-Oh! this one looks good! Hey, pops! I'll take this 1! Pretty please. (???)

- hehe, pops huh? you're a lively little girl I see then-!(???1)

- The hell did you call me?! I'm a man! Check your eyes, you pervert!(???)

- Y-you are a boy?(  ...now that I think about it... I did think it was weird that sh-He! Was wearing boyish clothes... ) (???1)

- Obviously! Just because I have long hair, it does not mean that I am a woman! (???)

The person arguing against the middle-aged vendor was none other than Homura.

Homura had changed a great deal, since embarking on his pursuit of learning taijutsu.

One of the minor changes that had nothing to do with taijutsu that he had gone through, was letting his hair grow out due to wanting a change in appearance among other things.

He also did it, in order to have access to his undiluted DNA samples...Well, less diluted. For the sake of the future. When he will try experimenting with his own body.

Sadly all did not go as smoothly as planned.

He had been quite the fight against sister Kasumi, to let him grow his hair but that was a story for another day.

Also, he had gotten significantly taller.

Kids, do really grow fast!

This was more significant in Homura's case since he had always been quite short.

Now, with this growth spurt.

His height was more or less in accordance with the other kids his age.

It was either due to the latent genes that he was born with, or the fact that he went around stealing the genes of over a dozen children...that fact shall never be known.

- Sorry, sorry here you go litt-I mean, young man.  (middle-aged uncle)

- Don't apologize. Be better!

- You're right. have a nice day! (What an annoying little brat! His parents must be fuming every day)(middle-aged uncle)

- You too. gramps!

- Who are you calling gramps?! I just turned 37! You little brat! I can still pass as a big brother! Or at least an uncle! (middle-aged uncle)

- Urgh! Don't be so sensitive! You, losing your temper like that proves that you're but an old man!

- What?! You little! (middle-aged uncle)

This exchange went on for quite a while before both parties went their separate ways.

Both parties were too thickheaded for their own good and ended up, butting heads for quite a while.

At least until Homura went on his own merry way.

-(D*mn! Never buying anything from that guy again!)-Is what a butt-hurt Homura was thinking after the ordeal that had transpired.

He was nonetheless in a good mood since he was about to enter a new phase of his life very soon.

He then looked up, more specifically towards the carved faces of the Hokages that were on display on the plateau for all to see, and started to reminisce about his life in Konoha, or how it all really started when he met Naruto for the very first time on this very own street a few years prior.

It felt like ages ago.

-(...plot armor is real!... after meeting Naruto, I feel like my life did a 180! It's actually quite shocking!)

It is an undeniable fact.

Prior to meeting Naruto, Homura had never met any of the crazy characters that he had come to know.

During that time he had met, Hiruzen, Guy, Kakashi, Shisui, Sasuke, and a few others that unbeknownst to him that he had managed to cross paths with.

Most, he simply did not recognize since they were minor characters. Such examples would include Sakura's mom, Ebisu, Aoba, and a few others that he had simply failed to recognize or did not care enough about them to remember that such characters even existed within this world.

He had also met Izumo and the other guy at the door...he just had no idea which was which...

But it is not that difficult to fathom that he had met such people just by going in his merry way.

Since they all lived within the same village.

It was a big village that much was undeniable, but it was ultimately a village, and the places that they had to go for their everyday lives were within the same areas.

The only reason he hadn't met most of them prior to that was that Homura had no interest in going to the center area of the village or the shopping distract.

If he had spent more time around that corner of the village he would have met most of the cast by now.

But regardless, that matter is now a thing of the past.

The time that Homura had spent in Konoha had further increased since the beginning of his training.

It has been over a year since Homura decided to learn taijutsu for real and to not rush as much as he did in the past.

He has made incredible progress.

However, when taking into account that he originally had no real talent for taijutsu whatsoever.

This was quite a phenomenal rise.

He no longer needs to rely upon his super-computing skill as much as he did in the past to close the gap between himself and the other children.

-(the academy will be holding an entrance exam, next month... I'm feeling good about my chances but I'm not sure if I will be able to be assigned to Naruto's class.)

Homura was feeling a sense of relief due to having been helped in his training by 1 of the best jonins out there.

Although Guy did not fully train him personally, he would still get pointers along the way.

However, after about 6 months that he had helped Homura train, Guy had to leave and they have not met since then.

-(I wonder where Guy-san went? It is pretty strange for even  him to disappear for that long. Really had hoped he'd teach me some of his techniques but oh well.)

Guy had not taught Homura any special kind of techniques, he just helped him with adapting to a taijutsu that would be more fitting to his style and only began to dive a bit towards his strong fist style.

Homura being so short and using the strong fist style against opponents would be far too demanding

It was hard to say that he did that because Homura was still too young, or he thought perhaps that he should get more practice with the Konoha style type of taijutsu taught at the academy.

Perhaps he was right to not teach Homura about his special brand of taijutsu, the young boy was too eager to learn and could often become careless in his attempts to learn something.

-(It is not a big deal. I still have Shisui-san's notebook. It has some detailed information on how to perform some techniques. But it is too dangerous for me as of yet.)

Unable to perform shisui's techniques, Homura used his computing ability to help him try to pull one of them off but almost broke a leg.

The skill is powerful but not omnipotent.

If the host does not have the ability to do something, then it will fail or try its best to achieve the desired effect but it cannot predict the consequences with 100 percent accuracy.

-(I'd better hurry up! Can't be too late otherwise, that guy is going to complain again. As if he is any different. *sigh*)

As a Homura rushing made his way around the village, he finally arrived at an all too familiar ramen shop.

Chapter end

 

*4 chapters back to back!? This is crazy! :o*