บท 1: 1. First Customer

"Wake up!"

A tall, beautiful woman in her early thirties with shoulder-length blue hairs and blue eyes gently nudges an eight-year-old kid.

"Akio! Akio! Aaakkiioo… wake up!"

The woman continues to poke his cheeks and attempt to wake him up.

"Mom! Let me sleep a little more. Today is Sunday! I don't have to attend my college." The boy mumbles in his sleep and clutches the blanket.

"Sheesh… this lazy boy!"

The woman shakes her head and walks towards the door connected to the backyard.

She opens the door and let the chilly winter wind enter the room.

Aaa… Waah…

The boy tightly hugs the blanket to block the chilly breeze.

Swoosh…

The woman swiftly pulls the sheet underneath him, exposing him to the freezing wind.

Brrr…

The boy shivers in cold and quickly gets up.

Whoosh…

He leaps towards the door and quickly closes it. He angrily turns to his mother and complains.

"Mom! It's so cold outside. So, why didn't you let me sleep a bit more? It's not like I have to attend the academy or something…"

A sad expression appears on the boy's face. He grabs the blanket and returns to his bed.

Sigh…

The woman sighs helplessly as the incident three years ago freshens up in her mind.

Three years ago,

When Akio was five years old, he was keen to attend the academy and start his life as a shinobi; but reality poured a bucket of cold water on him when he was rejected because of his lack of chakra system.

"No! I can't let this boy get away with the same excuse again?"

The woman shakes her head and turns towards her son. She walks outside the room and reappears with a bucket of cold water.

Splash…

She splashes the cold water over the still sleeping boy.

"You can't make the same excuse again and again! Even if you can't live your life as a shinobi; you still have the option to live as a civilian."

"MOM!"

The boy angrily jumps, but the icy gaze of his mother gives him more chill than the cold water in the winter.

"Wash yourself and get ready for breakfast! I have a task for you."

The woman glares at the boy with a menacing gaze.

Gulp…

"OK!"

The boy meekly nods his head and dashes towards the washroom.

Sigh…

The woman takes a deep breath and massages her forehead.

"His inability to use chakra is a blessing as well as a curse!"

She cleans the sheets as she talks to herself.

"The Second Shinobi War ended seven years ago. Akio was a year old when the shinobis of Konoha delivered the cold body of his father.

His father was an elite shinobi of Konoha and a former member of special forces who took direct orders from the Hokage. Hokage-sama personally attended the funeral ceremony.

Both my son and I were left alone to fend for ourselves. So, Hokage-sama took pity on us and gave me enough funds to open a shinobi ware shop to feed ourselves."

She cleans the sheets and returns to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

-----------------

Yawn…

A boy with messy jet blue hair and blue eyes is sitting on a stool as he silently gazes at the white snow slowly falling in front of him.

"This world! Naruto world is such a dangerous place!"

Whoosh… whoosh…

He raises his head and notices a group of shinobis quickly flickering through rooftops.

"Ninja! Huh?!"

The boy looks down at his hands.

'It has been eight years since I was born in this world. In my past life, my father and mother were both officers in the army, so I was raised and tutored in an army school.

I was quite strong for my age; but as strong as I was, in the end, I was helpless in front of a gun. That motherfucker didn't have enough guts to face my parents, so he took it all out on me; their youngest and dearest son. Damn it!'

Akio takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

'Even with my army upbringings, my parents quite dotted me; so, I was a hardcore otaku and a passionate gamer and lover of fps games. Ah! Those sweet memories…'

Akio takes out a kunai from one of the shelves and flips it in his hands as he mumbles to himself.

'When I thought I was dead for real, I found myself reborn in this world. Naruto was one of my favorite anime with all those cool jutsus and techniques flying around.

I was quite excited to become a ninja myself, but reality poured a bucket of cold water when the corpse of my father, whom I had rarely seen before because he was a member of anbu, arrived at our doorsteps.

It woke me up and reminded me that this world does not differ from my past world; it's even worse where people constantly wage war against each other. So, I decided to get strong and protect my only family.

Losing loved ones and being greeted by the sight of their cold corpse is not an unfamiliar sight to me. Sigh…'

Akio grasps the kunai and throws it towards one of the targets on the nearby wall without even looking around.

The kunai hits right in the dead center, but Akio ignores it.

"Alas! All my ambitions, all my hopes and dreams were crushed when I found out that I was born without a chakra system."

Akio takes a deep breath and slumps on the counter in front of him.

'Even the instructor was surprised at this and thus I was politely kicked out of the academy before I could even join it.'

"That was a nice throw!"

"Huh?! A customer!"

Akio raises his head. He notices a boy with spiky silver hairs, dark grey eyes. The boy wears a mask that covers most of his face. There is a Konoha forehead protector tied around his forehead and a tantō tied to the middle of his back in a small holster.

The boy has dead-fish eyes with no signs of any emotions in them.

"Do you need something?"

Akio calmly asks him while a flurry of emotions rolls in his heart.

'Damn! I never expected to meet this guy on my first day of management. I expected to meet him at some point, but now here he is. The first customer of my shop!'

"Mm… give me a fresh batch of eight kunais and twelve shurikens."

Kakashi takes out a batch of worn and torn kunais and shurikens from his holster. He places the batch on the counter.

"My old kunais and shurikens were worn out during the previous mission. So, I want to buy a fresh batch."

"Alright!"

Akio picks up the batch of worn kunais and tosses them in a nearby box filled with similarly chipped kunais.

"Here you go!"

He rummages through another box and forks out eight kunais and twelve shurikens.

"That will be ten-thousand Ryo, but since you are replacing them, then the cost is reduced to two thousand Ryo."

"Here!"

Kakashi takes out a stack of Ryo from his pocket and passes them to Akio.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you!"

Akio flashes a fake smile at Kakashi as he counts the stack of Ryo.

[Conditions have been met!]

Initializing the weapon system…

Generating HUD…

Calibrating stats…

Synchronizing Data…

Initiating in…

3…

2…

1…

Akio freezes in his place as these word echoes in his mind.

Swirl…

Large amounts of invisible Nature energy gather above the shop and pour directly into Akio's body.

"Huh?!"

Inside the Hokage Office,

A tall man with fair skin, blue eyes, and blonde spiky hairs with jaw-length bangs framing both sides of his face turn in the direction of the weapon Shop.

He narrows his eyes.

'Just now I sensed a huge spike in nature energy. I never sensed something like this before… not even in Mount Myoboku!'

"What's the matter, Minato?"

A middle-aged man with grey hair, a gaunter face, and tan skin turns towards him.

"It's nothing Hokage-sama!"

Minato shakes his head and turns his attention to the Hokage.

Hiruzen passes a few paper sheets to Minato.

"You are about to create your very own squad. So, here is the list of candidates I came up with after musing over the matter."

Minato skims through the sheets.

"Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake!"

Minato raises an eyebrow.

"Mm… Kakashi is a one-of-a-kind genius. But he is too cold and distant to his teammates. At this rate, I am afraid, he will…"

----------------------

"Hmm…"

In a distant place,

A pale-skinned man with wrinkles and a strong jawline slowly opens his eyes. He had spiky, shoulder-length, pale brown hair, with a chin-length, braided lock hanging in front of his left ear.

There are two-horn-like protrusions on either side of his head. There is a red spiral pattern with multiple concentric rings on the center of his forehead.

He opens his purple eyes with concentric rings and gazes towards Konoha.