Chapter 4.

RIRIMA POV.

After a few more minutes of walking, Sister Yamasa and I had finally made it to the main room of the Orphanage, and what greeted me was the sight of a huge banquet like wooden table that had atleast twenty chairs circling it.

Ten of those chairs were occupied by little children of all ages, some looked to be about my age while others looked to be a year or two older and some were even younger. Once we walked in, all the chatter had stopped as their heads all simultaneously snapped in our direction, or in mine.

"Now now, don't be rude. Come introduce yourselves to your newest sibling, Ririma!" Yamasa exclaimed with fake excitement, but that did the trick for the younger ones that were about four or five years old.

They all jumped out of their seats and rushed towards me with big smiles and heavy feet, causing loud thumps to resound through the whole orphanage.

If the yellow haired brat was still sleeping even after all this ruckus, he must be a monster.

Yamasa had let go of my shoulder and stepped to the side to give me and the children some space. And not a second later, I was met by a green haired child looking at me with yellow-gold eyes. A smile plastered on his childish face.

"Hey hey! My names Seni Nobutake! What's yours!" He questioned, his eyes shining with… Something. I smiled awkwardly at him as I wasn't all that good with children… Usually they were taught to avoid someone with my profession back on my old world, so I didn't really have all that much experience with them…

"A-ah haha, my names Ririma… Nice to meet you, Seni." I replied with a nod of my head. His smile widened and I saw that he was about to start speaking again, but he was interrupted by a prideful girlish voice.

"Heeeeh? Ririma? Sounds kind of girlish to me. Surely you aren't going to try and be a ninja with such a weak sounding name, right?" Her vocie made the others quiet down, but my gaze still held the usual indifference it always did.

I scanned the group of children in front of me, trying to see if I could spot where it came from, but I wasn't having any luck. As if knowing I was trying to find her, the children parted down the middle, revealing a black-haired girl with dark obsidian black eyes. She had sharp kept up eye brows and tanned dark skin.

Her features were childish now, but if she truly took care of herself, she could really turn out to be a beauty.

"And who might you be?" I questioned, my voice holding amusement and a bit of interest. The girls mouth formed a haughty smirk before she pointed at me with great enthusiasm and spoke-

"Heh! Me? I'm the great and legendary ninja-in-training, Noya Urasaki! Bow down in my presence weakling!" She shouted, her once prideful eyes now holding that of playfulness and expectation.

Her purple eyed gaze met my pitch black, the room was silent for a few moments, an audible gulp from one of the children could even be heard. But that silence was soon broken by laughter… My laughter.

"Haha! I-I'm sorry, b-bu-Haha! I couldn't help it. Standing in such a ridiculous pose and exclaiming such things… I just didn't think someone could have such an ego." I said, wiping the small amount of tears that were about to come down my face.

My laughter was soon cut off as a grunt of annoyance escaped Noya's mouth, and not a second later, she dashed at me.

My once playful mood was nowhere to be found as I eyed her curiously as she ran with her top half bent over, her arms stretched out behind her.

It took her a good second or two to end up in front of me, considering that the room wasn't that big, it was kind of slow.

Throwing a straight punch heading for my right eye, I swiftly and calmly raised my right arm and easily caught her fist in my palm; shocking the girl.

Her shock quickly subsided, not wasting any more time, she spun on her heel and freed herself from my grip while simultaneously sending out a round house kick. It was impressive for a girl her age to be able to fight this well, but it wasn't anything special.

Lifting my right leg, I intercepted her kick with a block using my shin bone. The weight of her attack as well as the previous movements caused the quick to hit harder than before, but instead of hurting me, she hurt herself.

"Ow!" She shouted as she hopped back on one foot, holding the bottom of the other with her two hands. I was amused by all of this, even by her tearing up eyes that were shut.

"Noya! What is wrong with you? What in your right mind made you think it was alright to attack your new sibling!" Yamasa scolded with a frown and fake anger within her eyes. Noya perked up, standing straight up as if the previous pain in her foot never existed.

She looked at Yamasa's angry expression before glancing at me.

"B-but he started it! Making fun of my aspirations!" She fired back, earning an angry huff from Yamasa. Not bothering to argue with the child, she stormed over to Noya and immediately began checking up on her.

Noya, however, never forgot to glare at me challengingly while I introduced myself to the other kids and got to know them.

There was no harm in making connections with possible future allies. After all, if this world is anything like my old one, having a team or a group of people to rely on wouldn't be all that bad.

After we all got acquainted, we sat down at the table and waited for Sister Yamasa to serve breakfast, leaving the children and I to talk for a bit.

"Hey, Ririma?" A shy but curious voice enteredmy ears drawing my attention. Looking to my right, I saw that Seni was staring at me… Or more like my hand.

"What is it?" I replied. Turning my focus back on the ceiling.

"W-what's that mark on your palm? I saw it when you blocked Noya's attack. Which was really cool by the way! No one has ever done that before! The last one who tried was stuck in bed for a while due to something called a… A uh, concussion? I think it was called. I don't know…" He questioned, branching off into another matter.

Chuckling at the kid, I lifted my right palm up to my face and inspected the diamond shaped marking that was pitch black in color, but rested in the dead middle of my palm.

'This must be Karma… All I know is that it grants immense physical boosts as well as durability… Also has some other cool little uses as well…' I mused mentally, but that ended quickly as I lowered my head from looking at the ceiling, to the table.

But this time, instead of just Seni looking at me, the rest of the children were too. All their gazes held that of curiosity. Especially Noya.

"Well, It's a birth mark. I was born with it." I replied shortly.

Looking around, I saw all the kids just nodding understandingly before they went back to their old conversation and I went back to gazing at the roof.

It stayed like this for a while until Sister Yamasa came back with the food, and distributed it orderly among us. After she did that, she sat down herself at the other end of the table, on the long side.

Breakfast wasn't anything special, it was just eggs, bacon and toast. Despite being simple, it was really good.

…

Breakfast went by quickly, and Sister Yamasa began picking up plates, but just as she was about to go to the kitchen, the door that led into the dining area busted open and in came a upset yellow haired, blue eyed whiskered having boy.

***

NOYA APPEARANCE.