Summary: Somehow word about the Dead or Alive tournaments got out and the whole world knows about them. Set before and during DOA5. Eliot's P.O.V. so the thoughts are obviously Eliot's.

Chapter 1: Exposed

'Another boring day.' Eliot walked into his classroom and sat down. He wanted to sleep in a dark quiet peaceful place more than anything but he couldn't. Last night he had to finish his report and then he had to wake up at 5 for his usual morning training so he got virtually no sleep. This morning he was extremely sluggish so Gen Fu ordered him to do extra training for 'slacking off like a lazy teenager' so he wouldn't even get to sleep when he got home. And there was a big test tomorrow so his best chance for sleep was the weekend. He started to doze off a bit since he had 10 minutes before the class actually started but the boys in front of him started talking loudly. 'It's the same conversation every day. Why don't they get tired of it and move on to something else.' At least then he wouldn't be tempted to beat the living day lights out of them whenever they began talking.

"Dude I totally want to be the Fist of Time. You know rumor is that he's our age. Can you imagine how long he's been fighting to be good enough to compete with ninjas and assassins?" Taka was talking to his friend, Kunimitsu, animatedly.

Yes you heard right. Somehow word had gotten out about the DOA tournaments. And now everyone was always talking about it. But while the details of the tournaments were leaked, the names of the people who fought in them weren't so neither knew that the Fist of Time was really sitting behind them.

"I still don't believe that ninja are real. I mean come on they're like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. They're just myths to entertain people." Kunimitsu shook his head at his friend's childishness.

"That's not true. I saw some before."

Kuni sighed but decided not to humor his friend today. "If ninja are really real then you wouldn't have seen one or at the very least you wouldn't have know you saw one. If they were slow enough for you to see them they probably just some posers. The whole point of being a ninja is stealth. They can never be seen or they would be dead."

"Or they could have just been really confident that even if they were seen they could still kill all of their enemies. Or they could have been baiting someone." Taka got a look on his face that said argue with that.

Kunimitsu put his hands up in defeat. "So let's say you really did see a ninja. What did he look like?"

"First there was this one girl. She was super hot. She had on this crazy sexy black and gold outfit but it was weird because she was so obviously Japanese but at the same time she wasn't. Her hair was red but it looked natural."

'That would be Kasumi.'

"And she was running from this purple chick."

"You expect me to believe that you saw a purple lady?"

"No she wasn't purple. Just her hair and cloths were purple. She was Japanese too it looked like. She was super small but she looked like she could rip your tongue out of ass, she was so scary."

'Ayane. Sounds like Kasumi's still on the run from her family….but I was under the impression that they had solved that. I saw her and that Hayate guy at a diner after the DOA 4 tournament was over. Then again knowing her she just doesn't care. That girl always did have issues.' Eliot had only talked to her once or twice and after that he promised himself never again. They were the weirdest, most awkward and quite possibly the scariest 10 minutes he has ever spent in his entire life. And considering who he lives with, that's saying a lot. He laughed to himself.

"You got a problem freak?"

He snapped out of his thoughts only to realize that Taka was addressing him. "Excuse me?"

"I said do you have a problem freak or do you just randomly laugh to yourself?"

'Crap, I hadn't realized that I laughed out loud just then.' "Nope. No problem what so ever."

"Yeah. That's what we thought." Kunimitsu chimed in. It was almost amazing how they seemed to share only one brain.

Story of his life. Every day he would put up with the same crap. Someone would say something about the DOA tournament and it would start a long a mindless conversation. It was actually kind of ironic in a funny and sad kind of way. Everyone wanted to be like him and they didn't even realize it. They all thought he was a freak because he wasn't Japanese even though he now lived in Japan and he tended to keep to himself.

'Well almost everyone thought he was a freak.'

The classroom door opened and in walked one of his only friends in the school, and secret girlfriend, Kokoro. Sometimes it got on his nerves that most of the guys and even some of the girls wanted to be with her but he knew she didn't want any of them.

"Ohayo Kokoro-chan."

"Good morning Kokoro-chan."

"Hey Kokoro" Random classmates would greet her every morning but since she wasn't a morning person she would just greet everyone at once.

"Good morning everyone." She made her way to the back of the classroom to her seat next to her boyfriend but before she could get there she got stopped by Taka and Kunimitsu.

"So when are you going to stop hanging out with that loser and start hanging out with us?"

"I'll tell you like I tell you every morning. Eliot is my friend. And besides you really don't want to hang out with me. I'm just as much a weirdo and a freak as Eliot is. You know birds of a feather and all that."

She pushed pass them and made her way to the back.

"Morning Eliot."

"Hey."

"Wow. One word answer so early in the day. I take it, it didn't go well with Master Iron Fist. Did he not let you skip training last night to finish your project?"

"Nope."

"Did you get it finished then?"

"Yup."

"Did you get any sleep at all?"

"Nope."

And it was obvious he didn't. Light bags were starting to form under his bright blue eyes.

"You know, you could have called me. I would have snuck out after kaa-san went to bed to come over and help you."

At that Eliot cracked his first real smile of the day.

"You know as well as I do that if you had come over I wouldn't have gotten any work done. And besides the way Master Genfu sleeps you wouldn't have made it inside before he caught us."

"Yeah I know but it's always worth a try."

"But not worth either of our lives."

"Fine be that way. Do you want to skip out at lunch so you can relax before you have to go home?"

"Only if I can crash on your couch for a few hours. Between Genfu and mom I won't get any sleep any time soon."

"Aww come on. Between school, your training and my geisha training we never get to see each other."

"I know and I'm sorry but I really need to sleep. But we can go out all next week. I promise."

"And how do you suppose that will happen?"

Before he could say anything the teacher came into the room and class began. Kokoro waited until she was sure the teacher wasn't looking and then she scribbled a note and passed it to Eliot.

'What do you mean by that? Do you know something I don't? Tell me.'

Eliot quickly scanned the note, wrote down his reply and passed it back to Kokoro.

'Brad is coming for a visit tomorrow.' He wrote back in his perfectly neat handwriting. At his mother's demand he spent hours practicing it when he was younger.

'Wong? The alcoholic? How will that plague on humanity help us?' She had a puzzled look on her face when she passed it back.

'He's not nearly as bad as you think he is…..or then again maybe he is, and that's why he's helpful to us. He has this bad habit of always finding a way to bring out the worst in even the most disciplined people. Last time he was here, master and mother were so drunk and or hung over that I got an entire week off of training. As long as I stay out of the house as much as possible all is good.'

He passed it back.

'That's cool. But why do you have to stay out of your own house?'

'My mom is an angry drunk, which is why she hardly ever drinks, and whenever her and Brad drink together they always end up fighting and stuff starts to fly, things get broken. It's not pleasant.' He shuddered at his memory of the last time he caught in between one of their drunken bouts. He was unconscious for a few hours.

He passed it back once more but unfortunately Kokoro laughed out loud when she read it.

"Is there a problem Miss Kokoro," the teacher chimed in, "perhaps you would like to inform the class of what's so funny."

"No sir. Sorry sir."

"Oh come now don't be shy. Whatever you and your little cohort are saying back there is obviously more important than my lesson. So you have two choices. You can come up front and read the note out loud or you can write an apology note after school in detention."

"I'll take detention please." She smirked knowing very well that she wouldn't show up and the teacher wouldn't do a thing about it.

"Good. I'm so glad that you chose to enlighten the rest of us. Hop to it. Come up and read what your note says. Eliot since you're the one who most likely passed the note I suggest that you come up here too." The teacher had a look of satisfaction as he said this.

"But Sensei, I chose detention." Eliot almost laughed out loud again when he heard her whisper something about stupid teachers.

"Nonsense. You know as well as I that you have more pressing matters to attend to after school. Now don't waste anymore time. Come up here. How is your mother by the way? I haven't seen her in quite some time." Apparently, the teacher was a fairly regular customer of her mother's. She is after all, the most sought after geisha in all of Japan.

"She is well Sensei." As she and Eliot walked to the front his hand slightly brushed hers. She felt him replace the original one with one he wrote quickly while the teacher was talking to her.

"Good. Now on that note, please pardon my pun, read your note."

She looked down at the new note in her hand and smiled.

"I wrote 'Eliot did you get how Mr. Hitachi got what he got for x in number 2?' And Eliot wrote back exactly how he got the answer. I'm really sorry Sensei. I was just too embarrassed to raise my hand and ask. I promise next time I'll wait until the end of class."

"Let me see this note." He quickly scanned it. "I see. Next time do not be embarrassed child. We all need a little help every once in a while. And after all what am I here for if not to help my students learn. You two may return to your seats. Leave this note on my desk and don't let it happen again. Thank you for helping her Eliot."

"Arigato sensei", they said in unison. They turned to go back to their seats with knowing smiles on their faces.

Tbc…….

A/n: There. How was that? It's the introduction to some of the characters and my new story. I promise there's a point to it all so please review and tell me what you think so far. Thanks!