Chapter 3 : Unexpected Situation

While Raijin was left alone, he managed to take a look at the rest of the house. On the first floor, apart from the room he was located in, there was a kitchen and a living room. In the front yard, there was a small playing ground with ten children playing some kind of variant of tag and out of the house's bounds there was a gravel road leading to the residential area.

As he observed intently his surroundings, Minko came back from the second floor with a money belt on her waist. "Raijin, we should hurry up. We only have so much time before Jidan's shop runs out of stock for the day." She said that while walking past him.

Following her, Raijin came to the front yard to leave with Minko. When they reached the gravel road, the kids all chanted in unison: "See you later, Minko-sama!". This seemed to be a common practice for all the orphanage's children. "See you later, kids!." Minko replied with a smile stamped on her face. For her, the cuteness of these children never gets too old.

Proceeding through the residential area, Raijin followed Minko with a thoughtful expression while staring at the giant Hokages' sculpted faces in the distance. 'Wait… where's Minato's face?!' He suddenly had a realization. There were just three faces! And this seemed critical for Raijin, as it showed on his troubled expression.

'This… This is not good at all! Am I in some kind of alternate universe without Naruto?! Oh no… even if he does exist then I'm going to be here at the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha!' Raijin contorted inside. He knew he would be screwed either way, be it without knowledge of canon or risking dying in one of the most dangerous events for the village.

'Still, I need to confirm it.' Raijin took a glance at Minko's back. With a bit of anxiousness he said: "Minko-sama, I have a question…". He stared intently at Minko while still walking with her.

Minko was surprised to see Raijin talking on the way. Normally, the boy was too shy to strike up a conversation with her — but she wasn't about to complain, she preferred he had at least a bit of confidence. "What is it, Raijin? Ask away." She didn't need to turn her head to see that the kid felt a bit of hesitation. With a slight furrow of her eyebrows, she became serious waiting for his question.

"Uhm… do you know of someone named Minato?" Raijin asked, his expression turning resolute, eagerly waiting for an answer. His unbalanced steps evened out and his unstable breath stabilized itself, demonstrating that he had recomposed himself.

Minko was surprised to hear that question from Raijin. After all, all the kids seemed to try to emulate Konoha's war hero — The Yellow Flash all the time. In the still ongoing war that, God bless, seemed to be ending pretty soon, Minato became famous due to his genius in battle. With his quick fighting style and a technique that allowed him to teleport in the battle camp, he beat most of his enemies easily. Even a whole one-thousand troop of seasoned ninjas seemed to be a breeze for him.

But what startled Minko wasn't the character of Minato, but the sudden interest of Raijin in ninjas — something that he severely lacked in the past. Even when the kids were screaming at who was the best Hokage to have lived, he was always aloof and uninterested. She noticed pretty quickly that he might not be cut out to be a ninja in the future, but right now the situation implied a revaluation.

"Minato, huh? So you too are captivated by his persona, kid. Well, he's an astounding ninja and there's been rumors that he's even being considered to be a Hokage in the foreseeable future as the Third Hokage is getting too old." Minko said with a soothing tone. Her voice was a little hoarse due to her age, but she was very good at chatting with kids.

Raijin had a surge of relief wash over him. All the negative thoughts of being stranded in an unknown alternate universe of Naruto with a Mecha-Madara having infinite Susano'o at his disposal or chibi-tailed beasts wandering around were thrown away. Though the last one seemed a little interesting to pass on. 

'At least I know about what is going to happen in the future then. But again, knowing it or not, it doesn't matter if I die by a random enemy ninja in battle. I have to be powerful.' Raijin assumed a determined posture, already thinking of numerous ways of using his knowledge to strengthen himself.

While he was lost in thoughts, a hand appeared on his head, stopping at the top of his hair. "You might be thinking ahead too much. Things have to be simple, Raijin. Live the present with all your might, after all, it is this that makes our most desired dreams happen." Minko said with a proud grin.

"But enough of that, we are already here. See!" She pointed at the store's display. It spelled the following words carved in wood: "Jidan's Leaf Market". As they entered, they made rounds and turns while Minko was taking the goods they needed. As they were in fifteen, counting Minko and the kids with also the usual two volunteers that appeared once a week to help with the house chores, a lot of food was gathered — be it canned or fresh.

The bags were a little heavy. Thankfully, Minko seemed to have an unusual amount of strength that you would usually see in a few full-grown men and carried most of the shopping bags while Raijin carried the amount a child of his age could sustain. 

As they were walking back to the orphanage at a normal pace, Raijin pulled Minko's sleeve and asked: "Minko-sama, how can you have that much strength?" He seemed to want to ask that since they left the store, but he waited for an opportune moment to get an answer, as they were surrounded by lots of people in the market venue.

Delaying a bit to answer Raijin, Minko replied with warm eyes. "Well, you see, the granny here was a bit of an awesome woman hersel—" She paused midway through the sentence. Sensing something was amiss, she tightened her lips to make a horizontal line, with some wrinkles appearing on them. Her pace came to a halt and she put her arm in front of Raijin's body to indicate for him to stop. 

Raijin was a bit confused. They were already entering the residential area, so why should they stop so suddenly? 'Did she forget something at the store?' That was the first thought that came to his mind.

But what he couldn't guess was that a person clad in an all-black outfit with a lot of ripped holes in it came from seemingly nowhere. His face appeared to be melted, and he seemed to be mumbling some unintelligible words while approaching them. 

With a motion of both his arms to the side and his eyes unexpectedly intently tracking Raijin, he vanished from sight and appeared right at his side. He moved with both arms to catch the boy in a hug, with such quick movement that Raijin could only put both his arms in front of his face and close his eyes in a desperate state.

He waited. And waited. But nothing happened. Opening his eyelids, he could only see the guy flying towards the wall with a powerful roundhouse kick dealt by Minko. With a boom, the man collided with the wall and seemed to have been put in an unconscious state. 

In a quick motion, Minko wasn't about to let the man wake up from his slumber, as this unconscious state wouldn't last for even thirty seconds in case of not knocking him out in succession, so she rapidly ran to his side and kicked his head to the ground, making the pavement crack a bit.

After all was done, she slapped her hands in a movement of work done while breathing unevenly, as she seemed to have exerted too much force to take the man out. With a high-pitched whistle being emitted by her mouth, a masked figure appeared in such a rapid fashion that to Raijin, he appeared to have teleported.

"I will take him, rest easy." With that said, the unconscious man and the masked figure disappeared as if they were never there. In a shocked state, Raijin could only stare in surprise as the events unfolded in front of his very own eyes. "What in the world just happened…"

~~

~~

A/N: Hey, the author here people! We won't have a chapter release on Sunday as I have an important personal matter to attend to. But rest easy! I am not dropping this story. 

Also, I would like to thank you guys for the two thousand views on the book. Can't believe so many people clicked on it and that even some people found it interesting. That makes me very happy :)

Let's get back to work!