Author's Note

You know who's having fun? I'm having fun. I'm having so much fun that I'm typing up chapter 4 here while chapter 3 is currently still waiting to be available on the site. That's how much fun I'm having.

I do hope people enjoyed the last chapter. It didn't take me too long, but I had a lot of fun writing it. In case you want to know my writing process, 75% is made up as I go along. I've got things in mind that are planned to happen at some point, but otherwise, I'm just doing my best to make sure it all comes together.

I do hope more people enjoy this new chapter, and I would very much appreciate any kind of feedback. I don't just want positive feedback, I'll take negative feedback too! Tell me how bad my story is and what makes it bad. Need to include the second part though. Saying its shit isn't helping anyone.

On with the story!


Chapter 4: A Universal Threat

Later That Evening

Minato's forehead was pressed squarely to his desk. All around him were shinobi who had been at the training ground when that shockwave hit town. Nothing serious was damaged, but the rumbling of the earth and the lightning strike certainly put people in a panic.

And Minato was not happy with the cause.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…" He said, voice muffled from the desk before sitting up and running his hands through his hair, revealing a very red mark on his forehead. "So, let's go over this one more time. Alex couldn't do anything, so he got upset. While he was upset, he began yelling and hitting the ground in rage. Next, he was hit by a bolt of lightning that caused some sort of earthquake or shockwave that was felt for almost ten miles around him. When it was over, he was completely fine. This part we are all sure of, correct?" Minato looked around, watching everybody nod their head.

"Alright, good. Now, someone explain to me why out of everything, what the fuck kind of kekkei genkai does he have?!" He almost yells. No one said a word. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Minato let his head hit the desk. This had been going on for the past half hour.

After he arrived, he was given a quick rundown of what had happened. Immediately, he ordered for all the kids to be taken home. However, none of them were allowed to say what has happened yet as they don't want to cause people to go into a panic. Alex and Kina were the only two brought, Kina only because she wanted to make sure that the other was okay. They spoke to Alex alone, leaving Kina outside the office, where they got his side of the story. Apparently when he was hit by lightning, he had a vision.

Flashback

Holding his head, Alex looked up and around him. He felt something hit him, but he didn't feel anything at all. All around him was darkness, except for one figure with his back towards him.

"Goddammit, how'd I fuck this up? I had this all planned out. This was all supposed to be fun. Now? Now it's all going down the shit creek and no one has a paddle…" He muttered to himself.

"Hello…?" Alex said, causing the guy to turn around. He had no visible face as far as Alex could tell. He just wore a robe and some kind of mask that spiraled inwards to what appeared to be an eyehole. With another eyehole cut out for the other eye. "Who are you?"

"Ah! There you are. Look, I don't have much time, but I'm sorry. I fucked up. Or more specifically, someone fucked me, and they fucked you too." He makes a motion as if running his hands through his hair. "You're supposed to be stronger than the other kids your age. And you're supposed to get even stronger, but someone took that from you at some point. Worst part is, you can't just take it back and even worse news, if you don't get it back, I'll never be able to come back."

Alex was a bit overwhelmed by what they were saying. He didn't understand any of it, in fact. "So…" He tried to think of something to say, but he was interrupted.

"Alright, so what you had was taken from you within the past few weeks when you were wandering around. I don't know how, but I do know that it will take them a while for them to actually become any sort of problem. If you don't take them out and get back that power, it could mean the end to this universe. For now, I'll be trying to give you back as much power as I can, but you'll still need to train because it will take a while for you to get to your peak as well. If you rely on me giving you power to get stronger, you won't stand a chance in the end." Alex gulped but nodded.

"Good! Now, I'm not going to give you a power boost, just unlock a few limiters I put in place. If anyone checks on you, you should be back to how you were when you first woke up, but if you go back to training, you should do as well or way better than the others your age. But don't try to fight someone too much more experienced than you, because this is all I can do for you. If I give you too much, I'll disappear. But, since I do need you to take back the power… I'll just throw in something a little extra. Now, go out there and kick some ass!" They say, Alex blinking. The person spoke so fast, he could barely understand what they were saying.

"Wait, what?" Was his only response before he woke up on the ground.

End Flashback

After that, they tried asking him what the person meant by 'little extra', but he didn't know. Eventually he tried to focus and try manipulating his chakra in various ways. Not only did Alex find it a lot easier to do, but he somehow used his chakra to create a physical object, specifically a silver orb, leaving them speechless. Eventually, the Hokage had to ask Alex to leave the room, to which he did, leading them to the current discussion.

There was several minutes of silence as they waited for the Hokage to speak again. Eventually, he looked up from his desk, the expression on his face saying that he needed a drink.

"Alright, so, he has an ability that we don't understand, and he'll do pretty well as a ninja. That's great news. Right?" Jiraiya tried to lighten the mood, but all he got was a dark look from Minato.

"That's not the main problem. What I want to know, is why he's here. Who is he? Where did he come from? How did he get here? What in Kami's name are we supposed to d-" His voice grew louder before he eventually stopped, eyes widening in realization. It couldn't be, could it?

"Lord Hokage?" Someone spoke, but he wasn't paying enough attention. He was trying to figure out how best to explain this to everyone. But, he might not be the only one.

"You just figured it out as well, didn't you, Obito?" Minato asks, looking over to the Uchiha. Everyone turned to him as he sighed.

"I thought I was crazy for thinking it, but I had my suspicions." He admits, walking over to the desk. "His voice is similar, his manner of speaking is similar, his posture is similar, and even for the short while I saw him, I can tell his very demeanor is similar. I think they should know, because we do owe him." Minato let out a sigh and nodded, everyone looking at him questioningly.

"Everyone, be aware that this is an S-class secret, not to be shared with anyone until further notice. Understood?" Everyone nodded at once. "Good. Now, this is about what really happened during the Kyubi attack. The official story is that an unknown individual incapacitated Obito, then split the Kyubi in half, sealing half in my son. That it true, but there were a few parts left out. One, was he called himself 'Kami', and while I did not feel in the presence of a god, he did split the Kyubi in half. The other part is that he said to repay him, in ten years, we were to accept two children as shinobi of our village and take care of them."

It wasn't hard for the pieces to click together for everyone in the room.

"So, the boy and girl in that lobby were sent from someone who called himself god, hm?" Jiraiya said, holding his chin. "But why would you bring that up?"

"Because from the story Alex told us, the person that spoke to him sounded just like the same man from ten years ago. Whether he was talking to him from somewhere else or he's part of him, I don't know, but Alex got his power from him." Minato replies, his face turning grim. "That leads to a disastrous problem."

"If someone stole what power Alex had been given before, than that means somewhere, someone's running around with that power. We don't know how much power that is, how long it will take before they become a problem, who they are, or where they are." Itachi spoke up, eyes closed and arms crossed. Minato looked down.

"That's just as I was think." He said, closing his eyes. The room around them seemed to grow dark as they realized the gravity of the situation. There was a long pause before someone decided to speak up.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Asuma was the one to break the silence, Minato letting out a heavy sigh.

"For now… We wait. This is information cannot get out to everyone immediately. I will talk to a few select individuals who aren't here about this, but the rest of you must never mention this to anyone outside of this room. This is a threat to not just the village, but to everything we may know. However, we still do not know all the details, so until we know more, we can't act properly. If any of you learn of anything that may be of relevance to this situation, let me know immediately. Do not pursue it yourself. We need to learn more about threat first. Is that understood?" Everyone was in agreement, saluting him.

"Good. Now, next on the agenda. How do we explain what happened at the training ground to the kids?"

The Next Morning

After the meeting, Alex and Kina were escorted home where Kina went to bed almost immediately, exhausted after the day's events. Alex, however, had trouble going to sleep with the thoughts of what the man's words meant. Eventually he decided to mess around with his new ability to get used to it and see what all he could do with it until he eventually passed out. He was awoken to someone busting his door open, Alex jumping awake. The next thing he knew, there were two kunais on either side of his head, almost pinning his ears to the wall.

"Huh. Well, you're a bit faster now." A familiar voice said. Looking to the source, he saw Anko standing in his doorway. "I'm only here for Kina. You're to go to Training Ground 3. Have fun~!" She said before vanishing. Alex really hoped this wasn't going to be a daily occurrence.

Training Ground 3

When Alex arrived, he saw no one around. The only thing that stood out were three training posts in the center. Walking towards them, he took a look around the area, admiring the place until something immediately seemed wrong. Panicking, he jumped just in time to avoid being swallowed by the ground, but the force of his jump completely surprised him, causing him to hit the ground and roll a small ways. Looking up, he saw Jiraiya knelt down with his hands on the ground before standing up.

"Well, seems you really were at a disadvantage yesterday. But all that was just a setback. Now, your real training begins. You won't have someone training you every day, but we're not just going to leave you to learning all the basics yourself. You're the farthest behind in skill, but you need to be ahead. However, you must not mention that conversation you had yesterday with that man. Not even to Kina, understood?" Jiraiya spoke as he walked closer to Alex, stopping just in front of him. Usually the sage was relaxed and carefree, but today, he was more serious than ever.

Alex got up slowly from the ground. "Anything it takes to get stronger, I will. I've been given power to help not just Kina, but everyone here. There is someone out there who could be a threat to everything. And it's all my fault. I have to take responsibility to stop them whenever the time comes, but I won't be able to do it all alone." He said, holding up one hand to the sage.

Jiraiya was a little taken aback, but he couldn't help but smile as he shook his hand. "I thought you're supposed to be a kid!" He said with a laugh, lightening the mood a bit. "Now, if you're going to graduate with the rest of your age, you're going to be very busy. After you've been caught up in the basics with everyone else, you're on your own. However, I am very interested in that ability of yours. Why don't I help you figure out what you can do with it?"

Alex couldn't help but grin and nod, excited for what he could learn.

Elsewhere

Inside a cave, far from Konoha, a person sat alone, shrouded in the darkness.

"Well, they think they've figured it out, hm? I can't wait until they realize how wrong they really are…"


Author's Note

Aaaaaand I think I'll end it here. This is a lot short than the last one and is probably uploaded on the same day, but I wanted to get this part done already and to make up for the other day when I didn't post. Hopefully this was full of enough development that the next few chapter could be full of filler!

Don't worry, I don't like filler. Instead, we'll be skipping straight to graduation since I'd rather show off Alex as more of a real ninja than a ninja in training.

Also, I do want to let people know that I am aware they graduate at around 12-13 years old, but the graduation year will be one early just because of time constraints. And while there is a jump next chapter, there will be still be more until they reach a certain point in time.

I know it's taken about four chapters for the actual conflict to be established, and I don't feel like it's heavy enough on the main character. Jiraiya has had a pretty big role, and that wasn't my full intention, it's just something that made the most sense to me for now. He won't be as prominent in the future, especially when Alex is able to know how to best train by himself.

But that's it for now. I hope you guys enjoyed, and if you did, make sure to leave a review about what you liked!

Until next time!