Akira followed Satoshi out of the Hokage's office, his mind still filled with various questions. But he tried to push them aside for now.
'Things don't really make sense... but this is my new reality. I gotta accept it and survive. And to do that, I have to stay out of major arcs.'
They quickly descended the steps of the Hokage building. Akira, though still worried, couldn't deny the small flicker of excitement building in his chest at the thought of meeting his new companions.
They moved through the busy Konoha streets, eyes scanning the crowd for any sign of Kurenai.
After a few minutes of fruitless searching, Satoshi began asking people if they'd seen her.
But there were no clues.
Finally, Satoshi stopped in front of a dango stall, scratching the back of his head in mild frustration. "Man, where the hell is she? Shouldn't she be looking for you?"
Akira nodded in agreement.
'He's right. Why isn't she looking for me?'
"Alright," Satoshi said with a sigh, "let's just go straight to the training grounds. That's where teams usually regroup."
And just like that, they were on the move again—this time heading toward the training grounds.
As the clearing came into view, Akira took a deep breath.
'This is it. My worst nightmare—meeting Hinata, Kurenai, and the others. I don't know how the original owner of this body acted around them, but I'm going all out…'
'Hinata looked so hot on screen. I fapped to her as much as Tsunade—but I don't wanna mess up the timeline and get killed somehow, so I'll just stay friends.'
"You nervous?" Satoshi asked casually, side-eyeing him as Akira seemed lost in thought.
Akira shrugged. "A bit. I don't really know what to expect."
Satoshi laughed. "You'll be fine. Just don't be weird."
'Hinata should be a kid right now. Of course I wouldn't. Not like I plan to do anything when she grows up either…' Akira thought, blushing instinctively.
They passed under a row of trees into a more open space.
And then, Akira saw her.
Kurenai stood near the edge of the training ground, arms crossed, red eyes sharp but calm. She looked just like in the show.
Standing beside her were three other figures—young genin, around his age. Hinata, Kiba, and Shino.
Characters he had watched countless times and was more than familiar with.
Kurenai noticed Satoshi approaching and walked over to them.
"Huh? Do you need me for something?" she asked, looking confused.
"Sorry, Master Kurenai, I know you're a jonin and senior to me, but this has been extremely careless of you. One of the genin from your team was with me—he had lost his memories—and you didn't even try to look for him."
Satoshi looked visibly annoyed, but Kurenai was just confused.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Frustrated by Kurenai's attitude, Satoshi pushed Akira forward.
"Are you really this careless that you can't even remember one of your team members?"
Kurenai looked at Akira, then back at Satoshi. She scratched her head.
"I really don't understand what you mean. I have three team members, and all of them are here—Hinata, Kiba, and Shino."
'What is even happening...? In the show, Team 8 had only three members. But when we went to the Hokage's office, the records said he'd completed missions with them…'
Akira looked around, trying to make sense of the situation. He glanced at Shino, Hinata, and Kiba. They all looked just as confused as he was.
Satoshi and Kurenai kept arguing. Satoshi's voice rose with each exchange, growing more frustrated with Kurenai for refusing to acknowledge Akira.
"Records say Akira was a part of your team—and now you refuse to accept him?" Akira said, practically shouting.
"Keep your voice down! And like I already said, I do not recognize this kid. He was never part of my team. You can ask the others behind me—there's been a mistake."
Satoshi, realizing that Kurenai was confident in her claims and even the other genin didn't know Akira, finally backed off.
"I'm sorry. I'll check the records again. If there was a mistake, we'll sort it out. Until then, Akira will be under your care."
"What? No! Don't just push him onto us!"
"Well, like I said, records show he's done missions with your team in the past. So you have to take him until the investigation is done."
With that, Satoshi gave Akira a reassuring smile before walking away, leaving him alone with Team 8.
'Damn. I have no clue what's going on. But looks like I'm part of Team 8 for now…'
Akira immediately bowed to Kurenai, hoping she wouldn't hold any resentment against him.
'She was a sweet character in the show... Not like she had much screen time, but from what I remember, she's not the type to get angry at kids.'
Kurenai sighed, but her expression softened.
"Alright, Akira. Looks like you're stuck with me for now."
Akira raised his head. Kurenai was smiling—completely different from how she looked moments ago.
She turned back toward the rest of her team and clapped her hands gently to get their attention.
"Everyone, this is Akira. He'll be joining us for the time being."
Akira waved, but none of them looked particularly impressed.
They looked at him with mixed expressions—Kiba had a skeptical look, arms crossed; Shino's face was unreadable behind his glasses and high collar; and Hinata… smiled shyly.
"Hi, I'm Akira," he said quickly, offering a nervous smile and scratching the back of his head.
Kiba raised an eyebrow. "I've never seen you in the village before. Even your scent is foreign. You sure you're supposed to be here?"
'Didn't the records say I passed the academy with minimal marks? Never mind… I've already realized there are too many things I don't know to make sense of the situation. I can look into it later. Right now, I gotta survive.'
Before Akira could respond, Shino spoke in a calm, monotone voice. "It doesn't matter. If Kurenai-sensei accepts him, we accept him."
'Thanks for the save, Shino.'
Kiba rolled his eyes. "Tch. Fine."
Hinata gave a tiny nod. "Uhm… n-nice to m-meet you."
Akira smiled warmly. "Nice to meet you too."
"Alright," Kurenai said, gently pulling Akira by the shoulder to stand next to the others. "We'll treat this as a temporary assignment. Until everything gets sorted, you'll train with us and take missions if we get any."
Akira nodded quickly. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good. We're just wrapping up our warm-ups. Akira, why don't you show me what you can do? Let's do a basic taijutsu spar."
Akira blinked.
'Wait, WHAT—? I am a normal human, ma'am! I don't know anything!'
"Ma'am, I… have memory loss, so I don't remember much," Akira lied, trying to dodge the request.
"Don't worry. Just do whatever you remember. I'll go really, really easy on you—only defensive."
Akira closed his eyes, trying to mentally prepare himself.
'If she sees me perform horrendously, she might get suspicious—like, is this guy even a shinobi? But at least I still have my memory loss excuse…'
He took a deep breath, sweat forming on his brow despite the mild breeze brushing through the training field.
'Okay, okay… I've seen enough Naruto fights to know how this should go. Just basic stances, nothing fancy. No one expects me to win—just don't like a total idiot.'
He dropped into a rough imitation of a standard academy stance—legs apart, arms raised awkwardly in front of him. He glanced around nervously.
Kiba was smirking now, clearly amused by how bad he looked. Shino remained unreadable. Hinata… was watching intently, hands clasped together in front of her chest.
"You're even worse than an academy student," Kiba said, laughing.
'Fuck you, Kiba. I always hated you. But right now, I have something else I have to focus on.'
Akira stepped forward cautiously and threw a very slow punch. Kurenai didn't even need to block—she simply tilted her head slightly, and the punch swished through the air.
Akira stumbled forward from the momentum and quickly tried to recover, throwing a follow-up kick.
This time, Kurenai gently caught his ankle and pushed it aside, sending him spinning comically before landing on his butt with a soft thud.
Kiba chuckled. "Seriously?"
Hinata let out a tiny gasp, and even Shino tilted his head slightly at the display.
"Don't worry, it'll come back to you. Your body is in top shape, so you must have been a very good taijutsu fighter before," Kurenai said softly, walking toward him and offering a hand—chuckling a little like the rest.
'God, this is humiliating… But at least she bought the memory loss excuse. That's something.'
"Let's take it slow," Kurenai said, her tone now motherly. "Just follow along with their forms."
'I really need to find a way to get really good, really fast…'