20 An Abandoned Genius

{Next Morning}

Hikaru left his house early in the morning and headed straight for a team meeting, he wasn't sure what would happen to their team as it was an unlikely scenario. He arrived at training ground 2 at the normal time and he wasn't the first one to arrive, Minato was already going through the katas for his new taijutsu style.

Almost all Taijutsu styles use the academy taijutsu as a base and then they build upon it in different directions. The Shadow Fist that he was now learning was a counterattacking fighting style that actually quite fit nicely with his fighting style.

'He's faster again,' Hikaru thought as he saw Mianto flicker through several katas before he noticed that Hikaru was here. 

'Does he even know about the war, he's an orphan as far as I know...' Hikaru hesitated for a moment but then he decided to tell him anyway. 'Its better if he has a positive image of me. If nothing really changes then he should be the next Hokage...'

To be honest, Hikaru could change it very easily, if he wanted he could block Minato by talking to Jiraya about fuinjutsu first since he would be in his battalion. 

"Did you hear about the reassignments?" Hiakru asked as he stopped in front of him. The sunny smile on Minato's face dimmed a little as he nodded.

"I heard some rumors but looking at the gloomy reaction from the village war must be close right?" Minato asked, he wasn't the golden child yet, though he still had the halo of a genius it wasn't blinding yet.

"Yes, most likely we would be assigned new roles today, the whole clan is ready to set out tomorrow," Hikaru replied. The blond nodded as he looked down to think about it. As Minato got lost in his own thoughts Hikaru sensed someone else appear in the training ground, it was Koji. 

"Good, you are here..." Koji spoke as he looked apologetically at Minato. Koji was thinking that he would have more than a chance to interact and teach Minato, that was the only reason he accepted to take charge of Team 2.

His talent has already been noticed by a lot of people but the higher-ups want most Jonins to be at the forefront of the war to reduce casualties in case it was a short war so he didn't have much time to teach him anything other than a new taijutsu style.

Now with the war starting, everything was messed up, the rest of the members of team 1 and 2 were called back by their respective clans, they would be trained by some chunins and they would join their clan's forces in one year. Minato though was left abandoned in terms of training but he was assigned to a non-combat support department.

"Minato, here is your assignment form," Koji said with a straight face, he didn't want to deliver this news but it was his duty to do so, "With the upcoming war, most of Konoha's resources would be used in the frontlines. Due to your experience in Fuinjutsu and your marks in the extra credit exam that you took in your 2nd year. You are being temporarily assigned to the R&D department, you main task will be to create exploding tags..."

Hikaru watched as Minato's expression froze, he stared awkwardly as Minato stared at the reassignment form with a dazed expression on his face. Koji wanted to say some words of encouragement but they quickly died and then he looked at Hikaru with an encouraging look.

'What do you want me to do about it?' Hikaru shot back but Koji gave him a helpless shrug.

"I have to go and report to my new battalion and you should report to the R&D department soon... See you after the war!" Koji finished lamely as he flickered out of the training ground 2 leaving Hikaru with a dazed Minato.

...

...

"Minato?" Hikaru asked breaking the blond out of his daze, he still looked confused but he put on a brave front as he smiled with his emotions receding behind a mask.

'Did something like this happen in the original story, there Minato had civilian teammates so they at least should have gotten along well.' Hiakru thought as he tried to think of a solution that would work. 

"Do you know about the Uzumaki Clan, Minato?" Hikaru asked. That finally got a response as Minato hesitantly nodded.

"The Uzumaki Clan was the only clan in the warring states that could somewhat contend with the Uchiha and the Senju. While their abnormally large chakra signatures helped, it was the Fuinjutsu that made them stand out against anyone else. Mito Uzumaki, the wife of Hashirama Senju managed to seal the Kyubi from within Madara Uchiha's control..." Hikaru stopped himself from speaking more, this much information was present in Konoha's history.

"You are assigned to make lots of exploding scrolls, a free chance to practice your fuinjutsu skills and your speed... take this chance and figure out your ninja path. You have one year before you can apply to join the front forces..." Hiakru spoke but he paused when he saw Minato looking at him shining eyes. 

He looked away and spoke, "Don't waste your talent being depressed and spend your years half-assed making exploding tags..." Hikaru said and then he held the Bird handseal as he flickered out of the training ground.

'Alright, so maybe I got a little carried away there,' Hikaru sighed as he walked through the clan gates. Quite a few people nodded to him as his reputation had further increased as another tag of a member of a commanding battalion was added to his back.

Hikaru hadn't fought against his peers a lot but in every battle, he has had an overwhelming advantage in both insight and speed. After a while, most chunin stopped challenging him as they weren't able to win and he became a sound practice target that the genin of the Uchiha clan liked to spar against.

During his early days, Hikaru was focused on mastering the interceptor fist so he always maintained the same speed as his opponents, which had been the initial source of his genius reputation.

He walked into his room and walked into his cupboard, he took out the small glass box that had quite a lot of flies buzzing around.

'I guess this is goodbye for now...'

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AN- Was it too out of character for Hikaru?

P.S- The Pàtreon for this story is updating regularly with two or three chapters daily, currently, 9 chapters ahead will be 11-12 chapters ahead by the end of the day- p.atreon.com/DesMark

P.P.S.- I finished my goal of making sure the story is 10 chapters ahead by the end of this month. I'll go for 30 chapters ahead by the end of next month!