Chapter 7


Looking casually across the other students assembled in the large hall, Sora folded her arms, tracking the proctor with her Byakugan as he explained exactly how the fight was going to go down.

Basically, there were Chunin in the stands, one assigned to every person there, and each was responsible for tracking their progress. An indisputable kill meant a pass, and if that kill could be disputed to not be earned, it wouldn't count. More kills would look better and would help their chances of finding a good team to work with. Of course, he didn't say it exactly like that, but that was the gist of things.

That did explain the presence of several Jonin, including the two swordsmen whose apprentices were currently in the arena, as well as more Chunin than examinees, probably scoping out potential recruits for their teams. Honestly, the way Kiri organized itself seemed really stupid, but maybe it actually worked, since they hadn't yet decided it was as dumb as it sounded.

As the proctor wrapped up his explanation and began exiting the arena, she drew her naginata off her back and unwrapped the bandages, exposing the pristine edge. She had used another whetstone on it and got the buff from her increased crafting proficiency, increasing the damage the weapon did with an attack. Nobody really seemed to care, they all already knew she had a naginata thanks to her sparring with it after classes, but did they notice that it was notably cleaner, sharper and less tattered than before? She honestly wasn't sure, even with using her Byakugan.

Holding it in a ready position, she and every other student in the arena tensed up, ready for the call to begin. Everyone there had been in fights with almost every other student, and now they were being asked to kill each other. A significant portion looked fairly apprehensive about the fight, looking at those she assumed were their friends. The ones who were least phased were the two apprentices, and some of the clan kids, so they had likely also been warned. The civilian kids definitely hadn't got the memo, they all were fairly freaked out.

That just meant they were easier targets. Sure, she was literally killing children, but for one, they were going to be trying to kill her too, and secondly, if she didn't kill at least someone indisputably, she herself was going to die. It sucked, but that was life, they just happened to draw the short straw. And if she ended up getting gutted by someone better than her, and her health couldn't withstand the hit, then that just meant she was the unlucky one.

Sure, she'd kick and scream and try to claw her way out of it, because she really didn't want to die, but it wasn't like she could pull an anime character move and reject death itself. Though, she had absolutely no intention of letting anyone dangerous get the upper hand against her. One of the two sword brats was only a few students away while the other was across the hall from him, probably to make it less likely that they'd fight each other.

Neither of them even looked at her beyond passing glances, so that was a good sign. If they decided she would be a good feather in their cap then she'd end up focused by them, and while she had the longer weapon, they had better teachers, more experience and were boys, inherently stronger, physically at least. It rankled her to admit it, but they did have a physical advantage...well, actually maybe not so much.

With the Game backing her up, while she hadn't put many points into strength, the force of an attack was usually mass times velocity equals momentum. Her weapon had a decent amount of mass behind it, and being a polearm meant that thanks to the laws of pivot, the end would be moving pretty fast. With that, it should be pretty damn hard for them to actually block an attack, since the force behind it would be rather immense.

You have made an accurate deduction. 1 Wisdom Point Granted.

Raising an eyebrow at the text that appeared in front of her eyes, Sora smirked. If accurate deductions of stuff would get her more points, that'd mean less points needing to be spent on wisdom. Just one point right now pushed her from 370 to 397 Chakra. That was pretty damn useful, except for the fact that in this fight, it was useless. The only useful ability would be the replacement technique, she could replace herself with any object in the hall, including thrown Kunai or lost weaponry.

She wasn't able to replace herself with weapons that were too close to other people though, for example in their pouches, the technique simply didn't work. Whether because she would overlap their body and cause some kind of weird merge or because the weapon was too close to an active enemy Shinobi she didn't know, nor did she care much. It didn't work, so she didn't give it too much thought.

What she did do was bring a dozen Kunai along, having bought them from the blacksmith she worked with for a discount in exchange for freely refining a number of Kunai for him. She could toss one out and replace herself with it if she got into a tough spot. On top of that, she also had a veritable mountain of pebbles to use, any one of which she could replace herself with.

If she couldn't win her fight, she could turn herself into a cockroach that was incredibly annoying to pin down. It wouldn't last forever, with a regeneration rate of just over 13 points a minute, she'd be able to use the replacement technique only once every 2 minutes if she wanted to keep using it forever. Chances were that if she was being chased by someone she couldn't beat, she'd need to use it far more often than that. "Are all examinees ready?"

Blinking, she glanced at the proctor, then focused herself, exhaling slowly as she waited for the mark. "Then...begin!" Immediately several of the students charged towards whoever they'd picked for their first opponent, Sora being one of them. Her target was a regular student she had beaten before who was directly to her right. He saw her approaching, and it seemed he was unlucky enough to have not been mentally prepared for what was about to happen. A pity for him.

She didn't give him any quarter, no chance to reset and prepare himself, she slashed her Naginata at his throat and watched as his body went one way and his head fell the other way, smacking into the ground with a wet thud. While she was charging, she was also using her Byakugan to scope out the battle. Very quickly, the students who had frozen up and were unprepared were slain, and those that were left after those brutal few moments were those who were prepared to kill each other and the few lucky, or unlucky, enough to be with others who were also unprepared.

In the corner of her eye she could see that her quest hadn't been fulfilled, so the boy she had killed wasn't notable enough. With her Byakugan scouting out the hall, she was able to pick out the closest and most appropriate target, a clan kid from a clan she couldn't remember the name of, Kara-something. He had beaten her on more than one occasion, and considering he didn't have a bloodline, it made those defeats extra notable.

He was currently fighting another student, and it was actually the Yuki kid she had baited before. Rather than interfere and risk having the kill be called into question, she kept her focus on her own surroundings whilst waiting for a victor to emerge so she could fight them. After a few moments, she grinned and hopped to the side, avoiding the Kunai that would have pierced her throat.

At the same time she swept her Naginata around, slicing a cut into the air that quickly formed on the chest of the boy that appeared behind her. He had used one of the Kunai on the corpse she was stood beside to replace himself, probably hoping to get an easy kill. As he grimaced in pain and raised a hand to his chest, she darted towards him, her Naginata practically laying on her back as she leaned low.

When he raised a Kunai to block, she grinned and equipped a Kunai, jamming it into his undefended chest. Before he could bring his own Kunai down in revenge, she pushed the Kunai in and to the side, at the same time moving to his side and then behind him, dropping her Naginata in favour of jamming another Kunai into his neck. She tore her two weapons in opposite directions and opened two gaping wounds in his chest and neck, killing him in an exceptionally brutal fashion and coincidentally covering herself completely in blood.

Looking at herself with her Byakugan, Sora was already dreading cleaning that blood off. Sure, it was good for being intimidating as fuck, but her hair was completely covered in blood and would probably take hours to actually clean. Frowning, she kicked her Naginata up into her grasp then returned her attention to the fight she had previously been watching in time to see the Yuki kid get a face full of high-pressure water which burst his eyes and flowed through his open mouth and up his nose.

The kid that was fighting him kept the stream up relentlessly, drowning the now-defenceless Yuki kid without mercy. Honestly, that was a damn brutal way to go, having your eyes burst then receiving an unrelenting stream of water pouring into your lungs and stomach. When the Yuki kid was definitely dead, the Kara-something kid looked around and settled his gaze on her.

He was obviously a bit drained from maintaining a high-pressure flow of water to drown his opponent, but still seemed able to fight, so she wouldn't really care. Rather than do anything fancy, she replaced herself with a chunk of ice on the ground near him then swung her Naginata, shifting to the side as the weapon was deflected by a Kunai and bringing around the other end in a quick and dirty smack to ward off her attacker, finally spinning the weapon around to bring the blade back on target, the edge sweeping up in an attempt to catch him under the chin as he tried to charge her.

As he aborted that attack, he went through several hand signs, giving her advance warning of his attack. Going through hand seals of her own, she held at the last seal and watched as he finished his sequence. "Suiton: Suihachi! (Water Release: Water Bowl)" He thrust a hand out, and a stream of water blasted towards her. Completing her last hand seal, Sora replaced herself with another chunk of ice, watching as he spun around and blasted water in all directions before spotting her and focusing his water towards her.

Rather than try to be fancy about things, Sora gave him more space and watched with hidden amusement as he quickly cut off his technique. It was obviously Chakra-intensive owing to the fact it wasn't a bloodline and was probably drawing water moisture from the air to produce liquid water, so a kid like him couldn't use it for too long. Considering how he was glaring at her, he probably knew that she knew he couldn't keep it up.

Tipping her Naginata slightly, she gave a quick scan over the hall, idly counting how many people were left, taking note of those that she was scared of, a number that was higher than she appreciated. Refocusing on her target, she then lowered herself down slightly, smirking as he did so in turn. Rather than waste more time, she started to charge forwards, watching his eyes widen slightly as though he didn't expect that before his lips pulled into a grin and he started to go through hand seals, the same as the ones from before.

Unfortunately for him, Sora knew how long it took him to do the hand seals, and she pushed that extra meter per second of speed out, approaching him at a faster rate than he predicted. He wasn't going to have time to finish the sequence. As his triumphant grin faltered, she brought her Naginata around and swept it downwards, crushing through his unstable and hasty block to gouge a cut straight into his skull, her blade embedded as deeply as his jaw.

Giving the freshly made corpse a vicious kick, she booted him off of her blade, taking note of the fact that her bonus quest was now completed. He, as well as the boy she'd already killed, was on the level of a notable enemy, and that meant that those who were remaining were all also probably notables. Opening her jaw to yawn lightly, she blinked and looked around to see if there was anybody she was actually willing to go after.

None of them were enemies she was totally confident in beating in a fight to the death. Fortunately for her, the sword user that was near her had cut a bloody swathe in the opposite direction to her, or she probably would have already found herself cut to pieces. And with two notable kills under her belt, now her main goal was survival, which meant staying the fuck away from the more dangerous students. So, rather than attack someone else and risk losing, she instead leaned on her weapon, casually wiping the blood away from her eyes. It had the added effect of making her look callous and uncaring, a fact that just served to make her look like a more attractive prospective kunoichi.

After all, a good little soldier shouldn't care about the dead, not when they were her enemies.


In total, 80% of the graduating class had been killed during the test.

Two more were write-offs, one having lost both legs and the other having lost their right arm, which meant in total, a meagre 6 students passed out of a class that numbered 40 people. She personally had killed 3 of them, and the two swordsmen had killed 15 between them. It just highlighted to her that she could not under any circumstances afford to get cocky. Sure, she had survived and completed her quest, including the bonus objective, and even levelled up twice thanks to both the experience she gained through killing the other students as well as the quest experience, but she had a fucking long way to go before she could match the shinobi with the talent and advantages.

The two swordsmen were quickly taken away by their senseis, not surprising, and then one after another the other students were taken away by the various Jonin and Chunin who were claiming them for their teams. Some of the later students looked at her in amusement as they passed, probably assuming she wasn't going to get a teacher at all, until eventually a Chunin came in and called for everybody who was left to follow her, with the exception of Sora.

After they had all gone, Sora directly looked up at the ceiling and waited. After a minute, she grinned and watched a figure dressed in Hunter-nin equipment detach itself from the shadows and drop soundlessly to the ground. "Come." She obediently got up from her chair, picked up her Naginata and fell in behind the Hunter-nin, marching straight out of the classroom and then out of the school, heading towards the training grounds.

She had never been able to visit them, since they were only for actual shinobi, and she was just an academy student, so all the way there she was observing her surroundings. Several times she managed to catch glimpses of other Hunter-nin following them, and from how they appeared and disappeared randomly, she could already tell she was being tested, though exactly how the test was going to work eluded her.

Without any warning, she saw one of the figures chasing them throw a Kunai towards them. In response, she swung her Naginata and swept it out of the air, all without even needing to turn and do it directly. Very quickly after came more thrown weapons, senbon being mixed in, all of which were flung at her. And just as quickly she had to deflect or dodge all of those weapons, whilst in front of her the hunter-nin that had led her there stood with their arms folded and watched her.

Finally, after a few moments of increasing frantic deflecting and dodging the increasing number of weapons being thrown at her, she lagged behind on swinging her weapon and led one through, which sliced into her clavicular head and locked up her right arm, meaning she couldn't deflect the other weapons flying towards her. Avoiding as many as she could despite the severe pain she was in, Sora still got hit by three other projectiles that she simply couldn't avoid, two of which hit her lax right arm whilst the third pierced her thigh and collapsed her leg, causing her to fall to the side.

The fall agitated her injuries, and she let out a yelp of pain at that, immediately gritting her teeth and forcing herself to rise with her left arm, using her Naginata as a support to force herself standing again, all the while staring directly and unhesitatingly at the hunter-nin in front of her. "Weak. This is your chosen candidate?" The hunter-nin said after a moment.

From the roof, one figure that Sora recognized as Karatachi-san dropped off the roof, though didn't even look at her. "You were barely any stronger when you left the academy. Besides, she has a frankly terrifying speed of growth. Sora, heal your leg then move over to that wall at your highest speed." Blinking, Sora moved to do so, using her top speed without hesitation after healing herself. "You cannot deny that there is something more than normal speed training going on."

Sora took the opportunity to lean against the wall, ignoring the intense scrutiny she was currently under. "That may be so, but you yourself cannot deny that she is both weak, and dangerously unpredictable." She then found herself staring at the blank mask of the one who had led her there. "I have one question for you." Sora merely blinked in response and tilted her head, waiting for him to speak. "What is the purpose of the rats?"

Immediately Sora realized that maybe she really should have been more careful when dealing with shinobi who almost certainly had ways to hide from her vision, including her Byakugan. She would only see them if they wanted her to see them. "I would advise you to answer him honestly Sora." And, on top of that, Karatachi-san was even backing him up, which made lying an even less decent prospect.

So, she didn't. "The rats exist for me to practice on and gain experience." Immediately she felt a searing pain as the Kunai still embedded in her torso was grasped and driven into her, a blank white mask pressing closer to her face. "I'm not lying to you." She said through gritted teeth, glaring at the blank mask as if daring him to believe otherwise. After a few seconds, she jerked as the Kunai was yanked out mercilessly, raising a hand to press against the gaping hole that was left. The hunter-nin stared at her for a few more moments before turning and marching away.

"She isn't lying."


Sorry about the pure garbage on display here, I really just wanted to finally finish this chapter and move on.

Being honest the combat stuff I wrote months ago, I just got distracted writing other stuff like Closed Compartments and every time I came back to write this I just despised it. But hey, it's done now, so you can all point out how utterly garbage my writing is in the reviews and go read something way better ^.^


Name: Sora Metami

Level: 11

Age: 12

Experience: 2643/11,000

To Next Level: 8357

Title: Academy Student - 50% Experience Gain within Classroom

Health Points: 210 (100 Base HP + (Vitality x Strength)

Regeneration Rate: 7/minute (Health ÷ 30) (Severe or noticed injuries can be chosen to retain scars)

Chakra Points: 220 (100 Base CP + (Wisdom x Intelligence)

Regeneration Rate: 7.3*/minute (Chakra ÷ 30)

Strength: 11 (Each point increases melee damage by 1%, adds 1 slot to inventory)

Vitality: 10 (Each point raises poison resistance by 0.1%, reduces need for sleep by 0.1%)

Agility: 22 (Each point increases top speed by 0.1m/s, increases weapon proficiency gain by 1%)

Wisdom: 11 (Each point decreases chakra cost for techniques by 0.1%)

Intelligence: 27 (Each point increases experience gain by 1%)

Luck: 10 (Each point increases the chance of something lucky happening by 0.01%, decreases the chance of something unlucky happening by 0.01%)

Available Trait Points: 10