The Most Youthful Hokage
Part 1: A Butterfly Flaps its Wings
It was two weeks after the Third Great Shinobi War, and 19 year old Namikaze Minato was just starting to get his bearings back. He no longer tensed every time a new person entered his sphere of awareness, and the shakes he'd been getting every night were getting milder. The scores of dead Iwa-nin he had personally killed still haunted his dreams, but their faces were becoming less and less recognizable. He was finally starting to feel like his old self again. In order to encourage this shift from his war-time persona to the man he had been before all the fighting, he had started a routine of quietly walking through the forest trails of Konoha, and just calmly enjoying the scenery. After the barren landscape of Earth Country, his appreciation for the beauty of his native land had grown immensely.
Today took him through a winding trail that bordered several of the most outlying training grounds that Konoha boasted. It was nearly dawn, and Minato hoped to find a tree to climb to watch the sun rise. As he walked, a faint noise began to reach his ears, the sounds of heavy impacts on wood. Minato realized that someone must be training despite the early hour. He had expected to be alone; after all, it was still dark, and a Sunday morning on top of that. His curiosity piqued, he decided to take a look at the person doing the training. Quickly suppressing his chakra and casting a quick jutsu that cloaked his scent, he leaped into the tress and quickly found a vantage point not far from the source of the sound.
Looking down, he was a single shinobi, a chunnin, he thought, repeatedly striking a training post, one of many in a long line. Most of the training posts were utterly destroyed. The boy had black hair, and was wearing some kind of a leotard, green in color. His face was contorted into a grimace of concentration, and as Minato watched, the training post shattered under one of his heavy punches. A small smile appeared on the boy's face, and not missing a beat he began striking the next post, this time using his feet. It didn't take many kicks before that post was reduced to kindling as well.
Minato realized that this boy of no more than 12 was incredibly strong, not quite on the level of the Sannin Tsunade, but closer than he had ever seen another ninja get. And judging from the state of the dozens of wrecked targets, he was able to fight for a long period of time, unlike the Sannin. The golden haired jounin wondered how good the kid was with ninjutsu and genjutsu, and if he had any specialty skills like kenjutsu or fuuinjutsu. If he was at least average with the other two branches of the ninja arts, he could easily be a B or even an A ranked threat. There weren't many Konoha-nin that strong, and he had never seen or heard of this boy, despite being on of only five battlefield commanders during the recent war.
Deciding to make himself known, Minato jumped down to the forest floor, landing at the border of the training ground, in plain sight of the boy. Getting a look at him, Minato noticed that the features which stood out the most were the chunnin's large bushy eyebrows. He didn't give a damn what a person looked like though. After having fought beside many different kinds of men and women, many of which had bled and died on his orders, he knew that physical appearance didn't mean anything.
The boy turned his head to the blond man, taking him in with one eye, and dismissing him as a threat almost instantly. Everyone knew who Namikaze Minato was. He was the Hero of the War, after all.
The dark haired boy quickly bowed low in respect, "Namikaze-sama!" he exclaimed, "What can I help you with this day?"
Minato frowned. While he recognized the need for positions of authority in human society, he hated formalities with a passion, and viewed everyone as his equal. At the same time, he knew that the people of his village needed someone to look up to, and so took the scraping and slavish suffixes with a grain of salt. "I was just walking through the woods, and I happened to see you training. You seem to be very good at Taijutsu. In fact, your strength is more than impressive. I know most of the ninja in Konoha, but I didn't recognize you, so I thought I'd introduce myself."
The boys eyes opened wide, he spoke, "I am known as Maito Gai, Namikaze-sama. I'm a chunnin of Konoha, recently promoted on the battlefield during my company's last engagement. I'm not surprised you haven't seen me, as I only graduated the academy last year."
The blonde's eyebrows rose. Going from an academy student to a chunnin and gaining those kind of taijutsu skills in only two years was beyond impressive.
"If I may ask, what team are you attached to? Who was your genin sensei?" asked Minato.
Gai frowned, a misty look in his eye, and spoke. "My cell was team 36, under Hiboshi Chikanatu. However, I am the only one who is currently alive from that team. I'm currently awaiting reassignment."
Minato winced, "Sorry to bring up bad memories, I know how much it hurts to loose team mates. I recently lost two of my students myself. I am still curious about your skills, though, Maito-san. Can you tell me what level you are in ninjutsu and genjutsu?"
Gai blushed, and looked down, "I only know the basic academy jutsu, and one other. I was born into a ninja clan, though the last few members of my family died in the previous two wars. I never had a chance to learn any advanced ninjutsu or genjutsu, and most of our technique scrolls are sealed with fuuinjutsu, using some sort of array I haven't been able to figure out. The only scroll I managed to open is my clan's summoning scroll, the Turtle contract, since it was sealed using a basic blood seal. Even though I don't know many techniques, I've managed to become proficient at using chakra to increase my speed and augment the strength of my blows. I'm hoping that I can become an excellent ninja even without the use of higher level ninjutsu and genjutsu."
Minato looked at Gai, "While that is a worthy goal, Maito-san, please remember that while top shinobi may specialize in a particular branch of the ninja arts, the best ninja are those who are well-rounded, with few weaknesses. I happen to be a Seal Master of some skill. If you would like, I would be happy to take a look at your family's scrolls, to see if I can open them for you. I might even be willing to teach you a few techniques." He paused for a moment, then continued, "As it is, I can tell you would be incredibly strong just using taijutsu, however, if you keep up your current training schedule and also round out your skills with ninjutsu and genjutsu, you could one day reach a whole other level…"
Author's Note:
Just a quick story idea I thought up while working on one of my other stories, Rise of the Science-Nin. I thought people might get a kick out of it, so I'm posting it. It's only going to be about three chapters or so, not quite a one-shot but close. The only reason I'm using chapters is because they break the story up so much nicer than page breaks.