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—MPGTOI—

By PaladinKaladin

Chapter Three: Apparently, Progression Is Hard.

I grunted as I repeated another set of push-ups. Ever since I received the quest about becoming rookie of the year two days ago, I've been training like crazy. Physically, anyway.

The quest was as follows.

[New Quest has been unlocked!]

Quest name: "Schooling the Uchiha."

Details: Become the Rookie Of The Year.

Rewards: 5000 EXP.

Do you accept the quest?

[Yes/No]

Obviously, I accepted. Seeing that there were no consequences for failures regardless, there was no point in me not accepting the quest.

My daily routine was a simple one. In the mornings, I focused on my physical attributes. In the evening, I completely focused all of my attention on seals. Shikamaru must have told Yoshino what I was doing, as no one bothered to disturb me in the middle of my studying. I only got out of the room to eat dinner, where I would interact with the rest of my family.

Having a family after being an orphan for my entire life was like a dream come true. A mother who would listen to my stories and laugh, and a brother who, while annoying, was just as fun to have around.

So far, life has been fun.

But I knew it would get worse.

And Konoha, where I lived right now, was the center of it all.

Only a few years were left.

I took a shower right after and made my way to the Academy after yelling goodbye to Yoshino. Shikamaru was long gone, saying he had some sort of work to do with Choji. I looked at my stats causally as I walked towards my destination.

Name: Shinji Nara

Title: "The Laziest Of All"

Occupation: Academy Student

Level: LV3

Chakra: 60/60

MP: 100/100

STR: 4

VIT: 4

DEX: 5

INT: 7

Taijutsu: D

Ninjutsu: F

Genjutsu: N/A

Fuinjutsu: D

I looked at my stats with a sigh. Sure, it had only been a few days, and I couldn't expect much improvement so quickly, but I still wanted more. It was annoying because I seriously wanted to be the overpowered Isekai character that continuously shocked the other characters with his pure strength. Still, it seemed like that wasn't going to happen at all.

There was the new stat, Fuinjutsu, which I was still at a D rank, which wasn't too surprising considering the rather slow rate that Fuinjutsu was learned. So far, I only knew one seal.

Weapon sealing.

I asked the system to show my seal stats.

[Passive Skill: "Weapon Sealing" Lvl 8]

But, that was for a specific reason. Jiraiya himself had written that I needed to perfect the first seal I learned to utter mastery before I could progress faster, and that was what I intended to do. Of course, I didn't really stick to his words too harshly. I was starting to work on another seal which was mentioned in one of the other books, and that was a work in progress still.

Whew. This was a tough process. But tough progress would build a stronger foundation for me than an easy one. On the good side, I've practically perfected the weapon seal. I could do it with my eyes closed, and with a paper as small as my hand.

Switching from ink to chakra, however, was a whole other ballpark. In the anime, sealmasters like Minato and Jiraiya rarely ever drew seals with ink, and could convert their chakra to ink with some kind of technique that I had no idea about.

On another note, I had leveled up two times, mostly due to my physical exercises.

So far, leveling up did absolutely nothing. But I knew for a fact that it would eventually, or else quests and the experience gained would be completely useless.

Not even my system would be that cruel.

[The System laughs.]

Scratch that. My system would be the only one to do such a thing.

Seeing that I had reached the school, I entered my classroom without another second of time wasted. Thankfully, class hadn't started yet, and Iruka sensei didn't say anything when I came in slightly late.

"Yo," I called out to the gang in the top right corner.

Shikamaru, Choji, Naruto, were huddled in a corner as I made my way towards them.

Even though I had interacted with him quite a bit during these past few days, I was still very awkward with Naruto especially.

It was still so jarring seeing him in real life.

I shook my head.

"Shinji! What's up?" Choji asked, grinning.

I shrugged. "Nothing, just slightly tired."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure staying up all night spilling ink on those papers would do that," Shikamaru retorted, rolling his eyes.

"It's Fuinjutsu, not just ink on paper," I rebuked strongly.

I couldn't help it. Considering it was going to be my specialty, I had to defend Fuinjutsu.

"Fuinjutsu, what's that?" Naruto asked, his head cocked to the side in confusion.

I had forgotten that Naruto was kind of dumb when he wasn't on the battlefield.

I looked into his eyes. "It's the creation of techniques using symbols and kanji that are put in a specific order on paper. Not just paper, really. Fuinjutsu can be put on anything. Wood, kunai…skin…"

Naruto gulped. I saw his eyes trial downwards towards his stomach.

That was pretty surprising. From what I know, Naruto's stomach seal only appeared when he used Kurama's chakra. Meaning he had used the Kyuubi's chakra before, most likely by accident, however.

Naruto's expression returned to normal. "Could you show us an example?"

Shikamaru groaned whereas I grinned widely.

My smile was still present. "Of course."

I brought out a piece of paper with a flourish, dipped the fingers of my right hand into a bottle of ink I had opened in my bag and brought it down.

It was over in half a second.

I looked at the rest of them. "Watch."

I brought my kunai close to the paper, and it disappeared into the paper.

"Woah! That was awesome!" Naruto shouted, his eyes alight with awe.

Choji nodded in agreement, though he was still more focused on the bag of chips in his hand.

Shikamaru just stared at me. "You got faster."

I nodded. "Practice."

"But that was abnormally fast, Shinji," my brother stated. "I've seen older shinobi take longer to draw a weapon seal."

"Hmm…that's probably because they didn't spend an abnormally long time trying to perfect this seal," I replied honestly.

Naruto just stared at me with a confused expression. "Hey, Shinji, were you always talking this much? I mean, you're still kind of introverted, but a lot less than before."

I could feel Shikamaru's gaze on me as I prepared to respond.

"Nah, I definitely changed a bit," I responded easily.

That would be an understatement.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

I froze.

Why was I doing this all? What was the reason?

I remembered my old life. Pitiful, really. A life without meaning. Without the experiences that I wanted. Without any of the risks, challenges, and rewards that life presented.

I won't let that happen again.

I was going to take full advantage of this new life. A redemption.

I smiled.

"Because I wanted to."

—MPGTOI—

"Next fight: Kiba versus Shinji," Iruka said. "As this is an exhibition match, all techniques are allowed."

This made zero sense.

How did a dog count as a technique? I mean, a regular dog, sure. But this was a goddamn ninja dog that lived to kill others. It was practically a two versus one. I never remembered anything like this happening in the anime or the manga.

But, to be fair, the anime did skip the entirety of Naruto's Academy years initially.

"Go, Shinji!" Some random girl shouted out from the audience.

The hell? I had fangirls?

I gripped my head, massaging my temples and pulling my hair back

Kiba had a clear advantage right now, solely due to the fact that anything was allowed. What the Academy was trying to accomplish by allowing clan heirs to fight against civilian children in this form, I had no idea. Regardless, I couldn't complain.

I had some skills in my bag as well.

In fact, I came to this fight very prepared.

The last time I faced Kiba, it was pure Taijutsu. This rematch would be much, much different. Ever since the fight, Kiba had been aggressive as hell towards me, and it only made sense. He had lost to the dead-last in front of the entire class and Iruka sensei. It would definitely be embarrassing for him considering he thought it would be an easy win from the start.

I twirled a kunai in my hand as I faced down the Inuzuka before me. And his dog which bared its canine teeth at me. What was the dog's name again?

"Remember, no techniques which can result in serious injuries can be used," Iruka reminded them. "In doing so, you will be at risk of expulsion."

Great. Expulsion.

"Hajime!"

Immediately, I activated my Taijutsu skill.

Activate Basic Taijutsu.

[Basic Taijutsu Lvl 3 Activated!]

[MP Usage: 10 MP per minute.]

In terms of Taijutsu, I had Kiba beat. The boy was relatively weak in terms of technical ability during his fights, but he definitely made it up with the manpower and abilities he was probably going to showcase. I had no idea how much Kiba knew before the Chuunin Exams, so this fight could go anywhere.

I went into an open stance as Kiba rushed forward with his dog in tow.

The dog jumped at me first, and it was a struggle not to rely on instincts and plunge my kunai into its pelt, though it would probably try to evade. Nevertheless, I didn't want to take any chances. I leaned downwards, letting the dog go over me, and rushed forward to meet Kiba before I was attacked from behind.

Kiba threw a wild punch at me, which I was quickly able to parry to the side with my left hand, before throwing my right fist forwards in the form of a jab, hitting my opponent in the stomach with some pressure. He stumbled backward as I stepped forward to continue the attack while I had the advantage.

I heard a growl from behind, signaling that it was time to evade again.

This was annoying.

"Akamaru! Don't let him escape!" Kiba yelled, settling back into a comfortable position after the hit he took.

Akamaru barked in confirmation before growling once more when I looked into its eyes.

Great, one side was a rowdy dog and another side was an even rowdier human. I couldn't tell which was worse.

"Really fair, isn't it, Kiba? Two versus one? You think maybe I should've brought a dog as well?" I asked Kiba with a raise of my hands.

"Shut up!" Kiba retorted. "Akamaru and I are one—a team! He's my companion!"

I shrugged. "Well, he definitely seems more useful than you during this fight. Are you sure you're not his companion?"

Kiba growled but refused to say anything more.

I grinned when I saw his reaction. Good, I was getting into his head. That's what I needed to do when I was outnumbered like this. Goddamn, I wish I had shadow clones, though even if I knew the jutsu it probably wouldn't be very useful considering my abysmal chakra capacity. If there was one thing I was jealous of Naruto, it was definitely his near-infinite chakra level. I mean, that shit was just monstrous. If only I had just as much…

I leaped upwards as both Kiba and Akamaru charged at me. Seeing that I had no clear landing space, I threw the kunai in my hand towards Kiba, who jumped slightly backward, giving me space to land once more. I immediately danced around Akamaru, before lunging once more at Kiba, who looked panicked at my sheer speed.

Yes, this was a good position for me.

Akamaru wasn't fast enough to stop this attack, and Kiba wouldn't be able to stand my onslaught.

I would win this fight.

Kiba looked disturbed before he finally let go of his expression. "Imitation Beast Ninja Arts: Four Legs Technique!"

What.

A burst of chakra erupted from Kiba, which forced me to go slightly backward, ending what was supposed to be my final attack prematurely. Kiba was on all fours, his face looked even more feral than normal, and his eyes were narrowed dangerously as he glared at me with his teeth bared.

Kiba looked at his dog, his expression softening. "Akamaru, don't interrupt me from now on. I've had enough of his stalling. I'm gonna end it right here."

Then he moved.

When Kiba used this technique against Naruto in the Preliminary Exams, it for sure looked a lot faster. Meaning that Kiba knew it all along, and most likely kept it a secret and trained it to improve its speed and ability. Regardless of the fact that it wasn't as fast as normal, I knew it was much, much faster than me. And that was all that mattered at this point.

Kiba's fist punched me hard on my arms as I tried to block, knocking me backward as I felt my arms burn with pain.

I groaned. "Ugh!" This was going to be a pain.

He continued to aggress forwards, not allowing me any chance to escape. Or more likely, his mode most likely had some sort of time limit, and he wanted to end the fight before the limit was reached. At this point, it certainly looked possible.

I could tell Iruka was wondering whether he should end the fight or not at this point. Serves him right.

I managed to evade the next few attacks by rolling to the side and parrying the incoming hook, but the kick to the side was too fast for even more to dodge. I was once again pushed backwards roughly. I clutched the side of my stomach in pain, my lungs desperately heaving for breath.

Kiba was on his two legs again, his smirk wide and smug for everyone to see. "Give up, Shinji. I've won this"

His mode was already over, huh? Meaning no more super speed for this brat.

I closed my eyes and took a long, deep breath, trying to tune out the ringing pain in my arms and stomach. Those were probably bruised.

Why was Iruka letting this happen? There was no way he would make his students fight each other like this. I shook my head and reverted to the topic of concern. I needed to win this fight.

I dug my hands into my pockets.

"What do you have in there?" Kiba asked, amused. "Smoke bombs? Confetti? Would that confuse me enough for you to run out of here?"

I pulled out eight palm-sized pieces of paper, each of them attached to long threads of ninja wire which I had personally attached.

Kiba looked genuinely confused, which was honestly not too surprising. "Cards? You brought cards?"

I looked down at the pieces of sealing paper. With their size and matter of material, it was definitely easy to confuse them as playing cards.

Then he started to laugh.

Alright, this kid was getting on my nerves.

It was one thing to insult me. But no one, no one, was going to insult my Fuinjutsu.

I carried four papers in one hand and four in the other. The wire was so thin it was practically invisible to the onlookers, and even more unseeable to Kiba, who continued to chuckle loudly. Even the audience looked confused.

I know for a fact Shikamaru wasn't, however.

The pieces of paper were lodged between the crooks of my fingers as I cocked both of my hands inwards and flexed them outwards with a strong fling. The pieces of paper flew towards Kiba, who just watched without moving an inch, his face just as confident as ever.

Of course, activating a seal that wasn't in direct contact with you was damn near impossible. Believe me, I've tried. There was probably some freak of nature that could do such a thing, but for now, it was completely out of my reach. However, I found a loophole past that limitation. It wasn't as neat, nor was it as effective and "magical" as activating them without direct touch, but it still had the same function.

After hours and hours of practice, I managed to crack the code.

The answer was right there all along.

By attaching chakra-conductive ninja wires to the cards beforehand, I could theoretically make my chakra travel to the seals in midair. No matter how neat it sounded on paper, there were still so many limitations to the technique. The longer the chakra traveled, the less focused it was. It wouldn't travel through the seals as intently as it normally would when I could see the seals for myself.

And to go through that barrier, I simply perfected the weapons seal. To the point where I could draw it with my eyes closed on any surface, any material, anywhere. There was a reason why I was still stuck on the first seal every beginner learned when normally someone would be way past this point by now, especially with the number of hours I was putting into this. The chakra did its function without any hitches, leaving me with a technique that could catch a lot of people off guard.

To the enemy, it looked like I was throwing plain playing cards at them. That was until I pulsed my chakra through the wire it was attached to.

Now.

I unleashed my chakra through my hands, willing it to go through the string.

The seals on the cards pulsed once before they all began transforming midair into kunai. The weight immediately increased, but I continued to pump chakra to help push the projectiles forward.

Kiba's eyes widened dramatically as my technique finally fruited in front of his eyes. Eight kunai spread evenly in a straight line zoomed towards him. Now, if I had actually aimed towards the brat, he would have been impaled by six of the kunai at minimum, but of course, that wasn't my objective.

The kunai flew past Kiba for a brief second, and that was when I pulled at each of the wires, making sure that it circled around the Inuzuka instead of striking him from the back. The wires, weighted down by the presence of the sharp weapons, were quick to latch onto their nearest target, before using all of their leftover momentum to circle around his body like an Anaconda around its prey.

I held tightly onto each of the strings, looking Kiba dead center in the eyes, daring him to try and escape.

He didn't budge.

It was over.

[Passive Skill: "Weapon Sealing" is now Lvl 9]

"Winner: Shinji Nara," Iruka said after a moment of pause.

I saw the look of suspicion in Iruka's narrowed eyes but ignored it. I had more to worry about right now.

Shikaku Nara was finally coming back this evening.

My father.

—MPGTOI—

I huffed as I let my bag down before going into my room.

The rest of the fights weren't as interesting, and rather suspiciously, Iruka stopped anything serious from happening this time around. So there were a few weird things happening right now. Firstly, during my fight with the mutt, he didn't stop Kiba from hitting me rather hard, and he definitely didn't interfere once. There was something fishy going on, and that certainly wasn't the plate of sushi I had on my desk right now.

I really couldn't understand what Iruka was doing. And his actions made zero sense if I compared him to his canon form.

Did he suspect me of doing something? Maybe it was because I was improving at such an odd rate? Maybe he knew I stole Jiraiya's book?

Yoshino was shocked when I told her I beat Kiba Inuzuka today, and for what reason, I had no idea. Surely seeing me study and practice nonstop for a week would have given her some sort of confidence in her son. In fact, she wasn't the only one surprised. The rest of my classmates were just as shocked by my sudden improvement, to say the least. I was quickly showered with questions wondering how I got so strong so quickly, which left me feeling very flustered. Thankfully, my little brother, Shikamaru, was kind enough to shoo everyone away. Which was ironic as I was supposed to be the big brother in these types of situations. Though considering we were twins, I guess the age difference didn't really matter.

After letting myself delve into the happenings of the day for a little while, I went back to work.

Shikamaru wasn't home yet and was most likely just chilling around on the grass with Choji, watching the clouds move and explaining to each other how they thought a certain cloud looked.

I wish I had that luxury.

I sighed before opening the next page of Jiraiya's book. I was finally past the initial chapter. It took three days for me to finish a chapter that was explained in five meager pages. Heh. Hehe. I definitely wasn't laughing out of horror for what my next few months with this book would be like.

After an hour of reading, I was ready to try my next seal.

I carefully placed my brush onto the paper and began drawing.

Tetra seal here…hmm…upward elemental seal here…and a basic transformation seal here. Connect the element and transformation seal with semi-curled lines. And done. Theoretically, it should work.

I looked over my seals one last time, before going all in. The seal pulsed for a brief second before…doing absolutely nothing.

Well, I was being way too optimistic hoping it would work on the first try.

Then the seal began to pulse even brighter.

My eyes widened as Iimmediately recognized what this was. I flung the paper through the open window as it exploded in midair, causing a huge bang to erupt which could be heard from practically every house in the neighborhood. I sighed as I felt the sharp tingles from my signed fingers and soot-filled face. It vaguely reminded me of some of the cartoons I would watch as a kid, in which the characters' faces would be turned charcoal-black and ash-looking when they encountered an explosion.

That was a failure if I had ever seen one. I was surprised. I didn't think my first attempt would be that bad.

[The System says it isn't too surprised.]

Shut up.

[The System wishes to send its condolences. To the rest of the neighborhood, not to you.]

I'll make sure they receive your pity. I thought back, gritting my teeth.

"When Yoshino said you were suddenly interested in Fuinjutsu, I assumed she was joking."

looked backward at the new voice, and my heart stopped as I recognized the intruder in my room.

I was face to face with Shikaku Nara.

"Father," I greeted, dipping my head slightly. God, he looked exactly how he did in the anime. The scars along his face, the lazy grin, the trademark Nara hair. It was all the same.

Shikaku placed a hand on his hair, scratching. "Hmm…it looks like you've learned some manners at the very least. I wonder what brought such a sudden change. But I'm not going to ask—I'm assuming it's something very personal, at the very least. Only something really serious could bring such a dramatic change. Maybe a life or death situation? Huh, my son, Shinji Nara, in a life or death situation. Who would've thought?"

This guy was seriously smart.

I needed to be careful around him despite the fact that he was my father, that much was clear.

"Now, how about you show me your progress in Fuinjutsu? Believe it or not, your old man has some experience in the topic as well," Shikaku stated. "I believe you've been going at it for a week by now? How many seals have you learned?"

I smirked. "I only know the weapon seal."

Shikaku backtracked. "Eh?"

"That's right."

My father looked slightly disappointed. "Uhh…okay. Show it to me, then."

I brought out one of my cards, to which Shikaku looked confused. "You do realize those are cards, right?"

I nodded, before dipping my hand in the tube of ink that was present on my desk, and pressing it onto the paper. Like always, the kunai I brought to it disappeared.

Shikaku looked impressed. "That's amazing. To be able to perfect the seal into such a small piece of paper. You changed the containing seal into a slightly modified version of the transformation seal so it would fit? I'm assuming this seal would only work for kunai then. Well, a week for this is pretty good, I guess."

My grin widened. "That's not all."

I flung another piece of paper at the wall opposite to me, before transforming it into kunai in the middle of its flight with the wire it was connected through.

My father was completely speechless.

"How?" He managed to breathe out.

"It's not what you think it is," I said, laughing. "It's ninja wire, though you can't see it due to the dimness of this room."

"That's still very impressive. To do so in a week…" he trailed off. "You really want to improve your Fuinjutsu, don't you?"

I nodded. "Yep."

Shikaku laughed nervously. It was a slow, rhythmic tune. "Well, it's certainly been a while."

I cocked my head. "A while since what?"

"A while since there was a Nara who was actually motivated," Shikaku said, his voice taking a deep turn. "The last time something like that happened…"

My breath hitched. "What happened?"

"He was the main contender for the position of Hokage, next to the Third."

This definitely wasn't canon.

[-end-]

Yo!

Hope y'all liked the chapter!

Shikaku Nara is finally here. I have no idea how to write his character, so please forgive me if I did it rather poorly.

I hope people aren't too worried by the slow pace that the story is currently going through. I'm trying to properly pace this so that we can understand Shinji's limits and strengths, and so that the resulting fights will be all the more satisfying. I personally don't like stories in which the OCs randomly get stronger without any explanations, though it may be some people's cup of tea. I want everyone to understand Shinji as a character so you guys can become invested in him.

Next, regarding the question from the last chapter. I've finalized on an element. Obviously, I won't tell you guys.

Onto the question of the day:

Question 1: Which shinobi team would Shinji fit the best in? I don't have any preferences as of now. By Shinobi Team I mean Team 7, 10, etc.

If you really, really want to read the next chapter of MPGTOI a week early, make sure to check out my Pa treon where the next chapter is already there. It's at:

Pa treon . com (slash) PaladinKaladin

Discord server. Apparently, the last link was expired, so check out the new one.

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Make sure to follow and favorite to stay in touch with this fic, and review your thoughts, I read them all.

Schedule: Next Sunday.

Cya' next chapter.