Author's Note

There we go! This time I'm keeping on schedule, working on the next chapter the day I need to. Doesn't hurt that I didn't have anything else to do for the day.

But anyways, I hope people are enjoying the story so far. I've only gotten one review so far, but it was positive, so that's definitely helping me to keep going. While I do have a few things planned out more than I did before, I still don't have a real estimate on how long this story will end up. I'm at least hoping to get to 100k words of story, but right now, it can go on forever.

That's enough from me, let's get right into things!

Chapter 3: The Way of the Shinobi

Three Weeks Later

Alex and Kina both got used to Konoha fairly quick. Without any memories of a place to call home, it was easy to get comfortable in the… 'apartment', the were given to stay. Instead of a place that was part of an apartment complex, Minato gave them what was essentially a small house. It was a bit too large for a regular person to call an apartment, having two bedrooms with their own bathrooms, a large room that had a kitchen, dining room, and living room altogether, a storage closet that they were told they could use to hold gear, and a small backyard area for training at home if they wanted.

Kina had asked if she could become a ninja as well, to which the Hokage said that there wasn't anything against her becoming one. However, the academy was on break for the next month and a half, so they would have to receive training from others until then. They didn't start immediately, being given a few weeks to get to know the village, go shopping for clothing, and they even got to know a few of the other kids who they would be in class with.

Alex was awoken by a loud knock on his door, him getting up slowly only to have a kunai thrown in front of his face, narrowly missing his nose. Quickly looking to the door, he saw a girl with purple hair and wearing a fishnet vest spinning a kunai, shaking her head slowly.

"Wow, I was told you had no training whatsoever, but I didn't think it would have been this bad." She says with a sigh. "Alright, whatever. I was sent to come get you guys by the Hokage. I'm supposed to help you guys get some equipment and then take you to your Training ground. Now let's go, your girlfriend's already up." She said before walking away.

Alex was a bit stunned, not expecting this kind of wake up call. It wasn't until the woman walked away that he registered what she said.

"She's not my girlfriend!" He would call out before getting ready. He and Kina had gotten a lot closer for sure, though. While they weren't inseparable, they definitely spent a lot of time together. A few of the other kids were already teasing them about it, but they would just deny it, blushing all the while.

Meeting up with Kina and the woman, who he learned was named Anko, the older girl nodded to them and waved the on. They were mostly prepared already, already given some of the more basic gear that a ninja would need. To train, they needed to decide on how best they felt like fighting. They both thought about it, but couldn't really decide, so they were to go look at weapons and to see if any of them felt natural to them. Although, Alex did begin to feel like they were sent the wrong person from how Anko casually had a kunai out the entire time on their walk to the weapon shop, idly filing her nails with it when she wasn't using the throwing knife in threatening someone who looked at her funny.

Eventually they reached one of the most famous weapon shops in Konoha, known for having both high grade and high priced weapons. Of course, they weren't there to buy anything, but they were given permission due to the huge variety of weapons, and because Kina had made friends with the daughter of the owner who also happened to greet them.

"Ah, hey Kina! Training starts today, huh?" A girl slightly than them said from behind the counter, her hair in twin buns, standing next to her father. Kina smiled wide and nodded. Even though Ten-ten was a year older than her and was already on a genin team, she met them when she was with her teammate Neji who had to look after Hinata when she was playing around with some of the other kids.

"Yeah! Think you can help me find something, Ten-ten?" Kina replied, getting a nod from her friend who began helping her immediately, leaving Alex alone with Anko.

"Alright, kid. Go nuts." She said nonchalantly. She really didn't seem too concerned with his own safety. Moving around the shop, the picked up a few different weapons, swinging them around a bit lazily, trying different ways to hold them, and making up stances. He didn't really know what it meant for something to feel natural, but he wasn't going worry if he didn't find a weapon. They were told it was fine if they didn't, they would just need to focus more on ninjitsu.

Little did he know was that the owner was watching him intently the whole time, observing the way the boy tried out the weapons. Eventually Kina and Ten-ten came up, both girls smiling wide.

"Hey, dad, do we have two cheap swords Kina can get?" The bun-haired girl asked, making her father blink and turn back to them.

"Two?" He asked, to which the girls nodded.

"Yeah, nothing too big. Something about holding a sword in each hand just feels better. Than using one." Kina said, making Ten-ten's father blink before nodding.

"Ah, right. I do believe I have some over there on the rack near the front. Just pick out any two you like and have whoever brought you here come pay for them." The girls nodded and ran off, telling Anko to pay for them, who nodded, having been given their allowance but told to hold onto it until they were done shopping. Walking over to the counter, she looked over to Alex.

"Hey, gaki, you find anything? We're about to leave!" She called out, to which the boy shook his head.

"No, they just all feel the same." He says, putting back a pair of tonfas he was holding before heading over to where Kina was.

As Anko paid for the sword, the owner leaned in. "Keep an eye on that boy. I don't know if he was just messing around, but he was using stances to hold weapons that I haven't seen in years." He whispered. Blinking, Anko nodded, mentally telling herself to let the Hokage know before walking out, Alex and Kina in tow, Alex holding onto one of the swords Kina picked up to look it over.

"Maybe these kids aren't so boring after all." Anko thought to herself, leading them to a training ground they were told to meet at.

Training Ground 27

When they arrived, they immediately noticed they weren't alone. There was already a small crowd of people, containing both kids their age and adults. As they got closer, they could make out all who was there, having met them all over the past few weeks at some point.

"Naruto, I told you, this was supposed to help Alex and Kina. They have a lot to catch up on, and they hardly know the basics." Kushina said, rubbing the bridge of her nose as her son looked at the ground. Jiraiya, however, came up behind Naruto, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, don't be so hard on him. He just wanted to make sure they made friends with everyone, right Naruto?" The sage says, Naruto looking up and nodding.

"Besides, I thought it would be fun!" He says, his mood going from ashamed to his usual, energetic self.

"Well, I can't blame you for that… but did you have to invite everyone here?" She asks, motioning around to the small crowd gathered.

"Don't worry Miss Namikaze, me and Lee will help make sure these two begin their most youthful training!" The eccentric as ever Might Guy said, giving her a thumbs up. Mirroring him was what could only be described a miniature version of him.

"That's right! And to go easy on them, we'll only do fifty laps around the village instead of the usual one hundred!" Rock Lee said, his sensei getting emotional at his devotion. Alex and Kina decided to tune them out as they looked over to see who else was there.

"Those two are always so loud… why are we even here? This is just going to be such a drag…" One Shikamaru said, laying down on the grass next to his best friend Choji, followed by the stoic Shino, and Kiba who was petting his partner, Akamaru. Nearby, Ten-ten's other teammate Neji sat, eyes closed as he meditated.

"My mom told me to come. My sister heard Naruto talk about this with us the other day. I wasn't going to come, but after Hana told mom about it, I didn't have a choice. Guess its better I did since I thought there wasn't going to be that many people." Kiba spoke up, with Akamaru giving a small yip in agreement.

Shino said nothing.

"At least you aren't on a team with them." The Hyuga said, Choji nodding in agreement as he ate away at his bag of chips.

"Besides, Ino dragged us along. Something about wanting to see Sasuke and her father told her she could only go if we were too." Shikamaru just sighed and closed his eyes, almost having forgotten about the group of girls off to the side giggling to each other.

Ino, Sakura, and Hinata all sat close together, whispering and giggling to each other. Occasionally they would stop to look over to one of the boys before continuing. Most of the time, they would look over to where four figures were leaning against a tree, two holding a particular book.

"Nii-san, why do you only read that book when mom and dad aren't around?" Sasuke asked to his brother. Itachi let out a small sigh, closing his eyes.

"I guess with us working together so long, I was bound to rub off on him." A silver-haired jonin stated, out of his ANBU uniform this time.

"I still don't know what you two see in those books…" A certain Obito Uchiha said. After his forceful return to Konoha, he had taken several years to go through rehabilitation, but finally had forgiven himself and Kakashi for what happened before. He revealed the truth about Madara being alive and how he was saved, letting the Uchihas recover their ancestor's body to properly bury. Tsunade was even able to help restore Obito more to his original self, slowly getting rid of the white Zetsu that had become part of him while also using Zetsu's dna to learn how to heal certain injuries better.

It wasn't all bad, either. Obito was able to regrow his missing eye, although it can't use the sharingan. He was still under watch for a while longer, but he planned on entering the ANBU when he was able.

"That's a story for another time. Right now, we're going to start training." Itachi said, closing his book and putting it away, pointing over to where Anko, Alex and Kina had arrived.

Everyone else soon began to noticed, everyone gathering together.

"Well, I wasn't expecting such a large turnout, but considering who all we have here, we'll be able to work on a bit of everything today. Although I did ask Hana to come by to help as well, she hasn't shown up just yet…" Kushina said to everyone, just as Hana appeared along with Asuma and Kurenai.

"Sorry I'm late! I thought we would need a bit more help, so I asked Asuma and Kurenai to come along." Hana said, Asuma and Kurenai greeting the group.

"Well, perfect! We'll split up the boys and girls to make things a bit easier, and so that Kina can get in some kunoichi training that she missed. Jiraiya, you take care of the boys." She said, getting nods of approval, the girls moving to one side of the training ground to begin.

"Alright, well we do have a bit to cover. We'll divide the oldest as instructors for different areas. Gai, Lee, and Neji will be in charge of taijutsu. Itachi, Obito, and Asuma will be in charge of shuriken throwing and weapon use. Finally, Kakashi and I will help you with chakra exercises and basic ninjutsu. Alex, you'll just be rotating out so we can see how well you do on each and see what you need to work on the most between the three groups while the rest of you can go to whichever you feel you need the most work on." Jiraiya said. When he was done, everyone nodded except Alex who couldn't help but feel a bit out of place.

Taijutsu

To start off, Alex was directed into some stretching to help loosen himself up. Close to the end, though, Lee and Gai were bending their bodies in ways that Alex could even attempt to do without hurting something. Once that was over, Gai told Alex to stand a few feet away from him.

"Alright, now, let's test the strength of your youth! Come at me and hit me as hard as you can!" Gai said, giving Alex a thumbs up. He hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and charging at him, rearing his fist back, before slamming it as hard as he could into Gai's stomach.

It was like punching a rock.

Holding his wrist, Alex took a step back, gritting his teeth. Was this man even human?

"What's the matter?" Gai asked, not even moving like he felt anything. Seeing Alex holding his wrist, he frowned. "I guess that may have asked for a little much… Lee! Help him test his youthfulness!"

"Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee said, suddenly standing next to his sensei before getting into a fighting stance. Alex, seeing the other boy take place as his opponent, shook his hand to get ready. Taking a deep breath, he charged at the spandex-clad opponent, once again rearing his fist back, aiming to hit him in the chest… only for Lee to seemingly disappear. Next thing Alex knew, he was face-down in the ground.

"Alex! Are you okay?" Lee said, him and Gai helping him up. "I was trying to hold back, but I guess I didn't hold back enough."

"Yeah, I just, you know, was testing you, heheh…" Alex said, trying to make light of the situation, but no one else found it funny except for Kiba, laughing to the side after watching Alex hit the ground like that.

"Alright, well, let's have Neji try. This time, instead of you attacking him, he'll try to hit you and you just have to dodge." Gai said, Alex nodding, a bit dazed still but recovering.

"Alright… Bring it on." He said after catching his breath. Neji approached him, moving into his family's stance.

"Just to let you know, I won't be using any chakra in my hits, so you won't have to worry about being hurt too badly." Neji said, not wanting to hurt him by accident if the last example was anything to go by.

Alex nods, bracing himself, waiting for Neji to move. When Neji finally rushed towards him, he did his best to try and watch for the first attack. However, while Neji's strikes were light, they came fast. As hard as Alex tried, he only seemed to move into place for the next attack. Even trying to move erratically didn't help much. After a bit of constantly getting hit, Alex did the best thing he could do to get away: Run.

Turning around, he ran away from Neji, the boy blinking and stopping in surprise. But Alex didn't know, he kept running. As he ran, Kiba couldn't help but laugh even more, the others watching on in disbelief.

"This… may be a lot harder than we thought." Gai muttered out loud, Neji and Lee nodding in response.

Weapons Training

After a short break to rest, Alex moved over to where Asuma, Itachi, and Obito. Even though he didn't have a specific weapon to work with, Asuma started things off by showing him about using a kunai in close ranged combat. It wasn't too overly complex, but Alex seemed to follow the instructions given to him just perfectly. Not only that, his stance for being on guard was practically flawless.

"Well, I'm not sure what else to teach you now. I have my own weapon I use, but I'm not sure how well you'd like it. You might find your own weapon to use someday! But for now, Itachi can show you about actually throwing them." Asuma said, smiling down at the boy, a bit impressed at how well he did.

They had set up targets on the trees for them to aim at. While Itachi was no expert on throwing weapons, his Sharingan allowed for some deadly pinpoint accuracy.

"Now, while you might not be too experienced, but in time, you'll be able to hit multiple targets with a single throw." Itachi said, demonstrating it by holding four shuriken, all between his fingers of one hand. A flick of his hand would send them whistling through the air, each one hitting the center of a different target. "For now, you just need to work on one." He says, handing one to Alex and showing him the proper way to hold it. Once he had it down, he looks to the targets and aims carefully. After a moment, he throws the shuriken as hard as he can! Only for it to completely miss.

"Don't worry, practice makes perfect." The Uchiha said, handing him more. For the next hour, Alex would keep trying and failing to make a single shuriken hit the target. He could barely even make the shuriken hit the tree, and when he did, it wouldn't even get stuck in the trunk. Eventually Asuma came over, both him and Itachi trying to figure out what Alex was doing wrong, but nothing would work. Eventually Alex would just give up for now to take a break.

All the while, Obito would be helping the other boys, but occasionally glance to Alex, wondering why he seemed familiar.

Lunch

"I don't think he's cut out for this after all. The only thing he can do is hold a kunai correctly!" Asuma said to Jiraiya. While the kids were eating off to the side to take a break from training, the adults were discussing the one kid that had gotten the Hokage's interest for such special training in the first place.

"I have to agree with Asuma. He has no strength, no speed, and no skill. If he wanted to be a shinobi, he needs to be built from the ground up. It would take him years at this point to even get the other's level." Gai said, his face surprisingly serious. Kushina let out a sigh.

"I don't know what to say. I thought with how well Kina was doing, he would be advancing at least as fast as her to catch up. Four hours ago she didn't know the difference between a shuriken and a senbon. Now she's sparring against the other girls and winning."

Jaraiya rubs his chin. "This is only his first day… But it is obvious that he never had any training before. Unless his body has some sort of amnesia that made him forget any kind of muscle memory, he has to have been in place where he didn't need to train… But with his chakra reserves, it would be a mistake almost to not try training him… Well, we'll have to still test him on ninjutsu before we can give a final verdict on what to do with him."

The others nod, a few looking over to see Alex sitting a bit further away from the others, barely picking at his food.

Ninjutsu

"Alright Alex, now I know you haven't had a great first day, but no one does, usually. After all, today is just seeing what you can do and showing you the basics." Jiraiya said to the boy, Alex looking down at the ground, his confidence practically gone.

"Hey, Master Jiraiya?" he spoke up, his voice a bit gravelly, as if holding in tears. "If… If I don't make it as a ninja-" He started before Jiraiya cut him off.

"Don't start thinking that way." The sage said, kneeling down and putting a hand on his shoulder. "If you don't think you'll become a ninja, then you never will. You have to tell yourself that you'll become one, no matter what. We all have to start somewhere. You're just a bit later than the others. But if you put your mind to it, I'm sure you'll do great." He said, doing his best to help cheer him up. "Now, come on. You've still got ninjutsu to work on. I bet we just saved the best for last."

With that, Alex nodded, looking up at the older man. His eyes almost blazed with determination, something that made the sage smile. "That's the spirit! To start, you want to make this seal with your hands." Jiraiya says, beginning to go through the basics, explaining the ins and outs of ninjutsu to him. He goes through, telling him about the different signs used to help form and manipulate chakra, and of the different ways chakra can be used. Alex listened to every word he was told, doing his best to memorize it all.

"Now, before we start any actual ninjutsu, we need to see what your affinity is for. Kina was tested earlier and she an affinity to wind. Here, take this, hold it in your hands, and focus your chakra into it." He says, handing Alex a piece of paper. Closing his eyes, he concentrates, trying to feel the flow of chakra inside him. After a short while, he opens his eyes and looks at the paper.

"That's not right…" Jiraiya mutters, narrowing his eyes, staring at the paper. It didn't show any of the normal signs of an affinity. Instead, it was pitch black.

"Here, try it again. Might have just been a bad one." He says, handing Alex another one. Luckily he brought more than just two in case one of the other kids hadn't been tested. However, when Alex tried again, it only gave the same result.

"Hold on…" Jiraiya pulled out one for himself, using his chakra on it. It worked like normal. "Alright… Well, affinities don't mean you can only use that element. Just shows what will be easier for you. We can try again some other time. For now, let's just try using some techniques. For the Academy, you have to learn certain E-Rank techniques, but it's not uncommon for someone to know something a bit higher. Here, try this one." Running through a few hand signs, making sure to go a bit slow for Alex to see which ones they were, he turns towards the open area away from everyone, shooting out a large ball of fire.

"Now, yours might not be as big, but the signs are the most important part." Alex nods, going through the signs as best he could, attempting the technique, but to no avail. Jiraiya, already seeing Alex's spirits going down, quickly did his best to cheer him up. "Don't worry! It's just a bit of an advanced technique. Maybe fire isn't your affinity, so you would just need to train. How about we try another element?"

Alex didn't seem convinced, but he was willing to try. But as much as he did try, he couldn't get a single technique to work. Jiraiya thought of as many low-ranking techniques to try, but even if Alex got the signs right, nothing would happen. Even trying some of the techniques that he would need to use to pass at the Academy, he couldn't get anything to go right. Eventually, Alex just fell to his knees on the ground.

Jiraiya didn't know what to say. Nothing would work. Maybe he was a lost cause after all. All the others could do some type of technique already, even Naruto who had to have etra training in his chakra control. Looking around, Jiraiya saw the others finishing up. When he managed to lock eyes with Kushina, all he could do was shake his head.

"I'm sorry kid." He said. "I tried my best." He really did. Alex was only a kid after all. But what could they do? They can't have people giving him special training all the time. Jiraiya let out a sigh before beginning to walk away.

"Why…?" Alex said softly after a few moments, falling forward and placing his hands on the ground. "Why can't I do anything…? I… I don't want to be useless… I want to protect her…!" Jiraiya stopped, turning around to look at him.

"Kid…" He began, but Alex didn't seem to hear him.

"All I want, is to be worth something. I don't know what to do. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Why? Why? Why!?" He began to slam his fist into the ground. At this point, the others noticed what was going on, watching him silently, none of them sure what to say or do.

"Why didn't those guys kill me before? Why wasn't I left to die? I'm useless! I couldn't do anything then, and I can't do anything now!" He began to yell, Kina walking forward towards him.

"Alex-" She tried to call for him, but Jiraiya stopped her.

"Wait. Something's happening." He said, looking up. The sky was becoming darker, with the wind beginning to pick up, and while it wasn't completely visible, something was forming around Alex.

"I want to help them! I don't want to just stand by and have them risk their lives for me!" Alex yelled out louder. Something was obviously wrong to everyone at this point.

"Get the kids back!" Jiraiya yelled, the older among them stepping in front of them, putting up the guard, not sure of what could happen next. Kushina ran over to Kina and Jiraiya.

"Kina, you have to get back!" She told her, only for Kina to stay put.

"I'm not leaving him!" She shouted, eyes locked on Alex's form.

"WHY!? WHY!? WHY!? USELESS! USELESS! USELESS!" Came from Alex, hitting the ground with each word, the earth beginning to shake… Or was that just him hitting the ground? Suddenly, Jiraiya felt something.

"Everyone, get down!" He yelled before quickly grabbing Kina and Kushina, the other instructors and kids dropping to the ground just in time as a bolt of lightning hit Alex's form, a shockwave emanating out from him, trees falling down like dominos around them, threatening to send them all flying away. The only sound they could hear was Alex's screaming.

How long it lasted, they couldn't tell, but the next thing they knew, it all stopped. One by one, they got up from the ground. The training ground was a mess. Looking over, Jiraiya saw Alex slowly rise to his feet, before turning to everyone.

"Was that… a jutsu?" He asked, just as confused as everyone else. He seemed completely fine as well. There was a yellow flash of light besides Jiraiya, Minato looking around worriedly.

"What happened? Is someone attacking?" He asked. Not seeing anything wrong, but seeing that something had happened to Alex from the fact that he was in the center of the debris, he looked to Jiraiya. "Don't tell me." He said, the sannin pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing.

"Minato, we need to talk. All of us."

Author's Note

And so concludes the third chapter. I liked this one a bit more than my other two, honestly. I tried to find more situations that would allow for a good amount of humor while still going along with the story. I know humor is more of a subjective type of thing, but I do hope it goes well with others.

As for that little event in the end, I know what it looks like. "You just made him look bad, did something, and now he's going to be OP!" I'm just going to give you a small hint. That didn't make him immediately stronger. At some point, yes, he will be overpowered as fuck, but I don't just want to give it to him like that. And I also don't want to use the 'emotions are where my powers come from' trope, so that's another hint to anyone trying to figure out what's going on before it's explained. Which, by the way, will be in the next chapter!

Stayed tuned to find out what happened, and maybe the reveal of an actual antagonist?

Until next time!