After leaving the restaurant, the afternoon sunlight shone brightly overhead.
Shin-chan walked in the middle, one hand on his round belly, and let out a very loud burp.
"I'm full."
"As long as you're full." Namikaze Minato walked on the outer side of the road. "This afternoon's plan is as follows."
Shin-chan turned back to look at him.
"We already covered some of the theoretical part of sealing techniques this morning," Namikaze Minato said. "This afternoon, we'll change methods. We'll combine it with actual formula diagrams and let you try drawing some basic sealing formula structures."
"You mean those." Shin-chan stretched out his hand and drew a few winding lines in the air. "Those things that look like tadpoles."
"They're formula symbols," Kushina corrected him.
"But they look like tadpoles." Shin-chan put his hands behind his back. "They swim around, and I can't understand a single one."
Namikaze Minato turned around. "It's normal not to understand them at first. When I first started learning sealing techniques, I also took a long time just to memorize the first symbol."
Shin-chan lifted his head and looked at him.
"Really?"
"Really." Namikaze Minato nodded.
Shin-chan walked with his head lowered for a few steps, seeming to go through some intense internal struggle.
Then he lifted his head, and his gaze fixed on a certain spot across the street.
His entire body froze as if someone had pressed pause.
Namikaze Minato followed his gaze.
Across the street was a dango shop. Standing at the entrance was a young woman in a kimono, her hair jet-black. She was slightly bending forward as she spoke with the shop owner.
"Big sister!!!"
Shin-chan's feet had already stepped toward the other side of the street.
"Wait." Kushina's eyebrow twitched. She reached out to grab Shin-chan by the back of his collar, but caught nothing.
The young woman heard the voice and turned around, only to see a little kid sprinting toward her.
"Big sister." Shin-chan came to an abrupt stop in front of her. "Are you alone?"
The young woman blinked, probably a little confused by this sudden attempt to flirt with her.
"I am alone..."
"That's great!" Shin-chan clasped his hands together in front of him. "I'm alone too. No, there are two people behind me, but they're not important."
In the distance, Kushina's eyebrow rose.
The young woman covered her mouth and laughed. "What's your name?"
"My name is Nohara Shinnosuke. I'm five years old." Shin-chan put both hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. "My favorite—"
"Enough, enough." The young woman laughed and waved her hand. "Aren't you afraid of getting lost, running over here by yourself?"
"Nope." Shin-chan leaned closer and lowered his voice mysteriously. "I'm learning instant movement."
"Instant movement?"
"It's like whoosh, from here to there." Shin-chan made a flying motion with his hand. "Once I learn it, I can come play with Big Sister every day."
The young woman laughed out loud from amusement. "Then how is your learning going?"
"Uh." Shin-chan's expression froze.
"Mm?"
"It's going..." Shin-chan's gaze drifted to the left. "Pretty okay."
"So not very well, then," the young woman said with a smile.
Shin-chan's shoulders slumped.
"It's too hard. Those tadpole-like symbols keep swimming around, and I can't catch a single one."
"Then how about this?" The young woman patted his head. "Promise Big Sister that after you go back, you'll study properly and won't slack off."
Shin-chan blinked.
"Once you learn it, come play with Big Sister again, okay?"
"Okay."
"Promise?"
"Promise." Shin-chan held out his pinky. "Pinky swear."
The young woman also held out her pinky and hooked it with Shin-chan's.
"Pinky swear, hang by a hook. No changing for a hundred years."
When Shin-chan let go, his whole body seemed fully charged. He turned and ran back toward Namikaze Minato and Kushina, his steps practically carrying wind.
"Let's go. I'm going to study hard!"
Namikaze Minato looked at Kushina.
Kushina crossed her arms, the corner of her mouth twitching. "I didn't see him this motivated all morning."
...
The afternoon passed.
The table was piled with white papers covered in all kinds of symbols.
Shin-chan lay across the table, his right hand still holding a pen, but he himself had stopped moving.
"Shin-chan," Namikaze Minato called softly.
No reaction.
Namikaze Minato moved a little closer and discovered that Shin-chan's eyes were open, but his pupils had lost focus.
"Shin-chan?"
Shin-chan's body slid from the table down to the floor.
"My head is full of tadpoles." His voice was numb. "They're holding a meeting."
Kushina crossed her arms, her expression somewhere between amused and helpless.
"Let's stop here for today." Namikaze Minato handed him a scroll.
"What's this?"
"Inside are the formula symbols we learned today. Each one is marked with the order and direction of the strokes." Namikaze Minato saw him to the door. "Look over them a few more times tonight."
"Got it." Shin-chan tucked the scroll under his arm, then ran off with pattering steps.
Kushina sat at the table, tidying up the papers they had drawn on today.
She picked up the final one Shin-chan had successfully drawn, looked at it twice, and the corners of her mouth curved up unconsciously.
"He learns pretty fast."
Namikaze Minato came back and sat across from her. "Faster than I expected."
"For the sake of some big sister he doesn't even know." Kushina stacked the papers in order. "I still find that learning motivation funny."
Namikaze Minato smiled.
"Everyone has their own motivation."
Kushina lifted her head. "Then what's your motivation for learning the Flying Thunder God?"
"To protect certain people." Namikaze Minato looked at Kushina.
...
At the Nohara house.
Shin-chan lay on the floor, the scroll Namikaze Minato had given him spread open in front of him.
He recognized the first two symbols on the scroll. They were "fixing" and "positioning."
But very quickly, the symbols on the scroll began swimming around in his head.
"Fixing" swam to the left. "Positioning" swam to the right. The two symbols circled around the edge of the scroll, spinning faster and faster.
Shin-chan's eyes turned into two mosquito coils, spinning round and round as well.
Finally, he flopped backward and lay on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Oh right!"
Shin-chan climbed up from the floor and formed a cross with his two fingers.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu."
With a poof—
A "Shin-chan" appeared beside him.
"You look at this." Shin-chan pointed at the scroll.
The shadow clone looked at the original, then at the scroll spread out on the floor.
"What's this?"
"Sealing technique symbols."
"Then memorize them."
"I can't memorize them." Shin-chan said confidently. "The symbols keep swimming around."
"So you called me here?"
"You help me memorize them." Shin-chan patted the shadow clone on the shoulder. "After you finish memorizing, pass the memory to me."
The shadow clone stared at the original for three seconds.
"You're the original, and even you can't remember them. How am I supposed to remember them?"
"Just try."
The shadow clone sat down in front of the scroll, propped up his face with both hands, and stared at the symbols.
About five minutes passed.
The original Shin-chan turned his head and glanced over.
The shadow clone's posture was exactly the same as before, both hands propping up his face, staring at the scroll.
But his eyes had turned into two mosquito coils, spinning round and round.