Minato spars
Minato is no longer looking forward to spars.
After the first month of school passed Onikuma-sensei had given a notice that they were starting spars in two weeks. He had been looking forward to testing himself against his peers but—
He winces as Gutega Kina is beaten down again by Uchiha Minase. It’s obvious what’s going on here. Onikuma sensei is watching with an apathetic gaze as Gutega-san the civilian born is knocked down again by Uchiha Minase the third cousin twice removed of Uchiha Fugaku who was the Uchiha heir.
Minato is gonna eat dirt.
Minato does not want to eat dirt.
Minato is also not delusional enough to think he has a chance sparring the clan born he’s probably going to be paired up against.
He should probably make a plan, his plans have so far worked out pretty well. He hazards a glance to the right to see a kid whispering in Inoichi’s ear. He—he doesn’t even want to know—
Inoichi, in the span of two weeks, has created an information network across the first year academy students after being horrendously late to finding out that Onikuma sensei was in fact a piece of shit.
Minato had found this out when Inoichi had cornered him in the bathroom and had asked him if he wanted Onikuma sensei to have fertilizer dumped on her head. Inoichi had later told him that a Aburame beetle had been in the classroom which had told the Aburame, who in turn had told their best friend Yakushi Nono who had told her friend Gutega Kina who had told her older brother Gutega Shinko which Hyuuga Hizashi had overheard who had immediately told Hyuuga Hiashi who had accidentally brought it up to insult Uchiha Fugaku who had mentioned it to his father the clan head—who had been buying flowers from the Yamanaka where Inoichi had been in the back regulated to digging fertilizer because he has tripped and sent a entire row of flower pots crashing down.
Minato had been touched by the gesture but had denied the offer. He really had wanted to take his revenge but he would just be causing trouble and his position at the academy was still tenuous. And anyway no one higher up in the chain of command would really care if Minato’s feelings had been a little hurt. He would just be stirring up trouble and that’s quite literally the last thing he wants.
So far the news of an early academy entry had been kept on the down low so Minato had been enjoying his newfound freedom without much worries. Sure he gets a little lonely sometimes but he’s five he can handle it. It would also be disastrous to remind the child snatchers of his existence so Minato has been skating by. There haven’t been any tests yet for Minato to hopefully cement himself at the top of the class so he’s just been trying to participate as much as possible, not that he’s had many chances with Onikuma sensei being a little bitch.
Actually it’s quite ironic because he’s being called up now. Minato really hopes that Onikuma sensei doesn’t have a hidden power of reading people's minds and knowing that Minato had cursed her out in his head.
And Minato had been paired against—yup he’s dead meat—Hyuuga Yurai steps out to meet him.
Maybe Minato should have written a will.
He leaves his fish wallet to Shikaku, all food to Chouza (not like he has much anyway) and for Inoichi he leaves his clothes (actually he takes that back—his clothes are pretty ratty and coming apart at the seams and he only has like two of everything—he doesn’t want it to come off as a insult to Inoichi). Wow—Minato literally has nothing of his own, that would be more depressing if he wasn’t about to be murdered in a “friendly” academy spar.
“Make the seal of confrontation.”
Minato walks over to Hyuuga Yurai and offers his two fingers. “Let’s have a good fight Hyuuga-san.” The Hyuuga’s face scrunches up like Minato is a piece of garbage on the side of the road and hurriedly makes the seal of confrontation touching his two fingers to Minatos for a fraction of a second.
Minato’s heart is thudding in his chest and he takes a few breaths to clear his head. He’s not going down without a fight.
Hyuuga takes a stance and strikes. Minato dances out of the way and delivers a vicious kick to the back of the knee. Hyuuga stumbles but recovers faster than Minato thought and his palm makes contact with Minato’s gut.
Blinding pain erupts and Minato drops to his knees, his vision whiting with pain. He pushes through it and manages to roll forward and kicks his foot and makes contact with the Hyuugas ankle. He stumbles back and Minato works through the blinding pain in his gut and throws a handful of dirt blinding his opponent momentarily. Minato’s not going to die—he won’t—
He moves while Hyuuga is blinded and knees him, in the gut and then slamming his head into Minato's knee. The Hyuuga drops but manages to take Minato with him bringing them both rolling down. He attempts an arm bar on the Hyuuga but he doesn’t know how to do one and ends up awkwardly pinning the Hyuuga to the ground. Hyuuga snarls on the ground and jabs his pressure points on the side and Minato can’t hold out anymore.
His vision darkens and he thuds to the ground.
He wakes in the hospital, nose wrinkling at the clinical smell. Inoichi and Shikaku are here, he can feel them. “Hi.” He rasps out. “You're awake!” Inoichi bounds over as Shikaku lifts his head from where it had been resting at the foot of the bed.
“What happened?” Minato asks. He should probably leave like now. He doesn’t really know how the hospital expects you to pay for your stay but he does know that the longer you stay the more you probably pay.
He gathers his strength and attempts to roll out of bed but ends up just falling out of the bed. His face makes contact with the cool hospital floor first and then follows his body. Minato sighs internally, his life man, his life.
“…!!” Inoichi picks him up and deposits him at the bed fussing over him.
Shikaku sighs as if he’s the one being mother henned and sits his lazy ass down. “The Hokage’s pissed and Onikuma-sensei is probably gonna be fired.”
Minato’s mouth flaps open. “Th—that isn’t necessary” he rasps out. Inoichi makes a clucking noise and hands him a glass of water which he gratefully downs.
Shikaku sighed, “normally it wouldn’t be such a big deal—stop looking at me like that Inoichi—we both know it’s true.” Inoichi sighs and looks away, his mouth downturned.
Shikaku continues on, “however civilian and clan relations have been becoming more and more divided and the Hokage is cracking down hard on Onikuma-sensei because of that.”
Ah. Yeah that makes more sense.
If Minato was the Hokage he would be pretty pissed too, but then again if Minato was Hokage this wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place.
He’s still a little disappointed he lost so quickly Hyuuga Yurai and he tells Shikaku as such.
Shikaku sighs at him and raises a judgmental eyebrow, Minato mentally dubs it the Are You Dumb?—look. He sees that look a lot.
“Minato—Yurai is a Hyuuga who’s been taught from birth how to fight. Your five years old and wouldn’t top 30lbs dripping wet.”
Minato takes offense to this and pouts a little.
Shikaku is unbothered.
“Wait—your five?”
Ah—Minato had forgotten about Inoichi. He nods and Inoichi looks stunned.
Was it that big a deal?
Inoichi looks betrayed.
Shikaku is forever unbothered.
Just as Inoichi opens his mouth the door flies open and Chouza bounds in spilling Akimichi snacks everywhere. Minato dives for the honey barbecue spicy sweet chips and grabs the spicy mustard pees. He spots the sweet rice crackers and chewy fruit candy and snagged them too.
Shikaku and Inoichi had also gone after the snacks, Shikaku had won the chocolate dipped biscuits, dried seaweed, candied orange peels and the box of dango. Inoichi had gotten the guava candy, sweetened spiced nuts, jalapeño chips and pineapple jelly marshmallows.
All four of them glared at each other over their armful of snacks.