The Gamer of the Bloody Mist - Chapter 1
The Village of the Bloody Mist
I woke up with a start, looking wildly around me; Where was I? Who was I?
[Eight hours slept, Health and Chakra restored]
I heard a bell ringing sound, moments later. Confused and curious, I opened my eyes, only to jump back a bit at the writing at the edge of my vision, what is this?
My hands were small and not of the same shade, the same colour I was used too.
I regained my composure and assessed my situation calmly. I was…Hakuro Reikoku, five years old, but I was also someone else, I felt it. I knew I was not only Hakuro, well spoken and calm orphan, but something else, but I didn't know what. I knew things I'm certain I didn't yesterday, I knew an entire different language!
But it seems here and now, I was Hakuro, no matter who I was before. I looked at myself, I was large and tall, unusually large for children this young, not fat or comically large, but well built. It was strange, my shoulders were broad, I would be a good piece of a man in the future. And I was tall, way taller than one my age should be, at 4'2" (128 cm). My skin was bronze-like, but different from people from Kumo, who were tanned. Mine was almost metallic in its shine. I had golden eyes and short, spiky hair of a similar, but darker shade.
Still, I wouldn't describe myself as cute or handsome, I was too broad, too built for the former and too young for the latter.
And there was the writing, still in the corner of my vision, I could easily ignore it, but it was there, taunting me. I had enough knowledge to recognize what it was, but it didn't make sense. Yet, it wasn't the only thing that didn't make sense so far, there was no harm in testing it. If my life was somehow a video game, I wouldn't be one to complain.
Status.
Hakuro Reikoku
Age: 5
Title: Ø
Level: 0
EXP: [0/100]
Health: 50 Stamina: 50 Chakra: 50
STR: 1 END: 1 ENG: 1 DEX: 1
Talents:
Gamer's Mind
Gamer's Body
Water Affinity
I knew I was supposed to be surprised, but I wasn't, nothing was making sense anyways. It seems my life was now a video game, or someone had cast a mean genjutsu on me.
Wait.
I had reflectively thought genjutsu were real, but part of me knew they weren't that it was only fiction. However, the other part of me, Hakuro, knew genjutsu were real, as was chakra and shinobi. It seems my whole life had decided not to make sense today.
I delved deeper into my mind and discovered why; I was living inside a world with those deadly ninja, I was at the forefront of it, living in Kirigakure, the Village of the Bloody Mist, I was inside the Naruto world. Hakuro had always lived there, I had always lived there.
But the other part of me, the new part of me, he hadn't lived there; he had knowledge about this world, he had watched it and read it. As an anime and a manga.
The more I thought about it, the less it made sense, so I stopped. Simple solution, I know, but it worked well enough. I would take time to think about everything that did not make sense at a latter date, not today.
I had a more urgent problem anyways, the fact that I was living inside said village. It wasn't called the Village of the Bloody Mist for nothing, it was because of the Fourth Mizukage's madness; the fact it was needed to kill a classmate in order to graduate from the Academy, the discrimination and systematic killing against those with a Kekkei Genkai, the ruthlessness, mercilessness and cruelty of the village as a whole.
With that in mind, I tried to locate myself on the timeline, I knew the graduation exam was still in effect, which meant that the Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi, hadn't massacred everyone who was in the Academy. This meant that I was way before the start of the story, a minimum of fifteen years.
What else could help me?
Oh…
The Second Shinobi World War was happening. No…it had ended last month. Yagura Karatachi had been elected as the Fourth Mizukage a week ago. I knew when I was, I was very close to the age of Zabuza, Kakashi and the likes. If I remembered correctly, Zabuza had killed everyone in the Academy before he was ten years old.
Well, shit.
I was in trouble, I needed to become a ninja, I wouldn't survive in this world, particularly in this village otherwise, but it also needed to be before Zabuza, a genius in his own right, decided to kill everybody. I couldn't wait until after, because I know the Third Shinobi World War would start and I would probably be forced into the Academy.
Which left me…not a lot of time to enrol and graduate.
But before that, I knew my memories would start to fade soon, I needed to write down everything I could.
But if someone managed to read it, it'd be bad, very bad.
Fortunately, I knew a language, thus a writing, which no one else in this whole world should know, and I'd be very surprised if someone managed to crack it, it was fundamentally different than the language here.
So I found a blank piece of paper, and started my endeavour. In English.
I would have plenty of time for everything else later. This was urgent.
Three hours later, I had transcribed everything I remembered, which was a lot of stuff and it was now time to answer my biggest interrogation since I woke up.
Why was my life a video game?
I called my status once more and looked at it.
Hakuro Reikoku
Age: 5
Title: Ø
Level: 0
EXP: [0/100]
Health: 100 Stamina: 50 Chakra: 50
STR: 1 END: 1 ENG: 1 DEX: 1
Talents:
Gamer's Mind.
Gamer's Body.
Water Affinity
It didn't require a genius to know what the different stats meant, but I still checked, it cost nothing and maybe I would learn something. It cost nothing to try.
Stats are numbers representing your capability in each of their area.
Health is the amount of damage your body can take before you die.
Stamina is how long you last before becoming exhausted and your regeneration speed.
Chakra is the quantity of chakra you can use.
STR is for strength, which affects speed and physical strength.
END is for endurance, which affects your resistance to damage, your Health and your Stamina.
ENG is for energy, which affects your Stamina and Chakra.
DEX is for dexterity, which affects your hand-eye coordination, your balance, agility, reaction time, your senses, how well you can control your body, and your speed.
Certain stats can be trained and improved, others will improve naturally given time and some will not.
Stats will improve when you level up.
Well, this was…enlightening and the fact I could train stats certainly some good news, it would allow me to at least stand a chance in the future, if I ever fought before levelling up. I was curious of my three talents; while I understood what they most likely where, maybe they were different.
Talents are passive abilities that cannot be deactivated.
Gamer's mind: Allows user to always remain calm and to have great self-control. Can be bypassed by Genjutsu or other techniques with similar effects. Also makes user's mind impossible to read by any means.
Gamer's body: User's body works like a video game character's. All minor injuries are healed after an eight hours' rest. Makes user well rested with as little as four hours of sleep. Allows user to continue fighting as if unharmed as long as he has one or more hit points. The body's natural limiters are removed.
Water affinity: It is easier to learn and master techniques related to water.
This was good to know, contrarily to what I thought, I was not immune to genjutsu, which would be something I would need to fix someday. Also, it was impossible to read my mind, which was definitely a boon, even if there were very few techniques of the sort I knew of, it guaranteed no one would discover what I was and my knowledge.
Now that I knew what my limits were, I had to make a plan, I wouldn't survive long otherwise. I had two options I could think of; or I wait, try to avoid the Academy, flee the village maybe, or I could gamble on the fact I would be able to graduate faster than Zabuza would kill everyone.
The choice was obvious.
I always liked gambles anyway.
New mission: Find out Zabuza Momochi's age.
Reward: 100 EXP
I decided to make myself a plan, I would try to train as much as possible to similarly enter the Academy as soon as I could. Then, I would take the graduation test once I deemed myself strong enough to pass, hopefully it would be sooner than later. There were a bunch of unknown in this plan, but hey, what could I do about it...
I would find out about Zabuza's age a bit later, it wasn't urgent.
With that decided, I heard my stomach grumble and realized I had thought and schemed the major part of the morning, I had skipped breakfast, it was time for dinner. Scheming required a full belly.
But before that, I had something I needed to test, two things in fact. I picked up my pen and tried to put it in an inventory.
Nothing happened.
I tried again. And again.
I got the same result.
Well, my first question was answered, I did not have inventory for now. Maybe I never would.
I then teared off the corner of the page of a book and attempted to stick it to my forehead using chakra. It worked…for half a second. Then it fell to the ground. I tried again, using a bit more chakra this time. It sticked for a bit more than double the time as the last time before falling. I tried again, each time I was a little bit better than the try before. And then, after I don't know how mow many tries, the leaf stayed stuck. I waited…it didn't fall off…
Then…it fell.
I suddenly felt weak, light-headed, and my hunger only made it worse. I had a hypothesis as to why, to comfirm it, I checked my chakra levels.
Chakra: 2/50
Yep, that explained why, I got so weak. It seems my chakra capacity was really small…for now. But my chakra control was consequently pretty good, so it wasn't all bad.
Also, no skills had been created, nothing of the like, but I felt as if my skill with the exercise hand advanced like a video game skill, it was hard to explain, but it felt like this. Still, no skills had been created, which meant that the system maybe couldn't emulate skills or jutsu.
And now I was even hungrier.
So I ate, I went to the canteen in the orphanage I lived in, yes I was an orphan; nobody knew anything about my parents someday I just appeared here, on the doorstep, my name written on a paper that was stuck on my was not an unusual thing, baby often mysteriously appeared on the doorstep of the orphanage, it was an orphanage after all.
After an honestly not very good, but nourishing meal, I went back to my room, I had no time to spare, I had to get as strong as I could in the next year, my life depended on it. Literally, I would be killed by Zabuza if I was too weak.
I trained my chakra control again, doing the leaf exercise over and over again, adding one leaf every time I felt that I could stick my current number indefinitely. When I felt chakra-exhausted, I did physical exercises. And when my chakra levels were nearly full again, I did chakra control exercises again.
The next week passed like this, with myself almost religiously training at every opportunity I got, almost never leaving my room, at one point I had stopped the leaf exercises and started to walk on walls.
I had learned a bit more about the village, the world I was in and it frankly disgusted me. The village was divided in a caste system. The highest caste was from those whose whole family came from Kirigakure and had always lived there; loyal citizens and shinobi. The second caste was for those who were allied to Kirigakure in the past (or current) wars. The third caste and the lowest consisted of those who had been annexed in the village following a military defeat and everyone else who didn't come directly from the village; migrants, refugees, and so on.
I was from the lowest caste; I was an orphan. No one knew where I came from.
There was naturally discrimination between the different caste, the people from higher castes simply had more rights, they could do basically whatever they wanted to those from a lower caste and nobody would bat an eye. It was natural here. It was disgusting, a retarded system.
Even worse, those from the lowest were constantly sent on dangerous, deadly missions. There were disposable. Anything to keep them from revolting. It was a wonder how the village hadn't collapsed yet.
I would change this system. No matter what it took.
Also, this had happened this morning.
+1 END
+1 ENG
+1 STR
I guess my training had paid off in more ways than one, it was unreal gaining stats, the feeling of suddenly growing stronger was absolutely addictive. This week, I had also learned something else, there were no skills or anything similar, I did not have anything like the cliché Observe skill. It did not exist. Trust me, I had tried…a lot.
But I only needed four hours of sleep per night, which was honestly awesome, I had so much time each day.
My new stats went like this.
Hakuro Reikoku
Age: 5
Title: Ø
Level: 0
EXP: [0/100]
Health: 150 Stamina: 100 Chakra: 100
STR: 2 END: 2 ENG: 2 DEX: 1
Talents:
Gamer's Mind.
Gamer's Body.
Water Affinity
But today, I would do something different, I would find how old was Zabuza Momochi, I had a mission about it and felt sufficiently confident in myself. I needed to go to the library anyways.
Turns out, playing smart was often more effective than playing hard, I did not have to directly go ask Zabuza his age, only to find what it was. I also knew that Zabuza was as old as Kakashi. See where I'm going?
And finding when Kakashi was born was ridiculously easy, Kirigakure didn't give a single fuck about their intel, they freely gave it away. Even to those of the lowest caste. Honestly, it had taken me five minutes to get when Hatake Sakumo had a child, I only had to ask at the library and they had told me, no questions asked.
What the fuck? How was this village still standing? Well, it really wasn't in the best of shapes, but still…
Anyways, Kakashi was five, so Zabuza was five, and I was five. Yay! This was pretty good, I meant that I probably wouldn't die or have to fight Zabuza. Maybe I would be better than him by the time he massacred everybody, maybe not, I did not want to have to find out.
So, mission complete!
Mission completed: Find out Zabuza Momochi's age.
Reward: 100 EXP
Level up!
+1 to every stat
+3 free stat points
You must assign your free stat points within twenty-four hours of receiving them or they will be randomly distributed.
Oh well, there goes my plan of accumulating them. I placed them in my ENG stat, as I thought it would be the hardest to improve for now and it would bring me the most benefits for my training.
Hakuro Reikoku
Age: 5
Title: Ø
Level: 1
EXP: [0/400]
Health: 250 Stamina: 225 Chakra: 300
STR: 3 END: 3 ENG: 6 DEX: 2
Talents:
Gamer's Mind.
Gamer's Body.
Water Affinity
I felt…divine. It was exhilarating, I felt as if I could take on the world. I wanted to level up once more, the feeling of getting stronger, of getting closer to my goals. My chakra had tripled, my stamina more than doubled as with my health. I understood that improving fast was normal at the beginning, but it didn't make the feeling less enjoyable.
While I was still at the library, I decided to look for techniques, jutsu, anything that could help me. I did not expect to find much, so I was presently surprised by my haul. I had found two books detailing the three basic jutsu: replacement, clone and transformation; a couple of books on taijutsu, shurikenjutsu and a lot of books on kenjutsu (sword techniques), which wasn't very unexpected considering pretty much everyone and their mothers wanted to become one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. I personally wouldn't mind.
I took them all with me, renting them for a week. I would make good use of them.
I exited the library, my books in hand and, for once, I took a small walk, going to a weapon shop, I wanted some kunais and a sword.
While I was still walking, looked around and truly noticed the pitiful state of the village for the first time. Of course, I had realized this before, but I had always put it at the back of my mind.
People were scared to walk in the streets, shinobi were openly harassing and fighting each other, the air smelled of blood. It wasn't called the Village of the Bloody Mist for nothing, I could hear faint cries in the distance. It was not a place to live, and the war made it worse. That and the fact I was in a bad neighbourhood; I was from the lowest caste after all, there were whole portions of the city I wasn't even allowed to go to.
I stepped past one of the many abandoned buildings, it was the norm.
I avoided a corpse on the ground, simply lying around, it was disgusting.
The people deserved better, this thing did not deserve to be called a great village anymore. It wasn't great. It was a pitiful caricature of what it once was.
I strode past debris, I still loved the village, but I didn't love whatever this was.
I promised myself I would change that, I would be a hypocrite not to, I had the potential.
Even if it took a massacre, the people would have better. And the caste system would go.
New Mission: Get Kirigakure out of its current state and bring back its former glory. Make it a good, pleasant place for the people to live.
Reward: Depends on mission rating (E to S)
Months Later
For the next months, I continued to work toward my two new goals; I would graduate alive and I would change this village, no matter what it took. Well, I mostly trained, but it would bring me closer to my goals.
I had found out I was really good in taijutsu, I was strong and had the build for it. It was the same for kenjutsu. My chakra control was better than ever, I could walk on trees and water now, an indispensable skill for any ninja living in Kirigakure, as the village was literally surrounded by water. I had mastered the three basic jutsu too, but those were ridiculously easy, there was a reason why they were used by dumb students. But my kunai and shuriken throwing weren't really good, I was better than average, certainly, but I still found myself lacking.
I had also levelled up a few more times, mainly when I had found myself in situations like this one. The one I was in right now.
"Give us your money, punk!" Goon 1 threatened.
"I know you have some, give it!" Goon 2 added.
"You want to get punched, you searched for it!" Goon 3 decided.
It was almost cliché, but it was expected. They were the ever-present bullies, kids not much older than me, around seven or eight years old, they had certainly not entered the Academy yet. They were all from the lowest caste, like me, those from a higher one would not go where I lived, so these goons had been raise in violence, they only emulated their parents, what they knew. It was for that reason I wanted to change the village, an atmosphere like this did not create mentally sound citizen. Also, the fact that they were from the lowest cast also meant I could beat them as much as I wanted.
I dodged the sloppy punch of the Goon 1 and replied with one of my own. It was not sloppy. Goon 1 fell to the ground. His two accomplices fell back, scared, but it was too late, they had attacked first.
And it gave me good practice for what I trained. Of course, I didn't use kenjutsu or kunais on them, there was no need for lethal force, it would be a bit overkill and cruel. But taijutsu wasn't off limit, they deserved it even, so they all got a good beating.
Turning back toward the other two goons, I could see them pull back a bit, frightened by the speed at which I had disposed of their boss. I didn't let them. I ran toward Goon 2 and kicked him in the stomach. He was launched backward, my strength stat was no joke.
He stayed on the ground.
Before Goon 3 could react, I had sucker-punched him.
His eyes closed.
They wouldn't reopen for a few hours.
Mission completed: Dispose of the three bullies.
Reward: 100 EXP per bully disposed of.
300 EXP
It turned out, beating people up actually gave a frank amount of EXP, so I didn't mind doing it often, it allowed me to level up. I even defended others whenever I had the opportunity, it gave more EXP. People had learned pretty fast not to mess with me. Some people at least.
Level up!
+1 to every stat
+3 free stat points
You must assign your free stat points within twenty-four hours of receiving them or they will be randomly distributed.
Oh wow, I was what, level four now? I was more than ready to start the Academy. I was actually on my way to enrol when these idiots had decided I would be a good victim.
Hakuro Reikoku
Age: 6
Title: Ø
Level: 4
EXP: [0/2500]
Health: 900 Stamina: 650 Chakra: 600
STR: 9 END: 14 ENG: 12 DEX: 7
Talents:
Gamer's Mind.
Gamer's Body.
Water Affinity
I put all of my points into END, as I most of the time did, I had found out it was the hardest stat to improve, contrarily to all of the others, which were pretty much each as hard to improve as the others. I had also discovered that my stats increased really fast if I trained, as it was clearly visible on my status, it was ridiculous. I wasn't one to complain and I knew that it was only because my training had just started, I would hit a ceiling one day. And that day, I'd be very happy to have my system.
If I did have a ceiling, my Gamer's Body talent clearly said, "The body's natural limiters are removed." So…Maybe I didn't have one.
Another thing that had happened these last few months was the start of the Third Shinobi World War, which was a surprise to…absolutely no one! The tension was at an all-time high, the end of the Second Shinobi World War had more been of an armistice while everybody licked their wounds. Now, they were ready for another round! However, it meant that the demand for shinobi had exploded once again, which meant that the Academy now accepted younger students. Up to a minimum of six years old! Yay!
Also, I had turned six. Someday, the number after "Age" had just turned to six. It was apparently my birthday. No one knew. No one needed to know, I did not really have friends, and I did not want to make some. Not yet. I'd wait after the Academy, so I wouldn't have to kill them.
I continued to make my way to the Academy, hoping to get there without anyone else bothering me, normally I wouldn't mind, it meant more EXP, but today I actually had something to do and I didn't want to be late.
I finally arrived in front the Academy, it was a sombre building made entirely of big bricks of gray rocks. It was huge, intimidating and the doors were worse. Two gargantuan, ten meters high, pieces of wood held by crimson chains, it was effective.
I made my way to the registration building, which was directly next to the Academy and way more welcoming, for an evident reason; you didn't want to scare the students into not joining. I entered the small building and stopped in front of an old lady with greying hair.
After a minute or so of her pointedly ignoring me, she finally raised her head.
"Another one…Here to register? Fill out this form…" She croaked in a nasal voice. It sounded like nails scraping on a board. Made me shiver.
It was a very simple form, I simply had to state my age (six years old), where I lived (the orphanage), my guardians (the orphanage), my caste (the third), a couple of other questions and finally, I had to sign that I knew that I could very possibly get killed. There wasn't even a need for an adult to sign. It was probably to make children register on a whim and be stuck there for the following years or until they died.
Sweet!
Once that was done, I gave it back to her and read a bit more about the Academy. The next term would start in two months and last for ten months. At the end of each year, students of year three were forced to participate in the graduation exam, fighting to the death with another student, while the other students could choose to try and graduate if they wanted or simply go for another year.
I would probably try and graduate within a year, but if I found myself inadequate, I would try later, I didn't want to die.
Then, what would I do?
Would I enlist in the war?
Would I join ANBU?
Would I try to become a Swordman of the Mist?
Would I remain to the village, safe?
Who knew…I'd decide then.
A/N: My new story! The Gamer system is a bit different than what you usually see, because I wanted to! (: I also don't really like the system most people use.
Hope you'll enjoy (:
Another thing, the Timeline of Kirigakure is messed up, it doesn't make any fucking sense, so I'll have to modify it a bit.
To clarify, in cannon, it is Yagura Karatachi, the fourth Mizukage, who is the Kage when Zabuza Momochi kills his entire class and he is the one who discontinues the practice.
But that happens in the same year Rin is killed by Kakashi because of the Three-tails, because Kakashi and Zabuza are the same age they were both nine during both of these events.
The real problem with all of this is that the three-tails is sealed within Yagura after Rin is killed (obviously) and is sealed inside a young Yagura, who then, in the following years, befriends it and becomes the Kage because of this. See? Doesn't make any fucking sense. Because he already was the Kage.
It is implied that Yagura becomes the Kage at the start of the third shinobi world war, but that doesn't make any more sense, because this happens years before the three tails would be sealed inside of him.
Also, the name "Village of the bloody Mist" is partly because of Yagura, except (according to cannon) he would not have even been Kage during the "Village of the Bloody Mist" era.
Another thing that doesn't make sense it that the third Mizukage (the one before Yagura) was the bodyguard of the First Mizukage during the first ever Kage Summit, which places his age at more or less the same as Hashimara, the first Hokage, maybe a bit younger. It would still make him a minimum of like…seventy or eighty years old at the end of the second shinobi world war, which is fucking old for a Kage. But if Yagura becomes Kage after the end of Third Shinobi world war, he would've been Kage wayyyy too long for it to make any sense.
Sorry for my rant (: But yes, the timeline will be a bit different so it can make sense (I aged up Yagura a lot).