Inside a metallic chamber, numerous cells could be seen. On the floor, aluminum cables traveled through the walls, connecting to a strange device that was positioned on a wooden desk. In that place, stood a man with a bear mask looking intently at the messages displayed by the equipment.

A few moments later, a masked man with what seemed to be a corpse on his shoulders arrived. Kneeling, the new arrival reported to the bear-masked man: "The target has been captured. Neutralized by a retired kunoichi Jōnin." He said indifferently, no emotion escaping from his tone.

The bear-masked man furrowed his eyebrows. "These prisoners are giving me headaches. I cannot accept that a mere Takigakure Chūnin escaped from our Root's base." His last line was spoken with an aggressive tonality, followed by a slap to the nearby desk that crumbled to shambles.

"And now there are evidences of this disgrace as well." He said with both his hands turning to a fist. "Lord Danzo won't be happy with this."

~~

~~

Walking to the orphanage, Minko and Raijin were silent. The previous encounter left an uncomfortable feeling between them. For Raijin, it was his helplessness that affected him. His actions of cowering towards a potential enemy made him feel ashamed of himself due to the overwhelming fear he felt.

For Minko, on the other hand, the silence came from her deepest memories. The actions of using her combat knowledge made her remember the years she served as an active Jōnin of the Leaf — a time that she hasn't come to terms with yet, as the losses she suffered were still ingrained in her mind.

Step by step, they reached the gravel road separating the residential path from the front yard of the orphanage. Entering through the gates and reaching the kitchen, both of them put the bags on the main table that temporarily served to accommodate all the food items they brought.

Sensing the uncomfortable air between them, Raijin felt a need to say something to address the elephant in the room. "So… Minko-sama, I've been meaning to ask this but, were you a ninja early in your life?" his words carried an apprehension of being called off by Minko due to his intrusiveness.

"Ninja, huh? I guess you could say that." She said with an unenthusiastic hoarse voice. "Well, I was a Jōnin back in the days, but enough of that. We should focus on the tasks at hand." feeling insecure about saying any more words about the job she did as a kunoichi, Minko quickly dismissed Raijin and started allocating the food items to their specific place on the shelves.

Raijin's thoughts came to a halt. His mind only registered one thing from Minko's speech: 'She was a Jōnin?!'. His heartbeat started to rapidly increase and his sweat glands began producing some sweat on his palms, a reaction that indicated how surprised he was with this discovery.

As he was internally freaking out over this, he left the shopping bags alone, postponing the allocation task for later because he felt that he had to do something more important beforehand. Standing before Minko, Raijin tapped her sleeves to get her attention and said the following: "Train me, Minko-sama!"

Surprised, Minko looked curiously at the boy before her. His eyes were resolute, not even a slight waver could be seen in them. Her answer was direct, demonstrating the respect he instilled in her: "No!" and she continued to place the items back on the shelves.

Raijin was not affected by this answer, as in the following moment the boy went to a dogeza position directed at Minko. "I want your guidance, Minko-sama!", his shameless actions were not ignored by Minko, who turned to Raijin in a startled motion — her expression indicating that she was stunned by Raijin's actions.

While the boy's dogeza remained still and unwavering, Minko took a few seconds to recompose herself and answered with a distressed tone "You are just a three-year-old boy, Raijin! What do you want by starting training to be a ninja so soon? Do you even know how much—" she stopped her speech when looking at the unshakable look on Raijin's face.

Minko remembered the arrival of Raijin in the orphanage — his story was that his parents, leaf Konoha shinobi, were killed during the war meanwhile he stayed at the village at the age of two years and a half. His resentment with ninjas stayed there because he felt useless for not being able to do anything to protect his family.

So, seeing his look, Minko hesitated to flat-out refuse him again. Softening her expression and tone, she continued: "Well, if you want to be trained by this old granny, I guess I can make an exception despite me not taking any students anymore."

Brightened up, Raijin wore a smile on his face. Leaving his dogeza position, he began to get up from the floor. "Really? Then when can we—" While speaking, he was interrupted by the sudden Minko's reply. "But only on one condition: I will start training you when you finish your first year at the academy. You have to top all the subjects in your class and continue that from then on, otherwise, we will stop. At that time, you are already going to be living elsewhere, so you'll have to visit me here to train."

"What?" But I thought that you meant right now. That's not fair!" With an indignant tone, Raijin replied with an aggrieved expression. Just when he thought that he would have a headstart so soon, his hopes were crushed to the ground.

Minko, seeing this, didn't waver and just said: "You are still too young, Raijin. Three years old is not an age you should train so intensively until exhaustion. Even when you join the academy when you are five or six years old, there's a reason why in the first years the practical classes are just a more serious game of playing ninja."

"Well, in this matter I won't open an exception. Help me take out the groceries and you should go to bed since it's already dark. Our little excursion took us some time and you must be tired." Minko said without opening a chance for new disputes, she was definite in her answer. Raijin complied even if still a bit unhappy.

Going to his room, Raijin thought of what had transpired since his arrival in this world. He had met a Jōnin and asked for her teaching, was attacked by an unknown man who looked weird and went into a crisis thinking that he was in an alternate universe of Naruto.

'Still, I am still a bit salty for not being able to be trained by a Jōnin from right off the bat. It seems that I'll have to go the traditional route of training by myself for this time.' While thinking this, he experienced a feeling of tiredness. Observing two other boys already sleeping on their futons, he began getting ready to sleep by taking a short bath and quickly going to his bed.

'I don't know how, but I'll need to get stronger fast. I'll have to at least meet the requirements that Minko has set for me at the time and then I can have a personal Jōnin teacher guide me. So, I think I'll manage if I do things a little early like the Leaf training, some exercises, and so on."

With a little bit of difficulty falling asleep because he was thinking too much about his training regimen, he fell into a slumber with a smile branded on his face — a telltale that he had been successful in thinking something manageable for his circumstances.