- Homura, come back here! (Kasumi)

- Never!

Throughout the surrounding area of the orphanage, a young boy was been chased by a young woman.

Needless to say that it was Sister Kasumi who was chasing after Homura.

Homura had been running for his life, for about 10 minutes.

But Kasumi was relentless in her pursuit.

Due to being young enough, and taking care of so many children throughout the years, she was still in peak condition.

She had unknowingly developed and built a very fit body.

To Homura's fear and despair.

He was unable to simply lose her.

She was overall faster than Homura, leaving the latter to resort to tricks in trying to widen the gap and escape from her grasp.

At this point, he knew that he was going to get the worst punishment of his entire life, but he was never one to think too rationally when push comes down to shove.

Even the situation he had found himself in, was simply due to his hot-headedness. 

Due to Homura's and Sister Kasumi never reaching a conclusion, the former decided to run away.

Before he knew he had exited her office and started running away... but he forgot who he was dealing with.

At this point of their tumultuous relationship, that is pretty much how most of their fights would end.

Either with Homura reluctantly having to do what Sister Kasumi would tell him, since at the end of the day he was at her mercy, or running away hoping that her busy schedule would distract her long enough.

Not that it ever did though.

But a boy can always hope.

- Don't you know that if you become a shinobi you will get eaten by giant beasts?! What would they think if their one and only son got eaten by a giant snake, huh!? Have you thought of that? (Kasumi)

She knew that Homura was not the bravest person, so trying to convince him of the dangers of being a shinobi was the only way she could realistically do so.

Too bad Homura had already made up his mind, otherwise, he wasn't willing to live a life full of dangers, that entails being a ninja.

- Awww, and the Oscar goes to... Someone else!

- W-what does that- Homura, get back here?... Where did he go? (Kasumi)- before she had realized it, Homura had turned around the corner of a large tree and had seemingly disappeared. 

As Homura and Sister Kasumi turned around, Homura managed to get the slip on Sister Kasumi, through one of the children's secret hiding places.

The orphanage had a lot of secret hiding places that the children would use when playing around.

This one was a hole that was cleverly hidden so as to no one, not included in the loop would have a harder time finding out.

But it was a rather dark and small place, so rarely anyone used it.

-... Is she gone?

Homura tried to calm his mind and focused on hearing the sounds coming from above him.

After waiting for a few more minutes, so that it was safe from Kasumi's wrath Homura left his hiding place.

- Phew! She was very determined today...Things will definitely get worse for me later... I better pass that test or I will be screwed over until I am kicked out of this place... actually just when is it that people have to find a job in this place? 12? 14? (Boruto had a job in the anime but still lived with his parents and Sakura definitely lived with hers at 16... Ninjas are weird.)

Homura tried to remember the lives of the anime protagonists in the anime, but he was coming up with not very good examples. 

-(Well, whatever. None of that applies to me, I am an orphan. I can't mooch off my parents, so none of that is relevant.)

Homura then decided to go back to the orphanage and hide just hide there in some closet or something.

Whatever would happen to him had to be postponed to at least tomorrow since in a few more hours it was going to be his curfew. 

So as long as he could leave the orphanage early in the morning, at the very least before anyone woke up, he would be able to survive another day.

So with his plans set in motion, he started walking toward the orphanage.

As Homura was about to head towards the backdoor of the orphanage, he saw a familiar face next to it.

It was Uryuu.

One of the boys at the orphanage and one of Homura's roommates and someone that he couldn't really know how what to make of him. 

They weren't exactly close, but they were not total strangers, but they were roommates and had known each other for quite a while... it was overall a weird relationship.

Similar to that of distant relatives that had to put up with one another because they had to live together for reasons beyond their control.

-Hm? Why are you here? (Does he think leaning next to doors all smug looking makes him cool or something?)

- Hmph! None of your business. (Uryuu)

-O-ok. ( Jeez... If Sasuke is somewhat of an edgy brat... This guy... This guy is Shadow the Hedgehog... I have to find him a mean nickname from now on...)

-...Sister Kasumi called you over, didn't she?... (Uryuu)

- So? Why do you care?

- You better not be thinking of quitting taking the academy entrance exam. (Uryuu)

-...(The f*ck!? How does he know that? Is there a conspiracy against me?!)

Homura was at loss for words from Uryuu's sentence.

He wasn't sure who spied on him or how people already knew about the fact that he had to talk with Kasumi about his future prospective career.

- Why are you so surprised? You really know nothing, do you?(Uryuu)

- What?

-All of us who want to take the entrance exam have to talk to one of the sisters or the father prior to applying.(Uryuu)

- (Oh! I didn't know that... does make sense though) I see. Well thanks... for whatever. (sassy bast*rd.)

-... You! Are you even taking this seriously!? (Uryuu)

Uryuu grabbed Homura's right arm as he was about to open the door.

- Hm? What the!? W-what's wrong with you!? Let me go!

- You've better not have forgotten what we talked about.(Uryuu)

-...Yes. It was very important to me too. (...I have no idea what he is talking about, but at this point, I just want to leave.)

- Hmph! Whatever. You better not disappoint me in the exam or I... tch! (Uryuu)- said Uryuu letting go of Homura's arm and going leaving for somewhere else.

-... Jeez! What is wrong with this guy?...and where exactly is he going at this time?... Meh, who cares? (He has been giving me the cold shoulder more than ever lately. He used to be such a gullible kid.)

Homura could not for the love of whoever he believed in, know or understand what had gotten into Uryuu's mind.

They used to be closer in the past.

But that now felt like a very long time ago.

-(I feel like this would be the perfect moment for me to have a flashback but... I don't really remember stuff not worth caring about. Besides, I am not Naruto, who has flashbacks just by looking at his feet.)

Homura then opened the door and went inside the orphanage.

Although he said as much as such, his mind started to drift off slightly about Uryuu.

And when Uryuu first came to the orphanage.

They never had a very deep relationship, Homura simply thought it was funny that he had all the traits of an Uchiha and shared the name of Sasuke's VA another popular character he used to play, so he found it funny and decided to befriend the guy.

But lately, their relationship had overall deteriorated to a certain point that he has no idea what he did.

But ultimately he cared very little.

He had other things in his mind.

He had to pass the test and be in the same class as Naruto.

Not only that but he needed to ace the exam, so that he is not seen as a talentless child that could easily be forgotten in the shuffle of the nameless genins that come out of the academy every year.

The more promise he showed.

And the more he would be likely to be assigned to a good jounin teacher in the future, but he was scared that being good will attract some undesirable attention.

Mostly, from a man that is well known to exploit and use as tools to be discarded children for nefarious means.

It was a paradox.

Since he didn't want that person's attention focused on him but he had to make sure that he did exceptionally well in the exam and his time at the academy.

Who Homura, was referring to was none other than Shimura Danzo.

One of the elders of Konoha, and the leader of the Root or foundation section of the ANBUs black ops.

And, worse, he was a minor antagonistic force within the series, due to how deep of a connection he shared with the current Hokage, and the several elite ninjas and weapons that he had at his disposal. 

He was a threat that Homura had no counter against.

Homura, remembered that from the anime that Danzo, wanted young and talented children or more specifically promising orphans to join root.

And if Homura, happened to meet his profile; he was likely to not be able to escape Danzo's grasp.

Homura, was already certain that many knew his name or were aware of him due to him being friends with Naruto.

But there was very little he could do about that now, he took a risk, and now even the 3rd Hokage knows of him; which should help him somewhat in the future but he wasn't sure how much help the old man was ultimately going to provide him with in the long run.

This was the reason why he needed to be more known among key figures in the village.

If he is able to pass the exam with flying colors.

If he is in the limelight, the chance of him being forced into Danzo's grasp would decrease.

That was also one of the reasons as to why Homura kept the personality of a somewhat lazy, troublemaker or a somewhat unruly child who cared about no one than himself... which was not hard for him to do; since he truly was almost to the teeth all of those things.

He had to try to hide his more sensitive sides, to avoid getting seen as weak or simply to protect his mind from the nonending bad scenarios he was trying to run with supercomputing.

Almost 99% of those scenarios ended with him dying, people close to him suffering the same fate or worse.

He tried to avoid thinking too much about those things, but he could not just stop thinking about and his curiosity got the better of him each time.

However, none of that could ultimately be able to save him.

If others wanted to use him, there's little that he could do with to stop them.

In the shinobi world, the weak die and are used until they serve their purpose.

That is where the whole tool mentality became more and more prevalent.

That much, he was well aware.

So being a top student at the academy, was the only way he could avoid others from blackmailing him or using the orphanage or the people he cared about to get to him or Naruto.

In other words, it was his only realistic way to fight back; against those who would seek to cause harm to his being.

The orphanage was not well funded, and mostly relied on several other factors and donations from orphans who lived at the local at a prior time, among several other things.

Thus, it was safe to imagine that they were also not very well protected by no one, so if one of the orphans that he was close to, was used to capture him for some nefarious plot... He could not so idly abide by or watch people getting hurt for his sake.

Even Homura, was not someone who would easily choose to abandon others in order to save himself, but he was afraid of what would become of him if he indeed started to walk down that path... there would be no going back.

In fact, the reason as to why his rate of failure in surviving was so high, was precisely due to the fact that he could never completely detach himself from others.

He would always in some way, try to protect others, warn or help them.

It was his default nature.

Simply put, for all his bravado and high airs, he simply cared too much.

Thus, he had to leave as soon as possible and show that he was mostly indifferent about others or the orphanage in general.

It was a sad reality for Homura, but at the moment this was the only thing that he could do to pay back all the people from the orphanage for what they had done for him all this time.

He was well aware that without their help, his life would have been a complete nightmare.

That was why although the short interaction with Uryuu had been simply a matter of no significant importance to Homura.

However, the fact that it seemed to be somewhat important to the other boy, left him perplexed on what to do.

-... Tch! I can't be thinking about this now. ( I need to train more before the exam... But seriously... I really don't understand what has been going on with Uryuu for quite a long time now. I don't even remember talking to him much lately... he seems to be mad at me, most of the time...so I kinda just thought that he would move on but he didn't. Still, when he grabbed me...)

However, something did trouble Homura, as he remembered Uryuu grabbing him.

Soon after that happened, Homura tried to remove Uryuu's hand, but upon making contact and trying to remove the boy's hand... He could not do it so easily as he had previously thought.

From what Homura was able to understand, is that children from this world seemed to be more physically endowed when compared to his former world.

Although some are no different from normal regular children, others clearly appear to be quite gifted in terms of physical ability.

Especially if they have had some kind of training.

He remembered that the Uryuu was definitely significantly stronger than what he had thought he would have been.

It wasn't enough to make a rival of his or anything, but he was clearly no pushover.

He had definitely tried to train his body in some fashion.

Just probably not enough to fight anyone trained by a martial artist or someone with knowledge of taijutsu, seeing how blunt he was when he tried to intimidate Homura.

-... That guy must have been training quite hard. His hand was very rough. Could it be that he got someone to teach him too? No, that can't be possible, right?

Although Homura trains, he takes real care to not injure himself too much or overall ruin his body.

Since he knows from previous life memories how injuries could severely affect the performance of someone's body long after it was healed.

But Uryuu as a child, and possibly without guidance would be unaware of such facts, that may be why his hands were so rough and full of bruises.

- He wasn't in the show, so it couldn't be that he was actually an important character or that he became a shinobi.

What Homura said was indeed right.

There was no character present within his memories that seemed to be a match for Uryuu, but then again Konoha was a large village, and rarely anyone besides the main cast was ever shown, or even at all.

So there was no real way to tell.

The fact that Homura was an unknown factor, had already destroyed most of what he remembered and could change things in unforeseen ways.

- Well, it doesn't matter now. I will see what he can do in the entrance exams. ( Why the h*ll did I gain an unofficial rival at this point?...*sigh* I just hope the other children don't train as much. Anymore competition and it could be hard for me to attend the academy. But from Guy's flashback that seemed to be the case though.)

Might Guy had to train harder than anyone else due to having problems using chakra when he was young. However, his physical condition seemed to be very good, thus why he was accepted at a later time.

But it is uncertain or unknown if what had happened to Guy in the past, was a normal occurrence to Homura.

He doesn't even fully understand what the requirements truly are.

There are definitely more criteria than the official requirements.

-(However, from Naruto's flashbacks, the children seemed to be just normal children... but I clearly saw Sasuke training and have trained with him prior. Too bad I never asked Naruto if he does train in his free time... no. After all this time...that would be weird. He is going to find out that I don't actually listen to him... That guy is simply too sensitive for his own good.)

Although Homura spends a good amount of time with Naruto, the reality is that they only see each other once or twice a week, and for a few hours at best.

Homura has his own training to worry about and Takao's.

As well as the chores that he has to do at the orphanage, overall he has a very busy schedule.

- (Yes. Better put my hard-earned friendship in an even worse state than it already is or has deteriorated... Actually why did he run away again?)

Homura not only has a short memory but also rarely pays attention to Naruto's antics or anyone for that matter.

He is overall very bad at keeping track of anything.

Perhaps one day he will conquer his flaw or it would cause him an untold amount of pain in the future.

At the moment, there is no one who knows for sure.

Chapter end.

 

*Sorry guys for the late updates once again. Been busy with life for the past few weeks beyond belief, things will be changing on my end once again, it makes having to work on this ff really hard... but not all is bad. I was able to write and edit a few more chaps(Many releases for this week) and made a few plans for the future. Also, I have been cooking my own personal story, it is still in development since I have been so busy but I was able to make a lot of progress. It's inspired by Yugioh card game, but it is not yugioh, but I do have a Yugioh fanfic that was pretty dope, but I stopped due to the fact that I am always so busy. Anyways, peace ;p*