Daiki had forgotten how much it truly sucked to have chakra exhaustion. Even before he slurped up Isobu into his chest like a big wet tortoise flavoured noodle, he'd been very careful to train himself just to before the point of chakra exhaustion and never fall passed the line.
After all, if he had chakra exhaustion, he would be laid up recovering for ages and thus would lose precious time that could other be spent grinding for gains.
As it was, even with Isobu's chakra running through his veins, allowing him to move, he still felt light headed and his limbs heavier than the weights he wore.
Which were twenty thousand pounds by the way. Which was like ten tons or so.
His limbs literally felt heavier than that.
He practically had to drag himself in an army crawl over to Shisui's corpse.
Toka laughing all the way at him as she hopped up onto the bed he'd left out. She really did find a lot of amusement in bullying him.
That wasn't fair at all by the way.
'I'm not a nerd.' he whined mentally. He was big, tough and muscular, he could lift a grown man with a single pinky finger.
He was manly with a capital M.
As it was, he sealed Shisui's corpse into his Dimension Force Seal, before flopping onto his back and just laying there.
"…Can you help me up onto the bed?" Daiki asked his bully lizard.
"No," Toka snorted, "Think of this as a lesson to think things through more carefully you silly meathead buffoon."
Daiki pouted.
Well whatever, it wasn't like he couldn't really do it if he wanted do. He just couldn't be bothered.
Another unfortunate side effect of chakra exhaustion. Lethargy and lack of motivation.
It was truly the anti-thesis to the grind.
Only heretics to the grind like Kakashi fondly fornicated with chakra exhaustion. And that guy got chakra exhaustion a lot in the other timeline.
He'd recover faster of course if he could stop using his eyes. Sadly for him, unlike chakra exhaustion's personal gigolo Kakashi, just covering his eyes didn't exactly stop them from working.
Still, it wouldn't take him that long to recover. An hour or two at best thanks to not only Isobu, but the chakra being constantly fed into his coils by the Heavenly Star Seal.
He would just have to tough it out until then.
He apologised mentally to the grind.
No wait.
He took that back.
'This is an opportunity to grind resistance to chakra exhaustion.' Daiki realised. Now that he was exposed to it, if this ever somehow happened again, he would be more used to it!
"By the way, you have a visitor," Toka commented, "So I'll leave you to that and have a nap for now I believe, human beds aren't too bad." she said, and then faded out of view entirely.
Though he knew she was still there of course.
And just as she did, there was a knock on his door.
Huh.
She was right.
Damnit, he hadn't sensed anyone approaching at all. Sure, his senses were dulled right now, but still.
'I've got a long ass way to go before I catch up to her sensory abilities.' he grimaced.
Well, whatever. He'd just need to grind that out more later.
"Come in," Daiki called out, "It's open."
He'd get up and open it himself, but he was feeling rather lazy, what with that thirsty thot chakra exhaustion having her slutty claws dug deep into him right now.
The door swung open and Daiki blinked as he found himself looking at a familiar bun haired older girl.
Huh, they had finished the exam already?
Did that mean the Sound Trio had attacked Team Seven already? He wondered if they did better this time around.
"Sup?" Daiki greeted the girl, plastering a debonair smile across his face.
Tenten raised an eyebrow at him, "What are you doing?" she asked dryly.
"Just chillaxing like a baller." Daiki replied, and would have casually shrugged.
…If he currently had the motivation to do so.
Her other eyebrow rose up and joined the first, "Somehow, knowing you, I doubt that, do you even know the definition of chilling out? Or is this just some new way of training you've discovered?" the bun haired girl asked with a snort and crossed her arms.
"….I'm training to resist chakra exhaustion?" he tried.
Tenten stared blankly at him for a second before sighing and kicking the door shut behind her, "You mean you did something stupid and exhausted all your chakra and now can't move?" she sliced right through his bullshit, walking over and crouching next to his head.
"Why do you assume it was something stupid and not intentional?" Daiki dug his feet in.
Metaphorically.
Since you know…chakra exhaustion and all.
"Because we've hung out a decent little bit now, spent a decent amount of time together with that date we were on and all, and I've managed to get a decent grasp on you I think," Tenten smirked at him and poked his cheek, daring him to bat her hand away, he of course could, he just didn't do so…because he liked the feel of her finger, yeah, totally, "The first time we met at that restaurant I thought you were cool, but you're almost as big an idiot as Lee and Gai-sensei."
"Hey, now that's uncalled for!" Daiki protested, "I'm cool!"
"You look cool, there's a big difference," Tenten denied his protests, "You're actually a dork, and a pervy one at that."
….Pervy Dork?
Did someone else hear glass shattering?
No?
So it was just his pride then?
If he had the motivation for it right now, he would have slumped over in depression.
The illusion of his pride had been destroyed, completely shattered, as if some spiky haired delinquent had punched right through it.
His cool image, the badass front he put up to show his greatness…it was all for nothing?
'I've been telling you that for a while now you know.' Isobu huffed.
Yes, but he thought Isobu was just yanking his chain!
"So, what really happened?" Tenten asked, breaking him from his thoughts.
"….I didn't think properly, jumped right in while trying something out and exhausted all of my chakra." Daiki admitted with a sigh.
No point really hiding it at this point. Well, roughly how he ended up in this state. Not that he actually restored the corpse of an Uchiha to perfect health so he could harvest its eyes.
"Must have been quite the technique," Tenten whistled, halting in poking his cheek, "You're an endurance freak after all and have chakra for days."
"Something like that," Daiki snorted, "So guess you finished the exam then?" he changed the subject.
"Yup, not long ago actually, fourth team so far apparently," she grinned at him, flashing him a 'v' sign with two fingers, "Heard you were the first one to finish Mr. Ringer, in record time at that?"
"Less than an hour baby, I'm awesome like that." he grinned.
"You're something alright," the bun haired girl rolled her eyes, "Full of it I'm thinking. Still, that's why I came here since I heard you were already here."
"You miss me that much?" he joked, "Want a second date?"
Tenten snorted, amused, "Actually, Lee got into a bit of a fight with those sound punks and didn't take them seriously, they busted up his ear drums so his balance is all thrown off and he can't hear right," she replied, "I'm not really good enough with the Mystical Palm Jutsu yet to do delicate stuff like that, so was hoping you could heal him up, but looks like that's a no go for now." she gave a helpless shrug.
Hmm.
So that had gone down the same then?
"I'll do it later, once I've recovered, should only take a few hours," he promised, and she gave him an odd look, but didn't comment, "So the sound team huh? I was thinking of bullying them a bit myself the other day for attacking one of us, but they were too weak to be any fun hunting down to be honest."
"They have some niche techniques, that sound arm thing the lead one has was kinda interesting, and one of them even had a wind jutsu that's a lot like yours," Tenten mused, "But yeah, they weren't all that strong to be honest, Lee could have beaten all three of them easily enough if he took his weights off."
"Should have done that before the exams started really." Daiki rolled his eyes. Lee definitely had the strength to be a chunin, but he completely lacked the mentality.
"True, though he has his reasons, silly as they might seem to some," Tenten shrugged again, "Honestly, they were kind of annoying, thought they were hot shit for ganging up on that pink haired girl, Sakura I think? We didn't need to in the end because it seems she's friends with you, because she busted out that jutsu of yours."
Daiki blinked, "She did?"
Huh.
"Yeah, she got caught up by that sound chick grabbing her hair, and the stupid bitch went off on some rant about her long hair despite having even longer hair, wasn't mouthing off for long though," Tenten growled before snorting, "The Sakura chick cut off her hair, then used it as a bit of a smokescreen to get the jump on the bitch, punched her right in the stomach and used your jutsu on her, woulda probably killed her if her arm didn't snap like a twig in the process."
…Huh.
As expected she couldn't handle the jutsu with her current arm strength. But still, Sakura actually took Kin down? And she did exactly as he said, used it only when she was sure she would get the hit in.
Good on her.
"The guy with a jutsu like yours totally wigged out seeing it though, went on a total rager about her copying him and stuff, it was kind of pathetic actually," Tenten continued, "He tried to blast her with his own, but she fired off your jutsu with her other arm, snapped it as well I think, but managed to block his own with it, then the Uchiha kid woke up, had some weird tattoo's his chakra went all nasty and acted like a total psycho, he ended up killing the guy when he saw what happened to his teammate and then the bandage guy who was the leader."
…Eh?
Then Dosu and Zaku were dead then? Huh, that was new and an unexpected development.
"Still that Uchiha kid was really unstable there for a bit, almost called us out for a fight as well before that Naruto kid woke up," Tenten continued, "Blondie made a big fuss about his teammates shorter hair and the Uchiha snapped out of whatever berserker rage he was in and those weird tattoo's and his nasty chakra disappeared real quick."
Hmm.
Daiki frowned in thought, 'This will change things up a bit come the preliminaries.' he mused.
But then again their existence wasn't actually all that important in the grand scheme of things. Dosu would get killed by Gaara off screen and Kin and Zaku just got used as Edo Tensei sacrifices.
Orochimaru could get any two sacrifices, so they weren't all that important really.
"Can't say I'm not glad how things turned out though," the bun haired girl grinned, "I managed to get my hands on that gauntlet the bandage guy had, he called it the Melody Arm I think, it'll be fun to learn how to use in the future."
Huh, another change. Not exactly a massive one, but still another change. And sound based techniques would be super useful for her in the future.
He needed to time to think this th-
His thoughts were derailed by surprisingly soft hands grasping his head and gently lifting it up and directed the back of his skull…to a pair of full, firm, yet comfortable thighs.
Daiki froze.
"…What are you doing?" he asked blankly, looking directly up at Tenten now from where his head lay on her thighs.
"Well, I figure since it'll be a good while before you can move, I may as well make things more comfortable for you," she smirked down at him, "C'mon, you can't say a perv like you isn't happy getting a lap pillow from me, you weren't exactly shy before in complimenting my…let's be polite and say my looks."
…Was she coming on to him?
"You could just help me over to the bed you know." he pointed out.
"I can if you want." Tenten raised an eyebrow challengingly at him.
"Nope, I'm good here." he instantly backtracked.
"I thought so." she snorted, her smirk turning wry.
One seriously could not underestimate the healing properties of a lap pillow. Daiki practically felt his chakra recovery speed up massively, a thousand percent over even!
It was such a speedy recovery technique, that in response to Tenten's teasing, he managed through sheer epic badassery, to roll in place so he was laying face down on her thighs and could feel the full lusciousness of them against his cheeks.
He inhaled and then exhaled deeply, 'Smells like victory.'
A hand wove itself into his hair and fingers grasped his short spiky tresses and he found his face yanked up by the grip, his nose practically being buried in Tenten's toned belly for a second before his head was tilted up and found the brunnete looking down at him, one eyebrow raised, gaze dry, "…Really?" she deadpanned.
Hmm, looking up at her like this, he could only see half of her face, the rest was blocked out by the surprisingly large sloping of her breasts.
"Well, you probably don't know being a complete pleb with medic ninjutsu, but lap pillows are known to speed up recovery rates by one hundred percent," Daiki helpfully informed her, "Going the face down route of it though with a cute girl, boosts that ten times over."
Somehow her gaze became even dryer and her other eyebrow raised up to join the first, "You must be really great at infiltration missions with how easily you can bullshit with such a straight face." the bun haired older girl snorted.
"I'm not bullshitting, remember, I had to move to change my position," Daiki smirked at her, "Proof that it works."
"Utterly shameless." she shook her head, letting go of his hair and letting his face plop down against her thighs. Despite how firm and toned they were, her thighs were also surprisingly soft somehow.
Such a mystery.
Not that he was complaining.
"You're an utter menace," she continued, "I can only imagine the amount of girls you've taken advantage of like this and got away with just because you're cute and strong."
"None really," he said, his voice muffled slightly because of her thighs, "You're the only one who's ever given me a lap pillow, be proud."
He could have taken advantage of Hinata most likely, but he wouldn't. He'd felt up Sakura, but that was just for a laugh and to hype her up, and pinching Ino's ass didn't count. And Kurenai and Anko didn't count either, because he couldn't be taking advantage of them when they freely offered to ride his dick.
That was on them.
Really, his restraint was quite admirable when he thought about it. He was quite the gentleman.
"Oh wow, my biggest achievement yet," Tenten replied with a snort, "I can practically see the Hokage giving me a chunin vest and a super chakra blade as a reward right now."
'I mean if she wants to be my personal lap pillow giver, that's an easy reward.' he laughed mentally.
Tenten was actually one of the most suited to be a chunin in his general age group. She wasn't the strongest, nor was she the smartest, but she was mature and struck a nice middle ground between them with having both the strength and intelligence for the role, where as, most of the candidates were like Naruto, Sasuke and Lee, specc'd into the strength and not having the maturity, or the likes of Shikamaru who specc'd into the intelligence role and lacked the strength.
The whole theme of the chunin exams here was about that heaven and earth crap that old man Sarutobi thought up. Only those possessing of both the required mental and physical ability would be promoted.
Funny how that got hand waved for Shikamaru and nobody else. Then again the old man was dead and gone by the time the promotions came about. He probably just got promoted because of Asuma pushing for it and nobody wanting to slap the man down after he just lost his father.
It was that or Shikaku pushing for it as the more or less jonin commander that seemed the most likely options to Daiki. He refused to believe the examiners could be that utterly bum fucking stupid to promote him over everybody else for his showing against Temari.
Nepotism at its finest for sure.
Well if he ended up Hokage, it wasn't going to happen unless that noodle armed shadow boy got put through a grind course and gained some muscle. None of his teams would be getting led on missions by such a flimsy guy.
Honestly, such an un-motivated guy was near the last he'd promote from his age group.
"Chunin vest and chakra blade, got it," Daiki nodded into Tenten's thighs, "Seems a pretty good trade for you as my personal lap pillow giver."
That actually might make being Hokage worth it. He'd have his clones do all the work while he chillaxed with his head in Tenten's lap.
…He'd totally need to find some sheer skirt for her to wear though. Like a harem one. He should hit up the daimyo or something to ask him about getting harem girl outfits.
No wait, a belly dancer outfit would look way better on Tenten!
"Last I checked you weren't Hokage." Tenten pointed out.
"For now, but I'm pretty much next in line." he responded.
"Uh-hu? And where'd you get that idea?" the bun haired girl's voice was light as she asked, clearly disbelieving.
"Cuz I'm just that awesome," he smirked into her thighs, "No doubt if the Hokage were to die anytime soon or step down they'd pick me to replace him."
"And did you wake up with your face in a bowl of cereal after that dream?" Tenten snorted, "Or did you hit your head before I found you? Lemme check for a bump." he felt one of her hands reach into his hair and gentle rake through his dark tresses.
"Haters gonna hate, but that does feel good." he replied idly and just relaxed and enjoyed the feeling.
It wasn't like he blamed her for not believing him. After all, he had a hard time believing it sometimes that he was basically the next Hokage and he'd had a decent while to process it now.
And Tenten wasn't exactly privy to his full strength and resources, never mind his Jinchuuriki abilities and the like.
"Mmm, maybe your head is just one big lump and that's why I can't feel one on here?" she mused sardonically as she continued to gently rake her fingers through his short spiky hair, "Your head is plenty big enough for it."
"I'm gonna give you D-rank missions for a year straight when the truth come outs." he laughed.
"Sure you are," the bun haired girl drawled sarcastically, "Heck, tell you what, if it does turn out to be true, I'll give you a lap pillow whenever you want."
"Ooh, high stakes there," Daiki grinned and turned his head over a bit so he could look up into her eyes with one of his own, "I'm pretty possessive you know, which means no other boyfriend for you when that happens, these cozy thighs will belong to me."
"Uh-hu?" she rolled her eyes, "Guess I'd be stuck with you then."
Daiki blinked, before his grin widened to shit eating proportions, "That sounds like a proposition to me." he replied.
"You're the one that loves having your face between my thighs." Tenten deadpanned.
Touche.
"Among other things," he shot back, "But it's good to know."
"Good to know what?" she furrowed her brows.
"How good my game is," he gave a tiny shrug that only the recovery power of the legendary lap pillow afforded him, "And that you're totally fine being stuck with me." his grin reached shit eating proportions.
Despite how cool she'd played it so far, Tenten was unable to stop the slight flush her cheeks took on, "I don't see you complaining about it." she replied.
"As if I would," Daiki laughed, "I'd probably be a shit boyfriend, but I wouldn't say no to dating you."
Her lips quirked up, "Is that so?" the bun haired older girl mused, before reaching down to flick him on the nose, "Save it for after the exams lover boy, we can try it out a bit if you want, see if it works out."
"Totally fine with me." he agreed.
Two hours later Daiki was up back on his feet and moving again. Albeit, a bit stiffly.
His chakra capacity had fully recovered though, which was what mattered. He just felt like he'd had a cheat day and gorged on a bunch of artery clogging junk food full of salt and super greasy fat.
As if he took a bite out of Choji's mothers ass.
Not that he would. There were some things even the ever fearless Daiki-sama himself was too afraid to face head on.
'And this is the boy that plans to save the world.' Isobu groaned.
Daiki shrugged, 'I know my limits buddy.' he replied mentally as he made his way down the hall that the assigned bedrooms were located in with Tenten by his side, or rather a bit in front of him.
Leading him to where her teams room was.
…And because he was taking advantage of his 'exhausted' body to check her out from behind.
It was only a short walk that took less than thirty seconds, about twenty five at most and only because of his pace and the fact that Tenten's team had claimed the most far away room at the end of the hall for whatever reason.
Daiki personally had chosen the first one.
He had no idea why none of the other two teams had before he got here. Possibly some strategic thing or something, honestly, he couldn't be sure since he saw nothing wrong with taking the first room he came across.
"You know, are you sure you had chakra exhaustion?" Tenten looked over his shoulder at him, forcing him to drag his eyes up from where he was admiring her backside, she rolled her eyes but didn't comment, "Because I've had chakra exhaustion before, a few times even, and I was laid up for days recovering, it's only been two hours and you're up and about."
"Your thighs have the magic touch, what can I say." Daiki shrugged with a grin.
She gave him a thoughtful look, "So it's just some trait you have then, bloodline maybe?" she mused.
"Yep, It's called the Sexygan, when I'm in contact with a knock out like you all of my parameters are increased by a thousand percent." he nodded and revealed.
"Well, keep your secrets if you want," Tenten rolled her eyes and turned back around, though not fast enough to hide the flush that spread over her cheeks once again at his compliment from his eyes, "I'll get it out of you at some point."
"I mean, if you wanna know that badly, I'll tell you…for a lapdance." Daiki grinned.
Tenten paused and once again looked over her shoulder at him, giving the younger boy a deadpan look, "Slow down a bit hot shot," she replied drily, "We haven't even had a proper kiss yet, never mind started dating and you want to jump straight to a lapdance?"
Hmm.
That was quite the interesting tell.
"You didn't deny you could give one," he pointed out, "Besides, what's a kiss compared to lewdly holding hands?" he joked.
They had indeed been holding hands for a decent bit during their date not that long ago.
"What kunoichi couldn't give a lapdance?" Tenten snorted derisively, before turning back around and continuing dawn the hall.
Daiki stopped in his tracks and blinked.
'Being able to give a lapdance is mandatory for kunoichi?' he goggled after her. Were seduction classes in the academy actually a thing? He thought that was just bullshit, but the girls did have some classes separate from the boys.
He'd need to ask old man Hokage about that.
Also, if true and he became Hokage, he'd for sure need to 'review' the skills of all the beautiful kunoichi.
For the good of Konoha of course.
Just to make sure they were up to par and not rusty.
And here we are back again, this time with the big three to the one, thirty ol one.
This chapter itself, nothing much happened, it was mostly a social chapter and set up for later. As it is, there won't be as much time for pure socials down the line, so I'm setting up a few of it here, it slows the story down a bit, but thems the brakes. Besides, it was about time for some more Tenten interaction, she was chosen as the main love interest since before I started the story. Anyway, I'm up to chapter 39 right now on Pa-atreon now and just one more fight to take care of before the prelims end. That in of itself is cause for celebration I'm thinking, I might just crack open a bottle of bourbon when I finish off the prelims, it will be orgasmic. This is my first time writing the chunin exams and I can completely understand now why it's one of the main plots that kills naruto fanfics.
Anyway, 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.
