Promises and Leaf

I don't own Naruto or The Gamer

"You can die anytime, but living takes true courage" – Himura Kenshin

Previously on Cloud Gamer

When he was about to be knocked unconscious… I plucked out both of his eyes, leaving only bloody sockets to remain.

~~~~~~~~~~ "You have found… A chapter!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"AGHHHHHH! MY EYES!" The shinobi screamed out, while I placed them into my inventory for safe keeping. Everyone turned around to where I was and looked at what I had just done, responses ranged from shock, to horror, to disappointment?

I hopped off of his chest and stood up, wiping some blood off of my face before speaking in front of everyone in the group. "Hey Konoha shinobi, what's that symbol on your jacket? I remember it from somewhere, just not specifically so perhaps you can enlighten me?"

"I won't say anything to you, fucking monster!" The eyeless shinobi yelled, rubbing his face roughly and trying to stand up. I kicked him roughly to the face to flip him back over, grabbing a kunai out and putting it to his throat.

"You all stand for comradery, right? Answer me or this guy dies, and slowly I might add." The one fighting Sho clicked his tongue before putting his hands up, ushering the others to follow.

"We do, its our will of fire that keeps us strong, and our allies. Like Uzushio, where the symbol originates. It holds our greatest shame, not being able to help our allies, the only one remaining is currently fighting for us even now, after we failed them. Its appalling." The 'leader' said, standing still with his hands up, his face went through several expressions but stopped to look at me with pure rage.

"You know that look won't get you anywhere. Uzushio huh? Aren't those the, Uzumaki?"

"Yes, they were."

"We have one right here, Natio Uzumaki. I think the hair was a dead giveaway though." Natio put some of her hair in her hand and frowned, it seems she didn't like using her lineage to win battles. Though it worked.

The leader gasped and looked at Natio, something clicked inside of his head, and he bowed deeply, staring straight at the floor while the others watched, not moving an inch.

"I'm so sorry Miss Uzumaki! Please come back to Konoha with us, if only just to rest or live comfortably with your relative!"

To say I was surprised would be an understatement, it seems this guy was a veteran, if the Uzumaki meant that much to him. I smirked a bit and pushed my eyeless prisoner forward onto the ground, putting back the kunai in my inventory.

"Natio, should we head there before going to the land of grass?" I said, ignoring my other 2 group members and leaving it for her to decide. She fiddled a bit more with her hair before looking towards me, her face showing clear uncertainty and fear.

"Don't worry, we will stay with you. I'm sure you want to meet your relative right?" I said, reassuring her of my position in accordance with what she chooses.

"I do, but won't this delay our mission?" Natio replied, looking slightly worried.

"It will, but that doesn't matter, I want to visit Konoha anyways. I was hoping to grab a couple of things there, plus, we can get the sealing supplies."

"Yeah Natio, I also want to see it so why don't we go?" Miya added, giving her a smile, looking nowhere near I was.

"Then I definitely want to!" Natio said, stars in her eyes, like she hadn't just been in a life-or-death situation. I smirked and collected the kunai off of her and Sho before handing the sharingan eyes to Sho.

"Please put those back into him, we aren't enemies anymore." I said, giving a small smile at his disgusted face when I placed them onto his palm, in all of their squishy red goodness.

"Wow, you're an asshole you know that?" He said, patting me on the shoulder before leaning down and implanting the eyes with a soft plop. The hum of his medical ninjutsu filled the area while we waited for the process to be completed.

When it finally was, the Uchiha gave me the stink eye from my peripheral as we started to head through the forest. I carried Miya on my back until we stopped for a short 1-hour rest. The leaf shinobi really cared about everyone's wellbeing, that was clear from how often they checked on the Uchiha's condition and how often we took breaks.

"Can we all get acquainted with each other while we are travelling?" Sho suggested, he was staying near me in the middle of the group, next to Natio and keeping a steady eye on all of the shinobi.

"Sure, that's sounds like a fine idea. I guess we will begin since there are more of us." The 'leader' said, this guy was the one calling all of the shots and wore his green flak jacket over a black muscle shirt. His hair was dark, and his eyes were a jade green colour, he had a small goatee trimmed over his chin.

"I guess first up will be me, I'm Pol Sarutobi, nephew of the 3rd hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi." Pol said, pointing to himself with a thumb while looking back at Sho. He gestured to the Uchiha I injured with the same thumb and nodded for him to go ahead.

The Uchiha had jet black eyes and equally dark hair, his flak jacket was worn over a navy-blue sweatshirt with camo green pants. "I'm Jicho Uchiha, if you can't tell by name, not really too liked by my clan." Jicho gestured to the next person in the group, a young girl with blonde hair and brown eyes. She was wearing no flak jacket and had camo green pants on with a purple jumper.

"I'm Haru Yamanaka, nice to meet ya!" She said, flashing our group a wide smile. She gestured to the person on the other side of the circle with a finger. "Your turn."

It was another guy with blonde hair and brown eyes, he was wearing his flak jacket over a black t shirt with black shinobi pants and bandages tied around the ankles. "I'm Gin Yamanaka, that's girl's brother and the next in line clan heir after Inoichi. Now it's your turn Jun."

The last member was a girl with snow white hair and red eyes, she wore a grey t shirt under her flak jacket and had blue shinobi pants. "I'm Jun Taka, a Konoha chunin and future ANBU member."

"Yeah, sure you are." Haru said with a laugh, causing Jun to shoot a hard glance at her.

"Well now, how about you introduce yourselves." Pol said, looking back behind towards our group. Sho took initiative and introduced himself first.

"I'm Shoma Yuiki, but just call me Sho. I'm from the land of frost and am currently travelling with this little prick." He looked over to me and I sighed before starting mine.

"I'm Shin Chinoike, though I don't belong to the clan. I picked up this drunk old dude in the land of frost and met Natio in the land of tea. We were ehading towards the land of grass before you found us." I looked towards Natio for her introduction.

"I'm Natio Uzumaki, I live in the land of tea and I'm the co-owner of Volt corporation. I started travelling with these two and Miya a few days ago. Now your turn Miya."

"I'm Miya Juryo, a worker at 'Angel's Kiss' and right now I'm leading these guys to the land of grass for a mission."

"And that's everyone, alright we will need to camp out tonight so who wants to do night watch? We can do 2-hour shifts for 10 hours and then we will be at the village by tomorrow night." Pol suggested, dropping to the ground and leading our group forward.

"Sure, I'll take first watch. Everyone else can pick and choose." I said, 4 people wouldn't do shifts at all but I really pitied the people who would get 8 hours of broken sleep.

Jun took the second shift, Sho took the third, Haru took the 4th and Pol took the last. They all set up camp while I found a place to perch on, a tree with 3 thick branches that overlooked our camp.

"Alright, you all go to sleep now. I'll wake you up in 2 hours Jun, any preference on how I do?"

"Yes, please don't shake me or I might attack you."

"Good to know, goodnight, everyone."

"Goodnight." They all responded, the leaf shinobi heading into their tents and Miya taking my bag. Sho slept on the floor with Natio using his bag. I lied against the trunk of the tree and pulled up my status screen, it was about time I put in my skill points.

Name: Shin Chinoike

Title: Natural, Prodigy

Title buffs: 35% to exp, higher chance of gaining skills faster.

Birth date: February 26th

Level 177

Hp 10792/10792

Cp 7750/7750

Stam 7228/7228

Efficiency ?%

Stats

Strength: 215

Vitality: 108

Chakra: 100

CC: 100 (+40 with ketsuryugan activated)

Luck: 100 (+20 due to Fortuna's blessing)

Intelligence: 100

Willpower: 100

Charisma: 100

Stat points remaining: 0

Monthly Lotteries collected: 48(Can be claimed on the first of each month!)

Skills

[Ketsuryugan] level 100 (MAX) {click here for details}

[Leaf sticking exercise] Level 100 (MAX) {click here for more details}

[Basic Chakra Exercises] level 25 (54%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning style: Flash] level 29 (72%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning style: Lightbulb] level 18 (34%) {click here for more details}

[Cooking] level 100 (MAX) {click here for more details}

[Mindscape] level 32 (2%) {click here for more details}

[Fire style: Spark] level 47 (52%) {click here for more details}

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

[Earth style: Pit] level 1 (12%) {click here for more details}

[Shared Mindscape] level 1 (40%) {click here for more details}

[Misty Fist technique] level 84 (65%) {click here for more details}

[Haze Sword Technique] level 49 (0%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning style: Thunder spear] level 100 (MAX) {click here for more details}

[Surface clinging] level 44 (52%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning chakra creation] level 28 (11%) {click here for more details}

[Earth style: Mud wall] level 18 (4%) {click here for more details}

[Blood attunement] level 25 (0%) {click here for more details}

[Fire style: Phoenix Breath] level 17 (60%) {click here for more details}

[Substitution jutsu] level 2 (11%) {click here for more details}

[Genjutsu: False surroundings] level 2 (6%) {click here for more details}

[Fortuna's blessing] level MAX (100%) {click here for more details}

[Infused blood manipulation] level 28 (0%) {click here for more details}

[Tree hopping] level 22 (30%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning style: Current] level 1 (96%) {click here for more details}

[Water style: Water clone] level 2 (96%) {click here for more details}

[Earth style: Mud wall] level 18 (62%) {click here for more details}

[Killing intent] level 1 (56%) {click here for more details}

[Sense killing intent] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}

[True red world genjutsu] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}

[Wind style: Vacuum sphere] level 3 (26%) {click here for more details}

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

[Fire style: Great fireball] level 1 (67%) {click here for more details}

[Water style: Flowing guardian pillars] level 1 (86%) {click here for more details}

[Perfect flash] level 1 (86%) {click here for more details}

[Summoning jutsu] level 2 (83%) {click here for more details}

[Leaf rising wind] level 2 (98%) {click here for more details}

[Wind chakra creation] level 2 (10%) {click here for more details}

[Wind style: Wind needle] level 1 (30%) {click here for more details}

[Swift chakra creation] level 1 (80%) {click here for more details}

Skill tree passives and skills

Physical tree buffs

'Growing body' allows the body to grow and strengthen quicker

20% to stamina and health (99 hp per stat and 66 stam per stat)

Chakra tree buffs

Calculation for Cp maximum: 100 + (# of points in chakra * 15) * 1.7 * 3.0

'Chakra fiend' greatly increases your reserves (30% bonus)

'Chakra sensor' (added to dojutsu) you can sense all chakra within a 30m radius

40% increase to chakra reserves and recharge rate

Combined chakra tree buffs

Spiritual tree buffs

Ketsuryugan evolutions

60% buff to mental resistances

World tree buffs

Karma tree buffs

System tree buffs

154 skill points remaining

4 golden skill point remaining

Path of the berserker: the lower your health, the more power you can put out. This effect is multiplied by 3x when in mortal danger! (While active, the greater the boost, the lower your sanity (this can be trained))

Sage's body:A blessing from the sage of six paths has increased your body's life force greatly, increasing your chakra reserves and maximum health points. This increase is equal to 3x the normal amount.

Element evolution: Increased affinity with all elements, elements can be combined for a less proficient blood limit style of ninjutsu (similar to Yamato's wood style)

Flash enhancement: Grants skill 'Perfect flash' a small chance for attack effects or damage to be multiplied.

Trickster: People believe your lies far easier

Second wind: When on your last legs, gain a burst of energy for 30 seconds, your chakra will be replenished by 20% and health by 10%. All injuries will remain and after the 30 second window is over, you pass out.

Perception +: For 3 seconds every 24 hours (resets at 12:00 am) you can slow time to a standstill from your point of view, you cannot move during this time but can look around with your eyes and think.

'Copycat' one ability a killed opponent used in combat against the user can be stolen and formed into a skill

Skills gained from 'Copycat'

Water style: flowing guardian pillars – summons an number of pillars that can be controlled through chakra

I had 154 points to work with, I had yet to get any karma points which was weird, but I waved off that thought to focus more on my skill tree stuff. I wanted to upgrade my system tree and unlock the summarised status along with the expanded status upgrades. On the way to those would make me pick up a few more upgrades like 'common quests' and 'colour customization', I picked them all up and my new status was separated into several categories that were easy to scroll through.

It cost me 20 points to unlock all of the basic system stuff up until expanded status and I received several boons to my system in return. Common quests, colour customization, summarised status, expanded status, lottery pity, system reboot, and guiding voice were most of them.

The common quests feature just made quests appear more often in combat, daily life and in accordance with my current goals. Colour customization let me change the colour of my system, I set it to a nice purple colour with high opacity so I could see through it. Summarised status put my skills into different categories based on an overarching skill like, [Swift chakra creation] is under the chakra transformation sub list.

Expanded status showed something I didn't expect at all, a soft cap to my stats. That meant, after I reached those milestones, the stat scaling would decrease greatly. It also showed me when I would get rewards for level milestones, my next one being at 200 and after that 300.

Lottery pity had a cap of 90, meaning after 90 months of rolling lottery, my next one would be guaranteed mythical. Best part about that was if I got a black sector before 90, it wouldn't even reset!

System reboot was just that, a reboot of my system. This would allow me to receive new 'updates' if the gods added anything to expand my skill tree or something like that. Guiding voice was like a devil on your shoulder sort of thing, it was a way for the gods to semi communicate with you through thoughts but was mainly run automatically by some sort of A.I when they didn't use it.

I nestled a bit more into the trunk of the tree and looked towards the moon, it was full tonight, glowing brightly over the forest like a malevolent god. Before I knew it my time was up, and I dropped to the ground to get Jun from her tent.

I softly called out to her from the entrance, and she groaned a bit before waking up. I waved to her and whispered that it was her turn while I returned to the tree I was watching from, laying down and resting my head silently in an attempt to fall asleep.

"We had people, they were waiting for us, you took that away."

"They loved us, how do you think they felt?"

"Does human life mean so little to you, Michael?"

"YOU ARE A DEVIL!"

"MONSTER!"

"How could you leave me behind!"

"MY EYES!"

I shot awake and looked around the area, there was nobody nearby and my chakra sense didn't catch anything. There was no killing intent, so no attacks were coming, I released a deep breath I didn't realise I was holding and dropped to the ground.

"Hello? Is there anyone nearby?" I whispered, my eyes darting around to survey for any responses.

"Yeah, something wrong?"

"Jun?"

"Yes?"

"Never mind, just a bad dream. That's all." I started to walk back up the tree before she put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me from continuing.

"Was that your first kill today?" She asked, looking genuinely concerned for my wellbeing.

"No, I'm fine don't worry."

"That won't work on me, what's wrong kid?"

"What won't work? I'm not doing anything."

"You trying to push me away, it won't work. You're shaking, and there are tears coming from your eyes."

I reached up to feel my face and rubbed off the wet droplets coming out of my eyes, shaking my shoulder to push her off and continue to walk up the tree. "You don't know me, so don't worry about it."

She didn't respond but I felt her chakra signature disappear into the surroundings which told me she was hiding again. I laid back up against the tree, blocking out all sounds to try and go to sleep, the night was long enough already, and it was too dark for my liking.

The next morning

I was woken up by Sho at 7:00am, everyone else was already packed up and he had a worried look on his face, Jun probably said something about last night.

"Mornin' Shin, you alright?"

I stretched my arms out and let out a groan, removing most of the kinks in my back while sitting up. "Yeah, I'm fine, we ready to move on?" I asked, I really didn't want to talk about my problems when there were bigger fish to fry.

"We are, but more importantly, I heard some stuff about what happened last night, want to share?"

"Maybe later Sho, I want to get to Konoha first before I start to talk about this stuff."

"Sure, fine, let's get going then." He hopped off the tree and began talking to Pol on the edge of our campsite. We were officially in the land of fire now so Konoha would only be a couple of days out.

"Shin! We're going now so follow along!" Natio called out while waving over at me, I jumped off of the tree with a soft jump and we continued our trip towards Konoha.

Sho was carrying Miya today, so I focused more on using my dojutsu to sense out any chakra around us, I also kept a leaf stuck to my head to level up the skill while we hopped forward.

"When we get to Konoha Sho, I want to pick up a new sword since mine got destroyed, can we add that to the list?"

"There is no list but go and feel free to go pick one up when we get there. Hey Pol, how much longer did you say?"

"We should be there by tomorrow morning, that also lines up perfectly with Kushina's return from the Iwa front. Pretty sure she is more worried about her husband than meeting more Uzumaki though, but it'll be a nice surprise."

"Alright, can you give us an idea of this Kushina person?"

"Sure! She's in the bingo book if you want to check there our 'red hot habanero' as she's known. Kushina has a hot temper though so don't push her too far, and she is also a huge optimist, to the point where it gets annoying."

I flipped to the page for Kushina and checked out the profile, she had her title written in quotation marks and was currently worth 16.8 million ryo, a hefty price indeed. Her notable skills were her fuinjutsu, chakra chains and kenjutsu, something I was actually keen to learn more about.

"Hey Pol, you said she is married to someone right? Who's the lucky guy?" Sho asked, receiving a punch in the arm from Natio while she blushed.

"A prime candidate for the next hokage Minato Namikaze! He's done incredible things during these battles, while Orochimaru had been oddly quiet as of recently. He's the other candidate by the way, but there's also Fugaku Uchiha, who kind of ticks me off." Pol responded, earning a punch from Jicho who had a tickmark on his head.

"You really shouldn't talk shit about the clan head Pol, especially when one of his subordinates is right next to you."

"Meh, you don't like him either so why should I care?"

"That's true, he really rubs me the wrong way. The other day he was talking about making the village respect us more by helping in the war even more. He doesn't even care that we have lost dozens of members by now."

"Our clan head is way better, Inoichi has been doing an amazing job out near Shimo with Shikaku and Choza. Did you know they are calling them 'Ino-Shika-Cho' now? We need to get a cool name like that." Haru chirped, shoving herself into the conversation with enough energy to power a nuclear reactor.

After another 30 minutes of running Pol stopped us and put his fist up, we all stayed quiet and waited for a command. "Seems we are making better time than we expected, we have already reached the outpost which is only half a day away from the village. But somethings off, Haru, push out your senses."

She nodded quietly and sat on the branch we were all standing on, closing her eyes and making a tiger hand seal. "I'm sensing 12 unfamiliar chakra signatures, two jonin level, 6 chunin and 4 genin. The two jonins are together and the others are separated around the outpost, I recommend we use the second procedure for assassination."

"Alright, Shin, Sho, Natio, you three are heading towards the back of the outpost down the south side. There should be a river with an underground entrance that leads to within the bushes, it had several seals that block chakra signatures so make sure to be careful of any other enemies. Secure that entrance and we will meet you there after finishing off the others, if you come across a jonin, incapacitate him and we will get some information. Leave Miya with Jun, Jun you stay here to watch over her."

"Yes sir!" We all said, silently dropping to the ground with Sho leaving Miya behind, we circled around the outer fence and kept low to the ground. I spied 4 shinobi wearing Kiri headbands.

'This is way to far north for kiri to be here, what's going on?' I thought while sticking close to the ground. We became a bit less quiet when we reached the river and headed upstream, inside of the tunnel leading into the camp there were 3 chakra signatures that hung around the chunin range.

"Sho, Natio, I'm sensing 3 chunin inside of the tunnel. 2 close and 1 far out back. How do we take care of them?" I reported, waiting for Sho's command since he had the most experience and strength out of us.

"Alright, hand Natio a couple of kunai and I will take the 2 closest while Shin gets the last one in the back. Natio be prepared to support us with a good shot if we fuck up."

"Yes sir." We both moved away from Sho while he stalked slowly into the dark tunnel, displacing gravel under his feet and he stepped through. I gave Natio a few kunai and she put them in either hand preparing to throw.

"Hey! We have injured shinobi out here can you help?" Sho called out, drawing the 3 shinobi out in the open. He led them past our position, and I dropped down with a kunai, quickly plunging it into the last shinobi's head while Natio killed the other 2 with kunai to the spines.

"Well, that didn't go exactly as planned but good work." Sho said while searching the bodies. They didn't have anything except for a few weapons and a map, we took the grey flak jackets the had and fit them over our bodies. I picked up a katana from one of their bodies and felt the weight, it was decently made with a black handle and a well-kept blade.

I walked back through the tunnel and didn't sense any other chakra signatures, so I used a quick lightning jutsu to illuminate the area and narrowly dodged a sword slash that went straight through where my torso was.

"Tch, couldn't just die easily kid. I don't like doing this, but you were just in the wrong place." A masculine voice said, disappearing back into the shadows with his katana.

"Say that after you actually kill me."

"That I will."

No other words were exchanged when the same blade tried to slice open my back, I rolled forward and drew my new sword, readying it in a basic stance while pushing more chakra to my legs. 'Haze sword technique, pheasant dance'.

I quickly darted around the area without a pattern, illuminating the entire tunnel and leaving afterimages in my place. The shinobi had his sword drawn backwards and stabbed straight through my flak jacket but not piercing my skin, I got pushed backwards and stared straight at the enemy.

He didn't have any emotions visible but ran closer to engage me in a kenjutsu match. I blocked the first over head strike but got kicked in the shin which made me fall forward, I used my tsuba to block the knee strike that followed and rolled to my right to dodge the stab downwards.

'Haze sword technique, desert rain' I dragged my blade across the ground and flicked dirt into his face while slashing through his thigh, landing a small graze. He wiped the dirt from his face and slashed at my neck again, I rolled backwards up to my feet and blocked the follow through.

"Shin! Wind style: Gale palm!" Sho jumped in and slammed his palm into the back of my adversary, throwing him forward into me, he clicked his tongue, and I slashed forward cutting deeply into his torso. The light from earlier dissipated and he faded back into the shadows.

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu" I blew out a stream of flames around the cave forcing the man to come out of hiding and Sho to dodge backwards. "This is my fight Sho, I don't want any help, but do step in if you feel like I'm going to die."

"Fine, but I want you to know that's cowardly. If you want it to be your own fight don't rely on me, don't be a hypocrite."

"Huh, that sounds like some sort of good speech there, but I'm not one for dying personally, so you won't need to do anything anyways." I dodged another slash and parried a follow up with my blade, hooking my foot around the back of his knee, flipping him backwards.

'Haze sword technique, jagged arch' I slashed diagonally across his chest, first from top left to bottom right, then top right to bottom left, before following through with a flipping slash that cleaved the man in half. I wiped some sweat off of my brow and looked at Sho, he did not look happy.

"Shin don't expect me to be there to save you in every battle. Especially when you initially pushed away my help, you aren't immortal, you aren't a god, you are a shinobi. I'm not always going to be here so don't expect me to babysit you while I am." He said, it was like a father scolding his child. I flicked the blood off of my sword and looked towards him, I didn't expect him to always be here but hearing it was different.

"Yeah, I get it, sorry for the remark earlier."

"That doesn't matter, and it was a good speech. Something my jonin sensei told me when I said the same thing you did. I wanted him to not interrupt so I could be selfish, when I really needed him, he wasn't there, so I don't want that to repeat."

"What do you mean?"

He took off the kiri flak jacket and lifted up his shirt, revealing a large blade scar that went from his right ribs to left hip. "My jonin was busy with another opponent and I expected him to save me, I was the last of my genin squad left by that point since the others had died. I received this and the enemy believed I was dead, Naka sensei had to fight 3 chunin at once as a newbie jonin, he was killed after a long battle, and I was found just before I would have bled out." Sho said softly, rubbing his hand across the mark while he spoke. I didn't push for anymore information since Natio had walked in halfway through with a sad look on her face.

"Cmon Sho, we need to secure the entrance."

"Y-yeah we do."

"I know, lets just finish this and head to Konoha."

We spoke no more words while I found the ladder leading up, I flicked open the metal hatch at the top and lifted myself out, my dojutsu was deactivated and I looked at the group standing around a fire in the middle, burning the corpses of our enemies, there was one more person there that I didn't recognize.

"Weren't you going to interrogate the jonins?"

"Hmm? Uh yeah, we already did." Pol replied, rubbing his hands up to the fire to heat them up.

'Suspicious' I chucked a look at Sho who was now standing next to me, he nodded at me, and we walked forward. "Alright, did you get the plans for the raid? It's the only reason we attacked this shithole anyways." I said, waving my hands around to gesture at the camp.

"It may be only an outpost but isn't a shithole. And also, what plans? We came here because we saw enemy shinobi that's all." Jun said, narrowing her eyes at me, I activated my dojutsu and only recognized one of the chakra signatures.

'So, Jun was a traitor huh? I guess that means the others are dead.' I smirked and flipped her off, causing her to further narrow her eyes. "You know Jun, for someone wanting to be ANBU. You sure aren't loyal."

She recoiled a bit and brought out a kunai with a tag attached to it. "What do you know about loyalty? You are but a child, anyway we need to go back to Konoha to meet Kushina."

"We can leave once Pol recites the password, not a moment sooner than that." I pushed forward, causing Jun to raise her kunai even more and click her tongue. "Fuck this, there is no reason to play with a kid." The one disguised as Pol said, bringing out a kunai and flinging it towards me. I deflected it with my sword and kept Natio behind me.

"Shit, where's Miya!" I yelled out, Jun smirked and flicked her thumb backwards into the woods. "I'm not so heartless to kill a civilian, you can go get her, if you survive this fight." She vanished from her position and Sho narrowly dodged a kick to his head.

So now it was me and Natio, versus up to 6 chunin and jonin level opponents, this was not looking good. "Hey Natio, please escape, I need you to look after Miya and get to Konoha. If I don't survive this, tell Kushina something when you meet her. Watch out on the day your child is born, there may be some complications with a student of Minato's."

"What do you mean? Shin, for fucks sake, I'm not leaving you here. We will fight together, I may be a business owner, but I was also trained as a serious Uzumaki kunoichi. Us Uzumaki don't run from fights, we never do, and never have!"

She readied her kunai and leaped forward with me following on, I blocked several kunai for her, and she began to fight one of the chunins. I dodged a strike from one of the jonin but got kicked in the face by another, narrowly dodging a water bullet from my left side.

I grabbed the leg that attacked me and cleaved it off at the knee, causing the shinobi to scream in pain while I threw the leg away. Blood sprayed all over the floor and I placed my hand in the pool, filling it with my chakra.

"Everybody, watch out for the blood! That child can control it!" The traitor yelled out, making more hand seals and releasing another water bullet at Natio which I jumped in the way off and dispersed with my sword.

One of the chunin must have thought since I wasn't touching it I had no control stepped into the pool and I flicked my fingers up, causing large red thorns of blood to pierce the man's boot and hold him in place.

"Lightning style: Thunder spear!" I threw a bolt of lightning straight into the trapped shinobi's torso, electrocuting him enough to put him in a coma. I summoned in Komizu to help me with the fight.

"Hello Shin, am I here to fight?"

"Yeah, empower my fire! Fire style: Fireball jutsu!"

I shot a large stream of fire at Jun who dodged easily by flipping backwards, the jonin following along and firing off water bullets to try and quell the flames. Komizu launched a fierce gust of wind that pushed my flames like the walls of hell, incinerating one of the jonin and leaving the other with Jun. Natio finished up her fight by stabbing a kunai through the chunin's leg then piercing the main artery in their neck.

One of the jonin unsealed several tons of water that flooded the area around us, Jun went through a long series of hand seals while I only did 6. "Water style: Water dragon jutsu!"

"Natio! Jump in the air now!" She did and I finished my last seal, placing my palm that was empowered with lightning chakra into the water. "Lightning style: Current!"

The entire floor around us turned into a death trap and the dragon that was flying towards me became a heavy shower that drenched my position, causing no real damage.

Jun started to shake with electricity but escaped after a large jolt, the jonin put up a mud wall that he used to jump off of, still remaining mid-air. I cancelled my jutsu and dodged a water bullet that he spat at me. Natio landed next to me and began through a string of hand seals of her own, I blocked several kunai that were launched at her location, but a sharp pain drew my attention to a blade sticking through my chest.

I looked down at the blade and hacked up some blood, staining the water red. Several kunai riddled my body after that and I turned around to look at Natio, she had already collapsed into the water with the area around her red. I looked at my assailant, Jun.

"B-B-bastard" I growled, falling forward and laying face down in the water. I still had 4,000 hp but it was draining quickly. "Goodbye Shin, for what its worth. I don't usually murder children, but you were a pain in my side, killing my friend like that especially. The Mizukage could have had his hands on the sharingan, but then you came along and killed Goro. Even after that, Jicho was still there, but the bastard destroyed his eyes by overloading the chakra points before I could kill him." He raised his blade, and I moved my hand to the wound on my chest, putting chakra into my blood, I started to make it harden around my back, to the point where it became as tough as steel below my skin.

But it was a double-edged sword, by doing that I had stopped my blood from flowing and I could only survive another couple of seconds before I would die. My limbs became cold, then hot, it reminded me of the feeling of death as Michael before being reborn.

The sword came down with a heavy swing, and a clang echoed through the area, I removed my chakra and felt my blood start circulating again, then everything was black.

"ATIO, SHIN!"

"N-TIO, SHI-N"

'Who's calling out?' I looked up and saw nothing around but darkness. Above me was… me? I was lying face down in a pool of water and my own blood with Sho standing over me, tears streaming down his face.

Natio suddenly moved and placed her hand over her stab wound. Sho quickly started to heal her while he continued to cry. Once he finished he looked at me and so did Natio.

"He's still got a pulse! Its only slight though. Sho, is there anything you can do?!"

"no.."

"Sho?"

"THERE ISN'T! I CAN'T SAVE ANYBODY!"

"Sho calm down!"

"HOW CAN I!? MY PARTNER IS ABOUT TO DIE AND I CAN'T FUCKING DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! I'M FUCKING USELESS! FIRST MY FRIENDS, THEN MY TEACHER, THEN MY WIFE, AND NOW SHIN, HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN WHEN EVERYONE AROUND ME DIES WITHIN TEN FUCKING MINUTES OF GETTING CLOSE TO ME!"

'Am I really going to die again?' I thought, I didn't know it but I had grown far more attached to this world than I first thought. Now tears were streaming down my face as I sunk into the abyss of death once again. I didn't want to go, I still had to meet Yugito again, I still needed to complete all of my quests, I still needed to become a sage.

But couldn't I do that in my next life?

But how many lives would it take fore me to have had enough of dying?

"You know, there is something I could do."

"What?"

"I'm not sure it will work but we can try making him eat this" Natio pulled up her sleeve, this was something she hadn't shown Sho yet. She rolled me over and shoved her arm in my mouth, clamping the teeth with her other hand.

I was slowly sinking further away from my body until a light blue chain appeared from my back, slowly descending with me until it latched to my pierced my stomach. My body started to feel weird, I was getting lightheaded, I couldn't breathe, my eyes, they hurt, it was like I had a migraine while having several broken bones.

"SHIN!" I started to get dragged up, I looked down into the abyss and it stared back into me. A finger appeared and pressed against my forehead while a hand rubbed my head soothly, pushing its fingers through my hair. A person's face appeared from the void, with her white hair flowing against her back and green eyes piercing into me.

"As your mother, I've got to do something right? I loved you Michael, truly, nothing could change that. I always have and always will love you, so please, for me, live a long life, get a good wife, give me a few grandkids and stay away from the bad girls."

My mother stared at me from below, had she died as well? What the fuck was going on? What else did I leave behind in my old world? Her words resonated with me though. She wasn't the best parent ever, but she was still my mum, and I valued her thoughts.

"It makes me sad that the only way I could help you was in death, especially after all the harm I caused you. Did you know that all afterlives were connected? I used my one call to talk to you at death's door. It may be going against the rules to touch you, but I just wanted to feel my baby boy again. I love you, Shin, Michael, anyone else you become, and maybe if I work hard enough and get those points up, I'll visit once again, or meet you after your journey is over. I'll need to hear all about it, don't spare any details because I know you remember them all."

Tears started to drop from my eyes and fall into the void of death, I faced towards my body and realised my time was almost up, I was barely 10 meters away from my body.

"You don't need to say anything son, I know you love me or whatever sappy crap like that you would say. Our time to talk is over for now, I'll see you in a few lives or something, just call out for me when you decide to come up to heaven and I'll meet you. Now, go show me what a kick ass son you can be in a world full of magicians, shinobi and gods!"

"SHIN!"

"Huh?"

Tears were still falling down my skull and Natio had a deep blush on her face. Sho was looking down at me with a wide smile, he picked me up and hugged me deeply, I was still shellshocked from the past events.

Mum, loved me? She really did. In my entire life I never considered it deeply, I thought the answer would just depress me. But she did, so much so that she met me in death, love transcends all or whatever.

"What happened to your hair?" Natio said, pulling her arm out of my mouth.

"Huh?"

I looked below me into the pool of blood-stained water, my hair was a much fuller red now, almost matching Natio, with a bright white highlight going through the right side. I pulled up my status to see if anything changed.

Name: Shin Chinoike (Uzumaki)

Title: Natural, Prodigy

Title buffs: 35% to exp, higher chance of gaining skills faster.

Birth date: February 26th

Level 177 (next milestone gift at 200! after that is 300!)

Hp 90/10792

Cp 200/7750

Stam 3400/7228

Efficiency ?%

Stats

Strength: 215

Vitality: 108

Chakra: 100

CC: 100 (+40 with ketsuryugan activated)

Luck: 100 (+20 due to Fortuna's blessing)

Intelligence: 100

Willpower: 100

Charisma: 100

Stat points remaining: 0

Monthly Lotteries collected: 48(Can be claimed on the first of each month!)

Pity: 0/90

I stared in awe at the new name, I had become a true blood Uzumaki, somehow. "Shin, you bit a bit hard there, drew some blood." Natio said, waving off her arm and I saw where my bight mark was some of my teeth had punctured her and ingested some DNA or something? It must have mixed with my 'Sage's body' skill to give me Uzumaki genes.

"Sorry about that Natio, hehe, thank you for healing me, I felt like I was really going to die there."

"Don't be such a moron in the face of death kid, we almost lost you."

"Yeah, I know, I heard you crying and shit from beyond the grave and came up to soothe your sorry ass. Couldn't let you travel around the continent with only 1 person now, could I?"

Sho blushed a bit and looked away while Natio laughed, "shut it brat, we need to go get Miya now."

"Sappy old man, chucking a tantrum and then changing the subject. I'll go grab her; you wait here." I jumped off of the water before getting a response and landed in the woods, my dojutsu activated so I could sense her chakra.

I found Miya unconscious against a tree trunk tied up with some rope, I untied it and picked her up, placing her over my back in a fireman's carry while I jumped back. Today had been a big day, and tomorrow, no doubt even bigger, especially with me meeting more Uzumaki, the brash bunch will never be quiet.

I was listening to some good music, so this chapter got finished in only 2 days after I started it. Pretty good right? JVKE is extremely good, and it was recommended to me by a friend, I'm currently listening to the 'this is what _ feels like' album. Good shit.

I don't know how many of you will feel about this chapter and it is definitely one of my more awkward ones, but I got the point across of what I wanted. Shin's old world had things, people there for him, and he can't see that anymore, but he feels it. Kind of like that quote 'You never know what you truly have until you lose it'. Or I have no idea what I'm talking about and need to go to sleep.

Goodbye all- tired