2. Getting Settled In

Story Start: 'Four Years In'

It's been roughly a year now since I've become what I termed 'aware', and I can honestly say that I'm glad I wasn't awake for the first three years. I did NOT want to know what breast feeding was like, thank you very much! And the less said about how humiliating it would have been having to go through potty training again the better, to say nothing about the goop that adults try to pass off as baby food. Personally though, the best part to skip in my mind was having to 'learn' a new language from immersion alone and no English to whatever the hell they would call this language if there were other languages translation dictionaries. I had literally failed high school Spanish TWICE, if I had to learn this language the 'normal' way then I'm pretty sure I'd be examined for a mental deficiency by the time I was five.

Moving on, it turns out I wasn't actually an orphan in this game/world like I at first thought when I was choosing my new 'character'. I had two mothers and a 'genetic donor'. Yeah, surprised me too when I worked out two days in that my parents were on the same team. Apparently the two had roped their male teammate into having a really fun night with the both of them for a straight week before they stopped when my birthing mother, Gina (Clearly a nickname for the 'perma-dyed' silver streaks in her waist length hair that she kept in a braid pretty much twenty-four seven) came up positive with me. That had been an interesting conversation when I had oh so innocently asked why I had two mommies, it seemed neither of my mothers cared for sugar coating things for their son. Said donor had done a spit take when I asked him if he had fun during that week. (I couldn't help myself from playing the innocent child again just to see how he would react.) While I was just about dying inside my own head from my laughter, the two women in the room with us just about did so on the outside, my other mother, Kasumi, was actually banging on the floor as she laughed. Tai, my biological father was pouting for HOURS which only set the two women off again at random intervals.

The last person who was allowed inside my mothers' apartment without too much suspicion, they all were shinobi after all, was their sensei, a practically ancient by shinobi standards fifty-year-old man named Daisuke with an absolutely BRUTAL looking burn scar over the right side of his face that made Zuko's from Avatar look like a mere cooking accident by comparison. The burn started just over the lip and went all the way past his hairline stopping a couple of inches from the top of his head and went just past his ear that looked more like someone had tried to deep fry the thing than an actual appendage. The man actually had an eye patch that had been sealed the ever-loving hell out of by Jiraiya himself in order to still be able to 'see' out of his right side. Apparently, he got the injury when doing a mission with the then very young Gennin and the man had made it for him in the field behind enemy lines after stealing the darn thing from the closest store that sold them, which just made it even more impressive in my mind. It apparently had a few cool tricks that Jiraiya had added over time as he got better. Surprisingly enough the man could still hear out of his ear thanks to a tricky operation the Leaf's then at the time Head Surgeon had provided.

I suppose I should go a little deeper in my explanations of my new family. Gina's actual name was Tsukiko, named after the full moon she was born after. She was the weapons expert of their team, being fluent in both two sword and nodachi style combat for swords and one of the best damn trick shooters when it came to kunai. Oddly enough, she was merely 'above average' when it came to shuriken so obviously preferred the throwing knives over the ninja stars. She was also fairly proficient with a rope dart that had an extremely elastic like cord that would stretch or retract based on how she manipulated her chakra in it. Appearance wise, besides the aforementioned silver streaks in her waist length when braided brown hair she was fairly nondescript in that 'pretty girl next door' kind of way. Average height for the population, breast size was nothing too right about, small or large wise, they just 'fit' with her body type and she had storm grey eyes with a single speck of green in her right eye that you had to be really close to see, and I mean being talking literally face to face or about to kiss the other person close.

Kasumi's black hair might have only reached the top of her mid back, but that was because she kept in in a braid like her wife and apparently decided to match her with perma-dyed blue streaks in her own, a slightly different shade for each streak which must have taken FOREVER to do. She was about half an inch taller than Gina and was the team's ninjutsu expert, high water affinity (As cliché as that was with her name), a just as good trained secondary for earth and at least ten jutsu of various levels each for the other three Elemental types. For a weapon choice she had a nine section chain whip that she could flow her water chakra into to make it do some truly impressive tricks.

Tai was the trap-master of the group. From what I could gather he was the current record holder for top grades in the trap making section of the Academy curriculum and was infamous for once having replicated Uchiha Madara's paperclip and lemon trap during the third part of their first Chunnin exam against a Waterfall Kunoichi. (And I could not BELIEVE that particular trap was an actual thing here.) The guy was actually rather short for a guy, being only about five-one but that didn't stop him from being able to take down a guy three times his size with those trapped scrolls he carried in x-crossed bandoleers over his chest. Like the girls, he had also dyed his hair but only had a single green stripe in his blue hair that he kept cut close to his scalp in the next level above a jar head cut. (Yay for anime colors being a real thing here.) More interesting to me though was the fact that he was heterochromatic, his right eye was green and his left was an extremely startling shade of bright blue.

Like expected for an ancient for his profession shinobi, Daisuke was considered a jack of all trades. His primary focus was in ninjutsu but he knew plenty of ken, gen, iryo, and just a dash of fuinjutsu. His weapon of choice was a pair of tonfas that had retractable blades on the ends. According to what Kasumi had told me once, the blades rarely came out but when they did, watch the hell out because it was a sign that Daisuke REALLY wanted you dead. Daisuke was a relatively tall man when compared to Tai, being five foot nine and had a runner's build. Like his male student, he kept what was left of his black hair closely shaved and his yellow eye was just a slit pupil away from being mistaken for a bird of prey's.

Right now said eye was intently studying me as I stood in front of the man. Daisuke was currently crouched while studying my chakra with his eyepatch, determining what, if any yet, elemental affinity I had. After I had declared that I wanted to be a shinobi like them, all four shinobi of our little family were determined that I would have at least one element that I could perform a jutsu for before the Academy, even if it was just the measly campfire starter jutsu. Personally, I was hoping for Wind since I had chosen Wind Talker for one of my skills. It wasn't a sure thing though since Gina and Tai's primary elements were the much more common Fire. When my namesake let out a hum of intrigue though, I couldn't help the minor fist pump in my mind as he said "Well that's interesting, the little guy's got just the slightest bit of wind mixed into his chakra system right now. Give it a year of training and I bet you it'll be at least three times as strong as any other elements he develops.

"Wind? Where'd he get wind from, neither of us have that." Tai said as he knelt down in front of me and examined me like his own eyes could see my chakra and thus get his answer for him.

"A shinobi's primary isn't always determined by family you know." Daisuke said even as he pulled out a small book titled "Elemental Manipulation for Beginners" and began flipping through it as he continued "Though Wind is definitely a surprise, the only place where that is really common is in surprise, surprise, the Land of Wind. Even Lightning is more common here than that one." Reaching the area he wanted, Daisuke put the book down before pulling out a mostly blank piece of paper and set it on top. The seal on the top right corner of the page flashed once before the rest of the sheet filled in with a copy of the book page and Daisuke stood up with the book and page, pocketing the book and handing the page to Gina as he said "Here's what you need to get the kid started once you've had him unlock his chakra coils."

Gina took the page with a nod, giving it a brief look over before walking into the kitchen and sticking it to the fridge with a magnet. As she did that, Kasumi clapped her hands once and said "Well now that that's out of the way, what should we start with? Personally I'm hoping we can start with chakra control exercises.

Gina ignored Tai's muttered "You would." And said "Whoa there, rip tide, we've gotta help him unlock his chakra first before we get him to spinning leaves. Besides, shouldn't we do something a little easier to start with, like learning how to properly hold and throw a kunai?"

"You're only saying that because you're a trick shot with those things." Kasumi said sticking her tongue out at her wife playfully.

As the two started good naturally bickering, Daisuke rolled his eye and said "Annnd there they go again. Come on kid, I'll show you a few basic stretching exercises that you should do every day before you start doing anything else."

"Hai sensei!" I said giving my two mothers an amused look even as we walked out of the apartment and made our way down to the building's back yard, Tai following with a chuckle.

Time Skip: Two Months Later, Team 5's Training Ground

Three thuds quickly sounded out one after the other. I studied the kunai that had just barely dug into the target before falling out to the ground with a pout. Crouching beside me, Gina chuckled as she ruffled my hair and said "Hey, don't worry Davis, you'll get strong enough to have them stay in the target soon enough, and look, you were able to get two of them into the second ring to boot!"

"Accuracy doesn't do a person any good if their weapon barely scratches the skin." I pointed out as I walked over to the kunai and picked them up before walking back over to my starting point.

"And you're not expected to be able to perform kill shots for several more years yet, especially since it's still two years before it's time for you to enter the Academy." Gina countered.

"True, but I really wish I didn't feel like I was using kunai made out of wood instead of metal." I said with another pout even as I readied myself to throw my kunai again.

"You only started a week ago kid, give your arms some time to grow some muscles." Tai said before he began laughing his head off as Kasumi tripped one of the traps in his obstacle course and began cursing up a storm as the green paint covered her from the stomach down. Daisuke let out a chuckle as well at the sight before looking back down at the advanced medical text on obscure poisons he was reading.

It had surprised me that Team 5 all still used the same training ground together since all four were Jounin. However, you could apparently rent out the training grounds per month if they weren't assigned to a gennin team and so the group always rented one for a full year which was the upper limit you could rent one for, at the cost of being responsible for any and all area repairs. It gave them a proper meeting place outside of the Jounnin lounge or restaurants and it allowed Tai to set up proper long term trap fields without worrying about some, in his words, snot nosed rookies getting caught in them.

Gina gave her wife an amused look before she turned back to me and said "Alright Davis, one last time and then we'll start chakra meditation."

I nodded and threw my first kunai even as I once more noted how lucky it was that I had a shinobi family rather than a civilian one, or even worse, was an orphan. None of them may have belonged to a clan but I sure as heck would be nowhere near this point when I first started attending the Academy, never mind the point where I'll be in a couple of years. Seeing the kunai hit the third ring, I dropped all other thoughts and tightened my focus as I threw my second kunai. I could spend time being philosophical later, right now it was time to train.

Time Skip: One Year Later

I let out a groan as I dropped my fine tipped brush into its holder and began massaging my right hand. When I had chosen Seal Enthusiast, I had failed to take into account just how much work into calligraphy would go into it, and boy was I paying for not being prepared for writing practice. In my first life, my hand writing had been so bad that at the private school I went to for the first two years of my high school I had been given an extremely basic lap top that had only a word processor and solitaire for note taking. My hand writing didn't get any better after school and it seemed to have transferred over to this one.

Daisuke's solution to my terrible calligraphy skills? About ten work books worth of training paper that I had to properly trace and if I got one line out of place on any of them, he'd wipe them all and I'd have to start again. That was a week ago, and apparently there were even more if the 'books' I could see in his guest bedroom were anything to go by. Said cyclops was currently looking at the stack from a top down view, his eye patch currently in what Jiraiya called Byakugan mode, and what I called x-ray vision. When he gave a nod of approval I let out a groan of relief.

The bastard had the gall to smirk at me as he said "Alright kid, that's the letters and numbers set, take an hour break and we'll move onto the beginner's words set."

I could only let out another groan even as I stood up and began walking around the small apartment in order to get rid of the pins and needles feeling in my legs. Becoming a seal user better be worth it after this, otherwise I just might go Naruto and start pranking the hell out of my namesake.

Time Skip: Six Days Later

I take it back, I wasn't just going to prank Daisuke, somehow, someway, I was going to get the other three as well. My eye twitched as I took in the 'cute' outfit Kasumi had just finished wrestling me into while the other three were laughing their heads off. For some reason only she knew, my nonbirth mother had decided that when we went to the park today then I should be dressed in a shirt that had a purple and pink cat of all things splattered against its front and paw prints going down the legs of the shorts.

I let out a growl before I flared my chakra, using my basic Wind manipulation skills to shred the shirt to pieces. That got them all to stop laughing and they stared as I spat on the shredded remains before stalking back into my room to change into more appropriate clothes. I couldn't help the smirk on my face though when Tai said "Maybe you shouldn't have started him on Chakra Manipulation so soon Kasumi."

"Maybe, but did he have to shred the shirt? He looked so cute!" Kasumi whined.

"I strongly disagree mother!" I shouted back as I slipped off the shorts and took the chance to shred those as well before I quickly grabbed a much more sensible outfit of light green cargo shorts and a plain white shirt that had the Hidden Leaf Village symbol in its center. Walking back out, I said "What in the name of the Shodaime's wacky aunt made you think that was a good outfit for a boy?"

All four took a moment to mouth 'wacky aunt?' in amusement before Kasumi pouted and said "Well I thought you'd look nice in it."

"Maybe if I was a girl, but I'm not, and I'd rather not have to be picked on the moment we get to the park." I said with crossed arms.

"But then you'd have plenty of reason to kick all of the bully's behinds." Tai said with a grin only to grab his head when Gina dope slapped him.

Frowning, the kunoichi said "Don't tell my son it's alright to attack civilians just because they call him names Tai."

Tai raised his hands in surrender and said "Alright, alright, I'll be good." Appeased, Gina gave a nod before she began scrutinizing me. Finding nothing wrong with how I was dressed, she made a lead the way motion and I quickly jogged over to the door of the apartment.

Scene Change: Children's Playground

The first thing I did when we reached the park was go for the swings. The tallest slide of the area caught my attention of course but given there was long line of twenty kids waiting to go on it and a free swing, at the end of the set even if purple (Not that I cared about what color something I sat on was, wearing purple on the other hand), made my choice obvious. I eagerly hopped on the swing before I happened to glance to my side and had to do a double take. The kid currently swinging as high as he could reach had a very distinct shade of yellow hair. I quickly regained my senses though and began swinging as well. There was no point trying to talk to a kid when he was in the middle of swinging so hard, even if it would have been cool to befriend the future Yodaime so early on.

I spent the next five minutes matching the chibi-kage's swing height. The kid seemed to take it as a challenge if the way he kept glancing my way was anything to go by, not that I could blame him since the two of us were going much higher than the other kids. Couldn't exactly blame them for their restraint though since our chains were starting to go slack at the height of our swings. Deciding that I'd rather not deal with the jerking of the chain that would cause which experience had taught me would possibly make the swing start spinning, at the apex of my next swing, I rolled backwards off of it and did a single back flip before landing on the ground and rolling forward once to get well out of the swing's range. I only had time to look over my shoulder and start standing before I saw Minato release himself just over halfway through his own swing and land about five feet past me, skidding a little on the wood chips on the ground. The kid was staring at me in awe though as he said "That was so cool, how did you do that flip like that?!"

I gave a nonchalant shrug and said "Pretty easy after a year of being trained by my family." Holding out my hand, I said "Kinomoto Daisuke, my family likes to call me Davis though."

"Namikaze Minato, and no offense, but that's a weird nickname." Minato said as he shook my hand.

I gave another shrug and said "None taken, I like it though so I've never bothered asking them to change it. So since we're done on the swings, would you like to do anything else together?"

"Sure, you seem a lot more interesting than the other kids." Minato said with a grin before pointing at a jungle gym and said "Want to see who can reach the top first?"

I grinned at him and said "Sure, if you don't mind eating my dust."

Minato laughed and said "I think it's going to be the other way around." And with that as his parting shot he was off like a freaking bullet. I rolled my eyes at the 'unfair' advantage he just took, let him get ten feet in front of me before I poured chakra into my legs and shot past in a series of consecutive ninja leaps, easily overtaking him and quickly reaching the top. I grinned down at him from the top of the jungle gym when he reached the bottom and said "Don't try to outcheat a ninja kid."

Minato pouted as I dropped back down but it was replaced with a grin when I said "Want me to help you unlock your chakra?"

After his enthusiastic answer, I lead him over to a quieter spot and began explaining the method my family had used to teach me how to feel out my chakra system. We would wind up talking for over an hour as the curious chibi-daime asked me all sorts of questions before spending the rest of the day playing around on the playground until it was time to leave.

END

Author's Notes: Since only five people have so far voted on my poll, I'm just going to leave it up and check on it occasionally. For those curious, it's currently four for one shot, one for chapters.