Within the residential district of Konoha, however, unlike the upper or even middle sections of the district where the protagonist of this world was most likely lounging and plotting a devious prank, the lower section bordered by the training grounds and past the Nara compound held a small, shabby house. This house had once been used by an old weaponsmith who was later discovered to be a traitor working with Orochimaru, supplying him with children for his twisted experiments. The house had since been refurbished to house two anomalies—two youths around the age of 12, neither of whom had spent much time in the village.
Strangely enough, the house had been under surveillance by two ANBU for about a month and a half. From the neighbors' observations, the only reason the ANBU had stopped their watch was that the youths showed no signs of suspicious behavior—even under a Yamanaka jutsu, their minds, though odd, held nothing of concern. As a result, they were allowed to settle in Konoha as new residents.
The wooden door of the old building creaked as a youth walked through. His figure was unusually tall for his age, standing at 5'3" at just 12 years old. His long black hair, tied into a small ponytail, framed his sharp face, handsome in nature despite the baby fat still lingering. His hazel eyes almost appeared golden in the setting sun, as the light refracted and reflected oddly.
"Oy, Milo, I got the grub!" His smooth, low-toned voice carried an essence of maturity.
"Aight, I'll be down in a minute. Let me sort something out, Ravi."
The teen named Ravi took his brother's words into account, moving toward the small dining table. Of course, he had taken off his shoes—his house, after all, and he preferred to keep it clean. Less trouble that way.
Setting out the ingredients he had bought, as well as a small packaged box containing two bowls of Ichiraku ramen, Ravi felt a bit of luck. He had managed to avoid running into Naruto on this outing—he knew the kind of mischief that kid got up to. He had watched the series, though admittedly, he dropped it after the Shippuden filler arcs. He and Milo were both die-hard nerds—well, from two different kingdoms, but with the same genius.
After a few minutes, Milo finally arrived at the dining table. His unkempt, wild black hair had a natural tousle to it, giving him the appearance of a scatterbrain—or a lunatic. Well, he was, to some degree. Ravi couldn't help but crack a smile at the realization that Milo was, in fact, a gnome.
"Wipe that smile off your face, you bastard."
"Sorry, sorry."
"Well, wanna hear something? You probably do, anyway. You've probably guessed we're in the world of Naruto. I mean, yeah, you're dumb, but not that dumb. So yeah, fun little fact: we're absolutely cooked." Milo continued, his words accompanied by exaggerated hand movements.
"How so? We got by the Yamanaka check, so now we can just live normal lives—or, like, get stronger with our meta knowledge, like those MCs from novels." Ravi's face still carried that knowing smile, but the small crinkle in his eyes and the furrow in his brow showed his confusion.
"Well, I had a small convo with the jōnin who brought us here. Apparently, we don't have chakra—not like Lee, I mean, he still had chakra, just no control, and it's super low in reserves. But for us... it's like we were never born with chakra paths. It's like we never had it. I mean, it makes sense. What special-ed kid would think that normal people would have chakra? I mean, from the real world, I don't see anyone walking on water."
"Holy crap, we're so done for, man. We already sent our academy entrance note, and we definitely can't back out now. A freaking jōnin is backing us—if we run his rep, hell, he might kill us," Ravi's calm mind suddenly erupted into a torrent of chaotic thoughts.
"It's gonna be okay, man. We can just cultivate. Think about it: chakra is energy from physical and mental sources merged, and we both have bodies and functioning brains. So we're good. Also, thankful I was carrying the power bank and solar energy pack, so we're set."
"How's that gonna help? Even if we have our phones, we've got no data, no signal, nothing. All we have are the downloads, and yeah, sure, I've got some useful stuff in there, but nothing's gonna help. I mean, what kind of weirdo downloads shit like Naruto 101, the whole timeline of Naruto, how chakra works, blah, blah, blah...?"
"Haha, yeah, what kind of weirdo does that?" Milo shifted his eyes away from Ravi, scratching his head in discomfort. Or rather, he was trying to seem nonchalant, but in reality, he was very self-conscious. This midget had wasted his phone's storage on anime and such things—utterly useless in the real world... but maybe, just maybe, they were crutches in this one.