Crime and Maelstrom
I don't own Naruto or The Gamer. I do wonder what maelstrom is in reference to though, find out this time on Cloud Gamer!
Previously on Cloud Gamer
I dropped on my ass and sighed heavily, today was a long day, way too long. Sho came out and was flicking his thumb through a large band of notes in his hand, we got an inn, and I was out like a light. Forgetting Komizu was still here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sho Sutato! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up a bit late the next morning, around 10 am. Sho was sitting at the edge of his bed flicking through the bounty book while I lifted Komizu off my chest and put her on my shoulder, her little claws grasping at my shirt to keep hold.
Sho noticed my presence and turned around, his face was a bit serious today.
"I have heard some troubling news that might make things a bit hard for us." He said, intentionally delaying his words.
"Stop trying to be dramatic old timer, spill the beans and we can split if it's too bad." I replied, a bit peeved that he was being all dramatic as soon as I woke up.
"Brat, I heard that there was some infighting going on in the capital from the bounty clerk. He could only give us 3/4th of the bounty he owed since they didn't have enough money there. Some of the businesses are at war
This means if we do any bounties in this country, we won't get any money. BUT the man at the head of all of this is pretty well known, and he has a fat stack on his head himself. Straight from the daimyo, if we can kill him, then we will be making bank." Sho finished, a wide grin on his face and pupils changed with yen.
"Jeez, you must really love money. Since you were so dramatic, I'm guessing this will be an annoying job in and of itself?" I replied, the money interested me, but I could also use the daimyo to hopefully hire a seal master and find Chomei.
"Yes, it will, I'm thinking some classic infiltration stuff and assassination. What do you think?"
"Never done it, some members of the bat clan can help though. By the way don't you think they're cute?"
"That one is pretty cute but the one you summoned yesterday scared the shit out of me. Is that what you got at the daimyo's mansion?"
"Yeah, I reverse summoned myself there." I concluded nonchalantly.
"That was incredibly stupid you know." Sho deadpanned.
"Whatever, let's just go take down a business and get in the good books of a daimyo."
We left the inn and got directions towards the capital, by foot it would be a good 5 days away for civilians. For us though, maybe 16 hours if we sprint constantly.
I did a couple of stretches before we started running, Komizu returned to the cave for training and told me to summon her later. After my warmup, we both started to run along the dirt path, not caring about stealth in the slightest until we got closer to the capital. While running, I remembered something I had forgotten a few days ago, the letter from a mysterious person the system didn't even know.
When we stopped, I dragged the letter from my inventory while Sho took a leak. Cracking open the wax seal revealed a small letter with neat handwriting.
To master Shin Chinoike
We have received word from our oracle you are one blessed by lord Luminos. We were starting to lose hope in his prophecy, but you appeared. This letter serves as two things, a greeting and an offer. First, we are Dusk, the ones who are faithfully loyal to lord Luminos and by extension you. Second, our offer, if you would like to an executive position will be held for you in our organisation. The goal of which being the revival of our lord and to bring forth the grand night that encompassed our world eons ago, for that we need a suitable vessel. That is all for now, expect another letter within the future and give us your response next time you meet a member. We are always keeping an eye on you.
From – Luna, Queen of the night.
'Now that is some creepy stuff. It sounds like a cult for Luminos, and they want me to join? No way, I'm not religious in any way shape or form. But that's kind of hard to argue when your life is an RPG gifted by the gods.' I thought, reading the letter twice over to see if I forgot anything.
Sho came back around the bushes, and we got back on the road again. Hoping to finish our trip by night.
The capital in the land of tea was massive, far bigger than the land of hot water's capital. Named Camom, it had 4 large sectors that were divided by main roads into quadrants. Each sector was owned by a business group and governed by the daimyo.
"Sho, you haven't said anything about which sector is acting up. Who's our target?" I said, we were using the darkness of night to climb on the black tiled roofs quietly.
"That's the thing, I don't really know. I know the guy who started it, but not which sector he belongs to. We just need to wait for his goons to act up in a sector and we follow them back." Sho replied, I deadpanned towards him. He was just talking this morning about how dumb it was to reverse summon myself into enemy territory, he had just made us waltz into it.
"You are a fucking moron."
"An amazing, loveable, smart, handsome moron. Our main guy is Gio Fawn, big ugly and as stupid as his name sounds."
"Alright, where should we meet. Do you want to split up?"
"We can meet at an inn we will rent tonight, and I will take the eastern side you take the west. Now let's go get a room."
We both dropped onto the street, startling several civilians but others paying no mind. Sho booked us in at the Oolong inn, a famous one directly controlled by the daimyo, so we don't need to worry about Gio's goons at all, cost us a pretty penny though. 40k ryo per night, not counting food or anything like that.
We set down our gear and got an early rest, I summoned over Komizu, and she slept on my chest again.
The next morning
I woke up early along with Sho and Komizu, she would be following me around to help with investigation. Sho gave me a list of the most popular places that he remembers from a trip with his wife that I should search in, we were looking for any talk about Gio, or some sort of boycotting of businesses in the area.
I left the inn and went my separate ways with Sho, heading towards the first sector I would explore. This was the southwestern sector and owned by the green corporation, a business that centred around the manufacturing and distribution of tea across the elemental nations. Their farms were in other places, but the main sales portion of the company existed in the capital along with any businesses tied to the company.
The entire city had that old Japanese aesthetic, but this sector took it to a whole new level. The pavement was grey and the ceramic rooftiles were a dark grey colour, businesses had large paper banners spread around the outside of the building for advertisement and the scent of fresh tea filled the air.
"Komizu, can you fly up above and tell me if you see any rough looking people?" I whispered, trying not to draw any attention from the people around me on the street.
"Of course, Shin I'll be back soon." She replied, flying from under my hair at impressive speeds and heading above the buildings to scout.
It was surprising how well businesses could hold up in this city, when a majority of them were the same thing, just tea shops. I entered an elevated shop with a balcony out front, receiving attention from a couple of groups while I went inside.
I pulled out 10,000 ryo from my inventory and placed it in my pocket, not attempting to hide it from anyone's view while I handled the notes. Sitting down at one of the booths near the back, I grabbed a menu and began to listen out for any mention of Gio. I knew it probably wouldn't be that easy but there's no point in not trying.
The prices in this place were a little high, I wasn't sure if that was due to an artificial inflation or quality, but I kept it in mind for now. The store didn't have many customers, so the most likely option was the first one.
I ordered a cup of tea and waited for Komizu to return. It didn't take long for my tea to arrive, but I did hear some snippets of information while waiting for it.
The booth behind me had a couple of people talking about some bad actors in the northwestern district owned by the Volt corporation. There were a group of people putting up signs about businesses being closed and some muscleheads hanging out front to enforce the rules, the police force around here wasn't doing anything about it either.
Across the room I heard some talk of the daimyo being replaced soon, that was pretty big news. In the original story the land of tea was taken over by Orochimaru to turn it into the land of sound, maybe he took advantage of the unstable monetary situation and manipulated the new daimyo.
There was a high chance this new daimyo was going to be Gio, under disguise or not. My order arrived and Komizu flew back onto the table, startling a couple of patrons around me with her appearance.
"Shin, there was a group of thugs hanging around a green corp business by the name of 'Queza Sweets' I can take us there after you finish." She said, spreading out across the table to relax.
I sipped my tea and ignored the stares I was getting from people around me. "Alright, I'll be quick then we can head out." I said while stroking her head.
Once I had finished my drink I placed down my pay and left the store, following Komizu through the streets until we came across a building with huge green letters out the front. 'Queza sweets. Permanently closed' the last part freshly painted on.
There was a clambering sound inside and I walked up the steps to investigate, sticking close to the shadows while listening in. A window up above was open so I could hear clearly inside, the sound of arguments and breaking glass echoed from inside.
"Look! I'm sorry but I can't pay anymore! Please don't shut it down I beg of you!"
"Should have begged us before you went out and spent 200k on new furniture, shouldn't you? You have no idea how much trouble you are putting us in by not paying up. Gio is going to get pissed off and I don't want any part of that, so we are taking this shop instead, kapish?"
I had heard enough, I slowly crawled up the wall like a spiderman rip off and slid onto the ceiling inside. Silently walking across the roof until I was on top of the 2 brutes and store owner. The building looked pretty roughed up with glasses smashed and tables flipped, there must have been some sort of fight here.
I silently pulled a kunai and my katana, dropping down and burying the kunai handle deep into one of their heads and knocking the other one out with my katana hilt. The store owner looked very scared at my sudden appearance, but I paid it no mind while using some rope from behind the bar to tie up the unconscious thug.
"Who-o are you?" The shop owner said, body shaking with fear.
"That doesn't matter, what can you tell me about Gio and his group?" I replied, vanishing from his view and holding my bloody kunai up to his neck from behind.
"P-please don't hurt me."
"If you answer my questions I will not, I can sense lies using chakra so don't bother trying or else you will end up dead."
"A-Alright! Gio has been working with the daimyo to put an increased tax on businesses in the green company sector, if you can't pay the tax, they close down the business under his rule."
"What do you mean working with the daimyo? My informant says he has conspired with one of the sectors to take over the capital."
"Look, I don't know all the details that's just what they said! The daimyo has been making it less hard on the Volt corp with the taxes, but that could be because they are supporting our military. I don't know anything else so please let me go!"
I dropped the kunai from his throat and knocked him out with the ring on the end, picking up my big prisoner and leaving through the back door into an alley. I placed him under a drain and woke him up with the dripping water, he attempted to scream but I shoved the end of the rope in his mouth.
"Listen here big guy, you tell me what I want to know, and I won't tell Gio about how much you fucked up here. Kapish?" I said with a fake smile, this dude seemed to fear his leader a bit, so I was going to use that to my advantage. He looked at me confused but nodded slowly at my words.
"Good boy now let's see if you can remember our goal well. What do we work for?" I pulled out the rope and kept my fake smile on, activating my dojutsu for the extra fear factor.
"We work to rule the land of tea!"
"Next thing, what's the hierarchy?"
"We are at the bottom, and you all are at the top!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Huh? That's what you tell us."
"Never mind, next question, who are our partners for our goal?"
"We don't have any! Once we are done using Volt corp we will take over the daimyo position!"
My smile dropped for a second and I beheaded the man, not wasting anymore time with that fool. I left his body there and jumped onto the tiled roofs above.
"Komizu, go find Sho and tell him about the information we found."
"Okay, where do you want me to meet you?"
"Meet me at the 'Sunset café' in the northwestern sector."
"Do you want me to bring him?"
"Yes."
Komizu flew off quickly and I turned towards the northwestern sector before running across the tiled roofs quickly, sliding down several before jumping over the streets below. It was kind of freeing, this kind of free running through a city.
I flipped under some scaffolding and slid down a wooden ramp before grabbing onto a metal gutter and throwing myself up onto another roof, darting around the alleys towards my destination, a huge café with a sunset logo.
"Hey Shin! Up here!" I heard Sho yelling out from below me, he was darting over some buildings above me. "You having fun? Just like a little kid!"
"Shut it you old bat!" I chuckled, dropping down to the street and using some chakra to blast onto the rooftops. I socked Sho over the head while Komizu landed on my shoulder easily.
"You little bastard! You're lucky that child abuse is against the law!"
I stuck my tongue out before landing in front of the café and walking inside, hopping onto a chair near the windows. Sho waltzed in after me and we ordered some food off of the menu.
"So, I heard you got some good information, about Volt corp?"
"Yeah, tussled with some thugs for it. Did you find out anything?"
"Yeah, I got a jackpot. Information that is good for both of us."
"Hm? That's interesting, what could benefit both of us?"
"The leader of Volt corp, there are actually 2 a pair of childhood friends so to speak. One is Sun Volt, and the other is…"
"Is…?"
"Her name is…"
"Stop with the theatrics old mad, what is it?"
"Its…"
"Goddamn it just spit it out you fucking stooge."
"So rude, her name is Natio Uzumaki, a seal master that earned her title at just 15 years old!"
"Wow, that does help me, but how does it help you?"
"Shes pretty hot, so getting to travel with a pretty lady is nice."
"I can't believe you."
"I can, that silky red hair, beautiful pale face, luscious curves. Makes me drool just thinking about it"
"Horny old man, I'm only 8 don't talk about that."
"You act like you're 30 though."
I shut up at that and decided to just eat my sweets instead, Sho kept going on about how hot Natio was and what he would do to her. Some of the stuff he came up with made me blush just thinking about it.
Sho was too busy daydreaming to notice another person listening to our conversation, an older woman with... red hair, luscious curves, pale skin, whatever else Sho used to describe her was blushing up a storm in the corner of the room.
I spat out my tea while laughing at the situation, splashing it all over Sho's face. It woke him up really good, but I kept laughing until Sho finally looked where I was looking, his face exploded into a red mess while I kept pissing myself on the other side of the table.
The woman stood up from her booth and slowly walked over to us, still trying to stop her face from looking like a tomato. Sho was also trying to stop his blush while I kept laughing until she stopped right next to our table.
"Th-thank you for your kind words!" She yelled out, drawing attention from other customers which I flipped off so I could focus on the new developments.
"Eh he, n-no problem." Sho replied, rubbing his sweaty hands together while looking around at anything but her.
"Nobody has really liked my hair before, so thank you because it really means a lot to me." She was looking down like a blushing schoolgirl while grasping her dress.
I decided I had to ruin this moment because Sho called me a brat earlier and I'm petty. "Wow, you two look perfect for each other. I'm going to get going now so you two enjoy your date." I laughed to myself while placing down some money and leaving the store, leaving two wholly inadept individuals in the romantic scene to each other. Sho had been married before, but he still acted so innocent, it was just too good to pass up on an opportunity like this.
But then I realised, they had just met each other, and we needed to investigate, and then I realised again it didn't really matter if I got to bully Sho more. I'm such an asshole.
I didn't see Sho until I went back to the inn at around 8pm, I just wanted to enjoy the night-time around in this city and grab some snacks while Sho was either embarrassing himself or crying about how alone he was.
I walked into our room and Sho had a big goofy smile on his face, 'Must've gone well if that look is anything to go by' I thought, lowering Komizu onto the pillow on my nightstand while I changed.
"How did it go Sho?"
"Hehe, well she must have really liked my compliments because we are going out tomorrow. Hehe."
I decided not to bring up his previous marriage, I was an asshole sure. But not that big of one to take him off of his high. "So, when do you want to continue the job then? I could probably do it solo if you need me to, but I can also wait, business things are always slow."
"I recommend checking out the city for a while, we haven't taken a break since the start of our journey so let's do that now. There's a decent bathhouse down the road, but we don't need to worry about which businesses we choose now. So, feel free to go hog wild on anything you want, shinobi stuff might be a bit hard to get though."
"I'll keep that in mind, and yeah, I guess we do need a break. Even if it's only been a week, that's one week of constant running and travel."
I laid down on my bed and fell asleep early with a smile on my face, it wasn't often I got to enjoy a peaceful time, especially in a beautiful city like this. In the 7 years I had been in this world, maybe this would be the first break I really got, obviously not counting my baby days.
The next morning
I woke up at 5 am and saw Sho trying on new clothes. Different style of robes and smart casual wear, I could only wonder if this man had ever gone on a date before. He looked like how I did going for my first one when I was 17.
Komizu had gone back to her cave during the night, so I was alone for now, not counting the lovestruck moron in the corner of the room. He had met her once, why was he acting like this?
"Morning Shin, which do you think looks better?" Sho asked, swapping around articles of clothing rapidly.
"I don't care, and you are acting like a child."
"Coming from the actual child."
"Touché"
"Anyways which one?"
He was trying to decide between a grey scarf or a red one to go with his black jacket and crimson undershirt. He was wearing black pants to match the jacket and stylish leather dress shoes.
"Once again, I don't care, but I am partial towards red to match her hair."
"Thanks bud, red it is. Now the next piece."
"Ughhh." I groaned, blocking my ears and walking out of the room with a change of clothes stashed in my inventory. He said something about a nice bathhouse last time, and I needed one.
I stopped at the front desk to ask the receptionist and she pointed me down the street towards one owned by the daimyo but also recommended the ones owned by Volt corp, since they weren't shut down. I took her advice and travelled through the city, walking past many early morning stalls, which I picked up some food from and heading towards the most popular Volt bathhouse.
Little did I know that bathhouse was mixed, also, there was no sign to tell me until I grabbed a towel and was chilling in the water. The mist parted revealing several groups of workers getting a wash before the day started.
I saw, way too much dick in there that I am not comfortable even mentioning. Turns out mixed baths aren't as popular with females, or kids. Who would have thought.
After a long soak, I headed out of the building wearing a new set of clothing. A short red shirt and some black shorts along with my ninja sandals, my crimson hair, now clean and soft, flowed freely and annoyingly around my brown eyes.
The streets were a bit fuller now with life, several people walking around early to buy food, accessories and books from stores around the area. Some who weren't as fortunate as many store owners were sitting on blankets on the side of the road looking for customers.
I stopped by one of these stalls to buy a certain accessory, a must have for anyone with long hair, a fucking hair tie. Don't know why I didn't have one, but I bought a black one and tied my hair back into a ponytail, finally it was out of my eyes for good.
In my old world I used to do this stuff for my wife, but now here I needed to worry about my own hair. How ironic. I grabbed a couple more snacks before exploring the city at my own leisure, visiting lots of shops for different tea, some of which I stored in my inventory along with a kettle and a set of cups.
Sadly, my little adventure was cut short after I realised, I had spent over 60 thousand ryo fucking around with snacks, tea and things I generally didn't need.
I wasn't really frugal with money per say, just a bit savvy and that's why when I realised how much I spent I didn't have a stroke and stand still in the middle of the road for 5 minutes.
'Well now that my fun is over, lets go see how Sho is doing' I thought, remembering about his date. I quickly summoned in Komizu and got her to look for Sho and keep her presence unknown.
Sho POV
My date had been going amazing so far. After Shin stormed out on me I got my act together and finally decided on an outfit for today, much of it the same as what I was wearing when I asked Shin but sometimes the first thing you pick is the best.
I picked Natio up at 7am from her house in the residential sector owned by the daimyo, she lived in a huge house along with her business partner, Sun. Boy was that guy something, we had a fun conversation while I waited for Natio to get ready downstairs.
Apparently, the dude had never had a girlfriend and even had no interest in them! No idea how he couldn't. After our chat Natio had finished getting ready and walked out in a beautiful outfit. A red cardigan over a black dress that hung tightly to her features, her hair was let down her back, reaching just to her lower back in a beautiful mop.
"Do I look okay?" She asked, blushing slightly in her outfit. Sun gave her a big thumbs up that calmed her down and winked towards me, I got that message loud and clear.
"Its... beautiful. You're beautiful." I said, slightly stammering to fix up my sentence. She got kind of embarrassed at my compliment and hid her face in her hands. Sun was holding back laughter while he watched us and boy did, I want to punch that face of his.
After we finally left the house, having been bullied for a good ten minutes by Sun on our way out. Natio decided to show me around the city, all of the best stores, her favourite spots to eat and where she would go when she needed to think about things.
While showing me around we grabbed some food and decided to share a meal at a park near the daimyo's mansion, I told some jokes, and we had fun. Apparently, no one had asked her out before, and that's why she puts all of her energy into work instead.
"I can't believe nobody had asked you out before." I said while we walked back from the park, it was late afternoon now and we were heading back to her place.
"Well, people don't really like ninja around here. So, when they found out I was trained as one, they kind of stayed away. It's also unladylike to become strong and practice things other than civilian duties, if my mother was here now, she would definitely have a few choice words with whoever came up with that." Natio replied, she still seemed happy from our day together and I shared that feeling, it was one of the greatest days I had in a while.
"Thank you for sharing this day with me Natio, do you want to meet again on Saturday?"
"Today is Wednesday, right? Sure, I can do that! Pick me up at the same place." She seemed more cheerful after I asked her again, we were at the front of her house now.
"Alright, Ill see you on Saturday. Say hi to Sun for me."
"Will do!" She left me with a quick peck on the cheek before racing up her steps and unlocking the door. I stood there for a while until a certain little shit started applauding me from across the street.
Shin POV 2 hours earlier
"Komizu, are you sure Sho is in this park?"
"Yes, he is eating lunch with miss Natio on a bench around the edge. Why did you want to spy on them anyway?"
"I'm bored that's why."
I silently hung around the bushes while attempting to sense out Sho's chakra. His was like a warm fire on a snowy night if I had to relate it to something, back on track, I found him sitting on a bench talking to Natio while they watched some bird's feed.
From what I was hearing, Sho had done pretty good on his date so far, going around the city and grabbing food was a fine plan for them to get to know each other.
"So Sho, how did you and Shin meet? You don't look related." Natio asked, she was genuinely curious about why Sho was hanging around some kid, but it was no where near as weird as some other things shinobi did.
"We aren't related. I met him about a week ago while he was travelling through the elemental nations, but that isn't my story to tell. I respected his grit and decided to follow along since I had nothing left for me in the land of frost. So far, it's been great, we saved a princess, collected a couple of bounties and now we are here." Sho replied, looking up the sky with a smile. It made me happy that Sho felt that way about our journey so far, and it was nowhere near over.
"When you were um, complimenting me yesterday. Before that you said something about needing a seal master?"
"Yeah, Shin has a certain goal that's going to be hard to do. Many wouldn't follow down the path he is going, myself included, but I'm sure he will tell you if you ask."
"Maybe I will next time I see him, maybe. Anyway, you said something about saving a princess?"
"Mhm, so first it started…" Sho rambled on about or first trip into the land of hot water, saving Asuka and returning her to the capital. Putting in a lot of detail with his contributions to the fighting.
After Sho recounted his story, they left the park and I followed closely behind them, listening for anything else to bully Sho with. Sadly, no such information was recovered.
Shin's POV present
"So, you got bored and followed me around all day?" Sho asked, he had already repeated that question 4 times before while I was recounting my point of view. His hands started to ball into fists while I reaffirmed the same answer again.
"You dumbass! Don't follow me around, its fucking weird!" He yelled; we were still standing outside Natio's house while he reprimanded me. I recoiled a bit at his tone of voice, but he didn't relent.
"Don't do that again Shin, its an invasion of mine and Natio's privacy. I'll see you back at the inn." He said quietly, muttering the last part while he walked away with his hands in his pockets.
I didn't expect Sho to act like that. But it was understandable, why did I even think it was a good idea in the first place? Following someone around without their permission and listening to private conversations, he was right, it was weird.
I decided to let him cool off for a little while longer while walking back to the park they were at. I brought my left hand up and stroked Komizu's head to wake her up.
"Hey Komizu, can you teach me how to reverse summon myself to the cave?"
"Sure, all you have to do is the hand seals in opposite order and pour the same amount of chakra you would use to summon me."
I did as told and the capital flashed away from vision, clouded by a plume of white smoke. After a second the cloud cleared and I was sitting on the ground outside Noriki cave, home of the Koumori clan.
"Here we are, I shall guide you through the cave Shin. Grab onto my leg while I fly." Komizu said, hovering right in front of my face so I could see her.
"Nah its fine, I'll just use Lightning style: Lightbulb to make some light."
"Please don't, it hurts our sensitive eyes when chakra is used for lighting. I would rather have you use a torch or something like that."
"Oh alright, please guide me through the cave then." I grabbed onto her leg gently and I was slowly led down winding steps and rocks, tripping only a couple of times due to Komizu's delicate directions.
"Father! I have returned with Shin!" She shouted out, we had reached a hard door in our path that I recognised.
"Komizu? Please come in." Komoru replied from inside, unlocking he doors and lighting some torches so I could see.
"Welcome back Shin, are you here to visit or do you need something?" He called out towards me; I had taken a seat on the ground in front of him while Komizu flew onto a stalactite and attached herself upside down.
"To learn your clan's techniques, how long will it take?" I replied, not mincing my words at all, I came here to learn about my future training not for a social call.
"Depends on how fast you can pick them up, I also recommend not rushing things since if you mess up our sound techniques, you not only hurt yourself but those around you. The sensing part will also take a long time, and the last thing we have to do is senjutsu, but you have not matured enough for that."
"That's quite the list, should I also work with some of your clan members to build partnerships?"
"That would be recommended yes, but it won't be necessary as we are always at your disposal."
"I should know the people I'm working with, right?"
"Once again, that would be recommended, but not required if you want to speed through the training as much as possible. I didn't think you were on constraints though."
"I'm not, just want to enjoy my youth for as long as possible while being strong enough to defend myself." I joked, I didn't really care about any sort of youth talk or enjoyment. If anything, I wanted to be older again.
"I can understand that, leaving time to rest and things like that. It should take about, a year maybe. That's if you are talented, and not counting senjutsu. Our techniques require quite a bit of finesse, and our collaboration ninjutsu require even more. Most of us are wind natured, but there are some of us that have the other natures like Komoriki, he has a fire affinity."
"Alright, what do you want to start with? If you want to start now that is." I was a bit unsure of starting right at this minute, but I didn't really have anything else to do, on the other hand, I wanted to apologise to Sho.
"We can start whenever, but first up will be you learning our echolocation technique. One of the most important techniques we can teach you, it uses wind chakra to emit a high frequency wave that can give you a rough idea of your surroundings based off of the echoes. Its easier to just feel it rather than explain."
"How can I train that?"
"Well first, you need to be able to form wind chakra, when you can do that reverse summon yourself here for the next step."
"Okay, I'll go do that now then, thanks for the help Komoru."
"My pleasure."
I poofed back to the bench I was sitting on previously and immediately walked over to one of the trees nearby, plucking off several leaves and chucking them in my inventory for later. For now, I was just walking around with one and trying to turn my chakra into a thin blade down the middle like how it was explained in the anime.
I made quite literally 0 progress by the time I arrived at the hotel room, I activated my eyes and could see Sho inside. 'Why am I even worried about this? It's just an apology.' I tried to psych myself up but I never really was good at admitting my mistakes, no better than the next person at least.
I opened the door and Sho was sitting on his bed reading a book, something he bought during the day?
"Sho. I'm sorry for earlier, I shouldn't have been following you around."
"Yeah, its fine, I may have snapped a bit hard. Just don't do that again please?"
"You got it. What are you looking at?"
"I picked up this new book, Natio didn't seem to like it much so I was wondering what she would have a problem with." He held up the book over his shoulder and I saw it.
The book that plagued every single male that I had met in this world, Icha Icha Paradise. Its orange cover had a toddler's drawing of a man in the thinking position with love hearts floating around.
"Sho, burn that shit right now or I will behead you to keep your innocence." I stated grimly, pulling out my katana from my inventory and activating my dojutsu subconsciously.
"What's wrong with it? Its just a book with a bit of romance. I haven't gotten far though, but it seems pretty tame so far." He was still facing away from me so he couldn't see how dead serious I was, and I couldn't see the stream of blood going down from his nose.
He threw a slow kunai back at me and dashed out of the window, we were on the 4th floor, so I got to see him run down the walls while protecting his precious book. Since it was funny, of course I followed him while swinging my katana around.
"GET BACK HERE YOU OLD SHIT. ILL BEAT THE PERVERT OUT OF YA!"
"AHHHHHHHHHH, HELP IM GETTING CHASED BY A RABID SPIDER MONKEY"
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU CALL ME!"
We ran past several businesses and on the walls of some buildings until I lost him in an alleyway. He had run into there and just disappeared into the shadows, I looked around and then up to see his orange book dangling over the edge.
I used chakra to launch myself up into the air and scared the shit out of him while he began to run again. Next time he stopped it was at Natio's house, she was hanging out in the living room wearing some pink pajamas with red swirls when Sho came banging on the door while screaming bloody murder.
"NATIO SAVE ME" He yelled, I slowly walked down the street towards the door while holding my blade out to my right, poised to slash straight through the devil's book.
"Oh, hey Sho, whats wrong?"
"L-l-little shit, he – he's going to kill me!"
"Little shit? Oh, hey Shin, right?"
"Sup Natio, can I borrow your pervert for a minute?" I said, smirking devilishly while taking the first step up to the deck.
"By all means." She replied, an equally mischievous smirk spread across her face while Sho clung to her legs and whimpered. He crawled around and hid behind her.
"Ha! I'm in a safe zone, you can't get me now!" He yelled out, retreating further into Natio's house while I took the final step onto the deck. Sun walked out from behind him while brushing his teeth, unceremoniously kicking him up the ass and flinging him out the door passed Natio before she closed it.
"Someone else beat me to the first hit, but I have several more to go." I said, turning around to look at Sho's sprawled out form on the ground and his orange book flung to the wayside.
"Mercy!" I ignored his pleas and grabbed the book before throwing it up in the air and setting it alight with a "fire style: great fireball jutsu". Sho grabbed the ashes of his 'baby' before pulling out another one like nothing ever happened and running away like a criminal would.
I sighed heavily, "Of course he would have extras, why the fuck wouldn't he have extras!" I didn't even know why I hated this book; it was just that every male figure in my life that was supposed to set an example was a shameless fucking pervert with those books. Actually, that was why I hated them.
I left the pervert to his run and pulled out a leaf from my inventory, focusing on creating two different thin lines of chakra down the middle of the leaf, razor sharp and deadly.
Nothing happened… I let out my breath and started to walk back to the hotel, hopefully I would have more luck tomorrow, or the next day.
The next day
Thursday mornings were slow for the city. Shops didn't open till later, merchants would barely be awake by midday, citizens wouldn't even leave their houses until around 9 am.
Those were my observations sitting on the roof of my hotel while trying to split the leaf in my hand, I asked Sho for tips, but he had told me figuring it out myself is the most fun part, before going back to his newfound prized possession.
Lightning was so much easier to form than this, I could easily crumple a leaf without even trying. That brought a thought to my mind, why didn't I just level up a bunch of low-level skills to build up my strength? It was so simple, but I hadn't been doing it.
I slapped my face and brought up my status screen to look at which skills were the lowest level, those were the ones I would focus on, 1 day for each skill to try and level it up as much as possible.
I came up with 4 skills that would be incredibly easy to level up and be useful somewhat for my survival. 'Fire style: spark', 'Infused blood manipulation', 'Blood attunement' and 'earth style: mud wall'. All of those jutsu were near level 1 so they would be incredibly quick to finish levelling up to around 20 each.
Today I would work on 'fire style: spark' and tomorrow would be focused on 'blood attunement' and 'infused blood manipulation', I would also include 'fire style: phoenix breath' to heal any cuts I would inflict on myself to release blood. The day after that would be focused on creating mud walls continuously to increase the proficiency.
I clicked my fingers while infusing them with chakra to create a spark, watching the percentage go up in my status screen, now, was grinding time.
Saturday, Sho POV
Shin had been practicing his skills everyday on the roof, I thought it was weird originally when he was just clicking his fingers over and over again but yesterday, he moved onto cutting himself and using chakra to control the blood. That was creepy, but I had heard stories about the Chinoike clan and their dojutsu so I chalked it up to some special ability of it.
But now was me time, I was getting ready with a grey buttoned shirt and a black overcoat where I held a storage scroll inside. Shin had given me a flower this morning after hearing my plans for the day, a beautiful purple flower with a thunderbolt coming out of the top.
The storage scroll also held a bouquet from me, just so I wasn't carrying it all over the city. I put on my belt over my black trousers and headed out the door after petting the sleeping Komizu, she had been staying around with us for the past few days and just lazing about when not following Shin, kind of like a house cat.
I heard about a nice restaurant in the Volt sector and put in a reservation under my name for today, hopefully it wouldn't break the bank too bad, but I still had money from the bounty collecting and if I needed to, rely on Shin's savings. That kid was just pulling money out of nowhere at this point and it was starting to get ridiculous, how could he just buy flowers like the one he gave me?
I saw a man sitting on the ground with several pots full of flowers on the side of the road, now was the perfect time to get it 'appraised'. I picked up the storage scroll from my coat pocket and summoned the flower into my hand holding it out in front of my body while kneeling down.
"Hey old dude, what flower is this?" I said, not meaning to be rude but this guy looked like a fossil.
"Hmm? Where did you get that?" He said, his eyes were a bit widened which creeped me out a bit but I wanted to know about this so I could buy more.
"A friend of mine gave it to me as a gift."
"Must have been a very special friend, that is a shock rose. They are very rare and only grow during a lunar event on the Starlight Isles of the east coast. That event also only happens every ten years and lasts 4 days, speaking of which, it should be happening next year. Back on track, that flower is extremely valuable and can mean all sorts of things."
"So, it's very special?"
"Extremely."
"Alright, thanks for info old guy. If I need any flowers, I'll be sure to come here."
"Ah, thank you. Have a good night."
I started to walk away while looking at the flower in my hand. If the event only happened every ten years, and Shin was 7, how the hell did he get such lively flowers if he couldn't have been there, or kept them alive this long?
I thought he was weird before, but this is starting to get really wacky. But I pushed those thoughts to the side while walking up to Natio's porch and knocking on the door, it seemed she wasn't ready again since Sun opened the door and led me to the living room inside.
"Sup Sho, Natio has been awaiting your arrival." He said, laughing into his hand while he picked up the remote off the couch and turned off the TV. Natio then appeared with curlers in her hair and wearing a crimson halter dress that matched her hair and cool purple lipstick to contrast the red. But in the words of one absolutely entranced me. "Beautiful"
"U-Um, yeah, thanks. I need to finish so I'll be back down soon" she said, kind of rushing to finish the conversation and run back upstairs to finish preparing.
Sun was snickering to himself while sitting on the couch. "Real smooth Romeo, feel free to take her back to your hotel tonight I got my boys coming over for drinks. That also means if you hurt her, you are going to have 16 angry drunk civilians chasing after you though so keep it in mind."
I blushed at the thought of taking her back to my room afterwards but understood the message he was trying to give. "Yeah, I got you. Depends on how she feels though. Oh yeah, where should I put these?" I pulled out the flowers and Sun just shrugged in response.
"Go and hand them to Natio, she knows where she wants stuff and I'm not allowed to move anything around after last time."
"What happened last time?"
"A story for another time happened, so shoo, go give your girlfriend some flowers."
"Ahah, not yet, but I will go give them to her." I replied, kind of flustered at the comment. I had been married dammit! How could I not be used to this stuff! I walked up the stairs and knocked politely on Natio's door.
She opened it quickly and ushered me inside, a small blush on her face while she did. She slammed the door behind me and stood in front of it.
"Um, did you need something?"
"Yes! I just needed to um, know where to put these?" I held out the flowers towards her with the shock rose placed in the middle.
"Oh wow, um yeah sure, just place them in the vase by the window. I just need to do my hair then we can go, did you make any plans tonight?"
"Yeah, I did, I've got a reservation at a restaurant in this sector, so we won't have to go too far. After that is up to how we are feeling."
"Nice! Alright I'm going to go finish up and you can wait there." She rushed back into the bathroom and closed the door behind her while I sat on the edge of her bed. It had a nice floral design with a white background and vines with roses placed around the cover.
It was an excruciating 10 minutes to wait and I felt like a little kid going to the dentist all the while I heard the sounds of several products and other machines being placed down and thrown around.
Haven't I gone a bit over with the words? Meh I don't think you guys will mind. This is my first story and trying to write a proper relationship is tough, especially since I'm not in one. Grr, anyways that's all for now, we are going back to Shin next chapter for more stuff and then we will come back to Sho and his fun with Natio.
Bye bye! - tired
