1 Prologue
Alexander Belvior Smith.
What a mouthful.
Alex stared at himself in the mirror, turning left and right to ensure that he was dressed properly.
The uniform was rather spiffy, making him look rather prim and proper. It was a short-sleeved white-collared shirt and an embroidered name tag patch with the short form of his name, ''Alex', sewn on it.
The name was embroidered in dark blue, using 035 Alison Satin Script Font. Essentially, it was a slightly cursive non-connecting font that leaned towards the right.* The background was white with blue borders.
He also had to wear a slim navy blue tie that had the school emblem embroidered in silver right at the bottom of the tie. His white shirt was tucked into his dark navy blue pants that were held up with a belt which had a silver buckle embossed with the school emblem.
Retsu Primary School.
The school uniform had a slight change since his father had gone there. No more name tags pinned on the shirt, for example. Kids were losing their name tags too often that this move saved the hassle of constantly replacing them.
Alex smoothened his shirt.
At seven years old, he was already making heads turn.
With this uniform that was akin to business attire, he looked even more striking. Like a mini CEO.
He inherited his father's sharp jawline, high cheekbones, and blue eyes. His slightly full lips and arched eyebrows were from his mother, but it was such a small feature that most people didn't see that. They only saw his father in him.
A carbon copy, they said.
Down to the stupid dimple on his right cheek.
Alex snorted in disdain, a little grievance in his heart.
Alex and his twin sister, Aurora (or Rory, as she was called), were geniuses at birth.
Everyone marveled over the fact that these first-born children of famous Kyle were exceptionally bright from birth. Again, all attributed it to Kyle's monster genes.
This was another thing Alex was annoyed about.
It wasn't as if they didn't work hard for what they achieved. Whilst it was true that a part of it must have been due to his genetics, another factor was a large factor to that.
For unexplained reasons, Alex and Rory gained awareness just before they were born. Their mother had gone through a terrible trauma that led to their early birth. It was at that point that Alex had 'woken up' from his deep slumber and immediately knew what was going on.
His mother had fallen down a flight of stairs and had desperately tried to protect them by shielding her huge stomach from the fall. Alex had also acted by shielding his sister in the womb.
This 'accident' was a deliberate act to harm both his mother and them, and it had caused their mother to enter into a coma. They were born prematurely and were so weak that the prognosis had not been good.
Alex had blamed his father for this incident.
His father had not only failed to protect his mother, but was the reason for the 'accident'. After all, the person who had pushed his mother down the stairs was someone who had been insanely in love with his father and wanted to replace his mother.
Alex felt that his father must have led the woman along for her to have that thought and he had not loved his mother enough to protect her properly.
His resentment was huge and his anger at his father shaped his life and how he treated his father. The 'mini-war' lasted for several years until the fateful day when the truth was revealed as to what had actually occurred that day.
His father was not at fault for the perpetrator had severe delusions. His father had done all that he could to make things clear with the person, and he had also had people protecting his mother at all times.
It was just one of those things that happened. No matter how well you planned things, sometimes, it was not enough.
Although his relationship with his father had drastically improved since then, and he was no longer hostile towards his father, it didn't mean that he was suddenly so close to him either. He had been holding his father at bay for so long, it was hard to suddenly just go all warm and fuzzy with him.
It wasn't in his nature to be so 'warm and fuzzy' anyway.
Alex's thoughts came back to the present as he looked at himself in the mirror.
Even if he didn't blame his father anymore, the one thing that would continue to grate on his nerves is that everyone always had to associate him with his father. Granted, he was the son but did they have to constantly say it?
He was Alex, darn it. Alex!
He was not just 'Kyle's son'.
It was as if by saying so, they didn't see him but saw Kyle instead.
It didn't help that his twin sister took more after their mother rather than their father - even down to the brown eyes of their mother. Even his younger sister, Ariel, had brown eyes.
In fact, he was the only boy. And the only one with blue eyes.
It made people point this obvious fact out all the time, as if the stamp 'Kyle's son' was on his forehead.
Alex sighed.
So who is his father?
Oh, just THE Kyle Rexington Smith.
The youngest CEO of the most successful company in Country Tz, and who had propelled the already successful company to become one of the top 10 multinational companies in the world.
An apparently drop-dead gorgeous man, a genius, and a loving husband and father.
Even now, women were still flinging themselves at his father. Alex should know, for a lot of those women tried to curry favour with him, in order to get to his father.
Did such women have holes in their brains?
Not only was his father deadly devoted to his mother, he, Alex, also loved his mother immensely. What made these women think he could be their ticket to his father?
And what made them think they could even defeat his mother?
She was not only the most beautiful woman in the world, she could literally beat them to death.
Not that she would, but she could.
Currently, she would only beat them half-to-death.
Alex sighed again and brushed his black hair, staring at himself in the mirror.
<No, I do not look like my father at all> Alex thought to himself stubbornly, feeling the others were just too blind.
Naturally, he would have some resemblance but to keep calling him 'mini-Kyle' was a bit too much, right??
After all, he had looked at the albums his Grandmother had, and had studied them really meticulously.
Nope, he definitely was NOT a 'mini-Kyle'.
Really.
His lips pressed down in a thin line, and a prominent dimple appeared on his right cheek.
So what if he had the same black hair, striking blue eyes, stupid dimple, and ridiculous sharp jawline like his father? Didn't mean that he looked like his father!
Alex sighed again as he looked at his school uniform.
Retsu Primary School, the top primary school in the region. Thus, naturally, they would go there.
Unfortunately, it was also the school that his father had gone to. It was already a good school way back when his father had attended it, and it continued to improve over the years.
People flocked to the school because it had produced the legendary 'Elite Five': his father, his aunt Kay (his father's twin sister), and three of his 'brothers': Ali, Xing Han, and Sam.
All geniuses in their own right.
With more and better students, it received more funding - so it could get better equipment and teachers, which in turn produced better students, which led the school to go higher in ranking - and which attracted more students.
The cycle continued.
People started calling it the 'Kyle effect'.
Whatever the great Kyle Smith touched, it turned to gold.
Like Midas.
The schools Kyle went to were but one example. Retsu Primary School and Sakura Academy became the top primary and secondary schools in Country Tz.
Any collaborations with the Smiths would normally be good.
Although not all of the investments or companies the Smith Industries collaborated with were successful, the failures were negligible and a part of business life. Overall, most succeeded which only drove the Smith Industries higher.
However, this persona of his father was only one aspect.
Kyle Smith had a hidden life.
Little did anyone know that the famous Kyle Smith and his beloved wife, Sayuri Hinata, were part of the super-secret elusive ninja family. Kyle, from the 'dead' Kato Clan and Sayuri from the Hinata Clan.
'Dead' because the Kato Clan, at the moment, only consisted of Kyle and his Master, as the rest had been annihilated. Master Kato, or Master Shifu as he was known to the public, had only one son that had been killed on a mission.
Kyle was adopted into the Kato family after he proved himself worthy to learn the secret arts of the Kato Clan. It was not to say that Kyle was not a Smith, but he was (secretly) a Kato as well now. In the ninja family, his name had been added in the Kato Clan's genealogy.
As Kyle's son, his children would also have a chance to be in the Kato Clan but it was not automatic. It simply meant that they had the right to learn the Arts after passing the initial test, but whether they could be part of the ninja family would depend on whether they pass the Ninja Test.
This was something that he, Alex, was working hard to achieve.
His father had actually given him the initial test and after passing it, he had been given the choice as to whether he wanted to learn the Kato Arts. Naturally, Alex took the opportunity.
Even though it meant following his father's footsteps.
Because how else could he surpass his father?
Only by taking up the same thing he did, and working harder so that he could be better.
Alex still remembered that fateful day when his father had put him through the initial test.#
It was to face that person who had nearly caused his mother's death (as well as his and his sister). After passing that initial test, his father had brought him to meet with his Master, the Head of the Clan.
Master Shifu.
Well, before that though … his father had used his other persona, Ice the assassin, to introduce him to the seedier part of society.
Alex's thoughts drifted to that fateful day when his life changed drastically.
