I looked at my hand. I had really turned into Kiba. What the fuck had I been doing? My goal was to survive and help naruto. I had really strayed from that goal, hadn't I? When had my ego taken over? Maybe it was when I beat Kiba. I really sucked, didn't I? I sat up once more,

So much wasted time. I had been complacent and cocky. I could have beaten Sasuke in a million better ways than I did. I could have avoided being stabbed. I could have beaten her without help. I just needed to not have my head in my ass

I laughed to myself. I sucked. This early on I had a sky-high ego greater than Kiba's. What the fuck did that say about me? I was weak and egotistical... no point in crying over the possibilities and the what-ifs. I survived and that's what matters

There's so much to do. So little time. Medical jutsu, elemental jutsu, kenjutsu, bukijutsu, fuinjutsu, basically becoming a Gary sue. Maybe I should get a summon? Nah too early. I need to focus on everything, Take full advantage of the system. I had been doing a poor job of that for sure

I need power and lots of it. At this point, my hopes of not being protagonist-kun are basically dashed so I might as well make the most of it. I should make a plan. Hira sensei was about to teach us the very first medical jutsu. The disinfecting jutsu. Enough said. If you learned it fast enough he would teach us another one and so on and so forth. I also needed to see if I mastered the club enough to learn the tanto. I needed to have that extra cutting power. I could also train with gai and lee some more if they allow me to. My physical stats would go waaaay up. I was already as good as some chunin. That wasn't enough. I needed to be better

I needed to see if I could get Iruka to teach me chakra control exercises too. I could do them alone... actually Nah I will do that. If I'm asked how I did it I'm just saying scroll. There's so much I could learn. I feel like smacking myself though. I had been complacent about what I could learn. Fucking pain is 5 and a half years away and I'm still barely genin level. I needed to be better. As soon as I get out of here I'm training my friends into the ground too. They'll thank me later.

I got up and looked out the window. This life was given to me for a second chance. A second chance I basically spat on. God, I feel disgusted. The dance of death almost claimed me. I sighed. I shouldn't continue to think about this.

Quickly I opened the window for some fresh air. I could get someone to teach me. Maybe convince Kakashi? I was getting him off of his ass somehow. If he was stronger now that'd be nice. Anyways if I could get him to train me somehow that'd be good. Or maybe get Hiruzen to do it? No, that'd be too hard at the moment. I could probably go back to the library. God knows the chunin guards sucked. More scrolls on medical jutsu, some on fuinjutsu, and more on chakra. I wanted to learn everything I could so I could win. I didn't want to lose again nor did I want my head to go back up my ass.

I poured myself a glass of water. A kind nurse left a picture of ice water here for me. I'd need to do something nice for him. I decided to meditate. Might as well level something whilst I was stuck here. There were so many variables to my situation now. So much potential. With recent developments like the academy apparently going through an overhaul, there was so much potential for me to get the power I needed. My constitution wouldn't level for a while I knew that. So my other physical stats I would focus on myself until I could get weights.

Then I would also practice chakra. I don't give a damn anymore. I needed to get humbled more too.

Everything wouldn't go to waste.

'I vow to never, ever act like that again' Was my final thought before I heard something

*Knock, knock, knock* "It's time for a check-up," A nurse said.

"Okay," I said as a doctor entered the room.

"Kukui. Where the hell were you man? We were looking all over for you" Naruto asked. I had reached our usual spot and saw my friends waiting. The miracles of medical jutsu cleared me to go a few hours after the doctor checked me over. I did some more thinking

"Sorry. I kinda got lost on the road of life on the way here. I've been thinking and I realized something. I'm an asshole" I said. They all looked at me with the 'Elaborate look' "I've been insulting Kiba and just being a prick to him. I'm no better than him" I finished. After some thinking, I realized I could have done a lot better. I managed my time poorly, I was an ass, And I wasn't a good person.

"He deserved it though. Kiba's an absolute prick to everyone. Someone needed to bring him down a peg" Ino said, trying to comfort me.

"No, he's right. Let him have this" Shikamaru said simply.

"Thank you shikamaru. Thanks for trying to make me feel better though guys!" I exclaimed. I was happy I had such good friends. If I couldn't support them I'd protect them.

"Does this mean we're assholes too?" Naruto asked. I sighed and nodded.

"A bit. You two insulted him and were pricks too." I said

"Does this mean we have to apologize to him?" Ino asked

"No... It'd be nice but I say we just call it even and we're good with kiba. We should focus on being better people. We were complacent. We need to be better in other areas too" I explained. It hurt today but I wanted to improve myself.

"Okay... So what's the plan today?" Ino sighed out.

"We train. A lot" I said as everyone groaned. I smiled. I could still have some fun whilst training at least

"Do we have to?" Shikamaru asked in an annoyed voice.

"Yes my lazy friend. We have been getting relaxed. We need to change that" I said in a sage-like tone.

"Now let's train!" I said excitedly.

Everyone groaned

New skill unlocked: leaf concentration exercise

leaf concentration exercise lvl 1

Increases chakra control more every level

Consumption: 20 chakra points per second.

I smiled. This was great. It had only been a few minutes since I had started. I would do this until I almost ran out of chakra. Almost. Didn't want to die... again...

I Balanced it on my fingertip.

Leaf concentration exercise has leveled up

That was fast. It must be because of my already good chakra control. I picked up a scroll. A medical scroll. It read more on how to apply chakra inside the body to heal it. I needed something to distract me whilst I grinded. I had strayed from my original elective. I wanted to learn it to make sure I wouldn't die. Also, medical jutsu was fricking OP. But for now I just needed to grind to have good enough chakra control. I wanted to be water walking by the end of the month.

Leaf concentration exercise has leveled up

Oh, I would be at water walking in no time.

"So how do you guys think this test's gonna go?" I asked. I had a feeling it'd be hard.

"It should be hard. If we got a whole week off just so they could prepare for it" Shikamaru said.

"Yeah this isn't going to be easy," Ino said worriedly.

"Don't worry ino we're going to ace these stupid tests!" Naruto exclaimed. Gotta love his spirit.

"Yeah. We're going to do fine," chouji agreed.

"We're going to be perfectly fine. As long as we just do our best" I encouraged. I wanted my friends to do as well as they could.

"Alright, everyone... The test will be taken in three parts. The physical part. The exam part. And the practical part" Iruka explained as everyone nodded. "Everyone is going to take the exam first," Iruka explained. Everyone groaned.

We were handed a sheet of paper.

"Now begin"

"That was troublesome," Shikamaru said. We were now in the yard area. There was a fucking obstacle course.

"Yeah. That was actually hard" I agreed. I hated exams and tests. They were just annoying.

"Why were there 100 questions? There shouldn't have been that many!" Naruto and ino whined.

"I feel you guys," Chouji said. He again grabbed a bag of chips and grabbed a fistful

"Okay, class now that you've completed your exam we can now move on to the physical portion of the test. Everyone head to the obstacle course" Iruka announced. Everyone groaned except Naruto, me, and Sasuke. As much as I hated the fact there was an obstacle course I was also excited for it. This would allow me to see where I truly stood in speed and stamina. "The obstacle course contains three parts. The first part contains a quarter-mile run. This run contains holes in the ground, walls to climb, and blunt kunai and shuriken to dodge. The second part contains swinging logs that you have to dodge and more holes in the ground. The final part is a mix of the last two plus it's dark" Iruka explained. This time everyone collectively groaned. This sounded a lot for an academy student. "Also the tunnel will get darker as time goes on" Iruka finished

"Now everyone line up," Iruka said. Apparently, it was one at a time. Dear god, this was going to take all day. "You're going in order of class placement according to the old system. Kukui you're first" Iruka finished. I froze in horror. Why did I have to be first? Fuck my life.

I walked up to the start. "What did I do to deserve this sensei?" I asked. This sounded hard. I was nervous too. I didn't want to go first. I basically had the limelight now.

"You'll be fine, kukui. Just relax and go through the course as fast as possible" Iruka comforted

"Kay sensei..." I said straightening up my back and looking straight. I had to do this. 'You faced death in the eyes me. A fucking obstacle course shouldn't scare you' I thought to myself. I braced myself for running. I would do this in 10 minutes tops.

"Good luck kukui!" I heard my friends shout... well naruto and ino. Shikamaru just gave a thumbs up and chouji smiled and nodded. Couldn't talk with his mouth full after all. I also heard a chorus of fan girls whom I just ignored. It was for the best.

"You can start now," Iruka said.

I nodded and began running I looked around and saw the many potholes in the ground. They were meant to stop momentum. I also saw the first wall I had to climb and a few older academy students. Just fucking great. "I'm assuming you're supposed to throw the blunt kunai," I said. I looked around and saw a few faces I recognized. Lee, Neji, and tenten.

"We are my most youthful friend. Now good luck," Lee said. He threw a kunai at incredible speeds. Gai must train him outside of the academy then

"Crap" I dodged it and began running again. I felt my arms and chest get pelted with a few of the blunt weapons. I quickly found myself at the wall I had to climb up. I quickly began to climb up. My back was getting pelted now.

"You're going to have to go faster than that" I heard tenten say.

"Faster? You want faster huh?" I activated sprinting.

Sprinting(Active) level 10

Increases speed by 100%, Jumping by 75%, attack speed by 50%

Cost: 21 energy points per second)

For some reason, it hadn't maxed out at level 6 but hey I wasn't complaining at all. The more I could level it the less it'd cost.

I grabbed onto a ledge and jumped over the rest of the wall.

"What is that? There was no chakra involved" I heard Neji ask shocked. He had the byakugan activated

I continued to run at shocking speeds as multiple people struggled to keep up with me as I was sprinting. "It's a secret" I smirked. I always loved it when new people saw sprinting. I deactivated it soon after. I quickly dodge dozens of blunted kunai and shuriken.

I saw yet another wall. It started to get darker as well. Just fucking great. I activated sprinting once more and bounced up the wall which amazed everyone once more. I felt A bunch of blunt kunai hit the back of my head. It hurt. I looked back to see they were getting pulled back by chakra wire. Preparation. They fucking prepared for this didn't they? Okay well, two can play this game. I picked up some of the blunt kunai that were thrown that couldn't get picked up.

I placed my pinky finger on the ground after stopping.

"What the hell's he doing?" I heard people ask their allies. They threw their kunai at me. Their chakra was connected to the ninja wire. Just barely. Although I couldn't sense lees. I threw all my blunt kunai at as many people as I could sense. I felt the kunai blaze toward me still. I felt them all. I was in danger.

New skill unlocked: Danger sense

Danger sense lvl 1

Increases chances of sensing danger by 5%

I smiled. This would help a little bit. I dodged all the kunai and shuriken as best I could. A few hit me still. I continued running. I was almost at the end of part one. I could see the logs

"That was ballsy of you. But alas it wouldn't work. Embrace your fate and give up" I heard neji said

"Nope," I said, this time I actually grabbed one of the kunai out of the air. I threw it where I heard Neji's voice. It was dark enough as to where I could only see the path in front of me. I hoped I hit Neji

I finally reached the logs. They were swinging fast. It would be dangerous and very painful but I intended to just go through the middle. I knew it was stupid and ballsy but it was the fastest path

"Are you insane?" A random kid asked. I couldn't help it and I laughed.

"Probably," I said as I dodged a log the kunai and shuriken storm stopped for now I Jumped over a lot of the logs. Sprinting was activated of course. "But I'm having fun and that's all that matters," I said as I grabbed one of the ropes that the logs were swinging by. I was just going off of instinct by this point. I jumped from rope to rope like Tarzan. It was fucking awesome I always wanted to do this. The ropes came to an end and I fell to the ground gracefully as I rolled into standing up once more and I began running again. Kunai started to pelt me again

"Really? Come on!" I whined. I hated this. Even though I managed to dodge most of the kunai and shuriken I was still getting hit by a few. They hurt a lot though. I felt my back get love tapped by many of the blunt objects

"It's just a little kunai. Why are you so hurt by it?" Some random kid asked.

"Oh try getting pelted by blunt kunai that are going as fast as you can run. Go ahead" I replied. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel though.

A stray log almost hit me. Thankfully that 5 percent was more common than I thought it'd be.

Eventually, I made it to the end of the tunnel.

I saw one silver-haired jonin waiting for me

"5 minutes and 10.45 seconds. Impressive kukui" Kakashi praised. I flopped down onto the ground. "Now how do you feel?" He asked

"My back hurts. Thanks though" I said. "So do I go back to the start or do I wait here?" I asked next. I would be away from my friends sure but I didn't feel like moving or getting moved at the moment. My back was killing me thanks to the kind souls who threw them

"Here if you want," Kakashi said, shrugging his shoulders. "But you can always join your upperclassmen in throwing the blunt kunai and shuriken " Kakashi finished pointing to the staircases that led to where everyone else was

"Here. I don't feel like moving much now" I said. I was handed a water bottle which I promptly took. "Thank you," I said as soon as I got it

"No problem. You can rest now" Kakashi said, shunshining away. Presumably to go talk to Iruka real quick. I began meditating. I wanted to regain my energy points as soon as possible so this was the best solution. I needed some time to rest anyways

"Look at the kid! He's dodging and grabbing the kunai!"

"Are we sure he isn't a sensor?"

"We don't know. We haven't done the aptitude tests yet"

"The kid has a lot of potential. He even managed to grab a blunted kunai mid-air. Are we sure he isn't a prodigy either?"

"We don't know. We haven't truly been able to test him yet"

"He should be able to be tested soon. With the new curriculum in place, we should truly see what kind of genius he is. One of hard work or one of talent"

"Yes. The kid should meet our expectations though. Just look at him"

"Swinging around like some sort of monkey. What are you getting at here?"

"Nobody else is going to do that other than maybe then Minato's son"

"True but you never know how creative the next generation will be"

" Now I wonder how well everyone else will do with the walls. The brat just jumped over them. Will anyone top that?

"Maybe. The Uchiha brat might be able to"

"Can he even jump that high though?"

"Who knows? We're about to see though."

"Someone get the popcorn!"

"On it"

"Man, that sucked," Ino whined.

"That had to have been the most troublesome thing I had ever done," Shikamaru groaned.

"Agreed," I said. Well, it wasn't but it was getting close. I still wasn't fully recovered after all and that made things harder

"I just hope the practical tests are easier," chouji said and everyone nodded except naruto.

"It wasn't that hard guys," Naruto said... he was covered in bruises. He just powered through

"Troublesome blond," Shikamaru whispered. I couldn't agree more. But we all loved Naruto for a reason!

"Okay class now that all of you have taken the physical test, the practical test is the last thing you need to do today. Now before we continue I need to say a few things' ' Iruka got everyone's attention. Everyone looked at Iruka. "So as the midterms have been canceled for this test we have decided that these tests would be taken as the midterms instead. Since this test is harder than the original test we are going to also be harsher with ranking. Finally, the practical and physical exams are the ones that matter most. A shinobis skill shouldn't be determined by a piece of paper" Iruka explained and Naruto rejoiced. As did I. I heard a lot of other people complain though.

"Now for the practical part. This one's easy. You need to deliver a package back to your own homes. After that you can open them." Kakashi said. "Or you can team up into teams of three and take them to one location together. Either way, you just need to take it and make sure it stays unopened the entire time" Kakashi finished. I nodded and looked at my friends.

"This is clearly a trap. He's lulling us into a false sense of security. Something's going to happen. We need to team up and be careful" I told my friends. Shikamaru nodded.

"This is supposed to be like a mission. Now you said we should team up but there are only five of us. So what are we going to even do?" Shikamaru asked everyone looked at me. Apparently, I was the leader.

"Well we weren't told that teams couldn't team up. We aren't a team of five we are a team of three and a team of two" I said and Shikamaru smirked.

"I get it. We're still following the rules but we're still able to work together." Shikamaru said

"Good idea kukui!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah. We now have strength in numbers" Ino agreed.

We were handed our packages. "How are we going to hide these?" I asked. We had to make sure they were safe and secure

Naruto perked up. "Oh I got an idea!" the blond exclaimed and everyone looked at him. He pulled a scroll out of his pack and some ink along with a brush. I smirked.

"A storage scroll" I said. Naruto quickly made one and he grinned

"Yeah. I've been working hard on this for a while" Naruto said as he sealed away all five of the packages. He handed the scroll to me. "Keep it safe," Naruto said.

"Got it. My apartment is closest to the academy. Let's go there" I said.

"Okay. I don't feel like walking far anyways" Ino whined out.

"Yeah that obstacle course killed my legs" Chouji said

"What they said," Shikamaru said.

"Okay nobody's contesting then. Okay before we go. Shikamaru if we encounter anyone I need you to use your shadow paralysis jutsu. If I do the ram seal then you can do it. Naruto and I can knock them out or at least stall them after. " I said as Naruto nodded.

"Got it. Anything else?" the nara asked.

"Nope. Good, let's go now" I said. Everyone left the academy grounds

"Almost there" I said. Suddenly three people appeared. Three konoha genin.

"You just had to jinx us" Ino said tiredly

"What do we do now?" Naruto asked.

"Whoa, whoa whoa kiddies, I thought you weren't supposed to group up in teams of five" The leader of the three said

"We're two teams that just decided to come together," Shikamaru said as lazily as usual

"Smart but numbers won't help you. I suggest you give up" the ring leader said casually. I smiled.

"No, no, no. Numbers aren't our only advantage" I said. I made the ram seal.

"What the?" The leader tried to escape the shadow paralysis jutsu as did his friends.

"You think we weren't prepared, didn't you?" I said as me and Naruto went over and quickly knocked them out before they could escape. "Weak genin," I said to their unconscious bodies

"Are we just going to leave them here or no?" Ino asked quickly.

"Yeah. They'll be fine, don't worry. Now come on, my apartment is just up this way" I said.

"Okay"

We all quickly went into an alley which was a shortcut to my apartment. We then reached the door after a few minutes.

Quest complete: Complete the midterms first

Rewards:

+1 to each stat

+1 level to each skill

'Holy shit...' I thought. This was something that would save so much time. I leveled up a few skills slowly... this saved days to weeks of grinding.

I unsealed everyone's packages. I handed it to them. "Well let's see what awaits us," I said excitedly.

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed with as much excitement but for different reasons.

We all carefully opened up the packages. There was a single note in them. We all looked at each other and I picked up my note. There was a simple message waiting inside

"You pass!"

Chapter end

Hello everyone! We hit 50k words! Thank you all for reading and supporting me silently. It really makes me happy. Anyways the chapter's over now. I know i kinda glossed over kukui's change but I had a lot to do this chapter. Originally this was supposed to be shorter but somehow its this long. Anyways I've read the reviews and realised kukui kinda sucks now. Thanks for pointing that out for me. Now we're going through his character arc of getting better and him not sucking as a person. Also finally he's going to learn something helpful other than taijutsu and his skills.

Anyways I wonder if i should have kukui use genjutsu. So far he's been defying my commands. Free will bullshit. So far he's been a brawler but i kinda want that to change. I want him to actually learn something soon so yeah.

Again though thank you all for reading up to this point. It has given me the strength to keep writing. Every review, follow, and favorite make me smile. Every view makes me happier. I appreciate it all. Thanks for reading... Anyways enough of that sappy shit. Lets save more of that for 100k!

Now question of the chapter time!

Question: How's it going? Just how is everyone in general? I want to hear how everyone's year has been. Mine has been eh. Other than this fic nothing exciting has been going on for me. Just the same ol life. Anyways Hopefully everyone has had a great year!

Tobi-kun out!

Buh bye

SIDE NOTE: this is also officially the longest chapter yet!