I offer this chapter as an offering. May it pacify those who've been waiting for an update for J 3:16. I'm working on it, I swear.

If you see an error, please let me know! It's a little difficult to figure out when, specifically, each character graduates from the Academy. I use Seelentau's timeline on the Naruto wiki, which is the most detailed timeline I've been able to find online, but alas, it can't share information that Kishimoto himself didn't include in the story.

For as long as he can remember, Namikaze Minato has always known he was different. He's known it like how he's always known he'll become a shinobi. Things just come a lot more easily for him than they seem to for other kids. What he reads, he can memorize verbatim. What he's taught, he understands without difficulty. What he wants, he can get through sufficient planning and either pure logic or simple reasoning that appeals to one's pathos. In all honesty, there isn't much that he struggles with, whether that be economics (like balancing the Orphanage's budget to ensure they can pay the bills and still have enough left to feed hungry mouths and pay employees) or psychology (understanding the motives of an individual founded on personal philosophy or interest).

He knows the adults around him know, too. He figures that knowledge must be what, for them, justifies placing more responsibilities and expectations on him than are usually appropriate for kids his age. Maybe that's why he's never gotten to be a child. But he doesn't mind it, really. If anything, he appreciates the kind of respect and autonomy he's given. So it never comes as a surprise when the Hokage himself meets with Minato to "highly encourage" him to join the Academy at the tender age of four.

He watches the Sandaime's surprise when Minato says he doesn't want to enter the Academy just yet with amusement. Of course, Minato has always planned on becoming a shinobi to protect his home. In fact, he wants to become the Hokage: he thinks a lot of improvements can be made with the village's administration, starting with a revision in the village's funding of public services like the Orphanage. (And if this desire is also fueled by his enjoyment of others' respect for him, well… Nobody other than he himself has to know that). But regardless, Hokage-sama's suggestion comes during a period of severe understaffing of the Orphanage, which he wants keep afloat. So in reality, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he's willing to remain a civilian for a couple more years in order to support the institution. Besides, he's always liked taking care of others (especially the younger ones), so he doesn't feel like he's missing out on much when he enters the academy not long after his ninth birthday.

It's when Minato meets the new student from Uzushiogakure that, for the first time, he is actively glad he joined the Academy when he did.

The first part of Uzumaki Kushina that he finds himself enraptured by is her hair: it's the same deep ruby of golden red roses, his favorite flowers. Next are her eyes: they remind him of the color of the open sky when it begins to veil itself with darkness after the sun has set. Then, of course, is her personality. When she exclaims, "I'm Uzumaki Kushina, 'ttebane!" and follows it up with, "I'm going to be the first female Hokage of this village!", Minato finds himself gawking at her in what might be awe. Or maybe it's surprise. Or fascination.

When the others begin laughing at her, Minato stands up to show his solidarity with her admirable goal. "I also want to become the Hokage, respected by all the villagers." He crinkles his eyes as he smiles to communicate his genuine respect for her.

It seems to have the opposite effect as she glares at him.

'O—kay, maybe I need a different approach,' he thinks to himself as she whips away with a 'hmph.'

For the first time in his life, Minato has no idea what to do. People usually like it when he's kind to them or takes their side. But Kushina seems to think all the kind things he does and says are out of pity for her, and she tells him as such. After several days of trying and failing to become her friend, he finally realizes that she's registered him as a bothersome and meddlesome rival because of what he'd done on the first day. He regrets what he did from the bottom of his heart (it's not the first time he's ever regretted a past action or made a mistake, but he's always been able to fix it so that everyone involved ends up happy). Once Minato realizes the high likelihood that every one of his moves will count as mistakes when it comes to Kushina, he becomes hesitant to interact with her even after he runs through all the tactics he can possibly think of, along with more than a dozen back-up plans for the doubtless rejection that would follow.

Everyday, he watches in discomfort as his classmates continue to bully her for her unusual hair. Generally, the harassment remains verbal as they taunt her and call her a tomato. Personally, he doesn't see any resemblance of a tomato in Kushina. (He almost feels smug when he thinks about how they'll regret their actions like he has once Kushina grows out of her baby fat). Minato really wants to help Kushina, but he can't think of a way to do so without indirectly providing the bullies more material to ridicule Kushina with. He can very easily see them framing her as a "weak, useless princess who needs a prince to save her," and he is quite confident that'll forever seal Kushina's impression of him as a source of constant perturbation forever. Which he would like to avoid. Because… Well… he wants to be her friend. He thinks she's cool.

One day, the bullying becomes physical, and Minato tenses in his seat as one of the boys (Kodama, he thinks) snatches a strand of Kushina's hair and wrenches it. Before he can stalk over to help her, Kushina grips Kodama's wrist hard enough for him to forfeit his grip on her hair.

"For your information, I hate tomatoes too!" she yells.

Ikeda, one of the other bullies, reaches out to stop her, but Kushina spins behind Kodama and jerks his arm with her, holding it against his back. She kicks the back of his knees and uses the momentum to roll on top of him and under Kenzo's reach. She jumps to her feet in a flash and tackles Ikeda onto the floor, getting in a good, solid punch in his face, even as his flailing arms scratch her face. Ikeda grabs the back of her shirt and drags her off of his friend and onto the floor. But Kushian doesn't stop. She reaches up behind her and digs her nails into Ikeda's forearms hard enough to draw blood. He yelps and releases her shirt, but she doesn't let go of Kodama's arm, using him to draw herself onto her feet. And then she kicks him between his legs.

"You're all pathetic, 'ttebane," she breathes heavily, wiping the corner of her mouth, where one of Ikeda's scratches managed to reach. "I've seen babies fight better than you!"

Minato watches the boys on the ground roll as they groan in pain with astonishment, and he can't hold back his laughter. Those boys really got what they were asking for.

"What are you laughing at?" Kushina snaps, waving her fists at him as if she's ready for Round Two.

Minato promptly swirls around to face the front, because he's trying to reduce her hostility towards him, not increase it, but he can't help peeking at her from the corner of his eye. She looms over the boys with her arms crossed and gives a long speech about what other forms of violence she'll inflict on them the next time they dare touch her again. And she promises a rather significant amount of pain.

When Kunitoshi-sensei returns, he pales at the state of the boys and punishes her with cleaning duty for two weeks. In response, Kushina (rightfully) tries to defend her actions, but he interrupts her and clearly refuses to see the incident from her point of view. 'Well that's awfully unfair,' Minato frowns.

Following that line of logic, he takes extra time and care to pack his belongings when the day ends, and tells Atsushi to head back without him. Once everyone leaves the classroom, Minato slowly descends down the stairs towards Kunitoshi-sensei's desk.

"Yes, Namikaze-kun?" His sensei doesn't look up as he grades the math worksheets that were due today. His eyes scan the paper as fast as his pen moves to mark the answers.

Before Minato can respond, someone slams open the classroom window, rattling the glass, and jumps into the room to land in a crouch. The girl rises, her gaze sharp as they sweep around the room before settling on the two of them. Minato recognizes her from one of the photos that hang on what essentially is a kind of "Wall of Fame," lined with pictures of students who excelled during their years at the Academy. (Minato has opinions about that wall. On the one hand, he understands that the wall exists to motivate students to work hard, and, at the same time, obliquely erase clan-based conflict for the ultimate prestige by presenting an individual-focused reward.

On the other, he thinks it's especially cruel to non-clan or average students who, in reality, will never be able to achieve this goal. It also seems like a great source of intel on young shinobi with a lot of potential that should be taken out by foreign shinobi before they could mature into a real threat.

Again, he has things he wants to change once he becomes Hokage.)

Kunitoshi-sensei finally looks up to glance at the genin and then at Minato, and raises a brow.

"Um," Minato side-glances at the girl, but she makes no move to leave. 'Well, it's not like I need to hide this,' he shrugs to himself and faces his sensei again. "About what happened in class today. Uzumaki-san was right. The group of boys have been harassing her for a very long time."

When his sensei's brows tug themselves into a deep frown, Minato hastily adds, "They initiated the fight, and Uzumaki-san reacted in self-defense."

In response, Kunitoshi-sensei lets out a heavy sigh as he rubs his temples hard enough that to turn the circular tracing of flesh burning red. "I see. Thank you for informing me of this. However, Uzumaki-san has also been disrupting classes with her… explosive seals despite multiple warnings, so a punishment was already going to be put in place for her." Before Minato can argue with that logic (or lack thereof), his sensei raises a hand. "Nonetheless, it is clear that I have made the wrong judgement. I will similarly penalize the boys and apologize to Uzumaki-san. I will also reduce her punishment to a week." Kunitoshi-sensei narrows his eyes as if he's remembering something intensely unpleasant. "She destroyed half of the Academy's training grounds in the past week."

Minato winces, and from his peripheral, he sees the genin who's been pretending to not listen in on the conversation cringe. When his sensei puts it that way… A week doesn't seem so bad. Minato nods in satisfaction and leaves the room to head back home, knowing Kushina will most likely never know what he did today, but still feeling relatively content at having helped her.

With his back turned, he misses the genin stare at him through hooded lids and cautious eyes.

Maybe it's just me, but I always imagined Minato as an analytical man who knows exactly how smart he is, and sees it as a given fact that he's not necessarily prideful about. Maybe it's because he strikes me as the kind of fuuinjutsu master that relies heavily on logic and math, unlike Kushina and Naruto who use their instinct (and are talented in their own right).

He's still a cinnamon bun, but only when it comes to Kushina (?) Y'know, like when you're around someone you really like and suddenly you lose all ability to function like a normal, competent human being?

Do I think he's socially awkward? Ehh. To the minimum extent possible. I honestly think it would've been pretty difficult for him to have made friends with so many people and become Hokage without being able to pick up on subtle social cues and respond appropriately. The small bit of social awkwardness he does have can definitely pass as charming, but only because it pertains to Kushina. In general, he seems like the kind of guy that everyone wants to be best friends with because he's kind, considerate, and cool, but who draws a distinct line between himself and others to maintain a level of privacy and social distance.