The Far Reach

Game One

[ Through wit and power, you have wielded your newest technique and defeated the foe in your way. Partake of your triumph!

Enemy "Mizuki Toji" defeated!

CR: 2

EXP received: 450.

Congratulations!

Through battle, you feel yourself becoming more accustomed to the dangers you might face. Through this triumph, you take the step to the next level. ]

[ You have leveled up! ]

Each of the hundreds of Kage Bunshin vanished almost immediately, and, now free of the weight of the world, Uzumaki Naruto let himself jump up and down and scream his cheers to the heavens.

That is — He celebrated. Because holy hell, he was so cool. Mizuki-teme stood no chance. Get fucked, asshole. And he even got a level, whatever that was, from the deal! Absolutely amazing.

The blond turned, a smile as wide as his face and as bright as the sun on his lips, to the injured and shocked Iruka, who had watched from the sidelines with wide eyes.

"Didja see that, Iruka-sensei?!"

A meaningless question. Of course he had; there was no way anyone would have missed this awesomeness. Naruto had never seen so much orange before, and it was glorious.

He rushed to the older man's side — but Iruka was a Chūnin, and more than capable of getting up by himself. With a sigh, he dusted off his clothes and looked up at the smiling child, tiredness and pride both shining bright in his auburn eyes.

"Yeah," was his answer, "I did. You did good, Naruto."

Needless to say, Naruto was absolutely elated. So much so, in fact, that he bent his knees to tackle his Sensei with a hug for the ages.

Iruka didn't stop him — even if the fall pressed the wound on his back against the floor, which proved to be quite unfortunate. As in, it hurt like hell.

But he could take it. He was a Shinobi, and a teacher. Which meant he had more important things to focus on.

"Hey, Naruto. Close your eyes for a second."

The boy blinked, looking up at him with a pair of confused cerulean irises. It struck Iruka that Naruto was, for the most part, unwounded — dirt and grime covered some areas of his skin, but Mizuki hadn't gotten to attack him once.

"Wha—"

Iruka chuckled, both at his confusion and at the inherent humour of it all.

"Just do it."

Well —

Naruto wasn't sure why he'd ask that, but it was fine. He'd trust Iruka-sensei, who had chosen to defend him with his life. So he shut his eyes tight, heart hammering against his chest — and heard the sound of fabric being untied.

Then — something pressed against his forehead. Something cool to the touch, made of fabric and metal. Something inherently precious.

He knew what it was. He did. But it couldn't be.

"You can open them now."

He did — almost instantly.

An Iruka-sensei with no headband stared back at him, smiling wide. There were scratches on his skin and a bit of dirt on his face, but he seemed alive and happy and —

"You pass, Naruto. Congratulations."


It was far, far too dark when he got home — truth be told, he was starting to feel a little drowsy, eyes fluttering closed before snapping open as he pinched his own arm. No time to be sleeping, he told himself; he had something to do.

The door creaked open as he pushed the key in, dragging against the floor in that horrible screeching noise he'd grown to unfortunately get used to.

Naruto laid eyes on the inside and winced. His apartment was a mess, as usual.

It wasn't a large space to begin with, with only a living room/kitchen, a small bedroom and a bathroom for him to make use of; anything more would've been wasteful, the Hokage had told him, and there was no way he'd be able to pay rent for anything more than this anyway. He already lived in what was basically Konoha's slums, with the red light district being less than two blocks away and the plumbing being quite subpar.

Still — it was home. The door closed shut behind him with a click, and he relaxed his shoulders slightly, turning on the lights in his house.

With a yawn, Naruto rushed to his room, where he kept most of his academy papers in a folder under his bed. Tests, guides, booklets, homework… it was all there, slightly crumpled and with red corrections all over each page.

He'd never really gotten the habit of using paper for much, so he didn't have any blank paper sheets. The backside of one of his better-looking exams would have to do; as he said that, he found a suitable sheet of paper and placed it carefully on the surface of his kitchen table.

The lights flickered above his head.

God damn it, Naruto hoped this wasn't another blackout…

— they flashed, wheezed and flickered out, casting everything in deep shadows. He distinctively noted someone screaming somewhere in the building.

Great.

With a yawn, he walked his way to his fridge. Since blackouts were so frequent, he always made sure to keep a pack of candles above the fridge.

Grabbing a candlestick, he turned back to his table, where he promptly set it up over a plate. Now, to find his matches…

Wait.

"— No, I do not need them."

He whispered those words with slightly widened eyes, freezing in place.

That 's right.

He didn't —

He was seeing everything just fine. Better than fine, even; his sight could pick up on details he'd never been able to before. Each crevice on the wooden table, each melted and cooled drop around the candle, each faulty line of paint on his walls… he could see it all, even if in gray-scale.

"What the —"

Ah.

That 's right.

He'd chosen a different race — sorry, Ancestry. Of course something like a Kitsune, a trickster spirit who took after a predator, would be able to see in the dark.

Still… the gray-scale was cool, but not optimal. So —

No, he still didn't need the matches.

His lips parted slightly, and Naruto turned his cerulean eyes to the candlestick. Almost instinctively, he gently touched a finger to its tip.

Produce Flame. The magic in him flowed freely through his body and blood, manifesting his will.

— the flames flickered to life, both in his finger and in the candle. Now, everything that was once gray was instead bathed in tones of yellow and red.

Almost hypnotized, he retracted his hand. The flame in his finger flickered and faded; that of the candle did not. The feeling was vivid in his mind; something produced by desire alone.

He looked at his palm.

Produce Flame.

— a small ball of dancing flames sprouted to life with a shower of sparks, floating a few millimetres away from Naruto's palm. He could feel the warmth, but it didn't burn him; rather, it felt… nice. His.

It followed his hand as he experimentally moved it, and, when he silently willed it away, the magic was disrupted and the flame died out with a whimper.

Now with only candlelight to make him company, Uzumaki Naruto stared in awe at his own hands… until his lips broke out in a grin.

"Oh my god, I am so cool."

He was a Ninja, he had kickass clone powers, he has magic — Naruto was on the coolest of rolls so far. He deserved a statue; the most kickass Genin (!!!) to ever live. Screw the giant fox living in his gut — he was the real powerhouse.

— Ah.

Yeah. Shit.

The fox.

Naruto's good mood vanished almost instantly, replaced by a sullen sensation of crushing realization, because, you know, oh. He'd sort of hoped that had been a nightmare…

— He vaguely wondered how that would affect him now, what with the whole Kitsune thing and all. It certainly explained why that was the form he was presented with, and why his apparent heritage was Tiefling, which he could only assume was some sort of half-demon thing.

Huh.

Was he a hanyou? I mean, probably not. These were things from another world, after all… still, that would be so cool. Naruto Uzumaki, the Hanyou Ninja. Kickass. Then again, Kyuubi wasn't a Youkai, he didn't think. The Bijuu were a thing of their own, if his admittedly hazy memories of Iruka-sensei's lectures didn't fail him.

With that thought, Naruto carefully sat by the table next to the empty-ish sheet of paper, staring it down with furrowed eyebrows. He rose his thumb to his mouth — and, with his canines, bit down into it until he drew blood.

Which, by the way, stung like a bitch. Pain resistance didn't mean pain obliviousness, and anyone who'd ever been hurt knows that the smaller the area the more it bothers you.

The taste of copper was strong in his tongue as he retracted his hand, staring at the bleeding finger as he held his hand over the paper and waited for the blood to drop down. Dark red stared back at him, flowing through and from the already healing incision and to the very tip of his fingernails, where a droplet gathered —

And dropped down.

"Character Sheet," he announced just as blood met paper.

The paper erupted in a flash of crimson light that felt like it almost blinded him. As it was, he had to shield his eyes with his arm and watch through the corners as the paper was devoured by the light from the edges, like hungry flames tearing through something frail. Finally, as four flames met in the center, they twisted —

Ding!

[ Through the workings of ancient magic, you have linked my works to yours. Henceforth, your Character Sheet will be made available to you.

Warning!

You can access the Character Sheet at any point in time, but certain parts can only be altered by repeating the process you have just done. Traits and Stats must be altered at home with a sheet of paper, while both the Technique and Skill Menu can be accessed from anywhere.]

Yeah, that's probably going to bite him in the ass at some really inconvenient time, ain't it? Naruto couldn't help but grumble at the message, waving it away as the letter-like display gave way to another one — one far larger.

[Name: Uzumaki Naruto ]

[Ancestry: Kitsune]

[Heritage: Tiefling ]

[Background: Street Urchin]

[Character Level: 2 ]

[Classes: Sorcerer 2 ]

[Variant — Shinobi ]

[HP: 46/46 (16 30) ]

[AC: 14]

[SS: 1x4]

[STR: 10] (0)

[CON: 16] (3)

[WIS: 8] (-1)

[DEX: 12] (1)

[INT: 12] (1)

[CHA: 16] (3)

Oh!

Interesting!

Though… Naruto didn't really know what any of that meant. STR was… strength, maybe? INT was intelligence, CHA was… charisma? He was really likeable, after all. WIS… Wisdom? Oh, come on, that's bullshit. CON he didn't know.

Also, on that note, the above points confused him. HP was… health, probably? And SP was probably something to do with spells, but… the hell was AC? Chakra? Nah, that sounded weird.

"Man," he grumbled, crossing his arms. "Couldn't this come with a guide?"

— He silently awaited the 'ding'. Nope; nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just… he'd have to figure his shit out by himself, it seemed.

"...That's bullshit," he cursed, pouting at the unfairness of it all. That's like asking him to do a test without knowing the subject. Actually, that's like asking him to do a test, period. But… "Uh. Finish Character Creation? Character Options? Badass Skills? Techniques? Menu? Options? Uh, maybe those things it said earlier. Traits?"

Ding!

[ Welcome to the Traits Menu, Adventurer! These include both your selected Feats and your given Features.

Features are gained automatically as you grow, given to you by your class and race. These include "Darkvision", "Spellcasting", "Kitsune Form Change" and many others. They signify your growth and that which defines you.

Feats, however, are earned through Level Ups, or otherwise acquired through diligent training, natural developments or quests. These include specifics on you and your playstyle — things you happen to have that not every member of your class race will.

There are four kinds of feats: Skill Feats, General Feats, Class Feats and Ancestry Feats.]

[What would you like to do next? Take this time to meditate upon your being, your profession and everything that makes you you!]

[FEATS (!!!)] [FEATURES (!)]

"Right."

So, basically —

Actually, no basically, because Naruto didn't get any of that at all. So, Features were given, but then he was also given the choice to pick Feats, but then he could earn Feats, but it was apparently hard… also… uh, something about mediation… uh.

He yawned.

Ah! No! No! Bad Naruto! No sleeping!

He slammed his hand against the table.

"Feats!"

Ding!

[You've made your way to the very last step of Character Creation! This will mark a new beginning for you! Consider your options thoroughly, brave Adventurer, for you will need the extra power.]

[FEATS]

[ ANCESTRY FEAT (!) ]

[ ANCESTRY FEAT (!) ]

[ CLASS FEAT (!)]

[ GENERAL FEAT (!) ]

Oh, yeah. Great.

That's not ominous at all.

… bah. Naruto was way too sleepy to deal with this. He was a Ninja now; something as feeble as boundless frustration wasn't about to bring him down.

"Let's just… go alphabetically. Man, I hope this isn't all numbers all the time, or I'll go insane. Ancestry Feats."

Ding!

Beastbrood

Fiendish Eyes

Fiendish Lore

Form of the Fiend

Foxfire

Grimspawn

Hellspawn

Kitsune Lore

Kitsune Spell Familiarity

Nimble Hooves

Pitborn

Retractable Claws

Riftmarked

Shackleborn

Shapechanger's Intuition

Star Orb

.

Naruto let out a long, long, long sigh.

Yep, he thought, mentally popping the 'P'. This would be a looooong night, wouldn't it?

Well — Here goes nothing.


By the time he woke up on the next day, Naruto was feeling considerably better about things.

He had effectively a week free to kill before graduation was around, so that meant he finally, finally got to toss that stupid alarm clock in the bin and just sleep until he woke up normally, and man did it feel good. Naruto was a resilient kid; he had stamina to spare for days. But good god had he been tired yesterday — mentally more than physically, but still, tired.

Now, though?

Now he felt great.

His Feats and Features were all fucking awesome to begin with — in the end, he'd ended up going with [Form of the Fiend] and [Star Orb] for his feats, with some reluctance on the second one. Form of the Fiend was a cool one — basically, it gave him a choice between fiendish characteristics, like gnarly claws or sharp teeth or a tail or stuff like that. The kicker was that whatever he chose would become something he could attack with.

Something he'd come to learn about Feats — and alterations to his character in general — is that they apparently only took effect after he 'partook in the relaxation of a long rest', which was apparently Nerd for sleeping.

In the end, he'd chosen the Claw option, because, lo and behold, they stuck around in his human form. They weren't retractable, which was a shame, but t'was more than worth it. Long nails were never quite his thing, since they usually looked a little girly, but if he could slice shit with them, he was cool with it. Certainly pushed the whole "Kitsune" look he was going for.

As for [Star Orb] — that one was a doozy. See, Star Orb was basically just a really cool magic crystal rock. It didn't fly by itself, it didn't attack, it didn't do anything; it was just a magic rock. But it was also a Familiar, which apparently meant he could give it two badass abilities of his choice from a cool little list. So — it had potential. And the Familiar could get Feats of its own in the future, so that was really awesome.

His own familiar had this cool thing that would let him cast any racial magic he got more times. Which was admittedly useless for now, cuz he didn't have any, but it was cool-sounding. Probably would come in handy. Regardless, when the time came for him to choose its abilities, the choice was obvious.

[Flier] and [Speech] were about what it says on the tin, but they did the trick — both because most of the other abilities had requirements he didn't meet and because he thought it'd be cool.

Who the hell needed a pet dog? He had a flying magic crystal rock. Suck on this, Kiba, you bastard.

As for his other feats — [Juggle] was his choice for a general feat, while [Dangerous Sorcery], his chosen Class Feat, both sounded cool and gave him a cool boost to his spell's powers depending on his level. Out of the two, Juggle was definitely the coolest — it basically let him always have a free hand.

Needless to say, Naruto woke up feeling more excited than he had for the last 8 years. The second his eyes snapped open, a grin as big as anything else had reached his lips.

Today was going to be awesome.

"Good morning, master!"

A chipper, feminine voice echoed from beside him. It was a little more high-pitched than that of his classmates, probably a little younger-sounding as well.

"OhmyGODWHATTHEFUCK—"

Needless to say, Naruto, creeped out beyond mortal imagination, let out a very unmanly squeal and jumped so far up his bed that, by the time his heart was back to a normal speed, he was stuck on the ceiling with his claws serving as makeshift climbing equipment, eyes wide and chest heaving.

He had the sudden impression that the voice wasn't exactly impressed with him right then and then.

"Wow. Rude." She said, flatly. Naruto's eyes followed the voice to its source… and then promptly widened. On his bedside table, sitting comfortably on what looked like a piece of soft fabric, there stood a small, spherical thing made of… something. To even look at it felt odd, even if right; it was, as he'd correctly interpreted, his Star Orb, but he hadn't expected it to look this funky.

It was like a spherical window into the cosmos — like a ball of shadows flickered with stars in the middle of a world that's otherwise normal. When he titled his head, what he saw in it tilted with it, and he gained sight of galaxies and stars in the far distance, stuck in an everliving cycle of creation and destruction.

And it felt his — just as his name did, or his face in the mirror. It was his. He felt almost entranced.

Naruto jumped down, abusing his poor bed a little more, and the orb floated from its spot to meet him halfway. It met an outstretched palm and stayed there, pressing a cool surface of what felt like glass against his skin.

"Glad to see you can properly appreciate my presence when you're awake, master!" She chirped. "I hope that's not going to become routine."

Naruto kind of ignored her statement in favour of saying something a lot more important:

"You're fucking awesome."

— Something shifted within the everliving and expanding universe. Like gusts of wind had suddenly stirred up in the middle of nowhere, so thick they were always visible. Naruto got the slightest sensation that this meant the orb was pleased; a sensation confirmed by the next words he heard.

"...Consider yourself forgiven for earlier."

Naruto tapped one of his nails against the surface of the orb lightly, a wry smile in his lips —

Oooh. Nails.

He took a good, long look at his hands. They'd changed somehow.

Not much — certainly not enough to be noticeable. But he was their owner, and so he noticed it. His skin, he immediately realized, was a tone lighter than it had been before he went to sleep, and his palms a little less calloused. He'd go as far as to say he felt a little lighter as well; as if he could move a little better than he could before. The nails, though — those changed a lot. His new, fiendish claws certainly fit their name; instead of mere expansions of his nails as he had assumed, these claws were of a dark red colour, and quite clearly made of a material sturdier than nails.

And boy did they have a mean sharp look to them. He could absolutely slice shit with these.

— Naruto let out a small grin.

Yeah — life was good.

Ding!

[ You have six free days until registration — six days until the day you've awaited all your life. Many would be nervous, but you? You find yourself excited. ]

Right then.

That tells him a lot. Not. But he reasoned he'd find out when it came up, and, in the middle of his excitement over everything that was going on, Naruto decided not to pay it much mind.

What he did do, instead, was train.

— okay, so, maybe training was a bit of an exaggeration. Mess around with the new stuff was more like it, really. It took him two days to get used to walking with his alternative, meaner-but-cooler-looking form; the backwards-bending legs were a bit of a doozy, and he'd tripped and fell on his face more times than he would care to admit. Muscle memory, Naruto supposed, was quite something. But he'd struggled through it.

Other than learning to walk like a toddler, Naruto admittedly spent more time than he should practicing his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu his new repertoire of actual spells, both of which were really, really, really cool. He'd quickly found that he had a very finite amount of magic (spell slots? apparently? that was how the game rationalised it, but it felt more like a pool than a number of slots) at his disposal. It was finite because, once spent, it took ages to recover — like, eight or so hours! It was absurd, especially since Naruto had never once run out of Chakra. On the bright side, however, it seemed that his relatively weaker spells — Cantrips? Apparently? He didn't know what that meant. — basically had no cost at all.

Meaning he could spam them.

With clones.

— Those were clearly not meant to be combined, because this was too broken. He was clearly so OP, GM, please nerf. Having actual offensive capabilities was pretty nice as well, honestly.

Only on the fourth day of his little rest period did Uzumaki Naruto decide to get to work.


Now — Konohagakure no Sato was, as one may expect, full of places where Shinobi could train. These areas, rather dubiously named Training Grounds by the local population, were numbered and decently standardized in that they could be separated into three categories: large clearings, dangerous terrain and leftover battlefields.

The three were used for different purposes, as one may imagine; clearings were useful for practicing jutsu or sparring, while places like the aptly-named Forest of Death made for good survival exercises (especially with all of the dangerous fauna). The third ones, however, were different; places like Training Grounds 27 were usually located in the outskirts of the village and preserved for both their historical and practical value. Due to their being the site of many battles, they were full of traps and things like traps that the Shinobi who had fought in them had set, many of which remained both hidden and functional even years after the fact.

Naruto had been to all three types at some point in his life, but usually it wasn't really to train so much as it was to play training while daydreaming about his glorious future. This time, though, was different.

"Why are we in this place, master?"

His little familiar, Rika, asked. And yes, he'd named his Star Orb Rika. She was conscious and deserved a name, damn it! (Plus, Naruto named most of his plants, anyway. He liked naming things.)

He had built himself a little Star Orb holster from some spare leather straps he'd found around the house, a few screws, some tape and a lot of effort. It looked clunky, but it tightly held the orb to his waist a little to the back, just under the line of his jumpsuit.

As for the place she mentioned — Training Grounds 8, also known as the Bloodleaf Woods, were a training ground of the second variety. Though nowhere near as hostile as the Forest of Death, the Bloodleaf Woods still had a good wide area with plenty of weirdly strong animals for him to fight. (He had to wonder what the hell was with those animals, though. Why were they like this, anyway?)

Regardless — passing the gates to the training field was easy now that he was Genin, and the supervising Chūnin just asked him to sign his name down on a paper to state that he was there and knew the dangers before giving him a pat on the back and going back to their watch, leaving Naruto blissfully free to do whatever.

And do whatever he would. 'Whatever' being kicking ass, as usual.

"We're looking for a fight, basically," Naruto replies to Rika's question, shrugging his shoulders lightly. Though she was a literal crystal orb, he could basically feel it sweatdrop.

Ding!

[You walk into the lands of the Bloodleaf Woods, intent on picking a fight with the dangerous beasts that lay within. The sun shines bright above your head, denouncing your will to grow and triumph.]

[Quest: "Fighting Spirit" has been added to Compendium.]

Ah.

Something else he had learned these past few days was that not every single message he got from this weird power was… relevant? Some were just… narration, basically. The whole 'Quest' thing sounds important, but he got one basically every time he decided to do something, and they didn't grant much EXP at all. Plus, having 'Quest: "Feed the Next Flame!" Objective: Go buy some food' appear in front of you felt embarrassing.

It was weird, and a little irksome, but he guessed they came from the Game Master. And the thought usually made him a little less frustrated and a little more sad, because Naruto Uzumaki was an empathetic person at heart and he could clearly sense how sad the god had been at being unable to perform his duties as storyteller. Here, in his world, he supposed the god has nothing better to do with his life than narrate Naruto's own as he went through it.

He hoped to be able to help the dude soon. Until then, however…

Ding!

[While you remain on the road, many different things may happen. T'is a wild and dangerous world you inhabit, after all. When you encounter a foe on the road, you will enter a Random Encounter.]

[In time, when you grow in power, you may find yourself able to encounter — or even pursue — even enemies from other realms than your own. For now, though, you are limited to what shares in your area.]

— Good information to have, he supposed. Basically, when he was strong enough, his power would also be strong enough to make him find stuff from the Game Master's world or something? Is that it? It checked out, since his objective was to grow kickass enough to send the God himself back to his realm, but…

Eh, whatever.

He nodded, swiped it away and smashed a fist into an open palm with a grin. Let's do this.

[ 172 = 19 ]

[ Hit! 3 slashing damage dealt! ]

His left hand smashed violently against the black bear's cheek, claws tearing through skin like paper, and Naruto heard the distinctive sound of the bear's grown of pain even as his own hand started to ache in turn. Before the bear started to retaliate, he kicked the ground to jump back a good 10 feet, twirling a Kunai to hold it with his right hand in front of his face.

[Enemy: Black Bear]

[CR: 2]

[AC: 18]

Unfortunately, the game didn't really tell him how close he was to defeating the thing. He had since learned what an AC was, however; it meant Armor Class. Basically, how hard something was to damage. The bear, for example, had really, really thick skin; more often than not, his strikes did either nothing or just dealt superficial damage.

He sized his enemy up, cerulean eyes narrowed.

The thing was massive — easily bigger than him and with limbs that could easily tear a man apart, the bear painted an intimidating figure, it's fur a dark brown (as opposed to black, interestingly enough) that was now slightly tainted with blood. It paced around him carefully, clearly possessing some degree of intelligence as it considered how to eat him before he killed it.

For all that his melee strikes had a hard time hitting it, Naruto felt like he had an advantage over the bear; speed and range combined made sure that he was hitting it far more often than it hit him. On the downside, though…

He looked down at his bleeding leg for a second. The legs of his precious orange pants had been shredded by the clawed attack to it, which had also torn into his flesh a while back. He could still fight, but it hurt like a bitch. And...

[HP: 34/46]

The thing had dealt him a whopping 12 damage with a single hit. One. Hit. Three more and Naruto may very well die. Hell, one well-placed strike like that and Uzumaki Naruto was a goner.

"Be careful, master!" Rika chimed in from her spot above the two of them. The Star Orb had taken to flying above the fight, giving him tips and shouting warnings when she thought it would come in handy. More often than not, it didn't, but it had saved him from receiving a particularly sneaky bite to the ankles a while back, and for that he was grateful.

This was, after all, his second enemy so far — the first having been a Boa snake. The Boa had been remarkably easier to beat, though, having fallen after some well-aimed Kunai. This bear, however, would likely laugh if he tried that same strategy on it.

Thankfully, however —

Naruto now had more at his disposal. The cross handseal was formed dexterously even as the bear lunged forward, snarling.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Magic was cool.

Magic was really, really cool. But Naruto had fallen in absolute love with his newest clone Jutsu. In a rising cloud of smoke produced from all the Chakra, four more of Naruto appeared next to him, each wearing an identical grin.

Why, you may ask?

Welll… as was put, magic is really, really cool.

"Produce Flame!"

Five identical fireballs were produced and thrown at the black bear by every clone, one of which decided to throw it like a baseball. It looked silly, and felt unfair, but…

[ 109=19! ]

[ Hit! 33=6 Fire Damage dealt! ]

[ 159=24! ]

[ Hit! 13=4 Fire Damage dealt! ]

[ 99=18! ]

[ Hit! 23=5 Fire Damage Dealt! ]

[ 209= 29! ]

[ Critical Hit! 2x (33)= 12 Fire Damage Dealt! ]

[ 39=12! ]

[ Miss! ]

It was in an explosion of wild fire that the bear's legs failed it and it crashed into the ground, still moving forward by the law of conservation of movement. Interestingly enough, even the 'miss' attack hadn't actually missed its mark so much as it didn't have much effect, maybe because it hit an area with thicker skin. The rest of them, however, had no such problems, and the flaming strikes carried quite the punch.

— It was a little weird, to see quantified damage like that. As far as he could tell, though, these little system warnings were not predictive but reactive, as in, they just quantified his attack after it hit its mark or not, as opposed to determining what happened. And it felt really weird to be able to tell such things, but… eh.

By the time the animal stopped moving, it's skin had been devoured and it's flesh was blackened by flames. Produce Flame was, by Naruto's estimation, a little weaker than a low-ranked Katon jutsu. The small fireballs he could throw were both hot and carried an actual impact, but the size was likely too small to kill anyone in one hit, though the burns it caused could still get nasty and complicated. By itself, the Cantrip was just a little better than a very well-thrown Kunai.

However — quantity over quality prevailed in this instance, because Produce Flame was costless and Kage Bunshin were absolutely kickass. He walked up to the now very wounded creature, though there was still some life left in its eyes, and crouched, deep in thought. The bear growled softly, throat most likely clogged up with blood, and tried to swipe at him … keyword being tried, as it's 'arm' was already damaged beyond repair.

It was a really sad sight, and Naruto didn't much like to see it. Though the Bear had attacked him with the intent to kill, it felt… needlessly cruel to kill it in turn. However, on the flip side, it was clearly going to die anyway.

"Sorry, man," he uttered, feeling strangely okay with it all. It was like hunting, he supposed. "I'll at least try to make sure you get a painless out."

Divine Lance, Naruto's other damaging Cantrip, worked much like Produce Flame in that it dealt generally the same damage and was ranged. However, Divine Lance wasn't fire; it was pure, crackling golden-black energy shaped like a spear, and it tore through things much like one. If he had to choose between Produce Flame and it, he'd usually choose Produce Flame because of how fire could hurt you even after you were hit, but… for a finishing blow, Divine Lance was better.

"Divine Lance."

His magic contorted into a spear-like shape on his outstretched palm, and Naruto looked at the bear for a moment longer. Again, it attempted to swipe at him. Fighting for its life.

— He threw the projectile, and the bear fought no longer.

[ 209= 29! ]

[ Critical Hit! 2x (43)= 14 Chaos Damage Dealt! ]

Ding!

[ Though the finishing blow was solemn, the fight was hard-earned, and you find yourself a little more experienced in the ways of combat, like steel tempered by raging flames.

Enemy "Black Bear" defeated!

CR: 1

EXP received: 200.]

Hard-earned? Yeah, he supposed so.

But the sun was far from setting yet, so Naruto still had a lot of time to burn.

"Rika," he said, looking up. "You see any more bears nearby?"


A.N:That's … one more.First suggestion to be given will be seriously considered, because it be like that.