms and take the admission tests. This group was the only one available in this small orphanage to have a chance to enter the life of a ninja this year.

"I'm so excited! I'm going to be ahead of all of them!"

"I'm going to be! Not even the big clans can beat me!"

"You're just talking fantasies. Everyone knows that we civilians don't stand a chance against them."

"I refuse to be a cannon fodder like you say! I'm going to be Hokage!"

Minato ignored this kind of conversation and continued following the orphanage caretaker through the streets of Konoha. People looked at the group of children with some smiles, as everyone knew that today was the test day.

They walked a long way since the village was quite large and finally arrived near the Hokage building and the wall with the statues of three men. This was where the academy set up by the Second Hokage was located.

"This place is immense!" Minato exclaimed as they arrived in front of the gates. The place really looked like a college with an area of at least 200 square meters.

"Well, I guess it's fair since Konoha should have between 10,000 to 20,000 active shinobi, and replenishing these ranks is extremely important after a war and performing missions with such a deadly profession and a high mortality rate, which is being a shinobi." Minato thought silently.

As they entered, they saw a large crowd of people gathered, and Madame Gorete pushed them into the large crowd. There must have been about a thousand children there, with many parents accompanying them and other groups like theirs, as Konoha had hundreds of other orphanages in the village.