“What?
Minato, what exactly did you bet with Senzan?”
As one of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya had a profound obsession with the word ‘bet’—mostly because his secret crush, Tsunade, was a colossal gambling addict.
“Sensei, I…” Minato’s face instantly flushed a brilliant shade of crimson.
It was glaringly obvious that whatever their stakes were, they were highly inappropriate.
“Hahaha!
Minato, what did you say back then?
If I actually managed to find myself a master, you would run right up to Fugaku Uchiha and confess your love to him!” Senzan roared with laughter, slapping Minato hard on the shoulder.
“I’m just helping you fulfill your promises!
Hahaha!”
Beside them, Jiraiya’s eyes practically bulged out of his skull.
He never expected their bet to be this hardcore.
It certainly fit the chaotic energy of teenagers, but…
Fugaku Uchiha?!
That kid was the undisputed strongest of the Uchiha clan’s younger generation.
He was practically guaranteed to be the future clan head!
What the hell was going through Senzan’s mind, making Minato confess his love to him?!
“You might not realize this, Lord Jiraiya, but Fugaku is the absolute cream of the crop in the Uchiha clan,” Senzan said, his face splitting into a wicked, shit-eating grin.
“He is absolutely worthy of our dear Minato!”
Minato’s face crumpled into a mask of pure agony.
Sure, Fugaku was the strongest of their generation, but he was a guy!
If Minato actually marched up and confessed his feelings, Fugaku would absolutely murder him on the spot.
“Senzan, can we please change the bet?” Minato begged.
“You know Fugaku and I are actually pretty good friends.
If I go confess to him, he’s going to literally kill me.”
Minato’s face was completely ashen.
He was already vividly hallucinating Fugaku hunting him down to the ends of the earth with fully activated Sharingan eyes.
But Minato had always been a man of his word, and a bet was a bet.
“Come on, Senzan, let him change the penalty.
How about I compensate you with a few of my private, high-level ninjutsu instead?” Jiraiya offered, genuinely unable to bear watching his prized student suffer like this.
But Senzan absolutely refused to budge.
All of this was because Minato, that snitch, had blabbed everything to Kushina, resulting in Senzan being beaten black and blue for an entire week.
A full week!
He had been so covered in bruises he hadn’t even dared to step out of his front door.
He had to get his revenge, otherwise he would never find peace.
“Hmph!
A real man keeps his promises!
I’m going to find Fugaku right now!”
Steeling his heart, Minato gritted his teeth, spun on his heel, and sprinted back toward the center of the village.
Senzan burst into hysterical laughter and immediately chased after him, leaving Jiraiya standing alone in the wind, completely bewildered.
For some reason, Jiraiya couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that ever since Minato started hanging around Senzan, his pure, innocent student was being aggressively corrupted.
Their massive family compound was still located comfortably near the bustling center of the village.
Because they had such a massive population, their estate was naturally much larger and more prominent than the territory belonging to the declining Gekko clan, which currently boasted a grand total of two members.
It didn’t take long for Minato and Senzan to arrive at the Uchiha compound.
After a bit of sneaking around and searching, the duo finally locked onto their target.
The good news: they had found Fugaku Uchiha.
The bad news: he was currently standing in a courtyard, completely surrounded by a group of other young Uchiha clansmen.
Seeing the crowd, Senzan doubled over, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
Minato, on the other hand, looked like his soul was physically trying to leave his body.
“Go get ’em, Minato!
Let me bear witness to your incredible courage!” Senzan cheered, giving Minato a forceful, two-handed shove out into the open.
In the very next second, Senzan triggered his Transparency Jutsu, completely vanishing into thin air.
“I’ll be watching from right here!
Hahaha!
Good luck!”
Though his body was invisible, Senzan’s gleeful whisper floated perfectly into Minato’s ear.
Minato took a deep, shaky breath, puffed out his chest, and began marching forward.
Watching him, Senzan almost lost his composure again.
Minato genuinely looked like a tragic hero marching off to his execution, never to return.
In reality, Fugaku was a few years older than them.
After graduating, he had risen through the ranks rapidly and was currently a squad captain in the Uchiha Military Police Force.
He commanded a significant amount of respect within the clan.
Minato, meanwhile, was the undisputed genius of the younger generation.
The two of them had crossed paths and sparred privately quite a few times, and over the years, they had built a solid, mutual respect for one another.
As for this bet?
It was purely Senzan being a menace.
Senzan thought about the future—about how Minato’s son and Fugaku’s son would grow up to share an incredibly dramatic, life-and-death bond of love and hate.
It was only right that their fathers shared a little ‘tragic romance’ of their own!
Hahahaha!
Just imagining a future where he introduced himself to Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha: ‘Ahem!
I am the sole witness to your fathers’ forbidden love!’
Hahahaha!
He couldn’t take it.
Just thinking about it was making his stomach hurt.
‘Hold it in!
I have to hold it in!’
‘Hey, kid, I’m starting to realize that you are genuinely, purely evil,’ Chomei’s voice echoed in his mind.
‘That Minato kid is strong, and that Uchiha kid isn’t bad either.
And you’re forcing one to confess to the other just to traumatize both of them?
I have to say, you have absolutely zero humanity.’
‘But I love it!’ Chomei quickly added.
‘Hurry up and toss me some bugs!
I need snacks while I watch this drama unfold!’
Chuckling silently, Senzan pulled a small jar from his pouch, uncorked it, and pressed a handful of wriggling insects against his chest.
With a slight surge of chakra, the bugs were sucked straight into the seal.
This was his standard method of feeding the Seven-Tails.
He would slightly loosen the parameters of the sealing formula just long enough to drop the food in.
Back to Minato.
By now, Minato had reached the group.
Fugaku immediately spotted his friend and offered a warm, welcoming smile.
“Yo, Minato.
Long time no see!
What brings you to the Uchiha compound?” Fugaku asked.
“Do you need me for something?”
The young Uchiha standing around Fugaku immediately straightened up, their expressions turning serious.
As peers of the same generation, every single one of them knew the name of the genius, Minato Namikaze.
“Um…
well…” Minato stammered, agonizing over how to even begin.
Knowing that Senzan was standing right next to him, completely invisible and watching this trainwreck unfold, made Minato want to tear his own hair out.
Why had he ever agreed to a bet with that bastard?!
Sigh.
It was his own fault for being too naive.
He couldn’t blame anyone else.
“What’s wrong, Minato?
Why are you hesitating?” Fugaku stepped closer, his tone genuinely concerned.
“If there’s something you need, just say it!
If I can help, I absolutely will!”
At this moment, Fugaku genuinely believed Minato had come to him for a massive favor.
He was actually quite pleased.
To a proud Uchiha, having a genius of Minato’s caliber come to them for help was the ultimate form of validation and respect.
“I…”
Minato felt like his throat was literally closing up.
Finally, squeezing his eyes shut, he threw caution to the wind and screamed at the top of his lungs:
“FUGAKU, I LIKE YOU!”
The exact millisecond the words left his mouth, Minato felt two invisible hands slam into his back.
Caught completely off balance, Minato pitched forward.
In the very next second, the blonde genius of the Hidden Leaf plummeted face-first directly into Fugaku Uchiha’s embrace.
Fugaku: ‘????
What is happening?!’
Minato Namikaze: ‘I AM GOING TO KILL YOU, GEKKO SENZAN!’