“Checking out the newest addition to the Hokage monument, kid?”

He must’ve been staring at the thing for at least five minutes while he organized his thoughts. He had finally come to terms with the fact that he was in the world of Naruto. The old man’s words snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, it's a pretty view, I couldn’t help but wonder how they go about creating such an architectural masterpiece,” Hiro said as he wondered if that sounded too intelligent for a very young child to say, he realized that he didn't even know his exact age.

“Didn’t you see them working on it this past month? There was a combination of stonemasons and shinobi working on it, I heard they were paid quite handsomely. How would you like to work that high up all day, eh kid?” The old man said jokingly while looking down at the small boy.

‘Thanks, geezer, now I know that Minato was just appointed Hokage, that helps so much.’ he thought. “Haha, I guess I wouldn’t want to, sir.” Hiro brushed off the old man as he went back into the store to find the group that he seemed to be accompanying.

As he walked through the store he did some thinking. ‘Let’s say that I am four years old. If Minato was just named Hokage then that means Naruto will be born in maybe a year and a half. That means I will be eighteen give or take when canon starts.’ “Man, this is such a drag.” Hiro sighed as he mimicked one of the lines of one of his favorite characters who hadn’t even been born yet.

“The only drag here is you, where have you been?” The motherly woman said in a dry tone, standing directly behind him.

“Ah sorry, I was using the washroom.” Hiro lied.

“There is no washroom here.” the woman deadpanned, seeing straight through his lie.

********SIX MONTHS LATER********

His name was Hiro Tanaka. Hiro had pretty much hammered out all the small details about his situation over time. He was an orphan, great. This was not hard to deduce from the first hour that he ‘arrived’. The Woman, whose name was Jun, had a propensity to scold him often as she was the matron for the orphanage, which was modestly sized due to the war, but he had a feeling that would change after a certain mountain-sized fox rampaged in the not-so-distant future. He would be out of the orphanage by that time though, because he was going to the ninja academy.

It was a stroke of luck on his part that he secured a spot in the academy though. He brought up an interest in attending the academy to Jun after finding out that he was five years old and able to attend the academy this coming semester. Jun vehemently rejected it without the slightest consideration, saying that he was already set to attend the civilian school, but Hiro knew that strength meant everything in this world, and he wasn’t going to be a sitting duck while people could turn the village into a crater with one jutsu. Luckily for him, a shinobi recruiter is sent to the local orphanages in Konoha and the matron cannot deny the child’s decision to attend or not, but Hiro was the only one who wanted to go. Konoha was hurting as the third shinobi war had just ended, and there were no better candidates for soldiers than orphans, after all, who will miss an orphan if they die? Their family?

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Today was August 31st, tomorrow would be the first day of the academy. He looked around the room as he had finished gathering his things, which wasn’t much, as he was preparing to move into the apartment provided by the village for academy orphans. His eyes focused on the mirror on the door as he observed his new haircut, he had brown, thick hair that came down to his ears and was spiky, in classic Naruto fashion. Whenever he looked at his hair it reminded him of Kiba. His appearance, however, was not much different from his past life, skin and bones at this stage in life, bright blue eyes, pale, and slightly short stature. His eyes drifted to the rest of his appearance. The orphanage was pretty chintzy with apparel, he was wearing a white T-shirt and black jorts and sandals. He would have to go to the store with the allowance he had saved for the past six months to sharpen up for his first day.

He turned away from the mirror and sat cross-legged on the floor. “Alright let’s give this one more shot.”

He closed his eyes and focused on something, anything that he thought would awaken his chakra. Awakening chakra was way harder than he thought it was, it seemed he read too much fanfiction where the MC was overpowered because the past six months were nothing but failure. At one point he stopped searching for a feeling and just tried to stick a leaf to his forehead, which needless to say didn't work.

“BANG. BANG.”

“Open up Hiro, You’re gonna be late. The landlord said to meet him there so he can give you the key at noon, it’s 11:50!” Jun shouted from the other side of the door.

Hiro gathered his things and set out with Jun who thought it to be nice to walk him to his new apartment. He could feel the sadness in the air as she walked beside him as if she thought she would never see him again, although she was probably right. Hiro didn’t have a mother-like attachment to her like the other kids, he missed his former family. After he woke up six months ago he became like a different person to everyone around him, little did they know he was a different person. He still had trouble treating his life like it was real life and not an anime. For example, it was hard to take anything seriously, and he was filled with jokes and references to things that were completely original in this world, but not in his.

“We have arrived,” Jun said, snapping Hiro out of it. She was looking down as they stood in the hallway of the apartment complex, right outside the door.

“I can handle it from here Miss Jun!” Hiro smiled, a little bit too excited to be leaving the place that she thought was the only place he knew to be home.

“Alright, if you change your mind, know that you have a place with us at the orphanage, dear.” Jun smiled bitterly. She hadn’t expected any of the kids to go through with the orphan shinobi program, and she still had hope that Hiro would return. Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t even close to an option for Hiro.

Hiro watched Jun leave as she descended the stairs to his left. He turned and knocked on the door.

The door swung open. “You Hiro Tanaka?” the grumpy-looking old man barked, giving an impatient vibe.

“That’d be me, sir. You gonna show me around?”

“Sure ain’t kid. Don’t burn the place down, okay? Turn off the oven.” The grumpy old man said as he walked past Hrio and tossed him the key in one motion. Before he knew it the old man was gone and the door was closed with him looking over his new living room.

“Gee, that was short, I wonder if that’s the same landlord that Naruto had?” Hiro considered aloud as seemed to remember Naruto having a grumpy landlord. Maybe he was in the same apartment building.

‘I hope I didn’t take Naruto’s apartment, who knows what kind of butterfly effect that might cause?’ Hiro thought as he went through his things.