Time and Again

I don't own Naruto or The Gamer

Previously on Cloud Gamer

I choked on my own tears as I started to cough and sputter, my grip strengthened and started to draw blood on the back of her hand, but her face didn't waver, she just kept smiling.

I hated it

~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter Start~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My grip continued to strengthen as I dug into her skin, but her face didn't change and behind her I saw something. A man wearing a black jumper with a grey sweatshirt underneath, his face shadowed over by his black hair, the black tracksuit pants he was wearing covered in lint. He reached over Yugito and grabbed the sides of my face, his body going straight through her head and reaching over to mine. I finally got to see his face, he had dark jade eyes and cracked lips that I recognised. It was… me?

"What the fuck are you doing, Michael?"

'Huh?'

"You heard me you piece of shit, this girl is here to stay, don't fuck with me here. I'm you, you're me so listen closely as I won't repeat it. This isn't our old world; people are different so get it through your skull before I have to ram it in."

I looked straight into his eyes and saw my own, it reminded me of the old world. But that didn't matter now, the world is your oyster as they say right? WELL, LETS MAKE THE GREATEST DISH TO EXIST!

I was brought back by another hiccup as my tears stopped flowing and he walked away holding hands with my kids as they walked along the path back home, their home.

"Shin? Its starting to hurt now, please stop." She said with her lip quivering as I loosened my grip and went into a small laugh, that increased to a full chuckle, then a belly laugh as I leaned back hitting my head on the wall.

"YOW!" I shouted as I rubbed my head. I looked over to Yugito who was also starting to giggle, and I got up from my bed and hugged her as tight as I could.

'This is it now. It all starts here, becoming the greatest shinobi to ever exist? Pfh all I need is someone with a good head on their shoulders and its easy!' She hugged me back as we both stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry Yugito, truly. I don't know why I pick this stuff up fast, and I wasn't lying when I said I needed to be mature. I won't lie to you again. Actually, scratch that I will, maybe." I added because of the look she gave me. We separated and then realised.

"She locked the door from the outside, didn't she?" I said while staring towards it.

"Mhm" She replied while also staring.

"LET US OUT YOU HAG" I yelled while laughing.

"The fuck did you call me?" she said after kicking open the door.

"Thanks a bunch, cya!" I said while running under her arms to which Yugito followed, nothing could bring me off of this high.

We got chased around the orphanage by the matron while the younger kids were laughing and eating dinner. I weaved around the tables a few times before vaulting out an open window.

Me and Yugito were both running around the yard while the matron was screaming like a banshee. Profanities like 'come back here you shits' and 'wait till I get my hand son you fucks' were common on our trip. I saw my opportunity with a gutter pipe and climbed up with Yugito closely following behind me and the matron, not.

We jumped between windowsills and the pipes leading to the roof where we sat down. There were a couple of notifications from my system I checked while on our break from running. When we got up there was an amazing sunset going down over the village and I started to check my notifications.

"Stat willpower unlocked!"

"Skill: 'Mindscape' unlocked!"

"Title: 'Courageous' unlocked!"

I waved them off before doing a double take at the mindscape skill.

[Mindscape] level 1 (0%)

Allows the user to enter, manipulate and exit their mindscape through the action of meditation. At higher levels your manipulation over your mindscape is increased.

It wasn't powerful in combat or anything, but maybe I could meet the 2 tails if I asked Yugito. I wasn't going to test it until I got it to a higher level though. As the sun finally set the matron made her way onto the roof and caught us. We were brought down and didn't get dinner that night and we had to do double the chores for a week, but it was worth it, at least for my cooking skill.

3 Days later

The cooking skill levelled slowly I found as I chopped the rest of the vegetables. It was so slow in fact that it might as well not have existed, but once again, gains were gains as I finished on the cauliflower.

I got into a routine, do cooking, help hang up washing, go train, come eat, go train, eat lunch, train some more, eat dinner, then sleep, in that order everyday but it left a lot to be desired, I realised I didn't know anything about the kids at the orphanage besides Yugito. I was too busy focusing on myself and worrying about my own problems to care about anyone else. 'I will change that at the academy' I thought before going out to help Yugito.

11 Months later

It was soon time for the academy, I had levelled up more than 10 times over the past year and gained 5 new techniques for my arsenal, the war was still raging on and the third Raikage went to support troops on the Iwa front, leaving us without a leader. A few days ago, however, leadership was handed off to his son after he died fighting more than 10,000 Iwa shinobi at once in his lightning cloak, taking more than 7,000 of those shinobi to the sanzu river with him.

The third Raikage had a short memorial service where we all stood in silence before a huge party was started to celebrate his life and to hail him as a hero. It was an amazing festival with food stalls, drinks, games and way too many drunk adults. I snuck out with Yugito on one of the days and finally went around the village properly, there were people smiling everywhere, while spending time with their loved ones.

My body had grown quite a bit over the last year as well and I was standing at nearly 106 cm in height. Quite tall for my age, and Yugito was just a little taller than me at 108 cm which she loved to mention.

Yugito was asleep next to me, and I opened my status to see progress.

Name: Shin Chinoike

Title: Natural

Birth date: February 26th

Level 36

Hp 775/775

Cp 500/500

Stam 550/550

Efficiency ?%

Stats

Strength: 20

Vitality: 45

Chakra: 40

CC: 25 (+20 with ketsuryugan activated)

Luck: 15

Intelligence: 16

Willpower: 16

Charisma: 12

Stat points remaining: 0

Monthly Lotteries collected: 34(Can be claimed on the first of each month!)

Skills

[Ketsuryugan] level 45 (71%) {click here for details}

[Leaf sticking exercise] Level 52 (63%) {click here for more details}

[Basic Chakra Exercises] level 13 (14%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning style: Flash] level 29 (67%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning style: Lightbulb] level 15 (34%) {click here for more details}

[Cooking] level 6 (10%) {click here for more details}

[Mindscape] level 22 (93%) {click here for more details}

[Fire style: Spark] level 1 (38%) {click here for more details}

[Water style: Filter] level 1 (87%) {click here for more details}

[Earth style: Pit] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}

I had been slacking on chakra control since I had my eyes but the leaf sticking exercise was making up for that since I could now stick them on my fingers, up to 3 simultaneously which led to insane gains, especially without the skill on, I probably could have maxed out the skill, but I was too busy making friends with the younger kids.

I still hadn't asked Yugito for permission to meet the two tails but I had my reasons. I have been levelling up my mindscape skill to try and make it as hospitable as possible in case it were to connect with Yugi's like B and Naruto's did in the anime. First impressions, right?

My lottery winnings were amazing this year with the increased luck. My inventory was full of goodies as follows:

Inventory

Blank summoning scroll

3x 1 skill voucher

1x 5 skill voucher

112,700 ryo

64x sheets of chakra litmus paper

1x fire style: Flame bullet scroll

1x earth style: mud wall scroll

1x 10 skill voucher

I still hadn't used much of B's money since I didn't need it then. I also hadn't used any skill points yet in my tree because I was saving them. I closed my status page and looked to my left where Yugito was still sleeping, we kept sharing a bed since we became used to it even though she was going to become 5 in less than half a year. Yes, it was weird for me, was I going to change it? No, it reminds me of when my kids used to sleep with me and Hanako, good memories. I soon fell asleep after blowing the candle out.

1 Week later

The matron had taken us out to get supplies for the academy such as academy shuriken, kunai, textbooks, stationary, the usual stuff you would expect from the school. The day after we started packing our new bags and left for the academy. When we got there, we both knew nobody, which wasn't worrying per-say just a bit, uncomfortable. We arrived a bit later than everyone else and groups had yet to be formed so we could possibly mesh in with some of them but after eavesdropping a small amount on the conversations, we realised that the groups wouldn't really fit us.

Most of the boys were talking about cool ninja like the recently deceased third Raikage or B, who had gained some popularity himself after his support on the front lines. The girls were more interested in things like which boy was the hottest, sadly I was not part of the listings. Me and Yugito sat near the back, closest to the door as a duo of two light skinned siblings ran through the door.

"First!" The female one said after pushing the male one on the ground.

"No! I was obviously first!" The male one replied while getting off the ground.

The blonde duo turned to us and said simultaneously. "Who was first!?" As the looked at each other and started brawling. I looked towards Yugito, and she shrugged. I leaned over to Yugito and whispered something to her.

I started thinking out loud. "Hmmm, I think it was you! Pointing at the male one and he cheered while taunting his sibling."

"Really? I thought it was her." Yugito added while pointing at the female one.

They both stared at each other at started brawling again. 'Siblings' I thought while remembering my own twins. Then while they were fighting I heard a name I recognised "Samui! No low blows!" The male screamed. "Shut it Atsui!" The now named Samui screeched back.

The teacher soon walked in and immediately threw 2 pieces of chalk that caught them in between the eyes. The students all watched this and silently popped into seats. Atsui and Samui next to us.

"Alright kids, I'm going to be your teacher this year, the names Balor, you can call me Balor-sensei or Balor-sama nothings else" he said with a smug look on his face.

Balor had dark brown hair and was tanned. His eyebrows were thin, but long and his eyes were a deep blue, he wore his headband on his left bicep and wore his white flak jacket over a dark grey sweater. His pants were baggy and he kept a tool pouch on the left leg with his sandals being the same grey as his sweater.

"First off I'll let you all get acquainted through introductions wahooo." He ordered with sarcastic jazz hands to emphasise his excitement or lack thereof.

"Alright starting from the top left of the class. You" He said while pointing his pen at me.

I stood up and introduced myself. "My name is Shin; I like to train, and I don't like wasting my time. I hope we can all be friends." I said with a smile while the teacher flicked his pen to my left, pointing it at Yugito, who introduced herself and so forth.

There were a couple of kids I planned to keep an eye on like Mura Yotsuki, who planned to become the head of his clan and master all of the laser themed techniques, he had light purple hair and his clan symbol plastered on his back. The other one I was going to keep track of was Yui, who didn't have a clan but dreamt of removing the stigma against kunoichi being weaker than shinobi. Those were the only interesting people, most were the usual become a cool shinobi or become the Raikage, a dream I personally wanted nothing to do with.

"Alright that's introductions over. Let me explain how this academy works." He said while turning around and starting to write on the chalkboard. After a while of kids talking and him writing he turned around and slapped the blackboard getting everyone's attention and covering his hair in chalk dust but who cares.

"There are 4 years in the academy due to constraints right now, usually people would enter later and end later but you little tikes are needed for our country so good luck. The first year will be spent covering the theory on chakra and basic control along with the history of the shinobi world as or right now. Also, part of the first year will be several examinations for people with potential to skip years in the academy because we are kind of desperate." He looked straight at Yugito with that statement ignoring the classes groans about tests.

"The second year will also have those examinations, but we will also be teaching you about physical training and implementing it into monthly spars in a tournament style. The application of chakra becomes more intense there so focus this year for a smooth ride through the academy. Extracurricular classes are chosen in the third year and those cover half of the day. The other half will be training and theory for strategy and other subjects of the like that are present in civilian schooling." Several kids started whining about 'why were they even here if they were doing civilian stuff' before Balor puled out a kunai and scraped it against the blackboard.

"Listening now? Alright, the fourth year becomes far more intense and has you learning techniques along with spars, extracurricular classes and any other training you do outside of the academy." He finished while tapping his kunai on the blackboard in a metronome fashion.

"Alright, for the smartasses who want to skip a year, or a few, the first examination is held in 2 weeks, but for now you are stuck here, and we shall get started. Who knows what chakra is?" At this point I nodded off and went into my mindscape.

My mindscape was currently pretty small, it only had the orphanage and my room in great detail. I had slowly expanded it while exploring the village and was here now to add the academy. The academy lied 4 streets away and up a huge staircase. From the entrance to the orphanage, I went right, adding any details I was missing, then diagonally left through the crossroad towards a large staircase with grey cement and a red pole lining the middle. After that I headed left following back around to where I could see the orphanage from above and across the streets in the distance, then I went right up another set of stairs into the academy courtyard.

It was all dirt and grass besides a path entering the building and I was about to walk in before. *THWACK* "Oi Shin, it's the first day lad. No time for naps." Balor commented before pulling his ruler off of my head. I looked to my head to see Yugito with a sad look that was hiding laughter, and the temperature twins laughing their asses off.

"Alright. What did I miss?" I said lazily before Balor turned around with tickmarks on his head and several students holding fearful expressions towards him.

"You only missed the chakra theory portion. But since you want to be a clown, why don't you show everyone how to use chakra?" He smirked while giving me a leaf. "Shin here is going to demonstrate using chakra and will be sticking this leaf to his forehead." He barked before turning back towards me with a devilish grin.

I yawned before putting the leaf on my head and adding chakra. It easily stuck on, and he said "Looks like you can do this already. Why don't you explain to the class how you did." He simply said before heading back down towards the front of the class.

I rubbed the forming lump on my head before starting my incredibly boring lecture and definitely lengthy lecture. "First, I moved an appropriate amount of chakra to my forehead then I placed the leaf on and bam! Done" I drawled while fighting back another yawn. Meditation was just like sleeping so when I got out of it, especially forcefully, I became a bit drowsy.

"Alright, close enough. To be specific there is chakra throughout your entire body, please raise you hand if you haven't unlocked or are able to manipulate chakra." He said and most of the kids around us raised their hands. The ones who didn't being clan members, me, Yugito, Atsui and Samui.

"Everyone who cannot use their chakra, please follow me" Balor said while utilizing the shadow clone technique to teach the rest of us. "You lot are staying in here and will be practicing the leaf exercise. When you get to 1 minute of being able to hold it over the next few days come talk to me." The clone declared before sitting back in his chair to take a nap.

I wasn't sure what to use this time for besides building the mindscape, but I could do that easily and Yugito would be alone, and that would suck. I looked over to her and she nodded at me we walked up to him with 2 confident smirks as the clone opened his eft eye to look at us walking down the steps towards him.

"What is it you two? Need some tips? If you need another leaf pluck it from outside and come straight back in." He finished before closing the eye again.

"No actually we can already do the leaf exercise for a few minutes each." Yugito said while I was floating the leaf above my finger to mock him.

"That's surprising, can I get your names to write down?" He replied while picking a pen out of his jacket pocket and a notepad from the same one.

"Shouldn't you remember all of your students?" I said while trying to spin the leaf mid-air.

"Half of them leave after the first year so there's no point. Being a shinobi isn't all about flashy techniques, history and politics play a big part, especially if you want to be the Raikage as most of these soon to be dropouts want to be." He said lazily while clicking the pen a few times. "So, names?"

"Shin" I said while spinning the leaf above my finger.

"Yugito Nii" Yugito added while staring at the leaf I was spinning.

"Nii? That sounds familiar… Ah whatever if I forgot it then it probably didn't matter" He said while jotting down our names.

We both sweat dropped at this and asked again. "So, what now?"

"Well, that was going to be most of the week besides theory work. Hmmm, ah take these and don't disturb anybody." He replied while chucking us 2 wooden planks saying 'Library pass'.

"Be back before 12 or don't, you will just get punished." He added while shrugging his shoulders. "Now shoo, even clones need to sleep"

We walked through the halls, and I was looking around at all the details I had to add, before Yugito piped up. "Our teacher is pretty lazy huh?"

"Maybe, but most of his comrades are at war and he is stuck here babysitting a bunch of kids." I replied, still looking around

"Hopefully we find something good in the library, I want to get some techniques." She mused while I hummed in agreement.

"We probably won't be getting techniques in here. But I guess we can still hope." I replied as we finally reached the first-floor library. We walked inside and were greeted by a nice-looking woman with red hair that was reading a magazine.

She didn't even look up before saying "Passes." We placed them up and she said "Thank you. Don't steal anything." Before flicking a page.

"Is everyone here lazy?" Yugito said while we walked away.

"Maybe." I replied while finding a table to sit at.

When we sat down Yugito asked me a question I didn't expect. "Shin, you said something about a mindscape, can I make one?" she said while prancing around the table.

"You already have one. Its where the two tails is held." I replied simply.

"Oh, so that's what it is. Can I see yours? B taught me how." She chirped while taking a seat on the floor next to me.

"Alright. So, how do we do this?" I said while facing her.

"Just have contact and meditate together." She said like it was the easiest thing in the world.

We put out palms together in front of us and started meditating, soon we were both in my mindscape but to my left where the street was usually empty there was a long path leading to several bright green hills.

"I guess the town is your part. How bland, Shin your imagination sucks." Yugito said mockingly while slapping my back.

"Not like yours is much better. You just copy pasted some grass around and called it a day." I replied.

"Shut up!" She said while turning around.

"Since yours is so much better than mine how about we go over there?" I commented.

"Fine! But the kitty ain't nice" she said while running towards the meadows. I followed behind and we entered the plains. As we did a small rabbit popped out of a ditch in the ground before being snagged back in by a blue paw.

"Oh no! The rabbit got caught by the big bad cat!" I said mockingly while Yugito blushed.

"It is bad Shin; you just haven't met it." She sputtered.

The 'big bad cat' in question soon came out of the hole and looked towards us.

"Sup" I said while waving towards her.

"Hello human." She replied simply while licking her paw.

'How should I go about this' I thought while Yugito walked towards it.

"Hey kitty. You having fun?" Yugito said in a patronising tone, like she was taking to a baby.

I walked forwards and slapped her upside the head. "You idiot, this is a legendary beast created by the sage of six paths, it isn't a house cat. That's probably why it doesn't like you." I said and they both stared at me both for completely different reasons.

'Oh shit' I thought for the 800th time this year, my blabbermouth couldn't keep anything secret.

"Shin! That hurt!" Yugito cried while massaging her head and huffing off. "I'm going to see how great your mindscape is if mine is just copy pasted grass."

Soon she left at that left me and Matatabi.

"Human, how do you know about our origins?" she said while stalking towards me.

"Hmmm. I don't know. How much do I know Matatabi?" I said and she stopped moving forward.

"Don't use that name human, you sully it with your tongue." She snapped and I laughed.

'I must be going insane to pick a fight with a tailed beast.' "Meh, whatever." I replied while taking a seat in the grass.

"Why are you here? Should you not have gone off with Yugito?" She said while I shrugged my shoulders.

"Well, I wanted to meet one of you for a while, but also didn't want to make it awkward by asking." I replied simply.

"What do you want then?" Matatabi said while I stared into space. 'Never thought I would get this far' I thought while looking at her.

"What did I want? No clue, anyways your size really betrays the whole beast thing, you are the size of a house cat!" I said dumbly while she stared at me.

"I bet you wanted my power, sorry human I'm taken" She bragged while sitting down herself. "And this is not my real size" she added.

"Oh, I know that, just thought I should comment. When was the last time you talked to the rest of the tailed beasts?" I replied.

"Even if we did meet often, I would not sell out my siblings so you can steal their power" Matatabi spat while I just kept sitting there.

"I plan on meeting the rest of you eventually and your big ol' papa Hagoromo. Just wanted to make small talk." I said while standing back up.

"Do not say his name human." She replied while I walked away.

"Yeah, yeah whatever pussy cat." I yelled back while waving her off.

'I am so fucking dead if I come across her when unsealed. What was I thinking acting all arrogant.' I mused while trying to keep my cool as I entered the village.

"Yugito! Let's leave!" I yelled out and Yugito ran straight back.

"Alright! It was getting boring here anyways." She chirped and we woke up from the meditation.

It was nearing 12pm so we ran back to the classroom, passing by the asleep librarian on our way, before a skill popped up.

"Skill 'mindscape sharing' unlocked!"

'Neat' I thought while running down the halls. We eventually reached the classroom, and half the room was asleep. Including the teacher. What a way for the first academy day to go.

Suddenly the teacher shot up and walked over to us. "Hey little prodigies, we are having a shared naptime right now so sit down and shut up." And with that he left back to his seat to sleep.

What a way to start the first day.

I received a review earlier asking for longer chapters that don't come daily. I was thinking the same thing but the 2k word chapters just end so easily and I can pump them out whenever I want. But who cares! This chapter ain't done!

When we got back to the orphanage there were kids crowding around us asking about the first day, so we left them very deflated after relaying everything. We entered out room and dropped down our bags.

"Tiring day, huh?" I asked while Yugito wordlessly flopped onto the bed.

'I'll take that as a yes' I thought before going back downstairs.

"Excuse me miss?" I called out to the matron who was feeding a baby with a bottle.

"What is it, Shin?" she asked while rocking the baby back and forward.

"How much is it to buy an apartment? There isn't a chance someone is picking us up and the war is still going on so prices should be down with the deaths, right?" I asked, hopefully I could get out of this place soon. I knew how much I had, and it was no where near enough but still it beats having no starting cash.

To buy an apartment outright right now should be around 10,000,000 ryo right now but that's on the low end. 'Holy fuck I basically have no starting point anyways' I thought while listening to the rest of her answer. "So, you will probably be living here until graduation where you will be chucked onto the front lines doing C rank missions on the daily.

'That's going to be tough' I thought while thanking her for the information and going to prep dinner. "Thank you, Shin," was all I heard before I got to the fridge and checked the list for tonight. 'Just some vegetables and a small amount of meat. Easy' I mused while opening the fridge and grabbing the ingredients needed.

The 'Cooking' skill made the task quite easy and since I didn't really care about levels in it, I used the skill to do it subconsciously until I got to the meat, and I tried to do something different. The kids don't have refined taste buds and eat everything, but I do, so I tried something I was decent at in my other world. Actually, cooking a decent meal, the matron did a lot for us and carried many skills, but cooking was not one of them. I lit the stove up and grabbed out some oil and butter, turning it to low heat I chucked on a small slab and a dash of oil before coating the pan. I chucked on the meat after a while as to not burn the butter with sudden heat increase, I also added some herbs along side it for taste. I wasn't great at cooking, but I watched many videos and tried my hand a few times becoming passable.

After about 3 minutes I flipped over the meat and started too bast it. The matron was behind me over my shoulder and said "Shin, you don't need it to be fancy, plus the kids are hungry so finish soon alright?" I hummed in acknowledgement before turning back to the finished meat. I grabbed out the chopping board and sliced it thinly as to have enough for the entire orphanage, each plate only had a couple of slices but the vegetables more than made up for that. I swiftly plated up and the kids took their picks with the plates since there was no way in hell, I would bring over 10+ plates to a bunch of toddlers without dropping at least one.

Yugito soon came down and I handed her a plate before we sat down. The matron, who had already finished thanked me for the meal and started to wash up the kids faces who decided to pig out and shove everything in their gaping jaws. Somehow, they never choked, and I was jealous, Yugito looked over the table and said "Shin, you really stepped up your game today." I laughed it off as a sort of first day meal thing before turning to the real reason for my test.

"Skill cooking has increased in level by 2x!"

"You have levelled up! 5 stat points and 1 skill point gained."

'So, my thoughts were correct' I mused while eating my meal, it tasted decent, but I knew I could probably do better, whether that was ingredients or skill I had no idea, but I knew this could be an efficient levelling strategy if I do this often enough.

I grabbed our plates and went over to the sink to wash up. The matron had been really stressing lately about something, but I didn't care enough to ask her. I just needed to raise levels and become stronger.

As I finished the last dish I walked up to mine and Yugito's room where she was already asleep 'Its barely 7' I thought while yawning. 'Guess I'm also tired' I thought as I entered the bed myself. 'I may be an adult in my mind, but this child body is too limiting' I mused while falling asleep.

2 Weeks Later

It had been 2 weeks since I started the academy and it was damn boring, I learned nothing and the daily 'nap times' were just an excuse for our bum ass teacher to laze about without teaching and still get paid. But today was different, Yugito and I were going to take the test to skip a few grades. All that stood in our way was a taijutsu spar against a teacher, a written test, and a showcase of our skills. The thing I was most worried about was the taijutsu spar. I hadn't practiced much if not any of the stuff while here so far and I was hoping my stats could give me the edge.

First up was the written exam which was simple mathematics that progressively got harder and Yugito was having a tough time around halfway through the test, but my adult brain cleared it quite easily. The hardest question involved a parabola and a shuriken's trajectory, which was way too hard for a fucking 8-year-old. After the hour was up Yugito was getting antsy and thankfully the taijutsu test was up next. Sparring against a chunin was interesting to say the least. Yugito didn't have much of a form but was flexible and agile, jumping around trying to overwhelm the older teacher with easily telegraphed punches and kicks. She got pushed over and that was the end of her match. Next was me.

I stepped up to the field and took a stance I was familiar with in my previous life, an orthodox stance from boxing. In my past life I did some boxing on the side and entered a couple of tournaments, which I didn't win but still was passable. One thing that allowed me to win any matches was my ability to switch stances easily, I wasn't ambidextrous, but the southpaw stance felt just as comfortable as the normal one, adding some mixup to my strategy.

I squared off against the teacher, who stood there lazily waiting for my strike. I lunged forward with a right straight which he parried with ease and went for a left hook towards my exposed chest. I rolled into his arm getting close before he brought a knee to my left side, throwing me into the ground. I steadily got up and changed my stance into the southpaw style, I didn't know what hand his dominant was, but holy fuck was he was powerful either way. That kick sliced off 30 hp but I was doing fine.

I ran in and darted into his guard on the left side. He brought up his hands to defend but I swerved in between trying for a left hook to the liver, as I went for the punch he backpedalled and once again, brought up his elbow as I punched it 'Ouch' I thought while running back in. "That's enough." He said in a gruff voice.

"Your style is not made for you kid, change it and mix in some kicks. Your guard is too high and leaves you exposed from the hip down. Enemies aren't going to fight how you want so, be adaptable. Right now, you are going to get yourself killed if you fight like that." He finished; I knew he was right, but I didn't want to hear it. Even Yugito's street brawling was better than whatever I just did, that was pathetic.

Anyways, last up is the skill showcase, use any techniques or jutsu possible and we shall grade you. I had my hopes up for this one but after my last showing I was a bit bummed out. I needed a taijutsu style and fast, I needed to power level that shit quickly so I wouldn't pay for it on the field.

I was called up first this time and pointed my finger towards them while calling out "Lightning style: Flash" and a bead of light exploded from my finger creating a bright flash of light in front of me, 'I put way too much chakra into that' I thought while looking at the message on my screen.

"40 Chakra used 460 remaining!"

"Do you have any more?"

"Yes sir" I said while preparing my next technique.

"Earth style: Pit" I called out while placing my hands on the ground, in front of my hands was a small pit that could be used to hide a trap or for a campfire.

"Good. Anymore?" The examiner said impatiently.

"I have a few more but I can not use them without tools. They are "Fire style: spark" and "Water style: Filter"" I replied while he started marking down something on his clipboard.

"Alright you next." He said while pointing at Yugito.

Yugito displayed her skills, while she didn't have as many as me her inherent fire nature along with the two tails made her techniques a bit more effective than mine.

"That is all. Miss Yugito, you can ascend to the final year of the academy. Mister Shin, I will have to place you in only the 3rd year to brush up your style" He said in a polite tone.

"Yes sir" I said while Yugito started to squirm. "Sir is it alright if I go to the 3rd year with Shin?" she stammered out. While the examiner simply laughed.

"Alright. Ill have you two placed in Ramu-san's class for next week. That is room 304 on Monday for you both, have a good day." He said politely while walking away.

"Well, that was interesting" I said while turning around to go back to our class for today. We soon got back and told Balor to which he handed us library passes and told us to bug off.

We entered the library and handed in our passes before sitting at a table. "Let's see" I said while looking around for a taijutsu style. The library really had nothing until I found one. "Yugito, should I pick up this one?" I hollered over to her where she was currently reading about different sea food dishes.

"Pick up what one?" She asked with drool coming down her lips.

"The taijutsu style, dummy." I replied with a grin.

"You don't need to call me that and I don't care what you pick because I'm studying right now." She threw back in a flippant matter.

I ignored her tone and looked down at the scroll in my hands. 'Misty Fist technique' It involves various feints while moving at high speeds to land clean hits to vital points on the body. It is a beginner level taijutsu but can be used at intermediate and high levels of combat due to its high speeds. It can also be applied to kenjutsu with its sister variant 'Haze sword technique' that applies much of the same theory. I was deeply interested in kenjutsu and other weapon arts so I decided to choose this style.

"Would you like to learn this technique? Y/N"

I was about to hit yes but paused because if I accepted it would absorb the scroll and the knowledge. I picked up some scrap paper and jotted down everything on the scroll including pictures and text before absorbing that instead. 'Sometimes my genius, is almost frightening' I mused while putting the scroll back.

"Skill obtained 'Misty fist style' level 1"

I walked over to Yugito and tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm going outside Yugito." I whispered while walking away. I passed by the sleeping librarian and walked through the door on my right towards the outside training grounds.

The training ground was made of dirt with several logs scattered around for training, I walked up to one of them and opened my status to click on my new skill.

"Misty fist style level 1 (0%)

A style based on high-speed movements to create afterimages and attack vital points on the enemy's body. It has a sister technique called the haze sword technique.

Requires 10 stamina every second of use.

Adds 10% to your attack speed and chance of landing a critical hit."

'Simple. But very useful' I thought while activating the skill to get a feel for it before using it without the skill. The katas were simple strikes that made use of speed and consistency rather than pure strength, it also added straight kicks and flips to move through each form as seamlessly as possible. The strain on my body as I attempted a backhand strike was very noticeable and I knew I had to increase its level soon.

3 Hours later

It was reaching the end of the school day and I had increased my level twice and the taijutsu skill's level by 7 times. I put my 5 points from the level I gained a few weeks ago into chakra control, bringing it to 30, and the 10 points I gained today into strength also bringing it to 30.

After the bell had rung signalling the end of school, I went to the staff room to ask a few questions. "Excuse me is Ramu-sensei here?" I said as I felt a pat on my shoulder. "Right here kid." He said simply. I stared up at him, this dude was easily over 200 cm tall! He had shaggy blue hair and a chiselled face with amber eyes looking down at me.

"Oh, my name is Shin and I heard I would be moved into your class next week. I came to see about extracurricular courses to pick." I said and he smiled at me.

"Oh yeah, Balor told me something about 2 squirts joining my class. Yeah sure, the list is on my desk let me go grab it." He replied while walking over to a clean desk with several pictures on the wall with thumbtacks through them.

He passed me a list of classes and said, "You can choose up to 3 and if you choose less, you can go home early to study or train, the library is open with passes given out by me." He continued his speech by saying "Some classes require certain skills before you can choose them, like the medical course and fuinjutsu course."

"Thank you, sir," I said meekly while making my way out of the room, that dude was intimidating as all hell, and I didn't want to be there any longer. My first picks were definitely the genjutsu course and kenjutsu course to pick up the haze sword technique. My last one was a hard choice, besides the last two my choices were as follows:

Medical course

Survival course

Ninjutsu course

Chakra course

Fuinjutsu course.

They were limited, but all useful in their own way. I decided to pick the ninjutsu course for my last one since I could hopefully pick up some or a useful jutsu to add to my repertoire. With that I headed back inside where Ramu had gotten started on some work.

"Ramu-sensei, I have made my picks for extracurricular classes." I said as he turned around, "That was quick, which ones did you want?" He replied while still facing away, I relayed my choices and he jotted them down before saying, "tell the other runt to come pick their classes ASAP, otherwise they are getting random ones."

"Yes sensei" I replied while closing the door and running off. It was about 10 minutes after school closing so Yugito still should have been outside the school waiting for me. When I saw her, I told her about the class selection and where to go before she ran back into the school. I decided it would take a while and left alone.

2 Hours later

It was taking a long time for her to pick, 'too long' I thought while getting redy to head back out. I walked down the stairs and the matron asked, "where are you going, Shin?" "Yugito is taking too long so I am going back to the academy to check on her" I replied while putting on my sandals and running out the front.

I was carrying the kunai and shuriken box in my inventory since I didn't have a good feeling about this and sped off through the streets, weaving between people as I passed.

I soon reached the school yard and look inside, it was pretty spooky without anyone around, but I headed inside. "Yugito? You there?" I yelled out while my voice echoed through the empty halls. The moon faintly illuminated the dark floors through the windows as I crept forward. Something was going on here, and it wasn't good.

Suddenly a siren blared out within the village. *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* I pinched my skin as to make sure its not a dream and sure enough it wasn't. I could faintly hear a scream coming back through the halls and rushed forwards. 'Please be okay, Yugito!'

Now I shall really end the chapter. Its just over 3 times as long as the usual ones but I saw so many good points to end the chapter I had to cut myself off now as to start on the raid chapters. Explosive growth will occur soon!

Bye bye! - tired