A/N
I bet you noticed I didn't wish you all a Merry Christmas in the last chapter. It's because this chapter was planned the whole time.
Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy this chapter as my gift to you.
And there's all the holiday cheer I have in my body. Good thing I'm writing this a couple of days in advance.
Enjoy it if you want.
Ken collapses into his bed after another long day at the Academy followed by a night of doing nothing but slowly breaking his body so it heals stronger. It was raining outside, and rather than risk getting sick from being out in it too long he just exercised in his apartment. It was taking longer for the Exhaustion status effect to hit him, but he was taking that as a cause to work himself harder rather than enjoy being mobile for longer. Besides, he figures that it gives him more of an opportunity to get used to working off of Chakra Enhancement alone. Something he suspects will be a common occurrence once he graduates.
"This place really is a dump though, good thing I never spend much time here," Ken comments as his eyes roam around his apartment. It wasn't falling apart, per se, but it really was rough around the edges. The wallpaper was faded and peeling in some places, revealing the off-white plaster beneath. The furniture was serviceable, but he had to slip the guidebook underneath a table-leg to stop it from wobbling when he tried to eat dinner on it.
His eye started twitching as he once again notices some additional imperfections like the window not quite sitting right in its sill, the door sagging a small bit in the frame, etc.
"...I'm going to have to fix this shit, or annoy the landlord into fixing it, aren't I?" Ken says dejectedly after a small lull of silence, only broken by the sound of his leaky kitchen faucet dripping.
"I need so much money to fund myself. Food and water are… semi-optional? I don't get hungry or thirsty naturally, but eventually, debuffs hit and I'm suddenly starving," Ken mumbles, deep in thought as his brows knit together.
"I'll need better weights at some point, it's only been a day since I got them and I've grinded my Str to 9. I need to think about supplies like Wire and weapons for my various attempts at Goko. I have rent to pay, and no idea how much it is. Utilities too, thinking about it…" Ken activates Chakra Enhancement for a moment to roll onto his back, staring at his cracked ceiling with a frown. "God, I want weapons and some basic armor really badly though… even something as simple as Gambeson to pad my body without being clunky."
"Nope, bad, those can be post-graduation acquisitions. Win Goko's challenge first, worry about getting a cool sword and proper protection later," Ken decides, berating himself for putting the cart ahead of the horse and coming full circle to the question that plagued his mind since the moment classes ended and it soon began to deluge from the sky.
He turns his eyes to the kunai lying on his nightstand (one of the few articles of furniture with nothing wrong). He traces its sharpened and unmarred outline in his mind, trying to somehow impart the sharpness of the object into his mind. A plan fit for the knife's edge he plans to live his life on for his goals to be met…
The half formulated plans in his mind were quickly struck down with a savage viciousness by Ken's ruthless grasp on reality. None of these would do. Involving other people, who were inherently unreliable and just as likely as he was to 'assassinate' a wary Chunin. Involving skills he neither had nor could reasonably get to a usable level within a year without abandoning everything else. Or just plain fantasy on Goko dropping his guard and not noticing anything Ken did for a full 15 seconds.
And Goko would have access to any methods he was being trained in by virtue of being the one teaching them to him.
This was a test.
Well, obviously it was a test, but it was a test.
Not only of his abilities, but of his resourcefulness and ability to acquire information. He can't use anything that was given to him, he had to go out and get it while being monitored daily.
"Underneath the underneath…" murmured Ken with a rueful smile on his face, halfway between a grin and a grimace. "But I don't know… anyone…" Ken began, when a flash of red hair sparked in his mind and halted his train of thought in its tracks
"No. Noooo…" he groaned out, closing his eyes tightly. "There has to be someone I can ask other than that nosy bitch…" Ken whispers in a slightly desperate tone, going through a mental catalog of everyone he met and coming up blank for answers.
"Fuck, looks like I'm going to Ichiraku…" Ken eventually says in a defeated voice, eyes growing tired at the thought. Allowing himself to fall asleep on the sheets of his still-bed, Ken got the first hours of actual sleep in the multiple days he's been here.
LINE BREAK
Ping!
You have slept in your own bed! All HP, Ckr, and Sta restored!
Ken drags himself into consciousness with bleary eyes, slapping wildly at an alarm clock that wasn't there and only managing to clip his hand on the edge of the kunai he had left on his nightstand.
Wincing and withdrawing his hand, Ken was suddenly much more awake as the pain hit his brain, and adrenaline at the surprise flooded him. Sitting up straight suddenly, Ken blinked in confusion as he took in his surroundings with a sluggish brain.
Realizing the harsh buzzing and ringing was the alarm he set up with the game system for 06:30 so he wouldn't be late for the Academy, Ken quickly shut it off and scrambled to his bathroom to get ready for the day.
After a few minutes, he ran out and snatched out a fresh change of clothes, realizing he hadn't changed yesterday either. Electing to not try and rummage through his cabinets for some spare food he could wolf down, he instead grabs his Backpack and Kunai with his freshly bandaged hand and pats himself down to see if he was missing anything.
Realizing he didn't have his weights on, Ken swivels his head around the room before spotting them lying on a counter. Rushing over to them and strapping them on, Ken rushes out the door and locks it behind him.
Speeding through the streets with his Sprint active, Ken dodged past a lot of the early morning bustle by bypassing the main road and down a handful of connecting side streets. The Dex training would have been good, but he just couldn't be asked to deal with that right now. The extra level he snagged on Observe from spamming it on everyone he passed by certainly helped his mood.
Even with the detour, he still made it to the Academy with 10 minutes to spare before the 07:00 start time. Out of breath thanks to his weights, Ken trudges up to his spot at the back of the mostly empty classroom and sinks into his chair with a relieved sigh. Beginning his daily ritual of observing everyone's level and HP to see if anything has changed, he was surprised with something unexpected when he started with Tora.
Name: Uchiha Tora
Title: Academy Student
Level: 7 (37.2%)
HP: 650/650 (100%)
Ckr: 265/265 (100%)
Sta: 320/320 (100%)
Stats:
Str: 22
Vit: 25
Dex: 33
Int: 28
Wis: 31
Luk: 12
Points: 0
Uchiha Tora is a 6 year old member of the prestigious Uchiha Clan of Kohona. He is highly protective of his clan, and especially his 3 year old cousin, driving him to become a shinobi to uphold the honor of the clan and be capable of protecting them. He is currently unsure how to feel about Ken.
Ken nearly chokes on air seeing the stats that Tora has.
'What the FUCK is the kid made of?!' Ken exclaims to himself, subtly rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times when the numbers don't change. Tora seems to notice Ken's gaze on his back and he returns a glare in response. Ken holds it for a second before shrugging and looking away, knowing Tora would keep glaring anyway and he could spend his time better Observing his other classmates.
As the rest of the student body trickled in, Ken Observed each and everyone one of them. Most of the civilian kids had stats somewhere in the low 10's, occasionally reaching the high 10's or high single digits on some stats. Shinobi-born kids, even those in a clan, were roughly high 10's with the clan kids having some stats in the 20's.
The only one that had Tora beat in any stat was Shikahiro's staggering 48 in Int. Then again, it was probably expected that the Nara would blow everyone out of the water with their natural Int gain.
Ken shudders at the thought of how high Shikaku's Int must be if a random clan member is this high in Int at level 5. No thank you, have a nice day.
Drumming his fingers on his desk, Ken starts to think about other ways he could obtain power and training that Goko wouldn't know about. There's the Inuzuka spar training, but Goko will probably hear about that if not the specifics of it. Still has the possibility of some hidden gems though, so Ken decides to keep his ears open during it.
'What else, what else… I only have a year and need to keep myself fairly well-rounded for the war, what else can I do?' Ken thought to himself, staring out of the window into the morning light. It was dancing across the morning dew, sending bright flashes across the grass in ways that reminded Ken of Minato's future famous move.
'No, I'm not getting involved with that. Kushina is a last resort damnit,' Ken promised to himself, halting his finger drumming and switching to tapping his middle finger on the desk. 'The toad contract would be nice if I could manage it though…' he admitted to himself with a small frown.
'Summoning contract…Summoning contract?' Ken thought, halting his tapping as his brows knit together in contemplation. There was something there, he knew it, why was this idea nagging him so much? What contracts are even in Kohona?
'Toad, Slug, Snake, Monkey, and Tortoise are all here. but there are probably more considering the population. They're passed down from current contract holders, but could also be gained from just doing the summoning with no contract like… Jiraiya… did…' Ken pieced through, his hand twitching up to start making the handseals then and there. Ken had shot up ramrod straight at this realization, eyes widening and gaining an excited gleam.
Ken barely manages to stop himself since class was starting for the day and Goko just walked in. Giving him even the hint he was doing this could possibly spoil the surprise factor, and that was unacceptable. Holding onto the idea with an iron grasp, Ken slowly relaxes his posture to avoid Goko taking notice.
Slumped down in his chair again, Ken begins to drum his fingers across his desk absentmindedly once again. Roll call would take a little while, especially considering his clan name started with a 'U'. After a small while, the list made it to his name and he gave out an unenthusiastic "Present," before leaning back in his chair.
"Alright class, I have bad news for the day. It's Friday, and thus the field will be in use by the Second and Third-year classes. This means we have our first day of academic teaching instead of physical! Today, we will be learning and reviewing the Shinobi Code of Conduct! These rules are critical for your effectiveness as a Shinobi and must be adhered to on missions," Goko exclaims, pointing at the chalkboard behind him with a bunch of numbers and nothing written beside them.
"I will be walking you through each one, and I expect that you will remember these throughout your careers as Shinobi, for those of you who even make it that far!" Goko's glare was solely on Ken for that last part.
Ken resisted the sudden extreme urge to yawn, already feeling his mind shut down again at the thought of sitting through actual school again. He went through Elementary, Middle, and High school in his old world. Not to mention going through the College of Engineering at an accredited college.
'There isn't a single thing that any of them can do to stop me from following Shikahiro's lead on this,' Ken thought with vitriol reserved only for being forced into a classroom with a bunch of dumb kids and being forced to 'learn' math basic enough for him to do it in his head. 'I'm not going to follow any of these anyways, who do they take me for, Kakashi?'
Ken lasted about as long as it took for Goko to pick up the chalk before he was passed out like a light.
LINE BREAK
Ken was woken up by a hand on his shoulder lightly shaking him. Picking his head up off the desk and wiping some light drool off of his face, Ken was greeted with the sight of Shikahiro unenthusiastically waking him up.
"Goko-sensei called class for lunch," Shikahiro explained in a tired voice, responding to Ken's silent question.
"...How were you awake up before me?" Ken asks in slight confusion, knowing that Shikahiro would have been dead asleep before he was.
"Troublesome… He threw chalk at us, I woke up and you didn't," he responds in an exhausted voice before stumbling away down the stairs and out of the now-empty classroom. Ken looks around once or twice before slowly bringing his hands together and making the first seal for the summoning technique, burned into his brain from the hours of consuming Naruto.
"No better time than the present to get this over with," Ken reasons, knowing he'll have an hour or so before anyone comes back to this room to potentially see him coming back.
Ken holds the Boar seal for a few seconds, channeling chakra into his hands before stopping, realizing he forgot an important step. Slowly bringing his thumb up to one of his canine teeth, he hesitates for a few moments before biting down and pushing up, biting his finger hard enough to draw blood. His HP bar shot down slightly, but Ken ignored it and started on the Boar seal again.
"Boar. Dog. Bird. Monkey. Ram," Ken says slowly, drawing out the words and forming the seals in time with his words, gathering up every scrap of chakra he could before going into Chakra Exhaustion. Slamming his hands down onto the ground with a whispered cry of "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!" before disappearing in a cloud of white smoke.
…
…
…
Ken wasn't sure what he expected to see when he performed the technique. Transported to a land of dragons, full of towering might and majesty. Ferried away to the foxes due to his nature of trickery and playing dirty. Given some innocuous creature, capable of hiding in plain sight yet undetected of its true nature.
Whatever it was he was expecting, wasn't to be left in a damp cave with only the sound of trickling water meeting his ears. It wasn't just damp though, it also happened to be absolutely freezing in here.
Which meant Ken, in his clothes suited to the land of fire, was left with goosebumps from the cold. He wasn't shivering, in his past life he lived in a fairly chilly area after all, but it was cold enough to be uncomfortable to him.
And also unnatural, he quickly realized. He could see his breath in front of his face, lit by some dim light emanating from the ceiling of the cave. Caves were meant to be the average temperature of the area around it averaging the entire year. He had enough experience caving in his old life to know this. It was probably… high 20's in this cave? Where the hell was he that the average temperature of the year was in the 20's?
Rubbing his arms and starting to walk down the only path available to him, Ken was desperately wishing he had something to store spare clothes for any weather in. Now that this had happened, having an inventory-
Ping!
Inventory opened! Current objects: 0
At this moment, Ken realized not once did he ever check to see if he had an inventory. Yet he had a hammerspace available this whole time, an unbreakable storage seal attached to himself, something that no one besides seal masters could even replicate.
And he only checked because he wanted to not be suddenly left in the cold without a cloak.
Trying not to curse out loud, Ken settled for pursing his lips and getting angry at himself for never even checking. Dismissing the prompt with a small sneer, he takes in more of his surroundings. It was getting colder the further in he went, something that definitely didn't happen with caves, which told him something was making this cave so cold, and he was getting closer to it.
"What animals would like it this cold? Arctic wolves? Polar Bears? What damn animal did I end up getting?" Ken murmurs, stopping and looking up at the ceiling again. Finally able to make out what was giving off the light, Ken realizes that crystals have formed along the roof of the cave and were growing larger the further he went.
"Hmpf. Wolves, Bears? Do you think I would allow animals as base as them to live here when not even my own kin or brothers are allowed in my domain, Human?" A deep voice, filled with power and presence comes rattling from deeper within the cave. Ken merely raises an eyebrow in response, crossing those animals off his mental list.
"Well, you may want to look into better security then, because I don't even know where the entrance is yet I managed to get in," Ken chides the voice, striding deeper into the cave with a goal in mind now.
"And that is the question that I want answered Human. How did you manage to get inside of my domain?" the voice asks, a curious yet patronizing tone being adopted. Ken snorts a bit, tracing the wall with a hand as he turns a corner, the cave opening up into a resplendent cavern. Encrusted with brilliantly shining crystals all throughout the walls, the humidity and dampness are now a soft snowfall, dusting Ken in flakes of brilliant white. The distant roar of the water is now much closer, humming beneath him.
"The same way that most humans get into a summon's realm. I performed the jutsu with no summon and have been taken to the summons that I am most compatible with. So far, I'm not impressed," Ken said in a cool tone, eyes locking onto the massive creature seemingly covered in shadow in the center of the room. Attempting to Observe, Ken was mildly surprised when all he got back was garbage data. Then significantly more so as all of his screens shut down one by one.
"And I'm not impressed by some pet of the gods coming in here and trying to invoke their power. I should have known more than to expect better of a measly human like yourself. It seems we are similar in at least that aspect, I'm not impressed. At least you won't have any trouble extracting yourself from my domain," the Shadow derided, a pair of piercing yellow eyes shining through the roiling shadow. Ignoring the shock of having his powers effectively shut down, Ken continued the conversation.
"Why are you so dismissive of humans? You're talking big from someone that does nothing but sit in a cave by themself all day, afraid of the wider world?" Ken mocked, raising an eyebrow with a smirk on his face. Predictably, the being did not take well to being called a coward.
"I am one of the strongest beings on this plane! I can rival the power of the gods themselves in my domain. I have driven out all challengers for my throne with ease. What claim do you have for greatness, a small runt like yourself completely devoid of your own power and mocked by your own race, who only are so advanced because you had to steal power from a god?" The Being demanded, raising itself to its feet with a dreadful loom over Ken.
"Oh, I'm not really the same as the rest of them. I know, that sounds edgy enough to make me want to cringe, but it's the truth. You've called me a pet of the gods, I'm much more accurately described as entertainment for them," Ken began, not phased by a towering shadow beast calling him weak and relying on stolen power. It just severed the connection of a power granted by the gods, comparing a lowly academy student to someone that can do that is just ridiculous.
"I don't even come from the world connected to this one. I'm from another world, where humanity has conquered the planet with nothing but our bodies and our minds. No chakra, no magic, no crutches like that. We had landed on the moon and had sent drones to the planet nearest to ours, with no chakra to our name. If I had lived a full life, I would have seen us put humans onto that planet, and begun to bend that planet to our will as well," Ken said in a wistful tone, running his hand over his mouth.
"But instead, the gods have put me here. In a world that my people had stories of. I know the ending of this world's story, how in the next 25 years the Juubi will be revived by a sore loser who wants to place the world into a neverending illusion. How Kaguya will return to life and attempt to reclaim the Chakra that her eldest son distributed. How she'll be stopped as a result of two Genin humans," Ken continued, voice laced with steel and derision of his own. "And you know what you do? Nothing. You do nothing with all this strength you seem so prideful of. No one will even know your name, and you fall to the wayside of the Toads of Mount Myouboku in the eyes of the world. I came here looking for something to help me make my legend, to rip the story of this world asunder and remake it with the ending that I want for it."
"Instead, I met a fool secured in his power but too cowardly to use it to demand the respect they deserve for it. I think you're right, I'll see myself out," Ken spat with venom, performing an about-face and storming towards the exit of the room, done with whoever or whatever this is. A booming echoing laugh from behind Ken rattled the walls, shaking loose some stones.
"Hahahaha! You amuse me, Human! You've convinced me, some of my brothers' subordinates would be willing to help someone as confident as you. Maybe even some of my own pride would as well. I'm surprised someone like you didn't go to those flying lizards who claim my domain, but I'll take what amusement I can get from this," the voice bellows, a figure striding forth from the shadows as Ken turned around with a frown.
A tiger, fur as black as pitch, came prowling out of the inky shadows. Somehow, the air turned even colder than before, and the dampness returned around Ken. The tiger radiated pure menace and power, a heavy weight settling around Ken's shoulders like a tightening noose as the tiger leaned down and stared through him with piercingly yellow eyes. Desperately trying not to shiver from the frigid chill, Ken snorts and bites his thumb again.
"As I said, I'll see myself out," Ken replies, rushing through the handseals for Summoning to cancel his presence there. Slamming his hands into the ground, Ken breathed a sigh of relief when a moment later he appeared in his classroom surrounded by a cloud of white smoke. Not a soul in sight, Ken took a step down to go exit the class-
A freezing wind ripping through him, Ken let out an involuntary gasp when he found himself back inside the cave with a rather upset tiger.
"Did I say you could leave after I told you that you amused me?" The Tiger asks, raising a brow at the confused human.
"Did I say that you could bring me back here?" Ken shot back, performing the seals again and returning himself to his classroom in another puff of white-
A shocked gasp escaped Ken as he was pulled back into the cave and summarily dumped into freezing cold water. Quickly clambering up the side of the stream he was dropped into, Ken glared up at the tiger with an unamused look.
"I'm becoming less amused by the moment. Let me make something clear, Human, I have claimed you after your little outburst. You have the will I require in a subordinate and the ambition for it to mean something to me. You don't get to ignore or deny me. So sign."
"Are you forcing me to sign a contract with you or else you'll kill me?" Ken asked in slight disbelief, incredulously staring up at the multi-story tiger proffering a scroll with a single claw towards Ken.
"I wouldn't kill you, that wouldn't get me what I wanted and would let you off too easily for the disrespect you so brazenly showed me," the Tiger responds in a cool voice. Ken snorts, snagging the scroll from the tiger's claw it sat on the tip of.
"Finally, you're using your power how it's meant to be used," Ken responds as he opens the scroll to see a field of signature places with nothing filling them. The Tiger looks a bit taken aback by Ken's response, furrowing its brow as it leans in.
"...Why are you reacting positively to me threatening you, Human?" the Tiger asks in a confused voice.
"I specifically criticized you for not using your power to demand that everyone respect you properly? Why would I be a hypocrite and be mad at you for doing that now, especially when I plan on doing the exact same thing in the future?" Ken asks rhetorically, picking a slot and using his already bleeding thumb to cover the rest of his fingers before stamping them. "Now what? And will you please start to use my name?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Human. I'll bother learning your name when you can summon me, in the meantime my Pride will treat you with the respect you earn from them. Now, you may go." the Tiger replies dismissively, and Ken finds himself standing back in his classroom, soaked in freezing water and holding a summoning contract scroll signed in his blood. Blinking a few times from this weird turn of events, he takes a moment to just process it as he stands in his completely normal classroom. His menus popping back up now that he was gone from the Cave for more than a second, Ken chucks the scroll into his Inventory with a sigh.
"...Of course, I would have a summon known for being prideful and vicious. Damnit, how the hell am I going to dry off?" Ken mutters in a defeated tone, looking down at his frame draped in sopping wet clothes.
"Fuck it, I'm in Hi no Kuni, I'll dry off fast enough…" Ken mutters, sitting back down at his seat and setting his head on his desk. "I have the Inuzuka spars after class too… And after that, I need to research assassination techniques…And fix my apartment up…"
A/N
So, little mythology lesson for everyone. In Japanese folklore and mythology, Tigers and Dragons are the lords of both Wind and Water, but Dragons represent the Heavens and Tigers represent Earth. They also represent Summer (Dragons) and Winter (Tigers). They also represent Yin and Yang, quite literally.
Tigers are considered the lords of the Earthly domains, and all those within it. No wonder someone like Ken, who plans on perpetuating war and battle in order to dominate the land while ignoring the heavens would end up going to the Tigers instead
I'm no expert and I've seen some conflicting accounts, but I'm mostly going with a slight bastardization of Chinese celestial tigers and Japanese beliefs for this. Sorry if this upsets anyone, but I really didn't want to throw yet another 'MC summons dragons' fic out there so I went with their counterpart, the Tigers.
Merry Christmas everyone,
-Taldor