Time passed fast or slow.

Either way, a week had passed, giving me more time to spend inside the apartment with Naruto and Jiraiya. I could describe that time as a student exchange of sorts with an excited little native kid eager to learn about the foreign kid.

And like any other foreign student exchange, I needed to attend the local school but since I was told already that I wouldn't enroll in the academy since I was a full-fledged shinobi I would have a different curriculum to set me straight with the system and be officially incorporated.

That was the reason I was sent to a training ground surrounded by metal fences which seemed unnecessary as the surroundings were empty as well and no sign of people, except for tall trees and a pool of stagnated water at the middle, it wasn't clear but it had a greenish color telling me it had been a long while since it was changed or that the responsible didn't use chlorine to keep a semblance of clean.

In front of me stood a rather tall man, a dark, simple suit with a turtleneck, a pair of sunglasses and a bandana around his head.

"From today onwards, I shall be your teacher until your position is formalized." He said as he straightened up his posture and puffed his chest with pride if the smirk on his face didn't reveal it already.

I crossed both arms as I kept looking at the relatively young man in front of me. I knew him but at the same time I didn't as my knowledge was on the very surface level, but at least I didn't need to know every gritty detail about him and it was a suitable moment to actually get to know somebody.

"I cannot say I'm surprised that you were chosen." I said.

Ebisu's expression had a sudden shift and leaned closer with his brow raised, "Why do you think so?"

I pointed at him with my right hand, "You love teaching as far as I'm concerned. Compared to other jounin who consider teaching a burden, you love this job, so it is no surprise you didn't pass up this opportunity."

I could see a frown form on his face moments before it disappeared as he pushed his sunglasses and gave a smirk, "You are very informed for a kid. It concerns me, to say the least."

I held my head and let out a long sigh while walking in the opposite direction with slow steps, "Don't start with this, it is very confusing to me as it is. I don't want to bloat my head with more things I shouldn't know."

Ebisu loudly cleared his throat and walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder, "Hokage-sama explained to me your condition, while I cannot fathom to understand you. I can at least offer you a helping hand. But first I need to assess your strength so I can develop a plan for your training, so we will start with the basics before stepping up with your training."

"That's fair."

I could tell he was sincere with his words. Breaking away from his grip, I walked closer to the stagnated water, and the effect was immediate as the water had a powerful stench invading my nostrils and my hand instinctively grabbed my nose to prevent it from smelling more.

My new teacher pointed at the pond of water, "Lucky for you we have a pond next to us where you can show me the extent of your chakra control."

I understood the meaning behind his words and naturally channeled chakra to my feet before I stepped on the lake, action being natural to me despite I never used or knew of its existence weeks ago only to be thrusted with it so abruptly.

Chakra was warm and calm, a soothing feeling all over your body, especially on my feet, as it was where my chakra was currently going to.

The first step revealed that it was flawlessly done, and I was stepping above water like any other surface. That didn't change the stench, but since with the passing time, it became bearable to be around it. However, subconsciously I knew that standing around doing nothing wasn't enough for my teacher and my feet picked up pace.

I was running in small circles inside the little pond without any issue, except that some water was splashing and touching my toes. A small droplet made me shudder as it showed how cold the water was.

However, that died down as something flew straight past my face, almost making me lose balance and fall, but with a single back step, I was able to avoid it. Instinctively, my gaze turned to the source and saw Ebisu holding more kunais in his right hand, looking at me with his blank, stern expression.

"Why did you do that?" I asked, as my face contorted into a frown.

"I needed to see if the sudden turn of events affected your control. You didn't break your concentration and were able to recover very fast." While his assessment was positive, that didn't change his actions and my growing irritation.

"At least warn me."

"That would break the purpose of the test." He grabbed another kunai and threw it at my left leg.

Yet I sidestepped the projectile and watched it drown in the water as small bubbles formed on the surface for a few seconds.

"I can already tell this will be a long day." I held my forehead and released a long sigh as I slowly made my way to the ground.

Ebisu immediately put my endurance to test with multiple cardio exercises too repetitive and boring to remember after the first series. At least he was kind enough to give me a bottle of water after we were done.

He left after saying his goodbyes, which was surprising as it was too short to be considered a training session, but he wanted to get a fair assessment of my strength, yet even then I didn't believe it would be that short of an evaluation.

Either way, I just left the training grounds and made my way back to the apartment too lost in my own thoughts to remember my walk through Konoha streets, making it seem like I was on autopilot.

When I woke up from it, I was in the apartment balcony staring down at the Konoha suburbs and the people walking on the crowded streets. The serene environment gives me a good place to be alone with my thoughts once again.

However, I didn't want to be alone with my thoughts again and get lost.

But my mind was tired and doing nothing but stare at the building below me was a perfect activity to waste hours of my day. Perhaps I should be excited about the endless possibilities that have been opened to me, but that didn't change me or how I needed to think or act.

The confusion was clearly still lingering in my head and I couldn't pinpoint an exact date when I would be fully assimilated to the new life I was given and finally set up a goal for myself. But I was hoping it would come sooner rather than later.

From behind I heard the door opening and closing followed by the loud steps only made by a specific pair of wooden sandals which were getting closer by the second, which was rather surprising since it was a custom to remove your shoes at the door unless one needed to leave as soon as possible.

"You seem down." Jiraiya spoke, but I didn't turn to look at him. He only walked next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder to somehow show his support.

I let out a sigh before slowly turning my gaze to meet his, "What gave it away? Being silent? The metaphorical dark cloud above my head?"

The same hand that was showing concern was used to flick me on the forehead, causing me to recoil in pain, "Don't be rude. You won't get anywhere with that attitude."

I rubbed the afflicted spot as I was mentally kicking myself for lashing out for no reason, "I know. I'm sorry."

He kept glaring at me for a few seconds before his face softened with a smile, "You are really a lucky kid. Having a jounin to be your personal teacher, not even clan kids, have this privilege unless they are heirs."

"Well, if I am a privileged kid. Then I need my house servants, a large weekly stipend and bodyguards."

"You technically have all of those."

"You only give me a few hundred ryo. This only let me buy a small snack from a stand."

"Which is more than enough, you shouldn't go around squandering money and eating junk." He replied.

I only raised a questingly brow as memories of the blonde jinchuuriki eating lots of junk food and getting new things, "And Naru?"

Jiraiya looked at me with a blank expression in silence for a moment before shrugging, "She is my goddaughter."

"Fucking double standards."

Jiraiya ruffled my hair as he let out a loud but short laughter.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and broke away from his grasp. Having my hair being played with was getting uncomfortable. I quietly left his side and headed to the kitchen where I opened the fridge looking for anything as I suddenly got a craving for sweets.

However, my search met a quick end as a hand pulled me away from the fridge and closed it. I turned around to see the old Sanin, his joyful demeanor no longer present.

"The old man wants to speak with you. There has been quite an interesting development of events." Jiraiya said, looking at me with his stoic face.

For a few seconds, I was frozen in place, but shook the feeling off and cleared my throat as a knot unconsciously formed around it.

"It is bad?" I asked.

"You aren't in trouble if that's what you are worried for, but this might reveal more about your past and family."

I let out a sigh as his reply lifted the weight of my shoulders, however the last part piqued my interest, "I am a clanless orphan picked up from the streets. What history could I have?"

It was a harsh term and even considered an insult, but it was a correct statement regarding my situation.

Jiraiya merely shrugged and grabbed my hand, leading me towards the balcony, "Just come and don't make a scene."

It wasn't like I had any opportunity to refuse. At least I was glad I didn't leave my sandals at the entrance.

---

The hokage office was quite large, and it had a splendid view of the village, that was for certain. However, my interest was in the rows of bookshelves on the sides and the contents of each scroll and book. Perhaps they weren't books filled with secrets, but if the Hokage needed easy access to them, they needed to at least hold some level of importance.

"I hope you had an excellent time with your new teacher." Hiruzen's voice broke me away from my thoughts and when I turned to look at him, he was placing his signature on a document which was placed on the top of the pile of paper to his right, only then he looked at me with interest.

"It is the first day, so I cannot give a fair opinion about his methods. Besides, it was too short, as he only wanted to evaluate my overall strength. But you didn't call me to speak about my training. Why did you call for me?"

"Follow me." He stood up from his chair and walked to the entrance of his office, which he opened for me like a gentleman, and closed the door with a lock after I left.

The two of us walked through the empty hallway. It was silent at first until I made eye contact with him, to which he responded with a chuckle, "I cannot say for certain, but either your clan or your parents were influential people. No clanless orphan would have vassals from other clans, even less life-oath servants."

I stopped for a moment, staring at the floor deep in my thoughts, trying to assimilate the information he just told me and gave up almost immediately, "You lost me. I'm just a kid. How can I have servants? Especially considering what I went through. How do they even know I exist?"

Hiruzen also stopped before slowly turning to look at me with a faint smile and leaned closer, "That's a good question. Let's just say that I called a favor with someone and leave it at that."

"This doesn't give me any confidence." His answer only created more doubts in my mind, especially this favor with someone mysterious, who I did not know who could be.

The old hokage shrugged and resumed his walking to wherever was our destination. I had to follow him as he didn't show any intention of stopping any more. However, I was rather upset with him, as he kept ignoring my questions as we walked together. He could have at least said that he wouldn't answer anything until we arrived or something. His attitude might mentally damage any kid around my age.

What a relief that I wasn't totally a kid with the undeveloped mind of one.

I knew that we arrived at our destination when I saw an Anbu guard standing guard in front of a door and immediately stepped aside in silence the second he saw us coming. Hiruzen, on his part, increased his pace and reached for the doorknob and opened the door for me.

"Take your time." He said as he also stepped aside, giving me full access to the room with whatever they wanted to show me.

Since there was nothing else I could do but accept the invitation, I passed the entrance and saw a humble room with wooden chairs and small bookshelves at the sides, with a single window showing the village except it was reinforced with iron bars.

Yet that didn't matter as most of my attention was diverted to a pair of kids around my age standing in the middle, who quickly bowed as only servants would do.

"It is our utmost honor to finally meet you, Hasegawa-sama." said the kid with shoulder-length white hair, lifting his gaze revealing his vivid green eyes, his pale skin and two scarlet dots at the center of his forehead.

"We can finally fulfill our destined roles." The other kid, with a softer voice, spoke up, revealing her dark brown eyes and pale skin. Her long black hair tied into a rather big hair bun held with a big wooden nail.

Despite the different appearance, both shared the same gray one piece kimono held with a belt tied in the shape of a ribbon.

It didn't shock me the sudden turn of events, even if it wasn't a common occurrence to have people swear fealty to you. But it dumbfounded me that I knew those kids quite well and they shouldn't be here in the fire nation in the first place, much less inside the village of Konoha.

I spun to see the Hokage looking at me with his typical businessman face.

"Give me an explanation. Now." I pointed at the duo.

He only closed the door on me and heard the clicking sound of the lock.