'He knew we were here all along.' Shikamaru clicked his tongue, he thought he might have already with that comment about 'wasting everyone's time', but this just confirmed it. The question though, was just how long had had known they were.

How troublesome.

There really wasn't anything Team Ten could do but obey, well, they could try to flee, but, it was blatantly obvious how that would turn out for them.

So, they did as bid, standing up from between the bushes and revealing themselves, "Ah, hey Daiki," Shikamaru greeted him, hiding a grimace, while his mind raced making and discarding plans by the second, "Long time no see."

"Yeah, yeah, you're lookin' great!" Choji nodded vigorously, "You're lookin' tougher than ever!" he praised.

Daiki raised an eyebrow at their reactions, "Cloud, Chip," he nodded at Shikamaru and Choji in greeting before his eyes moved over to Ino, "Five out of ten." he greeted her as well.

Shikamaru and Choji took the names on the nose.

Ino however-

"Five out of ten!?" she sputtered, jade-like teal eyes widening in outrage, her hand coming up to point at him accusatorily, "I am at least an eight!"

"Nah, on my personal scale that only attractive girls are on, you only rank a five," Daiki shrugged, "So what brings you guys this way? Hoping to ambush someone for one of these?" he asked as Ino fumed, spinning the Earth Scroll he took from Amaya just a bit go and balancing it on one fingertip.

Once again, Shikamaru's eyes widened, 'That could be a throw away but…' he swallowed, "How did you know we already have a Heaven Scroll?" the Nara heir asked.

Daiki smirked, "Figured you'd catch on," he mused, before pointing to his scarlet red eyes, "Simple really, I watched every single team get their scrolls."

Wait, scarlet red eyes?

"Your eyes, they used to be brown." he noted, "A doujutsu?" perhaps something like the Byakugan that could see through solid objects and long distances?

"Something like that," Daiki shrugged, and Shikamaru bit his tongue. Wasn't he supposed to be an orphan, was he really from some clan in the end? "Anyway, three on one, you guys wanna try your luck?" he spun the scroll atop his finger and invited them to attack.

"No…no, we're good!" Choji quickly waved his hands, "We can't you know, steal a scroll from another Konoha team, that wouldn't be…cool, yeah."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be cool at all," Shikamaru agreed, praising Choji mentally, "You need that to pass and all, right, unless you started with an Earth Scroll as well?"

"Nope, I started with a Heaven Scroll as well," Daiki shrugged, "Though not that I need this at all, I've already long since finished this test, finished it within forty minutes, I'm just shooting the breeze out here and seeing if I can find anyone interesting to fight."

"You…you what?" Shikamaru just stared at the muscular boy, while his teammates gaped. He'd already passed, and so quickly? Going by that time, he was probably the first to pass at all.

Yet he was still out here? Was that even allowed? Well, considering he was here, it must have been. They wouldn't have let him back out otherwise.

This was way outside his calculations. And he basically just invited them to attack him a moment ago.

He needed to de-escalate!

And quick.

"Well, we wouldn't exactly be a challenge to you," Shikamaru gave a forced laugh, "Not with what we just saw you do, you totally destroyed that rain team, and that Amaya guy is the student of some big shot of Rain, second only to their Kage, not the kind of person we could tango with unlike you."

Daiki snorted, "That's not as impressive as you think, that guy was trash, as is his sensei," he retorted, "Hell, one of their strongest Jonin is a traitor from our village called Aoi, yet, he's barely even qualified to be called a Jonin. The only strong guy the Hidden Rain have at all, is Hanzo The Salamander, none of the rest are worth talking about."

No, no, the fact he considered someone at the level of a Jonin, even if barely by his words, as trash, was enough for them. They'd get destroyed by a seasoned chunin, never mind a Jonin.

He sure did know quite a bit about the Rain Village though, 'What did he do to that guy Amaya before killing him?' Shikamaru wondered briefly, he'd just looked him in the eye before the guy started screaming.

A genjutsu perhaps? But no, Daiki had wanted information and was fine with him not telling, not even fussed in the end. 'Do those eyes let him read peoples minds? Like the Yamanaka Clan techniques?'

Either way, whatever it did, wasn't pleasant. He didn't want to end up in that guys place.

He never got the chance to respond.

Because-

"So you don't need it then?" Ino perked up and smiled widely at Daiki, hopping over the bushes and stopping in front of him, "That's really cool, you're really as strong as Kabuto claimed you were, stronger even, maybe even as strong as Sasuke-kun!"

What was that idiot blonde doing?!

Daiki snorted, "Almost as strong as Sasuke? Sorry to burst your bubble blondie, but Sasuke isn't even close to as strong as me," he crossed his arms. Ino's mouth dropped open, before pulling up into a scowl, but Daiki cut her off before she could reply, "There's no boasting about that fact, it's just cold hard logic and results. I spar with Sasuke all the damn time, have been doing so for four months now, twice a week at least, he's not beaten me once sine we graduated."

"No way….!" Ino gaped at the boy, "Then Sasuke's only the second best Genin in the village now?"

Again, Daiki snorted, "Not even close," he laughed, "One of the Nidaime Hokage's students has refused being promoted for decades, he's easily as powerful as a top tier jonin, he's the second strongest genin in this village behind me, then third is either Neji Hyuga or Rock Lee, could go either way. Sasuke is around fifth best, maybe sixth, I'd give quite good odds on Tenten, the teammate of Neji and Lee beating him."

"S-sixth?" Ino staggered back, looking like her entire world had been shattered around her.

How annoyingly dramatic and troublesome of her, females were such a pain.

But, Daiki revealed something there. A top tier jonin level combatant and former student of the Nidaime Hokage, that guy had to be in his fifties at least, with decades of experience, yet Daiki so casually claimed he was stronger than him.

And just the casual way he said it, no bragging or boasting in it, as if it were just mere fact, told Shikamaru it was the truth.

"For reference, Naruto is about the seventh strongest genin," Daiki helpfully added, "He's not that far off of being as strong as Sasuke now."

'Seriously!?' Shikamaru gaped.

"…Really?" Choji blinked and asked, surprised as the Nara was.

That statement allowed Ino to recover from her shock, "Okay now I know you're talking bullshit!" the Yamanaka glared at Daiki, "There's no way the deadlast is stronger than us, and definitely not nearly as strong as Sasuke."

"Naruto's always been stronger than you three," Daiki replied with an uncaring shrug, "He's just way stronger now. Have you forgotten who's team he's on? He's Sasuke's main sparring partner, they train together every day, and idiot he may be but unlike you guys, he trains himself into the dirt every damn day."

"But…but! No he doesn't! That idiot always skipped class and never trained!" Ino refused to believe Daiki's words.

Shikamaru wasn't so sure though. Naruto was an idiot for sure, but there was something about the guy…

"He skipped because nobody taught him right until Iruka-sensei, he didn't just run around doing pranks when he wasn't there you know," Daiki pointed out, "He did that a lot sure, but he was training himself every damn day outside of the academy as well. Hell, the only reason he wasn't a genin a year and a half ago when he tried to test out the first time is because he failed the clone jutsu, he passed everything else."

When he said it like that, it made a lot of sense. The thing about Naruto though, was that, in the academy, when it came to sparring, ninety percent of the time, he was always paired with Sasuke and got his butt kicked.

…That was the best they knew of his live combat abilities. And not something really to base his fighting ability on really considering Sasuke was heads and shoulders above everyone in class barring Daiki apparently.

Not to mention, that one line there.

'Nobody taught him right until Iruka-sensei.'

Shikamaru's suspicions rose. The hate Naruto got around the village was so weird, he was an idiot and annoying at times, but nothing that should have deserved hate like that. And the way Daiki said it, it implied sabotage.

…And Mizuki-sensei handled a lot of Naruto's teaching as well, he joined the academy as their teacher only a couple months after Iruka-sensei.

Mizuki-sensei, who had mysteriously disappeared after graduation.

Something was seriously, seriously off here about Naruto. But, nothing he could do about right now, he'd just need to think on it later.

"I…I don't think I've ever been so insulted," Ino muttered, a haunted look on her face, "A mere five out of ten and now even the dead last is apparently way more stronger and useful than me? Am I in a crazy genjutsu?"

Really, she was still focused on that?!

"No, this is reality," Daiki refuted, "And five out of ten is a good thing, you should be proud. It's a score on my personal hot-meter, everyone on it is already beyond the normal, so in reality your five above a standatd ten out of ten."

"Really!?" Ino perked up almost instantly, before pumping her fist into the air, "Hell yeah! I knew I was a super hottie!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. What an idiot.

"Wait!" the blonde paused, "What about Sakura?"

"Three out of ten." Daiki shrugged.

And he seriously answered? What was his life man? What a drag.

"Ha! Suck it Sakura!" Ino pumped both fists into the air this time, shouting victoriously, "So you do think I'm hot then?" she grinned at Daiki.

"And water is wet and the floor is made of floor," he rolled his eyes at her, "Yes, you're gorgeous, what about it?"

Ino was caught entirely flat footed, cheeks tinting red and the girl utterly avoiding Daiki's gaze.

….Seriously?

That was all it took to shut her up? It was that easy?

'No, it's probably cuz' Daiki's all muscled up and hot to her now, what did she call him, a beefcake?' Shikamaru cringed just thinking of that description.

Not that he'd ever bother calling a troublesome blonde like Ino gorgeous.

Amusing though, first he'd seen her like this. She sure could talk the talk, but when it came to walking the walk, looked like Ino couldn't make the cut.

When she said nothing to Daiki's compliment, the boy just shrugged, "Well, whatever," he spoke and flicked his finger, the scroll on top of it shooting through the air towards Ino, "I think I'll call it quits here."

Ino hurriedly caught the scroll and there was a shimmer of wind and leaves around him, the muscular genin disappearing from view with what looked like a shunshin.

Then Ino gave an 'eep' and jumped, her face turning crimson and steaming with heat.

"Ino…?" Choji asked, confused at her reaction and Shikamaru was right there with him, they should be celebrating, they got out of this crazy situation without fighting Daiki and he just gave them the scroll, it was a win win!

A win win win really since they didn't need to put in any effort to getting the scroll.

"….He pinched my butt." Shikamaru's eyebrows rose at Ino's muttered response.

Oh, so he was a perv then, okay, whatever.

"Also…weird, I recovered a ton of chakra when he did it as well," Ino looked up to look Shikamaru in the face, "…I think he transferred me some chakra when he felt me up."

That opened up so many more questions.

So Daiki could transfer chakra somehow. On top of that, he either had some crazy ass hearing and heard them when Ino was saying how low on chakra she was earlier, or he was a sensor that could sense chakra like Ino…or that new doujutsu of his let him see chakra.

That dude was one big question mark now.

How annoyingly troublesome.

After leaving Team Ten behind, Daiki made a beeline for the tower in the middle of the forest.

There really wasn't anything left for him here. Anko had already cornered Orochimaru hours ago, and it went exactly as he remembered it for the most part.

The only hiccup being, he had mentioned 'Though another stole my gift for himself while trying to save them, quite the interesting one that boy, I'll be keeping an eye on him. Perhaps he'll search me out for power with Sasuke-kun.'

It was the exact reason why he hadn't mentioned Orochimaru to the Sandaime, Anko would do it for him and the sannin basically backed him up with his admittance and furthered enforced his loyalty to the village. Now, he not only had proof of being willing to give his life for the village to protect it from a Bijuu plot, but also would have it on the record he faced off against one of the three legendary sannin to protect his comrades.

Basically, it was good PR and all that.

Especially since Orochimaru full on praised his jutsu to Anko, who would report it as well. Unlike the situation with Isobu that the Sandaime seemed to be keeping under wraps, this would be one that probably spread thanks to all the people that saw the jutsu and would enhance his reputation with everyone else.

Really, his genius just could not be underestimated. No, genius wasn't enough to describe his plan here. He was more like a super elite genius.

Aizen should take notes from him.

'You really do love to toot your own horn, don't you? You realise it was a pretty basic plan, right?' Isobu deadpanned, 'Also, why did you lie to that shinobi from Rain? I know you know whom his sensei is.'

'I was just messing with him,' Daiki ignored the slander against his clear genius and shrugged as he hopped through the trees, 'Also, I wanted to put him down a bit, he was arrogant as all hell.'

Of course he remembered who his sensei was, especially when he saw the Conch King summon, Naruto and Jiraiya fought it during the time skip alongside the sensei of that Amaya guy who apparently abandoned Rain once Pein or rather Nagato killed Hanzo and took over.

'A bit hypocritical of you, considering how arrogant you are.' Isobu snorted.

'I mean, at least I'm a loveable arrogant asshole.' Daiki replied, unlike Amaya, the way he talked, you'd think he was a young master from some Chinese cultivation series. He was half expecting the guy to talk about giving him a green hat or something.

It was seriously cringe to see that kind of thing play out in front of him. So he had some fun tearing him down.

'Loveable…? I have a feeling you live in your own little world sometimes.' he could practically see Isobu rolling his eyes.

'I do, unfortunately I have to share it with everyone else.' Daiki retorted.

Isobu sighed.

Daiki grinned.

'Well, either way, it was lucky I came across Amaya, I'll admit that much.' he admitted.

For one thing, through tearing apart his mind, he learned how to train a few water jutsu he hadn't known before, and one specifically only promising Rain Ninja learned apparently.

The Water Style: Black Rain Jutsu. It was a black type elemental technique, like the Black Lightning of Kumo. Black style elemental jutsu, were much stronger than average. The jutsu itself created a rain cloud that let loose a down pour of black rain, the size and range of it could be very massive in size depending on how much chakra was put into it and on top of that, the black rain even had properties of oil and could be set alight with a fire jutsu.

With it, Daiki was sure that he could maybe use it to reverse engineer the process behind turning other elemental jutsu into black versions.

And on top of that, he even got some information on Aoi Rokusho, who had stolen the Nidaime's legendary Raijin No Ken, the Thunder God Blade.

He'd love to get his hands on that and use it to possible augment his Kiba Blades, or maybe even turn it into a third Kiba blade.

Three was the best number.

'Have you changed your name to Zoro without me knowing somehow?' Isobu asked in amusement, 'Though I do agree, three is the best.'

Daiki Roronoa Yurei.

Hmm, that didn't sound to bad actually.

'No.' Isobu shut him down instantly.

Fair enough, his name was already badass enough already.

'Though you're not far off,' Daiki admitted, 'The Kiba Blades are amazing already, but there's a limit to the force they have when I control them. I'm thinking I'll manifest your tails and wield the blades with them, so making a third version would be a good idea.'

Plus, also, it would leave his hands open for jutsu.

'Good luck with that, those blades were created in Uzu to my knowledge, they are, to my knowledge, chakra blades like the ones you gained from the Village of Artisans, but of much greater power and quality, yet at the same time, filled with seals, Uzumaki seals.' Isobu informed.

Daiki grimaced.

That would indeed be a problem. As good as he was with seals now, he still didn't come close to the Uzumaki bullshit.

On top of that, he'd thoroughly inspected the blades and found no trace of seals on them.

Which meant they were on the inside of the blade.

Almost impossible for most to get a look at without taking them apart.

Thankfully, he had a bit of silver lining there, with the Shinkugan he could peer inside them.

Thank fuck for that.

Now he just needed to reach the level of someone who could enslave the death god through a mask.

Easy….not.

'It will take time, but, I'm sure you can do it, you have quite the talent for the sealing arts, that I admit,' Isobu reassured him, 'Beyond that, who do you plan to make the summoner of the Conch King?'

Daiki smiled as he replied, "I'm not sure." he admitted aloud.

The Conch King wasn't like the newbie summon clans he made from the beasts in this forest. It was an actual powerful summon beast well beyond them. He already knew its weakness, which was why he won so easily-

But originally, in the other timeline, it would cause trouble for not only Naruto, but Jiraiya as well and almost kill Jiraiya thanks to its powerful genjutsu mist, not unlike Isobu's own. On top of that, it had those tentacles that normal kunai and weapons would have real trouble cutting through, he only had it so easy thanks to the Kiba Blades, and then there was that huge water cannon jutsu it fired off against him, that was a powerful jutsu for sure.

And even with its awkward shape and huge size, the Conch King was surprisingly fast and able.

And that wasn't even getting into how durable its shell was. It was scaleable to a mountain itself he was sure. It had taken Naruto using a Big Ball Rasengan almost as large as he was tall and wider than he was to defeat it while it was pinned by Jiraiya.

A technique that at not even a fifth of that size when used against Itachi's doppleganger, had created a a crater hundreds of feet in diameter. And even then he was sure it only worked because the Rasengan itself not only ground into a target, but exploded into a massive shockwave after that fact when fired off fully. If it wasn't an attack that could pass through its shell and hit it right within, there was few attacks that came to mind that could bring it down.

All in all, the Conch King was a beastly summon boss, possibly right up there with Shiromari, and most likely had a clan alongside it.

One thing Amaya wasn't wrong in, was his confidence in the Conch King, that Daiki would admit.

He arrived at the tower not long later, twenty minutes or so, pausing in front of it before entering and peering inside. There was a variety of leaf chunin present within the building, and he could see Anko as well, at the top of the tower, resting in a back room, laying along a couch.

On top of that, in the middle floor, within a large mess hall, he noted there were two teams of genin present. It was Gaara and his siblings, and Team Eight comprising of Hinata, Kiba and Shino.

So those two were the only other teams that made it so far, huh?

'Well there's still four days.' Daiki mused, making his way inside, not bothering with the entrance room and just jumping straight up onto the pathways above leading into the middle flooring.

The middle floor from what he could see, didn't just have the mess hall, but a bunch of dorm-like rooms with three single beds in them.

'I guess I'll go pick out a room.' he mused. There seemed to be some kind of chunin behind a desk at the area where the rooms were, so he headed there first, that guy probably handled the room keys and shit.

He'd head to the mess hall first, mostly to see Hinata and maybe have a looksie at Gaara-

But, his eyes flickered up, peering through the ceiling up into the top floor, where he saw someone rushing out of the control room towards Anko.

He'd most likely be getting company soon.

So that was what he did. He headed over to the chunin at the dorm rooms, acquired a key from the man while he was gaping at the fact he was a single genin allowed to compete and that he had completed the exam 'already'.

Then he headed into his room and closed the door beside him.

"Right, first things first." Daiki hummed, sitting on the bed. He brought his hands together in a cross seal, a Shadow Clone popping into existence beside the bed.

"You know what to do." he told his identical copy.

"Back to the grind," his clone grinned, "Sunpo." he said simply, and in a flash of black and green, disappeared, heading to Isobu's dimension.

He'd created that clone with half the total amount of chakra he had, who would then use the jutsu against himself to create a mass amount of clones, who would then all work on his newest jutsu, since they were water affinity and would be quicker to learn over Yagura's wind jutsu.

He definitely wasn't going to let his grind fall to the wayside just because he was stuck here for four days.

"Right, now let's get a good look at my stats," Daiki grinned and clapped his hands, he was eager to see just how much his chakra capacity had grown due to the new seal on his neck, 'Status.' he thought.

Name: Daiki Yurei
Age: 13
Chakra Capacity: 81,300/162,600 (Low-Tier Kage)
Strength: 172/?
Endurance: 246/?
Durability: 172/?
Agility: 172/?
Taijutsu: 203/500
Ninjutsu: 262/500
Genjutsu: 45/500
Bukijutsu: 116/500
Chakra Control: 225/500
Chakra Affinities:
Lightning - (Advanced): Roar with the power of thunder.
Water - (Advanced): The sea parts before you.
Fuinjutsu - (Advanced): The breath hitches.

Daiki's eyes flew wide open at what he saw! One hundred and sixty two thousand, six hundred! And Low-Tier Kage? Holy shit, he'd breached into the the kage realm in chakra!

"YES!" he pumped his fist into the air, hopping off the bed. Sure may have only been 'low-tier' as far as Kage went, but that didn't fucking matter. That was the motherfucking Kage-tier!

'Hmm, really, that's all it takes to reach Kage status? I can only half submerge my body in here,' Isobu uttered, surprised, 'How sad.'

Daiki froze, 'You picking a fight buddy?'

'No, just a factual statement, I don't bully the weak.' Isobu fired back.

Daiki would have loved to give him a zinger of a burning comeback and totally destroy the Bijuu's self esteem, but, luckily for the big giant turtle, there was a knock at his door that saved him from such a fate.

'You keep telling yourself that Daiki, it's as true as the sky being purple, but whatever helps you sleep at night.' Isobu snorted.

Daiki vowed revenge.

But not now, he already knew who was at his door.

He made his way over and pulled it open, and surprise, surprise, a familiar attractive and voluptuous purple haired hottie hot hottie dressed in a short tiny orange skirt, long open tan trench coat and skimpy mesh armour that showed off those tig ol' bitties of hers deliciously was standing on the other side of the doorway.

Daiki leaned against the door frame and gave her a smouldering stare and ever so debonair smile, "Sup good lookin'" he greeted her.

Anko didn't even twitch, "We need to talk horny brat."

And here we are with the big tu tu twenty sixy six six.

And we've moved on into the tower, finally, with a few good days before the next round starts. Daiki has finally reached Kage-tier in chakra amount...even if a low tier one and Isobu still finding it a dreadfully small amount. But as time goes on, so too does the amount of projects Daiki finds himself piling up to work on. The grind truly never ends. This next arc in the tower, is gonna drag on a bit, it's a part heavy with socials and a few events occurring in the tower, and how a few of Daiki's actions change things up and will begin to make things spiral. Up to chapter 34 on the Pa-atreon for this, and 35 should be up in the next couple days, I had been working a bit on a few others things like my Danmachi story and Konosuba one and such that I've uploaded there as well.

Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.