Chapter 4: Training or mini-game?
Today was a new day in Konohagakure and from once in history, the person known as Uzumaki Naruko was up early. This was thanks to her new companion sure but it still counted. Hence, she was able to have a decent breakfast and still have enough time left to prepare for school. Benihime had promised to take care of the notes for now so that they could study at night for Naruko's benefit. That meant the fairy would read the information copied and help the Uzumaki rewrite it as practice. Thus, the gamer put on the clothes she bought yesterday and went out. The blonde didn't know how but the system had cleaned and dried perfectly.
Once they were out of the apartment building Naruko, against her better judgment, upon the map on the Navi's behest. Then she confirmed the Ninja Academy as her destination and the transportation was activated. Just like before she flew and landed in front of the academy in a span of milliseconds. This time she had at least closed her eyes and waited for her feet to feel the solid ground so the scare factor was ignored. Unbeknownst to her, since her eyes were closed at the time, to the students and parents leaving their children that were present it looked like the Uzumaki had materialized in a small gust of wind.
Later, when people finally realize it was her, this event would create a rumor that the whiskered girl had somehow created a wind version of the Body Flicker Jutsu.
Not bothering to hear or see the reaction of the people present, out of learned habit, the girl put her hands in her jacket's pockets and walked towards the entrance to the building. As she walked that girl did notice a few things and one of which made her eye twitch annoyance. The first thing she noticed was that neither that students nor teacher seem to recognizer given that she was getting curious looks instead of the usual glares or sneers. The next thing was that she could see was everyone's names, levels, HP and MP bars on top of their heads. But it became rather infuriating quickly when she started seeing first-year students already at levels 6 or higher.
The feeling of inadequacy became far stronger the farther she went into the higher grade areas and less information became available. By the time she got to her classroom all she could see over people's heads were just their names plus green HP or blue MP bars. Worst was that no matter how many times she tried to use Scan on them it still showed questions marks on their stats. Sighing in acceptance and with some reassurance from her loyal companion this was just temporary Naruko opened that door to her classroom.
Immediately she regretted it with a groan that was only audible to the tiny redhead.
"What's wrong Naruko-chan?"
"It's that idiot Sasuke. He messed up and sat on my chair by the window. Now the harpies are fighting to see who can get a piece of him."
"Harpies?" the small creature asked. Then she looked forward and found what looked like the entire female populace of the room gathered around a lone boy dressed in blue and white. From here she could hear they were fighting over got to sit on the chair beside him. The fairy blinked as her voice came out flat "Oh, fangirls. I suggest you sit somewhere else. That is unless you want a piece of him too."
"I would think yesterday's little adventure would have clued you into the fact that I prefer girls?"
"I remember you just saying that you like girls not that you don't like boys. People that like both genders do exist after all."
"I… I didn't know that was possible," Naruko commented at the tidbit of information. Filing that for a later date, if it ever proved useful, she asked "Where can I sit now, anyway? I sat by the window and in the front specifically because it wouldn't bother people. Even from a young age, I could tell people didn't like me."
"But sitting in the front would have made it easier for people to glare at you."
"Hidden reason number two why I wore a neon orange jumpsuit. The color was so harsh that looking at it for an expensive period would cause you eye pain and headache."
"How very cruel yet effective," Benihime commented with a smirk. At the same time, she felt like that kind of explained the mercilessness the girl showed against the roach queen. Then the Navi did a quick scan of the room for a possible place to sit and found one. "Why don't you sit at the very back besides that cute girl. She was been staring at you with curiosity since the moment you entered. Also, even from here, I feel she doesn't hold any hostility towards you. The only time I felt that from just encountering someone in this village was when we meet the Hokage. Even Ming-Ming and the girls feared you the first moment they saw you."
Naruko raised an eyebrow at that description and looked to where the fairy was pointing. There she found a girl that looked about 8 inches taller than the Uzumaki. Said Uzumaki, like a lot of days in her life, cursed to every god she knew for making her the size of a footstool. Getting back to the girl, from here Naruko could see the kunoichi in training was wearing a large beige color jacket with blue hair cut in a short princess style. During this examination, their eyes met for a brief moment before the girl quickly ducked her head down.
Naruko raises an eyebrow at that but shrugged think it was natural for one to shy away when caught staring. Either way, the whiskered blonde proceeded to calmly walk up the stairs and towards the chair on the girl's left. During this walk, she noticed some of the boys stopped talking or doing whatever it was they were doing to stare at her. On more than one occasion the girls heard some of them comment on the size of the blonde's chest (probably because she was the only one in this room with one) or "Dude, she has legs for days" as one Kiba Inuzuka drooled out. She made sure to give him a tooth filled smirk as she flipped him off while she passed him by. At his blushing face, Akamaru could be seen chuckling which earned the dog a call of traitor from his embarrassed partner.
But since it just little boys seeing a girl for the first time that was the worst it got. It made the gamer smirk deviously at the thought of how they would react when she finally used that secret transformation she had been working on. Still, after flipping Kiba nothing else happened on the way up and she reached her destination without a problem. There Naruko put on the most normal and friendly smile she could make before talking to the blue-haired girl.
"Hello there. Is it okay if I sit here?" the whiskered asked gently. Benihime didn't bother to comment on how the low tone that Uzumaki was using sounded like that of a stereotypical Casanova Prince in an all-girls school anime. Giving how the blue-haired girl started blushing the fairy just knew the kunoichi in training wouldn't stand a chance against those levels of charm.
"Y-y-yes." the blushing preteen stuttered out. For some reason, Naruko found the stutter a little cute given how it made her giggle slightly. The fairy would say that was more of a husky chuckled and the blushing girl would be very inclined to agree. Nonetheless, the blonde sat beside that girl without the knowledge of what her presence was doing to the slightly taller girl. Then she turned to her classmate with her hand extended in greeting.
"Hi! I'm Naruko Uzumaki. What's your name?" she asked. Her eye had already shown her the girl's name with the floating letter but she felt the need to ask anyway. After all, this was the first time she had ever spoken with this lavender eyed cutie. Although the bluenette did remind her of an almost long-forgotten memory of a girl she had to save from a pack of bullies years ago during winter. 'I wonder whatever happened to her.'
"My n-n-name is H-H-Hinata H-H-Hyuga." Hinata introduced herself while shaking the hand given to her. She blushed even harder when Naruko gave her a small grin.
"Your hand is ready soft. That must be a really good hand cream to keep your palms this soft even though you trained so hard. I can tell you do from how strong your hand feels." the gamer commented while examining the hand in hers. Again, the fairy and Hyuga would agree it was more like delicately caressing the hand.
'I can't believe she's acting like this so naturally! Can it be she became a natural charmer as a part of the Game Mind? I know that skill makes it so you're calm and collected but I didn't think it would up the charm that much!' Benihime thought in bewilderment as she saw how her mistress was acting.
"I-i-it's not hand c-c-cream. It's my family's t-t-taijutsu." Hinata replied after retrieving her hand. "The chakra t-t-that is passing t-t-through our h-h-hands massages the m-m-muscles in it. It's a s-s-side effect," she answered and got a smile of genuine interest as her reward.
"That's an interesting side effect. Being able to punch a guy in the face and still have baby smooth hands. Very fitting for a kunoichi." the whiskered girl praised with another genuine smile. Then again, could you blame her? Here she was thinking that in this whole classroom she had been the only girl that thought seriously about being a true shinobi. This was one of the many reasons she didn't have any female friends other than Ayame-oneechan or Katana-nee who she hadn't see a while. Up till today, she had thought she was the only girl not obsess with the last Uchiha or only being in this class for the "pleasure and honor" of possibly being chosen as the next Lady Uchiha.
Yet here she had fund another kindred soul that wanted to prove she could not only survive in this harsh world but possibly excel in it. It made her laugh at the irony of the situation. All of this time she kept looking forward and persevering while trying to ignore all the doubt and hatred placed on her because she thought that at the end of the day she only had what it took to become a legend. But today she found out that by simply looking a little behind her she could have found a partner in crime as it were who could potentially be very loyal if she played her cards right.
'I know it's too soon to think of her as a friend but Benihime did say Hinata-chan doesn't hate me. Plus, in my games, the Hero always has a party to help them defeat the bad guys. What's to say I can't make my group of heroes to save the world or at least take the ninja world by storm!' Naruko thought started thinking and look intently at the lavender eyed girl beside her. 'Hinata Hyuga, you better be ready because I'm making you my friend!'
But before the Uzumaki could open her mouth to either turned Hinata into a light that could be from space or started the process of corrupting an innocent child down the pass of the trickster the door to the classroom opened. That signaled the entrance of the Chunin instructors Iruka Umino and Mizuki. Seeing that once more the female portion of the classroom as fighting for the Uchiha he used his Big Demon Head Jutsu to tell them to shut up and sit. It was like a bomb had gone off as the girls scatter like flies and looked for any available chair. Somehow during all of this Sakura Haruno, one of the two top fangirls had managed to get the sit beside Sasuke. The second top fangirl was called Ino Yamanaka and she ended up in the chair two rows ups with her friends Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi. Naruko could easily tell that Ino was glaring at Sakura who had turned and blew a raspberry at the Yamanaka before going back paying attention to the instructors.
[WARNING! An optional quest will become available soon!]
Naruko blinked at the textbox that just appeared and raises an eyebrow. She asked her fairy about it but the creature just shrugged in confusion. Neither of the two noticed Hinata briefly throwing a confused look at the top of the Uzumaki's head where the Navi was sitting.
"Glad you finally took your seat students." Iruka started. "Now before we start let's take attendance-"
"Wait a moment sensei!" one of the boys called out. "Aren't you going to introduce the new student?"
"New student?" both of the instructors questioned simultaneously.
"Yeah! The hot bade stilling up there!" another boy pointed up. After that in seconds, everyone was looking at the Uzumaki with different reactions. That boys that hadn't noticed her before were now very interested in "the new hot student" but the girls were another story. From here Naruko could already hear gossip start with some of the less moral of the harpies calling her a "bitch or slut that was out to get their prince." This was in part because of the length of her hair which was shown as it was falling over her shoulders.
'I still don't get how the rumor that "Sasuke likes girls with long hair" started. All remembered was that I once said girls with long hair are pretty and next thing I know? Boom! By the end of the day, every girl is saying the Sasuke said that girls with long hair are most beautiful.' she thought still in amazement at how a simple phrase could morph so much in a single day. Then she noticed that no one had yet to speak as if waiting for her to talk. It made her visibly smirk before she started to talk. Of course, she did change her tone just enough to sound different from her regular voice just to keep the mystery. "Don't worry everyone. Let's let Umino-sensei tell us what he wanted to say so he can take attendance. Then when my name comes up, I'll introduce myself." Not once did the smirk leave her lips.
"Oh, thank you miss." the scarred sensei thanked. However, Naruko noticed the very brief and almost unnoticeable wink the man sent her way. She almost broke into a laughing fit from how easy the chunin recognized her yet decided to for once help her with a prank. Then again, this prank was victimless and more importantly not at his expense.
Thus, the Chunin started calling out his students one by one like he normally did. All four of the people that knew the secret just kept watching as every other student waited patiently for the name of the new girl. Yet as each letter kept being eliminated some started growing anxious or irritated. Then…
"Uzumaki Naruko?"
"Present!" the honey-covered voice sang out at the far back of the room. The sudden silence could have made a pin dropping sound like a bomb going off.
As every single person turned to her slowly, they were awarded by the sight of the blonde standing on top of the desk. Not only did everyone got to see her in her new clothes but they all recognized her infamous "I got you" grin. As Iruka told her to sit down a few moments later she could only laugh at her classmates' reactions. Though the part she found the funniest was that she heard "Dude! When did Naruko get so hot?!" being whispered by both genders in the classroom. Nonetheless, Iruka finished calling the remaining students and started his announcement.
"Okay, everyone! For those that don't like keeping track of your calendars, I will like to remind you only have two more months left before the Genin Exams. Therefore, starting today until then we teachers will be giving you random physical activities where you will receive a score. Depending on your accumulated score you will receive bonus points for the written part of the exam. Who knows? Maybe if you get enough points, you'll be able to skip the written portion entirely!"
~ New Quest! ~
[(Optional) Quest: Aim for the top!]
[Description – Your sensei has given you a challenge for you to test the skill you've learned. Don't let him or yourself down!
Mission: Get into at least the top 10 spots on the leader board on today's physicals]
[Reward #1: 5 attribute points
Reward #2: Random support spell Book]
[Will you accept? YES/NO]
Naruko didn't think twice and clicked the confirmation as Iruka told them they would be going to the training area. Some of the students groan at having to do exercise early in the morning but those were ignored. As such the classroom quickly reached the large training area behind the academy.
The training ground had Dummies, a target range with still and moving targets, an obstacle with the works, a climbing wall, and the most important thing the fighting rings scratched on the dirt. While Naruko was busy examining the training ground Iruka walked to the front of the class and started explaining what would happen today.
"Okay students, today we will be practicing in the target range and the climbing wall first. Half the class will go with Mizuki-sensei. This set will first use the target range and next to the climbing wall. The other half of the class will be with me and we'll work out in reverse order. After this everyone will be allowed 10 minutes to rest, drink water and/or talk to your classmates.
After that, the class will rejoin and we'll begin sparring matches. Regretfully due to the odd number of boys and girls a girl will have to fight one of the boys. This female will be chosen randomly during the team's choosing. Now, Mizuki-sensei has a box with papers that have either the letter M for Mizuki or I for Iruka. Students, please form a line and pick up a paper. Open it and show it to me to put your name on your corresponding team."
With that, everyone proceeded to their team assignment and Naruko was lucky enough to get assign to Iruka. That bad part was that she got the slip that said she was the girl that would have to fight a boy.
"Are you okay, Naruko? If you feel you can't fight…" the scarred man started talking but the girl stopped him.
"It's okay sensei. I'm used to fighting people t-t-ta… taaaaal… taller than me." the short blonde voiced through gritted teeth. Suddenly all talk stopped around the training ground.
As people and more than likely students know, there exist many rules for surviving school. The ninja academy was no different just with few more rules and regulations thanks to the nature of it being a place were child soldiers where being trained. Some of those rules included things like: "Don't use poison if you don't want someone to forget where the antidote is for a while.", "Always keep your knives sharp and out of reach of idiots" or the always popular "If you plan on stealing food don't steal it from the Akimichi." Normally if you followed these rules one would survive without any problems. Heck, sometimes you could get off breaking one or two of these, and nothing dangerous or painful would happen. But there did exist one iron-clad rule for school and life in general that no one dared break for fear of what would happen.
Rule 87: Never ever make fun of Naruko Uzumaki's height or lack off.
The last person that had done it was no longer with them. Considering the whiskered girl was still taking classes with them instead of rotting in jail meant the person should be alive. But fact no one could even find a speck of evidence of where they are or who they were did left people thinking. Plus the way the girl would glare and the way her hair seems to start moving on its own when she thought someone was about to break the rule didn't help dispel the rumor.
So, when they heard the young female acknowledge that she had adapted to look up (sometimes to people younger than her) it was considered a red flag over a metric ton of explosives no one wanted to touch.
"I'm guessing by the sudden silence there's something about your height that no one wants to talk about," Benihime stated while looking around.
"I'm just waiting for my growth spurt." Naruko spat out and walked towards Hinata who was also assigned to Iruka's team. Seeing the slightly taller Hyuga made her smile gently. "Hey, Hinata-chan! We got in the same team so let's get along with each other, okay?"
As the Hyuga princess saw the dazzling smile directed at her she could only nod. For the heiress this morning had been a very weird, worrying, exiting, fear-inducing and most of all had constantly put her on the edge of fainting. She had woken up, prepared, and went to school like normal. There, as usual, she waited at the far end of the room to wait for the cute and small whiskered girl. Hinata still didn't know the reason why her chest felt warm whenever she saw the girl smile but she liked the feeling. She also didn't get that particular pair of blue eyes would make her legs feel like jelly.
Then today, that cute trouble maker had walking into the room dressed in something other than her usual orange jumpsuit. At first thing she had noticed when the girl had entered the room was how comfortable and self-assured the Uzumaki seemed. It almost seemed to exude more bravado than ever before. Then the Hyuga princess had seen the outfit. The number of legs being shown should be considered criminal! They just look so strong, toned, and firm from years of running around. If only she could touch just one of those thighs and–
NO! BAD HINATA!
A person of her social standing and upbringing wasn't supposed to think that. Especially if it was about a cute little hellraiser with legs trained to outrun even ANBU. Then their eye met for a second and Hinata had to look down immediately or she felt she would faint right then and there. However, the gods seem to be against her or in favor she couldn't tell right now. After all the Uzumaki was then standing before her and asking for the sit to her left. The Byakugan user would not even dare say no to that charming smile. As the blonde started to sit Hinata had tried to look somewhere else but her traitorous eyes looked chest that was once hidden by a jacket much like her own.
It had been by the grace of the gods that a hand had gotten in the way because she did not want to think were her confused mind would have wondered. A caress of her hand later the princess accepted that someone had sent an assassin to kill her. A cute little assassin that would kill her with the most alluring eye and captivating lips that fired deadly honeyed words. It was a good way to died if you asked her. Then Iruka-sensei had to go and save her for that evil fiend!
That was the point when things started to get weird. Somehow her eyes picked up a flow of chakra coming from the blonde. That made her throw a quick look at the girl and she noticed something like a light mist of chakra appear before the blonde. Then she followed the blue eye as they looked up. There she became, even more, confuse her eyes saw a small humanoid figure with cubic wings covered in blue static.
Something people didn't know about the Byakugan, mostly because it was a well-guarded secret, was that the Hyuga's could always see chakra to a degree. Don't get it wrong, they still needed to activate the Byakugan to see where it was. But when it was off, they could still detect disturbances if the concentration of chakra was just high enough. Hence, why it confused Hinata, that Naruko could see those disturbances. Then it happened again but Hinata stopped questioning it we she saw the whiskered girl touch the chakra mist and cause it to disappear.
Now here she was in the present without the support of the chair and the Uzumaki was talking to her. How was she supposed to talk without losing control of her legs!? Still, she had yet to faint so maybe she could do this. So, she gulped hard and tried to talk.
"S-S-Sure," Hinata responded. You could almost see girl patting herself in the back for a job well done.
Naruko, completely oblivious to what she was doing to the bluenette, gave a friendly smile. At this point, Benihime could only feel pity for how the Hyuga princess was being constantly attacked by those charming smiles.
'Poor girl is probably so deep in the closet she more than likely doesn't understand what she's feeling right now.' the winged redhead thought as she saw Hinata blushing again. Next, she looked down at her companion. 'Then we have my dear mistress who I can tell doesn't know what she's doing. God help all the little lesbians if Naruko Uzumaki learns how to use her charm at will.'
Ignoring all of this the students were separated into their respective teams. Then each instructor started explaining to their teams how the courses and scoring work.
"Everyone, considering I know many of you have rarely if ever used this wall I'll explain how it works," Iruka spoke to his group. "This wall was made to simulate what it's like to climb an unstable surface. This was made possible with the incorporation of Suna's puppetry technology to create a mechanism that would move parts of the wall at irregular intervals. This means that when you least expected it will shake or remove one of your handholds." he explained then noticed a raised hand. "Yes, Aburame-san?"
"Sensei" a voice started right to the Uzumaki's left. Both the gamer and fairy nearly jumped out of their skin at that since neither could even sense Shino before he started talking. "I see that there are ropes along the wall as well as harnesses. Would it be logical to assume that given the nature of this training we will simulate the three possible ways to climb a wall: rope plus harness, rope only, and free climbing?"
"That's correct Aburame-san. Depending on the method you chose we will determine your score. 100pts for using the rope and harness, 125pts for only using the rope and 150pts for going freehand. However, these points are only given to people that managed to touch the top. Also given that chance of you falling we made sure place a safety net as well as inflatable bags to protect you from the possible high fall. You should also take into account that falling onto the safety nets or inflatable bags will account as death and no points will be given. I would also like to add that if you fully slip with the harness twice it will be considered a death due to catastrophic gear failure." the scarred chunin explained. The whiskered girl looked at the wall that, if you believed the signs, was 40 feet tall with handholds of different colors to make them easier to see.
"So free climbing is an all or nothing deal? I like it!" the girl proclaimed with an excited grin.
~ Challenge Declared ~
[Challenge: Free climbing]
[Description – You see a mountain before you and the thought of climbing it excites you. However, against the proper guidelines of safety and common sense, you think using protective gear just won't get your blood pumping enough.]
[Mission: Reach to the top without using safety gear.]
[Reward: Agility permanently increases by 2pts]
[Failure (falling) will reduce your agility by 5pts for 24hrs.]
The blonde hair girl widened her eyes at the implication of that challenge. If what she was thinking was correct that meant the system will make sure she misses the safety nets and bags just so she could break one of both legs to inflict the agility reduction. She told the fairy of her thoughts and they were confirmed when the codes in the quest were checked.
The girl quickly felt the calming effect of Gamer Mind activating. Once calmed she took off her fox hoodie and tied the sleeves around her waist. It did surprise her a little when doing so made her leather bracers appeared but didn't give it any thought. As far as she could tell no one noticed that so she didn't care. After that, she waited for her turn alongside Hinata. For the most part, they didn't talk much as instead they started stretching and warming up to get ready for their turn. This had been an idea suggested by Benihime which Naruko passed to Hinata who Shino joined them with the excuse that they had the proper idea to avoid unnecessary injury.
As for the order of participation Iruka had chosen to have the students go in teams of four at random. Like the whiskered girl had to imagine based on what Iruka said some of the students looked to be climbing the wall for the first time. Most of these used the harness to not "fall to their death" as it were at quite a few these still failed. Some of the more daring sides tried to climb with just the rope but the only one that had managed to reach that top like this had been Kiba who declared it proudly. Yet during all of this Naruko noticed no one had tried to do free climb up the wall. Then came their turn to take the climb. During their walk over to the wall, the Uzumaki noticed the Yamanaka princess would be the fourth member.
"Try not to break a nail Violet." Naruko taunted with a small grin. Naruko and Ino had never really been enemies mostly because they never got in each other's way. However, for some reason, the whiskered girl had always like to rail up her fellow blonde up to see the princess maybe put a tiny bit more effort into the physical aspects of their training. This was also part of the reason why she had taken to calling Ino by the nickname Violet instead of Ino-pig or Piggy like Sakura did.
It turned out that on a whim Naruko had sneaked into a flower arranging class given by Ino's mother just to see what it was about. It was there she learned that purple flowers represented things like dignity, pride, and success. She didn't know why that the time those meanings reminded her of the Yamanaka heiress. So, when Naruko saw the girl become another fangirl she had taken to calling the light green-eyed girl Violet as a mockery of the flowers. Somehow Ino had understood the insult and it always manages to get mad because of it. Hence why after hearing that nickname the mind walker whipped her head toward the smaller girl with a fierce glare.
"Listen here Uzumaki. Just because you somehow managed to find an outfit that makes you look smoking hot doesn't mean you're better than me!"
"You think I am hot?" the smaller blonde asked in surprise. The taller of the two took a second to realize her slip but once she did her face became dusted a nice shade of pink while she tried to disguise that with indignation.
"Wha- I- No-You- They- Wait- s-s-SHUT UP!" Ino screamed in embarrassment and whipped around to the wall. To the amazement of the people watch them the girl had managed to make the tail end of her ponytail smack the Uzumaki straight across the face. Of the people watching only Hinata and Benihime noticed the purple student's blushing ears. The former found herself glaring a little at the girl's courage of calling the Uzumaki hot even if it had been a slip. The later just tried to hold her laugh at the possibility of her mistress' charm affecting another girl. As for Naruko she just blinked until Shino tapped her on her shoulder to remain her of the training exercise.
With that reminder, the short blonde shook her head and walked up to the wall. Benihime for her part flew away from the blonde to let the girl do the challenge for herself. Naruko agreed on that as she wanted to see if she could do this by herself.
Iruka was about to tell her how to put on the harness, now by habit because no girl had done the climb without it when Naruko just started climbing. She started at a simple pace by grabbing one ledge and using it to push herself onto the other as one would expect. The other classmates stared at her in awe at how easily she was raising the wall. Truth be told she was starting to think this was rather easy considering the things she had to hike for some of her pranks.
Then she felt the structure start to shake.
On instinct she hardened her grin on the ledge she was on but to her bad luck it was at that moment the contraption decided to start retract the hand-holdings. Normally that would have meant she would have lost a step or the grip on one of the ledges. Instead, three ledges were gone in an instant, and gravity took her into its embrace. Students gasped and Iruka screamed for her as she suddenly slipped. Yet she refused to fall and grabbed the remaining ledge with all her might. She had to admit, feeling her arm almost get dislocated was not pleasant and the constant shaking was not helping.
'I did not like that popping sound!' she thought painfully while looking around for another ledge to grab. Thankfully the shaking had stopped and during the whole debacle, she had been turned to her side. Then she made the mistake everyone always does and looked down to see a 20ft drop greeting her. 'Dammit, if only I could... Wait a minute! That's it!'
Having a small epiphany similar to when she learned M-Pathy she started gathering chakra in her legs. Then she forced her body to roll back to the wall and thought 'Stick' as she placed her feet on the wall.
BOOOOM!
Just like that her feet exploded from the surface of the structure and flipped her 180 degrees. The next thing she felt was the cracking sound of her back and skull hitting the wall. She let out a dizzy "ouch" before feeling her body as it started falling. By sheer force of will, she flipped herself back to face the wall and tried to grab another ledge with both hands. Again she felt the nasty pull of gravity against her poor arms and slight popping sound but she held firm.
"Okay… Let's try that again with less chakra," she told herself through gritted teeth. Therefore she chose to ignore some of the shouts of worry and the one smartass that held at her to do another flip before she placed one of her feet on the wall. This time it didn't make an explosion like before but it still didn't help much give that as now her feet kept slipping as if the surface was wet with rainwater. Her armed protest as they were being jerked down once more with each failed attempted.
"NARUKO-KUN!" she heard a voice to her left shout out and looked to find Hinata already beside her. Extending her hand to help and the made the Uzumaki smile. This was especially so when she noticed that the girl had climbed up the rope without the harness.
"Thanks, Hinata-chan but I'm okay for now." the Uzumaki replied while rejecting the hand. Then looked up to see she had fallen at least 8ft from where she originally was. That little stunt had cost her far more than she had wanted. "Hey, do you think it's possible to use chakra to stick to places?" she asked the Hyuga as she grabbed the nearest handhold to start climbing up again.
"D-d-do you mean t-t-the Tree Walking Exercise?" Hinata questioned back in surprise as she looked at the cute Uzumaki climbing again as if nothing had happened. But when her voice reached the whiskered girl said girl stopped advancing.
"It has a name, huh? That might make it easier." Naruko whispered as a smirk started to form on her lips. At this height, the handholds didn't disappear from under you so she closed her eyes and started visualizing. For the Leaf Balance Exercise, she had to concentrate on keeping something in place with chakra and for M-Pathy she had just changed her thinking to transferring the chakra she had used that line of thinking to try and stick to a surface. That had failed but now with that hint given but her soon to be new friend the preteen changed how to approach this problem now that she knew on what to concentrate the chakra.
At first, she started to visualize herself placing one foot in front of the other. Yet for some reason that felt wrong in a way, like it would not help her escape the pull of gravity. Thus, the gamer visualized herself moving faster and unyielding to a law of nature. At the same time, her body started accumulating chakra around itself. Hinata gasped as her Byakugan activated in reaction to the buildup of power she felt from Naruko. Thus, she bore witness to the huge sun flare before her that slowly start moving towards the girl's legs. The Hyuga also noticed that the chakra in the legs started as a maelstrom of chaos but slowly it became calmer and steadier with enough control to–
[Tree Walking Exercise unlocked!]
Naruko eyes spanned open with shining blue dust and in a burst of speed, she was off. The explosion of wind as the girl took off running nearly knocked Hinata of the rope but the girl managed to hold on. The gamer didn't notice this as she was to busy feeling the wind on her face and a solid surface under her feet. Even for the short distance, it was an incredible feeling being able to do something normal people thought was impossible. Still, every good thing has to come to an end eventually, and considering she was already a fast runner the last few feet were done in a matter of seconds. Thus, she reached the top and jumped even higher to release the excess chakra. Then did a small flip in the air and softly landed on the very top of the wall.
As everyone remained stunned over what she had done Naruko just laughed and whooped at her achievement.
[Challenge: Free climbing (COMPLETED)]
[Reward: Agility has permanently increased by 2pts.]
[Your raw agility is now 008.]
The first person to recover from the shock had been Iruka who congratulated her and asked her to get down. The Uzumaki, however, responded she would only do so when Hinata managed to reach the top. After that, she just sat on the ledge and cheered the girl on. Then for good sport, she threw a cheer for Shino and Ino as they tried to climb. Surprisingly Ino managed to reach the top faster than Shino but that was after Hinata had reached the top. After that, the friends climb back down to a bemused chunin instructor. It was easy to say that the Uzumaki was the only one in that group that managed to get the 150pts.
"I have to say Naruko-chan. There is never a dull moment with you around. But I have to ask. When did you learn the wall walking technique? Given how much trouble the Leaf Balance Exercise was for you I would have thought the more advanced version would have been more difficult." Iruka inquired with a tone that spoke of both pride and confusion at what he just saw.
"Just now really," Naruko announced with a grin while throwing an arm around Hinata. "And thanks to Hinata-chan, here! If it wasn't for this girl here, I would have probably failed." And that's all she wrote as far as Hinata was a concern as her blush became an incandescent red right before her world turns black. The whiskered girl then had to act quickly and catch the sudden death weight as the princess fainted. Only the hidden fairy and the chunin instructor knew why the bluenette fainted but did not see the merit in telling the oblivious blonde just yet. Hinata was soon woken up by Naruko discreetly pulling out a bag of smelling salts and using it on the Byakugan user to wake her up.
After that, the scarred teacher's team switched places with Mizuki's team. During the exchange of fields, the achievement of the trouble-making blonde was spread among the students. Thanks to the fangirls saying that the Uchiha could do it better said event reach his ears rather quickly. It was quick enough that he could still frown towards Naruko, who raised an eyebrow at him on confusion over that glare because she didn't know the reason behind it, as they pass by each other.
Nonetheless, Iruka's group reach the target range and the teacher explained the rules. The students had 10 chances (5 Kunais and 5 Shuriken) to hit the wooden targets. Each target was painted in the regular archery white, black, blue, red, and yellow bull's eye color point system. Naruko learned, by hearing the clamor of fangirls, that the last Uchiha had managed to get the highest score in their group by hitting one of the farthest targets. As much as she hated to have to admit it, she had to give credit where credit was due. After all, she had never been able to hit either of those so she had to admit the level of the boy's skill.
The range was set up as such:
None moving Targets = 3 targets 10ft apart from each other at 20ft from the throwing station and 2 targets behind those at 30ft
Moving Targets = 1 target moving from left to right at 40ft. 2 targets moving up and down on poles at 50ft.
Farthest Targets = 2 targets at 60ft with 2 wooden shields each spinning around them.
The scoring system was base on the normal archery ring system. Also, multipliers were based on distance after the original three targets. This meant that 30ft = x2, 40ft = x4, 50ft = x6 and 60ft = x8. It was allowed to hit the same target multiple times if you wanted as missing a shot meant no points for that throw. Sasuke's score ends up being 278pts as he managed to hit the target at 40ft twice on the 8pts line while also managing to hit the 6pts line on the farthest target.
~ Challenge Declared ~
[Challenge: Knife's edge]
[Description – A chance to show your proficiency with throwing weapons has come up. Show people what you have learned since starting your path to becoming a legend]
[Mission: Score higher than 200pts
Optional Challenge: Beat Sasuke's score of 278pts without hitting the same target twice]
[Reward: Perception permanently increases by 3pts
(Optional Completion) Reward: Perception permanently increases by 2pts]
Naruko blinked in surprise at that challenge coming up. For this event, all she had wanted was to hit all of her targets not wanting to one-up the Uchiha. Sure, she didn't like him but that didn't mean she wanted to actively antagonize him. Mostly because she felt a slight connection with the brooding duck butt over the fact that they were both orphans and the people loved to remained them of that.
From him, it was the fact he was his title as "The Last Uchiha" which people didn't seem to realize was a constant reminder to the boy of what he lost. It wouldn't surprise her if that was part of the reason he was always glaring and frowning in a corner. It seemed no one thought that maybe it was bad for one's mental health to being always reminded of the worst possible thing to had ever happened to you. At least that's what she thought when it came to the blue wearing boy because she was damn sure no one forgot about it when they kept telling her she was abandoned since not even a mother could love a monster.
Trying not to go down a depressing line of thought she shook her head and waited for her turn as students took part in the training exercise. This time the students were called in alphabetical order. Regretfully, thanks to lettings her mind wander she had missed Shino's turn. Out of respect for the boy, she didn't dare to ask for his score and instead gave a nod which he answered back in, hopefully since she could tell, appreciative nod. After that, she waited with him and Hinata for the girls' turn at the range. When the Hyuga's turn came Naruko made sure to cheer the bluenette who blush in appreciation and embarrassment.
Subsequently, Hinata walked to the front and took a calming breath before grabbing her knives. With practiced ease, she attacked the targets on after the other. The first three where perfect hits, second set one was perfect with the other she lost the perfect by a point, next three projectiles hit the first moving target on the eight-, six- and four-point lines and finally, the last two weapons hit the vertical moving targets in the five points lines. The final score for Hinata Hyuga 200pts.
"Well done Hinata-chan!" Naruko cheered at the girl who blushed crimson at the praise.
"T-T-Thank you." the lavender eyed girl whispered while poking her fingers. 'Why can she make my heart go crazy with just a smile?!'
After that, the Uzumaki waited for her turn to come. During that time, she tried to use Scan on each student there but each time the results were the same as before since she only got the person's names. However, the repeated use was raising the skill's XP bar so she decided the grinding was worth the frustration. Then she heard the chime of the skill leveling up and the text box informing her that now she could scan up to three targets at the same time. Naruko had also noticed that during this time Benihime had grabbed a rectangular device with headphones and from time to time would sing a few lyrics.
"Ripped her heart out right before her eyes/Eyes over easy, eat it eat it eat it/" she heard the fairy sign at one point. Naruko thought such violent lyric should never be whispered in the fairy's soft and small voice. Then Iruka finally called her to take the stage. Breathing and exhaling to calm herself the whiskered girl walked to the range and first grabbed a Kunai.
"Careful! Better take cover or you're going to get hit!" one of her bullies yelled out from the back. She sighed in annoyance and fired back loudly.
"Wow, distracting the girl known for having a bad aim when she's about to start throwing sharp weapons! Either you hate living or you love the idea of bleeding to death!" at that call out everyone seems to shut up and let her concentrate. Thus, she looked at the targets before her and started to aim. Then just as she was about to launch the knife a yellow crosshair appeared around the first target she was aiming at.
As she blinked the crosshair started getting smaller and becoming a darker shape until it was bright red at the very center on the target. It only lasts for less than a second before the crosshair exploded back to the bigger yellow ring and started getting smaller again. On a hunch, she waited to again for the reticle to reach its smallest form and on instinct threw the Kunai.
Thunk
+10pts
Naruko's eyes widen and jaw dropped. Just now she had gotten a perfect shot, something that she had never done before. Taking a gulp she grabbed another Kunai and repeated the previews process. Sure, enough the knife and the next landed perfectly on the 10 of each target. Grinning at her score of 30, she grabbed the next weapon and once more aimed. Yet as she aimed at the target at 40ft she noticed the reticles were far more difficult to predict. Hence, she tried to concentrate better before throwing the projectiles but in both cases, she missing the 10pts circle by a fraction and hit the 9pts.
See that Naruko grabbed the first shuriken and tried to predict the trajectory of the moving target. Her eyes followed the bull's eye moving from left to right through the range. Then she threw the star where she thought the center would be but the blade struck and only hit for 7pts. Seeing that frustrated her and she took the next two stars and aimed for the 50ft vertical moving targets. Regretfully no matter how much she tried to control the crosshairs at that distance it was almost impossible for her to get a read on them. Doing a metaphorical leap of fate, she launched the stars but as once they landed the Uzumaki was dismayed to see they only hit the 3pts circles on their targets.
That meant right now she was at 130pts and only two more shots. She still needs 60 points more to complete the initial challenge and there were only two ways for her to reach that: 1) get two more perfect 10s on the 40ft targets or 2) pray to the Log she hit the 60ft which she had never been able to do before. The blonde was about to take the easy way out when she noticed a text box disappears. The whiskered girl didn't get to read most of it but managed to catch that Knife Throwing had leveled up thanks to her doing those difficult throws.
As a test the blue-eyed girl watches the crosshair over the bull's eye for the 40 and 50ft targets become more stable. Hence the 60ft distance one became just a bit more tranquil but not enough to make a perfect hit without a problem…
'I could hit but I never had the strength to reach it. Wait a second! Tsunade-sama can make herself stronger by using chakra on her limbs. Maybe if I just…' Naruko thought and proceeded to channel her chakra to her hands. Unbeknownst to her, the chakra was not staying in her hands since it was being fueled into the shuriken which started glowing with barely restrained power. Iruka noticed this and was about to tell the Uzumaki to be careful when the girl unleashed her projectiles.
As the energy covered stars sailed through the air they exploded in a white smoke before twin screeches were heard. Then from the explosion two fully formed translucent blue eagles flew in a deathly dance of wings and claws that went straight for the farthest targets. For a moment it looked as if the spinning shield would stop the majestic creatures. But with twin battle cries they crashed onto the shield and splintering the wooden shield into nothing. Once the dust settled all that remained where the stars have embedded almost completely into the 9pts circle on both targets.
[Challenge: Knife's edge (Completed)]
[Naruko Uzumaki's final score is 274pts]
[Reward: Perception has permanently increased by 3pts]
[Optional: Beat Sasuke's score of 278pts (FAILED)]
[Player's raw Perception is now 009]
Everyone once more stayed silent at another accomplishment by the supposed Dead Last of the class. Yet here not once but twice the Dead Last had managed to leave them speechless with sudden a displays of prowess they though only The Last Uchiha possessed. Heck, some of the boys and even a few fangirls were starting to think that maybe the Uzumaki was final gunning for the top. Yet during all of this Naruko could only stare with wide eyes and a slacked jaw.
'What is the name of the Log was that?!' she screamed internally while trying to understand what just happened. Her mind was going a mile a minute trying to understand what had happened just now. That had felt similar to when she had created the Whirlwind of Doom yet was almost as if she knew how to do that attack from the moment she started channeling her chakra. 'Wait… As if I knew it? No, it couldn't be… Could it?'
With that line of thinking and seeing everyone was still distracted she quickly summoned her skills tab and looked. Sure enough, Knife Throwing was now at level 2 like she had noticed before but with that came a new attack called Piercing Eagle. This attack cost 50MP to used and coated the projectile in a layer of chakra that augmented the attack with the ability to pass through an enemy's defense. The eagle transformation was just for show and maybe add an intimidation factor to the attack.
'I can't believe this! I mean sure, I failed to beat Sasuke but just trying made me so much better!' she thought to herself while inwardly doing a little victory dance. She had always considered that hard work would get her somewhere and now with her new bloodline limit it seems to prove her right at least a little bit. 'Still, I can't let this make me feel like I can take on the world.' she thought while touching her neck. 'Yesterday, thought me that very clearly.'
"What was that Naruko-chan?" Iruka's voice questioned her. The girl jumped slightly at the sound and quickly closed the window. Then she turned around with a nervous laugh while scratching the back of her head.
"Would you believe me if I say I mess up the strength enchantment technique Tsunade-sama is known for?" the whiskered youth commented which earns her a deadpan stare from the teacher.
"I've seen what happens when you mess up a jutsu and that was not it. That looked more like a completed jutsu than a mistake." the scarred dolphin said flatly. Then he added with a smile "Seriously if you were practicing a new jutsu there was no reason to hide it so badly. I thought by now you knew how to come up with a better lie."
"So, you're not mad at me for breaking the rules?" the blue-eyed girl questioned with an ecstatic grin. Poor girl never even saw the clipboard until it had already crashed on the top of her skull. Helmet or hardheaded that freaking hurt!
"It's not against the rules to use jutsu to enhance your throwing ability but next time you do make sure to inform me or Mizuki-sensei. You have a history of messing up and the last thing I want is for you to hurt yourself or a classmate with a stunt like that. Are we clear student Uzumaki?" Iruka lectured in a perfect imitation of a mother punishing their child for breaking something.
"Yes, Iruka-sensei." the whispered apology of a reprimanded child was heard. At the same time, she was tenderly cradling the new throbbing bump on her noggin.
"Good. Okay, after I replace the broken shields it's your turn Ino Yamanaka!"
X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ X
Author's Note:
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. For this chapter, I tried to introduce my versions of Hinata and Ino for this story. I'm trying to upload a chapter a week but if I see its too much I may slow down to one every two weeks. Maybe then I'll write more chapters not have long stretches between upload. Also for those that are wondering, when I said that "Naruko would not be God-like" I meant the following:
1) Naruko wouldn't be able to beat Kakashi nor any other Jonin or higher level opponent after getting out of the academy.
2) Naruko will work hard to get her abilities even if at the first level it looks like she is getting a lot.
3) Naruko will not be cocky or think she can always win.
4) From time to Naruko may act like she's superior its to fool her opponent since her early brush with death showed her how easy it is to lose it all.
Update: 80/17/2019
Grammar
Update: 04/22/2020
Grammar