AN: As a side note, the XP gained from kills is affected massively by whether or not the killed individual has higher or lower (base) attributes than Naruto.
Also, holy-shit-500-followers. Damn.
Chapter 5
««««««««»»»»»»»»
The client was honest.
Tazuna seemed like a bit of a drunkard, but he admitted that he fully expected that they would be attacked. By civilians, mind, but he was forthcoming about it. He was quick to expand on the details that had been provided in the mission statement, and Naruto listened with a vague interest. He knew the rest of the team was paying enough attention that he didn't really need to, but…
The walk to the Land of Wave was otherwise very boring.
It was a three-day trip at the client's pace, which meant two days of camping out and hopefully the third in-doors.
It was turning out to be one of those notoriously easy escort missions. Most of it would be spent guarding the construction of a bridge, and they'd go home over it afterwards and probably be back within the day. Tazuna had opted for the cheaper and safer option of providing food and shelter, which meant that the mission would pay a bit less, but they barely needed to pack their own food.
It was, all things considered, a perfect first C-rank for a fresh genin team.
Kurenai placed herself at the back of the diamond-formation, with him at the tip and the genin by the client's sides. She placed a subtle genjutsu over the small group and it had probably saved them from a scuffle or two if Tazuna were to be believed.
The jounin spent most of the trip – they were in the morning of the third day, so far – speaking with the genin and offering basic advice and conversation. Naruto had no idea how she could keep up conversation for so long without running out of topics - it was probably something learned through sheer experience.
That left Tazuna speaking to him for much of the walk.
Speaking of, the man was rather casual about breaking formation and walking by his side, much to Kurenai's chagrin and his own private amusement.
"-that one, eh?"
Zoning out in the middle of the mission wasn't something he should start doing.
Naruto chuckled awkwardly, "sorry, what?"
The man rolled his eyes and waved his booze around in a dramatic motion, snorting.
"Her!" he said, pointing with the bottle to the back of the procession, in the general direction of Kurenai. "How're you, y'know... same team, and she's real pretty."
Catching on, the blond almost chocked on his spit. "Wh-Kurenai? She's like-" he noticed the woman in question glancing over in the corner of his eyes and lowered his tone. Cupping his mouth with his right and leaning over, he gestured the man closer with his other hand. "She's more than twice my age, dude!"
He stumbled and Naruto quickly reached an arm out to stabilize the man.
"What?" he whispered, eyes wide and so surprised that Naruto had to keep urging him forward with an arm he quickly wrapped around the man's shoulders.
"I'm twelve," Naruto whispered conspiratorially, wiggling his eyebrows.
"You're the same age as those pipsqueaks?"
"Uh-huh."
"How did that happen?! What did they feed you?"
Naruto snorted and released the taller man.
"I entered the shinobi program and graduated it when I was four," he answered with a more appropriate volume, figuring that he may as well let that out to everyone. It certainly drew its due attention from Tazuna, the only one he could really see clearly without turning around.
Naruto rolled his eyes and elbowed him lightly in the side, shaking Tazuna out of his daze. "I look older than I am, huh?"
He nodded, giving him an odd look, and took a significant chug out of his alcohol.
"…tell me about that daughter of yours?"
Tazuna spat it all over him.
«««»»»
It was uncomfortable on the other side of the water.
It was a shared sentiment. Mist danced over the landscape, drenching and blinding them. It was cold, small talk went extinct and Tazuna walked stiffly in the middle of the formation.
They were barely off the beach when Kurenai urged Hinata to activate her byakugan. That is to say, they were barely off the beach when they discovered that the mist was infused with chakra.
The byakugan wouldn't be helping, and it was obvious now that Tazuna had more than bandits after him.
Shino's bugs couldn't manoeuvre effectively in fog, and Kurenai's attempts at genjutsu were divested of effectiveness by the chakra circulating the mist. Naruto could shunt the mist aside with enough wind-chakra, but it didn't last long. The team was left with their hearing and little else, but they pushed forwards with Tazuna's guidance, conversing quietly.
Being closer, Hinata heard the whistling first, but Naruto reacted significantly faster.
He dived into Tazuna in an instant, dragging the man down with him. "Down!"
Hinata and Shino fell to the floor and Kurenai leapt back, into the mist.
The whistling passed overhead in less than a second and would have bisected both genin and Tazuna hadn't everyone acted quickly. Naruto caught a glance of the projectile a moment before it thunked – presumably into a tree – just out of vision. It was vaguely familiar, but the mist had gotten far too thick to get a good look in the moment.
"Around the client," Naruto muttered quickly, facing the direction the weapon had flown. "Tighten the formation. Kurenai-sensei's somewhere in the mist, form a triangle." The genin acted quickly. Both were nervous, but neither were eager to get themselves killed and Tazuna wisely kept himself silent. The blond couldn't afford to give the man a glance, but he assumed he was terrified.
He heard creaking ahead of him, immediately assumed it to be the weapon being dislodged, and shot both hands forward.
"Brace!"
«««»»»
Zabuza could sense the group before he saw them.
The squad and their client appeared out of nowhere amidst his mist, a product of the genjutsu cancelling nature of the jutsu. It made sense why the demon brothers had seemed to miss them.
It was a real shame that the mission was accepted by what seemed in part to be a genin team instead of a pair of chunin. The latter would have been easily dealt with. A jounin could be a real problem and having the tough looking chunin as a secondary concern wouldn't help matters. If the demon brothers hadn't insisted that nobody had made it passed them and stayed in their spot, it would've been nice to have their support. Haku was well-trained, but hesitant to help in an assassination mission.
As it was, he didn't recognize the jounin and that could only mean she was new or insignificant. Zabuza was most certainly not new or insignificant, and so he held full confidence that he could murder all of them.
First, of course, was the tried-and-true method of starting the fight by aiming a hit at the client. He would save everyone some trouble if the old man died first, and he wasn't interested in any bounties. Nobody he could see was in the bingo book.
It was refreshing, in a way, to be fighting some weaklings again. Just like it used to be back in Kiri, every other mission.
Carefully controlling his breathing, as he was well-versed in, he dashed in close through the mist and threw kubikiribocho with a silent roar of exertion and dashed around the group.
They didn't hear him, but he grumbled noiselessly when he heard what he assumed to be the chunin barking orders nearly instantaneously. His ears twitched, hearing footsteps and feeling one of the shinobi within his mist backing away from the group. That was interesting, but he couldn't be ambushed in this situation.
Zabuza had complete control here. His mist sensed everything, and he gave away nothing.
The tree he'd thrown towards was easy to find, and he quickly retrieved the zanbato, tensing and cringing inwardly at the creaking of the bark as he removed it.
"Brace!"
The announcement accompanied by the screeching of powerful wind manipulation had him diving behind his sword for cover and spinning through handsigns.
The mist cleared in an absurd rate, and the fierce pounding bellows of wind had him sweating with the exertion it took to stay upright and rooted in place.
"What kind of monster…"
«««»»»
The fog in front of him gave way to the twin ear-splitting roars of a pair of advanced Gale Palms. The pressure of the blast cleared all of the immediate area of mist – at least temporarily – and sent him skidding back harshly enough that Shino had to keep him from bowling into the client.
Naruto gave the boy a wink and moved back into place, observing the destruction wrought by a slice of his chakra that had already regenerated.
He hadn't been able to see it previously, but thick woods decorated each side of the dirt road, and where he assumed trees had been, half a dozen stumps lay uprooted and strewn about the brutalized landscape. That wasn't what drew his gaze, however.
[?]
«Demon of the Hidden Mist»
STR: 180
AGI: 170
INT: 110
CHA: 70
CHK: 4400
He pulled something from one of his vest pockets and tossed it to Shino, who caught it without a word.
"Bingo book, look for him. Hinata, get that byakugan back up and cover both your sides. Figure out where Kurenai went." He heard the genin doing just that as he kept his gaze locked on the tall, muscular man casually wielding a sword larger than Naruto himself and probably just as heavy.
The sword – a cleaver with two large holes decorating its center along the inner and outer quartiles – appeared scuffed up; dirty, dented and scratched. It would explain how the man avoided his Gale Palm.
Shino found it. "A-ranked missing nin, Zabuza Mo-"
He glanced away for a moment, and that's when he saw the movement in the corner of his eyes. In the time it took to turn back, Zabuza had already crossed the distance with a manic smirk decorating his face. The man didn't say anything; he didn't need to.
The cleaver swung horizontally, as fast as he could track with his eyes.
Without even bothering to consider his options, Naruto's arm snapped outwards reflexively. The top half of the man fell over, the arms equally bisected, before the figure and the sword splashed harmlessly against the path in a pool of water.
"Woo," Naruto shuddered, "that was close." He quickly pulled a kunai from his pouch and lit it up with chakra. Kenjutsu for the AGI and reflex boost, Lightning for another reflex boost.
Just like that, his perception thickened dramatically, and he had no problem twisting on his foot and bisecting waist-to-shoulder the second of Zabuza's clones when it appeared in their midst.
Hinata gesturing to the tree-line behind them caught his gaze and he watched as Kurenai leapt from the foliage towards them, someone about his own age sitting unconscious and tied up in her arms.
The figure wore the mask of a Kirigakure hunter ninja, but the rest of the outfit didn't match.
Hinata gave a word of warning, and Kurenai leapt aside as Zabuza dashed from the remainders of the mist, cleaving through where she had been. She dropped the kid and quickly began spinning through hand-seals, but the zanbato spun towards her too quickly and she was forced to abandon the jutsu and leap back immediately, her back reaching the borders of the mist that had recovered around the group. She was at least twenty feet away.
At that moment, 'Zabuza' collapsed into a puddle of water – Naruto assumed Shino's bugs must've had something to do with it – and the blond was suddenly grasped with a sense of panic. Fights between shinobi never lasted long and this one just reached its apex.
«Buff Applied»
[Adrenaline]
For the rest of the fight:
STR/AGI: +15%, Reaction time: -10%
Even as he began moving, he popped open his character sheet and assigned the stats he'd gotten from the last level up weeks ago into his combat stats, and raced toward Kurenai as she spun, too slowly, towards the figure behind her in the mist.
«Strength milestone!»
Strength: 100 reached!
Effectiveness of each point raised by 5%(7% » 12%)!
Chakra increased by 200!
«Agility milestone!»
Agility: 100 reached!
Effectiveness of each point raised by 5%(7% » 12%)!
Reaction time decreased by 3%!
«Synergy milestone!»
Both Strength and Agility: 100 reached!
Effectiveness of each point raised by 5%(12% » 17%)!
«Synergy milestone!»
Both Strength and Intelligence: 100 reached!
Chakra increased by 400.
Chakra regeneration increased by 1%/min.
First step. He resolutely ignored the pings of the UI and the beginning of shouts from behind, but something nagged him.
He was moving too slowly.
Well, that wasn't quite right. He was moving very fast, he could feel the air fighting against his skin and the pressure in his legs, even as his muscles were relaxing, growing and shifting into place as his body employed his stat points. It was different, though.
Spurred on by the moment of thought, he focused and quickly realized why it was suddenly different. Quickly running calculations through his head, something that came as easily as ever; he calculated his reaction time with adrenaline at just under four percent.
But fast reflexes shouldn't equate to a slowed perception of time.
Until it does, and he's reacting in real-time to events more than twenty-times faster than they happen.
It wasn't that he hadn't noticed the effect before, it just hadn't been as pronounced. The effect grew exponentially and became significantly more effective as the number approached zero.
Zabuza was already swinging and Kurenai was too slow to react.
His heart felt like it was beating in real time, thumping in his chest rhythmically.
Second step. Kurenai twisted away from the blow, earning herself a fraction of a second.
With Kenjutsu and [Adrenaline] applied, his agility was over three hundred and ten, double of Kurenai's and approaching double for Zabuza. They were not slow individuals.
The third step sent him the last half of the distance in an instant.
The smirk that had settled over Zabuza's face, the man stepping out of the mist with his strike, was immediately swept aside by confusion. He was less than a second from bisecting the jounin when Naruto, seemingly appearing from nowhere, pushed the woman aside and clashed an intensely bright kunai with his zanbato, both of the weapons audibly cracking. The missing nin failed to keep his footing in his surprise, and his legs slipped forward as he fell back from the supernatural momentum behind the one-handed blow.
Naruto, with the confidence born of having performed the manoeuvre before, stepped forward into the mist and brought his crackling blade around for the finisher.
He saw, in slow motion, as someone appeared beside him. They were shorter than him, but it wasn't any of his teammates. They were also too late to stop him. In fact, they didn't pull out any weapons. He vaguely recognized them as the one Kurenai had seemingly incapacitated.
Instead, they stood in the minuscule space between him and Zabuza, skin-tight against the missing nin. While Zabuza was falling, their necks just-so-happened to align.
Naruto didn't hesitate. He had all of the time in the world to consider what was happening, and the kid's appearance between them only cemented that this Zabuza wasn't a clone.
The kid was raising his arms, quickly too, probably thinking that the kunai would – at worst – lose enough of the momentum it needed to kill him from going through the extra limbs. Naruto disregarded the notion by finishing his swing within the instant it took for Zabuza to realize what had happened.
«Kill»
«You received 1132 EXP!»
Zabuza struck the ground and coughed blood, the kid – it might've been a girl? – having partially forced his swing short. It was still a lethal blow, and Naruto cringed inwardly at the missing nin's fleshy choking. With little fanfare, he flicked the scratched-up kunai downwards and it ran straight through the one of the man's eyes and into his head, whistling with a burst of wind chakra.
A bundle of textboxes intruded into his sight.
«Kill»
«You received 14014 EXP!»
«Level up!»
[Level 41 reached]
Attribute Points +5! CHK increase!
«Level up!»
[Level 42 reached]
Attribute Points +5! CHK increase!
«Level up!»
[Level 43 reached]
Attribute Points +5! CHK increase!
He quickly dismissed them and ignored it. Attribute points weren't something he needed to spend right away.
The girl was obviously dead, missing a head, and so he quickly stole a couple scrolls from his vest and sealed them up, taking care to place the sword in a separate scroll. After seeing it up close, he was reasonably sure it was one of Kiri's special weapons. Read - or study? - was useful for more than just gaining skills.
He tensed when a hand landed on his shoulder but forced himself to relax. He'd learned from his 'episode' in the hokage's office.
"Thank you."
"A-ah, it was nothing, sensei. I was just doing my job."
He turned around in time to see Kurenai nodding her head.
"This is your last C-rank before jounin, isn't it?"
Naruto blinked.
She chuckled languidly, crossing her arms. "I made the assumption when the hokage gave you that wink when we picked up the mission."
"He winked at me?"
Kurenai shook her head, "but he may as well have. I'll give my recommendation when you apply, you've earned it."
Naruto grinned and gave his thanks, before the two strode back to the rest of the team and the client. Bereft of its source, the mist was quickly being washed away by the wind, and they quickly acted to make it to the client's home so everyone could catch some rest. Hinata and Shino stared at him like he was a different person throughout, and it was admittedly nice to have a bit of that same-age-chunin hero-worship back.
«««»»»
Tazuna's home was close to the bridge, reasonably large and comfortable. He introduced them to his family and told a lavish story of the attack, prompting them to thank the shinobi profusely. Afterwards, they were left to their own devices as the family prepared the evening meal. It had been delicious to the team, after days of tasteless rations.
"Did you say you were an Uzumaki?"
"Ah?" Naruto shook himself awake, blinking. He'd been sat on their couch and watching TV when he let his thoughts distract him. "Yeah, not something to lie about. What's up?"
Tazuna plumped himself on the couch with a content sigh, alcohol in hand. "I thought somethin' about that was odd, but it didn't hit me till we got home. Ever been to Uzushiogakure?"
It sounded familiar, but he might just be thinking of his own name. "Uzu-what now?"
Ascension [2]
«Complete!»
«Team 8»
You stayed with Team 8.
Requirement:
1. Stay with team 8. [Complete]
Reward:
[Special Skill]
«Skill Discovered!»
[Uzumaki Heritage]
«Special»
You hail from an advanced, illustrious civilisation.
Fuinjutsu is so prominent in the history of the Uzumaki,
that it is unheard of for one to make error in the art.
Fuinjutsu skills will always be performed perfectly.
The odd quirk of the quest completing aside, doesn't that skill mean that even half-drawn seals would-
Ascension [3]
«Uzushiogakure»
Jounin, the rare and elite of shinobi,
are given many privileges. As an example,
they may easily take extended leave.
Requirements:
1. Achieve Jounin Promotion
2. Visit Uzushiogakure.
3. ?
4. ?
Rewards:
+? +? +? +? +? +? +? +? +? +? +? +?
Tazuna yawned, the late hour combined with his exciting morning doing him in. "It's just across th' water, you could see it just outside if you really wanted. I mean, I don't know why you'd want to, it's been a wreck for… almost thirty years?" He rolled his eyes and pulled himself off the couch, shaking his head when he almost stumbled. "Forget it, I'm rambling. Too much to drink. Today was scary. Sleepy time."
The man kept speaking, mostly mundane brainless chatter, and left the room to presumably see himself to bed.
Meanwhile, Naruto was wondering how something so huge had escaped his notice when he'd absorbed books like a child does candy.
First off, he never even considered that he had that special skill, for one. It made sense that the skill from the kyuubi would pop-up because he had a big ass bonus on his chakra – in fact, he was beginning to think that there might be dozens of invisible skills just hiding there, giving him an edge he doesn't even know he has, that he might not have even considered was something unusual.
He flicked off the TV and rubbed his eyes with his off-hand. The light of day had waned, and the windows offered him nothing but starlight. With the television off, that left him in the dark. It was easier to think that way.
The skill insinuated that he had a bloodline, maybe even a clan. That the village was called Uzushiogakure – the quest verified that for him, so it wasn't just an old man's drunken rambling – kind of seemed derived from Uzumaki. That the quest was so clearly, obviously pushing the issue, trying to make him visit with a bigger list of rewards than he'd ever seen by a long shot was very, very suspicious, and he was hit with the thought that this was dangerously important.
It explained Ascension [2]'s sudden appearance. The quest that had him telling the hokage that he wanted to stay in Team 8 was abrupt and strange, and now – with its equally abrupt end – it was obviously planned for this conclusion. Why it was practically begging him to visit Uzushio; he hadn't the slightest idea. That he happened to 'discover' an important skill in doing so, gave him the inkling that the skill would be very important later.
He'd asked about his parents, once, to no avail.
Strangely enough, it was one of the few things he had considered important that his ability never generated a quest for.
«««»»»
Sleep that night was fitful and his dreams disturbed.
First, he dreamt of destruction; of war. There was… only one enemy? An individual, powerful beyond measure. Homes were annihilated and futures crushed. Of all things, he then dreamt of drawing. Visions assaulted him of stress, ink and blood. Of success and vindication. There was death - so much death - but it was followed by hope and then grim satisfaction.
Whatever it was, that he dreamed; it was of a slow success bought through a great sacrifice.
But after that, it was undone. Deceit. They were now the enemy. There was… nothing left.
He remembered only glimpses when he woke; but he remembered how it felt, and his mind caught onto an idea that he'd really rather it not.
«««»»»
The next few weeks passed by relatively smoothly. The dreams – or visions, maybe? – continued, but they were sporadic and equally senseless.
The bridge was built slowly and meticulously. Rather, that's what Tazuna would have them believe. By the end it was almost like the entire thing had been propped up overnight.
Some time after the first week of construction, a mob had tried to bother the builders. A group of scarred, young to middle-aged men with an array of almost-weapons happened upon the bridge, harassing the workers and apparently trying to put a stop to their work. It was rather in vain when they apparently fell onto their faces, conked out courtesy of genjutsu. Hearing that was one of the few moments that Naruto looked back and wished he'd invested time into genjutsu. They were few because he would've had even less time for more important things like missions, but that was not the reason he wouldn't bother Kurenai with asking. He had a lot on his plate at the moment to be doing instead.
Kurenai had the genin training a bit while Naruto watched the construction, and he had days off 'guarding' the family when they swapped. It was deathly boring, and the thought of visiting Uzushio – which he could indeed see on the edge of the horizon from Tazuna's home – was wrangling with his sense of duty.
That's why he was so eager to leave the morning that construction was complete. It took away his chance to do something he'd inevitably regret.
"We need a name for this bridge…"
He resolutely ignored Tazuna's prodding and urged the rest of the team to leave quickly. He wasn't the only one wasting away in Wave, and Kurenai lead them over the bridge in short order.
«Achievement!»
The Great Naruto Bridge!
A landmark, connecting two countries, was named after you.
+10 Charisma
He smacked his forehead and groaned, steadily ignoring the curious glances he received in doing so.
Quest Complete!
«Team 8 [3]»
Team 8's first C-rank complete
You've fulfilled your final jounin requirement.
Requirements:
1. Complete the mission. [Complete]
2. Your teammates survive. [3/3]
Rewards:
1. Jounin promotion requirement fulfilled.
2. +15 Charisma
«Charisma milestone!»
Charisma: 50 reached!
Effectiveness of each point raised by +2.5% (1% » 3.5%)!
Your outward countenance is easier to take seriously.
«Synergy milestone!»
Both Charisma and Intelligence: 50 reached!
You reactively shift your posture,
so it seems that you know what you're doing.
…that was just weird, he thought, as he subtly straightened his back. Maybe Charisma was something else the game was desperately trying to push on him all of a sudden?
«««»»»
When they returned to the Leaf later that evening, tired and hungry, Kurenai sent the genin home. She gave Naruto a look, and he gave her the scrolls containing the deceased. After beckoning him to follow, the two made their way to the administration facility, where Kurenai left to do the paperwork in regard to the mission and waved Naruto off to the promotions desk.
It was late enough that the area was empty except for the chunin resting his head in his arms, eyes unfocused and clearly bored out of his mind.
Naruto walked up without fanfare. "Yo."
The teen's arms promptly slipped, and he banged his head smack on the desk. "Wh- shit!" he rubbed his forehead tiredly, shooting the blond a half-hearted glare. "What do ya need?" His voice was bland.
"I want to book an exam."
"Jounin?" the boy asked, adopting a professional vibe as he swung in his chair with the air of someone who'd already done it a thousand times. He tapped away on a keyboard for a moment, before glancing back at the blond. "Ninja registration number?"
"012293," Naruto said.
The desk-worker shook his head lightly as he typed it in. "I thought I graduated early…" he muttered. He shifted to the mouse and after a couple clicks; his eyes widened. It was almost as expressive as when he hit his head on the desk. "U-uh, you're already booked… by the hokage. Usually you would be waiting for… well," he shot him a glance, "nevermind. Your venue is the hokage's office at 0900 tomorrow, good luck man."
«««»»»
While everything seemed to be going along inordinately quickly, Naruto didn't care for it to slow down. After almost a month of addled sleep and waking up confused and disoriented, he was more than eager to figure out what the hell was going on. Slowly, the dreams were coming together, the fragments finding their whole, and it was quickly painting a stark picture that he urgently wanted to look into.
He came to his senses when the thick doors of the hokage's office creaked to a close behind him.
"Hokage-sama." He bowed lightly, respectfully, until the old man waved it off.
"Naruto."
That was different. Usually the old man used his family name.
"What's on your mind?"
"Ah?"
He paused and glanced around the office. He had his wits about him to realize that there was nowhere for him to sit and take a written test, which he'd heard was part of the jounin exams. It was to show proof of required knowledge, which was quite a lot of knowledge when it comes to that particular promotion. If he wasn't here for that, then...?
The hokage asked him a question and he should probably answer honestly.
"Uzushiogakure."
To his credit, the hokage seemed utterly unsurprised. "It feels far too soon," the man muttered beneath his breath, chuckling briefly. He stole something from his desk and stood up, Naruto straightening reflexively, and threw a scroll. He caught it easily.
"It's a mission statement," he said, answering the blond's curious gaze. "You'll need it to leave the village for as long as you'll be gone."
"What do you mean, Hokage-sama?"
For the first time in a long while, Naruto was earnestly confused. He had no idea what was happening.
The old man sat back down and clicked his fingers. "Sit."
An Anbu - Squirrel, he realized - holding a chair moved to Naruto's side, cautiously slow, and placed it for the blond to sit. He did so quickly. The wooden seat was stiff and uncomfortable, but liveable.
"What do you know of Minato Namikaze?"
…that was out of the blue. "I know he was the fourth hokage, that's about it." Even while he said it, something within him told him he was lying. He couldn't place why, but something in the back of his mind stirred in irritation.
The hokage nodded slowly. "He was a powerful man, very powerful. An orphan, his family were mere civilians. It is beyond impressive for an individual with such humble beginnings to grow as he did."
While it didn't seem particularly important, Naruto nodded and listened. He absorbed the information given, even if it wasn't terribly necessary.
"They say – and I know this to be fact – that he could appear before even a team of sensors, and kill them all, one-by-one, before any of them even realized they were fighting. He was a seal master approaching the level of the second hokage himself, even as a teenager, and created jutsu with a proficiency he had no business owning. Even in my prime, he would have run circles around me, and I would have been struck down in an instant. He was fast, with reflexes beyond human possibility and as intelligent as none could hope to match."
The old man, wistful, smiled. "I believe, of everything, it was only his skill in fuinjutsu and picking his woman that was natural. You should know that you two are very alike."
Naruto was inexplicibly uncomfortable. "I'm not sure I follow…"
"Hmm? You're not the only one to act on a mistaken impulse to attack a poor sod for surprising you, Naruto. I'm sure you understand what I'm insinuating, but you refuse to acknowledge it. Nonetheless, you were here for a different reason…" Naruto watched on awkwardly as the man opened one of the draws in his desk and shuffled about, the trinkets clattering within the space of the desk echoing loudly within the domed room. With a quiet "ah-hah!" the hokage withdrew a small, pocket sized card and walked around the desk.
"This is yours."
Naruto stood, vaguely aware of what he was being handed even before he took it and he glanced at the card when he had it.
Naruto Uzumaki
Rank: Jounin
NRN: 012293
The ID card retained the picture he took as a fresh chunin five years earlier, his own younger gaze staring directly at him, and a long serial number ran along the underside of the card.
"I…"
The hokage clapped him on the shoulders, causing the blond to look up, meeting his gaze.
"It's good to have you, Naruto. I'm sure you'll be a grand example to the rest of your generation."
"…right."
«Class Upgrade!»
[Chunin » Jounin]
[Max Level [User/Skills]: 60 » Max Level [User/Skills]: 80]
«Achievement!»
Jounin!
You've ascended the ranks to the top.
You're now an elite shinobi, with all the privileges it comes with.
25% of the experience earned over the previous level cap will now be rewarded.
+10 Charisma
Dozens upon dozens of pop-ups assaulted him in the next moment, detailing ridiculous amounts of levels in skills and the experience gain associated, which he quickly acted to minimize. He was immensely grateful for the free experience – 25% isn't much, but some skills have been maxed for years and used passively, like Chakra Enhancement - but that was all for later.
"Thank you, hokage-sama." He bowed his head, and after receiving a nod back, made to leave the room.
He cringed inwardly when he pulled lightly on the doors and they crashed harshly against the walls of the office, cracking audibly, while he sped up his pace and studiously ignored several annoyed exclamations. On the spur of the moment, he'd forgotten that he'd spontaneously gotten stronger within the last few seconds.
Whoops.
Leaving the tower, he slipped the new ID into his pocket and realized he was still clutching the scroll the hokage had given him. After a moment of contemplation, he unrolled it and gazed at the header.
Land of Whirlpools: Survey [C-rank]
…why the old man even bothered pretending he wasn't omniscient, Naruto didn't know.
«««»»»
AN: This was a longer chapter, and a lot was done. Doesn't quite have the quality of the others, but plot is moving quickly, and Wave doesn't seem so strange to have happened.
You might have noticed that the fights don't last long, but when every move is made to kill, they typically don't tend to – at least not with such a large disparity in ability.
Ascendance: Character Sheet should have the second chapter out now, detailing Naruto's stats by the end of this chapter. It's not terribly important, but it's there for you to have a squiz at.
Next chapter next Friday, as usual. It's already half-done, but it's the kind of chapter that needs a bit of research, a lot of making stuff up, and maybe a redo or two.