Graduation and Empathy

BoombaTheSaint: Thank you so much for the criticisms! I really needed to know what I needed to work on, and I am thankful I'm not the only one who thought my decisions for the system and characters were lackluster. I agree with the emotions being a chore to write, however, I have not disregarded gamer's mind since it just isn't in this fanfic. It will not be in here for a while if at all.

ItzShadzu: These manhwas are way too addicting! I just finished another one before starting this chapter, can't wait for the Solo Levelling adaptation in April. Hopefully, it isn't butchered like the Tower of God and God of Highschool adaptations.

Previously on Cloud Gamer

I smiled at him while walking out the door to the bell's chime, "See you tomorrow Kirei-sensei!" Natsuki yelled while walking out next to me.

~~~~~~~Chapter Start ( /^ ▽ ^ )/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 year Later

"Shin! Wake up! We're going to be late you ass!"

"Just 5 more Yugi, we can spare that much, right?"

"You said that an hour ago!"

"I don't remember that."

"Since you were asleep! Wake up!"

Yugito grabbed the covers off of me and I flopped around like a dead fish before rolling off the bed and hitting my head against the ground.

"Ow! Why did you push me off?!"

"I didn't! You're such a dumbass that you fell off!"

"Hmph, I'm no dumbass. You are the real idiot here!"

"Shut up and get changed the test is today for graduation. If you fail, I'll kick your ass so hard you wish I would use the two tails to kill you."

"Matatabi is too nice to me, she wouldn't kill me!"

"Do you want me to ask her?"

"Just trust me."

I quickly threw on some clothes before opening my status.

Name: Shin Chinoike

Title: Natural, Prodigy

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

Birth date: February 26th

Level 96

Hp 1172.5/1172.5

Cp 1350/1350

Stam 815/815

Efficiency ?%

Stats

Strength: 90

Vitality: 65

Chakra: 80

CC: 66 (+30 with ketsuryugan activated)

Luck: 45

Intelligence: 50

Willpower: 50

Charisma: 50

Stat points remaining: 0

Monthly Lotteries collected: 47(Can be claimed on the first of each month!)

Skills

[Ketsuryugan] level 90 (41%) {click here for details}

[Leaf sticking exercise] Level 76 (12%) {click here for more details}

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

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

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

[Cooking] level 21 (44%) {click here for more details}

[Mindscape] level 32 (2%)

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

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

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

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

[Misty Fist technique] level 22 (65%) {click here for more details}

[Haze Sword Technique] level 28 (15%) {click here for more details}

[Lightning style: Thunder spear] level 46 (31%) {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 2 (4%) {click here for more details}

[Blood attunement] level 1 (0%) {click here for more details}

[Fire style: Phoenix Breath] level 17 (44%) {click here for more details}

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

[Genjutsu: False surroundings] level 1 (94%) {click here for more details}

Inventory

Blank summoning scroll

15x 1 skill voucher

4x 5 skill voucher

119,860 ryo

64x sheets of chakra litmus paper

1x water style: Water clone jutsu scroll

1x earth style: mud wall scrolls

1x 10 skill voucher

1x lightning style: Current scroll

1x B – rank jutsu voucher

1x hidden objective reveal voucher

1x bouquet of shock roses

1x affinity booster

1x 2x luck booster

2x 10 skill point voucher

Skill tree passives and skills

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

10% to stamina and health (16.5 hp per stat and 11 stam per stat)

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

20% increase to chakra reserves and recharge rate

54 skill points remaining

1 golden skill point remaining

I was saving my skill points until 100 because I just liked to see the number go up and I would get a huge boost all at once which was always nicer than tiny increments.

I brushed my teeth and headed out towards the academy with Yugito in tow, we reached the entrance, and the students were all heading inside. We entered classroom 401 for the final time hopefully. Some of the kids I had spent the last year with were quite anxious it seemed as we walked in.

I looked over at Yugito who had a steeled expression as we went and sat next to Natsuki, who was already about to fall back asleep before class even started, I gently tapped her awake and she grabbed my hand. "Oh Shin, it's you. Morning Yugito" she said in between yawns.

We were still a bit early so I looked around the room at the other kids, they were chatting about what the tests would be and how much they practiced among other things.

It was April 1st today, so I opened my lottery, the extra luck stats I had put in definitely cut down on the amount of money I received in small parts but replaced them with rarer but much bigger rewards. I had received a couple of jutsu, a special quest for defeating a member of the Akatsuki, that surprised me when I got it, and a raid ticket for any raids I would unlock.

I was one key location away from unlocking the map feature and my level had skyrocketed over the past year with my training in and outside of school. Back to the roulette that I spun, it went around a few times before landing on a black sector. 'Haven't seen that before' I thought while waiting for it to stop, a few screens popped up on my left while I stared at the list of rewards in front of me.

"You have landed on a 'mythical', this is worthy of celebration! The chances of this event occurring are tiny, so for your insane luck here are your special rewards!"

"5x 10 skill voucher, 3x scroll for random c – a rank jutsu, 3 golden skill points, passive skill 'Fortuna's blessing', 200,000 ryo, 1x 'summoning jutsu' guide, new system function 'Market', clan skill 'infused blood manipulation'

Fortuna's blessing - +20 to luck stat at all times, chance of receiving a skill is greatly increased."

'Well, that's fucking dandy isn't it?' I thought while waving away the window in front of me and looking to the ones on my left.

"Market function unlocked! Use ryo or other currency to receive items"

"Your rewards have been added to your inventory"

"In depth explanation of the market system is located in the settings interface"

I waved off the three screens and looked towards where Rumi-sensei was walking in, "Hello brats! Its going to be the last time I see most of you, at least I hope so, with that in mind do well! The exam will contain four parts to it, a written portion for your general knowledge of the shinobi and academic arts, a tournament style sparring match where you will be graded based on your performance and efficiency, a showcase of your skills and finally another written exam containing exclusively theory and skills picked up from your extracurricular courses. Each of the extracurricular tests are personalised to you so don't even try to cheat." He barked while looking around the room.

"We will begin the first written exam in 5 minutes, grab anything you will need before then and be seated otherwise you will be penalised."

"Yes sensei!"

All of the students scattered to their seats and grabbed the various writing supplies they would need, I grabbed out a couple of pens and looked to my right to see Natsuki back to sleeping, I sighed and thought about what I was soon to enter as a genin. 'I'm definitely going to be forced into the war. Hopefully I get a decent position on a comfortable area to stay in. Maybe in the west along the coast, leaf doesn't have much naval firepower unlike mist so it should be fine.'

When the time was up the tests were passed backwards and we were ordered to start. The test easy in all regards since I memorised all of the textbooks handed out this year and just had questions ripped from those practice tests inside the books. When the hour was completed, I could see steam coming out of Natsuki's head and Yugito had a slight frown while leaning back in her chair.

The entire class was then brought out for the sparring matches, it was a taijutsu only fight, no ninjutsu, genjutsu or kenjutsu allowed inside of the ring, if you were knocked out of the ring or surrendered you lost, and the victor would proceed to the next round.

Since I didn't pick up the Chinoike name, I was up first against Natu Alore, an older kid with shaggy black hair that reached down to his shoulders, he wore a grey tunic and khaki shorts that reached to his knees. We both got into stances and a start from Rumi let the match begin.

I took an offensive start, darting around the ring, using chakra to enhance my movements while landing several hits on his torso, he quickly crumpled to my attacks and the match was over.

The next few matches were quite lacklustre, the most impactful one being a short brawl that ended in one of the kids getting elbowed in the nose, pouring blood on the ground, which in turn caused him to try and prepare a jutsu which quickly got cut off by Rumi and earned him a slap upside the head.

Yugito's match was very quick, with her being guided by the two tails she picked up a taijutsu style that fit her flexibility and agility perfectly. Her style uses chakra coated fingers to inflict deep gashes and cut vital parts of the body like the arteries or organs. Back to the match, Yugito dashed forwards quickly and coated her fingers in chakra, creating nails which she used to create a deep gash in her opponent's guard, she wasn't using her full strength or adding the two tails' fire nature to the claws, but they were still plenty enough to instil fear into the 8-year-old in front of her.

"I give up!" He shouted while running out of the ring.

"The winner is Yugito!" Rumi called out while putting a pen through the other kid's name.

Natsuki fought like a brawler and simply hit the other kid until he couldn't hit back, resulting in her victory. The second round had my match up first against a taller lean kid named Zumo Ashura, he had messy blonde hair and wore a white vest over a dark blue undershirt, his pants were the standard black trousers tucked into his sneakers.

At the call of Rumi we started, I was immediately put on the backfoot as he launched a swift roundhouse kick to my left side that followed up with a jumping front kick to my torso. I stepped backwards to avoid the first kick and caught the second one with one hand on his foot and the other on his shin, I used my strength advantage to slam him into the ground back first and jumped upwards to land on his head with a stomp. At the last second, I redirected it to the left of his head and landed safely with my feet on either side of his face.

"The winner is Shin!"

We exchanged a handshake before both leaving the ring, where Yugito was called up next, to face against Tai Orimi, an older kid that got sent back to the academy because he was just that piss poor at anything to do with the shinobi arts, it was a wonder how he passed in the first place, he stood at 140cm at was quite chunky, he wore a shirt that was definitely too small for him and didn't cover the bottom of his torso, his pants were navy tracksuit pants that were dirty and his sandals were too small for his feet.

He was an asshole towards everyone else, probably because of spite since he was sent back and replaced with a reserve genin, so it was nice to see him get rhythmically dissected by Yugito's claws.

He left the arena in less than a minute after receiving a claw across his outer thigh. Yugito left the arena as well and the next match had the resident clown of our class, Akira Port against the strict but passionate Ren Vura, they both came from small shinobi families that had no speciality, but they had a small rivalry going on where Akira would try to annoy Ren, but he would take it in stride as him wanting to be friends.

'This is going to be interesting' I thought while taking a seat on the dirt to watch the match.

"Akira! It is about time we fought; we shall settle our rivalry in glorious combat!" Ren shouted while sticking his hand out to shake before the fight.

"Your glorious combat will be over in less than 30 seconds you loudmouth." Akira replied with a smirk while shaking Ren's hand.

They both jumped backwards before racing back in with their stances, Ren delivered strong, heavy punches that forced Akira to parry and dodge around. Ren had a stupid grin on his face as Akira was swatting away the blows with much difficulty, Akira eventually had enough of the one-sided beat down and threw a wild punch that was grabbed and subsequently pulled into a knee to the gut which he blocked with his right hand.

Akira decided to play a bit underhanded and jumped off the ground to headbutt Ren, who backpedalled and took a defensive stance on the edge of the arena. Akira landed on the ground before pushing off at great speeds for a torso punch that Ren couldn't dodge or block because of the space restrictions, he quickly dived towards Akira and ate the punch before grabbing his forearm and swinging him off of the ground in a circle and letting go, launching him over 5 meters away outside of the ring.

"Fuck!"

"BAHAHA good match Akira! Maybe next time we won't have the space restriction for our duel!"

"Yeah, yeah rub it in pinhead."

The class continued to watch the back and forth of Akira yelling insults while Ren ignored them and fired back compliments on his style, before walking out of the arena for the next match.

There were a couple of matches in between Akira and Natuki's that were quite boring to watch, one girl even got slung out of the arena by her hair, which was surprisingly the only funny ending of a match during the wait, most were just sad. A lucky punch here, a bruise there, but most kids knew when they were outmatched less than a minute in and gave up.

Natsuki was up against Ena Zatan, a short kid that was adopted into his clan because of his potential. This caused his ego to swell until he got complacent with his training and now sat near the bottom middle of the class, that didn't mean he was weak, just arrogant and lazy. They both took a stance, Natsuki's was more basic but had the flaws nailed out and Ena's was sloppy and had plenty of openings.

Natsuki pushed forwards first, which cause Ena to smirk to himself before meeting her head on. Natsuki threw a punch to his right side which he pushed away while spinning into her face with his right fist cocked back, he let the haymaker run threw and was surprised when Natsuki leaned backwards and kneed his left calf, causing him to flail backwards.

Natsuki brought back her leg and while Ena was falling slammed a perfect axe kick over his sternum, Ena hacked up some spit as he bounced off the ground and narrowly dodged a second stomp from Natsuki. He rolled away and launched a side kick to push Natsuki away, she instead grabbed the half assed kick and brought her elbow down on the leg, causing Ena to howl in pain, but not give up.

He pulled his leg back quickly, bringing Natsuki with it and launched another punch, this one aimed directly at her neck. Natsuki went for the brute route and leaned forward, causing Ena's punch to hit her forehead and made him reel it back in pain. Natsuki let go of the leg and anchored her left foot to launch a crescent kick that clocked Ena square in the jaw.

He stumbled backwards before running back in with fury in his eyes, he let lose a barrage of punches which Natsuki either blocked or parried with ease, only igniting his rage more. Ena went low for a quick sweep before planting his hands behind him and flicking his legs forward with a double kick to her torso, which was blocked but still pushed her back.

"You going to fight back or just block like a sissy?" Ena said while smirking.

This definitely riled up Natsuki who jumped into the air towards him in a side kick which he sidestepped and kicked her back into the ground. He chuckled a bit while Natsuki got off the ground, Ena was spouting something about 'him getting serious' before Natsuki flipped off of the ground and body checked him outside of the ring.

He got up to fight more before realising he was out of the ring and wiped his hands on his pants instead, going back over to the class while Natsuki laughed at him from inside the ring.

She left the ring soon after to laugh at him more while the last match happened, then I was up again. My opponent was already inside of the ring in her stance, Amaya Kuro looked as dark as her name was, she had black hair and black eyes, she wore entirely black except for her family's crest which was a white crow that stretched across her back, wings being the shoulder blades.

I walked into the ring and waited for the start of the match; the second Rumi uttered 'begin' she was already darting towards me at speeds an academy student shouldn't have been able to. I dodged her advancing kick and landed 6 swift blows to her left arm and ribs, she pulled back and massaged her torso before running back in with a tighter guard, getting much closer than I would have liked. I would have been out for the count if her hits could land, but I was training against a tokubetsu jonin that forced me on my toes for a year straight, I quickly dodged out of the way and kicked the inside of her right thigh and landing and quick gut punch and an elbow to her face.

She stumbled backwards and rubbed her cheek before taking a more defensive stance. I decided to push my advantage and moved towards her, I punched towards her but extended my hand and grabbed her arm at the last moment before wrenching the appendage away from her body and pointed it up in the air, landing a clean kick to her left side that launched her into the ground. Grappling wasn't my style, but it felt good to land such clean, heavy blows with one touch, she once again got up and spat out a bit of saliva on the ground before looking towards me with her dark eyes.

I ignored her stare and launched forwards, augmenting my muscles with chakra and punting her guard with a straight kick followed by a jumping spin kick aimed at her head, I spun my right leg around to meet my left and aimed for the neck instead of the head.

She guarded both legs with her forearms and I planted my hands on the ground, dropping both of my legs to ground level and spinning around in a sweep. She hopped over it and launched a punch at my unguarded head. I dropped my back even further in a show of flexibility and the fist sailed right over my neck.

I hopped up on the left side of her arm and tried to backhand her with my left fist, which she blocked, and I used it as leverage to spin around her and punched her back. She reeled in pain, and I grabbed her head and neck before slamming them into the ground with my body as a weight.

She hacked up more spit and fell unconscious on the ground. I was very impressed by her showing and it seemed Rumi was as well, and he crossed through her name before flickering into the ring and carrying her out.

The second quarter final match was between Yugito and Isen Boule, a short kid that had great technique but no power and managed to whittle down his opponents before leading them to the edge of the ring and pushing them out. Yugito was a sort of natural counter to his tricks, as a jinchurikii she had much more stamina than anyone else here and her flexibility and agility wouldn't allow her to simply be pushed out, especially by someone so weak I the strength department.

It was a quick match with Yugito landing 2 clawed swipes and a kick to launch Isen out of the ring, it was a brutal style she used, especially inside of the academy but Rumi saw no reason to not allow her to use the taijutsu she studied so he left it alone. I personally thought the chakra claws were a bit much but teacher's rules I guess, Natsuki was up next against a member of the Iko clan, a clan that specialised in kenjutsu by channelling elemental chakra through their blades. Natsuki had an easy time with this opponent rather than the last one, swiftly knocking him out with a quick barrage of punches that ended with a feint kick into an uppercut.

Ren had won his match against a member of the Kensei clan. A clan known for its kenjutsu skills, they originated from the land of iron and were not versed in taijutsu which Ren had put his time into.

Natsuki had also won her match but not without sustaining a few injuries to her face and body, she had welts appearing up her arms and it was a close match but she was running out of steam, it was time for the semi finals to begin though so I put that to the back of my mind.

Finally, it was my turn against Yugito, and we hadn't sparred in a little while to build this up, we both entered the ring with grins on our face in anticipation for the combat we were about to have.

"I've been practicing Shin; you won't beat me this time."

"We shall see."

We both entered stances and waited for the match to begin, when Rumi called it, we launched at each other with amazing speed. Her claws were quite annoying to deal with, but I had the strength, speed and technique to defeat her without being diced up too much.

She tried to cleave me in two with her chakra enhanced claws, but I grabbed her forearm before she could swing and used my left hand to palm strike her chin, throwing her off her feet. She sailed backwards and I prepared a follow up kick from mid-air, but she twisted, and the kick fell straight to the ground, not without being cut up the shin by her claws.

Yugito rolled up to her feet and launched several swipes that I redirected before feinting into a kick that caught me in the leg, forcing me to knees where she tried to slice my neck open from both sides with her hands. I leaned backwards onto my back and rolled away in time to catch her knee to my face which I guarded with both of my hands, leaving my back exposed. I grabbed her calf and threw her away before the claw could connect and jumped towards where I threw her, I swung down with my leg in an axe kick which was blocked by her forearms.

In response I planted my feet on her forearms and used them as a stepping stool to jump behind her and grab both of her heels. I succeeded in my grab and flipped her onto her face, I punched her back in quick succession before using her as a springboard again to dodge the claw strike, she wildly threw behind her, leaving a large sandal print on her upper back.

Yugito quickly collected herself and ran straight back at me and lashed out with a double swiping lunge at my torso which I dodged by rolling to her left side. I lashed out at her open ribs and landed a solid kick to her liver that left Yugito sputtering for air, she recovered quickly and tried to slash my Achilles that was still planted next to her ribs.

I pulled my leg back and got into a more offensive stance and quickly rushed her, trying to overpower her with more strikes than she could deal with. I opened with several punches to her face which she blocked, before dropping to the ground in a sweep that fluidly went into an open palm strike at the torso. I continued my barrage until Yugito took a hit to a non-vital area and lashed back out, catching my forearm with a large gash that went from my wrist to my bicep.

Yugito was starting to bruise and had blood slowly coming out from her lip, I had a couple of deep cuts but was doing much better. "You know Yugi, I have a feeling I'm going to win this."

"Oh yeah? How so?"

"Well first of all, I'm doing much better off than you, look at your body, think about the damage I have done to you. You can't win so forfeit here." I finished with a smirk.

Before she could even respond I had burst across the arena and caught her in the gut with a deep punch that caused her to hack up saliva before flying over 10 meters backwards and outside the ring.

"Sorry Yugi, that was dirty, but maybe you will get me next time." I said while Yugito got off of the ground, wuping her face before flipping me off and walking away.

I quickly vacated the arena and used 30 chakra points with phoenix breath to heal all of my injuries, the levels I had gained in the skill really helped with the speed it healed at, not the chakra cost just yet.

Natsuki was up against Ren, she had some accumulated injuries from the previous fight against her opponent, but Ren had an easy time in the quarter finals against Kojiri. They both entered the arena and with the match started, Natsuki immediately went on the offensive, trying to finish the match before she ran out of energy.

Natsuki launched several punches and feints before trying to kick Ren in the side, which he caught due to the low amount of force she was mustering into the punches. He clicked his tongue and picked her up by the one leg, Natsuki couldn't muster the energy to escape and was promptly launched out of the ring.

It was the time for the finals. Me versus Ren, I had seen a lot of his skill today and he didn't seem like an analytical one form the scarce times I saw him around school. I settled into my stance and so did he, we quickly met in the middle of the arena, trading blows at a rapid pace. A hit to my face, a gut punch into his stomach, a kick to the side, attacks were being thrown out and we were at equal skill. Until I put chakra into my muscles and steadily overpowered him until I landed a kick to the side of his head, I hooked my foot around the back of his head and threw myself to the floor, launching him downwards along with me.

We both got up quickly, but he looked much worse for wear than me, we both got into stances, and he had a wide grin on his face.

"You are a great opponent, Shin! I love this!" He yelled while starting his run towards me.

"Thank you but you should be watching behind you." I replied slyly, Ren looked behind him while still running like a moron and I landed an amazing kick enhanced by chakra straight into his ribs, sending him sailing over 30 meters away and into the dirt outside the ring.

Everyone looked towards me with looks of disgust, fear, and surprise. It was in a shinobi's best interests to use all tools at their disposal, deception being a basic one, not my fault he was too gullible, I shrugged as I walked out of the arena to hear Ren laughing his ass off about how he lost and Akira grabbing his ear while yelling about how stupid he is.

Yugito smirked at me as I sat next to her on the dirt, slowly using phoenix breath to nurse my injuries.

"That was dirty, shameful, and damn impressive" Rumi said while walking up to me.

"Cmon kids we are going inside for the showcase!" He yelled out while starting to walk away. We all quickly followed into the classroom where he started to call us out.

I showed off my collection of jutsu so far including, 'Lightning style: Thunder spear' , 'Earth style: Mud wall' , 'Fire style: Phoenix breath' , 'Substitution jutsu' , and 'Genjutsu: False surroundings' , I also explained that I had a few survival based ones like 'Earth style: Pit' and that ended my showcase of jutsu.

I didn't want to show off blood manipulation because I hadn't gotten the hang of it yet and didn't want to embarrass myself. The rest of the class went ahead with their performances, most using substitution and a few of the survival techniques before finishing. Yugito used her new jutsu she had been working on with the two tails 'Fire style: Mouse hairball' a technique that used the blue flames from Matatabi and hair from her mouth to create fireballs that could split and had solid substance.

With the showcase over we started the second test, it had questions created by our extracurricular teachers and a couple from the general curriculum that didn't quite fit with that exam like how muscles worked among other things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (〜 ̄▽ ̄)〜 〜( ̄▽ ̄〜)

At the end of the day, we all left the classroom and were told to come back tomorrow for the results. Rumi complaining about an all nightery he would have to pull certainly cheered up some of the more stressed students who left as soon as the bell rang.

I walked home with Yugito and Natsuki, who soon split off from us to go home herself. We reached the orphanage and headed up to our rooms, where Yugito face planted on the bed and grumbled about how much energy tests use.

"Oh, cheer up Yugi, we have this in the bag" I said reassuringly.

"I know we do it was just stressful being around people that are stressed, and we have to go off to war immediately after."

That sobered me up really well as I thought of the war, B was still fighting and hadn't visited us this year and the 4th Raikage was apparently winning many fights on the front lines against Iwa, and we were holding a solid line of defence on the coast.

Iwa was close to taking hold of Kusa and I knew that was when the yellow flash would become famous and Obito would be 'killed' and adopt the Madara persona. I still had time to change canon if I wanted to, but I was still deciding if I should be apart of it like that.

Special quests kind of forced me to if I wanted to complete them, like becoming a jinchurikii which was currently on the table for me deciding if I wanted to go and snag one, not that it would be as easy as just 'snagging one' but my choice in language is moot compared to the task it would eb to actually get one.

I also need someone versed in sealing or learn myself. With my system maybe I could learn, and I don't remember any prominent sealers in kumo or one that would even help a kid, so it came down to me.

'Meh, I still have over 15 years before the story starts so I'll be fine for now.' I mused while looking out the window and into the village. I had stayed here all of my second life basically but felt no attachment to it, none of that patriotic stuff affected me in my previous life as well so I shrugged it off, but now was different.

I was about to head into war for no reason, I had no reason to enter a place I could die at any moment. A little voice chirped in my ear about giving back to my home, but another, much louder one said it wasn't worth it besides the levels and quests.

That was definitely true, the levels I would gain would probably be massive, and I would gain tons of quests, but I could also do that anywhere in the world. The only thing I had here were my relationships and even those felt like nothing to me, it may seem cold, but I felt nothing towards my teachers, friends, family in any way, it was all such a null feeling. The village would provide protection for me but that was all, it was also putting those 'precious' people in danger. The negatives for going to war far outweighed

The positives and I was just hoping it would all blow over within the week so I wouldn't have to head out. For the first time in a while, I was left to myself just to think, I flipped up and out of the window and sat on the roof to watch the sunset.

My body felt cold while I thought about the people I had grown to know; I couldn't say trust because they still didn't know who I truly was and how can you trust someone if they don't even know who you really are? I contemplated leaving the village, wandering around this amazing world and visiting everywhere as a nomad, someone who had no home. If I left, there was no war, if I left nobody would really care, then my thoughts drifted to the night I broke down in front of Yugito like a toddler, I was acting like a baby then, like someone who hadn't had a relationship in his entire life.

My own self, my own vision of myself was telling me that she would stay, but I was still apprehensive about telling her anything to do with me. I didn't feel anything against or towards telling her, it was like even making the decision itself turned my body into a cold void, nothing inside of it.

It just felt like whatever I did wouldn't matter, I knew I did but I felt like I didn't care about what happened, 'let life take the reins' as they say. I snapped out of my stupor as Yugito climbed up and onto the roof.

"Sup Shin, how you doing?"

"I'm fine, just thinking about stuff."

"Hmm? What sort of stuff?"

"Life stuff."

"How cryptic, elaborate please"

"I was thinking…"

"Hm?"

"I was thinking about leaving the village"

"What?"

I think I'll end this here. I have noticed several reviews talking about how I 'forgot' gamers mind. It wont be making an appearance in this story, plain and simple, mald or whatever about it I don't care, I'm trying to write a character here and people nagging about how he should be a doll void of emotions because other stories do that doesn't make sense to me.

Enough raving though, I am tired as fuck, and I only have 2 weeks of school left before my quick 2-week break. That means I'll probably be writing some more during then. I also wanted to say I was naïve. I thought that reviews wouldn't affect me but I see they do to some degree, those reviews from Trumpasaurus rex really pissed me off before I reset myself, and the more reviews I get about gamers mind the more I want to put a hole through both of my eyes.

Anyways, I was pissed but I really appreciate the critical review I got from Boomba it not only pointed out my faults but gave me some encouragement for the future chapters I shall work on. I think I speak for all writers on this platform thank you for the criticisms and thank you for the compliments you have given me.

Bye bye! - tired