Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Naruto—If you like this story please support the official release!

Please reread Chapters 1&2!

As of 9/2/2022, they have been updated. The account I adopted the Sakumo Izuno/Gamer Plot from has decided they want to keep writing the story themselves.

They've asked me to delete this story, and since they were writing it first, I don't think it'd be right to keep updating. Instead of deleting the story, I've rewritten the first 2 chapters. Sorry to anyone who liked the old story better than this one!

The next morning Sasuke crawled off the couch at sunrise. He pulled on a clean set of clothes and ate a light breakfast before dragging himself out of his apartment.

Yesterday had been an onslaught of information. He'd had an entire life downloaded into his brain, then he had to pass his graduation test...and then he had to track down Naruto to make sure he had the means to get strong enough not to be absolutely slaughtered in a few years.

From the moment he woke up, his brain had been on go. He hadn't had a second to rest or even think. He was so focused on getting his eyes on the Scroll of Sealing, but now that he had the Jutsu he would need later, he needed to focus on the first steps of getting stronger.

Today he had to start training.

On the way from his home to the training ground, a weapons shop caught his attention. He could see kunai, shuriken, and even a few swords displayed in the windows.

With an entire clan's worth of ninja gear at the Uchiha Compound, Sasuke was fine on weapons for now. I could use some weights for training.

If he had weights on while he was training he would be able to work on his chakra control, strength, speed, and stamina all at once. That was four stats at once!

And weight training had obviously worked wonders for Rock Lee.

Sasuke headed into the shop. He ignored all the weapons on display and headed straight for the counter.

Behind the counter was a brown-eyed girl with brown hair tied up in two buns watching him. She had on a sleeveless pink Chinese top and dark green capri pants. He recognized the girl instantly. Tenten. He also couldn't help but notice how at certain spots her clothes were stretched thin.

2D animation really did her dirty, Sasuke thought surprised. Tenten had always looked more slender in the manga, yet in person, she was actually kind of busty. Nothing on the level of Tsunade or even Anko, but she had two big handfuls you could grab.

"Hi!" she smiled, leaning slightly forward over the counter. "What can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for body weights," Sasuke replied, then he specified. "For my arms and legs."

Tenten nodded. "We've definitely got those in stock. Give me one moment," she said and disappeared through a door behind her into the back of the shop.

While he waited for her to come back, Sasuke glanced around the shop. His eyes kept gravitating toward the swords. By the time the Chunin Exams rolled around, he wanted to be halfway decent with one.

Right now there wasn't much he could do, but after the mission to the Land of Waves, he'd be able to improve exponentially.

"Here we go!"

Tenten set a wooden box down on the counter. "Have you ever used body weights before?" she asked.

Sasuke shook his head. "No, we didn't use them at the academy."

"Are you a new graduate?" Tenten asked, looking at his headband.

"Graduated yesterday."

"Oh! That means you're a rookie-rookie."

He could have taken the words as an insult, but Sasuke didn't think Tenten meant them that way. She was smiling and her tone was light.

Instead, he just shrugged. "Everyone's gotta start somewhere."

"That is true," Tenten laughed lightly. "Anyway, what are you looking to do with the weights? Strength building?"

"Not just that," Sasuke said. "I want to build my strength and my speed at the same time. Two birds with one stone and all that."

"Right, then you're gonna want a pair of ankle weights and wrist weights," Tenten said and pulled what looked like four ten-inch-long pale straps dotted with heavy rectangular ridges from the box she had brought from the back. "They're adjustable so you can set them to whatever weight you feel comfortable with."

Sasuke nodded. That seemed simple enough. "How much for the set?"

He'd seen the videos and posts of people calculating how much weight Rock Lee was wearing during the Chunin Exams. Five tons on each leg seemed to be the consensus which sounded absurd.

"Two hundred thousand with the shinobi discount."

Sasuke paid for the weights and strapped them onto his wrists and ankles in the store. He wasn't worried about the money. When it came to money, he was set for life. As the last living Uchiha, all the money from his deceased next of kin belonged to him.

On his way to his training ground, he gradually channeled chakra to his new weights. When his arms and legs could still move but felt like he was underwater he stopped adding weight. Seventy-five pounds, not bad, he thought lifting his arms and high stepping and few feet.

By the time he got to his training ground, which was just a grove near the Uchiha compound his arms and legs were already starting to feel the burn.

The wooden targets Itachi had hung on the cedar trees years ago were clustered in a circle around him. Each was about the size of a human head, with a bullseye drawn on it.

Sasuke knew his kunai and shuriken aim could be better—a lot better—but for now, he had something else he wanted to work on. He walked over to the tallest tree in the grove and stuck his foot out.

Tree Walking and Water Walking would raise his Chakra Control stat exponentially. And he was hoping that would have a ripple effect on all his Jutsu stats, as well as his stamina and chakra reserve stats.

If I use just the right amount of chakra, I won't drain my reserves so fast. Sasuke focused his chakra on the soles of his feet. I'll be able to perform more Jutsu and fight longer.

He planted his foot against the tree and grinned as it stuck firmly to the bark. This wasn't so different from the Leaf Training exercise he had been taught at the Academy.

When he lifted his other foot off the ground he immediately flopped backward. Sprawled in the dirt, he stared up at the top of the tree. "This is going to be harder than I thought," he muttered, climbing back to his feet.

Sakura and Naruto had made it look so easy in the manga. Sakura had immediately been able to do the exercise and it only took Naruto a week of training.

I'll do the same! Sasuke focused his chakra and dashed at the tree.

0O0

Six days later, Sasuke was amazed by his progress.

With no one to teach him, he tried to remember as much as he could about what Kakashi had told Team 7 when he was training them.

"The soles of the feet are the two hardest places to focus your chakra. You have to maintain a constant level of chakra for a long time. Too little, and you don't stick to the tree. Too much and you break the bark."

It wasn't perfect, but Sasuke could make it all the way to the top of the tree and down again without falling off.

Flipping off the tree, he landed on the ground and grinned at the hundreds of kunai slashes on the trunk of the tree. It hadn't been easy, but he had just taken a massive leap ahead of his classmates.

How much has this affected my stats? Sasuke wondered. He had purposefully not checked while he was training. He didn't want anything distracting him.

"Staus."

Name: Sasuke Uchiha
Age: 13
Chakra Reserves: 2/5 (Academy Student)
Ninjutsu: 1.5/5
Taijutsu: 1/5
Genjutsu:1.5/5
Strength: 2/5
Speed: 2/5
Stamina: 2/5
Chakra Control: 2/5

"Hell yes!" Sasuke cheered, as the status window appeared.

During the past six days, he had started to notice it becoming easier and easier to mold his chakra and use just the right amount. It might not have seemed like much to someone else, but it was real progress!

Once he got the Tree Walking mastered to the point where it was second nature, Sasuke was sure his Chakra Control stat would be at least a 2, maybe a 2.5.

Then the Water Walking training would boost that to maybe a 4 or 4.5. That's what he was assuming anyway. From his memories of the manga, Sasuke couldn't recall any other Chakra Control exercises being shown after Water Walking.

And not only that, it was just like he had thought! It was just his chakra control stat that had improved, but his reserves had also grown!

Only by 0.2, but with his progress being shown clearly in numbers, Sasuke felt like he was taking massive steps. "What should I do now?" he wondered, as he closed the status window.

He wasn't supposed to report back to the Academy until tomorrow to be assigned to a Genin Squad. I could get started on Water Walking... Sasuke glanced at the small stream running through the middle of the grove.

It was an idea, but he had just finished six days of intense training. He could use a break.

But if he wasn't training, what was he going to do? I don't have any friends. Sasuke's shoulders slumped. Friendless in two lifetimes. That had to be some kind of loser world record.

He didn't have any hobbies or other goals either. The only goal he had in his life before had been training to become a jonin and achieve the dream his father never could.

And now that he knew the future, he was even more determined to get stronger. He didn't want to die like some weak loser who couldn't even put up a fight.

More training it is, Sasuke decided. It wasn't like he could afford to slack off anyway.

Although he didn't think he'd make much progress on the Water Walking before he had to report to the academy tomorrow.

Sasuke looked around at the targets still hanging from the trees. He frowned as a thought crossed his mind and pulled six kunai from the holster on his leg. He held three in each hand and closed his eyes.

This past week I've been so focused on mastering the Tree Walking exercise that I haven't trained any of my other skills. If he wanted to become a jonin-level ninja he had to make sure all of his skills stayed sharp.

"Here we go..." Sasuke took a slow deep breath.

As he crouched down, he pushed off the ground as hard as he could. His body flew into the air and flipped upside down. He held his arms to his chest and then threw them out to both sides, sending the kunai flying at the targets.

Only two sharp blades pierced the wooden targets. And none of them had hit inside the bullseye.

Fuck, do I suck! Sasuke wanted to smack himself. No wonder his stats were such shit!

"That wasn't bad for a little kid," a voice said suddenly from behind him.

Sasuke looked back to see Tenten watching him. He reached up and flicked the headband tied around his head. "This makes me an adult," he told her.

Tenten smirked. "I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt considering you're just a rookie genin. How'd you manage to graduate from the academy with aim like that?"

A lightbulb went off above Sasuke's head. Tenten probably had the best aim out of the Konoha 12. He stepped aside and held out his arm, offering her the spot he was just standing in.

"If you can do better..."

The smirk on Tenten's face grew as she walked to where he was standing. "Ready?" she asked, pulling six kunai from the pouch on her waist.

Sasuke shrugged taking a few more steps away so he was standing behind her. He activated his Sharingan and watched intently as Tenten followed his moves. She crouched slightly, then launched herself in the air holding her arms to her chest. When she was in the air, she flipped and threw her arms out to both sides, and six flashes of light scattered in six different directions.

Thk! Thk! Thk! The sound echoed all around Sasuke as Tenten landed. He let his Sharingan fade as she stood up straight and looked back. She gestured to the targets, crossing her arms...which inadvertently accentuated her bust.

All six of the sharp blades pierced the wooden targets. And all of them had hit dead center inside the bullseye.

"Not bad."

Tenten scoffed. "Not bad?" she repeated incredulously. "You didn't hit a single bullseye."

"Maybe I didn't want some stranger spying on me to see what I'm really capable of," Sasuke answered, shrugging.

Tenten was silent for a moment before she shook her head. "No way you knew I was there," she said. "Not a little baby rookie like you."

Sasuke pulled six more kunai from his pouch and stepped back into the center of the grove. "How about a little bet?" he asked. "If I hit every single bullseye, you buy me dinner. And if I miss, I buy you dinner?"

"A win-win for, then?" Tenten laughed. "Deal."

Before he could win the bet, Sasuke felt a blinding pain explode from his cheek. A green blur had come out of nowhere and slammed a foot into the side of his face sending him sliding through the dirt.

Goddamn Lee! Sasuke cursed pushing himself up from the dirt. The blur that hit him was definitely Rock Lee. If the green bodysuit, orange leg-warmers, and a red headband around his waist as a belt weren't enough, the horrendous black bowl-cut and large eyebrows put all doubt from his mind.

Rock Lee was standing protectively in front of Tenten. "I will not allow you to harm my teammate."

"Lee!" Tenten shouted, glaring at her teammate. "We weren't even fighting! I wanted to see if he could hit the bullseye with his kunai!"

Rock Lee looked puzzled. He glanced around the grove at the targets. "I am so sorry!" he bowed at the waist. "I saw him coming towards you with kunai draw and acted. I apologize."

Sasuke pushed himself out of the dirt. He sat on the ground rubbing his throbbing cheek. "I'm the one you should be apologizing to," he muttered, flexing his jaw.

Tenten walked over and kneeled down next to him. "I'm sorry about him. He's my teammate and was acting like an idiot."

"Yes! Tenten is right!" Lee bowed deeply at the waist. "I apologize for attacking you. I was not aware the two of you were training together. I believed you were trying to hurt my teammate and attacked without—"

"Lee!" Tenten cut him off. "He gets it. You're sorry."

"She's right, it's fine," Sasuke said, but only when he was sure his jaw hadn't been fractured. Rock Lee kicked like a horse.

Tenten offered him a hand and he took it. She grunted slightly as she helped him to his feet. "How heavy do you have those?" she asked, glancing at the weights strapped to his ankles.

"I'm not sure," Sasuke replied, shrugging. "I just add more weight whenever it gets a little too easy to move."

"Yosh! You also use training weights!" Rock Lee's loud voice filled the grove.

Tenten groaned, clearly annoyed with her loud as fuck teammate. "Lee, did you need something?"

"Right! Sorry, Tenten." Rock Lee apologized again. Then he gave her a thumbs up and a bright smile. "Gai-sensei sent me to find you. We've been assigned a mission! He wants up to meet at the village gate!"

With that, Rock Lee tore out of the grove like his pants were on fire. Sasuke blinked at the casual show of speed. Even with all the weights on, Rock Lee still outclassed him when it came to speed.

Tenten sighed and followed after him. Sasuke watched her leave, focused on the way her hips swayed with each step. Yeah, 2D really didn't do her justice.

"I guess we'll have to settle our bet some other time!"

Snapping out of the tunnel vision he had on her rear, Sasuke shook his head and called back.

"Count on it!"

Once she was gone, he looked around the grove. Then rubbed his aching face again. Honestly, he was done with training today.

Tomorrow he'd be assigned to Team 7 and after that, he'd be able to get stronger a lot faster.

0O0

The next day, Sasuke was seated near the back of Iruka's class.

"You're all qualified ninja now," Iruka announced from his podium at the front of the class. "But remember, you're still only Genin. From now on, your jonin instructor will guide you and the rest of your squad.

Sasuke barely heard what Iruka was saying. He was lost in his own world, a world where he was a strong enough ninja that he could survive what was coming.

While he battled Orochimaru and the Akatsuki in his head, Iruka started to announce the three-member squads who would work together during the next stage of training.

"Squad Seven. Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki..." Iruka read from a long list.

"Sakura? What about Sakura?" Naruto yelled, popping awkwardly out of his seat. He quickly glanced around to see where she was.

Sakura sat two rows over, looking like she'd just lost her best friend. Sasuke felt bad for Naruto. He'd noticed that the blonde's crush on Sakura was even worse than it was shown in the manga. Naruto stared at the pink-haired girl when he thought no one was looking, and despite all his gawking, there was one thing about Sakura that Naruto had never noticed.

She hated him. Okay, she didn't exactly hate him, but she obviously didn't like him. To Sakura, Naruto was at best a nuisance.

"And the third member of Squad Seven is Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka said.

"Woo hoo!" Sakura shouted, pumping her arms in excitement.

Sasuke glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He knew himself well enough to know that he was going to end up taking advantage of her crush. He'd be able to hold off for a little while, but eventually, Sakura's willingness to do whatever he said in an effort to make him like her would be too much temptation to resist.

"But I thought I'd be with Sakura! Not with this jerk!" Naruto whined.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, stupid," Sasuke snapped. "Just stay out of my way, okay?"

See, Naruto was a fun protagonist to read about. And that's because you're just getting short glimpses into the life of a character. In person, where Sasuke couldn't just close a book and cut Naruto out of his life for a few hours or days...well, the blonde was really annoying.

I don't know how I'm going to deal with him if something doesn't change, Sasuke thought as Naruto glared at him.

"Hey! You're the stupid one, you stupid stupid stupid—" Naruto sputtered, clenching his fists. He was getting all red in the face.

"I'm warning you, Naruto! Keep away from Sasuke or else!" Sakura practically snarled from behind the blonde.

Naruto nervously swung around. Sakura had gotten out of her seat and stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"But Sakura! This guy is really—"

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura shrieked. "Go sit somewhere else!"

Naruto shuffled to the other side of the room, while Sakura sat down near Sasuke.

"Um, hi, Sasuke. I'm glad we're on the same team."

Sasuke put his head down on the table and pretended to go to sleep. Sakura was just as annoying in person as Naruto. The only difference was she at least had something that made her worth dealing with.

With his head down, soon he dozed off for real. He slept for what was probably hours until Sakura's angry voice woke him up.

"Hey! What are you doing?" she demanded.

Sasuke looked up groggily. Sakura was glaring at Naruto who was wedging a dusty eraser at the top of the sliding door.

"Just punishing a tardy teacher," Naruto said lightly, skipping back to his seat.

"You're an idiot," Sakura sniffed. "Our teacher is a jonin. An elite ninja. He'd never fall for a trick like that."

The door suddenly lacked open. The eraser bounced off the silver head of a tall, thin jonin. Their jonin.

Kakashi Hatake.

"Sorry, sensei!" Sakura said in a rush. "I tried to stop him, honest!"

Kakashi didn't answer. His droopy eye gave him a sleepy look. He stared at them for a while. Then he spoke in a dull voice, as though he'd rather be anywhere but there.

"Well, you wanna know what I think of you three?"

Sakura and Naruto looked nervous, but Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I don't like your kind," he drawled.

"But why?" Sakura gasped. Naruto looked stunned.

"Relax, little girl," Kakashi assured her. "It won't affect your final grade."

"Wh-what do you mean, final grade?" Sakura sputtered.

"Yeah! We already passed the graduation exam?" Naruto complained.

Kakashi cocked his head. "Did you really think that doing the Clone Jutsu automatically makes you a ninja?"

"So if we pass this test, will we really be ninja?" Sakura asked hopefully.

"Hmm, I suppose so," Kakashi said vaguely, his one visible eye curving into a smile. "But it won't be easy. Out of the entire graduating class, only—"

The legendary copy-ninja cut himself off. Sasuke frowned as Kakashi waved his hand dismissively through the air.

"Oh, no. I guess I really shouldn't say."

"You can't say something like that then not tell us!" Naruto said, glaring at the Jonin. "We deserve to know!"

Kakashi seemed to mull the idea of telling them over. Sasuke could feel the tension in the classroom rising as Sakura and Naruto waited anxiously. Is this part of the test? he wondered.

Was it possible that Kakashi was playing chess and already pitting them against each other?

Or was he just trolling them for his own amusement?

"I guess I'll tell you," Kakashi smiled. "Only one out of three people pass. We have twenty-seven genin this year, so only nine will make the cut."

"Wh-what happens to the rest?" Sakura stammered.

"The genin that fail get sent back to the academy. They'll keep on training until they can pass the test."

"No way!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke rubbed his ear, wincing at the high-pitched noise. "It doesn't matter," he grumbled. "We're gonna pass."

"Oh my! Such confidence," Kakashi said. "Wonder where you get it from."

Yeah, he's just a troll, Sasuke glared at the copy-ninja.

Thanks for reading!

Leave a review with what you think and a guess about which Jutsu you think Sasuke wanted from the Scroll of Sealing!

Again, sorry to anyone who liked the old story! If the other writer ever changes his mind I'll probably reupload and start writing that story again!