Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Gamer (Manhwa)

You have slept in your bed. HP & CP are fully stored.

Naruto awoke with a wide grin on his face. Closing the sleep message and sitting up Naruto started his day the best way he knew how.

"Leaf Sticking," he said as he placed the leaf from his night stand to his forehead. A little more than 9 minutes later he cancelled the skill allowing the leaf to float free.

[Leaf Sticking]'s level has risen by one.

[Leaf Sticking]'s level has risen by one.

[Leaf Sticking (Passive/Active) Lv12 Exp 43.12% CP 8 per 5 seconds]

Introductory chakra control exercise taught to all academy students. This exercise improves your chakra control the more you level it up.

Passively increases WIS 8%.

Passively reduces excess CP lost from using too much chakra by 5%.

"Hell yeah," said Naruto, not just pleased with the levels but also with the CP loss reduction for all of his other skills.

Naruto rushed through his morning routine and got outside into the open air ready for the day to kick off. Naruto noticed immediately that the streets were much more crowded than usual for this time of the morning. Then he remembered that today was the KSA induction day for new students.

Naruto charged a bit of chakra to his legs and leapt up to the nearest rooftop.

A special skill has been created through a special act.

You leap tall buildings in a single bound, movement 'Chakra Leap' Lvl. 1 has been created.

[Chakra Leap (Passive) Lv1 Exp 0.00% CP 1 per 10 meters]

Using chakra to reinforce your leg muscles you can now jump to incredible heights.

Additional jumping range when Active.

"Cool, but shouldn't that have already been a skill?" asked Naruto, pausing on the rooftop to read the description. "And does that mean it will use Chakra automatically?"

Naruto shrugged and ran for the roof ledge and made the leap to the next building. He watched his CP to see what would happen and it momentarily dipped before refilling almost immediately.

"Huh, that's interesting." Naruto shrugged again. He had to get to class and still had a ways to go. Pushing a bit of chakra into his legs again he began to run across the roof and leap to the next all the way to the academy.

A special skill has been created through a special act.

You run like the wind, movement 'Chakra Sprint' Lvl. 1 has been created.

[Chakra Sprint (Active) Lv1 Exp 0.00% CP 20]

Using chakra to reinforce your leg muscles to grant you a quick burst of speed.

Additional +20.0 to run speed for 10 seconds when Active.

"More skills that should have already been there. What is going on with this game?" Naruto asked, frowning in frustration. "I guess the game can't know everything but still, this is a bit silly."

Naruto dropped to the ground from the roof across from the KSA entrance landing with a soft thud.

[Physical Endurance]'s level has increased by one.

Naruto glance at his HP and saw that he did indeed take 10 points of damage from dropping off the roof. He'd honestly never even consider that dropping from a roof like that was hurting him because it was something all shinobi did regularly. On the other hand his HP had already recovered from the fall so it didn't really matter.

"Maybe I should use Chakra to reduce the fall damage?"

A special skill has been created through a special act.

You can't hurt me, protective 'Chakra Reinforcement' Lvl. 1 has been created.

[Chakra Reinforcement (Active) Lv1 0.00% CP: 100]

Using chakra to reinforce your body can now protect you from taking some damage.

Additional 100 HP damage reduction when active.

Reinforcement lasts until -100 damage has been inflicted upon you.

"What? That's fucking awesome," said Naruto excitedly. "I didn't even have to try to use the chakra first, just thinking about it created it." Then Naruto took a moment to register his morning events. "Fuck! That's three more techniques I have to build up. Son of bitch."

Naruto groaned one more time before dragging himself inside the academy for what was bound to be a really long day.

Naruto ended up sitting through the day of class bored out his mind while Iruka droned on and on about history and the tactics he'd already learned completely from the skill book. He'd already drained his CP twice, once repeatedly using [Chakra Reinforcement] and once using [Leaf Sticking].

"Okay, time for lunch and the rest of today is conditioning," ordered Iruka.

Naruto grinned, he could totally get behind the conditioning plan but that would mean he definitely needed to eat lunch for a change.

Naruto got himself to Ichiraku as quickly as he could and happily sat to eat his favorite meal.

"Hello, Naruto-kun, haven't seen you much since academy classes started up again," commented Ayame.

"Just been busy, lots of training. I have to graduate this time or I'm out of the program," explained Naruto.

"Okay, just don't forget about us," said Ayame, smiling sweetly at the boy.

"Of course not, Ayame-neechan. I could never forget you guys. I meant to come yesterday but things got a bit crazy. Oh yeah, do you like my new clothes? I got them yesterday. I know they aren't as cool as my orange clothes but I think they're still pretty good."

"I have to say it's a major improvement," said Ayame, earning a gasp from Naruto. "Don't you gasp at me. I know you like orange and I know I'm not a shinobi but I can't imagine orange is a good color for the job."

"Yeah, you're right about that but I only found a shop that would sell me the good stuff yesterday," explained Naruto.

"Well then, you'd better not let your new clothes go to waste then. I expect you to graduate with flying colors come November or I'll cut off your ramen . . . permanently."

"Not that, anything but that," pleaded Naruto.

"Then I guess you'd better just make sure you graduate then, huh?"

"With ramen on the line you can consider it done," said Naruto.

"You'd better hit the road, Naruto," called Teuchi from the back of the stand. "It's ten to one."

"Thanks, Teuchi-san," said Naruto, quickly swallowing down the last of the broth and noodles. Naruto used his [Chakra Sprint] and [Chakra Leap] all the way back to the academy earning a level in both along the way.

Naruto made it back to class just in time for the Iruka to come in and lead everyone outside to the open training field.

"Now, I want twenty laps around the training field," ordered Iruka.

There was a loud groan from the class as they all began to move at a steady pace around the dirt track that had been well worn into the edge of the training field.

Naruto ran as ordered not really caring, it wasn't like it would tire him out at all. It was around lap fifteen that a blue window popped up.

Your exercising pays off causing your VIT to go up by 1.

Naruto grinned as he usually did whenever something good happened to him. This meant if he kept exercising his stats would keep going up like his skills went up as he trained them.

"Nice work, everyone. Now I want fifty sit-ups and twenty push-ups each," ordered Iruka.

Naruto dropped to the ground and began his sit-ups as ordered. That was one thing he did appreciate about his stamina, he never seemed to get tired. And it paid off again as on sit-up forty-five another blue window popped up.

You feel the burn causing your STR to go up by 1.

Grin . . . again.

Naruto finished the sit-ups and flipped over to start on the push-ups. This time a blue window popped up on the twentieth push-up.

You feel the burn causing your STR to go up by 1.

Naruto looked around to see most of his class was still doing their sit-ups with only a few on their push-ups except for the eight students Naruto identified as being higher level than the rest of the class.

Deciding he had more time, Naruto decided to do another set of sit-ups hoping to boost his STR a little more. Unfortunately after fifty he hadn't gained any more STR. So he flipped over and did the push-ups.

After two push-ups the blue box reappeared.

You feel the burn causing your STR to go up by 1.

Okay, he could work with this. It seemed that to get his STR to go up, he'd have to do more exercises per point. But that made him wonder if there was a cap. He'd already gained one point the previous morning from having to sprint to get to class and he'd just gained three more points. But could he gain infinite points?

"Hurry and finish up your sets. It's time for your favorite exercise of all, the obstacle course," shouted Iruka, calling the attention of all the students earning another round of groans from the students.

Naruto pushed through the push-ups he needed to complete his second set and popped up to his feet and got in line for the obstacle course. It really was Naruto's favorite exercise but most of the class dreaded it, partly because it was hard and partly because if you screwed up you'd probably end up dirty.

Naruto was pretty far back in the line because of his second set of push-ups so he used the time to work on [Leaf Sticking] while he waited. He'd drained most of his chakra working on it but didn't get a level which meant that he was getting less and less experience for his skills which meant it would be getting harder and harder to improve them as their levels got higher. So level capping his skills would be darn near impossible.

"Naruto, wake up, it's your turn," said Iruka, snapping his fingers in front of Naruto's face.

Naruto blinked and looked up at Iruka. "Huh? Oh, sorry about that. I was totally spacing."

"Just go," said Iruka, sighing and pointing at the obstacle course.

Naruto stepped up to the line and instantly a timer appeared in his peripheral reading 00:00:00.00. It definitely made Naruto curious but he could think about it later.

Naruto started off at a sprint toward the quintuple steps, a series of steps angled 45° toward a water pit, his foot barely touching each before landing on a small hill climb which ran up to a suspended log with a few grip holes. Naruto jumped onto the log gripping as hard as he could while the log glided down a rail track suddenly dropping every few feet trying to shake him loose. He then had to run across an unstable bridge with several platforms that would twist left or right if he stayed too long on any one of them. From there he had to grip a pole suspended by a series of pegs, known as a salmon ladder, and use the pole to jump up to the next peg and the next until he reached the top. At the top was a long board suspended over a water and mud pit. From the bottom of the board were several round metal bulbs just large enough to grip. Naruto grabbed the first and swung to the next grip and the next for about twenty meters until he reached another platform. He ran down a few steps to face a warped wall. A twenty meter tall wall of wood curved outward toward him. He ran as hard and as fast as he could up the wall hoping to gain purchase at the top. Once on top he sprinted fifty meters to the finish line.

Naruto's timer stopped just as he crossed the finish line showing 00:03:47.87.

You bend and twist your way to the finish line causing your DEX to go up by 1

Naruto though ignored the message while he tried to reclaim his breath, his hands firmly on his knees and gasping for breath. That course sucked today. The KSA was actually well known for their obstacle courses such that many chuunin still use them for training on a regular basis. They change regularly with new and different obstacles with the exception of the steps at the start and the warp wall and fifty meter sprint at the end.

Finally catching his breath Naruto took a minute to review the advantages of his conditioning day. Running laps, not sprinting, but running increased VIT. Push-ups and sit-ups increased STR. And the obstacle course increased DEX. Knowing this Naruto knew he'd have to spend time here more often trying to increase his stats as much as possible. That still left him with the question of whether or not there was a limit to how many stats he could gain through physical training.

"Good job, Naruto," said Iruka. "You came in fifth this time."

"Who beat me?"

"Sasuke, Kiba, Hinata, and Tomodo," answered Iruka.

A quick observe on each of them show they had higher DEX stats than he did. It also showed that Kiba had gained another level and was now level 10.

"I guess I'll have to work harder then, huh, sensei?"

"Keep working hard like you have this week and you'll definitely graduate this time," said Iruka, his normal kind smile adorning his face.

"Can I run it again?" asked Naruto.

Iruka looked at the sky and then at the line. "You can get back in line and you can try to squeeze one more run in but no promises."

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei," shouted Naruto, running back to the line.

Naruto did manage to run the course one more time but didn't get another point of DEX.

After school, Naruto could once again be found at the target range switching between [Leaf Sticking], [Chakra Reinforcement], [Kunai Bukijutsu], and [Shuriken Bukijutsu] skills trying to level them as much as possible. Naruto also noticed that hitting the target no longer granted him any experience toward his level.

Naruto continued this until his stomach grumbled that it was time for food. So he went for food then home and at home he continued to work [Leaf Sticking], [Chakra Reinforcement] but this time he did Sit-ups and Push-ups during the down time. He gained 2 more points of STR in the first four sets but the next five sets did nothing. He finally determined that he could only gain one bonus stat point per level. So the six points to STR was all he could get until he leveled again. This meant he could increase his VIT four more times and DEX three more times. He just needed time to work on it with all of his other skills to level.

You have slept in your bed. HP & CP are fully stored.

Naruto once again woke up excited to get to training his skills. Right away he drained nearly all of his CP working on [Leaf Sticking] before going through his morning routine.

Naruto decided that he could get his VIT level capped quickly enough by running to school every morning and taking a longer route depending on how much time he had. And that's exactly what he did.

"Good morning, class," greeted Iruka as he entered the class room. "So, we're back to our day one schedule so let's all try to improve."

Naruto tuned him out as he began talking about various uses of bukijutsu and the physics that can be applied. Instead he chose to once again drain his chakra to almost empty, this time on [Chakra Reinforcement] before setting his head down on the desk and closing his eyes until it was time to go outside for practice.

It didn't take long before they were outside at the practice range and much to Naruto's delight he got a quest alert immediately.

Quest Alert

My Personal Best: Score 90% or better

You have five attempts to throw 90% or better with Kunai and Shuriken

Completion Award: 1000 Exp

[Intermediate Academy Taijutsu] Skill Book

Completion Failure: 200 Exp

Naruto had to wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth at the thought of succeeding. He quickly tapped the 'Confirm (Y)' button and got himself in line.

Naruto's first time up he hit 93 only missing one shuriken hit.

"Yatta!" he shouted with joy.

You've improved, well done.

Completion Awarded: 1000 Exp and [Intermediate Academy Taijutsu] Skill Book

Naruto was super eager to get right into the book but was interrupted by another notification.

Congratulations! Your level has increased by 1.

Naruto grinned happily at that.

Quest Alert

Perfection is its own reward: Score 100%

You have four attempts to throw 100% with Kunai and Shuriken

Completion Award: 2000 Exp

Completion Failure: 500 Exp

Naruto quickly tapped the 'Confirm (Y)' button and went to the back of the line to check out his new book.

You've obtained the skill book [Intermediate Academy Taijutsu].

Would you like to learn the skill?

Naruto impatiently tapped the 'Confirm (Y)' excited for the new skills.

You cannot learn this skill.

Required STR: 20.

Required DEX: 20.

Required [Beginner Academy Taijutsu] LvMax.

Naruto previous joy just crumbled into nothingness. He needed to attain a max skill level. How was he supposed to attain a max skill level? Stats wouldn't be a problem, he'd just gotten five from his leveling up plus he could train one more STR and four more DEX. But to get a max skill level in his beginner taijutsu? He was screwed.

Naruto decided to put three stat points into STR for now and one into DEX and think about what to do with the rest later.

Before he knew it he was up to throw again, another 93%. In fact all four of his tries were 93%, he'd always miss with at least one which really pissed him off.

The rest of the morning was boring history followed by lunch which found Naruto outside and running the obstacle course to try and gain a couple of DEX while he had the time. He did actually manage to gain two points before the end of lunch.

His improving his stats got him thinking. How could he go about improving his INT and WIS, especially his WIS?

It got him looking around the room and observing his classmates again only to see that Shikamaru' WIS was higher than the last time he checked but hadn't gained a level which meant he did something to increase it. The question is, what did he do?

"Hey Shikamaru," called Naruto softly, trying not to gain the ire of Iruka-sensei in the process.

Shikamaru turned his head a little to look at Naruto. "Yeah?"

"How did you get so smart? What do you do? Do you study a lot or something?"

"Che, troublesome," complained Shikamaru. "I don't really study unless I absolutely have to. I guess it's from playing so much Shogi."

"That's a board game right?"

"Yeah, I guess you could call it that," said Shikamaru. "Why did you want to know?"

"Think you could teach me how to play?"

"Troublesome," whined Shikamaru again. "I guess I can teach you after school today. Just don't do anything troublesome."

"Really? Thanks a lot, Shikamaru. I'll owe you big time for this," said Naruto, smiling from ear to ear.

"Whatever, I'm going back to sleep until it's time for taijutsu practice."

Naruto couldn't wait for the day to end, hopefully learning Shogi from Shikamaru would help him increase his WIS. That still left him with his INT problem but with his strange status buff giving him VIT and INT with every level he didn't really need to worry about it unless that buff suddenly vanished on him.

So Naruto once again drained his chakra training his skills while waiting for taijutsu practice to start. Two more levels to his [Chakra Reinforcement] and it was time for taijutsu.

When time for taijutsu practice came Naruto was disappointed when he didn't get a quest of any kind. He did just gain a level so maybe he exceeded the max level for the taijutsu quests. Either way Naruto was miffed.

Naruto found himself standing across from one of the civilian kids name Midori Tomodo for his first match of the day.

Midori Tomodo Lv6

HP: 150/150

CP: 50/50

STR: 10

VIT: 15

DEX: 20

INT: 5

WIS: 5

LUK: 2

Midori Tomodo is a civilian born academy student. While moderately skill in taijutsu, he is severely lacking in other aspects of the shinobi arts.

So Naruto was stronger than him and just slightly less dexterous. Naruto figured based on that information it would be a fairly even fight.

They bowed to each other then settled into an academy basic stance, Naruto in a defensive back stance and Tomodo in an aggressive front stance. Naruto wanted to see how Tomodo fought before trying to attack him.

"Hajime," called Iruka.

Tomodo wasted no time in springing forward at Naruto with a flying round house kick to the head.

Naruto's arm shot up parrying the kick but still managing to break through the block and knocking him slightly off balance.

Tomodo followed up his kick with punch to Naruto's stomach making solid contact and causing Naruto to grunt in pain at the hit.

Naruto quickly counter with a stomp kick to Tomodo's shin causing the boy to drop to one knee. Seeing his opponent down, Naruto attacked with a knee strike, missing Tomodo's face but still hitting his shoulder hard enough to knock the boy out of the ring.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," called Iruka.

Naruto wanted to celebrate his first win in a while but instead bowed as was proper and stepped out of the ring.

[Beginner Academy Taijutsu]'s level has risen by one.

[Beginner Academy Taijutsu]'s level has risen by one.

Naruto finally did celebrate. "Yatta!" Not only did he win the fight against one of the better taijutsu users he also leveled his [Beginner Academy Taijutsu] twice. It was a triple win if you asked Naruto's opinion.

Naruto had two more fights that day, one against another civilian student named Ito Momo and another against Inuzuka Kiba. He beat the civilian like a drum but lost to Kiba if just barely. Either way he gained another level in taijutsu.

Class for the day ended with the last match in which Sasuke mercilessly destroyed Tomodo. It made Naruto respect Sasuke's skill a little but still detest him as a person.

"Yo, Naruto, you ready?" asked Shikamaru.

"Yeah, let's go," said Naruto. He was excited to hang out with Shikamaru for a bit.

"Yeah, yeah," said Shikamaru, yawning lazily.

Together they walked to a hilltop park a kilometer from the KSA. There were a bunch of Shogi tables spread around, some of them occupied but mostly empty.

Shikamaru guided him to one of the larger tables with a canopy over top of it. He sat down and pulled out a scroll and unsealed a small box containing the game pieces. He then set up the table for the game.

"Do you know anything about the game, Naruto?" asked Shikamaru.

"I know nothing about it," answered Naruto honestly. "Never played before and never have been shown how to play before."

"Troublesome," complained Shikamaru. Then he launched into a long and drawn out explanation of each piece and how each piece moves and how to promote each piece before finally explaining captured pieces. Then he showed Naruto a couple examples before finally allowing Naruto to play a game with him.

"You lose," said Shikamaru, it took less than twenty moves.

"What? Already?" asked Naruto, not fully understanding. "Damn it, again."

"You lose," said Shikamaru, twenty minutes later. This time the game took about thirty moves. "You did better but you're still learning."

"No kidding," said Naruto, groaning in defeat. "Another game?"

"Sure," said Shikamaru.

And so another game started and about halfway through Naruto got his first pop up message.

[Beginner Academy Tactics]'s level has risen by one.

You worked smarter not harder causing your WIS to go up by 1

Naruto would have cheered if not for him trying to focus on the game. He was losing, quite badly but it was still better than the previous game.

"You lose," said Shikamaru, smirking a little. "That's it for me today. I've got get home or my mom will nag at me. But if you want, we could play again another day."

"I'd like that."

"Cool, make sure you buy your own pieces for next time," said Shikamaru. "I know you're new to the game but it is good etiquette to provide your own pieces."

"Where can I buy a set?"

"Konoha General Store should sell them," said Shikamaru, shrugging as he wasn't very sure.

Naruto couldn't help cringing. "Um, they don't really like me there."

"Troublesome, I'll pick up a cheap set for you. You can pay me back," offered Shikamaru.

"Thank you again," said Naruto. "I really appreciate it, Shikamaru."

"Maybe next time you won't prank them so much," he suggested, then walked away at a lazy gate.

"Now, it's time for me to get to work. I need one more point of DEX and STR," said Naruto to himself, feeling the excitement and enthusiasm building.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru's walk away from the blonde enigma was all but enthusiastic. He was glad his pseudo-friend was taking an interest shogi but it was definitely unusual for the blonde prankster. Something had changed in Naruto and it seemed to be a recent change. The question was, what caused the change and how troublesome was it going to be in the future. "Troublesome," he grumbled, yet again.

Shikamaru's walk home was as sedate as usual. Upon entering the house he was nagged immediately by his mother, first for coming home late, then for not taking the trash out that morning before he left for school, and then to do his homework and go out and feed the deer followed by training in the family hijutsu.

Two hours later, his chores were done and his homework was ready to turn in. Shikamaru found himself sitting at his family's dinner table.

"So why were you late coming home from Academy today?" demanded Yoshino.

"A friend from school wanted me to teach him how to play shogi," answered Shikamaru, lazily pushing his tofu with his hashi (chopsticks).

"What friend?" asked his father.

"Naruto wanted to learn. I didn't really see the problem with it," answered Shikamaru.

"Hmm, interesting," said Shikaku, while Yoshino just frown.

"You'd better not pick up any of his bad habits," stated Yoshino strictly.

"Troublesome," complained Shikamaru.