Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto franchise.

—MPGTOI—

By PaladinKaladin

Chapter Two: Seal Away Your Imperfections.

"Shinji, wake up!"

[User has slept: MP is completely recovered.]

I opened my eyes. I felt a feeling in my legs and hands. It wasn't a dream. That was the first thing I feared when I came home to sleep last night. I lightly laughed in sheer joy. That was most definitely the first time I had ever slept so well, which wasn't very surprising considering I spent half of my life in a hospital cell.

I turned in my bed but refused to get up.

That's right, I was getting spoiled.

"Wake up or else I'll get in there and wake you up myself!" The voice yelled.

I pulled away the blanket covering my body, and jumped onto the floor beside my bed. "I'm coming."

"Good. Wait—you're actually coming?"

I raised an eyebrow at the person through the closed door. Whoever it was, they clearly didn't expect me to wake up on the first try.

I yawned loudly, before walking towards the door and opening it.

My eyes came to the form of Yoshino Nara, a retired shinobi who now lives a passive life of a housewife. She wore a simple pink tunic, and had big eyes which reflected her warmth. She looked like the average mother.

My mother, in a sense. I laughed inwardly at that.

"You're…awake?" She asked dumbly.

"Yeah," I responded blandly.

This was the first time seeing one of my parents, and I was definitely surprised. They seemed like a normal family, but I could tell Yoshino would get extremely agitated from the rest of the Nara's in the family. There was no way someone could be in a family of lazy people and be safe of some kind of craziness.

Feeling pity for the woman, I decided she could use some assistance.

"Should I wake Shikamaru up?" I asked helpfully.

Her eyes widened further. "Uh…sure."

I went down the corridor, past Yoshino, who was still frozen to the spot. I made my way to Shikamaru's room where I knocked loudly.

"Get away!" Shikamaru groaned through the door.

I crossed my arms. "Don't wake up and I'm going to persuade Iruka sensei to give us more homework today."

Shikamaru frantically rummaged through the bed before opening the door. He looked furious. "Did you seriously have to do that?"

I shrugged. "Anything for the betterment of my little brother."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "You've gone absurd, I tell you. Absolutely absurd."

"Did father come?" I asked.

He nodded. "I think so, yeah. He and mother came this morning. Why'd you ask?"

"No reason," I murmured back.

There was a reason. According to Iruka sensei, my father actually had some sort of experience in sealing. If Iruka could do that much from a minimal amount of learning, I could only imagine how good my father was at seals, and more importantly, how much I would learn from him. One of my three goals was to become a sealmaster, and that meant I needed to start fast. Everyone else already had a head start on me. Hell, Obito was probably planning his master scheme right now while playing Nagato like a puppet. But, those things could come much, much later. I needed to focus on my own improvement the most.

"Come down for breakfast!" I heard my mother's voice yell.

I followed Shikamaru down the stairs where breakfast was already set up. A bowl of steaming hot rice, grilled fish, and a small portion of miso soup. A cup of milk to finish it all off.

I sat down opposite Shikamaru, who lazily began to eat his food.

Picking up my chopsticks, I began to eat. Too bad I didn't know how to really eat with chopsticks. Shikamaru looked at me with exasperation as I fumbled with the utensils while trying to pick up some food. Why the hell is this so hard?

My brother just sighed before mumbling under his breath.

Eventually, I got the hang of it after closely observing Shikamaru's hand position. Once that was over, I began to actually eat. The food was delicious, and there really wasn't anything else to say about that circumstance other than that I was fortunate.

Show my stats.

[Opening Status…]

Name: Shinji Nara

Title: "The Laziest Of All"

Occupation: Academy Student

Level: LV1

Chakra: 60/60

MP: 100/100

STR: 3

VIT: 3

DEX: 4

INT: 7

Taijutsu: D

Ninjutsu: F

Genjutsu: N/A

Even though I've checked these stats a million times by now, it would never stop giving me the sudden urge to cry. It was terrible, absolutely terrible. I could only laugh in disappointment, before going back to the food in front of me.

Wait. This was a gamer system, right? That meant…

Inventory.

I waited.

Absolutely nothing happened. Not only did I have horrible stats, there wasn't even an inventory which could have been insanely useful. If only I had a stronger system to begin with…

[The System applauds your naivety.]

I choked on the miso soup I was currently drinking, my eyes bulging wide as I saw the notification on the screen next to me.

Great, now Shikamaru thought I was genuinely crazy. And even worse, I had a system which was practically sentient, if the one message was to go by.

[The System is angered by your lack of reverence and wonders why it received such an incompetent user.]

Reverence?! It had to be joking. This was quite literally one of the weakest systems I've ever seen! No inventory, no Gamer's mind, only FOUR main stats, it had be joking! My MP was stuck on a hundred for God's sake!

And why was the System referring to itself in third person? Wouldn't it use "I" or something similar? It made no sense. Unless, I wasn't talking to the system at all. There was a mediator between me and the system, who simply relayed our thoughts to each other. Which made me wonder—what exactly was the system? Everyone simply referred to it as "The System", but never actually delved into why it even existed in the first place. What was it?

I noticed how I didn't receive a message this time.

I shook my head. I couldn't waste my time on such pointless thoughts.

Three goals.

Obtain immortality.

Become a sealmaster.

And survive.

—MPGTOI—

I tapped my pen on my hair continuously, trying to pass the time by whatever means necessary.

Iruka's class was as boring as ever.

This morning, our father was nowhere to be found. Apparently he had left before we had woken up for a mission, which was something normal around the house. He was going to be gone for a an entire week. And also very unfortunate for me, as I wanted to get a basic foundation for Fuinjutsu and how to make them.

Mother was surprised when I mentioned Fuinjutsu, and quickly refuted any knowledge in that area, which wasn't very stunning to hear. It seemed Fuinjutsu was an area of knowledge that very few excelled in due to its meticulous and painstaking nature, and thus, the number of sealmasters in Konoha were ridiculously low. Sure, Jiraiya existed, but he was probably who knows where in the world searching for any trace of the Akatsuki.

I was alone right now.

Meaning there was really no other way for me to learn except by myself.

The library would do nicely.

"Shinji, what year did the Yondaime become Hokage?" Iruka demanded as he saw my distracted state.

Oh no…

I haven't studied at all.

"I have no idea," I answered honestly.

The rest of the class chuckled lightly at my mishap, though it quickly ended. Iruka looked unsurprised, before continuing the class. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be relieved or insulted. Just how dumb was Shinji? This was starting to get annoying to bear with.

The bell ringed after another torturous thirty minutes minutes, meaning it was back to outdoor classes for us.

Today wasn't a Taijutsu day, however, and instead was an overall practice session of other physical activities.

"We'll start with some basic shuriken and kunai throwing!" Iruka announced as they neared the shuriken range.

Everyone lined up as they took turns throwing shuriken. Sasuke, as usual, got the highest accuracy there. Shikamaru wasn't too bad at shuriken throwing either, and Shino was pretty good as well. Huh, all their names started with S.

Naruto was pretty horrible, which was to be expected as he only started to actually get stronger once he learned the shadow clone jutsu. Where the hell was Mizuki, anyways? Although I haven't watched the show in a long time, I feel like I would recognize the traitorous bastard from a while away.

I stepped forward as it was finally my turn, and took a shuriken in my hand, aimed, and swung.

To be fair, I somehow managed to hit the target. Regardless of the fact that it barely hit the outside edge of the circle, I was proud.

[New Passive Skill: "Shuriken Throwing" Lvl 1]

[Improves accuracy of Shuriken Throwing by 5%.]

[Passive skills don't require the use of MP.]

Great. Doesn't change the fact that I'm absolute garbage at throwing these things.

I continued to throw the Shuriken after that, and there was definitely some improvement after the skill was unlocked. I switched to my kunai afterwards, which was much harder to throw accurately, in my opinion, due to the weight of it. There was probably some technique that I didn't know.

[New Passive Skill: "Kunai Throwing" Lvl 1]

[Improves accuracy of Kunai Throwing by 5%.]

I left my turn after that, not too disappointed by my progress, but excited by the prospect of how fast I was able to improve. If there was one thing the Gamer system gave me over the others, it was that I had a higher rate of improvement over them.

And even better—my limit was limitless.

I could give the system that, at the very least.

[The System congratulates you wholeheartedly for finally realizing the inevitable truth.]

Yeah, yeah, don't let it get to your head, you flying piece of junk. I thought back, responding immediately.

I looked back at the flailing pieces of metal being thrown by Naruto, whose face was crunched up in sheer concentration as he threw the shuriken. The shuriken somehow curved at the last second, missing the target entirely.

I tried not to facepalm.

This was the guy the fate of the world depended on in the original show.

Wow.

—MPGTOI—

Classes ended on a boring note after that, with everyone mostly tired and unwilling to answer to Iruka's endless proddings during lessons.

I made my way to Shikamaru, who was currently surrounded by Choji and Naruto.

"Hey," I greeted causally.

"Shinji! What ya' doing?" Naruto asked cheerfully. "Want to come with us to Ichiraku's?"

Shikamaru groaned. "I told you not to tell anyone else about that!"

I chuckled. Classic Naruto.

I cleared my throat. "It's fine, I wouldn't want to come anyways. Not in the offensive way—I have somewhere to be."

Choji raised an eyebrow. "What's better than ramen? Other than barbecue, of course."

I smirked. "I have to visit the library."

The looks on their faces was definitely worth it.

"The library?"

"Why would you go to the library? To study?"

"Don't tell me you've become a nerd as well, Shinji!"

I shook my head."Nah, it's not to study. I just have to research some…things."

My eyes lit up in excitement as I envisioned the beginning of my journey to becoming a sealmaster. Oh, it was so sweet, the end was so sweet. Regardless of the hard work to get there, right?

Naruto shuddered. "Something about the way you said that was incredibly creepy, dattebayo. Alright, see you then."

"Bye," I responded. "Oi, Shikamaru. Remember to tell mother that I'll be coming late cus' I'm at the library, okay?"

"Sure," Shikamaru responded curtly.

Whistling, I made my way out of the Academy. The public library wasn't too far away, which meant I could get there by walking soon enough. It was weird to think that there weren't any cars around here yet. If only I had the knowledge of an engineer or a scientist, I could have seriously revolutionized the entire world in a year or so if I was given the materials, which wouldn't be too hard considering the capabilities of shinobi.

Soon enough, I was in front of the Konoha Public library.

I made my way inside, walking towards the counter where the librarian stood with a strict expression. She was an elderly woman with grey, bushy hair and round glasses that filled a majority of her face. In front of her were a stack of books which each had different colors of bookmarks placed inside them.

"Do you know where I can get books on Fuinjutsu?" I asked politely.

The woman glared at me. "Of course I do, brat! It's my library, after all. You expect me not to know?"

"Uh…" I hesitated.

She scoffed. "Kids these days. Always so disrespectful. Back in my days, librarians got the same amount of respect as the Hokage, I tell you!"

I gritted my teeth in annoyance. "Of course they did. Alright, let me rephrase my question. Where are the books on Fuinjutsu, exactly?"

"Third row, fifth shelf, right side on advanced Fuinjutsu, and left side on beginner Fuinjutsu, seeing your appearance alone, I can tell you're a beginner, so check the left side. You can only check out five books at a time, and you must return or recheck them by next week by noon, or else you'll be in a heap of trouble, young man," the woman warned, putting her glasses upwards.

I nodded. "Alright."

I moved over there without any more hesitation—I couldn't bear a single second more in her presence, to be honest. It seemed like librarians were annoying in the normal world and the Naruto world, which was unfortunate.

I scrolled through the books which were located on the left side of the shelf, and immediately found several books which seemed to be the real deal.

Understanding Fuinjutsu Vol. 1, by Matashi Maradou.

Beginners Guide to Fuinjutsu, by Ayado Zenkuchi.

Fuinjutsu isn't hard, it's different, by Ren Momochi.

All Basic Fuinjutsu Kanji and Symbols, by Zenki Yato.

Fuinjutsu For Dummies, by The Toad Sage.

Wait.

What.

That last one. My eyes had merely skimmed over the author names, having been more focused on the titles themselves that were plastered on the spines, but the final name of the author stuck out like a sore thumb.

A book made by the Toad Sage himself? One of the few people I wanted to model myself with so that I could become stronger? There was no way this was real. What was a book like that, written by THE Jiraiya himself, doing in a library like this? According to canon, the only books Jiraiya had written were the Icha Icha series and the other book he wrote that had Naruto as the main character (name-wise).

This book alone proved another point.

The world I was in wasn't the exact same as the Naruto canon, and had more details and complexity than what was shown in the anime. Maybe this was all the stuff that Kishimoto didn't have time to write into the manga.

I quickly picked the book up by the cover and opened it frantically, checking the first page of the book.

If you are reading this, congratulations! You have decided to venture along the long path of Fuinjutsu, one that I personally have gone through as well. Now let me tell you. It won't get any easier from this point onwards.

Fuinjutsu is the art of creation. It generally isn't as flashy as the the other shinobi arts, but a true master can weave the greatest creations of mankind with a mere stroke of their pen and paper. This will be a very, very slow process, so do not despair with the slow points on this journey. Fuinjutsu is more of a science when compared to other techniques. Each seal is an equation derived from the foundational kanji and symbols which we use, and thus, there are more original seals created everyday. My student, The Fourth Hokage himself, perfected the Hiraishin, and thus made the technique we all know today as one of the most effective and deadliest of all time.

It his partly due to him that I was inspired to write this story. While most of you know my literature is mostly of…another nature, I was astounded by my student's progress in the field of Fuinjutsu, and wanted to see what other aspiring students can do if I shared my knowledge with them.

The Fourth Hokage has already made his mark.

Now, it's your turn.

Show me what you can do with this book.

Show me your path to the peak of Fuinjutsu!

I'll be waiting for you there.

I grinned. Oh, I'll see you there, old man.

Without another moment of hesitation, I checked the book's cover. That's when I saw another piece of important information.

THIS BOOK CANNOT BE CHECKED OUT!

Huh. So that's why a book by the Pervy Sage himself was left in a library by itself with no one taking it home. Well, this was unfortunate. I didn't want to illegally ascend to godhood, after all. Not like it mattered, though. I carefully placed the book inside my bag, before looking for any open windows to throw my bag outside. It was highly likely there were some sort of detection device that prevented books of this nature from being taken out of the premises since there was no way someone wouldn't try to snag a book like this, and I just hoped that since it wouldn't be in my hands when the book passed the library border, it wouldn't ring the alarm.

[New Passive Skill: "Critical Thinking" Lvl 1]

Cool, I guess.

I looked around to find the Librarian reading a book of her own, her focus entirely shifted to whatever she was reading. I squinted my eyes, trying to recognize the book.

Wait, was that the Icha Icha series?

I snorted in amusement. Who would've that the old woman would be reading that book? It's always the librarians. Seeing that it was my chance to steal the book, I made my way to the nearest window, thanking the Gods that there were barely any other residents in the library currently, and threw the bag with my eyes closed.

I slowly opened them to the sound of a quiet thud on grass. I looked back at the librarian, who was entranced by the book in her hands. I chuckled silently.

I quickly checked out the rest of the books with the aid of the librarian, who snorted when she saw the list of books I had brought over. Ignoring her entirely, I left the library after that. I made sure to avoid the library from now on, though it didn't matter as I was told to write my name and my residence on a list, which I reluctantly did. I promptly circled around the building and got the bag where the main book was located, right before I fled towards the Nara Residence. But before that, however, I used the remainder of Shinji's pocket money to buy the a shit ton of Fuinjutsu paper, ink, and brushes. Sorry, Shinji.

I came home sweating heavily, and barged through the door without another word, ignoring the guard who told me to walk quietly.

I heard mother yelling for me to walk slowly, but ignored her as well.

It seemed Shikamaru didn't come home yet.

I entered my room and splayed my books over the rather large dask with multiple thuds.

I looked longingly outside of the door, where I could relax on the couch and get served some food, but resisted. Steeling my gaze, I shut the door. I looked back at the books on my table with a hardened glare.

Now came what was dreaded.

It was finally time to study.

—MPGTOI—

Two Days Later…

"Okay, I've been stalling this since you've been acting crazy ever since a week or so ago, but at this point it's getting kind of concerning. What the hell do you do in your room all day?" Shikamaru asked exasperatedly, his eyes drifting over my face. "Your face is more of a mess than usual, honestly."

Yeah, I kind of noticed.

My eyes were a mess, and the dark lines underneath them only emphasized their fatigue. I had barely slept the last few days, instead preferring to study the Fuinjutsu books that I checked out and stole prior. My room was an utter mess, filled to the brim with ink and scrunched up papers that were the result of many frustrated tries of making seals. The first day, it seemed like it wouldn't work. No matter how much I tried to create the seal, regardless of its ease, nothing worked.

Jiraiya's book wasn't too hard to begin with, but soon enough, I would find myself at a stump at certain kanji and symbols. The seals backfired several times, blowing my face to smithereens in the middle of the night, much to Shikamaru's chagrin as he lived in the same floor as me. The other books emphasized the same seals and kanji, which wasn't too hard to memorize after the hours of digging into my brain, and even practicing on a sheet of paper during Academy classes which I couldn't bother to listen to. No matter the amount of hard work I put into my seals, they usually never worked, and the rare success that managed to surprise me were the easiest of the easiest.

But then, something clicked.

The first actual, proper seal began to work. I wasn't sure why, but maybe it was because I just stopped caring. The combination of seals slipped carelessly from my mind and into the sheet of paper, and I stopped stressing so much with the brush. It worked.

I whooped in joy, and ever since then, I didn't look back.

I spent entirety of the second day experimenting more and more with the kanji that I knew, and quite obviously, none of them worked. It wasn't supposed to, according to Jiraiya. There were a lot of other rules including Elemental Balance and Integrity of Seals that I had no idea about. I did learn something else, however, and that was the technique to draw seals with my hands. The brush allowed for more pinpoint precision, but the hand was quicker and practical during battles. For more advanced seals and seals that I didn't remember the kanji

So when Shikamaru asked what I was doing these past few days, I only had one response.

I gestured towards the nearest desk, seeing that we were cloggin the entrance to the classroom.

"What are you trying to show me, exactly?" Shikamaru asked, clearly expecting another random excuse.

I pulled out a piece of Fuinjutsu paper from the back of my bag, the small piece of parchment rippling loudly as I flung it onto the desk. Without another word, I dipped my hand into the ink bottle in my right pocket, tapping the edge of the opening to remove the excess, and plunged them onto the paper.

I wasn't sure how many times I've done this seal, but the way each individual finger moved on its own, creating multiple kanji at the same time in an efficient manner showed that it was certainly a large number. I was done in a few seconds considering it was quite the simple seal.

My ever so pessimistic brother didn't think it was too impressive. "So you've been drawing?"

In an instant, I poured my chakra through the seal. It flared a dull blue for half a second as I quickly drawed my kunai and let it go inside.

The sealing of weapons was one of the most fundamental sealing techniques there was, if not the most. In every book, it was the first exercise that the authors recommended. However, Jiraya happened to add to the exercise even more. One of the main goals of Fuinjutsu was Reduction, meaning reducing the size of previously existing seals to the smallest possible form. Either that meant creating the same output with a different set of symbols that took less space, or slightly modifying the original seal.

My goal was to make the weapon seal as small as possible.

"W-what did you just put into the piece of paper?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes suddenly widening.

I tried not to smile. My brother's expression was just tooamusing. I got the sudden urge to scare him a bit more.

I swept up the piece of paper that was around the size of both my hands put together, pushing forward the seal with my left hand towards my brother's alarmed face. I deactivated the seal midair with a pulse of chakra, catching the kunai with the same hand as the paper fell to the floor, and immediately twirling it around with my fingers so it's dull side was on Shikamaru's neck. This all happened in a short span of two seconds.

Too fast for the rookie Shikamaru to follow.

I glared intently into his eyes, trying to genuinely frighten him.

The fear in his eyes was inevitable.

I smiled. "Heh."

Shikamaru gulped.

I dropped the kunai from his throat. "What I've been doing? I don't really know, to be honest. I guess…practicing?"

[Passive Skill: "Fuinjutsu" is now Lvl 6]

I ignored the message.

I watched as Sasuke entered the class with a look of indifference.

I smirked. Next stop: become the Rookie of the Year.

-end-

Yo!

I hoped you liked the chapter. I was genuinely surprised from the insane support from the first chapter! I hope you like this chapter as well.

Shinji's Fuinjutsu will be realistic, but epic, as you can see from this chapter. I want to delve into Fuinjutsu, and make sure it gets its deserved due.

If you're worried about the lack of Gamer system, don't worry. It will definitely have its moments. I want to make this fic to avoid all the cliches and tropes of other Gamer systems and at the same time stay true to what makes the genre so appealing.

Question of the Day:

Question #1: What Chakra Nature would you like Shinji to get? I'm not too sure about that as of now. Review your answers.

Update Schedule: Every Saturday, though today it was different due to other work.

Make sure to follow, favorite, and review if you want to stay in touch with Shinji's story. Everything is accepted.

Join my discord server if you want a cool place to talk about anime, fics and other stuff. Its discord . gg/ NyDsVBv6

Next chapter, next Saturday, cya' there.