AN: I like the speculation in the reviews, good guesses.
Chapter 4
««««««««»»»»»»»»
The rest of the meeting passed by quickly after that. The members of team 8 introduced themselves in more detail and gave a basic description of their skill-set, before Kurenai let them break off and set them to meet again the next morning.
After dodging a curious Shino, Naruto spent the afternoon trying to find the so-called 'Mizuki', only to stop once Observe hit another level up and he realized he'd wasted enough time. It was a bit annoying, but he ended up signing out of the village for the afternoon and leaning against a tree in the thick of the woods west of the village to wait it out. The village was reasonably restrictive on allowing shinobi outside of it for a reason as bland as 'training', but as long as he was back within the month there wouldn't be any search teams. He wouldn't be a day.
He sighed, eye twitching, arms crossed and fingers tapping his arms. One hand empty, the other held a kunai; it was a habit he'd picked up to retain the passive bonuses of the Kenjutsu skill.
This was such a waste of time, it was already dark out, and the light pitter-patter of rain only served to sour his mood further. Rain totally ruined his hair, and the Land of Fire rained way too much lately.
He could be grinding right n-
Snap.
Naruto realized belatedly that he should've leaned against the tree from the other side, when someone dashed into view scarcely an arm-length away. The huge scroll wrapped to the man's back told the blond all he needed to know.
His perception of time slowed notably, a side-effect of focusing with his improved reaction time. The man's silver head of hair turned slowly, eyes portraying confusion, and Naruto smirked. Within barely a moment of real time, he twisted and snapped a kick against the man's ankle, sending him sprawling, staining the man's standard-issue chunin outfit and covering his front in mud.
"Whoops," Naruto muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets. A line of dirt had splashed on the inordinately expensive scroll fastened to the man's back, and he had the good grace to know that wasn't fantastic. Now that he had his culprit in front of him, struggling to his feet, Naruto took a moment to do what he'd been looking to do that entire afternoon.
«Mizuki»
An unskilled chunin with high ambition,
he was easily convinced by Orochimaru's promise of power.
He suspects you're stronger than him, but has a plan.
Mood: Angry, impatient, confused
The blond frowned, that was foreboding.
"H-hey, Naruto, right? Heh…" Mizuki stumbled upright, facing him and inching away. "What are you doing here, kid? I don't know why you tripped me, but-"
He waved off Mizuki's words, cutting him short, and stepped forward. "Hey Mizuki, that's the infamous scroll of seals you're carrying, isn't it?" He illustrated the question with his pointer finger, and Mizuki managed to make himself look even smaller. The man seemed surprised that he knew his name, but he resolutely shook his head. Mizuki wanted to make an excuse, but he could read the situation and Naruto clearly knew what was going on.
He tensed as Mizuki reached a hand back, not grabbing the fuma-shuriken beneath the scroll but keeping his hand ready beside it. "You don't know why, do you?"
Naruto's tilted head spurred him on.
"Why they hate you," Mizuki reiterated, "have you never stopped and thought about it? Never questioned why everyone hates your guts, kid?"
He hummed, content to let the man speak but not to let his guard down. It was true, he'd thought about it. Yamato-sensei had given him an odd look when he'd asked, and he hadn't bothered after that. In fact, he should still be able to find the quest…
«What's in your gut?»
Ever since the day of your birth, you have been hated.
Everyone, it seems, knows why except you.
Requirement:
1. Discover why the older generation holds contempt for you.
Reward:
+?
He never did figure out what the title was referring to. Whatever its meaning is, it had completely evaded him.
"Have you never wondered why nobody has told you? Just why you don't know? It's an S-rank secret, told on pain of death!" Mizuki inched further and further away as he spoke, provoking a tight frown. The blond absorbed the knowledge with a sprinkling of salt but wouldn't let it distract him.
'Does he think I'm blind?' Naruto wondered, eyes watching his movements keenly. He would wait to see if Mizuki would let him complete a second quest today before he swept up the first.
The traitor chuckled languidly, adjusting his posture, and he pulled the shuriken from his back. Naruto tensed, but he merely spun it about his hand.
"What's it like being the kyuubi, kid?"
It was his confusion more than his shock that had Naruto reacting almost too slowly to duck out of the way of the over-sized throwing star. "The what now?"
The miss made the man irritated, but he bore through it. "The kyuubi, the great nine-tailed demon fox! It's sealed in your gut, playing your body like a fiddle! That's why we hate you!"
"While that's… interesting information," Naruto admitted, taking it and locking it down for later, "is that all you had to stop me?"
The man growled, but his bravado was kept in check as he forced himself to leap back while Naruto advanced.
"Orochimaru didn't give you anything? You're just another one of those sacrificial pawns I keep hearing about on TV, huh? I swear, everyone and their mother seems to have a few, but I don't." He scratched his chin with his off-hand, not entirely serious but not really joking.
Mizuki leapt forward with a yell. Clearly, mentioning Orochimaru was a no-go, but that was why he'd said it. Someone as nasty as Orochimaru apparently was probably would've killed Mizuki for revealing his involvement anyway.
If Naruto were just any twelve-year-old ninja-wanna-be, Mizuki's frenzied last-ditch effort would've equated to his death. But then, he wouldn't have found himself in that situation. As it was, he had trained for eight years with a powerful shinobi that knew his tricks and how to counter them. Mizuki was not powerful nor did he know how strong the blond was. He'd been taught that any opening should and would be used to end a fight, and while holding back was the worst possible thing anyone could do, using jutsu that he didn't need to use was a waste.
So he stood and calmly let Mizuki approach.
With a thought, the kunai he held started sparkling with the tell-tale signs of lightning chakra. He'd tested all five natures, and the reaction time bonuses on lightning was the one he decided was important enough to level up back in the day.
The older man was taller and had longer reach, but that meant nothing when Naruto had all of the time in the world to duck his opener, and he smashed his fist into the man's solar plexus with far more force. Stunned and knocked off his feet, Mizuki had no chance to avoid the kunai Naruto tore through his neck with the other hand, crackling harshly with electricity.
He hit the ground dead.
Naruto wasn't worried about executing Mizuki without being explicitly told he could, not when the man had stolen the scroll of seals, apparently revealed an S-class secret, and attacked him.
He tossed the kunai aside and turned the rapidly cooling corpse. After an oddly introspective moment spent watching the rain spread and dilute the growing splash of blood, he stole the scroll from its harness and gave the big thing a twirl. Now he just had to-
He immediately fell to his knees with the worst headache he had ever experienced.
"What the fuck!" he groaned, dropping the scroll to the wayside and clenching his hair painfully. He ached. His voice ached, his head ached, his hands ached with an extremely painful bout of pins and needles, and-
He knew those symptoms.
Shakily, he opened his blurry eyes, face extremely pale, and glared at the hundreds of text-boxes clouding his vision.
«Skill Evolved!»
[Read(MAX)] » [Study(Lv.1)]
«Active»
The Gamer's first skill.
«Skill Evolution Bonus: Promotes greater memory retention.»
No cost.
«Skill Level Up!»
Study
[Lv.1 » Lv.60(MAX)]
«EXP +2950»
«Intelligence +50!»
«Intelligence milestone!»
Intelligence: 150 reached!
Effectiveness of each point raised by 10%(8.5% » 18.5%)!
Increases all passive effects by 5%(15% » 20%)!
He quickly acted to minimize the rest with a global command before he groaned with a heavy frustration. He stared, defeated, at the scroll by his side… which he'd accidentally read.
"Shit…" he smacked his forehead, swore several more times, and slowly sifted through the pop-ups to get through to the ones that were of immediate importance. That he was on his knees in the mud was ignored and forgotten.
«Kill»
«You received 732 EXP»
«Level up!»
[Level 40 reached]
Attribute Points +10! CHK increase!
Quest Complete!
«What's in your gut?»
Well, that's unique.
There's a fox in your gullet.
Requirements:
1. Discover why the older generation holds contempt for you. [Complete]
Reward:
[Skill Identification]
«Skill Identified!»
[?] » [Kyuubi Jinchuuriki]
«Special»
The nine-tailed demon fox is sealed in your stomach.
Chakra modifier: 100%. Chakra regeneration 5%/min. Cures poisoning.
Promotes growth. Promotes healing. Unlocks Mindscape.
There was so much crap to sift through now, and it was late, and he was tired and wet and annoyed and he had to take the scroll back to the village and… Feeling hollow, he picked the scroll up. He somewhat shook off some of the mud both from his legs and the scroll, and watched, further annoyed, as another pop-up streamed in alight in unusually gold letters, the background silver. If he wasn't so suddenly aggravated, he might have been excited to read it, but he was not.
Ascension [1]
«Complete!»
«The Forbidden Scroll»
You luckily intercepted the chunin, killed him,
and read the scroll.
Requirements:
1. Assist Mizuki [-]
2. Kill Mizuki [Complete]
3. Detain Mizuki [-]
4. Steal the scroll for yourself [Complete]
Rewards:
2. «EXP +2500»
4. «Skill Evolution [Observe]»
He clicked his tongue. The reward for 'stealing' the scroll (he'd be kicking himself for that one for a long, long time) sounded potentially incredible, enough that it actually alleviated part of his urge to smack himself. He quickly sorted through the pop-ups, only briefly glancing at the titles, until he found what he was looking for.
«Special Skill Evolved!»
[Observe(MAX)] » [Examine(MAX)]
«Active»
Provides the user with information about the target.
«Skill Evolution Bonus: Provides approximate statistics of a target»
No cost.
His frustration was shoved aside. Even as annoyed, dirty and wet as he was, he was absolutely psyched, mind blazing with the possibilities evoked by finally being able to compare his own numbers to the numbers of others. He had more than one reason to see the hokage, all of a sudden.
«««»»»
Naruto realized he probably made for a foreboding sight, with Mizuki's corpse over his shoulder – held by his left arm – and the large scroll of seals in his right hand. At least, it would explain why he was unaccosted on his way back through the gates and into the village proper. While giving him charged looks of surprise, the guards nonetheless allowed him through the hokage's tower and into his office, despite the time of day.
The doors closed quietly, Naruto thankful that one of the guards from the other side was mindful enough to do it for him. He still hadn't figured out how much force to apply to the large doors set in the hokage's office to open or close them properly, and he momentarily reminisced over an event a year ago where they snapped off their hinges. It was very awkward for him, but the hokage's look of surprise at the time was its own reward and made the spectacle worthwhile.
The office, sans the old man tiredly sending him an inquisitive look, was suspiciously empty for being in a time of duress.
"Uh, hey, Hokage-sama," Naruto attempted a bow, but ended up cringing when he accidentally off-loaded Mizuki onto the floor instead, the man's head bouncing haphazardly when it hit the ground. He'd wrapped up the neck wound with scraps of the man's shirt after the bleeding had slowed down a bit, and it had the fortunate effect of leaving the floor – and himself – relatively clean despite the dead chunin's open wound.
"Uzumaki," the man nodded, not terribly amused at the casual corpse drop. He gestured to the scroll, and an Anbu flashed to Naruto's side to take it.
Naruto, unfortunately, couldn't always control his reflexes. He didn't intend to, didn't even have the chance to think about it, and directly in front of the hokage and smack in the middle of his hidden guards, Naruto abruptly leaned back on one foot and spun back and kicked the Anbu away in an instant, sending the poor man smashing into the wall of the office with a thud. The back of his head hit the wall with a dull crack that echoed far too loudly in the dome-shaped room. Naruto stared, uncomprehending, eyes wide in horror.
All in one moment; the hokage stood, a pair of Anbu appeared to his sides, the doors to the office burst open, and Naruto squeaked, dropping the scroll.
"I-I didn't mean to! I was just surprised!"
Everything seemed unsure for a moment, but everyone slowly relaxed, the doors slowly swung shut, and the pair of Anbu moved to help their comrade and take him to the hospital. One of them carefully, watching him closely, sealed Mizuki's corpse in a scroll and placed both scrolls on the hokage's desk before leaving. Naruto felt awful, but he was cognizant that they could've tried running him through with any variation of blade rightfully in that moment and he was glad to be alive.
As the situation calmed down and the hokage took a moment to examine the scroll, Naruto winced as the man noticed the mud stains. He was given a look, but the complaint wasn't voiced. Somehow, that made it worse. Finally, the hokage placed the scroll down, placated, and cocked his head. His stare was unusually intense.
"You… did not mean to?"
New Quest!
«What… just happened?»
You just annihilated poor Squirrel who was just doing his job.
You're meant to be on their side.
Requirements:
1. Avoid punishment.
Rewards:
+?
He was meant to have notifications universally turned off for the moment, but he'd take that pop-up. He kind of deserved it.
"Yes sir," Naruto bowed deeply, suddenly aware of how dirty and bloody some of his clothes were, particularly the trousers. "I've always had… very good reflexes, and I-"
Facing downwards, he didn't sense the kunai until it whistled beside his ear, moments away from skewering him through the side of his head. In an instant, he twisted sideways and beneath the kunai, body parallel to the ground, and grabbed the projectile with his off-hand, spinning it around the ring finger.
Naruto blinked dumbly at what he had done as he straightened. Now conscious of his actions, he looked down and found that the kunai was blunted.
"…I see," the hokage said.
Quest Complete!
«What… just happened?»
You avoided punishment.
Requirements:
1. Avoid punishment. [Complete]
Rewards:
«EXP +100»
The blond wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to that. He looked blearily in the direction it came from, but saw nothing.
"I suppose Yamato was aware of this?"
"Maybe not," Naruto admitted, rubbing through his hair with his spare hand. "We kind of got used to each other as I grew up, so I don't think he even would've noticed."
In fact, it would be interesting to obser- examine Yamato next time he saw him, now that he could potentially see stats, and see if the man was actually stronger than him or if he was just completely and utterly used to his fighting style. Speaking of, Naruto met the hokage's eyes and used the opportunity to test the newly evolved skill.
«Select»
[Statistic Evaluation] or [Description and Mood]
Naruto picked the left, using his thoughts, something he quickly figured out how to do once he started training around other people.
[Hiruzen Sarutobi]
«Third Hokage»
STR: 185
AGI: 210
INT: 260
CHA: 200
CHK: 5500
The numbers were very high, but lower than he expected. The menu itself was practically a tidied-up variation to his stats menu, clear and concise. The man didn't have a level, but it wouldn't really make sense if he did – Naruto's the one who wields the odd ability to change his body on the fly.
…his own statistics at base value were much, much lower – but his passives boosted him to par where it mattered. It was insane of him to compare himself to the hokage like this, but even more insane that he thought he could match him. He'd never beat the man in a fight, and he'd never fight the man to boot, so it was all a bit pointless to even consider, but… the numbers were nice?
"Perhaps placing you with Kurenai's team isn't where a person with your skills is best suited," the hokage murmured, scratching his chin.
Another popup.
New Quest!
Ascension [2]
«Team 8»
Stay with team 8 and continue the
«Team 8» quest series.
Requirements:
1. Stay with team 8.
Rewards:
+?
He groaned. His ability seemed to be forcing him down a certain path and he didn't know what to make of it.
Ah, well, he'd always been kind of flippant, and he was too lazy after twelve years of following instructions to suddenly strike out on his own path. It would be out of character.
"I'd like to stay with team 8," Naruto said, interrupting whatever the hokage had been rambling about.
The old man seemed somewhat disappointed but seeing at it was his decision to place Naruto with the team originally, he wasn't really displeased.
"Of course," the hokage muttered. "Thank you for dealing with Mizuki and returning the scroll of seals. As embarrassing as it is to say, we hadn't realized it was gone until you brought it back. It was never made a mission, but you'll be credited for performing an A-rank on your profile."
It didn't matter to Naruto, because his ability rewarded him for it anyway. Nonetheless, he nodded his head and knew his dismissal when he heard it, turning towards the doors. Before he took a step however, he paused and turned back.
"Mizuki told me about the kyuubi."
The hokage blinked, surprised but too tired to hide it, and Naruto left.
«««»»»
The next few days passed with him ditching team 8 and compiling information with Examine.
It… really, really revealed a lot of information. The range of strengths between shinobi of equivalent rank, of children, and of civilians – it was all kind of surprising and, in his case, simultaneously uplifting and disappointing.
There was a large variation in the civilian population. Some children were stronger – and many were faster – than many of the adults, while many of the adults were ridiculously more powerful than many of the others, comparatively. He thought, perhaps, he was seeing the difference between people capable of manipulating chakra that never did, and those who couldn't do it in the first place.
The differences in power between different chunin were fairly noticeable too. He'd place the low averages of strength and agility for chunin around the seventies, and the high averages around the start of a hundred.
There weren't many jounin to look at, but the variation seemed much, much bigger. He'd placed fresh jounin to have stats about the same as the stronger chunin, while the strong jounin were very strong. The stronger jounin seemed to be over the one-fifties. However, he'd spied Kakashi, who he'd vaguely been introduced to by Yamato a few years ago, to have stats approaching the level of the hokage. In a way, the hokage himself was a glorified jounin. It psyched him up to find Yamato eventually and check him out.
But…
He scratched his chin.
His own numbers were still the biggest.
«««»»»
While Kurenai insisted on giving him disparaging glances and remarks, the next couple of weeks passed with Naruto lazing around and the genin working on D-ranks while he profited off of it. The first Team 8 quest finished the day before, without really giving him a chance to make friends with any of the members on his team, and he received a pittance of experience from it. Shino stopped by his home at one point – Naruto was quite quick to leave at the end of the day – to ask about the blond's training regime but left discouraged when Naruto admitted he wasn't doing any training at the moment.
All the blond's skills were either at max or close enough to max that it would've taken ridiculous amounts of training for a single level that wasn't all that important. Until he made jounin and got his level cap increased, he'd probably keep enjoying himself. As a side note, he was enjoying watching a lot of television now that he had the time to do so.
…and then, there were those skills. The skills he accidentally received from reading the scrolls, which were all sitting unused at level one. A vast majority of them were fuinjutsu based and didn't necessarily need training – his skills typically put him through the motions correctly, even if not necessarily providing a result fitting of the motions – but he'd made storage seals in the past and even at level one they were formed perfectly.
He didn't know what he'd say, however, if someone caught him using a jutsu that he shouldn't have had access to. It'd be hard to talk himself out of when he'd literally been in possession of the scroll of seals, and that's why he hadn't been training the skills that would benefit. There were a few in particular that while he felt kind of guilty for having them, they would be utterly amazing if he ever used them, like the shadow clone jutsu. He'd been tempted ever since he read its memory retention bonus to leave a couple at home to grind Chakra Manipulation – it levelled incredibly slowly in the fifties – but the thought of being caught halted him.
That wasn't even considering those jutsu, three that, having so much as seen the titles of their pop-ups, left him grinding his teeth and struggling not to pull his hair out. They were all fuinjutsu based but using any of them would fuck everything up.
While brushing his teeth, a familiar ping brought his attention to a swarm of text. He'd only just woken up, so he took a moment to adjust his eyes to the bright silver lettering.
New Quest!
«Team 8 [2]»
Team 8 has passed the minimum requirements
to run a C-rank mission. Convince Kurenai to
let the team take such a mission today.
Requirements:
1. Team 8 accepts C-rank mission.
Time limit: 4 hours.
Rewards:
+Exp
Four hours? Naruto groaned, checking the clock.
«««»»»
Kurenai was rightfully incredulous. Arms crossed and glowering, she seemed mildly threatening. "After refusing to help with training and missions, you think you can just come here and ask me to take fresh genin on a C-rank?"
Naruto raised his hands, palms out, in a placating manner. "Look, I'm sorry about being lazy, but I really need this." He spared a glance to the two genin sitting some ways off to the side, on the stump he'd cut the first day. They seemed curious about the conversation, and could obviously hear it, but he wouldn't get any support out of them when they were also a bit peeved at him. "I'm running out of rent money-" a bold-faced lie, "-and even you have to admit it'd be a good experience for them. We've- you've done the minimum D-ranks to do it now, so…" he lowered his hands awkwardly, aware that he was reaching.
Kurenai kept glaring at him, to Naruto's consternation. After a long, drawn out moment, the woman's glare shifted to a mildly annoyed grimace and she sighed, pursing her lips and uncrossing her arms, one cocked on her hip.
"Fine."
"Yes! Thanks, sensei!"
He saw the smile before she could hide it.
«««»»»
Seeing the hokage when they grabbed missions was always odd to Naruto. It was pretty rare that it happened, but he couldn't fathom how the old man found the time around his presumably many duties. His eyes dashed to the timer on the quest pop-up, less than two minutes remaining, and heaved a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. The hokage gave him a knowing look when Kurenai asked for the mission, which confused him a bit.
Quest Complete!
«Team 8 [2]»
You convinced Kurenai to take a C-rank mission.
Requirements:
1. Team 8 accepts C-rank mission. [Complete]
Rewards:
«EXP +550»
He vaguely listened to Kurenai as she hustled them out of the building and explained the mission parameters, but he was more focused on the silver text that had already replaced the old.
New Quest!
«Team 8 [3]»
Your first C-rank as a member of Team 8.
Your 50th C-rank overall.
Requirements:
1. Complete the mission.
2. Your teammates survive. (Optional)
Rewards:
1. Jounin promotion requirement fulfilled.
2. +? +? +?
"Ohhhh," Naruto muttered. That's why the old man gave him that look. He definitely expected him to apply after the mission, and he doubted that his application would be denied. It would absolutely be fantastic if he raised the level cap on his skills so he could get back to work.
He tuned back in just in time to see Kakashi and his genin team walk by, and to hear Shino complain that his bugs wouldn't enjoy their time in Wave.
«««»»»
AN: Wave is a little bit cliché, but I spent a few days stuck at the end of this chapter and that's what I eventually stuck with. Ordinarily it wouldn't be team 8's problem, but the quest saw an opportunity for action. It'll be quick and different (something I've seen said many times on many stories), but I can promise that. If it somehow ends up being a long arc, it just means a long next chapter.
…Several people guessed, directly and indirectly, that he would learn everything off the scroll, due to that nifty skill mentioned in the story summary. Good shit. The arc after Wave will deal with giving him legitimate access to using them. (It's also probably the most important arc of the fic!)
Stat sheet/skill directory posted as a separate story. [A snapshot of the stats as of this chapter, that is.] Just find it through my profile. It won't show anything that doesn't impact stats that hasn't been shown yet, like the jutsu off the scroll.
Chapter next friday, as usual. Chapter progress always rests on my profile page.